Community Festival to protest Trans-Pacific Partnership at Minister Freeland’s Town Hall in Toronto

PHOTO OPPORTUNITY: Large Jumbotron outside the Town Hall will beam images and messages from everyday Canadians about the negative impacts of the TPP

WHAT: This Wednesday, Canada’s International Trade Minister, Chrystia Freeland, will hold a Town Hall on the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) at the University of Toronto. A diverse range of groups have organized a Stop the TPP Community Festival outside the Town Hall to ensure Canadians’ voices can’t be ignored - and everyone is invited.

The festival will feature games, songs, presentations about the TPP’s impact, along with a large Jumbotron beaming messages, images, memes, and short videos submitted by Canadians, including by the over 18,000 people who have sent feedback to the Parliamentary Committee studying the deal using the online tools at LetsTalkTPP.ca and ParlonsDuPTP.ca.

WHEN: The Community Festival runs from 4.30pm to 8pm ET on Wednesday June 15, with the Town Hall itself commencing at 6pm.

WHERE: Rotman School of Management, 105 St. George Street, Toronto.

WHO: A wide range of groups including Council of Canadians, Leadnow, OpenMedia, Sum of Us, and Unifor are working together to amplify Canadians’ voices on the TPP.

QUOTES

“Ordinary people are the big losers when it comes to the TPP. We lose our government’s ability to protect our common interests. We lose our jobs,” says Sujata Dey, Trade Campaigner with the Council of Canadians. “A study by Tufts University shows that Canada could lose 58,000 jobs because of the TPP. Why can’t we have a deal that creates economic opportunity for everyone, not just corporations?”

“The TPP is an unfair, undemocratic deal that will strip us of our digital rights and threaten the open Internet,” says David Christopher, communications manager with OpenMedia. “Canadians from all walks of life are coming together to make their voices heard outside and inside Minister Freeland’s Town Hall — and for those who can’t make it in person, our large Jumbotron will be beaming their messages from right across the country.”

WHY

A wide range of experts and organizations have raised concerns about the TPP, including:

• It will restrict how we innovate and share culture, and it will overwrite our national laws without our consent. (source)

• Copyright term extensions will cost Canadians money, and actually make it harder for artists and creators to make new works. (source)

• Foreign companies could sue the Canadian government for implementing regulations that would protect the environment. (source)

• An independent study concluded that Canada will lose at least 58,000 jobs because of the TPP. The government has yet to publish an independent economic analysis of how exactly the TPP would impact Canadians (source)

• Under the TPP, Canadians will pay more for pharmaceuticals, while seeing their healthcare privacy undermined. (source)