Multilaterial Agreement on Investment (MAI)

Paul Hellyer, The Evil Empire: Globalization's darker side (ann.)

Publication announcement
9 December 1997

"THE MULTILATERAL AGREEMENT ON INVESTMENT IS THE MOST FRIGHTENING PROPOSITION TO FACE THE CANADIAN PEOPLE IN MY LIFETIME."

In his new book, Paul Hellyer, a former senior cabinet minister, explores the ramifications of the Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI) and tells us where we are heading unless there is immediate, radical change.

It is a frightening scenario which forecasts a global economy in which nation states count for little -- and ordinary voters count for nothing at all.

A world where unemployment remains unreasonably high, the division of wealth between rich and poor goes from unfair to outright immoral and a complete meltdown of the monetary system is inevitable.

If the MAI is implemented it will make it impossible to run our country our way, in our own interests, even if we wanted to.

"It's the most frightening proposition to face the Canadian people in my lifetime," says Hellyer.

It is not about establishing rules to ensure that international investment and trade continue to mean jobs and prosperity for Canada. It has nothing to do with trade. It is about power and control. Power and control for multinational corporations and the international banks which finance them.

Parliament will give up a large chunk of its sovereignty to international bureaucrats. We will no longer be able to attach conditions to foreign investment nor will we be able to limit the extent of it.

Foreigners will be able to buy Canada and Hellyer predicts that is exactly what the Americans will do until we reach the point where we can no longer survive as an independent country.

But he does not end his book on a note of despair. Instead Hellyer presents some realistic solutions and calls for action before it is too late.

It is a cry of alarm that every Canadian should heed.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Paul Hellyer started his political career in 1949 as Canada's youngest Member of Parliament. Eight years later he became the youngest Cabinet Minister.

Last year Hellyer was so incensed by the lack of real choice for the electorate that he joined with a coalition of concerned Canadians to form the Canadian Action Party which he now leads.

A man of many interests, Hellyer's ideas are not classroom abstractions. He was born and raised on a farm and his business experience includes manufacturing, retailing, construction, land-development, tourism and publishing.

His multi-faceted career, in addition to a near-lifetime in politics gives Hellyer a rare perspective on what has gone wrong with the economy and the utter folly of Canada's surrendering more of its sovereignty to multinational

THE EVIL EMPIRE: Globalization's Darker Side
by Paul Hellyer
114 pages
$9.95 Softcover
Published by: Chimo Media Limited