Suspenders and a Belt: Perimeter and Border Security in Canada-Us Relations

“How can you trust a man who wears both a belt and suspenders? The man can’t even trust his own pants.” Once upon a Time in the Wesi

INTRODUCTION

On 23 March 2005, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin joined Presidents George W. Bush and Vincente Fox in Waco, Texas, to announce the founding of a North American security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). As part of the SPP, the three countries are to pursue common approaches:

* to emergency preparedness and infrastructure protection;

* improve aviation, border and maritime security; and

* explore ways to enhance economic cooperation in key sectors. (Canada 2005)

Read more: http://ca.vlex.com/vid/suspenders-belt-perimeter-border-relations-62766974#ixzz1NVRT589z

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http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=2330951&Language=E&Mode=1

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Suspenders and a Belt: Perimeter and Border Security in Canada-Us Relations

“How can you trust a man who wears both a belt and suspenders? The man can’t even trust his own pants.” Once upon a Time in the Wesi

INTRODUCTION

On 23 March 2005, Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin joined Presidents George W. Bush and Vincente Fox in Waco, Texas, to announce the founding of a North American security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP). As part of the SPP, the three countries are to pursue common approaches:

* to emergency preparedness and infrastructure protection;

* improve aviation, border and maritime security; and

* explore ways to enhance economic cooperation in key sectors. (Canada 2005)

These efforts are intended to reaffirm the continental neighbours’ shared desire for a closer continental security relationship, one that reduces North American vulnerabilities without unduly slowing cross-border trade. In order to further improve continental security, Canada, the United States and Mexico are forming ministerial working groups to examine additional means of improving North America’s economic and security ties. As recently advocated by a Council on Foreign Relations task force, these working groups are likely to discuss the erection of a North American security perimeter, a step that would involve a near complete harmonization of Canadian, American, and Mexican homeland security and defence measures. (Council on Foreign Relations et al 2005)

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http://www.libertyparkusafd.org/lp/Hale/Special%20Reports/Martial%20Law/Canada-US%20Relations%20-%20Defence%20Partnership.htm

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shows a pretty nifty map! CANADA: AMERICA”S BACKYARD!!

http://www.journal.dnd.ca/vo4/no1/doc/v4n1-p15-22-eng.pdf

Philippe Lagassé holds a Master’s degree from the War Studies Program at the Royal Military College, Kingston
Read more: http://ca.vlex.com/vid/suspenders-belt-perimeter-border-relations-62766974#ixzz1NVRT589z

The Government of Canada, through the Beyond the Border Working Group, is committed to consulting with Canadians on the declaration on a shared vision for perimeter security and economic competitiveness. Priorities identified through public consultations will help shape the action plan, which will contain initiatives aimed at securing the two countries’ common border while developing job-producing and prosperity-enhancing trade between them.

Submissions and comments on ways to strengthen collaboration in the four key areas of cooperation can be made online at http://www.borderactionplan.gc.ca. The public consultation period is scheduled to run between March 13 and April 21, 2011.

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http://www.international.gc.ca/media/aff/news-communiques/2011/099.aspx

of course more information background info available @

http://politicsrespun.org/2011/03/the-ugly-return-of-the-security-and-prosperity-partnership-spp/

http://politicsrespun.org/2011/03/the-ugly-return-of-the-security-and-prosperity-partnership-spp/

In citing the “Blaine Sector” (BC-Washington State) it notes the presence of “known terrorist organizations” lurking in the bushes around White Rock, plotting the downfall of America.

And yet in 2008, more people were caught trying to sneak into Canada at remote border points with the United States than the other way around, intelligence reports found.

The RCMP attributed the trend to factors including a U.S. crackdown on undocumented workers, more American agents along the border and the floundering U.S. economy. The figures showed 952 people were caught entering Canada, while 819 were bound for the United States.

But it noted that some units within Homeland Security clash over who conducts border surveillance, who interviews detained immigrants and who gets credit for apprehensions, seizures and prosecutions.

Efforts, in fact, to police the border have been tainted by rivalries that “may result in inefficiencies and a breakdown of co-ordination, ultimately leading to the risk of a border that is less secure.”

Various U.S. agencies also fail to share information with one another due to mutual distrust, the report found.

Of course..increased collaboration with the Department of Homeland Security would raise privacy and sovereignty concerns….BE WAIT THAT’S ALL BEEN FIXED NOW!!

http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/02/04/declaration-president-obama-and-prime-minister-harper-canada-beyond-bord

more info?
http://www.cdfai.org/2002CanadaUSStrategicPartner...

(Canada-US Relations – Defense Partnership – July 2003, Canadian American Strategic Review (CASR), http://www.sfu.ca/casr/ft-lagasse1.htm

HAS BEEN MOVED:

FYI:

http://www.cdfai.org/2002CanadaUSStrategicPartnershipConference.htm

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“In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted. Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of the huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”

-Dwight D. Eisenhower

Take me out of the census
It looks scary to me
Where our data is ending up
Nobody really can guarantee

Cause it’s Lockheed Martin behind it
Spyware is what they’re about
So it’s oh, no, don’t fall in line
Just say COUNT ME OUT.
We believe in the census
It’s okay in itself
But while Lockheed is running it
We are putting it back on the shelf

And when Lockheed Martin is banished
We will fill our forms out
Till then oh, no, we won’t comply
We say COUNT ME OUT.

http://home.primus.ca/~donrogers/cmo/

We are particularly ourtraged that Census public money is being spent on Lockheed Martin.

http://home.primus.ca/~donrogers/cmo/lockheedmartin/index.htm

It now does work for more than two dozen government agencies from the Department of Defense and the Department of Energy to the Department ofAgriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency.

It’s involved in surveillance and information processing for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), the National Security Agency (NSA), the Pentagon, the Census Bureau, and the Postal Service.

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CANADA’S CENSUS..

Author Shorrock does the nation a great service in providing a basis for discussion of the out-sourcing of intelligence and IT support functions to private industry by federal agencies.

1) Secret intelligence scam #1 is that there is no penalty for failure. Lockheed can build a satellite system that does not work (for NASA as well as the secret world–two different failures–or get the metrics wrong so priceless outer space research does not deploy a parachute–}and get another contract.

He names LtGen Ken Minihan, USAF, as the de facto ideologist for the intelligence-industrial complex, and provides a good review of how venture capital funds were created to focus specifically on secret contracts.

- Total Information Awareness (TIA) program never died, it went underground

Spies for Hire: The Secret World of Intelligence Outsourcing
ISBN-13: 978-0743282246

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* August 20 – August 21, 2007 – Montebello, Quebec, Canada

“The leaders of the U.S., Canada and Mexico had a major trilateral summit meeting, in relation to the SPP, at the Château Montebello, in Montebello, Quebec.[7] This conference was described as a public relations event with the purpose of promoting the SPP among investors and to reassure the public about the consequences of the plan. A protest during the event led to controversy, when labour leaders identified three masked, rock-wielding individuals as disguised police officers and accused them of disguising themselves as demonstrators in order to incite violence. Footage of the clash was shown on Youtube and attracted significant media attention; the Quebec Provincial Police subsequently admitted that the individuals in question had been police officers in disguise, but denied any attempts to incite violence. ”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Security_and_Prosperity_Partnership_of_North_America

Among the various U.S. agencies, it will also include the participation of the RCMP who will pass on any pertinent information to Canada Border Services and the Ontario Provincial Police.
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/on/news-nouvelles/2011/...

The new center is intended to, “bring about an increased unity of effort among participating agencies and help maximize resource utilization. The OIC will also draw support from field assets, intelligence resources, and a variety of technologies.”

This could be the first of many such facilities which will expand surveillance capabilities and further militarize the northern border.

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Following the GAO report which identified security vulnerabilities along the northern border, a group of U.S. Senators from states that border Canada issued a letter to U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Janet Napolitano. The Senators were urging the two federal agencies, “to further cooperate in combating the increased rate of drug smuggling across our northern border by deploying any and all available military radar technology to uncover and combat the smuggling of drugs by low-flying aircraft.”

They pointed to Operation Outlook, a bi-national, multi-agency pilot project employed in the Spokane Sector from 2005 to 2008, which used military radar equipment. The initiative, “identified air-related smuggling trends and patterns and organizations active in cross border criminal activities.”

Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) who signed the letter, later announced that Secretary Napolitano had agreed to deploy radar technology across the northern border as quickly as possible.
http://casey.senate.gov/newsroom/press/release/?i...

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http://schumer.senate.gov/record.cfm?id=331753

REFERENCES:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2011/0...
http://www.cbp.gov/xp/cgov/newsroom/highlights/ne... http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/on/news-nouvelles/2011/...
http://www.dhs.gov/ynews/testimony/testimony_1299...
http://hsgac.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseActi...
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-97