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There's a reason I moved to Canada. Not that it is wildly better or all that different, or even free of major stupidity and scandal, but it seems to be largely (but not completely) free of retarded hatefilled shitbags. And while the gov't has a deeper hand on things here, one would expect boneheaded nanny state nonsense like the legislation in TFA from Canada, not from the USA. OH, how times have changed... The Rethugs want to blow up the planet and make everyone a classic Xian sexless mouthbreathing mallrat and the Dems want the corporations to own every piece of cultural artefacture in perpetuity, and make it all safe for the lowest and stupidest citizens and remove the responsibility that PARENTS SHOULD BE EXERCISING in favour of the nanny state.

As the Dukes of Stratosphear (XTC) crooned:

I'm the Mole in the Ministry
And you'll all bow down to me.
I'm the mole in the potting shed.
I'm the bad thoughts inside your head.
And you won't catch me...

As a little black girl once shouted into a bullhorn on the TV show "Wondershowzen":

RISE UP PEOPLE!!! RISE UP!!!

RS

From the WTO ruling.
"6.2 We therefore consider that the United States has implemented the recommendations and
rulings of the DSB in US - Softwood Lumber V, to bring its measure into conformity with its
obligations under the AD Agreement.
6.3 Having found that the United States did not act inconsistently with its obligations under the
asserted WTO Agreements, we consider that no recommendation under Article 19.1 of the DSU is
necessary, and we make none."

http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/tna-nac/dispute-en.as p#11

Final settlement documented here:
http://w01.international.gc.ca/MinPub/Publication. aspx?isRedirect=True&Language=E&publication_id=383 935&docnumber=45

Goose and Gander time:

Despite WTO and NAFTA decisions supporting Canada (which the US ignored in typically arrogant fashion) It took 10 years to create a new softwoods trade pact to stop excessive tarrifs on Canadian softwood imports to the US:

http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/trade/eicb/softwood/b ackground-en.asp ..."A NAFTA Extraordinary Challenge Committee (ECC) agreed with Canada and unanimously affirmed the original NAFTA Panel's finding that the U.S. International Trade Commission had no basis on which to find that the U.S. industry was threatened by injury."...

You can probably thanks Georgia-Pacific and their ilk for that.....

The US also chose to ignore NAFTA (which they themselves pushed upon Mexico and Canada as benefitting all of NA) is order to keep Mexican cement out of the US (until they didn't have enough local product due to post-Katrina reconstruction)

http://www.thebta.org/news/newsreleases/12162005.c fm

http://birmingham.bizjournals.com/birmingham/stori es/2005/07/25/story7.html

Canada has had some interesting ideas regarding copyright and fair use which should not be trampled by the copyright holders who seek to enslave the elements of popular culture. USians make the mistake of seeing Canada as a miniUS, but from what I have seen is that their society has a lot of Liberal European ideas about individual rights which the US would be wise to consider if they were'nt ponied up to the trough of the copyright cartels..

-I'm just sayin'

> Now, driving your CAR supports mideast oil barons. Easy solution...drill
> off the East and West Coast as well as in Alaska.

Funny, the US gets more of its oil from Canada than Saudi Arabia, and the trend is only increasing:

        http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/can-am/washington/tra de_and_investment/energyrel050328-en.asp
        http://www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/cabs/canada.html

The irony of the privacy attempt is that we already have our own PATRIOT act. It's just a PR stunt to makes the Canadian sheep feel warm and fuzzy inside. Check out bill C-36 below. Also check out the Canada-US relations site.. Lots of info bout economic/continent integration..

http://www.parl.gc.ca/37/1/parlbus/chambus/house/b ills/government/C-36/C-36_1/C-36TOCE.html/
http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/can-am/menu-en.asp/

The United States has a long history of using and abusing multilateral trade agreements and organizations. The U.S. government regularly ignores WTO rulings that are not favourable to American interests. Ask Canada about this, for example with respect to softwood lumber.

The United States is welcome to get into a pissing match with China over subsidies, duties, import/export restrictions, and the like--but I'm pretty sure that China has the right to restrict whether or not certain products are sold within their borders. The WTO gets involved if a country is unfairly subsidizing or privileging local products over imported equivalents; I don't think they have standing to interfere with a government forbidding a product because it is 'obscene' or similar.

Look here.

The fact is if you support W then you:

1. Agree in free markets...



Not a chance. Bush and his cronies unlawfully want one-sided markets for special interest business groups. That's why building homes in the US is so much more expensive -- the duties on Canadian softwood make it uneconomical for Home Depot to purchase. Why? Because American lumber companies can't compete with legally harvested Canadian wood. Bush only wants a free market when it's convenient.

This page: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/tna-nac/ftaa_contacts _list-en.asp contains the list of people to contact with regard to the Canadian position on the FTAA.

I've already e-mailed Catherine Dickson, the leader of the Intellectual Property Negotiating Group.

If you're Canadian, perhaps you should as well.

Canadian foreign affairs contact

I suppose the intro to this only mentioned that he was "London Based" but I just thought I'd point out that Gwynne Dyer is Canadian. He's created many informative documentaries on war and politics via the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the National Film Board of Canada. He's a very intelligent and well spoken man. Here is his biography.

Yes, but most will not ignore signed treaties simply because they're inconvenient.

Softwood Lumber?

The US-Canada Softwood Lumber Agreement expired in April 2001 as stated in the original document and has not yet been renegotiated.

Were you aware that a NAFTA tribunal recently rebuked and fined the Canadian Government because it "improperly threatened, abused and deliberately misled Pope & Talbot" (A US lumber company?)

Why is Canada's breaking of its treaties relevant to this discussion?

This link points to the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (Trade Negotiations) Canada. link

Will there be "harmonization" between Canada's laws and the EU, so that the BSA, RIAA, MPAA, etc. will look to the great white north in fear and trembling (more than they already do, since we're "stealing" so many jobs in the entertainment industry already)?

Actually, the Department of Foreign Affairs, a minsitry in the Canadian government, does exactly what you are proposing. As an employee of their home loan program, I have filled out the paperwork to lend several of these file servers to local middle and high schools where they have a 3 year shelf life.
This concept was implemented as of March 31st, 2002. Just thought it was cool one of our procedures was on slashdot lol

Some links to info on Canadian crypto laws:

Electronic Frontier Canada's Crypto Page

A Notice to Exporters, part of the Canadian Export and Import Permits Act: "Export Controls on Cryptographic Goods"

A speech by John Manley from 1998, then the Minister of Industry: Canada's Cryptography Policy

The Canadian government's cryptography website: Cryptography/Cryptographie

I have somewhat of a stake in Canada's crypto laws, as I've been writting and maintaining a strong cryptography extension for PHP which uses the Crypto++ library. Of course, my code itself contains absolutely no cryptographic code, it just links to the aforementioned library, but still...

J