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Copyright and Canada’s Trade Agreements: Point of Disagreement Between the Parties?

The Globe and Mail is reporting that the Conservatives will announce their commitment to completing new trade agreements with the European Union and India at an event this morning in Halifax. The focus on the EU deal – CETA – is noteworthy because there may be a divide between the parties on the inclusion of intellectual property within the deal. I posted earlier about an EU Commission study that found that the IP provisions would increase consumer prices – particularly for pharmaceutical products – and lead to more royalties leaving the country.

Days before the election call, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage released its report on CETA and ACTA. All three opposition parties supported the following recommendation:

The Committee calls on the Government of Canada to ensure that domestic copyright policies are not part of any present or future trade negotiations; that Canada’s commitments to the implementation of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) are limited to the agreement’s focus on combating international counterfeiting and commercial piracy efforts; and that the Government of Canada retains the right to maintain domestic copyright policies that have been developed within the framework of its commitments to the World Intellectual Property Organization and the Berne Convention.

CETA covers a wide range of issues – everything from agriculture to telecommunications to copyright. The question for all four parties given the focus on CETA is where they stand on the inclusion of copyright within the deal, given its impact on Canadian culture and the Heritage committee recommendation.

4 Comments

  1. Mr.
    I am completely depressed over what is happening to my country. There used to be such pride and honor in being Canadian and now, well now I feel like we are a nation of apathetic nillies.

    Why aren’t the majority of us getting angry? Why are the few of us that read and educate ourselves in these matters not making a difference? Has it always been like this or am I just for the first time in my life seeing the true colors of our leaders?

  2. Can a government that has been found in contempt sign an international agreement during an election?

    I guess so 0_o

  3. Anarchist Philanthropist says:

    The real question
    What would it take to found a completely new governing body? One with intelligent non greedy people?

    Keep your laws out of our internet!

  4. Anarchist Philanthropist says:

    @matt

    “Why aren’t the majority of us getting angry? Why are the few of us that read and educate ourselves in these matters not making a difference? Has it always been like this or am I just for the first time in my life seeing the true colors of our leaders? ”

    Both and stuff your not seeing. The few can’t affect the majority. This is why steven harper gets in at all. People are sheep. In the last election 56% of the population of Canada voted. Canada has 33+ million people in it. If just over half voted (say 15.5 million and was the largest turn out in years)then you divide that by 3 major parties, 1 well known party and a handful of super small unknowns that people still vote for, it don’t allow for much of an election process. Then you get the young voters who are doing it for the novelty who know nothing about politics and are voting for who their parents tell them to vote for, and again the election process in this country is questionable. Then you get people like our current PM who is disliked by a large portion of our society, yet has somehow won four elections.

    So the real question you should be asking is. Should there be some way to earn the right to vote? And even more important, should the people who run for positions in government just be average people or should they specifically training in the ways of controlling a country with Neutrality, no biased and paid (and have bank accounts monitored for bribery) well enough they don’t end up working for peoples private interests.