The Montreal Conference: making publicly policy in private

Operation Salami made one thing perfectly clear: If there is a lack of public debate about globalization, it's because there is no forum in which to debate it. The Montreal Conference isn't even an official government meeting; it's a private gathering founded and organized every year by former Bourassa-era cabinet minister Gil Rémillard, now a lawyer and professor. The Mirror asked him about the political implications of his conference.

Mirror: The people protesting your conference feel they have no voice in the process of globalization. Does that worry you?

Gil Rémillard: I am very sensitive to the protesters' point of view. They are asking crucial questions: what kind of world awaits us? How do we earn a living? What does globalization mean? We are asking those questions too. Why don't they organize a conference? They need to take a more active interest.

M: Why don't you make a place for them at your conference instead? They held their own conference last weekend.

GR: Why didn't they invite us? If they invited me I would gone--I would have lots to say.

M: What impact does the Montreal Conference really have?

GR: In all modesty, we have eight international delegations, government ministers, businesspeople, a president of a country. Agreements are signed here. That's not bad.

M: That's precisely what worries people: globalization is not negotiated by governments, but in private gatherings where people pay $1,000 to get in.

GR: That's false. Only people who register at the last minute pay $1,000. For most people it's $750, and it's tax-deductible. University professors paid only $350. For students it was either $250 or it was free.

M: At $750 a pop for most people, it's still not cheap.

GR: Sure it is. For three days, you have to be fed, don't you? In Europe, people say our conference is too inexpensive for them to bother.

M: But if you're signing deals and shaping the global economy, then you're changing public policy in private. Shouldn't all citizens have access to that kind of forum, free of charge?

GR: I will leave you with that question.

--Philip Preville