Council of Canadians Ottawa

04/21/2026

There will be a presentation by author - and friend of the Council of Canadians - Linda McQuaig of her book “Cancelling Billionaires” at Abbotsford Centre in The Glebe on Wednesday April 22nd at 6:30pm.

Attendance is free. If you cant make it, we still recomend you check out the book!

Link to the book: https://www.dundurn.com/books_/t22117/a9781459754836-cancelling-billionaires-before-they-cancel-us

Link to the event: https://www.dundurn.com/events_/t43196/p159770-ottawa-launch--cancelling-billionaires-before-they-cancel-us

04/11/2026

LNG: Not in Our National Interest Rally - Tuesday April 14 @ noon - Parliament Hill

The federal government is moving to fast-track two massive fossil fuel projects in BC—Ksi Lisims LNG and the LNG Canada Phase 2 expansion. These projects don’t just threaten our climate; they violate Indigenous rights and funnel billions of our taxpayer dollars into the pockets of foreign billionaires.

It is time to tell PM Carney that we’ve had enough. We are demanding a shift away from "dirty energy" megaprojects and toward a clean, renewable economy that works for everyone.

As part of a national week of action to oppose LNG, communities across the country are hitting the streets to make sure our message is impossible to ignore. I hope you'll join the local action in Ottawa on Tuesday to demand a cleaner future.

JOIN THE ACTION

What: "LNG: Not in Our National Interest" Community Rally

When: Tuesday, April 14 at noon

Where: Export Development Canada office, 150 Slater St., Ottawa

The Carney government is currently deciding where our national investments go. Right now, those funds are being steered toward projects that worsen affordability for people living in Canada. By showing up, you are demanding that the Prime Minister prioritizes community investment over LNG handouts.
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03/12/2026

The young upstanders in the World-Changing Kids program have started a new Parliamentary petition in support of Kebaowek First Nation's fight against the nuclear waste dump at Chalk River, on their territory, 1.1 km from the Ottawa River

Please sign and share widely:
https://www.ourcommons.ca/petitions/en/Petition/Details?Petition=e-7247

Initiated by teacher Lindsey Barr in Ottawa, the petition is supported by Leah Gazan, NDP MP for Winnipeg Centre, as well as Justin Roy, Councilor, Keboawek First Nation. This is part of just one of the many learning journeys the Young Upstanders are working on!

03/08/2026

International Women’s Day - here’s to all the powerhouse women activists that drive the Council of Canadians from the grassroots 👏🏼

03/06/2026

New book by Maude Barlow out in May

Earth for Sale: The Fight to Stop The Last Plunder of the Planet
Barlow, Maude
Most agree on the urgent need for climate action, yet we are often divided on how to stop the destruction of the natural world. Earth for Sale exposes the danger of governments giving over this responsibility to powerful private interests, namely the same energy, chemical, agribusiness, and bottled water corporations that brought us to this ecological brink.
Their answer? Put a price on nature and bring it into the market. Under the inviting language of “nature-based solutions” and “ecosystem services,” this financialization and commodification of nature takes many forms: carbon trading; debt-for-nature swaps; water pollution trading; biodiversity credits; green, blue, and wildlife conservation bonds; plastics offsets; water futures; and more.
Renowned activist Maude Barlow, who sounded the alarm decades ago on the corporate assault on water, argues the financialization of nature is dangerous and surprisingly few understand the implications, including many in environmental movements. With detailed examples and meticulous research, Earth for Sale unmasks this insidious new form of corporate plunder. We must not allow the movement to protect nature and biodiversity to be handed over to private interests whose driving motive is, and always has been, profit.
Available May 5, 2026.

02/06/2026

RALLY TO SAVE PUBLIC HEALTHCARE on Parliament Hill on Tuesday, February 10 at 12 pm noon. PLEASE, SHOW UP AND SPEAK UP.

Canada's public health care is under a new full-on attack of privatization, the likes of which we've never seen. That is not an exaggeration.

The Alberta government has launched a direct attack on the Canada Health Act that will bring in U.S. private health insurance, require patients to pay for doctors and surgeries, and allow the wealthy to jump the queue while pushing everyone else back in line, unless we stop them. This will impact all of us in Canada.

In Ontario, the Ford government is forcing cuts and closures to our public hospitals while shifting more than $300 million to open new for-profit clinics to take over their core services. They are letting these for-profit clinics charge patients thousands of dollars against our medicare protection laws. He is expanding his privatization plan to orthopedic and other surgeries. Just imagine the tens of thousands of dollars they are going to charge patients.

The hardship and suffering caused by this privatization is exactly what public medicare was set up to stop.

We are in the fight of our lives because we are going to lose public medicare if we don't ramp up our fight back. We need at least 1,000 or 2,000 people there. It needs to be a respectable showing because it would not do to have a show of weakness at this point. Every single person matters in this.

We hope that you will be able to join us, and please tell all your friends and family as well. Thanks, and wishing you all the best.

01/17/2026

Evelyn was an active member of the Ottawa Chapter of the Council of Canadians in recent years. A wealth of knowledge and a force of nature! Thank you for your service to our communities, Evelyn. Rest in peace 💜

The Ontario NDP mourns the loss of Evelyn Gigantes, who passed away on January 16, 2026.

Evelyn was a true force of nature. A CBC broadcaster who became a three term MPP for Ottawa-area ridings, fighting for equality and justice every step of the way. In 1980, she made history as the first sitting Ontario MPP to give birth while in office. She joked that her baby was “one of the most positive products” of the 1979 NDP convention 9 months earlier.

In 1986, Evelyn pushed through an amendment to protect people from discrimination based on sexual orientation when almost no one else would touch it. It passed 64 to 45.

As Minister of Health for the Ontario NDP government, she pushed to keep abortion services accessible when federal legislation threatened them. Later, as Minister of Housing, she took on the fight for tenants’ rights and pushing through safety protections in the Residents’ Rights Act.

Evelyn knew what politics was really about: standing up for working people. Her courage and her refusal to stay quiet made a real difference in this province that we still feel today.

My heartfelt condolences to her children, Clea and Matthew, her family, and all who loved her. May she rest in peace.

12/29/2025

Forty years ago, the Council of Canadians was founded to advocate for ordinary Canadians in response to the very first Free Trade negotiations.
As we look forward to 2026, we see the same corporate forces (remember the Business Council on National Issues?) pushing nearly the same agenda:

• US tech giants’ data centres that use billions of litres of water.

• Fossil fuel projects that burn through our climate commitments.

• Cuts and privatization for the services we rely on.

• More integration with US businesses and policies.

For the past four months, we have been part of a broad effort which has pushed back the corporate agenda. Through our collective advocacy, thousands of jobs were saved, and billions of dollars in cuts were prevented.

But when it comes to Trumpian policies, we don’t just want to be on the defense. We want to win. The Council of Canadians is putting together a strategy to reverse the attack on our climate and our commons.

Please take a moment to donate right now. Your contribution will help get us off to a great start in 2026.

That is why I am reaching out to all our donors who have not yet renewed their contribution this year. We will need a strong, well-resourced movement to meet them.

Just click on the link below to donate now.

https://canadians.org/ppd2025/?link_id=1&can_id=e16d01a4b867d1ce917c553709acf50e&

On Tuesday, Dec. 2, we are kicking off our annual People Planet Democracy campaign. Our goal: $10,000 from new donors. Your donation to the Council of Canadians helps us in the fight to put p…

11/27/2025

This was a meaningful discussion on federal budgets and austerity. We will follow up on this with an Ottawa Chapter special event virtually on Dec 9 @ 7pm - join us!
https://www.facebook.com/share/1JHt8FKPBK/?mibextid=wwXIfr

11/15/2025

Thanks to The Council of Canadians Executive Director and Staff for an inspiring evening delving into the federal budget cuts and what it means for Canadians. We must continue to work in coalition and community to build the fight back - for our social services, for good public service jobs and delivery to Canadians on what impacts our daily lives (spoiler alert: not far flung resource extraction projects 🤯)

📆✅Canvassing training in coming up in December - reach out if you’d like to participate!

Climate Justice Climatique Ottawa

11/13/2025

Thank you John for all your work and support! This is a big change for the Council of Canadians as the Chair of the Board moves on after reaching the 6-year term limit.

After thirteen years on the Board of Directors and six years as Chair, John Cartwright is stepping down from his long-time leadership role at the Council of Canadians. A carpenter by trade, John ha…