You, Me and the SPP - Tour launch on Parliament Hill

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Location

You are invited to join Filmmaker Paul Manly and NDP Trade Critic, Peter Julian at a special public screening of the new feature documentary You, Me and the SPP: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule.

The screening will kick off Paul Manly's national tour. Following the screening, there will be a panel discussion, including the filmmaker Paul Manly (www.youmespp.com [5]), NDP International Trade Critic Peter Julian, Teresa Healy (Senior Researcher, Canadian Labour Congress), Bruce Campbell (Executive Director, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives), Maude Barlow (National Chairperson, Council of Canadians) and Louise Casselman (Common Frontiers) and a question and answer period.

WHEN: Thursday October 1st, 2009
TIME: Doors open at 6:30PM, Screening at 7PM
WHERE: Room 200, West Block, House of Commons
Admission is free but RSVP is required juliap@parl.gc.ca [6] Seating is limited.

Please note: Guests and attendees will be kindly requested to provide Peter Julian's Office Staff, with a complete list of names at least 48 hours prior to the day of the screening. Upon your arrival at the House of Commons, please allow enough time to reach the venue, as you will be required to go through House of Commons security upon entering the West Block.

Can't make it to Ottawa? Watch live on rabbletv: Tune into rabble.ca/rabbletv at 7:15PM to watch live presentation.

Help spread the word! Click http://rabble.ca/sites/rabble/files/Ottawa Premiere_October 1st 2009_You, Me & the SPP.pdf" target="_blank">here to download the poster.

About the feature documentary

You, Me and the SPP exposes the corporate agenda of the Security Prosperity Partnership (SPP), which is undermining the democratic authority of the citizens of North America. Following the shock of 9-11, right wing political and business leaders have pushed the SPP. Negotiating away from public scrutiny, they say it is the way to keep trade flowing between the United States, Canada and Mexico. You, Me and the SPP reveals that this secretive agreement is about much more than trade.

Independent filmmaker, Paul Manly first grabbed the world's attention after capturing three police provocateurs attempting to thwart protestors legal rights by inciting violence at the protest against the Security, Prosperity Partnership (SPP) leaders summit in Montebello Quebec in 2007. This compelling footage was posted on YouTube where it was seen by hundreds of thousands of viewers around the world and quickly became a national and international news story. Manly, who had started research and preliminary interviews for a documentary about the SPP two months before, was shocked by what he had captured on video but what was even more shocking to him was the scope of the Security Prosperity Partnership and how almost everyone he talked to knew nothing about it.

‘You, Me and the SPP' features interviews with Naomi Klein, Maude Barlow, Murray Dobbin, NDP International Trade Critic, Peter Julian, MP (Burnaby-New Westminster) and Joel Bakan, among a host of other opponents of the SPP including economists, lawyers, union leaders and politicians.

Manly tried to get interviews with proponents of the SPP, including government ministers, members of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives and researchers for the Fraser Institute, over an eighteen-month period but nobody who supported the SPP wanted to discuss this process on camera.

"Manly has created an extremely thorough introduction to a set of issues that will increasingly affect every Canadian. As the film progressed, I was shocked at my own ignorance about the SPP and TILMA and their implications and I am indebted to this film for the research and revelations it presents."
Mark Achbar - Manufacturing Consent, The Corporation
Some notable quotes from the documentary include:
"... after the shock of Sept 11 ... that crisis was expertly manipulated by our political leaders to push through a range of policies they actually had wanted to push through before Sept 11, but didn't have the political conditions that made that possible."
Naomi Klein, Canadian award-winning journalist, author
"... what the SPP really represents is a parallel government, so that the important decisions are either made outside of parliament and outside of legislatures ... democracy is slowly being gutted."
Murray Dobbin, Canadian author, journalist
"... the ultimate goal, quite obviously, is to create such tight integration that effectively we only have one North American political, security, military and economic place - that there really are no differentials between this country and the country next door."
Michael Byers, Canada Research Chair, Global Politics and International Law, UBC
For additional information about the film, including tour dates or to view the trailer, please visit www.youmespp.com [5]

For further questions and queries, kindly note the following contact detail:
JuliaP@parl.gc.ca [2] or paul@manlymedia.com [7]

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