A video produced by Operation Maple, an online project with a mission to “Take Back Canada,” illustrates the disastrous effects unfair trade laws and the failed North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) have had on the country.
“It is a form of violence against working people that is taking place all across the country. Men and women who have worked at the same plant for years show up one morning to find their plant padlocked, their jobs and benefits gone, and in most cases, even their last pay check,” says the narrator. “Why have we let it go on for so long? And how did it all begin? The North American Free Trade Agreement.”
The producer interviewed Canadian workers who showed up to work one day to find their jobs had been shipped overseas.
Like the United States, Canada has lost millions of manufacturing jobs to NAFTA. Many companies have flocked to Mexico where wages are less than $1 an hour, labor laws non-existent and environmental legislation not enforced.
“Free trade isn’t just a matter of bad policy or misguided politics. It is a destructive force that deliberately and systematically attacks the most vulnerable members of our society – not only in Canada, but all over the world,” says the piece. “It is a policy orchestrated by the rich and the elite. It is a policy that targets us all.”
To see “The Real Cost of Free Trade,” click here.
