The devil is always in the details

October 8, 2014

To the Editor,

I would like to thank Jim Eadie for his recent article concerning the various communications from Daryl Kramp that we, his constituents, have been receiving; he entitled it “What do you think?”

What I think is that all of them have been a colossal dumbing down of politics and political discussion which simply mirrors the secretive nature of the present government. Take, for instance, the trade deals that Mr. Kramp is so enthused about. They have been negotiated by corporate lobbyists and government people without anyone else, including members of parliament, knowing what they entail. Only recently have the texts of these negotiations become known, and the devil, as always, is in the details.

One of these details would allow corporations to increase the number of times and the length of time that lifesaving drugs could be patented; generic drugs would be longer in coming, and we, the people, or our health system, would be paying higher prices for a much longer time. Another provision would allow corporations to challenge regulatory action around unhealthy products such as tobacco, alcohol or unhealthy foods and thus put us into a situation where Canadian health initiatives could be shut down by a corporation. Apparently, the CETA (European trade deal) would also forbid Canadian municipalities from having a ‘buy local’ policy in their procurement decisions.

I think the biggest negative aspect of these trade deals is that they all give foreign corporations the right to sue our Canadian Government (think our tax dollars) for policies or regulations (think environmental or health related) that they feel unfairly affects their profits.

These trade deals will impact Canadians in various ways; they may create jobs or they may just siphon off lots more money to the corporate sector. However, I do think it is a shameful dereliction of duty that a democratic government and its representatives make such deals without consulting with or even trying to inform the public. With regard to the CETA though, it would appear that the German public is becoming informed and doesn’t like it. Possibly, Germany will not ratify and the deal will unravel. We can hope!

Donna Forth

Bancroft