We No Longer Debate Free-Trade Agreements

Anyone who remembers the free-trade debates prior to the 1988 federal election can’t help but notice the almost complete lack of debate about the European free-trade agreement and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement. Both of these trade deals will have a much larger impact on Canada than the 1988 free-trade agreement with the United States, but in 1988 there was still some respect for democratic process and transparency.

The American agreement was repeatedly front page news and was not only the defining issue of the federal election but was the reason the election was called. The Canada-European Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and the Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement on the other hand are being decided behind closed doors with no public discussion and without Parliamentary oversight. This is another example of how our democracy has been eroded and the power all resides with the select few.

See: CETA http://canadians.org/trade/issues/EU/index.html
And revealed today: EU drug demands would cost Canadians $2B a year http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/canada/eu-drug-demands-would-cost-canadians-up-to-2b-a-year-federal-research--174100881.html