This is a prelude to corporatization,

NOT,

continentalization of WATER.

And what is truly frightening is that these people meeting are not elected!!

The planned North American corridor is a corporation, NOT an elected assembly.

Counter-meeting in Calgary prepares citizens to oppose bulk water exports

    CALGARY, April 25 /CNW Telbec/ - The Council of Canadians is holding an

"open-door" meeting in Calgary to discuss the looming threats to bulk water

posed by North American integration. The meeting will enable key civil society

actors and the general public to discuss and share concerns with the process

and content of closed-door meetings that the US Centre for Strategic and

International Studies (CSIS), the Conference Board of Canada and the Centro de

Investigacion y Docencia Economicas (CIDE) in Mexico will be hosting in

Calgary on April 26 & 27.

  "The meetings organized by CSIS are the latest round of private meetings

taking place within the context of the Security and Prosperity Partnership of

North America (SPP), which has not been debated by the legislatures of the

three participating governments," says Maude Barlow, National Chairperson of

the Council of Canadians. "The big business community and corporate lobby

groups have been granted executive level access to the integration process. No

equivalent role has been granted to labour groups, civil society or even

Parliament in Canada."

  The Council of Canadians obtained a leaked document revealing that bulk

water exports would be on the agenda at the private meetings where government

representatives and private sector actors from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico

will be congregating.

  "I am concerned that the Canadian government would agree to participate

in a process where the dice is so heavily loaded in favour of U.S interests,

says Ralph Pentland, former Director of the Water Planning and Management

Branch of Environment Canada. "We have a Treaty (the Boundary Waters Treaty)

and an institution (the International Joint Commission) that enables us to

deal with our neighbours to the south as equals. We should use it."

  Quebec-based Eau Secours is concerned North American integration will

result in the commodification of water. "We oppose the continentalization of

water for market purposes," says Danielle Julien, Chairperson of Eau Secours'

international committee.

  The groups hope their counter-meeting will raise awareness about the

impacts of North American integration on natural resources and prepare

Canadians to oppose upcoming integration talks.

There will be many more links to this leaked story

(to be continued).

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