Thread: Anti-U.S. sentiment in Canada may effect future relations

http://www.registerguard.com/news/2006/ ... on=opinion

Bashing America: Anti-U.S. sentiment in Canada may escalate to a turning point in relations between neighbors
By Anna Morgan
For The Washington Post
Published: Sunday, January 15, 2006

TORONTO - Since Canada's minority government lost a no-confidence vote late last November, the politicians have been out on the stump, preparing for a new election on Jan. 23. Running in the two coldest months of winter, they've been using that familiar demon - the United States and all its evils - as the fuel to heat Canadian voters to a frenzy.

There's no denying that Canadians are in an even more anti-American mood than usual, thanks to the Iraq war and the Bush administration's perceived arrogance. And politicians here are playing to that mood.

In a blatant appeal for votes, candidates of every stripe, led by Prime Minister Paul Martin and his ruling Liberal Party, are taking aim at Washington, blasting it for taxing Canadian lumber imports, for failing to fight global warming, for lax gun-control laws, for dealing inappropriately with the war on terrorism. And all the while, they're studiously ignoring Canada's own homegrown issues.

America-bashing became such a central part of the election landscape last month that U.S. ambassador David Wilkins warned that Canadian-American relations could take a turn for the worse if party leaders didn't back off. But his words only prompted Canadian politicians to lash back with admonitions of their own. Even Stephen Harper, leader of the Conservatives, the party generally most sympathetic to the United States, declared: ''I don't think foreign ambassadors should be expressing their views or intervening in an election.''

In keeping with a long political tradition, the United States ignores Canada whenever possible. Nonetheless, the issues between the two countries just keep piling up.

Leading the way is the softwood lumber dispute. Three years ago, the United States began imposing import duties on Canadian lumber after American producers complained that the Canadian government was all but subsidizing the lumber industry. Canada objected, and last August, arbitrators for the North American Free Trade Agreement decided in its favor. But Americans still have not fully complied with the NAFTA ruling to lift the duties, so Prime Minister Martin has made confronting Washington on this score a main issue of his campaign, even though lumber represents less than 3 percent of Canadian exports to the United States.

While American noncompliance with NAFTA may be a legitimate beef for some Canadians, politicians also have been indulging in some inflated rhetoric on other fronts where Canada isn't on such solid ground. The specific attack to which Wilkins responded, for example, had to do with the Kyoto environmental accord. In welcoming a United Nations conference on global warming in Montreal last month, Martin criticized the United States for not signing the agreement and urged it to pay attention to the ''global conscience.''

In doing so, he conveniently neglected to mention that Canada, which is one of the accord's major promoters, so far hasn't complied with its emission reduction requirements.

The United States, in fact, has done a better job in dealing with greenhouse gases. A U.S. Department of Energy report released in December noted that American emissions for 2004 were 16 percent higher than in 1990. A similar study prepared by Environment Canada reported that greenhouse gas emissions rose 24 percent here between 1990 and 2003. But in the current election environment, the prime minister knows that it is hot air that really counts.

The Liberal Party has been determined to divert attention from a corruption scandal that has left it weakened in every province. It is using its anti-American foreign policy as an election tool, continuously reminding Canadians that the Liberal government kept the country out of the Iraq war and the North American missile defense system. Some pundits say that Martin, with no ammunition against opposition candidates, has decided to run against George W. Bush.

The opposition has also played the America card. The Conservatives, who support deep tax cuts, Thatcheresque deregulation of the economy and a set of family values that could attract the vote of any evangelical minister, are sympathetic with Bush's foreign policies but vow never to mimic them.

At the other end of the spectrum, the quasi-socialist New Democratic Party has candidates who are so anti-American that they sometimes sound like an undergraduate student forum, performing stunts such as conducting ''citizens' weapons inspections'' of American military bases in Washington state.

The one thing all the candidates have in common is their strenuous assertions that they will not tolerate being bullied, even if they have to make up the bullying.

Although the government boasts about its non-cooperation with the Americans on Iraq, it is desperate to keep quiet its cooperation on the war on terrorism. Under the Liberals, Canada enacted Patriot Act-style legislation with the Anti-Terrorism Act of 2001. Recently, it resisted calls to repeal provisions for increased police surveillance and far-reaching powers of arrest and detention. Federal authorities are currently holding five suspects under so-called security certificates, which allow non-Canadians to be held indefinitely if a judge is convinced they are a threat. These policies, however, have been kept low-key, for fear of an anti-government backlash in public opinion.

The problem is that silence on these issues during the campaign plays into the growing anti-American sentiment and may eventually hinder attempts to deal with terrorism. The best example of this is the case of Abdullah Khadr, the Canadian media's current cause celebre. Khadr is one of several Toronto-born sons of an Egyptian terrorist who was killed in a shootout with police in Pakistan. U.S. authorities suspect Abdullah of being a weapons supplier for al-Qaeda and part of a group that planned to assassinate Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf. On Dec. 2, he came back to Canada after 14 months in a Pakistani prison and was soon arrested on an extradition warrant, issued at the request of the United States, for conspiracy to murder Americans abroad.

Abdullah's 19-year-old brother, Omar, has also been in the news, as the youngest person held in Guantanamo Bay, for allegedly throwing a grenade that killed a U.S. Army medic in Afghanistan. The clan's mother has given interviews saying she detests Western values and that the only reason the family has returned to Canada is for the subsidized health care. One would think few families could be less popular with the liberal-minded Canadian public.

And yet in his current extradition battle, Abdullah is clearly winning in the court of public opinion, if not in the court of law. A number of prominent columnists and CBC News are questioning whether Canada should cooperate with the U.S. government in this or any other terrorism case.

Politicians here know that Canadians love to read, talk and debate about U.S. transgressions. Newspaper articles point to ethnic profiling at airports and long border waits as evidence that the war on terrorism is a sham, and that Americans are simply looking for excuses to harass Canadians for the country's multicultural society.

But just as it chooses to ignore weaknesses in Canada's environmental policy, the public is also disinclined to take seriously the country's problems with terrorism. Those problems may not be as exaggerated as some Americans think they are - just recently Montana's Sen. Conrad Burns reiterated, then retracted, the popular myth that the Sept. 11 hijackers got into the United States through Canada - but they are certainly real.

The so-called millennium bomber, Ahmed Ressam, who planned to bomb the Los Angeles airport on New Year's Eve 2000, did come from Canada. In another notorious case, Mohammed Zeki Mahjoub was arrested in Toronto after being accused of belonging to a militant group with ties to an Egyptian Islamic Jihad organization. Though he denied those links, Mahjoub admitted he worked closely with Osama bin Laden himself during his years in Sudan. The judge at Mahjoub's first hearing quoted from a report issued by the Canadian Security Intelligence Services that ''there are more terrorist cells operating in Canada than in any other country outside the Middle East.''

Worry about alienating key constituencies in a hairline election has silenced politicians here on these important issues. But Canada-U.S. relations could reach a turning point if they're not addressed. Over the past five years, Canada has stopped extraditing people to the United States if they face the death penalty. The increasing popularity of the notion that international terrorism suspects also should not be extradited have led to some serious concerns about the heavily trafficked border.

It's not just that Canada is starting to look like a safe haven for America's Most Wanted; it's that America may be starting to view Canada as a less-than-benign neighbor. U.S. Customs and Immigration this year imposed passport requirements on visiting Canadians for the first time, and there is talk of fingerprinting at the border as well. At some point, the truck traffic that carries up to 70 percent of Canadian exports south will start to bog down in security inspections. That's when Canadians' anti-American bark will really start to bite.

In this electoral season, the public is looking for bellicose rhetoric, but Canada's security cries out for sober management. Whoever is elected will have to work publicly with the United States, not just against it, to reduce anti-American sentiment while addressing the problem of terrorism and cross-border control. If the real need for cooperation with Canada's southern neighbor can't temper the public's demand for criticism, the nation will be in for some stormy weather in the next few years.

In this electoral season, the public is looking for bellicose rhetoric, but Canada's security cries out for sober management. Whoever is elected will have to work publicly with the United States, not just against it, to reduce anti-American sentiment while addressing the problem of terrorism and cross-border control. If the real need for cooperation with Canada's southern neighbor can't temper the public's demand for criticism, the nation will be in for some stormy weather in the next few years.

Uuuuh, I don't "tink" Canada will be in for some "stormy weather". I "tink" the USA is already in a hailstorm, one it caused all by itself with arrogance, double-dealing, dishonesty, aggression, the "fairy tale" of Globalism.

Stand your ground, Canada...you're a sovereign nation that elects your own leaders for whatever reason you want. Don't let the Washington Post or the Wackident or his Wackateers tell you what to do. We've been doing that down here for the past 5 years and believe me, that is not in anyone's interest anywhere on the Globe. And if you want proof, just look at our STATS and test our PULSE.

We're mad as hell and we're not takin' it any more.

Pass HB 635 and IMPEACH THE WACKIDENT...NOW!!

Maybe the Canadians will build their own fence so that we don't have to some time down the road. I'm sure many border jumpers from our south wind up continuing their trek northward into Canada as well.

We can always pray that Canada will secure it's southern border from US and then we'll secure our southern border from Mexico and Point South.

Good Plan, JuniusJr!!

Excellent idea ladies,

We can all build a fence, we don't need their radical Islamic terrorist down here any more than we want them coming in from our south.

Then when we are all thoroughly ticked off at each other we can do away with NAFTA. How's that sound?

They can grind up NAFTA in the paper shredder right along with the Patriot Act for my money.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepubli ... ada03.html

Chris Hawley
Republic Mexico City Bureau
May. 3, 2005 12:00 AM

MEXICO CITY - As the United States fortifies its border with Mexico, Canadian companies are reaching out to immigrants who are frustrated by U.S. restrictions and tempted by dreams of a better life in Canada.

The Canadian government has been relaxing its immigration rules in an effort to attract students and skilled workers from all over the world. That, and the push by companies promising jobs and visas, is attracting Mexican professionals turned off by the Minuteman Project, new border walls, tougher U.S. entry requirements and laws like Proposition 200 in Arizona.

"Live in Canada!" says a Mexico City newspaper ad placed by a Canadian labor recruiter, as a photo of the Toronto skyline beckons. "Voted the No. 1 country in the world for living four years in a row," an immigration counseling company boasts on its Web site. advertisement

"Canada has its arms open to immigrants, and the United States has its arms closed. It's as simple as that," accountant Marcos RamÃÂ*rez Posadas said as he stood in line with other visa applicants outside the Canadian Embassy in Mexico City.

The reason, immigration experts say, is that Canada needs more people.

"Our population is shrinking and getting older," said David Rosenblatt, a Canadian immigration lawyer whose firm advertises in Mexico. "Canada, in order to survive and grow, needs to get more skilled workers."

Mexicans are eager to fill the need. Last week, the Canadian Embassy's switchboard was swamped after local television aired a commercial from an immigration law firm about moving to Canada, embassy spokesman Luis Archundia said. None of the recent ads has been placed by the Canadian government itself, he said.

'They have jobs'

"I heard on TV that they have jobs up there," Edgar Solis Peña, a 30-year-old warehouse worker, said as he waited outside the embassy. "It's so hard to even get a hearing at the United States Embassy, so I decided to come here."

The siren song is echoing in the United States, too.

"Come to Canada to work - legally!" says a sign in Spanish recently posted by an immigration consultant near a site frequented by undocumented workers in Mesa, Ariz.

A call to the phone number on the sign yielded a recording that said the voice mailbox overflowed with messages.

Courting immigrants

Mexicans can enter Canada just by showing a passport, much easier than the long, expensive process of getting U.S. visas. Canada also has a widely praised farmworker program and is aggressively courting foreign students.

The country also has an easy-to-follow process for getting work permits that assigns points based on certain skills. The U.S. system is more subjective, with consular officials wielding the power to approve or reject applications without explanation.

Canada's low birth rate, about 1.61 children per couple, means the country needs immigrants to maintain its population of 33 million, Rosenblatt said. The United States is holding steady at 2.08 children per couple.

On April 19, Canada said it would spend $58 million to speed citizenship applications and vowed to triple citizenship approvals for parents and grandparents of immigrants. While they're waiting for citizenship, those people will get 5-year, multiple-entry visas to visit their children in Canada.

Citizenship applicants older than 55 will be exempt from language and Canadian knowledge tests, down from age 60, Immigration Minister Joe Volpe said.

Work rules for foreign college students also will be relaxed, he said. They'll be able to hold jobs off campus, and those who move to smaller cities will be able to work in Canada for two years after graduating , instead of one.

"Canada's immigration system is a model for the world," Volpe said in a written statement announcing the relaxed rules. "(The changes) allow us to maintain and enhance our position."

Rising numbers

That kind of welcome is drawing Mexicans by the thousands.

The number of legal, temporary workers in Canada from Mexico rose 68 percent, to 22,344 from 13,261, from 1998 to 2003, the latest year for which statistics are available. By comparison, there were 110,075 legal, temporary workers admitted to the United States from Mexico in 1998, and 130, 327 in 2003, an 18 percent rise.

"Overall, it's been a really dramatic rise in Canada," said Richard Mueller, an economist at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, who just completed a study of Mexican immigrants.

But the true immigration rate could be much higher.

Thousands of Mexicans get into the country just by flashing a passport. Many probably just disappear and work illegally, immigration experts said.

"I think there are a lot of those, but Canada doesn't want to talk about it," said Luin Goldring, a sociology professor and immigration expert at York University in Toronto.

One clue comes from the number of Mexicans applying for "refugee status," which jumped 89 percent from 2000 to 2003 as the United States began fortifying its border.

Refugee claimants

By 2003, peaceful Mexico was Canada's third-biggest source of refugee claimants, right up there with countries like Pakistan, which is plagued by religious violence, and Colombia, devastated by decades of civil war.

"Mexican refugee claims were negligible three or four years ago. Now you're getting 100 a month in Ontario alone," said Sergio Karas, an immigration lawyer in Toronto. Those claims can drag on for years until they are finally turned down, he said.

Refugee claims aren't necessarily a barometer of illegal immigration. But Costa Rica, another tranquil country whose citizens did not need visas to visit Canada, ranked No. 4 among refugee claimants in 2003, outpacing places like China and strife-torn Sri Lanka.

In May 2004, Canada started requiring visas for Costa Ricans, saying many were staying and becoming undocumented immigrants.

Better living

Family ties and easier entry aren't the only reasons Mexicans choose Canada over the United States. Many visa applicants said they were attracted by Canada's open spaces and lower crime rate.

"I have family in Los Angeles and I've visited them there, but I don't like the lifestyle that Mexicans live up there," said Guillermo Rivas Zaldibar, 38 .

"A lot of those people are not very educated. It's not exactly the best people we're sending up there."

Others said they simply don't like Americans.

"I find them very egotistical," said RamÃÂ*rez, an accountant for an oil-drilling firm. "There are a lot of historical problems between our countries. Canadians are much nicer; they appreciate other cultures."

Minuteman Project

For Victor Pérez Muciño, 33, a municipal worker in the town of Huixquilucan, recent news coverage of the Minuteman Project, a civilian patrol on the Arizona-Mexico border, was the deciding factor.

"We're always hearing about what they're doing to our fellow citizens . . . all these things with vigilantes, migrant hunters," he said. "Who wants to live with that?"

Reach the reporter at chris.hawley@arizonarepublic.com.

Copyright © 2006, azcentral.com. All rights reserved.

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For another viewpoint on whether Canada needs more people, find out what Canadians think themselves by visiting this link:

www.canadafirst.net.

Also, a few months ago, a link was provided at an ALIPAC thread by another member on the immigration situation in Canada. I responded. Only problem is my home computer is slow and I cannot search effectively or pull up my former posts past the last 20 or so. This thread I'm thinking of was another organization out of Canada but made up of disillusioned immigrants to Canada (mostly from Asia) that were complaining about being promised jobs - good jobs at least - and a new start on life in Canada. The more recent immigrants were unhappy with Canada and from what the article and website mentioned, I was afraid they'd all be trying to crash the US/Canada borders by heading South because of their dissatisfaction with life in Canada. Now, from this article, it seems many Mexicans and other Hispanics are heading farther north and into Canada. Why wouldn't they after they've more or less trashed the Southwest Border States, are working on doing the same and making progress with the US South, Midwest and Northeast, not to mention just about every state in the union while they suck middle class taxpayer's dry and further devastate our lower class poor citizens by sucking up all the taxpayer funded welfare as well as depressing wages and providing unfair competition for jobs in the lower sectors and middle sections (yes, construction was once a well-paying occupation). If they are in the USA illegally, THEY NEED TO GO BACK TO MEXICO OR THEIR OTHER HOME COUNTRIES and demand Vicente Fox and their other deadbeat and flaky leaders make their lives better in their home countries, and stop sponging off US citizens.

Is there any way we can keep them from tracking up our grass on the way north?

Originally Posted by JuniusJnr

Is there any way we can keep them from tracking up our grass on the way north?

I don't know! Probably no more than we can keep them from tracking up our grass on their way down South.

I say this because my parents live in Upstate NY in the Adirondack region, about one hour from the Quebec, Canada border. My parents are in a rural area that has few illegal immigrants - or so they tell me - because it is a depressed area for jobs. Still, they say that they hear on the news of border patrol busts and unwarranted people being caught heading south from Canada. There is heavy traffic along the Northway from Canada and right through their area heading into NYC. New York State has high levels of illegal immigration, but the worst are in major cities. Still, my parents say that living close to the Canadian border isn't nearly as bad as what they have read is happening to border towns along the US/Mexico border.

Good one JuniusJnr