The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Sovereignty and Protests This summer, sovereignty and protests seemed to be the rule of thumb in Canadian politics. Stephen Harper reiterated his promise to take control of the Canadian Arctic and set up a deep Arctic port plus build new ships and provide a fighting force to control Canadian territory. The bet is that global warming will provide passage in the Arctic and a huge number of countries - Russia, Denmark, the US and others - are claiming territory in the North. Canada's position has less to do with national pride and more to do with economics, with undiscovered natural resources like oil under the ice. Canada has claimed the Northwest Passage as its territory since the early 1970s, and although this may change, the US has declared in a friendly way that it is an international waterway belonging to no one. President Bush, in his August visit to Canada, repeated this claim but was informed by Harper that Paul Cellucci had said otherwise. Cellucci is a former U.S. Ambassador to Canada, appointed by Bush. Always a straight shooter, Cellucci takes Canada's side on the issue and for good reason - terrorism. In an interview just prior to the Montebello Conference, Cellucci said it is in the US's interest to have Canada in charge of the passage, as they will be able to keep terrorist states and groups from getting at North America through the North. Canada will step up its military in this area, keep out the unfriendlies and in general act in what is America's interest. But columnist Gwynne Dyer, who obviously understands little about the U.S. and even less about Canada, maintains that Canada need not have a military presence in the area, but should concentrate on negotiating natural resources based on the United Nations 1982 treaty. Not if they are our natural resources, Mr. Dyer. In any case, 9/11 changed the rules of the game. President Bush will surely see the light, and so far he has publicly agreed that Canada owns the Arctic Islands, so agreement on the passage will likely follow. * * * These days protesters will rally to protest anything, usually the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but also NAFTA and free trade. There are groups that seem to spend most of their time protesting something. Even in Winnipeg, groups such as the Wolseley Waccos always protest when the city and province fog mosquitoes. They ignore the facts that the West Nile virus is a real killer and families have a right to enjoy the outdoors during our short summers. There are always pictures of someone being dragged into police vans, and it is usually the same people! It was more of the same at the North American leaders' meeting in Montebello, Quebec last month. Security was tight and protesters were kept well away from the meeting place, but they were certainly present and, as usual, clashing with police. There were even stories of police planting undercover officers among the protesters, and some groups are howling for an independent investigation - which won't happen as long as the Tories are in power. Topics considered at the meeting were sovereignty, Afghanistan, trade and defence as well as the Security and Prosperity Partnership - plans to integrate security and commerce among the three nations. The SPP is secretive and has aroused the ire of the American Right and the Canadian Left - a strange alliance indeed! Apparently they view the plan as an attack on each country's rights and sovereignty. Protesters view their activities as a constitutional right, and they obviously feel left out of the decision-making process. In countries outside of the Western democracies, protesters are treated as enemies. Trying to protest in places such as China, North Korea and a lot of African countries means beatings or, at best, prison, so protests are few and far between even though they have a lot more to complain about than we do in North America. Roger's Right Corner runs Wednesdays.
