PRESS RELEASE: Access to CETA Text Denied

Fox Creek, AB – January 30th
It has been announced recently by the Council of Canadians that the Government of Canada denied their access to information request for the text of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the EU. This despite the government claiming the agreement is nearly finished and that key sections that were in dispute have been ironed out.
CETA covers a wide number of areas from agriculture to industry, from investor-to-state arbitration to intellectual property law. While the Conservatives have claimed that they ‘obviously’ can’t release the text that is being worked on this is how the WIPO operates and they seem to have no issues. A trade agreement is set to be signed without Canadians having any input on its language and with no discussion on its relative merits. This is unprecedented.
“If CETA is as good for Canada as the Conservatives make it out to be you would think they would insist on making it public so they could bask in the warm glow of the pundit’s praise. That they have not done so could mean there are sections that they fear leave them open to criticism. The Conservatives saw, along with everyone else, the defeat of such initiatives as ACTA and SOPA. Keeping everything secret lets them make an end-run for adopting CETA before Canadians could possibly organize against it” says James Wilson, Leader of the Pirate Party of Canada. The Pirate Party stands against this denial of democratic debate. The Pirate Party supports having complete transparency during the negotiation of treaties along with ample opportunity for the public to make their views known. Canadians cannot endorse an agreement they are not allowed to see. The Pirate Party repudiates any agreement made under these circumstances and any agreement unfavourable to Canadians would be repealed by a Pirate Party government.
The Pirate Party of Canada is a federal political party focused on thoughtful information policy reform, genuine democracy, civil liberties, and the freedom of the Internet. You can find out more online at www.pirateparty.ca .

Category: CETA, Consultations, Copyright, Government Transparency, Intellectual Monopoly, International Agreements, Newsroom, Patents.
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>>>Pourquoi le Parti Pirate?<<<

Why Pirate Party?

1. Open Democracy

One of our main founding principles was Open Government. This means an Open Data policy with proactive disclosure and free access to government data. This will allow anyone to scrutinize and catch any error, negligence or corruption early on. Open Government also means increased transparency, and giving constituents real voices. This can be achieved with electoral reform .

2. Mincome / Basic Income Guarantee (B.I.G.)

Unemployment and income inequality is on the rise and we risk a breakdown of social cohesion without a system for resource distribution as we face increased automation. We're shifting from a bureaucratic culture of constant work-demands to a culture of passion, joy, and learning for the sake of learning.

Mincome will lead to cost savings and create a sustainable economy. See our press release for how that can be achieved.

3. Autonomy and Decentralization

We believe that the world works best when individuals are making informed decisions. It is our goal to get all information to all people, so they may be more informed voters, consumers, participants, and teachers. We do not need to force information culture & the hacker ethic onto people we can simply allow them to choose access. We believe the right to choose our identity, name, and appearance is inalienable.

4. Copyright and Patent Reform
Copyright and patent's main purpose was for propagation of culture and innovation. Our current copyright and patent laws are continuously being corrupted due to lobbying by copyright and patent monopolist. These monopolist refuses to innovate and provide wider access and pass on the savings from the new lower distribution cost. Instead the copyright and patent terms keeps getting extended to benefit the few to the detriment of the public interest. The opposite should happen. Copyright and patent terms should be shortened since our new information infrastructure (i.e. the internet) have brought us cheaper and faster means of distributing media contents and information. Mandatory licensing, owner's rights to a non-DRM product, open access to research data and shorter copyright term are some of the natural changes that is needed if we want to create a more open and progressive society. This will ensure future artist and innovator are not hampered by patent and copyright gatekeepers who uses rent seeking law for anti-competitive purposes.

Human beings increasingly have a moral duty to share information with one another. Libraries are stuck in the last century, enforcing artificial scarcity on digital content. If libraries were upgraded for the modern age, we would no longer need filesharing. And let's face it, watching and listening to whatever you want to is fun. It breaks down arbitrary global borders of access and creates a global culture defined by people- not by corporations.

At the Pirate Party- we believe more information leads to better decisions. We believe that more voices leads to better compromises. We believe in Canadians.

Our democracy need a serious upgrade and Pirate Party aims to change politics to the way it should be.

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