Fancy a read?

I’ve got another great book to add to your summer reading list…Someone Else's Shoes by JoJo Moyes.

Pure chance in a gym locker sends Nisha and Sam home with the other's gym bag; these contain an expensive pair of stilettos and a plain, discount pair of flat shoes with frayed seams.

What happens next dramatically changes each woman's life in many ways, especially in their relationships with and attitudes towards others.  

The plot twists and turns as more characters flesh out the worlds of these two women who literally walk in each other's shoes. ENJOY!

-Jackie Potters, csj Associate

Save Our Water

June 8 is World Oceans Day, the United Nations day for celebrating the role of the oceans in our everyday life and inspiring action to protect the ocean and sustainably use marine resources.

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An outrageous event is happening in North America. Suddenly, in the United States, water is being sold and traded as a commodity for profit.  We should have seen this coming.  For years now, right under our own noses here in Canada, Nestlé, for example, has settled in places such as Wellington County.  They have pumped zillions of gallons of precious groundwater, bottled it in plastic, paid nothing for the water but only a pittance levy of $503.71 per million liters, and sold it back to Canadians and around the world at a shocking price.

Quietly at first, but unable to tolerate what was happening to their precarious water, a group of concerned citizens in Wellington County gathered and began their work to stop Nestle’s water grab on their land.  Naming their new initiative, Save Our Water (SOW), the members who are all volunteers, thoroughly studied the water situation and enlisted Kelly Linton, the energetic Mayor of Centre Wellington.  Backed by municipal membership, the group became experts in groundwater supply and protecting it at all levels.  Since water taking is a provincial responsibility, their stewardship of local water reaches all the way to the provincial legislature where they have ready access to discussing the long-term negative impact of water extraction with politicians. (Join the Fight)

The Save Our Water initiative and the growing involvement of concerned citizens and water protectors is proving to have a successful impact.  Last month I had the privilege of being on a Zoom call of over 125 concerned citizens sponsored by Wellington Water Watchers for an update on the new moratorium on taking bottled water from Wellington County’s groundwater.

The Save Our Water volunteers, Mayor Linton and council of Centre Wellington as well as increasing numbers of concerned citizens have been the push behind Nestle’s recent withdrawal from Canada.  With one voice, they acclaim, “We are not a willing host for bottled water”.

There is still much for Save Our Water to do concerning the preservation of priceless water in Wellington County.  Vigilant oversight lies ahead as the area is projected to double in size by 2041 and the local Middlebrook well has been purchased for 4.3 billion by big companies, including some in the USA. 

Throughout the intervening years, Save Our Water will be there, studying, advocating, and influencing the rest of the world who come to them for advice as they are already doing.  Every local level in every municipality in North America needs a Save Our Water group to protect precious water and battle to ban water as a commodity. There is an urgent cry across nations: access to clean, potable water is a human right.

-Sister Jean Moylan, csj

The Sisters of St. Joseph are proud to be a BLUE COMMUNITY so that we can protect water as a shared commons, sacred gift, and human right.

 www.saveourwater.ca

 Learn about their current campaigns

TAKE ACTION!

Blue Community in London Ontario

London is now part of the worldwide Blue Community movement.  London City Council voted almost unanimously in favour of becoming a Blue Community on March 23, 2021.

This is a victory for water protection and social justice. London City staff and London City Council have supported requests from the Council of Canadians and our allies to pass the resolutions needed to become a Blue Community. Now Londoners know even more certainly that their needs for water are primary and placed before profit-driven interests. Instead, water itself is valued as essential for life, as a common good, cared for and distributed with equality and preservation in mind.

What does becoming a Blue Community actually mean? The motions passed by City Council state that:

•  Water and water sanitization are recognized as a human right.

•  The sale of single-use plastic bottled water is reaffirmed as banned at City venues and events where access to municipal water exists.

•  The City will oppose privatization in any form of water delivery and water treatment.

In making these resolutions London joins 78 Blue Communities in the world and 47 in Canada, a number growing rapidly with London’s Brescia University College becoming a Blue Community just days ago. Other Blue Communities include the Sisters of St. Joseph, Vancouver, Paris, Berlin, Los Angeles, and Bayfield.

London has had a policy in place for some years regarding the phasing out of plastic bottled water sales in City venues and our utilities have a plan in place providing assistance to those who cannot pay their water bills. The Council of Canadians has been advocating since 2018 for the adoption of the full package of Blue Community resolutions, and we have been joined in this campaign by allies such as The Federation of the Sisters of St. Joseph, the Urban League of London, Climate Action London and the London and District  Labour Council.

Canadians care deeply about water and many know our seemingly endless gifts of water are actually threatened on many fronts. Blue Community resolutions are something municipalities and other communities can do to take a position for water protection and for water justice.

Imagine whole watersheds – such as the Thames /Antler River system - making these commitments.

Canadian Maude Barlow, past water advisor to the United Nations General Assembly and cocreator of the Blue Community movement in 2009 had a dream- “It is my hope and my dream that it (the Blue Community movement ) can unite us in the quest for sound water stewardship and water justice”.)  

London has been part of making this dream a reality as of March 23, 2021.

-Sister Loretta Manzara, csj | Federation of Sisters of St. Joseph of Canada

Blue Community Update

How are the waters around you doing these days? Frozen? Flakey? Flowing?

Welcome to 2021 and another update from our CSJ Blue Community project. Below are some news and event items that align with our pledge to protect water as a human right, shared commons, and sacred gift.

EVENTS

January 22 - 29

The ReFrame Film Festival, online across Ontario

We are sponsoring the Water Stories – Shorts program – 7 films, full list here. https://watch.eventive.org/reframe2021/play/5ff7dc33cbd0000e5cf9e539

See the full lineup here – very affordable rates for viewing all these docs:

https://my.reframefilmfestival.ca/films

February 24 & 25

Sustainable Development goals in Peterborough

There is an online Community Forum on Feb 24 and 25. For those in the Peterborough area rsvp here:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/leaving-no-one-behind-advancing-the-sdgs-in-nogojiwanongpeterborough-registration-135378646175

ACTION

One Planet, One Right

Sign the petition to make it a UN-recognised human right to live on a healthy planet. It may seem overwhelming, but it’s true: to emerge from these crises, to ensure our future and that of the planet, we need to entirely transform humanity’s relationship with nature. This human right helps make that happen.

https://1planet1right.org/

READING

Water is Alive: A Conversation - On January 13, there was a conversation between several Indigenous water leaders and their reflections on ways to recognize water as a spirited being with agency. Highlights here: https://www.bluecommunitycsj.org/post/water-is-alive-a-conversation

First Nations communities pursue clean drinking water through the courts.

Court documents state that the lake has been contaminated by feces and toxic blue-green algae blooms have become common. Fishermen regularly catch fish “covered with grotesque lesions” and the community erected signs to deter swimming there. Following a flood in the spring of 2017, residents began falling sick with stomach and skin ailments after consuming the local water, prompting a boil-water advisory that remains in effect.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-first-nations-communities-pursue-clean-drinking-water-through-the/

Government of Canada launches consultations on new Canada Water Agency.

Water challenges such as droughts, floods, and deteriorating water quality are intensifying, due in large part to climate change. Canadians are seeing these costly impacts first-hand in their communities, across the country. That's why the Government of Canada is establishing the Canada Water Agency to find the best ways to keep our water safe, clean, and well managed. The Canada Water Agency will be established in close collaboration with provinces, territories, Indigenous Peoples, and other partners.

https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/government-of-canada-launches-consultations-on-new-canada-water-agency-873493081.html

You can always check our Blue Community website for more information: https://www.bluecommunitycsj.org/ 

CSJ Blue Community News

UPDATE

Our Blue Community Coordinator Paul Baines collects and shares a list of current news and invites that inform and animate our Blue Community pledge to protect water as a human right, shared commons, and sacred gift.

In this update, you can learn more about the Waterdocs Film Festival, a new effort to transfer Nestlés’ water operations to Indigenous and settler communities, new rules and old myths about plastics and recycling, and COVID and the human right to water.

WATERDOCS FILM FESTIVAL

From November 4 – 8, this annual water documentary festival is now available to everyone. Normally it is an in-person event only in Toronto, but because of COVID anyone can access these great documentaries. The CSJ Blue Community project is a sponsor and has VIP access. You can see the full program here and it’s also added to this email as an attachment for easy viewing and printing (if needed).

ASK NESTLÉ TO DIVEST ITS ASSETS

The collective efforts to phase out the bottled water industry in Ontario is getting bolder. We successfully won yet another 6-month extension to the 4-year ban on new bottled water permits. We helped influence a new permit policy framework that is still in development but it already signals that communities will be able to veto new bottled water wells.

Now there is a North American campaign asking Nestlé to give back some of its assets to the local communities who are struggling with current and future water security. A few months ago Nestlé was trying to sell its Canadian water operations to Ice River Springs. That sale was denied by the regulators and now water justice activists are asking “if you want to divest from Canada, give communities back their water commons”.  

You can read about and sign onto the North American campaign here and the Wellington Water Watchers have already signaled that the Aberfoyle Nestlé bottling plant and well should be given to Six Nations of the Grand River with the Hillsborough well going to Centre Wellington County and the Middlebrook well going to Elora. Much more work is being done on this campaign since these are BIG shifts in the struggle for water justice. As the campaign develops your CSJ Blue Community project will keep you up to date.

THE MYTH, THE BAN, AND THE NEW RULES: PLASTICS

Plastics are again in the news with the Federal government announcing its plans to ban various kinds of ‘single-use’ plastic. The initial promises seem very progressive.

 Announcing plans to reach zero plastic waste by 2030, the federal government's website noted that "every year, Canadians throw away 3 million tonnes of plastic waste, only 9% of which is recycled, meaning the vast majority of plastics end up in landfills." (from the CBC)

Items included in the ban (source):

• Checkout bags

• Stir sticks

• Beverage six-pack rings

• Cutlery

• Straws

• Food packaging made from plastics that are difficult to recycle

 Items not included in the ban:

• Garbage bags

• Milk bags

• Snack food wrappers

• Disposable personal care items and their packaging

• Beverage containers and lids

• Contact lenses and packaging

• Cigarette filters

• Items used in medical facilities

• Personal protective equipment

Canadians spend 2.5 billion dollars every year on bottled water. Almost all of this comes in single-use plastic bottles. That’s a lot of bottles with only about 20% of these bottles downcycled.

There is no such thing as plastic recycling. This myth was created by the plastics and fossil fuel industries 30 years ago because society was starting to question the rise of plastics and their negative impacts. Downcycling is the process of recycling a material 1, 2, or 3 times with each phase degrading the material so that it can only be landfilled.

Read and listen to this CBC interview with an investigative journalist about the industrial myth of plastic recycling and how we are still struggling with this pervasive and persuasive substance.

ACTION: add your name and voice to this petition to include single-use plastic water bottles in the Canada plastics ban.

COVID AND THE HUMAN RIGHT TO WATER

The World Council of Churches’ Ecumenical Water Network moderated a conversation on the human right to water in times of COVID-19 with Bishop Arnold Temple (chairperson of the WCC-EWN) and Dr. Maude Barlow (co-founder of the Blue Planet Project). You can listen to the 27 minute recording here.

On a related note, our Blue Community project has started collaborating with WaterAid Canada about the human right to water and sanitation.  You can read one of their bulletins here. From that same source they write:

As COVID-19 has devastating impacts on people’s health, education and livelihoods across the globe, hand washing has been recognized as a first line of defense in public health. At WaterAid, our experience of promoting hand washing with soap and water as part of our WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene) and behavior change programs has enabled us to respond quickly to COVID-19, scaling up our existing hygiene work through government-led mechanisms, focusing mainly on hygiene behavior change.

Some statistics:

• 40% of people worldwide don’t have access to soap and water to wash their hands.

• Three billion people worldwide have nowhere to wash their hands with soap and clean water at home.

• 1 in 4 health centers lack these basic hand washing facilities on site.

• 2 in 5 schools globally do not have soap and water available to students – that’s 800 million children who lack soap and water at their school.


STAY CONNECTED

You can always see the latest updates on our website: www.bluecommunityCSJ.org