“We need to make transit an accessible and convenient mode of commuting instead of spending our public money replacing the tunnel.” said Cathy Wilander spokesperson for the Delta/Richmond chapter of the Council of Canadians. “We have to get people out of their cars. This is particularly relevant to our community as global warming from carbon emissions is here and our community, a flood plain, is particularity vulnerable to rising sea levels.”

Improving transit is one of the most important ways to reduce emissions, and to give commuters a way to avoid congestion. Numerous studies and long experience shows that highway expansion just creates new bottle necks, wider traffic jams, and increased carbon emissions.

A new tunnel or bridge would allow the Port Corporation to move much larger ships, including oil tankers and coal ships, up the Fraser River. Oil spills and coal dust pollution are a serious threat to the ecological health of the River and the salmon that depend on it.

• Watch and share the video: http://bit.ly/dontfrackthelaw.
• Visit policyalternatives.ca/obey-ghg-law to read the open letter, learn more and take action.

Hi,

I’ve created an Avaaz petition called ‘Demand that Canadian Provincial Governments Withdraw From the Canada-EU Trade Negotiations’.

http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Demand_that_Canadian_Provincial_Governments_Withdraw_From_the_CanadaEU_Trade_Negotiations/?kHDKlab

I believe that the Canada-EU trade deal, also known as the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), is a terrible deal for Canada. Although it is being sold by the Harper government as a deal that will enhance Canada’s trade, the truth is that it will do very little to grow our trade. In reality, CETA is first and foremost a corporate rights agreement that will give foreign corporations and investors more rights than Canadian citizens. CETA applies to all levels of Canadian government—federal, provincial, and municipal—so it is an incredibly powerful tool for corporations that will allow them to effectively veto virtually any government measure they don’t like.

If you believe that our governments should support the public interest rather than the narrow interests of foreign corporations and investors, please sign this petition. If you want our governments to continue to have the necessary tools to address the daunting environmental and social challenges we face, such as climate change, please sign this petition.

The good news is that although CETA is a terrible deal for Canada, CETA is vulnerable to a wave of public opposition. In order to ratify CETA, Canada’s provinces must sign the deal. If they see massive public opposition to CETA, they may withdraw from it, which would kill the deal.

So please sign this petition now and share it with everyone you know. When you share it, please send a brief note in your own words about why it’s important to stop CETA.

Thanks so much!

Norman

Click here to find out more and sign: http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Demand_that_Canadian_Provincial_Governments_Withdraw_From_the_CanadaEU_Trade_Negotiations/?kHDKlab

Petition Text:

“If Canada’s federal government and provinces sign the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), they will effectively give up their powers to govern in a way that prioritizes the public interest and instead subject Canada to a trade and investment regime that privileges corporations and investors above all else. Faced as we are with many severe environmental challenges, such as the climate change crisis, more than ever Canadian governments need every possible tool to shape our economy in a way that is consistent with the health of our planet and the health of our society. Please sign this petition to send a signal to all levels of Canadian government that Canadians reject the false promises of CETA and to demand that our provincial governments walk away from this fatally flawed deal. CETA cannot be ratified without the consent of Canada’s provinces, so they are the key to stopping this terrible deal. Please urge everyone you know to sign and share this petition.”

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Media Release: Tri-National Campaign Launched in Opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership

For Immediate Release
Contact: Kristen Beifus, 206-227-3079 or kristen@washingtonfairtrade.org

Tri-National Campaign Launched in Opposition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership
Activists Announce Goal of 1,000 North American Groups against “NAFTA Expansion”

Blaine, Wash. – Activists from Canada, Mexico and the United States are unveiling a new tri-national unity statement opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) during a cross-border organizing summit on the U.S./Canada border on Saturday. On the eve of the 15th major round of TPP negotiations, representatives of the labor, environmental, indigenous, family farm, democracy and other social justice movements will announce a goal of collecting 1,000 organizational signatures on the statement from throughout North America prior to the start of the next TPP round, widely believed to take place in March 2013.

“The Trans-Pacific Partnership is a corporate rights deal, which threatens workers, farmers, indigenous communities and our planet,” said Kristen Beifus, director of the Washington Fair Trade Coalition, one of the summit’s main organizers. “United people’s movements have defeated corporate-power grabs like the TPP before, and we plan to do it again this time around.”

According to the “North American Unity Statement Opposing NAFTA Expansion through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP),” the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) has caused economic, environmental and cultural damage throughout the continent and the TPP will expand NAFTA-style trade and investment provisions throughout the Pacific Rim unless organizations mobilize to prevent that.

“It’s impossible to overstate how devastating NAFTA has been to working people and family farmers over the past twenty years,” said Manual Perez Rocha, of the Mexican Action Network on Free Trade and associate fellow at the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, D.C. “Leaked documents suggest the TPP would actually go beyond NAFTA in the powers it hands to transnational corporations. Thankfully, a transnational movement is rising to stop it and our tri-national network is a part of it.”

“We’re calling on social justice organizations throughout Canada, Mexico and the Unites States to sign onto the unity statement, first, in recognition of the threat the TPP poses to their members and, second, in recognition that it will take all of us coming together across geographic and issue-area borders in order to win,” said Stuart Trew, trade campaigner for the Council of Canadians.

Groups can sign onto the statement at tinyurl.com/unitystatement. The statement as a whole reads as follows:

North American Unity Statement Opposing NAFTA Expansion
through the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP)*

The nearly two decades of economic, environmental and cultural damage wrought by the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), while by no means experienced equally, have been highly detrimental to the majority of people across the North American region.

As a direct result of NAFTA, there are fewer good jobs, more struggling family farms, less stable food systems, and everyday consumer safety measures are weaker and social inequality grows. The pact’s intellectual property rules continue to undermine access to affordable medicine, while its financial service provisions have undermined banking regulations. NAFTA fueled even more the conditions that precipitated an economic emigration crisis and exacerbated a false drug war, leading to mass-scale human rights abuses where tens of thousands of citizens have been the victims. It has degraded the earth and its ecosystems in numerous ways, including from mining and other resource extraction projects, and has had pronounced effects on indigenous peoples’ sovereignty. Subsequent trade agreements have similarly propelled a race to the bottom in wages, labor rights and environmental protection, as well as deregulation and privatization, contributing to the worldwide financial and climate crises.

Halting further damage should be a shared priority of our peoples. Instead, because NAFTA has simultaneously redirected wealth and power to elites in each of the countries involved, the governments of Canada, Mexico and the United States, among others, are now seeking to expand NAFTA’s trade and investment rules throughout the Pacific Rim in the form of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). In fact, leaked documents suggest that the TPP could very well go beyond NAFTA in the new powers and rights it hands to transnational corporations, including an expansion of NAFTA’s infamous investor-state dispute process, by which international investors can challenge public interest laws, regulations and even court decisions that could threaten their expectation of profits through unaccountable tribunals that circumvent and violate domestic judicial systems.

The world cannot afford this NAFTA expansion package. Instead, we need policies that help build a more just and sustainable global economy, including those that respect and promote fundamental labor rights, including equal rights for migrant workers; the creation of high-wage, high-benefit jobs; environmental protection; food sovereignty; financial market stability; food and product safety; access to quality healthcare; and local democracy.

Together, we call on our sisters and brothers throughout North America and beyond to educate their communities about the TPP and to engage on it now, lest we all have even greater harms forced upon us and the people of many other countries.

* The Trans-Pacific Partnership is currently under negotiation between Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States and Vietnam. It is being written as a “docking agreement” that would allow other countries to join over time, but without them able to make changes to existing text (a pre-condition that Canada and Mexico agreed to).

Pictures of the event, by Ron Peterson:

Vancouver-Burnaby Council of Canadians chapter at the rally

Flush the TPP!

Free Trade My Ass!

Council Trade Campaigner Stuart Trew speaking at the rally

TPP Pinatas

Seattle carnival band providing energy

According to NDP MP Olivia Chow, understanding Stephen Harper’s climate policy is easy: just look at federal funding for public transit over the last four years. Transport Canada figures show that federal transit funding has plunged from a modest $1.1 billion in 2008 to about $300 million in 2011 (see graph).

If the trend continues, federal transit funding could drop to zero within the next few years.

In contrast, federal support to road building and airports has increased significantly since 2008 under the Conservatives. Road spending averaged over $1.5 billion per year and has never dropped below the 1.04 billion spent in 2008/09. Similarly, support to carbon-intensive air travel has increased from $800 to $900 million.

Olivia Chow: Conservatives lack commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions 

 In an email interview with rabble.ca, Chow, NDP Critic for Transport, Infrastructure and Communities, said the Conservative government’s transportation spending record and other actions shows a lack of commitment to reducing the greenhouse gas emissions causing global warming.

“It is obvious that the Conservatives are not interested in lowering Canada’s carbon emissions. From the unbridled development of the tar sands to the cutting of programs like ecoEnergy (for making homes more energy-efficient) to the trashing of the Kyoto Protocol. Realistically, we need a change in government to make the reduction of Canada’s greenhouse gas emissions a priority again,” Chow wrote.

To read the rest of the article, visit http://rabble.ca/news/2012/11/harper-clashes-transit-climate-crisis-deepends

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Hi All

I have finished editing and uploading all of the speeches from the Making
Waves forum and plenaries with the exception of Ananda Tan (I’m still
waiting for his power point so you can see what he is referring to in his
speech).

I have organized all of the videos in order of appearance in a playlist on
the CouncilofCanadians youtube channel so they can be watched in order or
individually.

Here’s the link to share with your chapters.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhEqzdq_G5emEH015jzlVHmgNZfHqldTu&feat
ure=plcp

For those of you who missed out on the AGM, this is a great resource with
lots of excellent information to draw from.

cheers
Paul Manly
paul@manlymedia.com
250 729-1254

Kanata Coop Community Hall 7155 Blake St, Vancouver

The Enbridge and Kinder Morgan Tar Sands pipelines are big news, as is the climate crisis in the wake of ‘frankenstorm’ Sandy. But until now the challenge of phasing out Tar Sands oil consumption has been largely ignored.

Join us for a solutions focused multimedia presentation with transportation planner Eric Doherty, including examples from cities that have quickly gone from gridlock to transit and cycling meccas. A facilitated discussion on will follow the presentation.

Organized by the Council of Canadians Vancouver / Burnaby chapter. The Council of Canadians is Canada’s largest citizens’ organization, with members and chapters across the country.

Eric Doherty is a transportation planner and environmental consultant. He co-authored the Wilderness Committee / Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives report Transportation Transformation: Building Complete Communities and a Zero-Emission Transportation System.

 

Fort Nelson First Nation of northeast BC has worked with the natural gas industry and government to provide economic opportunities for it members and the entire province through responsible resource development. But the BC Liberal Government’s intention to issue a number of long-term water withdrawal licenses permitting companies to divert and contaminate billions of litres a year of water from their rivers for shale gas has forced the Echo Dene people to stand in defence of their traditional territory and life-sustaining environment.

This deal would pave the way for a massive natural resource buyout and allow foreign corporations to sue the Canadian government in secret tribunals, restricting Canadians from making democratic decisions about our economy, environment and energy.¹

Most Canadians have never heard of FIPA, the Canada-China Foreign Investment Protection Agreement, because Prime Minister Harper is trying to sneak it through without a single vote or debate in Parliament.^2,3

Canadians have a right to determine our future, but this agreement will undermine our democratic rights and lock us into an inescapable path of foreign-ownership and resource extraction until at least 2040.

The Canada-China FIPA is set for automatic approval on October 31st unless we get the word out now that the Harper Conservatives are trying bypass Parliament and sneak this deal by Canadians. That’s why we partnered with SumOfUs.org on this campaign – if enough of us raise our voices now, we can create a massive public outcry to stop this devastating deal in its tracks.

Send a message to Prime Minister Harper and your MP: Canada is not for sale, stop the Canada-China FIPA and the Nexen takeover. When 30,000 sign, we will deliver your messages to Ottawa.

SIGN THE PETITION TO TELL STEPHEN HARPER CANADA IS NOT FOR SALE:

http://www.leadnow.ca/canada-not-for-sale

Alongside this deal, the Harper government is trying to speed through the sale of Nexen, a major Canadian oil and gas company, to the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), one of China’s massive state-owned oil companies.⁴ The $15 billion-dollar Nexen takeover will open the floodgates to a wave of foreign buyouts of Canada’s natural resources.

If FIPA passes, a Chinese company can take over Canadian resources and then sue Canadian governments – provincial or federal – in secret, if the government does anything that threatens the company’s profits.

Any Canadian law or government decision – even ones that protect Canadian jobs, our environment, our economy and our families – could be fought in secret tribunals outside of our legal system. Arbitrators unaccountable to the Canadian public would have the power to award billions in damages to foreign corporations if we do anything that hurts corporate profits, like improve environmental standards or slow down the export of cheap, unprocessed resources.^1,5,6

Time is running out. We have two weeks before FIPA is set to pass into law, and the Nexen takeover could be approved at any time. Canadians, including many Conservative MPs, oppose the Nexen takeover, and Prime Minister Harper has just asked for a 30 day extension to regroup. We need a massive public outcry now.

Additional Information

The ability for corporations to sue foreign governments in private courts, called “investor-state arbitration,” is a controversial practice built into many trade deals like NAFTA that has cost Canada millions and over-ruled democratic decisions, but none impose the level of secrecy in the Canada-China FIPA.

Incredibly, if BC tries to regulate or block Enbridge’s Northern Gateway Pipeline, Sinopec, another Chinese state-owned oil company with investments in Canada’s natural resource infrastructure, could sue the BC government for damages, and we may never even hear about it the case or its results.^5,6

Other countries like India, South Africa and Australia are moving away from this kind of trade deal. Last year Australia rejected investor-state arbitration due to concerns that it would “constrain the ability of Australian governments to make laws on social, environmental and economic matters”.^7,8

Why is Canada moving backwards?

SIGN THE PETITION TO TELL STEPHEN HARPER CANADA IS NOT FOR SALE:

http://www.leadnow.ca/canada-not-for-sale