This weekend's UM-Farmington Water Commons Symposium postposed

This weekend's conference, "Who Owns Maine's Water? A Symposium on Water Commons," scheduled to be held March 24 at UM Farmington, has been postponed until later in the spring, due to the cancellation of 2 of the keynote speakers.

According to symposium organizer Kate Harris:

"Two of our keynote speakers have had to suddenly cancel, so we've decided to postpone this Saturday's Water Commons Symposium until mid-June. First Claudia Torrelli received news that her grandmother had taken seriously ill in Uruguay, so she's returned home, but we were going to go on without her. Then we learned that Maude Barlow was mugged this past weekend in Brussels and had all her personal effects, including her passport, birth certificate and driver's license, stolen. It took great effort for her to get home to Canada, and now she can't fly into Maine from Canada (passport required) until she replaces her passport (6-8 weeks from when she replaces her birth certificate), and it was pretty much impossible for her to get here from Ottawa without a driver's license. Plus, she's quite understandably shaken."

For more information, go to defendingwaterinmaine.org.

Jon Falk

Maine Water Conference 3/24 at UMF

Who Owns Maine's Water? A Symposium on Water Commons
Saturday, March 24th, from 9:30am-4:30pm
University of Maine - Farmington
Presented by the Defending Water for Life in Maine campaign

Maude Barlow of the Council of Canadians and co-author of Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop Corporate Theft of the World's Water will be a keynote speaker. She will draw on her experience as a leader of the international movement for a right to water in speaking about water as a commons in Maine. She will be joined by Colin Woodard author of The Lobster Coast who will describe the protection of the Maine lobster fisheries as a commons. Rounding out the program, Nancy Price, co-chair of the Alliance for Democracy, will present the "Tapestry of the Commons".

To pre-register, or for further information, visit defendingwaterinmaine.org or contact Kate Harris, conference coordinator, at kate@defendingwaterinmaine.org or (207) 338-9509.

Co-sponsors: PICA (Peace through Interamerican Community Action), SEA-Change (Social & Environmental Activists for Change) of UMaine Farmington, the Maine chapter of the Women's International League for Peace & Freedom, and the Maine Council of Churches Environmental Justice Program.