Seven Oaks Magazine.

There has been praise all around for the path that Chairman Martin’s government is charting for Canada’s future. This past week, Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Anne Mclellan tabled Canada’s first ever National Security Policy in the House of Commons. In a disturbing preface to Securing an Open Society: Canada’s National Security Policy, Paul Martin prioritised Canada’s role in the world with his best George Bush impersonation:

“Security issues are not new to Canada…Throughout our history, we have managed a wide range of threats to our society…We have addressed these threats…in a way that has strengthened the open nature of our country…Our prosperity is directly linked to this openness and to our ability to flourish in an increasingly interdependent world…The horrific events of September 11th, 2001, demonstrated how individuals could exploit such openness to commit acts of terrorism that attempt to undermine the core values of democratic societies.”

Terrorism is the reason for Canada’s NSP. On April 14th, Paul Martin made this even more explicit when he told the Gagetown, NB Canadian Forces crowd that “the real security challenge of the 21st century is centred on terror cells.” Even though only 15% of Canadians have stated that the best way to fight terrorism is to increase military spending (see http://www.policyalternatives.ca, AFB 2004), the US, Canadian military hawks, and CEOs say otherwise. As Martin says in his preface, “Working to prevent attacks…requires a more integrated approach to national security – integrated inside the Government of Canada and with key partners.” Sorry Canadian citizens, we don’t fit into this “partnership”.

The National Security Policy is just an appetizer, one of several moves that are making Canada’s hawks very happy. The running total on defence spending since December 2003 is around $8 billion so far: sweet music to the ears of defence contractors, who will be the direct beneficiaries of these tax dollars.

Paul Martin was rather transparent about this as he justified the staggering amount of money that is being thrown at defence corporations: “The $7 billion investment we’ve made in the Canadian Forces since December has one aim and one aim only: to ensure that when we ask our men and women in uniform to stand in harm’s way, they have the equipment they need to get the job done – safely and effectively [emphasis added].”

Though it might be a mere coincidence, it was also last December that Canadian defence contractors were complaining about financial “backlash” due to Canada’s refusal to participate in the illegal war on Iraq. One CEO/Warmonger, Tom Last said, "For Canada not to participate, then why should they [the U.S.] get involved with us on a business case?” The logic that is inherent to this statement has found its way into foreign policy debates and Canada’s new NSP. This logic says ‘if the U.S. is going to go ahead and act unilaterally with or without our support, then we may as well just support them’. A sort of ‘if you can’t beat ‘em, join ‘em’ type of argument.

CEO of CAE Derek Burney added, “politics and defence contracts are never too far apart.” Thanks to the sociopathic trinity of the right wing Liberal government, the CEO council of Canada, and Canada’s 1000 or so defence contractors, Canada is asserting itself as the loyal and dependable United States colony. If these minority Canadian interests have it their way, politics, defence contracts and corporate welfare will be wedded for the foreseeable future. In this calculus, the top priority for Canada’s politicians is to help make the world safe for corporate capital and “free” markets.

The day before Mclellan tabled the NSP, United States Treasury Secretary John Snow applauded it as he said: “It sounded to me very much like what we’re doing with the Department of Homeland Security.” [Note: this comment passed without criticism in the corporate press, which can be taken as tacit approval of the US’s Homeland Security.] Indeed, Canada’s NSP appears to be shaped on the very same basis of delusional paranoia, trouncing of civil liberties, and jingoism that Bush and company cherish so much. The Liberals have clearly taken the lead of existing U.S. policy, while also drawing on the “recommendations” of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives in the NSP’s formulation. Said [shadow Prime Minister] Tom D’Aquino “Many of the measures announced today are consistent with the recommendations of the discussion paper released by the Council earlier this month [See: “New Frontiers: Building a 21st Century Canada-United States Partnership in North America.” http://www.ceocouncil.ca]

Canada’s recent policy revelations (thus far policy “theory”) take on an even darker countenance when considered alongside concrete policy “practice,” as in the recent and ongoing case of Haiti, a country whose citizens are under the siege of an illegal military occupation, accompanied by the horrific terror that always (historically) follows a regime change in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Canada isn’t just worried about abstract terrorist threats. Instead, we are now engaged in the process of inventing and dealing with “real” threats, such as “the threat of a good example” in Haiti. This has in fact been the longest standing threat in the history of the Western Hemisphere; for 200 years to be exact. Ever since the slaves of San Domingo organised themselves and overthrew their French slave drivers, the spectre of the threat that this posed to other colonial slaveholders in the region has loomed large.

2004 is the 200 year anniversary of Haiti’s independence. Many people have pointed out that South Africa was the lone country to be present at Haiti’s bicentennial celebrations in January, and were therefore the only country to recognize Haiti’s achievement. However, if we look at recent events through the eyes of sociopaths (the Canadian, American, and French regimes), it is clear that they have indeed “recognized” Haiti’s birthday. They are celebrating it the only way they know how: by trashing the country, murdering civilians, and by completely dismantling the fledgling democratic institutions that had been established, along with the popular movements that gave rise to them. This is imperialism’s despicable way of saying ‘Happy Birthday’.

In many ways, Haiti can be seen as a practice run for Canada under U.S. tutelage. One might wonder how this will translate itself into Canada’s new foreign policy. That is, the knowledge that Canada can plan and carry out the overthrow of a democratically-elected leader, while parroting U.S. policy and following their every lead. What is sure to carry weight is the Canadian government’s knowledge that its citizens did not bat an eyelash toward the several violations of international law in the planning (Quebec 2003) and carrying out of the coup d’etat.. What must be really encouraging for the government is the fact that the Left in Canada has also been silent toward this visible manifestation of “deep integration”.

There have been at least 24 US military or CIA interventions in the Western Hemisphere since 1953. The overthrow of Haiti’s President Jean Bertrand Aristide represents the first time that Canada has taken such an active role in destabilization and regime change. This is something that should deeply disturb Canadians, especially when we combine knowledge of Canada’s true foreign policy intentions with an awareness of several other destabilization efforts that are underway in the region (Venezuela, Bolivia, Jamaica, Colombia, et cetera). Canada is committing itself to U.S.-led militarism in Latin America and the Caribbean. Already, this has had the effect of murdering or displacing several thousand Haitians, and is guaranteed to increase the level of terror that is unleashed on popular movements in the region.

Haiti is no longer a threat to Canada’s National Security, now that we have a military presence there, and now that the dreaded Haitian Army has returned and are resuming the campaign of terror that was interrupted in 1994. Although Paul Martin, Denis Coderre, and Bill Graham had all stated that disarmament was a “top priority” after Aristide’s departure, no such disarmament has taken place in Haiti. None of the many convicted murderers have been arrested. Rather, they are working with the occupying forces of Canada, the United States, and France, as well as with the US-installed Puppet Regime, led by Gerard Latortue and Boniface Alexandre.

While the occupation of Haiti was “approved” by the United Nations Security Council, 24 hours after the coup, this approval was based on the alleged resignation letter of President Aristide, which was not a resignation letter at all, properly translated from Creole. Clearly, the US has Kofi Annan and the UN under control, but false legitimacy is better than no legitimacy. And failing this, as Paul Martin sneered on April 14th “Multilateralism is…our preferred approach…But the absence of international consensus must never condemn us to inaction.”

None of this, of course, is being reported in the mainstream press, and it follows that few Canadians are aware of the atrocities that are being perpetrated in their names, by their government and their military. As these facts gradually are disseminated to larger numbers of people, hopefully the connection -- between Canada’s actions toward Haiti and their new foreign and NSP designs -- will be recognized and acted upon.

Recent events are indicating that Canada is in the midst of historically profound change, and yet it is safe to say that many Canadians are oblivious to this, as it unfolds before our very eyes. Four months into 2004, Canada has overthrown a democratically elected President, tabled their first ever National Security Policy, and has, among other things, reaffirmed its commitments to Afghanistan, the Balkans, and to the deconstruction of Iraq. These are frightening times, all the moreso given the vice grip that the institutions of propaganda, consumerism, militarism, and corporatism have on our society and, ever increasingly, on the world. Only a massive popular movement -- just the thing that our new foreign and domestic policies are pre-emptively preparing for and smashing – can counter and defeat these grave threats to humanity.