As Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney brings hundreds of global CEOs and investors together in Toronto, a growing international movement is challenging an economic model that puts corporate profit ahead of people, climate and communities.
TORONTO, CANADA: As Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney welcomes hundreds of global investors and CEOs to Toronto for the Canada Investment Summit, a broad coalition of labour, Indigenous, housing, migrant justice, climate, anti-war and public-interest organisations is mobilising to challenge the agenda being promoted behind closed doors.
The Many vs. The Money movement brings together organisations representing hundreds of thousands of people across Canada and beyond. From September 12–14, the coalition is hosting a counter-summit featuring public discussions, workshops, cultural events and frontline voices, culminating in a mass mobilisation in downtown Toronto on Monday evening.
The coalition is challenging the idea that economic progress should be defined by how much capital governments can attract, regardless of the social and environmental consequences.
Instead, it is calling for investment that puts people and the planet first: affordable housing, strong public services, clean energy, decent jobs, community wealth and the protection of Indigenous rights and lands.
The debate taking place in Toronto has implications far beyond Canada.
Governments around the world are competing to attract investment in artificial intelligence infrastructure, fossil fuels, critical minerals, weapons manufacturing and major infrastructure projects. Public money is increasingly being used to reduce the risks for private investors, while communities are left to bear the social, financial and environmental costs.
The Many vs. The Money coalition is asking a fundamental question: investment for whom?
“Everything on the table at this summit, from privatised public services and fossil fuel infrastructure to weapons manufacturing and destructive megaprojects, has consequences far beyond Canada,” said organisers of The Many vs. The Money. “The people who live with these consequences should have a voice in deciding what gets built, who benefits and what kind of future we create.”
The coalition argues that an economy designed around maximising returns for global investors cannot deliver the safe, affordable and sustainable future that communities need.
Ahead of the summit, the coalition has highlighted the social, ecological and financial risks behind the investment opportunities being promoted by the Canadian government, including:
- Public money underwriting private profit: billions of dollars in public support are being offered to reduce the risks faced by private investors, while governments continue to cut or constrain public services.
- Fossil fuel expansion: major investments in oil, gas, pipelines and LNG risk locking in decades of additional fossil fuel use and emissions at a time when governments need to accelerate the transition to clean energy.
- Projects without meaningful consent: communities and Indigenous Peoples are challenging major mining, energy and infrastructure projects that they say threaten their lands, water and rights.
- The growing militarisation of economies: governments are increasingly presenting military spending and weapons manufacturing as economic opportunities, diverting resources towards conflict while communities face housing and cost-of-living crises.
- Privatisation of public infrastructure: the sale or long-term concession of public assets can transfer wealth and control to private investors while leaving the public to absorb higher costs and financial risks.
The movement says these issues are not unique to Canada. Across the world, communities are challenging projects that prioritise private returns over public benefit from fossil fuel infrastructure and AI data centres to mining, militarisation and the privatisation of essential services.
At the same time, governments are under pressure to respond to overlapping crises of climate change, inequality, housing affordability, conflict and democratic accountability.
At the Toronto counter-summit, organisers and frontline communities will make the case for a different approach: one in which investment strengthens public wealth and resilience rather than concentrating more power and resources in the hands of global corporations and billionaires.
“Mark Carney is trying to sell global investors on the fantasy of a war economy, but Canada is not a blank check for arms dealers,” said Rachel Small, Canadian Lead for World Beyond War. “While families across this country struggle to pay rent and put food on the table amid the economic turmoil fueled by Trump, Carney is talking about “elbows up” and then awarding billions of dollars in military contracts to American arms manufacturers. With his investor summit, Carney is rolling out the red carpet for billionaires like BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, a primary financier of the weapons of used to decimate Gaza and fierce defender of Israel’s war crimes, and the heads of the UAE’s major sovereign wealth funds, who are directly enabling the Rapid Support Forces (RSF)’s massacres in Sudan. Toronto will not allow the same people bankrolling and profiting from genocide, war, destruction, and exploitation across the world descend on our city unopposed.”
“Our future is not for sale,” said Atiya Jaffar, Canada lead at 350.org. “ Mark Carney is inviting the world’s most notorious billionaires, CEOs and investors to finance dangerous plans including for oil and gas expansion and new pipelines. It’s outrageous that he’s convening foreign investors to fast track climate destruction just a week after the UN issued a sobering reminder that we must immediately phase out fossil fuels. Instead of focusing on making Big Oil, Big Tech, and weapons manufacturers richer, Mark Carney must prioritize building a safe, affordable, liveable future for Canadians by taxing corporate profits to fund climate action and strong social safety nets.”
“This isn’t an investment summit, it is a privatization summit,” said Nik Barry-Shaw, trade and privatization campaigner for the Council of Canadians. “Selling off airports, highways or hydro dams to foreign investors like BlackRock or Blackstone is a recipe for higher energy bills, higher fees and higher costs for ordinary Canadians. Whatever happened to ‘Canada is not for sale’? Instead of selling off public infrastructure to backstop risky and environmentally damaging projects like AI data centres or pipelines, we need generational investments in the things that make us most proud to be Canadian: public healthcare, public education and strong public services,” the Council of Canadians’ Barry-Shaw continued.
“Mark Carney is attempting to use trade war anxiety to justify a massive corporate land-grab, but he does not own Treaty 9 territory, the courts, or the Breathing Lands,” said Eve Saint Financial Divestment Campaigner: Gidimt’en Checkpoint, Co-founder of 8th Fire Rising. “He can tell global CEOs that Mammamattawa is open for extraction, but he cannot put Indigenous sovereignty, treaty rights, and environmental reality on mute. Exploiting a trade crisis to override local consent isn’t an investment strategy, it’s a recipe for stranded capital.”
“Indigenous youth need to be at the table when it comes to decisions regarding the future of our people, communities, lands and water,” said Ramon Kataquapit, Attawapiskat First Nation, Founder of Okiniwak Youth Movement. “The Carney and Ford governments have demonstrated that they will take any opportunity to overlook our highest forms of First Nations Leadership, and work to erode our treaties, rights and inherent sovereignty. Youth have the power and potential to foster great change and bring back balance to the world. So, any legislation, policy or decisions made without us – that is against our way of life – will have to face the will of the 7th fire.”
ABOUT THE MANY VS. THE MONEY
The Many vs. The Money Summit is convened by the Council of Canadians, 8th Fire Rising and World BEYOND War. The coalition brings together labour unions, Indigenous Nations, climate networks and public-interest organisations representing hundreds of thousands of workers and community members.
The coalition opposes the transfer of public wealth, infrastructure and resources into the hands of global private capital and is calling instead for investment that strengthens communities, protects the climate, respects Indigenous rights and puts public benefit ahead of private profit.
Media contact:
Gur Tsabar – [email protected]
+1 347 248 1390 (cell/Signal/WhatsApp)
Eagleclaw Thom – [email protected]
+1 613 404 2004
More information: The Many vs. The Money
