Protesters gather at Nathan Phillips Square to oppose Canada Investment Summit privatization plans

A coalition of labour activists and Indigenous leaders held a press conference Monday morning at Nathan Phillips Square to oppose plans being pitched at the Canada Investment Summit. The summit, hosted by Prime Minister Mark Carney, brings together over 100 of the world's largest investors seeking $1 trillion in investments over the next five years. A protest is planned for Monday evening starting at Nathan Phillips Square at 6 p.m., with organizers expecting thousands to march to a gala dinner at the Art Gallery of Ontario on Dundas Street.

167 domestic projects will be among those on offer at the summit, with pipelines, nuclear plants, railways, and AI data centres mentioned as examples of the types of projects competing for investment.

Rachel Small, World Beyond War, said at the Monday assembly: "It's an auction of Canadian public resources, institutions, infrastructure, airports and highways and water and power plants." Small added that "Our money is covering the risk, and investors will be the ones making off with the profits." She argued that Canadians struggling to afford rent and cost of living need more investment in education, transit and health care, not the sale of public assets. "Carney is doing the opposite of that. He is selling our public resources without any guaranteed returns and at the same time growing industries that will push the world towards greater war and climate catastrophe."

Wet'suwet'en Nation Hereditary Chief Na'Moks also spoke at the assembly. "Canada is getting very good at blackmailing the public. 'If you don't have these projects, we won't have money to support more Medicare, we won't have money for higher education,' — that's false," Na'Moks said. "Everybody worries about their own backyard. Our front yard is this entire planet and we must stand together to protect it. They're taking everything we survive on and are willing to sell it to foreign investors."