Oppose the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America
BUSH IS COMING to Montebello, Quebec
to talk FEAR, MONEY and FORTRESSES
with HARPER and Mexican President CALDERON
GIVE THEM THE WELCOME THEY DESERVE!
Find out More about the SPP - A Plan for Continental Integration
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PUBLIC FORUM - SECURITY AND PROSPERITY FOR WHO?
Building an opposition to the Security and Prosperity
Partnership of North America
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*Linda McQuaig - Author, Holding the Bully's Coat: Canada and the US Empire
*Paloma Villegas - Organizer, Member of No One Is Illegal - Toronto
*Rogelio Cuevas - Mexican Activist, Member of OCAP
*Hassan Yussuf - Secretary-Treasurer, Canadian Labour Congress
Wednesday, August 1st, 2007
7:00 PM
Steelworkers Hall
25 Cecil Street (South of College, East of Spadina)
Toronto
By Donation!
Toronto Stop the SPP Committee: a coalition of groups and individuals
working together to raise awareness and to oppose the SPP summit in August
2007. Contact: [email protected]
The public forum is a space in which Toronto residents can learn more
about the Security and Prosperity Partnership and the implications of
continental integration. The event is part of the mobilization against the
SPP leading up to the tri-state summit in Montebello, Quebec on August
20-21.
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OPPOSE THE SPP
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August 19 and 20, 2007
Ottawa, Montebello, and locally
Get on the Bus!
To get on a bus from Toronto to Ottawa (August 19)
OR
To get on a bus from Toronto to Ottawa and then travel on to Montebello
(August 19-21). Cost: $60-$90 sliding scale (with donations we hope to
offer subsidies soon).
Contact: E-mail your name, phone number and e-mail address to
[email protected]. Please specify whether you wish to go to only to
the Ottawa demonstration on the 19th OR to Ottawa and then to Montebello
or the day of action on the 20th.
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Info: [email protected]
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MORE INFORMATION ABOUT OPPOSITION TO THE SPP:
[url=http://www.psp-spp.com]http://www.psp-spp.com[/url]
[url=http://www.nowar.ca]http://www.nowar.ca[/url]
[url=http://www.canadians.org/integratethis/]http://www.canadians.org/integra...
[url=http://noii-van.resist.ca/]http://noii-van.resist.ca/[/url]
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What is the Security and Prosperity Partnership?
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The Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) was
established in March 2005, at a summit of the Heads of State of Canada,
the US, and Mexico held in Cancun.
The SPP is not an official treaty; it is not a law that will be debated in
the House of Commons. As such, it has been able to escape public scrutiny,
and has been negotiated by business and government representatives at
meetings from which the press are excluded.
The founding premise of the SPP is that an agenda of economic free trade
and national security will result in prosperity.
But prosperity for who?
Since the North American Free Trade Agreement has implemented in 1994, it
has brought wealth only to corporations and to a slim business class,
while increasing poverty and displacement for the vast majority of people.
In Mexico, NAFTA has created a 6 million job deficit, and is responsible
for the displacement of millions of farmers who have left their homes to
find work elsewhere – in the borderland maquilas, and in the US and
Canada.
Meanwhile, the “War on Terror” and the beefed-up national security
apparatus has exacerbated insecurity and brought terror on the lives of
millions of people locally and globally through immigrant raids, border
militarization, foreign troop occupations, and repression of civil
liberties and resistance movements.
The SPP is backed by a number of large US and Canadian corporations that
profit massively from the occupations of Afghanistan, Iraq and Palestine,
as well as the war being fought against migrants on increasingly
fortified, armed and surveilled borders.
The North American Competitiveness Council (NACC) was created in June
2006, one year after the SPP was launched so that corporate business
leaders could advise government leaders of the three states and
effectively direct the SPP process. The NACC ensures that the SPP process
will carry on regardless of which political parties take power in Canada,
Mexico or the US. Harper appointed the Canadian members of the NACC in
June 2006. They include the CEOs and Presidents of Home Depot;
Scotiabank; Bell Canada Enterprises; Manulife Financial; Power Corporation
of Canada; Ganong Bros. Limited; Suncor Energy Inc.; CN; Linamar
Corporation; and Canfor Corporation.
US membership in the NACC includes the following corporations: Chevron;
General Electric; Ford; General Motors; Lockheed Martin; Campbell Soup;
Wal-Mart; FedEx; UPS; Merck and Co.; and Proctor & Gamble.
What does the SPP do?
The SPP uses the language of fear and terror to promote border
militarization, the criminalization of migration, privatization and theft
of indigenous land and resources, repression, impoverishment and
displacement, and cooperation in wars and occupations that will further
enrich these corporations.
Some of the initiatives being undertaken within the framework of the SPP
include:
* The expansion of temporary worker programs to facilitate the
exploitation of immigrant workers and drive down wages across the board.
* Adopting coordinated border surveillance technologies. Major
contracts are given to military suppliers;
* Coordinating no-fly lists between the three countries;
* Increasing the use of biometric data, including digital fingerprinting
to track refugee claimants across the three countries.
* Further integrating refugee policies. The Safe Third Country Agreement,
implemented in December 2004 between the US and Canada, has resulted in at
least a 40% decrease in refugee applications in Canada. Under the United
States-Mexico “Voluntary Repatriation Program” more than 35,000 persons
have already been deported.
* Integrating US and Canadian military and police training exercises, and
the expansion of The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) into
a multiservice joint naval and land Defense Command.
* Harmonizing health and environmental regulations to lower standards
and developing of a North American alternative to the Kyoto Protocol.
* Privatizing Mexico’s nationalized oil sector;
* Increasing production in Alberta’s oil sands five times over;
* Pushing for full exploitation of Canadian energy resources in areas
where it is already being actively opposed by the Lubicon, Dene, and
other indigenous communities.
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Take Action to Oppose the SPP!
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Demonstration in Ottawa
Sunday, August 19 @ 12:30PM
Demonstrations in Montebello
Sunday, August 19 @ 6PM
Monday, August 20 @ 12PM
Gather at the Chateau Montebello (or as close as possible)
And be on the look out for local actions
On the the National Day of Action against the SPP
Monday, August 20
Any chance of having the public forum planned for Aug.01, at the Steelworkers hall taped and put on the Internet.
Thanks for the heads-up, OPIRG-Toronto! I'm moving this to the activism forum because I think it would be better there.