CETA: QP Letter: Sunny Ways or Harper Days?

[Oscar]

CETA: Sunny Ways or Harper Days?

Wadena News December 5, 2016

Suggestions of the dark, old days of Mr. Harper's Conservatives are beginning to show up in the way the Liberal Government is handling the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA): zero public consultations about the enormous, negative impacts posed by this 'corporate rights' scheme; the affront to democracy through secret negotiations and the overall corporate agenda; and now, ramming through Parliament Bill C-30, a bill intended to implement the CETA which was tabled in the House 2 days before it was even signed - instead of waiting 21 sitting days, as stipulated by a government policy on tabling treaties; and allowing no time throughout the process for Members of Parliament to study or even to see the terms of the Agreement before it was signed.

Sound familiar . . . ?

If ratified, CETA will unfairly restrict how local governments spend money by banning “buy local” policies, add hundreds of millions of dollars to the price of pharmaceutical drugs in our public health care system, create pressure to increase privatization of local water systems, transit and energy, and, the most onerous of all, the Investor-State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) clause which allows foreign-owned corporations to sue one another's governments for any changes to laws or policies they might make to protect the citizens of their country but which might hurt the corporations' future earnings.

To date, 3.5 million Europeans have signed a petition against CETA; 320,000 people marched against CETA in cities across Germany; polling shows 88 per cent of Austrians oppose CETA because it shifts power to transnational corporations; 81 per cent of people in France said they believed CETA would undermine standards protecting health, food quality, the environment and the climate. Several other EU member state governments have concerns about CETA yet to be dealt with.

Are they wrong in trying to protect their democracy, environment, and the health and safety of their citizens?

Are we?

Mr. Trudeau promised Canadians a 'different' way of doing things; as it stands, the Liberals are losing credibility – can they afford to lose our trust?

Elaine Hughes
Quill Plains (Wynyard) Chapter
Council of Canadians
ARCHERWILL, SK

Elaine Hughes is a member of the Council of Canadians, one of Canada's largest non-profit organizations working for social and environmental justice.