Program

Hosted by Saman Tabesinejad, Executive Director of Progress Toronto, activists, newsmakers, and organizers share stories of what the view looks like from the front line of their movements. Speakers will share their compelling stories as a response to the conference theme, Defending Democracy Across Borders.

How do we defend democracy against anti-democratic forces? David Adler speaks at the 2026 Progress Summit as Co-General Coordinator of the Progressive International. Launched in 2020, the Progressive International unites, organizes and mobilizes the world’s progressive forces to fight for democracy, where all people have the power to shape their institutions and their societies. From organizing election observers, to the Hague Group that defends international law, to the Panamerican Congress, in just a few short years Adler and his team have entrenched a broad progressive front from around the world in defence of democracy.

Adler is joined by a panel of progressive organizers from Europe, Canada and Latin America who are also building movements to defend democracy.

As Trump-era trade and economic politics reshape decisions about jobs, industry, and investment, workers and communities in Canada are already feeling the effects. From manufacturing to public services, economic choices are being made that will shape the future of work on both sides of the border, often without workers at the table.

So what does this moment mean for the labour movement?

Hosted by Canadian Labour Congress President Bea Bruske, this panel features Magali Picard, President of the Fédération des travailleurs et travailleuses du Québec and UFCW Canada National President Barry Sawyer. This conversation looks at how global economic change is impacting workers today, from job loss and privatization pressures to the growing need for stable, good jobs in both the public and private sectors.

The discussion also turns to what labour is fighting for: a different economic and trade future that puts workers and communities at the centre, and the collective action needed to make that future real. They talk about what’s at stake, and how workers organize together to shape what comes next.

In his Seeking Social Democracy chapter entitled ‘Social Democracy Without Borders,’ Ed Broadbent writes: “To be a socialist, after all, is also to be a universalist: committed to the dignity, equality, and rights of every human being regardless of where they were born or on which side of a border they happen to reside.”

Seeking Social Democracy co-authors Luke Savage and Frances Abele share insights from the Ed Broadbent Digital Archive Project, bringing forward Broadbent’s internationalist work and outlook. As Vice President of the Socialist International, and advocate for the United Nations’ system of human rights, and President of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, Broadbent’s own ‘social democracy without borders’ offers lessons for today’s defence of democracy.

If democracies die in darkness, journalists are trying to keep the lights on. But with journalism itself facing threats from newsroom closures and layoffs, to threats of violence and harassment campaigns, to government stonewalling and politically-motivated lawsuits, it’s harder than ever for the fourth estate to play its role as a check-and-balance on the wealthy and powerful.  

Join PressProgress’ team of award-winning journalists for a panel discussion about how threats to democracy have manifested in their day-to-day coverage of Canadian institutions and political movements. They’ll share their insights into some of the broader threats to media and the integrity of information, and the role journalists and everyone else can all play in shining a light on the path forward.

In 2025, Canada and Ecuador signed a new Free Trade Agreement, with the aim of increasing Canadian mining investment in the country. According to Canadian civil society groups including labour unions and international solidarity groups, “Indigenous and environmental organizations have expressed deep concern that it will exacerbate a dire human rights situation and pose a threat to ecologically sensitive areas of the country.” Economist and 2021 Ecuadorian presidential candidate Andrés Arauz has been on the frontlines fighting for democracy in his home country, against the Canadian corporate interests behind the new FTA.

Facing off against the political establishment and media in his country looking to accelerate deals with Canadian mining companies, despite the threats to social and economic rights for ordinary Citizens, Arauz found himself standing up to defend democracy in Ecuador and across Latin America. He speaks with freelance journalist Brandi Morin, whose recent investigation on “Canadian Mining in Ecuador” exposed Canada’s role in weakening democracy in the country. What should Canada’s role be instead, to defend democracy across borders?

How can Canada better approach these historic investments in ‘nation-building infrastructure’? What makes for a good project? The panel will consider how projects could contribute to our sovereignty, jobs, sustainability, community benefits and ownership.

Across jurisdictions, governments are increasingly centralizing power, eroding democratic oversight, and imposing punitive legal frameworks on educators and their unions. These developments—often justified in the language of “efficiency,” “accountability,” or “parental rights”—mirror trends associated with U.S.-style governance and the Americanization of the world of work, where collective rights are weakened and social and economic inequalities deepen.

This panel will examine how attacks on public education and teachers’ unions represent a broader democratic crisis. Drawing on concrete examples from Alberta, Quebec, and Ontario, panellists will explore the use of exceptional legislative tools—such as strike restrictions, imposed settlements, and the use of the notwithstanding clause—to silence workers, dismantle collective bargaining, undermine democratic participation and override human rights.

By situating these struggles within a cross-border and international context, the panel will highlight how defending public education is inseparable from defending democracy itself. It will also underscore why organized resistance, solidarity, and democratic renewal remain essential.

Canadians often talk about universal health care as a defining feature of our nation – something that fundamentally differentiates us from our neighbours south of the border. Across Canada, however, the foundations of universal health care have eroded under a combination of underfunding, privatization, and policy choices by some provincial administrations. The Carney government’s new “nation building” initiatives do not currently include plans to repair the foundations of Canadian Medicare or invest in its expansion. This fireside chat will make the case that it should. Speakers will discuss how investment in public health care is in the national interest, what role the federal government can play in the protection and expansion of our health care system, and how we can organize together to get health care on the national agenda.

While the federal government’s new Building Canada Act reassures that it, “commits that Indigenous Peoples whose section 35 rights may be adversely affected by the carrying out of [a nation building] project are consulted throughout the process,” Indigenous groups like the Union of BC Indian Chiefs have raised concerns.

The fast tracked processing of the federal government’s nation-building projects risks bypassing environmental regulations, legal obligations, and the principle of free, prior, and informed consent. Meanwhile, the infrastructure gaps in First Nations have yet to be prioritized or addressed. What does a real nation-to-nation relationship look like that respects sovereignty, builds social infrastructure, and ensures we defend rights and democracy across territories?

Break-Glass Moments and Not-So-Silent Coups: The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternative’s inaugural Tony Clarke Lecture. Join the CCPA for the inaugural lecture of the Tony Clarke speaker series. We will celebrate Tony’s tremendous legacy and activism, his decades of exposing and critiquing corporate oligarchs, and the work of Polaris Institute which he founded to support resistance – something that has never been more important.

Hosted by veteran journalist Adrian Harewood, audience members are invited to join Karl Flecker and Nora Loreto as they discuss the folly of fighting capitalism with capitalism, and the need to build a creative, targeted, and dynamic resistance to the relentless and ongoing corporate agenda. This event is open to all Progress Summit attendees and the public.

Policy debates are rarely decided on the facts alone. They are shaped by the deeper stories that define what feels realistic, and possible in the first place.

This 75-minute interactive session will explore how dominant narratives shape public debate long before campaigns begin. Participants will examine how ideas become “common sense,” how limits are socially constructed and reinforced, and why messaging alone cannot shift outcomes without deeper narrative alignment.

Drawing on examples from political campaigns, labour organizing, and advocacy work, the session will introduce practical tools to:

• Identify the dominant narrative holding an issue in place
• Clarify the values conflict underneath surface debates
• Recognize how narratives of scarcity constrain democratic imagination and political ambition
• Move from reactive communications to proactive narrative strategy
• Align story, strategy, and action for greater impact

This is a working session designed for leaders who want to move beyond argument and build narrative power that expands what becomes possible.

Over the past year Canadians have been battered by tariff-related economic uncertainty, the high cost of living, and rising unemployment. Many expect a government response to the crisis, but do the Carney government’s priorities meet this moment? Who do Canadians feel they can count on to protect their jobs, help their communities through tough times, and what is the household-level economic future they envision?

Jordan Leichnitz, Canada Director of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung presents findings from a joint research project with the Broadbent Institute, Defending Jobs in a Trade War: Canadian Perspectives on Work, Security, and Economic Trust, newly released at the 2026 Progress Summit.

This presentation is followed by a panel to discuss the report, and the economic policy responses that meet this moment.

Prime Minister Carney and the Liberals rode to a surprising victory over Pierre Poilievre in the 2025 election by promising to build economic resilience in response to growing threats from the United States. Since winning the election, he has rapidly set into motion new plans to Build Canada Strong. But stronger for whom? Vast portions of the public are welcoming Carney’s promises for nation building while others are criticizing his policies for unleashing an era of escalating austerity and deregulation. He is receiving international applause after his speech in Davos while facing criticism at home for accelerating an agenda of militarism, extractivism, and xenophobia.

Under Carney, the political landscape in Canada is shifting while geopolitical turmoil unravels on the global stage. Join a panel of social movement experts to unpack the impacts and contradictions of the Carney Agenda followed by round-table strategy conversations about how progressives must respond.

Canada is overly dependent on U.S. tech giants for digital infrastructure, data, and artificial intelligence. U.S. laws and corporate dominance threaten Canada’s control over its digital systems, putting Canadian sovereignty, privacy, and democracy at risk. Canada’s new nation-building initiative has little concern for building the foundations for public digital infrastructure or democratically controlled AI.

Canadian democracy cannot be free if our digital public sphere is overrun by foreign influence and made toxic for profit. Meanwhile, AI as a tool for the profit of Big Tech companies is used to threaten jobs, undermine public education, healthcare, and public services, and erodes public trust. How do we make digital sovereignty and public, democratically controlled AI for the public good into real nation-building initiatives?

While national governments across the west face down democratic crisis, progressives at the municipal level are connecting with and delivering for voters. But what does it truly take to win power, and use it effectively on behalf of working people?

This session will start with reflections from Grace Mausser, NYC-DSA Co-Chair on the organizing behind Zohran Mamdani’s historic mayoral campaign, followed by a discussion about the strategies and tools driving progressive agendas in two of the largest cities in North America.