Mr. Speaker, today I have the honour of presenting a petition signed by 55 signatories from across Canada. Signatures were collected by Common Frontiers and represent over 61,000 Canadians who have voiced their grave concern about the upcoming FTAA.
They suggest that it could pose a threat to the right of citizens across Canada and the Americas to health, an internationally recognized human right that includes the right to affordable medical care and the right to a healthy environment. They are concerned that the FTAA could jeopardize universal medicare and the laws and regulations that protect public health through environmental integrity. They have called upon Parliament to stop negotiation of the FTAA and all trade agreements that put profits before public well-being, and to remove chapter 11 from NAFTA, which allows investors to sue governments for public policies that curb profits, even those policies that protect public health or the environment. They point out as well that next month Common Frontiers will join all of its signatures with millions collected from across Latin America and present them in Miami at the FTAA ministerial meeting.
The signatories represent people such as executive vice-president Barb Byers and Sheila Katz of the Canadian Labour Congress, Ken Luckhardt of the Canadian Auto Workers, Molly Kane of Inter Pares, and Tony Clarke, director of the Polaris Institute.