The Newfoundland and Labrador group Citizens Against CETA has produced a new video (below) on the effects the Canada-EU trade deal could have on the province. According to Jonathan Parsons, a PhD student at Memorial University writing in The Independent today, the group “is about to kick off a lobbying campaign targeting local politicians, business persons, the media, and the public at large.”
Marilyn Reid of Citizens Against CETA tells Parsons that CETA is barely about trade at all but more “a way of further deregulating and privatizing the Canadian economy with restrictive rules that will seriously limit national, provincial, and municipal decision making.”
“Whether one is for or against free trade agreements, it is difficult to understand this kind of wholesale giveaway on the part of our government,” she says. “The European Union has made it very clear that they reserve the right to protect public services and local autonomy. Why is our federal government not doing the same thing? And why are provincial governments acquiescing to this?”
Reid explains the goal of the provincial campaign this way:
“Citizens of the province need to understand that the effects of this treaty will not be immediately apparent. It could well take a number of years for us to feel the impact of CETA on our communities. But by that time it will be too late. We must get informed and act now to insist that our elected officials engage in a full, comprehensive and unrushed debate about CETA, both in the House of Assembly and with citizens. So far we’re a long way away from that happening. That needs to change.”
To visit the Citizens Against CETA website: citizensagainstceta.blogspot.ca