Hi. My name is Kurt Powell.
I apologize for being late earlier on. I was at my unpaid internship. I'm 21. I just came over from the University of Windsor. In my undergrad I studied social movements and geography, specifically through Bill C-51 in the Harper government. In my graduate studies at Ryerson University I'm studying policy and hopefully getting in to law school within the next two years.
There has been a lot of talk of different facts, figures, and so on and so forth, but the thing that resonates most with me, that synthesizes everything, is the sense of hope. Being part of the student government at both the University of Windsor and Ryerson, there is a sense of hopelessness among students, among the younger generation, and everybody here is telling me how I should feel and telling me how this is going to affect me. I'm feeling it, and so is my generation. NAFTA was signed in 1994, and I still feel the post-NAFTA agreement when I can't get anything but an unpaid internship and my annual income is negative $10,000 because all I can get is OSAP, and I'm an A student. I can't get a job, and I'm working on my second degree.
Saying such, the biggest question I believe that any policy analyst should be asking is: does the TPP give hope to Canadians? Does it give hope for a better job? Does it give hope for benefits, for working hours, for women's rights, and for first nations rights? Does it give hope? That is the simplest question to ask, but it is the biggest question to ask. I can tell that the NAFTA agreement—that was the year I was born, and I'm feeling the effects of it—has given me no hope, and TPP looks to be nothing but a part of the geneology of that.
Another thing form my undergrad that I found in social movements is that, when the NAFTA agreement was signed, it sparked a social movement called the Zapatistas. This sparked a larger global movement that translated over into David Suzuki, Maude Barlow, and the Council of Canadians, and it interlinked continentally the social movement that happened and the social justice forums that we now have globally occurring.
When you sign the TPP agreement—I'm assuming it's going to happen because it happened before and it's happened many times prior to that—you're linking all these countries together socially with all their social movements. As political and public leaders, you have to be prepared for that. I know. I've been getting emails from New Zealand and from other locations around the world about how to organize, and I'm going to be around way longer than you, I guarantee it.
If you have any questions for me because I'm the only 20-year old here and the only millennial, I think it's time for you guys to ask me a few questions, if you want.