Fox Creek, AB – January 30th
It has been announced recently by the Council of Canadians that the Government of Canada denied their access to information request for the text of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the EU. This despite the government claiming the agreement is nearly finished and that key sections that were in dispute have been ironed out.
CETA covers a wide number of areas from agriculture to industry, from investor-to-state arbitration to intellectual property law. While the Conservatives have claimed that they ‘obviously’ can’t release the text that is being worked on this is how the WIPO operates and they seem to have no issues. A trade agreement is set to be signed without Canadians having any input on its language and with no discussion on its relative merits. This is unprecedented.
“If CETA is as good for Canada as the Conservatives make it out to be you would think they would insist on making it public so they could bask in the warm glow of the pundit’s praise. That they have not done so could mean there are sections that they fear leave them open to criticism. The Conservatives saw, along with everyone else, the defeat of such initiatives as ACTA and SOPA. Keeping everything secret lets them make an end-run for adopting CETA before Canadians could possibly organize against it” says James Wilson, Leader of the Pirate Party of Canada. The Pirate Party stands against this denial of democratic debate. The Pirate Party supports having complete transparency during the negotiation of treaties along with ample opportunity for the public to make their views known. Canadians cannot endorse an agreement they are not allowed to see. The Pirate Party repudiates any agreement made under these circumstances and any agreement unfavourable to Canadians would be repealed by a Pirate Party government.
The Pirate Party of Canada is a federal political party focused on thoughtful information policy reform, genuine democracy, civil liberties, and the freedom of the Internet. You can find out more online at www.pirateparty.ca .