At 73, Maude Barlow, an outspoken advocate on issues including democratic and social rights, trade sovereignty, environmental justice and, especially, water rights, summed up her philosophy in one powerful statement: “I have no intention of retiring!”
She has every right to step back, for her career has been full of accomplishments. She is a co-founder of the Council of Canadians, one of Canada’s top advocacy groups, and was the chairperson for 32 years. She chairs the board of Washington-based Food and Water Watch. She has served on the executive of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature and is a councillor with the Hamburg-based World Future Council.
Maude’s drive has been recognized with 14 honorary doctorate degrees. Furthermore, she has authored 19 books, including her latest, Boiling Point: Government Neglect, Corporate Abuse and Canada’s Water Crisis; and Whose Water is it Anyway? Taking Water Protection into Public Hands.
Her awards are numerous and include the Right Livelihood (known as the “Alternative Nobel”), the Lannan Foundation Cultural Freedom Fellowship, the Citation of Lifetime Achievement at the Canadian Environment Awards, the Earth Day Canada Outstanding Environmental Achievement, the Planet in Focus Eco Hero, and the EarthCare, the highest international honour of the (US) Sierra Club. She served as senior advisor on Water to the 63rd President of the United Nations General Assembly.
Born in Toronto, she spent many years in the Maritimes before settling in Ottawa. Married at 19, she dropped out of university, later finishing her degree at Carleton University.
With two grown sons, Charles and Bill, Maude is happily married to Andrew Davis, a retired lawyer.
Maude became involved in the women’s movement early in her career. She worked with the firm, Women Associate’s Consulting Inc., teaching assertiveness and leadership to women in many organizations, including the CBC and the RCMP. At the latter, she worked with the men to sensitize them to the issues of sexual and physical abuse of women. She became director of the Office of Equal Opportunity for Women for the City of Ottawa, where she dealt with sexual harassment and gender equality, setting up the first task force in Canada on wife assault. A major upward move came in 1983 when she was selected by Pierre Trudeau as senior advisor on women’s issues.
The Council of Canadians, a formidable non-profit social-action organization that advocates for clean water, fair trade, green energy, public health care and a vibrant democracy, has been an important part of her career. In 1986, she met Mel Hurtig who was forming the Council with early members Margaret Atwood, Pierre Berton and Farley Mowat. After two years, she became the chairperson thanks to her drive and passion. Maude is proud that since that time the Council has grown and today has 150,000 supporters and conducts major campaigns for a new NAFTA, climate justice, health care and water justice.
Although she champions many causes, since 1985, water has headed the agenda. “The global water crisis is undeniable,” says Maude. The problems started with the privatization of municipal water services and became a major corporate interest when water was declared a commodity: a good in trade agreements instead of a right, a vital requirement for all living creatures. The selling of water in plastic bottles is a particular thorn.
In the mid-1990s, Maude was writing about a movement to establish an international water cartel, much like an oil cartel, “so that one day, every single drop of water will be owned by a corporation.” Canadian governments have not fought this movement as it would contradict the North American Free Trade Agreement, which names water as a good.
Maude is also concerned about contamination, another serious threat to water. Seventy-five per cent of India’s surface water, 80 per cent of China’s and many lakes and rivers in Latin America and Africa are contaminated.
In Maude’s opinion, water – “the most precious commodity on earth” – should be ensured as a basic human right. She believes water belongs to the Earth and all species, that it’s a public trust and a human right, which should not be denied anyone for lack of ability to pay, and further should not be appropriated for profit.
Maude’s crusade on behalf of the world’s water is a part of her position against economic globalization. Little wonder that Naomi Klein’s quote, “Maude Barlow is one of our planet’s greatest water defenders” graces the cover of her recent book Whose Water is it Anyway?
On July 28, 2010, the United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution explicitly recognizing the human right to water and sanitation and acknowledging that clean drinking water and sanitation are essential to the realization of all human rights. Maude had worked tirelessly for this resolution and was in the UN balcony for the vote. She was ecstatic when it passed. Many credit Maude as a leader in getting the resolution accepted.
Despite her long, hectic and active career, today she is in good health physically, exercising a lot and enjoying her marriage. She is also mentally healthy and is driven and passionate about continuing to fight for water and environmental justice. Her passion in recent years has turned to Blue Communities.
In her latest book, Whose Water Is It Anyway?, Maude says she has a dream of “a world going blue, one community at a time.” The “blue” refers to taking action to conserve, protect and maintain public control of fresh waters. Her concern is justified as, unlike oil, for example, there are no green substitutes. Water is irreplaceable and vital, with all living things, humans included, relying on water to survive. Yet water is under enormous attack by corporations. Maude lays out a prescription for how to fight this threat, calling for communities to become blue by having “everyday people defending their water resources.”
To be a “blue community,” she says, means adopting three basic principles: A promise to protect and promote water and sanitation as human rights; to protect water as a public trust and keep it out of the control of for-profit companies; and to phase out bottled water in municipal facilities.
To date, Maude says, 27 Canadian municipalities “have taken the Blue Communities pledge,” and the movement has started to take root internationally with Paris, France, and Bern, Switzerland signing on. Maude is actively fighting to create more Blue Communities.
“While I deeply believe we need good and strong laws at all levels of government to protect both ecosystems and humans from the coming global water crisis,” she says, “the most powerful actions we can take personally are at the local level.” Maude feels it is in the hands of the individual, the small group, and the community to wrest power from the corporate giants and regain control over our lives.
Maude sees a vibrant, long future ahead of her. “I am in great health and take good care of myself,” she says. “I have recently stepped down from any official capacity with the Council of Canadians and will concentrate on my international water justice work. I am working on a new book on activism and hope. I am also on a number of boards and am the Chancellor of Brescia University College, the only all women’s university left in Canada.”
She reads a lot, jogs every day, and loves theatre and music. Best of all, she is surrounded by a loving family, all living in Ottawa including four grandchildren, who she and her husband adore and spend a lot of time with.
Maude has a strong, almost Buddhist, personal philosophy where she strives to stay positive. “Hope is a moral imperative,” she says. “We live in a beautiful country, so we owe it a positive vision. We can’t just be negative; we have to have something to do and be practical. I take great joy in work and enjoy contributing to something larger.”
Retirement is but a remote signpost, almost imperceptible on the distant horizon.
Snapshot
with Maude Barlow
If you were to meet your 20-year-old self, what advice would you give her?
“I would tell her change is the only constant and not to fear it.”
Who or what has influenced you the most, and why?
“I have been influenced by many people. Marion Dewar [mayor of Ottawa, member of parliament, president of the New Democratic Party], Stephen Lewis, Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann [Nicaraguan diplomat, politician, Catholic priest, President of the United Nations General Assembly], Eleanor Roosevelt, my father W.T. McGrath (he led the fight in Canada against capital punishment) are five that come to mind. All are loved for ideas and values outside themselves and they were dedicated to making the world a better place.”
What are you most grateful for?
“Good health is huge. Loving family and friends. Living in Canada. Medicare. The gorgeous tree in my backyard that I have written all my books to.”
What has been your greatest success?
“I’m proud of making a difference, in particular, seeing a new law come into effect that I had a hand in. The biggest ‘success’ was the United Nations General Assembly recognizing the human right to water and sanitation in a resolution 10 years ago. It took years to get this breakthrough. Essentially, the nations of the world agreed that it is not okay to watch your children die of waterborne disease because you cannot afford to buy them clean water. It was an evolutionary step in human development, in my opinion. I worked tirelessly on this campaign and am delighted the resolution was adopted.”
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