[van-announce] Financial Fools Day: Empowering People's Movements Against Trade Agreements and Corporate Power]]

[Caelie Frampton]

[ please post widely ]

FINANCIAL FOOLS DAY:
Empowering People's Movements Against Trade Agreements and Corporate Power

Panel and Discussion

Wednesday, April 1st @ 6:30 pm
SFU Harbour Centre (515 W. Hastings St.) - Room 1800

*This is a free event.*

April 1st 2009 marks the date that the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility
Agreement (TILMA) between BC and Alberta will be fully implemented. This
agreement, like NAFTA and many other free trade agreements around the world,
serves to increase corporate power and the ability of financial markets to
undermine efforts to protect communities, the environment and the dignity of
people.

April 1st also marks the beginning of protests in the United Kingdom against
the G20 and the global financial system. The current economic crisis has
demonstrated to the world that the twisted logic of neo-liberal economics
and "free trade" agreements is a recipe for disaster. At the same time we
are still being told by elected officials that agreements like TILMA are the
solution to the current economic crisis.
Join us on April 1st to learn more about TILMA, NAFTA, bilateral trade
agreements, corporate power and how people can continue building resistance
to protect our communities and the environment.


Panel:

Gil Aguilar (Wilderness Committee)
- Will FTAs Protect the Environment? A look at Mexico and Canada.

Colleen Fuller (health policy researcher, writer and co-founder of
PharmaWatch)
- Neo-liberal agreements, corporate lawsuits and the healthcare system.

Gord Hill (Olympic Resistance Network and No2010.com)
- Looking back to Seattle 1999 and forward to Vancouver 2010.

Proma Tagore (No One Is Illegal)
- Bilateral Trade Agreements: Canada displacing communities in the Global
South.

Caelie Frampton (BC Stop TILMA Coalition)
- From NAFTA to TILMA: Re-examining trade agreements.

Myka Abramson (SFU Community Coalition)
- Budget Cuts and Privatization: Neo-liberalism in Education


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For more information please contact: 778.858.9647 or hgrewal at canadians.org
Organized by the Council of Canadians