XPost: can.politics, bc.politics, ont.politics   
   XPost: ab.politics, man.politics   
   From: ConsRCons@govt.cda   
      
   >> How come you forgot to mention China, Dobranski?   
      
   Kim Dobranski posting as M.I.Wakefield wrote:   
   > Because Canada hasn't signed or agreed to a Free Trade Agreement with   
   > China.   
   >   
   > Read.  Learn.  Get back to us.   
      
   No, you do that.  The deal has been signed.  In September of 2012   
   _________________________________   
      
   The federal government has come under heavy scrutiny from opposition   
   parties and critics alike after Prime Minister Stephen Harper signed an   
   investment treaty with China, formally known as a Foreign Investment   
   Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPA), while at the APEC Summit in   
   Vladivostok, Russia, on Sept.9, 2012.   
   ________________________________   
      
   And as to whether Harper has already RATIFIED it as well, we don't know.   
     Why?  Because we have a Harper government and it does a whole lot of   
   its dirty work in secret.   
   __________________   
      
   The government had signalled last fall its intention to ratify the   
   investment treaty it signed with China and tabled in Parliament in   
   September, but six months have passed and the Conservatives have yet to   
   adopt the deal.   
      
   "The Canada-China investment treaty has not been unanimously accepted —   
   even among Conservatives," NDP international trade critic Don Davies   
   told CBC News in a telephone interview on Sunday.   
      
   The Canadian government has been criticized for negotiating this deal   
   behind closed doors. Opposition critics and experts say it contains   
   significant gaps and provides few benefits for Canada.   
   _____________________________   
      
   Defiant Conservative backbenchers   
      
   Conservatives have pointed out that the FIPA with China didn't have to   
   be debated in Parliament because treaty making is a royal prerogative   
   and as such can become law through a cabinet order-in-council after   
   sitting in Parliament for no less than 21 days after being tabled on   
   Sept. 26, 2012.   
      
   That means the Conservatives could have sent a diplomatic note to China   
   saying the deal was ratified as early as the end of last October.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)