Don Woodstock: The Man Who Made Manitoba Ditch the Plastic Bag
- Buffy Davey
- Sep 11
- 31 min read
We sit down with Don Woodstock, author of "Unrelenting" and the grassroots activist who transformed recycling in Winnipeg. Don's journey from a farm in Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica to becoming the driving force behind Manitoba's shift from 33% to 99% recycling participation is a masterclass in persistent community organizing and environmental justice.
Don shares how his grandfather's simple question - "Is it bigger than you, son?" - became the foundation for taking on seemingly impossible challenges. When he arrived in Winnipeg and saw the potential for environmental change, he didn't wait for permission or funding. He made a documentary, knocked on doors, and refused to take no for an answer until people finally listened.
We're talking:
How growing up on a Jamaican farm taught sustainability lessons that urban Canada desperately needed
Why Winnipeg reminds him of Jamaica (minus the weather) and what that means for community organizing
The story behind getting major grocery chains to adopt reusable bags across Canada
What it takes to keep going when people literally spit on the ground and dismiss your ideas
How to plant seeds that will bear fruit long after you're gone - even if you never see the harvest
The human right to clean air, clean water, and a healthy environment for future generations
Don's approach to grassroots change offers a blueprint for anyone wondering how to make a difference: start local, don't expect instant gratification, and remember that real change happens like farming - you plant seeds, water them consistently, and trust the process even when you can't see immediate results.
Whether you're passionate about environmental issues or simply wondering how one person can create systemic change, Don's story proves that unrelenting commitment to what you believe in can literally transform a city's relationship with the planet.
Don't miss the innovative audio version featuring Caribbean and African music inspired by the themes of environmental justice and community action!
Episode Transcript:
Stuart Murray 0:00
This podcast was recorded on the ancestral lands, on treaty one territory, the traditional territory of the Anishinaabe Cree, Oji Cree, Dakota and the Dene peoples, and on the homeland of the Metis nation.
Amanda Logan (Voiceover) 0:19
This is humans on rights, a podcast advocating for the education of human rights. Here's your host, Stuart Murray.
Stuart Murray 0:32
Have you ever wondered what it's like to go to your recycling bin and wonder, how did this get started? What's the what's the story behind recycling in Winnipeg, you know, we go and we don't have plastic bags. What's the story about the ban on plastic bags? Well, my guest today, Don Woodstock, has written a book called unrelenting, and he's going to share his story about unrelenting with respect to recycling his life journey from Jamaica to Winnipeg and a little bit maybe about why he was so clever to put some very interesting music into his unrelenting audio book. But I'm delighted to welcome to humans on rights for this conversation. Don Woodstock. Don, welcome to humans on
Speaker 1 1:23
rights. Thank you. Thank you for the invitation, and thanks for having me.
Stuart Murray 1:27
Yeah, so don, obviously, we're going to talk about this book unrelenting, but let's talk a little bit about about Don Woodstock, yeah, that's a good, good, a good, good, good photo of it. Don, tell me a bit about your your life journey. I mean, you've come from Jamaica, you've come to Winnipeg. What? What? What, what brought you to Winnipeg? And when you talk about what brought you to Winnipeg, tie in some of the things that have have made you who you are as a person, that made you want to be so passionate about recycling
Don Woodstock 2:00
awesome Um, well, I grew up on the farm in Saint Elizabeth, Jamaica, and I'm proud of because as a country boy, growing up on a farm, there's a lot of things that I've learned over the years that have made me a model citizen in my in my view and in my grandfather's eyes, and I follow in the steps of my grandfather, because I believe if, if there's anybody going to heaven, or is it in heaven, is my grandfather. He was a man of character. He was a man of great discipline. He was a man that was passionate about his beliefs. And so I have emulated a lot of that in what I do and carry on my life. Winnipeg came calling because of a job opportunity. I was with ADT at the time, doing door to door sales across Canada, and I was invited to come here and visit. And I came in a visit, and next thing you know, I was offered the job as the manager for the alarm outfit here in the city, and this became home away from home. I I have two children that are born right here. So Winnipeg becomes home, home to me more than what most people think. And so I've decided, you know, having lived in BC, having lived in Toronto, having lived in Edmonton for a little bit, I have seen, in a short space of time when I was here that this is, this is this closest thing as I'm going to get to being in Jamaica, where I'm from, except for the weather.
Stuart Murray 3:40
I was going to say, man, I'm telling you, that's not in your book. That's not in your book.
Don Woodstock 3:44
Don Yes. So so I have, I have long felt that the need for me to get involved here, okay, and so, and so, for me, the way in which my grandfather legacy left that in mark on my life. Is is to me second to none when I look around and see all of the things that need to be done and and what you have to do to get things done. And it's never going to be easy, but there's nothing in life easy for sure, yeah, for sure. And so, so you you bottle up. But you know the question that I keep asking myself over and over and over again, so it is the one question my grandfather left with me. And that one question is, is it bigger than you son? So he'll give you a task to do, and the first thing he ask you is, is this bigger than you? Now, if you say it's bigger than you, and he show you how it's done the first time, then the next time, he's giving you a task, and he ask you that question, you're going to think and go, no, no, no, let me try this one. You know, let me think this one through. And that. Was interesting, a very interesting period in my life, because it forces my young mind, at the time to think outside of the box. If we can get our young people to think outside of the box, priceless, right. Priceless, right, right.
Stuart Murray 5:16
Don, let me just You said something here that I think it's important, that maybe kind of joked a little bit about what you said, the Winnipeg is as close as to Jamaica without the weather, and so let's just take the weather out of it. But, but from a from a cultural standpoint, why would you say that Winnipeg is as close to your your experiences when you were in Jamaica like this. Let's talk about what, what did that mean to you? Like, how did you How do you make that statement?
Don Woodstock 5:42
So just outside of Winnipeg, and people were connected to a lot of the farm community in Winnipeg, farming is is not far from us. Okay, I've met a lot of farmers in the city. I've met a lot of farmers just on the outskirts of the city. Half an hour, 45 minutes, every where you go in the city, you can almost meet somebody who knows somebody. Okay, so you are, you are you're one degree away from knowing somebody who knows somebody in your neighbor, Jamaica is like that because it's a small, small community, a small country, you get to meet people unlike BC or Toronto, you thought you never going to know somebody next door to you know somebody right, no, right. Also the multicultural aspect of Winnipeg, which is the first of its kind in Canada. It is, is what Jamaica is, um, Jamaica's martyr is, out of many one people, a lot of folks think, when you think of Jamaica, you see a black man in front of you, because the population is predominantly black. However, however. We have Chinese Jamaican, we have East Indian Jamaican. We have native, native Indian American. They're called Arawak Indians. We have altar, and that's why the motto of Jamaica, out of many one people, when I came here and I saw that multicultural look. And I'm not saying that there's no multicultural look in Toronto or Vancouver, where I've lived, but the cohesiveness of that multicultural look in Winnipeg that I felt when I came here in 1999 and still hold true today. Even more is, is, is very, very uncomfortable with it, having lived in BC and having lived in Toronto, okay,
Stuart Murray 7:51
yeah, yeah, no, that's a great explanation. I just you know part of it. You know, when you go through your book and you understand, you know, what's driven you in terms of grassroots, in terms of leadership, and how you have taken the approach to be unrelenting in what his passion has been, that that it's interesting how you draw those comparisons, because this is a podcast about you don and about what you believe and what you see and how you feel. And, you know, I think we're both proud Winnipeggers and and I you you demonstrate that. So, so let's talk a little bit Dawn about, you know, you come to Canada, you work for ADT, which is the alarm company. How do you transition from that sort of a leadership role to start getting involved in the importance of recycling, not only from your own perspective, but saying, this is a grassroots organization that we've got to find a way to get more people engaged. Because I just think the the numbers Don if I'm not mistaken, before you started your passion on your unrelenting approach, was around 33% of Winnipeggers were were recycling, and now it's, it's in 99% so, so talk a little bit about how you got passionate about about recycling.
Don Woodstock 9:09
So it started. It started by my quest to this. You know, made up my mind. My children are born like, this is home. So this is home. What is it that I need to do, and what can I do? So my grandfather asked that question from time to time, focus, focus on the little things that you can do today, because the little things you do today will will mature into a big tree tomorrow. And so I have that in the back of my mind, and I thought, okay, what can I do to make a difference in something I truly believed in in my heart? Because if you don't believe in something in your heart, then when, when the times get rocky, you will, you will move away from it. You will drop it. You'll drop the agenda, because it's what, it wasn't something you. Passionate about in the heart. So for me, recycling was because growing up in the farm in Jamaica, the business of sustainability is something that I have lived, I've witnessed. I have you, have you, you, you have to be that way because you didn't have running water. You, you had to catch water and wait till the rain fall to get water, so you have to know what you're doing, right, right? Your fields doesn't have irrigation. There's no field in Jamaica when I was growing up that have an irrigation system. But we developed an irrigation system of some sort. The hottest parish in Jamaica, which is Saint Elizabeth grow the most fruits? Okay, as for about fruits and vegetable in sales than anywhere else, and there's a reason, because most people don't know, is that if you cover, use grass or mulch to cover the ground, and you plan to pee in that soil that that will grow, whether or not it has water or not, because the sun creates condensation with the grass underneath, with the biodiversity and create the nutrients for that soil. Most people are not even aware of that.
Stuart Murray 11:22
I one of those Don I had no idea. And I, by the way, I was raised on a farm in Saskatchewan, so I'm learning from you. Thank you so
Don Woodstock 11:30
much. You go so so we had to find ways and means to do things like that. For example, we made sure that our water was was was pristine in the sense that we, we wouldn't, nobody in the community upstream or downstream from us. Would would would would would would have a pig pen close to where, where or water supplies or where the water run off would be. People understood what sustainability is and taking care of things. For example, if, if, if, if there is, if there's a big log tree in your property, and it's dying before it's dead and tumbling and falling to the river, which would create another big problem. The neighbors would have a cook day or a work day, and people would gather, and they'll make this announcement that the church, because that's where people would gather, that's their meeting place for their Facebook or or Instagram or news, right? Is when you go to church, you hear what's the latest, and it says, you know, mass Georgia, brother Joe, have a tree he needs to clear. Who is the as I was dying. So we're gonna go there on Wednesday, and anybody who can come, and we may get a cook day, a family day, and we clear that tree so that when it die, it doesn't block the river flow, because if you block the river flow, that river is going to go into the properties now create another problem for in a flooding, etc. So we understood that, because it was a community that needed to stay alive, right? We understood all of that dynamics. And so part of part of me will never die where that's concerned, that part, you know, and so for me, it's, it's it's coming here and taking care of what I see people are not doing I weren't paying attention to. So I had the pleasure of meeting Doctor David Suzuki, um, because he was in town, and the question was asked before I met him, if you're a Prime Minister, what would you do? And so for me, I simply said, well, water is life. We have a 100,000 lakes here in Manitoba, and so if we, if we weren't to to protect it, before we give equalization payment to any province, we would ask them to put a plan together for the next 3040, years to protect the water. Leanness to know that I made it to the top of the leaderboard, and I have a personal meeting with Doctor David Suzuki. I go, Oh my God, what's this call? You know, what's the top of the world? So then he said to me, which rings true, I felt like he was speaking to my soul. He wasn't just talking to Don Woodstock. He was talking to more than Don Woodstock. He says, Ask him. How do you get people to listen to you? What do you do? And he says, Look at me, son, 30 plus years and doing this, and some people still don't give a damn. You start at the local level and don't stop. And then he held me by the shoulders, and he says, whatever you do. Two, don't stop those words. Those words were more than just words from, yeah, yeah. So I So, so that's where I started, you know? I said, let me create a documentary, your world and mines, you know, I didn't put that in the thing. And I just, I just went out. I just said, you know, I'm just going to start at the local level, she's going to go just as he said, and I march on Right,
Stuart Murray 15:25
right. But you know, Don I want to spend a bit of time on this, because I do think that, you know, one of the elements of change, systemic change, comes through grassroots. And you know, that's something that you're very passionate about. You write about it in the book. You demonstrate it every time that you make a speech or you're with the public. But for some people, they look and say, Well, you know, I'd like to make a difference, but I just don't know how. How do I get started? And I think, you know, it is easy to get knocked off your game, because a lot of times you run into a roadblock or a bump on the road. And some people, as passionate as they are, they look at it and say, maybe this isn't the time. So, so anybody that's listening and saying, Don Woodstock, tell me how encourage me. What? What? What encouraged you? What can I learn? Teach me how I might be able to be passionate about a grassroots project that will change maybe, you know, we sort of say, well, it changed the world, I'm not sure, but, but it'll make it a better world, for sure.
Don Woodstock 16:30
Yes. So when I started out, I didn't start it out to change the world, or to change majority of people around me, or to change change any great, great minds. What I started out doing is saying, If I could just follow with the advice my grandfather can give me, make sure that I'm planting a seed that will bear fruit in the future. I may be here. I may not be here. The biggest thing to everybody who is listening is, don't go to your grave with your dreams, whatever dream you have, whatever you're passionate about, bear in mind one thing, sit in your room. Sit in your corner. Recommit this to yourself every day, not just when it's good, also when it's bad, when nobody would listen to you, when nobody would pay you any mind. Don't do it for for the media attention or the social media hype. We live in a world where we need to get instant gratification. Don't because. And here is a theory that you can take from a farmer, you would not plant a pea or a watermelon seed and expect it to bear fruit in a day or two. So if you don't expect your pumpkin seed to bear fruit, bear and another pumpkin in a day or two, and the and the following day, you get up and you see a big fat pumpkin on that vine that you plant the seed yesterday, you would be very cynical of it and wouldn't want to eat it, right? Because you'd say something is wrong, right? Take that approach to your life and your dream and your vision, right? Whatever it is, don't expect you to be on the front page of the newspaper the next day. Don't expect you to have 5 million followers because, and that's the world we live in, unfortunately, which is fake, right? Don't expect that because real change doesn't come that way. You will have obstacles. You will have downfalls. You will have some days you have to question yourself. Take it from me, that's normal, that's you going through the process of recommitting to yourself that this is something that you really need to do cuz you'll be tested. Okay? The Bible tells you that, yey, though you may walk through the valley of the shadow of death, it doesn't mean that you're going to get all fancy, sweet road paved in front of you to get to your dream. The Bible already tell you this. And if you, if you read it as a historical book or as a philosophy philosophical book or as a Christian book, whatever you'll get the same message, whatever you you either also bear something in mind. This is in my also in my video trailer, what if everything that you're taught as impossible is actually possible possible. And here's why this is important. My grandfather gave me a basket to carry water, and you can do this self test for those of us who are. Are listening short if I gave you a basket and says, catch me some water, would you be able to do it? Stuart, first thought tells you is no However, my grandfather, at a at a tiny age of about seven, six or seven years old, gave me a basket to go down to the river to catch water in it, and I'm going, This is crazy. How is this even possible? And after hours of crying and getting wet and try, how many times to use the basket to pick this water up and the water drain out before I move from my spot, you know, and I'm soaked from head to foot, like I get a bath without knowing I'm getting a bath. You know, here comes my grandfather late at night. And back then, in the country, people are afraid of doppy or ghost or whatever. So you hear this thing and I'm crying, and this man comes and he you know, we have what we call Badu in Jamaica, or people know it here as Tara root. The Tara root plant has is a is a big leafy plant, and you take about two or three of those, cut them, put them in the basket, and scoop up some water and there. And I'm thinking to myself, it was that easy. So, so the next time a challenge comes to you. For those of us who are listening for young people, ask yourself this one question in the back of your mind, is it bigger than you? Right? That's why people see me and they see me run for politics so many time, and they said, Don by now, you'd have given up. I said, No, no, no, no, no, because the one question I keep asking myself, which I will answer one day, and the answer is not, is it bigger than you? And I'm going, No, I gotta figure this out. I have to figure this out. I will figure this
Stuart Murray 21:55
out. And you will Yeah, Don Yeah, I appreciate that's fantastic. I you know, that's a great story, and there's a great message there. Thank you for sharing that, you know, talk a little bit about Don one of the challenges of being what was your biggest challenge, hurdle that you had to get through on the recycling conversation like, you know, every time you turn there's somebody that was saying, you know, this can't be done, or we're not going to do this and all that, I mean, but as you you're unrelenting, as your book says, Yes, but I mean, it's important to get through because, you know, I think sometimes when people see success, they don't understand some of the challenges that took you to get to that level of success. Share, share with me, some of the challenges that you went through that that deep down, convinced you you were doing the right thing.
Don Woodstock 22:44
So I managed to search around hard, and because nobody would do a, you know, take their video camera around their time and go do a documentary with me for free, that's what the first hurdle, right? So I managed to and I said, I'm going to keep going. I keep going. So I bumped into this guy, Martin from Germany, was here, an exchange student, and he says, my my film shoot ends at on Thursday. I'm not due to go back to Germany until Tuesday. He says, I tell you what I'll do. He says, If you be an extra in my my film, I will come out and film these things with you on Friday and Saturday. Edit it on Sunday, Monday, we look at it, and I'm gone. I said, Martin, you have a deal? Which shook his hand. I was in his extra at the Marlboro hotel and so long series. Thought. He says, done. Let's do this. And I said, Wow, I finished the documentary. We edited it, and now we have to be in some disc of it. So Martin got me about three or four discs. I went out and I got some more copies. And now I said, let me go now and take this now to the media houses. In my book, there's a media house on Saint Anne's road, and I would approach them about it. They would take it, tell me thank and Bye, bye. Here I go. I go. The next day, and people were knowing that I was coming to talk about recycling, and you know, the video that I presented to them, instead, what happened is people met me at the glass door, right? We don't want to hear anything from you. We don't want anything from you. Don't come back here again or and next day I said, okay, no problems. So I I would be like the Les Brown, who showed up the next day and says, Well, maybe you change your mind. So I showed up the following week and says, maybe I talked to somebody else. Right? Somebody tell you no, it's not the end of the world. No does not mean everything ends. No. Do. US mean you have to work harder, right? So I didn't take it personal, and never take anything personal in this world, because I am only one out of billions. How can I think that I must take anything personal? My grandfather would say, it says you're you're less than a sand grain in this scope of life, how can you how? How can you think that your views and your opinion is going to be greater than everybody else? All you have to do is to plant your seed. Plant that seed and make and just water it and focus on it and and make it grow. So I would get those obstacles. I go to another obstacle on Saint same time on Osborne, and the guy would invite me in and push me out the back door, and he said, Don ain't, aren't, aren't you? People are black people supposed to focus on other things. I go, you know, it took everything you need to answer him in another way, right? But right. Hey, that's life, right? So you say, okay, not personal, let's keep going, right? But Matt Cundill, so after spending nearly two years of of bugging everybody, um, sending emails and and, you know, I would send Matt Conlan email once a week. Matt says, You know what? Sick and tired of putting you in a junk, junk, junk, junk, I see so many junk from you. So I'm going to give you five minutes and you're going to stop calling me, and you're going to stop emailing me. I said, Matt, I'm in. Took it. Took his five minutes, not until Matt gave me those five minutes before, before Matt recognized that it was more than me just trying to bug him or me just trying to be an obstacle in his way. Matt, catch it right away. He caught it. He go, Don, this is brilliant. I have to do we have to do this right? And because he was the director of the station at the time, it was easy for him to make that decision. But other people could have done the same, because I know them all. I know the ACE burpees. I know the all of them. I know them all they they know me. They have seen me all over the place. But to them, it wasn't as an important issue because nobody cared about it. And I said to Matt, that's why we have to do it, because nobody cared about it. Ahmad says, you know, you're right. And the language started to change when I said, let's change the name from garbage day to recycle day. Let's change that. That's all part of that documentary that I handed off to people. I go to the Alan SIG, Alan C from, from, from, from Shaw, cable. Alan saw the documentary, and Alan says, Don, with your permission, I'm going to take this to my executive in Calgary and say if we would use this? And I said, Man, use it as much as you can. That documentary became the starting point for sure, cables, community involvement. Did I plan that? No. Am I happy they did? Yes, but that's what planting a seed and making sure that you focus on your seed. Even if you're in the driest parts of Winnipeg or Canada, you can still grow vegetable in the sun is as hot as it can be. You just need to think outside of the box, yeah. And so that's where that is, yeah.
Stuart Murray 28:42
And, you know, I just just a kind of a note on Matt Cundill, who is, is a friend of both of ours. Matt, Matt has really got a real sense of community. I think he's one of these people who understands when somebody has a passion about something, and he has the ability to enhance that passion, he steps up so you know, delighted that you shared that story with Matt, because he's also been very, very good friend of mine and very supportive of this podcast through his now company. Sound off podcast, Don you know when I this is a human rights podcast, talk a little bit about what did you see from your perspective, the issue of recycling and and it's not just about putting stuff into a blue box, but it's the issue around pollution and the issue of of taking care of of our water and our nature of who we are as a as a world and a community. Put your human rights lens on and talk about why you think it's so important that we embrace that
Don Woodstock 29:46
no, just imagine a world whereas we have drinking water, which we get here, from Winnipeg, from Sholay, First Nation, um. Just imagine a world where that becomes contaminated. Imagine a world. We have sewage leaking into the waterway worse than we have it currently in Winnipeg. And imagine everybody upstream was to have have all their pig farming next door to next door to our waterway, no matter how much we clean that water here in the city, you will never you'll never get rid of the pesticide. You'll never get rid of some of the contaminants that's in the water. So imagine that kind of world, and imagine that world that's the water we have to drink. Now fast forward and imagine a world whereas it doesn't matter whether it's a Red River or it doesn't matter what kind of river. Imagine if we had to go down to the we could go down to the Red River and fish and eat, or we go down there and we choose to have a drink of water, and we can just scoop up the water and drink. I've seen that world. I've seen that world in Jamaica. I know that world exist because in Jamaica, small, little country would not have not a third of the resources that Canada or Winnipeg have. We have that world. Whereas you could go down to a stream, believe it or not, and you don't have to think twice about drinking the water that world exists in Jamaica, where I'm from. So I come here and I said, with all of the water we have, how do you get people to understand the value and importance of it as it relates to human rights, because we have the right to clean air and clean water. So if we have a right to clean water, let's try and protect it. And that's why Doctor David Suzuki, when I said protecting our waterway will be the first thing if I was Prime Minister, what I would do if you don't show me a plan to protect the waterway, I'm not giving you no equalization payment, or I'm going to use the equalization payment to protect the waterway. If the federal government is listening right now, we have a sewage treatment problem here in the city, and the problem we have is that we're being gouged, gouged by the developers. In my view, this is my opinion, not pointing blame on anybody. It taking too long to build, which then cause cost overrun, way too much money, something that started at 888, 100 million is 1.8 billion, or whatever the cost is and growing, we should have finished that already long ago, and so that we can start to maintain it. The fact that it's taking so long is worrisome, because all we're doing we're spending more and more and more and more money. The federal government should cut off all equalization payment direct that money to finish the sewer treatment plant so we don't flush our sewage into the treatment that's what that's a human right to make sure that our waterway is clear on the subject of garbage itself on our street. Healthy Minds create healthy environment. Healthy Environment create healthy minds. How can we talk about a city or a country without first looking at how we consider or how we treat our trash, cuz trash is not trash, because in some countries, Japan is a perfect example. If you look at Australia, look at Japan and some of these countries, they know how to handle these things, and they they have done a far better job of us. They are thinking the right way. We are not thinking the right way because it's easy for us, too easy to just pass it. And so as a result of that, we don't think, is there anything we could reuse this for? That's why the reuse of the bag became such a big thing for me when I started and trying to look at and thanks to sobiz, when I approach everybody to to join me. If it wasn't for Deborah green of a polar park at the time, who's was prepared to step out of the main frame, think outside the box with me, we wouldn't have all the major malls and grocery store using reusable bags today, because why is that important? Plastic into the into our waterway, petroleum into a waterway. It doesn't go away. It's not something that is going to disappear in a year or two. Plastics, sometime can take up to 50 years before it decompose or disintegrate back into its natural form. And then where does it go? Into the natural form, back into our waterway. Fishes are fishes are consuming this so we eat in. We're literally eating plastic, and we don't even know, because microplastic is being digested by the fish, and we're eating the fish, and we think it's okay, we have a good meal. It's in our stomach. And all kind of side effects, health condition, which comes back to, wait a minute, this trash thing is actually a human right thing, because we, we we have a right our government, the people around us, me and you Stu we have a right to see what we can do to make sure, if nothing else, that we protect what we have here to offer that human rights to every single individual for clean water, clean air, clean fish, healthy fish, you know, making sure that that's there. Because if it's not there, what's the flip side to that our waterway isn't clean, we start getting too much contaminants in it. The City of Winnipeg Leach, leaching, leaching sewage into the waterway because they don't have, I mean, the proper, you know, storage facility. All of this thing is a cycle, and I love the indigenous community model of Mother Earth. The only thing I would ask them to do, the only thing I would ask them to do, take the lead. Take the lead. And this is why the book is written. Take this lead, and you with the cycle of life as it is with Mother Earth that speaks to your language, you understand to to the to my indigenous brothers and sisters, you know this culture more than I do. You, you you can appreciate what I'm saying even more than I can. Don't let me come here from Jamaica and try and tell you how to clean up your backyard. No, no, you shouldn't be telling me. You should be showing me. But instead, we, we are busy focusing on other things, and we leave the basic essentials alone. And that's why I thought, You know what? Maybe, maybe this is what I was here for, just to wait the consciousness of the people to go, Wait a minute. We, we're not looking at this, right? And thanks to Matt, and thanks to to a few other media houses that came out and support me. Shaw Alan seed, Deborah green, Campolo Park, I mean, if these people didn't step out, you know, so biz for stepping out with me and coming with reusable back, if these people didn't see it, and step out with me, I wouldn't be standing in today.
Stuart Murray 37:46
Yeah, with your book in hand, with the book in hand, Don listen. One of the things I wondered, you know, it's, you know, you talk about being unrelenting in terms of your passion. I mean, not everybody understands what it takes to get a book written and published. How is that?
Don Woodstock 38:06
Well, this was, again, this book is two years in the making. Okay, you know you're, you're right. You rewrite, you, you, you come up with something, you add it. No, that doesn't go there. It's, oh, my God, my poor wife. Thanks to thanks to my poor wife. If it wasn't for her, this thing will happen, because you need to find somebody in your life. And I know it's a difficult thing to do because and, and I tell you why. I say to everybody, it's difficult. Les Brown are, what's his name, Williams, that has the TV show. He these people's parents may or may not have supported them, okay? And then even sometimes your own family member, friend, lover, sweetheart, partner, mother, father will tell you that what you're doing isn't right. What you're doing is it's it won't get in you anywhere. That doesn't mean you're to stop. That doesn't mean they're they are right. They could be acting upon their own insecurities and fears. So you have to be so focused and committed that when you do find that one partner in the form of my dear wife, who understood that I am going to keep going and her role is just to support me as much as she can. So when the times are great, she's there smiling. In some of the pictures with my reusable bad day, my wife is there with me. In some of the pictures that I go out to these events, you'll see her with me. But the days when it get. Real rough, and believe me, it will you are going to question your very your very existence. Okay, when those days get real rough, you need to have somebody in your corner that is going to believe in you. It doesn't mean it have to be your wife, your your lover, your sweetheart, your partner. When you find that individual, hold on to that individual and encourage that individual with you, because those are the people that you're going to need and to lean on, apart from your God, whatever you deem God to be, you're not trying to tell you what you should see as God, but whatever it is that you see God is, you need to hold on to that, because the days are going to get rough, and the days will get rough before it get to this book that says, hey, this is, oh, I'm finally there many, many nights of going back and forth. You are going to have days when you you you question whether or not should I write the book. Who would care about the book. I remember one guy who is elected still is he looked at me, squaring the eye and spit on the ground and says, Do you honestly think anybody would take people like you serious? This book tells him, yes, they will, for sure, yeah, for sure. Can I look and see all the major malls across Canada? Never mind, Winnipeg, Manitoba, all across Canada, reusing, reusable bag. I'm saying to that guy, yes, they will, yeah, okay,
Stuart Murray 41:35
for you, good for you. And by the way, Don you mentioned your wife? Her name is Kathy, yes, yeah, I've met her, yeah, yeah. She's a great, a great partner for you. You're very fortunate. Don, a couple of couple of Yeah, yeah, for sure. No, as you, as you, as you are. Don, a couple of things before we before we put a bow on this conversation. You were very, I think, wise and to use Caribbean and African music in the audio book. Yeah, you listen to it right now. What? Tell me. Tell me about what, what was it? What was what? I mean, I love it, but, but what got you thinking? I gotta put this into the audio book.
Don Woodstock 42:19
So, you know, again, I don't I don't want to be the same old, same old. I I look different and I'm okay with it. I speak different and I'm very okay with it. My hair is different and I'm okay with it. My eyes are different. That's okay. I embrace my difference, and I enjoy my difference. So when I started my company, jam rock security, it's different. It's not just another security company. No no, no, and as a result of that, we're top of the leaderboard. When I started to write this book, I said, I gotta do something about this. That's going to be different, and what is it going to be different, more than sticking to what I core believe, if you finish your audio book, and you just finish it, just because I said, What about music I've never heard or seen, and I did some research on it, I've never heard or seen music in the book that inspired that Is that is inspired by the book. At the end of the book, and I go, I've hear music in it. I've heard, I've heard, I've heard audio books that have music throughout you, play a little bit of music and the interlude or whatever. But to have have music dedicated to the vibes, the energy, the emotion that speaks to this. I said, I'm going to set out to try and make that happen. And when I did, it was like magic. And like, Whoa, this is something else, right, right, right. So for those of us who haven't seen it, check out the audio book. And amazing. You love it,
Stuart Murray 43:59
yeah, no, no, Don, for sure, was fantastic. You know, Don Woodstock, I had the pleasure to interview you when you, when you what was, it wasn't me. Was Trixie may be bitten. One person that was very helpful in helping me with this podcast, when you're running for mayor, and you have some thoughts about that, will you run for mayor again?
Don Woodstock 44:21
Absolutely, yeah, um, the only time I am stopped running for mayor is when I have been elected mayor. Right? Okay, alright, I am going to you'll see my name again and again and again and again, right? Or or the establishment can do the right thing. Get out of the way. Start working for the people. Make make this city a hub for business. 33% The population live off welfare. Another 30% gets a government job or government check somewhere. I want to make the flip side of that. We are in the middle of Canada, the center Canada. The first electric bus that was built in this city was because of my efforts, which is in the book, we are right. Here is new flyers industry, right? New fly industry is the world leader for electrification of busses, yeah. And yet, still, I was driving and the bus drivers, because I worked for city at the time, they're driving a diesel bus, and I'm going, this is crazy right here in our backyard. Manitoba Hydro produces the world's finest, cleanest electricity and the cheapest right here. So we have hydro, we have new fly industry, our working population per capita income is very low compared to other cities. Right of a wage, wage gap here, right and then, because we have land cost, the second lowest in Canada, why then don't we have large industries coming here to employ the people that's sitting on welfare. For example, I used to volunteer for Reese reaching equality employment services. They found work for people with disability. And I'm not talking people with disability that have a pinky or more my shoulders hurting me at the time, when I was on the border, Reese volunteering, we had a 98% success rate. 98% of the people who came in for work found work. So if you're listening and you know somebody sitting on welfare, the politicians are to be blamed for that they didn't find enough work for you to make sure that you can go to work. So there's something that you feel comfortable to say you're getting a welfare check.
Stuart Murray 47:10
Okay? Don, so, so listen, you know, we'll use another podcast for you to use your launch, your mayoralty campaign, but, but you're passionate, and I love that, and I asked the question, and you answered it. Don my final question to you. And again, I want to thank you so much for finding time to do this. Humans on right podcast with me. You're a great guest. You've done you've done great things. You're going to continue to do great things, clearly. But if, if there was one takeaway that you wanted somebody who's listening to this to take away from your book, unrelenting. If there was one takeaway, what would that be?
Don Woodstock 47:48
Don't give up on your dream. Don't matter how difficult or who tells you it cannot be done. Just imagine this. Imagine what if everything that you're taught as impossible is actually possible. I challenge you, I dare you. Tell me something that is impossible. Go ahead. Go ahead and tell me, email me, send me something that's impossible, and I guarantee you it is possible, not because we don't see it here, that's the problem. Look outside the box. Close off your imagination from everything you have seen and have learned up till now. Step outside of that for one minute and ask the question, what if, everything that they tell you, the authorities tell me that this wouldn't done because nobody would get rid of those big, ugly bins in the back lane. And it's in my documentary that I said, No, no, we gotta get rid of these. And they said, No, we'll never get rid of them, because easy today. You have to search hard to find a big, ugly bin in the back lane, right? My point is, don't believe everything that you're taught as impossible. Think of it as Whoa. I was not taught that it is possible. And if you have that in your mind, you will succeed at anything you're doing, providing you are not looking for instant gratification. Because there's no such thing. There's no such thing, right? A baby doesn't born, and in the first week it becomes an adult. It's not possible, right? So why do you expect that whatever you do, you're going to instantly get gratification and you become a grown male? If that was possible, we've we'll be in trouble.
Stuart Murray 49:51
We'll be in trouble. Yeah, a lot of trouble. Yeah. Don Don Woodstock, author of unrelenting grassroot activist community. Uh, you are a community leader. Uh, you've done some great things in in in Winnipeg and in your life. And I'm just delighted to have had an opportunity to put you on our humans, on right podcast, to share it so don continued success. And thank you so much for finding time for this podcast.
Don Woodstock 50:18
Thank you very much for the opportunity, and thanks for inviting me. And I gotta give a big shout out to Matt. Thanks Matt for connecting
Stuart Murray 50:25
us. Yeah, no, no, for sure, yeah. MATT Cundill, yeah, he, he's a wonderful, also strong, strong believer in in connection, community and and, and podcast. So thanks to Matt cundall, thanks Don, thanks
Unknown Speaker 50:37
again. Stuart for having me. It was a pleasure. Okay, you take
Matt Cundill 50:39
care. Thanks for listening to humans on rights. A transcript of this episode is available by clicking the link in the show notes of this episode. Humans on rights is recorded and hosted by Stuart Murray, social media marketing by Buffy Davey, music by Doug Edmond. For more, go to humanrightshub.ca. Produced and distributed by the sound off media company the.