Re: letter to the editor on TPP
The Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal is to be signed on Feb. 4 and ratified within the next two years by our Parliament.
Negotiated in secret, the text is now available and it has provisions for trade but also many protections for foreign investors that apparently give unjustified benefits to huge multinational corporations and the 0.1 percent of the super-wealthy.
These protections apparently pose great financial, environmental and health risks to individual countries and their citizens.
For instance, medicines would become much more expensive for Canadians and environmental regulations could not infringe on corporate profit, or lawsuits could be held in secret tribunals if public policy gets in the way of corporate profit.
This would override our government’s decisions making on public policy, citizens would have no say whatever and this would erode our democratic rights.
We still have time to learn more about this deal and its possible consequences, and insist that the government holds public consultations on it before making a decision.
If you are interested in learning more about the TPP as I am, the Council of Canadians in Duncan is hosting a presentation by Paul Manly, a documentary film producer who is making a film on the TPP. It will take place this Sunday, Jan. 24 at Duncan United Church on Ingram Street from 1:30-3:30 p.m. and admission is free.
Mary Annis
Cowichan Valley