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News Release

January 20, 2006

Trudeau, Barlow to Speak at U of G Symposium

Environmental and social justice activists Margaret Trudeau and Maude Barlow will be featured speakers at the 12th annual Environmental Science Symposium being held at the University of Guelph Jan. 28 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. in Rozanski Hall. This year’s conference will bring together a variety of experts to discuss "Water Conservation and Canada's Role in the Global Water Crisis."

Following her marriage to the late prime minister Pierre Trudeau, Margaret Trudeau went on to become a photographer, writer, actress and television host. In 1996, she became an active member of WaterCan, a charity dedicated to providing clean drinking water to people living in the developing world. She was named honorary president of WaterCan in 2002 and has since travelled to Uganda to see the organization’s efforts in action.

Currently, WaterCan is supporting projects in Africa and promoting public education and awareness of initiatives that providing clean water and sanitation services to the developing world. Since its creation in 1987, WaterCan has assisted more than one million people in 32 developing countries.

Barlow, an international activist and chair of the Council of Canadians, the nation’s largest citizen’s advocacy organization, has received honorary doctorates from six Canadian universities for her social justice work, was nominated for the 1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005 and received the 2005 Right Livelihood Award given by the Swedish Parliament. She is also a director with the San Francisco-based International Forum on Globalization and founder of the Blue Planet Project, which works to stop the commodification of the world’s water.

Founded in 1985, the Council of Canadians has chapters nationwide, including in Guelph, and more than 100,000 members. It promotes progressive policies on fair trade, clean water, safe food, public health care and other issues of social and economic concern.

Other presenters at the environmental science forum includeTony Maas of the POLIS Project on Ecological Governance, who will discuss how to manage human demands for water while balancing its ecological limitations, and T. Duncan Ellison, executive director of the Canadian Water and Wastewater Association, who will provide an overview of the issues faced by Canadian municipal water and wastewater services.

Also slated to speak are Ralph Beaumont, manager of communications for the Grand River Conservation Authority; Mike Nagy, president of the Guelph Federal Green Party; Karen Farbridge, a political science instructor at U of G and former Guelph mayor; Sophie Pease of Zenon Filtration; Candida Paltiel, director of Planet in Focus; Michael Price, former general manager of Toronto Water; and Cate Sorozan of the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation.

The conference is organized by environmental science undergraduate students. Cost is $10 general, $5 for students.

Online registration