Mr. Speaker, lastly I have the honour of presenting a petition on the subject of the free trade area of the Americas. As the Speaker will see, this is a petition signed by literally thousands of Canadians, including many from my constituency of Burnaby--Douglas, and as well I note a number of signatures from the magnificent city of Kingston, Ontario.
These petitioners note that the Liberal government has conducted secret negotiations on the proposed free trade area of the Americas while refusing to make public the text that is the basis for these negotiations, although I will say it finally did do that. They note that the proposed FTAA would effectively extend NAFTA to the hemisphere, vastly broadening the reach of its investment provisions and would give corporations unprecedented rights to sue, intimidate and override democratically elected governments. They go on to talk about the impact of the FTAA on universal public education, health care and the environment.
Therefore the petitioners request that all texts that are the basis of the negotiations be made public and that any trade deals, including the proposed FTAA, which would preserve NAFTA style provisions that put the rights of corporations and investors ahead of the rights of citizens and government, be rejected.
Finally, they call for the adoption of a new approach to globalization that places social, economic and ecological justice above the profits of multinational corporations and establishes an alternative rules based system that promotes and protects the rights of workers and the environment, respects cultural diversity and ensures the ability of governments to act in the public interest.
