Monday, June 01, 2009

‘You, Me, and the S.P.P: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule’


You'll remember Paul Manly as the guy who shot that video of CEP union President Dave Coles exposing the 3 rock-toting Quebec police provocateurs at the Montebello SPP protest in Aug. 2007. Paul has finally finished his full-length feature film : ‘You, Me, and the S.P.P: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule’, exposing "the latest manifestation of a corporatist agenda that is undermining the democratic authority of the citizens of North America".

Here are a few quotes from the trailer :

Naomi Klein :

"… after the shock of Sept 11 … that crisis was expertly manipulated by our political leaders to push through a range of policies they actually had wanted to push through before Sept 11, but didn’t have the political conditions that made that possible."

Gordon Laxer, Director, The Parkland Institute, Alberta :

"…if we go along with the Americans on their military, on their human rights, on their Patriot Act, on immigration and refugee policy, on energy, on all kinds of regulations over pesticides or whatever, then they will allow us access to their markets."

Murray Dobbin, Canadian author, journalist :

"… what the SPP really represents is a parallel government, so that the important decisions are either made outside of parliament and outside of legislatures or they make it impossible for those kinds of decisions to be made in those legislative bodies, so that democracy is slowly being gutted."

with more from Peter Julian, Michael Byers, and Maude Barlow.

And here's a portion of the film I posted this morning. To purchase your own copy of the whole film - $20 well spent - and for listings of local screenings, visit Paul's website at manlymedia.com. If we want this quality of reporting from independent journalists, we're going to have to support it. If you can't afford the $20 for your own copy, get your local library to buy a copy, leave him a message of encouragement, and pass on the word. As Paul says : I made this film for all of you.

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Oct 2009 Update : Paul and his film are on a cross-country tour of 33 countries across Canada. You can see all the tour dates on the film website here Each confirmed screening date has a pdf poster, handbill and press release that can be downloaded and used to promote the screening. Please help out where you can. All of the screenings are either free or by donation.

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4 comments:

the regina mom said...

Alison, have I told you lately that I love you and your SPP posts?

Anonymous said...

Yeah, thanks for this, Alison. It's as if this whole issue has fallen right off the map just as the real work of deep integration has intensified. Partly because it can't be spun for partisan effect by either the Liberals or the Cons I'm thinking.
Keep up the good work.

Ian

Alison said...

Anon : Oh that is so true.
The SPP deregulations are quietly working their way through US and Canadian bureaucracies where we only get the occasional glimpse of their passage. Meanwhile TILMA only came into full effect on April 1 and it will be difficult to measure the extent of its "anticipatory chill" on local government policy, if at all.
Thank gawd for Peter Julian or we'd have no record of what it's doing in committee at all.

Regina mom : Right back atcha ;-)

West End Bob said...

Our wonderful Vancouver library got the DVD in and I immediately put it on my request list.

Got the disc today, and just finished watching it. Great stuff, and all Canadians should see it to become fully informed on the issue.

The 'Mericans are comin', ya'll . . . .

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