Paul Cellucci, the please-God-let-it-be-soon departing U.S. ambassador, today expressed his deep concern for…wait for it…Canadian sovereignty. Speaking with the imperial disdain that has won him the affection and respect of Canadians everywhere, he sniffed:
“We simply cannot understand why Canada would in effect give up its sovereignty, its seat at the table, to decide what to do about a missile that might be coming towards Canada.â€
The US Government’s new and tender concern for our sovereignty is a most welcome, if suprising, development. Suprising because the two most egregious violations of Canadian sovereignty in the last half century were perpetuated by American transits of the Northwest Passage by the oil tanker Manhattan in 1969 and the US coast guard icebreaker Polar Sea in 1985. Both trips were deliberate political statements, pointedly taken without prior Canadian permission, to assert the American position that the waters of the Arctic archipelago are international.
To this day, of course, the US refuses to acknowledge Canada’s sovereignty in the passage, a strategic position they maintain to facilitate the eventual transporting oil to the US Eastern seaboard from the Beaufort Sea.
So the new US respect for our sovereignty is a marvellous thing…unless Celluci’s talking about some different kind of sovereignty…the sovereign right of a client state to pay tribute to the empire, or something.
Of course, I’ve probably been put on a couple of no-fly lists with this, and I might find it more difficult in future to cross the US-Canadian border (…and make no mistake, I will miss Buffalo and Plattsburg), but it’s awfully cathartic to send Mr. Cellucci a polite but direct message to ottawacomments@state.gov..
I even used my real name. I’m just feeling so…sovereign today.