Son Of SPP/ Stop Fortress NA - Leaked Docs Reveal Border Security Deal

[1]  http://creekside1.blogspot.com/2010/12/son-of-spp-sequel.html
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Son of SPP : The Sequel

[2] http://blog.jameslaxer.com/2010/12/stop-fortress-north-america-
dont-let.html
Friday, December 10, 2010
Stop Fortress North America: Don´t Let the Harper Government Make a
Secret Deal with Washington Jim Laxer's Blog
http://www.canadians.org/tradeblog/?p=1232
[James Laxer is a Canadian Prof whose latest book is Beyond the
Bubble:  Imagining a New Canadian Economy 2009]

[3] Le Conseil des Canadiens exige le dévoilement du plan de sécurité du
périmètre canado-américain. Council of Canadians Friday, December 10th,
2010 http://www.canadians.org/tradeblog/?p=1232

[4] Evan Soloman Power and Politics
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/
Featured Video on the new Border security deal:
Interview with James Rajotte, Conservative MP and Mark Holland,
Liberal MP

[5]
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/12/10/f-weston-security-
perimeter.html
ANALYSIS
Greg Weston
Talk of security perimeter hits nerve
Last Updated: Friday, December 10, 2010 | 10:03 PM ET
Comments79Recommend25CBC News

fyi-janet

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[1] http://creekside1.blogspot.com/2010/12/son-of-spp-sequel.html
Thursday, December 09, 2010
Son of SPP : The Sequel

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] http://blog.jameslaxer.com/2010/12/stop-fortress-north-america-
dont-let.html
Friday, December 10, 2010
Stop Fortress North America: Don´t Let the Harper Government Make a
Secret Deal with Washington 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.

-------------------

http://www.canadians.org/tradeblog/?p=1232

Le Conseil des Canadiens exige le dévoilement du plan de sécurité du
périmètre canado-américain Friday, December 10th, 2010

Pour publication immédiate
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. " Il
semble 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

[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]
http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/12/10/f-weston-security-
perimeter.html
ANALYSIS
Greg Weston
Talk of security perimeter hits nerve
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.

Details scarce
So far, it is all much ado about not much detail.

According to one of the documents, Prime Minister Harper and U.S.
President Barack Obama will sign a deal in January "to pursue a
perimeter approach to security, working together within, at, and away

from the borders of our two countries."

Prime Minister Harper is working with U.S. President Barack Obama on a
perimeter deal. (Canadian Press) A draft declaration by the two leaders
states: "We intend to address threats at the earliest point possible,
including outside the perimeter of our two countries."

But there is little in the documents to suggest the two countries are
anywhere close to figuring out exactly how they will lighten security at
the border by increasing it around the perimeter of the continent.

While the draft declaration of the two leaders is filled with the
best of intentions, that is all they are - intentions.
For example: "We intend to work together in co-operation and
partnership to develop, implement, manage, and monitor security
initiatives, standards and practices to fulfil our vision."

"We intend to pursue creative and effective solutions to manage the
flow of traffic between Canada and the United States."

And so on.

Some of the proposed initiatives are common sense.
The plan, for instance, talks about investing in modern technology
and infrastructure at international cargo ports.

The two countries would also like to expand existing "trusted
traveler programs" that provide express passes for those who
frequently cross the border and are willing to submit to special up-
front security checks.

The scheme contemplates "shared border infrastructure where
appropriate" that would allow, say, American Customs clearance of
cargo arriving in Canada bound for the U.S., to avoid having to clear it a
second time at the American border.

All of which has been in the works for years, and even the most
vociferous critics would be hard-pressed to argue any of it is ceding

Canada's sovereignty to the Americans.

Security sharing of concern
But the plan does include proposals that the Canadian government
concedes are likely to touch off public controversy - and with good
reason.

One highly classified government document obtained by CBC's Rosemary
Barton describes various political and communications issues connected
with the perimeter security plan. It warns the "safeguarding of privacy
and sovereignty will be of concern to Canadians."

No kidding. Security information-sharing with the Americans has had a bad
name since U.S. agents used erroneous RCMP data to grab Canadian engineer
Maher Arar as a suspected terrorist and shipped him off to Syria for a
year of torture.

The government documents leaked this week also caution that the
perimeter security proposals would likely invoke the wrath of refugee and
immigration agencies claiming the plan would "somehow limit immigration."

That might help to explain why there is no mention of immigration
anywhere else in the documents, even though it is one aspect of
Canadian security that the Americans would probably most like to
change.

Since 2001, Canada has been battling the false image of being overrun with
potentially dangerous refugees without security checks, and generally a
terrorist haven from which the 9/11 attacks were launched.

It doesn't help that two of the many prominent Americans who have
propagated the myth of Canada as a home to terrorists are the current U.S.
Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, and her cabinet colleague, Homeland
Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. It also doesn't help that some of the
U.S. concerns are legitimate.

Refugee program fraught with problems
Canada's refugee program has long been fraught with security
problems, such as the government's losing track of more than 35,000
failed claimants ordered deported, and who have simply disappeared.

On the other hand, the U.S. has an even larger problem identifying
10.6 million illegal immigrants currently living in America.
At the end of the day, the proposed plan for a fortress North America is
probably more about bringing some political urgency to growing border
problems than it is a radical way to solve them.

The last major border program, called the Security and Prosperity
Partnership, was launched in 2005 by the respective governments of
Paul Martin and George W. Bush, and is now all but dead.
The leaked documents suggest Harper and Obama would like to launch
their own version of a border plan, even if it is actually just more of
what is already happening.

Clearly, with more than $1 billion a day in bilateral trade just
across the Windsor-Detroit bridge alone, the two leaders know neither
country can afford to do nothing.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/politics/story/2010/12/10/f-weston-
security-perimeter.html#ixzz17qCFKeRs