Harper postpones Three Amigos summit amid chilly relations with U.S. and Mexico

The Globe And Mail: Prime Minister Stephen Harper has postponed the North American leaders’ summit with U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto at a time when relations with both leaders are chilly.

The unexpected move allows Mr. Harper to avoid an awkward side-by-side news conference with Mr. Obama at a February summit that all three governments were expecting would be dominated by the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline – now at the top of the political agenda in Washington. Read more. 

Canadian Oil Boom Reaches U.S. Gulf, Puts Mexico on Defensive

Yahoo: A price war is brewing between Canada and Latin America over who will satisfy U.S. Gulf Coast refiners' hunger for heavy oil.

The new Seaway Twin pipeline will almost double the amount of heavy Canadian crude coming to Gulf terminals and plants to about 400,000 barrels a day starting in January, according to Calgary-based based ARC Financial Corp. The shipments are growing even without the Keystone XL pipeline, which has been delayed for six years because of environmental opposition. Read more. 

Possibly 30 Years for Canadian Narco with ties to Sinaloa Cartel and the Mafia

Borderland Beat: Canadian Drug Kingpin , Jimmy Cournoyer, with Ties to the Rizutto and Bonanno Crime Families, the Hells Angels and the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel Plead Guilty in 2013 to Narcotics Trafficking Crimes Carrying Sentence of 20 Years to Life and $1 Billion in Forfeiture.

He will discover his fate on August 20th when his sentence will be handed down.  Read more. 

Canada-Mexico Guest Worker Program Touted as Model for U.S. To Replicate

Fox News Latino

January 25, 2013

As the country's leaders gear up once again to overhaul the immigration system, a heated debate is expected on the creation of a guest worker program allowing future temporary immigrants to come legally.

Politicians will take up various versions. Some say all they need to do is look north for an ideal model.

Canada has had a guest worker program with Mexico since 1974. Though it’s not without critics, it’s generally hailed as well organized and worthy of being replicated.

The process starts with Mexico screening potential workers on their education, health and skills. To ensure that they don’t overstay their employment visa, the Canadian government takes out part of the workers’ pay and puts it into a special fund — workers get the money when they return to Mexico. 

Canada also requires that approximately 16,000 yearly recruits be married — but only they, not their spouses and children, can travel to Canada.

On some level, say those in industries that use foreign labor, Canada’s program should not be difficult to duplicate in the United States. But an important hurdle to its smooth implementation, they say, is the bitterly divisive nature of the ever-thorny immigration debate — it has become so politicized that there’s little to no room for compromise. Read more. 

Mexico Mining Union Wins Battle To Choose Its Leader

Fox Business: The longtime leader of a key Mexican mining union is planning his return to Mexico following years of self-exile in Canada, after winning a series of court cases against the government, including a recent Supreme Court case and a criminal complaint, lawyers for the labor group said Thursday.

The leader of the National Union of Miners and Metal Workers, Napoleon Gomez Urrutia, "has one foot in Mexico and one hand on his luggage," said Marco del Toro, a lawyer working for the union. Del Toro said Gomez has suffered a six-year persecution by the government for his defense of mining workers against politically powerful mining companies.

The miners' union run by Gomez is best known for its strike against copper mine and railways operator Grupo Mexico SAB (GMEXICO.MX) that shut down the nation's biggest copper mine at Cananea near the U.S. border for three years. read more

Gangster Killing Points to Canada-Mexico Criminal Ties

InSight Crime: "The murder of a Canadian crime boss in Mexico illustrates the troubling links between criminal organizations in both countries.

On April 27, British Colombia-based gangster Thomas Gisby was gunned down in a Starbucks in Nuevo Vallarta, Mexico. According to police, Gisby ran the Gisby Crime Group, a Canadian drug trafficking gang with connections to cartels in both Mexico and Colombia. The Calgary Herald reports that Gisby was likely targeted for his connections to a group known as the United Nations Gang, which has seen a number of its members assassinated in recent months in retaliation for the August 2011 killing of rival gang member Jonathan Bacon. read more

Softening tone, Harper concedes drug war ‘is not working’

The Globe and Mail: "Something is just not working with the way the hemisphere has tackled powerful and violent drug traffickers, Prime Minister Stephen Harper acknowledged Sunday as he wrapped up a meeting with the leaders of the Americas.

It was the first time Harper has suggested he is open to discussing new approaches to the war on drugs. Several Latin American countries, including Guatemala, Mexico and Colombia have called for an open and frank discussion about how to deal with the cartels." read more

Latin America’s drug-war fatigue brings talk of legalization

The Globe and Mail: "Latin America has drug-war fatigue and some of its leaders want to start talk about legalizing drugs. What will Stephen Harper suggest to nations facing a body count of tens of thousands when he heads to the Summit of the Americas this weekend?

Security is, after all, one of the three pillars of the Americas strategy he touts. Even if he’s not inclined to legalization, his government has done little to bolster police and judicial systems falling apart in drug wars." read more

Drug War: The UN Gang, and the Canada-Mexico Connection

InSight Crime: "The story behind the murder of a Canadian citizen in Sinaloa, Mexico, reveals how far links between organized crime networks in Canada and Mexico have been broken up by aggressive police work.

Police sources in British Columbia, Canada, confirmed that Salih Abdulaziz Sahbaz, in his mid-thirties, was the key cartel contact for the notorious United Nations Gang, also known as Global United Nations Syndicate (GUNS), which operates out of the city of Vancouver and the surrounding area.

Sahbaz, a naturalized Canadian citizen of Iraqi origin who had spent much of the past three years in Mexico, was found dead on the street in the Country Alamo area of Culiacan, Sinaloa, around midnight on January 15. He had been shot execution-style by what appeared to be a .45 caliber firearm -- police recovered at least 8 empty .45 caliber shells at the scene." read more

U.S.-Mexico Relations: North American leaders' meeting cancelled after Mexican minister perishes in helicopter crash

vancoversun.com: "The North American Leaders' Summit to be held this weekend in Hawaii with Prime Minister Stephen Harper, U.S. President Barack Obama and Mexico's Felipe Calderon has been cancelled due to the tragic death of a Mexican minister." read more

The People's Summit - Parallel to SPP Meeting in New Orleans

Check out the response to the "three amigos" meeting next week in New Orleans. Behind closed doors they will make decisions about the future of North America, while the people's summit will take place both April 21st and 22nd, where there will be workshops in the morning and afternoon on Tuesday the 22nd. The three hour workshops will speak to the ways in which free trade and security policy affect everyday people, especially in relation to increased militarism, privatization, forced immigration and migration, and abuse of the environment.

For more information on the people's summit, check: www.summitneworleans.org

Background on the Security and Prosperity Partnership:
Extending NAFTA's Reach
http://americas.irc-online.org/am/4497