Global News called it a a “political war,” Postmedia a “marketing blitz.” Whatever you want to call it, today’s CETA day of action from the government was strange, a little overwhelming, but ultimately uplifting. I think we’re doing something right and it’s annoying all the right people.
Almost half of Harper’s ministers (19 of ’em) were asked to give pro-CETA presentations in communities across Canada today. The government issued a Myths and Realities fact sheet, just like the Trade Justice Network did yesterday in anticipation of but possibly underestimating today’s frenzy of interest in the CETA negotiations.
DFAIT even dredged up quotable quotations from a list of Canadian business lobby groups whose support for CETA has been of the moral variety, in other words strangely muted over the past three years. The hashtag #CETA even trended on Twitter for about an hour (take that #SomeWomenCantStand and #ItsInsaneHow).
It was quite the show of force, quite an offensive against… well, we’re not sure. Against us maybe? Against all those voices saying they don’t like the look of the Canada-EU trade deal (to put it mildly). Maybe against doubts and frictions internal to the negotiations. We don’t know. We only have today’s viewable archive to go by. The “new” CETA webpage. The dozen province- and territory-specific fact sheets purporting to explain, once and for all, how great the deal will be to corporations and workers alike. And the responses to it.
The Winnipeg Free Press reports, “The Council of Canadians says the government shouldn’t just be staging photo ops and speeches but also should engage with Canadians to listen to some of their concerns.” The paper quotes Ted Woynillowicz of the Calgary chapter as saying, “If the Harper government really wanted to meet with workers, he would have picked a more convenient time than 9 or 10 a.m. on a Friday.”
“We dare these ministers to come back to the province to actually meet with the public and take tough questions about CETA,” adds Woynillowicz. He and Council chapter representatives across Canada responded to the Harper government media assault with their own views of what CETA will mean for Canada. The London chapter just wrote to say they were able to get a dozen people out on short notice to the event where Conservative Labour Minister Lisa Raitt was presenting. (We’ll have an update on that action soon.)
Maude Barlow, national chairperson for the Council, said in a statement today that:
The Conservative trade tour is just smoke and mirrors. We’ve looked over Harper’s provincial CETA fact sheets and none of them address the fundamental imbalances in this EU deal between municipal rights and corporate rights, between the many jobs we can expect to lose in manufacturing and construction versus the few Canadian companies will pick up in Europe. Harper’s strategy seems to be to blind us with numbers that just don’t add up then leave the stage without truly debating with uncomfortable challenges to his free trade ideology.
Paul Moist, national president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, said today that, “Everyone is very clear this is a deal that will bring about big changes, but the government isn’t fully disclosing what those sweeping changes will be. Canadians have a right to know, and to have a say.” He added, “A deal of this scale and magnitude should be public. Part of democracy is being consulted and fully participating in major decisions like this.”
The NDP was dragged through the muck by Trade Minister Ed Fast, who said in a press conference in Ottawa that when the party “refers to fair trade, that’s really code language for no trade,” According to Global News, NDP foreign affairs critic Paul Dewar said during Question Period that, “Instead of spending their time on these bizarre, anti-NDP propaganda tours we don’t they negotiate some responsible trade deals.”
“Dewar attacked the government for its track record defending Canadian interests when it came to the softwood lumber dispute with the U.S. as well as the ‘Buy American’ policies of Washington,” wrote Global.
“New Democrats are in favour of trade. What we are opposed to is selling out Canada,” Dewar said.
I’ll be spending the next little while looking over the new government information on CETA. It’s clear the Harper government’s finally getting serious about passing this trade deal. It’s even clearer it’s not sure it’s a “no brainer” anymore. Harper doesn’t like meddlers so let’s keep meddling.
