Canadians Deliver Strong Message Against the WTO

Hundreds of Canadian protesters joined millions of people around the world today in demonstrating against a proposed new round to further liberalize trade, as delegates from 142 member countries gathered in Doha, Qatar for the first day of the fourth ministerial World Trade Organization meetings.

The Common Front on the World Trade Organization, (CFWTO) a coalition of 60 national and regional organizations, organized events in over 25 cities across Canada calling on International Trade Minister Pettigrew to stop negotiating on behalf of corporations and to listen to the serious concerns of Canadians.

Two caravans that have been travelling from both ends of the country since October 18th, giving talks in over 60 cities, converged in Ottawa today. The caravans gathered thousands of pledges gathered across the country and long banners with people's messages to Minister Pettigrew. The pledges state that a "Better World is Possible, but not through the WTO."

At a rally that traveled from the human rights monument on Elgin Street to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT), many prominent spokespeople spoke out against the proposed new WTO negotiations:

Ken Georgetti, President of the Canadian Labour Congress, said, "The WTO can meet in Qatar, but it is at home that we will change it, putting pressure on our governments and demanding the rights and interests of working families be put before those of corporations." Mr Georgetti was instrumental in getting the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) to organize an International Day of Action in Countries around the world.

Ivan Ignacio, President of the Andean Council of Travelling Indigenous People from the Aymara Nation, Bolivia, who has been travelling on the CFWTO cross-country caravan from Victoria to Ottawa, said Canadians need to know that millions of people in developing countries are suffering as a result of globalization and that they stand united in their opposition to the WTO." This week, for example, over 100,000 people marched in India's capital, New Delhi to oppose the WTO.

Judy Darcy, President of the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE), demanded that Minister Pettigrew stop negotiating an expansion to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), saying that it will clearly lead to the rapid privatization of our health care, education and other vital public and cultural services. "Now more than ever, Canadians need to tell the Liberal government that we will not sit by and watch them negotiate away the society that we have worked so hard to build."

Tony Clarke, Co-Chair of the CFWTO, called on the government to work for a safer world by putting forward an agenda of fair trade, not free trade. "Our best hope for building a better world lies in developing a plan of common security. This calls for a turnaround in our political priorities, both as peoples and as a nation."