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Canada to host 8th Defence Ministerial of the Americas August 6, 2008 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 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...) The Globe and Mail From the speed at which provinces are introducing so-called enhanced driver's licences, you'd think they were a universally acclaimed technology (Passport Alternative Approved In Sask. - B.C. and online editions, July 31). But as a public forum in Toronto this month showed, there is much skepticism among Canada's privacy commissioners, consumer groups and the public. (more...) "Any harsh treatment endured by Khadr is Canada's responsibility," says lawyer Kuebler July 17, 2008 As reported by CTV this week, new documents and video footage “suggest Canada was aware of the harsh treatment that Canadian terror suspect Omar Khadr was being subjected to in Guantanamo Bay at the hands of U.S. military interrogators.” But Prime Minister Harper still says the government knew nothing and has no intention of interfering, or in asking that Khadr be allowed to return to Canada. (more...) North American Forum 2008 agenda released June 19, 2008 Teresa Healy, a researcher with the Canadian Labour Congress, has acquired the agenda for the 2008 North American Forum (NAF), which took place in Washington, D.C. this week, bringing together 75 personally invited policymakers and business leaders to discuss North American integration behind closed doors. (more...) Civil liberties coalition launches website to monitor government abuse of terrorist watchlists The following press release is taken from www.travelwatchlist.ca, a research project led by the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group and its partners to document incidents where travellers have been unfairly targetted by government watchlists in Canada and the United States. (more...) Ontario working on provincial ID card with Homeland Security approval June 4, 2008 Mere weeks after learning that Quebec will be producing “enhanced driver’s licences” (EDLs) by years end to cooperate with U.S. border security demands, Canadian Press reports this week that Ontario will offer similar provincial ID cards for non drivers. (more...) June 2, 2008 According to the Montreal Gazette today, “While Quebec's privacy commission is being kept in the dark on a proposed enhanced driver’s licence (EDL), or Permis de conduire plus, Ontario’s Information and Privacy commissioner, who has been part of the EDL process in that province since 2006, is calling a public forum on the issue for July 16.” (more...) NORTHCOM, Canada Command release fraction of new Canada-U.S. military pact May 30, 2008 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...) Quebec to become third province to offer enhanced driver’s licences May 22, 2008 According to an article in the Montreal Gazette last weekend, SPP-linked enhanced driver’s licences (EDLs), “raise the spectre of multiple databases carrying surprising amounts of information on citizens.” (more...) Vancouver Olympics to be “the largest security operation in Canadian history” May 22, 2008 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...) Children’s rights groups ask Harper to reconsider his stance on the repatriation of Omar Khadr May 13, 2008 The International Criminal Defence Attorneys Association and a group of organizations dedicated to the protection of the rights of the child have sent a letter to Stephen Harper calling on the Canadian government “to intervene immediately in the case of Omar Khadr and request his repatriation to Canada without further delay.” (more...) Prentice tries to reconcile “security” and “prosperity” at Council of the Americas annual meeting May 9, 2008 On May 7, Industry Minister Jim Prentice, who is also the minister responsible for pipelines, was in Washington to address the 38th Council of the Americas Annual Meeting. This is the group that acts as the U.S. co-secretariat, along with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC). (more...) “Plan Mexico” counter-productive and militaristic, says new report tying it to the SPP May 6, 2008 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 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...) Amnesty International slams SPP secrecy in letter to Bush, Calderon and Harper April 21, 2008 Amnesty International has sent Prime Minister Harper and his U.S. and Mexican counterparts a letter condemning the secrecy behind the SPP and demanding that it be brought to each country's respective legislatures “to facilitate meaningful public debate.” (more...) North American ID card in the works through SPP April 10, 2008 Homeland Security czar Michael Chertoff met with Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day in Ottawa this week to discuss progress on the Security and Prosperity Partnership. (more...)
April 9, 2008 The group No One Is Illegal has issued an action alert asking citizens to contact their MPs (particularly Liberal MPs) to urge them to vote no to a series of amendments to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA). (more...)
April 8, 2008 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...)
April 8, 2008 Prime Minister Harper’s stubborn refusal to save Omar Khadr from the injustice of a Guantanamo Bay show trial became even harder to grasp today as we learned that Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier has agreed the process is unlawful. (more...)
March 27, 2008 The extent of Canadian government complicity in torture, partly exposed during the Maher Arar Commission over the past two years, is becoming even more apparent with the U.S. show trial of Canadian citizen Omar Khadr. (more...)
March 20, 2008 The Department of Public Safety is reporting today that a joint RCMP-Homeland Security pilot project, which put U.S. security agents on Canadian maritime patrols and vice versa, will be made permanent. (more...) March 18, 2008 In an effort to demonstrate that the best defence is a good offence, a new Fraser Institute report by Alex Moens and Michael Cust, argues that the Canadian government must “expand and speed up the SPP goals,” and make a priority of “rebranding the SPP talks… as well as explaining the specific objective of the talks to the public” at the next summit in New Orleans this April or risk the trilateral partnership losing much of its momentum. (more...)
March 3, 2008 The U.S. terrorist watch list has grown by 400,000 names since this past June, according to the American Civil Liberties Union and reported on blogs across America, February 28. (more...) March 3, 2008 Forget about Ian Brodie’s alleged phone call to the media regarding U.S. Democratic presidential hopeful Barrack Obama’s stance on NAFTA. How’s this for Canadian meddling in the upcoming U.S. elections? (more...)
February 28, 2008 There is not a lot of detail available as to how the Harper government will spend $29 million on the Security and Prosperity Partnership, but that’s what it says it will spend in the 2008 Conservative budget, which was tabled this week in the House of Commons. (more...) February 26, 2008 Yesterday, the president of the Canadian Bar Association joined bar leaders across the world in calling for the closure of the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, according to a CBC report. (more...)
February 21, 2008 An article in La Jornada reports that the next Security and Prosperity Partnership ministerial meeting will take place February 27 and 28 in Los Cabos, Mexico. This is a pre-New Orleans meeting of SPP ministers from Mexico, Canada and the United States to set an agenda for the next full summit, taking place April 21 and 22. (more...)
February 14, 2008 As if we needed another reminder that the RCMP is ill-equipped to handle national security investigations, Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart released the results of an audit yesterday that slammed the police force’s exempt databases, which are bursting with information on the unlikeliest of people. (more...)
February 13, 2008 Late yesterday, the Senate cleared Bill C-3, an act to re-legislate the security certificate process, which was found to be unconstitutional a year ago by the Supreme Court. (more...)
February 7, 2008 At the March 2007 Integrate This teach-in, Maude Barlow, national chairperson of the Council of Canadians, predicted that just as NAFTA served as a model for all future free-trade agreements, the Security and Prosperity Partnership would set a dangerous precedent for international security policies. (more...)
February 5, 2008 As reported in this morning's Globe and Mail, "The Conservatives and the Liberals joined forces last night in favour of new legislation on security certificates for terrorism suspects just before a Supreme Court deadline invalidates the old system later this month. (more...)
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