By Nicole Howe
Ottawa activists are joining forces to fight a new international trade agreement at the upcoming Summit of the Americas.
Protest groups are busy preparing for a mass demonstration in Quebec City April 20 to 22 to fight the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a new trade pact that will create the world’s largest free trade zone, covering all of the western hemisphere, excluding Cuba.
Activists are concerned the FTAA could have negative impacts on a variety of areas including the environment, women’s rights, health care and poverty.
While Ottawa has always had a presence in promoting issues like food safety, anti-poverty and women’s rights, Brenda Inouye, a member of Ottawa Communities in Action says only in the past year or two has she seen a mobilization towards the anti-corporation and anti-free trade movement.
“This is definitely something significant,” she says. “This is new for Ottawa.”
Inouye, who participated in the World Trade Organization protest in Seattle in 1999, says there were very few people there from Ottawa. Those who did go went with groups from other cities.
Now Ottawa is home to several organizations that are actively preparing for the anti-FTAA demonstration, including the Ottawa Coalition to Stop FTAA, University of Ottawa and Carleton University Anti-FTAA committees and Ottawa Communities in Action.
Recently Ottawa Communities in Action held a teach-in — a weekend of seminars and speakers — to educate and prepare individuals for the upcoming demonstration.
Over 200 people gathered at Bronson Centre on March 17 to 18 to learn how the FTAA could affect them and how they can mentally and physically prepare for a mass demonstration.
Inouye, an organizer of the teach-in, was pleased with the number of people that attended and the number of new faces she saw.
“The majority of people I hadn’t seen before at other anti-globalization, or anti-corporate events.”
Karen Gorecki, who attended the teach-in, says events like this that focus on education are key to advancing the anti-FTAA cause.
“People need to learn to be aware of the effects of the FTAA and how to use personal actions to change the system,” she says.
Steven Staples, issue campaigns co-ordinator for the Council of Canadians, took part in a panel discussion at the teach-in. Staples’ message was simple,
“If you remember nothing else, remember this trade agreement is not about trade.”
Staples says the FTAA creates rules for the Canadian government, which in turn places rules on and weakens its democracy.
Staples also pointed out that, along with Ottawa’s teach-in, there were others happening in Toronto and Vancouver, proving that people are mobilizing across the country to fight the FTAA.
While Inouye says that it’s not the best indicator of how many people will go to Quebec, it “definitely shows that people are interested.”
Gorecki, the national co-ordinator of the Sierra Youth Coalition, says she has also noticed that people are becoming more interested in issues like trade, globalization and the environment.
“It’s a diverse movement but I can see it happening with my bosses at work, my father, my mother … everywhere,” she says.
The anti-FTAA movement in Ottawa continues to build momentum as the Ottawa Coalition to Stop the FTAA will be holding a teach-in on Parliament Hill April 1, followed by a demonstration April 2 to ask the federal government to the release the proposed FTAA text, which has been kept secret.