Daytime Screening:

Tuesday, February 28 (2:00 pm – 4:00 pm)

Telus Building Room 217/219

Corner of 111 Street and 87 Avenue, U of A Campus

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/112816032177118/

Evening screening:

Wednesday, February 29 (7:00 pm – 9:00 pm)

Education Centre South Room 129

113 Street and 87 Avenue, U of A Campus

Facebook event page: https://www.facebook.com/events/240288219388074/

Since the University of Alberta announced it will award an honorary degree to Nestlé Chair Peter Brabeck-Letmathe on March 1, hundreds of students, professors, alumni and concerned citizens around the world have contacted the University to express their outrage.

Is Peter Brabeck-Letmathe a leader in “the preservation, distribution and management of one of humanity’s most vital resources: water” as the University claims? Join us for a special advance screening of the brand new film Bottled Life, which explores Nestle’s global business with water and the impacts Nestlé is having on communities around the world.

Presented by the U of A Chapter of the Council of Canadians as part of Solidarity Week at the U of A. For details about other Solidarity Week events, visit solidarityweek.wordpress.com.

Be sure to join us on March 1 to say no to an honorary degree for Nestlé: https://www.facebook.com/events/251952194884972/

You can also send a message to University of Alberta President Indira Samarasekera and Chancellor Linda Hughes here:

http://canadians.org/action/2012/nestle.html

About Bottled Life:

Do you know how to turn ordinary water into a billion-dollar business? In Switzerland there’s a company which has developed the art to perfection – Nestlé. This company dominates the global business in bottled water.

Swiss journalist Res Gehringer has investigated this money-making phenomena. Nestlé refused to cooperate, on the pretext that it was “the wrong film at the wrong time”. So Gehringer went on a journey of exploration, researching the story in the USA, Nigeria and Pakistan. His journey into the world of bottled water reveals the schemes and strategies of the most powerful food and beverage company on our planet.

Bottled Life focuses a critical spotlight on Nestlé’s global expansion strategy in the business of bottled water. In the United States and Europe, the company sells mainly spring water with a designation of origin. In developing countries, however, the corporation pursues another concept – namely Nestlé Pure Life. This product is purified groundwater, enriched with a Nestlé mixture of minerals. Nestlé Pure Life was the brainchild of Peter Brabeck, a Nestlé man almost all his life, a former CEO and currently Chairman of the Board. Today Nestlé Pure Life is the world’s top-selling brand of bottled water.

Nestlé places great priority on promoting its image. And when it comes to water, it’s Peter Brabeck in particular who does the promoting. As CEO – and even more so after becoming Chairman of the Board in 2005 – he developed a communications strategy which operates under such noble pretences as “Corporate Social Responsibility” and “Creating Shared Value.” A preached philosophy – but a practised one

In researching this film, journalist Res Gehriger comes to a sad and sobering conclusion. It is that of a company intent on amassing resource rights worldwide. With the aim of dominating the global water market of the future.

Learn more and watch the trailer here: http://www.bottledlifefilm.com

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

5:00pm-6:30pm

University of Alberta, Rutherford Library South, 2-01B  

If you have ever been interested in activism or advocacy work of any kind, why not check us out? We’re a small group looking for people who care to join us. No experience is necessary, and you don’t have to be a student.

At this meeting we will talk about the Council of Canadians and how you can take part – we’re flexible and able to support projects that you’re passionate about. We will also talk about some of our current work and how you can help out.

Feel free to email us if you can’t make this meeting and are interested in getting involved.

You can RSVP to the event on facebook here.

Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the Road to Economic, Social and Ecological Decay
Edmonton book launch with co-author Yves Engler
Sunday, July 3 (7:00 pm)
Law Centre Room 201A
Corner of 111 Street and 89 Avenue, University of Alberta Campus
(Click here for map)
FREE

An Edmonton Bike Month event sponsored by the Council of Canadians-U of A Chapter and Edmonton Bicycle Commuters.

Invite your friends to the Facebook event.

In North America, human beings have become enthralled by the automobile: A quarter of our working lives are spent paying for them; communities fight each other for the right to build more of them; our cities have been torn down, remade and planned with their needs as the overriding concern; wars are fought to keep their fuel tanks filled; songs are written to praise them; cathedrals are built to worship them.

In Stop Signs: Cars and Capitalism on the Road to Economic, Social and Ecological Decay, authors Yves Engler and Bianca Mugyenyi argue that the automobile’s ascendance is inextricably linked to capitalism and involved corporate malfeasance, political intrigue, backroom payoffs, media manipulation, racism, academic corruption, third world coups, secret armies, environmental destruction and war. When we challenge the domination of cars, we also challenge capitalism.

An anti-car, road-trip story, Stop Signs is a unique must-read for all those who wish to escape the clutches of auto insanity.

To learn more about the book and the North American tour, visit http://stopsigns.fairtrademedia.com/

Praise for Stop Signs

“Bianca Mugyenyi and Yves Engler’s Stop Signs is at one and the same time an entertaining, fact-filled anthropological tour of the land of Homo Automomotivis, and the first all-out global ecological critique of the American automobile addiction.”
-John Bellamy Foster, co-author, The Ecological Rift

“With wit and originality, Mugyenyi and Engler weave travel tales into a convincing argument against the auto economy, culminating with a fresh call to leave car culture behind.”
-Katie Alvord, author of Divorce Your Car! Ending the Love Affair with the Automobile

“This book is a must read for anyone who wants to understand the impact of the private automobile on our urban transportation options.”
-David Cadman, Vancouver city councilor, International President ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability

”You come away shaken, but ready to roll up your sleeves and to contribute, however modestly, to constructing a new world in the 21st century.”
-Richard Bergeron, Montreal city councilor, urban planner and author

About the authors of Stop Signs

YVES ENGLER is the author of four previous books, including The Black Book of Canadian Foreign Policy, which was a finalist for the Mavis Gallant non-fiction award.

BIANCA MUGYENYI coordinates campaigns at Concordia University’s Centre for Gender Advocacy.

World Water Week Information Table at the University of Alberta
March 21-25, (daily from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm)
Students Union Building, University of Alberta

Come to find out more information about water issues, see if you can taste the difference between bottled water and tap water, put your name in a draw for awesome water-conserving prizes and sign the Our Water is Not for Sale open letter.

Also, check out the bottled water art in QUAD! There are large structures made completely from plastic water bottles. See how much waste is produced from drinking water from plastic bottles.
As long as the river flows: Water Rights and Indigenous Sovereignty
Wednesday, March 23, 2011 (7:00-9:00pm)
University of Alberta, ETLC E1 007
For more information.

A panel featuring Cree Elder Lillian Shirt, Indigenous rights lawyer Clayton Leonard and Indigenous activist and Greenpeace campaigner Melina Massimo-Laboucan.

Many are surprised to learn that within Canada are people who the Public Health Agency of Canada say live in “third world conditions”; in fact, many Indigenous communities on Turtle Island live without access to one of the most basic needs: clean water.

Come to learn about what made this the reality in Canada, and what is being and can be done in the fight for water justice.

There will be low water-use snacks provided.

TAP OUT BOTTLED WATER – NOW!
Thursday, March 24 (6:00pm-7:00pm)
University of Alberta- Education 170
For more information.

One Canadian in five drinks only bottled water even though the
vast majority of Canadian municipalities offers affordable public
access to drinking water.

In Canada, most people have the option of using public water and
saying “no” to bottled water. Many people in the Global South
don’t have that option. By choosing public water where it is
available and by requesting that bottled water be banned from
public places, you’ll be taking an important step towards ensuring
that water is accessible to all

Come learn about bottled water bans on campuses across Canada and brainstorm how to take action on our campus.

What’s water week? It is an annual series of events held around World Water Day (March 22nd), this week running from March 22nd-26th. It raises issues regarding water at campus-wide, local, provincial, federal and international levels. Some of what we will be trying to raise awareness about are water markets, water justice and the effects of bottled water on people and ecosystems. This year we will be having a lot of exciting ev…ents:

- Jim Olson, a lawyer from the U.S. will be speaking on his Public Trust Doctrine (an alternative to water markets, which are being proposed in Alberta)
- Water Justice workshop and panel
- A theatrical release of “White Water, Black Gold” at Garneau Theatre, followed by panel with film director and water activists
- Water Ecology documentary screenings
- water tasting and showing short films on SUB Stage throughout the week, raising awareness about the problems with buying bottled water
- a draw with water-conserving prizes
- and much more!

Come if interested in helping out with Water Week in any way! We’re looking for people who want to help us poster, table in SUB, with specific events and much more! You do not have to be a student to help.

Snacks will be provided. To RSVP go here.