And their government, which works for BushCo, not for their people,
says "Come right in, we'll leave the light on!"
The Plan to Disappear Canada
'Deep integration' comes out of shadows.
View full article and comments here
http://thetyee.ca/Views/2007/06/08/DeepIntegrate/
By Murray Dobbin
Published: June 8, 2007
TheTyee.ca
If the machinations going on in this country regarding so-called "deep
integration" were instead a communist conspiracy to take over the
country (you will, of course, have to try hard to imagine this) the
news media would be blaring the story.
Pundits would pontificate, editorialists would erupt, security forces
would be unleashed.
Instead, a virtual conspiracy to make the country disappear through
assimilation into the U.S. gets barely a mention.
But news of the scheme -- formally called the Security and Prosperity
Partnership of North America (SPP) -- is finally breaking out of the
secret chambers of the ruling elite and the federal government. This
is both good news and bad. It's good that ordinary citizens are
finally getting a glimpse of the betrayal of their country. The news
is bad because it reflects just how much of this scheme is already
being implemented.
Given the meetings of CEOs and politicians to advance the scheme
politically, as well as all that must go into its actual
implementation, there is simply too much activity to keep secret.
Ten dots to connect
Here are 10 developments in the plan to disappear Canada.
1) Pesticides 'harmonized.' The most thoroughly reported story (though
even this did not go much beyond the CanWest chain) was the revelation
that Canada was about to "harmonize" its regulations, setting limits
for pesticide residue on fruits and vegetables. In 40 per cent of the
cases, the U.S. allows for higher levels. Richard Aucoin, chief
registrar of the Pest Management Regulatory Agency, which sets
Canada's pesticide levels, said that Canada's
higher levels were a "trade irritant."
The downgrading of health protection had been a NAFTA initiative, but
is being "fast-tracked" as part of the Security and Prosperity
Partnership. This is just the tip of the iceberg. Some 300 regulatory
regimes are currently going through the same process.
2) Tory tirade.
The next story that broke through the wall of media silence reported
on the paranoid reaction of the Harper Conservatives to any criticism
of the SPP. The occasion was hearings of the Commons International
Trade Committee into the SPP, forced by the NDP.
Gordon Laxer, head of Alberta's Parkland Institute, was testifying on
the energy implications of the SPP, warning that eastern Canada could
end up "freezing in the dark." He had barely started when the chair of
the committee,Conservative MP Leon Benoit, demanded that Laxer halt
his "irrelevant" testimony. The Committee members overruled Benoit --
who promptly (and illegally) adjourned the meeting and stomped out.
The NDP and Liberal members nonetheless continued without him.
3) Council of corporate power.
The SPP initiative began in earnest back in 2002 with the Canadian
Council of Chief Executives (formerly the BCNI), the most powerful
corporate body in the country. It continues it leadership role, but
does not promote the scheme just in its own name. It instead has
helped create several supportive bodies that now help drive the
agenda. Included in these are the North American Competitive Council
(NACC), which includes CEOs of the largest North American
corporations, and which institutionalizes the exclusively corporate
nature of the agreement. The NACC is the only advisory group to the
three NAFTA/SPP governments.
4) Secretive summit.
The NACC at least is public. But much of what happens in building the
elite consensus for deep integration is done in absolute secrecy or
very privately, away from the prying eyes of the media. The most
secretive of these was held last year from Sept. 12 to 14, in Banff
Springs. As The Tyee reported, the gathering was sponsored by
something called the North American Forum* and it was attended by some
of the most powerful members of the North American ruling elite.
Attendees, according to a leaked list that could not be confirmed,
included Donald Rumsfeld, George Schultz (former U.S. Secretary of
State), General Rick Hillier, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor and
Minister of Public Safety Stockwell Day. The media was not informed of
the meeting and it was first revealed by the weekly Banff Crag &
Canyon.
Stockwell Day refused to even confirm he was there, but said that even
if he was, it was a "private" meeting that he would not comment on.
There is no better indication that these meetings, and the SPP itself,
constitute a parallel governing structure -- unaccountable to any
democratic institution or the public.
5) 'No fly' coordination. Canada will have its own "no-fly" list just
like our U.S. "partner."
As the Council of Canadians pointed out: "The no-fly list is very much
a Security and Prosperity Partnership initiative. 'The SPP Report to
Leaders, August 2006' outlines 105 SPP initiatives. Initiative #93
states, 'Develop, test, evaluate and implement a plan to establish
comparable aviation passenger screening, and the screening of baggage
and air cargo (for North America).'"
Canada's privacy commissioner Jennifer Stoddart has raised a number of
concerns about the plan including the fact that the list will be
shared with the U.S., that "false positives" are a virtual certainty,
and that there is no evidence put forward by the government that the
list will improve airline security.
6) Bye, bye Canadian dollar?
David Dodge, the head of the Bank of Canada, told a Chicago audience
that a single currency for North America "is possible." That would see
a big chunk of Canadian sovereignty and the ability to guide the
economy through monetary policy go out the window. It's not the first
time Dodge has mused about abandoning the Canadian dollar - or deep
integration.
7) Water and oil giveaways.
The deep integrationists clearly see Canadian water as a North
American resource, not a Canadian resource. At yet another very
private meeting, held in Calgary on April 27th under the auspices of
yet another forum, it was made clear that water is on the table for
negotiation.
Discussion of bulk "water transfers" and diversions took place at a
Calgary meeting of the North American Future 2025 Project (partly
funded by the U.S. government). The meeting based its deliberations on
the false notion that Canada has 20 per cent of the world's fresh
water. Actual available supply amounts to only around six per cent --
about the same as has the U.S.
The water (and environment) meeting was preceded by another on April 26th
talking about "North American" energy. The beneficiary of these discussions
is pretty clear when you realize Canada has no national energy policy. We are
the only energy exporting country in the world without a one.
Gordon Laxer told the Parliamentary committee: "The National Energy
Board wrote me on April 12: 'Unfortunately, the NEB has not undertaken any
studies on security of supply.'" He was also told by the NEB that Canada does
not maintain a 90 day energy reserve as other developed nations do. As Laxer
points out, "Canada may be a net exporter, but it still imports 40 per cent of
its oil -- 850,000 barrels per day -- to meet 90 per cent of Atlantic Canada's
and Quebec's needs, and 40 per cent of Ontario's."
Canada exports 63 per cent of its oil production and 56 per cent of its natural
gas, percentages that can never decrease under NAFTA.
8) NAFTA Superhighway.
State governments in the U.S. are becoming increasingly alarmed at the
prospects of deep integration. Earlier this year, Idaho became the
first state to pass a legislative resolution directing the U.S.
Congress to drop out of the SPP, which is referred to as the North
American Union amongst U.S. opponents. Thirteen states in addition to
Idaho are calling on Congress to abandon the SPP: Georgia, Arizona,
Missouri, Illinois, Oregon, Montana, South Carolina, Oklahoma, Utah,
South Dakota, Tennessee, Washington and Virginia.
Part of the opposition is focused on plans for a so-called NAFTA
Superhighway: actually a corridor several hundred metres wide
including rail lines, freeways and pipelines from Mexico to the
Canadian border. There is a growing grass roots movement against the
SPP in the U.S., but led by the right over the issue of compromising
American sovereignty.
9) Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA).
While U.S. states, concerned about state rights under an unaccountable
"North American Union," are organizing against the scheme, Canadian
provinces are either blithely unaware or knowingly complicit in the
deal. More Canadians may be aware of TILMA -- the investors' rights
agreement between B.C. and Albert -- than they are about the SPP, but
in reality they are one and the same.
TILMA is major piece of the deep integration, deregulation imperative
and fits hand in glove with the SPP. There is a similar, though more
informal, process evolving in the Atlantic provinces, called
"Atlantica." And B.C. is now pushing the so-called Gateway Initiative,
a kind of regional superhighway project that will see huge and
environmentally disastrous
expansion of ports, highways and pipelines to further supply the
U.S.'s insatiable demand for resources and cheap Asian goods.
10) The next SPP summit.
The third leaders summit on the SPP will take place this August
21-22nd in Montebello, Quebec, not far from Ottawa. By the time it
does many more Canadian will be aware of it. Part of the reason that
news of the SPP/deep integration issue is finally seeing the light of
day is that opposition is growing and groups fighting the SPP are
having an impact. The Council of Canadians, the CLC and the Canadian
Centre for Policy Alternatives held an SPP teach-in in Ottawa last
month and many civil society groups are now taking deep integration to
their members.
Demonstrations are planned for the summit. The NDP continues to press
the government on SPP secrecy and the Green Party's Elizabeth May has
said deep integration will be a focus of the party's election
platform. It is hard to think of any other issue in modern Canadian
history, especially one that will literally determine whether the
country survives or not, that has taken so long to get public
attention. I first wrote about it September, 2002.
By the time the SPP summit has come and gone and the fall political
season begins, deep integration, the most treacherous plan for the
country yet devised by Bay Street, will be increasingly exposed. And
by the next election, we could see a repeat of the great "free trade"
election of 1988. This time we have to win.
*
Correction note: At 12:20 p.m. on June 4, we corrected the name of the forum.
Related Tyee stories:
'For Our Own Good, Give Canada Away'
The 'deep integrationists' plan one happy continent, but we must teach
the little ones.
Secret Summit on Shared 'Security'
Why was North America's power elite invited to Banff?
Trade Debate BC Libs Don't Want
Talk of TILMA deal censored in the legislature. But not in The Tyee.
Murray Dobbin writes his State of the Nation column twice monthly for The
Tyee.
