It's called the "Multilateral Agreement on Investments" or MAI. The MAI is being negotiated through the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), a club of 29 rich countries. The World Trade Organization calls the MAI "the constitution of a single global exonomy."(1) It is more than that. The MAI is a sneak attack on democracy, a coup d'état against national and local governmets everywhere. What would the MAI do?

• Transfer final legal authority from governments to transnational corporations.(2) Governments would answer to them first, not to us the voting citizens. All our laws - from our federal Charter of Rights, down to our local bylaws - would be subject to their scrutiny and approval.
• Have its own "supreme court." If any investor, from any country that signs this treaty, doesn't like one of our laws - including those designed to hold corporations accountable to their employees or the community - it could sue our governments through the MAI tribunal to have that law removed. There would be no right of appeal.(3)
• Reduce the role of government to implementing laws approved by our new corporate rulers. Governments would have no right to sue corporations if they hurt people or the environment.(4)
• Render existing laws ineffective that apply to Canadian firms by exempting transnational corporations, and by banning restrictions on the movement of capital so foreign investors can pack up and leave anytime with no financial penalty.(5)

The business lobby claims that global investment is inherently beneficial. This might be so if, for instance, foreign investors abided by "performance requirements" that protect human rights, health, worker safety, culture, the environment or the economy. But the MAI bans such requirements. Instead, it requires that previously sovereign nations give investors unconditional access to our market.

Do our governments really want this treaty?

Prime Minister Chretien supports the MAI(6) but has not consulted the public or Parliament. Your MP probably doesn't know. Nor your provincial MPP or MLA. Certainly not your city councillor! Shouldn't we tell them about the MAI? They might be shocked to learn the MAI would reduce their jobs to filing clerks.(7) We might still vote for them but their new boss would be foreign investors - even fly-by-night speculators.

What can I do to help?

Please tell all your friends about MAI. Educate your federal candidates, especially the Liberals. Speak up at all-candidates meetings. Tell them that democracy and global survival are on the line. If they do not listen, please take your vote elsewhere. Don't vote for any candidate that refuses to speak out against this monstrous treaty.

Time is short. The MAI is to be submitted for final approval by Parliament, the U.S. Senate and the European Union this fall, until all OECD member countries have joined. Then pressure will mount on Third World countries. Once we sign, we are locked in for 20 years.(8)

A growing global movement is opposing the MAI. E-mail us at AF558@Freenet.Carleton.Ca if you need more help or details on MAI's many destructive provisions or go to our homepage. Help us reclaim Canada for ALL Canadians - Not just a greedy few!

Say "no you MAI not" plunder Canada.

Vote "no" to the global greed treaty!

1. Preamble Collaborative, Washington D.C.
2. Preamble Collaborative, Washington D.C.
3. Preamble Collaborative, Washington D.C.
4. The Corporate Rule Treaty, Tony Clarke, CCPA April 1997
5. The Corporate Rule Treaty, Tony Clarke, CCPA April 1997
6. Canadian Forum, April 1997
7. Guardian Weekly, April 15, 1997
8. CCPA Monitor, April 1997

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