Disagreeable Disagreements

Gar Pady, a former member of the foreign service familiar with American-Canadian issues and clearly a fan of former Liberal governments wrote a cautionary article published in The Ottawa Citizen about the border talks between Canada and the United States. (Canada will pay a steep price in border talks, Monday, September 12, 2011). "Initiatives to improve access to the United States by Canadians, their goods and their services, foundered on continuing American security concerns", he wrote. Missing from the public discussion, he claims, is the understanding of the price that will be paid by Canadians to satisfy American requirements to enable border access to open a little wider for Canadian trucks and services. The article spouts the usual cautions of anti-American rhetoric. And copied below is a response to that article, written by a reader of the newspaper:

Mr. Pardy cautions Canada to be vigilant regarding Canada/U.S. cross-border agreements that may require a perceived surrender of Canadian privacy rights. Mr. Pardy concedes that all his concerns over privacy tend to be foreshadowed by "border issues which frustrate rather than facilitate trade". Mr. Pardy's ace is that commissions of enquiry in Canada have revealed that privacy rights of a few Canadians have been violated by the sharing of information with the United States where a few individuals were unfortunately sent for rendition to third countries where they were inhumanely imprisoned and treated. These unfortunate incidents should be understood in the emergency context of the violent events that precipitated them, which alerted both countries to real and present threats. While the jury is still out in some of these cases under litigation, the government has acknowledged its errors in other cases and well-compensated the victims.

I detect resentment by Mr. Pardy on all the initiatives to expand and facilitate trade at the perceived expense of other Canadian rights which may be more important to some. For countless decades, successive Canadian governments for political purposes have done an incredible disservice to the public by not educating Canadians on how vital our trade and security with the United States is to our high standard of living. At the same time, Mr. Pardy is ingenuous in not acknowledging when he must know that the great vacuum in Canadian intelligence capability was highlighted in the rendition cases.

While I have no knowledge of Canada's intelligence community today, through the course of my dutiesI was aware of what was occurring throughout my working life. After a forty-year career as a first-line customs and immigration officer at Toronto International Airport, a customs appraiser at the Airport and waterfront, and other locations, and as a foreign service officer abroad, and through negotiations with the Americans in Washinton, New York, Mexico, etc., I cannot recall any significant intelligence ever received from a Canadian source that resulted in the interdiction of drugs, contraband goods, undocumented travellers, etc. Rather, even as a customs officer, virtually all the seizures I made resulted from a constant stream of American intelligence which always proved to be valid and actionable. (Interdictions from the Caribbean, Africa, South and Central America, Europe, etc.).

What would one expect from the neglect of many federal governments in this area. I hope things are different now, but Canadians should be aware of the history here, and have a better understanding of the consequences. With a somewhat more open government today, some of these long-standing flaws are (I hope) being addressed.

Mr. Pardy has brought up the aftermath of 9/11 as a knee-jerk reaction by the Americans. Arrogant and outrageous anti-Americanism, given the treatment of our southern neighbours by Chretien, Trudeau and earlier governments to a close, trusted neighbour. This kind of anti-Americanism manipulated its Canadian audiences to show how smugly superior we were and are today without coming clean as to how shamelessly we let the Americans look after our intelligence, security and many other needs. Little wonder they wish to upgrade the price to Canada to advance their security needs.

As to the real left in Canada... Have they and their union supporters ever acknowledged that historically their well-being today (as much as it still exists) rests entirely on trade with the U.S.? As well as U.S. investments, have they ever concerned themselves with the monetary costs associated with all the major tasks the U.S. has performed on their behalf to keep us safe, secure and wealthy?

Our greatest manufactured exports to the U.S. are in the automotive sector, all union shops. What percentage of our exports to China (No.2 trading partner) are fully manufactured goods? And what are our prospects for greatly increasing these exports? Guess!