Harper sneaks through Canada-China FIPA

The Tories, backed by a naïve Canadian Chamber of Commerce and a handful of big, conflicted business interests, have demonstrated the worst negotiating skills since Neville Chamberlain.

Ottawa capitulated to China on everything. The deal, using a hockey metaphor, allows only a select few to play on Team Canada on a small patch of ice in China and to be fouled, without remedies or referees. By contrast, Team China can play anywhere on Canadian ice, can appeal referee calls it dislikes and negotiate compensation for damages while in the penalty box behind closed doors.

The terms agreed to by Ottawa are unprecedented and would be laughed out of Britain, Brussels, Canberra or Washington. Beijing has negotiated a heads-I-win-tails-Canada-loses deal.

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The Hupacasath First Nation in BC has filed a legal injunction to stop an extreme 31-year corporate rights deal between Canada and China that holds massive environmental, human rights and sovereignty implications.

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If the FIPA with China is ratified, Chinese corporations will be able to challenge local, provincial and federal policies or laws that interfere with their “right” to make a profit from, for example, proposed tarsands or fracking projects, pipelines, or mines. Canadian firms will have the same “right” in China, which will impact human rights and environmental protections there. We believe the FIPA fundamentally undermines democracy. It will give Chinese firms in Canada and Canadian firms in China 31 years of “protection” – from environmental, human rights or resource conservation measures they don’t like while companies and private investors gain the right to sue Canada or China in controversial and unaccountable private tribunals outside the court system.

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