Ryan has been recruited by human rights groups to act as a Canadian peace observer in Northern Ireland, to march alongside members of the United Farm Workers in California, he went to Texas with Ruben "Hurricane" Carter to lobby Texas politicians for a commutation of Stanley Faulder's death sentence, he championed the rights of Palestinians and was instrumental in having CUPE Ontario support the BDS campaign in order to exert peaceful pressure on the State of Israel to end the conflict with Palestine. He worked tirelessly with unions from across Canada and South America to defeat the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas (FTAA).