At the Canada-European Union Summit on September 26 in Ottawa, Harper marked the conclusion of the negotiation of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) between Canada and the European Union and released the draft text. However, unlike the narrative outlined in news reports, this is not the end of the deal's negotiation process and CETA was not signed or ratified.
The federal government has had three different occasions over the previous year to boast about the end of the negotiations for the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement. In all three instances the government has declared their unwavering support for free-trade and blasted anyone who has dared criticize the undemocratic nature of free-trade agreements as out-of-touch anti-trade ideologues.
Liberal Senators say Bill C-377 is 'one of the worst bills we've ever seen' and have pledged to sit through the summer to try and defeat or delay it. Conservative Senator Hugh Segal has called the private member's bill targeting unions 'immature, ill-conceived and small-minded'. And yet Harper's Conservatives gave the bill its full support, forcing it through the House of Commons and threatening Senators who don't vote for it.
More trouble for the sputtering Canada-EU trade deal. It seems that the premature victory laps that the Harper government have been running on CETA are foul of the line.
