Attached below is a story that was in yesterday's paper. These remarks had me gnashing my teeth and I'm still peeved. According to the US State Department, liberty is given too much consideration in Canada and should be subservient to the state. This from the country that was the co-joined cradle of liberty and personal freedoms...(I say co-joined since it was shared with France, you know, the country that is now taking it on the chin for taking too many liberties of late).
Interesting to note that in addition to giving Canada lessons in Political Science, the State Department also took a few shots at Canada's proposed measures to decriminalize marijuana ("This will not only harm Canadian society, but have consequences for the United States as well"), the message later changed. According to a report today, David Murray, right-hand man to U.S. "drug czar" John Walters, warned of "consequences" to Canada if we proceed with decriminalization.
All I have to say is don't tread on me, brother, don't tread on me...
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U.S. says Canada cares too much about liberties
Terrorism report also says too little spent on police
Jim Bronskill, with files from Janice Tibbetts
The Ottawa Citizen
Thursday, May 01, 2003
The United States says the lack of funding for police and restrictive privacy legislation in Canada are frustrating probes of political extremists.
The comments in an annual report on international terrorism were the latest critical remarks from the U.S. apparently aimed at prodding Canada to bring its security measures in line.
The State Department report on global terrorism for 2002 suggests that while Canada has been helpful in the fight against terrorism, it doesn't spend enough on policing and places too much emphasis on civil liberties.
It says "some U.S. law enforcement officers have expressed concern" about Canadian privacy laws.The U.S. officers feel those laws, as well as funding levels for law enforcement, "inhibit a fuller and more timely exchange of information and response to requests for assistance," the report says.
"Also, Canadian laws and regulations intended to protect Canadian citizens and landed immigrants from government intrusion sometimes limit the depth of investigations."
Under the U.S.-Canada Terrorist Interdiction Program, known as TIP, Canada records about one "hit" of known or suspected terrorists a week from the State Department's visa lookout list. The initiative involves software that enhances the ability of border officials to collect, compare and analyse traveller data, allowing them to identify and track people of interest.
Spokesmen for the Solicitor General's Department were not available to comment on the report.
The U.S. observations come amid heightened tension between the two countries following Washington's public expression of disappointment that Canadian forces did not join the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. In releasing the report, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said although there has been great progress in the last year, terrorism still "casts its grim shadow" across the globe.
The number of terrorist attacks dropped to 199 in 2002 from 355 the previous year. Still, Mr. Powell noted, assaults occurred in every region of the world, claiming 725 lives. Terrorist bombings in Bali last fall killed about 200 people from two dozen countries, including Canada.
Despite the report's criticism of certain Canadian practices, it included effusive praise for the federal government's overall efforts to work with the U.S. in the fight against extrem-ism, calling the relationship "a model for bilateral co-operation on counter-terrorism issues."
Seven American law-enforcement agencies have posted officers to Ottawa and other Canadian cities, while a number of Canadian personnel are assigned to the U.S.
The report also notes Canada's passage of anti-terrorism legislation, its move to create a formal list of terrorist organizations and participation in various international anti-crime forums.
The comments follow State Department remarks in a March report on narcotics and money laundering that urged Canada to ensure privacy protection measures do not prevent the timely sharing of financial information that might be critical to police investigations.
The same report took issue with Canada's move to make possession of small amounts of marijuana a ticketing offence rather than a criminal one. "This will not only harm Canadian society, but have consequences for the United States as well," the report said.
Justice Minister Martin Cauchon reiterated yesterday that legislation to decriminalize marijuana will be tabled soon, while Canadian Alliance Leader Stephen Harper said the move would inflame tensions with the U.S.
PG, as both a Canadian and US citizen, I am shocked (but not surprised) by this attitude. Nixon hated Trudeau, and all that Trudeau stood for here in Canada. It was true then and it is (sadly) true now -- for all the ills that beset Canada, we are, in many instances, a freer and more open society than the US. We may live in the shadow of the elephant, but we are distinct in our non-elephant status. In the final analysis, there are certain things that are considered "un-American" (e.g., burning the US flag). However, when the fisher from NL burned the Canadian flag, no one called him "un-Canadian". The view here in NL was that he was angry and did a stupid thing, but he was still a Canadian. Therein lies one major difference between the two countries.
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Dr.G.
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PG, what is sad about the flag burning fisher is that if he went out and caught one cod fish for his supper, he could be fined, jailed and have his boat confiscated. However, he could be in sight of a foreign trawler with tonnes of cod on board, but if this ship was not directly observed by a Canadian Coast Guard or DFO officer, then there is nothing that will be done with this ship other than to be told that it is illegal to fish in Canadian waters. This is what angered the man who burned the flag. While I disapprove of what he did, I can understand why he did this foolish act.
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Dr.G.
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"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read these books." Mark Twain
I have just finished reviewing the online version of the U.S. state-sponsored terrorism report 2002, and am concerned that serious omissions have occurred.*
For example, nowhere in the report is the presence of terrorists and terrorist groups in Florida mentioned. A short list would include Orlando Bosch (Cuba), General Guillermo Garcia (El Salvador), Major-General Jean-Claude Duperval (Haiti) and Armando Fernandez-Larios, who publicly admitted to being responsible for a car bombing which occurred in Washington, D.C., in 1976 that killed Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier.
There is also the troubling fact that the U.S. has permitted terrorist groups and individuals who are still active to operate with impunity from U.S. territory.
Case in point:
Alpha 66, a paramilitary cuban exile group which has publicly declared its complicity in terrorist actions undertaken against Cuba for decades.
Ernestino Abreu Horta and Vicente Marcelino Rodriguez Martinez, members of the "Movement of
Revolutionary Recovery," secretly entered Cuba , departing from Florida, in 1998 with a cache of weapons for the purpose of inciting internal revolt.
Rodolfo Frometa, a founder of the paramilitary group Comandos F-4, who once was convicted in the U.S. of trying to buy a heat-seeking missile testified in a Florida court in 2001 that he would kill the head of state of Cuba and violate U.S. laws to do so. He was interdicted by the U.S. Coast Guard on a boat off Key Biscayne in 1994, in possession of 50 assault rifles, shotguns and other weapons and 25,000 rounds of ammunition.
Three members of Commandos-F4 and Alpha 66 were captured and imprisoned in Cuba after infiltrating the country in April, 2001. The men, who lived in Miami-Dade, are Ihosvanni Suris de la Torre, Santiago Padrón Quintero and Máximo Padrera Valdés, also known as Máximo Robaina, were carrying a cache of weapons including four AK-47 assault rifles, one M-3 rifle with a silencer, three Makarov pistols, night goggles, communication equipment, $3,028 in U.S. currency and 970 Cuban pesos.
The list goes on. One finds it difficult to take seriously any allegations that the U.S. government may make against any other state or organization, when its own hands are far from clean.
When might we see the U.S. government undertake a serious effort to deal with terrorists who live within its territory, are well-known to police, FBI and other security services, and yet seem to be operating openly with no restrictions?
I am taking the initiative to forward this message and other documents to our own Minister of Foreign Affairs, to be raised in the appropriate international fora for discussion and, should no modification in the behaviour of the U.S. government be forthcoming, international sanction.
...no doubt Project Echelon or whatever the heck it's called is now doing a runthrough of all my email messages from the past ten years or so, but I always expected that...
Regarding tarriffs, I am reminded of a song from long ago by Toronto's Chalk Circle...emerged during the Free Trade debate/election back in 1988: "Sons and daughters, you aint getting much for free."
There was an interesting piece on this morning's CBC 1 news that with these new duties and restrictions placed up Canadian durham wheat, the US wheat farmers would have a greater access to US markets, but that the Canadians would be able to take more or the foreign market left by the non-US shipments. Still, I was against Free Trade at the onset, and I am still against it now.
__________________
Dr.G.
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"The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who can't read these books." Mark Twain
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