Fair Vote CanadaSunday is International Day of Democracy, but on Monday, 16 September 2013 the Waterloo Region Chapter of Fair Vote Canada is celebrating by holding a Walk, Rally, Talk and Pub Night.
Meet at Kitchener City Hall at 6:00pm to walk to Waterloo Square. Banners, placards, whistles, pots & pans are all welcome to make a lot of noise for electoral reform!
At 6:45 Craig Scott, MP for Toronto Danforth and NDP electoral reform critic and Anita Nickerson, FVC’s Executive Director will address a short rally at Waterloo Square. At 7:00pm Craig will speak at First United Church, 16 William North about the the NDP’s policy on electoral reform and listen to our concerns about electoral reform.
This is a great opportunity to share with the NDP the need to make electoral reform a major election issue in 2015 & highlight the need for electoral reform to our community.
Following the Walk, Rally, and Talk the Waterloo Region Fair Voters, Friends, and Relations will retire to The Duke of Wellington Pub to continue the conversation.
In her latest newsletter, Eleanor Grant writes of several local events, followed by a number of petitions on federal issues as Canada Day approaches ….
ACTION: Are you sick of scandals and secret deals in Ottawa? Democracy Watch has launched 2 campaigns for better ethics rules:
ACTION: “Fix the Bill” on banning Cluster Bombs. Canada has ratified a Convention to ban cluster bombs, but the bill to implement it, Bill S-10, is full of loopholes: Petition at Mines Action Canada. There is also a write to your MP tool on Mines Action Canada’s website tailored to the Bill S-10 issues. From the group that brought the ban on Landmines.
“WHIPPED“, Sean Holman’s new documentary on the topical and controversial issue of party discipline is coming to Waterloo Region along with the filmmaker! To whom do MP’s owe their greatest allegiance: their party, their constituents or their conscience?
On Monday, June 24 at 7pm at Laurier’s Bricker Academic Building, Room 210, FVC-WR and co-sponsors KWNDP, KWGP, KWFLA and YCYC/VCVC are pleased to screen, “WHIPPED” and host a post screening panel with the filmmaker Sean Holman, Larry Aberle, President of the KWNDP and Karen Redman, former Liberal MP and party whip.
This is going to be a great evening of political education for all. We will be taking donations at the door to help cover expenses for this event. Suggested donation is $10 or what you can spare!
Hope to see you on June 24 for an exciting evening of political discussion.
Should Andrea Horwath press for more changes to the Ontario budget? Such as improvement in minimum wage and welfare rates? Fill in the survey at Your Say Ontario or send an e-mail to Andrea Horwath at ahorwath-qp@ndp.on.ca
CasiNO – Kitchener Public Consultations – When: Tuesday, 23 and 30 April 2013 starting at 6:00pm with a presentation from OLG; public consultations for those who have registered to speak will follow. A second session will be held April 30. Pre-registration for the 30 April session is not mandatory but is strongly recommended and can be done on the City of Kitchener’s Casino web page or by calling Linda Korabo at +1-519-741-2200;ext=7591
Location: Kitchener City Hall Council Chambers, 200 King St. W., Kitchener, Ontario (map)
Citizens are organizing to support the Region of Waterloo’s Official Plan for Smart Growth, in face of the OMB ruling against it in January, which favoured developers and urban sprawl.
Announcement from Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East:
Yves Engler to speak on his book:
THE UGLY CANADIAN: STEPHEN HARPER’S FOREIGN POLICY
Tues. Oct. 23 at 7 pm
Wilfred Laurier University
BAB202 – Bricker Academic Building, room 202
75 University Avenue West
(Talk location is closer to intersection of Clayfield Ave and Bricker Ave)
Waterloo, ON, N2L 3C5
TICKET INFO
Admission is free.
Home page of sponsoring organization:
http://www.cjpme.org/
Please visit this link on Leadnow’s site, and tell PM Harper not to sign on to yet another secret trade deal: this time the “Foreign Investment Protection Agreement” with China.
http://www.leadnow.ca/canada-not-for-sale
Here’s the scoop:
In days, Prime Minister Harper could approve the Chinese National Offshore Oil Company’s $15 billion takeover of Nexen, a Canadian oil company,
and pass a sweeping Canada-China trade deal allowing Chinese companies to overturn Canadian laws in secret courts.
These deals would pave the way for a massive natural resource buyout,
and restrict Canadians’ democratic control over our economy, environment and energy – even when Canadian lives are at stake.
Tell PM Harper and your MP that Canada is not for sale.
First, Congratulations on winning Kitchener-Waterloo!
I’m writing out of urgent concern about the Comprehensive trade agreement with Europe that Harper is finalizing right now, and how it will affect our localities and our autonomy.
I was glad to hear that Waterloo, Kitchener, and the Region have all asked to be exempted. But will that be enough to protect us from lawsuits and other pressures from huge corporations?
Here are a couple of videos:
The Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement Primer (CAW):
CUPE Video exposes CETA dangers:
CETA is the New ACTA (internet restrictions):
Today [Oct 16], twelve members of the Conservative federal government will be negotiating the final details of the CETA, the Comprehensive Economic Trade Agreement.
This deal is NAFTA ON STEROIDS and far larger than any Canada has ever constructed. Lawyer Steve Shrybman calls the CETA “a rewriting of the economic constitution”.
The recent slash and burn budget was preparation for CETA protocol, and the budget to come out this week will cut much more, to prepare for the demands in the CETA.
The urgency of the CETA is that, as international trade law, it is a permanent plan. It is not as difficult to change national policy as international, legally-binding policy between 13 countries!
CETA’s primary content is your city’s water, energy, buses, subways, hospitals and schools, to be opened permanently for bidding by transnational corporations. It also includes the sale of some crown corporations like Canada Post. This means that your town’s hydro, buses, drinking water, mail and more, could very well be run by foreign-owned corporations from the EU, the USA or Mexico.
The CETA will not give any more possibilities to Canadians, as foreign corporations can already have access to any of the contracts. But, the CETA will encourage cities to take these deals from foreign corporations much more often.
The largest ethical question is the Investor State style enforcement of the rules, borrowed from NAFTA. This means that if your city hall decides to keep an asset in public control by turning down the lowest bid from a foreign corporation, your city hall will be sued for damages. You and your fellow taxpaying community members will have to cover the costs.
Ask NFLD and Labrador how they were sued by AbbittibiBowater for 120 million when this American corporation used NAFTA to receive compensation for what they deemed their corporate rights to east coast land and water even after they shut down all their factories. There have been numerous such cases since NAFTA. CETA, being much more comprehensive, will cause an increase in these corporate attacks on citizens and our assets. Ultimately, with the CETA, it is the people who will have to pay.
Citizens from Southwestern Ontario have named Tuesday, October 16th, the second day of the final round of behind-closed-doors CETA negotiations, as an Ontario lobby day.
We are contacting MPPs to express our concerns about CETA.
* We demand a full public hearing, like the one Quebec people had two weeks ago.
* We urgently ask that the opt-out process written by city councillors across Ontario be honoured by the McGuinty government.
It is the provincial government that makes the decision on who and what is included into the CETA. However, as the vast majority of government officials have not been told about the contents of CETA, they do not recognize that this is an unprecedented Canadian moment, and some are merely going by the party line, that trade will be good for the economy.
The jobs, service and quality of life for your family, your children, your community, and your city are all at stake.
