CSIS Preparations for the April 2001 OAS Summit
Blithely ignoring the history, theory, and practice of civil disobedience, the CSIS message is clear -philosophers and social writers from D. H. Thoreau to Noam Chomsky, former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliot Trudeau, ICHRDD President Warren Allmand, US Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader, and Prince Edward Islanders who make the cover of Time Magazine take note: in Canada, you might be detained for thinking critically about social justice.
Unjust laws exist: shall we be content to obey them, or shall we endeavor to amend them, and obey them until we have succeeded, or shall we transgress them at once?…it is the fault of the government itself that the remedy is worse than the evil. It makes it worse. Why is it not more apt to anticipate and provide for reform? Why does it not cherish its wise minority? Why does it cry and resist before it is hurt? Why does it not encourage its citizens to put out its faults, and do better than it would have them? Why does it always crucify Christ and excommunicate Copernicus and Luther, and pronounce Washington and Franklin rebels?
On the Duty of Civil Disobedience, Henry David Thoreau, 1849
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With thirty-four heads of state meeting in Quebec City next April for the OAS Summit, there is a serious side to conference security. As the OAS meeting is only a few months away, the Canadian security apparatus appears to be relying on key US agencies. On the margin of the Fourth Canada-U.S. Cross-Border Crime Forum held in Washington, D.C. last June, the United States and Canada signed a Memorandum of Understanding to develop and share police technology (i.e., videotape enhancement, explosives detection, security systems, fingerprint detection, and police protective equipment) and to create an Integrated Border Enforcement Team along the east coast.
The Canada-U.S. Cross-Border Crime Forum had its initial session in Ottawa during September 1997, when it was created to tackle smuggling across the eastern regions of both countries. From the time of its initial meeting through three subsequent annual meetings, the forum has started to creep into the field of domestic political surveillance, with particular attention to activists in North America.
Cooperation also exists through the Regional Information Sharing Systems (RISS) Program operated by the US Bureau of Justice Assistance. RISS is a US program to support law enforcement efforts against multi-jurisdictional criminal conspiracies and activities. There are six RISS centres and five of them serve Canadian jurisdictions. While RISS centres are mandated to counter organized crime, drugs and terrorism, there have been indications that information on protest movements is collected and stored by all six offices. According to a recent report from the Paris based Intelligence Newsletter, "the RISS also act against any political activist group deemed to be a threat and over the last year has found itself focusing on anti-globalization groups." The report notes that in order "to justify their interest in anti-globalization groups from a legal standpoint, the authorities lump them into a category of terrorist organizations."
Notably, the Middle Atlantic-Great Lakes Organized Crime Law Enforcement Network is believed to be particularly efficient in activist surveillance. The centre reportedly distributes intelligence on anti-globalisation groups to other police departments. The US Mid-Atlantic Network maintains operational relations with the Canadian government, and some provincial law enforcement agencies.
Unaware to CSIS however, the OAS - with Canadian advocacy - has been working closely with a wide range of civil society groups across the Americas, and bringing them into the decision process. This OAS initiative has been ably documented by Yasmine Shamsie in a North-South Institute study titled, "Engaging with Civil Society. Lessons from the OAS, FTAA, and Summits of the Americas," which was published in January of this year.
Without reins on the zealots at CSIS, there is a better than 50/50 chance the Quebec City venue will turn very ugly, very quickly, and undermine OAS - NGO relations. Before handing over more funds for unspecified high security measures, politicians might want to reflect on how the media will report the event just prior to the next general election, now likely to be called in late April for mid May.
A great deal more could be said about the CSIS report, including its wild assertions regarding the Internet. Instead, we can only hope that the House Security Intelligence Review Committee will want to ask why a national security agency that has the Animal Liberation Front at the top of its threat checklist gets any funding at all.
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ISSN 1492-7187, TRADE POLICY MONITOR, September 2000,
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