Military
Canada to host 8th Defence Ministerial of the Americas
August 6, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew
The Defence Ministerial of the Americas will meet in Banff, Alberta this September 2-6, 2008. It is the eighth time the group has met since 1995, when civilian and military leaders from the Western Hemisphere gathered in Williamsburg, Virginia to discuss “a broad range of security issues in an atmosphere of open dialogue and mutual confidence,” according to the U.S. State Department website. But it will be the first time the ministerial has happened in Canada. (more...)
Plan Mexico, SPP about “armouring NAFTA,” says Avi Lewis
August 1, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew
Journalist and human rights activist Avi Lewis, commented on Plan Mexico and the Security and Prosperity Partnership this week on U.S. radio program Democracy Now. (more...)
NORTHCOM, Canada Command release fraction of new Canada-U.S. military pact
May 30, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew
US Northern Command (NORTHCOM) has posted portions of a Civil Assistance Plan, signed with Canada Command on February 14, to its website, although it appears to be missing as many as 23 annexes – there is reference to an Annex W – that are still classified. (more...)
Canada doing the "dirty work" for the U.S. at cluster bomb talks, says Jody Williams
May 23, 2008
Posted by Brent Patterson
Jody Williams, the founding coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, writes in the Globe and Mail today that, "At the current 12-day conference to negotiate an international treaty banning cluster munitions, diplomats and observers alike are wondering what has happened to Canada's independence (because Canada) now appears to be doing the dirty work for the United States to weaken the cluster munitions treaty (now being negotiated in Dublin)." (more...)
Vancouver Olympics to be “the largest security operation in Canadian history”
May 22, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew
We know from SPP documents that Olympic security for the 2010 Whistler Games is being coordinated with Mexican and U.S. military forces. This week, the National Post reported that the Canadian Forces will be there with tanks and other goodies. (more...)
Questions about military cooperation pact with U.S. still unanswered
May 8, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew
Since the story broke this February that the Canadian Forces had signed a troop-sharing agreement with the U.S. army for cross-border disasters and other incidents, Canadians have been asking questions of the government but getting little information in response. (more...)
“Plan Mexico” counter-productive and militaristic, says new report tying it to the SPP
May 6, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew
While Canada has its own bad security deals with the United States – joint no-fly lists, common biometric ID cards, cooperation with a draconian detention and deportation system for migrants – U.S. Congress is about to authorize a doozy with Mexico that has critics sounding alarm bells. (more...)
Nothing new from the Disaster Summit but dangerous SPP initiatives live on
April 29, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew
The media and business consensus following last week’s Security and Prosperity Partnership summit in New Orleans is that the trilateral meeting didn’t produce anything significant. While this is partly correct – no new initiatives were announced – the ones we’re stuck with are bad enough. And while we learned a few new things about the SPP’s progress since Montebello, very few of the details ended up in the news. (more...)
Afghan prisoners tortured in U.S. custody… with Canada’s help
April 17, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew
It was one of the earliest scandals of Canada’s war in Afghanistan: Was Canada violating the Geneva Conventions on torture by transferring prisoners in Afghanistan to U.S. forces who were reportedly torturing them? (more...)
North American foreign ministers meet in Washington for pre-SPP talks
April 8, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew
Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier met with his counterparts, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Mexican Foreign Secretary Patricia Espinosa, in Washington, D.C. today “to prepare the work for a leaders meeting that will take place in New Orleans,” according to a statement. (more...)
Armies in Canada, Mexico and the U.S. prepare for 2010 Olympics
March 7, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew
According to an article in the Vancouver weekly 24 Hours, Canada, Mexico and the U.S. are planning a joint military exercise to coordinate "to focus on terrorist events that could affect [the] 2010 Olympics." (more...)
Where was our 72-hour preparation? Canada, U.S. sign military cooperation agreement on the QT
February 21, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew
Do you get the Colorado Springs Gazette? Didn’t think so, but it was the only way you would have found out about a new military pact Canada signed with the United States last week. (more...)
David Emerson: Our man in Afghanistan, or is that Washington?
February 11, 2008
Posted by Stuart Trew
If the Harper-appointed Manley panel stacked with pro-integration business types didn’t convince you that the Afghanistan mission is about trade rather than democracy then perhaps Stephen Harper’s new Cabinet Committee and Task Force will do the trick. (more...)
Canadian General Takes Senior Command Role in Iraq
February 1, 2008
The following article by Jon Elmer and Anthony Fenton is reprinted with permission from IPS. The original story ran on January 23, 2008. (more...)
Waging the war at home: The Manley Report
January 23, 2008
Posted by Brent Patterson and Stuart Trew
In October last year, Toronto Star columnist Thomas Walkom wrote that the members of Harper's handpicked Independent Panel on Canada's Future Role in Afghanistan proved that the war is not about Afghanistan, "It is about the U.S." Four of the five appointees, "have been intimately involved with the problems of Canada-U.S. relations, and in particular with the campaign to convince Americans that Canada is not soft on terror," he wrote. (more...)
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