After conducting some further research on the topic I began to question how an organization such as the SPP indeed infringes on Canadian Sovereignty, and further, who the real beneficiaries of such an agreement are? According to Jack Layton and the NDP’s, under the SPP, Canada will have less and less ability to adopt independent and sustainable economic, social, cultural and environmental policies. Meaning that, in the long run, this could have a lethal effect on Canadian public programs such as universal healthcare and public education (www.ndp.ca/stopthespp).
Another key issue surrounding the SPP is that the talks have all gone on behind closed doors where even elected MPs have been kept out of the discussions. Though the extent of the SPP agenda has largely been kept secret, it is known to involve over 300 policy areas that seem to stretch far beyond the realm of security and economic prosperity, and enter into much more shaky territory, including pesticide use, food safety, civil liberties, human rights, and environmental protection, as well as oversight from Washington in particular, over security decisions and energy policy.
Being a patriotic Canadian, the mere concept of a Security and Prosperity Partnership appears fundamentally bizarre and above all, uncanadian in my eyes. As a nation, Canada has been built upon, and thus prospered under the principles of equity, democracy, and in particular, sovereignty, especially from the likes of our Southern neighbors. Judging by the majority of the world’s hatred oriented towards the United States foreign policies, imperialistic practices, and most importantly, their military regime, it has been in these recent times of uncertainty that I have remained proud in my countries sovereignty and our decisions to stay out of hostile military situations such as Iraq.
According to a Global Research study of Canada’s sovereignty and the militarization of North America, there is something perhaps even more fundamental in defining and understanding where Canada and Canadians stand as a nation. Namely, that by endorsing a Canada-US "integration" in the spheres of defense, homeland security, police and intelligence as the SPP affirms, Canada would become a full fledged member of George W. Bush's "Coalition of the Willing", meaning that Canada would directly participate, through integrated military command structures, in the US war agenda in Central Asia and the Middle East (www.globalresearch.ca...).
With this integration comes the threat of Canada no longer having an independent foreign policy, and thus losing our sovereignty as a nation quite separate from the much disputed US policies. In the end it is essential that Canadians themselves have a say in the agreements their Government signs, and the SPP is a sad case wherein the greater public interest has been pushed aside in order to cater to big business and the often imperialistic and unjust policies of the United States. As a Canadian not in support of US policies ranging from security to foreign trade my only hope is that, as this issue is being debated in parliament, Canada eventually overturns its agreement to join the SPP before we see the integration of Canada and the US as one.
Sources:
Chossudovsky, Michel. “Canada's Sovereignty in Jeopardy: the Militarization of North America.” Centre for Research on Globalization. August 17, 2007.
“Standing up for Canada by challenging the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP)” NDP website.
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