Why Canada Should NOT Seek EU Associate Status
Ottawa, ON—Greetings Fellow Canadians. I’m Rod Taylor, National Leader of the Christian Heritage Party of Canada. I’m speaking to you today from Ottawa to express my deep concern about recent discussions between our Prime Minister and representatives of the European Union. We’ve all heard the rumours. Our PM was invited by Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission to have Canada become an “associate member” of the EU. Mr. Carney seemed initially very enthusiastic about that possibility.
But Canada is a sovereign nation; our Charter of Rights and Freedoms declares that Canada is “founded on principles that recognize the Supremacy of God and the Rule of Law”. Our strategically secure geographical location, our abundant natural resources, our unique social history and development are worth preserving. For decades, even centuries, our nation has benefited from our close proximity and alliance with the United States of America, our greatest trading partner and our strategic defence benefactor.
When founders of both the United States and Canada moved from Europe to this continent, many were fleeing religious or political persecution. Subsequent waves of immigrants—primarily from Europe—came to these shores, seeking not only political and religious freedom but also economic opportunity. In Canada and in the United States, individuals found freedom and opportunity to build, to grow and to establish institutions of government that allowed common citizens to direct the affairs of their nations through elected representatives.
In the last century, Canadian and American soldiers sacrificed their lives on foreign shores to defeat tyranny, to protect the lives and freedoms of other peoples and ultimately to prevent the military occupation of our own soil. Each year, on Remembrance Day, we pause to reflect on those sacrifices and to honour the sacred memory of those who died to secure the rights and freedoms of future generations. It is fitting that we do so.
Although tyranny was defeated on countless battlefields in those wars…and a fragile peace was secured by those noble sacrifices, the lust for power and control that lives in the heart of sinful man has never been completely eliminated. We saw it manifested during those awful COVID years when our own governments—federal and provincial—usurped and undermined the sovereign will of Canadian citizens, mandating compliance and restricting personal choice, even on matters of health end conscience.
Thousands have paid a price for that ignoble overreach. In 2022, the streets of Ottawa saw military occupation and Canadian citizens stripped of their right to peaceful protest. Bank accounts were seized and violence was enacted against law-abiding citizens who only wanted to be heard.
The ripples of that government overreach are still spreading through our society today. As we heard in the Allison inquiry and the National Citizens Inquiry, many Canadian men and women have died and many more have been grievously injured by the actions of a thoughtless and conscience-less government.
Since that time, a new Prime Minister has been installed with European ties and experience…but those who follow politics in any detail know and understand that our current Prime Minister is not new to Canadian politics. He was, in fact, very much involved as an advisor during those COVID years and has shown no inclination to reverse or compensate injured Canadians for the excesses of government mandates that left such a deep mark on our society.
Our new Prime Minister has built his reputation partly on the dismantling of our ties and interdependencies with the United States. Whether this is simply a personal matter and hurt feelings resulting from cross-border trash-talking or is a response to tariffs and difficult trade negotiations, we find ourselves at a place of fractured confidence between our government and that of the American people. This is not a time to entangle ourselves in new obligations and new interdependencies, but rather, a time to seek healing and reconciliation.
The Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which established in 1982 a new level of national sovereignty for Canada, took time and the interaction of our Prime Minister, all Provincial Premiers and the provinces they represented…and even the involvement of the Supreme Court. It was not done on the back of a napkin between the Canadian Prime Minister and the Queen of England.
Yet, Prime Minister Mark Carney announced his intention to acquire ‘associate member’ status with the EU without consulting Canadians, without engaging the provincial premiers and without meaningful consultation with our elected representatives in the House of Commons. His willingness to put Canadian sovereignty on the line and to engage in consultation with Europe over aligning our policies and programs with theirs raises serious questions about his commitment to democratic processes in Canada.
Member of the European Parliament, Christine Anderson, has advised Canadians against joining the EU. She says, “Run. Run as far and as fast as you possibly can!” She sees new levels of censorship being imposed by the EU and challenges—not only to personal freedoms—but even harm to Canada’s economy. She says the EU restricts and inhibits, “freedom, democracy and the rule of law.”
Other member-states of the EU have objected to the idea of ‘associate-member’ status for Canada, and any such designation moving forward would require the approval consensus of the EU’s current 27 members. Germany, Italy, France and Greece have already expressed concern.
In broad, bland terms, Mr. Carney has spoken of cooperation, not only in trade, but also in policies and regulations. As if we don’t already have enough bureaucratic regulation in Canada! Mr. Carney, who has embraced the idea of consultation with First Nations—a poorly-defined obligation that many Indigenous leaders say he has not fulfilled—is now eager to put Canadian economic development, social programs and policies into the hands of European politicians who can never represent the interests of Canadians.
Lax immigration policies and the unfettered movement of people across national borders is another concern. The loss of national sovereignty and the collapse of European cultures and safety in the wake of massive population shifts have crippled and destabilized a number of EU member-states. The current conflagration in France is a direct result of unassimilated and uncooperative ghettoized populations of foreign nationals. While Canada has had its own share of poorly-vetted migrants and their presence in huge numbers has negatively impacted housing, healthcare, education and safety, we have not yet seen the numbers or the destructive impacts Europe is now experiencing. A closer alignment with the European Union could undermine Canadian efforts to reduce and better manage our own immigration policies.
John Carpay, President of the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms—writing for the Epoch Times—has addressed this issue of associate EU membership—with a number of legitimate concerns. He says Mr. Carney’s so-called “alliance for the future” could involve digital ID and digital currency, something that our Prime Minister has promoted in the past and that could conceivably be imposed by European policy-makers and regulators.
While acknowledging the benefit of cooperative trade relations with Europe, John Carpay asks what kind of obligations will Canadian courts and legislators be under if we allow our Prime Minister to align our laws and regulations with those dictated to us by the 27 member-states of the European Union? He further asks, “Once these bonds are established, how easily could a future Canadian government withdraw from them?”
I totally agree with his closing statement: “The first duty of a Canadian Government is to ensure that Canada creates and maintains its own laws. Those laws should be under the control of Canadian voters and only Canadian voters.”
The Christian Heritage Party supports the strengthening of ties with our friends and allies. We support efforts to encourage trade. We recognize the trade value of our abundant natural resources, but we do not want Canadians to be seen only as ‘hewers of wood and drawers of water’. Canadian industry and trade resources must include manufacturing, research and design. Our resources should be managed and value-added practices should ensure that Canadians are well-paid and that we receive maximum benefit from producing finished products, not simply raw resources.
We encourage the Prime Minister to stay home for a change and focus on the issues here that matter to Canadians. We advise extreme caution before engaging in any further involvement in global governance initiatives, what he and others have sometimes referred to as the ‘New World Order’. We already have been negatively influenced by the WEF, the WHO, the UN and other globalist organizations. It’s time to fix our economy, pay down our crippling federal debt and allow Canadians to once again experience freedom and prosperity. Canada can be a model for the world. Let’s not bind ourselves to foreign powers. We’re Canadians and God means for us to be strong and free! Let’s honour Him while we exercise our democratic privilege as a sovereign nation.
Thank you for listening. Please pray for our nation. God bless you.
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For more information, contact CHP National Office at 1-888-868-3247
or by email at nationaloffice@chp.ca