Prepared by J. Britton and H. Dale

Aug. 1, 1995

[NB: Each folder in this fonds has been assigned a sequential number which appears at the left margin of this finding aid. This number should be used when requesting materials.]

The Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain began in 1981 and for most of the 1980's was Canada's largest environmental group. It played a central role in raising awareness of the acid rain issue, through advocacy, educational programmes and by lobbying the governments of both Canada and the United States for the passage of legislation resticting acid rain-causing emissions. With the passage of amendments to the U.S. Clean Air Act in 1990 the Coalition's mandate was completed and the group disbanded. During the decade of its existence the Coalition was headed by Michael Perley and Adele Hurley, its executive co-ordinators and chief lobbyists. Starting in 1981 with 12 member groups representing tourism, naturalist and sportsmen's associations, the CCAR maintained offices in both Toronto and Washington. Registered as a charitable organization in Canada, the CCAR was registered as a lobby group in the United States, and was the first-ever Canadian lobby group to be so registered in Washington. By 1991 the Coalition had grown to 58 member groups, representing over 2 million Canadians.

CCAR worked closely with the Canadian Acid Precipitation Foundation, a registered charitable organization created to carry out a variety of educational projects on the acid rain issue, and to support the educational work of the Coalition. The Foundation's activities included extensive direct mail campaigns asking for private donations, the sale of merchandise, charitable dinners featuring such prominent speakers as Senator Edward Kennedy and Alan Gotleib (former Canadian ambassador to the United States), and the AirWatch monitoring project.

The records of the Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain document all aspects of its activities and operations during its 10-year existence from 1981-1991. These include correspondence, minutes and reports, research files, financial records, legal records, publications, ephemera, audio-visual material, realia, and other material created or received by the CCAR and CAPF in the course of their business, and constitute a study in Canada-U.S. environmental relations.

Title based on contents of the fonds.
Includes 33.5 m of textual records, 3 cm of photographs, .5 m realia, 23 sound recordings, 14 videorecordings.

Donated in 1994.

Arranged in 7 series: 1. Acid Rain: Canada, 2. Acid Rain: United States, 3. Canadian Coalition on Acid Rain, 4. Acid Rain: Foreign, 5. Canadian Acid Precipitation Foundation, 6. Financial Records, 7. Non-textual Materials. The first five series numbers are as assigned by the Coalition while series numbers 6 and 7 have been arbitrarily assigned. CCAR's complex series and file numbering system has been retained and some gaps and inconsistencies in numbering are present.

Detailed finding aid available.

Table of Contents

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