Dear Friends,
This letter (see below) was carried in today's Globe and Mail, the National
Post and other newspapers across Canada.
Sincerely,
Grant Orchard
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DAVID ORCHARD CAMPAIGN FOR CANADA
National office: P.O. Box 1983, Saskatoon, S7K 3S5
tel: (306) 664-8443 fax: (306) 244-3790 1-877-WE STAND (937-8263)
Toronto: (416) 778-7027 fax: (416) 778-6348
Vancouver: (604) 215-5580 fax: (604) 215-5523 [EMAIL PROTECTED] OR
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
website: www.davidorchard.com
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April 27, 2006
DUBIOUS MULRONEY LEGACY
by David Orchard
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It was astonishing to learn recently that former Prime Minister Brian
Mulroney has been named the greenest prime minister in Canadian history
(Engage the Americans, vintage Mulroney lectures, Globe and Mail, April
21, 2006.)
A magazine called Corporate Knights hosted a gala dinner in Mr.Mulroneys
honour in Ottawa. Several environmental leaders, some of them almost
overcome with emotion, we read, explained why he should be so acclaimed.
All of this has left some of us who have laboured in the environmental
trenches for most of our lives with a few questions.
Was it not Brian Mulroney and his government that negotiated and signed the
Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement which has had such far-reaching and
devastating impacts on the environment? This agreement transferred a large
slice of our sovereignty over energy and water resources to U.S.
industry with all its unfolding environmental implications. (Is the tar
sands project not one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas
emissions on the planet?)
Was it not the Mulroney government that negotiated the NAFTA with its
unprecedented Chapter 11 provision that allows American corporations to sue
Canada for any law which they feel harms their business and contravenes the
spirit of NAFTA? Has not NAFTA been successfully used to
overturn several Canadian environmental laws -- the Ethyl MMT case and the
S.D. Myers hazardous waste case, to mention just two -- and placed such a
chill on all levels of government in Canada that any new laws, environmental
and otherwise, are now carefully vetted to make sure they are
NAFTA-compatible?
Did not the FTA and NAFTA both state that they take precedence over all
other international treaties, including environmental ones, to which Canada
is signatory?
Have these environmental impacts of the FTA and NAFTA not been sufficiently
clear for the environmentalists who gathered in Ottawa to
kiss Mr. Mulroneys ring?
Just asking.
David Orchard
Borden, SK
Tel 306-652-7095
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Serbian News Network - SNN
[email protected]
http://www.antic.org/
