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| Affiliation | Canadian Action |
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| Name | Constance "Connie" Fogal |
| Address |
Vancouver, British Columbia , Canada |
| Email | None |
| Website | None |
| Born |
August 07, 1940
(83 years)
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| Contributor | Monsieur |
| Last Modifed | Monsieur
Aug 09, 2006 03:53pm |
| Tags |
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| Info | Constance (Connie) Fogal, B.A., B.Ed., M.A., LL.B. Lawyer. Former teacher. Educated at University of Saskatchewan, University of Toronto, and University of British Columbia. Born August 7, 1940 in Lafleche Sask. Grew up and taught in Saskatchewan. Taught in Toronto public High School system and University of BC Center for Continuing Education. Called to the Bar in British Columbia in 1980 and practiced law as a sole practitioner in Vancouver B.C., first in the areas of criminal law and family law, and then primarily in family law.
Connie is the widow of Harry Rankin after 27 years together. She played a major behind the scenes supportive role to her husband's progressive voice as a Vancouver city councilor and champion of the people. Similarly, Harry was a constant source of revitalization and support to Connie's own political and legal efforts.
Connie has two adult children from a previous marriage and two grandchildren.
Connie's grandparents were all pioneers to Saskatchewan. Their roots were in Ontario and Quebec. Her maternal grandfather was active in shaping the province of Saskatchewan under Tommy Douglas. Her family knows how debilitating life was before universal public medicare and hospitalization was available. Connie knows what powerful forces worked to prevent the introduction of Canada's universal health system. Those forces never disappeared. They continued to simmer until more friendly politicians were in power. In fact, those forces have been steadily at work reshaping the world in their interest under globalization. The dismantling of our medicare and hospitalization and every other social program of our safety net, the restrictions of access to higher education, the loss of our family farms all are directly due to the international agreements Canada has been participating in under the guise of free trade. Accordingly, Connie is a passionate defender of our right to choose to have universal programs serving the interest of the Canadian public. She opposes Canadian and foreign international corporations who demand the international rules that permit them to exploit our resources but pay few or no taxes for the use of our public trust. She opposes the imposition of an impoverishing national indebtedness to private banks. Connie knows it is essential to defy all those who say these international rules are inescapable.
Except for two years following the death of her husband in February 2002, Connie devoted all her adult life in political activism learning about and then opposing globalization in all its ramifications. She has always opposed "free trade" knowing the word to be an Orwellian double speak. She has consistently called for the abrogation of the FTA, NAFTA, and opposed Canada's participation in the FTAA and the myriad of other such bilateral agreements to which Canada is already a party. She has criticized the labour, environmental, and non- governmental movements who supported these agreements permitting themselves to be duped into thinking they could carve out protection for themselves, and to hell with everyone else.
Connie has always been a passionate defender of Canadian sovereignty and civil liberties. A major threat to Canadians now is the same threat facing the whole world. That is the environmental destruction of the globe arising out of the military destruction imposed by the United States on countries of its choice, including the permanent, deadly contamination of the soil and water and air by the use of depleted uranium in its munitions. In the best interest of Canadians first, and in the best interest of all the world, it is essential that Canada remain a powerfully sovereign state opposed to Canadian integration with the United States. Canada needs to remain a peacekeeping model to the world. We need to be able to say "No" to all those initiatives of the United States that contravene and deny Canadian values, interests and rights. We need to be able to say "No" to the U.S. millitarization of space. We need a Parliament that refuses to impose liberty stripping laws on Canadians in lock-step with the U.S. We need a Parliament that will preserve and protect the liberty and security of Canadians as is entrenched in our Constitution, not a Parliament that grants dictatorial liberty-stripping power to four or five federal Ministers of the Crown as in Bill C-7 currently before the Senate.
Connie has held a number of positions in public life:
Community Positions:
Director Vancouver Library Board 1983 to 1985; Director of Pearson Hospital and G.F.Strong Hospital 1988; Chairperson of St.Paul's Healthy Hospital Project, 1991.
Elected Positions:
Vancouver Parks Board Commissioner from 1984 to 1986; Director, Kitsilano and Vancouver Community Resource boards from 1975 to 1979. President of The Canadian Action Party/parti-action Canadienne, a federal electoral party, 1998 to 2004; Leader of the Canadian Action Party/parti action Canadienne, March 2004-present.
Professional Activity:
Law practice in Vancouver BC since 1980. Stay at home mother 1971- 1977. Former teacher.
Political Advocacy Work:
Led the campaign against gambling expansion since 1994. Since 1998, Fogal-Rankin spearheaded three lawsuits on behalf of Canadian citizens through the Defence of Canadian Liberty Committee to protect our constitutional sovereignty. The MAI lawsuit attacked the power asserted by federal government officials and Ministers that commit Canadians to international agreements destroying citizen rights. The Nanoose Bay lawsuit attacked the expropriation of an environmentally sensitive waterway by the federal government to permit the U.S. to test their weapons. That lawsuit was stayed pending the pursuit by the province of their lawsuit on the issue. The third challenged the federal government's destruction of our civil liberties and rights to free speech and lawful assembly by the erection of a fence in Quebec City to keep protestors away from the Summit of the Americas. The Supreme Court of Canada refused to deal with issues raised in the MAI and Quebec lawsuits.
Connie promoted public education by bringing to Vancouver notable speakers including: Michel Chossudovsky, Economist, University of Ottawa, on globalization of poverty, and the impacts of the IMF and the World Bank; Guy Bertrand, Lawyer; and Max and Monique Nemni, editors of Citi Libre, on Quebec issues; Dr.Richard Wolfson on genetically modified foods (GMOs); Robert Goodman, Professor, University of Massachusetts; Dr. Earl Grinols, Economist, University of Chicago on the damage of gambling as a mechanism for running the economy; Paul Hellyer, Leader Canadian Action Party, on globalization's effects on Canada; Michael Rowbotham, England, professor and researcher on the origins and effect of Money and Debt.
Connie critiqued Canada's heavy-handed new laws implemented by our federal government under the guise of antiterrorism legislation since 9/11 and disseminated the information by e-mail and website.
Connie was a federal candidate for the Canadian Action Party in 1997 and 2000 promoting environmental, monetary, economic sovereignty and human survival by opposing the corporatization, privatization and rape of the resources of the world for the benefit of an elite few. She called for the abrogation of NAFTA, and the Agreement on International Trade, pulling out of the FTAA, the WTO and the GATS expansion, opposition to Canada's participation in and cooperation with the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.
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