By Shaun Kazem Ziai
Imagine a mortally wounded Canadian soldier gasping for his last breath. What might he say if he knew that one day a foreign leader would be allowed to order Canada’s military to fight against the values for which he gave his life.
It’s something for Canadians to think about as we send a military contingent to Afghanistan under American command. The issue is particularly important because human rights groups and even staunch allies such as Britain suspect that the American forces are violating international laws.
These include the human rights norms and legal principles, such as a standard for the treatment of civilians in war zones and the presumption of innocence for prisoners. Principles that generations of Canadian soldiers have fought to entrench throughout the world.
Canada’s ability to preserve its sovereign power to champion such values, however, has been threatened by the trauma of Sept.11, with both the physical and cultural border of the 49th parallel disappearing at an ever-increasing pace.
Many worry about the consequences of this borderless continent, including Paul Hellyer, a former Liberal defence minister and now leader of the Canadian Action Party.
“A world without borders is like a zoo without cages and only the most powerful of the species will survive, and Canada is not one of them,” he says.
However, this post-Sept. 11 revolution towards diminished Canadian sovereignty is not surprising.
Canadians, struck by the physical and economic uncertainty of the terrorist attacks in the Unites States, sought refuge under the welcoming wing of the Americans.
A poll conducted last fall by Compas Research showed that 57 per cent of Canadians favoured harmonizing anti-terrorism measures with the United States, even if Canadian sovereignty is threatened.
Business groups lobbied for a common North American security perimeter, co-ordinating customs and immigration laws in the United States and Canada to keep trade flowing between the two countries.
The Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, an organization that represents 90 per cent of Canadian exports, conducted a survey in September, which found that 88 per cent of its membership favoured a common security perimeter with the Americans.
With such support for closer ties to the United States, the Canadian government was forced to retract earlier comments opposing any loss of sovereignty, in exchange for physical and economic security.
It adopted new measures such as tough anti-terrorism legislation, as well as new immigration policies. These laws are supposed to ease U.S. concerns over Canada’s vulnerability to being a harbour for terrorists.
The new legislation showed a shift from comments made last September and October by cabinet ministers, such as former immigration minister Elinor Caplan. She made it clear Canada would not compromise its sovereignty in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the United States.
“We’re two different countries. It’s unlikely that we will have identical laws. But it is important for us to communicate, share intelligence, work together and make sure that we understand each other’s laws.”
But Norman Hillmer, a professor of history at Carleton University and co-editor of Canada Among Nations, argues the sovereignty debate is overstated in Canada.
He says any integration and co-operation with the Americans following Sept. 11 is part of a greater trend in North America and around the world. This movement has seen more nations, such as those in the European Union, ceding their sovereignty in order to meet the needs of their citizens.
“We’ve (Canadians) been progressing more and more to an integrated North American system. We set up the North American Air Defense command in 1957, which followed many years of close co-operation with the Americans,” Hillmer says.
This trend towards a global world without borders, however, has a cost, especially for countries with smaller markets like Canada.
The ultimate loss of Canadian sovereignty could be just around the corner, as a common North American currency looms ever larger, Hellyer says.
“I got an e-mail this week from someone who had read that a Florida economic forecaster had said that the deal (to harmonize the Canadian and Mexican currencies with the American) was already done and that by Jan. 1 of next year the peso and the Canadian dollar will both be converted.”
Such talk has raised a tremendous debate in Canada.
How much independence are Canadians willing to give up to feel secure again?
Canadians must continue to vigorously question Canada’s role in the world in relation to the United States.