From: Bob Olsen <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Fri, 11 May 2001 11:08:27 -0400 To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: City of Ottawa opposes FTAA, 9 May 2001 City of Ottawa opposes FTAA Date: Thu, 10 May 2001 16:36:02 -0400 From: david creighton <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Canada�s Capital Bucks Free Trade OTTAWA Indymedia--10 May 2001 On Wednesday [9 May] the City of Ottawa became the twentieth municipality in Canada to pass a resolution against the FTAA, GATS, and similar trade and investment agreements. Ottawa is Canada�s fourth largest city and the nation�s Capital. Shoehorned between a contentious bilingualism debate and consideration of the new megacity�s first budget, the resolution passed easily, 17 to 2 votes, in spite of representation from Canada�s Minister of International Trade, Pierre Pettigrew. Dissenting Councilor Wendy Stewart quoted a letter from the Minister assuring Councilors that �municipalities will retain the right to legislate in areas where we have jurisdiction,� and that �the Resolution cannot give us the right to abrogate our NAFTA obligations.� But the Councilors had been thoroughly briefed, �more thoroughly briefed than on any issue before,� confessed Mayor Bob Chiarelli. Councilors each received a 100-page briefing book, which many �read cover-to-cover.� They received personal delegations from constituents, petitions, countless phone calls, letters, faxes and e-mails from hundreds of citizens. Such intense lobbying by the loosely formed �Ottawa Coalition to Protect Municipal Democracy Against International Trade Pacts� [OCPMDAITP!] persuaded the City�s Health, Recreation and Social Services Committee to approve the Resolution unanimously, on April 19th. City Council then endorsed the resolution, with only a single friendly amendment, in less than five minutes. The Council�s approval �shows that people without prior experience in bringing a resolution to the City Council of a major and very political Canadian city were able to do an amazing piece of work,� said OCPMDAITP spokesperson Armand Cot�. �With a terrific show of grass roots democracy, we swung the City Council behind the resolution which is a clear challenge to the present vision, or bad dream, of how society and nature should be arranged in the 'new world order'." �This resolution takes head-on one of the most contentious subjects in our society, corporate driven globalization,� spokesperson Emily Watkins said. �We learned that organization, focus, and a valid cause which speaks to and involves ordinary people in their real life is an underestimated social and political force,� she said. The first city to pass a trade and investment agreement resolution was Vancouver, in July 2000. Since then many other municipalities, and organizations of municipalities, plus two USA cities, have started examining the implications of these deals on their ability to govern. In particular, as analyst Matt Sanger quotes the �recently liberated� FTAA draft chapter on �investor / state� relations: �The intentions of this chapter, Scope of Application, 7.1, applies to the entire territory of the Parties and to any level or order of government regardless of any inconsistent measure that may exist in legislation at those levels of government." The recent Metalclad toxic waste dump case, in which the NAFTA tribunal ruled that the city of Guadalcazar in San Luis Potosi, Mexico did not have the right to protect public health and other matters under its jurisdiction, �demonstrated that the explicit provisions in NAFTA exempting municipal governments from Chapter 11 are not sufficient to protect municipal governments from the application of the provisions of Chapter 11,� Mr Sanger said. The cities of Kingston, Halifax, Brantford and others are expected to consider similar resolutions in the near future, spokesperson Derek McKee revealed. ============= The full text of the Ottawa Resolution is available at: <http://ontario.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=828&group=webcast> ........ ........ ........ ........ Bob Olsen adds that an analysis of GATS (General Agreement on Trade in Services), was published 2 April, 2001 by the International Branch, Ministry of Employment and Investment, Government of British Columbia. It discusses the "exercise of governmental authority" at all levels of government. It can be found at...... http://www.ei.gov.bc.ca/Trade&Export/FTAA-WTO/governmentalauth.htm .......................................... Bob Olsen, Toronto [EMAIL PROTECTED] Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will. - Frederic Douglass .......................................... _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
