PHOTOS: Arseniy Yatsenyuk, former prime minister of Ukraine, with then Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper in July 2015. (Screen capture of CBC news broadcast.) Below: Alberta Conservative Leader Jason Kenney, federal Conservative leadership candidate Chris Alexander (Wikimedia Commons) and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, all of whom figure in this
Continue readingTag: chrystia freeland
Alberta Politics: Chrystia Freeland should not be punished for her grandfather’s sins, but for misleading Canadians about them
PHOTOS: Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland during her visit to Edmonton in the midst of the 2015 federal election. Below: Former Foreign Affairs Minister Stephane Dion and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Who would ever have imagined major Canadian media companies would conclude collaborating with the Nazis when they were on
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Freeland Admits: U.S. Withdrawal Effectively Kills TPP Trade Deal
This week, Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland admitted that the United States’ withdrawal from Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP) effectively kills the mega trade deal. The post Freeland Admits: U.S. Withdrawal Effectively Kills TPP Trade Deal appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Peter Martin reports on the Australia Institute’s recent study showing that corporate tax levels have little to do with foreign investment: New research ridicules the Prime Minister’s claim that cutting the company tax rate will boost foreign investment, pointing out that almost all
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – The Star argues that a crackdown on tax evasion and avoidance is a crucial first step in reining in inequality. Susan Delacourt wonders when, if ever, Chrystia Freeland’s apparent interest in inequality will show up in her role in government. And Vanmala Subramaniam
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Free Trade Is Never Free
While it is beginning to look like International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland’s departure from CETA negotiations was more of a ploy than the end of talks, the hiatus at least gives Canadians the opportunity to once more reflect on its dangers, the same dangers that afflict other so-called free trade
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: CETA – A Threat We Should All Be Aware Of
A recent post I wrote contrasted the apparent indifference/ignorance of Canadians toward CETA with the furious involvement of the Europeans, most recently the Germans, in open protest against the deal. It is a pact that will see even greater erosion of our ability to enact strong legislation to protect labour, the environment and a host of other realms thanks to the Investor State Dispute Settlement provisions that protect multinationals at the expense of citizens. It will further undermine our increasingly fragile sovereign rights.
And sadly, it is a deal the the Trudeau Liberals are avidly embracing.
Scott Sincleair and Stuart Trew write a trenchant reminder of CETA’s dangers:
Much more than a trade deal, CETA is a sweeping constitution-style document that will restrict public policy options in areas as diverse as intellectual property rights, government procurement, food safety and environmental protection, financial regulation, the temporary movement of workers, and public services.
My previous post noted the weak language governing some of the above, including platitudes like commitments to cooperate, provisions encouraging Canada and the EU to continue developing our resources in a way that is environmentally sustainable, establishes shared commitments to promote trade in a way that contributes to the objectives of sustainable development in Canada and the EU, etc.
All part and parcel of what Liberal International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland calls “a gold-plated trade deal.”
As Sincleair and Trew observe,
While CETA’s safeguards for labour and the environment are mainly voluntary and weak, the investor protections are strong and fully enforceable. Such an agreement could only be considered enlightened in an upside-down world.
The devolution of our sovereignty began long before CETA, however.
Canada’s experience with investor-state arbitration under NAFTA is pitiful. We are the most-sued NAFTA party despite our highly developed legal system and strong protections for private property. Many of these challenges involve environmental protection policies that were legally enacted, but which upset an investor’s plans or profits.
Just last year, Canada lost a disturbing NAFTA dispute over an environmental assessment that recommended against a massive quarry in an ecologically sensitive part of Nova Scotia. Canada currently faces a raft of claims as a result of progressive policies, such as banning natural gas fracking in the province of Quebec.
The pending deal promises more of the same, a source of puzzlement to European progressives:
European labour unions, environmentalists and human rights advocates question why Canada and the EU would want to expand this anti-democratic process through CETA. Despite being rebranded as an “investment court system” with pretenses to judicial independence, the substantive protections afforded to foreign investors remain largely intact. This will expose taxpayers in both Canada and the EU to huge financial liabilities and have a chilling effect on future progressive public policy.
European progressives are also asking important questions about the interplay between CETA and public services. CETA contains no clear protections for governments hoping to expand public services into areas where there is currently private sector competition, or to bring previously privatized services back under public control. Doing so can actually trigger foreign investor claims for compensation, effectively locking in privatization.
All the warning signs are there. Whether the vast majority of Canadians can rouse themselves enough to care is an open question.
Continue readingAlberta Politics: China’s concerns about Canadian canola are legitimate, and we’re going to have to deal with them sooner or later
PHOTOS: A field of canola at its most colourful, photographed in early August near Morinville, Alberta. Below: Farmer Ken Larsen, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, International Trade Minister Chrystia Freeland and Harper-era agriculture minister Gerry Ritz. According to the Globe and Mail, or at least one of the five apparently like-minded individuals interviewed recently by the […]
The post China’s concerns about Canadian canola are legitimate, and we’re going to have to deal with them sooner or later appeared first on Alberta Politics.
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Will The Trudeau Government Ignore The Warnings?
As pointed out by The Mound, Joseph Stigliz has issued a dire warning to Canada about the dangers of the TPP (Trans Pacific Partnership); essentially, it will enrich the few at the expense of the many. As well, he has warned about two other grave dange…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: Some Disturbing Signs
I won’t for a moment pretend that I am not glad to see Justin Trudeau’s Liberals as our new government. But as happened with a vice-principal we teachers once welcomed with open arms as a relief from the previous administration, my early hopes for real…
Continue readingPolitics and its Discontents: More On Freelands’s Double-Speak
Recently, I wrote a post about CETA, the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement; part of it examined the double-speak of Chrystia Freeland when she talked about both the protection of investor rights and the benefits of the deal that will redound t…
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canadian think-tank wants to demystify the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives just launched a new series of reports seeking to “demystify” the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) as Canada inches closer to ratifying the controversial trade deal.
The post Canadian think-tank wants to demyst…
The Canadian Progressive: Canada and TPP partners to sign “death sentence for Indigenous rights”
As Canada and 11 other nations prepare to sign the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Indigenous peoples in New Zealand say the trade deal is “a death sentence for indigenous rights.”
The post Canada and TPP partners to sign “death sentence for Ind…
Politics and its Discontents: Chrystia Freeland Challenges Bill Maher’s Islamophobia
While Bill Maher likes to present his views as reasonable and moderate, he clearly fails to recognize the inflammatory nature of his remarks. Chrystia Freeland tries to point out they are are counter-productive, serving only to demonize Muslims, alien…
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: On reasonable responses
Let’s offer a quick reminder to the Libs’ spin machine, and particularly to the people who should know better who are choosing to echo it. No party is under an obligation to reflexively attack or belittle everything another party proposes in its election platform. If a platform plank or general
Continue readingMontreal Simon: Why Is the Con Clown Joe Oliver Missing In Action?
The economy is teetering on the edge of disaster. The stock market is on a wild roller coaster ride. The loonie or Harper peso has fallen to its lowest level in eleven years. Thousands are losing their jobs.But Joe Oliver, the alleged Con FInance Minister, is nowhere to be seen.He
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Why Edmonton Strathcona electors should vote NDP, as (not exactly) explained by Liberal MP Chrystia Freeland
Toronto Spadina MP Chrystia Freeland, a Liberal, after speaking at the University of Alberta Faculty Club last week. Below: Eleanor Olszewski, nominated Liberal candidate in the federal Edmonton Strathcona riding; Linda Duncan, NDP MP for Edmonton Strathcona. Last Wednesday night, during an engaging talk at the University of Alberta Faculty
Continue readingdaveberta.ca - Alberta politics: Federal Liberal Summer Caucus in Edmonton
TweetTwenty-one years ago, in a federal election that reshaped the Canadian political landscape, the Liberals swept Edmonton, electing Members of Parliament in four of the city’s six federal ridings. That year was a high-water mark for the federal party, which last elected an MP in Edmonton in 2004 and has not come close
Continue readingChris Tindal: Some quick thoughts on Toronto Centre by-election results
Overall, Wells’s first rule — that “for any given situation, Canadian politics will tend toward the least exciting possible outcome” — held up. This is the result you might have predicted, and that most of us did predict. Folks in Toronto Centre are used to voting Liberal, and changing habits
Continue readingAlberta Diary: Coming soon, perhaps, a legitimate reason for Canadians to thank Conrad Black!
Linda McQuaig addresses the Alberta Union of Provincial Employees annual convention in 2008. (AUPE photo taken by Daryl Dyck.) Below: Conrad Black in the uniform of the Governor General’s Foot Guard, and not, as you may have thought, that of a security guard. It occurs to me that we Canadians
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