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Barlow tackles the Trans-Pacific Partnership, promotes alternative vision in Halifax

Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow challenged the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) in Halifax this evening.


The other keynote speakers were Canadian Labour Congress secretary-treasurer Barb Byers and Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions president Linda Silas. Other speakers this evening were Halifax Labour Council president Suzanne McNeil and Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives-Nova Scotia director Christine Saulnier.


Barlow tweeted:


  • Packed house for Halifax Town hall on TPP! People don’t want this bad deal!

  • CLC’s Barb Byers talking about the need to end secrecy in trade deals at Halifax TPP own hall.

  • Linda Silas of the Nurses Union’s warning that increased drug costs from CETA and TPP could prevent pharmacare.

And Halifax-based Council of Canadians organizer Angela Giles tweeted:


  • CCPA-NS director Saulnier introduces @MaudeBarlow and tells personal story of Maude being reason she stayed with PoliSci at Uni!

  • @MaudeBarlow now explaining contentious ISDS clause in Int’l trade deals allowing corps to sue signatory govts.

  • NAFTA chapter 11: Digby Neck quarry, Abitibi-Bowater in NL; companies sued and received millions or 100s of millions compensation

Other tweets by various people this evening tell us about Barlow’s comments this evening include:


  • #TPP to increase demands on raw resource extraction, exports & enshrine corporate rights w/ Investor-State Dispute Settlement

  • Abitibi-Bowater, the corp that launched a NAFTA chapter 11 suit for “water rights” in Newfoundland

  • “Now is the time we must start to fight back against the investor-state provision”

  • “Any trade agreement that jeopardizes our water we have to say NO!”

  • “There is no concern for worker-protection, human rights, security or environment”

  • UN now classifies 3/4 of the working-age population as the “precariate”

  • “The words ‘climate change’ does not appear once in the 600 page document.”

  • “This government loooooves ‘consulting’ as a way of not doing things!”

  • I’ve been saying 4 decades that there is not much difference between the Liberals & the Conservatives; smoke & mirrors!

  • “This is the power of the people. We can dream and we can win a more just and equitable world”

  • “What would trade look like if it had to take climate change, social programs, and workers’ rights into account?”

The Canadian Labour Congress’ promotion for the tour highlights, “The TPP threatens tens-of-thousands of Canadian jobs, will lead to higher prescription drug costs, and threatens our health care system. Learn what the TPP will mean for Canada, your community, and how to stop it.” The 5-city tour now goes to Vancouver (November 22) and Winnipeg (November 23). On this tour, Barlow has already spoken in Windsor (November 2) and Toronto (November 8).


With the election of US president-elect Donald Trump earlier this week, there is now speculation that the United States will not ratify the TPP and that the whole deal will collapse. There is some possibility that President Barack Obama could try to pass the TPP in the US Congress prior to his departure on January 20, 2017, but there is considerable skepticism that will happen.


The Council of Canadians has taken the position that: 1) the TPP isn’t dead until it’s dead, 2) the Canadian government still needs to be pressured to oppose the TPP, 3) Trump will work to advance the interests of the wealthy and US transnational corporations with or without the TPP, 4) powerful investor-right tools still exist within NAFTA that pose a serious threat to the public interest, 5) it is now more important than ever to provide a positive alternative vision to these so-called ‘free trade’ agreements and the deeply neo-liberal, racist and misogynist views held by Trump.


For more on our campaign to stop the TPP, please click here.