International Trade Committee on May 13th, 2016

[Linden Jane Milson, As an Individual]

I grew up with media and educators telling me that Canada was a leader in peacekeeping, in human rights, and in environmental stewardship. None of this has ever been as perfect as it was made out to be to children, but I still grew up believing in these values. I feel proud of those values, and I believe that my country believes in upholding them.

The types of provisions in the investor-state provisions and other elements that lower our standards are big concerns to me because of how they can limit our ability to lead at the global level. These are the same sorts of concerns that have been coming up all morning.

Environmental reform is going to require very difficult and tough decisions. They're going to be hard on some industries in the short term. If foreign investors can sue us or try to sue us for the high standards that are needed to lead by example, then politicians are going to hesitate. It's going to be difficult to make the decisions to make that kind of a stand.

Canadians aren't the only citizens who are speaking out right now. From what I can tell, citizens involved in all of these countries are raising the same sorts of concerns. This deal doesn't do good things for any country. It fails to protect their sovereignty and only benefits corporate interests.

Many leaders are watching. They're watching what other countries are doing right now and watching their decision-making processes. This in itself is an opportunity for us to lead, to be able to reject the TPP under the current terms, and to send the message to other nations that it's possible to put that sovereignty first.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you.

Go ahead, Ms. Koberinski.

[Jodi Koberinski, As an Individual]

I am here on behalf of the Beyond Pesticides network. I wanted to start by thanking our grandmothers who spoke at the beginning, and thanking our young people who came. You are the conscience of this country right now, the young people and the grandmothers, so I want to honour you.

I am going to dial this back. There is a lot of conversation about this provision and that provision, and I think we have to have an underlying assumptions conversation. If anybody has had the good fortune of watching Naomi Klein's This Changes Everything.... As a thesis in that movie and in that book, she talks about the story we tell ourselves and the need to change the story. The TPP is attached to an old story, a dying story, a story that is based on falsehoods.

You Liberal MPs were elected by the people of this country to reject the kind of politics that we had from your folks across the aisle here. We are not about negotiating in secret.

[Voices]

Hear! Hear!

[Jodi Koberinski]

We came to this agreement three years in. If you want to negotiate for this country the kind of deal that Greece got under the EU, that is what we are doing, because we have arrived with deals made that put us at an uneven keel with our trading partners, and this is unacceptable. You do not have the policy opportunity to renegotiate this. The only thing you can do is reject it outright.

This deal privatizes the profits and socializes the risks, and we are tired of it.

The cozy relationship that those of us who were here at the beginning witnessed from these three gentlemen and industry—about how they were part of the negotiation, and “We worked together on this and that”, while the MPs from other sides of the aisle did not have the ability to see that agreement before it was signed—is shameful.

The way, Mr. Ritz, that you spoke—

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Your time is up. No, as soon as you mention a person's name....

[Jodi Koberinski]

[Inaudible—Editor]

[Disturbance in the audience]

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

You are taking time up from the next speaker.

Mr. Parker.

[Gerald Parker, As an Individual]

What happened here? Fair is fair.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

I know it is very difficult. Your time is not running yet.

If this goes on, we are going to lose speakers at the end. That's the way it is going to have to happen. I am trying to get everybody in, but it is not going to work because I am losing a minute here and there.

[Gerald Parker]

Canadians are very passionate. Bless them for it.

Revenue overrides Canada's sovereignty in health care. My name is Gerald Parker. I am the executive director of the Institute of Canadian Justice. We have been called the haz-mat unit for public health—failed public health, public safety, and public interest in Canada. Our colleagues are the best and the brightest. We very much love everyone in this country, and particularly the most vulnerable.

In 2016, as Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said, trickle-down economics has failed. Massive offshore tax evasion is rampant, and public coffers continue to be plundered by apparent piracy. The corporate interests have failed the public interest and act solely in self-interest. Why would anyone give the fox a virtually unfettered reign? It is dangerous and simply a cop-out, a relinquishment with deadly and dangerous results, and unending litigation to aid and abet private profiteers. The revenue overrides and refusal of common sense must end. Canada cannot afford to put trust in and protect less-than-moral interests. The public interest is paramount. This is Canada, and it's 2016.

Let's talk specifically about the TPP on the sustainability of health care and its foundational cornerstone of the societal revolution in Canada. Without health, we have nothing. As per the Canadian Medical Association Journal's report on prescription adherence in Canada, already 60% of vulnerable people take 50% of their medication due to hashtag, cat food, prescriptions, or parking decisions. This is a huge societal cost, exacerbated by hyperextended pharmaceutical products, a manufactured opioid pandemic, and medical extortion of our dying and chronically ill Canadians—your parents, our children. This is not about us or them. This mentality must end. It is sickening...as a nation and as a world.

The TPP is a cancer upon sustainable public health. The TPP will campaign and drive health care sustainability into the ground. For what? Corporate offshore profits...and eventually refuse and concoct rackets, just like this, to avoid paying their way.

If I may, just 10 seconds....

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Well, you're just robbing it from somebody else. Go ahead.

[Gerald Parker]

I don't rob. I don't want to rob.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

I think your time is up, sir.

Go ahead, Subir Guin.

[Subir Guin, As an Individual]

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate this opportunity.

I would say at the outset that I'm not opposed to trade, but the important thing that is being left out is justice and fairness. What I have found is that through the experience of NAFTA, and particularly the case of Ethyl Corporation, which tried to introduce this leaded compound into gasoline.... And of course, our government decided after being advised by the medical profession that this was very bad for neurological.... It's a neurotoxin. So when we tried to stop Ethyl Corporation from putting this ingredient in, we were punished, and the matter was settled out of court. I remember this happened during the Chrétien administration.

Things like this are likely to happen again unless we have more teeth in the rules and regulations in the dispute settlement. So that's number one.

The other point I was going to make is this. As far as the dairy industry is concerned, I don't want to see the importing of milk that has bovine growth hormones.

That's just one point. A lot of my other points have already been covered so I'll save you that, but I would like to make one final submission.

There was a freelance reporter in San Diego in the early negotiations, and he turned out to be the sole reporter who was allowed into the conference, and he spoke out against TPP, outlining most of the arguments that have been raised by other witnesses here.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you.

I have to apologize to the previous speaker. I shouldn't have said the word “rob”. I should have said you were taking minutes away. It wasn't the right terminology for me to use, so sorry about that, sir.

[Gerald Parker]

I'm not a criminal.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Ms. Batchelder.

[Elanor Batchelder, As an Individual]

To me, all of our most serious problems are being exacerbated by globalization in general, and by trade agreements in particular.

TPP is the latest and most extreme of these, and the largest, with reportedly 40% of world economies involved. We are told that it is so big that we cannot afford not to be in it. This is a scare tactic. It relies on the fear of future events, and reminds me of the U.S. banks that were too big to fail.

Since its first multinational trade agreement, NAFTA, in 1994, Canada has, it is claimed, experienced significant growth in trade and investment. However, over the same period, Canada has experienced increased economic inequality and precarious work conditions for more people. For one example, pension funds have grown, but the number of workers likely to receive pensions has shrunk. I fear that this new agreement, the TPP, will bring not positive, but negative change. It will further weaken the protections. TPP will make it much harder for national governments to create and maintain just societies. Countries will be forced to submit to a rule of untrammelled profit, rules to be determined by multinational corporations, and benefiting first and foremost the already wealthy.

I already feel powerless in the face of the too great influence of big money in our politics and laws; powerless in the face of growing poverty, inadequate housing, and the lack of options for workers seeking security and meaningful work; powerless to stop climate change. And now are we expected to approve an agreement that allows foreign money interests to force the Canadian government to abandon any law or policy that limits their corporate profits? Surely this is the grimmest parody of international co-operation.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you.

Go ahead, George Taylor, for two minutes.

[George Taylor, As an Individual]

I wanted to talk about copyright and intellectual property. It seems to be a subject that's very important these days since the attempt for the ACTA treaty was widely condemned. We desperately need copyright reforms. We have problems with orphaned works. We have a problem with corporate lobbyists for the MPAA taking over centre stage and telling us what they want each time. It just grows like a cancer on the society, and the TPP is only going to enforce that and make it worse. It's going to eliminate the possibility of copyright reform because it will require an agreement of all members signed to the TPP. Somebody just sold out the store, and we can't have this.

Thank you.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you, sir.

Benjamin Donato-Woodger, you have the floor. Go ahead, for two minutes.

[Benjamin Donato-Woodger, As an Individual]

Thank you.

My name is Ben, and I am 23 years old.

Governments like this one have been negotiating and failing to take the action that the science says we need on climate change for my entire life, failing to keep fossil fuels in the ground. The TPP will continue this trend. We know it equals climate change. It will prevent our governments from regulating corporations to keep fossil fuels in the ground. But we know that this process was created for corporations and not for us.

I'm here to send a message to the government. We know you're going to ratify the TPP. We know you're on the side of fossil fuel companies that are locking us on a path to runaway climate change. And we plan to stop you. We don't have time for the TPP, and we don't have time for your bullshit negotiations.

[The Chair, Liberal, Mark Eyking]

Thank you.

Go ahead, Sharon Howath.

[Sharon Howarth, As an Individual]

My initial concern with the TPP was the private tribunals, that corporations would be allowed to sue the Canadian government if they passed laws that would help us, the people, with health, climate change, environment, and inequality. But a greater tragedy has since affected my family.

When Emily was in grade school, she was in a class of high achievers. She was picked, among all the people in her class, to go to a leadership training camp. At her grade 6 graduation, she was given the award for best student. In high school, her teachers told me, you have to keep her in science. She's a model student. In university—we didn't even apply for a grant—she was given grants. She was given a scholarship. In her last years of university, she was, again, awarded a private scholarship. She's 29.

Last year she was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis. She has to take medicine for the rest of her life. What is happening to her body is it's attacking the healthy cells. She could end up crippled. Even the drugs she's on have horrific side effects. We're barely able to make the payments. I don't know if she's going to be able to work part-time or full-time. We just don't know what the future holds.

This TPP is telling me that these multinational corporations can decide if my daughter is going to have drugs for her illness.

Can you guarantee me that Emily and my family, and people all across Canada, will continue to get the drugs they need for their diseases? They did not choose to have this. Can you people on the committee guarantee this? Can you pass something like this, knowing there's a possibility that people... I'm from generations of Canadians. I can't remember when my ancestors came to Canada. Can you guarantee me that you will not pass this?