Stephen Harper - Don't Sell Us Out to the U.S.!

Well.

The failing U.S. economic machine, the failing leader of the free world, is now effectively threatening Canada that if we don't open our citizen's records for their review, they will make it more difficult for Canadians to pass through their borders.

Ok - that's not how Stephen Harper explains it, he talks about a "perimeter security arrangement", however, part of that perimeter security arrangement would include "shared" access to our personal information via federal government databases.

As reported today in the Globe and Mail:

The most controversial aspect of the talks will be an attempt to more deeply integrate the sharing of intelligence on people and products to ensure that anything or anyone entering either country would be properly inspected and the information shared.

Think about that for just a moment.

Already, we have witnessed growing dismissal in the United States of concepts like "due process" and rights to personal privacy - all in the growing paranoia over terrorist threats.

And, like any good paranoiac, the U.S. would prefer to look to scape goat others rather than look inward at their own issues.

For instance.

Many Americans continue to believe that the 9-11 terrorists gained entry into the U.S. via Canada, which just isn't true.

And while some may suggest that the Republicans are our conservative brothers, the fact is that much of their politics are based upon the trafficking of fear and ignorance.

Witness the comments of Republican Candidate Sharon Angle during the recent mid-term elections as reported by CTV:

Sharron Angle, a Tea party candidate from Nevada who is running for a seat in the U.S. Senate, suggested to a group of Hispanic youths that the 9/11 bombers entered the U.S. from Canada.


"What we know is that our northern border is where the terrorists came through," she said, in remarks captured on video. "That's the most porous border that we have. We cannot allow terrorists; we cannot allow anyone to come across our border if we don't know why they're coming."

Problem is, not a single terrorist act on U.S. soil has ever been committed by someone entering the U.S. through Canada.

And these comments aren't limited to fringe Tea Party candidates - in 2009, former U.S. Security Czar Janet Napolitano also suggested there was a Canadian connection to the 9/11 terrorists.

They know it isn't true - but that doesn't matter.  Keeping the ignorant and angry, well.. ignorant and angry helps to deflect criticism of failed economic policy, failed health care policy and failed foreign policy.


Meanwhile - good old white bread, U.S. born Americans are committing terrorist acts such as the Tucson shootings and the Oklahoma City bombing..  but let's focus on the "porous Canadian border" as the bogeyman.
And, yet, knowing of the facile dismissal in their own country of fundamental rights of freedom and liberty, and knowing of the dishonesty of their portrayal of Canada as a "security threat", we are engaging in negotiations to open our private federal databases to the U.S. to do with as they wish.

And here's just a tidbit of how they respect our personal data..  in Canada, if you are convicted of an offense as a minor, after 5 years, your records are required to be destroyed.  Similarly, if you receive a pardon, those records are also expunged.

However - when it comes to U.S. Border Security, once they access your personal records, they do what they want with it.  They blissfully ignore our laws regarding record use and retention - taking the very accurate position that our laws don't apply to them. 

So - while the U.S. knowingly allowed suspected Al Quaeda operative Khalid al-Mihdhar to enter the U.S., to settle in San Diego, to train as pilots, and then to fly a jet into the World Trade Centre - thankfully for U.S. security, you can't enter the U.S. if you had a record as a minor for possession of marijuana 15 years ago.

Now, you can argue about whether or not pardons should be granted, or whether or not young offender records should be sealed or destroyed - but the inescapable fact is that once the U.S. gets their hands on our personal records and information - there is not a damn thing we can do to control what they may do with it.

So.

I'm a supporter of Stephen Harper - but on this point, my strong advice is do not sell out our privacy and sovereignty for the sake of easier border access.

Tell the U.S. to stuff it, we'll deal with the border hassle and, if anything, take the reduced access of commercial goods as an opportunity to improve our own manufacturing industry - if you can't get U.S. manufactured goods in a timely fashion, well, perhaps there will be a better market for "made in Canada" goods.

Or, more likely, we can increase trade with China - last I checked, they weren't passing municipal by-laws like Bellingham, Washington, banning Alberta oil, and last I checked they didn't have some environmental mouthpieces in telling people not to travel to Alberta.

Unabomber Ted Kaczynski

Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh

Atlanta Olympic Park Bomber Eric Robert Rudolph

Tucson Shooter Jared Lougner..  

If only the Canadian Border was more Secure..