MEDIA RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 25, 2009

John Manley has been doing Tom d’Aquino’s job for years, says Council of Canadians

Ottawa - The appointment of former Liberal MP John Manley as president of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives (CCCE) gives North America’s big business community a powerful new voice in Ottawa to push for deregulation, privatization and deep economic and security integration with the United States and Mexico, says the Council of Canadians.

“This is a match made in heaven for the Canadian and American business lobbies that could always count on Manley to endorse their priorities inside and outside of Parliament,” says Stuart Trew, trade campaigner with the Council of Canadians. “Perhaps no politician has done more to further the CCCE’s case for a Fortress North America where business and investment can roam free while citizens in Canada and Mexico endure new U.S. security practices across the continent.”

Shortly after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, outgoing CCCE president Tom d’Aquino said that Canada “should engage in more fundamental harmonization and integration” with the U.S. if we are going to keep the border open to trade. He later wrote to the Liberal government of the time that it should pursue a “smart border” with the U.S. that would “use technology to enhance both security and the flow of goods and people across the border.”

That was on November 26, 2001. Two weeks later, on December 12, and without any legislative or public debate, then deputy prime minister John Manley and Homeland Security director Tom Ridge signed the Smart Border Declaration, a 30-point plan to harmonize security and anti-terrorism regulations in the two countries, including the creation of a common no-fly list and passenger surveillance system. Later, Manley would elaborate on this vision in a report called “Building a North American Community,” co-authored by Mr. d’Aquino.

“There’s a long list of occasions where Manley and the Liberal government almost literally photocopied CCCE reports, slapped a Government of Canada logo at the top and called it public policy,” says Trew, noting that the secretive 2005 Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America (SPP) was copied nearly word for word from the CCCE’s Security and Prosperity Initiative from 2003.

“The Conservatives are also big fans of the CCCE’s business plans for North America and Harper is clearly impressed with Manley having appointed him to head the Afghanistan panel. The Council of Canadians wonders where else they will be taking Canada-U.S. relations – with or without the support of the wider population.”

North American leaders will likely meet for a fourth time since 2005 this August in Mexico. While during his leadership bid for the Democratic party U.S. President Obama promised to make these summits more transparent and inclusive of civil society, there is little evidence he is living up to his word a mere six weeks from the next gathering.

“By most accounts, including Mr. d’Aquino’s, the SPP is dead. But Manley’s appointment to head the Canadian business lobby responsible for the government push for deeper economic and security integration with the United States is a timely reminder that Canadians clearly reject this agenda and will be demanding transparency and accountability from Prime Minister Harper when he heads to Mexico later this summer.”

-30-

For More Information:

Dylan Penner, Media Officer, The Council of Canadians, 613-795-8685, dpenner@canadians.org.