20 years in action 1996-2000

Canadian Perspectives Autumn 2005

20 years in action
1996-2000

1996

The Council holds a demonstration outside of the finance ministers’ meeting in Ottawa to protest planned cuts to the Canada Pension Plan (CPP). Council members present Finance Minister Paul Martin and his provincial counterparts with 100,000 petitions against the cuts. The government of British Columbia agrees and blocks Martin’s plans to cut the CPP.

"Too many of our politicians seem to have forgotten the line in our national anthem 'O, Canada, we stand on guard for thee.' This is why we need the Council of Canadians. Our restless and dynamic neighbour to the south has always had a bullying streak. This seems to be increasing in recent years. Our country has a small population but so have Switzerland, Denmark, Holland and Iceland. They stand up for their identity on the world stage. We Canadians would be much better off if we could give our politicians some backbone. The Council of Canadians is an important factor in the fight for our identity - the fight for our lives."
- Robert Bateman

"Public Citizen, the group I'm from, is probably the closest kind of organization to the Council in the U.S. We would like to have the right to, in violation of all existing patent laws, copy a lot of the things you do better than we do. I often say that the only good thing that came out of NAFTA was getting to work with and learn from my Canadian friends, including Maude Barlow."
- Lori Wallach

"The Council of Canadians is as precious as the public goods for which it fights: health, education, water, democracy itself. These and other essential elements of the commons must remain under democratic public control, and not be relinquished to the destructive and inequitable whims of the market. As activists and journalists, we rely on the Council to embrace this fight: but we must never take it for granted. Like the public sphere itself, the Council needs and deserves our enduring support."
- Avi Lewis and Naomi Klein

"With Ottawa increasingly capitulating to foreign interests, we need the Council of Canadians now more than ever. It's invigorating to know there's a genuine citizen's movement out there struggling to keep Canada from being swept up in the Bush juggernaut."
- Linda McQuaig

1997

The Council loses the first round of its fight to stop Conrad Black’s take-over of the Southam newspaper chain. The Court states that the Council isn’t entitled to appeal the government’s approval of the deal because the Council isn’t “commercially affected.”

Along with the International Forum on Globalization and the Polaris Institute, the Council hosts a global teach-in on economic globalization and corporate rule, featuring prominent activists from around the world, including Owens Wiwa, Elizabeth May, Susan George and John Cavanagh.

1998

A new global investment treaty of unprecedented power sets off a firestorm of protest, much of it led by the Council. When negotiations for the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) break down, the Council launches a coast-to-coast inquiry into what values and policies Canadians want their government to put forward in international negotiations.

With four of Canada’s biggest banks set to merge, and with the loss of thousands of jobs and the closure of hundreds of local branches at stake, the Council launches a well-publicized cross-country campaign to convince Finance Minister Paul Martin to reject their plans. By December, Martin rules against the mergers.

1999

The Council, along with its partners in the Common Front on the WTO, launches a national education and action campaign to confront the World Trade Organization’s “Millennium Round” negotiations. The outbreak of democracy on the streets during the “Battle in Seattle” leads to the complete collapse of the WTO talks.

2000

The Council challenges attempts by the world’s biggest water corporations to privatize the planet’s fresh water. In the process, a new international network of activists is formed – people committed to promoting universal recognition of water as a fundamental human right and to halting efforts by corporations to control and commodify it.

SECTIONS