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MEDIA RELEASE

Friday, September 11, 1998

COALITION LAUNCHES "BETTER BANKS NOT BIGGER BANKS" FALL CAMPAIGN

OTTAWA - Today, the Canadian Community Reinvestment Coalition (CCRC) launched its "Better Banks not Bigger Banks" campaign aimed at convincing the federal government to prohibit the proposed bank mergers and enact laws to increase bank accountability in Canada.

At a news conference attended by representatives of several groups in the coalition, Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch and Chairperson of the CCRC, announced that over the next three months the CCRC will hold campaign events in Victoria, Nanaimo, Vancouver, Kamloops, Prince George, Edmonton, Red Deer, Regina, Toronto, Windsor, St. Catharines, Guelph, Waterloo, Ottawa, Montreal, Halifax and other locations still being planned. Duff Conacher will speak at all the events, joined by representatives of other CCRC groups at many of the events.

The CCRC also released a list of 20 notable Canadians from across the country who support the CCRC's campaign, including Warren Allmand, Robert Bateman and Ed Broadbent . In addition, the CCRC released the updated list of the over 100 organizations that have joined the Coalition from every province and the Northwest Territories representing over 3 million Canadians.

"Our campaign to stop the mergers and ensure that our banks serve all Canadians fairly and well has growing, broad-based support," said Conacher, "We are hitting the road to mobilize people across the country to support our call for better banks, not bigger banks, in Canada."

The CCRC also released a Myths and Factssheet about Canada's banks and the proposed mergers that will be distributed across the country, countering the banks' false claims about the mergers and calling on Canadians to write Paul Martin and their MP to support the CCRC's proposals.