Keep the economy strong

Strong and free? Maybe not anymore!

My fellow citizens of this great country Canada, I write to you in earnest in regards to Canada and it’s involvement in the TPP. We as citizens do not have much time to ensure that it is crushed completely.

This agreement is so dangerous to our national sovereignty that it will ensure our Federal Government is powerless to stand up for the rights of it’s citizens in the future. The TPP enshrines foreign corporations rights over ­top of that of our people. The TPP has a negative impact in so many areas I can only touch on a few to stay brief with these being very critical.

Food:

It severely limits our protection of all industries including the Food and Beverage industry. Canada enjoys some of the highest consumer protection laws especially in regards to the critical aspect of food. Under the TPP these will be stripped away so we can be fed unlabelled poison. It will be cheap though!

In addition local farmers and agricultural producers will suffer as we are flooded with cheap but deregulated/unregulated food.

Healthcare:

Under the TPP, companies like Turing Pharmaceuticals in the US who recently announced a 5,000% price hike on an age old AIDS drug they recently purchased, would have legal protection from our governments highest courts to protect their profits. Under the TPP it is possible generic competitors are banned ensuring only the wealthy and privileged have access to the drug at its high prices. Turing Pharmaceuticals did recant its price hike recently in light of mass protest but then decided it would only take 50% off of its massive 5,000% price hike! 

In Canada our healthcare system would simply be completely drained by our own governments agreement being legally forced to pay high prices for certain drugs. How sick are you off watching drug commercials who's side effects often include things as serious as death, heart attacks and strokes etc. The list of side effects is often worse then the symptom they claim to treat and success rates are not in line with the risk presented. Often there are viable alternative in the natural world but since you cant patent them to make a killer profit they are shunned by big pharma. Notice they always talk treatment never a cure. Do they really need more legal protection?

Legal protection of citizens and rights:

Our rights are being denied and eroded every day in this country by our Government. They are negotiating deals that will pay them very well know while giving up our sovereignty and rights quietly in the name of jobs, economy and security. Our nation is so full of wealth that we do not need to sign an agreement that will only block access to these resources and the development of them by our own children rather then foreign corporations with no interest in local well being.

There is a reason Mr. Harper worked so hard to advance the TPP in secret while he was in office, he knows that if the truth is ever revealed before it is completed that the nation will not buy it. Pressure your new Prime Minister, your MP’s, the Bureaucrats, talk to everyone you can and ensure that this is squashed before we no longer have the right to fight back as it might hinder a foreign corporation in it’s effort to make a profit bigger than most nation’s tax revenue.

We have the talent, and the resources. Lets build a real future for our children, not a life relegated to Home Depot jobs, McDonald's and Wal­Mart wages and a hollowed out economy where we as citizens are simply free to choose between Pepsi and Coke and call it democracy.

Christopher Burke