Public forum on P.E.I. will discuss trade from a social perspective

A public forum in Charlottetown on Saturday will encourage people to make their voices heard to government.

Trade Justice PEI, a coalition of 20 groups and individuals concerned about Canada's current international trade agenda, will examine trade negotiations from a social perspective.

Gavin Fridell, an author and associate professor of international development studies at Saint Mary's University in Halifax, says trade deals have a lot of protection for corporations, but are often missing those same protections for others, such as labour groups and Indigenous people.

"I think it's just basic questions of power," he said. "It's much easier for the corporate voice to be heard so that trade agreements have all kinds of investor protections, intellectual property rights protections and things."

Fridell said social movements need to push their domestic governments to change what they're asking for in the international sphere.

'Politics influences what gets in them'

"When you look at trade agreements, they're not just a bunch of technical people sitting around negotiating agreements because they all love free trade, these are very political agreements and politics influences what gets in them and what doesn't," he said.

He said movements build "from the grassroots up" at places like the forum on Saturday, which is being held from 1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the P.E.I. Farm Centre.

"P.E.I. needs to have this discussion, just like this discussion needs to be had throughout the country. And I think the more of those discussions you have then the more momentum builds and the more politicians feel they have to respond.

"It's about building the kind of social power to propose new ideas to counter the ideas that come from a more narrow group of sort of corporate power."

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With files from MainstreetP.E.I.