TabGroupAbout Probe International is an independent environmental advocacy group that fights to stop ill-conceived aid, trade projects and foreign investments. But more importantly, we work to give citizens the tools they need to stop these projects – the rule of law, democratic processes, and honest and transparent accounting. Probe International goes where few others tread: we resurrected the doctrine of odious debts to challenge the enforceability of today's Third World debts; we argue that markets can work to improve people's living standards and protect their environment when they are decentralized, competitive and governed by the rule of law; we maintain that state-to-state aid has undermined political accountability and promoted a culture of corruption in both the donor and receiving nation; we have warned for the past decade that carbon credit schemes will threaten Third World environments; and we think the best way to protect the environment is to entrench and enforce the individual and collective property rights of citizens. Our convictions come from years of working with citizens groups around the world, whether from the remote highlands of Cambodia, the river valleys of China, the forests of the Amazon, the savannas of Africa, or the streets of Baghdad. We are inspired by the courage of these people who do not ask for handouts, but for the right to defend their resources and chart their own economies. How do we make our case? With the power of the pen and the mouse. We dig into the history books and the law tomes; we interview the experts; we tackle the technical arguments from both the independents and the propagandists; we listen to the people and we give voice to the voiceless by bypassing the censors. There is no greater guarantee of justice than the free flow of information. Our goal is to inform and to empower and we do so by publishing groundbreaking books, writing articles for the mainstream media and our online news services. TabGroup2Principles These principles have evolved from our near 30 years of analysis of the root causes of environmental destruction and of the elements of a sustainable society: 1. We work for environmental sustainability by promoting property rights (private or communal), markets, the rule of law, the right to know, accountability through liability, cost and risk internalization, economic efficiency, competition, consumer choice, and an informed public. 2. We strive to eliminate tragedies of the commons[1] by advocating property rights where resources can be exclusive, divisible, and alienable. In these situations, Probe International believes resources are most sustainably managed by the users of the resources themselves. Probe International advocates property rights: · to establish and preserve rights and responsibilities; · to account fully for social and environmental costs based on the values assigned by the rights holders; · to internalize risks and costs (and to eliminate moral hazards[2]) in decision making 3. We favour court actions based on the common law of nuisance, trespass, and riparian rights to empower individuals to protect themselves from environmental harm. We do not believe that governments should have the discretion to negotiate with polluters, or with other parties, to override traditional common law protections. 4. We generally oppose expropriation, which often results in environmental harm. We believe that voluntary agreements more fully internalize costs, protect the environment, and ensure economic efficiency. 5. We argue for the break up of unnatural monopolies, created by political or regulatory decree. Where natural monopolies exist, we advocate regulation that is mandated to protect the interests of consumers. 6. Where property rights cannot easily or affordably be assigned or enforced, we strive to eliminate tragic commons through statutory law and regulation. Although rigorous regulation is often required, regulatory authority must seek to avoid creating barriers to entry, stifling innovation, interrupting the flow of information, and forcing regulated parties to act against their best judgment. 7. We work to ensure the integrity of regulatory systems and the strict enforcement of laws that penalize unauthorized pollution. To eliminate biases and conflicts of interest, and to ensure that public and private sector polluters are treated equally, we advocate independent regulators, who are subject to due process and judicial review, and regulatory processes that require full disclosure of information. 8. We work to establish decentralized decision-making processes and to devolve decision making to the lowest practicable level – that which is closest to the individual. 9. We oppose subsidies to resource use. Where society favours subsidies to ensure social equity, we favour subsidizing resource users with direct payments, untied to the level of consumption, rather than subsidies that lower the apparent cost of the resource. 10. We oppose the socialization of private sector costs and risks through government subsidies and indemnities to the corporate sector. For example, while we approve of private insurance as a way to internalize risks and costs, we oppose government indemnities to resource or financial sectors, particularly if those indemnities protect risk takers and polluters from the risks and costs of their activities.
[1] The tragedy of the commons, popularized by Garrett Hardin's essay in 1968, explains individuals' incentives to exploit common resources for personal gain and the exhaustion of the resources in the process. "Ruin is the destination toward which all men rush, each pursuing his own best interest in a society that believes in the freedom of the commons. Freedom in the commons brings ruin to all." [2] "Moral hazard" refers to people's increased incentives to take risks when insured.
TabGroup3Our Record Probe International is a division of the Energy Probe Research Foundation, Canada’s best known and respected environmental and energy policy NGO. Created in 1980, the independently funded Energy Probe Research Foundation has led the environmental debate in issues, such as energy, forestry, water, mining, and agriculture and become known for its insightful and provocative analysis of the legal, financial and regulatory regimes that promote environmental destruction. Our foundation’s 20 staff members are regular contributors to the world’s leading newspapers and broadcast media, and appear as witnesses before regulatory and legislative bodies. Our books are translated into half a dozen languages and adopted by university courses around the world. We believe that there is no greater guarantee of justice than the free flow of information. Probe International was created to address the environmental damage the Canadian government and corporations were causing in other countries. We discovered that for four decades, our foreign aid and export credit agencies had been pumping vast amounts of money into cash-strapped developing nations with little accountability, financing dictators against their people, spawning corruption, and building ill-conceived aid projects that left an environmental mess. These “loans” left local peoples destitute and saddled with debts that were neither repayable nor legitimate. Probe International investigated these projects, exposed waste and corruption and wasn’t afraid to name names. The idea that aid could undermine the democratic process, fund projects that destroyed the environment and keep poor people poor was previously unheard of. Probe International and a handful of like-minded environmental groups and indigenous rights groups thus changed the debate over Third World development. The cause of Third World poverty and environmental degradation isn’t lack of money, we said, but the absence of democratic tools and rule of law. It still is. Since our inception, we have worked in partnership with organizations in developing countries to give power to the people to control the decisions that affect their environments, their economies and, ultimately, their own development. Here are the highlights of progress we’ve made, step by step. 1982 – Probe International and a handful of environmental and indigenous rights groups establish a worldwide network of citizens groups, now numbering in the thousands, to gather and exchange information to stop environmental wrong-doing in the Third World. 1983 – Two hydroelectric projects in Haiti that threaten to throw thousands of small farmers off their land to provide electricity for some 250 multinational corporations are stopped after Probe International protests to the financier, the Inter-American Development Bank. 1984 – In the Name of Progress: The Underside of Foreign Aid (Doubleday) is written, documenting how foreign aid often violates human rights, causes environmental harm and poverty, and undermines the very tools of development – democracy and rule of law. In the Name of Progress becomes required reading in university courses across the country. 1985 – Due to the efforts of Probe International and a small worldwide network of citizens groups, the World Bank and the other multilateral development banks begin, for the first time in their 40 year history, to be called to account by taxpayers in industrialized countries for destroying the environment with their projects. The first project under international scrutiny is Brazil’s POLONORESTE (Northwest Brazil Integrated Development Program). The project cleared the Amazon through burning, causing what is likely the most extensive and rapid human-induced change on Earth. The damage was so extensive that it was visible from space. 1986 – Probe International blows the whistle on the Canadian financing (in the form of famine relief) of Ethiopia’s corrupt resettlement project that forced the relocation of close to 800,000 northern Ethiopians to slave camp conditions in the south-west. The international outrage over the project, which killed 50,000 to 100,000 Ethiopians, forces the Ethiopian government to suspend the project. 1987 – The World Bank cuts its financing of Indonesia’s ill-conceived transmigration project, which would destroy over eight million acres of tropical forest and the homeland of indigenous peoples in Kalimantan and Irian Jaya, after Probe International and citizen groups from around the world support a campaign by Indonesian environmentalists and human rights groups to stop the destruction. 1988 – Following protests by Probe International, groups in other rich countries and Brazil itself, the World Bank withdraws a $500 million loan to Brazil’s power sector, thwarting construction of dozens of hydro dams that would have flooded an area of the Amazonian rainforest the size of the United Kingdom. 1990 – Probe International publishes Damming the Three Gorges: What Dam Builders Don’t Want You to Know (Earthscan), a blockbuster critique of the official feasibility study for the Three Gorges dam paid for by Canadian taxpayers and carried out by Canadian engineers. This marks the first time a feasibility study for a major development project has ever been publicly disclosed, giving citizens an important insight into the compromised analysis that have justified billions of dollars of loans to Third World for four decades. The feasibility study is so flawed that Probe International files formal complaints against the engineering firms for professional misconduct, negligence and incompetence. 1991 – Probe International revolutionizes the international financial infrastructure with Odious Debts: Loose Lending, Corruption and the Third World’s Environmental Legacy (Earthscan), by resurrecting the legal Doctrine of Odious Debts. The doctrine says that sovereign loans not spent in the interests of the populous but used corruptly or to arm governments against their people are not legally enforceable. Citizens’ rights groups throughout the Third World take up the Odious Debts charge in what will become the world’s largest grassroots movement to challenge the Third World’s debts. 1992 – Probe International and the Grand Council of the Crees of Quebec launch a joint prosecution against Canadian dam builders for the Three Gorges dam and the James Bay dam before the International Water Tribunal in Amsterdam, which rules in their favour for a halt to both projects. 1992 – Probe International warns the oil industry and Canadian government that commodifying carbon as a solution to global warming will lead to the takeover of precious forests, farms, and food used by the Third World’s poor, causing not only environmental harm but more desperate poverty and hunger. 1993 – Probe International and environmentalists from India, the U.S. and Europe rally public support for the highly critical independent review of the World Bank’s involvement in the controversial Sardar Sarovar dam and irrigation projects in India that will displace and impoverish 240,000 people. The bank is forced to withdraw its support from this ill-conceived scheme. 1993 – Odious Debts: Loose Lending, Corruption and the Third World’s Environmental Legacy is translated into Spanish and published, Deudas Odiosas: Un Legado De Insensatez Economica Y Saqueo Ambiental, by Argentinian publisher Planeta Tierra, making it available throughout Latin America. 1994 – Probe International teams up with Dai Qing, China’s most famous female investigative journalist, to translate and publish an expanded version of her extraordinary 1989 critique of the Three Gorges dam, Yangtze! Yangtze!. The book convinced the State Council to postpone the dam for five years, but landed Dai Qing in jail after Tiananmen Square for having contributed to the turmoil. The English version of Yangtze! Yangtze! gives the world, for the first time ever, the uncensored views of Chinese scientists, environmentalists, and concerned scholars and becomes an instant classic. 1995 – Probe International exposes—in an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal—that the World Bank has amassed the world’s riskiest loan portfolio, only secure because of political guarantees from rich country members. 1996 – Probe International and U.S. environmental groups convince the U.S. Export-Import Bank that it should not subsidize American companies working on the Three Gorges dam project as it would be in direct violation of American environmental laws. 1997 – After years of opposition from Probe International and environmental groups from Malaysia and around the world, the Malaysian government cancels the uneconomic Bakun hydro dam that would have flooded 70,000 hectares of tropical forest and displaced thousands of people. 1998 – Probe International launches Three Gorges Probe—the world’s first and only English and Chinese language Internet news service covering the Three Gorges dam. Three Gorges Probe bypasses the Chinese government censors who have kept Chinese citizens ignorant about the devastation the dam will cause. Probe International also translates and publishes Dai Qing’s second monumental collection of expert criticisms of the Three Gorges dam and China’s dam building history called The River Dragon Has Come! The Three Gorges Dam and the Fate of China’s Yangtze River and Its People (M.E. Sharpe). 1999 – The 26-million-strong worldwide Jubilee ecumenical movement embraces the Doctrine of Odious Debts, based on Probe International’s seminal work, Odious Debts: Loose Lending, Corruption and the Third World’s Environmental Legacy, in its campaign to cancel the Third World’s debts by the new millennium. They are supported by former South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission which declared that the apartheid debts should be investigated for “odiousness.” Desmond Tutu’s successor, Archbishop Ndungane of Cape Town adds his voice to the growing grassroots movement with his own worldwide campaign to investigate and cancel the Third World’s odious debts. 2001 – A Probe International exposé given before the Canadian Parliamentary Committees points out a loophole in proposed legislation that would give Canada’s Export Development Canada corporation virtual immunity from judicial review if they caused environmental harm in overseas projects. The legislation will also give EDC the right to silence any critic with a $10,000 fine or six months in jail. Members of the Canadian Senator attempt to stop passage of bill, but fail. 2001 – Patricia Adams, author of Odious Debts: Loose Lending, Corruption and the Third World’s Environmental Legacy addresses NGOs at a conference in Indonesia, arguing that the country has enough evidence to launch an odious debt arbitral process against the World Bank’s past loans. She delivers the same message in an audience with Indonesian President, Abdurrahman Wahid, and in 2002, Odious Debts is published in Bahasa Indonesian, entitled Utang Najis: Obral Utang, Korupsi dan Kerusakan Lingkungan di Dunia (Indonesian version published by the International NGO Forum on Indonesian Development). 2002 – Probe International works with Mayan archeologists, Belize Zoo director Sharon Matola, Belizean NGOs, and the U.S. Natural Resources Defence council to stop Canadian company, Fortis, from building a dam that is uneconomic and based on a flawed geological assessment. The dam will sever the Meso-American Biological corridor and destroy Central America’s last remaining habitat for the Scarlet macaw, Morelet’s crocodile, the Central American river otter and jaguar. Despite all the effort, the dam is built in 2005. 2003 – Canadian engineering giant, Acres International (who Probe had earlier exposed for their flawed work on Three Gorges) is convicted of paying bribes to win contracts in Lesotho’s $12 billion dam-building scheme. Probe International follows every twist and turn in the four-year court battle, exposing suspected, but never-before-known details of corruption in the dam building industry–including behind-the-scenes lobbying by the Canadian government to save Acres from the World Bank’s new anti-corruption rules. Probe International launches a public letter writing campaign to World Bank President James Wolfensohn and secures Acres’ debarment from World Bank contracts in 2004. 2004 – Probe International advises Iraqi jurists and civil society to challenge the assumption of Saddam Hussein’s odious debts. This leads to a groundswell movement in Iraq for an investigation and arbitration of the claims against the Iraqi people, and to a resolution by the Iraqi National Assembly denouncing responsibility for those debts. It also implicates the creditors—mostly western governments—for financing the dictator against his people. Worldwide public support, press recognition, policy think tank endorsement, and even the IMF acquiescence to the inherent justice of the principles of odious debts leads to the largest debt write-off in modern history, with 80% of the Iraqi debts being cancelled. 2005 – Probe International and Dai Qing launch the first annual Environmental English Language Training program for Chinese environmental volunteers, press, and lawyers to learn applied English, and intern with North American environmental organizations. The program inspires the unprecedented exchange of ideas and intellectual ferment among environmentalists inside and outside China, helping to find solutions for China’s monumental environmental problems. 2005 – Probe International releases report by a leading Canadian forensic accounting firm showing that Export Development Canada’s financial statements keep taxpayers in the dark when the crown corporation extends a sovereign loan for political reasons. Probe International protests on behalf of Third World taxpayers who are forced to repay state debts that served a political interest rather than the public’s interest. 2005 – Probe International translates and publishes The Story of the Dahe Dam by respected Chinese sociologist Ying Xing. It is a detailed account of the years-long struggle for redress pursued by thousands of people affected by the construction of the Dahe dam on a tributary of the Yangtze. Thirty years later, many are being moved again for the Three Gorges project. Described by China’s most respected female journalist, Dai Qing, as an “excellent book that describes the ruin caused by one small dam,” the original Chinese version of the book was banned in China in 2002, soon after its publication. Probe International makes it available online, in both Chinese and English. 2006 – Probe International addresses committee of the European Union arguing that export credit agencies are moral hazard machines, serve no legitimate economic purpose and should be shut down. 2007 – Probe International works with grassroots groups throughout the Mekong region to defend their rights to say no to proposed dams. Probe International also champions a movement for “regulated flow” in which Mekong riparian citizens who depend on the fish stocks, and flood waters for fertilization and irrigation, are given rights to restore the natural flow of tributaries on dammed rivers in order to revive their former livelihoods. 2007 –- The popularity of the Probe International-fueled odious debts movement prompt legal scholars worldwide to explore the principles of public international and private domestic law, expanding and establishing the principles espoused by the doctrine of odious debts. The Norwegian government takes the first official step and declares mea culpa when it cancels its own odious loans to half a dozen Third World countries; the UN Development Program publishes a scholarly paper endorsing the concept. 2008 – Probe International and Dai Qing work with a team of Chinese journalists, economists, cartographers, and hydrologists to publish an independent audit of the Three Gorges dam, and a pathbreaking independent report on Beijing’s water crisis and how the Olympics will exacerbate it. Oral histories gathered from the Yangtze river valley and the Beijing watershed are also published by Probe International, giving voice to the people who have been denied a voice for decades. TabGroup4Staff Patricia Adams, Executive Director
Patricia Adams is an economist and the Executive Director of Probe International, an independent think-tank and watchdog over the environmental consequences of Canadian government and corporate activities around the world. Her books include In the Name of Progress: The Underside of Foreign Aid, (Doubleday 1985), and Odious Debts: Loose Lending, Corruption and the Third World''s Environmental Legacy (Earthscan 1991), which exposes the jeopardy of years of loose lending for both the Third World's environment and their economies, and proposes a legal remedy to place responsibility for the Third World's debt crisis on the parties involved, instead of on First and Third World taxpayers. Pat also edited the English language translation of Yangtze! Yangtze!, the extraordinary critique by Chinese experts of the Three Gorges dam that inspired the democracy movement when it was first published in 1989, led to the postponement of the dam, and was subsequently banned by Chinese authorities. Before coming to Probe International, Pat worked on a variety of development projects for the International Development Research Centre and Acres International. She has taught economics in Jamaica, advised the World Council of Churches'' energy program, and Chaired the Nairobi-based Environment Liaison Centre, a coalition of 300 environmental and citizens' groups from around the world. She is a co-founder of the International Rivers Network and the World Rainforest Movement, and is an associate editor of the British magazine, The Ecologist. Pat has appeared before Congressional and Parliamentary Committees in the US and Canada and has given speaking tours of the United Kingdom, Argentina, and Chile. She submitted the paper, Patronage Canada, to the 1998 Export Development Act Review. She subsequently presented a Statement on The Review of the Export Development Act to the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade. She has written editorial page articles for major daily newspapers, including the Wall Street Journal, Guardian, New Statesman, and the Indian, Malaysian, and Jamaican press, and in Canada, the National Post, Globe and Mail, Montreal Gazette, Ottawa Citizen, Winnipeg Free Press, Vancouver Sun, and Hamilton Spectator. She has appeared on many of Canada's major radio and TV news and current affairs programs, including Canada AM, As It Happens, Ideas, Newsworld, Face Off, and Morningside. Outside Canada, she has appeared on British, Australian, French, Thai, and Japanese TV and radio. Dai Qing
Brady Yauch A researcher for Probe International, Brady Yauch received a Masters Degree in Cultural Politics from the University of Edinburgh before working as a business reporter, researcher and editor. He has been published in a number of magazines and newspapers, including the Washington Post, China Daily and other publications. In addition to his work with Probe International, he is pursing a degree in Economics. He can be contacted via email, here. Lisa Peryman Lisa Peryman has worked with Greenpeace Australia and the Australia Wilderness Society. She studied journalism in New Zealand and book and magazine publishing in Canada. Her background includes reporting and editing for daily newspapers and trade magazines, as well as creative copywriting for broadcast. Lisa is continuing her studies in Canada and currently works with Probe International as the editor of Odious Debts Online. Mu Lan Mu Lan is a Chinese scholar of environmental and population migration issues, has taught in Chinese and Canadian universities, done field work and primary research in the Three Gorges area, and studied in the U.S. and the U.K. Currently, Mu Lan is working with Probe International as a translator, researcher, writer, and Chief Editor of the Three Gorges Probe (Chinese language edition). TabGroup5Board CURRENT BOARD MEMBERS Chair, Gail Regan, President
From 1972 to 1982, Ms. Regan was an assistant professor and lecturer at the University of Toronto's Faculty of Education. She is a member of the Canadian Association of Family Enterprise, the Family Firm Institute, the Council for Canadian Unity, Women's College Hospital, and is president of the Friends of Women's College Hospital. Patricia Adams, President, Executive Director, Probe International
Before coming to Probe International, Ms. Adams worked on a variety of development projects for the International Development Research Centre and Acres International. She taught economics in Jamaica, advised the World Council of Churches’ energy program, chaired the Nairobi-based Environment Liaison Centre, a coalition of 300 environmental and citizens’ groups from around the world, and was associate editor of the British magazine, The Ecologist. She is a co-founder of the International Rivers Network and the World Rainforest Movement. Ms. Adams has appeared before Congressional and Parliamentary Committees in the US and Canada and has given speaking tours of the United Kingdom, Argentina, and Chile. She has written editorial page articles for major daily newspapers around the world and has appeared on Canadian, British, Australian, French, Thai, and Japanese TV and radio. Max Allen
Andrew Coyne
Mr. Coyne received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics and History from Trinity College, University of Toronto, and a Masters in Economics from the London School of Economics. He has been an editorial writer and columnist for the Financial Post, The Globe and Mail, and the National Post. In addition, he is a frequent commentator on television and radio. Mr. Coyne has been nominated for four National Newspaper Awards, winning twice. He is also a past recipient of the Hyman Solomon Award for Excellence in Public Policy Journalism. Glenn Fox
Mr. Fox's teaching and research interests include the economics of property rights and environmental stewardship and economic methodology. He is a student of the Austrian school in economics, established by Carl Menger at the University of Vienna in the late 19th century. Ian Gray
Clifford Orwin
Mr. Orwin has published dozens of articles and chapters on a range of topics—anywhere from ancient and modern political thought to current political issues such as humanitarianism and religion in contemporary politics. Mr. Orwin is a regular contributor to the National Post, The Globe and Mail and other periodicals. His work has been translated into French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, and Hebrew. Mr. Orwin received his MA and PhD from Harvard University and his BA from Cornell University. He has taught as a visitor at Harvard, the University of Chicago, and Michigan State University. He has also held positions at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and the Universidade Catolica Portuguesa, Lisbon. He has served on the Panel on Political Science at the National Endowment for the Humanities in Washington. He is the recipient of three NEH Fellowships, the Faculty of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Teaching Award and a St. Michael’s College Teacher of the Year Award. Andrew Roman
Mr. Roman's broad practice has recently included energy, competition policy, communications, environmental and municipal law. He has appeared before several parliamentary and legislative committees and made numerous submissions to government ministers and senior officials on matters of law and public policy. He has also testified as an expert witness on economic regulation before the Nova Scotia and Manitoba Public Utilities boards. Roman represents clients before a range of boards, commissions and tribunals, and at all levels of court in Ontario, as well as the Federal Court and Supreme Court of Canada. Mr. Roman is the author of more than 90 publications, including reports, articles, monographs and a book. His writings have been cited in judgments by the Supreme Court of Canada. He has also contributed editorial assistance to two recent English legal texts by Lord Woolf. Mr. Roman has been a sessional lecturer at four law schools and was chair of National Resources Law at the University of Calgary during the winter-spring 1998 term while carrying on his law practice. Andrew Stark
Mr. Stark has contributed to a number of periodicals and journals, including: The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Globe and Mail and the New Republic. He has also lectured and presented at universities across Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Mr. Stark holds a PhD from Harvard University, an MSc from The London School of Economics and a BA from the University of British Columbia. George Tomko
Dr. Tomko is best known for having invented the privacy-enhancing technology called “Biometric Encryption,” as well as “Anonymous Database,” both of which were the subject of numerous patents in the 1990’s. Later he invented “SmartData,” and is presently working on developing Smart Intelligent Agents. Dr. Tomko served for three years as the Chairman of Photonics Research Ontario, one of four Ontario Centres of Excellence, comprising of researchers from across Ontario universities and research institutes, with the mandate to develop optical and photon-based technologies. Dr. Tomko holds a Ph.D. in Neuroscience, obtained from the University of Toronto. He graduated with a B.A.Sc. in Engineering Physics, and an M.A.Sc. in Electrical Engineering. After his Ph.D., he went on to complete an Executive MBA. He has held a number of executive positions including: Vice-president & General Manager of Chubb Security in Canada; Vice President of Marketing at Sentrol Systems, a process control company; and Director of Neurotoxicology at Bio-Research Laboratories, a toxicology testing laboratory for pharmaceuticals and chemicals. Michael Trebilcock
A prolific author, Mr. Trebilcock has published multiple books, including The Common Law of Restraint of Trade, which was chosen as the best law book in English published in Canada in the past two years, The Limits of Freedom of Contract, co-authored The Regulation of International Trade; Exploring the Domain of Accident Law: Taking the Facts Seriously and The Making of the Mosaic: A History of Canadian Immigration Policy. He has served as National Vice-President of the Consumers' Association of Canada, Chair of the Consumer Research Council and Research Director of the Professional Organizations Committee for the Government of Ontario. He was a Fellow in Law and Economics at the University of Chicago Law School in 1976, a Visiting Professor of Law at Yale Law School in 1985, and a Global Law Professor at New York University Law School in 1997 and 1999. From 1982 to 1986 he was a member of the Research Council of the Canadian Institute of Advanced Research. In 1987 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and was appointed a University Professor in 1990. Annetta Turner
As a National Vice-President of the Consumers Association of Canada she served on the Minister's Committee on Franchising and the Liquor Advisory Council – both with the Ministry of Consumer and Commercial Relations, and the Social Responsibility in Advertising Committee of the Canadian Advertising Advisory Board. Previously she was Director of Nutrition Services, Associated Milk Foundations of Canada, and Nutritionist and later President of the Board of the Visiting Homemakers Association. She received a BA from the University of Western Ontario and a Diploma in Community Nutrition from the Canadian Dietetic Association. Margaret Wente
Ms. Wente has had a diverse career in Canadian journalism as both a writer and an editor. She has edited two leading business magazines, Canadian Business and ROB Magazine. She has also been editor of the Globe's business section, the ROB, and managing editor of the paper. Her columns have appeared in the Globe since 1992. For the past two years she has been writing full-time for the paper, and she is a frequent commentator on television and radio. Ms. Wente was born in Chicago and moved to Toronto with her family when she was in her teens. She has won numerous journalism awards. She holds a BA from the University of Michigan, and an MA in English from the University of Toronto. She is married to Ian McLeod, a television producer. NOTABLE PAST BOARD MEMBERS Thomas R. Berger Thomas R. Berger is a prominent legal voice in Canada, often defending minority and aboriginal rights. Mr. Berger has played a vital role in protecting aboriginal lands and ensuring their rights were included in the new Canadian Constitution. He served as a Justice of the Supreme Court of BC from 1971 – 1983. He has held positions as the Chairman of the Royal Commission on Family and Children’s Law, BC, Commissioner of the Mackenzie Valley Pipeline Inquiry and Inquiry on Indian and Health Consultation for the Government of Canada. He served as Deputy Chairman of the World Bank’s Sardar Sarovar Commission in India. He is also the author of a number of books. Mr Berger holds honorary degrees from 13 universities, and received the Order of Canada in 1990. In 1992 he was made a Freeman of the City of Vancouver. Served as a director from 1985-1988 Arthur Bielfeld Rabbi Arthur Bielfeld served on the EPRF Board of Directors from 1981 to 1990, and was Chairman of the Board from 1982 to 1986. Born in the United States, Rabbi Bielfeld was ordained in 1964 and emigrated to Canada in 1967. He is a founding member and continuing Executive Board Member of the Leo Baeck School, a former member of the Executive Board for the North York Mayor's Committee on Community Race & Ethnic Relations, past Chairman of Canadian Council of Reform Rabbis, and a former member of the Executive Board of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. Rabbi Bielfeld has been with the Temple Emanu-El in Toronto since 1967. Served as director from 1981 to 1990, and was Chairman of the Board from 1982 to 1986. David Bronfman David Bronfman is a prominent activist and writer. He's the co-author of the vegetarian cookbook, Calciyum: Delicious Calcium-Rich Dairy-Free Vegetarian Recipes. George Connell President Emeritus Connell served as a University of Toronto professor and administrator for 20 years before his tenure as president from 1984 to 1990. He also served as president of the University of Western Ontario from 1977 to 1984. He is currently a senior policy adviser with the Canada Foundation for Innovation and past chair of the Protein Engineering Network of Centres of Excellence and the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy. He is also a director of Allelix Biopharmaceuticals Inc., a member of the Ontario Press Council, and a trustee of the McLaughlin Foundation. Wendy Dobson Wendy Dobson is a former president of the CD Howe Institute and associate deputy minister of finance in Ottawa. Ms. Dobson is currently the Director of the Institute for International Business with the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management, University of Toronto. She is also the editor of numerous books, including Fiscal Frameworks and Financial Systems in East Asia: How much do they matter? and East Asian Capitalism: Diversity and Dynamism. Served as a director from 1981 to 1983. Georges Erasmus Georges Erasmus is perhaps most widely recognized for his role as Chairman of the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples, he was also chair of the University of Canada North (1971-1975), president of the Indian Brotherhood of Northwest Territories (later the Dene Nation), and elected National Chief for the Assembly of First Nations in 1985. In addition to these achievements, Georges Erasmus has been the Canadian delegate to such international conferences as the World Council of Indigenous Peoples. Served as a director from 1988 to 1998 John F. Helliwell John F. Helliwell is internationally-recognized economist and one of the pioneers in incorporating the idea of well-being into economic models. Mr. Helliwell often questions how economic movements and social capital affect the well-being of citizens. Mr. Helliwell is Arthur J.E. Child Foundation Fellow of the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research and co-director (with George Akerlof) of CIFAR's program on "Social Interactions, Identity and Well-Being". He is also Professor Emeritus of Economics at the University of British Columbia, a member of the National Statistics Council and a Research Associate of the National Bureau of Economic Research. He's held a number of advisor and teaching positions at universities, think-tanks and governments around the globe. He's also won dozens of awards for his work and published a number of books, articles and editorials. Mr. Helliwell studied at Oxford, where he was a Rhodes Scholar, and at the University of British Columbia, where he is an Emeritus Professor of Economics. Served as a director from 1992-1994 Ken Hare Kenneth Hare was a pre-eminent climatologist, environmentalist and meteorologist. Throughout his career, Mr. Hare sought to protect the natural environment through serving on commissions and committees on acid rain, desertification, heavy metals, nuclear reactors and waste products, ozone, greenhouse gases and climate change. Mr. Hare held a number of prestigious posts at both prestigious Canadian and international universities. He was a professor and dean of arts and science at McGill University, master of Birkbeck College at the University of London, president of the University of British Columbia, Chancellor at Trent University, and professor at the University of Toronto. He also chaired the national Climate Program Planning Board. Mr. Hare was born in Wiltshire, England and moved to Canada in 1945. He later earned a PhD as an arctic climatologist. He died on September 3, 2002. Served as a director from 1981-1982 George Ignatieff Few Canadians symbolize the nation’s outstanding international reputation and service better than George Ignatieff. He enjoyed a long, distinguished career in international service – representing Canada for decades in number of countries and for a variety of organizations. After joining the Department of External Affairs in 1940, Mr. Ignatieff went on to hold a number of posts, including: Canadian ambassador for the UN, President of the Security Council, ambassador to Yugoslavia, permanent representative to NATO and disarmament ambassador. He was also provost of Trinity College, University of Toronto, chancellor of U of T and lecturer at Queen's University. Mr. Ignatieff was born in Saint Petersburg, Russia on December 16, 1913. He obtained a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Oxford University in the UK. He was made a Companion of the Order of Canada in 1973. His son Michael Ignatieff is the current leader of the Liberal Party. Served as a director from 1981-1987 Jane Jacobs Jane Jacobs was one of the foremost writers, activists and critics on city-planning and community-based initiatives. Her 1961 treatise On the Life and Death of Great American Cities has become one of the most influential works on the failings of inner-city life and the politics and business decisions behind urban issues. Her support of community-based activism has helped prevent the construction of highways, protect local neighborhoods and—in one case—resulted in the ousting of a New York City Parks Commissioner. Rather than relying on academic studies, Ms. Jacobs used her keen sense of observation and support of neighborhood initiatives to explain modern cities. She helped lay the foundation for local activism and community development long before they became common elements to urban life. Publishing nine books and dozens of articles, Ms. Jacobs was a leading voice for a new approach to city planning. Ms. Jacobs was born in Scranton, Pennsylvania in 1916 and later moved to New York City during the Great Depression. While living in New York City, she helped organize resistance to then Parks Commissioner Robert Moses’ plan for top-down neighborhood cleaning and highway building. In opposition to the Vietnam War, she moved her family to Toronto in 1968. She became a Canadian citizen in 1974 and lived in Toronto until her death on April 25th, 2006. "Whenever and wherever societies have flourished and prospered rather than stagnated and decayed, creative and workable cities have been at the core of the phenomenon… Decaying cities, declining economies, and mounting social troubles travel together,” she said. “The combination is not coincidental." Served as a director from 1981-1997 Margaret Laurence Margaret Laurence was one of the eminent voices in both Canadian literature and activism. While she is remembered most for her internationally-acclaimed novels, Ms. Laurence spent the last decade of her life writing and speaking on issues such as nuclear disarmament, the environment, literacy and other issues. Her vision and compassion continues to be carried out through organizations such as Energy Probe's Margaret Laurence Fund and the Margaret Laurence Award for Excellence. After working as a reporter and editor in Winnipeg during the 1940s, Ms. Laurence moved to Africa where she began to focus her attention on writing fiction. After moving back to Canada in the 1950s, Laurence soon began publishing her critically acclaimed Manawaka books. In 1971 Ms. Laurence received the honour of being named a Companion of the Order of Canada. She later also received the Governor Generals Award and the Molson Prize for her fiction. She died on January 5, 1987. Served as a director from 1982-1987 David MacDonald David MacDonald is a United Church of Canada minister and former Minister of Parliament. His career in politics began when he was elected to the Canadian House of Commons as a Progressive Conservative Member of Parliament. For the next 20 years, he would hold a number of high-level positions, including: Minister of Communications, Minister responsible for the Status of Women and Secretary of State for Canada. In between his political positions, he spent time working in Africa. Served as a director from 1984-1986 Lynn McDonald Lynn McDonald is a health activist, academic and former provincial politician. Ms. McDonald is a strong advocate for womens rights and environmental sociology. Ms. McDonald is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Guelph, Ontario where she directs the Collected Works of Florence Nightingale, a major project from which six volumes of a projected 16 have already been published. She has authored three books on sociological theory and has published a number of articles in academic journals. She has also had an outstanding political career, where she was a member of Parliament from 1982 to 1988 and former president of the National Action Committee on the Status of Women. She is currently working as a professor of sociology at the University of Guelph. David Nowlan David Nowlan’s work covered a variety of fields, including economic growth and technical change, development planning, transportation economics, urban and regional economics, land economics and the economics of regulation. His current research focuses on urban land-use and taxation issues, on metropolitan and regional growth, and the relationship between central cities and metropolitan regions, on transportation pricing and on the relationship between transportation and land use. Mr. Nolan served as vice-president of research. In a long and varied career, Nowlan acted as a consultant to governments at all levels—from the City of Toronto to the United Nations. He was also Tanzania's senior transportation economist in the mid-1960s, a member of the Commonwealth Mission to Uganda in 1979, vice-chairman of the United Nation's Expert Group on Landlocked Countries in the mid-1980s, a consultant to the Jamaican government on the structure of the University of the West Indies, and he has served as an adviser on many of Toronto's city and metropolitan committees. He held degrees in engineering from Queen's University, and in philosophy, politics and economics from Oxford, which he attended as a Rhodes Scholar. In 1965, Mr. Nowlan received his PhD in economics from the University of Toronto. In 1998, he received the Outstanding Teaching Award from the Faculty of Arts and Science. Served as a director from 1998-2009 Walter Pitman Walter Pitman’s pivotal win in a 1961 by-election helped lay the foundation for the soon-to-be-formed New Democratic Party. Since then, Mr. Pitman has been a leading figure in both the Ontario and Toronto arts and academic scenes. Mr. Pitman has held posts as the Former Executive Director of the Ontario Arts Council, President of Ryerson Polytechnical Institute and Dean, Faculty of Arts & Sciences at Trent University. He has also been president of Canadian Civil Liberties and president of Canadian Association of Adult Education. He has an honorary doctorate from Trinity College, University of Toronto, and is an Officer, Order of Canada and member of the Order of Ontario. Served as a director from 1983-2000 John Sewell John Sewell is an influential voice in both the city of Toronto’s political and physical landscape. As a former mayor of Toronto and contributor to a number of city-based publications, Mr. Sewell has been a critic and leader in the development of Toronto for more than 30 years. After working as an alderman for the Toronto City Council from 1969 to 1978, Mr. Sewell was elected Mayor for a two year term. Throughout his time as both an alderman and as mayor, he was a strong advocate of city-based initiatives – including increased and affordable public transportation and a larger stock of public housing. He was also a leading defender of gay rights, long before the issue was taken up by other politicians in Toronto. Since leaving politics, he has been a regular contributor to a number of publications, including: The Globe and Mail, Now, Post City Magazine and Eye Weekly. He’s also the author of eight books. Mr. Sewell was born in Toronto in 1940, and raised in the Beaches area of the city. He received a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Toronto in 1961 and a law degree from the University of Toronto Law School in 1964. He was appointed to the Order of Canada in 2005. Served as a director in 1991 David Suzuki David Suzuki is considered by many to be the face of the environmental movement in Canada. He is the co-founder of the Suzuki Foundation, as well as an award-winning scientist, environmentalist and broadcaster. Mr. Suzuki has been explaining and discussing environmental issues for more than 30 years— and he’s currently the host of CBC’s popular show, The Nature of Things. He also held a post as a full professor at the University of British Columbia from 1969 until his retirement in 2001. He is now professor emeritus with UBC's Sustainable Development Research Institute. He has received dozens of awards for his work, including the Roger Tory Peterson Award from Harvard University. He is also a Companion of the Order of Canada, and a member of the Order of British Columbia. Throughout his career he has received 20 honorary doctorates—from both domestic and international universities. Mr. Suzuki was born in Vancouver, BC in 1936. He graduated from Amherst College in 1958 and earned his PhD in Zoology from the University of Chicago in 1961. He is the author of more than 40 books. Served as a director from 1988-1990 Harry Swain Harry Swain is a company director and management consultant. On leaving the Canadian federal government, where he had worked for 22 years, including eight as a deputy minister (Indian Affairs, Industry), he became CEO of Hambros Canada and a director of its UK merchant banking parent. When Hambros was bought by Société Générale, he stayed for the transition but left in September 1998 to found the Toronto office of Sussex Circle, a consultancy concentrating on strategic and financial advice for public and private sector clients. He is currently a director of Canadian Bank Note Limited, Canadian Geographic Enterprises, and several philanthropic organizations. Educated at UBC, Minnesota and Cambridge, he holds a doctorate in economic geography. The Very Reverend Dr. Lois Wilson Throughout her long and prestigious career, the Very Reverend Dr. Lois Wilson has been an ardent champion of human rights and religious understand. Whether she’s been working for the United Church of Canada or the Canadian government, Ms. Wilson has always been a strong advocate for the promotion of social justice and defender of human rights. But she has also been an exemplary role model – opening doors of opportunity for future generations of women. She was the first woman to be President of the Canadian Council of Churches, as well as the first woman to be Moderator of the United Church of Canada. She is also the first Canadian to be the President of the World Council of Churches and the first woman to be Chancellor of Lakehead University. Ms. Wilson was ordained a United Church minister in 1965. As President of both the Canadian and World Council of Churches, she continually visited churches in Asia, Latin America, India and Africa. She monitored elections in El Salvador and Mexico – developing a strong connection and compassion for citizens of the developing world. She became an active leader in Amnesty International and with the Canadian Institute for International Peace and Security. She has also served as Chair of the Board of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development. In 1998, she was appointed to the Senate of Canada, where she served as an Independent member until her retirement in 2002 at the age of 75. In recognition of her outstanding work on both the domestic and international stage, Ms. Wilson has won a number of awards, including: the World Federalist Peace Prize, Canada's Pearson Peace Medal, an Officer of the Order of Canada and promotion to the top rank of Companion. She is also a Member of the Order of Ontario. Served as a director from 1981-1987 TabGroup6Our Foundation
The Energy Probe Research Foundation is one of Canada's leading environmental and public policy research institutes. Our divisions -- Energy Probe, Probe International, Environment Probe, Urban Renaissance Institute, Environmental Bureau of Investigation, and the Margaret Laurence Fund -- are well known public-interest defenders. The goals of the Foundation are to provide the public, media, business, and government with information on resource-related issues, to promote sustainable resource use, to encourage individual responsibility and accountability, and to to help Canada contribute to global justice and prosperity. EPRF's senior public policy researchers have been with us for 20-30 years, demonstrating extraordinary commitment to the environment, showing tenacity in pushing for fundamental rights, and winning honours including entries in Canada's Who's Who, recognition by Time Canada of Canadians likely to make a difference to the country, membership in Ontario's Independent Market Operator, the National Round Table on the Environment and the Economy, and various conservation awards. But the foundation is much more: Over the years it has been assisted by a motivated team of interns, volunteers, and administrative staff and supported by tens of thousands of Canadian donors from all walks of life. Our work is also distinguished by its academic standing. Our books -- published by academic publishers in Canada, the United States, and France -- have been adopted by university courses, and our work appears in leading university texts. Our books have also been translated into the Spanish, Bengali, Chinese, Bahasa Indonesia, Japanese, Estonian, and Finnish languages. Like our staff, our board of directors has shown a long-term commitment to our foundation and to the environment. Over the years, board members have included leaders of Canadian society such as Thomas Berger, George Erasmus, the Right Reverend Lois Wilson, George Ignatieff, Jane Jacobs, Margaret Laurence, Walter Pitman, and David Suzuki.
Probe International is an independent environmental advocacy group that fights to stop ill-conceived aid, trade projects, and foreign investments. But more importantly, we work to give citizens the tools they need to stop these projects – the rule of law, democratic processes, and honest and transparent accounting. Probe International goes where few others tread. We resurrected the doctrine of odious debts to challenge the enforceability of today's Third World debts; we argue that markets can work to improve people's living standards and protect their environment when they are decentralized, competitive, and governed by the rule of law; we maintain that state-to-state aid has undermined political accountability and promoted a culture of corruption in both the donor and receiving nation and should be abolished; we have warned for the past decade that carbon credit schemes will threaten Third World environments; and we think the best way to protect the environment is to entrench and enforce the individual and collective property rights of citizens.
Energy Probe is the consumer and energy research team at EPRF, active in the fight against nuclear power, and dedicated to resource conservation, economic efficiency, and effective utility regulation. Most recently, with Lawrence Solomon's blockbuster book, The Deniers [link], Energy Probe has led the charge that the science of man-made global warming is not settled and defended those scientists who work to enlighten and inform the debate.
The Urban Renaissance Institute is dedicated to helping cities and their regions flourish by removing the many impediments to their proper functioning. To accomplish this, URI does research to measure and reveal the wealth that cities generate, to examine the organized complexity of cities, their parts and their features, to promote diversity of uses within cities, to investigate policies that foster thriving, sustainable city regions, and to demonstrate why sound urban policies are indispensable to wilderness and farmland protection.
Environment Probe works to expose government policies that harm not only Canada's forests, fisheries, waterways, and other natural resources but also the economy. It is committed to developing and promoting alternative resource policies that are environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable. Launched in 1989, Environment Probe worked for a Free Trade Agreement that improved environmental standards and now works to tap market mechanisms to protect the environment. Central to its policies is the promotion of property rights and decentralized decision making to empower individuals and communities to protect natural resources. It is also a sharp critic of subsidies to resource industries. Where markets cannot be relied on to protect the environment and public health – where property rights cannot be assigned or enforced, or where natural monopolies exist – Environment Probe advocates the strict enforcement of statutes and regulations. The organization works for regulatory processes that internalize risks and costs, enhance efficiency, and promote accountability and transparency. Environment Probe researchers work both to inform public opinion and to influence decision makers by publishing books [link], contributing chapters to others, authoring studies, writing op-ed pieces for the national press, and participating in environmental assessments, public inquiries, and regulatory consultations.
The Environmental Bureau of Investigation is dedicated to the protection of public resources through the application and enforcement of environmental laws: investigating and prosecuting environmental crime, assisting individuals and groups in their fight against polluters, developing public education tools to empower citizens to stop pollution, and publishing and publicizing information on pollution sources and sites. In recent years, EBI has focussed on maintaining its on-line Citizens Guide to Environmental Investigation and Prosecution, providing the public with invaluable advice on researching and documenting pollution in their communities, on determining whether the contaminants violate a law or regulation, on pressuring governments to take action, and on starting legal proceedings if governments refuse to act.
Margaret Laurence Fund for Peace and the Environment
In the last decade of her life Margaret Laurence turned her talent and passion to the cause of peace and the environment. Many of her efforts were directed through her work at EPRF, where she served with distinction as a director. To celebrate her accomplishments and carry on her work, our Foundation, with the support of her family, established the Margaret Laurence Fund. Through this fund, grants and scholarships are made to foster an understanding of peace and the environment upon which the fate of this fragile planet rests. Recipients of the grants and scholarships are limited to students, authors, researchers, and publishers, working with the Foundation in collaborative projects approved by the directors. TabGroup7 |
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Probe International Fellow, activist and journalist Dai Qing has been speaking out against the Three Gorges Dam since the 1980s. She published Yangtze! Yangtze! in 1989, a book of essays highlighting the concerns about the environmental and social effects of the dam, followed by The River Dragon has Come in 1998. Though Dai Qing faces constant harassment by Chinese authorities and is forbidden to publish in China, she has chosen to remain in Beijing where she continues to fight for freedom of the press, government accountability, and an open debate over the Three Gorges dam. She has been honoured with Fellowships from Harvard, Columbia, and the Australian National University, with the International PEN Award for Freedom, and the Goldman Environmental Prize.
Gail Regan is president of Cara Holdings Ltd. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology, a Certificate in Education from the Ontario College of Education, and from the University of Toronto: an MA in Educational Theory, a PhD in Educational Theory, and a Master of Business Administration in Marketing and Finance.
Max Allen is a producer for CBC Radio's IDEAS program. He is also the co-founder and curator of the Textile Museum of Canada.
Andrew Coyne is one of the leading voices and opinions on the current state of Canadian politics and issues. As the National Editor of Maclean’s, Mr. Coyne is on the front line of the major debates raging in Canadian society. 
Glenn Fox is an agricultural and natural resource economist. He received an undergraduate degree in agriculture in 1977 and a Master of Science in agricultural economics in 1979, both from the University of Guelph. He completed a PhD in agricultural economics and economics in 1985 at the University of Minnesota. He has taught at the University of Western Ontario and since 1985 has been a member of the faculty in the Department of Food, Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Guelph. 
Ian Gray is president of St. Lawrence Starch Co. Ltd. which owns and operates St. Lawrence Grains. Mr. Gray holds a Master of Business Administration in Agricultural Economics from the University of Guelph.
Clifford Orwin has been a professor of political science at the University of Toronto for more than 25 years. 
Andrew Roman is a partner with Miller Thomson LLP. Mr. Roman's legal practice concentrates on problems and opportunities in relation to governments and government agencies, with a particular expertise in competition law and civil litigation.. He has established a reputation for efficiently and successfully resolving complex, difficult regulatory issues. He works with Canadian and international businesses and government clients.
Andrew Stark is a Professor of Strategic Management and Professor of Political Science at the University of Toronto. He is currently researching and writing a book on one of the hot topics on the American scene: the increasingly blurred border between financial support by public funds and private funds for such core "entitlements" of citizenship as education, health-care, policing and municipal services
Dr. George Tomko was recently appointed to the post of Expert-in-Residence in IPSI at the University of Toronto. 
Professor Michael J. Trebilcock specializes in law and economics, international trade and contract and commercial law. He is currently serving as the Co-Director of the Law and Economics Program at the University of Toronto. 
Annetta Turner has been with the Energy Probe Research Foundation since its inception. She is currently working as the Secretary Treasurer and Executive Director of The Margaret Laurence Fund.
Margaret Wente is one of Canada's leading columnists. As a writer for The Globe and Mail, she provokes heated debate with her views on health care, education, and social issues. She is this year's winner of the National Newspaper Award for column-writing.
