The Council replies: Letters to the editor

Partnership isn't merely a public relations victim

John Urquhart
The Windsor Star, February 2, 2007

Barbara Yaffe in Combating Ignorance, Jan. 26, disparages critics of the Security and Prosperity Partnership between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico as "conspiracy theorists" engaged in "raging hysteria" against a "common sense effort" to improve continental trade, but offers no real information about the deal herself.

"The checks and balances," she assures readers, "are in the parliamentary system." It should then come as news to Yaffe that the SPP has never been submitted to Parliament for discussion and debate, let alone a vote; that in the current political climate, greater security integration with the U.S. -- which refuses to remove Maher Arar from its watch list -- leaves Canadians more, not less, vulnerable to false arrest; and that the United States -- which already gets the vast majority of our oil exports and makes no secret about wanting bulk exports of water too -- is even less concerned about our environment and energy security than the Harper government.

All this is well beyond an "inept public relations strategy," as Yaffe claims, and speaks to a profound loss of public control and the public interest.

Curiously, Yaffe lumps the Council of Canadians in the same paragraph as worries about the "amero" and our becoming "North Americanists" -- neither of which terms has ever been employed by anyone at the council.

The way to combat ignorance is through information and debate. In the absence of either from Barbara Yaffe or the Harper government, readers may be interested to visit the Council of Canadians website for more information: www.canadians.org.

John Urquhart is the Executive director at the Council of Canadians

• Security and Prosperity Partnership