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I
found the Thomas Walkom article
on January 25, 2007 “Just When Can We Trust
the US?”
helpful. He noted: “If Canada can't trust
American judgment in this
case, how can it co-operate in
others? If U.S. intelligence is as
unreliable as Day suggests, why is
he moving ahead
full-bore to further integrate Canadian and
American security systems
in areas
such as no-fly lists?”
Walkom’s point suggests a related problem with the various agreements Canada reaches with the US: what happens if the countries disagree? In general, it is absurd to be entering agreements without some kind of arbitration mechanism to resolve differences of opinion. Yet even when these exist, as in the trade agreements, they are not totally satisfactory. In the particular case of agreements related to human security, when human beings and their lives are affected rather than softwood lumber, one would expect stronger more effective arbitration arrangements. In principle, human rights
treaties provide the necessary framework.
For example, in theory Maher
Arar
could argue that his right to freedom of
movement has been arbitrarily
blocked
or blocked in a discriminatory manner by
the US authorities. Of course,
he would
have to first attempt to have the US
courts address his human rights
concern. The major difficulty for
Maher Arar is that neither Canada nor the
US have ratified the
principal human rights treaty in the
region - the American Convention
on Human Rights. Under the Convention, the
Inter-American Court of Human Rights could
be given the authority to
adjudicate such a case and would
implicitly be the arbitration
mechanism. It is
true that at present Maher Arar could
complain to the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights or the UN Human
Rights Committee and that
the result might help resolve the
disagreement. However, without a
prior
commitment from the US to honour the views
of these bodies, this could
not ensure Maher Arar's right to freedom
of movement. Although
arbitration by the Inter-American Court of
Human Rights would only
apply to agreements affecting the rights
of human beings, I agree with
the
Senate Committee on Human Rights that it
is high time for TOP Click |