(The following article is from the October 16-31, 2009, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 133 Herkimer St., Unit 502, Hamilton, ON, L8P 2H3.)

You, Me and the SPP: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule, from Manly Media Productions, director Paul Manly, 2009, 91 minutes

DVD review by Tim Pelzer

Nanaimo-based filmmaker Paul Manly never set out to make a documentary on the Security and Prosperity Partnership. He first learned about the SPP while fundraising to make a film on local water use. The SPP, signed by the US, Canada and Mexico in March 2005, aims to harmonize regulations between the three countries. The more he delved into the agreement, which allegedly removes barriers to trade and economic growth, the more it disturbed him.

     In his penetrating documentary You, Me and the SPP: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule, Manly shows that the deal is really an agreement modeled on NAFTA that threatens to further erode democracy, environmental and living standards across North America.

     The SPP is about big corporations wanting to lower and harmonize a broad range regulations and practices. "Whichever province or state [that] has the lowest standards, that's the standards these companies are allowed to use as their benchmark", according to Maude Barlow, the Council of Canadian's Chairperson.

     According to NDP Member of Parliament Peter Julian, the Canadian, US and Mexican governments want to lower standards in 300 areas of regulation that involve every government ministry. Nineteen commissions are working on revising regulations. Julian cites the Harper government's decision to allow the import of more pesticide-laden fruits and vegetables, disadvantaging Canadian farmers who have higher standards, and harming human health.

     The SPP is also about North American economic integration and ensuring the US a secure supply of natural resources. Academic Gordon Laxer says that the SPP will lower our environmental regulations to allow more oil and gas exports to the US. It will also allow Canada to bring in more temporary Mexican workers with few labour rights. Export of Canadian water to the US is also being discussed under the SPP.

     Barlow said that when she asked US Embassy officials in Ottawa why the SPP was never brought to elected bodies for discussion and approval, she was told that they wanted "to avoid another losing NAFTA debate".

     The documentary also sheds light on the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA), the supposed free trade agreement between provinces. Journalist Murray Dobbin asserts that TILMA is an essential part of the SPP. Since many existing regulations are controlled by provinces and municipalities, the Canadian government cannot negotiate deregulation and harmonization with the US and Mexico until this obstacle is dealt with.

     TILMA is really an investors' rights agreement, under the guise of dismantling trade barriers, few of which exist. Like NAFTA, it allows corporations to sue provincial, municipal governments and even school boards that raise standards. Dispute panels will meet behind closed doors to make rulings, not the courts. Even if panels do not rule against elected bodies, critics say TILMA will create a chilling effect by discouraging democratic bodies from improving standards.

     Dobbin remarks that the SPP is really "a parallel government where important decisions are made outside elected legislatures or parliament or they make it make it impossible for these types of decisions to be made in these elected bodies."

     How do proponents of the deal respond to these accusations? Each federal or provincial government minister Manly contacted was "too busy" to answer questions.

     According to constitutional lawyer Joel Bakan, trade agreements like the SPP "are very powerful, secretive and very difficult for us as citizens to penetrate and have any say over."

     In one of the most disturbing segments of You, Me and the SPP, Manly films a peaceful group of protesters at a joint Canada-US-Mexico summit in Quebec in 2007. Suddenly, three masked men, dressed in black clothing, begin throwing rocks at the police. The demonstrators confront the men, still clenching large rocks in their hands, accusing them of being agents provocateurs intent on starting a riot. Later a Quebec police spokesperson admits that the masked men were indeed police officers.

     You, Me and the SPP deserves to be widely seen. It sheds light on how the SPP will further undermine democracy and weaken the ability of elected bodies to adopt laws and regulations to protect the public and the environment.