A statement has just been released about the killing of Bernardo Vásquez Sánchez, a Mexican civil society activist who has spoken out against the Canadian-owned Fortuna Silver Mine in San José del Progreso, which is located about 550 kilometres south-east of Mexico City. The statement reads:
Multiple sources at the World Water Forum in Marseille, France have confirmed that Canada led the charge to have language that explicitly affirmed the United Nations recognized right to water and sanitation removed from the forum’s Ministerial Declaration released earlier this week. At the opening plenary of the Alternative World Water Forum, the UN special rapporteur for the right to water and sanitation Catarina de Albuquerque said, “Be vigilant. The Marseille Ministerial Declaration is already being used at the Human Rights Council in Geneva to weaken these rights.”
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow spoke at the main plenary session on ‘the implementation of the right to water’ at the ‘Forum Alternatif Mondial de l’Eau’ this evening in Marseille, France.
We are at FAME (Forum Alternatif Mondial de l’Eau/ Alternative World Water Forum) this afternoon in ‘Cabaret Rouge 1′ for a Municipal Services Project (MSP) session on the need to connect research and activism. The session was introduced by saying that researchers need to be activists, and activists need to be researchers.
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow said that it was critical that researchers and activists work together for social justice.
She highlighted an occasional paper on public pension and sovereign wealth funds by Ronnie Lipschutz and Sarah Romano. That paper says that these funds are important sources of funding for public services around the world.
In July 2010, the Blue Planet Project joined with people around the world to celebrate the United Nations General Assembly adoption of Resolution 64/292, the recognition of the right to water and sanitation. But we all knew this UN vote was only one major step to ensure water justice for all.
In order to ensure that the newly recognized right served as a tool for social movements and frontline communities, Council of Canadians national chairperson Maude Barlow wrote the report, ‘Our Right to Water: A People’s Guide to Implementing the United Nations’ Recognition of Water and Sanitation as a Human Right’.
The Blue Planet Project has now launched a series of reports as additional chapters to ‘Our Right to Water’.
After an early-morning planning meeting over breakfast, Ottawa-based Council of Canadians/ Blue Planet Project campaigner Meera Karunananthan, Mexico City-based Blue Planet Project organizer Claudia Campero Arena, New Delhi-based Blue Planet Project organizer Madhuresh Kumar, and Durban-based Blue Planet Project organizer Mary Galvin fanned out across Marseille for various water justice actions:
A federal budget has just come out that will reduce unemployment to 6 per cent, close tax loopholes, repair cities and institute a forward-looking green strategy.
It is not Jim Flaherty's budget. We will only get that on March 29.
This one is the Alternative Federal Budget (AFB) and it comes from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).
The CCPA has been in the alternative budget business for 17 years now.
The Centre undertakes this detailed, labour-intensive exercise in an effort to show, each year, that Canadians have evidence-based fiscal policy options.
There is nothing inevitable -- ordained by the infallible logic of economic science -- about the government of the day's prescriptions or forecasts.
Several thousand people have gathered for the opening ceremony of FAME (Forum Alternatif Mondial de l’Eau/ Alternative World Water Forum) at ‘Dock des Sud’ in Marseille, France.
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow is on stage now with numerous water justice activists including Oscar Olivera, Anne Le Strat and other movement leaders.
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow just finished speaking at a labour-organized forum titled ‘Implementation of the human right to water and sanitation', that took place inside the World Water Forum in Marseille.
Barlow highlighted that the Blue Planet Project has commissioned a series of country reports on the implementation of the right to water and sanitation. The authors were asked to include a blueprint for action in those reports. The first set of reports can be read at http://www.blueplanetproject.net.
Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow spoke at the main plenary session on ‘the implementation of the right to water’ at the ‘Forum Alternatif Mondial de l’Eau’ this evening in Marseille, France.
After an early-morning planning meeting over breakfast, Ottawa-based Council of Canadians/ Blue Planet Project campaigner Meera Karunananthan, Mexico City-based Blue Planet Project organizer Claudia Campero Arena, New Delhi-based Blue Planet Project organizer Madhuresh Kumar, and Durban-based Blue Planet Project organizer Mary Galvin fanned out across Marseille for various water justice actions:
