Alberta, Julio-July 2007
17
ALTERNATIVA Latinoamericana
ENGLISH SECTION
The Plan to Disappear Canada
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 govern-
ment. 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 implementa-
tion, there is simply too much activity
to keep secret.
Ten dots to connect.
Here are 10 develop-
ments in the plan to
disappear Canada.
1) Pesticides 'harmo-
nized.'
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 initia-
tive, 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 w
all 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 Commit-
tee 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 corpo-
rate power.
The SPP initiative began in
earnest back in 2002 with the Cana-
dian Council of Chief Executives
(formerly the BCNI), the most power-
ful corporate body in
the country. It contin-
ues 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 corpo-
rations, and which
institutionalizes the
exclusively corporate
nature of the agree-
ment. 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 con-
firmed, included Donald Rumsfeld,
George Schultz (former U.S. Secre-
tary 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' coordina-
tion. 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 Parlia-
mentary 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 Superhigh-
way.
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 resolu-
tion 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 Vir-
ginia.
Part of the opposition is fo-
cused 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 unac-
countable "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 inves-
tors' 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 environmen-
tally 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 deter-
mine 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.
Murray Dobbin
(The Tyee.ca)
"Deep integration" comes out of the shadows.