Open Letter to Members of Parliment regarding the Tobin Tax
Monday, March 20 2000Open Letter to Members of Parliament,
On March 23rd, 1999, the Canadian Parliament demonstrated world leadership when it passed motion M-239 urging Canada to "enact a tax on financial transactions in concert with the international community." This unprecedented action was viewed by many as an important first step in controlling destabilising speculation on financial markets, the wild and anarchic behaviour of which threatens all the economies of the world.
The passage of the Canadian motion sparked a global movement in support of controls on speculative capital. The Brazilian Parliament held hearings on the Tobin tax in August, 1999, three months after 100 Parliamentarians launched the 'Parliamentary Front for the Tobin Tax'. In September, Parliamentarians for Global Action, representing over 1,300 Parliamentarians world-wide, endorsed the Tobin tax. The European Parliament debated the Tobin tax in January, 2000. The governments of Finland and Belgium have endorsed the tax and the French Parliament has debated it. A Parliamentary motion is currently before the House of Commons in the United Kingdom. A resolution on the Tobin tax will soon be presented to the US Congress.
In spite of the growing support internationally, the Canadian government has acted only minimally on both letter and spirit of the motion passed by you – one of the members of the very legislative body that provides a base for its authority. Only at the United Nations Copenhagen+5 Social Summit negotiations has Canada proposed inserting text to further study the tax. While this action is laudable, it is simply not enough.
We are writing to express indignation with such limited action and to ask you to urge the Canadian government to hasten the implementation of a tax on financial transactions in accordance with the expressed wishes of Parliament.
More specifically, the Canadian government should:
Report to the House of Commons on the efforts made by the Canadian government to advance capital control measures with the international community;
Commission the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Trade, to hold public hearings to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of currency transactions taxes such as the Tobin tax . The SCFAIT will organise hearings on the impacts of globalisation in the near future;
Utilising analysis from the public hearings, commission studies on the desirability, feasibility and benefits of implementing a Tobin tax. These studies should be made public and presented to various international agencies and in various international fora (Group of 8, Group of 20, International Monetary Fund, United Nations, Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, Bank for International Settlements, central banks, etc.);
Hold an international conference on the Tobin tax which would be attended by top experts (economists, academics, tax specialists, Parliamentary representatives from other countries,) as a means of building international support and advancing the debate globally;
We urge you to take the necessary measures to ensure that the will of the Canadian Parliament is followed. The credibility of our democracy and the public's trust in its elected members is undermined when the decisions of Parliament are made irrelevant by inaction.
Sincerely,
Pamela Foster Pierre Henrichon
Coordinator Spokesperson
Halifax Initiative ATTAC-Québec
On behalf of non-governmental organizations representing more than 2,750,000 Canadians
Roger Crowther
National Representative
CAW
Bruce Campbell
Executive Director
Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
Peggy Teagle
Executive Director, Canadian Consortium for International Social Development
Betty Plewes
President – CEO
Canadian Council for International Cooperation
Ken Georgetti
President
Canadian Labour Congress
Lyndsay Poaps
Co- Director , Check Your Head – Youth Global Education Network
Maude Barlow
Chairperson
Council of Canadians
Melanie MacDonald
Executive Director
CUSO
Sherri Ash
Collective Member
Democracy Street
Duff Conacher
Coordinator
Democracy Watch
Fabien Laboeuf
Executive Director
Development and Peace
John Dillon
Research Co-ordinator
Ecumenical Coalition for Economic Justice
Jean Arnold
Executive Director
Falls Brook Centre
Herb Barbolet
Executive Director
FarmFolk/CityFolk
Cliff Wallis
President
Friends of the Oldman River
Françoise David
Fédération des Femmes du Québec
John Mihevc
Coordinator, Economic Justice
Inter-Church Coalition of Africa
Joe Gunn
Chair, Inter-Church Committee for Human Rights in Latin America
Warren Allmand
President,International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development
Laurie Rektor
Executive Director
National Anti-Poverty Organization
Cory Ollikka
President
National Farmers Union
Larry Brown
Secretary-Treasurer
NUPGE
Chris Shenk
Research Director
Ontario Federation of Labour
Rieky Stuart
Executive Director
Oxfam Canada
Catherine Little
National Manager
RESULTS/RÉSULTATS Canada
Gail Lasiuk
Saskatchewan Coalition for Social Justice
Roger Peters
President
Saskatchewan Environmental Society
Elizabeth May
Executive Director
Sierra Club of Canada
Derek MacCuish
Program Coordinator
Social Justice Committee of Montréal
Mike Nickerson
Executive Director
Sustainability Project
Dennis Howlett
National Coordinator
Ten Days for Global Justice
William Saunders
President
Vancouver & District Labour Council
Steve Shrybman
Executive Director, West Coast Environmental Law Association
Linda Morgan
President, Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom
Pari Johnston
President
World Interaction Mondiale
Notable Canadians and Faculty Members from twenty universities or colleges
Most Reverend Vernon James Weisgerber
(Bishop of Saskatoon)
Chairman of the Episcopal Commission for Social Affairs
Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops
Margaret Atwood
Author
Laurie E. Adkin
Associate Professor,
Department of Political Science
University of Alberta
John A. Boan
Professor Emeritus of Economics
University of Regina
Ronald G. Bodkin
Professor of Economics
University of Ottawa
Andrew Brook
Professor of Philosophy
Director, Institute of Interdisciplinary Studies, Carleton University
William K. Carroll
Professor Department of Sociology
University of Victoria
John Coates
Associate Professor
Saint Thomas University
Thomas Dunk
Associate Professor
Department of Sociology
Lakehead University
Graeme Gibson
author
Terry Heaps
Associate Professor
Department of Economics
Simon Fraser University
Eric Helleiner
Associate Professor
Department of Political Science
Trent University
Thomas O. Hueglin
Department of Political Science
Wilfrid Laurier University
Ronald Labonte
Director of Saskatchewan Population Health and Evaluation Research Unit, Universities of Regina and Saskatchewan
Jean-Guy Loranger
Associate Professor
Department of Economics
Université de Montréal
David MacDonald
Professor, School of Community and Public Affairs, Concordia University
Gayle MacDonald
Associate Professor of Sociology and Criminology, St.Thomas University
David MacGregor
Professor of Sociology
King's College
Linda MacQuaig
Journalist and Writer
Alex C. Michalos
Professor and Chair of Political Science
University of Northern British Columbia
Joanne Naiman
Professor
Department of Sociology
Ryerson Polytechnic University
W. Robert Needham
Director, Canadian Studies Program
St Paul's United College, University of Waterloo
Randle W.Nelsen
Professor of Sociology
Department of Sociology
Lakehead University
John Price
Assistant Professor
Department of History
University of Victoria
Tim Quigley
Professor of Law
University of Saskatchewan
Joseph K. Roberts
Professor Emeritus
Department of Political Science
University of Regina
Donald Swartz
Associate Professor School of Public Administration, Carleton University
Robert C.H. Sweeny
Associate Professor of History
Memorial University
Frank J. Tester
Professor
School of Social Work and Family Studies
University of British Columbia
Robert Ware
Professor
Department of Philosophy
University of Calgary