PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
November 17, 2006

MAUDE BARLOW CHALLENGES FORTRESS NORTH AMERICA

Best-selling author Maude Barlow and national chairperson for the Council of Canadians is in Montreal today to speak at l’Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) about the newly updated French edition of her book on Canada-U.S. relations, Dormir avec l’éléphant.

Barlow’s book calls for an end to the integration of Canada's foreign, defence and trade policies with those of George Bush's America. Despite the deep unpopularity of President Bush in this country, the Harper government has been increasingly aligning Canadian domestic and foreign policies with those of the Bush administration.

Barlow argues that Canada is at risk of losing what has been acquired through decades of democratic progress. “The federal government has failed to listen to Canadians and has instead taken its direction from big business lobby groups,” says Barlow.

As Canada prepares to host the next "Security and Prosperity Partnership" summit with the leaders of Mexico and the U.S., Barlow provides Canadians with crucial information about the fateful impacts of the decisions being made at these closed-door meetings to further the process of deep integration.

Those pushing for deep integration are looking at a common customs union, as well as harmonizing existing policies, standards and regulations to a common norm. Combined with joint Canada-U.S. inspection and security procedures, this would essentially wipe out the Canada-U.S. border. This push will lead to the privatization of our health care system, the loss of control of our resources and further compromises in trade deals like what we saw with the softwood lumber dispute.

Founded in 1985, the Council of Canadians is Canada’s largest citizens’ organization, with members and chapters across the country. The organization works to protect Canadian independence by promoting progressive policies on fair trade, clean water, safe food, public health care, and other issues of social and economic concern to Canadians.

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For more information, please contact:
Meera Karunananthan, Media Officer, Council of Canadians: Tel.: (613) 233-4487, ext. 234;
Cell: (613) 795-8685; .