loopholes and first impressions

 
Hi everyone. Thanks for the warm welcome. 

I tend to lean toward environmental issues so I figured I would share a story that appalled me as my first post.

Sources:
Dow is suing the Canadian government. 
NAFTA is encroaching on Canadian Sovereignty.

So, a chemical ban on lawn insecticides in Quebec has now put the Canadian Federal government in a position to be sued for damages by a U.S. corporation. Individual provinces, like Ontario, are joining Quebec in banning chemical insecticides so it's probably not unlikely that those will go towards increasing the suit. 

"Chapter 11 allows foreign investors to sue the governments of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico if they feel that their profits have been restricted."

I probably should have known about this already. But, I didn't. It's absurd to me that we agreed to open ourselves to interference like this. I'm already disgusted with Canada's current environmental record, but let's just say that we did try to do something that might make a bit of a dent, it's all up for discussion with American and even Mexican companies if they deem the law as a challenge to selling their poisonous products in the marketplace! I already have a problem with the definition of corporations and what it allows them to do and not do. There's just no way that we can allow them to have the power to challenge a foreign, or local, government. I mean, this is obvious, right?

Even with the U.S. in the trouble it's in, to Canadians, it is apparently still to be chased and serenaded. Our own Bush holdover, Stephen Harper, is rushing to build bridges with the Obama administration. Of course, working with the ideas Obama has would be useful, but we have a yahoo Prime Minister who wants to smooth the way to Canada's continuation of its current rampant destruction for profit, rather than a meeting of the minds to shore up problem areas of NAFTA that leave Canada and Mexico at unacceptable disadvantages.

You'll find more on that story over at my site.