Maude Barlow's roots are in a leafy, middle-class
neighbourhood in Ottawa. She had a happy, very traditional
childhood - but it was her father, Bill McGrath, who would
shape her into a social activist. He had been witness to wartime
atrocities and upon returning home was determined to change
things for the better. He became an advocate for the reform
of Canada's prison system. "I have to make sense of that
[wartime experience] by building something so that my kids
don't have to go through that." His zeal for reform left
an indelible mark on Maude. Like her father, she became a
social crusader taking on all the major social issues of her
generation.
In the seventies Maude Barlow was a nice, middle-class housewife
who got caught up in the women's movement, the revolutionary
social current of her time. "This was a fabulous time to
be in on the ground floor of what was just the most exciting
movement of its time." She ran the Office of Equal Opportunity
at the City of Ottawa. At the age of 36, she catapulted onto
the national scene consulting on women's issues for Prime
Minister Trudeau. Barlow ran for the Liberal nomination but
her political career was short-lived. Her defeat sent her
life on a very different trajectory. From then on Maude Barlow
set to work from outside the system. She had to be part of
"building something non-partisan."
As head of the Council
of Canadians, a citizen's advocacy group, she led the
battle against free trade by taking on the heavyweights of
Canadian politics. Most recently she was in the front lines
of protest at the Quebec Summit where she was tear-gassed.
After decades in the social protest movement, Barlow is still
driven to speak out. "I go crazy when I see certain things
and I have to find out why they happen. And I have to tell
people...I have to do something so that other people will
also take action."
Her critics, like Tom D'Aquino of the Business Council on
National Issues, see her as someone out of step who is not
able to win public support for her ideas in the democratic
court. But Maude Barlow is undaunted and undeterred. She is
on the front lines of globalization, one of the hottest issues
of this century - still driven to act and speak out on that
in which she believes. She is immovable on what is her truth.
Original Air Date - October 9, 2001
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