Videos, Wines and Valentines; Manitoba Shows Canada How It's Done

Though it's not well known, Manitoba has become a hotbed for Fair Trade. Below is a quick snippet of some of the fantastic initiatives coming out of Canada's friendliest province:

• Valentine’s Day marks the beginning of Manitoba’s fourth annual Fair Trade One Month Challenge which calls upon people to choose fair trade brands of coffee, tea and chocolate for 30 days, until mid-March.  Many schools, churches, community groups and business offices participate each year in the OMC, along with the thirty-branch Assiniboine Credit Union, which is also the main financial sponsor of the 2010 OMC.  Check out www.fairtrademanitoba.ca.

• Fair Trade Manitoba, a program of the Manitoba Council for International Co-operation (MCIC), has been working with the Manitoba Liquor Control Commission (MLCC) to source fair trade wines for the province.  To date, Liquor Marts are now selling twenty different fair trade certified wines from Argentina, Chile and South Africa, the most of any jurisdiction in Canada.

• For International Development Week 2010, MCIC recognized eight Manitoba youth as Global Youth Citizens and put interviews with them on the MCIC website www.mcic.ca under the slogan Be Yourself, Be Bold, Be the Change!  Watch these interviews, several of which focus on fair trade, and then sign up for a chance to win a $500 fair trade wardrobe!  MCIC also held a fair trade fashion show at a Winnipeg theatre, attracting an audience of 200 students, teachers, parents and NGO representatives.

	Olympic Torch in Gimli, MB. Photo courtesy of Fair Trade Manitoba

• Gimli, Manitoba’s Fair Trade Town, as recognized by Transfair Canada, added social justice to the agenda when the Olympic Torch Run came to town in January.  MCIC/Fair Trade Manitoba, along with La Siembra Co-operative and Gimli’s Municipal Recreation Authority, provided free fair trade certified chocolate bars and hot chocolate to 1000 people involved in the day’s festivities.