Top experts gathered at Carleton Jan. 15 to discuss key Canada-United States border issues at an international conference.
The conference, which was organized by Carleton and Fulbright Canada, joined together key federal policymakers and government officials with top academics from across North America to discuss central security, economic and environmental issues involved in Canada-U.S. relations.
Held just weeks after the recent security breach on a Detroit-bound flight, resulting in tighter airport security around the world, the conference evaluated current border relations’ successes and shortcomings, while developing creative new strategies to respond to the changing political climate.
“We depend on a border that works; we depend on a border that’s predictable. Yet the border is changing so rapidly that neither predictability nor effective operation is guaranteed,” said panellist Victor Konrad, a Carleton geography and environmental studies professor.
Since 9-11, border relations have changed dramatically, with tense security policies impacting trade, the environment and everyday life.
In consideration of an earlier time when North American border relations were largely friendly and benign, Konrad cited concerns that our current “reactive border policies address symptoms, not underlying causes.”
“We need to enhance research on the Canada-U.S. border. For so long, Canada-U.S. border studies have been assumed within the broader context of international relations . . . We need to understand the border more effectively, and that’s why we’re here.”
At Carleton, there is a large concentration of faculty with interests and expertise in the area of border research. Taking advantage of our location in Ottawa, this conference enabled some faculty to connect with public policy figures and Fulbright, which is based in Ottawa.
“Our hope in bringing the public policy community together with the academic community in re-imagining the border is that we’re trying to engage the best minds dealing with this issue in a dialogue so that we can develop out of that some policies that are meaningful for making the border a better thing than it has emerged to be in the last decade or so,” Konrad said.
“The border impacts you and me. We want something that acknowledges that we’re all people who have rights and who have special privileges here in North America. To lose that would be a considerable shame.”
Other members of the panel included Simon Dalby of Carleton, Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly of the University of Victoria, Danielle Goldfarb, associate director of the Conference Board of Canada, and Debora VanNijnatten of Wilfred Laurier University.
The remainder of the conference involved plenary sessions and discussion groups, through which participants worked together to consider how the two nations might enable the movement of people and goods while maintaining adequate security.