MEDIA RELEASEFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 20, 2008
Canadians Reject McCain’s NAFTA Plea
Continental Movement for Renegotiation Grows
Ottawa – On Friday, June 20 the Council of Canadians held a mock press conference and protest outside Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier, where Republican Senator John McCain spoke to an elite audience of Canadian corporate executives. The action featured the “NAFTA-saurus”, a representation of unjust trade policies that are facing extinction.
“We have lost democratic control of energy under NAFTA and we may lose control over water, if the NAFTA-SPP agenda is allowed to proceed unchecked,” says Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians, who highlighted the fact that Barack Obama has committed to renegotiate NAFTA, if he is elected president, and over 50 members of Congress in the US are currently supporting the recently introduced TRADE Act (the Trade Reform, Accountability, Development and Employment Act), which calls for renegotiation of NAFTA and a slew of other unfair trade agreements. The Council of Canadians is calling on Canadian parliamentarians to support similar legislation.
Barlow adds, “NAFTA has destroyed hundreds of thousands of jobs and given corporations unprecedented power to override local democracy.”
“Senator McCain’s visit to Ottawa is an act of desperation aimed at stopping the increasing opposition to NAFTA in the US, Mexico, and Canada. While McCain would have Americans believe that Canadians support the reckless trade model embodied by NAFTA, the opposite is actually true,” continues Barlow.
It’s time to renegotiate NAFTA, stop the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), and reject the Bush-McCain agenda of putting corporate profits before people and the planet,” concludes Barlow