Canadian business leaders should “look beyond the chaos” of anti-globalization street protests at the coming Summit of the Americas in Quebec and think about the underlying issues, urges a visiting University of Calgary expert.

“It’s understandable that business would see what happens on the street as an annoyance, or something that gets in the way because it doesn’t seem terribly articulate and is designed to impede in order to get attention,” says Eric Dannenmaier.

“You could hold these meetings inside the Kremlin walls, I suppose and have nice peace and quiet. But in an open society people sometimes disagree, and they do it openly, loudly and chaotically.”

Dannenmaier is the director of the Environmental Law program at the University of Miami North-Couth Center in Washington, D.C., and a visiting chair of Natural Resources Law at the U of C. He was one of several panelists representing academics, legal and human-rights experts who gathered in Calgary on Friday to discuss the third Summit of the Americas, to be held April 20-22 in Quebec City.

Mike Sturk, Business Edge
MP David Kilgour says strong partnerships in the Americas are crucial.

Dannenmaier says the business community should realize that trade integration in the western hemisphere is not without “real concerns” over free trade, labour, the environment and democracy issues.

“These concerns are unlikely to bring trade integration to a grinding halt, but they probably need to be addressed at some level as integration moves forward,” he says.

“I think the most important thing for the business community to remember, is that despite what may appear to be a circus in Quebec City, the agenda is set before the presidents and heads of state arrive. It’s set through more of a year of dialogue.”

Kathleen Mahoney, an international human rights expert in the U of C’s Faculty of Law and chair of the Montreal-based International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development, says the issues at the summit are compelling and go far beyond the single multinational globalized trade perspective being represented.

“It’s in everyone’s interests to know what they are, and to understand them,” says Mahoney. “And I think you’d get a lot of people out there in suits and ties demonstrating, if they did understand . . . it’s going to have just as much impact on them as the others.

“There’s a presumption that it’s a left vs. right, hippie vs. businessman kind of polarization, and the interests are completely at odds with one another. But that’s not the case,” particularly as small and medium-sized business face increasing pressure to compete with globalized business, she says.

David Kilgour, Canada’s Secretary of State for Latin America and Africa, noted that 92 per cent of the trade of Canadians do in the world is with the 34 countries of the Americas represented at the summit — and strong hemispheric partnerships are crucial.

“The people in Alberta instinctively understand how important trade with the Americas is, and is becoming,” says Kilgour, but also how fragile democracy is in the region.

Stephen J. Randall, dean of Faculty of Social Sciences at U of C, agreed. “The business community here recognizes the importance of having a visible Canadian presence in the Americas to enhance its business operations,” he says.

“The more democratic, the more politically stable Latin America is, the more positive an environment there is for Canadian business.”