Thread: Put the SPP to a vote, say prominent Canadians

Put the SPP to a vote, say prominent Canadians
OTTAWA, Oct. 12 /CNW Telbec/ - Maude Barlow, David Suzuki, Ken Georgetti,
Maher Arar and Monia Mazigh are sending Prime Minister Stephen Harper a letter
today demanding that his upcoming Throne Speech include a commitment to submit
the controversial Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP)
to a vote in the next parliamentary session.
They are calling on Stephen Harper to make good on his earlier promise
"to submit significant international treaties for votes in Parliament" by
bringing forward the SPP for parliamentary debate and a vote in the House of
Commons.
So far, only 30 CEOs from North America's richest corporations, including
Lockheed Martin, Bank of Nova Scotia, Chevron, Power Corporation and Merck,
have had any meaningful input. Only they have been invited to annual
closed-door meetings of SPP leaders and ministers, such as the one that took
place in Montebello, Quebec in August.
Labour, environmental and social justice groups argue that the SPP,
launched in 2005 by the governments of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, has
already led to lower standards in a number of different policy areas.
The partnership's stated goal of making North America safer has been
called into question by the Canadian public due to some of the its more
controversial initiatives such as Canada's "Passenger Protect" no-fly list,
and the harmonization of pesticide residue limits and toxic chemical
regulations.



For further information: Meera Karunananthan, Media Officer, Council of
Canadians, (613) 233-4487 ext 234, (613) 795-8685 (cell), meera@canadians.org;
www.canadians.org

http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/arch ... c3357.html

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Canadians call for vote on SPP
Activists demand national referendum on 'continental divide'

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Posted: October 15, 2007
1:00 a.m. Eastern


By Jerome R. Corsi
© 2007 WorldNetDaily.com


Canadian activists are demanding Prime Minister Stephen Harper fulfill a promise and submit the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America to a national referendum for an up or down vote.

"The Prime Minister of Canada and his cabinet in both Liberal and Conservative regimes support the unification of North America as witnessed by the fact of [former Prime Minister] Paul Martin and [current Prime Minister] Stephen Harper being signatories to the SPP process," said Connie Fogal, leader of the Canadian Action Party.

Fogal rejects the idea that the vote on SPP should be taken solely in the Canadian Parliament.

"A decision about the restructuring of Canada into an integrated North America is not a decision for parliament, but for the citizens of Canada," Fogal says. "What every Parliamentarian should do is call for a no confidence vote on this issue to cease unification of Canada, the USA and Mexico, and then run a campaign on the life of Canada not its death."

Maude Barlow, the National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, agrees.

"So far, only 30 CEOs from North America's richest corporations, including Lockheed Martin, Bank of Nova Scotia, Chevron, Power Corporation and Merck, have had any meaningful input," a news release on Barlow's website proclaims. "Only they have been invited to annual closed-door meetings of SPP leaders and ministers, such as the one that took place in Montebello, Quebec, in August."

As WND previously reported, the North American Competitiveness Council, or NACC, dominated the SPP closed-door meetings with the SPP trilateral working groups, the trilateral cabinet members in attendance and President Bush, Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, and Harper at the third annual SPP summit in Montebello, Quebec, on Aug. 20-21.

WND has also reported the NACC is a shadowy council of 30 top North American multinational corporations self-appointed by the Chambers of Commerce in each of the three countries to constitute the sole outside advisory to the SPP.

The 30 companies composing the NACC are listed on a memo posted on the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website.

In the United States, the companies on the NACC are:


Campbell Soup Company

Chevron Corporation

Ford Motor Corporation

FedEx Corporation

General Electric Company

General Motors Corporation

Kansas City Southern

Lockheed Martin Corporation

Merck & Co., Inc.

Mittal Steel USA

New York Life Insurance Company

Procter & Gamble

UPS

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

Whirlpool Corporation
No union leaders, public interest groups, environmental advocates or news media have ever attended the closed-door of the NACC with the SPP.

According to a document on the Commerce Department's SPP website, the organization of the NACC was agreed upon by the three leaders on March 31, 2006.

"We are pleased to announce the creation of a North American Competitiveness Council," the White House announced the same day.

"The Council will comprise members of the private sector from each country," the White House said, "and will provide us recommendations on North American competitiveness, including, among others, areas such as automotive and transportation, steel, manufacturing, and services. The Council will meet annually with security and prosperity Ministers and will engage with senior government officials on an ongoing basis."

On Sept. 25, Harper made a speech to the Council on Foreign Relations in New York where he again endorsed SPP.

In a transcript archived on the CFR website, Harper referred to the NACC, saying: "At the North American summit that Canada hosted in Montebello last month, I was struck by the power of the message sent to us by the leaders from the American and Canadian private sectors."

"They appealed to us to see the connection between security and prosperity," Harper continued. "They told us that without the ‘and' we won't have either."

The CFR website also has archived a video of Harper's Sept. 25 remarks.


http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/artic ... E_ID=58143

SHOULD BE PUT TO A VOTE OF THE CITZENS IN ALL THREE COUNTRIES. AND I CAN TELL YOU RIGHT NOW WHAT WILL HAPPEN. THE ANSWER WILL BE NO.