Welcome to the Wal-Town Project. We are a collective of many individuals working in areas from Business Consulting to Graphic Design to Human Rights Advocacy. The Wal-Town Project was born out of an idea to travel across Canada in the summer of 2004 and visit small towns impacted by Wal-Mart stores.

The Wal-Town Tour 04, as we called it, was a huge success that generated attention from Wal-Mart workers and managers, customers and media across the country. Nine of us - six activists, two filmmakers, and one freelance journalist, visited over 25 towns with Wal-Marts (and a few who have fought off the big box giant so far) in just over one month.

From all our research and networking from the tour, we have started the Wal-Town Project, with wal-town.com as it's base. Components of this Project inlcude the Tour, The Wal-Mart Information Network (WIN), a book, and a film. To learn more aobut any of these, click on the options in the menu at the left.

The Wal-Town Tour Organizers - 2005 and 2006

ezra winton is one of the co-founders of überculture collective, and is currently pursuing his Masters in Media Studies at Concordia University. His research and actions involving Human Rights has consistently led him to corporations, and the lack of accountability he sees these entities as having. He has had his eye on Wal-Mart since the company invaded his home town in B.C more than five years ago, after donating more than 100,000 dollars to City Council (which, incidentally is governed over by a mayor who owns a development company).

Tim McSorley is finishing off a degree in Journalism and Political Science at Concordia University. He is currently an executive of the Canadian Federation of Students - Quebec. His work with the organization has in large part involved looking at how students are affected by larger societal problems, including mass consumerism, and the corporate takeover of Canadian universities.
A strong believer in the strength of student movements, he believes the idealism of youth can lead to concrete change.

Samara Chadwick sits on überculture's Board of Directors. She is increasingly fascinated with the corporate chessboard of our present world and the way in which certain key pieces have swollen into quite despicable dimensions.

Right now, she is most intrigued by the blue and box-shaped of these phenomena - and she thinks you should be too.

Rob Maguire is a co-founder of überculture collective and is currently finishing a Masters in International Development Studies from Dalhousie University. His main interest is the privatization of the commons, including natural resources. His thesis deals with these issues, and the Wal-Town Project continues in this area with the privatization and commercialization of culture.

Rob can be spotted in front of various Wal-Marts dressed as the Beast from Bentonville or screaming into a megaphone "attention shoppers, Wal-Mart is bad for your community!"

Tom Price is president of the School of Community and Public Affairs Student Association at Concordia University and an Executive with überculture collective. Tom is studying History and Political Science and is interested in the role organized labour has to play in the relationships between Human Rights and business.

Jason Gondziola is a Montreal-based freelance journalist who has written for a number of publications, including the Montreal Mirror, NewCanadian magazine, Canadian Dimension and the National Review of Medicine. He has travelled with both Wal-Town Tours to document the campaign for a variety of media, including audio, print, and photo-essay. He has spent nearly two years conducting extensive research on Wal-Mart.

On the 2005 Tour, Jason crossed over to the dark side from journalist to activist, dovetailing his own blend of creative resistance and research with the tour's many jams.

Retired Members

Johanne Savoy is interested in issues of discrimination and social inequality. She has been studying Anthropology at Concordia University for three years, where her initial interests were soon given the opportunity to expand and further include the greater realm of Human Rights with Amnesty International Concordia, as an Executive for the last two years.

Danielle Dalzell is an activist/advocate and has recently completed her honours degree in Political Science at Concordia University. Her work has been centered in the human and environmental costs of market forces, which has led her to the focus of the principle institution recklessly driving the economy- the corporation.