The United
Nations Association in Canada with the support of IDRC presents,
INSIGHTS Series
1
Globalization in your backyard
1…………. Introduction 7……… Women’s Movement
2…………. The Government 8……… Intellectuals
3…………. Business 9……… Anarchists
4…………. Activists And Intellectual Groups 10…….. Issues: World Trade Organization
5…………. Environment 11…….. Democracy
6…………. Human Rights Groups 12…….. Mergers
1 Introduction
We seem to hear the
word everywhere, people talk about living in a small world, and we
automatically think of GLOBALIZATION!! But, what is it? What do they
mean? Is it recent? Is globalization a mystical cult where no one is allowed to
enter, or is it a funky palace for everyone to enjoy?
Globalization, contrary to popular belief, is not only about the economy, it is also about culture, immigration/ emigration, human rights, the environment, and much more. Basically it’s the idea that our planet is getting smaller because countries are more and more open to each other… Today we automatically think of the Internet as one of the causes of globalization. However, looking back in time, at the beginning of the century airplanes seemed to shrink the planet drastically by making the transatlantic voyage so much shorter. However, many feared the impacts of such innovation.
This being said, we
must keep in mind that what most of the people refer to today when they think
of “globalization” is the economy. The world economy is certainly rolling at an
incredible pace. Imagine, in 1999, some CAN$8.12 trillion in goods and services
were exchanged worldwide, that means CAN$15,444.05* in goods were bought
and sold every minute!
There are many points
of view and many unknowns to economic globalization and its consequences. The
only certainty is that it has been around for a long time, but accelerating at
an unprecedented rate today! Governments
want to promote their countries so they can sell more goods and create jobs. Activists and intellectuals
advise us that these trading agreements come with many consequences, and some
even announce the end of cultural identity. Businesses
see great opportunities in opening new markets for their services and in
establishing themselves in other countries. All these different movements and
opinions create emerging issues for the planet and
its citizens. (Click on the links to see what each actor has to say!)
Currency
converted by using the Bank
of Canada yearly averages for the
corresponding years everywhere on this document.
2 The Government
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Governments play the
key role in international relations, trade negotiations, and promotion of
business. Although different from business, the Canadian Government works to create
jobs in Canada and to open new markets for our products abroad. The competition
is fierce out there. Try to imagine this: in the year 2000, developed countries
exported the equivalent of CAN$5.94 trillion, while developing countries
exported less than half the amount for the same year, CAN$2.82 trillion (WTO
numbers).
Why promote ourselves
internationally? Well, because most countries today want to keep their local economy
alive to protect them from foreign competition. As a defense mechanism,
governments use “Tariff barriers” as a
protective wall ( they’re a tax imposed on foreign products to make them more
expensive than locally made products). Conversely, countries who lower their
tariff barriers to other countries want something in exchange. That’s the basis
of trade negotiations. Usually, the Canadian government negotiates to export
raw materials to as many countries as they can.
The
reason the amount is smaller for developing countries is not necessarily
because they export less. Rather, they tend to export more than developed
countries. However, developing countries export raw materials that will be used
by developed countries for production. When raw materials are transformed into
finished products, their value is increased.
The first free trade
agreement, from the 18th century, is a good example of how it all
happens. Great Britain’s population loved Porto (a wine derivative), but they
had to pay a high importation tax – a tax imposed by the British government.
So, the Brits made an agreement with Portugal in 1703, that any products coming
to Britain would not be taxed, and vice versa. Portuguese Porto exports had
lower prices than British production while Britain could send all their
products to Portugal without being taxed. The first official free trade
agreement of modern times! Today, the agreements are more complex, but the idea
remains the same: opening the borders and eliminating tariff barriers.
Why trade?
Trade
negotiations are particularly important for Canada because we are an
“Export Country.” This means that we mainly produce raw materials that are
exported to other countries. Canada is very rich in minerals (iron, petroleum
and diamonds) and natural products (hydro-electricity and wood). We then export
to “import countries,” like the US and Britain, that concentrate the major part
of their economy on the production of finished products – that they will
eventually sell and export to the rest of the world – including us.
Free trade agreements
are very important to governments and most private enterprises. Agreements like
the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),
the European Economic Community
(now a part of the EU) and the Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC) provide the
signatories with a wider market, create jobs and increase revenues for the
country.
The
Role of Government: Team Canada was created by Jean Chrétien in 1994
to go abroad and promote Canadian business. The team has helped create some
C$30.1 billion in business over six of these missions. This is important when
you consider that every C$1 billion in exports is equivalent to 11,000 jobs in
Canada. The Government also conducts international negotiations and fosters the
expansion of Canada’s international trade. Basically, each country around the
table tries to get the best deal, like a tug-of-war, using a lot of sales
pitches and some concessions.
Inter-Governmental Agreements
These free trade
agreements make many of the countries involved feel connected. This leads to
the creation of different unions and political blocs on the planet. The theory
is that a union (a big bloc of
countries) is stronger than many individual countries. The most current example
in Europe, which is forming the European Union (EU).
However, there are many more associations all around the planet, such as the African
Union - formerly known as the OAU, the Organization
of American States (OAS), the Association
of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN), and many
others.
The best way to know
all the associations and free trade agreements is by going on the Team Canada Inc. website under
the section: Understanding the Global Marketplace. However, not all is rosy
under the sun according to some governments. Free trade and union agreements
are not always advantageous to all the countries in the agreement, or for
everybody in the country.
To learn more…
Inter-Governmental
Agreements
Organization of American
States (OAS)
Association of
South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN)
Free Trade Agreements
International
Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU)
North
American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
Asia-Pacific
Economic Cooperation (APEC)
Free Trade Area of
the Americas (FTAA)
European
Free Trade Association
Canadian related websites
Department of
Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT)
3 Business
AOL-Time
Warner is the largest media corporation. In the year
2000, with the 60 titles they own, they reported earning 24% of the ad revenue
created in the United States. They offer services in 16 countries, in 8
languages and have some 6 million members outside the US. The group also owns
CNN which is viewed in 151 million homes outside of the US, in 212
countries and territories. This is the new face of globalization.
Is globalization good
for all businesses? The answer is not a simple yes or no. The differences in
success are mostly explained by the different sizes of the businesses. Small
and Medium Enterprises (SME) usually suffer from free trade agreements and
globalization and larger multinational corporations usually benefit from them.
As it is explained in
the “government” section, free
trade agreements are negotiated by the government not only on behalf of the
business community but also to improve the quality of life of a country’s
citizens. The argument that is often presented is that a country’s revenue is
increased and jobs are created as a result of free trade agreements, this
translating directly into an increased quality of life for citizens.
Big is beautiful
Larger companies are
able to create more jobs and gain more economic possibilities than smaller
enterprises. Smaller businesses are often not ready to compete on an
international level in the harsh arena of globalization. Yet even larger
enterprises merge together (e.g. Time-Warner-AOL) to have a bigger weight and a
better chance in international competition. These mergers often create larger
revenues than some countries’ Gross Domestic Products (GDP). For example, AOL-Time Warner group has a revenue (US$106 billion),
comparable to India’s GDP (US$139 billion).
Free trade increases
competition between companies, making it harder, for many, to succeed on an
international level. The best way to defend themselves is to group together in international associations
– “bigger is better.” By grouping together they most often have better chances
of survival against larger companies.
Beyond the competition
between themselves, businesses also need to be represented in government
decisions and discussions involving trade agreements. In Canada, most do this
through the Canadian Chamber of Commerce.
Businesses are concerned not only by international trade agreements, but also
by national agreements. Often international trade agreements take away trade
barriers, while inter-provincial barriers
still exist, making competition against foreign companies harder because
products from other countries are minimally taxed while products from another
province are fully taxed. (See section on Internal Trade Policy of the Canadian
Chamber of Commerce).
To learn more…
international
associations of SMEs
4 Activists and Intellectual Groups
There are many
different types of activist groups that have all kinds of different points of
view and different perspectives on globalization and its impacts on the world,
the economy, the environment and people.
We’ve divided this
section to try and represent all the different groups that are active during
demonstrations, on the web and in other places. The first are the Environmental
groups, such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club.
Then, Human
Rights groups which take a hard-line against
companies establishing themselves in developing countries and exploiting the
poor as cheap labor so they can gain more profits. Closely related to the human
rights groups is the women's movement
which fights for the rights of women all over the world.
Many non-governmental
organizations (NGOs) partake in direct and indirect actions to help others in
difficulty. NGOs are involved in all sectors of Sustainable Development; some
are involved in human rights while others advocate freedom of speech in
totalitarian countries. The intellectual elite is very often closely related to NGOs. They try
to bring to the public eye such questions as globalization, world trade, human
rights and all kinds of other issues by writing books and articles, giving
public speeches and participating in policy development within the government.
Finally, Anarchist groups. Having a section for these
groups is essential as they are often the ones that are portrayed in the media,
leaving other groups little media coverage. The Black Bloc and Punk groups
often occupy the center spotlight because they believe in more active
confrontations with the police or other representatives of the status quo.
Their philosophy is often misunderstood, so it is important to take a closer
look at all these groups.
This section is unable
to cover every single point of view, however, we have tried to make links to as
many sites as possible to give you all the information you need.
5 Environment
“Scientists have
detected a 40% reduction in the average thickness of Arctic ice over the past
40 years; at the current rate of warming, the Arctic could be ice-free in
summer by mid-century, which could severely affect the flow of the Gulf Stream
and the climate of northern Europe,” says Worldwatch
Institute.
Such
facts and figures worry many people, young and old, about the future of our
planet. Why are we destroying our environment? What is happening? What is the
future of our planet and of our children? The true, and very scary, answer is that
we don’t know.
“In the 25 years between 1970 and 1995
the world lost 10 per cent of its natural forest cover, or an annual loss of 15
million hectares - an area larger than Greece or Bangladesh. Some 36 hectares
are lost every minute - equivalent to 37 football pitches,” says People
and the Planet.
As a result of the
trade agreements, the progress achieved at the national level for the
protection of the environment are compromised since these international
agreements in many cases take priority over national legislation. That is also
true with the numerous multilateral environmental conventions (MECs) negotiated
in the last 20 years. On the international stage the UN is investing
significant effort towards ensuring that MECs are acknowledged in trade
agreements.
“Since the 1990s, and in particular since the
creation of the World Trade Organization (WTO), trade-related environmental
measures have been under threat by the international trading regime, including
the WTO’s dispute settlement procedure, North American Free Trade Agreement
(NAFTA), etc. As a result, Greenpeace
has increasingly confronted international trade rules and
practices that undermine global environmental standards, the precautionary
principle, and human health and well being of people, particularly the poor.”
Many other activist groups take action to
protest these agreements that, according to them, support climate change, and
increase smog in cities, rapid deforestation, and the disappearance of
thousands of animal species yearly.
Some environmentalists like Joseph Romm, write
that climate change, oil spills, acid rain, deforestation, and ozone layer
depletion is a direct threat to human life, and so it should be considered as a
threat to national security. By being considered a threat to national security,
governments would not only have to include it in their policies but make it a
priority.
To learn more…
Association
"FOR SUSTAINABLE HUMAN DEVELOPMENT"
Society for
Conservation and Protection of Environment (SCOPE)
World Information Transfer (WIT)
The
Wittenberg Center for Alternative Resources
World Safety
Organization (WSO)
Other sources:
United Nations
Environment Program
Environment
Canada
Canada-Chile
Agreement on Environmental Cooperation
Canadian Ice Service
Canadian
Wildlife Service
Clean Air
Climate
Change
National
Pollutant Release Inventory
North American
Agreement on Environmental Cooperation
6 Human Rights Groups
The date is December
10, 1948. The United Nations General Assembly agrees to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
In 1975, in Helsinki, the Western powers meet with the Eastern powers. As a
part of the Warsaw pact, the Western and Eastern powers agree to respect and
uphold human rights in their territories.
In 1948, human rights
were made universal. Yet the promise of the agreement has been broken by many,
and still today international NGOs like Amnesty
International fight to bring to justice human right
violators.
Groups watching human
right violations have not existed for a long time. One of the first and most
popular was the Czech Charter 77 group. Some 230
intellectuals signed the manifesto promising to make their government uphold
human rights. For many years, until the fall of Communism in 1989, the Charter
77 group sent information denouncing the Czechoslovakian government’s
violations of the charter to western contacts. In many cases, due to
international pressure some of the Czech political prisoners were released.
With the fall of Communism, many people think that human right violations have stopped, or that slavery is a thing of the past. The truth is that there are still many dictatorial governments which violate the human rights of their citizens, and communist governments still exist, like in China. However, most reports of human right violations today denounce western industry settled in foreign countries that use the local population as cheap (slave) labor – for example, Nike in Thailand.
Today, NGOs like the Red Cross, Reporters
Without Borders, Doctors Without Borders,
and many others, go directly into the field to help people. Others send
election observers, and many others work like the Charter 77 group, denouncing
their own governments.
Human right violations
occur more often in developing countries. This is partly due to multinational
and supranational corporations taking advantage of these countries’ dependence
on international trade and aid. Many of these governments are ready to close
their eyes to human right violations to encourage these companies to come into
their country and create revenue through trade, and ultimately to gain support
and aid from foreign and richer governments. Also, many governments suppress
their own people with torture and
killing squads, to consolidate power and stay appealing
to foreign investors.
The
Human Rights Watch
2001 annual report announces frightening numbers:
- They estimate that still today, even
with growing forces against it, some 250 million children worldwide work
for a living, and that 50 million of these children under the age of 12
work under hazardous and grueling conditions.
- In the United States 300,000
children work on farms in what Human Rights Watch values to be dangerous
conditions, facing long hours of work and the risk of pesticide poisoning,
heat sicknesses, injuries and life-long disabilities. These children
represent 8% of the children working in the US, but account for 40% of the
labour related deaths.
7 Women’s Movement
There are many
subdivisions in the women’s movement, one of which is against globalization who
comes growing numbers at every anti-globalization protest. Women are concerned about
a number of issues that are related to globalization that affect them, their
children and their family.
Ann Tickner wrote in Gender
and International Relations that “international politics is a man’s world,
a world of power and conflict in which warfare is a privileged activity.” Many
political thinkers, like her, believe that modern and old politics are ruled by
men, and that it is because of them that international relations are focused on
military apparatus and power. In Tickner’s opinion, men incarnate violence and
create warfare, and to create a more peaceful world we need to include more
women in politics.
However, many
criticize this by stating that women dictators, such as Indira Gandhi, were no less
of dictators because they were females.
Others, like the Women’s Forum that was
organized during the People’s Summit in Quebec city, last April, accuse
globalization of being sexist because they do not include women and their
concerns into the discussions of free trade agreements. Groups like this one
share surprising statistics about women all around the world:
- The international sex trade generates
an estimated $7 billion in revenue for organized crime.
- The work women do at home in all
America represents more than CAN$11 billion in annual income. This is not
a revenue that women in America receive.
- Women produce 80% of the food in the
world’s poorest areas, and 95% in some regions.
- 70% of the 4.5 billion people living
on less than US$2 per day are women and children. (Fédération des
femmes du Québec)
Trade agreements allow for companies to settle in poorer countries where the labour force will be less expensive. The employees of these companies, in countries where there are no laws for labour, often work extremely long days, in very poor conditions and get the equivalent of US$1 per day. Many of these workers are women and children, who also endure sexual harassment.
To learn
more…
www.equalitynow.org/brochure_eng_action.html
www3.sympatico.ca/truegrowth/womenstrat1.html
www.imadr.org/pub/web/hanochi.html
8 Intellectuals
Intellectuals are very
important to the globalization debate. Most take opposition to governmental or
business behaviour in the context of globalization. Some are very well known,
such as Naomi Klein and John Ralston Saul, while others stick to intellectual
conversations in cafés.
Noam
Chomsky is probably the most well known of all the
intellectuals in the movement. He has published a great number of books and
articles, as well as giving a great number of conferences around the world.
Recognized as one of the biggest critics of the American Government, he has
written about democracy (and the lack of), multinational corporations invading
countries, the situation in Latin America, the Middle East, Europe and Asia, as
well as criticized the mainstream media in one of his most well known books: Manufacturing
Consent.
Also, very well known
in Canada is Maude Barlow who gained recognition through the critique she wrote
about the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI), MAI: The Threat to
Canadian Sovereignty. Maude Barlow is an active member of the Council
of Canadians which acts as a non-partisan critical
voice on issues of international and national interests.
Many other intellectuals
participate to the debate over globalization. One of the most well known
intellectuals is Dr. Tobin from Yale University. He developed the Tobin Tax,
which would be a 1% international tax on all currency exchanges. The tax would
slow down international markets, and provide more aid to underdeveloped
countries – by retransferring the funds to them. This system has very large
support from anti-globalization activists and intellectuals around the world,
and on August 28, 2001, Lionel Jospin, Prime Minister of France, gave his support to
the Tobin Tax.
Examples like the
Tobin Tax are making themselves more and more present in the activist
movements. Groups like the Association for the Taxation of financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens (ATTAC) are
making a large difference in the protest movement and gaining government
support by demanding clear substantive changes and proposing solutions (e.g.
the Tobin Tax).
In this way, the
intellectual elite plays the role of leader of the anti-globalization movement.
It is thanks to them that many protesters know about the issues being dealt
with, about the details of the agreements and their impacts on society, and
especially about the impacts of multinational corporation penetration in
foreign countries.
To learn more…
www.zmag.org/chomsky/index.cfm
www.transnational.org/tff/people/m_chossudovsky.html
www.abc.net.au/specials/saul/default.htm
9 Anarchists
Anarchists do not
believe in authority figures or in hierarchy. Many times during
anti-globalization protests we hear references to the “Black Bloc” or to
“Punks” as being violent in their course of actions against the police.
Although both groups are anarchists, they are different in their intentions.
The Black Bloc, like
the rest of protest groups, is composed in large part of white middle class
males. Like Marx and Engels, both of whom advocated for an uprising (which
would be bound to be violent) from the workers of the world in the Communist Manifesto,
anarchist thinkers believe in the power of violence.
“The fact is that
anarchists are nonviolent -- that does not mean anarchists won't vandalize
things, however, to make a political point. The point made is that in
capitalist society, things matter more than people. Human beings are
considered expendable assets, while property -- along with labor, the engine
that drives capitalist wealth -- is considered very valuable.” – from the Anarchy for Anybody
website.
However, the anarchist
society or community belief is not based on violence. Quite the opposite, they
believe that authority, in the sense of giving more power to one person versus
another, is demeaning and degrades humans. Simply put, they believe in a
classless society where every and each one lives in cooperation. For them, to
have leaders (Prime Ministers and Presidents) taking decisions for everyone in
international meetings is unjust.
Punks are usually the
other group that protests for anarchy during international conferences.
However, they deal, very often, with a different reality. Punks most often
protest directly against the police because they say that they live under
police brutality and police violence all year long. For them, international
meetings are a direct occasion to manifest their discontentment with the police
forces under the watchful eye of the media.
To learn more…
Le
réseau anarchiste fancophone
Znet –
Anarchy Watch (has a lot of interesting links)
10 Issues: World Trade Organization
The who???
The World
Trade Organization (WTO) was born out of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade
(GATT), in 1995. GATT, which was created in 1947, was meant to remain a treaty on international
trade because the representatives of the international arena were unable to
come to an agreement on an International Trade Organization. The formation of
the Organization would have to wait almost half a century.
GATT eventually passed
from a simple to treaty to an organization, and it became a permanent
international organization loosely associated with the United Nations. In 1995 the agreement was officially incorporated into an
organization: the WTO – it is an organization founded
on (and which supports) the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade. The members
of the organization were, and still are today, dedicated to lowering tariff
barriers in all countries to promote international commerce through the WTO.
Questions of contention
Who is the World Trade Organization working for? The rich? The poor?
Everyone? Nobody? Themselves?
Noam Chomsky issues an
attack on the WTO in his book, World Orders Old and New. “The new World
Trade Organization established by the latest GATT agreements will align itself
with the World Bank and IMF [International Monetary Fund] in a New
Institutional Trinity which would have as its specific function to control and
dominate the economic relations that commit the developing world, while
industrialized countries will make their own deals… outside normal channels, in
G-7 meetings and elsewhere (the Group of 7 – G7 – is composed of the seven
strongest economies in the world).” He is saying that the WTO will not be
independent, but rather serve the economic interests of the rich by ganging up
with the two largest international economic players, the IMF and the World
Bank.
Maude
Barlow, of the Council of Canadians, criticizes the
WTO for wanting to create the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) which,
she says, is meant to give the equivalent of human rights (thus much stronger
rights) to private corporations and businesses established in foreign
countries. Although the agreement was never signed because of international
protests, many say, like Maude Barlow, that leaders will reintegrate it into
other agreements.
“Once the final WTO ruling
is made (by retired trade experts and un-elected trade bureaucrats), worldwide
conformity is required. A country is obligated to conform its laws to the WTO
or face the prospect of perpetual trade sanctions. It is not surprising,
therefore, that it is a central goal of the major powers to eventually lodge
the MAI in the WTO, the most powerful international body the world has ever
known,” wrote Maude Barlow in her book, MAI: The Multilateral Agreement on
Investment and the Threat to Canadian Sovereignty. Basically, what she
means is that if such an agreement was incorporated into the WTO every country
in the world – even non WTO members – would have to respect it. Moreover, this
decision would not be democratic because the international population cannot
intervene in the decision and WTO members and bureaucrats are not elected… so,
this would not only be an unfair decision, according to her, but also an
undemocratic one.
The goal of the
protests in Seattle in 1999 was to stop the discussions of the World Trade
Organization for at least a day. Protesters
view the WTO as a strong non-elected bloc that regulates international trade in
an undemocratic way, favoring rich countries (the G7/G8) and making sure
developing and underdeveloped countries stay dependent and continue to act as
the cheap labour source of developed countries. They say that free trade
agreements allow for corporate penetration and, in their view, the destruction
of underdeveloped and developing countries.
The World Trade
Organization maintains that it is not an international government, but rather
an organization that wants to facilitate trade between producers and consumers.
In their eyes, they guarantee the openness of the markets in all directions. By
making these agreements, and making countries respect them, they are
guaranteeing that exporters can have a wide range of buying countries in the
international market; also maintaining an open market for foreign companies,
making sure they can establish themselves in any country. “By lowering trade
barriers, the WTO’s system also breaks down other barriers between peoples and
nations,” as they say on their website.
To learn
more…
The International
Trade Center
International Monetary
Fund (IMF)
11 Democracy
Democracy. We often
use the word in association with freedom. Protesters especially advocate
freedom of speech and of opinion, as well as what they feel is their right to
participate and be informed of decisions from the government. Is this democracy?
What is democracy? Does it even exist?
Democratic rights
became an issue on several fronts especially during the Summit of the Americas
in Québec city in April 2001. During the summit, Heads of States of 34, out of
35 American countries (Cuba was missing), discussed the Free Trade Area of the
Americas (FTAA). Cuba was locked out of the discussions because it was not (and
is not) considered a democratic state. However, other state democratic systems
that were present in Quebec, were put into question, such as: Haiti, Columbia
and other Latin American countries.
In Québec city, the
people in the streets were fenced out from the conference in what came to be
known as the largest security measures ever seen in peace times (6,700 police
officers, 5,000 tear gas canisters, rubber bullets, soldiers on stand-by,
offensive assault vehicles, and an emptied out prison for arrested protesters).
Canada is not the only country where people were locked out and kept away from
the meeting rooms. This also happened in Genoa, Jakarta, Seattle, and many
other places where summits were held. This, according to many activists and
intellectuals, is undemocratic because our Constitution gives us the
right to peaceful protest – it is a basic democratic right.
The question, for many people, becomes whether or not the people have a democratic right to attend these discussions on free trade agreements. For example, in Quebec, before the summit started, many business owners complained that they had no access to the agreement documents. Members of Parliament in the House of Commons, also, were asking to see the documents since many of them did not have access to the FTAA papers. In addition to protesters, our own elected representatives didn’t have access to the information.
It is not only this
veil of secrecy that motivates the protesters to come up to the barricades.
Many are concerned that the governments are more interested in signing an
agreement that would compromise the environment, human rights or cultural
rights and expressions in the name of profit. Many protesters feel that the
government is working in the name of private business interest and not in the
name of the people who elected them.
The Canadian Security and Intelligence
Service (CSIS) wrote a paper about the anti-globalization movement, considering it a threat to national security.
In the paper, the author explains that Canada is a good venue for international
conferences and it also helps to heighten the image of Canada as a business
opportunity and a democracy. The author goes on to say that “paradoxically,
however, Canada’s positive image could be marred by the occurrence of protests
and demonstrations, and especially by associated unfavourable media coverage.”
The notion of democracy has more than one possible definition, and so, its interpretation can vary. The government has its reasons for keeping documents secret, while the protesters believe that there are important democratic violations that should be brought to the forefront of the discussions.