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The PM Wants to Sell off Public Assets to The 1%: Join us in Toronto to Push Back · The Environment in Canada Podcast

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Prime Minister Kearney has basically invited the worst corporate villains on the planet to converge in Toronto, downtown Toronto, for this huge summit that he's hosting.
• 0:13
  SPEAKER_02: Apparently, according to the Globe and Mail today, the largest gathering of top business leaders ever to assemble in the country.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: These are, I was gonna say the global 1%, but it's probably, I haven't done the math.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: It's probably the global like 0.001%.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: These are the people who, according again to the Globe and Mail, manage over$120 trillion worth of funds.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and he's invited them there basically to auction off Canadian public resources to these foreign investors from around the world, um, public resources, but also infrastructure.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome to another episode of the Environment in Canada Podcast, a podcast about the environment in Canada by Sierra Club Canada.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: I'm Connor Curtis, Director of Communications with Sierra Club Canada.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Today we have an interview for you with Eve Saint of Eighth Fire Rising, an indigenous coalition of workers, climate justice organizations, and indigenous activists formed in response to Bill C5, and Rachel Small of World Beyond War.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: The interview is about a counter-summit that will be taking place in Toronto this September to protest the potential selling off of public assets by the Canadian government to wealthy private investors, among many other issues.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: As the coalition behind the event, which includes Sierra Club Canada describe it, the Prime Minister is hosting an investment summit in Toronto where he has invited over 100 private investors to browse the sale of public infrastructure like hospitals and airports, housing stock, highways, hydro dams, the defence industry, and critical minerals.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: Join us in pushing back.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: But before we get into that interview, I want to share a quick update from our last newsletter on August 25th, 2026, for some important context concerning what's happening in Toronto and the larger trade war that Canada now finds itself in.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: For Canada to stand against the US as the trees of Newfoundland and Labrador grow in the wind, government is going to need to set firmer foundations starting right now.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Our federal government, even before the last-minute demands from the US to collapse the recent trade deal talks, was ready to accept a deal that would have undermined Canada's sovereignty severely, as Adam Rodansky writes in The Toronto Star.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: See Donald Trump's negotiators save Canada from making a big mistake.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: Worse, it appears some of the motivation to get the deal done by the federal government when a deal was never truly possible in the first place, was to remove obstacles to potential upcoming sale of public assets like airports to investors, including US investors.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: Privatization that, if it happens, will cost Canadians as it has already cost the UK public billions while worsening services and environmental health.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: In short, the Prime Minister appears to have been afraid that an ongoing trade war of the US might scare away investors coming to Toronto to discuss this privatization.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_01: So he wanted to get a deal.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: The potential digital sovereignty ramifications of the initial deal that we almost agreed to alone were terrible, set the precedent for more erosion, and come after a whole list of previous concessions and attempts at appeasement that clearly did not work.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: What did our energy minister get from offering to support US energy dominance via oil and gas?
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: Yet the Federal Plan A regarding energy still has not changed, he says, but it should.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: It is arguably public pressure that kept our government from giving up even more.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: The federal government must stop listening to wealthy interests in Canada who are clearly undermining our sovereignty and democracy.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_01: After all, the impact of US tariffs in the US has been to transfer billions from working Americans to big corporations and to rich, as CBC notes.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: The US government's goal is for Canada to become an oligarchy as well, even if they never formally make us a state.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: As Seth Klein writes, to prevent that, our federal government would need to be ready to utilize measures, including an export tax on oil and gas to the US, which, and this may come as a surprise to you, has very strong support in the prairies.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: But the PM has previously ruled out such measures in an attempt at appeasement, no doubt influenced by organizations like the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers and O'Donnell Laurier Institute, who both oppose export taxes.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_01: This is despite export taxes being a federal choice, not a provincial one, and not one the Alberta government has any grounds to oppose.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: In fighting back, we need to also undo the damage that has already been done by the approach JD Vance clearly outlined in a recording link to Canadian press.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: And the whole point of this, quote, is to change Canada's behavior, Vance said.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: Which, quote, they know, you know, not entirely, but they've certainly shifted in a Trumpian direction.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Vance's strategy has unfortunately been allowed to work, as we've noted before in our various editions of the Deflooded Zone and on newsletters.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: Canadian policy has come to resemble US policy more and more, worse, as has happened not just even as a result of pointless appeasement, but as a result of oligarchical influence here in Canada linked to US interests.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: We've seen this happen everywhere, from pesticide deregulation that would actually hurt trade diversification to farmer care cuts, things that don't even have a direct connection to appeasement.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: We've seen it in terms of nature, as our Executive Director Gretchen Fitzgerald wrote recently, quote, just before Parliament rose for the summer, the government of Canada rolled out what I am calling the extinction paper, a series of rollbacks and undemocratic changes that would make it even easier for US-owned fossil fuel and US managed nuclear industries, aided by elected officials who will be willfully ignorant of the impacts of their decisions to drive species to extinction, approve pipelines before roots were even known, and create zones where environmental safety laws simply do not apply.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: You can take action on that issue, by the way, on our website.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: Appeasement does not work, but pushing back does, and oil and gas is the US weak spot.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_01: Recently Greenland pushed back against US oil aggression.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: You helped, thank you.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: And a US corporation and its friends in Canada backed off, for now at least.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_01: Now we also need to make sure that the Canadian government never allows corporations here to act or make plans without authorization by Greenland's government in the future.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_01: As we warned previously, Trump's new 2025 national security strategy reveals the US plans to use soft power, including private sector influence, to influence other countries like Canada.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_01: The strategy mentions the oil, gas, and finance and tech sectors in particular as tools for expanding US influence and specifically declares climate action in other countries to be a threat to US dominance.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: All the more reason to make wind, solar, and storage Canada's federal priority, not a vague footnote, and to bring back climate policies without which new gas power could wipe out our progress on emissions.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: Canadians clearly want renewable action.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: 58% say transitioning away from fossil fuels towards renewable energy is more important than ever in light of US aggression, only 11% say less.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_01: Our economic well-being also depends on climate action.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_01: We must not settle in the future for a deal that, even prior to the US pushing its luck too far, contained too many concessions.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Again, as Overansky noted, of the deal we almost agreed to, had it not been for the US pushing its luck too far at the last moment.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Quote, Canada would have had to give up what leverage it had, including both counter-tariffs and provincial bans on US booze that have gotten under Trump's skin.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_01: Plus, we appeared poised to scrap by Canadian procurement policies, giving US companies relatively unfettered access to government contracts here, even as Canadian access to the US market remained restricted.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_01: It's vital our federal government not treat that prior proposed deal as the goal to be achieved and reverse the US style policy choices it has made so far.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: But that might very well happen without public pressure not to give in.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: So you should call your MP about this, and join us in Toronto.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_01: You can find a link to the newsletter with sources for everything I've said here in the description of this podcast.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: A final note, you may have heard recently about the US Venezuela oil deal, and I want to be clear again here that this does not strengthen the case for a West Coast pipeline.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_01: It actually weakens it.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_01: It would take years for Venezuela to significantly increase its oil production, and even if it does, that means more oil on the market, not less, meaning less of an international market for Canadian oil and a bigger supply glut and less case for a new pipeline to anywhere.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_01: Again, a new oil pipeline to anywhere from Canada simply does not have a business case or constitute the right sort of public investment.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: What the Venezuela situation does point to is the role of the oil industry in facilitating US domination of other countries.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: Rodriguez, the new president of Venezuela, an ally of the US government, was closely connected to the US oil and gas industry, stresses the importance of appeasement to the US in Venezuela, and was installed by the United States to office following recommendations by the US oil industry.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: Remember that oil and gas interests in Canada are either owned in the US or highly aligned to the US government.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: So an oil and gas lobbyist in Canada want us to waste tens of billions of dollars on a new marketless pipeline to the West Coast rather than spending that money on wind and solar energy, which is their competition, or for that matter, on wildfire response, we should not listen to those oil and gas lobbyists.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: We should do the opposite of what they tell us to do.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: The oil and gas industry in Canada has picked a side in the confrontation between Canada and the United States, and they have made it very clear with their opposition to export taxes on oil and gas that their side is the US side.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's time for our leaders to stop listening to the distractions and go renewable.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: And now, here's that interview.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: So, Rachel, Eve, thank you so much for joining me today.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, for those tuning in, who are you and what do you do?
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, hi everyone.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, my name is Eve Saint.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: I am a I'm with Sutin and I'm Mishkegwak, uh land defender and financial divestment campaigner for Get Em Done Checkpoint.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I am co-founder of Eighth Fire Rising, and I am based in Toronto.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_02: Hi, thanks for having us.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, my name is Rachel.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_02: I'm the Canada organizer with World Beyond War.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_02: We're a global grassroots org and movement seeking to abolish war and take down the military-industrial complex.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: So I do a lot of that work um with tons of people all across so-called Canada.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: I live uh about halfway between Toronto and Ottawa in the woods uh on Treaty 20 land.
• 10:28
  SPEAKER_02: It's Anishnappe here on Wendat uh Mississauga Land.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and thanks for having us on the show today.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Both of you are working on an event coming up in Toronto.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just for again, for those tuning in who maybe don't know what's going on, uh maybe a little intro to you know what the event's actually going to be and uh why you're holding it, what's at stake at the moment in Toronto in September.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_02: I can start.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_02: So the reason we're holding an event is because Carney is holding an event.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: So in in just over two weeks, Prime Minister Kearney has basically invited the worst corporate villains on the planet uh to converge in Toronto, downtown Toronto, uh, for this huge summit that he's hosting.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: Apparently, according to the Globe and Mail today, the largest gathering of top business leaders ever to assemble in the country.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: These are, I was gonna say the global 1%, but it's probably, I haven't done the math, it's probably the global like 0.001%.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_02: These are the people who, according again to the Globe and Mail, manage over$120 trillion worth of funds.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and he's invited them there basically to auction off Canadian public resources to these foreign investors from around the world, um, public resources, but also infrastructure, but also to get them to finance these destructive mega projects that have been his agenda, like AI data centers, weapons factories, toxic pipelines, like critical minerals mines, bulldoze that he intends to bulldoze through stolen indigenous land.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_02: So he's holding this big summit in Toronto.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um and we oppose it on many levels and chatted with many different groups and movements uh across the country, but especially in the Toronto area, to say what do we want to do about it?
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_02: So um there's lots to share about it, but in two, I would say we're doing two big things about it.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: One is that we're bringing our movements and our people together and hosting our own counter summit where we can have the summit that actually needs to be happening in Toronto right now to bring our movements together.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_02: And then the second thing that we're doing is we're totally crashing his summit.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_02: So a huge call out to people all across communities and neighborhoods and movements and groups and issue areas to all gather 6 p.m.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_02: Monday, September 14th, right when Carney's summit starts.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna gather in Nathan Phillips there, and then we're gonna march just right straight to his uh to his summit and give him, give those rich folks a very big, loud, colorful welcome to our our city.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_02: I would say those are the the broad kind of strokes of what we're planning.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I'd just like to add that Carney has been on a like on a tour, a world tour around the world, trying to get investors to invest in um like projects of national interest.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: And so this is not the first um of him um you know schmoozing up to like these billionaires and investors.
• 13:34
  SPEAKER_00: So he's been on tour, and so this has been his plan all along, and especially with um the flood of bills that we are all experiencing in the past year, like this is all part of it.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so uh the reason why we really need to come together right now, it's because of all the bills that we are um currently impacted by and facing and feeling like we can't fight alone.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: We have to come together.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: So this is like really important, critical time right now for us to come together.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm very excited for this uh this uh counter summit and really hope to see a lot of folks out there for sure.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I I think the framing of all of this is being, oh, this is to help, you know, defend us from the United States, right?
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: Quote unquote, right?
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_01: But then I and we've covered this numerous times in our newsletter, but um, you know, you look at the Pentagon's involvement with critical minerals, which is being, you know, framed as this climate solution, but then the Pentagon is actually investing in critical minerals in Canada through these projects that you know the government is actually giving them basically um subsidizing uh their their involvement in.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it sounds like this group of investors who are coming, you know, really are the same crowd that hangs out with Donald Trump more so than than anybody else.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I I'm curious, you know, for people tuning in who maybe say, oh, we need investment, or we're gonna is it gonna be the big uh solution for for the economy or something, um, you know, what what should they know about what's actually happening in the airports and uh ports and and other infrastructure that we're looking at potentially handing away here?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: Why don't you start, Eve?
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_02: Because I know you've done so much work on the mega projects and just like the wild investment that Carney is promising that's just like really not the investment that the country needs for Carney.
• 15:28
  SPEAKER_00: He always puts on this facade that it yes, good investment for the country.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_00: He's like greenwashing a lot of these projects, and it's just really um seeing past that.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like, where are these like minerals really being used for?
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of folks are finding out that yeah, a lot of these uh minerals, critical minerals, are being used for weapons.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_00: They're, you know, going to wars, and you know, they don't really want to say that out loud.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_00: So they're really using words like, you know, protect Ontario, like protect Canadians, you know, like we're always, they're always um painting like we're in danger, but like really they're the ones that we need to be protected from, and we got to keep us safe.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: We really gotta push out the education on what's really happening behind, like, you know, these smoke and mirrors that the government is really trying to push on mainstream Canadians.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of people are falling for it.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: Connections with um other movements, right?
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like, we're really gonna make those connections because, like, you know, I'm really focused on land defense and projects of um national interest.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I would be really like, you know, I'm still learning on defense and war and like migrant justice too, as well.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_00: So there is a lot of connections and um with all the um panels and workshops that we're gonna be having at this counter summit, it's a really great way to learn about what's really happening and um just to really paint the picture of really what's going on.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, I think uh that there's a lot that's been smart about the way Carney has kind of tried to brand what he's doing.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: And you know, when you call your thing an investor summit, who doesn't want investment?
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: And frankly, we're not opposed to investment.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_02: What we're opposed is to him seeking these like billions and billions of dollars of investments in the projects that are gonna detoxify our land and our water that are gonna continue to like privatize like public assets that are already kind of falling apart.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: That um, like we don't need investment in pipelines, we don't need investments, I mean, and frankly, in any fossil fuel project um in a summer that's already breaking records for heat waves.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: Like, we we don't need investments in ever bigger weapons factories, which frankly are almost all branches of US companies.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, um I think if he was talking about investing in projects that would actually benefit the lives of people across the country, that would actually like move us towards more renewable-based economies, that if we're talking about investing in public transit, like there's so much investment that could be happening uh that would be helpful and just and this uh this just isn't it.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, we're talking about kind of defense, quote unquote.
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, he's talked about this summit as a big way to seek investment in the defense industry.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: Harney has been playing this game over the past several months of really talking up this business of quadrupling Canada's military budget, pretending it's a way to kind of stick it to the US or like elbows up or this is how we're gonna defend ourselves to the US, when it just couldn't be more of a lie.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, raising Canada's military budget is exactly what Trump demanded, and then he applauded when Canada committed to it.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_02: This is a huge gift to Trump.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: And frankly, every detail we have received of what that kind of ballooning of Canada's military spending looks like um is deeper and deeper and deeper military integration between Canada and the US, whether it's going in on Trump's like truly utopia.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to call it utopian, dystopian and friendly completely made-up um Golden Dome project.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like he's just made up technologies that don't exist to create some sort of missocial overness of North America, apparently, or whether it's buying Lockheed Martin's F-35s, um, which or or or warships that whole new batch billions of dollars worth of Canadian warships that literally require US military cooperation for Canada to use.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like even at surface level, the idea that we're buying billions of dollars from weapons from the US that we would ever be able to use to defend ourselves militarily from the US is just such a joke.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, except it's not a joke because like this has real consequences on the world.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: And we've seen the ways that F-35s have been used over the past two years to horrific effect in Palestine, for example, where these genocide jets have been used to just rain missiles down on people living in refugee tents, right?
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_02: Like, like that's how those weapons end up getting used.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't matter if he spins them as, oh, this is how we defend Canadian sovereignty.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: No, they get used in imperialist and horrific wars.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I mean, I I think it's easy for him to tell a story that's landing pretty well right now, uh, about oh, this is how we diversify our investment.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: But first of all, I don't see investment moving away from the US.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: And second of all, the types of investment he's leaning into are are not, I think, what is going to benefit anyone in this country.
• 20:52
  SPEAKER_02: And just like another sort of example about some of the connections to war that are behind a little bit below the surface, um, is that Canada just rushed through, I think in record-breaking time, Carney said, negotiation of a new free trree trade deal with the United Arab Emirates.
• 21:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um which is concerning on multiple levels, but the UAE is directly responsible for the genocide in Sudan that has been playing out over the past several years.
• 21:22
  SPEAKER_02: That certainly does not get enough international attention, though Canada is constantly giving lip service to how upset they are about what's happening in Sudan and how I I can't even remember what Anita and Nan's last kind of tearfelt quote, heart-wrenching quote was about the situation there.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: And meanwhile, Canada's doing the opposite of what it should be doing, which is calling for accountability from the UAE, that it stops funding and arming uh the RSF, the forces that are committing this the militia committing genocide in Sudan, and instead is rewarding the UAE with a new trade deal in record breaking time.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_02: And as part of the analysis.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Announcement of this new free trade deal, Kearney bragged about how the richest investors from UAE would be coming to Canada for his investor summit.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: So this is deepening ties to the most horrific violence on the planet in many, many different ways.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes directly through investing in building weapons of war and sometimes through rewarding regimes like in UAE, who are directly complicit in horrific violence.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: Just a direct choosing of profit over any other motive.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: And profit for the rich is 1%.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_01: And that's what something that strikes me out of this, right?
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_01: Is that, you know, again, it's these investors who he's trying to get whether it's from the UAE or there's really like they're friends of the US administration as well, right?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: They're not, you know, neutral.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_01: We're not talking about um, you know, Greenland here regions that have been threatened by the United States.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about these other countries that have quite strong ties to the United States as well, even in terms of that outside investment.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: And instead of, as you say, focusing on localized supply chains or localized um things, or you know, I'm just thinking on a community level, you know, localized agriculture, all these resilience projects that allow communities, no matter what actually happens with the sort of investor economy that's out there, to actually weather things because they have the resources they need in their own backyard and they they have the safe environments that they rely upon in order to weather those harder times.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I guess I'm just curious to get your thoughts about where instead we should be going or some of the things government should be looking at and prioritizing instead.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: Well, definitely um renewable um energies and infrastructure.
• 23:41
  SPEAKER_00: We do not need more pipelines, like Rachel said, and um, it's just very concerning with like the climate where we're at right now.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: So definitely really need to make that um transition, like right now.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Canada's not even on like in a good place where like trying to invest in like this type of infrastructure.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: And there was one person who designed like a care infrastructure, like investing in like um, you know, affordable daycare for people or like just stuff that we need like to survive as everyday Canadians.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm not I don't consider myself a Canadian, just for the record, but um I just found it like that like very interesting and that we really do need to really think about like the citizens here, right?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: And what we need, because um the cost of living keeps on rising, and it's just gonna keep on rising.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: So definitely gotta really take care of our people, and the government does not uh does not give a about us, right?
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_00: Clearly, clearly, like they do not care, even like not just indigenous people, but also like mainstream Canadians are against a lot of these projects and infrastructure, and you know, they they really aren't listening.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: They're not listening to us, and um, yeah, it we really gotta really push back and get our voices heard.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I really agree with Eve.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's all kinds of just really basic common sense things that the federal government should be investing in, whether it's like affordable housing, food, healthcare, education, transit, public services, arts and culture, like good jobs for our communities.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_02: Like these are basic things.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_02: These aren't like radical demands.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but we've just been so had such a mindset of austerity shoved down our throats that like the idea that the government would fund things that let people like eat and have a roof over their heads has become almost unfathomable, which is is really sad and is a real uh problem.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_02: Plus, yes, of course, uh what you've said about like renewables, like it again is not a radical idea to work towards transitioning to 100% renewable energy economy.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, there's all kinds of slightly ambitious but totally doable plans for like a publicly owned East-West electricity grid, for like things, the infrastructure projects that would actually guarantee that people can survive um all types of climate change impacts and all kinds of kind of extreme weather events, et cetera.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I mean, even just from like the most basic perspective, Canada's investing billions right now in these really they're calling them the most advanced weapon system on the planet.
• 26:52
  SPEAKER_02: It seems a shame to call them advanced, but wildly expensive weapon systems.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_02: And what we don't have is water bombers, like to put out forest fires.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's so many basic needs that we have that require the same advanced engineering that really would rely on these like very skilled workers.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like the workers in the arms factories are not the problem.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sure they would be very excited to be building the engineering solutions that we actually need to keep our communities safe instead of to bomb people on the other side of the world.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, relatedly, instead of investing in militarism, like we should be messing in a foreign policy that's based on diplomacy and peace building and showing up for our allies, like the situation in Cuba, which has long been a country with really strong partnership and allyship with Canada, um, is horrific right now with the lack of energy and basically no electricity, there's food shortages.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like these are the ways that Canada should be stepping up for our allies, and that supports global security vastly more than an armament race does.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like this is it's just been objectively proven throughout human history that it turns out when you stockpile uh weapons, it doesn't actually lead to peace, shockingly.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um so I think I think there's all kinds of of clear ways that we that we should be investing, um, both domestically within Canada and and overseas.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: And unfortunately, while claiming to be taking a different path from Trump, Kearney seems to be very much following in Trump's footsteps and pursuing uh yeah, a really aggressive path that's 100% centered on profits for the rich.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: You know, water bombing.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, indigenous communities are like on the front lines, especially in the climate crisis.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: And just recently, earlier on in the summer, like um the government clearly, clearly neglected and just left Indigenous communities up north in northern Ontario, left to their own devices and like no supports in um evacuating um communities that were minutes away from you know, like losing their lives.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, like especially with um, you know, the government wanting um indigenous consent thing, you know, they respect indigenous consent, which is a big lie.
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_00: They do not, because like especially with the ring of fire, I'm gonna give an example.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: The indigenous communities are requesting and needing like an environmental impact assessment, and that the government refuses to give them data because, like, obviously, that's going to put indigenous communities up there in the north even more vulnerable.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: They do not have water, you know, they're so vulnerable to wildfires now yearly, and so this is also going to impact like our neighbors too, as well.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's impacting indigenous communities, but it is also coming to everyone.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I see online like, oh, you know, that natives do need, you know, like these projects, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, not our taxpayer dollars.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that is actually a lie because there are these communities have treaties with government that both benefit from like infrastructure, and both should be profiting off these profits, but of course, that gets ignored.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of like, you know, like um um misunderstanding around that, and it's it's the indigenous people should be, you know, like taken care of respectfully, and it's just really infuriating.
• 30:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I just really wanted to add that because you know the government uh just uh wants the resources, right?
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: And is bending laws to get at them.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I just really wanted to highlight that because yeah, just the wildfires and everything that's going on here yearly.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_01: Indigenous communities throughout the continent are often the ones defending communities from wildfire or you know, helping people prepare or helping people respond when it happens, because sometimes the these, you know, whether it's in Canada or or the United States, the federal and provincial responses are just not good.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like they just don't, you know, they they don't they don't fill the gaps necessary.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and so you know, that's often those communities that are are leading the way on wildfire response and that who we should actually be following rather than thinking of as secondary to the way that we deal with wildfire.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm curious to get your both your thoughts on something.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: So we had this in our newsletter today.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, there's the a lot happening with trade with the US right now.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it's in the news, it's a big news story.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_01: And uh a little earlier, I believe it was this week, uh, there was a recording of JD Vance that that came out that got leaked, where uh basically uh the vice president was saying that the whole goal of all this was to uh get us to enact more Trumpian policies, right?
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_01: That that was really the desire here.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_01: And what I found interesting is that there's some stuff around the investor summit and this, in that the what from everything that we've been able to do, some good coverage under Toronto Star, from everything we've been able to tell about the initial trade deal that Canada was willing to sign, that the federal government was going to sign off on before the last minute US pushed things too far and they backed out of it, is that this didn't look like a really good trade deal at all.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: In fact, we would be giving up a lot of key aspects of sovereignty.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_01: That part of the reason the Canadian government was so uh pressed to want to have a secure trade deal was because of this investors' summit in Toronto.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm not sure if you know that has come on the radar of all of this, but it just strikes me as weird that in uh you know attempting to potentially sell off public assets and things like airports, we were so eager to do that, or at least our federal government was so eager to do that, that it was actually potentially willing to sign a trade deal with the United States that would have been kind of disastrous for our own defense, as you put it.
• 33:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm just curious if either of you have been following any of that or had any sort of comments on those recent developments.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: With Kearney, he's really like trying to appease you know Trump's inner circle and a lot of these billionaires, where yeah, he almost signed away like a lot of our, you know, like I guess rights or infrastructure, which is like that just comes to show that you know, like yeah, I what he's like really willing to do and how far is it willing to go.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: And it's scary.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_00: It is scary because like a lot of these like Trump's inner circles, like pedos, and you know, like just yeah, the worst of the worst people, you know, in charge, a lot, you know, a lot of like, you know, buying up our lands or um housing or farming, um farming lands, especially in BC and AI data centers too, as well.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's gonna it all the infrastructure that he's trying to push, that's and rapidly too trying to do this in like a small amount of time, it's just really concerning on what life is gonna be like if this all goes through, right?
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_00: Especially with AI data centers, right?
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like that's definitely gonna impact obviously our water and our jobs.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I cannot stress this enough.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_00: People are very concerned about their jobs, they should be concerned about these AI data centers going up because like that's gonna like definitely replace a lot of jobs right now.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: So I definitely want to see like us really uniting and being in solidarity with one another because we can't allow a lot of these projects to go through, especially with some of the people that he wants investing in our infrastructure.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_02: The the article I mentioned earlier in the Globe and Mail that was talking about how apparently the summit is, like I said, the biggest gathering in Canadian history of these rich people.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_02: The headline of that article was trade war casts shadow over Carney's investment summit.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: So, like clearly, in many people's minds, these things are are deeply connected.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the news cycle just feels like deeply stupid and dangerous and and like deeply harmful to lots of people across the country.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_02: But at the same time, like the position on behalf of the people can't be like, oh my God, we must save these free trade deals that we have with the US or oh no, we can't let Trump rip up these deals because they've been deeply harmful to people for for many, many decades, right?
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_02: Like all of these trade deals with the US have always been about supporting like the corporate class in in both countries and and making sure that the the wealthiest corporations don't have to deal with you know borders and can just effortlessly accumulate more and more wealth.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_02: Well, of course, the borders are like fortress to everyone else, you know, capital, weapons all travel very freely, and and humans increasingly cannot.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, over the past several years of these types of trade deals having been in place with the US, there's just been like an ever-growing concentration of wealth in the hands of like the biggest companies, the biggest banks in Canada, the biggest, the richest families, um, and away from the people.
• 36:58
  SPEAKER_02: So, I mean, is immediately ripping up deals or or putting in place like overnight huge tariffs, like helpful to anyone?
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_02: No, of course not.
• 37:07
  SPEAKER_02: And like deeply disruptive, as you've said, like at a moment where people are super struggling to get by, that's all extremely shitty.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_02: But the solution is not like, oh no, we need to like really re-entrench uh the economic agreements that have have already uh been made.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um and I mean, and Carney has already conceded so much to to Trump.
• 37:31
  SPEAKER_02: Like the idea that like, oh, this was the big moment where he was gonna agree to all these things and then he stepped away from the table like feels to me like uh is is a partial truth uh at best when he already has shifted Canada's like economy and military investment and foreign policy and whatever in so so many ways over the past year to suit Trump's uh vision of North America, let's say.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know if that's an answer to your question.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: From what I do um hear, like it also feels like you know, there's a lot of egos in play, like they're taking things way too seriously, or like Trump just, you know, there's always this upping one another.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just like, oh my god, like okay, there is no like, you know, neutrality, there's no like, you know, um, you know, respective playing ground, right?
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I don't know, that is just like really is concerning where you know, like you're in control of countries and people's lives, and we're really like playing with egos like here, and it's Trump huffs and puffs if Canada doesn't sign the deal that he wants and like you know raises it up or wants to, you know, claim us as a 51st state or something.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: Like it's just it's just ludicrous to me.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I I think that's part of the reasoning that like I a lot of people have seen is there would never have been like a deal that you could make with the United States that they were that the Trump was going to honor, right?
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_01: It was just wasn't going to happen.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like he made a deal with uh Britain and threatened them with tariffs like almost immediately afterwards, right?
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_01: So you could concede a bunch of stuff to get, you know, what I get the PM was calling a reasonable trade deal before all the last-minute concessions the US wanted, which, you know, again, didn't sound like it was actually very reasonable at all.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: But it wouldn't actually stop the US from turning around and placing more tariffs in the future because they would just break the deal and do it anyway, right?
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_01: I guess a final note for people how do they find out more about this?
• 39:39
  SPEAKER_01: How do they follow your work and uh how do they get involved and how do they come out to Toronto?
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, okay.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_00: So we have a website, maybe we can attach it to the podcast when we push it out.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, the tickets being um sold right now, and yeah, please join us.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_00: We have an amazing keynote speaker speak lineup on Saturday at four with Naomi Klein and Kin um Ki Kian Kiana Yamada Taylor, is that right?
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, thank you.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: And uh yeah, we have uh also we have a performance that day with Carcy, who is, I hear, is an amazing revolutionary artist who has a lot of resistance anthems.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: So please join us.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: And we also all day Sunday on the 13th, we have a full day teach-in, which is shaping up to be pretty dope.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we again we are like crossing movements and we have like someone for everyone, and we're opening the day up with um an amazing panel um who is gonna focus on like the history of movements, and then we're in the like um in the middle of the day, we're gonna have like a skill share.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_00: So, like if you definitely like want to like learn how to marshal, or you want to learn how to like um write a press release, or like we just have someone something for everyone.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then in the afternoon, we have a whole bunch of like workshops, and it's yeah, so please check out the website and also check out eighthfriarising2.ca.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: We have a website too as well.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're on social medias where we have um analysts on the bills that have passed, um, like bill c five, bill five, and um and also um we do organize events too as well.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, please check us out and I'll pass it over to Rachel.
• 42:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we really got people's entire weekend planned for you.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, the the website now is actually many versus money summit.ca.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_02: So many vs money summit.ca for uh for all the stuff that's being organized under the many versus the money uh kind of banner, which is that opening panel on Saturday night that you've mentioned, uh with Naomi Klein and Kiangiamana Taylor and Carcy Blandon doing a musical cameo.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_02: But then Sunday is the real counter summit day, all day, nine to six at OCAD, um, with those last few hours being like an incredible musical performance and concert and cultural fair right in Grange Park, which is like one of the best parks in Toronto, right outside OCAD.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: So that'll be a really fun way to end that day, like all together with food and a lot of indigenous perfor, really incredible indigenous performers, etc.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um and then uh a much broader group of groups and and movements and organizations all across the city is converging Monday at the summit itself.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_02: So Sunday is really our space, and Monday is our chance to crash their party.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_02: So that'll be 6 p.m.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_02: Monday, September 14th at Nathan Phillips Square, so that we can head right down to the summit uh together and give them that welcome that they deserve.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_02: So we really hope that folks um will will join us.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_02: It's this the counter summit piece, like starting on Saturday night, and then all day Sunday.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we do require people to register because there is limited space inside uh OCAD.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_02: So folks should grab their tickets quick.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_02: But the the Sunday evening in Grange Park, of course, is open to everybody.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: And of course, Monday we need to show up en masse, on force, everybody out on the streets to confront.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: I was thinking about the Utah Phillips quote: the earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_02: Literally, all of those people will be on in Toronto on September 14th.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_02: So we need to give them hell.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you both so much for joining me.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_01: I really appreciate it.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks, everyone.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_01: Before we end today, just a reminder that you can take action on environmental issues by visiting SierraClub.ca with tons of petitions, other actions and events, and regular news updates you can sign up for on the homepage.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: You can also find Sierra Club Canada on social media and you can listen to the Environment in Canada Podcast on the Harbager Media Network, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, and YouTube wherever you get your podcasts.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_01: This podcast also airs on CKUT Podcast Radio in Montreal, 90.3 FM bi-weekly on Tuesdays at 11 a.m.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_01: Eastern Time.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_01: Don't forget to click follow or subscribe so you get the latest episodes from us.