United States. People’s resistance defends the rights of all and opposes politics of division and arbitrary police powers

Migrant solidarity action in Los Angeles, November 2018. (ANSWER)

Maritime workers take action to oppose Trudeau government’s anti-national Preclearance Act

“We are Going to Have to Fight It Through the Regulations” — Interview, Rob Ashton, President, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, Canada

 

Maritime Workers at the port of Vancouver as well as ports throughout the country have been standing up to the Trudeau government’s Bill C-23, An Act respecting the preclearance of persons and goods in Canada and the United States. This legislation expands “preclearance,” a process for clearing customs of the destination country before leaving the country of origin, from select airports in Canada to land and water crossings. It permits preclearance of cargo in Canadian facilities by U.S. agents, and authorizes them to carry weapons and detain, search and use force against Canadians within those facilities.

New security arrangements: Measures strengthen US profiling of Canadians

By PAULINE EASTON and ENVER VILLAMIZAR

Since the New Year, a number of news reports have raised the problem of Canadian children, some just toddlers, being on no-fly lists without any explanation as to why this is the case.[1] The federal government has responded by reiterating instructions that airlines are not to subject passengers under 18 whose names appear on a no-fly list to additional security screening.

‘Baby steps’: Presence of US security agents on Canadian soil made permanent

In hearings into the Shiprider program which has U.S. border agents enforcing Canadian law on Canadian seaways, RCMP Chief Superintendent Joe Oliver, the Mounties’ director general for border integrity, stated: “We recognized early that this approach would raise concerns about sovereignty, of privacy, and civil liberties of Canadians. We said ‘Let’s take baby steps, let’s start with two agencies to test the concept, let’s demonstrate to Canadians and Americans that such an approach might work.” These “baby steps” are taken on a regular basis to keep Canadians unaware of the extent to which the Harper government has placed Canada under U.S. command. “US forces make ‘baby steps’ into Canada,” November 14, 2013

The following reports from the Beyond the Border Action Plan website provide an update on the implementation of the security perimeter arrangement between Canada and the U.S. which places U.S. military and security forces on Canadian soil and in control of Canadian security agencies. They reveal how U.S. troops on Canadian soil implementing Canadian law is also moving from pilot project to permanent arrangement behind the backs of Canadians:

Canada’s further integration into U.S. Homeland Security

ON DECEMBER 19 the Executive Committee of the Beyond the Border Action Plan made up of officials from the executives of the U.S. and Canada released its second report on how it is implementing the Beyond the Border Action Plan signed in 2011. This year’s report outlines pilot projects which place Canada’s security apparatus under U.S. command and control, in particular at key ports. Also highlighted are ongoing steps to hand over vast amounts of information to U.S. officials on who is travelling to and from Canada. Already there are reports that more Canadians are being harassed at entry to the United States on the basis of private information about their mental health taken “legally” from Canadian databases. There is also an increase in the number of unmanned drones flying in Canadian civilian airspace through the implementation of the Beyond the Border Action Plan.

US Homeland Security and the hated flute menace

Another reason for Canadians not to transit through U.S. airports

Arts Journal (Dec. 31) – BOUJEMAA RAZGUI, a Canadian flute virtuoso who lives in New York and works with many US ensembles, was returning to base over the holiday when Customs officials at Kennedy Airport (JFK) asked to see his instruments. Bourjemaa carries a variety of flutes of varying ethnicity, each made by himself over years for specific types of ancient and modern performance. He is a regular guest with the diverse and enterprising Boston Camerata. At JFK, the officials removed and smashed each and every one of his instruments. No reason was given.

Border stories: Drones, surveillance towers, malls of the spy state and the national security police on the Northern border

Living in a constitution-free zone | TODD MILLER*

“Now, the entire U.S. perimeter has become part of a Fortress USA mentality and a lockdown reality.” | Ryan Bayne

(February 7, 2013) – Before September 11, 2001, more than half the border crossings between the United States and Canada were left unguarded at night, with only rubber cones separating the two countries. Since then, that 4,000 mile “point of pride,” as Toronto’s Globe and Mail once dubbed it, has increasingly been replaced by a U.S. homeland security lockdown, although it’s possible that, like Egyptian-American Abdallah Matthews, you haven’t noticed. 

Canada’s transport infrastructure taken hostage

The U.S. Customs Service is sending “special agents” to the ports of Halifax, Montreal and Vancouver. GARY ZATZMAN

HALIFAX (19 March 2002) – More than 40 per cent of Canada’s gross domestic product (GDP) derives from exports, and more than 85 per cent of that is with the United States. With their road-rail links and container-handling facilities, the ports of Halifax, Montreal and Vancouver play an especially crucial role in providing essential transportation infrastructure. As of March 25, the US Customs Service is sending “special agents” to each location to monitor cargo handling in the name of stepping up the so-called “war against terrorism” of the Bush administration.