Statements

The Council of Canadians are in solidarity with our Black members and supporters, and all Black leaders and individuals working for an end to police brutality and killings in their communities. We recognize the existence of systemic racism in our society and we are committed to eradicating it. We believe in the power of protest, and condemn the use of force against protests across the U.S. and Canada.

Canada needs universal, public pharmacare now more than ever. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 20% of Canadian households were struggling to pay for their medication. The mass layoffs triggered by the pandemic have now left millions more people without work-based drug plans.

The Council of Canadians is in full solidarity with UFCW workers who are being forced to work in unsafe conditions at Cargill meat-packing plants in Canada.  

Regard for human rights is essential in times of crisis. Human rights principles provide a valuable framework for government action and establish crucial safeguards against abuses. Yet respect for human rights is particularly vulnerable – tenuous at best – in times of crisis. That holds true whether the crisis is related to national security, natural disasters or a public health emergency such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Letter to Minister Freeland urging them to rescind the decision to refuse the Manitoba Chiefs' request/plan for a Cuban Health Brigade to provide health care in indigenous communities in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.

At its meeting on January 19, 2020,  the Council of Canadians Board passed the following motion with respect to the CUSMA

To respond to CUSMA with the following frame – 

Over 170 national and provincial organizations from all regions across Canada released a joint statement calling on the new federal government to immediately implement universal, public pharmacare. Printable pdf and list of signatories here.

In the wake of the federal election, our coalition of national and provincial organizations is calling on the new government to immediately implement universal, public pharmacare.

The trade deal is flawed: inequality would grow and the environment deteriorate further

Civil society organizations from Mexico, the United States and Canada call on Canadians and their elected representatives in Ottawa to set up a special parliamentary inquiry prior to any ratification vote on the “new” NAFTA. This would ensure that decision-makers are fully familiar with all aspects of the deal, and can make any necessary changes to guarantee that the Canadian public, not multinational corporations, are the primary beneficiaries of the deal.

Council of Canadians chapters, supporters and staff are firmly in solidarity with the Wet’suwet’en Nation as they continue to assert sovereignty on their traditional territories and resist state violence.