STRASBOURG, 3 p.m. (9 a.m. ET) — We have just completed our meeting with MEP Joe Higgins. He is a member of the Confederal Group of the European United Left – Nordic Green Left, which holds 35 seats. He is also a member of the European Parliament’s Committee on International Trade.

We raised with him some of the many concerns we have with CETA including: its facilitation of water privatization, tar sands expansion, investor rights over the public interest, seed patents that hurt farmers, increased pharmaceutical costs, and job loss.

We also presented to him Steven Shrybman’s legal opinion on CETA and the tar sands and the Council of Canadians-CUPE report on CETA and water privatization.

He will work with us and has agreed to raise questions on CETA in the European Parliament.

STRASBOURG, 6 pm (12 pm ET) – We have just concluded a very good two-hour meeting with 6 MEPs and 15 political staff for MEPs from different parliamentary parties on the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.

Council of Canadians trade campaigner Stuart Trew facilitated the meeting, Blair Redlin of CUPE spoke to the investor-state provision, Terry Boehm of the National Farmers Union addressed agriculture issues, Clayton Thomas-Muller of the Indigenous Environmental Network presented on the tar sands, and I highlighted CETA and its relationship to water privatization. A very good discussion, and a question and answer session followed.

An uninvited Canadian embassy official turned up at the meeting to challenge our comments related to the tar sands and Europe’s fuel quality directive. We easily countered her assertions and were strongly supported by an MEP who raised Canada’s role in killing the second binding phase of the Kyoto protocol at the United Nations climate negotiations this past December in Cancun.

STRASBOURG, 7 pm (1 pm ET) – We have just been warmly welcomed by more than 60 members (MEPs and staff) of the Green party at their caucus meeting at the European Parliament. We were introduced by French MEP Yannick Jadot. Trade campaigner Stuart Trew spoke on behalf of our delegation on the range of concerns we have about the Canada-EU CETA.

Brent Patterson, Director of Campaigns and Communications, Council of Canadians
www.canadians.org/ceta

 

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Brent Patterson

Brent Patterson is a political activist, writer and the executive director of Peace Brigades International-Canada. He lives in Ottawa on the traditional, unceded and unsurrendered territories of the Algonquin...