THE RECORD
November 15, 2000

Fiat Lux

by Ed Deak

As an independent businessman for 43 years it always amazes me that when people go into business, they immediately associate themselves with the bigwigs of major corporations and try to climb on the bandwagon of so called "free enterprise." Or on this "free trade" fraud where the only freedom is for people to lie down in front of the steamrollers of the multinationals and enjoy the massage provided by the uncontrolled movement of capital.

As a voter in BC since 1956 I would say that this federal election is the most boring one I can remember. The only issue I can see is the question of which of the two Great Leaders promises to give Canada away faster? Chrétien, or Day? Joe Clark was shown on one of the TV clips boasting that it was his PC Party that gave us free trade. Ol' Joe looks and talks more like Diefenbaker every day. The idea of free trade was introduced by John Crosbie when Joe was fighting for his leadership in 1983, endorsed by Peter Pocklington. All the other candidates opposed it. Clark was quoted in Maclean's: "Unrestrained free trade with the US raises the possibility that thousands of jobs could be lost in such critical industries as textiles, furniture and footwear. Before we jump on the bandwagon of continentalism, we should strengthen our industrial structure so that we are more competitive."

Mulroney was quoted: " Canadians rejected free trade with the USA in 1911. They would do so again in 1983. Canada must increase its share of total world trade, which has dropped by 33 percent in the past two decades." The day after he was elected in late 1984 he was on the plane to Reagan and came back with the news that he was now in favour of free trade.

The free trade controversy raged throughout 1988 and then Canadians rejected it by 57 percent against 43. However, Mulroney was re-elected and like Joe predicted, we now have no textile, furniture, footwear and many other industries. We have large increases in our so called exports. 50 percent of those exports are controlled by 50 multinationals who are stripping Canada of it's resources. Meanwhile 750,000 Canadians must rely on food banks for survival. Yet, all these years my business friends who have lost their businesses never blamed NAFTA , but government regulations and taxes. The power of brainwash by propaganda.

Small business still has to learn that the biggest losers in this so called free trade is private enterprise. How many small business people around Gold River have blamed the greed of Bowater for their losses?

In all my years I have hardly ever seen businesses ruined by governments, but literally hundreds by large corporations. The owners often lost their homes and families, yet they climbed back on the same bandwagon of blaming the government. In a way they were correct, as it is the governments who give the green flag for these insatiable monsters to gobble up everything in their way.

When the FTA was being negotiated we got daily reports in the press and TV on the proceedings and the whole text was readily available. I still have all the books the Tories published. But Mulroney learned his lesson when he lost the popular vote on the issue and when it came to the NAFTA, he negotiated it in secret. Chrétien promised to re- negotiate it, but when he was elected, the only question he asked was: "Where is the pen ?" He signed it without any public consultation, even though it severely curtails the rights of all levels of government. So much for democracy.

Then came the start of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment negotiations in 1995 , also in secret, by the Chrétien government. If a copy hadn't been leaked in France in Nov. '96, the 29 OECD nations would have signed it in April of '97. The resulting outrage cooled the enthusiasm first of the French government and then the whole thing was shelved. I had the 375 pages of the MAI in my computer by May '97 and was wondering if the Reform Party was so much for democracy, why they haven't published it and gave it out to the public?

I wrote to my Reform MP, Philip Mayfield, about this, but all I got in reply was a form letter by some PR hack in Preston Manning's office: "Thank you for writing to Mr. Manning." I didn't write to Mr Manning and was not interested in his screwball opinions. Yet, the letter was an obvious sign that Reform MPs were not permitted to speak on the MAI. Manning kept even his own gang in the dark about it.

Now we come to the ongoing secret negotiations for Free Trade Area of the Americas to be signed in Quebec City in April 2001 and the also secretly ongoing Millennium Round at the WTO. We're in the middle of a federal election campaign and the two leading Parties are lying low about it, like cowpies in the grass, knowing that if the public knew about the contents, the Liberal, Alliance and PC Parties would be toast. So, where are the sanctimonious bleatings by Messrs. Chrétien, Day and Clark on the right of people to know what is going on in their name? Where are the disclosures, the documents the promises for referendums? Nowhere.

Mr. Manning and his successor Day have been promising open democracy with referendums on contentious issues, but never on the NAFTA, or the MAI or now on the WTO and the FTAA. After all, why should people know that the text of the MAI is now in both negotiations and there's nothing much at stake except the rights of people to govern themselves.

Copyright (c) 2000, West's International