The Responsible Trade Summit

Please join us for The Responsible Trade Summit!

Halifax - June 20, 2017

Ottawa - June 23, 2017

Presenters include legal and trade representatives from leading NGOs, academia, labour and more!

Areas of discussion:

  • Current affairs in trade agreements
  • TPP, TISA, CETA, China and NAFTA
  • Investor-State Dispute Settlement System
  • Reform to Responsible Trade - building a functional trade infrastructure
  • Climate-friendly trade model
  • Social equity and health care
  • Prioritizing citizen welfare and economic success
  • Fair and just Dispute Settlement System
  • Applications to NAFTA renegotiation

Ottawa Event details:

Location: Ottawa Public Library  - 120 Metcalfe St. in the Auditorium

Date and time: Friday, June 23, 2017  9 am - 4 pm


TICKETS:  $10 or by Donation.

Morning - Current affairs in Trade Agreements. Status of FTAs in Canada, TPP, CETA, MERCOSUR, and China.  NAFTA renegotiations

Speakers:

Anthony Torres- Associate Campaign Representative for Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Program

Anthony joined the Sierra Club in the spring of 2016 to organize the Club’s field campaign against the TPP. He is originally from Long Island, NY and his work has focused on how to build new movements and a new politics for climate justice. He's recently be featured as one of Grist.org's Top 50 Fixers for 2017 for his cross-movement building for a united, multiracial front.

Ronald Labonté holds a Canada Research Chair in Globalization and Health Equity at the School of Epidemiology, Public Heath and Preventative Medicine. He is Professor in the Faculty of Medicine, at the University of Ottawa, and in the Faculty of Health Sciences, Flinders University of South Australia. He is also adjunct Professor in the Department of Community Health and Epidemiology, University of Saskatchewan. Prior to his appointment in 2004 at the University of Ottawa, he was founding Director of the Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit (SPHERU), a bi-university interdisciplinary research organization that was committed to “engaged research” on population health determinants at local, national and global levels.

Claude Vaillancourt  - president of ATTAC Québec, an organization that fights against corporate trade agreements, tax havens, austerity and other forms of social injustice.  He is a prolific author of many books including L'Économie Toxique and L'Empire du Libre Échange.

Sujata Dey - Trade campaigner with Council of Canadians

Noon - Press meeting, interview and statement

Afternoon - Brief presentations/introductions and discussion for reform- climate friendly trade, social equity and a functional ISDS

Speakers:

Ben Beachy - Senior Policy Advisor for Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Program.

Ben has worked on trade policy for over a decade in organizations fighting for workers' rights, climate justice, public health, and self-determination. In 2015 he joined the Sierra Club as senior policy advisor to help fight the TPP and build power behind a people-centered alternative. Ben hails from West Virginia and volunteers in support of immigrant-led efforts to resist deportations.

Scott Sinclair is a senior research fellow with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, where he directs the centre’s Trade and Investment Research Project. Scott has written numerous books, chapters, and papers including Bad Medicine: Trade Treaties, Privatization and Health Care Reform in Canada (with Jim Grieshaber-Otto); Facing the Facts: A Guide to the GATS Debate (with Jim Grieshaber-Otto); and Putting Health First: Canadian Health Care Reform, Trade Treaties and Foreign Policy (with Matthew Sanger), a background study prepared for the Romanow Commission on the Future of Health Care in Canada.  Prior to joining CCPA, Scott was a senior trade policy advisor with the Government of British Columbia.  Scott Sinclair has a BA in political science from UPEI and an MA in political science from York University. He lives with his family in rural Prince Edward Island and in his spare time enjoys walking and bird watching.

Jesse Colorado Swanhuyser - After years of focusing primarily on domestic environmental priorities, Jesse co-founded the California Coalition for Fair Trade and Human Rights in Oakland, CA, where he build a powerful coalition of union, faith, immigrant, native, women and environmental groups focused on reforming U.S. trade policy, including a targeted campaign to defeat the Central America Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA).  Although CAFTA passed by one vote, not a single Democrat from California supported the pact—a first in U.S. trade politics.  Jesse has a Law degree from the Public Interest Law and Policy Program at UCLA. He splits his time between domestic and international law practices.  Domestically, he represents environmental, environmental justice and labor union clients around Southern California in local, state and federal jurisdictions, focusing on Clean Water Act citizen-enforcement actions.  Internationally, Jesse serves as Chair of the Sierra Club’s Committee on International Trade and Human Rights, and is the managing attorney at Voice for the People (V4P).  V4P is coordinating the legal response of American civil society to the NAFTA case in which the TransCanada Corporation is suing the U.S. for $15B over President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL pipeline.

Angella MacEwen  - Senior Economist, Social and Economic Policy, Canadian Labour Congress, and Policy Fellow with the Broadbent Institute


For more information, please contact:

Bana Hamze, Responsible Trade Coordinator

Mobile: / Email: banah@sierraclub.ca


Halifax Event details:
Date and time: Tuesday, June 20, 2017 at 7 pm
Location: Room 104, Weldon Law Building, Schulich School of Law, 6061 University Ave.
Dalhousie University, Halfiax NS
Speakers:
Lisa Mitchell, East Coast Environmental Law
Janet Eaton, Trade Advisor, Sierra Club Canada Foundation
Ben Beachy- senior policy advisor for the Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Program.

Also in attendance: Anthony Torres- Associate Campaign Representative for the Sierra Club's Responsible Trade Program