Leave it to the unsinkable Maude Barlow to protest an award she’s about to receive.  

The national chairperson for one of the nation’s biggest citizen activist groups, The Council of Canadians, is indeed grateful for the Citation of Lifetime Achievement that she’ll accept at the Canadian Environment Awards in Toronto tonight for her work in raising awareness about the growing global water crisis. However, she says that should there be demonstrators outside the gala protesting Shell — activists who argue the presence of the oil company and award sponsor is a travesty against the global climate change fight — she will show her solidarity by joining them arm-in-arm.

As one of the few energy companies in support of the Kyoto Accord, Barlow notes Shell has made some progressive strides, but she still has some major concerns, among them being its coal-bed methane operations in Northern B.C. and its history in Nigeria.

“I will support the demonstrators outside if they are there. I don’t see it as a choice: You can go inside and accept the award but at the same time make a statement, which is what I’ll do,” says the author of Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis And The Coming Battle For The Right To Water. “You can be critical of these corporations and advance the work together. I think I’ll be doing inside-outside support.” 

Barlow plans to address several hackle-raising subjects during her acceptance speech. The main ones include the danger of the corporate takeover of water systems and the government’s enthusiastic plans to sell off Canadian water resources to an already thirsty U.S. — adding the Bush administration and the Pentagon have been getting advice from Lockheed Martin, the world’s largest weapons manufacturer, on how to appropriate water from sources outside of its borders.

Barlow also wants Canada to recognize water as a fundamental human right at the United Nations, and she doesn’t buy Ottawa’s argument to the contrary, saying she can’t imagine a more willing vendor than the Harper government. 

“Our government says if water is a human right, we’ll be forced to sell ...[next page]