What if what Summit of the Americas organizers said was really true?

Remember that commercial where all nationalities and cultures sing-along together in a candlelight vigil to Coca-Cola Inc.? I never thought the magic of that multicultural consumerist spectacle could be recreated until I saw the official web site of the Summit of the Americas (www.americascanada.org).

"Hemispheric connectivity" is promoted in the four major languages of the Americas through initiatives like the AMERICAS IN ACTION project. AMERICAS IN ACTION "recognizes how rich Canada's relationship with the Americas is and how important it is to encourage people-to-people dialogue and exchange throughout the hemisphere."

But if people-to-people dialogue and exchange is so important to the Organization of American States (OAS) and its Summit of the Americas then why are so many of my American friends being held-up at the border? There has to be some miscommunication somewhere.

The 600 Americans impeded from entering into people-to-people dialogue at the Windsor Ontario OAS conference last summer must have been the result of a colossal misunderstanding. How could ordinary (unarmed) people wanting to exchange ideas be considered a "security risk"? This was a missed opportunity for hemispheric hyper-connectivity - residents of the Americas of all cultures and religions, not just government and business leaders but average workers and students exchanging ideas on human rights, the environment, trade and investment in the Americas. Maybe it wouldn't have been as harmonious and peaceful as the Coke candlelight vigil, but it would certainly have been more genuine.

Yet Windsor Police Chief Glenn Stannard seems PROUD of his work with Customs and Immigration officials to sabotage people-to-people dialogue. "Who knows how many of their organizers and how much of their skill level was stopped at the border? I can't begin to think about how much aggravation Customs and Immigration saved us," gushes the Chief.

Even after the OAS congress in Windsor, anti-FTAA activists from south of the border and elsewhere continue to be denied entry to the host-country of the FTAA talks. Most recently a friend of mine, former Black Panther Lorenzo Komboa Ervin (who had come to speak at Concordia University mere weeks before), has been declared a "security risk" by Customs and Immigration officials. Ervin was invited to discuss issues of racism, police brutality and globalization in Calgary and Lethbridge. I can't think of any other projects more inclined to foster people-to-people connections that are productive of hemispheric understanding. I can't think of any person less of a "security threat" than this delightful old man.

Ervin claims that he is persona non grata chez nous because of his comments at Concordia's globalization conference, "The Canadian authorities did not like what I said when I was last there in January about resisting the Free Trade Area of the Americas meeting to be held in Quebec City, and how all activists in the Americas have a responsibility to attend and protest the meeting this coming April."

Oh the irony! Ervin is being denied entry precisely because he is encouraging people to come and exchange ideas about the future of our hemisphere at an event whose very raison d'être is people-to-people dialogue.

Unfortunately, it seems that Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (the institution OAS has entrusted to organize this year's Summit) has yet to explain to the forces of order at its disposal that their proper objective is to ENCOURAGE cross-border face-to-face exchanges rather than hindering them (members of the RCMP, CSIS, SQ and other forces should be required to read the Summit web site). If crossed wires continue to hamper Summit organization, we could see thousands of people denied the chance to come and dialogue in April (although they will probably find some way to allow entry for convicted drunk driver and American President George Bush).

Since this is clearly a communication problem - the right hand not knowing what the other right hand is doing and all that - I have taken on the task of encouraging "bureaucratic connectivity" in Summit security organization. What better way to accomplish this task than through that quintessentially modern tool of dialogue, the internet?

It so happens that the Summit's own web site is highly interactive. AMERICAS IN ACTION solicits submissions of projects that "are relevant to people's daily lives, whether it is in the field of education, trade, or the environment." You simply send an e-mail to the webmaster and AMERICAS IN ACTION will showcase your project on its web page. Already featured on this page is that great connectivity-building project, RCMP training for Colombian police forces (we should now be able to rest easy about any human rights violations in that country).

I took the opportunity to send an e-mail outlining the projects and achievements of Lorenzo Komboa Ervin and how his efforts have been frustrated by Canadian Customs and Immigration agents. Almost instantly I received an automated response in four languages from the site's webmaster promising to follow up on my submission. What a marvel of two-way dialogue this whole Summit process is! I can almost hear the lines of communication unclogging right now.

And to think that a loony leftist intellectual conspiracy had tricked me into thinking that the Summit of the Americas is only about the "corporate agenda" and the FTAA! Cynics would claim that the Summit is only about cross-border trade and investment in private healthcare services, education services, natural resources (including water), intellectual property and other commodities. They would argue that the Summit has nothing to do with hemispheric solidarity and the free exchange of ideas.

It is truly amazing the conclusions that seemingly rational people will jump to after years of secret FTAA negotiations followed by border clamp-downs, the militarization of OAS events grounds, and a few violations of civil liberties!