[All] Maude Barlow: Info on "Nafta on Steroids".

[Louisette Lanteigne]

Hi everyone
 
Picture Nafta Chapter 11 being applied to municipal and board decisions all across Canada. That is what Steven Harper has been planning in secret talks. There is the Ontario Quebec agreement where provincial decisions in Quebec are being designed by people in Toronto and even scarier European Free Trade Deal which may see our public services fall to European hands. 
 
With the plans they're making any decision that acts as a disadvantage for businesses can be contested in a court of law up to 5 million if Steven Harper gets his way. If the standards from one municipality to another or from one Province to another varies, corporations have the right to fight for the lower standards to apply. This gives corporations the right to challenge:
 
Municipal bottled water bans
Greenbelts and Country Side Lines
School Board buying policies to avoid sweatshops
Buy local programs
Ecological constraints 
Carbon Reduction policys
Fair Wage Policies for municipal workers etc.
 
If any business feels these policies obstructs them from doing their business they can sue the municipalities for these programs. It's a very scary thing and it's 95% complete!
 
The doc's from Maude Barlows recent CUPE tour are on the CUPE website at this link:
 
http://www.cupe.on.ca/aux_file.php?aux_file_id=2404
 
There are some petitions related which I will bring to our next GREN meeting. 
Thanks Folks!
 
Lulu :0)
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