Archbishop Desmond Tutu said: "2005 is a year of great opportunity. We can really do something to change the world. The time has come to stop talking and start taking some action. If everyone who wants to see an end to poverty, hunger and suffering speaks out then the noise will be deafening. Politicians will have to listen.


check out www.MAKEPOVERTYHISTORY.ca


Why 2005

This year is one of unprecedented opportunity: It's the year to say "enough is enough" and campaign for urgent and meaningful change in aid, trade, debt and child poverty.

What is so special about 2005?

The G8 summit: In July 2005, Canada will be participating in the G8 summit in Scotland. Poverty in Africa will be a main topic for discussion and we plan to ensure your voice is heard there.

The International Policy Review: A review of Canada's foreign policy is underway. As Canada redefines its role on the international stage, ending global poverty must be at the centre of Canadian foreign policy.

15 years have passed since the House of Commons unanimously resolved to eliminate poverty among Canadian children. Today, nearly 1 in 6 are still poor. The time to act is now.

UN General Assembly Special Summit on the Millennium Development Goals takes place in September 2005. Progress since the 2000 Millennium Declaration and the MDGs to halve the proportion of people living in poverty by 2015 will be reviewed.

World Trade Organization 6th Ministerial Conference: The WTO meeting is scheduled for December in Hong Kong. Developing countries made a stand for fairness in the international trade system at the last WTO conference in 2003. This time, you can help convince Canada and other developed countries to support the call for trade justice.

Will 2005 be a turning point in world history? You can help make poverty history

By request, U2 to play Ottawa -- "Great night out" if Canadians continue to call on PM

Washington, DC - March 8, 2005 - U2 has announced the addition of a November 25th performance in Ottawa to the Vertigo//2005 world tour. The concert, at the Corel Centre, promises to be a massive celebration of Canada's commitment to the goal of giving 0.7% of national income in international assistance.

The Ottawa performance came about as a result of a very vocal petition organized by Sandy Sharkey of Bob Radio (a local Ottawa radio station) and support from Prime Minister Paul Martin. Details of the station's campaign along with Paul Martin's support efforts were forwarded to the U2 by tour promoter The Next Adventure

Bono and Prime Minister Martin became associated during Martin's previous tenure as Canadian finance minister when the party agreed to cut debts owed to Canada by poor countries. This summer's Africa Summit of the G8 in Scotland will test that commitment and Canada's promise to contribute 0.7% of its national income to assistance for the world's poorest countries.

U2 lead singer Bono, who is a strong campaigner for debt cancellation and co-founder of the organization DATA, had the following to say: "Paul Martin asked us to play the gig... We were delighted for three reasons... One, 18,000 Ottawans is going to be a great night out... Two, because if Paul Martin agrees to give 0.7% national income to the poorest people in the world it will be a great celebration party... Three, if he doesn't it will be a great protest party. 18,000 Canadians calling and requesting their Prime Minister give 0.7 per cent GNP to aid will be an historic night out."

DATA executive director Jamie Drummond further commented: "To party or to protest? Which it is to be depends on whether Martin agrees to keep Canada's historic promise to the world's poor. Keep the promise, and this will be the best party Ottawa has ever seen. Canadians and the prime minister will determine whether this is a party. It will be a much better party if Canadians continue to contact the prime minister and voice their support for 0.7% for the world's poor."

check out www.whiteband.org
Take Action on poverty in 2005 by wearing a white band on the global white band action days.

o July 1
o September 10
o December 10

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Taking Child Slavery Out of Valentine's Day

LA Times
February 14, 2005
By Tom Harkin and Eliot L. Engel
Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) is the ranking Democrat on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on labor, health and human services and education. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.) is a member of the House International
On Valentine's Day, there will be no chocolate gifts for young Aly Diabate. "I don't know what chocolate is," said Aly, who was forced into slavery at age 11 to harvest cocoa beans in Ivory Coast. Aly's ignorance of chocolate is forgivable. Like tens of thousands of other child slaves on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast, he subsists on a diet of corn paste and bananas.

Less forgivable is the fact that chocolate lovers in the West have been kept in the dark about these harsh realities. Few realize that most of the cocoa beans that go into Nestle, Mars and Hershey candy bars come from Ivory Coast, where thousands of enslaved boys — some as young as 9 — work in the most squalid, brutal conditions imaginable.

According to one report, the child slaves of Ivory Coast "are whipped, beaten and broken like horses to harvest the almond-sized beans that are made into chocolate treats for more fortunate children in Europe and the United States."

We have long been active in efforts to stop exploitative child labor, as well as trafficking in slaves. So when news reports on the abuse of children on cocoa farms first emerged in 2001, we were determined to stop it. We knew that if consumers learned about the brutal realities of cocoa production, their taste for chocolate would sour. Sales — and the Ivorian economy — would plummet. But that was not our goal. We wanted to stop child slavery, not chocolate production.

We viewed a legislative remedy not as a first resort but as a last resort. So, in good faith, we engaged the major chocolate companies in lengthy, intense negotiations. The result was the Harkin-Engel Protocol, signed in 2001.

The companies agreed to join with other stakeholders to produce an agreement for eliminating the worst forms of child and slave labor throughout the chain of chocolate production, and to do so expeditiously. They also agreed to implement an industrywide voluntary certification system to give a public accounting of labor practices in the cocoa-growing countries. This would enable consumers to make better-informed choices.

This kind of certification approach is already being used effectively to combat trafficking in "blood diamonds." In several diamond-rich African countries racked by civil war and human rights abuses, belligerents have funded their activities by mining and selling diamonds. The Clinton administration helped to create a country-of-origin certification system for diamonds. And President Bush signed a law prohibiting importation into the United States of any diamonds not controlled by this system.

There are an estimated 1.5 million small cocoa farms spread across four desperately poor countries in Africa, including Ivory Coast. The protocol established a public-private partnership enlisting government, industry, labor unions, nongovernmental organizations and consumer groups. The U.S. government's role is to ensure that whatever certification plan emerges from this process is credible and effective in eliminating abusive child- and slave-labor practices in the cocoa industry and ensuring the rehabilitation of the victims.

We have done our best to accommodate the chocolate companies. We preferred a two-year deadline for the creation of an industrywide certification regime, but agreed to four years. We all agreed that the regime was to be completed on July 1, followed by rigorous implementation.

Last month, however, the companies informed us that they would not meet the deadline. Instead, they planned to initiate a small pilot program in Ghana and, perhaps, in Ivory Coast. Although this is certainly a positive step, it falls woefully short of the robust action promised in the protocol.

The time for talk has passed. Children are suffering. Will the chocolate companies redouble their efforts and make good on their commitments? Or, as with blood diamonds, will legislation be necessary? Our preference is for the chocolate industry to take charge of its own destiny. But if corporate responsibility is lacking, government will have a responsibility to act.

This Valentine's Day, much of our chocolate will be bittersweet — tainted by the suffering of Aly Diabate and countless other cocoa slaves. Our hope is that, by next Valentine's Day, consumers will be able to purchase chocolate with a clear conscience.

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PRESS RELEASE: Level Ground Trading Ltd. named as a finalist for the 2003 Ethics in Action Award

VICTORIA, BC ­ November 3, 2003

Level Ground Trading is honored to be considered as one of three finalist nominees for the Ethics in Action Award in the category of Overall Leadership.

The Ethics in Action Awards is an annual event that recognizes organizations and individuals who exemplify good corporate citizenship by making corporate social responsibility a key aspect of their daily operations. These leaders are building a new business model in which principles and profits are balanced in all decision-making.

Using a Fair Trade philosophy, Level Ground Trading brings quality coffee, dried fruit and cane sugar to the North American marketplace. Level Ground roasts and packages Café San Miguel and Café La Paz and distributes them along with dried tropical fruit (Frutos de los Andes), and natural cane sugar (Panela de los Andes), through Ten Thousand Villages stores, grocery and natural food stores across Canada and the United States.

Level Ground Trading is a Victoria based, Fair Trade importer whose trade
practices emphasize:

Level Ground Trading is a Fair Trade Organization accredited by IFAT (International Federation for Alternative Trade) and adheres to established international fair trade standards by paying premiums which benefit the communities where our products originate. Hugo Ciro, our founder, travels regularly to visit the communities of producers in Colombia and Bolivia.

Last year¹s Ethics in Action winners in the category of Overall Leadership were Thrifty Foods and SPUDS. This year¹s winners will be announced at the Ethics in Action Awards ceremony on November 6th at the Westin Bayshore Resort & Marina in Vancouver, BC.

The Ethics in Action Awards are sponsored by Van City Credit Union, Terasen, Global, Metropolitan Printers, Better Business Bureau, The Vancouver Sun, Capers Community Markets and the Westin Bayshore Resort & Marina.