ACTION ALERT: Liberals must stop fast-track of Canada-Colombia free trade agreement (Bill C-2)
March 11, 2010

The Harper government has reintroduced implementation legislation for the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement in Bill C-2. As the number suggests, it is the second bill the government will handle after the budget, with second reading debate on the free trade agreement starting as early as this Friday. There is every reason to believe Harper will try to fast-track it through the House of Commons.

The Liberal Party was prepared to help last term's implementation legislation (Bill C-23) pass second reading and head to committee despite a June 2008 all-party recommendation of the Standing Committee on International Trade that an "impartial human rights impact assessment be carried out by a competent body, which is subject to independent levels of scrutiny and validation... before Canada considers ratifying and implementing an agreement with Colombia."

With the new bill (C-2) taking Parliament back to square one, there is no longer any justification for the Liberals to ignore the need for a human rights assessment before passing the free trade
agreement. We need to make sure they make that choice.

http://www.canadians.org/action/2010/CCFTA-0203.html
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CCFTA Prorogued. Be ready for action when Parliament resumes
2010-03-03

Widely Opposed CCFTA which died with prorogation will likely rise again.
By Janet M Eaton, Trade and Environment Campaigner, SCC.

Bill C-23, the Canada-Colombia Free Trade Agreement (CCFTA) Implementation Act, which has created a furor of opposition in Canada, was temporarily sidelined, along with 35 other bills working their way through Parliament, when Stephen Harper prorogued parliament on December 31st 2009.

By Dana Gabriel

U.S.-Canadian state and provincial integration is being achieved in areas of transportation, the economy, energy and the environment. With some national, trilateral and global initiatives being discredited, stalled or ineffective, it appears as if the strategy has further shifted to a regional and local level in an effort to lay the groundwork for new agreements. 

As much as half the food aid sent to Somalia is diverted from needy people to a web of corrupt contractors, radical Islamist militants and local United Nations staff members, according to a new Security Council report.

Is the Transatlantic Alliance Doomed?
By John Feffer

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