UNI320Y: Canadian Questions: Issues and Debates

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UNI320Y Canadian Questions Issues and Debates

• Week 12 Transnational Citizenship
• Professor Emily Gilbert
• http//individual.utoronto.ca/emilygilbert/

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Transnational Citizenship

1. A North American Community?
2. Transnational Politics and Citizenship
3. Conclusions

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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

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• 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

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• 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)

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• Cant 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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

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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

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• Expands on earlier bilateral and trilateral
  agreements
• Economic cooperation eg autos
• Harmonization of external tariffs
• Regulatory cooperation eg energy
• Pre-clearance programs and biometrics

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• Report to Leaders, June 2005had 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

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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)

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• 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)

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• SPP draws together sovereigntydisciplinegovernm
  ent (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

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• "Continental Prosperity in the New
• Security Environment
• Fairmont Banff Springs
• Hotel, Sept 12-14, 2006

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• 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 dAquino, 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 

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• Working behind the scenes
• on infrastructure, regulatory
• frameworks evolution by stealth
• Canada to host June 2007 meeting in Kananaskis

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II Transnational Politics and Citizenship

• Peter Jay Smith
• Professor of Political Science, Athabasca
  University (AB)
• BA (University of Portland, Oregon) MA
  (McMaster) PhD (Carleton)

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• Information and communication technologies (ICTs)
• New forms of expression and connection among
  people
• Creating new public spaces
• Contesting globalization
• Anti-MAI, -WTO, -IMF activism

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• 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
  (self-interested, atomistic consumers of
  government services)

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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)

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• 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?

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• 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

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• 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

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• 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
  cross-country 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)

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• 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)

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• Dialogue on Foreign Policy (DFP)
• Launched January 2003
• To discuss Canadas 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

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• 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?

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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?

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• David Held erosion of nation-states need
  transnational democratic legal order
• Will Kymlicka nation-states still powerful,
  territorial politics important, transnational
  associations not possible