Kelowna chapter activist Karen Abramsen speaks with a reporter at yesterday’s protest.
The Council of Canadians Kelowna chapter and allies protested against the Trans-Pacific Partnership in front of their City Hall yesterday.
In May, Kelowna chapter activist Wes Kmet wrote Mayor Colin Basran asking him to take action against the TPP. But Basran replied, “I appreciate your concerns but this is a jurisdiction of the federal government and outside of our mandate.” This simply isn’t true and that’s why the City of Vancouver is now studying the implications the TPP would have on municipal governance.
Castanet.net now reports, “The Council of Canadians rallied Tuesday outside Kelowna City Hall in response to a letter by Mayor Colin Basran. Karen Abramsen, the local chapter chairwoman, says they asked mayor and council to take action against the TPP. However, Basran’s response was that the TPP is a federal issue not a municipal one and suggested the Council of Canadians contact their member of Parliament. ‘We disagree fundamentally because there are a lot of issues that will affect our municipality and could result in lawsuits against Canada, so we beg to differ with (Basran)’, states Abramsen.”
The article adds, “The Council of Canadians oppose the TPP deal because they believe it includes an investor-state dispute settlement provision that allows transnational corporations to sue governments over legislation or policies made in the public interest. The Council of Canadians claim trade deals like the TPP will give corporations the right to sue governments for changes in policies that threaten profit, diminishing sovereignty. They [also] claim it will give way to unfair competition, put local jobs at risk and create food insecurity.”
Abramsen has highlighted, “Here in BC, this provision could affect the First Nations on Lelu Island in their battle against Petronas, a Malaysian company that wants to exploit liquefied natural gas. It’s not just the land and water, but also the fishing economy at stake for future generations. Under the TPP, Petronas could sue the Canadian government if it were to limit LNG exploitation on the island.”
The Castanet.net news article also quotes Kmet who says, “Sure we want to have fair trade, I want to have good business where we get good product and good money and everyone has a living wage, [But] the wealthy and the corporate control has been growing by leaps and bounds and we have to do something about it.”
The Kelowna chapter also held a public forum last night that included as a featured speaker Vancouver-based Council of Canadians organizer Harjap Grewal.
For more on our campaign to stop the TPP, please click here.
