The People's Summit Marquee Series Presents:

Maude Barlow

Council of Canadians

8 p.m. Burke Education Centre @ Saint Mary's University (Inglis Street)

Opening Performance by Sandy Greenberg

"Global South - Global North: The Privatization of Social Security and the Universal Assault on Citizen's Rights"

Political activist, author and policy critic -- Maude Barlow is an outspoken crusader for Canadian sovereignty and citizens' rights. She is the National Volunteer Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, a non-profit, non-partisan public interest organization supported by 30,000 members. As a government watchdog, critic of corporate crime and catalyst for grassroots organizing, the Council is working to protect sovereignty and promote democratic development.
Maude is the founding Co-chair of the Action Canada Net-work, a cross-sectoral coalition of over 50 groups working for progressive social change. She is on the planning committee of the recently-established International Forum on Globalization, a network of individuals and groups from around the world working to take democratic control of the global economy.
She is the author of three best-selling books: Parcel of Rogues: How Free Trade is Failing Canada; Take Back the Nation, with economist Bruce Campbell; and Class Warfare: The Assault on Canada's Schools, with educator Heather-Jane Robertson. She is currently writing Straight through the Heart, a critical examination of the Liberal Government's role in developing and dismantling Canada's social programs. She is a frequent contributor to other books, periodicals and journals and was recognized with the Ontario Teachers' Federation's highest award for her outstanding contribution to education and equality in Canadian schools.
Maude has spoken to hundreds of conferences on the shift of power from people and democratically-elected governments to transnational corporations and its impact on our lives. Much of her energy is currently dedicated to strengthening citizens' rights and developing strategies to bring our society and economy under public control while at the same time protecting the environment.
Maude has served as a senior management consultant on employment equity and social justice to all levels of government. She was the Director of the Office of Equal Opportunity for the City of Ottawa and served as Senior Advisor on Women's Issues to former Prime Minister, Pierre Elliot Trudeau. She has worked as a volunteer on a landmark human rights challenge at Kingston Prison for Women, established the Ottawa Task Force on Wife Assault and led a national coalition against violent pornography on television.
In 1991, Maude was the only Canadian on an international women's peace mission to Iraq on the eve of the Gulf War. Her work has taken her from the slums and low wage factories of Mexico's Maquiladora zone to the jails of Chiapas, where indigenous people are fighting thebrutal fallout of NAFTA.