Dear Mr. Prime Minister,
Like many Canadians, I have been encouraged by the inclusive
tone you've set as Prime Minister; the cabinet you put together comprised
equally of highly qualified women and men; the call for a national inquiry for
the 1200 + missing and murdered indigenous women; the accessibility you've
reinstated to scientists as well as accessibility for us to your government in
order that we may enjoy an open discourse as citizens of this country.
I've lost track of the amount of times I've applauded your
inspirational sentiments since the election. I high-fived you from Vancouver
when you held a press conference in the National Press Gallery Theatre, which
hadn’t been used by the previous government since 2009. I was incredibly heartened that you insisted we would continue with the plan to welcome 25,000 Syrian
refugees in the face of the horrific terrorist attacks in Paris. I've burst
into tears either from unmitigated joy or sheer relief that my country is
finally back after having been lost to a strangely dark time in our recent
history. I am filled with hope for this country, for my children and for the
new direction we are at long last taking. Based on what you’ve communicated to
Canadians, you have a regard for all this country’s citizens regardless of
their level of financial wealth and, indeed, you seem to want to help make life
better for everyone.
So I'm sitting here, Mr. Prime Minister, scratching my head as
to why in the world you would agree to promote the TPP. Entrepreneurs,
politicians and environmentalists alike say this is a very bad deal for Canada.
They say it’s NAFTA on steroids. It reads as a manifesto for corporate control,
allowing corporations the ability to sue us – by tribunal in secret – if we set
policies that prevent them from making more money. The TPP holds us accountable
to the standards of other countries, also represented in the deal, and will
prevent us from enjoying and improving our quality of life here in Canada. If
that quality of life interferes in any way with corporations’ ability to make
top dollar, corporations will sue us to the point that we will stop trying to
improve life in this country altogether.
It may destroy many of the things you said you wanted to achieve for Canadians
during your campaign and since taking office.
Any goal you set at the end of this month in Paris to address
climate change? Forget about it. If that goal prevents a corporation from
making money, we'll be sued for trying to achieve it. Try to raise the minimum wage for low income earners or take any much needed action to strengthen this country's Universal Health Care system? Forget
about it. We'll be sued for that too. (Under the terms of NAFTA, Canada is
currently being sued by American pharmaceutical company Eli Lilly for $500
million because our courts invalidated two of their patents. If these are the
kinds of lawsuits we can expect under NAFTA, I shudder to think what awaits us
under the TPP.)
Mr. Prime Minister, don’t get me wrong. I appreciate
corporations. There are some good ones out there and I get to decide which of
them to support as a consumer. I just don’t believe any given corporation should
be able to dictate to me every single aspect of my life, my children’s lives
and the lives of future generations.
As a parent to two little boys, my biggest concern is how the
TPP will interfere with my children’s access to a quality education. There's
been a huge push all over the world by big business to change the face of
public education as we know it. It's happening right now in British Columbia,
where I live. I have watched for years as the provincial government has starved
the school system of necessary funding, slowly but surely paving the road to
privatizing education. In 2014, as part of that process, Premier Christie Clark
announced B.C. would reformat public education to encourage children from
kindergarten to grade 12 to work in the liquefied natural gas industry.
You read that right, Mr. Prime Minister: The provincial
government is changing the school system to get kids to work in the LNG. Can you believe that??
To me, public education isn’t about training children to become
workers. It’s about educating students to become citizens. It’s also one of the
last great equalizers we have left in the world. As a former teacher (and a very good one from
what I hear), I'm sure you can appreciate that, when properly funded, a quality
education gives all of us an equal start in life, regardless of our socio
economic backgrounds. But if you continue to promote the TPP as you told Japan
you would, you will be opening the door even wider to corporate involvement in
our school system. If we ever were to have a provincial government properly fund the school system, we’d be
sued by corporations for doing so. Corporations will have a stronger influence on
setting curriculum to suit their own interests and education will suffer as a result. If
parents can't get a quality education for their children in public schools,
they'll be forced to pay for it privately. And I assure you, Mr. Prime
Minister, that is a cost most families simply can't afford.
Like all families, my husband and I want to give our kids every
possible opportunity in life. We're trying to figure out how to put them
through university in a province with a grotesquely underfunded public school
system, in a city where it costs $2 million to buy an average house we’ll never be able to afford
while also trying to set aside enough money for retirement. (This just in: I'll
be working until I'm 80.) We've got a lot on our plates, Mr. Prime Minister. If
you sign this trade agreement, you won't be helping the middle class or low-income
earners. In fact, you'll be making it much more
expensive for all of us who aren’t millionaires. You will be selling our
children's education to the highest bidder in a deal that is designed to
benefit big business at the expense of the human beings in this country who
need you to advocate on their behalf, rather than on behalf of the TPP.
This deal sucks Mr. Prime Minister. Say no to it. I don't want
big business to decide what my children are taught in school. I want educators
to do that. I want my children to have all options available to them, not just
the ones that benefit certain CEOs and shareholders in one particular industry.
I want my children to grow up to be as proud of Canada as I am.
I don't want them to look back to this agreement as the moment they stopped
living in a country and started living in a corporation.
Sincerely,
Enid-Raye Adams
Mom, Actor, Concerned
Citizen
