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Ambassador Wilson's Ode to Integration; North American Forum speech posted to embassy website August 8, 2008 Ambassador Michael Wilson’s speech to the 2008 North American Forum has made its way to the embassy’s website. The elite, closed-doors gig took place this year in Washington, D.C. from June 15 to 17. (more...) Majority of Canadians would renegotiate NAFTA, says Angus Reid poll August 1, 2008 You’d never know it from the lengths our federal and provincial governments are going to in defence of NAFTA, but most Canadians think we should renegotiate the free trade and investment pact, says a new poll by Angust Reid. (more...) June 26, 2008 The federal government’s Competition Review Panel wants to scrap the ban on bank mergers, “lighten up its foreign ownership restrictions of uranium and airline assets, and liberalize the telecommunications industry,” according to the Globe and Mail today. (more...) Canadians Reject McCain's NAFTA Plea - Continental Movement for Renegotiation Grows June 20, 2008 On Friday, June 20, the Council of Canadians held a mock press conference and protest outside Ottawa’s Chateau Laurier, where Republican Senator John McCain spoke to an elite audience of Canadian corporate executives about the benefits of NAFTA. (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...) Where is Michael Wilson's North American Forum speech? June 18, 2008 It took over a year for Stockwell Day to release the speech he gave to the invite-only North American Forum (NAF) in Banff Springs, Alberta in September 2006. Will we have to wait as long to see what Canadian Ambassador Michael Wilson told this year’s private event in Washington? (more...) June 17, 2008 Michael Geist writes in today's Ottawa Citizen that in its pressure on the Canadian government to change our copyright laws, the U.S. administration made threats about “thickening the border” if it didn’t get its way. (more...) The Future of Mexico's Oil: Social action to stop the energy grab! June 17, 2008 In Mexico, as in the U.S. and Canada, citizens and democrats wish to “close the revolving door between the executive branch and K street (corporate) lobbying …” Mexicans are currently mobilizing to stop the deeply undemocratic practice of lobbyists [writing] national policies. (more...) Canadian ambassador to address fourth annual North American Forum in Washington June 17, 2008 Canada’s ambassador to the United States, Michael Wilson, will address the secretive invite-only North American Forum gathering today (June 17, 8:30 a.m.), according to a press release from the World Affairs Council forwarded to Integrate This! by Teresa Healy of the Canadian Labour Congress. (more...) Prentice releases “made in America” copyright legislation; only business groups happy June 13, 2008 It received praise from the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, the music and film industries, and other business groups, but Jim Prentice’s new copyright legislation, which he tabled this week in the House of Commons, is getting the thumbs down from musicians, privacy advocates and consumer groups. (more...) McCain to dine and whine about NAFTA in Ottawa June 13, 2008 Republican Senator John McCain, the man who may be George Bush’s successor in the White House, wants to speak in Canada about free trade. But it doesn’t appear that he’ll be speaking to Canadians – not directly at least – but rather to an elite audience of some 350 business leaders and policy makers in Ottawa. (more...) NAFTA+ business plans hurting Mexican workers, says journalist June 2, 2008 An essay in the Fort Worth, Texas Star-Telegram this weekend by Mexican journalist Anne Vigna describes the impact NAFTA has had on workers in her country. While uglier than Canada’s free-trade history with the United States, the reality is similar in many ways. (more...) Canada ducks for cover on copyright; plans to sign ACTA without parliamentary approval May 28, 2008 Canada is under significant pressure from the U.S. government and the North American Competitiveness Council (NACC), among other business groups, to reform its copyright legislation. International documents leaked to the press last week indicate that the Harper government is preparing to sidestep Parliament by signing a NAFTA-like international treaty that would radically change what types of currently legal activity will be cracked down on and by whom. (more...) May 22, 2008 A Canada West Foundation poll, which was reported in some newspapers as indicating Canadian support for eliminating so-called inter-provincial trade barriers, reveals distaste in western Canada for the negative impacts of international free trade agreements. (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...) U.S., industry and NACC push to change Canada’s copyright laws continue May 8, 2008 Industry Minister Jim Prentice will table a new copyright law at the end of the month that is expected to ape what critics call overly restrictive U.S. intellectual property policy. While the rule changes have been in the pipes since the Paul Martin Liberal days, the industry push to have them enacted has only strengthened with the Security and Prosperity Partnership. (more...) NAFTA’s legacy? Census data shows widening income gap despite promises of continental integration May 2, 2008 Last week, at the close of the fourth SPP summit in New Orleans, Prime Minister Harper issued a joint statement with Presidents Bush and Calderon that reaffirmed their commitment to the NAFTA trading model despite fresh criticism of free trade in all three countries. (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...) "Don't leave us!" begs NACC, "Don't worry," respond Bush, Harper and Calderon April 22, 2008 Oh what a depressing summit this was for the North American Competitiveness Council. Like last August, the all-corporate advisory body to the SPP has just tabled a "report to leaders" outlining its hopes and dreams for continental integration in 2008. Unlike last year, there's nothing new in this one beyond a sense of desperation that, for all the CEOs have achieved in public policy setting, the SPP's days are numbered. (more...) Tour of New Orleans shows widespread government neglect April 21, 2008 Standing on old concrete foundations buried in overgrowth, it was hard to believe the expanses of green dotted with unused houses used to be a thriving community. But that was before Hurricane Katrina hit in the summer of 2005. Reconstruction in the Lower Ninth Ward has been slow to non-existent. (more...) People’s Summit off to a dramatic and energetic start April 21, 2008 As barricades went up in parts of New Orleans' business district yesterday to protect the SPP meeting from scrutiny, two very different meetings were taking place close by. (more...) "High priests" of deep integration working on new post-SPP agreement with government April 21, 2008 We saw it coming but now it looks conclusive: Canada's deep integration nuts are working on a post-SPP agreement that will strike Mexico out of the equation. (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...) The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), Round Four April 16, 2008 As the NAFTA leaders and their big business counterparts gather in New Orleans a few days from now for the fourth North American Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) summit, it is worth reflecting on its role in North American integration. (more...) CEP files official complaint against “agents provocateurs” in Montebello April 16, 2008 Dave Coles, the CEP president who unmasked a police officer posing as a rock-wielding protestor at Montebello last August, has filed an official complaint with the Police Ethics Commissioner about the use of agents provocateurs by the Sureté de Québéc. (more...) NACC member Chevron moves in on Mexico’s public oil and gas sector April 10, 2008 Chevron Corp, a member of the North American Competitiveness Council, has “submitted proposals to tap oil and natural-gas reserves in Mexico amid declining output from the second-biggest crude-producing nation in the Western Hemisphere,” according to Bloomberg this week. (more...)
April 9, 2008 This month, President Bush will host the leaders of Canada and Mexico to advance the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), a project Lou Dobbs has predicted will "end the United States as we know it." (more...)
April 7, 2008 There appears to be an elite consensus forming around a C.D. Howe Institute proposal to ditch the trilateral SPP model for a more meaningful bilateral trade agreement with the United States. (more...)
April 4, 2008 With three weeks to go until the Security and Prosperity Partnership leaders summit in New Orleans, the usual suspects have launched a barrage of policy papers to try and sway the public agenda towards even deeper economic and security integration than has been proposed to date. Meanwhile, International Trade Minister David Emerson has gathered the provinces to develop a consensus on Canada’s NAFTA position should the United States force a renegotiation after the November presidential election. (more...)
March 28, 2008 Prompted by an interview with the Minister of Industry, Jim Prentice, about the workings of the Security and Prosperity Partnership, Hélène Buzzetti published an article last week in Le Devoir (March 22-23) entitled, “Adieux aux promesses de Montbello” (‘Kiss Montebello promises good-bye’). (more...)
March 20, 2008 According to an NDP press release last week, elected representatives in all three NAFTA countries “have agreed to file simultaneous legislative motions to stop further implementation of the so-called Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) process, imposed undemocratically on our three nations, and to open up the process that has taken place behind closed doors to instead have a transparent review and scrutiny within their respective legislatures.” (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 14, 2008 Two Democratic contenders for the U.S. presidency suggest they’d like to renegotiate NAFTA and it’s as if the sky were falling in Canada. (more...)
March 14, 2008 Common Frontiers has revised several fact sheets on ‘free trade’ to help cut through the spin and clutter around the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) – a ‘next generation’ trade deal involving Canada, Mexico and the United States. (more...)
March 14, 2008 On March 5 – the day after the Ohio Democratic primary in which the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was such a vote determining issue – activists, legislators and academics from Mexico, the U.S. and Canada gathered at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace in Washington D.C. to take a critical look at NAFTA and the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) and what might be done about them. (more...)
March 12, 2008 As NAFTAgate was just starting to make front-page news in Canada last week, trade analyst Chris Sands was telling Embassy magazine to take U.S. renegotiation rhetoric seriously. (more...)
March 11, 2008 It becomes clearer with every access to information request who is running the Security and Prosperity Partnership in Ottawa, Washington, D.C. and Mexico City. If you think it’s our politicians, think again. (more...)
March 11, 2008 A group of U.S., Canadian and Mexican activists has embarked on its second leg of a U.S. tour to discuss the damaging effects of NAFTA and the dangers of the Security and Prosperity Partnership with concerned Americans. (more...)
March 10, 2008 On March 19, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Council of the Americas will hold an "off-the-record debriefing" on the February 27 meeting of SPP ministers and North American Competitiveness Council member CEOs in Los Cabos, Mexico. (more...)
March 7, 2008 On Wednesday March 5, civil society and fair trade groups, as well as progressive legislators from Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, gathered in Washington, D.C. to talk about NAFTA's real impacts on agriculture, labour, development and migration. (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 The following article is reprinted with permission from the Americas Program at the Center for International Policy (CIP). Laura Carlsen is director of the CIP’s Americas Policy Program). The Americas Mexico Blog can be found at www.americasmexico.blogspot.com. (more...)
February 28, 2008 The threat of renegotiating or dropping NAFTA altogether as proposed by Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton made its way to Los Cabos, Mexico this week where Security and Prosperity Partnership ministers were cajoling with the CEOs of the North American Competitiveness Council at their annual pre-SPP summit meeting. (more...)
February 28, 2008 The following is a statement of the Mexican Action Network on Free Trade (RMALC) on the February 27 and 28 Security and Prosperity Partnership ministerial meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico, translated from the Spanish by Rick Arnold of Common Frontiers Canada. (more...)
February 26, 2008 Citizens, environmental groups, labour groups, First Nations communities, social justice and academic groups have all been saying there should be no new approvals in tar sands development. Big oil companies have now joined this call. So why aren’t politicians listening? (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 20, 2008 The Council of the Village of New Denver has passed a motion in support of the position of NDP MP Alex Atamanenko that implementation of the Security and Prosperity Partnership be stopped while the Canadian government seeks a democratic mandate from the people and Parliament is given more oversight of the process. (more...)
February 19, 2008 Common Frontiers has posted to its website a translated version of an excellent SPP Q+A produced last August by the Centro de Investigaciones Económicas y Políticas de Acción Comunitaria (Mexican Research Centre). (more...)
February 15, 2008 On February 12, NDP Trade Critic Peter Julian tabled a motion in the House of Commons that would ensure Parliament was consulted on the activities of the more than 20 Security and Prosperity Partnership working groups currently harmonizing all manner of Canadian policies with U.S. standards. (more...) February 12, 2008 When the National Post feels strongly about an issue it doesn’t hold back. There were three – count-em, three – op-eds in today’s paper advocating deeper North American integration, including the possibility of a common currency across the continent. (more...)
February 11, 2008 Relying on the "Security and Prosperity Partnership" google news alert for updates is kind of like fishing. Sometimes you hook a prize-winner, like this article on the recent Mexican anti-NAFTA protests by Katie Kohlstedt, or a recent news hit on the NDP's anti-SPP tour out of the University of Calgary's Gauntlet magazine. (more...)
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