Kelly Patterson
The Ottawa Citizen
September 15, 2000

Excerpt from a profile of Dai Qing: … Having been through so much already, where does Dai Qing find the strength to carry on? Dai credits her family and friends at home and abroad, especially her supporters at Toronto-based Probe International, who have had a profound influence on her life, she says. Probe took an interest in the Three Gorges project more than 20 years ago, when the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA) underwrote the cost of a feasibility study for the project, in which Canadian firms such as Hydro-Quebec and SNC Lavalin stood to land lucrative contracts for dam equipment. Probe forced the publication of the confidential study, and vigorously attacked the report, arguing it glossed over the dam’s potentially devastating human and environmental costs. “It was the first time I ever heard of people in one country taking on their government, not for themselves, but to help people in another country,” Dai says, shaking her head in wonder. “That was a very important influence on me. I thought, ‘I should live like that, I should do that too.’ “I would never have become what I am today without that.” Probe has helped translate scientific and media articles on megadams, and this fall helped Dai Qing set up language classes tailor-made for environmentalists. … Read the full story.