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[OPIRG-EVENTS] NATO mtgs. in Ottawa, Oct 5-8! Response needed!
please circulate this message
NATO is coming to Ottawa! October 5-8, 2001.
A new LIST SERVE has been created to help facilitate opposition!
----> NATO IS COMING!: The "NATO Parliamentary Assembly" (NATO PA) will
hold a major meeting in Ottawa, October 5-8, 2001. This NATO meeting was
referred to by the "Ottawa Citizen" (June 13) as a "dress rehearsal,"
"warm up," "dry run for [the] G8" meetings to be held in Ottawa in the
summer of 2002. (See the Ottawa Citizen article below.)
Not only is this NATO meeting in Ottawa a "dry run" for local police, RCMP,
CSIS, foreign security forces, various governments and the media, it is
also a "warm up" for activists from many movements to come together to
organize events which express our opposition to militarism, corporate
globalization, human rights abuses and environmental destruction caused by
NATO and its member states.
----> LIST SERVE: A list serve has just been created (by the
Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade) to help facilitate communications
among individuals and organizations who are opposed to NATO and who are
interested in discussing various plans to organize non-violent
activities and protests in response to this NATO presence in Ottawa.
Please subscribe to this list, share information about NATO and the upcoming
NATO PA meetings in Ottawa, join in the discussions about actions and events
and help to plan efforts to expose and oppose NATO.
Here's how to join the "no_to_nato" list:
(a) send a message to <majordomo@flora.org> with the following in
the BODY of your message: subscribe no_to_nato
(b) you will be sent a confirmation and will need to respond to that
before you will be added to the list.
To unsubscribe, send an email to <majordomo@flora.org> with the following
in the BODY of your message: unsubscribe no_to_nato
------------------------------------------
Here's that Citizen article to get your blood curdling...
NATO meeting a dry run for G8
Ottawa expected to host G8 summit next summer
By Mike Blanchfield, The Ottawa Citizen, Wednesday, June 13, 2001.
Ottawa will get a G8 warm-up this fall when the city hosts a major gathering
of lawmakers from NATO countries.
The NATO Parliamentary Assembly has chosen Canada's capital as the site of
its semi-annual meeting from Oct. 5-9, which will attract 800 delegates from
36 countries, including the 19 alliance members. Seventeen associate member
countries will also be represented, a number of them eastern European
nations seeking entry to the alliance.
NATO Secretary General Lord Robertson and other high-profile international
political figures are expected to attend. A formal government announcement
is expected today.
The meetings will serve as a dress rehearsal of sorts for next July's G8
summit involving the Group of Seven leading industrialized countries, plus
Russia.
The G8 gathering is expected to take place on Green Island, home of the
former Ottawa city hall, amid the tight security that has characterized
top-level international gatherings since the 1999 World Trade Organization
meeting sparked anti-globalization riots in Seattle.
A large perimeter fence, similar to the controversial one erected for the
recent Quebec City Summit of the Americas, remains one option for next
year's summit of world leaders.
"I don't think the security issues (for the NATO gathering) are going to be
the same as the G8," said Nepean-Carleton Liberal MP David Pratt.
The most recent NATO Parliamentary Assembly meeting was held last month in
Lithuania.
The assembly is made up of parliamentarians and legislators from the NATO
countries. It meets twice a year and has committees that look at economic
and technological issues. The assembly includes 15 Canadian MPs and
senators.
However, global security concerns remain the focus of the assembly's
business. Issues to be discussed in Ottawa this fall include expanding
NATO's membership, the ongoing turmoil in the Balkans, the proposed U.S.
National Missile Defence initiative, and the creation of a European army.
When NATO defence ministers gathered in Toronto in September 1999, their
meetings faced only small-scale sporadic protests, largely from members of
the Serbian-Canadian community still angry over the alliance's 78-day
bombing campaign against Yugoslavia on behalf of oppressed ethnic Albanians
in Kosovo.
"We have a fabulous opportunity to show off our nation's capital to scores
of American and European legislators," said Mr. Pratt.
------------------------------------------
Here's some background info. on NATO PA and some web sources to learn more:
NATO PA:
* has 214 individual members drawn from NATO's 19 governments.
* also has 73 "associate members" from 17 non-NATO governments, mostly from
central and eastern Europe.
* has 12 members from the Canadian Senate and House of Commons who are
members of NATO PA (I could only find data on four Canadian members. They
are listed as members of NATO PA Cttees):
* George PROUD, MP (Lib.), Vice-President, NATO PA
* Senator Colin Kenny (Lib.), General Raporteur, Defence & Security Cttee
* Raynell Andreychuk, MP (PC), member, Sub-Cttee on Central & Eastern Europe
* Senator Pierre Claude Nolin, Chair, Science and Technology Cttee.
NATO PA's relations with NATO:
* "enjoys a strong working relationship with NATO"
* "there are numerous contacts between NATO-PA Committees and senior NATO
officials, while the staff of the NATO-PA Secretariat in Brussels enjoys
strong and productive relations with their counterparts at NATO."
* "NATO-PA played a pivotal role in generating political support for NATO
enlargement"
* There is an "ever deepening working relationship between the NATO-PA and
NATO"
(Source: NATO PA web site <http://www.nato-pa.int/>)
-------------------
"NATO out of OTTAWA! Canada out of NATO!"
-------------------
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Richard Sanders
Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT)
A national peace network supported by
individuals and organizations across Canada
541 McLeod St., Ottawa Ontario K1R 5R2 Canada
Tel.: 613-231-3076 Fax: 613-231-2614
Email: <ad207@ncf.ca> Web site: <http://www.ncf.ca/coat>
----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -----
Richard Sanders
Coordinator, Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade (COAT)
A national peace network supported by
individuals and organizations across Canada
541 McLeod St., Ottawa Ontario K1R 5R2 Canada
Tel.: 613-231-3076 Fax: 613-231-2614
Email: <ad207@ncf.ca> Web site: <http://www.ncf.ca/coat>
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