OTTAWA, ONTARIO - The Council of Canadians strongly condemns the recommendation of a leaked Foreign Affairs Committee report that Canada pursues tighter economic and political ties with the United States and Mexico.

According to the Globe and Mail, the draft Foreign Affairs report "will call for Ottawa to consider undertaking a two-track approach to North American economic integration, where Canada, the U.S. and Mexico identify and remove barriers to cross-border business in an incremental manner". It also calls for an examination of a North American customs union, the possibility of a common currency when conditions will be ripe as well as a substantial increase for defence spending.

"The sad events of September 11 has become a convenient political excuse to further "harmonise" Canadian policies with those of the United States," says Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians. "Pierre Trudeau was right in saying that Canada is a mouse next to the American elephant. Do you think the mouse's opinions and values are carrying any weight in its "co-operation" with the U.S.?

"This report seems to be following word for word the ludicrous C.D. Howe proposal that to attract U.S. attention, we should be prepared to hand over our water and energy as a sacrificial lamb. We have been increasingly assimilated by the U.S. since we signed the first free trade agreement and the best the Foreign Affairs Committee can do is ask for more of the same."

Murray Dobbin, chairperson of the Vancouver chapter of the Council of Canadians and author of the Council's recent report Ziplocking North America, agrees. "There is strong evidence that while free trade hasn't benefited us the way it was promised, it created a favourable terrain for continental integration, bringing our policies in line with those of the U.S.

"There hasn't been a level playing field, as we were promised. What we have is an American playing field, which the Canadian government seems to think adapted to Canadian values. But they are wrong and Canadians have to know where integration has brought us."

Click here to read Ziplocking North America: Can Canada survive continental integration?

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