This weekend, Council of Canadians chapters in South Shore, Guelph, Centre Wellington, Chilliwack, Powell River, Northumberland County, Quinte, Kitchener-Waterloo, and Kent County handed out “Boycott Nestle” buttons and stickers, and encouraged people to sign our Boycott Nestle Pledge.
Maude Barlow has stated, “Nestle is the biggest bottled water operator in Canada, with major plants in Ontario and British Columbia. Since 2008, it has been taking 3.6 million litres a day from two wells for its bottled water plant near Guelph. Nestle also wants to extract 1.6 million litres of groundwater a day from nearby Middlebrook. And it extracts 265 million litres a day from a well in Hope. Allowing a transnational corporation to continue to mine this water is a travesty.”
The South Shore chapter joined with the local chapter of the Raging Grannies on Friday afternoon to sing anti-Nestle songs outside a Superstore in Bridgewater, Nova Scotia.
Guelph chapter activist Paul Costello distributed leaflets at the Farmers Market on Saturday, including to University of Guelph environmental science students.
Centre Wellington chapter activist Diane Ballantyne says, “Hands down the cutest visitors to our Boycott Nestle Days of Action table at the Elora Farmer’s Market on Saturday!”
The Kitchener-Waterloo chapter collects signatures at their local farmers market.
The Kent County chapter had a table at the Greenwood Lodge Craft Fair and promoted the Nestle boycott while there.
Quinte chapter activists Lynne Rochon (in the hat), Mary Milne, Jennifer Sturgeon, Ann Wiggins and Lindy Powell (at the end) handed out leaflets and buttons at both Food Basics and the Independent grocery store in Belleville.
Vancouver-based water campaigner Emma Lui joined with the Chilliwack chapter to take part in their action on Sunday. She tells us, “We sang songs, handed out a ton of buttons and collected a bunch more boycott pledges at the Super Store in Chilliwack which is about 30 minutes from Nestle’s plant in Hope BC.”
Lui has also highlighted, “On Monday November 28, Guelph city council will vote on a motion about bottled water-takings. On the eve of this vote, it’s great to see chapters across the country show their solidarity with communities where Nestle extracts local water. Water-takings concern all of us who believe in protecting public water and the human right to water!”
Our Boycott Nestle pledge forms can be found here.
Our Boycott Nestle Pledge was launched in late-September and has been signed by 45,484 people so far.
For numerous blogs on Nestle water-takings, please click here.
