January 26, 1998 Over The Edge Page 3
Canadian government could face lawsuit over MAI

BY JEREMY NELSON

WINNIPEG (CUP) — If a
Canadian activist group has
its way, members of the
Liberal Party of Canada may
soon find themselves in court
charged with violating the
very constitution they have
sworn to uphold.

The Defense of Canadian
Liberty Committee, a
Vancouver-based group, is
presently preparing to wage a
lawsuit accusing the federal
government of violating
Canadian law by negotiating
the proposed Multilateral
Agreement on Investment
(MAI),

The MAI is a far-reaching
economic treaty presently
being negotiated behind-
closed doors by Canada and
28 other nations. As drafted,
it will remove many of the
powers of government to reg-
ulate the activities of both for-
eign and domestic corpora-
tions.

The agreement will also ban
governments: from creating
any new environmental or
labour legislation that could
be deemed harmful to the
business of a domestic or for-
eign corporation.

According to Tim Madden, a
legal and economic historian,
the case against the MAI is
clear cut, with many legal
precedents to back it up.

The Canadian constitution,
he says, stipulates very clear-
ly that governments cannot
give away or transfer any of
their powers, even if all levels
of government agree to do
so.

“The federal government
has a responsibility under
Section 91 of the Constitution

Act to make laws respecting

commerce and _ trade,”
Madden, who will be one of
the chief researchers for the
case, said. “The MAI is
essentially the government
abdicating its responsibility to
react to wrongs with respect
to trade and commerce,
which is exactly what the
Supreme Court of Canada
has repeatedly said that you
cannot do.”

The legal foundation for the
case comes from several
court rulings, the most impor-
tant of which was issued in
1951, when the Supreme
Court ruled against a joint
proposal made by Nova

Scotia and the federal gov-
ernment to swap several con-
stitutional responsibilities.

“The Constitution of Canada
does not belong either to
Parliament or to _ the
Legislatures,” the unanimous
ruling stated. “It belongs to
the country and it is there that
the citizens of the country will
find the protections of the
right to which they are enti-
tled.”

According to Connie Fogal,
head lawyer on the case, the
MAI would destroy many of
the rights citizens are entitled
to under the Canadian
Constitution.

“Under the MAI, if there’s
something our government
wants to do for its citizens
that causes a company to
lose money, we’re not going
to be able to do that at all.
And that’s insane,” she said.

Much of the committee’s
case will revolve around the
dispute settlement section of
the MAI, which would allow
corporations to sue Canadian

governments in closed-door
tribunals where decisions are
made by arbitrators, not by
judges or juries. Fogal says

If There’s Smoke at UNBC it
would Pretty Much have to

be a Fire.

By Nicole Larson

When you wander into the
Corner Store, here on the
UNBC campus, ‘you may
notice the bright yellow sign
above the shelves behind the
counter. If you are a smoker
the sign would have special
significance to you because it
says that on Wednesday,
December 3rd, the
President's council here at
UNBC decided to discontinue
the sale of cigarettes and
other tobacco products on
campus. There are still ciga-
rettes for sale but after this
shipment is sold out there will
be no more. The buildings of
UNBC have been smoke free
since their opening in 1994.

Last summer a task force
was set up to look at the
areas outside of the school
which are most frequently
used by smokers, but this
decision was totally indepen-
dent of that study.

The reaction by student
smokers has been varied.
Comments ranged from , well
| don’t usually buy my ciga-
rettes there anyway to what
will happen next? Will alcohol
and fatty foods be the next to
go. Few students have actu-
ally tried to contact the per-
son responsible for the
removal of the cigarettes
from shelves, Pat Hibbetts,
the Vice President of Finance

at UNBC. There have been,
however, some complaints
posted to unbc.general and
two students went up to Pat
Hibbetts office to talk to her
about their concerns, but
when they were told she was
in a meeting and asked to
return at a later time that
afternoon, did not appear
again.

You may be asking, espe- °

cially if you are a Business
major, but what about the
financial side of the question?
Won't discontinuing the sale
of cigarettes negatively effect
the profit margin at the
Corner Store?

. Continued on Page 4

the government of Canada
would be overstepping its
constitutional authority and
undermining its sovereignty if
it signed an agreement grant-
ing corporations this right.

But the government of
Canada disagrees. It recently
intervened in a case being
heard by the U.S. courts cov-
ering, similar issues. The
plaintiffs in the case allege
that President Bill Clinton and
the U.S. Congress exceeded
their constitutional authority
by passing the North
American Free Trade
Agreement, which contains

.provisions similar to those

proposed in the MAI.
“Both Canada and the
United States have champi-
oned the use of binding dis-
pute settlement international-
ly, and both have committed
themselves to it as a matter
of international law,” stated

the Canadian government in
a brief it recently released.
“The development, adoption
and implementation of the
provisions of Chapter 19 of
NAFTA (which allow corpora-
tions to sue governments
through trade tribunals) by
both the United States and
Canada were not abdications
of sovereignty by either coun-
try, but were intentional and
fully authorized sovereign
acts.”

But Madden disagrees.
“The question that needs to
be put to them is not, “Is this
legal to the court system?”
but rather, “What has funda-
mentally changed since the
last time the courts told you
no?” And the answer is noth-
ing. It's the same constitu-
tion.”

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