Date: Thursday, November 13
Time: 6:30pm
Place: 'Moot Court', McGill Faculty of Law
(OId Chancellor Day Hall, 3644 Peel Street - corner Docteur Penfield)
Admission: Free (donations accepted)

Panellists: William Watson, Steven Shrybman, Armand de Mestral, Jaggi Singh

The spotlight is once again on the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement. On November 20-21, the eighth ministerial meeting will take place in Miami, and the outcome is crucial to whether the trade deal gets realized by the officially scheduled implementation date of 2005. The media will be descending on Miami to cover it all, and to cover the activity outside the meetings as well. Anti-FTAA groups around the United States and further afield are mobilizing for Miami protests which, by all indications, will be considerably larger than what was seen in Quebec City in 2001.

At the same time, across the hemisphere people are also using the occasion to promote local debate in order to generate awareness of the potential impacts of the FTAA. The deal, which seeks to link 34 nations of the Americas (all except Cuba), will have profound effects on almost 800 million people. It is vital, therefore, particularly given the proposed 2005 implementation date, that the advantages -- and the dangers -- of this deal be closely examined and understood, especially within public forums so that a wider political awareness and participation regarding this important issue can be engendered.

It is within this context that The Solidarity Network to Stop the FTAA (SNSF) has planned a PANEL DEBATE ON THE FTAA. The panel will represent a balanced spectrum of views on the FTAA (two voices in favor, and two voices opposed), and the following themes will be addressed:

• "The Nitty Gritty: National Treatment / Chapter 11 / Intellectual Property rights
• "Claims for Exemptions: basic services (health, education, water...), cultural diversity, water, national security"
• "Environment / Agriculture"
• "People Implications (workers / consumers / women / the poor / democracy)"

Time will be allotted at the conclusion of each theme for comments and questions coming from the audience.

Panellists:

• William Watson teaches economics at McGill University and is a senior research fellow with the Institute for Research on Public Policy (IRPP)
• Steven Shrybman is an Ottawa-based partner with the law firm Sack, Goldblatt and Mitchell and specialist in the practice of international trade and public interest law. He has acted as legal representative for the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Union for Public Employess (CUPE)
• Armand de Mestral: A distinguished member of McGill's Faculty of Law, Professor Armand de Mestral has authored numerous works on international trade law, Canadian comparative and constitutional law, and international law. He has also served on NAFTA and WTO dispute settlement tribunals.
• Jaggi Singh is a writer and social justice activist based in Montreal who is active with the No One is Illegal campaign.

For more information, please contact the CFS-Q at (514) 931-2377 or Eric Squire at (450) 437-5044

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