Compilation 3: US & Trade Backlash-WTO, US-Canada-Mexico-NAFTA, Minister Sgro-Aide, Quebec & Language

List of Articles:

* U.S. braces for trade backlash: WTO set to give go-ahead for sweeping retaliation duties against U.S. exports
* Meet NAFTA on steroids -- New U.S.-Mexico-Canada security plan would virtually eliminate national borders
* Strip club owner asked aide's help -- Minister Judy Sgro's department
Heat turned up on Sgro
* Quebec to halt English gains, Charest says

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Meet NAFTA on steroids -- New U.S.-Mexico-Canada security plan would virtually eliminate national borders

Meet NAFTA on steroids -- New U.S.-Mexico-Canada security plan would virtually eliminate national borders

WASHINGTON – North American national borders would be virtually eliminated under plans being considered by senior business and political leaders from Canada, the United States and Mexico for a "NAFTA-plus," continent-wide, customs-free zone with a common approach to trade, energy, immigration, law enforcement and security.

[. . . . ] The "NAFTA-plus" plan has also been referred to as "deep integration." Skeptics see it as a plan to eliminate national sovereignty and erode the American concept of representative government accountable to the people under the framework of the Constitution.

Discussions so far indicate that Canada, under the new agreement, would immediately sign on to the U.S. strategic missile defense initiative. Canada would also make its vast lumber resources available to the U.S. and Mexican markets and provide more open access to the northern neighbor's oil, natural gas and hydro-electric power resources. [. . . . ]

Strip club owner asked aide's help -- Minister Judy Sgro's department

Strip club owner asked aide's help Tom Godfrey, Toronto Sun, Nov. 24, 2004

A TORONTO STRIP club co-owner says he met with the right-hand man of Immigration Minister Judy Sgro last summer to try and get 18 strippers into Canada. Terry Koumoudouros, president of House of Lancaster 1 and 2, said he met with Ihor Wons, Sgro's senior policy adviser, at his club on The Queensway.

"I called him (Wons) up," Koumoudouros said yesterday. "He came down and I asked for him to help me get the girls from the Dominican Republic."

He said he gave Wons a list of names of the strippers who had been refused visas but later Wons said he couldn't help. [. . . . ]

Were any contributions made to Ms. Sgro's campaign? When the information becomes available, check the searchable database on financial reporting which "includes information extracted from financial reports of candidates in an election, leadership contestants, nomination contestants, registered electoral district associations, and registered political parties."




Heat turned up on Sgro

Heat turned up on Sgro Bill Rogers, Ottawa, Sun Media, Nov. 24, 2004

The calls for the firing of Immigration Minister Judy Sgro are growing louder by the day . Under fire for more than a week for using her power to extend the stay in Canada of a Romanian stripper, Sgro now faces new allegations that a member of her staff shopped around private information on the 25-year-old immigrant in an effort to quell further opposition criticism.

Both New Democrat Pat Martin and Conservative Diane Ablonczy say the embattled minister's director of parliamentary affairs, Marc Khouri, offering "private information" about the "circumstances" surrounding the case, contacted them in recent days. [. . . . ]

Minister won't let toddler in: Sgro wants to end program allowing strippers into Canada




Quebec to halt English gains, Charest says

Quebec to halt English gains, Charest says Mike De Souza, CanWest, Nov. 24, 2004

QUEBEC - The Quebec government will do whatever it takes to stop the English language from gaining ground in the workplace, Premier Jean Charest said yesterday. "We will always be very vigilant in Quebec on the issue of language," he said. [. . . . ]

MONTREAL GAZETTE - News for French has never been better