PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
June 30, 2009

Senate failed Peruvians and Canadians by hastily approving free trade agreement, says letter to Senate leaders

Canadian civil society groups appalled by the quick passage in the Senate of Bill C-24 (the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement) in the middle of a human rights crisis in Peru have sent the Senate a letter to ask what happened to Canada’s court of sober, second thought.

“We had every reason to expect that the Senate, often referred to as Canada’s court of sober second thought, would have taken the time to investigate the reasons for the Indigenous protest in Peru that was dealt with harshly by authorities,” write the Council of Canadians, Common Frontiers and MiningWatch Canada in a letter sent today to Senate government and opposition leaders, as well as the members of the Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee who approved Bill C-24 this month.

In early June, Peruvian police in the northern Amazon region attacked a group of Indigenous people who since April had been peacefully protesting a lack of consultation about development on their land, and who are opposed to free trade agreements with Canada, the United States and the European Union. The attack resulted in at least 34 and some estimate as many as 60 deaths, including a number of police apparently killed by Indigenous protestors in defence and retaliation. It also spurred the resignation of the prime minister, the sudden revoking of controversial Amazonian development laws, and a nationally broadcast apology from the president.

“All Senators but one 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,” says the letter, which was a follow-up to a June 11 plea from the same organizations that the Senate do whatever it could to stop the passage of the Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement in light of events in Peru.

Over 500 Canadians joined the Council of Canadians, Common Frontiers and MiningWatch Canada in writing to Senate Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee members. The groups are urging Canadians to voice their concerns about the hasty Senate vote on Bill C-24 to show our senators that while they may not be elected they are still accountable to Canadians.

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For more information:
Stuart Trew, Trade Campaigner, Council of Canadians: 416-979-0451; strew@canadians.org
Rick Arnold, Common Frontiers: 905-352-2430; comfront@web.ca

• Letter to Senate
• Transcript of June 10 Senate Foreign Affairs and International Trade Committee hearing on Bill C-24 (Canada-Peru Free Trade Agreement)