statism watch

Well, we have a website and we’re ready to rock. But is this what Canada wants? To integrate with the EU?

Doug Saunders, Globe and Mail
September 18, 2008

Plan to lift barriers for goods and labour to be discussed at summit after election

LONDON — Canadian and European officials say they plan to begin negotiating a massive agreement to integrate Canada’s economy with the 27 nations of the European Union, with preliminary talks to be launched at an Oct. 17 summit in Montreal three days after the federal election.

Trade Minister Michael Fortier and his staff have been engaged for the past two months with EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and the representatives of European governments in an effort to begin what a senior EU official involved in the talks described in an interview yesterday as “deep economic integration negotiations.”

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BBC News
September 18, 2008

Russia is becoming increasingly authoritarian at home and aggressive abroad, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said.

In a strongly-worded speech, Ms Rice said Moscow was on a “one-way path to isolation and irrelevance”.

Diplomatic relations between the US and Russia have been strained by the recent conflict in Georgia.

Earlier, Russia’s president said the two nations should not risk established ties over “trivial matters.”

Dmitry Medvedev said it would be “politically short-sighted” if Washington and Moscow were to endanger their political and economic ties.

However, Ms Rice suggested in her speech that following the conflict in Georgia, Russia’s bid to join the World Trade Organisation had been put in doubt.

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Minneapolis Star-Tribune
September 18, 2008

LONDON – Seeking to reassure countries grown fearful of Russia, Western defense ministers will consider the creation of a rapid-response force that could be sent into nations feeling threatened by possible aggression, a senior U.S. Defense official said Thursday.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who is scheduled to deliver his own major address on Russia today, sounded a more moderate line to reporters in London. “We need to proceed with caution,” he said, “because there are a range of views on how to respond from some of our friends in Eastern Europe and the Baltic states to some of the countries of Western Europe.”

Gates said he was trying to find a “middle ground” in their views. Although he didn’t mention the new NATO force in his meeting with reporters, it could serve as such a compromise solution.

The creation of such a force would take NATO back to its roots as a deterrent against Russian aggression after years of concentrating on missions in Kosovo and Afghanistan. The Bush administration is pushing the idea as a compromise solution that could reassure allies without provoking Russia. NATO defense chiefs plan to discuss the proposal at a meeting today.

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This is how things are to be done in the future: notice that very few of the sort of academics that get called on to speak in the media about current affairs refer to government any more, but rather to ‘governance’ – a wider concept drawn from the corporate lexicon which encompasses systems of legitimacy, control, and authority outside of government per se. In other words, we’re to be ruled by unaccountable,  unelected mandarins belonging to international bodies that draw up exactly this sort of treaty out of the public eye. A cozy arrangement for the lobbyists involved, no doubt.

Nate Anderson, ArsTechnica.com
September 18, 2008

After signing onto a letter earlier this week that demanded access to draft work being done by Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiators, the EFF and Public Knowledge took their complaints about the secret treaty a step further today and filed a lawsuit to gain access to negotiating materials.

The suit (PDF), filed in the DC federal court, uses the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) as the basis for its demands. After reading the leaked Wikileaks documents on the treaty, the EFF and Public Knowledge made a FOIA request to the US Trade Representative. In a letter dated June 11, the groups asked for a comprehensive list of materials dealing with ACTA, including participant lists, agendas, presentations, memoranda, and correspondence.

“We believe they should conduct these negotiations with some transparency for what goes on, particularly when the talks are transparent to one side and not to the other (us),” Art Brodsky, Public Knowledge’s communications director, told Ars. “At a minimum, we should know how the US delegation is formulating its positions and have access to what they are doing.”.

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CBC News
September 18, 2008

Ontario’s Special Investigation Unit has been called in to investigate the death of a man from Brampton, Ont., who died Wednesday morning after being jolted with a stun gun while in police custody.

The SIU is a provincial agency that investigates cases of serious injury or death involving police.

Sean Reilly, a 42-year-old carpenter, was arrested on Tuesday afternoon at his home and charged with assault with a weapon.

Peel Regional Police took him into custody at a police station on Dixie Road without incident.

At that point, according to an SIU statement, police say Reilly got into a “struggle” with four officers in or near a holding cell. They used a Taser on him, trying to incapacitate him with an electric shock.

Reilly went into medical distress and died in hospital 12 hours later.

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The Canadian Press
September 18, 2008

Global banks set to inject up to a quarter of a trillion dollars into financial institutions

OTTAWA–The Bank of Canada is joining the U.S. Federal Reserve and central bankers in Europe and Japan to shovel up to a quarter of a trillion dollars into global money markets as they strive to restore confidence.

In a statement issued at 3 a.m. ET, the Bank of Canada said it is acting with the Bank of England, the European Central Bank, the Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank with “co-ordinated measures designed to address the continued elevated pressures in U.S.-dollar short-term funding markets.”

In particular, the Bank of Canada and the Federal Reserve have established a US$10-billion reciprocal currency arrangement to provide U.S.-dollar liquidity in Canada.

This could be drawn on by the Bank of Canada to assist any Canadian financial institutions that run short of ready cash.

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