"The NDP is urging the good citizenry of Canada to accept NAFTA and to submit to NAFTA’s treasonous principles. It is acquiescence to the death of democracy and the impending death of a sovereign Canada." "It is the duty of all Members of Parliament, not N.G.O.’s to argue for and defend the sovereign interests of Canadians. It is the duty of all Members of Parliament to demand that Parliamentarians be directly involved in deciding whether we even want to restructure Canada pursuant to the WTO, World bank and IMF dictates." Members of Parliament should demand the re-establishment of his/her political authority; not urge a further diminishment of accountability. Abrogation of NAFTA is the only way to protect our sovereignty and our democracy. Date: Sun, 08 Oct 2000 14:36:26 -0700 From: Connie Fogal Subject: NAFTA,NDP,NGO'S,MP'S,OFFICIALS,DEMOCRACY On NAFTA, NGO’s, Government Officials, Members of Parliament, and Democracy The NDP and Many N.G.O.’s Just Can’t Get the Picture! NAFTA is an agreement of insanity because of its violation of the interests of the citizens of Canada, the U.S. and Mexico. All the subsequent agreements entered or in process modelled on NAFTA principles are anti-democratic. Anyone promoting any form of participation in NAFTA or any of the subsequent agreements entered or in process (MAI, FTAA, GATS, WTO) are no friend to democracy or the peoples of the world.(In Canada that is the political parties of the Alliance, the Liberals, the Conservatives, and now the NDP. We also have many significant N.G.O.’s promoting this. It is hypocritical to oppose the WTO, the MAI, FTAA, or the GATS but accept the NAFTA. Canada’s former Minister of International Trade, Sergio Marchi, made this point at the opposition to the MAI since, as he put it, the MAI was just NAFTA extended to 29 other states.) On October 5, 2000 in Canada’s House of Commons, the NDP trade critic, Bill Blaikie, urged Canada’s Minister of International Trade, Pierre Pettigrew, to promote a right of Non-governmental organizations,(N.G.O.’s), in particular The International Institute for Sustainable Development from Winnipeg, to be involved in the NAFTA hearing of the $1 billion lawsuit by the Canadian firm Methanex against the U.S. under chapter 11 of NAFTA. (This is a NAFTA lawsuit by Methanex to to get compensation for profits it lost as a result of California’s ban on MTBE, a gasoline additive with suspected carcinogenic properties.) Blaikie wants Pettigrew to urge the NAFTA panel to open up the NAFTA legal process to public interest groups. (Like the MAI, the NAFTA has a dispute settlement mechanism conducted in secret, outside of any of the participating nations’ judicial process. Like the MAI, it is a flagrant violation of Canada’s Constitution.) But he does not demand the inclusion of a full Parliamentary Committee. As a citizen, I do not want unelected, unrepresentative, unaccountable N.G.O.s any more than I want unelected, unrepresentative, unaccountable government officials and bureaucrats participating in passing judgement on decisions of sovereign nations outside of their domestic legal process which decisions compel outrageous damage awards against the citizens via their national governments. Nor do I want these NGO’s and officials sitting at any table anywhere with representatives of the international financial power structure negotiating the demise of my Canadian constitutional entitlements. A responsible Member of Parliament would call for an end to this anti democratic process. Such a call is to invoke the 6 month notice clause to take Canada out of NAFTA. By the request of the NDP as put forward by Bill Blaikie, the NDP is urging the good citizenry of Canada to accept NAFTA and to submit to NAFTA’s treasonous principles. It is acquiescence to the death of democracy and the impending death of a sovereign Canada. It is the duty of Bill Blaikie and all Members of Parliament, not N.G.O.’s like The International Institute for Sustainable Development, to argue for and defend the sovereign interests of Canadians. It is the duty of Bill Blaikie and all Members of Parliament to demand that Parliamentarians be directly involved in deciding whether we even want to restructure Canada pursuant to the WTO , World bank and IMF dictates. The responsible role of a Member of Parliament or political party with a sense of the public good and public duty would be a demand for the reclamation of his/her political authority; not an urgence of a further diminishment of accountability. Perhaps the NDP has been duped by the N.G.O.’s. N.G.O’s are being seduced by an illusion of power as they are “permitted”to be present “at the table”. The lesson learned by the OECD negotiators of the MAI was the importance of creating an appearance of power to the people by permitting more NGO presence in negotiations of international agreements thereby co-opting their effectiveness as a mobilizing force of opposition. Maude Barlow, of the Council of Canadians, in a speech at Vancouver, November 2000 after the Seattle WTO meetings fell apart, said there now exist three prongs of power: corporations who already have almost all the power, governments who no longer have any power except the power of the gun, and “civil society”who are demanding and getting a seat at the table of power. What is wrong with that scenario? There is no one accountable to the people. Corporations only seek profits. Elected governments have abandoned their duty to the public good by permitting the dramatic restructuring by bureaucrats of our basic political and social system pursuant to the WTO demands. NGO’s are not elected; hence they are unaccountable and unrepresentative. And they have no power. An informed citizenry still has the electoral power to get rid of the Members of Parliament who have abandoned their duty to us. We have no way of getting rid of NGO’s. The useful and valuable role of NGO’s was to inform the public, not to incorporate a sinecure of privilege for themselves. A government loyal to the entitlements of its citizenry, a government infused with the understanding of the Public Good, would have all the authority to be bold in leading the world away from tyranny and corporate rule of the world. The leaders of many non governmental organizations in Canada and across the world have forsaken the principle of electoral representation because they consider governments now to be powerless. They promote “civil society politics” to “influence” or replace democratically elected decision makers. N.G.O.’s see themselves as a third prong in a triad of world power reshaping society-the international corporate/financial community, governments, and the non-governmental organizations. These NGO’s do not seek to stop the death march confronting nation states, sovereignty, or democracy. They seek to be elevated to negotiator status arguing that only they can force the financial elite to be fair. But a death march is a death march is a death march. The name of the WTO game is to eliminate all regulations or rules that interfere with power and greed. National rules and national constitutions do interfere with Mr Greed. Therefore, nations or constitutions have to be emasculated or destroyed. Hence, the endless attacks on Canada’s constitution, including the erosion of the division of powers between our federal and provincial governments. Despite the defeat of Meech Lake and the Charlottetown accord by the people of Canada, the constitution of Canada is regularly being eroded and emasculated by administrative practice in fulfilling the WTO agenda. This is condoned by Parliament by default if not by design. If all of our elected people are betraying us or submitting to an agenda that is killing us, how do we stop that except by replacing them with an electable opposition force? It is governments that enter and end agreements, not movements or non-governmental agencies (many of whom get their funding from government). How do we avoid chaos except by democratic government? A massive restructuring of the world has been ongoing since WW2 and escalating since 1994 with the WTO. Bureaucrats from around the world (salaried by the tax dollar of citizens) have been negotiating with industry representatives with the knowledge of and some presence by various non-governmental organizations including some union representatives. They have all been participating in the unleashing of the economic agenda in Canada that is directly responsible for the unprecedented rate of bankruptcy of our prairie farmers, the takeover of our Canadian industries, the terminal illness of Canada’s mixed economy exemplified in the slow but certain death of our social programs, including medicare, hospitalization, our national broadcasting system (the CBC), public education, and our railroads- all the glue to the fabric of Canada. Although many citizens decry and abhor the failure of our elected people to protect our sovereignty, we still support democracy, i.e , the right of citizens to choose their representatives by a recorded national vote- the franchise. What is necessary are Members of Parliament prepared to say no to the agenda that throws away our rights, and to refuse to submit to the power of greed and influence. A force without accountability serves only to co-opt, restrict and restrain the real movement of opposition and resistance to oppression. In the end it serves only the enemy. It facilitates the death of democracy. Abrogation of the NAFTA is the only step that will clearly begin the reclamation of our sovereignty and check the slide away from democracy. If we cannot even do that tiny step in the current world restructuring, there is no hope of halting the return to feudalism. One cannot run with the hares and hunt with the hounds...... Submitted by Connie Fogal ====================================================================== Connie Fogal is a Director of the Defence of Canadian Liberty Committee. She is also the Plaintiff along with the Defence of Canadian Liberty Committee in the lawsuit against Her Majesty the Queen, the Federal government and others re the MAI (under appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada from the Federal Court action number T-790- 98).The lawsuit seeks to end the sellout of Canadian sovereignty and the destruction of our constitutional rights. The lawsuit is supported financially by individual Canadians across Canada, but receives no support from NGO’s, nor from government, nor from organized labour. The Canadian government vigorously opposes this challenge to the sellout of Canada. It asks the Court to declare that citizens have no right to be in our domestic Court asking for rulings on these significant issues invoking the protection of our Constitution. See www.canadianliberty.bc.ca Connie Fogal is also the President of the Canadian Action Party, a duly constituted federal party dedicated to remaining Canadian, resisting the WTO unfolding agenda, pulling Canada out of the leadership of the WTO agenda, abrogating NAFTA, rejecting the Free Trade Agreement of the Americas, and the negotiations under the GATS that incorporate the National Treatment Clause of NAFTA ,but instead promoting real trade agreements DEFENCE of CANADIAN LIBERTY COMMITTEE/LE COMITÉ de la LIBERTÉ CANADIENNE C/0 CONSTANCE FOGAL LAW OFFICE, #401 -207 West Hastings St., Vancouver, B.C. V6B1H7 Tel: (604)687-0588; fax: (604) 872 -1504 or (604) 688-0550;cellular(604) 202 7334; E-MAIL cfogal@netcom.ca; www.canadianliberty.bc.ca “The constitution of Canada does not belong either to Parliament, or to the Legislatures; it belongs to the country and it is there that the citizens of the country will find the protection of the rights to which they are entitled” Supreme Court of Canada A.G. of Nova Scotia and A.G. of Canada, S.C.R. 1951 pp 32 ............................................. Bob Olsen, Toronto bobolsen@interlog.com ............................................. ---------------------------- ftaa-l ----------------------------- resisting the FTAA and capitalist globalization mobilizing for Quebec City, April 2001 creating alternatives ----- to unsubscribe from this list, send a message to: with the following text only: unsubscribe ---------------------------- ftaa-l -----------------------------