Any agreement that Stephen Harper and Barack Obama may sign next month to move Canada and the United States toward a continental security perimeter and a more transparent border will come with tremendous political risks. Sovereignty. Security. Terrorism. Prosperity. These are loaded words to be throwing around in a federal election that could be called in March.
A June 19, 2010 panel with community activists from No One Is Illegal Toronto (Farrah Miranda), Vancouver (Harsha Walia), and Montreal (Jaggi Singh), as well our allies Melissa Elliott (Young Onkwehonwe United, Six Nations) and Adil Charkaoui (held on a Security Certificate). This panel focuses on the realities of Canadian immigration and border patrols in relation to broader global dynamics of corporate free trade, militarization and occupation, and the global rise of racist sentiments against Indigenous and immigrant communities.
By Dana Gabriel, Global Research, December 11, 2010
There are numerous reports circulating that Canada and the U.S. are secretly negotiating a security and trade deal which could be signed as early as January 2011. The proposed agreement would establish a security perimeter as a means to better secure North America and stimulate trade. The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), along with other U.S.-Canada initiatives have allowed the two countries to incrementally move towards creating a common security perimeter.
A landmark deal is at hand between Canada and the United States to form a trade and security perimeter around the continent with an eye to easing the flow of goods and people across the border, the National Post is reporting. Called the New Border Vision, the pact could be signed as early as January by Prime Minister Stephen Harper and President Barack Obama. It is unofficially anticipated that the plan will be on the agenda when U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits Ottawa on Monday. But officially, the perimeter pact is still below the radar.
OTTAWA, Dec. 2 (UPI) — The number of illegal border-crossers arrested near the Quebec-Vermont border in October and November is four times the number last year, Canadian police say. Canadian officials said the increase suggests human traffickers have become aware the region includes a network of rural roads and abandoned logging trails, the National Post reported. “There’s no doubt that some of these illegal crossings are being facilitated by smugglers who are acting as coyotes to bring people across the border in a fashion that’s not dissimilar to what happens across the Mexican-U.S. border,” Jason Kenney, the federal citizenship and immigration minister, told the newspaper Wednesday. “These are not all spontaneous individual crossings.”
