I would be interested to know what our Canadian regulars make of Connie Fogal’s civil libertarian, anti-globalist Canadian Action Party.  I’ve just been perusing their website, which is very impressive ... not least for its journalism.

Here’s the front end of a two-part feature article titled: The Metamorphosis and Sabotage of Canada by Our Own Government.  It is informed and detailed journalism of a calibre we do not see nearly often enough.

Of course, the Party is condemned to a narrow platform because it is operating within the existing liberal political milieu, so whether the radicalism can be summoned to really change things remains to be seen.

Introduction

The North American continent is being transformed from three sovereign nations Canada, USA, Mexico) into one regional corporate power base, the North American Union. Unlike the creation of the European Union, there is no public political/ academic discourse on the merits, or pros and cons of a North American Union building up to a vote within each nation as to the wish of the people to join such a union. Instead the union is being created by stealth, is already well on its way to fruition, and is being imposed on us by our own elected representatives and government with no opposition.

The driving force is corporate. The Chief Executive Officers of the most powerful corporations operating in the three countries want this union and have been working for some time devising their strategies and goals. Their facilitators are first, unelected officials and bureaucrats who move easily between corporations and government; second, former elected officials like John Manley , former Deputy Prime Minister of Canada; third, the heads of the three nations, Martin, Bush, and Fox; and finally, the governments and the rest of the elected members who apparently just rubber stamp what is put in front of them by the unelected officials- few questions, if any asked.

The ultimate enforcement mechanism for the North American Union is a police state.

The tools for the police state are “anti-terrorist” laws which, in themselves, are a ruse to strip the citizens of civil liberties in order to prevent dissent against the police state.

The Orwellian justification is “security”, “safety”.

Canadian patriots have been focusing on the wrong threat- annexation to the U.S.A with no voting rights, only colony status like a Gibraltar. The real plan emerges. The fact is that we are now already metamorphosing into something else- A North American Union comprised of Canada, U.S.A.,and Mexico. The goal is an internally borderless North America rid of the constitutional structures and rules of the separate nations that created and protected the democratic fabric of the respective peoples.

This Union is planned, directed, organized and coordinated by unelected, unaccountable people of the military /industrial complex with a few academic apologists thrown in for good measure. It is being facilitated by all three elected governments. This is the same military/industrial complex that General Eisenhower warned against.

This group is creating a despotic regime for the pursuit of their interest (rapacious greed and power) which is diametrically opposed to the needs and interests of the citizens in all three countries. Their plan is to make all of North America their power base acting in their interest only. Forget the people

The two bodies (one corporate, one military) which have been functioning for some time to create this treasonous union are well advanced in that formation. They are: the Canada-U.S.A-Mexico task force and The Binational Military Planning Group.

1. The corporate side: the Canada-U.S.A-Mexico task force

The Canada-U.S.A-Mexico Task Force is comprised of the leading CEOs of the most powerful corporations from Canada, USA and Mexico, prominent former officials, businessmen, and academic apologists from all three countries. They are: (a.) From U.S.A. - Council on Foreign Relations;
(b). From Mexico- the Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales;
(c.) From Canada: Canadian Council of Chief Executives- Founded in 1976, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives is Canada’s premier business association composed of the chief executives of 150 leading Canadian enterprises. The CCCE was the Canadian private sector
leader in the development and promotion of the Canada-United States Free Trade Agreement during the 1980s and of the subsequent trilateral North American Free Trade Agreement.

This task force is currently headed by Canada’s own former Liberal Deputy Prime Minister, John Manley (who allegedly seeks to replace Paul Martin as Prime Minister).

This task force was sanctioned by the three leaders, Prime Minister Martin, President Bush and President Fox, in March of 2005 at a special meeting in Texas at Bush’s ranch at which the three leaders signed the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America.

In practice, the elected governments of the three countries are the willing dupes promulgating laws that impose a police state in order to enforce rules that enable the new regime. Some would call this treason.

(2) The military side: The Binational Military Planning Group-

Founded in late 2002,its mandate is to lay the groundwork for the integration of a Canada -US military command structure, and the militarization of civilian law enforcement, and judicial function in Canada and the USA. Their stated mandate is first to prepare contingency plans to respond to land and sea threats, and attacks, and other major emergencies; and second, to plan for coordinated response for military assistance to civil authorities in the event of threat or attack, and for civil emergency in Canada and the USA.

Neither of the Task Force nor the Military Planning group is accountable to the US Congress, nor to the Canadian House of Commons, nor to the Mexican government, and certainly Not to the citizenry.

1. Let’s focus first on the corporate side, the Canada- USA- Mexico task force.

See: Trilateral Task Force Recommendations
http://www.usembassycanada.gov/content/can_usa/northamericancommunity_TF_final.pdf

And: Trilateral Commission website
http://www.trilateral.org/

And: Council on Foreign Relations: Trinational call for a North American Economic and Security Community by 2010

http://www.cfr.org/publication.html?id=7914

These Canadian, U.S., and Mexican elites are the same players who gave us the FTA and the NAFTA. They continue their work creating a North American union that integrates our economies and transforms our total policy-making capacity away from the public interest and away from the public good.

This plan goes by various names:
· Deep Integration
· Harmonization
· NAFTA-plus
· the “Big Idea” (C.D. Howe Institute)
· the “North American Security and Prosperity Initiative”
· Americanization

The plan of this Canada-U.S.-Mexico task force is to establish a continent-wide customs union with a common approach to trade, energy, immigration, law enforcement and security that would virtually eliminate existing national borders. The task force released its recommendations for a common North America in May 17/18 2005.There was minor reference to it in mainstream media- no headline presentation. The recommendations include:

* * a common security perimeter by 2010.
* * a North American Border Pass with biometric identifiers.
* * a unified border and expanded customs facilities.
** a single economic space: (It is this area that would destroy any opportunity to bring back the use of our Bank of Canada.)
* * a common external tariff.
* * seamless movement of goods within North America.
* * Full labor mobility between Canada and the U.S. (Note they apparently do not want the Mexican labourers??)
* * A North American energy strategy -as a regional alternative to Kyoto.
* * Review those sectors of NAFTA that were excluded.
* * A North American regulatory plan that would include “open skies and open roads” and a unified approach on food, health, and the environment.
* * Expand temporary worker programs and create a “North American preference” for immigration for citizens of North America.
* * A North American Investment Fund to build infrastructure to connect Mexico’s poorer regions in the south to the market to the north.
* * Restructure and reform Mexico’s public finances.
* * Fully develop Mexican energy resources (Mexico wisely kept their energy out of NAFTA)
* * A permanent tribunal for trade and investment disputes.( Here is where any vestige of democratic government disappears)
* * An annual North American summit meeting.
* * A Tri-national Competition Commission with a common approach to trade remedies.
* * Scholarships for a network of Centers for North American Studies. (To serve the corporations)

Below is the list of the Members of the Independent Task Force on North America- Many are members of the Trilateral Commission - a similar corporate interest group from the USA, Japan and Western Europe )

Minister Pedro Aspe (Mexican co-chair), Protego
Mr. Thomas S. Axworthy, Queen’s University
Ms. Heidi S. Cruz, Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
Mr. Nelson W. Cunningham, Kissinger McLarty Associates
Mr. Thomas P. d’Aquino (Canadian co-vice chair), Canadian Council of Chief Executives
Mr. Alfonso de Angoitia, Grupo Televisa, S.A.
Dr. Luis de La Calle Pardo, De la Calle, Madrazo, Mancera, S.C.
Professor Wendy K. Dobson, University of Toronto
Dr. Robert A. Pastor (U.S. co-vice chair), American University
Mr. Andréés Rozental, (Mexican co-vice chair), Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales
Dr. Richard A. Falkenrath, The Brookings Institution
Dr. Rafael Fernandez de Castro, Instituto Tecnolóógico Autóónomo de Mééxico
Mr. Ramóón Alberto Garza, Montemedia
The Honorable Gordon D. Giffin, McKenna Long & Aldridge LLP
Mr. Allan Gotlieb, Donner Canadian Foundation
Mr. Michael Hart, Norman Paterson School of International Affairs
Mr. Carlos Heredia, Consejo Mexicano de Asuntos Internacionales
The Honorable Carla A. Hills, Hills & Company
Dr. Gary C. Hufbauer, Institute for International Economics
Dr. Luis Rubio, CIDAC
Dr. Jeffrey J. Schott, Institute for International Economics
Mr. Pierre Marc Johnson, Heenan Blaikie
The Honorable James R. Jones, Manatt Jones Global Strategies
Dr. Chappell H. Lawson (Task Force Director), Massachusetts Institute of Technology
The Honourable John P. Manley (Canadian co-chair), McCarthy Tetrault
Mr. David McD. Mann, Cox Hanson O’Reilly Matheson
Ms. Doris M. Meissner, Migration Policy Institute
The Honorable Thomas M.T. Niles, Institute for International Economics
The Honorable William F. Weld (U.S. co-chair),Leeds Weld & Co.
Mr. Raul H. Yzaguirre


The few media references to the task force parrot the Orwellian double speak of the task force and politicians. The effect is to trick the people into believing this process is something good for us. But if you read carefully, you can identify that the regime change is all about the greed of an elite few. In order to manipulate us into accepting the regime change, they pretend it will protect us from “terrorists”. Terrorism has become the external threat, the bogey- man replacing Communism, just as Moslems have replaced Jews as scapegoats..

From Reuters:

“NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States, Canada and Mexico should establish a common security perimeter to guard against terrorism in North America, a tri-national independent task force said in a report released onTuesday.

The countries should police their borders together to help border trade, allow easier movement of citizens and to keep out potential security threats, the task force said at New York’s Council on Foreign Relations.

‘If our two borders, the one between Canada and the United States and the U.S. and Mexico, became a frontline for security the impact that would have on normal relations and economic relations would be profound,’ said co-chairman John Manley, a former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance.”

From All American Patriots News:

“May 17, 2005—North America is vulnerable on several fronts: the region faces terrorist and criminal security threats, increased economic
competition from abroad, and uneven economic development at home. In response to these challenges, a tri-national, Independent Task Force on the Future of North America has developed a roadmap to promote North American security and advance the well-being of citizens of all three countries.

Pointing to increased competition from the European Union and rising economic powers such as India and China in the eleven years since NAFTA took effect, co-chair Pedro C. Aspe, former Finance Minister of Mexico, said, ‘We need a vision for North America to address the new challenges.’ 
The Task Force establishes a blueprint for a powerhouse North American trading area that allows for the seamless movement of goods, increased labor mobility, and energy security.

John P. Manley, Former Canadian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance said, ‘We are asking the leaders of the United States, Mexico, and Canada to be bold and adopt a vision of the future that is bigger than, and beyond, the immediate problems of the present,’ ‘They could be the architects of a new community of North America, not mere custodians of the status quo.’” 

In other words, forget Canada; forget the United States of America; forget the United States of Mexico. Some might consider this rather treasonous!!

Let us be very clear here. What the task force addresses is an economic/legal system in their interest with a police state to enforce it.

This task force is extrapolating the globalization process into a North American unit. Under the mantle of the WTO (an agreement in its own right,) there is in process a transformation of the forces of power in the world from sovereign national control of resources over to the global corporate control. It is what they call “deregulation” and”privatization”. That is why they called all the agreements “Free Trade”. They meant free from regulations and controls that protect consumers and the public generally, including protections from theft of the commons.

Now the intent is for transfer from global corporate control to regional corporate control, e.g., European Union, North American Union; that is, corporate political control free from government accountability to electors. The North American task force seeks to create a unit even freer from the vestigial citizen involvement that exists in the E.U. (Britain and Australia are lackeys of the United States.)

The FTA, the NAFTA, are well known. The Canadian Action Party and other concerned Canadians have been detailing the harm of these agreements for years. CAP has steadfastly called for the abrogation of the FTA and NAFTA. We have always said,” Issue the 6 month notice to abrogate!” The most recent justification for abrogation is the U.S.’s refusal to pay back $5 billion they owe our lumber industry for illegal duties the U.S. charged.

Despite years of proof of uneven and unfair use by the USA of the rules of the FTA and NAFTA, including the unfair closing of the U.S side of the border to Canadian beef, the Liberals, Conservatives, the NDP, and the Bloc Quebecois have refused to call for abrogation. It is only in the face of the clarity of this latest U.S. abuse of Canada that all of them are beginning to pretend they are not wimps or complicit dupes. Still, none of them is willing to say, “Abrogate, period!” How much longer are we willing to tolerate these politicians who not only meekly submit to being stomped on, but then turn to their attacker and apologize for being victimized?

Why do they do this? It is because all of their most influential leaders are members of this elite group who seek to remove democracy and entrench plutocracy. It is not a question of what is good for the citizens of Canada, U.S.A or Mexico. Note that the United States is turning that $5 billion which has been stolen from the Canadian lumber industry over to their own lumber barons, not their general body of citizens.

This North American Impetus is a natural political extension and outgrowth of all these global economic arrangements as the greedy financial elite look around for the best ways to effect their goals. It has everything to do with the destruction of democracy and the death of freedom. These corporate bodies have no allegiance to the nation they happen to operate in, or to its people.

Other harmful international agreements include the General Agreement on Trade and Services, (GATS), the Financial Services Investment Agreement, (FSIA), the Free Trade Area of the Americas, (FTAA), the Central American Free Trade Agreement, (CAFTA). All of these grow out of the World Trade Organization, (WTO), itself being an agreement that commands an ongoing deregulation and privatization process.

The eventual goal is to have all of North and South America as one regional power block stronger than anything in Europe or Asia. Fortunately for human beings, South America has not been the easy pushover that the corporations presumed, so they have to settle for a North American Union for now. (Why do you think Pat Robertson, a U.S. religious leader, on national U.S. media, and on Canada’s C.B.C., recently called for the Assassination of Hugo Chavez, the Leader of Venezuela?)

There exists a North America Bureau of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade. See: http://www.dfait-maeci.gc.ca/can-am/main/front_page/north_american_bureau-en.asp

The role of the North America Bureau is twofold:

* to advance, in cooperation with other parts of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, Canadian diplomatic missions in the United States and Mexico, and other Canadian Government departments and agencies, Canada’s wide-ranging interests in its relations with the United
States and Mexico; and

* to promote Canada’s broad foreign policy objectives within and through the Canada-US and the Canada-Mexico bilateral relationships.

In fulfilling this role, the Bureau is organized into four divisions:

* the United States Relations Division,
* the United States Transboundary Division, and
* the United States Business Development Division and
* The Mexico Division


2. Let’s now look at the second body, The Binational Military Planning
Group. (Source Michel Chossudovsky. http://www.globalresearch.ca 
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/CH0411C.html

Chossudovsky says the people of NORAD and the Binational Planning Group are the same . They operate the same command. NORAD has essentially been scrapped. It has been integrated into US Northern Command, and Canada has become a de facto member of NORTHCOM under the auspices of the Bi-national Planning Group. (BPG).

So, when Prime Minister Paul Martin said “no” to Star Wars, he did not really say no. He lied to us.

The Binational Planning Group was set up in late 2002 after Prime Minster Chrétien refused to join NORTHCOM. The creation of Northcom had been announced unilaterally in April 2002 by Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfield who dictated that the US Northern Command would have jurisdiction over the entire North American region. Canada and Mexico were presented with a fait accompli. US Northern Command’s jurisdiction set out in the US DoD includes the continental US ,all of Canada, Mexico, portions of the Caribbean, contiguous waters in the Atlantic and Pacific oceans up to 500 miles off the Mexican, US and Canadian coastlines, as well as the Canadian arctic.

Northcom was being quietly negotiated with Ottawa’s Department of Defence and the PMO. Under NORTHCOM the US military will cross the border and deploy troops anywhere in Canada, in our provinces as well as station American warships in Canadian territorial waters. The locale for these
discussions is not in Canada, but at the Peterson Air Force base in
Colorado, the headquarters of the US Northern Command(Northcom) .

Chossudovsky reports that Rumsfeld is said to have boasted that “the
NORTHCOM with all of North America as its geographic command ‘is part of
the greatest transformation of the Unified Command Plan (UCP) since its
inceptions in 1947’”

When PM Chretien refused to sign on the dotted line, Rumsfield et al, the
military establishment, both US and Canadian, refused to take no for an answer. They immediately created a new name to accommodate the concept of NORTHCOM and called it the Binational Planning group . It is still operating out of the Peterson Air force base. It was supposed to last only for two years but its mandate has been renewed to spring of 2006. (Note- look for a Canadian election before the expiry date.)

The BPG has a staff of 50 US and Canadian military planners laying the groundwork fo the integration of Canada -US military command structures. The BPG works in close coordination with the Canada-US Military Cooperation Committee at the Pentagon- responsible for detailed
joint military planning.

Respecting missile defence, Martin told the press on February 22,2005: “[The Americans] were told we will not participate.” “It is a firm ‘no.’”

Chossudovsky reminds us that simultaneously, Frank McKenna ambassador designate to the US, in a contradictory statement, told the media “ Canada’s participation in the controversial BMD is a “done deal”. It’s de facto. It was part of a negotiation process initiated two years ago.

“We’re part of it now and the question is what more do we need?” said McKenna. “There’s no doubt, in looking back, ... that the NORAD amendment has given, has created part, in fact a great deal, of what the United States means in terms of being able to get the input for defensive weaponry.”

What Ambassador McKenna was hinting at, without revealing the substance of US-Canada negotiations (behind closed doors), is that NORAD is a defunct military body.

So the military side of this treason is waiting for government sanction in the spring of 2006 after our next election. Once again the arrogant confidence is at least irritating if not alarming.

Even though there is no official sanction yet, de facto sanctions exist as Canada is participating more and more in the US wars.. Now we have more troops in Afghanistan, and General Hilliard is warning Canadians to be prepared for the body bags returning to Canada. There is something really wrong with this picture.

In a comprehensive report prepared shortly before the Bush-Martin talks November 2004, the BPG made recommendations on: ” how the two countries’ militaries can work together more effectively to counter these [terrorist] threats. ... formalizing cooperation already taking place on an informal basis.” (Statement of BPG spokesman, US Department of Defence Information, November 3, 2004)

With regard to military negotiations, McKenna knows what is happening behind the scenes. He was on the board of directors of the Carlyle Group together with Bush Senior and Frank Carlucci (The bin Laden family were investors in Carlyle until 9/11).

Carlyle, is the leading private equity investor in the aerospace and defence industries in the US and Canada. It plays a key role in the formulation of US defence and foreign policy. It has a vested interest in Canada’s integration into NORTHCOM. Michel Chossusdovsky points out that “Canada’s participation in the
Bilateral Planning Group and hence the Northern Command implies Canada’s acceptance not only of Star Wars, but of the entire US war agenda, requiring significant hikes in Canada’s defence spending. The latter are intended to fuel the military-industrial complex. Canada’s defence contractors are supportive of this process.”

Chossudovsky points to Canada’s February 2005 budget, released on the day following P.M. PaulMartin’s categorical “No” to the Missile Defence Program. Chossudovsky notes that “an additional $12.8 billion dollars (Cdn) (over the next five years), has added to Canada’s spiralling defence budget. The stated objective is to ‘burnish the country’s credibility as a global peacekeeping partner’.”

Chossudovsky notes further that the budget is not meant to refurbish the country’s conventional military hardware, but rather will be channelled to Canadian weapons producers, many of which are affiliates of US defence conglomerates, upon Canada’s accession to NORTHCOM.. He lists some major players in Canada’s defence industry: General Dynamics (Canada), Bell Helicopter Textron (Canada), General Motors Defense, CAE Inc, Bombardier, 
SNC-Lavalin Group, etc.


So we can see that those two bodies, the trilateral task force and the Bilateral Planning group, are well entrenched in process.

The fact is that most Canadians oppose this deep economic and military integration.

Now the greedy corporations are staking out a claim on more and more land in a region of North America in order to be bigger, and better and more profitable than a group of corporations from another regional block. The European Union was the first block. There is a rising Asian block. I am not the first to see the USA attacks on the middle east as a means of
preventing the Asian blocks from becoming the most powerful . The third region is the Americas. South America has not been an easy go for the globalizers. So the focus is concentrating for now on North America.)

By examination of the arrangements and deals happening under our noses but by stealth, we can see that our worries expressed over the years are coming to fruition. The globalizers are well into the process of implementing a clear regime run by them, about them, for them, and enforced by governments. The masses of people do not count except as cannon fodder in the wars of conquest and as slaves for the production process .

There is every intention of regime change from democracy to tyranny. Our governments are already the willing whipping boys being the instruments of social control. They have no shame in removing our civil liberties and destroying our constitutional protections .This is happening all around the world with the USA, Britain, Australia and Canada being the most advanced in the regime change process. It is an outrage and a disgrace that Canada is now competing with Britain to become the lowliest lick spittle groveling agent to the USA led regime change process. There is nothing good in this regime change process for the citizen.