Our Project
This website is devoted to documenting the early history of free trade struggles leading up to the adoption of the Canada-US Free Trade Agreement (1988).
This digital archive contains interviews with activists and related ephemera from the 1980s, documenting Canada’s rich history of activism against free trade.
Here you will find information of what motivated activists to organize networks and coalitions across Canada and globally to challenge free trade. You will also find an archive of publications and videos, along with a “free trade in Canada” timeline of important dates and events.
Research Team
Benjamin Christensen is a sociology faculty member at Douglas College. His research investigates Canadian social policy and social movements that both challenge and embrace economic globalization. He recently co-edited a special issue on nationalism and anti-free trade activism in Socialist Studies. He has also published on pension policy reform in Canada and the development of Canadian political economy as an intellectual tradition. His research can be found in publications including the CCPA Monitor, Studies in Political Economy, the Canadian Journal of Political Science, and Socialist Studies.
Chris Hurl is Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology at Concordia University in Montréal, Canada. His research explores the political economy of the Canadian public sector. He has published articles documenting the history of public sector labour struggles in Labour/Le Travail, Studies in Political Economy and Environment and Planning A. He is the co-editor of Corporatizing Canada (Between the Lines, 2018) and Professional Service Firms and Politics in a Global Era (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021).
Stefan Morrison is a research assistant at Douglas College and a student at the University of the Frazer Valley for social work. His ultimate goal is to help people through the avenues of social working and contribute to society on a deeper level. He is interested in political change and social justice issues. He has contributed so far by being a volunteer at Qmunity, BC’s Queer, Trans, & Two-Spirit Resource Centre and The lower Mainland Purpose Society for Youth and Families.
Olivia Venini is a research assistant at Douglas
College who studied Fine Arts at Mount Allison University and Labour
Studies at Simon Fraser. Her interest in free trade policies and
resistance history have been stoked by engagement with Vancouver
organizations against violence against women, pandemic restructuring,
the trans-mountain pipeline extension, inflation, the genocide of
Palestinians and for economic sovereignty in Latin America.
