Summit Between Canadian Prime
Minister and U.S. President
On February 23, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
and U.S. President Joe Biden held a virtual
bilateral meeting. Trudeau summed up the meeting
saying, "The President and I discussed the
ambitious new Partnership Roadmap, based on
shared values and priorities, that will guide
our countries' work together over the coming
years."
The "shared values and priorities" referred to
come out of a neo-liberal play book. This can be
seen from the material they released after the
meeting and from their acts, neither of which
make the economy sustainable or contribute to
nation-building. On the contrary, the measures
are part of nation-wrecking at home and abroad
and contribute to the U.S. imperialist striving
for world hegemony, aggression and war.
"In the face of COVID-19, of climate change, of
rising inequality, this is our moment to act,"
Trudeau said. "Job one remains keeping people
safe and ending this pandemic. This afternoon,
the President and I discussed collaboration to
beat COVID-19, from keeping key supplies moving
and supporting science and research, to joint
efforts through international institutions.
We're standing united in this fight," he said.
From the beginning, ruling elites have not been
motivated to marshal the considerable
resources of each country to defend the people.
On the contrary, the resources are used as means
for the rich to become richer. This has resulted
in 537,312 COVID-19 related deaths and mounting
in the U.S. and 22,213 deaths reported in
Canada, as well as tremendous hardship for
working people of both countries.
Two days after
the grandiose statements were made at the
Summit, Biden demonstrated in practice the
traditional U.S. method of "keeping people safe"
by unleashing the U.S. war machine to bomb
Syria. Trudeau did not utter a peep in
opposition to the continued aggression and
destruction of the countries of West Asia and
North Africa, which involves Canada through the
NATO war alliance. On the contrary, he expressed
the same enthusiasm of "keeping people safe"
through war, destruction and pillage.
On February 26, a virtual meeting was held
between Canada's Foreign Minister Marc Garneau
and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken which
declared a "commitment to address human rights
and needed reforms in Cuba." The joint statement
from the two leaders could just as well have
declared: "Share our neo-liberal values or we
will bomb you!" They demand subservience to the
U.S. drive for world hegemony by presenting this
"value" as fighting for freedom and democracy.
Canada has become integrated into the U.S. war
machine and the power of the Pentagon backs the
administrations of both countries, while more
and more laws and regulations are passed which
consider any discussion questioning their
motivations to be sedition, treason, against the
national interest and a threat to national
security.
Presenting
themselves as those who will provide the
fundamental constitutional problems of both U.S.
and Canadian societies with solutions, Trudeau
said: "The past year has revealed all sorts of
inequalities in our societies, and now more than
ever, it is time to act." The past year in fact
saw more than 20 million people in the U.S.
alone demonstrate for more than 100 days
straight prior to the U.S. election, along with
millions more in Canada and around the world,
against state-organized racist police violence,
impunity and more funding for police while
social programs for the people continue to be
privatized and the rich get richer and the poor
poorer.
The trial of the former police officer who
killed George Floyd begins March 8 in
Minneapolis. The Mayor and Minnesota's Governor
declared their version of "it is time to act on
inequalities" by militarizing and occupying the
city with thousands of heavily armed police and
soldiers and telling the people to stay away.
Their actions are similar to the lockdown and
military occupation of Washington, DC for
Biden's inauguration with its open threats to
violently suppress the people if they dare show
their faces. The military's show of force also
sends a blunt message to the political
representatives of the rich, including Biden,
that they better not step out of line when
serving the ruling oligarchy and war economy,
"or else!"
Trudeau also used the Summit to make it clear
Canada wants to be part of "Buy America" by
being considered an integral part of the U.S.
economy. This is the opposite direction
Canadians are calling for when they demand the
economy be self-reliant and contribute to
creating a safe natural and social environment
under the control of the workers.
"Today, the President and I discussed
leveraging supply chains and support for
businesses," Trudeau said. Emphasizing the
"shared value" of paying the rich through
marshalling public funds to support the private
business cartels and monopolies of the global
oligarchs, he added: "Here in Canada, innovation
and clean energy will play a critical role in
our plan to rebuild our economy. The President
and I discussed the importance of clean growth
to create new opportunities for Canadians and
Americans, and also to protect the environment
and fight climate change."
To date, the Trudeau government's greatest
"innovation" involving "clean energy" has been
to take the money-losing boondoggle Trans
Mountain Pipeline project off the hands of its
private U.S. owners who were desperate to dump
it and pay them a fortune in public funds. The
government then further mobilized the state's
police powers, including the courts, to ram
through the pipeline to Vancouver over the
objections of many Canadians who do not want
anything to do with it. Arrests, jailing and
violent police attacks on opponents of the
pipeline are mounting daily. Attempts to put
jobs and sustainable development, workers and
environmentalists into irrational separate
categories to justify the criminalization of
both will not create a viable direction for the
economy.
September 8, 2018. Protest in Vancouver against
building of the Trans Mountain pipeline
On the issue of innovation, clean energy and
rebuilding our economy, Trudeau was possibly
also referring to the Alberta government's
disastrous pay-the-rich scheme of investing
billions of public funds into the Keystone XL
pipeline to the U.S. Gulf Coast that Biden
cancelled because it competes with similar
projects already underway and the green
investments of former Vice President Al Gore.
The main "sharing" going on between a gushing
Trudeau, visibly relieved that his like-minded
friend has become the president, and this
like-minded U.S. president, appears to be the
sharing of schemes to pay the rich and a deep
commitment to serve the oligarchy.
To further muddy the waters and militarize the
people's concern over climate change and to use
the issue and public funds to enable certain
global oligarchs to make billions in a so-called
green economy, Trudeau said, "We must continue
to take meaningful action to respect the Paris
Accord and achieve our goals for a net-zero
emissions future."
The only "net-zero" appears to be when Canada
builds pipelines and the U.S. cancels them.
"Finally, we also discussed ways to build a
stronger and more peaceful world. To protect our
citizens and our communities, we must work
together," Trudeau said. He did not reveal if
Biden's discussions of his plan for a "more
peaceful world" included bombing Syria two days
later.
Neo-liberal
parlance did however serve to cover up the joint
intelligence services which dictate the new
laws and ministerial measures to outlaw any
speech that is seen by police powers, which act
with impunity, to undermine the "common
principles and shared values" which Canadians
and Americans must support "or else." "This
includes strengthening continental defence and
combating violent extremism. And around the
world, we must defend our shared values and
interests, for example, by renewing alliances
and supporting multilateral institutions,"
Trudeau said. "Canada and the United States are
each other's closest allies, most important
trading partners, and oldest friends," Trudeau
gushed.
Canadians need a nation-building project of
their own doing, to make Canada a zone for peace
with an anti-war government and to change the
aim of the economy from one integrated into the
U.S. war machine based on maximum private profit
for the few to one that serves the people and
works with others in a spirit of cooperation and
mutual benefit for all humanity, not competition
and war.
This means as a first priority taking Canada
out of the NATO and NORAD war alliances and all
other entanglements with the U.S. war economy
and military machine. It requires forging a new
direction for the economy. This remains a
priority.
For the joint statement of President Biden and
Prime Minister Trudeau at the conclusion of
their meeting, with comments by K.C. Adams click here.
This article was published in
Volume 51 Number 3 - March 7, 2021
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2021/Articles/M510032.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
