June 30, 2009
The Harper government continues to prove incapable of compromise when it comes to free trade. As the world looks beyond the stale neoliberal model of putting investor rights above human and environmental rights, Harper is aggressively pursuing free trade deals with countries like Peru and Colombia, while many of our politicians and senators seem ideologically stuck in the past with no concern for the real impact of these deals on the peoples or economies of host countries.
On June 10, the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade hastily passed Bill C-24, implementing legislation for the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement, in the middle of a political and human rights crisis in Peru sparked by the deaths in early June of at least 35 and some say more than 60 Indigenous protesters and police as the government moved to break up peaceful demonstrations against Amazonian development on Indigenous land.
The crisis has led to the rescinding of several contentious government decrees that would have opened up the Amazon rain forest to massive new mining, oil and gas, and agricultural projects. It has also forced the Peruvian prime minister to resign and President Alan Garcia to officially apologize to Indigenous groups, who are opposed to the free trade agreements with Canada, the United States and Europe.
SENATE IGNORES CRISIS
You would have thought that these events would have come up in the Senate’s deliberations of free trade with Peru. After all, the Senate is said to be Canada’s “court of sober, second thought,” and with the Colombia free trade talks stalled on the grounds that a Human Rights Impact Assessment should be carried out first, it seemed only natural that the Senate should halt Bill C-24, at least until the conflicts in Peru had been solved.
But as the transcript proves, our senators were more concerned about investor protections for Canadian oil and mining companies, and why Canada did not get as good a deal as the U.S. on pork and other agricultural exports, than they were with the fact that communities in the Amazon were protesting against the current and future presence of these very corporations on their ancestral lands.
TAKE ACTION: Hold our senators to account!
It is our duty to hold our senators, and all of our politicians, to account on free trade. The world has moved on and Canada is falling behind by blindly adhering to old business-first economic and trade models that put profits ahead of the lives of people everywhere. We need to let our senators know, through direct letters and letters-to-the-editor of local newspapers, that they failed Canadians and Peruvians by passing the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement so quickly, and without any consideration of the potential impact of increasing investor rights in a country whose government shows no patience for peaceful protest of development, even on Indigenous ancestral lands.
- WRITE YOUR SENATOR: Below are the names, phone numbers and email addresses of the senators on the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee. We have excluded Conservative Senator Fortin-Duplessis, a Conservative from Rougemont, Quebec, because she was the lone critical voice on the committee. But if you’d like to reach her, she is at 613-947-4036 or 1-800-267-7362.
- WRITE A LETTER TO THE EDITOR: We need to let other Canadians know how poorly our senators handled the Peru free trade debate. Using the information links below, craft a letter to the editor of your local paper. Ideally, you should target papers in the communities that our senators represent. For instance, Senator Percy Downe could be highlighted in letters to PEI newspapers.
For talking points, please refer to the following documents:
- The June 29 letter from the Council of Canadians, Common Frontiers and MiningWatch Canada to Senate government leader Marjory LeBreton and Senate opposition leader James Cowan
- The transcripts from the June 10 Senate committee hearing into Bill C-24
- A June 29, 2009 letter from the CCIC’s Americas Policy Group to the Prime Minister
- Victory in the Amazon, an article by Laura Carlsen at the Center for International Policy
Senate Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee members:
Andreychuk, Raynell C - (Saskatchewan) - 613-947-2239 or 1-800-267-7362, andrer@sen.parl.gc.ca
Corbin, Eymard G. Lib. - (Grand-Sault - New Brunswick) - 613-996-8485 or 1-800-267-7362
Dawson, Dennis Lib. - (Lauzon - Quebec) - 613-995-3978 or 1-800-267-7362, dawsod@sen.parl.gc.ca
De Bané, Pierre Lib. - (De la Vallière - Quebec) - 613-992-8289 or 1-800-267-7362, debanp@sen.parl.gc.ca
Di Nino, Consiglio C - (Ontario) – Committee Chair - 613-943-1454 or 1-800-267-7362, dininc@sen.parl.gc.ca
Downe, Percy E. Lib. - (Charlottetown - Prince Edward Island) - 613-943-8107 or 1-800-267-7362, pdowne@sen.parl.gc.ca
Grafstein, Jerahmiel S. Lib. - (Metro Toronto - Ontario) - 613-992-2642 or 1-800-267-7362, grafsj@sen.parl.gc.ca
Mahovlich, Frank W. Lib. - (Toronto - Ontario) - 613-943-2065 or 1-800-267-7362, mahovf@sen.prl.gc.ca
Segal, Hugh C - (Kingston-Frontenac-Leeds - Ontario) - 613-995-4059 or 1-800-267-7362, kfl@sen.parl.gc.ca
Stollery, Peter A. Lib. - (Bloor and Yonge - Ontario) – Committee Deputy Chair - 613-992-3012 or 1-800-267-7362, stollp@sen.parl.gc.ca
Wallin, Pamela C - (Saskatchewan) - 613-947-4097 or 1-800-267-7362, wallinp@sen.parl.gc.ca
