2015-04-18 Hundreds of Millions of Dollars already paid out to corporations because of trade deals. It’s about to multiply many times over (TPP, CETA, etc.).

Arising out of:

2015-04-15    A Trade Rule that Makes It Illegal to Favor Local Business? Newest Leak Shows TPP Would Do That And More, David Korten, Yes! Magazine

I remind Canadians of how much we are already paying out to Corporations for fines under NAFTA.   One example:

• 2015-03-06 We Canadians get to gift Exxon/Mobil $17.3 million! (compliments of NAFTA)

Here’s a make-you-sick example of how the system works:

• 2015-10-16 Texas Oil Tycoon T. Boone Pickens’ $700-Million NAFTA Lawsuit Against Ontario Nears End, NY Times & Huffington Post

With thanks to the Council of Canadians:

http://canadians.org/nafta 

Possibly the most anti-democratic legacy of NAFTA is its investment chapter (Chapter 11), which protects U.S. and Mexican corporations in Canada from all kinds of public policies that could get in the way of profits. There have been about 20 investor lawsuits filed by U.S. firms under NAFTA, many of them challenging environmental policies such as a ban on trade in gasoline containing the suspected neurotoxin MMT. These lawsuits are heard in private by a three-person panel of paid arbitrators whose decisions are final and binding. Canada has paid more than $160 million in fines already and is facing another $4-5-billion worth of NAFTA lawsuits, including one from Lone Pine Resources, which is seeking $250-million compensation for Quebec’s publicly supported moratorium on fracking in the St. Lawrence River Valley.

2015-03-20    Bilcon wins NAFTA challenge against Canada over gravel quarry expansion   (Bilcon won the ruling.  They are going for $188 million in damages.)

See also,  the fines we would pay out under  CETA  (the Trade Deal with Europe):

2011-02-08   CETA plus Harper signs new security perimeter deal without consultation