Topic
Secrecy the standard as Canada enters Pacific treaty talks.
Secrecy doesn't prevent opposition from mounting against TPP.
It's a mug's game. Late to the negotiations, we're set up to lose big.
'Stop the Trap' campaign warns of crackdown on Canadians' Internet freedoms.
Despite growing opposition in Canada, Ottawa has begun formal participation in the Trans Pacific Partnership negotiations, aimed at establishing one of the world's most ambitious trade agreements.
As nearly a dozen countries -- including the United States, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, Mexico and Vietnam -- gathered in New Zealand last week for the 14th round of talks, skeptics here have already expressed doubts about the benefits of the proposed deal.
Canada has free-trade agreements with the United States, Mexico, Chile and Peru, leaving just six countries -- currently representing less than one per cent of Canadian exports -- as the net gain.
Moreover, the price of entry may be high, since leaked documents suggest the deal might require a major overhaul of Canadian agriculture, investment, intellectual property and culture protection rules.
While the substance of the TPP is cause for concern, the more immediate issue is the lack of transparency associated with both the negotiations and Canada's participation in them.
The talks remain shrouded in secrecy, with a draft text that is confidential; public interest groups are largely banned from the venue where the negotiations are being held.
Moreover, the Canadian government has failed to engage openly with the public on the TPP. Foreign Affairs has created an insider "consulting group" that will be granted access to secret and confidential information regarding the negotiations (members of the group are required to sign a nondisclosure agreement). The department has not publicly disclosed the existence of the consulting group or indicated who might be granted privileged access to otherwise confidential information.
Overwhelming no from those consulted
It continues a trend that started earlier this year when the government launched a public consultation on Canada's potential participation in the TPP. The public consultation ran for six weeks, yet the government never revealed the results. The individual submissions were not posted online and no public report summarizing the responses was ever published.
Yet, according to documents obtained under the Access to Information Act, the government was overwhelmed with negative comments urging officials to resist entry into the TPP and the expected pressures for significant intellectual property reforms as part of the deal.
In addition to tens of thousands of form letters and emails criticizing the TPP, the government received hundreds of individual handcrafted responses that unanimously criticized the proposed agreement.
A review of more than 400 individual submissions did not identify a single instance of support for the agreement. Rather, these submissions typically expressed concern with the prospect of extending the term of copyright or adopting restrictive digital lock rules.
Business community split
The documents also revealed that the Canadian business community was split on the agreement, with numerous companies and associations identifying concerns about the potential direction of the TPP.
Leading telecommunications companies, including Bell, Rogers, Shaw and Telus, cautioned against changes to Internet provider liability rules; groups representing the blind warned against new restrictions to accessing digital materials; Oxfam Canada worried about the TPP's impact on pharmaceutical pricing; and the Canadian Library Association expressed fears about a reversal of recent changes to copyright damages rules.
Canada spent months lobbying other governments for entry into the TPP, despite launching a public consultation that revealed serious discomfort with Canadian participation.
Now, the government seems committed to keeping the public largely in the dark on where Canada stands on an agreement that could radically transform our economic policy. ![[Tyee]](http://thetyee.cachefly.net/ui/img/ico_fishie.png){kind=small}
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Hugh
22 weeks ago
TILMA, CETA, China-FIPA. TPP
TILMA, CETA, China-FIPA. TPP another sh#tty deal. It's hard to keep up.
Feverish
22 weeks ago
I believe that's part of the
I believe that's part of the plan Hugh
Fiat lux
22 weeks ago
I grew up as an ultra
I grew up as an ultra conservative fascist in an ultra conservative fascist country and family, taken over by the nazis, served in WW2 in one of the nazis' satellite armies, sentenced to death at 18 by the nazi military, innocently, for "high treason", saved by the end of the war 2 days later.
Sentenced to 10 years of gulags by the communists as an "enemy of the people", but they didn't catch me..........
....so, I've had lot of experience with and can smell the rot of fascist dictatorships.
If these treaties are not fascist dictatorships, what in the hell are they ? Where are our "right wing, conservative" implants on this blog to sing their praises
as "wealth creation" and "democracy" and "prosperity" ?
Yet all this crime wave boils down to is the simple physical fact that "wealth can not be created, only taken".
When will humanity come to grip with this simple reality and put a stop to the criminals who're enforcing it by enslaving and stealing people blind? Is it so difficult to understand that the obscene profits and power of the 1% comes out of our pockets, and from nowhere else ?
The most amazing part is that these crooks can get away with it, with the help of their fully owned, "right wing" politician pimps .
Ed Deak.
hg
22 weeks ago
Trade deals
If Harper signs a trade deal with China to guarantee political stability, say no elections for a 100 years. What then?
Norm Funnell
22 weeks ago
traitor
When will Harper be charged with treason?
Noah_Scape
22 weeks ago
Ed Deak for PM!!
Wow Ed, you have been around the block... but even someone as innocent and trusting as I am can see that this more of the "power to the corporations" that there is allready too much of. Obviously, corporations conspire with government, this is not a whacko idea, it is a fact.
What we have here is a CorpoFascist government.
Fiat lux
22 weeks ago
No thanks Noah....I'm just a
No thanks Noah....I'm just a hick in the sticks and never had any political ambitions.
Except for being the dog who hides in the bushes but jumps out to bite the legs of politicians who walk by.
What amazes me that after thousands of years of the most horrible tragedies and devastation by politicians, people still fall for the same lies used for ever to enslave them.
History keeps repeating itself because of human stupidity and gullibility that never changes.
Ed Deak.
beatleye
22 weeks ago
CITIZENS MUST DEMAND A PROCESS TO IMPEACH/FIRE PRIME MINISTERS
So, here we are, witnessing on a daily basis, these deeply undemocratic, self-serving, blindly ideological, ill-informed decisions by the PM and his obsequious, cheerleading parliamentary lapdogs, decisions which are altering, without even the illusion of input from citizens or a hint of debate in parliament, the nature of this country and its place in the world. And, fortunately, here we are too, reading the many informed comments on this thread, witness to our deep and shared concern for the state of Canada and its (must agree with Mr.Deak here)un-democracy. Much has been said, but solutions must be part of this discussion, as several posters have said. Several writers have asked how we might impeach this maniac, and have found that Canada is unlike most modern states in that we have no process (no accident there) to rid ourselves of a prime minister run amok (or in this case an anti-democratic traitor). Then we must insist on the creation of such a process, or create one ourselves. I would be pleased to offer time to any person or group who would like to generate interest in, and maybe even compile a legal foundation for, a Canadian "impeachment" process. We can, I still believe, if the numbers are large enough, create policy, though I am entirely unsure of what forum exists to push citizen initiatives up the impenetrable (no accident there either) chain of command. Maybe something like the recall process that is itself fortified in favor of the politick, or some other mechanism (I claim no expertise in this area, just a like sickness of the way our, get this phrase, "public servants," ensure our servitude). Otherwise, we sit back and endure this fascist dictator for what, another nearly 3 years? This is the, excuse the naive expression, democracy we spread around the world with bombs, bullets and body bags? We work here, we struggle to make ends meet here, mostly to benefit those who openly enslave us, so let's work to save Canada from those who show such contempt for it, and the values it has stood for since its confederation. Canada? caNADA is more like it if we let Harpoon and his brownshirts get away with any more of this contempt for humanity. Let's find out what citizens can do when they act together. I look forward to celebrating with you the day when this national embarrassment is forced to trade his jackboots for prison overalls. There'll be plenty of prisons by then; lotsa room for Harper and Baird and Kenney and the other pigs. No offence intended to pigs.
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15 weeks ago
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13 weeks ago
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