Sign up to receive SPP updates:
RSS feed.  |
ABOUT THE SPP | BACKGROUNDERS | MEDIA | VIDEO/AUDIO |
SPP resources SPP Summit - New Orleans SPP Summit - Montebello Teach-in |
June 18, 2008 It took over a year for Stockwell Day to release the speech he gave to the invite-only North American Forum (NAF) in Banff Springs, Alberta in September 2006. Will we have to wait as long to see what Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson told this year’s private event in Washington? In contrast to past events, U.S. officials who attended the fourth annual NAF have been surprisingly open about their participation and their message. Several posted their speeches on official government websites and, for the first time ever, media were invited to hear these keynote addresses. Then again, it was the only part of the NAF the media had access to. As has been the case since the first NAF in California in October 2005, these events are strictly private. Organizers intended the annual gatherings to provide a space free from scrutiny where key policymakers could discuss North American integration openly. Access to information requests by Canadian Labour Congress researcher Teresa Healy revealed that Thomas d’Aquino, president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, told the 2006 forum that integration would happen as a process of “evolution by stealth.” So while we don’t know what else the gathering of corporate, executive and military leaders discussed this year, we have a few speeches from high-level U.S. officials. U.S. Defence Secretary Robert Gates “praised the new Canada-U.S. Civil Assistance Plan, which provides a framework for emergency planning and response to natural and man-made disasters,” according to one article. “The plan, which will enable Canada and U.S. militaries to support the armed forces of the other country during a civil emergency, is ‘a step in the right direction,’ he added.” Gates later says in his speech that, "We also have greater cooperation and integration between military and civilian authorities, to include, for example, stronger ties between the National Guard, the state governors, and the federal government.” When tied to the Civil Assistance Plan, which also seems aimed at increasing the military support role in civil emergencies, we can see a strange and unnecessary trend emerging toward militarization, a recent example being the recently approved Merida Initiative, which will provide U.S. military support to Mexican drug and immigration enforcement teams. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte’s speech is up on the Department of State website. He says that while “everyone” knows how good NAFTA has been for North America, “we should be on guard when public debate starts to define our national interests in very narrow or parochial terms.” This is also what the North American Competitiveness Council suggested in its 2008 report to leaders, and what Industry Minister Jim Prentice has been saying in recent speeches to U.S. corporate audiences. “We are witnessing such a moment now,” says Negroponte. “White collar, blue collar, east, south, north, and west, Americans feel anxiety as they contemplate a period of profound and accelerating change in the world. They are worried about what these changes will mean for their standards of living and for their children’s prospects in the future… These worries underscore the enormous leadership challenge we face in making clear that North American partnership is not part of the problem; it is unequivocally a source of the solution.” Finally, we have U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel Bodman’s keynote address, in which he highlights the importance of nuclear energy and biofuels to North American energy security, and says, “We also will continue to work with Canada on developing and building our shared energy infrastructure – and let me say here that the United States government remains strongly committed to expediting the siting, permitting and construction of the pipelines that will help North America take advantage of our own natural resources.” Maybe one day, maybe even soon, we’ll see what Ambassador Wilson had to say, well publicly at least. The fact that he even participated in this exclusive party is another testament to the Harper government’s anti-democratic nature.
|
|||||||||||
|
||||||||||||
 |
Workers
Water
Energy
Security & civil liberties
Military
Safety & regulations
Transportation corridors
