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Union des Consommateurs ACTA protest

Friday, January 8, 2010 4:37 PST -08:00 News

p2pnet news view P2P | Politics:- Quebec consumer protection group the Union des Consommateurs has joined the mounting storm of outrage levelled at the entertaiment industry’s ACTA plan.

In an open letter, “The Government of Canada has undertaken secret negotiations with the United-States, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the European Union for an Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA),” it says, going on >>>

Amongst the many topics it reaches, ACTA would establish ‘graduated response’ measures and Internet Service Provider (ISP) liability, which leads to Internet filtering, as well as limit to the interoperability of legally acquired digital works.

This agreement also addresses many important issues such as the access to medication and the criminalization of certain uses of the Internet. This is reason enough, in our opinion, to express concern about the consequences this agreement will have on the fundamental rights and freedoms of Canadians. Our concern is confirmed by documents from the European Commission, which clearly indicate that this Agreement will restrain certain rights and freedoms, particularly freedom of expression and protection of privacy.

Also, the negotiations focus on many Copyright issues. We are very puzzled, in this context, by the government’s intent. Copyright reform is currently underway, for which the Government of Canada held public hearings. Yet, we are worried by the outcome of these secret trade negotiations, held in parallel of the public consultation process, and by the fact that this Agreement, if it were to pass, would exert enormous pressure on any forthcoming legislative reform on such topics.

The process of the current negotiation, which is shrouded in secrecy, held in closed meetings between Countries, is of particular concern for us. In fact, the Canadian Government has participated in these meetings for over 18 months without divulging any details of the proceedings. This negotiation process, in itself, raises important questions about the lack of transparency and about respect of democratic principles. It is extremely disconcerting to know that certain American industries have had access to these documents, while the European Parliament was refused such access and that in Canada, it is impossible to obtain an official account of the Agreement. Even worse, the Minister of Industry declared in the House of Commons on December 2nd 2009 that if the public wants information about the Agreement, they should refer to the website of Michael Geist (a law professor at the University of Ottawa) which provides some incidental details of the Agreement that were leaked to the media, and which generally condemns the whole undertaking.

The Government of Canada has the duty to inform its citizens about projected agreements under negotiation that will directly impact on citizen’s fundamental rights and freedoms.

“Therefore,” the union says, “we call on the Members of Parliament to demand that the Government of Canada act in a transparent manner on the current negotiation process by publishing the proposed Agreement, and to refuse any proposed Agreement that would impinge on Canadian’s fundamental rights and freedoms.,” adsding:

“The Parliament must also remind the Government of Canada that any Agreement that does not respect our fundamental rights and freedoms would force the Parliament to reject the entirety of the Agreement.”