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'Hands off our water,' Canadians say 
Washington think tank sets 'North American agenda' for resource

Two activist groups are launching a campaign to prevent what they fear will be a massive grab of Canadian fresh water, estimated to be one-fifth of the world's supply, engineered with the help of major U.S. think tanks supporting globalization.

The Council of Canadians, a public advocacy group opposed to the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America, and the Coalition for Water Aid, a Montreal group fighting for transparency in globalist discussions of water policy, have expressed concern over an April 27 three-day closed-door conference held in Calgary by politicians, businessmen, and academics from the U.S. and Canada.

Among the discussion subjects was a private report prepared by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington-based think tank, in conjunction with a Mexican university and a Canadian business trade group.

Secret think tank report leaked to press

It was Council of Canadians officials who leaked to the press a copy of the CSIS report, titled "The North American Future 2025 Project."

The "Project," according to the copy released by the Council of Canadians, was a joint effort by the CSIS, the  Centro de Investigation y Docencia Economicas in Mexico, and the  Conference Board of Canada, a group comparable to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

A search by WND of the CSIS website failed to find a copy of the report.

But the North American Future 2025 Project calls for a series of seven closed-door roundtables to be held by somewhere between 21 to 45 politicians, academics, and businessmen from the U.S., Mexico, and Canada (an equal number from each country) "to analyze, comprehend, and anticipate" North American integration trends between now and 2025.

The leaked report calls for a conclusion on the future of North American integration "to be presented in 2007 to the executive and legislative branches of the governments of North America."

The final report in September 2007 will be "produced in the three official languages – English, Spanish, and French – as part of an effective dissemination strategy aimed at maximizing the policy impact of the report."

North American continental water resources

The CSIS report notes that "fresh water is running out in many regions of the world."

In North America, the report stressed that "particularly the United States and Mexico will experience water scarcity as a result of arid climates coupled with growing populations and increased water consumption."

In the next paragraph, the CSIS report observed that, "Juxtaposed to the relative scarcity of water in the United States and Mexico, Canada possesses about 20 percent of the earth's fresh water."

"The United States and Mexico share at least 18 aquifers, and a significant portion of these countries' population is already experiencing problems with the availability and contamination of water," the report continued.

While the report called for North American fresh water to be the subject of Roundtable VII, "The Future of North American Border Infrastructure and Logistics," the conclusion was strongly suggested.

"The three nations will have to overcome the bureaucratic challenges posed by their different political systems and legal regimes," the report concluded, "particularly if the overriding future goal of North America is to achieve joint optimum utilization of the available water and to implement procedures that will help avoid or resolve differences over water in face of ever-increasing pressures over this priceless resource."

"Hands off our water!" Canadians object

The website of the Council of Canadians strongly objects to this North American agenda, contending that, "Because Canada manages the largest fresh water resources in the world, companies are lining up to pump, bottle and privatize our water for their profit."

"The Council of Canadians is calling on Canadians to 'Act now!' by joining in 'a national campaign to ensure water is a human right and to encourage Canadians to act locally to protect our waters,'" the group said.

The Council of Canadians has produced a brochure, "ACT for Canada's Water," calling for Canada to develop a national water policy aimed to "preserve and protect our water for future generations."

The Coalition for Water Aid has also declared opposition "to the continentalization of water for market purposes or continental geopolitical considerations."

Coalition president André Bouthiller responded to the CSIS report by protesting, "Since when does the Canadian government have a mandate to negotiate sovereignty over national resources with interest groups and lobbyists?"

Seeking to defend the CSIS report, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development quickly noted that Canada's Environment Minister John Baird has declared that Canada has no intention to enter in any negotiations on bulk water exports or diversions.

"Canada has restrictions in place to prohibit removal of water, including diversion, backed by serious fines and/or imprisonment,” said Baird, as quoted by the World Business Council for Sustainable Development.

Freshwater management – The globalist agenda

Maude Baird, the national chairwoman of the Council of Canadians, has expressed concern that the Security and Prosperity Partnership of North America trilateral working group on the environment will follow the CSIS lead by turning their attention to the continental management of fresh water resources.

"The big business community and corporate lobby groups have been granted access to the integration process," Baird told the Canadian press. "No equivalent role has been granted to labor groups, civil society, or even Parliament in Canada."

According to Baird, GWEST (Global Water & Energy Strategy Team), a Washington-based private consulting group, suggested in October 2006 exporting water from northern Manitoba to Texas through a pipeline. Baird said nothing in Canada's existing laws would prevent this scheme from being implemented.

The World Water Council, a private group granted Special Consultative status by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations, has an agenda to place fresh water management in the hands of international authorities, away from the "fragmented control" of hundreds of thousands of local, state, and national governmental entities.

The United Nations publishes every three years a World Water Development Report, and the second of these, "Water, a Shared Responsibility," was presented to the 4th World Water Forum in Mexico City, Mexico, on March 22, 2006.

The umbrella U.N. program is the World Water Assessment Program, founded in 2002, and on its website, says there have been a number of major conferences including the Rio Earth Summit with its Agenda 21 document.

The U.N. goal is "comprehensive assessment of the world's fresh water as the basis for more integrated water management."

WAAP notes, "At the urging of the Commission on Sustainable Development and with the strong endorsement by the Ministerial Conference at The Hague in March 2000, UN Water has undertaken a collective UN system-wide continuing assessment process, the World Water Assessment Programme (WWAP)."

WND columnists Henry Lamb and JoanVeon have written extensively about sustainable development and Agenda 21.