You, Me and the SPP: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule

90 Minutes, 2009

Completed in 2009, ‘You, Me, and the SPP: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule’ documents the opposition to the Security and Prosperity Partnership agreement between Canada, The United States and Mexico.

For additional SPP related videos including the infamous SQ police provocateur footage visit the CanadiansNanaimo channel on youtube.

“Manly has created an extremely thorough introduction to a set of issues that will increasingly affect every Canadian. As the film progressed, I was shocked at my own ignorance about the SPP and TILMA and their implications and I am indebted to this film for the research and revelations it presents.”
Mark Achbar – Manufacturing Consent, The Corporation

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Film Description

‘You, Me, and the SPP: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule’

What do secrecy, police provocateurs, an assault on democracy and infringements on citizens’ rights have in common? The Security Prosperity Partnership.

‘You, Me, and the S.P.P: Trading Democracy for Corporate Rule’ is a feature length documentary which exposes the latest manifestation of a corporatist agenda that is undermining the democratic authority of the citizens of North America. Two processes, the Security Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and the Trade Investment Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) are rapidly eroding and eliminating standards, civil liberties, regulatory systems and institutions put in place over generations through the democratic process. Proponents of the SPP and TILMA say that they are needed to keep trade flowing, opponents say these agreements not only undermine the democratic authority of citizens they threaten the sovereignty of the three nations through the integration of military, security structures and regulatory regimes.

Here are a few quotes from the film.

“… 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.”
Naomi Klein, Canadian award-winning journalist, author

“…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.”
Gordon Laxer, Director, The Parkland Institute, Alberta

“… 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.”
Murray Dobbin, Canadian author, journalist

“The ultimate goal, quite obviously, is to create such tight integration that effectively we only have one North American political, security, military and economic place - that there really are no differentials between this country and the country next door.”
Michael Byers, Canada Research Chair, Global Politics and International Law, UBC

“The SPP is a dumbing down, a reducing of quality of life, a reducing of standards, and there is absolutely no indication in any of the documents we’ve been able to obtain through hard pushing through access to information, and through diligent work, not a single indication that we’re looking for a higher standard anywhere.”
Peter Julian, NDP International Trade Critic

The following videos include raw footage and summery videos created during the making of the film including an HD version of the viral video of the police provocateurs videotaped in Montebello Quebec during an SPP summit.

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