It was standing room only at the Grad Club in Kingston last night, as a crowd gathered to hear Maude Barlow speak about her new book Boiling Point: Government Neglect, Corporate Abuse, and Canada’s Water Crisis.
“The water crisis is at our door here in Canada. All the issues we thought so far away are upon us now,” writes Barlow in Boiling Point. “It is time to abandon our false beliefs that Canada has unlimited supplies of water, that Canadians have taken care of this water heritage and one another or that we still have lots of time to do so. We need a strong, national plan of action based on a new water ethic that puts water protection and water justice at the heart of all our policies and laws.”
Many in attendance signed our Every Lake, Every River petition that calls on the Trudeau government to immediately and fully restore the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act, the Fisheries Act and the Navigable Waters Protection Act (currently the Navigation Protection Act) to their 2012 standards until new and stronger laws are in effect.
A Number of attendees also expressed interest in starting up a local Council of Canadians chapter in Kingston. In the acknowledgements section of her book, Barlow says, “Right across the country, tireless environmentalists, public sector workers and First Nations and community activists work day after day to protect water and local community rights. A special shout-out to the Council of Canadians chapters right across Canada, whose members give so freely of their time and talent.”
Barlow closes her book with these words, “Each and everyone of us has a personal responsibility to take action, to collectively confront the very power structures that have prevented the change needed to protect and honour the great water heritage of this land. Future generations have the same right to breathe clean air and drink clean water. Much rests with what we do now.”
To respond to that call to action by joining one of the 60 Council of Canadians chapters across the country, please find your local contact here. If you are interested in joining with others to help start a new chapter in Kingston, please contact regional organizer Rachel Small (rsmall@canadians.org).
Barlow’s latest book – the 18th she has written! – can be purchased from local independent booksellers as well as online from its publisher ECW here.
