UNI220Y: Understanding Canada Today
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Transcript UNI220Y: Understanding Canada Today
UNI320Y: Canadian Questions:
Issues and Debates
Week 12: Transnational Citizenship
Professor Emily Gilbert
http://individual.utoronto.ca/emilygilbert/
Transnational Citizenship
I.
A North American Community?
II. Transnational Politics and Citizenship
III. Conclusions
I: A North American Community?
Jennifer Welsh
Professor of International
Relations, Oxford University
Born Regina, Saskatchewan
Metis background
B.A. from University of
Saskatchewan; then Rhodes
Scholar at Oxford, where she
received MA and PhD
Consultant to Paul Martin
government on new foreign
policy
“We should conceive of
Canada not in traditional
terms, as a middle power,
but as a citizen in the
world of nation-states. In
fact, I believe Canada has
the potential to be a model
citizen for the 21st
century”
Can compare North America to Europe?
European citizenship
1970s+: idea for common European identity
1976: elections in European Parliament
1981: move to uniform passport
1984-1992: shift to common market
1992: Maastricht Treaty: European Union
1992+
Address common identity and democratic deficit
1997: Treaty of Amsterdam
2004 Constitution (rejected in French and Dutch
referenda 2005)
Can’t compare NA to Europe
Asymmetry of power
US exceptionalism
No North American grand purpose
But can take two lessons from Europe:
European citizenship did not require strong
or unified European identity
Economic market making leads to strong
pressures for democraticization
Is a NA community viable?
Significant cross-border co-operation
Limited provisions for public participation
or citizenship
But vague sense of shared norms and
purposes
Little aspiration for political union or
citizen equality across the region
Some interest from Mexico
More open cross-border mobility
Some interest from Canada
Strengthen economic relationship with US
But Canadian perspective more “Can-global”
As world citizens; civil society activism
US: Post 9/11 protectionism
Homeland security and defense
Concerns regarding population mobility
Should consider how to ensure more
legitimacy in NAFTA
More transparency and options for public
participation
Enhance rule of law in North America
But what about NAFTA-plus: a new “big
idea”
Customs union
Common market
Currency union
Security and Prosperity Partnership
of North America
Signed March 23, 2005
Interest in regional cooperation
and concerns about global
competition
Aims are
to make region safe and secure
to ensure businesses are competitive,
economies are resilient
to ameliorate quality of life
Expands on earlier bilateral and
trilateral agreements
Economic cooperation; eg autos
Harmonization of external tariffs
Regulatory cooperation; eg energy
Pre-clearance programs and biometrics
Report to Leaders, June 2005—had 90 days to report on
their progress on:
Prosperity:
Electronic commerce
Liberalization of rules of origin
Commercial products re public health and safety
Textiles and apparel labelling
Temporary worker entry, for professionals
Migratory species and biodiversity
Harmonized approach to BSE
Border flow analysis
Aviation safety
Airspace capacity
Harmonized air navigation systems
Security:
NTC-NRAC exchange
Public safety along US-Mexico border
Progress on Windsor-Detroit 25% challenge
Expanding infrastructure at Nogales, Arizona
Science and technology cooperation
Nexus marine pilot
Pre-clearance site at Thousand Islands
Bridge
WCO framework
Joint initial verification team examinations
Port security exercises
SPP also includes quality of life issues
The environment, eg clean air and water
Education, especially higher education
Science and technology, eg innovation
Health, eg Aboriginal peoples
Appeals to “citizens” or “the people” being
“protected,” “responded to,” “invested in,”
their “full potential” promoted
Rationalized in terms of a shared belief in
freedom, economic opportunity, and strong
democratic values and institutions
“Our Partnership will accomplish these
objectives through a trilateral effort to
increase the security, prosperity, and
quality of life of our citizens. This work will
be based on the principle that our security
and prosperity are mutually dependent and
complementary, and will reflect our shared
belief in freedom, economic opportunity,
and strong democratic values and
institutions. Also, it will help consolidate
our action into a North American framework
to confront security and economic
challenges, and promote the full potential
of our people, addressing disparities and
increasing opportunities for all” (SPP 1)
SPP and ‘development’ of marginal populations
“In the long run, healthier indigenous
communities will be able to more fully participate
in the social, economic, and cultural life of North
America” (Annex to the SPP)
“Improvements in human capital and physical
infrastructure in Mexico, particularly in the center
and south of the country, would knit these regions
more firmly into the North American economy and
are in the economic and security interests of all
three countries” (Independent Task Force on the
Future of North America)
SPP draws together “sovereignty—discipline—
government” (Foucault) at the trilateral level
the defense and security of the population
the regulation and disciplining of subjects into citizens
the optimization of subjects by governing life and the
economy
Concerns that
Provides no mechanisms for shared governance
Consultative only with business community: North
American Competitiveness Council
No discussion of trilateral citizenship: representation,
accountability, transparency
"Continental Prosperity in the New
Security Environment”
Fairmont Banff Springs
Hotel, Sept 12-14, 2006
Co-chaired by
George Shultz, former Secretary of State to President Ronald Reagan
Dr. Pedro Aspe, former Secretary of Finance to President Carlos
Salinas
Hon. Peter Lougheed, former Premier of Alberta
Keynote address by Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld on military to
military cooperation
Other participants include:
Mr. Thomas d’Aquino, Canadian Council of Chief Executives
Dr. Wendy Dobson The Institute for International Business
Hon. John P. Manley, McCarthy, Tetrault LLP
Dr. Robert A. Pastor, Director, Center for North American Studies,
American University, Washington, DC
Emb Andrés Rozental (Mexican Coordinator), Mexican Council on Foreign
Relations
Tim Keating, US NorthCom Admiral and NATO commander
General Rick Hellier, Chief of Defense Staff
Representatives from Lockheed Martin, Chevron, Mexico's PEMEX, Suncor
Energy
Working behind the scenes
on infrastructure, regulatory
frameworks: “evolution by stealth”
Canada to host June 2007 meeting in
Kananaskis
II: Transnational Politics and
Citizenship
Peter Jay Smith
Professor of Political Science,
Athabasca University (AB)
BA (University of Portland, Oregon);
MA (McMaster); PhD (Carleton)
Information and communication
technologies (ICTs)
New forms of expression and connection
among people
Creating new public spaces
Contesting globalization
Anti-MAI, -WTO, -IMF activism
Economic globalization
Challenges Westphalian state model
Challenges assumption that politics and citizenship
only possible within the state
Alongside challenges to state-centric Canadian
citizenship
Quebec nationalism
Aboriginal claims
Social movement activism
1960s+ and rise of non-traditional forms of
participation
Shift from democratic citizenship (participation,
shaping decisions) to consumer citizenship (selfinterested, atomistic consumers of government
services)
Rethinking public space
Hannah Arendt on combative politics
Association and contestation
Site of struggle
Political realm emerges out of sharing of words and
deeds
Public and private always contested, negotiated
“The polis, properly speaking, is not the city-state in
its physical location, it is the organization of the
people as it arises out of acting and speaking together
for this purpose, no matter where they happen to be”
(Arendt)
Internet
Promotes interactivity
Is open and flexible
Horizontal links: control of
information in hands of more people
Rise of alternative public spaces
But biased and exclusive?
Multilateral Agreement on Investment
Discussions originated in 1995 to
1) broad multilateral framework for investment
2) further trade liberalization
3) effective dispute settlement mechanism
4) open to OECD members first, then others
Draft text leaked February 1997
Public Citizen and Polaris
Web mobilization: 400 web sites
France withdraws Oct 1998, discussions end Dec 1998
Importance of internet mobilization
Internet used to facilitate debate:
Co-ordinate global campaign
Provide draft faxes and open letters
To share press releases
Make public information
Used alongside traditional lobbying
methods
Millennium Round of WTO negotiations
All participants make use of the Internet
Sept 1998: MIT Sergio Marchi invites public
discussion on WTO: extensive consultations
ensue
Sept 1998: Council of Canadians begins crosscountry tour
Feb 1999: DFAIT establishes own web-site; then
consultations with business, public
Summer 1999: 40 Canadian NGOs sign on-line
Civil Society Declaration (1,100 organizations
from 87 countries)
Government On Line (GOL) initiative (1999)
Citizen on-line service delivery to “brand”
Canada
DFAIT doubles IT budget to $100 million
(1999/2000)
Biggest department is Information Management
and Technology Bureau
Implements MITNET (multi-user
International Telecommunications Network)
Dialogue on Foreign Policy (DFP)
Launched January 2003
To discuss: “Canada’s place in the world”
Includes relationship with US and 3 foreign
policy pillars: 1) security, 2) prosperity and 3)
values and culture
MFA Bill Graham: “public input and
partnerships are central to the process”
Includes:
Town hall meetings
Expert roundtables
Electronic discussions on dedicated website
Internet offers potential to have more direct representation
importance alongside declining interest in formal politics
But problems with ICTS
Quality of information uneven
Quantity of data can exceed capacity to process and
analyze
Predominance of English language
Digital divide persists
Customized environments where dissent eliminated
Can ICTS promote transnational citizenship?
Is transnational citizenship viable?
III: Conclusions
Citizenship requires trusted intermediaries,
institutions, and agencies to:
Bring people of different points of view together
Mediate differences
Construct consensus
Make decisions
Citizenship in action
But does this require nation-state?
David Held: erosion of nation-states:
need transnational democratic legal
order
Will Kymlicka: nation-states still
powerful, territorial politics important,
transnational associations not
possible