[van-announce] [CKUT Radio] Canada: TILMA & Corporate Economics.

[Stefan Christoff]

[CKUT Radio] Canada: TILMA & Corporate Economics.

Listen to an interview series on the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility 
Agreement (TILMA), a national free trade and investment agreement for Canada, 
is facing growing controversy...

* Part 1: Interview with Lyn Gorman, Council of Canadians, Edmonton Alberta.
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=24716

* Part 2: Interview with Aaron Wier, Canadian Labor Congress, Ottawa.
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=24717

* Part 3: Interview with Stewart Trew, Council of Canadians, Ottawa, Ontario.
http://www.radio4all.net/proginfo.php?id=24718

Canada's internal free-trade agreement--The Trade, Investment and Labour 
Mobility Agreement--or TILMA, is being promoted by the Conservative government 
in Ottawa and Provincial counter-parts in BC and Alberta. TILMA has raised 
concerns nationally among environmental and labor groups across the country, 
who view the agreement as an attempt to adjust labor standards, environmental 
laws and economic policies to the lowest common denominator. TILMA's 
cross-country 'harmonizations' could remove the abilities of municipal and 
provincial governments to introduce their own local labor or environmental 
standards without corporate challenge.

TILMA is a NAFTA-like agreement which includes similar economic policies, 
including the ability for corporations to sue municipal or provincial 
governments for up to 5 million dollars for assumed 'lost profit' due to local 
restrictions, regulations or laws, an extremely clause to NAFTA's controversial 
Chapter 11.

Opponents to the TILMA agreement, directly link proposed TILMA policies to 
economic integration efforts under the Security and Prosperity Initiative, the 
SPP-- a trilateral trade and security initiative in North America. Canada's 
proposed internal trade accord is indicative of policies pushed through the 
SPP, in that the agreement, according to it's critics, attempts to drive down 
labor and environmental standards to the lowest common denominator in order to 
secure greater corporate profits.

* For more information on TILMA visit the Council of Canadians / Canadian Labor 
Congress at: http://www.canadians.org / http://www.clc-ctc.ca

This interview series was produced for broadcast on CKUT Radio in Montreal & 
campus / community radio stations throughout Canada by journalist Stefan 
Christoff...

----