ACTION in Regina!
Home Depot Regina Meets the Forest Action Network!
11:00pm C.S.T. 26 May 1999
The people of Regina (especially those shopping at Home Depot) thought that this was going to be just another ordinary day - were they in for a surprise! 15 activists from the Regina Forest Action Network had hatched a cunning plan to transform Wednesday the 26th of May into a day to remember.
The sun was a shining as Regina activists set up their protest outside the local Home Depot. With information leaflets and product warning stickers in hand activists were set to tell anyone who would listen the truth about Home Depot. A banner reading 'The Home Depot is destroying Canada's rainforests' was unfurled; nearby a dozen placards with different slogans were safely secured in a nice garden display kindly provided by the store itself. To make sure that their voices were heard, protesters enlisted the help of a mega-phone with which they urged customers not to buy ancient rainforest destruction.
The protest had not been underway long when Home Depot employees asked the activsts to move off the property. Their reply was, "We recognise the truth must be uncomfortable to listen to but people have the right to know that Home Depot is selling off the world's forest legacy at bargain prices!" Mobile phones were ringing, staff were in a fluster - Plan A had failed to remove the tenacious crew. They continued giving out information, the mega-phone becoming ever louder.
About 45 minutes later, Home Depot staff came up with Plan B - call the friendly Regina police force (not being sarcastic at all here, they really were very reasonable). That, sadly, spelled the beginning of the end of the action. First to go was the precious mega-phone. Apparently, a licence is needed to operate a mega-phone in Regina which unfortunatly, we didn't have (on reflection one can understand why a licence is required- one might use it to say things that multi-nationals like Home Depot don't want people to hear!). Off to the parking lot they went, banner and placards in hand. Supervised by the police, a Home Depot employee asked us to leave. When questioned about the reasons behind this demand, she looked exasperated - wasn't it obvious? Our messaging hadn't been approved by Head Office!
In all over 300 information leaflets were distributed, and outreach was done to numerous customers and the local media. This was the first of a whole host of actions planned for Home Depot in Regina. I wonder... did they have as much fun as we did?
* Ask Home Depot staff for sustainably harvested, independently certified forest products.
* Check with your city planning department to see if Home Depot is applying for a permit to build another mega-store in your town.
* Check your mutual fund to see if you are unknowingly investing in Home Depot.
* Organize a protest at your local Home Depot (Contact Mission Control for more Information, advice and action resources).
The Home Depot in the Regina area is:
Regina
1867e Victoria Ave
Regina, S4N 6E6
(306) 761-1919
For More Information Contact Mission Control:
Forest Action Network
Box 625, Bella Coola, BC, V0T 1C0, Canada
Tel: (250) 799-5800 Fax: (250) 799-5830
Email: fanbc@fanweb.org