Globalization is Killing Canada: Fight for Your Freedom
by Paul Hellyer
Is Canada worth saving? Is democracy worth saving? These are the two fundamental questions we must address now - before it is too late. Canadian values are disappearing rapidly as we lose our independence and our sovereignty. The country is being dismantled after more than a century of nation building. We are losing control of our most important industries. As we give up domestic ownership of our assets, we lose the most exciting and challenging jobs, which too often move to the new corporate headquarters outside Canada - and young people who want those jobs must follow. It's part of the brain drain. In effect, Canada has become a victim of "Globalization". We are told this process is both inevitable and good. It is only inevitable if we let it happen. It is only good for two to five percent of the world's richest and most powerful people. It is bad for the vast majority.
I should make a distinction between those areas where global cooperation is both good and essential, and those areas where it is harmful. We must cooperate globally to protect our oceans, the ozone layer and prevent Global Warming. International cooperation is also required to protect endangered species, fight international crime and in other areas of mutual concern. What we have to stop is the relentless drive on the part of multinational corporations and international banks - centred largely in the five big powers - to take over governance of the world for their own benefit.
The Canada - U.S. Free Trade Agreement
The "Globalization" process got a rocket-assisted boost with the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Canadians were led to believe that this was a trade agreement. When I read it, I found, to my dismay, that it was primarily an investment agreement. Sure it called for reductions in tariffs, but this was already happening under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The most important parts of the FTA were about investment. The Americans wanted our industries and resources - especially energy and water. They also wanted our land. Instead of Canada being open for business again, as Prime Minister Brian Mulroney proudly boasted, it was up for sale.
Mr. Mulroney allowed the Americans to insert a "national treatment" clause which was a new concept in international law that gave U.S. investors the same rights in Canada as Canadian citizens. I think this is wrong in principle! Where is the value of citizenship if foreign investors have the same rights? In fact, the "national treatment" clause gave American investors the right to invest in Canada without conditions and without limits. We can no longer say "You can't buy more than 50% of our forest industry or oil and gas reserves" - because the treaty says they can own all our reserves. The same rule applies to our best farmland. With the FTA, Brian Mulroney accomplished two things: He virtually guaranteed the demise of Canada as a nation state, and he allowed the conquest of Canada by America. The conquest is still tentative, perhaps, for about two more years. Then we will reach the point of no return after which annexation by the United States will become inevitable. I am concerned that several hundred years of experiment in popular democracy is coming to an end because globalization is really a code word for corporate rule and colonization.
NAFTA - Canada is being sued
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