A 10-year-old boy from New Westminster, BC has started a campaign to get Canadians to boycott McDonald’s restaurants on Dec. 3 to protest the United States’ refusal to obey a trade panel ruling on softwood lumber.
- Yo Yo Yo, give us our dough - No Mc-D on December 3 softwood lumber protest website
- NUPGE announces support for the softwood lumber protest campaign
- Background on the softwood lumber dispute (CBC online feature)
The US imposed 27 per cent duties on Canadian softwood lumber in May 2002, at the behest of its own industries which claimed that the Canadian industry had unfair advantages. Those duties have cost BC about 15,000 jobs and billions in revenue.
A NAFTA dispute panel ruled in Canada’s favour in 2003 and US appeals were rejected in August 2005. But the US refuses to pay the $5 billion in illegal tarifs.
Luke McAndless-Davis started the campaign with a bit of help from his friends and parents. McAndless-Davis says on his website, “Canada and the United States are friends and we want to stay friends. But friends don’t steal from friends and friends don’t bully friends.”