January 29, 2008

The SPP marches on and once against democracy is left behind. Canadians learned last night from the American president during his final State of the Union address that our prime minister would be meeting with him and the president of Mexico in April for the 'North American Summit' in New Orleans, Louisiana. At the time of the last Security and Prosperity Partnership summit in Montebello the final communiqué from the leaders only noted, “Prime Minister Harper and President Calderón were pleased to accept the proposal of President Bush for the United States to host the next meeting of North American leaders in 2008.”

On August 20, 2007, at the last 'Leaders Summit', Prime Minister Stephen Harper refused to accept 10,000 letters collected by the Council of Canadians from concerned citizens across the country who called on him to "cease all talks leading to deeper integration between Canada and the United States" and who expressed their concern that "our government is forging ahead with the deep integration agenda enshrined in the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP), without any public input or parliamentary debate."

On August 22, the Canwest News Service reported that, "...Council of Canadians chairwoman Maude Barlow claimed vindication after a corporate advisory panel to the three leaders recommended that legislatures be more involved with the Security and Prosperity Partnership...Barlow said the ‘jaw-dropping’ report is an admission that the SPP won't succeed without more public input. ‘We've been saying that for three years, and for three years they've been having their private meetings with leaders and scoffing at us for criticizing them,’ Barlow said outside a Montebello ice cream stand. ‘For me, what happened was they got caught. All of a sudden they're admitting that this executive level of decision-making isn't going to fly because they forgot about democracy. I see this as a true vindication of our position.’” And yet, to our great disappointment, after the glare of media attention ended, so did their promise of legislative review of the SPP.

Complete article HERE.