The Federal Government is pursing the core principles of the MAI in the World Trade Organization, the Free Trade Area of the Americas and in over 30 bi-lateral agreements. These principles include:

• banning performance requirements;

• expropriation based on lost future profits;

• the right of corporations to sue governments directly;

• a secret dispute settlement process which is binding on governments;

• provisions for roll-back which mean that even those things we wish to protect (e.g., health care, education, the environment, Canadian culture) we would have to give up over time.

Unlike France, and in spite of a mounting number of law suits under NAFTA (in which many of these "principles" first surfaced), the Canadian government still appears oblivious to the reality: treaty agreements based on such principles are a threat to national sovereignty.