American Assembly Conference

Of course all one has to do to determine the objectivity of the group is look at the list of those in attendance. There are a few token possible dissenters, but the Steering Committee and participants are dominated by deep-integration continentalists such as Drew Fagan, Allan Gotlieb, John Manley, Roy Maclaren, Jack Granatstein, etc. Of course it were the banks that led the BCNI's secret free trade initiatives and then the not-so-secret pro-free-trade debate. It's no surprise to see them pushing missile "defence." While it's not unusual these days to read and hear truly dumb statements from DND and Foreign Affairs, Pamela Wallin's absurd comments that claim the public opinion polls are wrong and that she believes "most Canadians support signing on" have to be in a prizewinning category. Wallin, by the way, was involved in the planning of the conference. When I asked her why there was not a more balanced and objective group in attendance, she seemed hard-pressed to think of any names who should have been invited. So much for the knowledge and objectivity of our Consul General in New York. As far as Rudyard Griffiths and the Dominion Institute, keep in mind in the future that he gets much of his funding from Gotlieb/Donner. For the Assembly group to suggest that Canada "has no alternative" but to go along with American wishes is preposterous and highly indicative of the validity (or lack thereof) of the entire conference. To suggest that Canadian and American values have not been diverging flies in the face of two years of detailed, repeated and reputable public opinion polls on the subject. To suggest that "there's little risk in joining" the U.S. BMD plans tell more about who participated than about the substance of the debate. Mel Hurtig