Manly Media - Films and Documentaries

Produced by: Paul Manly and Manly Media Ltd.

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Watch the summary documentary “Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule - part one - Ten Reasons to Oppose the SPP and TILMA”.

This documentary is designed to educate Canadians about the impacts of two trade agreements - the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) and the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). These agreements will affect a broad spectrum of issues that Canadians have worked for over decades and which we hold dear as fundamental to our way of life. They will undermine our democratic rights, dismantle our public health and education systems, accelerate privatization of public assets, lower our labour standards and environmental regulations, give away our resources including oil, gas and water, harmonize our security infrastructure with the United States while eliminating our national sovereignty.

Both TILMA and the SPP reflect corporate power supplanting democratic authority. TILMA softens the ground for the SPP, setting a provincial regulatory framework that utilizes the lowest common denominator as the new standard. TILMA allows corporations and individuals the right to receive an award for challenging democratically instituted regulations and standards that restrict or impair their ability to make a profit. This will eliminate the authority of local governments to regulate in the public interest. It will accelerate the privatization of public health, public education and publicly owned utilities such as water and sewage systems. TILMA will also have an affect on Public Private Partnerships (P3’s) and the ownership of assets built using P3 processes.

The SPP, also called Deep Integration, will similarly harmonize regulations and standards between Canada, the United States and Mexico, again utilizing the lowest common denominator as the new standard. For example, lowering lower pesticidepesticide standards in Canada to the weaker level of regulation in the United States. In addition to standards for environmental and labour regulations it also involves the integration of security, military, monetary and economic systems. Already we are seeing deeper integration between the Canadian and US Military structures, sharing of police data and the adoption of US security programs like the No Fly List. Deeper Integration also means greater access through the US Patriot Act to information collected by corporations about Canadian citizens. It means access by the US to Canadian resources such as water and oil for national security purposes. This agreement, like NAFTA, will increase the concentration of wealth among the few while undermining the hard-earned quality of life for working people.

The documentary will mix recorded interviews with a narrated script to provide the backbone of the information carried in the program. Interviews with both proponents and opponents of these trade agreements will be juxtaposed in such a way as to stimulate the audience and give them a more complete picture of the issues and arguments involved. Covering images will be used to enhance the message carried in the interviews and script. Current events including the National Day of Protest on August 20th where our crew caught three police officers dressed as radicals and ready to riot on tape and posted it to Youtube. The negotiations of the SPP at the summit in Montebello Quebec on August 20-21 will also be included. Stock images, such as fly over footage of the tar sands project, military footage, quotes and footage of Stephen Harper and George Bush or the Hansard debates in the Saskatchewan legislature, where TILMA was rejected, will be licensed to reinforce the topics of concern.
Why are we making this documentary?

As part of evaluating the seven campaigns of the National office of the Council of Canadians we, in the Mid-Island-Nanaimo Chapter, determined that there was one common theme that bound these campaigns together – that the corporate trade agenda was trumping the democratic process. After extensive research on the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA), and with the help and support of concerned citizens and labour groups we started to make presentations to local municipal and regional levels of government. We quickly realized that there was a huge gap in knowledge about TILMA, at the local government level and in the general public.
We also realized that TILMA was being used to set the stage for the Security and Prosperity Partnership (the SPP) and that these two agreements had many similarities both in content and in process. Rather than continuing to make personal presentations to a limited audience we needed a tool to disseminate this information to citizens across the country in a more efficient and expeditious manner, such as a video that could be distributed via DVD, public television and the internet. Within the Mid-Island-Nanaimo chapter we have access to all the resources needed to carry this project forward and the motivation and desire to do so.
Urgency

This is a time sensitive issue. Prime Minister Stephen Harper has already indicated he is interested in importing elements of the TILMA agreement into the Agreement on Internal Trade (AIT). The SPP has been evolving in secrecy officially since 2005 and has only recently been uncovered. This corporate driven agenda is being fast tracked in a manner that also bypasses legislative processes and public scrutiny. The information in this documentary needs to be disseminated quickly and in as many ways as possible to alert the public to these destructive trade deals.

This is a very important initiative taken on by the Council of Canadians this issue needs to be dealt with, we’re in a hurry. Time is of the essence. If you can help in any way, get your wallets out, get your cheque books out and give some money to this worthwhile project Ken Georgetti President Canadian Labour Congress.

This documentary will be produced to meet broadcast standards and will be edited to fit the programming format of the provincial broadcasters (TV Ontario, Knowledge Network etc.). CBC will also be approached to broadcast the documentary. In addition it will be made available to community cable outlets, through websites and on DVD for local community screenings.

We can’t rely on mainstream media to carry this message so we will disseminate this documentary through as many alternative means as possible.

The introduction at the head of the documentary will be edited and adapted as a stand alone 3-4 minute video which will provide an overview of the issue and will be posted on YouTube and other video websites, with an added tag at the end which will provide viewers with the locations on the web where they can view the whole documentary, order the DVD and find more information on this important issue. There will be an initial run of 1000 DVDs. We are raising funds so that half of these DVD’s can be distributed free of charge to community and labour groups across the country. We will also waive our license fees for non-profit groups hosting non-profit public screenings to encourage organizations and individuals to screen this documentary to as broad an audience as possible. Again, the information contained in this documentary needs to be disseminated quickly and in as many ways as possible in order to alert the public to these destructive trade deals.

Pre-order a personal copy of the DVD
donate $25 (plus shipping and handling) and we’ll send a copy when the film is complete.

FUNDING SUPPORT

Individuals
Get your name in the credits and a DVD - donate $50 or more

Organizations
Get your organizations name in the credits and a DVD - donate $200 or more.

Local Organizations
$500 or more gets your organizations logo in the credits.

Provincial Organizations
$2000 or more gets your organizations logo in the credits.

National Organizations
$4000 or more gets your organizations logo in the credits.

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For Further Information Contact:Paul Manly
Cell 604.506.7651
Email. paul@manlymedia.com
www.manlymedia.com