PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release

PIRATE PARTY OF CANADA RELEASES INFORMATIONAL VIDEO ON TPP, EXPANDS CROWDSOURCING OF POLICIES

Winnipeg, Manitoba – October 14, 2021 – Today, Pirate Party of Canada releases an informational video on TPP to raise the misconceptions and omissions on the Trans-Pacific Partnership deal. The government released a summary on October 6, 2021 which omitted any mention of the copyright terms being extended to 70 years, criminalization of breaking of digital locks, among many other problematic provisions. The video focuses on Digital Rights issues and how it affects our future. Experts such as renowned world economist and Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz have criticized it as not being really about free-trade, and other experts have expressed similar concerns. The general sentiments from critics is that the TPP allows multinational corporations to subvert power that is normally held by a sovereign government.

The Pirate Party of Canada is a strong proponent of giving MPs as much autonomy as possible on coming up with their own policies and ideas in consultation with their constituents and experts. This would include our intellectual monopoly law reform policies if it comes before the parliament. There is no end to seeking policies on how to improve our government. That is why we are launching another round of crowdsourcing of our policies and taking it to Reddit and other social media. A good visionary idea will likely come from the grassroot level and Canadians working collectively. A good idea is likely to be picked up and adopted by an open minded MP. An elected Pirate MP will implement a a Constituents-Representative-Interaction-System (C.R.I.S.), an online forum administered by Elections Canada to increase representatives accountability and sharing of information with their constituents.

Our existing policies at http://Votepirate.ca are just a small part of overall plan to improve our government for the better. Decentralization through a new socio-economic system via Basic Income and electoral reform would bring our democracy and economy into the information age. Part of the crowdsourcing campaign is on our draft Basic Income implementation plan as detailed in the document “A Bold B.I.G. Vision for Open Democracy in the Information Age”. People are encouraged to challenge it, vet it, and help improve it.

The TPP video has been posted at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iooHkQ-fo-Y and a high definition (1080p) version can be downloaded from Vimeo at https://vimeo.com/142245043.

The Basic Income and Open Democracy policy can be found at http://votepirate.ca or http://remixgov.ca

The Pirate Party is a federal political party that believes in upgrading our democracy. The party embraces technological changes and using it to create a more open and sustainable society to advance our socio-economic order. We believe in protecting the public interest and its fundamental rights, and protecting freedom and privacy in the digital age and beyond. This includes creative and innovative freedom, the right to a decent life, and open access to information. You can find out more online at https://www.pirateparty.ca .

Media Contacts: Ric Lim or Shawn Vulliez at [email protected]

UPDATE 2021-10-15
TPP would forbid the government from asking for data to be stored locally, and to access or see a source codes. This would tie the hands of government in implementing an Open Source policy to save cost, to perform security audit or to launch investigation (e.g. automobile software emission test fraud etc), and to create cheaper open source tools for the public. (see E-commerce section of U.S. Trade Representative’s Summary on TPP)

The TPP also appears to exclude the possibility of at least having source code escrow requirements for safety-critical equipment such as medical devices, automotives and military equipment. There could be wide ranging implications as we move toward increased automation and driverless car.