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A call to stop the imminent implementation of the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement
Toronto, ON - On March 26, 2009, the Government of Canada introduced legislation (Bill C23) in the House of Commons that could lead in short order to the implementation of a Canada-Colombia free trade agreement. This move calls into question why this government would be providing legitimacy to what the UN has called the worst humanitarian disaster in the Western hemisphere.
There are now some 4 million displaced people in Colombia mainly due to paramilitary violence. Extra judicial killings by the country’s military have been on the rise in the 2007-2008 time period, with the latest “false positives” scandal implicating members of the armed forces in killing civilians and then dressing them up as guerillas in order to receive a reward.
Click here to write a letter to your MP http://www.commonfrontiers.ca/Single_Page_Docs/SinglePage_1col_docs/Apr0...
Reality behind the hype of the G20 Summit
Published in SUNS #6676 dated 7 April 2009
Bonn, 5 Apr (Martin Khor*) -- The G20 Summit in London last Thursday was
projected by the organisers and the Western leaders as having agreed to a
US$1.1 trillion package of measures to boost the sagging world economy, and
especially to help developing countries.
The trillion dollar figure was what caught the headlines. But as serious
analysis shows, this figure purporting to be new money was more hype than
reality. Some of it had already been decided long before the Summit, and
some of it reflected only an intention rather than concrete pledges.
As an incisive Financial Times article by Chris Giles commented caustically:
"Figures at the end of any international summit need to be examined closely,
particularly those presented by the UK prime minister. His reputation for
numerical inflation, repeat announcements and double-counting precedes him.
Making a Bad Situation Worse: An analysis of the text of the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement
The brief was coordinated by the Canadian Council for International Co-operation (CCIC) in collaboration with the Canadian Association of Labour Lawyers, the Canadian Labour Congress and the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, and has benefited from collaboration with counterparts in Colombia, including RECALCA and Colombian union colleagues.
Here is a link to the Executive Summary of Making a Bad Situation Worse http://www.ccic.ca/_files/en/making_a_bad_situation_worse.pdf and to the full text of the analysis http://www.ccic.ca/_files/en/working_groups/making_a_bad_situation_worse....
The document is also available in French and in Spanish
En espanol: http://www.ccic.ca/_files/en/making_a_bad_situation_worse_long_version_e...
