SECTIONS

Our History

In June 1985, a group of prominent Canadians met in Ottawa to share their concerns over the policy directions of the newly elected government of Brian Mulroney. The dismantling of the Foreign Investment Review Agency, the erosion of cultural sovereignty, and the prospect of free trade with the United States led them to create a broad-based citizens' organization to protect and promote Canadian sovereignty and democracy.

The Council of Canadians was born later that summer and we quickly made our presence known. When the American icebreaker Polar Sea sailed without permission through Canadian waters, Council members dropped a Canadian flag onto its deck. We soon established ourselves as a voice for economic sovereignty, organizing protests over the sale of Canadian enterprises to offshore interests – de Havilland to Boeing, Prentice Hall to Gulf+Western, and West Kootenay Light and Power to Utilicorp of Kansas.

Two years later, the Council was instrumental in building opposition to free trade. Taking advantage of the "Shamrock Summit" – Brian Mulroney's meeting with Ronald Reagan in 1987 – the Council convened the "Maple Leaf Summit." Representatives of labour, environmental, aboriginal, and women's groups joined with farmers, seniors, students, teachers, church leaders, and poor people to draft a joint anti-free trade declaration that they posted to the door of the Parliament buildings. The summit also gave birth to the Pro-Canada Network (later re-named the Action Canada Network), a national coalition of labour and social groups opposing the corporate free trade agenda.

During the heated 1988 election campaign, the Council joined the Pro-Canada Network to intensify the fight against the Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Although the Conservatives were re-elected with the help of a powerful and well-financed business lobby, the Council and our allies convinced the majority of Canadians that free trade was a bad deal for our economy, culture, social programs and the environment. The FTA fight was quickly followed by a series of Council campaigns against the deregulation of the energy industry, cutbacks to the CBC and social programs, and the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA).

Throughout these battles, the Council pressured governments – both Conservative and Liberal – to live up to their responsibility to protect the rights of citizens. In 1998, the Council helped defeat the Multilateral Agreement on Investment, and has been at the forefront of citizen opposition to similar trade and investment deals at the World Trade Organization and elsewhere.

As a government and corporate watchdog, the Council offers a critical voice on key national issues. We have run highly influential citizen campaigns against cutbacks and changes to Canada's system of public pensions, the proposed mergers of four of the country's biggest banks, and the introduction of Bovine Growth Hormone into the nation's milk supply. We have also worked with groups and individuals across the country to fight the alarming concentration of media ownership in Canada. More recently, the Council has launched campaigns to prevent the bulk export of Canada's fresh water and to protect Canada's public health care system from privatization.

Since 2004, the Council has focused on fighting deeper economic integration with the United States. This includes building popular opposition to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, an agreement reached by Canada, the U.S. and Mexico in 2005, that is paving the way for Canada to integrate our security measures with those of the United States, surrender control of our energy supplies, sell off our water, and harmonize our drug testing policies with lower U.S. standards.

Through our research, educational work and campaigns, the Council is committed to building a stronger civil society and a better world.

20 Years of action at the Council of Canadians