For a Modern Definition of the National Interest
The note to Cabinet urging the Emergencies Act be invoked on February 14, 2022 and testimony of Chrystia Freeland and others at the Public Order Emergency Commission reveal a ruling elite for whom the national interest or national security means doing the bidding of supranational private interests and serving the U.S. war machine. There is nothing national about it. It is nation-wrecking, not only of Canada, but against the peoples of the world fighting for their right to self-determination, independence and their own nation-building projects.
Whether the ruling elite speak of the "national interest," "economic security" or "national security," it is all about schemes which benefit narrow supranational interests. An important aim is to disinform public opinion by destroying the norms and standards the polity has used as a measure to exercise judgement in the past. This is devastating to the coherence of the body politic which is left rudderless, without orientation or direction.
A polity requires publicly recognized standards and norms the people can count on to make judgements about the matters at hand. When definitions and regulations are given on a whim or secretly at the behest of foreign political police forces and their Canadian spokespersons, the entire polity is left out of the discourse. Limiting consultations to selected experts from academia, business, media and what are called stakeholders leaves the people and their concerns out of the discourse. And/or their opinions are silenced when they are reduced to filling out surveys which only ask them to state their preferences between pre-selected choices. This is very destructive to the cohesion of the body politic which tends to "drop out" for lack of an alternative of its own. The fact that the regulations, rules and arrangements feed the U.S./NATO war machine makes the consequences of the so-called rules-based system very dangerous.
The testimony at the Public Order Emergency Commission hearings on why the Emergencies Act was invoked reveals an embarrassing and humiliating picture of ministers and politicians who ask "how high?" when the U.S. administration, CEOs of the big banks and financial institutions, or owners of the biggest oligopolies command them to jump. The most embarrassing is that these ministers and politicians say this is how to defend Canada's security and national interest.
Most of the discussion reports indicate took place in the federal cabinet about approving the invocation of the Emergencies Act has been redacted (blacked out). The Trudeau government, claiming "solicitor-client privilege," even refused to tell the Rouleau Commission whether its own Department of Justice considered that it was acting according to the requirements of the law. But what has been brought to light reveals a wretched sell-out government in contempt of the right of Canadians to self-determination, as well as the rule of law and the rights of the people.
The memo to cabinet states,
"Specifically, PCO [Privy Council Office] is of the view that while municipal and provincial authorities have taken decisive action in key affected areas, such as law enforcement activity at the Ambassador Bridge in Windsor, considerable effort was necessary to restore access to the site and will be required to maintain access. The situation across the country remains concerning, volatile and unpredictable. While there is no current evidence of significant implications by extremist groups or international sponsors, PCO notes that the disturbance in public unrest is being felt across the country and beyond Canadian borders, which may provide further momentum to the movement and lead to irremediable harms -- including to social cohesion, national unity and Canada's international reputation. In PCO's views, this fits within the statutory parameters defining threats to the security of Canada though this conclusion may be vulnerable to challenge."
Canadians
and
Quebeckers are well aware that the cartel parties play
the greatest role in acts to divide the polity, and destroy political
discourse in pursuit of their own sectarian aims and drive for power.
But the objective reality is that Canada is not made up of random
individuals with
random values informed by racism and social chauvinism and imbued with
the spirit of the ruling elites. Canada is a country made up of people
from the four corners of the world as well as the nation of Quebec, the
Indigenous nations, Inuit and the Métis nation, the latter deprived of
its territory from the time its leader was hanged and many of its other
leaders and members massacred. The claims of the working class on
society based on its role as the
producer of all wealth, and of the people without whom Canada would not
exist, are denied by the ruling circles and those with privileges who
serve them within
the cartel party system. To claim that police powers must be used for
purposes of enforcing social cohesion and national unity is a real
fraud which seeks to divert attention from who is responsible for the
destruction of public opinion.
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland provided more information about the "threat to Canada's international reputation" during her testimony at the Public Order Emergency Inquiry. She said that on February 10, when U.S. President Joe Biden's senior economic adviser requested a call, she felt that was a "dangerous moment for Canada." She testified: "That one conversation was a seminal one for me. And it was a moment when I realized as a country, somehow, we had to find a way to bring this to an end." "I really do believe our security as a country is built on our economic security. And if our economic security is threatened, all of our security is threatened. And I think that's true for us as a country. And it's true for individuals," she told the inquiry. Never mind that it is the economic security of the U.S. she has in mind, not that of Canada.
Freeland went on to say that after her call with Brian Deese, director of the U.S. president's National Economic Council, she knew the blockades had set an "amber light flashing" in the U.S. regarding supply chain vulnerabilities with Canada, and that the finance department was worried that the blockades would torpedo negotiations with the U.S. on electric vehicle tax credits. "The danger was were we in the process, as a country, of doing long-term and possibly irreparable harm to our trading relationship with the United States," Freeland said.
As an aside, it is noteworthy that after the pandemic, "tax credits" were freely distributed to those involved in the production of electric vehicles.
Freeland also testified that Canadian bank CEOs told her Canada's international reputation was at risk, and that American investors were calling Canada "a joke."
Finally, she connected invoking the Emergencies Act with the need to "appear strong" because she had information that "Russia intended to invade Ukraine," and that she feared the convoys would affect Canada's response to the war.
The summary document of Freeland's testimony states, "Freeland also pointed out that if Canada's capital had still been occupied when Russia invaded Ukraine, in her view, such a situation would have completely discredited Canada as an ally in support of Ukraine.
"Russian media would have been focused 24/7 on what was occurring in Canada, which would have made Canada appear very weak at a time it needed to be strong. Further, it would have made it very difficult to take action after the invasion."
For Canadians, an
international reputation in which they can take
pride would be to Make Canada a Zone for Peace, to uphold international
law, to stand with the peoples' forces all over the world opposing
impunity, neo-colonial rule, occupation, apartheid and genocide. An
international reputation
based on the kind of sycophancy, fawning and obsequious behaviour as
that displayed by Freeland is only admired by birds of a feather.
Social cohesion is forged by all those who fight for the recognition of the claims they are within their rights to make and achieve. It is not achieved by imposing the dictates of narrow private supranational interests and the U.S. war machine. To lay claims on society for what belongs to the people by right, and to work out together how to provide these rights with a guarantee is what provides a people with dignity, pride and a way forward.
This article was published in
Volume 54 Number 22 - March 27, 2024
Article Link:
https://cpcml.ca/Tmlm2024/Articles/MS54223.HTM
Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca