The Truth About Canada (48 page)

Six months after the meetings,
Ottawa Citizen
reporter Kelly Patterson revealed that

organizers of a controversial summit of top Canadian, US and Mexican politicians, military brass and business executives hired a consulting firm to keep the proceedings secret, access to information documents show.

A “media management plan” for the event in Banff last fall imposed a gag order on all participants who were directed “to avoid direct media engagement where feasible.”
⁶

After I sent him the information I had about the meetings, Peter C. Newman wrote to me, “I tried phoning people I trusted and I thought trusted me, and no one would tell me anything.
IF
it isn’t a conspiracy, they’re doing their best to make it appear like one.”
⁷

In February 2007, Teresa Healy, senior researcher in social and economic policy at the Canadian Labour Congress, wrote about more closed-door meetings. The Security and Prosperity Partnership meetings seek “to avoid legislative change and public debate. Democratic debate and decision is making way for privileged corporate access and new rules that undermine sovereignty and human rights.” Knowing that a new government treaty like the FTA or NAFTA for further Canada-U.S. integration would never survive the opposition in Parliament, “Proponents have moved underground to promote ‘deep integration’ … policy harmonization that increasingly opens social life across the continent to the discipline of the market. It is about increasing the power of corporations and ongoing de-regulation.”

The so-called “NAFTA-plus” or “deep integration” or “Grand Bargain” being promoted and discussed at these secret meetings plans for the
elimination of barriers to even greater foreign ownership and control, the slashing of government spending on social programs, the weakening of prospective environmental regulation (ensuring there are no barriers to increased energy and resource exports from Canada),
⁸
and many other policies that will result in even greater control of Canada by the United States. In other words, even more of the same kinds of policies you’ve been reading about in this book, but this time integration by the powerful via secrecy and stealth, planned by and for the likes of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the U.S. Council of the Americas, and the Center for Strategic Studies, clearly under the guidance and with the financing of the U.S. government in Washington, D.C.

Author Silver Donald Cameron says of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, “The SPP is the new name for the old American project of Manifest Destiny — absolute control over the whole continent.” Cameron calls the CCCE the Canadian Council of Collaborators.

While our own government in Ottawa silently condones the plans for further integration with the United States, and while our provincial governments continue to be completely sound asleep on this vitally important topic, irony of ironies, at this writing, 15 U.S. states have expressed concern that the big-business-sponsored Security and Prosperity Partnership is a process that, wait for it, is a threat to States’ Rights and to the sovereignty of the United States. And in July 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives cut some SPP funding because of the group’s failure to consult Congress, complaining that “they have been intransigent, they have been unresponsive and frankly, they have been secretive.”
⁹
In August 2007, 22 members of the House of Representatives asked George Bush to back away from the SPP because they had concerns that the SPP could undermine U.S. sovereignty and because they strongly objected to important discussions continuing “out of public view and without congressional oversight or approval” or the “proper transparency and accountability.”

Does anyone think a single person in the entire Harper government has uttered a similar word of complaint? Not a chance.

On the surface, it may appear that not much happened at the follow-up August 2007 SPP meetings at Montebello, Quebec. But Thomas d’Aquino gives a hint about what is really happening behind the scenes: “A lot of work is going on, on the regulatory front, the environmental front, the energy front, the border front.… There is a big selling job that has to be done.”
¹⁰
And according to him, “The Montebello Summit produced significant progress across a range of policy areas.”
¹¹

Shortly after 9/11, d’Aquino had called for “more fundamental harmonization and integration with the U.S.” to keep the borders open.

All of this covert, under-the-table planning is happening in Canada despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of Canadians, year after year, in poll after poll after poll, show that they believe that Canada has been too good a country for us to surrender to our greedy and selfish big-business leaders whose values are so very different from those of most Canadians who are still very proud of our country, our culture, our history, our values, our civility and tolerance, and are not the slightest bit interested in further “harmonization and integration” with the United States.

Alas, the compradors, the neo-cons, and the continentalists are powerful, well-organized, and very well-financed. We now know that the initial SPP agenda included over 300 items. In the words of a spokesman for the CCCE, “Many of these represent very small steps.… On the other hand, even 300 small steps, if we take them all, add up to a pretty giant leap for North America.”

Testifying before the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade, Bruce Campbell, executive director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, said of the SPP,

I never hear talk about measures that would encourage upward harmonization of labour or environmental standards … tax measures that would prevent corporations from engaging in transfer pricing or discourage shifting profits to tax havens. This type of cooperation is not on the SPP agenda, and it begs the question: prosperity for whom?

Convergence and harmonization means … Canada bending its regulations or simply adopting U.S. federal regulations, and I ask the question: at what point does the narrowing of policy room to manoeuvre fundamentally compromise democratic accountability in our political system?
¹²

In 2007, a group of well-known Canadians, including authors, academics, musicians, and former politicians, joined forces to oppose further integration with the United States. They issued a statement:

Canada faces a stark choice. We can be gradually assimilated and lose our identity as a nation, or we can retain our independence and renew our own unique vision of what we wish for Canada’s future … a vision of strong communities, tolerance, equality, environmental stewardship, and a peaceful and constructive role in the world.

We believe that in spite of recent developments, Canadians believe passionately in the traditional values that guided this country in its post-war nation building.

The Security and Prosperity Partnership will give us neither security nor prosperity, nor is it a genuine partnership. We stand against this scheme and urge other Canadians to join us.

In August 2007, the National Council of Women of Canada summed it all up nicely:

This agreement has not been debated in or sanctioned by our Parliament. We believe that it threatens our sovereignty and puts control of our natural resources such as the Tar Sands and water at risk. For the U.S. government to negotiate a trade agreement manifestly to the advantage of international business interests using the “motherhood and apple pie” issue of security and prevention of terrorism is highly suspect. It’s the
21st century version of “if you’re not for us, you’re against us.” For a Canadian government to agree to such an undebated surrender of our sovereignty is shameful and unacceptable.

We demand that all SPP discussions be brought into the legislative and public domains immediately.

All of this said, there is one very important thing we have on our side: democracy. If we use it properly, we can overwhelm our own selfish sellouts. The important changes in election financing described earlier in this book are a huge step towards diminishing the influence of those who are now actively planning to give our country away. Now what is needed is for everyone who reads this book to go to work to enlist a great many others to help us preserve and improve the country we so love.

There’s no doubt in my mind that we can stop these sellouts. But for us to do so requires nothing less than a very substantially heightened degree of direct political activism by people who really care about the survival of our country. If you — and I mean you — don’t decide to do this, and do it soon, it is a certainty that it will quickly be too late for your children and your grandchildren to do so in the future. Continentalist conservative
Globe and Mail
columnist Neil Reynolds wrote on January 2, 2008, “For those folks who still resist the economic integration of North America, and there are a strident few left, it’s getting awfully late for a comeback.”

You’ve already seen in this book how profoundly Canada has changed as a result of the policies promoted by the same people who are now secretly planning to change our country even more. If you care about Canada, now is the time to go to work to preserve our sovereignty, our independence, our cherished and special values, and our economic, social, and political integrity. Don’t be misled by intentionally leaked reports out of Washington that the SPP is dead. The likes of Tom d’Aquino, Raymond Chrétien, John Manley, Peter Lougheed, and Allan Gotlieb are powerful, persistent, tenacious, and well-connected in both countries. At this writing, there are at least 20 cross-border big-business committees working on integration.

Let’s make sure that Canadians know of and understand their plans, and let’s be certain that we never allow them to succeed.

Finally, as the manuscript for this book goes out for typesetting, there is again much talk about yet another federal election. It’s likely that Harper, despite what he says to the contrary, has wanted one when he has been comfortably ahead in the polls, while Dion, despite his bluster, and most Liberals and most Canadians don’t. Harper has all the advantages of incumbency, a huge war chest of election funds, and polls that show Canadians would much prefer him to Mr. Dion as prime minister. Meanwhile, while Dion is widely regarded as a very nice man, whatever the antonym for charisma is, Dion has it. His performance as Liberal leader has been uninspiring. Party fundraising is poor, and it’s no secret that by the fall of 2007 some Liberals had already been trying to think up ways of replacing him.

By late 2007, an Angus Reid poll said Stephen Harper was preferred as Prime Minister by 33 percent compared to only 14 percent for Stéphane Dion. Of interest is that the majority of those polled opted for neither.

Everyone knows that public opinion can change dramatically before and during an election campaign, but keep in mind that there will be a powerful, sustained Conservative television campaign that will likely prove effective. Most pundits predict another minority Conservative government. But if Stephen Harper does win a majority, Canada will almost certainly change for the worse, even more than all the changes already described in this book put together.

A great deal has happened since the October 2008 federal election. Needless to say, millions of Canadians were very relieved that Stephen Harper did not win a majority government. Nevertheless, the prospects are grim. If you would like to read my comments on events as they unfold, please go to vivelecanada.ca and follow the link to Mel Hurtig.

GLOSSARY

BCNI
— Business Council on National Issues (see CCCE)

Campaign 2000
— a non-partisan, cross-Canada coalition of over 120 national, provincial, and community organizations committed to working together to end child and family poverty in Canada

CCCE
— Canadian Council of Chief Executives. This big-business lobbying organization is composed of 150 of the largest, most influential corporations in Canada, both Canadian and foreign. Previously named the Business Council on National Issues (BCNI), it changed its name to the Canadian Council of Chief Executives in December 2001. The CCCE’s chairman is Gordon M. Nixon, CEO of the Royal Bank of Canada. Its chief executive and president is Thomas d’Aquino, Canada’s leading corporate advocate of deeper integration with the United States. Collectively, the CCCE administers some $3.2-trillion in assets and has annual revenue of some $750-billion. The CCCE is almost certainly the most continentalist corporate organization in modern Canadian history. The BCNI was the leading and most powerful proponent of both the FTA and NAFTA.

CCPA
— Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. This is an independent research institute concerned with issues of social and economic justice. Founded in 1980, the CCPA is one of Canada’s leading progressive voices in public policy debates. The CCPA is a registered, non-profit organization supported by more than 10,000 members across Canada, with a national office in Ottawa and provincial offices in Nova Scotia, Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and British Columbia.

CIHI
— Canadian Institute for Health Information

comprador
— agent of a foreign power

continentalist
— a term used to describe Canadians who believe in greater integration with the United States

direct investment
— Direct investment refers to the acquisition of what is intended to be a lasting, influential financial interest in an enterprise. It usually refers to investment of a resident entity in one country obtaining a long-term interest in an enterprise in another nation.

EU
— European Union, presently composed of 27 countries, with possible future expansion