G78 Praises ICJ Opinion on States’ Obligations on Climate Change

On July 23, 2025, the International Court of Justice issued an advisory opinion confirming that states violating international treaties and conventions as well as customary legal practices and norms on climate change are open to legal action for damage caused to the environment and to people. This opinion applies particularly to the failure to regulate greenhouse gas emissions… Continue Reading G78 Praises ICJ Opinion on States’ Obligations on Climate Change

Maude Stephany

Rekindling Hope: Roy Culpeper on the Seville Financing for Development Conference

In this post, G78’s Past Chair, Dr. Roy Culpeper, provides a briefing on progress made at the recent conference in Seville on financing for development. Citing a Carnegie Endowment report on the event, Dr. Culpeper highlights four important commitments in the outcome document from Seville: alleviating sovereign debt burdens, increasing trade access, expanding public domestic resource mobilization, and… Continue Reading Rekindling Hope: Roy Culpeper on the Seville Financing for Development Conference

Maude Stephany

Massey Lecturer Alex Neve Speaking September 19-October 30

At a time when Human Rights are being gutted around the world, Alex Neve discusses how we have failed to make these rights truly universal and how we might renew these rights in a world filled with conflict and divisiveness.  Alex Neve is a human rights lawyer who served as Secretary-General of Amnesty International Canada from 2000 to… Continue Reading Massey Lecturer Alex Neve Speaking September 19-October 30

Maude Stephany

11 Canadian Senators on Gaza: “Canada must do more. We cannot look away”

On June 25, 2025, eleven Canadian Senators – ten of whom are women – from five provinces issued a powerful statement urging Canada to uphold international humanitarian law in Gaza. “Respectfully, we call on the Government of Canada to immediately: 1. Protect and Fund Humanitarian Relief in Gaza, including UNRWA 2. Impose a two-way arms embargo on Israel… Continue Reading 11 Canadian Senators on Gaza: “Canada must do more. We cannot look away”

Maude Stephany

Deregulation, Privatization, and Fiscal Austerity: Remembering Why the Lac-Mégantic Rail Disaster Happened

G78 Board member Bruce Campbell recently wrote a commemorative article for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (https://www.policyalternatives.ca/) to mark the 12th anniversary of the Lac-Mégantic rail disaster. “On July 6, 2013, a train carrying 72 tank cars of toxic shale oil derailed and exploded. It killed 47 people, spilling six million litres of oil—obliterating the centre of… Continue Reading Deregulation, Privatization, and Fiscal Austerity: Remembering Why the Lac-Mégantic Rail Disaster Happened

Maude Stephany

This Time It’s Worse: The New International Debt Crisis

The Broadbent Institute (https://broadbentinstitute.ca/), a progressive Canadian think tank, recently published an insightful paper by Roy Culpeper, Past Chair of the Group of 78, on the current debt crisis facing low- and middle-income countries.  The paper argues that the most recent wave of debt began in 2010 and has persisted for the last fifteen years, threatening the social… Continue Reading This Time It’s Worse: The New International Debt Crisis

Maude Stephany

Thomas Homer-Dixon: New Analytic Tools for Defending Canadian Democracy

Economic precarity, the ingenuity gap, message distortion, and fragmentation of belief communities—these are four core factors driving the decline of democracy globally and in Canada. If we’re going to save, and even deepen, Canadian democracy, we must assess and respond to these issues through three lenses: worldviews, institutions, and technologies. That was the message of Dr. Thomas Homer-Dixon,… Continue Reading Thomas Homer-Dixon: New Analytic Tools for Defending Canadian Democracy

Maude Stephany

Save the date: October 10, 2025

The date for the Group of 78’s Annual Policy Conference has been set for October 10, 2025. As always, you can count on lively dialog with speakers, panelists, and other guests. Registration and schedule are forthcoming.

Maude Stephany

G78 to the Senate: It’s Your Duty to Fix Bill C-5

“It’s your duty to fix Bill C-5.” On June 23, 2025, that’s what the Group of 78 told the Speaker of Canada’s Senate, the Hon. Raymonde Gagné, and a dozen sitting Senators with interests in social, environmental and Indigenous policy issues.  The Senate is to review the legislation during the week of June 23-27 and has the power, opportunity… Continue Reading G78 to the Senate: It’s Your Duty to Fix Bill C-5

Maude Stephany

Canadian Environment Minister Briefed on Citizen-Driven Action to Fight Climate Change

On June 19, 2025, G78 Vice-Chair Susan Tanner wrote to Julie Dabrusin, Canada’s Minister for Environment and Climate Change, to underscore citizens’ deep commitment to fight climate change and their skepticism of the efforts to date of governments and the fossil fuel industry. Last fall’s G78 climate conference generated a wide range of recommended citizen actions at all… Continue Reading Canadian Environment Minister Briefed on Citizen-Driven Action to Fight Climate Change

Maude Stephany