UPDATE: MPs debate CETA at public forum in Ottawa

A public dialogue on the Canada-European Union free trade deal has just started in a downtown library in Ottawa.

The panel, hosted by Theresa Healey of the Canadian Labour Congress, includes (from left to right in the photo), Green Party leader Elizabeth May, Bloc Québécois trade critic Andre Bellavance, Liberal trade critic Wayne Easter, and NDP trade critic Robert Chisholm.

Despite an invitation to the Conservative trade minister Ed Fast – and to numerous other Conservative MPs and senators – no government representative agreed to be present to explain their position on CETA.

The dialogue has been organized by the Trade Justice Network (of which the Council of Canadians is a member), RQIC, Carleton University’s Institute of Political Economy, and the School of International Development and Global Studies.