2008 AGM Workshops

1. Peak Oil, Climate Change and Energy Integration: Why we need a Canadian energy strategy now!

Faced with diminishing global energy supplies and climate change, now more than ever we need our governments to prioritize public interest when it comes to our energy resources. Join Greenpeace tar sands campaigner Mike Hudema (morning only), Sierra Club tar sands campaigner, Jay Custer (afternoon only), Council of Canadians Energy Campaigner Andrea Harden-Donahue, and Council Board member Gordon Laxer for an in-depth discussion about our demand for a Canadian energy strategy. We will discuss peak oil and climate change, the Free Trade Agreement, NAFTA and the Security and Prosperity Partnership, the tar sands and explore the impacts of energy integration with the U.S. Finally, we’ll look at what should compose a strong energy strategy and talk about less harmful energy alternatives. Be empowered to help build a better, safer energy future for us all.  

2. This is Not a Pleasure Ride: Touring the tar sands occupation of Alberta’s Industrial Heartland

Join veteran oil industry worker Sean Currie, environmental scientist Dr. David Henry and the Council’s Prairies Regional Organizer Sheila Muxlow on a tour of Alberta tar sands industries. The tour takes you through Edmonton’s refinery row with a look at the diverse industries that enable the processing of bitumen into synthetic crude while addressing environmental, social, political and economic concerns within the context of the market-driven oil industry. See firsthand the big players in petroleum including Petro Canada, Imperial Oil, Dow Chemicals and more. Gain insight into the complexity of Alberta’s oil economy while discussing the possibility of a just transition away from fossil fuels.

3. Mastering Media Skills: The movement is the message

Want to hone your skills framing issues and getting your message out through well-crafted media releases, articles, YouTube videos and television interviews? Join Rabble’s Wayne MacPhail and Derrick O’Keefe, Council of Canadians Media Officer Dylan Penner, and Council Board member Garry Neil for a hands-on media skills workshop. Learn skills and get resources for engaging the media and learn more about how we can become our own media. The essence of a winning campaign is how effectively we communicate our message. From reaching out to mainstream and independent media, to taking our camera or pen in hand and through citizen journalism creating our own media, we can collectively ensure the movement is the message.

4. Bottlestar Galactica: Be a bottled water warrior!

Join national water campaigner Meera Karunananthan and find out how you can be a part of the growing movement of water warriors fighting for bottled water bans in municipalities, at school boards and in other jurisdictions across Canada. Hear from Council of Canadians Vice Chair Leo Broderick who has successfully secured a ban in his community. Find out about the international consequences of bottled water consumption from Blue Planet Project organizer Anil Naidoo. Join us and learn more about how you can become a bottled water warrior!

5. Shadowboxing TILMA: Perspectives and strategies for fighting the myth of inter-provincial trade barriers

Even though polls have shown the majority of Canadians want to renegotiate NAFTA to better protect environment and labour standards, corporate and conservative groups are convincing Canadians to embrace NAFTA-like inter-provincial trade agreements based on the myth that it is difficult for provinces to trade with each other. Join Regional Organizer Stuart Trew, Council Board members Steven Shrybman and Morna Ballantyne, and Director of Organizing Carleen Pickard to discuss the current trade landscape in Canada. We’ll look at new inter-provincial agreements, such as the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) between Alberta and B.C., the Ontario-Quebec Economic Partnership Agreement, the recently announced trade negotiations between Saskatchewan and Alberta, Atlantica, and amendments to the national Agreement on Internal Trade. Find out how these agreements relate to the Security and Prosperity Partnership and NAFTA, and how we can work with allies to debunk the TILMA myth to roll back neo-liberal reform in Canada and reclaim our democracy.

6. Water and the Commons

As the water crisis explodes, innovative community-based solutions are emerging. Join the Council's Blue Planet Project organizer Anil Naidoo, National Water Campaigner Meera Karunananthan, and Board member Garry John to learn more about how to protect and preserve the water commons. From indigenous communities in Bolivia to constitutional courts in South Africa, the fight for the commons is emerging as the fundamental issue of the future. Great hope lies in the power of collective management and control, just as great dangers exist if everything is subject to privatization and commodification. Join us for a workshop highlighting inspirational stories from around the world, as well as some closer to home.

7. Not Public, Not Green, Not Safe: Private hydro power, the tar sands and uranium mines

Across the country private developers are getting their hands on our natural resources and generating energy for profit. Private power projects are wreaking havoc on B.C.’s wilderness and waterways with dams, transmission lines and access roads for so-called “micro” hydro power generation. The Alberta tar sands are one of the world’s largest environmental disasters and plans are afoot under the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) to expand them five-fold. And despite a wealth of information exposing the dangers of uranium mining, companies continue to pressure provinces to loosen regulations and abandon moratoriums, placing citizens’ concerns on the backburner. But there is hope. Join the Council’s Director of Organizing Carleen Pickard and Atlantic regional organizer Angela Giles, Board members Pina Belperio and Claire McNeil, and Greenpeace tar sands campaigner Mike Hudema to learn more about these energy projects and how campaigns are being organized to raise awareness nationally and internationally. We will explore ways to protect access to energy resources for the benefit of all Canadians.

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