Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 15:18:56 +0000
From: "William G." <william@cedar.alberni.net>
Subject: WTO Updates
A message from Jamie Dunn our Water Campaigner.
Victoria Gibb-Carsley
National Organizer
The Council of Canadians
vgibb-carsley@canadians.org
1-800-387-7177
Phone: 613-233-4487 ext 228
Fax: 613-233-6776
Website: www.canadians.org
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jamie
> Sent: Friday, December 03, 1999 4:45 PM
> To: Victoria
> Subject: updater for chapters
>
> Failure to Reach Agreement on Federal - Provincial Accord A Huge Victory
> The Failure of the federal government to convince the provinces to
> participate in its strategy to stop water exports is a huge victory for
> The Council's campaign to stop water exports and those pressing the
> government to wake up to the realities of trade deals. For months the
> government has been claiming unanimous support among the provinces for its
> "environmental" approach. The meeting of the Canadian Council of
> Environment Ministers who were to adopt the accord ended with five of ten
> provinces refusing to sign the agreement because the federal government
> hadn't sufficiently dealt with the trade question. The environment
> ministers and premiers of several key provinces received over 2000 calls
> and faxes telling them not to sign the accord until the federal government
> did its job by banning bulk water exports. On Friday November 26th the
> National Farmers Union passed an emergency resolution calling for a
> rejection of the accord for the same reasons.
> Among the most glaring problems with the accord is that it is a voluntary
> agreement that any province at any time could ignore and begin exporting
> water. Once that occurred it would open the entire country up to claims on
> Canada's water from exporters and investors from the United States and
> Mexico under NAFTA; more claims like the one Canada is currently facing
> from Sun Belt Corp. of Santa Barbara, California for $10.5 billion.
> Another of the problems is the wording of the accord itself. It asks the
> provinces to "agree to prohibit the removal of water from major drainage
> basins, including for the purposes of export." The drainage basins it
> identifies are the Pacific, Atlantic and Arctic Oceans, Hudson's Bay and
> the Gulf of Mexico. Because the accord only prohibits exports that divert
> water out of drainage basins, the accord actually creates continental
> corridors along which it allows the transfer of water. Not only are these
> drainage basins ridiculous in their scope from the perspective of good
> conservation ecology, but they explicitly allow water exports when coupled
> with the new cross-boundary water diversion licensing process announced by
> the federal government under the amendments to the Boundary Waters Treaty
> Act.
> The ministers who attended the meeting were given the message loud and
> clear from protesters who blockaded the road to the hotel with a
> thirty-foot tripod. Suspended from the tripod was a protester calling on
> the federal government to do its job and ban bulk water exports. The
> federal government is clearly being called on to make its intentions
> clear. If the joint declaration of the three governments in 1993 protects
> fresh water from the trade deal, then the federal government should be
> free to legislate a bulk water export ban. If however NAFTA ties its
> hands, it still has to ban water exports to stop new trade obligations and
> then negotiate an exclusion for fresh water from the trade deal. Canadians
> clearly aren't buying the federal government's assertions that it is doing
> all it can to protect water.
>
> James Dunn
> The Council of Canadians
> 502-151 Slater Street
> Ottawa, Ontario
> K1P 5H3
> jdunn@canadians.org
> Tel (613) 233 4487 ext 239
> fax 613-233-6776
> 1-800-387-7177
>
Chapters:
Hope that you can tune into this. It will feature our own Steve Staples, regional organizer in BC.
vgc
Victoria Gibb-Carsley
National Organizer
The Council of Canadians
vgibb-carsley@canadians.org
1-800-387-7177
Phone: 613-233-4487 ext 228
Fax: 613-233-6776
Website: www.canadians.org
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Steven D. Staples [SMTP:sstaples@canadians.org]
> Sent: Friday, December 03, 1999 12:29 PM
> Subject: CBC Documentary on WTO rescheduled for Friday, 10 PM
>
> Friends:
>
> Due to technical problems yesterday here in Seattle, the CBC wasn't able
> to air Erica Johnson's piece on the Seattle WTO protests. A shorter
> version is scheduled to air tonight on CBC's The National at 10 PM
> (Friday Dec. 3rd).
>
> Steve
>
> --
> The Council of Canadians, BC Organizing Office
> 711-207 West Hastings St.
> Vancouver B.C. V6B 1H7 CANADA
> tel: (604) 688-8846 fax: (604) 688-5756
>
Hi folks,
I just got back from Seattle. Rick Sawa (Prince Albert Chapter) and I took a van with youth/students from the Sierra Youth Club and Environmental Youth.
First, I wanted to acknowledge the incredible role that youth and students played in locking down Seattle so that the WTO could not convene itself on Tuesday, Nov. 30th (and further demonstations/actions after that). It was impressive, creative, well disciplined and very brave in the way they faced down the Seattle Police and blocked WTO delegates. These actions coupled with the Peoples (Labour) March of tens of thousands and the marches that took place the day before (8,000 in the save the environment march and 15,000 in the Jubilee 2000 ring around the Trade Center) have opened up an new level of resistance in communities throughout North America.
I think we as well should be rethinking/build on the way we are organizing given what Seattle is teaching us. Some key messages are: organize so that all communities can play a role - an intra-sectoral/inter generational/class alliance strategy; youth/students will provide a leadership - want to work with other generations - but give them the space to do their thing; we have to link issues back to the WTO and the role of transnationals always (note that the places under the most attack - physical and verbal in Seattle were Nikes/McDonalds/the Gap/Monsanto/Starbucks; we must be creative in our actions (the turtle marchers in Seattle very simply drew out what the WTO was doing to the environment); and we must constantly put forward the citizens alternative.
In terms of organizing on the prairies I feel that we must immediately pick up on Seattle - with meetings/debriefings about both the content and message of Seattle - the Teach In (2500 attended) and othe workshops provided very good material for information. We must point out that Seattle is the turning point/escalation in the citizens mass resistance - there will be more Seattles to confront the global corporate agenda.
We as the Prairies (this was discussed briefly with Shirly Lord and Rob Altimeyer) could look at a common action strategy around for example water - within the overal analysis of the resistance to the WTO. We had discussed a series of mobilization meetings - town hall meetings on the prairies (Steven Shyrbman has said he will come out) leading to some very creative activities/actions including all of us (and many others) ending up in Lloyd Axworthy's home turf. This is only one direction - the key is to build strong at home and then to link up our work in common cross border actions/activities.
Another possible cross community/cross border activity is to confront the privatization of health care - there is some discussion of organizing at Lloydminister a mass, mass meeting on preserving and expanding public health care - confronting the de Klein of health. So this will need some joint inter provincial co ordination and agreement.
Some of us - through Prince Albert Council of Canadians and Saskatoon Chapter are looking fairly immediately at supporting youth.student workshops on key issues of globalization and ways of organizing/educating and mobilizing.
Billboard your communities with our messages. This does get noticed - especially by the public and here the media wants to do a story on a billboard we have that talks about how small business will be impacted by transnationals and the WTO.
I did considerable sound recording of the events in Seattle which will be run as radio features on CFCR 90.5 FM - many of us took pictures and we have video footage - so we should put together a roadshow on Seattle with people who were there - it would be an educational and a mobilizing activity at the same time..
Some thoughts - lets keep Seattle going!!! In soliarity, Don Kossick
PS - For input into my radio programs on Seattle I would appreciate some responses from people who were either in Seattle or how people felt about what happened there. Thanks, Don.
>
*****************************************
Community Outreach and Education Centre 614B 10th Street East
Saskatoon, SK
S7H 0G9
phone: (306) 933-4346
fax: (306) 668-2516
email: outreach@link.ca