statism watch

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Dana Gabriel, BeYourOwnLeader
June 29, 2010

The Arctic has been the subject of dispute between Canada, Denmark, the U.S., Russia and Norway with each country taking steps to expand their scientific research and military presence. Its vast untapped oil, natural gas and mineral resources represent a tremendous economic potential, but control of the region is also important from a strategic standpoint. Increased cooperation and military integration could be used to further secure interests in the area. Canada and Denmark recently signed an agreement which will promote defence and security collaboration in the Arctic. In August, Canadian Forces operations in the far North will include Danish and American participation. There are also calls for U.S.-Canada joint security of North America’s Arctic waters and skies.

Canada continues to assert its military presence in its northernmost boundaries. Operation Nunalivut which ran in the Arctic from April 6-26, is one of three sovereignty exercises conducted each year by Canadian Forces (CF). This year’s joint maneuvers included, “the first landing and takeoff of an Air Force CC-177 Globemaster III aircraft at CFS Alert, from a gravel and ice covered airfield and the first CF dive in the high Arctic, which was the longest sustained ice dive operation in CF history. In addition, the Arctic Response Company Group conducted concurrent training with the Canadian Rangers for the first time in the Arctic, while a team of nine Regular and Reserve Force Signallers tested a new series of Iridium, high frequency and satellite communication systems.” As part of ongoing efforts by Canada-Denmark to strengthen diplomatic and security relations in the Arctic, the operation featured, “combined training with the Danish military’s SIRIUS Dog Sledge patrol.” An agreement reached between Russia and Norway over the long-disputed area in the Barents Sea has also prompted Canada to take steps to resolve conflicting Arctic offshore boundary claims with Denmark and the United States.

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Related: EU to push for global bank tax at G20 | France surrenders to Germany’s demand for Euro oversight by central bank | Spanish bailout readied as EU chief warns ‘democracy could disappear’ in debt ridden states | Eurozone plan for common bond issue to head off debt crisis | EU plans to create watchdog to curb credit rating agencies | European Council On Foreign Relations: EU Needs To Use Crisis For Greater Power | Sarkozy threatened to quit euro in showdown with Germany: Report | European Powerbrokers Present Proposal For New Economic And Political Order | Europe and America Morally and Financially Bankrupt | EU wants member countries to co-ordinate budgets | Western Central Banks back Trillion Dollar European rescue plan, ECB to manage markets | Euro zone to regulate hedge funds, vows to fend off ‘wolf pack’ traders at all costs | European Central Bank chief: Bank of International Settlements to Rule the Global Economy

Marta Andreasen, The Telegraph
June 20, 2010

As the debate continues over the European Commission’s proposals for “peer review” of national budgets, Marta Andreasen, the European Commission’s former chief accountant, gives her blunt opinion.

What does the EU do best? Blame others and grab power.

That is the only sensible conclusion to be drawn from the European Commission’s intention to press on with its insistence on scrutinising national governments’ budget plans, including that of Britain.

At last week’s EU summit David Cameron, in his first Brussels outing as the newly-elected Prime Minister, made clear that the UK was not happy at the prospect of having its tax and spending “peer reviewed” by other EU members before it could be put into effect.

But within minutes of the meeting ending, and despite signs that other countries recognised the problem for Britain, the Commission said it would bring forward its proposals just the same, by the end of this month.

While we are all trying to swim through this financial crisis without knowing exactly when and how it will end, the EU bureaucracy immediately looks around to find someone to blame.

But the fact is that this very bureaucracy is responsible for the crisis, because it brought countries into the single currency in the knowledge that their economies were not up to speed.

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Whilst we’re talking about global steering committees, a term Martin has used to describe his vision for the G20, we should bring up the fact that Martin has been an attendee at the Bilderberg group as well. That’s a connection this article should have made, but missed. Refer also to this article by Terence Corcoran which links to a study outlining some of the genetic connections between The League of Nations and Canadian globalist academics. Now there’s a thesis topic for some aspirant at the Munk schools. (We’ve done half your research, ssshh, don’t tell anyone). This future scholar may also want to take note of the fact that Larry Summers had a pivotal role to play in the deregulation of derivatives in the Clinton administration – a move which contributed materially to the CDS derivative-driven credit crisis of 2008 and the billions of bailout funds funnelled to the banks. He’s a former head of the World Bank. And now as head of the National Economic Council, he’s one of Obama’s lead economic advisors. Oh, we’re in good hands.

Related: Paul Martin prescribes international regulatory body for ailing fiat economies | Press for Truth confronts Paul Martin on Bilderberg and the SPP | Paul Martin calls for ‘global solution’ | Paul Martin promoting a new League of Nations on the road | For more on the G20, see the G20 Coverage page feature.

John Ibbitson and Tara Perkins, The Globe and Mail
June 18, 2010

Paul Martin sat in Lawrence Summers’ spacious office in the Greek-columned U.S. Treasury building in Washington, searching in vain for a piece of paper. With none in sight, the two men grabbed a brown manila envelope, put it on the table between them, and began sketching the framework of a new world order.

It was April 27, 1999. For the past five years, the global economy had shuddered under a string of massive debt defaults – first in Mexico, and then in Southeast Asia and Russia.

In each case, Western leaders and bankers responded by prescribing harsh fixes, throwing one developing economy after another into recession.

As crisis followed crisis, Mr. Martin, then Canada’s finance minister, became convinced that major developing nations had to be given a voice – not just an ultimatum – when it came to discussing their place in the global economy. But in the capitals of Europe and the corridors of Washington, the answer was always the same: It’s our club, and there are no vacancies.

Or at least it was the same answer until that April day when Mr. Martin visited Mr. Summers, then Bill Clinton’s nominee for treasury secretary, to press his case. He argued that they couldn’t keep imposing solutions on developing countries. The G7 had to be expanded – at least at the finance-ministers’ level.

Mr. Summers quickly agreed. But that was the simple part. Much thornier was the issue of who would be admitted to the club.

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And they should anyone in Iceland care, precisely? So that they can yoke their currency to the collapsing Euro? Iceland stands as the canary in the coal mine of the new world order and if they don’t want to play ball with the regional system, well, they’re to be commended for their foresight. Go fish. As covered here, Icelanders were given the shaft by a group of international criminals that ran the Landsbanki ponzi scheme and proceeded to scurry off to London where they reportedly maintain operations. Objectively, the obligations owed by the Icelandic people to Europe on these grounds equal zero dollars. If your credit card gets stolen, should you be on the hook for he charges? There’s a term for this – fraud. European jurisdictions may want to question the Russian, ermn, ‘businessmen’, involved about where their money went instead.

Related: Iceland Unanimously Approves ‘Wikileaks Bill’ To Establish Free Speech Press Haven | Frustrated Icelanders vent rage by voting no in referendum | Icelanders to vote no on debt deal | Iceland stares into Icesave abyss | EU executive recommends fast-track membership for Iceland | No solution in dispute over Iceland deposits | Iceland sets date for Icesave vote | Iceland says IMF aid likely delayed | Iceland blocks central bank debt repayment deal | Icelandic parliament rolls over, votes for EU membership | Iceland to be fast-tracked into the EU | Iceland’s government collapses | In Iceland, the heat is on | Police fire pepper spray at Iceland protesters | Icelanders storm central bank in protest | Iceland inflation soars to 17.1% | 5 injured during protest in Iceland over economic meltdown

Ian Traynor
June 17, 2010

Iceland put on fast-track to join the EU but acrimony lingers over £2.3bn owed from Icesave collapse

Iceland was put on a fast track to join the European Union today, but the Cameron government served notice that it could block the country’s membership unless it settled the £2.3bn Britain says it is owed as a result of the country’s financial collapse two years ago.

European government chiefs at a Brussels summit decided that “accession negotiations should be opened” with Iceland. At British and Dutch insistence, however, the summit said that Iceland would have to address “existing obligations such as those identified by the European free trade area surveillance authority”, a reference to the fallout from the collapse of Icesave in 2008 that left 400,000 depositors in Britain and the Netherlands fearing for their savings.

The Icesave dispute generated acrimonious negotiations, with the terms for reimbursing the British and Dutch rejected first by Iceland’s president and then by the Icelandic public in a referendum.

Earlier this week, William Hague, the foreign secretary, made it plain that Britain could veto membership unless the dispute was settled. “Iceland will have to recognise its obligations,” he said. “We won’t block [opening negotiations], but we will want it clear at the start that Iceland meets its financial and legal obligations.”

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It’s baaack… To recap briefly: any global bank levy would centralize economic control in the hands of the IMF, swell the power of global central banks and their affiliates – (eg; Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan) whose alumni populate the halls of the Federal Reserve and other central banks worldwide – and work to the detriment of smaller regional banks which are for the most part innocent of causing the financial crisis. Without the kind of political cover afforded by friends in higher places, they’re sitting ducks for merger and consolidation. If this happens, we won’t be sticking it to the banks, we’ll be capitulating to them. For more, see the G20 Coverage page feature.

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Jan Strupczewski, Reuters
June 17, 2010

European leaders prepared to go it alone on levies if no consensus adopted at next week’s summit in Toronto

Europe will call for imposing a transaction tax on financial institutions at the G20 summit next week as well as a levy on banks to help pay for the costs of the crisis that started in the banking sector.

Leaders of the 20 biggest developed and developing economies meet on June 26-27 in Toronto.

“In the G20 we will … propose to explore and to develop the introduction of a financial transaction tax,” European Union President Herman Van Rompuy told a news conference after a meeting of leaders of the 27 EU countries.

The EU will also push for a global levy on financial institutions.

“The EU should lead efforts to set a global approach for introducing a levy on financial institutions with a view to maintaining a worldwide level playing field and will strongly defend this position with its G20 partners,” EU leaders said in a statement after the meeting.

Even the Europeans have yet to decide the details of any levy, such as its size or how the money would be used. The European Commission and EU finance ministers will work out such details by October.

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Chris Windeyer, Nunatsiaq News
June 17, 2010

IQALUIT, Nunavut — Operation Nanook, the Canadian Forces’ summer Arctic sovereignty exercise, moves north of the Arctic Circle for the first time this summer, and in a twist will include ships from the Danish and American navies, plus a ship and dive team from the United States Coast Guard.

The participation by the Dutch and Americans is notable for a Canadian sovereignty exercise, since Canada has lingering offshore boundary disputes with both Denmark and the U.S.

But Lt.-Cmdr. Albert Wong of Canada Command in Ottawa said the two countries are “our allies. Collaboration is part of what Canada does.”

Soldiers from all three branches of the Canadian Forces, plus Canadian Rangers, coast guard and other government personnel will descend on Pond Inlet, Resolute Bay and Grise Fiord, in Nunavut in the eastern Arctic, for a series of exercises from Aug. 6 to 29.

In addition to military exercises, Operation Nanook will feature a coast guard-led oil spill simulation in Lancaster Sound, north of Baffin Island.

Coast guard spokeswoman Carol Launderville said there will be no actual oil spilled. She said the exercise will consist of planning responses to oil spills and practising the deployment of containment booms.

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Thomas Watson, Canadian Business
June 14, 2010

Canada’s on the verge of a trade deal with the EU, the government says. Show us, say exporters.

Canadian Trade Minister Peter Van Loan wishes the mainstream media would pay more attention to the anti-globalization crowd. After all, if trade naysayers made the front page of national papers more often, then more people might realize Canadian trade negotiators are well on their way to making history with an ambitious plan to better integrate our national economy with the European Union. As Van Loan points out, the Council of Canadians, which claims a deal with the EU could threaten Canadian access to safe drinking water, recently held “a wonderful news conference” to voice its concerns — but it got virtually no media pickup. “I was actually disappointed,” Canada’s trade minister says, “because there should be more of a spotlight on these negotiations.”

True enough. If all goes as planned, Canada will become the first developed nation to land a free trade agreement with the economic grouping of 27 European nations sometime next year. The EU — the world’s largest market, not to mention home to the wealthiest pool of investment capital and some of the largest and most important companies on the planet — is already Canada’s second-largest source of trade and foreign direct investment. In 2008, Canadian exports to the EU totalled $52 billion. Imports amounted to $62 billion. But there appears to be plenty of room for growth. After all, the Canadian economy is 150% larger than the Indian economy, which has similar trade levels with the EU. Furthermore, Europe trades about 25% more with South Korea, which has a smaller GDP than Canada.

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Dana Gabriel, BeYourOwnLeader
June 9, 2010

As a result of the demise of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) of North America, the NAFTA trilateral relationship has suffered. This has forced many of the SPP’s objectives to be funneled through various bilateral initiatives. Mexico’s drug war is also serving as a catalyst for more North American cooperation and integration in areas of border security, law enforcement and the military. Canada is being encouraged to further engage and commit itself alongside the U.S. in helping Mexico.

Some have described the Canada-Mexico partnership as a failed opportunity with Ottawa more preoccupied with U.S. concerns. Mexican President Felipe Calderón’s recent trip to Canada was seen as a chance to strengthen bilateral bonds and push for more trade and investment between the two NAFTA partners. In a press statement Calderón highlighted, “The reason for this visit is to consolidate and expand our bilateral relationship at all levels.” While addressing a joint session of Parliament, he called for closer ties with Canada and the United States. He emphasized that, “Integration is key to restoring strong sustained growth in North America.” Calderón characterized Mexico as a, “valuable neighbor and a strategic partner for the future of North America’s prosperity.” His message was clear as he championed the need for deeper economic integration and warned against protectionism. Also on the agenda was North American security as Canada is being called upon to expand and deepen cooperation with Mexico on police and judicial issues.

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This is simply PR for the drive to continental integration. Reader should note that this is not an original part of NORAD’s duties, but a development that dates to a 2008 troop sharing agreement under NORTHCOM, the US military umbrella organization given jurisdiction in the wake of 9/11 over the US and Canada insofar as operations (training exercises, etc.) relate to US strategic interests. The globe has been sliced up (conceptually) into regional theatres, you see, and other functional entities of the US strategy include SOUTHCOM, AFRICOM, etc. You can read about NORTHCOM here and here.

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CBC News
June 7, 2010

Gen. Walt Natynczyk welcomed the new NORAD commander, U.S. Admiral James Winnefeld, who pledged the Americans’ full military support during the upcoming G8 and G20 summits in Toronto.

NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defence Command, is a binational military organization established in 1958 by Canada and the U.S. to monitor and defend North American airspace.

NORAD monitors and tracks man-made objects in space and detects, validates and warns of attacks on North America by aircraft, missiles, satellites and space debris.

Speaking at a press conference in Ottawa Monday, Winnefeld told reporters he was interested in accomplishing two things during his tenure.

The first is to re-emphasize the importance of NORAD — which he called a “very, very important security relationship that is emblematic of the overall relationship between our countries.”

“It’s symbolic of the partnership between our two countries evidenced by our ongoing … international security force, forces in Afghanistan and also places like Haiti and the like,” he said.

The second thing Winnefeld said he wants to do “is really to listen and learn.”

“As the commander of NORAD, I not only work for the United States, I work for Canada and it’s very important for me to listen to the national security team in Canada, to discover what is important in Canadian minds so that it can influence what I do.”

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Related: EU trade pact may imperil local control over water | Lewenza: Canada-EU deal will affect more than trade | Greece’s near bankruptcy won’t scuttle Canada-EU trade talks: minister | Big stakes in Canada-Europe trade talks, but little attention | EU ‘Free Trade’ and CETA: Advancing the Transatlantic Agenda | CETA worse than ACTA – EU Trade Negotiators Demand Canada Completely Overhaul Its Intellectual Property La ws | Beyond ACTA: Proposed EU – Canada Trade Agreement Intellectual Property Chapter Leaks | EU approves free-trade talks with Canada | Canada expects EU free-trade talks soon: Stockwell Day | Harper, Sarkozy vow to work toward Canada-EU deal | CD Howe Institute backs Canada-EU deal, deep integration | Towards a new world order: Canada-EU trade proposal rivals scope of NAFTA

Jonathan Montpetit, The Canadian Press
June 3, 2010

MONTREAL – A European diplomat identified three potential obstacles Tuesday to a free-trade deal with Canada: intellectual property rights, agriculture and government contracts.

Though the outlook for a wide-ranging Canada-EU treaty remains positive, Spain’s ambassador to Ottawa indicated several areas will require significant concessions from both sides.

“There are of course some chapters which will be very easy to close,” ambassador Eudaldo Mirapeix told reporters after a luncheon speech in Montreal.

“There are two or three which are difficult, (but) not insurmountable.”

Both sides are working to conclude an expansive free-trade agreement by the end of 2011.

Ottawa hopes an eventual deal will be even more comprehensive than the North American Free Trade Agreement, and predicts it would boost the country’s GDP by $12 billion annually.

But the upcoming round of negotiations in Brussels this July will likely be more difficult than previous bargaining sessions as trade representatives broach the specifics of a deal.

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