(The
following article is from
the July
1-31,
2007
issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles
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No
to War! No to the
Security and
Prosperity Partnership of North America! Joint call to action from the
Canadian Peace Alliance and Échec
à la Guerre
On
August 21 and 22, at
Chateau Montebello, in the Outaouais region of Québec, the third
meeting of the leaders of Canada, the United States and Mexico -
Harper, Bush and Calderon - will take place to discuss the Security and
Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP). The Canadian Peace
Alliance and Collectif Échec
à la guerre denounce
this partnership
among the top business and political leaders of all three countries,
because it will not improve the security and prosperity of the people
but will work against their aspirations. We call all peace supporting
organizations and individuals to protest war and the SPP this August.
The Security
and Prosperity
Partnership of North America (SPP) was signed by Prime Minister Paul
Martin and Presidents Vicente Fox and George W. Bush on March 23, 2005.
Then came the second summit in Cancun, in March 2006, where Stephen
Harper represented Canada.
Media
reporting of these
meetings ignored the crucial issues at the heart of this "partnership":
the accelerated extraction and delivery of Canadian oil and water
resources to the US economy; a deepening of economic partnership with
the US conditional to a war driven foreign policy; the pretext of
"national security" to justify the secrecy surrounding the precise
nature of the discussions and the deals made.
In the
aftermath of the September
11, 2001 attacks, George W. Bush declared "Either you are with us, or
you are with the terrorists". That year, the only directive given to
Paul Celluci, as he became US ambassador to Canada, was to do whatever
he could to bring about a major increase in Canadian military spending.
During his term, he repeated relentlessly that, for the US, "security
trumps trade". The message was clear: unless Canada adopted the same
"security" agenda as the US, our trade relations would suffer.
It is in this
context that in
January 2003 the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) launched
its North-American Security and Prosperity Initiative, in which it
takes a stand in favour of the "smart border", the secure flow of
Canadian energy resources to the US, Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD), a
major increase in military spending and interoperability of Canadian
and US armed forces. In April 2004, in a policy document entitled New Frontiers: Building
a 21st Century
Canada-United States Partnership in North-America,
the CCCE wholeheartedly embraced Bush's credo: "The way that we and
other countries respond to the relentless threat of terrorism and rogue
states has vital implications for global economic growth just as it
does for Canada's future ... In short, for Canada and for the world as
a whole, economic security and physical security have become
inseparable." In April 2003 and 2004, the CCCE held its spring meetings
in Washington, inviting several US military and political leaders to
participate.
On
to War!
Changes in
the international role
of the Canadian Forces towards offensive operations in partnership with
the US military have taken place gradually over the last 15 years,
without any public debate or awareness. In February 2005, it was made
official in the Liberal government's budget, announcing the greatest
increase in military spending since the end of World War II ($12.8
billion over five years). The following month, echoing the demands of
the powerful Canadian corporate lobby and adopting their proposals
almost to the word, the SPP was signed. The real significance of this
"partnership" would become clearer over the following months.
On April 19,
2005, the new
International Policy Statement (IPS) of the Martin government announced
its intention to increase regular forces by 5,000 members and reserves
by another 3,000, as well as to double the rapid deployment capacity of
the Canadian military for missions abroad. And in July 2005, it was
announced that the Canadian intervention in Afghanistan would move from
Kabul to Kandahar, and that starting in February 2006, an extra 1,400
soldiers would be sent to that area. This news was accompanied by
declarations by the new Chief of Defence Staff, Rick Hillier, rejoicing
at the thought of hunting down terrorist "scumbags" and to see the
Canadian Forces finally doing their real job of being "able to kill
people".
Anti-democratic
policies
Granting the
wishes of Canada's
largest corporations - those who also benefit the most from military
and "security" contracts - the Government of Canada has forced on the
people a warmaking foreign policy that the majority continues to
reject. Furthermore, as was revealed a few months ago, in the name of
that same partnership, the goal of increasing fivefold the production
of oil in the Alberta tar sands by 2030 has been decided. This makes
even more ludicrous the recent Conservative government statements of
seriously wanting to address the issue of greenhouse gases and to
follow the spirit of the Kyoto Protocol. On this issue, the gap between
government policies and the will of the people is even more obvious.
This third
SPP summit will bring
together a US president whose policies are backed by hardly a quarter
of his own people, a Mexican president whose election is highly
disputed, and a Canadian Prime Minister heading a minority government.
The deals they will make in Montebello, with no parliamentary debate or
public discussion, will have no legitimacy. The Canadian Peace Alliance
and Collectif
Échec à
la Guerre
therefore call on the people of Québec and Canada to reaffirm
their
opposition to the warmongering, anti-environmental and anti-democratic
policies of the Security and Prosperity Partnership and to protest the
SPP summit.
No to the
wars of occupation in Iraq and Afghanistan!
No to the
accelerated destruction of our planet!
No to the
Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America!