This Fair Trade cocoa campaign started in the classroom with a group of social work students at St. Thomas University in Fredericton, New Brunswick. This campaign has grown in size and now branches outside of the university, throughout Fredericton city. Our campaign goal is to raise awareness about cocoa plantations that exploit workers in many ways such as: forced child labour, child and adult slavery, poverty wages, and other various International Human Rights Law violations. There have been estimates of 15,000 child slaves, some brought from Mali and Burkina Faso, working on the hundreds of thousands of cocoa (and other farms)in Cote D'Ivoire, West Africa. Marx-Vilaire Aristide, a research economist who recently spent two weeks in Ivory Coast for ILRF, says: "The bottom line is it's happening and it's large scale." By signing this petition, you vow to help raise awareness by educating others about Fair Trade cocoa, whether by your actions, or your words. Fair Trade chocolate bars (for instance) can be purchased at Superstore, Cultures, Reid's Newsstand, and Aura - for some examples in Fredericton. By signing this petition, you agree that Fredericton should take steps toward becoming a Fair Trade Town, with a view toward achieving this title within a reasonable time frame, once the process is proposed to our local officials. Certified Fair Trade cocoa means that it meets the standards set by the Fair Trade Labeling Organization (FLO). Visit: http://www.transfair.ca/ to learn more about Fair Trade Certifying in Canada.

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