 
KAIROS joins Common Frontiers Partners to Launch
"FTAA: It's Hazardous To Your Health" Campaign
4 November 2002
At a press conference on Parliament Hill on October 31, KAIROS Vice-Chair
Joe Gunn joined with other leaders of Common Frontiers — a
national coalition of church, labour, human rights, environmental,
anti-poverty, development, student, health and social justice organizations
— to launch a joint campaign exposing the health impacts of
the so-called Free Trade Area of the Americas.
The FTAA —an overarching trade agreement currently in draft
form — is still being negotiated but slated to come into effect
in 34 countries across the Americas by 2005. The Chrétien
government has played a strong role in promoting FTAA negotiations.
The campaign launched today aims to gather mass support for a
petition entitled "FTAA: It's Hazardous to your Health".
The petition calls on the Canadian government to stop negotiations
of the FTAA, on the grounds that the controversial trade deal jeopardizes
universal Medicare and access to affordable medicines in Canada,
as well as environmental protection laws and regulations considered
crucial to the protection of public health.
Stated KAIROS Vice-Chair Joe Gunn at the press conference: "Recent
submissions to the Romanow Commission on the Future of Health Care
in Canada warn that trade deals such as the draft FTAA threaten
Medicare. Given that Canadians strongly believe in equity and compassion,
the principles that underlie universal Medicare, we're extremely
concerned about the implications of the FTAA."
Between now and next Spring, the KAIROS ecumenical network - together
with the Council of Canadians, the Canadian Labour Congress, the
Canadian Council for International Cooperation and other members
of Common Frontiers - will be working to raise awareness about what's
at stake and inviting citizens from coast to coast to express their
concerns to the government by signing the petition.
The Canadian "FTAA: It's Hazardous to your Health" petition
campaign is part of coordinated efforts with citizens' groups in
other countries of the Americas that are organizing public consultations
on the draft FTAA. Less than two months ago, ten million Brazilians
voted in a popular plebiscite on the FTAA. Over 98 percent voted
against the proposed agreement.
Launch of the Canadian campaign took place on the same day that
thousands of people from across the Americas took part in mass protests
against the FTAA in Quito, Ecuador, site of the 7th FTAA Ministerial
Meeting.
KAIROS and our network of local groups across the country have
chosen to prioritize collecting signatures on the "FTAA: It's
Hazardous to your Health" petition as one part of an ecumenical
education and action campaign for 2002-2003 called Living Hope:
Building Movements for Global Justice.
For more on what was said by Common Frontiers partners like Council
of Canadians National Chairperson Maude Barlow, Canadian Labour
Congress Secretary-Treasurer Hassan Yussuff, and Gerry Barr, President-CEO
of the Canadian Council for International Co-operation at the press
conference to launch the FTAA: It's Hazardous To Your Health campaign,
visit http://www.web.net/comfront/cf_news_presseng31oct02.htm
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