Canadian Mennonite
Volume 10, No. 07
April 3, 2006


BackPage

Message in a bottle

Kashechewan, Ont.

Canadians are being urged to support MCC Ontario’s “Message in a bottle” campaign that seeks to find clean water solutions for aboriginal communities across the country.

On March 22, nations around the globe recognized World Water Day. Over the next month, Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Ontario wants Canadians to “drink from the well of justice,” and join it, the Kashechewan First Nation (on the remote western shore of James Bay) and Mushkegowuk Council in working toward clean water solutions for aboriginal communities across Canada.

Until April 22, Canadians are being asked to send the federal government a message in a bottle—literally.

The process is simple:

1. Take a dry, empty No. 1 recyclable bottle.

2. Insert your “message” about World Water Day—in the form of a story, poem, reflection or picture about your community and its struggle for fresh water—in the bottle. Messages may also want to remind the government that:
• 97 percent of the earth’s water is too salty to drink, 2 percent is frozen, and only 1 percent is available for drinking.
• A billion people around the world do not have access to clean drinking water.
• In Articles 11 and 12 of the United Nations’ 1966 International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, “the human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realization of other human rights.”
• As of February 2006, there were 76 First Nations across Canada on a boil water advisory.
• Two-thirds of First Nations in Ontario living with contaminated water are fly-in communities in the far north.
• The 1,700 community members of Kashechewan First Nation continue to live with recurring skin abrasions.

3. Address a label to either Tony Clement, Minister of Health, Health Canada, Minister’s Office, Tunney’s Pasture, Ottawa, ON K1A 0K9, or Rona Ambrose, Minister of the Environment, Minister’s Office, 10 Wellington St., Gatineau, QC, K1A 0H3. In place of a stamp in the top right corner, write clearly “Member of Parliament,” to indicate a stamp is not necessary. Tape the label firmly around the middle of the bottle.

4. Mail the bottle.

—MCC Ontario release


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