The Council of Canadians

Now, the source didn't specifically mention privatization.

Now, advocacy groups like the Council of Canadians hosted a parallel many versus the money counter summit while the investment summit was going on.

And they warned that inviting massive American asset managers like BlackRock and Blackstone into Canada's public infrastructure assets will lead to a hyper-commercialized corporate cash grab, higher traveler's fees, and the erosion of domestic policy independence.

Now, Franco Terrazano, who is the federal director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, asked when the prime minister planned to make good on his promise to save Canadians money.

That's all you have to remember about this conversation now.

Martin, we talked last week with Nick Barishaw of the Council of Canadians about this possibility that Carney, as part of this summit, was going to announce the privatization of airports in some fashion or another.

He has done that.

He announced that for four major airports in Canada, Vancouver, Calgary, Montreal, and Toronto, he is looking to privatize the operations of those airports.

It was a really impressive undertaking, pulled together just in a, in a matter of a few months.

Basically, as soon as Carney had announced the date and location of this, of this summit.

A broad coalition of organizations from, you know, movements for Indigenous rights, climate, labor, groups like the Council of Canadians, Eighth Fire, World Beyond War, Courage, QP, Common Horizon, and many others pu- pulled together this, uh, summit under the name of The Many vs.

The Money.

You remember the debates around free trade in 1988.

Maude Barlow, Council of Canadians, they're going to buy our water.

They're going to buy all our companies.

We'll just be a subsidiary basically of the U.S., So that's what we wrestle with.

Maude Barlow is a Canadian activist, author, and public advocate whose work has helped shape environmental and social justice movements around the world.

She chairs the Board of Food and Water Watch and the Blue Planet Project, and co-founded the Council of Canadians, serving as its national chairperson for more than three decades.

She's also on the board of advisors of the Global Alliance for the Rights of Nature.

In 2008 to 2009, she served as senior advisor on water to the president of the United Nations General Assembly, and was a leader in the successful campaign to have water recognized as a human right by the United Nations.

I'll give you an example.

In, uh, in, um, 20- Uh, 2007 or eight, the H- Harper government decided to privatize the, all the water, uh, municipal water systems around the country.

And in 2009, the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Union of Public Employees held a great big conference.

I was there.

The summit's critics call the event a haven for the wealthy to buy up and profit from Canadian assets.

Nicholas Barry Shaw is with the Council of Canadians and organizing a counter-summit.

Carney is convening these, uh, these huge financial operators here in Toronto to sell off chunks of our public infrastructure.

After the event, Carney heads overseas to address the European Parliament.

The summit's critics call the event a haven for the wealthy to buy up and profit from Canadian assets.

Nicholas Barry Shaw is with the Council of Canadians and organizing a counter-summit.

Carney is convening these, uh, these huge financial operators here in Toronto to sell off chunks of our public infrastructure.

After the event, Carney heads overseas to address the European Parliament.

In fact, quite the opposite.

Nick Barry-Shaw is a campaigner with the Council of Canadians, one of the groups hosting a counter-summit to Carney's summit in the days before.

Nick is also the co-author of the book, Paved with Good Intentions, Canada's Development NGOs from Idealism to Imperialism.

Welcome to the show, Nick.

a lot

of public goods.

Given your work with the Council of Canadians, Nick, what do you understand about Canadians and our feelings about privatization?

I think people are generally very concerned when they hear that the airports or the water system of their municipality might be put up for offer, put up on the auction block to foreign investors or even Canadian pension funds.

Yeah, hi.

And Nick Barry Shaw with the Council of Canadians also joining us.

So thanks a lot for joining, guys.

It's a collaboration with Sony Puro Populo where we were just wanting to bring in some of the journalism spaces that are connected with unrigged.ca, some of the podcast hosts that are connected with harbingermedianetwork.com, some of the advocacy groups that are also connected.

So I'm really happy just that we can have a talk about it on CKT and talk about the work you do.

I'm also a subscriber to the Monitor, full disclosure.

Nick, I'm also a dollar a year member of the Council of Canadians.

That's right, a dollar a year and become a member.

At 6pm on September 14th, as the CEO Summit gets underway, demonstrators will gather at Nathan Phillips Square for the Confront Carnies CEO Summit Rally.

The Council of Canadians, Eighth Fire Rising, World Beyond War, the Revolutionary Communist Party, Lead Now, and Capitalism Can't Be Fixed are among a growing number of organizations mobilizing.

In addition to the rally, the Many vs. the Money Counter Summit will be taking place at the Ontario College of Art and Design, also in Toronto.

This counter summit will feature organizers from Labour, Indigenous Sovereignty, Tenant, Climate, Anti-War, Migrant Rights, and Palestine Solidarity movements.