Stop CETA Action Planning Meeting

Greetings Folks,

This week's meeting is on Wed. Nov. 16th at 7 pm at the East Village Cafe

(785 Dundas St. just west of Aeolian Hall).

We will mainly be working in small groups on a number of actions.

Action One: A Canada Post CETA video

Play a 30 second role in the video teaching how CETA will affect our day to day lives.

For anyone who wants to take part in a video of a cast of many, each person will read a question about CETA demonstrating its daily effect on our lives. Participation involves choosing one of the scripted questions or if you are so inclined, coming up with your own that demonstrates its dangers and saying it on camera. See attached starter script "A Canada Post CETA". We will add two details of first name and title: For example, Sarah: School Teacher or Thomas: Farmer or Rene: Gardener.

Action Two: Make a Date with Your Favourite Canadian: Writing to Canadian Celebrities and People in the Media to let them know about CETA and its far reaching effects on Canadian culture and society.

Action Three: Spreading the Word about our biggest local awareness campaign, Maude Barlow's CETA talk at Wolf Performance Hall on the 1st of Dec.

Action Four: Contacting the CBC. Crafting and sending emails and calls to the CBC.

Action Five: AVAAZ blitz. This super-powered justice provoking, human right violation take-down organization founded by some Ontarions, needs to hear us say how bad CETA will be.

There will be other actions if folks bring an idea they want to do.

If you have one, it may be useful to bring your laptop. The Cafe has wireless.

Hope to see you out Wednesday! If you can;t make the meeting, take one of these actions on your own and let us know. Also, we will continue filming up until the Barlow event at which we will first show the video.

Sincerely,

The Protect the Commons from CETA team

stopceta@gmail.com

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Proposed script for video:

"A Canada Post CETA"

Do you want to a mega corporation from Europe in charge of the quality standards of our drinking water?

Do you want our kids to go to school at a place where the agenda is shaped by corporate interests and hiring of some of the staff is done by multinational corporations?

Do you like being able to call up your local contractor to build stuff for you? You get to talk to them, tell them exactly what you want?

Do you want to pay for each hospital visit you or your family has – for a cast, for surgery, for child birth?

Do you want to pay much more for drug costs – up to 2 billion more country wide a year?

Do you think every child should have access to medicine and the hospital when they need it?

Do you want a multinational corporation in charge of Canada’s mail?

Do you want our last strong Canadian news source, the CBC, to be sold in part or whole out from under us?

Do you want the CBC radio to be downsized and the standards of Canadian content lowered putting at risk some of our most important news sources from The Current to Q?

Do you enjoying watching some favourite Canadian TV from the Ricker Mercer report to Dragon’s Den and would you like to see more?

Do you want our farmers to go further into debt and more and more be bought out by growers thousands of kilometres away?

Do you want more of our food industries to close down from breweries to mills?

Do you want more of our companies to close factory and head somewhere else from clothing to cars?

Do you want to the cost of food to rise higher?

Do you want to proliferate our gmo foods around the world further with no labels and no long-term testing?

Do you want corporations to be able to sew our municipalities for enacting bylaws to protect us and our environment?

Do you want the Tar Sands further entrenched?

Do you want city services such as waste water and garbage disposal to be owned and controlled not by government but by non-Canadian corporations?

Does all this sound like madness?

If you said yes to any of these things, CETA matters to you. All of these are possibilities when the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement is enacted. It was called Comprehensive by Stephen Harper for a reason. It is the most far-reaching document ever written to shape the way our country works besides the constitution. Stephen Harper wants to close the deal as early in 2012 as he can.

Get informed at www.tradejustice.ca and www.canadians.org . Tell everyone you think should know. Have your city council pass a resolution to exempt your municipality from CETA as many have done.

Brought to you by a collective of concerned Canadians at stopceta@gmail.com in cahoots with the Council of Canadians.

London Chapter AGM November 14, 2011

Poster: click here.
Monday November 14, 5:00pm London Chapter AGM
Lamplighter Best Western – 591 Wellington Road (519) 7151
Glen Pearson – Executive Director London Food Bank
Keynote presenter talking on poverty in London & Canada
PLUS: Why we need the Council of Canadians as a voice for all.
... London Chapter AGM – 4:30pm registration, 5:00pm AGM
Members must register to vote
Reception & Dinner: $40 per person
Speaker Event only: $10 per person or as you can donation
Please Contact Events Director to register in advance for all events:
Louise Hollingsworth (519) 679-0795 louhollingsworth@yahoo.ca

Report on CETA Negotiations

Report on CETA for London Chapter, Council of Canadians

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) being negotiated between Canada and the European Union has the same basic goals as the entire family of trade agreements going back to the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA) which went into effect in 1989, and the North American Agreement (NAFTA) which followed in 1994. These and all other such agreements have been initiated and negotiated under pressure from privately owned corporations seeking to gain opportunities for profit by limiting the power of governments to act for public benefit. Governments which have participated in such trade negotiations have been willing, indeed have been eager, to sacrifice public needs, human and environmental, in order to cater to the interests of powerful corporations. We can assume that the European Union negotiators are just as eager to serve corporate interests as our own present government obviously is.

The final formal round of negotiations for CETA took place in Ottawa the week of October 17 to 21. There is some small comfort for us, who oppose it, in the fact that a final draft of CETA was not achieved. Canada's lead negotiator reported in a briefing to representatives of Canadian organizations opposed to CETA, including Trade Justice Network and CoC, that negotiations are becoming “increasingly difficult,” but that there has been “good progress in a number of areas.” Although there will be no more “formal” negotiations, intense informal discussions through video and teleconferences continue, and there will also be “face to face” meetings in Brussels the week of December 5 and in Ottawa in mid-January. The process may be reaching a conclusion “around February or March,” when the agreement could be signed, made public, and brought before Parliament.

Signing the agreement means that the negotiators have completed their task, but does not bring the agreement into effect. After the signing, the document is to be published on the internet. Then we who object would know precisely what we are up against. The Trade Justice Network has done a good job of smoking out the provisions included, but a considerable measure of secrecy continues. Trade Minister Ed Fast briefed friendly journalists after the”final round”, but swore them to secrecy. The briefing given to opponents was vague and general. So the signed document may have some shocks to reveal. The agreement would come to Parliament for an up or down vote. While there is no real chance that our present Parliament would vote it down, there may be some hope that resistance might be effective in Europe. Provinces in Canada would be required to enact “enabling legislation”, and they may be in a position to throw a monkey wrench into the works. We have a tough job ahead of us. When Maude Barlow and Paul Moist are here in London on December 1, we need to learn from them all the procedures involved in promoting the agreement, and how opposition across Canada, including us, can be most effectively mobilized.

George Crowell
(Monetary Policy Chair, London Chapter, Council of Canadians)

Monthly Meeting: Tuesday November 8, 2011

Next open meeting of the London Chapter of the CoC

Tuesday November 8, 2011
6:00-9:00 p.m.
VICTORIA PARK!!!

Agenda: Stay tuned

Minutes of last open meeting on October 11, 2011: click here.

Minutes of open meeting on September 13, 2011: click here.

Videos: CETApus in the Oakland Solidarity March

Slide Show: CETApus in Oakland Solidarity March

CETApus in Oakland Solidarity March on Nov. 2, 2011

Comments on the EPCOR/London Hydro Debate, by Don McLeod

Comments on an article in "The McLeod Report", a blog by Philip McLeod (no relation):

Profit = EPCOR

It looks like a pretty simple business formula:

Revenues: (from you & I for services of water, power, sewers, garbage & parking)
Less: expenses to operate the above.
Equals Profit.

When run as a public trust, as it is now, the object is to break-even plus have a little extra profit for a reserve.

If there is a big profit, more so than there is today, then dividends could be paid out.

Nice idea, however the "big profit" would start with higher revenues - so we all pay more for our services. It is that SIMPLE!

With EPCOR taking a slice of the profits in their share of dividends we end up paying more for our services so that EPCOR can have a share in “OUR” profit for the City of Edmonton to offset THEIR taxes.

Why would we do that?

Profit = Jobs for EPCOR

Revenues - Expenses = Profit

The "expense" part of the formula includes wages which equates to jobs in the City of London.

In the EPCOR scenario, EPCOR takes care of a portion of the wage expense and jobs move to Edmonton.

I think that Mayor Joe has been talking about bringing jobs to London versus exporting our jobs to Edmonton!

Dead?!
Why did this matter even come up?

In Mayor Joe's words "I think we have more pressing matters to spend our time on!"

Purchase of London Assets by EPCOR

Assets of the City of London allow us to have financial credabilty in money markets. We have a high bond rating should there be a need to borrow.

When assets are sold and the money is used to buy other capital assets, there is a significant transfer loss for the selling and buying of assets.

At the end of the sale & purchase transactions we are financially worse off.

The "gamble" is that the "new assets" will provide London with a high return. If they do not - especially in the short term, London ends up heading for a lower bond rating and higher interest rates should we have a need to borrow.

In Summary for the EPCOR "deal"
1) Higher cost of services for Londoners & Londoners end up paying to offset Edmontoner's taxes.
2) Loss of London jobs
3) London bond rating falls - London pays a higher interest rate to borrow.

EPCOR - Three Strikes you are out!

Local Articles about CETA by Jennifer Chesnut

Jennifer is the one in the centre just to the right of Maude Barlow.

http://londonfuse.ca/blog/canada%E2%80%99s-immediate-and-looming-connection-occupy-wallstreet-ceta

http://www.ecolivinglondon.org/blogs/news-amp-views/protecting-commons-next-generations

http://www.ecolivinglondon.org/blogs/news-amp-views/hey-london-heard-about-ceta-yet

Videos of the CETApus! Oct. 15, 2011

http://youtu.be/_H1EIDSX9uM

http://youtu.be/XOVlUcpQcxg

Slide Show: CETApus Action, October 15, 2011

CETApus action Oct 15 2011

Slide Show: Making of the Giant CETApus

CETApus construction Oct 13 2011

CETA Actions on October 13 and 15, 2011

CETA is a new trade agreement being negotiated on the quiet between the Canadian government and the European Economic Union. It is like NAFTA on steroids. It would allow huge European and American corporations to compete in our municipalities for local jobs, infrastructure, real estate, and markets for their goods. Health care, education, agriculture, construction, the environment, (and more) would all be adversely affected.

Thursday, Oct.13, 7:00 p.m.

East Village Cafe, 785 Dundas Street

Organizational meeting (30 min.) followed by split into two groups:

East Village Cafe, 785 Dundas Street

Educate and brain storm creative actions in response to the threat of CETA.

East Village Arts Co-op, 757 Dundas Street

Build a giant blue octopus named the “CETApus”.

Saturday, Oct. 15, 10:00 a.m.,

street theatre intervention at Covent Garden Market

The “CETApus” is meant to draw attention to the threat of CETA in solidarity with the Occupy Ontario movement. All those not driving to Windsor or Toronto are asked to gather around the “CETApus” this Saturday morning.

For more information about CETA and the intervention on Saturday go to the blog site via

http://londoncouncilofcanadians.ca/

Please help build the gigantic CETApus!

Re action to educate about CETA on Saturday, Oct. 15, 2011 in downtown London: construction of a huge blue octopus representing CETA on Thursday, October 13, 2011 at 7:00 p.m. meet at East Village Cafe first (785 Dundas St.), then proceed to EVAC (East Village Arts Co-op, 757 Dundas St.) to make the giant puppet.

CETA is a new trade agreement being negotiated on the quiet between the Canadian government and the European Economic Union. It is like NAFTA on steroids. It would allow huge European and American corporations to compete in our municipalities for local jobs, infrastructure, real estate, and markets for their goods. Health care, education, agriculture, construction, the environment, (and more) would all be adversely effected.

We have very little time so pre-planning is essential if we are going to pull this off.

Requirements:
1) recycled/local/renewable materials when possible
2) must be light weight
3) must be waterproof (it is supposed to rain on Saturday – and we want to reuse the CETAPUS in any or all weather conditions in the future).
4) must be able to remove “money” from actor’s pockets (representing removing money and jobs from the local economy).
5) eight tentacles, a large head with googly eyes and a hat
6) must be hand sewn on Thursday night and stuffed
7) must be held up high on poles of some sort – about 10 or 12 people needed

Solution:
1) I have lots of old blue tarps with holes – we can cut them up for fabric (recycled, waterproof, light weight, bright blue)
2) quart plastic storage bags inflated with a straw and sealed for stuffing tentacles –garbage or recycle bags for the head (these must be new bags in order to stay inflated) I will bring these
3) one inch diameter peel and stick round Velcro for the suckers at the end of the tentacles – I will buy these
4) green “money” out of felt, propylene, or other nappy fabric that sticks to Velcro – everyone check out thrift stores for this and bring it to the meeting
5) need people to bring large needles and strong quilting thread if they have it
6) Googly eyes - ?????????? someone volunteer
7) hat ???????????? someone volunteer
8) poles to hold up head and tentacles ????????? bamboo?? Someone (Rebecca has some bamboo)
9) funding – we will ask CUPE to reimburse us for Velcro, plastic bags, and poles etc.
10) 3M tape – Jeremy
Reply if you are coming on Thursday, on Saturday, and/or have materials. We need lots of people. Thank you very, very much.

-- Roberta Cory, Chair of the CoC Design Committee

CALL TO ACTION! RE CETA

Welcome everybody!

The immediate outpour of interest and committment to protect the commons and stop CETA in our town is truly beautiful.

This is a unified movement of people who celebrate our local economies and are resisting CETA in strong, creative, skilled and practical ways. We are doing this by speaking the truth clearly. We will not back down. We know our lives are all connected and at this juncture, the 1% needs to be lead by the 99. This is such an extensive agreement but we can use that to great organizing advantage. Because of this fact, every Canadian citizen will be adversely impacted by this. The gift/passion/interest you to offer has a home here. We need photographers, singers, artists, gardeners, networkers, members of other community groups, advertising folks, mathematicians, grandmothers, members of business community, political community, service community, everyone of will to find common ground and act on practical solutions. We have a list of 10 working groups we are already putting into action so far just 5 days since our first meeting. Many specific types of work is needed.

So if you want to take action, name what your interest/gift/passion is and we will link you up with specific actions you can take. Or you can suggest your own. The many minds are so much more comprehensive than the 1. How satisfying to feel our citizenship in action. Can you think of a better sense of purpose than that?

Wanna learn more about the effects of CETA on all Canadians lives watch this 6 minute video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xQPh_YSnkVI

Read more at the Council of Canadians website at: www.canadians.org

Learn more at the Trade Justice Network at: www.tradejustice.ca

Print off copies of the CETA comics to hand out to other folks.

Do learn the basics about how trade law trumps judicial law. Spread the word in a timely fashion. Think how quickly this knowledge will go viral as we tell 3 people who commit to telling 3 people who commit to telling 3 more...no matter how this package is presented in the media when the Harper government finally tells us (and it will be touted as a grand solution to our economy), remember NAFTA. CETA makes NAFTA look like a little bitty baby. The 9th round of CETA is set to happen in Ottawa from Oct. 17 to the 21st, again behind sealed doors. With zero public input and thus far, zero input from Liberal, NDP, Green party members on Capital Hill. Even they have not been consulted about its specifics, and many politicians have little informed knowledge and critical analysis of trade law.

Here is a listing of the next scheduled events in our area. If you can't come, no prob! Please tell others who desire to be part of the change.

Wed. Oct. 19, 7:00 : Protect the Commons Open Mic

This is a call out to artists, performers, poets, rappers, musicians and other audience participants who want to take the mic for a good cause. Come one, come all as CETA affects every one of us. All proceeds go toward helping to open up the discussion on the proposed CETA agreement. Enjoy a full evening of talent for $3 -$5 sliding scale.

A special blend of CETA coffee will be on the brew. Cost: unaffordable!

Thur. Oct. 13, 7:00 : "Canada's Not for Sale" Open Meeting

This meeting is the culmination of work by the Council of Canadians, London, to invite all Londoners in to learn about and respond to the proposed CETA agreement. CETA or the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement may be ratified by the Harper Government as early as October 17. Many of our MPs and official opposition have not even heard of it, yet it threatens to change the infrastructure of Canada forever. Basically, it puts a "for sale" sign on most of our basic services and resources, curtails our right to local trade, and strikes down existing labour, environmental, industrial, cultural, financial and public sector regulations. Our food sovereignty and farms will be threatened, as will the limited sovereignty of Native Peoples and our Quebecois population. We will lose our right to our own water as well as our ability to recourse for harms done to Canadian citizens by foreign owners. CETA makes NAFTA look good. European's also oppose CETA because it supersedes national & municipal laws hence making democratic political processes obsolete, as it will do in Canada. Come and learn more, voice a response, lend a skill in the effort to make Canadians more aware of what can happen to our country.

Peace and blessings,

The Protect the Commons team (a community coalition led by Council of Canadians and other concerned local organizations and caring Londoners)

Support an AVAAZ Action vs. CETA!

From Jennifer Chesnut:

Dr. Linda Wayne, proprietor of East Village cafe, has taken this very smart action and is encouraging us to follow suit in many as number as we can. I have just requested an AVAAZ campaign to stop CETA as noted below. If a number of us request this, they may do it and they will have a much greater reach than we can hope to achieve since they can reach Europe as well, said by Linda. It is the perfect action in light of what Maude was sharing for getting the word out to Europe about GMO threat to them through CETA and other media buzz. Many of you probably know AVAAZ, but let me be clear here, they get things done and they are a huge global network of intelligent activists. I just read that they have a lot of Ontario members as well.

They do activism online, they send out information to their very wide global distribution list (nearly 10 million members strong) and have been known to generate a million signatures in days! They have helped take down so many violations of human rights.

Here is the website "about us" section: http://www.avaaz.org/en/about.php

And here is where we can request a new campaign: (I will be sending in my request this weekend). http://www.avaaz.org/en/contact?footer

Lets splash them with requests and when other people ask, what can i do, here is one fast online thing to do. Just requires a bit of typing.

Here is her note to them:

CETA or the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement may be signed in by the so-called Harper Government as early as October 17. Many of our MPs and official opposition have not even heard of it, yet it threatens to change the infrastructure of Canada forever. Basically, it puts a "for sale" sign on most of our basic services and resources, curtails our right to local trade, and strikes down existing labour, environmental, industrial, cultural, financial and public sector regulations. Our food sovereignty and farms will be threatened, as will the limited sovereignty of Native Peoples and our Quebecois population. We will lose our right to our own water as well as our ability to recourse for harms done to Canadian citizens by foreign owners.

CETA makes NAFTA look like a friendly and beneficial agreement yet it did so much damage to the lives of Canadians that Mulroony's Conservative Party was not only voted out, but effectively removed from the political map. As well, European's oppose CETA because it supersedes national & municipal laws hence making democratic political processes obsolete, as it will do in Canada.

Please consider a campaign to reverse or at least call for informed public debate on CETA. Without your help I am afraid that the damage to our democratic system will be historical and irreversible.

Yours, Dr. Linda Wayne, PhD

Monthly Meeting: Tuesday October 11, 2011

Next open meeting of the London Chapter of the CoC

Tuesday October 11, 2011
7:00-9:00 p.m.
Carson Branch, London Public Library
465 Quebec St. (at Dufferin)

Program: Information/discussion re CETA by George Crowell and Jennifer Chesnut

Agenda: Stay tuned

Minutes of last open meeting on September 13, 2011: Coming soon

Slide Show: Breakfast with Maude Barlow in London, Ontario, Oct. 7, 2011

Breakfast with Maude Barlow in London, Ontario, Oct. 7, 2011

Update on CETA Activities re London City Council

October 3, 2011

Greetings CoC Campaigners against CETA,

I have just learned from Grant Hopcroft, Director of Intergovernmental and Communty Liaison for the City of London, that our City Council unanimously passed this evening the attached resolution (see below) regarding CETA. It comes as a result of the submission I made to the Finance and Administration Committee last Wednesday morning, with discussion continued this afternoon when the Committee supported it and passed it on to the entire Council. I did not get to speak today. I gave a five-minute talk on the issue Wednesday, but no time was allowed for me to answer questions as I had expected, because the Committee was preoccupied with the big new project for downtown development.

The approved resolution expresses concern regarding potential disadvantages for municipalities from the impact of CETA, and recognizes the role of CoC in bringing the issue before them. But it does not ask for the clear, permanent exemption for local governments from CETA that we requested.

We hope that Maude Barlow will include on her CETA tour in late October a return visit to London, which might come just after the final draft of CETA has been made public. Then we could have another chance to approach City Council, this time not with speculation about CETA, but with accurate information.

Don't forget our regular CoC meeting at 7 at Carson Library, Tuesday October 11. (No rest for the weary.) We will focus for CoC members on the CETA issue, and I will have some exciting developments to report from my attendance this past weekend at the American Monetary Institute meeting in Chicago.

Best wishes,

George Crowell

The following resolution regarding the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement with the European Union (CETA), BE ENDORSED:

Whereas the Government of Canada and the European Union have been negotiating a trade agreement known as the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA);

And Whereas the Canada-European Union relationship holds great potential for growing Canada’s trade and collective prosperity;

And Whereas the Council of Canadians London Chapter has provided City Council with information and their concerns regarding CETA negotiations currently underway between Canada and the European Union;

And Whereas the Corporation of the City of London supports the guiding principles as set out by the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) and endorsed by the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO);

Be it Resolved that the Corporation of the City of London requests the Federal Government and the Province of Ontario to continue to ensure that the municipal sectors’ interests are represented in the ongoing negotiations; and

That the federal government’s negotiations ensure that the FCM guiding principles will be fully reflected in any trade agreement reached between Canada and the European Union; and

That the federal and Ontario governments provide FCM and AMO with regular, detailed updates on the status of the European Union trade negotiations to the fullest extent possible.

This resolution be forwarded to the Minister of International Trade; our local MPs, the Premier of Ontario, our local MPPs, FCM, AMO and the London Chapter of the Council of Canadians.