WATERLOO -- While kicking around some ideas at a workshop in Waterloo yesterday, Barret Miller had an odd suggestion.
“I wouldn’t mind being sick from pesticides,” he said earnestly.
For a few long seconds, the half-dozen people around Miller stood speechless — then burst into laughter.
As wacky as it sounded, his idea would work well in the street-theatre skit the troupe was planning.
Meanwhile in a nearby room, other workshoppers quietly discussed the story of creation in the Bible’s Book of Genesis.
Both groups were composed of some of the 400 people taking part in a slate of social-justice and anti-poverty programs being held this week at the University of Waterloo.
It’s a social-justice conference with spiritual roots.
The four-day gathering, which runs until Saturday, is organized by the Toronto-based group KAIROS.
A coalition funded by eight national church denominations, KAIROS urges  politicians to adopt anti-poverty strategies and promotes social justice in Canada and around the world.
Hence, Miller’s strange suggestion.
The troupe’s short skit starts with a woman bragging about the fantastic deal she got on a pair of blue jeans — just $7.99.
To illustrate why the garment was so cheap, one-by-one members of the ensemble got down on all fours.
As he got down, Miller said he couldn’t drink the water in his town because it had been polluted with pesticides sprayed to grow the cotton for the pants. A second workshopper got down, saying he earned just $2 a day picking cotton for those jeans. A third said she earned minimum wage selling them at non-unionized Wal-Mart store.
As the skit unfolded they formed a human pyramid with one person — the Canadian consumer — on top.
The activists’ message: consumer goods are cheap because they’re made on the backs of others.
Miller, a Lutheran, said he will take the idea back to Winnipeg where he teaches environmental awareness.
“We’re probably going to be doing this (skit) at work,” he said.
Many of the conference workshops focus on strategies to reduce poverty across Canada and around the world.
The list of speakers includes anti-poverty activists as well as the people they’re trying to help.
KAIROS is having its own money problems, said Mary Corkery, the coalition’s executive director.
As attendance drops in many churches that support KAIROS, their contributions to the coalition have also dropped, Corkery said.
The group has cut staff and small grants for programs that directly help poor individuals. Instead, KAIROS will focus on urging politicians to fight poverty in the long term, Corkery said.
“Our priority is to go to the root of the problem,” she said.
mpetricevic@therecord.com
The KAIROS Gathering includes several workshops that are open to the public.
Today from 2:30 to 5 p.m., The Face of Climate Justice featuring Sheila Watt-Cloutier, Inuit environmental activist and Nobel Prize nominee.
Friday from 2:30 to 5 p.m., Extraction and Empire panel discussion.
Saturday from 2 to 4:15 p.m. Word and the World.
Each event takes place in the Theatre of the Arts, located in the Modern Languages building at the University of Waterloo.
Suggested donation is $10.
The KAIROS website can be found at www.kairoscanada.org