What the hell? Hello? National sovereignty, anyone?
Uncle Sam could soon be coming after you on Canadian soil.
According to an article in Embassy Magazine, the Harper government is moving forward on several initiatives that could give U.S. FBI and DEA agents the ability to pursue suspects across the land border and into Canada.
But, according to a RCMP officer, they’re doing it in “baby steps.”
“We recognized early that this approach would raise concerns about sovereignty, of privacy, and civil liberties of Canadians,” RCMP Chief Superintendent Joe Oliver, the Mounties’ director general for border integrity, told the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence on May 14.
“We said ‘Let’s take baby steps, let’s start with two agencies to test the concept, let’s demonstrate to Canadians and Americans that such an approach might work.”
What the hell is the RCMP doing, trying to sell Canadians on giving up our national sovereignty?
Why are they in bed with the government, in this?
Of course, I expect no better from Harper and his neo-con, American wannabe Tories…
It is always refreshing to see moderate, incremental steps branded as extremism of the most dangerous stripe. It’s the sort of tripe that makes me smile.
To me, and most people who live near the border, this law is called ‘common-sense.’ The U.S.-Canadian border is not only long and porous, most of the problems come from the U.S. side. Until these protocols were put into place, and you can ask any officer on the border, you needed one group on each side. Talk about blowing money for nothing. Likewise, with most of the criminals coming from the bigger American cities/populous areas the Canadian government was, presumably, spending money on capturing American criminals to be deported to and tried in American courts for American crimes. Why Canadians should put their lives at risk, and use their money, to deliver these felons to U.S. courts with a bow on top was, is and will always be idiotic. This law, simply put, makes sense. If an American breaks and American law (or vice versa), then law enforcement agents (paid for by the U.S. government) should not only be allowed over the border… They should be encouraged!
I live near the border, too. I have no issue with closer cooperation between Canada and the States to catch criminals from one country on the opposite side of the border, nor having a small number of U.S. agents cross over and work with the RCMP and CSIS, etc., on a case by case basis, to help round up their criminals, but despite the costs, I’d rather keep our sovereignty intact, thank you. I’d rather see stiffer border controls instead; true, you can’t police every spot along the border, but you can make it harder for people who don’t have legitimate reason to enter, to do so.
I can’t imagine the Americans ever consenting to Mounties and CSIS agents crossing the border to arrest Canadians directly, and I don’t blame them. I don’t see why we should consent to such.
The fact that the RCMP feels they have to sell this by doing it incrementally, shows they know the Canadian public will see it as a violation of our sovereignty, and good on the people for their sound, gut instincts.
I think you need to have a long and serious talk with a law enforcement officer; either the American or Canadian flavor. There’s a lot of misconceptions going around out there, and I think you are a prime example. I don’t want to sound like too much of an ass, but one has to call it as it seems.
First, a case-by-case basis seems like a sweet idea sitting back from the comfort of your house. A criminal crosses the border, no doubt you’re thinking of that nice little fence next to the guard station you cross when you have to transverse the border. An American officer calls into his walkie and after a few moments he gets the go-ahead. He snags the criminal a few moments later and the good guys win. Huzzah. In reality the border is often indistinguishable. The Canadian or American higher-up’s are asleep at the wheel. The felon manages to get across some meaningless (invisible) mark in the sand… Well, maybe nabbing him will stick but the evidence in the vehicle? Good luck. Real life is messy and not having some basic process for crossing the border only makes the situation more confusing. It only helps criminals.
Most of all, doing it incrementally (if it is going to be done at all) is definitely the way forward. No two bones about it. I’d be pissed if they just sprung the whole deal on the public in one go, but instead they’re adopting a wait-and-see approach. I don’t think people, or even you, really believe small-steps are evidence of guilt. If anything, it’s evidence of the sort of pragmatism that gets shit done.
I don’t need any such talk; I can make up my own mind on an issue, without a cop telling me what to think, thank you.
I’m not envisioning any such simplistic scenario as the one you laid out, but feel free to construct a strawman so you can knock it down, if it makes you feel good.
I presume, from your blog, that you’re an American; since you self-identify as a Californian, presumably now living in a border state, since you said you live close to the border (as for us Canadians, not only do I live close to the border, but 90% of us live within 200 km of the border; we’re all border area people, despite what differences of opinion we might have amongst ourselves on issues related to border security, international-crime-fighting, etc. Just because your fellow Yanks on your side of the border may generally feel as you do, don’t think that applies to all of us on this side; quite the contrary, even for those of us like myself who self-identify as conservatives, but not neo-cons, thank you) . When you said “To me, and most people who live near the border, this law is called ‘common-sense.’”, I presume you were referring to your fellow Yanks. On this side of the border, while some may agree with you, not all do. Many do not, of which I am one.
Imagine, if you will, how you might feel, if Mexican police and intelligence operatives were able to freely cross the border to pursue Mexicans. Would you really like that? Or would you prefer them to work with your American police and intelligence agents to apprehend their criminals?
Mind you, even if you don’t mind, I wouldn’t be surprised, because all too many Americans, esp. neo-conservative Republican types, are fine with their nation being the empire that it truly is. I, however, have little sympathy with the knee-jerk pro-Israel, pro-mass-immigration, pro-American-imperialism form of what passes for mainstream conservatism in America today; my sympathies lie with paleos, who actually understand the value of national sovereignty, even if it comes with a cost; so be it.
Or perhaps you are a Canadian immigrant to the States, one who has fully embraced the American dream, and repudiated any lingering Canadian sentiments on such ‘trivialities’ (as you seem to see them) as national sovereignty. In which case, I pity you. I lived in America for a year, a decade ago, but it didn’t make me into an American in terms of how I think, thank God.
But hey, both of our countries are free, with freedom of speech and freedom of thought (notwithstanding political correctness and other tendencies towards uniformity of opinion); feel free to consider my opinion uninformed ‘tripe’, as you wish. I will likewise feel free to disagree, and see you as just not ‘getting it’, as an American, natural-born or naturalized, as the case may be.