NewsletterDecember 2008

The Marquis Project Board:Paulette Buizer: President, Teacher, Crocus Plains High School

Grant McPhail:Treasurer, Financier

Roger Glufka: Biologist

Bob Hamilton: Programming Committee ChairCounselor, Crocus Plains High School

Murray McLeod: Real Estate Broker

Caroline Slimmon: Manager, Grand Valley Vet Clinic

Theresa van Hoof: Career Centre Coordinator, Crocus Plains High School

Andrew Friesen:Student

Jackie Derhak:Accounts Manager, TD Bank

Russ ThompsonFinancial Advisor

Katie BonkCounselor, Crocus Plains High School

Ray HoeppnerProfessor, Brandon University

Garry NicolRetired Professor, Brandon University

Worldly Goods Make Over

Recently, The Marquis Project re-designed the layout of the Worldly Goods Shop, and over the past few weeks customers have been noticing a change. Comments include “what a lovely new selection” and “everything looks so beautiful.” These compliments are largely thanks to retail design team led by Cory Messel and Erin Gobeil.When The Marquis Project realized it

was time for a new look, Paulette Buizer contacted one of her former students whom she remembered had a flair for creativity. Cory has an amazing eye for colour and product which he gained from working with the retail design team from Lady of the Lake and co-worker Erin Gobeil. The Worldly Goods Shop was very

fortunate to have two such talented people volunteering their expertise, especially since it’s not always easy to acquire products that fit into a design scheme. Everything the store orders is either Fair Trade or fairly traded, organic, environmentally friendly or locally produced, and sourcing out the products can be challenging, not to mention when companies change distributors as was the case this Christmas. There was a large order that Cory and Erin

CE

had incorporated into their design of the store, but at the last minute the order fell through because they no longer distributed to Canada. This development forced them to alter the

layout of the store, but the Shop turned out beautifully. They used what they had, taking everything into consideration and using color as a major influence. They put the warmer Christmas colours and products at the front put fall tones at the back giving the store a fresh new look. When walking into Worldly Goods Shop there is now an atmosphere of comfortable ambience. There are products from all over the world and that essence is apparent when stepping into the store. The colour collaborations that Cory and Erin used to portray the store flow genuinely with the products. While working here, Cory noticed a few of the products which he thought were amazing because not only were they Fair Trade, but they were stunning. He was impressed by the Horizon Lamps and the modern Black & White products and was surprised that Fair Trade items could look so modern.It is now the Christmas season and thanks

to Cory and Erin, Worldly Goods Shop is prepared with a great selection of new products displayed beautifully throughout the store. It is the time to shop, and The Marquis Product is the perfect place to get gifts for loved ones.

The Marquis Project & Worldly Goods Shop912 Rosser Avenue, Brandon Manitoba R7A 0L4Ph: (204)727-5675 Fax: (204)727-5683E*: marquisp@mts.net www.marquisproject.com

By: Marie-Claire Prenevost, Katimavik Participant

NEWSLETTER

PAGE 2 Water: Call to ActionOn Nov. 26th, 2008, I attended a

conference on Water Resources held at the Riverbank Discovery Centre. The conference sharpened my awareness of the importance of our water resourcesIn Canada, water consumption per

person is 350 litres per day. In Kenya, it is 10 litres per day, which is about one flush. We have been smugly sitting on what we have thought was an unlimited supply of fresh water. We were told that we have 20% of the world’s fresh water. That has now been adjusted to read 7%, and a lot of that amount is under threat. The threat comes from a long history of abuse and contamination of our water resources, often built on our belief that we were dealing with an unlimited resource. This, we now know, is not true.Scientists expect that there will be

no sea ice in the Northwest Passage by mid-century. The hydro electric resources presently enjoyed by Manitobans will slowly decrease due to the declining water flow in the Nelson River basin. Great demands are being put on our rivers and aquifers by agriculture and other industries. Many of our rivers, lakes and aquifers are being polluted. The fresh water lakes being poisoned by the Alberta Tar Sands industry are now being renamed Tailing Impoundment Areas. The Alberta Tar Sands produce only 1% of the world’s oil. About 1.2 billion people in the

world do not have access to fresh drinking water. Most of us living in Manitoba are fortunate because we have access to safe drinking water. Some do not, however, as a number of First Nation communities

now find that they need purification systems because their traditional sources of safe water have become polluted. There are presently 49 water advisories in Canada. Yet, our federal government has refused to accept that access to clean drinking water is a basic human right. In the USA, 36 states have reported

water shortage problems. Under NAFTA rules, if one company is allowed to export bulk water to the USA, then any company can do the same. So far, there have been no bulk water shipments from Canada. Will water become just another commodity like lumber, wheat, and oil?The prairies will be one of the first

areas affected by water shortages. The aquifers that we have relied on for so long are now being strained by overuse. It is estimated that it takes 16,000 litres of water to produce one kg of beef, 1700 litres to produce one litre of ethanol. Potato farming is the most environmentally damaging form of agriculture due to intense use of irrigation, fertilizers, and other chemicals. Pollution of our water resources continue at an accelerated rate. The algae growths on Lake Winnipeg can now be seen from space. Run-off from all the chemicals we use at home, in gardens, and on our farms eventually end up in our water. The main conclusion of the

conference was that we have taken our water resources for granted, both the quantity and the quality. We can no longer do this. There is an urgent need for an educational program aimed at promoting the awareness of the perilous state of our water resources and the importance of conserving this precious resource.

By: Harold Stewart

Thank you, everyone, for renewing your membership this year. It is only through your support that The Marquis Project can continue its work in Africa and western Manitoba. The coming year 2009 is year thirty for Marquis, which is still an almost entirely volunteer organization.Please help us serve you

better. If you are receiving a printed copy of this newsletter and wish an Email copy it is because we do not have your Email address. Perhaps you are receiving an Email copy and wish a printed copy. Please advise us of your wishes by calling the Executive Director, Ryan Clement at 727-5675. This past year has been a

very productive year but next year promises to be even better. In 2009, we are looking at expanding our efforts in Tanzania; we will be launching a new game called The Global Trader by Harold Stewart which is destined for Junior High School classrooms; we will be having a “speaker of the month” at Marquis each month, and activities for International Development Week, the One-Month Challenge featuring fair trade coffee, and the annual youth YETII conference are being planned.

PAGE 3

In Born on the 4th of July, Ron Kovic tells the autobiographical tale of his journey from soldier to activist during the Vietnam War. For activist former marines like Christopher White, it’s a continuing saga.

White served as an American marine infantry sergeant in Asia, the Indian Ocean, the Middle East, and California from 1994 to 1998. When asked why he initially decided to join the marines, White answered “I didn’t really have my ducks in a row, but I wanted to get into something that would give me money for college and job training. Of course, I found out that’s not what the military does here [in the US].”

Prior to his time in the military, White had spent some time living in Mexico and his empathy for the people living there - and in the developing world - soon began to conflict with the attitudes he encountered amongst his officers and fellow marines.

“A lot of racist things began to happen, with racism being thrown around by our leaders, by sergeants in the marine corps. I realized I was just fooling myself thinking we were helping these people, because if we were there to help them, we wouldn’t be saying these things.”

Disillusioned by these experiences and inspired by authors like Kovic, Howard Zinn, and Noam Chomsky, White distanced himself from the

marines, eventually becoming an assistant professor at Marshall University in West Virginia. Even before 9/11, he began speaking out publicly and supporting activist campaigns such as the anti-globalization movement and writing two books on Latin America, “The History of El Salvador” and “Creating a Third World: Mexico, Cuba, and the United States during the Castro Era.”

He suffered a backlash from people in the military, receiving “vehement responses, hateful responses that numbered in the hundreds,” but remained confident in his actions, feeling it was his duty as a former marine to speak out.

By: Ryan Clement

Born on September 11th: One Man’s Journey from the US Marines to Activism in El Salvador

Dear Marquis Supporters,

Well it’s been an eventful fall since our last newsletter was released. Our store looks fantastic and it was packed to the seams for our annual Christmas Party in November. More and more shoppers are coming into the store, intrigued by Marquis’ new look, and we’re hopeful this will be a record Christmas season for the store. Better come in and buy your basket before they’re all gone!

The Youth Committee is also experiencing a resurgence as plans are under way for a film screening this December at the University, as well as for our annual YETII conference (Youth Educating Themselves about International Issues). YETII’s theme for 2009 will be Culture and Immigration.

Our Speaker-of-the-Month series launched last fall and has been steadily growing in popularity ever since. We started with Peter Nyonyintono, Vice-President of the Ugandan-Canadian Association of Manitoba, back in September. Peter spoke about Uganda, the problems currently faced by its people, and the reasons for hope. After Peter, October’s speaker was Reykia Fick, the Outreach Co-ordinator

of Transfair Canada (the body that oversees Fair Trade Certification in Canada). Fick spoke about her organization’s Fair Trade Towns Campaign and how Brandon could get involved. In November, we had our highest turnout to a lecture in the last two years, as Christopher White - a former US Marine turned peace activist who does a lot of work in El Salvador - was able to speak at Marquis. So many people turned up in fact, that we had listeners scattered along two stairwells and three floors all peering in to hear Chris speak. For December, we arranged for local woman Sarah Schira to speak on her “1001 Things in 101 Days” plan for enjoying life and helping the world at the same time, and other speakers are already being lined up for January and beyond.

Since we also had our fall Chilly Chutney Mexican dinner in October, Blake Hamilton was able to speak about his journey through the United States on a bus powered by used vegetable oil. The event was a tremendous success. So much so, that we will be staging another Chilly Chutney dinner, this time with an Indian theme.

We officially launched the Global Trader Game at Winnipeg’s

SAG conference (a conference involving teachers from all corners of Manitoba), and so far we’ve received a lot of positive feedback. The game is designed in accordance with the provincial curriculum for Grade Seven Social Studies, and allows students to play as different regions of the world as they deal with resource questions and trade with one another.

Look for us to be going into schools in the new year to showcase the game, as well as bringing in more speakers, more community partnerships, and more programming as well. We will also be launching awareness campaigns around the One-Month Challenge, International Development Week, and of course Fair Trade Week.

A big thank you to all our volunteers and members who have been working so hard to not only keep Marquis going, but to help it thrive. We couldn’t do it without you and we appreciate your support in all its many forms.

So have a safe and happy holiday season and we look forward to seeing you in the New Year.

Sincerely,

Ryan ClementExecutive Director

Season’s Greetings from Marquis

Continued on Page 5

Page 4

In 2001, The Marquis Project took Westman classrooms by storm when it introduced The Fair Trade Game. Now the Marquis educational revolution continues...The Marquis Project is proud to

present our newest classroom game and educational tool, Global Trader. Designed by long-time Marquis guru Harold Stewart and developed according to the Manitoba Ministry of Education Grade Seven Social Studies curriculum guidelines, Global Trader addresses Specific Learning Outcomes in several Learning Experiences in Cluster 2 Global Quality of Life.

Global Trader is interactive and features both competition and cooperation through the buying and selling of resources. Students will learn how inequities in the world occur and why some nations are more successful than others economically. Global Trader will teach students about fair play and give them an appreciation of the problems faced by those living in disadvantaged countries around the world. This game will provide teachers with a creative, pedagogically sound instructional strategy appropriate to the grade level to achieve a number of learning outcomes.

The game has been thoroughly tested in Westman classrooms and the reviews have been overwhelmingly positive. Students describe it as “Awesome,” “Educational,” “Fun,” “Interesting,” “Informative,” and “Not boring!” Teachers have said “This is just what is needed to create interest in this program; the idea of the game is fantastic; super organized, my students were definitely engaged, I was surprised at the amount of knowledge my students had; I loved it.”The Global Trader Game is available

for $60.00 plus tax and shipping. Order your copy today.

Global Trader Game

Last fall’s Marquis Project Chilly Chutney Dinner was such a success that we’ve decided to hold another one. This time, the cuisine will be Indian, and we will be having CJ 106.5 radio personality Jag Singh presenting on “Differences in Multiculturalism between Canada and India.”

Sunday, January 25th, 2009 at 5:30 pm, 935 Rosser Avenue, Brandon

Tickets are only $30 and are available for purchase now. To purchase one, simply stop by The Marquis Project at 912 Rosser Avenue or call us at (204) 727-5675. We hope to see you there!

Chilly Chutney Indian Dinner

Hello, my name is Marie Claire, and I am an eighteen year old Katimavik volunteer. I was born and raised in Mississauga, Ontario. I attended John Fraser Secondary School and graduated last year and I decided to become involved in the Katimavik program. Just in case you were thinking “What is Katimavik?” Katimavik is a cross Canada government-supported volunteer program.The program spans nine months

where 10-12 participants share living arrangements. Participants volunteer 35 hours per week. Two participants are house

managers and get that week off while planning meals for the rest of the group. House managers change every week so everyone gets a turn to cook. Right now my Katimavik house is in Brandon Manitoba, but on January 22nd we fly to New Brunswick, then on April 22nd we fly to British Columbia. While in Brandon, I am volunteering at The Marquis Project and Worldly Goods shop. I am truly enjoying the store and its customers. I am becoming very interested in the Fair Trade industry and I find

it hard to work here, because I want to buy almost everything in the store. I’m having a great experience. Not only has The Marquis Project

welcomed me with open arms but so has the Brandon Community. Coming from a larger city, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but so far I have been having a lot of fun. Brandon may be a smaller community, but there is definitely a lot to do. I’ve been enjoying all the time I have had in this town. I definitely plan on visiting after the Katimavik program. After I finish the program, I plan to go to Humber College for two years for psychology, then on to Ryerson University to study more in depth. I would like to be a guidance counsellor at a high school. Overall, I think working with different types of people and living in a house with participants - with whom I may not have everything in common - will most definitely help me grow. I look forward to all the experiences that are going to happen during my time in the program.

Marie Claire

Letter from a Katimavik Volunteer

PAGE 5A Fair Trade Town: Making a Fair Trade Community Here as Well as There

When you sip a cup of fair trade coffee, it’s easy to imagine that the exotic flavours are a world apart from our home region - a place more famed for its cold weather than its roasted beans - but that distance is about to get a whole lot shorter. Building on the success of making

fair trade about community in the developing world, Transfair Canada wants to make Canadian communities like Brandon “Fair Trade Communities” as well. The group—which acts as the non-profit agency in Canada certifying Fair Trade goods—hopes that their Fair Trade Towns Campaign will make supporting fair trade an integral part of community life, culture, and activity here in Canada, just as it is overseas.“[The Fair Trade Towns Campaign]

is a very exciting campaign to engage people at the local level in fair trade,” explains outreach co-ordinator Reykia Fyck who was visiting Brandon and giving a lecture at The Marquis Project, “It’s designed to bring all different kinds of groups in a community, whether they be volunteer groups or businesses, or even media and the general public. Fair Trade is a practical way for people to support livelihoods in the developing world, building change for wider poverty reduction and sustainability.”

The Fair Trade Towns Campaign challenges Canadian communities to achieve six local fair trade goals: 1) support from the local city council, 2) a wide availability of fair trade products in local retail businesses , 3) Use and promotion of fair trade products in schools, faith groups, and workplaces, 4) a demonstration of media and public interest, 5) a local coordinating group is established to ensure a continued commitment, and 6) and a promotion of other sustainable and ethical practices in the community. Communities like La Pêche, Quebec and Wolfville, Nova Scotia have already met the challenge and been declared Fair Trade Towns. Worldwide, there are now over 500 of them.The Fair Trade Movement, of

course, has always been about building communities, from its early grass roots development in the 1940s and 1950 which continues local non-profits like The Marquis Project, to its increasingly mainstream acceptance and availability. Initially, the system relied largely on handicrafts and artisans, but has since expanded into agricultural exports like coffee, tea, fruit, cocoa, and even wine. While primarily designed to give small producers in the developing world a more reliable financial base with which to support their operations, the fair trade

movement also insists a portion of crops purchased goes to community development in the producer’s region.Cynthia Wagner, communications

manager for Transfair, explains, “a producer who might get $1.15 for a pound of coffee would with fair trade have a guaranteed price of $1.35 per pound of coffee, and $0.10 of that would go to community development, like building schools, bringing in doctors, whatever the local community groups decide is important for the community’s future. [Without fair trade] producers are at the mercy of price fluctuations, but with a fair contract is upfront and more sustainable. People in fair trade systems are more able to make sustainable decisions than those who are not.”Fair trade, then, helps both our

community and local communities to develop, making it a win-win situation. There are currently over 1.5 million fair trade producers and families globally benefiting from Fair Trade. For more information about fair trade or to sample some fair trade products, visit the The Marquis Project’s Worldly Goods shop at 912 Rosser Avenue. For more information about the national Fair Trade Towns campaign, visit www.transfair.ca.

By: Ryan Clement

“I was prepared for 9/11, but I was not prepared for the jingoism that followed it. But as a former marine, I knew that my voice would carry...”

Today, White leads groups of his students to El Salvador, for intensive research with former guerillas, victims and witnesses of the Salvadorian Civil War, and members of the Salvadorian military.

“We take students down to spend time with the former combatants,

to visit the battlefields, to listen to people who witnessed massacres, to visit the guerilla’s museum and to hike the trails they took.”

When asked what Canadians could do to help, White says sometimes the best thing to do is nothing but keeping an open mind.

“The US needs to keep its hands out of Latin America. Trade agreements need the participation of the average person [there], as it affects them more deeply than us, and so far these agreements

have largely been an interaction of the elite classes of the different countries...”

“...[That said], it is important to understand that there are Americans trying to change the way they do things in world, Americans who are frustrated that people aren’t doing enough to change their foreign policy. I’d love for Canadians to have more connections with the United States, particularly in resistance to neo-colonial relationships.”

Born on September 11th - Continued from Page 3

The Marquis Project Newsletter Page 6

CHRISTMAS BASKETS!For the Holiday Season,

The Marquis Project makes beautiful baskets every year to show their customers that they are appreciated. There are a variety of baskets - nine in total - and all at a bargain.Christmas Basket #1 $75.00

Includes:1 Large Pottery Bowl• 2 Pottery Mugs• 2 1lb Coffee Bags • (Kicking Horse)2 Coffee Packets (Bean • North)Tea Bags (Just Us!)• 2 Cocoa Camino • Chocolate Bars2 Cocoa Camino Cocoa • Powder Packets

Christmas Basket #2 $50.00 Includes:

1 1lb Coffee Bag • (Kicking Horse)1 Woven Basket• 2 Pottery Mugs• 2 Cocoa Camino • Chocolate Bars 2 Coffee Packets (Bean • North)Tea Bags (Just Us!)•

Christmas Basket #3 $50.00 Includes:

1 Pottery Bowl• 1 Pottery Mug• 1 1lb Coffee Bag • (Kicking Horse)1 Cocoa Camino • Chocolate Bar1 Coffee Packets (Bean • North)Tea Bags (Just Us!)•

Christmas Basket #4 $40.00Includes:

1 Woven Basket• 1 Pottery Mug• 1 1lb Coffee Bag • (Kicking Horse)1 Coffee Packets (Bean • North)Tea Bags (Just Us!)• 1 Cocoa Camino • Chocolate Bar

Christmas Basket #5 $30.00Includes:

1 Pottery Bowl• 1 Pottery Mug• 1 Coffee Packets (Bean • North)Tea Bags (Just Us!)• 1 Cocoa Camino • Chocolate Bar

Christmas Basket #6 $30.00Includes:

1 Pottery Bowl• 1 1lb Coffee Bag • (Kicking Horse)1 Coffee Packets (Bean • North)Tea Bags (Just Us!)• 1 Cocoa Camino • Chocolate Bar

Christmas Basket #7 $15.00Includes:

1 Pottery Bowl• 1Moisture Shave• 2 Specialty Soaps• 1 Hemp Lavender Soap• 1 Hemp Peppermint Soap•

Christmas Basket #8 $18.00Includes:

1 Pottery Mug • 1 Cocoa Camino • Chocolate Bar1 ½ lb Coffee (Green • Bean)

Christmas Basket #9 $10.00Includes:

1 Woven Basket• 2 Coffee Packets (North • Bean)1 Cocoa Camino • Chocolate BarTea Bags (Just Us!)•

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