Declaration on a North American Security perimeter which has been leaked to CBC
From: "Janet M Eaton" <jmeaton@ns.sympatico.ca>
Date sent: Sun, 12 Dec 2010 13:03:04 -0400
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Dear All:
There is a new Declaration on a North American Security perimeter which has been leaked to CBC, The National Post and the Globe and Mail. One of the documents suggests it is to be signed in January by President Obama and PM Harper.
It is being defined by some as the Son of the SPP and others as Fortress North America. Officially it is entitled "Beyond the Border: A Shared Vision for Perimeter Security and Competitiveness" "A Declaration by the President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of Canada"
While I can't find any links to Council of Canadian Stuart Trew's excellent interview [Friday Dec 10] with CBC Power and Politics' Evan Soloman where he followed John Manley, CCCE ( Canadian Council of Chief Executives) head and former Liberal government's architect of the SPP - I can say Stuart did a great job explaining this border perimeter concept within the context of the SPP and arguing effectively - the futility of creating a Fortress America perimeter as a way to 'thin' the Canadian-US border to increase the flow of trade.
In a preamble to another Power and Politics interview with Alberta Conservative James Rajotte and Liberal Mark Holland on this Security Perimeter concept,
[
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/ ]
CBC showed a clip of Liberal Foreign Affairs critic Bob Rae asking a question in the House of Commons.
'How could the government be contemplating signing an agreement with the US which will impact immigration, will impact refugees, will impact intelligence, will impact security, will impact trade, in fact all of our relationships with the US? Why would you contemplate doing that without first of all discussing it with the House of Commons?"
Now here is analysis and commentary I've compiled on this leaked Border Security deal
Janet
==============================
[1]
Son of SPP : The Sequel
http://creekside1.blogspot.com/2010/12/ ... equel.html
Thursday, December 09, 2010
[2] Stop Fortress North America: Don´t Let the Harper Government Make a Secret Deal with Washington Jim Laxer's Blog
http://blog.jameslaxer.com/2010/12/
stop-fortress-north-america-dont-let.html
Friday, December 10, 2010
[
3] Le Conseil des Canadiens exige le dévoilement du plan de sécurité du périmètre canado-américain. Council of Canadians
http://www.canadians.org/tradeblog/?p=1232
Friday, December 10th, 2010
[4] Evan Soloman Power and Politics
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/
Featured Video on the new Border security deal: Interviews with James Rajotte, Conservative MP and Mark Holland, Liberal MP
[
5] Talk of security perimeter hits nerve
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/12/10/
f-weston-security-perimeter.html
ANALYSIS Greg Weston
Last Updated: Friday, December 10, 2010 | 10:03 PM ET
Comments79Recommend25CBC News
fyi-janet
======================================
[1] Son of SPP : The Sequel
http://creekside1.blogspot.com/2010/12/ ... equel.html
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Well, it's back. The 'one security perimeter' deep integration SPP/FTAA zombie, now with new and improved emphasis on security.
You're shocked, I'm sure. Like it ever really died.
The re-animators just learned not to dig it up and parade it around in parliament too often.
"Beyond the Border: A Shared Vision for Perimeter Security and Competitiveness"
"A Declaration by the President of the United States of America and the Prime Minister of Canada."
"We share responsibility for the safety, security and resilience of Canada and the United States and we intend to address threats at the earliest point possible, including outside the perimeter of our two countries" reads a draft agreement yet to be signed by Harper and President Barack Obama.
.
Les Whittington at The Star :
" In what could be the biggest challenge to Canadian sovereignty since free trade in the 1980s, Prime Minister Stephen Harper is secretly cooking up a deal with the Obama administration that would give Washington a much bigger say in Canada´s border security, immigration controls and information-sharing with American law-enforcement agencies."
Naturally there's a working group to handle the implementation -isn't there's always some extra-parliamentary working group to handle the implementation? This one - "Beyond the Border Working Group" - is staffed by officials from the Privy Council in Ottawa and National Security Staff in the White House.
The US is also currently negotiating a similar deal with Mexico called New Border Vision, and the foreign ministers from all three countries are meeting in Ottawa in four days.
Chris Sands of the Hudson Institute - and author of Negotiating North America, the closest thing we have to a manual on implementing deep integration security - says it's all about "trying to boost security by exchanging more information, rather than fortifying the border" : "But it's taken us [Canada and the US] a while to see the world in the same way"
Sands is not always this diplomatic. Two years ago he addressed a security conference in Ottawa.
Sands : "... homeland security is the gatekeeper with its finger on the jugular affecting your ability to move back and forth across the border, the market access upon which the Canadian economy depends.
In exchange for continued visa-free access to the United States, American officials are pressuring the federal government to supply them with more information on Canadians. Not only about (routine) individuals but also about people that you may be looking at for reasons, but there's no indictment and there's no charge." Sands then recounted a conversation he had with Stewart Baker, the assistant secretary of policy at the Department of Homeland Security "Canadians have "had a better deal than anybody else in terms of access to the United States and for that they've paid nothing." Now "we want to give you less access, but we want you to pay more and, by the way, we're standardizing this (with other visa-free countries) so you're not special anymore."
Well certainly that's an assessment Harper would have no trouble with.
.
Stuart Trew at Council of Canadians, yesterday :
"Canada has armed and secured itself to the teeth to satisfy the U.S. but no new perimeter plan can bring the U.S. economy back to life.
That´s the real reason trade is down across the border."
John Manley, former Liberal deputy prime minister and now president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, yesterday : "The real question will be what do we get at the border in exchange for greater co-ordination on security." Back in 2005 when he was Canada Chair of the deep integration project, 2005 Independent Task Force on the Future of North America, Manley wrote : "The Task Force's central recommendation is establishment by 2010 of a North American economic and security community, the boundaries of which would be defined by a common external tariff and an outer security perimeter."
Are we going to let them get away with it this time?
WELL, ARE WE ?
Links: James Laxer : Stop Fortress North America
Posted by Alison at 10:15 PM
-----------------------
[
2] Stop Fortress North America: Don´t Let the Harper Government Make a Secret Deal with Washington
http://blog.jameslaxer.com/2010/12/
stop-fortress-north-america-dont-let.html
Friday, December 10, 2010 Jim Laxer's Blog
The Harper government is engaged in secret talks with the U.S. government to negotiate a sweeping Fortress North America security deal with Washington.
For over a decade, Fortress North America has been a favourite goal of the political right and continental business. The deal poses a major threat to Canadian sovereignty. Whatever proponents of the deal say, its implementation will force Canada to harmonize its immigration and refugee policies with those of the United States. And it will require Canadian government agencies to share much more private information about Canadian citizens and residents with American agencies than they already do. The deal will invite the FBI and the CIA right into our lives.
For those who think that this won´t matter much, it is vital to remember that what happened to Maher Arar nearly a decade ago was precipitated by the Canadian government´s sharing of information with the U.S. He was the canary in the mine shift----the warning that many more of us could be next.
Canada has already moved a long way down the road to defence arrangements with the U.S. that could conceivably allow the U.S. to effectively seize control of Canada during a global geo-political crisis.
The sweetener for the deal that is now in the works is that its ratification will mean quicker shipments of goods across the Canada-U.S. border. This is hardly a vital matter for Canada. It´s true that over the past two years Canada´s exports to the U.S. have plunged.
But that´s because the U.S. has a weaker economy than it did before the crash and its demand for our products has declined. Such a development should motivate us to find other partners for commerce around the world, not to climb ever more into a relationship with a country whose global economic power is in decline.
The only reason we know about the secret talks between Ottawa and Washington is because of media leaks. The plan is to unveil the deal with Washington in January. Then a joint ceremony is to be held with Stephen Harper and Barack Obama appending their signatures to the agreement. After that, the details of the deal are to be hammered out
between officials from the two countries.
In the meantime, the members of the Harper government refuse to say a word about this.
We know from WikiLeaks that CSIS is home to those who believe that Canadians are naïve about the threat of terrorism. We can expect the members of the Harper government to get lurid about the danger of terrorists when the deal with Washington is made public. The truth is that we now face a real threat to our nation´s sovereignty from those who hold the highest offices in the land.
Canadians need to get loud right now to stop this covert attack on our national sovereignty. Despite the chest-thumping phony patriotism and flag waving of the Harperites and their friends, this government has always been committed to a deeper continental union with the United States, an idea that is profoundly contrary to the interests of Canadians, now and in the future.
All of us need to take on this fight. We can´t leave this one to the tepid opposition parties in the House of Commons.
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[3] Le Conseil des Canadiens exige le dévoilement du plan de sécurité du périmètre canado-américain
http://www.canadians.org/tradeblog/?p=1232
Friday, December 10th, 2010 Pour publication immediate 10 décembre 2010
Le Conseil des Canadiens exige le dévoilement du plan de sécurité du périmètre canado-américain
Ottawa - Le Conseil des Canadiens exige que le gouvernement Harper dévoile immédiatement le plan de sécurité secret qu´il a négocié avec les États-Unis ainsi que sa stratégie de communication de l´entente, qui fait de Maude Barlow, la présidente du Conseil, une critique potentielle.
« Les Canadiens ont le droit d´être au courant de l´accord de sécurité que M. Harper a secrètement négocié avec Washington, déclare Mme Barlow. L´harmonisation, la collaboration et l´échange de renseignements avec le département de la Sécurité intérieure effectués dans le but de promouvoir son plan commercial soulèvent
évidemment des inquiétudes quant à la souveraineté et au respect de la vie privée. »
Les médias suggèrent qu´en vertu de l´entente sur la sécurité du périmètre le Canada et les États-Unis harmoniseraient leurs règles et leurs pratiques relatives au contrôle des importations extraterritoriales et des voyageurs et qu´ils collaboreraient de plus près dans les dossiers de l´immigration, de la protection des frontières et de l´application de la loi. Cette entente impliquerait également un échange de renseignements plus soutenu avec les agences américaines d´exécution de la loi comme le département de la Sécurité intérieure.
« Nous avons déjà emprunté cette route auparavant, il s´agissait du Partenariat nord-américain pour la sécurité et la prospérité, mais les Nord-Américains l´ont rejeté », affirme Stuart Trew, militant pour le commerce associé au Conseil des Canadiens.
Bien que le Partenariat nord-américain pour la sécurité et la prospérité ait été bloqué en 2008, les bulletins de nouvelles rapportent que le gouvernement Harper continuerait de rencontrer les membres canadiens du Conseil nord-américain de la compétitivité. "Ilsemble qu´au sujet des politiques nord-américaines sur le climat, l´énergie, la sécurité et l´économie M. Harper n´écoute que les lobbyistes, alors que les Canadiens s´opposent clairement à son plan." ajoute Mme Barlow.
« De la Loi antiterroriste adoptée précipitamment par le gouvernement Harper à la controversée liste des passagers interdits de vol, l´harmonisation a violé des libertés civiles sans améliorer du tout les relations commerciales entre le Canada et les États-Unis », dénote M. Trew.
Le conseil réclame également que les partis de l´opposition fassent pression sur le gouvernement au sujet de ce plan de sécurité du périmètre non nécessaire et envahissant.
-30-
Pour obtenir de plus amples renseignements, communiquez avec :
Stuart Trew, chargé de campagne (commerce), Conseil des Canadiens,
647-222-9782,
strew@canadians.org
- - - - - - -
Council of Canadians demands release of secret Canada-US perimeter security plan
http://www.canadians.org/media/trade/20 ... ec-10.html
MEDIA RELEASE For Immediate Release December 10, 2010
Ottawa - The Council of Canadians is demanding that the Harper government immediately release its secret perimeter security deal with the United States, as well as its communications strategy for the deal that names Council chairperson Maude Barlow as a likely critic.
"Canadians have a right to know the security deal Mr. Harper has been secretly negotiating with the United States," says Barlow. "Harmonization, collaboration and information-sharing with the Department of Homeland Security to promote his trade agenda obviously raises sovereignty and privacy concerns."
Media reports suggest that under the perimeter security deal Canada and the US would harmonize rules and practices for screening offshore imports and travellers, and more closely collaborate in the areas of immigration, border protection and law enforcement. It would also involve more information-sharing with US law-enforcement agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security.
"We've gone down this road before -- it was called the Security and Prosperity Partnership -- and North Americans rejected it," says Stuart Trew, trade campaigner with the Council of Canadians.
Though the Security and Prosperity Partnership stalled in 2008, news reports said the Harper government would continue to meet with the Canadian business members of the North American Competitiveness Council. “It appears that yet again Harper is only listening to corporate lobbyists on North American climate, energy, security and economic policy when Canadians clearly oppose this agenda,” adds Barlow.
"From the Harper government's hastily passed Anti-Terrorism Act to the controversial 'no-fly' list, harmonization has violated civil liberties while not improving trade between Canada and the United States in the slightest," notes Trew.
The organization is also demanding that opposition parties press the government on this unnecessary and invasive perimeter plan. -30-
For more information:
Dylan Penner, media officer, Council of Canadians, 613-795-8685,
dpenner@canadians.org
- - - - - -
[
4] Evan Soloman Power and Politics
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/
Featured Videos Interview with James Rajotte, Conservative MP and Mark Holland, Liberal MP
[5] Talk of security perimeter hits nerve
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/12/10/
f-weston-security-perimeter.html
ANALYSIS Greg Weston
Last Updated: Friday, December 10, 2010 | 10:03 PM ET
Comments79Recommend25CBC News
A U.S. Customs officer checks a driver's documentation at the Ambassador Bridge in Detroit.
Documents indicate the U.S. and Canada will sign a deal in January to 'pursue a perimeter approach to security.' (Paul Sancya/Associated Press) The secret government documents had barely leaked into the media this week before the political howling started over the latest plan to fix what ails an increasingly clogged Canada-U.S. border.
The documents describe a plan to improve the flow of people and goods across the border between the two countries by creating a continental security perimeter around them.
Even in the fear-filled days following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the words "security perimeter" touched off ferocious political debate in this country.
In fact, accusations that Canada was ceding sovereignty to Uncle Sam sent the Liberal government of the day into full and hasty retreat from the whole concept.
Nine years later, with the Conservatives in power, the mention of continental security still hits a political nerve as hyper-nationalists and opposition parties pounded Prime Minister Stephen Harper's government this week over the leaked documents.
MORE:
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/12/10/
f-weston-security-perimeter.html