Toronto Life March 2009 –
When power couple Galen and Alexandra Weston saw Sharkwater, Rob Stewart’s debut doc about murderous Guatemalan shark poachers and other oceanic abuses, they were moved to call the guy up and pledge their support for his cause. They even invited Stewart to dinner at the Spoke Club, where Alex revealed she had all but cut out seafood. You can imagine, then, Stewart’s shock when he discovered Real Canadian Superstores (a Loblaw chain) advertising shark’s fin soup in the days leading up to the 2009 Chinese New Year.
Stewart took swift action on his blog, advising supporters to sell their Loblaw stock and write or call CEO Galen Weston Jr. He then fired off an e-mail to the grocery titan, expressing his strenuous objection. Weston, a recent recipient of a national PR award, jumped faster than you can say “five cents a bag,” pledging to look into the matter ASAP. Stewart pushed back with a request for an exact date when he could expect the soup to be sacked. In an e-mail exchange, he insisted, “You, as CEO, should be able to remove shark’s fin soup from your stores almost immediately.” He wasn’t afraid to play hardball, either: “As you know, we have amassed quite a following in the public and press, and will be doing our best to bring this issue to light.”
Weston, for his part, saw fit to reveal a little domestic detail: “My wife still rarely eats fish because of your film… So the drum beats in my home every night.” Five days after Stewart’s first e-mail, the Asian delicacy was off the shelves. A good move, considering Loblaw has marked 2009 as a year for progress in “sourcing with integrity.”
Haha, I guess that answers my question. WTG! It’s so great to hear that action can actually lead to positive results. It’s more hopeful.
This is awesome!!! I love how it’s coming off the shelves! I also love how Rob Stewart saved all those sharks! I’m a REAL animal rights activist so I love how people do that!
Great! We should also get shark fins off the shelves in all the Asian Supermarkets in Toronoto, Vancouver, San Francisco, LA and London too!!
thats GREAT!!i cant believe that we could get shark fin soup off the canadian super market! That was such a big relieve when i saw that we got ride of shark fin soup in canadian super markets! its like if we could get shark fin soup off the canadian markets just guess what we could do if we we got more people to help we could even put a stop to shark finning all over the world! that just gives us even more hope.
Another good job from Rob. A lot of people rarely eat fish but the billionaire grocery chief and swanky Spoke Club owner makes for a better headline. Instead of inviting Stewart to dinner at the private club, Galen should give him a permanent membership so Rob can continue to spread the message to the influential clientele.
wow this could realy change something
omg this could realy help the world i love shark’s
Is anyone looking into the possibility that the new “T & T” asian supermarket chain, http://www.tnt-supermarket.com owned by Loblaw inc. is following the same practice? I believe this chain may also be in the U.S.A.
If Weston is serious about tackling this issue, he should also follow through with this new market. I tried calling them, but they were less than cooperative/knowledgable on the phone.
I will attempt to go and have a look myself.