Opinion: CETA will prove beneficial to businesses and consumers

Securing our future: Trade deal with European Union gives us access to large market, alternative to U.S.                                       3100

 

By Darren Entwistle and Stockwell Day, Special to The Vancouver Sun November 17, 2013

 

 

    

            

 

Stockwell Day is a director on the Telus board and a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.

Photograph by: wayne leidenfrost , PNG

There are few things more important to the well-being of Canadians than the strength and sustainability of our nation’s economy. Our collective ability to create family supporting jobs and fund critical government services, such as health care and education, is profoundly connected to our country’s ability to succeed and flourish within a global context. The success of this effort will be measured not by us, but by our children and grandchildren who inherit our economic legacy. It is for this reason that we are offering our public support to the government as they work diligently to finalize CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) — the most significant trade agreement in a generation. We are convinced that the agreement with the European Union (EU) will prove beneficial to businesses and consumers alike, adding an estimated $12 billion annually to our GDP.
Canadian importers and exporters will benefit from sharply reduced tariffs and from increased access to European markets with a population exceeding 500 million. Consumers will benefit from greater competition and working Canadians will benefit as our economy expands to meet increased demand. More than 60 per cent of our GDP is directly tied to trade and nearly one out of every two dollars of Canadian manufacturing output is sold as exports from Canada.

A major dividend from CETA will be diversification. Overreliance on any single distribution channel is risky for any business, regardless of the strength of the relationship with the distribution partner. Diversifying our trade policy through CETA will complement our substantial trade with the U.S. and will, at the same time, strengthen our capacity to manage relations with our southern neighbour. Any responsible business person or investor understands the fundamental importance of managing risk by investing in multiple channels. The CETA provides the Canadian economy with a lever by which we can mitigate risk while continuing to capitalize on the success of our current trade relationships.
Canadian companies and producers will have a significant, “preferred partner” advantage in the EU market — giving Canadian business and producers a competitive edge, enabling them to create jobs and opportunities for growth in all regions of Canada. The CETA will also lock in fair and predictable conditions for business, reduce or eliminate unnecessary red tape and ensure equivalent, non-discriminatory treatment for companies and goods in Canada and the EU.

Canada has enjoyed unprecedented economic success from previous free trade agreements, notably NAFTA. We have demonstrated that we can compete with the best when the rules of engagement are fair and balanced. Trade is the indispensable driver of economic growth for Canada and we hope that success with CETA will sponsor more of the same with major Asian economies.
Free trade and liberalization of foreign ownership rules will undoubtedly expose incumbent Canadian organizations to increased competition, including in the telecommunications industry. We wholeheartedly support this approach.
 

Indeed, we welcome healthy competition and we believe that most Canadian entrepreneurs would share this view given the opportunities that free trade provides. As a nation, we are innovative and tenacious. We embrace the opportunity to compete with the most sophisticated and innovative organizations from around the globe. The level of access to foreign markets that free trade agreements like CETA affords us presents every Canadian organization with the exciting opportunity to compete and win internationally.

The legacy of any government will be drawn from the strategic decisions made today that help us build strong, healthy and sustainable communities into the future. Political leaders have an obligation to do more than simply govern; they must conceive of and implement big ideas which change the future prospects of a nation.

That is what is at stake for Canada with CETA and we salute the government for its leadership in concluding the agreement.

We applaud the government’s move to strengthen our trade relationship with the European Union, and look forward to such future agreements with additional trading partners around the world.
Darren Entwistle is the president and CEO of Telus. Stockwell Day is a director on the Telus board and a member of the Conservative Party of Canada.

© Copyright (c) The Vancouver Sun

CSEC: The spies next door

                    YES!

CSEC: The spies next door

  By Ian MacLeod, Ottawa CitizenNovember 15, 2013

 

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An aerial view of the project looking north and dominated by the wing-shaped roof the central Hub. Bathgate Drive and the Carson Grove neighbourhood are on left. (Handout photo/Communications Security Establishment)

Photograph by: Handout photo, Communications Security Establishment

A mammoth see-through glass building that no outsider is ever allowed to see through is rising in east Ottawa.
Six thousand construction workers, tradespeople and suppliers are erecting a futuristic $1.1-billion home for Canada’s premier intelligence agency, the Communications Security Establishment.
Everyone and everything on the site requires a security clearance. Even the wet cement was sifted for electronic bugs, according to a source.
The project CEO is Bud Mercer, the former RCMP assistant commissioner who led the gargantuan security effort for the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is a next-door neighbour. The whole area feels hermetically sealed.
Which leads to another paradox: This ultrasecret government installation is being built by private enterprise with private money raised on the open market.
When the keys to 1929 Ogilvie Rd. are handed to the Crown next August, the 775,000-square-foot spy palace will have been designed and built by a consortium of companies that is to manage the site and its advanced IT gear until 2044. Most of the financing comes from private equity and bond sales to CSE-approved institutional investors.
The job ranks as the biggest federal accommodation project ever attempted under a public-private-partnership or P3. The government says the arrangement eliminates risks and liabilities associated with construction and financing while retaining ownership. It says up to $176 million will be saved compared to a traditional procurement process.
But critics say P3s represent the privatization of public assets. They not only funnel public resources into generating private profits, but allow governments to hide debt within multi-decade contracts.
One thing that can’t be kept under wraps is the structure’s conspicuous architecture. It is sure to expose the secretive CSE to the public eye like never before. How the defence department agency responds could help determine how much legitimacy Canadians are willing to extend to its increasingly contentious electronic spying.
Matters may soon degenerate further. Journalist Glenn Greenwald, with his whistleblower source Edward Snowden, a former U.S. National Security Agency contractor, has upended the intelligence world over the past year with remarkable exposés and document leaks about massive government spying on citizens in the U.S., Britain, France, Brazil, Spain and other nations.
Information released in October to Brazilian media revealed the CSE has intercepted telecommunications traffic from Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy.
Greenwald says he is now preparing to release more classified documents from Snowden outlining government spying here and Canada’s intimate relationship with the NSA.
“The documents are quite complex,” Greenwald told CBC last week. “There are a lot of them. There is enormous amounts of reporting to do in Canada, one of the most active surveillance agencies in the world, because of how closely they work with the NSA.
“There are many, many, many more significant documents about Canadian surveillance and partnership with the NSA that will be reported and, I think, will be quite enlightening for the people of Canada.”
In the Internet age, the CSE’s cutting edge is honed with supercomputers, algorithmic encryption keys and cryptanalysis. Its targets are the phone calls, faxes, emails, tweets, satellite and other electronic signals emanating from adversarial foreign nations and overseas threat actors.
The purloined information is turned into intelligence and shared with federal departments and ECHELON, the signals intelligence network connecting Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand, the so-called Five Eyes alliance.
As a longtime net importer of foreign intelligence, it is crucial for Canada to maintain goodwill with those allies, especially since former navy sub-lieutenant Jeffrey Delisle was caught in 2012 selling allied military secrets to the Russians.
The shimmering new CSE showcase and the contemporary CSIS headquarters next door symbolize Canada’s commitment to holding up its end of the intelligence-sharing pact, says Wesley Wark, a leading expert on security and intelligence. It’s also a measure of how times have changed for government secret service.
The CSE’s job inside its current heap of cramped, old and under-powered buildings spread around Heron Road and Riverside Drive (including the former CBC headquarters building) has been so clandestine it operated under a secret order-in-council for 55 years.
That Cold War mentality and almost singular focus on the former USSR and its Eastern Bloc allies finally died on Sept. 11, 2001. The 9/11 attacks prompted government to bring in the CSE from the cold and task it with countering terrorism and guarding federal computer networks against cyber threats. Its signals intelligence expertise became indispensable to the military in Afghanistan. Its workforce has since doubled to about 2,000 civilian employees and federal budgetary estimates for this year put projected spending at about $460 million.
The Anti-terrorism Act of 2001 not only officially recognized the CSE’s existence but amended the National Defence Act to give it authority to intercept private communications between Canadians and foreigners, something it had never been allowed to do.
Though the National Defence Act prohibits the CSE from “directing” its activities at Canadians or people in Canada, the minister of defence can “for the sole purpose of obtaining foreign intelligence” authorize it to intercept private, domestic communications provided, “the interception is directed at foreign entities located outside of Canada.”
That means if a suspected or known terrorist operating abroad contacts someone in Canada, the CSE can legally eavesdrop on the domestic end of the communications. It can also claim it does not “target” Canadians.
When the law was changed in December 2001 most Canadians didn’t notice. Those who did tended to yawn. But a dozen years later, individuals are inextricably tethered to a wireless, digital existence. Messing with their electronic privacy is a touchy thing to do.

Snowden’s revelations about the NSA’s vast hoovering of the electronic conversations of U.S. citizens and foreigners, possibly Canadians, have provoked indignation and scrutiny.
The headlines and backlash have rippled north across the border. In addition to the Brazilian caper, the CSE has been hit with accusations it monitored Canadians’ global telephone and Internet use. In a separate action, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association filed a lawsuit in October charging that the CSE’s activities are unlawful and in breach of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Government oversight of the CSE now falls to the strangely-named Office of the Communications Security Establishment Commissioner, headed by Jean-Pierre Plouffe, a former military and superior court judge. The watchdog office, however, has been criticized for its own secrecy. Many observers believe it also lacks meaningful authority.
Liberal Public Safety critic and MP Wayne Easter, once the minister responsible for CSIS, introduced a private member’s bill in the Commons last week to establish a national security committee of parliamentarians to oversee the federal spy apparatus. The idea has been around for almost a decade but never enacted.
In January 2011, Prime Minister Stephen Harper mused about the idea of creating a committee on national security, but said there was no agreement on a particular model. The government has since been largely silent on the issue.
The CSE may not have the same option. As it faces new, complex and fast-moving operational challenges and tries to find needles of significance in vast haystacks of speeding electrons, it is probably going to have to explain itself to Canadians in a way it is not used to, says Wark, a visiting research professor at the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs.
“There’s a privacy dimension increasingly to what CSE does, which wasn’t really there in the days when it was purely engaged in the business of interception of overseas communications from state organizations.
“How does it distinguish between illegal intrusions and (citizens’) legitimate communications with government websites and electronic flows and so on?” How will it unearth the intelligence treasures presumed hidden within social media sites without stepping on privacy landmines?
The pending move across town seems to be bringing the CSE to a crossroad.
Will it reveal more of itself to Canadians, as the RCMP’s national security arm and CSIS have learned to do? Or will it hold on to a culture of deep secrecy and risk heightening public suspicion and distrust?
“Social licence is a very important concept for intelligence agencies in a democracy, the notion that they have to have a degree of public legitimacy and they have to work to earn that and continue to work at it,” says Wark.
“To a certain extent the new palace on Ogilvie Road is going to be one of the symbols that’s going to keep this whole question of legitimacy or social licence in the public mind. People now have at a visual point of reference.
“The question is whether this futurist building housing this futurist intelligence ability is really very forward-thinking, thinking about the future and thinking about the problems of living in a democratic society.”

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A CSE official recently gave the Citizen an external tour of the site. The person insisted on not being named, quoted or photographed. Two accompanying security officers vetted every photograph taken. Answers to many questions — the Citizen submitted an extensive list to the CSE last March — were withheld “for operational security reasons.”
Even from a distance, the unfinished structure is impressive. It is larger than Bayshore, Ottawa’s second-largest shopping centre. There is zero resemblance to a typical government building.
The “wow!” factor is intentional. The CSE needs to recruit — and retain — top Canadian minds in mathematics, linguistics, computer science, cryptology, electrical engineering and other disciplines. Google Inc. and other avant-garde outfits are chasing the best and brightest university grads, too.
Intelligence agencies by nature are closed organizations. People working near each other might not know what their neighbour is up to. But the CSE has decided that workplace collaboration, rather than compartmentalization, is a better way to get results.
So bureaucratic conformity is out, or at least minimized. The CSE is going ultra-modern, sophisticated, stylish, relaxed and green.
Seven “pods” or small office buildings plus a data centre encircle and connect to a five-storey, elongated central “hub.”
The hub’s concave exterior walls are fashioned from the same type of triangular pieces of glass used to build the convex exterior of the Ottawa Convention Centre. The hub is capped with a curving and stylized triangular roof, like a giant, gently arched wing.
The interior features an atrium designed to let natural light flood deep inside, giving people on each of the five floors views of the expansive grounds and the people moving about. There is a spacious cafeteria and individual work and relaxation areas. Private offices are out and shared spaces are in.
The intent is for the highly-specialized spies to get away from their private workstations in the pods and serendipitously collide, connect and intellectually cross-pollinate with fellow spies from different disciplines. The hope is that they will want to live there.
The residential real estate market in the area is already feeling the love. CSE employees are approaching homeowners around Carson Grove, Cardinal Heights and Rothwell Heights and offering $50,000 to $100,000 over market value for some properties that aren’t even for sale, says Tim Tierney, city councillor for Beacon Hill-Cyrville. Knock-downs and redevelopments are happening, too.
“It’s pretty intense right now,” he says.

The downside is shrinking residential street parking along Bathgate Drive and Blair Road, already under pressure from hundreds of CSIS employees. Tierney and his constituents are not happy the CSE is providing 800 parking spaces for at least 2,000 employees. The squeeze is a CSE attempt to get workers to ride public transit and bikes, he says.
“On the positive side, they could have put up a grey box, that’s their right, but they decided to make it fancy.”
And very green.
Camelot, as the project has been dubbed within the defence department, is designed to meet LEED Canada gold certification standards. An array of photovalic cells on the roof of the two-storey employee parking garage will send solar-generated electricity to a shipping and receiving area and a visitors’ centre at the main entrance off Ogilvie Road.
The hub’s glass walls have low-e coating to help regulate seasonal heating and cooling. Its roof is reflective to reduce the “heat island” effect. Even the water supply is filtered to discourage use of disposable plastic water bottles.
Underground at points along the property’s security perimeter, workers have buried the pulverized concrete remains of the old Cyrville Road-Highway 417 overpass that was removed and replaced in 2011. The intent is to thwart ambitious intruders from burrowing into the site.
Up above, the 36-hectare property is surrounded by trees, ponds and a tall, imposing black steel fence and countless unblinking security cameras. A new, paved public pedestrian path runs just outside the property’s security perimeter. A publicly-accessible bank branch and child daycare are to front the site along Ogilvie Road.
So, the most secretive organization in the country is now highly visible. There seems to be a growing recognition within the CSE that it needs to be more obliging, more “out there” with Canadians.
How far remains to be seen.

© Copyright (c) The Ottawa Citizen

 

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An aerial view of the project looking north and dominated by the wing-shaped roof the central Hub. Bathgate Drive and the Carson Grove neighbourhood are on left. (Handout photo/Communications Security Establishment)

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Vatican                                                                                           2914

Vladimir Putin Will Meet the Pope

Details are still being finalized

By Noah Rayman Nov. 07, 2013Add a Comment

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Russian President Vladimir Putin is going to the Vatican to meet with Pope Francis on Nov. 25, the Vatican press office said Thursday.
The visit marks a warming of relations between the Vatican and Russia, which has in the past accused the Catholic Church of trying to poach converts in the wake of the fall of Soviet communism. Pope John Paul II never visited the country in his nearly three-decade tenure amid opposition from the Russian Orthodox Church.
Details of the meeting are forthcoming, but the Vatican press office said the Pope has been closely following developments in Syria, where Russia holds significant influence, and is likely to push for an end to the violence there.

Read more: Vladimir Putin Will Meet the Pope Francis Next Month | TIME.com http://world.time.com/2013/11/07/vladimir-putin-will-meet-the-pope/#ixzz2k6UStyk5

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Putin to Visit Pope Francis -- To Forge a New "Holy   http://eponymousflower.blogspot.ca/2013/11/putin-to-visit-pope-francis-to-forge.html

Putin to Visit Pope Francis -- To Forge a New "Holy Alliance"?

(Moscow / Vatican) Russia's President Vladimir Putin will pay a visit to Pope Francis. The audience is set for Monday, the 25th of November. The meeting was strongly desired by the Russian head of state. The diplomats of the Kremlin made inquiries a few weeks ago at the Vatican to include a trip to Rome during Putin's trip to Italy, which leads him to Trieste. The wish was granted immediately by the Vatican. On the same day, the man in the Kremlin will also pay a courtesy visit to the Italian Head of State, as required by diplomatic convention. But the real destination is Pope Francis.

Putin is not just seeking a photo-op, which would immortalize him next to the head of the Catholic Church. Russia seeks to establish a new network of strategic partnerships for several years. This was exemplified with the rapprochement between the Russian Orthodox and the Catholic Church under Pope Benedict XVI., an approach that is reinforced by the reigning Patriarch of Moscow, Kirill. However, the approach involves not only the Church but also the political level. And reveals that this is not just a purely political question.

Moscow in Search of Strategic Allies

In Moscow there is a quest for similarities and potential allies for a counterweight to the United States. A power struggle under very different circumstances. It's about national interests, geopolitics, and influence. But it is also a dimly recognizable counter-model to the new Western state doctrine of relativism. At this level, Putin calls out to the West. He did this by supporting the opponents of gay marriage in France and by Russia's refusal to fall under the U.S. Cartel. In addition to a national antagonism, a new ideology has entered. A contrast that will take place globally as the different language programs broadcast by Russian television show. There are  English and a Spanish editors to supply much of the world with counter-information to Western broadcasters.

The promising contacts by Benedict XVI arose between Moscow and the Vatican, should the Kremlin so desire, will be be expanded. The opportunity to continue leading the way with Pope Francis is apparent. Putin wants to personally attend the last decisive exploratory visit on the 25th November. Syria will only be a topic of discussion to demonstrate similarities. Russia has signaled in the Middle East it is ready to take on the role of protector of the Christians, whom the West seems to be willing to give up on other interests. 

Recognized Role of Russia: Open Letter from Francis to Putin

Early September, Pope Francis signaled that Russia must play an important role with an open letter to Putin, facing the G20 summit in St. Petersburg. Specifically, it was about the Syrian conflict. This was followed by prompt cooperation in the diplomatic field between the Vatican and Russia to defuse the conflict by securing Syrian President Assad's assent to destroy chemical weapons. The fate of Christians in the Middle East will be discussed at the meeting. Pope Francis has so far avoided any gesture that could be exploited in any way in an anti-Islamic manner by the West or from Russia. Unlike the West, he avoided any mention and even praise for the "Arab spring", in whose lee the Islamists in the Middle East experienced an unexpected increase in power. But he also avoided any invitation to the old protective forces to work beyond diplomatic activities for the protection of Christians in the Orient.

A new "Holy Alliance"? - Argentine Pope is no Longer in East-West Logic of the Cold War

In Russia, there is quite an interest to forge a kind of "Holy Alliance". Moscow has set aside a lot of the old resentment against the West and its representatives. What seemed unthinkable for the Moscow Patriarch with a Polish Pope, was already possible under a German pope. Then a Pope from Argentina is definitively not in the old East-West logic in which the Catholic Church was seen as part of the North Atlantic Alliance by Russia. This is also why new opportunities of approach are seen in the East.

Opportunities that could possibly lead to long-silent and gradually prepared meeting between a pope and a patriarch of Moscow. The trail leads to Moscow on a common defense of non-negotiable values.

Papal Gesture of Goodwill for Orthodox

Pope Francis shown his hand already in several benevolent gestures toward Orthodoxy. On the return flight from Rio de Janeiro, he expressed his admiration for the Orthodox liturgy, which is to have more strongly preserved the sacred. In his Civiltà Cattolica interview, he said of the Orthodox: "From them you can learn even more the meaning of episcopal collegiality and the tradition of Synodality".

On November 12th the "Foreign Minister" of the Moscow Patriarchate, Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, has already come to Rome. The occasion is the presentation of a book with contributions of the Russian philologist Sergei Averintsev (1937-2004), who was a member of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences as an Orthodox. Hilarion's stay in Rome, are seen also as preparatory talks proceeding the 25th of November.

HOLY SEE at The United Nations

Welcome                                                                                      2884

Latest Statements Intervention of Archbishop Francis Chullikatt Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN Second Committee of the 68th Session of the UN General Assembly Item 25: Agriculture development, food security and nutrition (New York, 29 October 2013) Intervention of Archbishop Francis Chullikatt Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the UN in the Security Council Open Debate on the Middle East (New York, 22 October 2013) INTERVENTION OF ARCHBISHOP FRANCIS CHULLIKATT Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See First Committee of the 68th Session of the General Assembly Item 99: “General and Complete Disarmament” Intervention of Archbishop Francis Chullikatt Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of The Holy See to The UN Third Committee of the 68thGeneral Assembly Item 65: Promotion and Protection of The Rights of Children Déclaration de Son ExcellenceMonseigneur DOMINIQUE MAMBERTI Secrétaire pour les Relations du Saint-Siège avec les EtatsSoixante-huitième session de l’Assemblée généraleNew York, 1 octobre 2013 Intervention by H.E. Archbishop Dominique Mamberti Secretary for the Holy See’s Relations with States 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly High-level Meeting on Nuclear Disarmament New York, 26 September 2013 REMARKS OF H. E. ARCHBISHOP FRANCIS A. CHULLIKATTApostolic Nucnio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations at the Prayer Service ON THE OCCASION OF THE OPENING OF THE SIXTY-EIGHTH SESSION OFTHE UNITED NATIONS GENERAL ASSEMBLY Monday, 16th September, 2013, Church of the Holy Family, 315 East 47th Street, New York HOMILY H.E. Archbishop Francis Assisi Chullikatt Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations Day of Prayer and Fasting for Peace in Syria, the Middle East, and throughout the World Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, Archdiocese of New York 7 September 2013 ON THE CHRISTIAN NOTION OF CHARITY Thoughts for the International Day of Charity First International Day of Charity - 5th September 2013 Intervention of H.E. Archbishop Francis Chullikatt Apostolic Nuncio, Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations in the Security Council Open Debate on the Middle East (New York, 23 July 2013) Intervention of H.E. Archbishop Francis ChullikattApostolic NuncioPermanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations Open Debate of the United Nations Security Council on “Women and peace and security: sexual violence in conflict” (New York, 24 June 2013) INTERVENTION OF THE HOLY SEE TO THE FOURTH SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OPEN WORKING GROUPON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Health, Population dynamics" (New York, 17-19 June 2013) Statement of H.E. Archbishop Francis ChullikattApostolic NuncioPermanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations FOURTH SESSION OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OPEN WORKING GROUPON SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOALS “Employment and decent work for all, social protection,youth, education and culture” (New York, 18 June 2013) Statement of H.E. Archbishop Francis ChullikattApostolic NuncioPermanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations Third session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals “Food security and nutrition, sustainable agriculture,desertification, land degradation and drought” (New York, 23 May 2013) Mr. Co-Chair, With close to a billion of our fellow human beings going to bed hungry each day, the urgency for moving the world towards sustainable models of food security and nutrition must be regarded as one of the driving forces of the Sustainable Development Goals. Read more here Statement of H.E. Archbishop Francis ChullikattApostolic NuncioPermanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations Third session of the Open Working Group on Sustainable Development Goals "Water and sanitation” (New York, 24 May 2013)