SUPPOSE YOUR "WIKI" LEAKS

The Canadian Security intelligence Service (CSIS) has a list of people "permanently bound to secrecy" under the country's Security Information Act. I am not one of them.

In the nation's capital nothing happens quite by accident. All the more so when a "control freak" is at the helm, as others have described the Prime Minister, Stephen Harper.

Last fall when a draft communications plan to sell Canadians on a secretive agreement with the Obama Administration titled: "Beyond The Border; A Shared Vision For Perimeter Security And Competitiveness" was leaked to the media, Canada's government went into overdrive to deny the agreement was set for President Obama and Prime Minister Harper signatures in January. It's an omnibus agreement which aims to facilitate the cross-border transfer of goods and services between our two nations in the aftermath of the so-called "thickening of our 5000 mile border" since the savage terrorist attacks of 9/11.

Supporters and proponents of the deal say a North American perimeter security pact is the obvious next logical step. Despite its reluctance to confirm the details of any agreement in the works, the Federal Government has trotted-out a number of high profile public supporters of the "shared vision" including five former Canadian Ambassadors to Washington and several former Government officials involved in the Free-Trade Accord of the 1980's and its subsequent follow-up evolution the "North American Free Trade Accord" (NAFTA.)

Of course the Devil is always in details. Even though the Harper Government has been reluctant to clarify just what is involved in this new tentative deal with the American Government, the widely anticipated "tete-a-tete" between President Obama and Prime Minister Harper has been delayed while officials grapple with the details of the accord. There are a couple of "sticky" issues, and recent seemingly unrelated developments within Canada, may (in fact) be designed to allay American demands and / or concerns. They involve both Canada's northernmost border, as well as our southern border along the United States.

U.S. Homeland Security has identified a serious flaw in the country's strict control over who enters and leaves American soil: It is done at airports and seaports, but there is no way to track who is leaving the United States along the dozens of land-routes which enter into Canada. The fear is that terrorists, extremists and others who would do harm can drive across the border and grab a flight out of Canada without knowledge. As an essential part of the "perimeter" agreement, Homeland Security wants the Canada Border Services Agency's (CBSA) list of who is entering the country from the United States. The issue could be directly related to the Harper Government's adamant rejection of additional landing rights in Canada for the Middle Eastern air carriers "Emirates Airline" and "Etihad Airways." The resulting diplomatic rift has led to the cancellation of Canada's nine-year military lease on a Middle Eastern airfield used to transfer troops and supplies to Afghanistan; as well as unprecedented Visa restrictions for Canadians wishing to enter the United Arab Emirates.

Up at the Arctic border, America's giant Massachusetts based defence contractor Raytheon covets the management contract for the North Warning System (NWS). On 9/11, NORAD lost significant minutes in tracking the five hijacked passenger jets over the United States because it's Radars, like the guns of France's fabled "Maginot Line," were aimed "out of country" rather than inward...I digress. The remotely monitored "North Warning System" Radars built in 1992 are controlled from an underground bunker in North Bay, Ontario, but it's a joint Alberta and first nations (Inuit) firm that holds the maintenance contract. Raytheon has its sights on the contract worth about $70-Million per year of which about 60% is paid by the American Government. It expires in the fall. The 47 automated Radar sites are located on Inuit land, and the Aboriginal have invoked land-claims agreements to kibosh the Harper Government's international tender-call.

The volatility intensifies if you add a potential Canadian Federal election in the not too distant future. Critics and opponents of the proposed "perimeter security" agreement are claiming already that the additional collaboration with Homeland Security and the U.S. Defence establishment poses serious Canadian privacy and sovereignty concerns.

Ultimately improving the flow of goods and services between our two countries is a worthwhile objective. However in its current context, the political cost may be beyond any national party's ability to withstand once the details see the light of day.

MANNA ISN'T ALWAYS FROM HEAVEN

Governments are strapped for cash. Florida is one of almost three dozen American states where the legislature has mandated that the annual budget must be balanced. Though those same states are lobbying for a U.S. Constitutional amendment that would require their Federal Government to also balance its annual budget: The irony is that they are the states that depend on hand-outs from Congress, now $14-trillion in debt, to balance their own budgets...I digress.

No surprise then that just last week, the five largest gambling corporations in America were in the State at the government's invitation to outline proposals for Las Vegas style gambling casinos in the Tampa - St. Petersburg, and Miami - Fort Lauderdale areas, and the promise of large gambling revenues back to the state's coffers.

Casino gambling in Florida is currently the sole purview of the reservations of two indian tribes: The Seminoles and the Miccosukee. Lest I digress further: Like the the "depopulation" of their northern Newfoundland brethren the Beothuk, the Seminoles were decimated at the hands of the American Federal Government in the 1840's. Descendants of the 100 (or so) Seminoles who remained now own the worldwide operations of the "Hard Rock" hotel - casino - restaurant chains which in addition to their massive Las Vegas operations also include casinos in Hollywood, Florida; Tampa and Coconut Creek on the outskirts of Palm Beach county. Their Hard Rock franchised restaurants and hotels operate worldwide.

The deflating news for Florida's state government - as it should be for my home province of New Brunswick where the province's first: "Casino N.B." at Moncton's Magnetic Hill opens this summer - Is that Ontario's four owned resort casinos are $100 million in debt. Primarily in Windsor and Niagara Falls; Ontario got in on the ground-floor explosion of Casino gambling in the nineties as a panacea for its financial ills (Step forward Mike Harris!). Large operators, including the famed "Ceasar's" brand in Windsor; the massive Fallsview and Casino Niagara, both in Niagara Falls and Casino Rama, in Rama (near Orillia) north of Toronto reportedly lost $94-Million in 2009, that on top of losses of $76-Million in 2008. In fact, Ontario authorities at the scandal plagued OLG (Ontario Lottery Corporation) aren't really sure when their four resort casinos last turned a profit.

Blame the recession in America, and more importantly border travel restrictions implemented since the attacks of September 2001, but just as New Brunswick gears up for it's Moncton operations; It seems that the casino gaming business is down all over North America...Just in time for the Picture Province's September 27th general election.

Over here in Florida - Republicans and Democrats take note: The state's gubernatorial elections are set for November. Maybe aspiring potential candidates should hold-off making statewide casino gambling part of their election platforms.

GET OVER IT!

Americans may be about to choose a black man for their country's highest elected office. It is a significant tribute to the achievements of the 12% of the population of the United States, African-American, who are descendants of slaves brought to America's shores against their will and frequently in shackles.

Just a few days ago here, the abrupt resignation of Mr. Justice Harry LaForme as head of the "Truth and Reconciliation Commission" caused another outcry on the part of Aboriginal leaders to unlock the process, and from the Minister of Indian Affairs, for cooler heads to prevail. It seems the Minister, Chuck Strahl, wants all the parties to come together within days to restart the process and restore the credibility of the Commission.

The estimated cost of the Commission's inquiry into the legacy of abuse at residential schools is $60-million. So far it's been probably more dysfunctional than most of the survivors it aims to help. The survivors at least are getting their share of the nearly $2-billion taxpayer funded settlement over events that occurred fifty or more years ago. I say can't we just get over this.

Abraham Lincoln's "Emancipation Proclamation" of September 22, 1862, "freed the slaves": No excuses, no pay offs, no reparations, no commissions overseeing the welfare of survivors. Freedom! Period. Justice may have taken several decades, but one of theirs, a Harvard graduate, is about to become President.

On the aboriginal file, here in Canada successive governments at all levels have been apologizing, making payments, and being supportive, it seems to me, for fifty or more years. Can't we just stop this already. No one doubts that there has been injustice, and we're sorry. The world is full of injustice. The idyllic 1950's family lives of Ozzie and Harriet Nelson, and of the Beaver Cleaver family were just televised fiction.

I was orphaned at age 6 and sent to a religious institution. Everyone picks-up emotional baggage along the path of life, and deals with it as best possible. Just about every family I know, including mine, has dysfunctional elements. Can't we just stop the whining and move-on?