Canada quietly ratifies controversial international investment convention

[JohnyCanuck]

In August 2012, the Financial Post reported that Canada was close to ratifying the ICSID Convention, a binding set of rules for how investor-to-state disputes (like the Lone Pine case against Quebec's fracking moratorium) are handled that some countries (e.g. Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador) are pulling out of because of how these rules undermine state sovereignty. Canada had signed the Convention, and already agrees to 99 per cent of its arbitration rules, but could not be a full member until all of the provinces had passed ratifying legislation.

Apparently that has quietly happened, despite our request that the holdout provinces seek public approval for ratification, since the Harper government announced November 1 that it had was now a full member of ICSID. Trade Minister Ed Fast declared, "Ratifying this investment treaty is an important step toward further ensuring predictability and stability for Canadian investors operating abroad. This is the latest example of how our pro-trade, pro-investment plan to help our businesses grow and succeed abroad continues to get results for our exporters, workers, investors and businesses."

This is nonsense. As we've explained on this site before, the most important differences for ICSID Convention member countries (versus signers only) are all negative. Canada surely felt rushed to become a full ICSID member because of its CETA negotiations with the European Union, since the EU disapproved of the flexibility, as limited as it was, for Canada to review investment arbitration awards in Canadian courts.

snip

As Gus Van Harten of Osgoode Hall Law School explained to me last year, if Canada ratifies the ICSID Convention, arbitration awards against Canada would be subject to review only by other arbitrators and not by any national or international court. The arbitrators lack the hallmarks of judicial independence and may reasonably be perceived as beholden to appointing bodies that are dominated by the United States, major Western European states, or the international business community.

http://rabble.ca/blogs/bloggers/council-canadians/2013/11/canada-quietly-ratifies-controversial-international-investm

[riverbendviewgal]

1. AND they will quietly ratify FATCA

and that means they throw all Canadians who are considered American persons , under the bus.

It is just like http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ones_Who_Walk_Away_from_Omelas

In the story, Omelas is a utopian city of happiness and delight, whose inhabitants are intelligent and cultured. Everything about Omelas is pleasing, except for the city's one atrocity: the good fortune of Omelas requires that a single unfortunate child be kept in perpetual filth, darkness and misery, and that all her citizens should be told of this upon coming of age.

After being exposed to the truth, most of the people of Omelas are initially shocked and disgusted, but are ultimately able to come to terms with the fact and resolve to live their lives in such a manner as to make the suffering of the unfortunate child worth it. However, a few of the citizens, young and old, silently walk away from the city, and no one knows where they go. The story ends with "The place they go towards is a place even less imaginable to most of us than the city of happiness. I cannot describe it at all. It is possible it does not exist. But they seem to know where they are going, the ones who walk away from Omelas."

[Joe Shlabotnik]

2. great

I think I'm a pretty well informed Canadian despite whats broadcast as news, yet I don't recall any discussion about this.

Neoliberal 1% +1

99% - sorry.