Peter Julian, NDP MP for Burnaby-New Westminster, NDP Trade Critic and member of House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade (CIIT), is to submit a motion calling for the suspension; full parliamentary debate and vote on the Harper lead Security and Prosperity Partnership secret talks to take place August 19-21, 2007 in Montebello, Quebec between PM Harper, US President George Bush and Mexican President Felipe Calderón.
Canadians for Peace and Socialism back the motion and call for all left progressive organizations, labour unions and peace groups to support this motion and register your opposition on the petition being circulated.
NDP Motion (.pdf) SPP Petition (.pdf)


The Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) is the latest in a series of agreements, secret deals and back room squabbling between finance capital, big oil and military contractors on how to re-divide the rich natural resources of Canada and supply cheap Mexican workers to the likes of Monsanto, McDonalds, CNRL and all their sulking second tier speculators stinging form their sub prime mortgage speculation losses.
The “Security” will be provide by Canadian Armed Forces Chief of Staff General Hillier who will offer up more children of Canadian workers to US arms dealers Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co., Northrop Grumman Corp., Raytheon Co., to show off and test their weapons systems in Afghanistan.
Defence Minster O’Connor, Finance Minister Flaherty and Bank of Canada Governor David Dodge will provide the “Prosperity”. O’Connor will award “preferred” no tender or “limited tender” contracts to his old arms dealer buddies. Flaherty will offer tax breaks and “investment incentives” to big oil and finance speculators and investors. Dodge will show them where Canadian pensioners’ money is located through access to the Canada Pension Plan Funds and by loosening “fiscal restraints and imbalances” within the Canadian banking industry.
PM Harper will broker the “Partnership”, over Cuban cigars and tumblers of Chivas, relaxed in Italian leather sofas, with George, “Condi”, Felipe, “Schultzy”, d’Aquino and the other “staff”. It should be a bang up time!
The principle Canadian resource prizes which will be haggled over will be; the oil and gas of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador. The uranium deposits of Saskatchewan, hydro power in Quebec (which the Alcan sellout was all about), the softwood and natural gas of BC, the cereal grains of the prairies, the division of the Artic and access to deep water ports being constructed for US war ships, the land of BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan for transportation corridors and supply routes needed to send the raw bitumen, heavy oil and natural gas products to US refineries and arms manufacturing plants, the import and transportation facilities for LNG from the US-NATO-Canadian war in Afghanistan through the Irving Oil facilities in Saint John, New Brunswick and the water of Canada itself!
The investment bankers, having billions of dollars of the retirement savings of Canadian workers in the form of the Canada Pension Plan sitting in their banks, will be selling cheap risk-free capital to military contractors, investors and speculators who invest this capital in speculative adventures in the largest US arms manufactures, stock markets and investment houses. Canadian capital is a big player now and Harper wants the world to know that billions of dollars in Canadian workers pensions are available for stock market plays. David Dodge will be pleased that “monetary policy” is loosening up. CIBC and other “exposed” US financial institutions will be bailed out of their sub prime mortgage losses.
PM Harper and his gang of war profiteers lead by General Hillier and Defence Minister O’Connor will be representing Canada’s military at the SPP meetings by reemphasizing their on going commitment and support to the “war on terror”, ensuring the Canadian ruling elite are in on the war spoils in Afghanistan and devising plans for the political dismantling of Canadian opposition to Ballistic Missile Defence.
O’Connor will be at his lobbying best; selling Canadian defence contractors to the biggest US military investors and awarding contracts to his “old buddies” without tender and handing out Canadian workers wages through tax breaks and preferred deals, and limited or “Advanced Contract Award Notices”.
In the June 2007, (Volume 2, Number 2) issue of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) Foreign Policy Series bulletin entitled “No Bang for the Buck”, Steven Staples, CCPA Research Associate and director of the Rideau Institute in Ottawa linked “More than CDN$16B in major military equipment programs…designated for the Advance Contract Award Notices or similar limited tendering process” to Defence Minister Gordon O’Connor between 1996 and 2004.
The report exposes O’Connor’s “work as a lobbyist for 28 firms, including five of the world’s top defence contractors…” O’Connor’s biggest clients included; BAE Systems of the UK, US companies Raytheon, General Dynamics, Halliburton and EADS of the Netherlands with combined revenues in 2005 of $US72B.
General Hillier will ensure that Canadian workers will supply their children to US international arms dealers Lockheed, Raytheon, Boeing for their testing programs which will ensure the quality, responsiveness and reliability of weapons systems. He will do this by re-committing Canadian forces to the US-NATO Afghanistan war.
General Hillier will “Support Our Troops” (the rallying call of PM Harper’s speculator and war profiteering mob of big oil and big arms dealers) to ensure profits and market share are protected in the future by the children of Canadian workers.
Speaking at the Economic Club of New York on September 20, 2006, to a crowd of elite US business interests, Harper stated that Canada has the goal of becoming an “Energy Superpower”. He himself sees Canada’s role as an imperial power broker saying: "I want it understood that we are determined that Canada's role in the world will extend beyond this continent.”
To be in on the profits, Canadian business has to be in on the war. That is why it was at NATO headquarters that the decision was taken by Canada’s new corporate-military caste to take the country onto the path of imperialist aggression and war. It was at NATO that O’Connor, and Hillier, decided to elevate a war of occupation in Kabul into a war of aggression in Kandahar. Casualties among Canadian soldiers provided the missing ingredient to launching a Government propaganda campaign that shamelessly capitalized on the grief of families and that pandered to the chauvinism and jingoism of its right wing electoral support.
The war in Afghanistan, predicted to last a decade, is designed to win for the new corporate order at Ottawa a more influential position for itself among NATO allies and rivals. The war is designed to improve the position of Canadian high finance in the inter-imperialist rivalry for the re-division of markets, the export of investment capital and the seizure of resources and exploitation of foreign labour. The Harper Conservatives took those decisions in the interest of maximum and rapid profit making by their corporate friends. They now continue with the out right sell-out of Canada to show their commitment to the club.
When Prime Minister Harper intones the Bush mantra, “we will not cut and run” from Afghanistan he sends a message to his closest supporters that they can rely on him to make Canada a bigger imperial presence among allies and rivals, that their investments in the oil patch and defence industries are safe and will grow. Harper boasts that Canada is now an “energy super-power” and when he met in Washington with President George Bush, he assured Bush that Canada’s oil sands were a safe and reliable source of cheap energy to fuel the US war machine. He will reassure the next crop of parasites, political thugs and speculators the same thing at Montebello.
This is the face of SPP. It must be defeated!
FOR A PEOPLES’ DEMOCRATIC PROGRAM OF PEACE!
Defeat PM Harper and his war speculators!
Defeat SPP!