North America confab 'undermines' democracy

WorldNetDaily ^ | September 21, 2006 | Jerome Corsi

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

A closed-door meeting of high-level government and business leaders that discussed the merger of North America was designed to subvert the democratic process, charged an attendee of the confab in Banff, Canada.

Mel Hurtig, a noted Canadian author and publisher who was the elected leader of the National Party of Canada, provided WND the agenda and attendee list of the North American Forum at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel in Banff, Alberta, Sept. 12-14.

Hurtig said the "secret meeting was designed to undermine the democratic process."

"What is sinister about this meeting is that it involved high level government officials and some of the top and most powerful business leaders of the three countries and the North American Forum in organizing the meeting intentionally did not inform the press in any of the three countries," he said. "It was clear that the intention was to keep this important meeting about integrating the three countries out of the public eye."

As WND reported yesterday, the meeting was closed to the press, and the documents obtained by WND were marked "Internal Document, Not for Public Release."

The motive for U.S. participation, according to Hurtig, was "to gain access and control Canada's extensive natural resources, including oil and water."

As for Canada, he said, the Canadian Council of Chief Executives "wants to make sure that the 150 Canadian top companies who are their members who gain access to the American market and to American capital."

The office of Thomas d'Aquino, president and CEO of the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, confirmed d'Aquino attend the Banff meeting.

The North American Forum consists of the three individuals who co-chaired the Banff meeting: George Schultz, former secretary of state under President Reagan; Canadian Peter Lougheed, the former Alberta premier and former leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Alberta; and Mexico's Pedro Aspe, the former secretary of the Treasury of Mexico.

The North American Forum has no business office and no business address. Attendees at the Banff meeting contributed funds to cover the organizational expenses. Attendees, including government officials, were responsible for their own travel, lodging and per diem expenses.

A spokesman for the Canadian Council of Chief Executives said the Council of Canadians, which he characterized as a "far left group," was the first to obtain and begin circulating the meeting's agenda and attendee list.

Meera Karunananthan, spokeswoman for the Council of Canadians confirmed to WND the group was responsible for obtaining and releasing the meeting agenda and attendee list. She took exception with the Canadian Council of Chief Executives, preferring to characterize her organization as "a citizens' advocacy group."

Karunananthan said the Council of Canadians released the North American Forum information because it questions the "privacy of a meeting that involves senior ministers of our government meeting with senior government officials in the United States and Mexico."

"The Canadian public has not been adequately informed about the on-going North American integration process, and we believe it is wrong for a meeting that involves top North American business executives and government officials to be held in secret behind closed doors," she said.

Jean-Yzes LeFort, also a spokesman for the Council of Canadians, told WND the group opposes the effort to create a North American Union because "the NAU represents an elite corporate agenda and to us what is being planned would be an unacceptable loss of sovereignty."

Attending the Banff meeting was Robert Pastor, the director of the Center for North American Studies at American University. Pastor is widely known for his extensive writings arguing for the creation of a North American Union, a new super-regional North American government based on the model of the European Union, with the intent of subrogating the sovereignty of the United States.

Pastor was co-chair of the Council of Foreign Relations task force that in May 2005 released a report entitled "Building a North American Community."

About one-third of the listed members of CFR task force attended the Banff conference. One prominent participant in both was Carla A. Hills, who served as U.S. trade representative from 1989 to 1993 and was the primary U.S. negotiator for NAFTA.

On the second day of the conference, a session entitled "A Vision for North America: Issues & Options" was moderated by Thomas A. Shannon, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs.

Perrin Beatty, president and CEO of Canadian Manufacturers & Exporters, Canada's largest trade and industry association, also confirmed to WND he attended the Banff North American Forum meeting. Beatty described the meeting as "an opportunity for a small group of people from our three North American countries to get together informally and discuss issues of common interest."

When asked why the meeting was closed to the press, Beatty responded the meeting was not a "decision forum" but a "discussion forum."

Beatty claimed Pastor's views were not universally shared by all attendees.

"My interest in attending the meeting was economic," he told WND. "How do we insure we keep pace with the explosion in competition in the North American industry? It's absolutely critical to the economic growth of our three countries that we stay competitive and successful."

Among the U.S. government participants listed was Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, though WND was told he did not attend. Also listed were U.S. Department of Defense Lt. General Gene Renuart, USAF Senior Military Assistant to Secretary Rumsfeld, and Major Gen. Mark A. Volcheff, director of Plans, Policy, and Strategy for NORAD-NORTHCAM.

In what is apparently intended to be an annual event, the first North American Forum meeting was held last September in Sonoma, Calif., and a meeting for next September is to be held in Mexico.

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For a comprehensive look at the U.S. government's plan to integrate the U.S., Mexico and Canada into a North American super-state – guided by the powerful but secretive Council on Foreign Relations – read "ALIEN NATION: SECRETS OF THE INVASION," a special edition of WND's acclaimed monthly Whistleblower magazine.

Get Tom Tancredo's new book, "In Mortal Danger," for just $4.95.

Related stories:

Attendance list North American forum

North American Forum agenda

Previous stories:

North American merger topic of secret confab

Feds finally release info on 'superstate'

Senator ditches bill tied to 'superstate'

Congressman presses on 'superstate' plan

Feds stonewalling on 'super state' plan?

Cornyn wants U.S. taxpayers to fund Mexican development

No EU in U.S.

Trans-Texas Corridor paved with campaign contributions?

U.S.-Mexico merger opposition intensifies

More evidence of Mexican trucks coming to U.S.

Docs reveal plan for Mexican trucks in U.S.

Kansas City customs port considered Mexican soil?

Tancredo confronts 'superstate' effort

Bush sneaking North American superstate without oversight?

Related columns:

Coming soon to U.S.: Mexican customs office

Merger with Mexico

[1rudeboy]

No, it's something I found on the net after I realized that you've gone from calling your opponents agents of consumerism to socialists/communists in the space of a few hours.

[GMMAC]

'Comrade' of yours?

Protesters run with flags as they march through the
streets of Savannah, Georgia June 10, 2004 in
opposition to the G8 Summit, which concludes today
on nearby Sea Island, Georgia. REUTERS/Brian Snyder
source

[hedgetrimmer]

Here's an easy quiz for you. Who introduced the words "Trilateral Commission" to the post? A moonbat?

[hedgetrimmer]

I presume VN is Viet Nam?

[hedgetrimmer]

I presume its one of yours, since you are a globalist, and globalist foundations are funding those people.

[GMMAC]

Suppose it hasn't occurred to you folks like Soros & Heinz-Kerry & what you call their "globalist foundations" can actually only be described in your terms - which, not uncoincidentally, is their rhetoric as well - in the remote sense they're working towards an all powerful world-wide Marxist nanny state?

Just Google-up "Maurice Strong" and/or "Earth Charter" if you want an additional example of a red billionaire promoting the international communist agenda including its vehement opposition to faith and families as both are now known.

[hedgetrimmer]

What we are doing in North America today is consolidating democratic states, integrating them economically but then providing a security overlay and a level of cooperation and dialogue that will strengthen the economic institutions, strengthen our ability to protect and promote our prosperity, and enhance our ability to create the opportunity that people can actually take advantage of. In this way, we have taken a model of economic integration that is largely accepted around the hemisphere and raised it one level higher.

State Department's Shannon Addresses "Why the Americas Matter"

The model of economic integration wouldn't be the EU would it? No more independence for America with these corrupt officials trotting around the globe arranging for our 'integration'.

[1rudeboy]

That's a neat trick: globalist foundations are getting people to protest globalist foundations?

[hedgetrimmer]

Here's a globalist in our government

Obviously, the Inter-American Democratic Charter was approved by acclamation in Lima. For us who had been working on it for some time, it was a profoundly bittersweet moment: sweet obviously because the promise of the Quebec City summit had been realized in an important agreement, bitter obviously because ur country was under attack and we knew what this was going to mean for us in the years to come.
--Thomas Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs

You don't like the Earth Charter? You should read the Inter-American Democratic Charter. Why is OUR government involved in writing it?

In fact, one of the important aspects of the Inter-American Democratic Charter is that it creates a means for countries in the hemisphere to express solidarity and provide institutional assistance to countries that are going through democratic crises, not only in terms of electoral observation but also in terms of a variety of other interventions that can be done.

If the charter lets us intervene as a way of expressing solidarity^{communese in american government official communications warning} it means they can intervene in OUR country. Does this give you a clue as to what they mean by 'integration' yet, and why the people attending the meeting in Banff are traitors?

[1rudeboy]

Donald Rumsfeld is a traitor? Does he know?

[GMMAC]

You can float your bizarre conspiracy theories around all you like but no authentic conservative is ever going to take them seriously as long as it's painfully self-evident that absolutely every anti-globalization riot is also both pro-communist & anti-American.

[hedgetrimmer]

Authentic conservatives don't elect people who tolerate or encourage subversion of our government. They certainly don't support the idea that Thomas Shannon, Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs, is traveling to foreign countries and telling the people there that the US is going to 'integrate' with them on a 'higher level'.

[GMMAC]

Throw up all the minutiae you want but, as long as anti-globalization protests are rightly associated in people's minds with communist sloganeering & burning American flags, few are going to care.

Personally, as a Canadian who admires the American ideal & has many family members Stateside, I welcome virtually anything which brings our nations closer together.
While we're both likely not big fans of Mexico, it would certainly be far easier to defend only coastal borders on 3 geographic sides:

(click image for some interesting statistics)

[hedgetrimmer]

Throw up all the minutiae you want

You mean the facts.

[hedgetrimmer]

Why don't you Canadians vote to become a US territory, then we can talk about statehood. You can't possibly approve of the way they are doing it now, if as you say, you "the American ideal".

Why would you want to "bring[s] our nations closer together" in such a sneaky, underhanded, unconstitutional way?

[Tolerance Sucks Rocks]

Well, I made sure the source wasn't a leftist-moonbat source before I posted this one. What WorldNetDaily is these days, however, I have no idea...

I also posted a link to an article debunking the NAU conspiracy, and I plan to add this link to each article I post about this NAU stuff (from non-leftist websites), which at this point in time, seems mostly mythical.

You sure were right about Vive le Canada, by the way. Any site that has links to articles bitching about free markets is straying into dark territory. I plan no further postings from THAT one.

[GMMAC]

"You mean the facts."

Without getting into the, to me, questionable veracity of some of your information, it's more on your 'interpretations' of same where we part company.

"Why don't you Canadians vote to become a US territory, then we can talk about statehood.
You can't possibly approve of the way they are doing it now, if as you say, you "the American ideal"."

First off, as of now nothing even remotely like a majority of Canadians agrees with my, not Globalist but, "Continentalist" personal views.
Secondly, my admiration of the American ideal is centered on your magnificent Constitution. That most highly moral of documents will never fail America despite individual citizens failing to protect & preserve it.

I agree treason is afoot in America today but, I'd be more concerned with the sort boldly displayed in the pages of the New York Times & lauded in Hollywood & your universities than with any obscure conference of technocrats in Banff.

[hedgetrimmer]

I'd be more concerned with the sort boldly displayed in the pages of the New York Times & lauded in Hollywood & your universities than with any obscure conference of technocrats in Banff.

I guess thats because you're canadian. We Americans know the price we paid for independence and the price we are paying as we become 'integrated'. In fact the country is lost if you people have your way, and all the blood that has been shed to create America and preserve our liberty is wasted.

[GMMAC]

I appreciate your acknowledgments FRiend.

As I explained in my post #15, strident 'nationalists' up here are almost exclusively on the very far left.
For better or worse, the sort of 'flag-waving patriotism' common to the American right simply isn't found much up here. While we occasionally will go nuts for a national team in a sporting event, as a rule, most Canadians are pretty self-effacing.
Part of what made the huge rally in Ottawa yesterday to support our troops in Afghanistan such a big deal to conservatives up here was that, to some extent, it was quite uncharacteristic of this country.

[GMMAC]

"I guess thats because you're Canadian." (appropriate capitalization added)

No, it's worse because openly revealing your nation's military secrets & carrying on a continual campaign to disparage its most valued cultural institutions is plainly worse than the spit-balling of possibilities that has you so upset. The first is, by definition, a clear & present danger to your Republic while the second is merely a possible threat at some vague future date.

Presuming to lecture any Canadian on the value of blood sacrifice is both patronizing & insulting.
Canada took approximately the same number of fatal casualties during WW1 that America suffered in Vietnam over a considerably longer time frame.
However, the real qualitative difference was that ours came from a then national population of roughly 8 million while America's in the Vietnam era was about 200 million.

Continuing on the subject of blood, you, and those who share your views, also seem to forget the very real blood ties which exist in the form of the countless families with branches on both sides of the border:
For what it's worth, both my wife & I have cousins who served America honorably in Vietnam - including a somewhat distant one listed on the Black Wall - and my children easily qualify genealogically for membership in America's principal blood-related patriotic organizations.