Strains in US-Canada Relations: An Interim Study

-COL DR. ABDUL RUFF

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Divided, among other parameters, by the breathtaking Niagara falls,  USA and Canada, the English speaking former British colonies,  have maintained love - hate relations for centuries. 

Relations between Canada and the USA have spanned more than two centuries. This includes a shared British cultural heritage, warfare during the 1770s and 1812, and the eventual development of one of the most stable and mutually-beneficial international relationships in the modern world. Each is the other's chief economic partner and large-scale tourism and migration between the two nations has increased rapport.

NATO serves as a binding  force to keep both UK and Canada under Washington's heavy control mechanisms.

As the senior strategic partner, America dictates to Canada and like Britain, Canada just sub-serves the American big brother, especially in the era of  state terror strategies. . Many Canadians grudge, maybe with reasons, the domination of America over Canada. As it stands today, Canada and the USA are currently the world's largest trading partners, share the world's longest border, and have significant interoperability within the defense sphere.

The foreign policies of the neighbors have been closely aligned since the Cold War. However, Canada has disagreed with American policies regarding the Vietnam War, the status of Cuba, the Iraq War, Missile Defense, and the War on Terrorism. A serious diplomatic debate is whether the Northwest Passage is in international waters or under Canadian jurisdiction.

Recent difficulties have included repeated trade disputes, environmental concerns, Canadian concern for the future of oil exports, and issues of illegal immigration and the "threat of terrorism". Nevertheless, trade between the two countries has continued to expand in both absolute and relative terms for the last two hundred years, but especially following the 1988 FTA and the subsequent signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) in 1994 which has since further merged the two economies.

The most serious breach in the relationship was the War of 1812, which saw an American invasion of then British North America and counter-invasions from British-Canadian forces. Military collaboration began during World War II and continued throughout the Cold War on both a bilateral basis through NORAD and through multilateral participation in NATO. A high volume of trade and migration between the United States and Canada has generated closer ties, especially after the signing of the Canada – United States Free Trade Agreement in 1988.

President Barack Obama and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper talked common cause on the Americas on Monday, but their two nations' historic trade relationship is being tested anew by tensions over membership in a trans-Pacific trade group. Obama, after hosting a one-day summit with Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderón, said all three nations will take new steps to ease regulations with the aim of increasing trade among them and creating more jobs. The three also discussed immigration policies and the war on drugs. Obama said the U.S. would welcome both countries' entry into the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free-trade zone spanning the Pacific Ocean. And Harper reiterated his country's eagerness to join the TPP, saying it was part of Canada's "ambitious trade agenda."

The TPP began in 2005 as a pact including Brunei, Chile, New Zealand and Singapore. A second wave of five countries, including the U.S. and Australia, started negotiations to join soon after and have said they aim to reach a deal this year. Canada and Mexico began the process to join the group later.

The tension over the TPP follows a series of minor trade spats last year, including the surprise decision by the White House to reject a proposed expansion of an oil pipeline running from Alberta to the US. Some Canadian officials say that despite the verbal support from the White House, U.S. trade negotiators have been reluctant to encourage Canada's entry into the TPP. The treaty is seen as important for both countries to take advantage of Asia's booming growth, at a time when much of the rest of the developed world is still struggling to recover from the global downturn.

The U.S. stymied Canada's attempts to join the most recent round of entry talks in Melbourne last month, saying there wasn't enough time to accommodate Ottawa. Although several TPP member countries and countries among those seeking to enter the group have signaled their willingness to allow Canada in, Americans oppose it. Some U.S. companies that compete with Canadian firms for Asian business also oppose Canada's membership.

The suspected leak of military intelligence to Russia in March by a Canadian naval officer may have created a significant rift between Canadian and American security officials.the leak, allegedly conducted by Sub Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle, created serious fallout between Canada and the U.S., which was downplayed by Canadian officials. Delisle, 40, was arrested in Halifax in January and became the first person charged under the Security of Information Act, which replaced the former Official Secrets Act in 2001.

it was electronic communications between allied militaries that was leaked to Russia. Delisle was employed at HMCS Trinity, an intelligence facility at the naval dockyard in Halifax that tracks vessels entering and exiting Canadian waters via satellites, drones and underwater devices. The base is believed to specialize in sub-sea surveillance and regularly feeds its findings to the U.S. Navy and NATO. In addition to having access to communications codes, an employee of the facility might have been able to tell a foreign power the locations of ocean sensors used in monitoring ship movements.

Americans use “security” as the weapons ot threaten Canada, others and have  successfully coerced Canadians and Europeans by keeping "threat perceptions" in tact. Since the Sept-11 hoax perpetrated by the hard US terror strategic nuts, infested in Pentagon and CIA, with assistance from like-minded  Israeli and other terror nuts, USA has intensified the terror hold over its NATO allies, especially Canada. The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) recently unveiled a northern border strategy which seeks to address security concerns, while at the same time facilitating the flow of lawful travel and trade. The new plan promotes enhanced shared intelligence and joint law enforcement integration with Canada. It further builds on initiatives included in the "Beyond the Border agreement" and is part of ongoing efforts to lay the foundation for a North American security perimeter to make Canada an integral part of US empire. .

Americans accuse Canadians, among others,  of illegally migrating to USA and grab American plump jobs. On June 5, DHS Secretary announced the Northern Border Strategy (NBS) aimed at deterring and preventing "terrorism, smuggling, trafficking and illegal immigration". The new plan, “provides a unifying framework for the Department’s work focused on enhancing the security and resiliency along our northern border while expediting legitimate travel and trade with Canada. In order to accomplish these objectives, the NBS seeks to, “improve information sharing and analysis within DHS, as well as with key partners. The Department will also enhance coordination of U.S.-Canada joint interdictions and investigations, deploy technologies to aid joint security efforts along the border, and continue to update infrastructure.” The NBS parallels the National Northern Border Counternarcotics Strategy issued in January. It also supports goals outlined in the U.S.-Canada Beyond the Border action plan which focuses on addressing security threats early, facilitating trade, economic growth and jobs, integrating cross-border law enforcement, as well as improving infrastructure and cyber-security. Another facet of the perimeter security deal is the U.S.-Canada Regulatory Cooperation Council (RCC) action plan. It seeks greater regulatory alignment in the areas of agriculture and food, transportation, the environment, health, along with consumer products. In January, government representatives, as well as industry officials held regulatory meetings in Washington.

In Canada, there are fears that deepening regulatory integration with the US could weaken and erode any independent regulatory capacity, thus threatening its sovereignty. Further harmonization could result in Canada losing control over its ability to regulate food safety. This could also lead to a race to the bottom with respect to other regulatory standards.

As part of the Beyond the Border agreement, the USA and Canada are also working towards an integrated cargo security strategy. Washington says Canada and the USA are working together to strengthen co-ordination, co-operation and timely decision-making at the border for cargo shipped by sea or land with a view to increasing two-way trade, and reducing travel and commercial disruptions. When the Action Plan is fully implemented, the principle of ‘screened once, accepted twice’ is intended to apply to all modes of shipping cargo.” In order to keep trade flowing across the northern border, Canada is being pressured to further take on US security priorities. In other words, Canada should care for US security and other interests first.

Last month, there were a series of US-Canada joint consultation sessions with stakeholders regarding facilitating cross-border business.  The joint emergency guide, “outlines best practices and identifies critical issues to consider when developing or updating traffic management plans to ensure they are tailored to address regional requirements and individual border crossings.” Minister of Public Safety Vic Toews stated that, “This plan is the result of close collaboration with a wide range of stakeholders, including government officials from the local, state, and provincial/territorial level, to manage the flow of traffic near the border during a disruption.”  Implementation of this guide will help maintain US economic stability and ensure that priority traffic moves freely towards and away from the secure Canada-US border during times of crisis. Through various initiatives, NAFTA partners are laying the foundation for a fully integrated North American security perimeter. In the advent of a terrorist attack, disaster or any other perceived threat to the continent, the USA could then execute control over the security perimeter.

USA is eager to officially usher in a North American Union.

A long-simmering dispute between Canada and the USA involves the issue of Canadian sovereignty over the Northwest Passage (Arctic disputes). Canada’s assertion that the Northwest Passage represents internal (territorial) waters has been challenged by other countries, especially the US, which argue that these waters constitute an international strait (international waters). Canadians were alarmed when Americans drove the reinforced oil tanker Manhattan through the Northwest Passage in 1969, followed by the icebreaker Polar Sea in 1985, which actually resulted in a minor diplomatic incident. In 1970, the Canadian parliament enacted the Arctic Waters Pollution Prevention Act, which asserts Canadian regulatory control over pollution within a 100-mile zone. In response, the United States in 1970 refused to accept the assertion of a Canadian claim that the Arctic waters are internal waters of Canada….

As neighbors, there are close cultural ties between modern day Canada and the USA, advanced in large part because both nations predominately speak English. There are also historical ties between the respective Francophone populations and their pop culture. Their cultural uniqueness is stressed by both even on the basis of the international perception that Americans and Canadians are virtually identical.

There is a strong notion that anti-American rhetoric has helped create and sustain Canadian identity in a positive sense and that anti-Americanism helped to "establish and maintain our sense of difference," and permits Canadians to see themselves as a "cultural corrective" to Americans, whose "excesses" prove "just as poisonous to genuine American culture as it is to us."

A Word

Americans are increasingly becoming vary about losing its superman status.

USA wants to be the only superpower to control the world, peoples and its resources and one, big or small, opposing or refusing to cooperate with USA in its economic  efforts, would be punished. Canada or Britain is no exception. Canada knows  it and can only cray over its permanent predicament. Today, American power is increasing and its NATO allies are promoting that global nonsense. . . .

Co-operation on many fronts, such as the ease of the flow of goods, services, and people across borders are to be even more extended, as well as the establishment of joint border inspection agencies, relocation of US food inspectors agents to Canadian plants and vice versa, greater sharing of intelligence, and harmonizing regulations on everything from food to manufactured goods, thus further increasing the American-Canadian assemblage.

Canadian  population and economy are roughly one tenth that of the United States and Canada remains dependent on US in many respects almost permanently.

Like many other allies, Canada is really a fearful that USA would incite terrorism in Canada and conveniently blame on "terrorists".

Knowing US power, Canada takes a balanced approach in relations with USA.