SPP - 6

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Repost to Canadians please

 

 Updates

 

 

You probably saw the demonstrations in Montebello in the news. The media

loves to focus on violence. Some protestors believe some of this violence came

from ‘implants.’

Here in Ottawa,

thousands marched peacefully. Apparently peaceful demonstrations aren’t news.

I

had suspected it would be so, and was there with a DVD camera. Check out the

number of people on the hill that day:  

 

Maude Barlow spoke with whatever voice she had left 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cck1zY1Z_68  

 

Youth spoke http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2JHXdt2QHA

 

Bikers biked 71 km to Montebello   

 

A hip hop artist sang his message 

 

Later in the afternoon, a large meeting took place, during which Elizabeth

May (Green Party leader) suggested a coalition with  NDP and Canadian Action

Party sending a message that if Labour and Conservative parties go ahead with

SPP, there could be a political alternative.

 

 

Vote with your wallet

 

The 10 Canadian CEOs who will be deciding the policies government will then

duly implement can be sent a message by the public: “Support the SPP and we

won’

t support you.†Some suggestions: switch from Bell to another (preferably

local Canadian) phone company, then phone Bell and tell them why. Shop in Rona

or

Reno Depot, not Home Depot. Buy Lindt or Cadbury’s rather than Ganong

chocolates. Avoid Sunaco gas stations. Buy wood not produced by Canfor lumber

company. The other companies: CN, Linamar Corporation, Manulife Financial, Power

Corporation of Canada (owns Power Financial Corporation, Gesca, PTIC, Great-West

Lifeco Inc. and IGM Financial Inc, Power Financial Corporation, The Great-West

Life Assurance Company, Great-West Life & Annuity Insurance Company, London

Insurance Group, London Life Insurance Company; Canada Life Financial

Corporation, The Canada Life Assurance Company.)

 

 

Continue to spread the word.

 

 

This message finishes with an article by Mike Nickerson

 

The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) - disaster or solution?

It is a Question of Direction.

 

For those of us opposing Deep North American Integration, the Canada, USA,

Mexico SPP negotiations, August 20 - 21, at the Chateau Montebello near Ottawa,

are a nightmare.  Nevertheless, as long as Growth (the expansion of monetary

activity) is seen as society's primary goal, efforts to stop the SPP will be an

uphill battle.  Mass production and economies of scale have long served

expansion.  The SPP would accommodate both by providing uninhibited access to

natural resources, labour and markets for businesses with continental

operations. 

The problem is that growth, for growth's sake, is past its " best before date. "

 

To reclaim local governance with its hands-on appreciation of environmental

and social impacts, we have to challenge the legitimacy of perpetual economic

expansion.

 

Climate change, peak oil and all manner of other natural resource and

pollution problems are aggravated by ever expanding human activity.  Like a

child who

has grown to maturity, humanity now faces adult responsibilities.  And now

that we face planetary limits, we can no longer disregard the natural laws of

resource limitation and tolerance to accumulating waste.  Any species that

fills

its habitat and breaks these laws is dealt with in the " court of natural

selection. "

 

While simple mathematics clearly show that getting bigger makes resource and

waste problems worse, customs and institutions, from our historic and

prehistoric past, encourage and compel continued growth.  For tens of thousands

of

years before we filled the Earth, growth served us well.  The SPP answers the

familiar call -- to our peril.

 

To put out a fire, one throws water at the source of the flames.  To stop

growth inducing trade deals, we need to question the legitimacy upon which they

are based.  It is a Question of Direction.

 

More on shifting the focus of legitimacy can be found in " The Challenge and

the Goal " at:

Http://www.SustainWellBeing.net/challengeandgoal.html

 

 

Best wishes as we work for a better world.

 

Mike Nickerson

Author: " Life, Money & Illusion; Living on Earth as if we want to stay "

 

http://www.SustainWellBeing.net/LMI/lmisummary.html  

 

 

 

Air, Water, Soil and Energy are essential to all life.

 

" To call these things sacred is to say that they have a value beyond their

usefulness for human ends, that they themselves become the standards by which

our acts, our economics, our laws, and our purpose must be judged.  No one has

the right to appropriate them or profit from them at the expense of others. 

Any government that fails to protect them forfeits its legitimacy. "

 

Starhawk; from " The Fifth Sacred Thing. "

 

 

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More information on the Security and Prosperity Partnership:

 

 

Green Party of Canada

http://www.greenparty.ca/en/releases/16.08.2007

 

Council of Canadians

http://www.canadians.org/integratethis/summit/forum.html

 

 

 

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Sustainability Project - 7th Generation Initiative

http://www.SustainWellBeing.net