PRIMETIME IMAGES OF US-CANADA BORDER PAINT U.S. IN

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 OTTAWA 000136 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV KPAO CA SUBJECT: PRIMETIME IMAGES OF US-CANADA BORDER PAINT U.S. IN INCREASINGLY NEGATIVE LIGHT OTTAWA 00000136 001.2 OF 003 ¶1. (SBU) Summary: The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) has long gone to great pains to highlight the distinction between Americans and Canadians in its programming, generally at our expense. However, the level of anti-American melodrama has been given a huge boost in the current television season as a number of programs offer Canadian viewers their fill of nefarious American officials carrying out equally nefarious deeds in Canada while Canadian officials either oppose them or fall trying. CIA rendition flights, schemes to steal Canada's water, "the Guantanamo-Syria express," F-16's flying in for bombing runs in Quebec to eliminate escaped terrorists: in response to the onslaught, one media commentator concluded, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, that "apparently, our immigration department's real enemies aren't terrorists or smugglers -- they're Americans." While this situation hardly constitutes a public diplomacy crisis per se, the degree of comfort with which Canadian broadcast entities, including those financed by Canadian tax dollars, twist current events to feed long-standing negative images of the U.S. -- and the extent to which the Canadian public seems willing to indulge in the feast - is noteworthy as an indication of the kind of insidious negative popular stereotyping we are increasingly up against in Canada. End Summary. "THE BORDER" -CANADA'S ANSWER TO 24, W/O THAT SUTHERLAND GUY -------------- -------------- ¶2. (SBU) When American TV and movie producers want action, the formula involves Middle Eastern terrorists, a ticking nuclear device, and a (somewhat ironically, Canadian) guy named Sutherland. Canadian producers don't need to look so far -- they can find all the action they need right on the U.S.-Canadian border. This piece of real estate, which most Americans associate with snow blowing back and forth across an imaginary line, has for the past three weeks been for Canadian viewers the site of downed rendition flights, F-16 bombing runs, and terrorist suspects being whisked away to Middle Eastern torture facilities. "The Border," which state-owned CBC premiered on January 7, attracted an impressive 710,000 viewers on its first showing -- not exactly Hockey Night in Canada, but equivalent to an American program drawing about eight million U.S. viewers. The show depicts Canadian immigration and customs officers' efforts to secure the U.S.-Canadian border and the litany of moral dilemmas they face in doing so. The CBC bills the high-budget program as depicting the "new war" on the border and "the few who fight it." While the "war" is supposed to be against criminals and terrorists trying to cross the border, many of the immigration team's battles end up being with U.S. government officials, often in tandem with the CIA-colluding Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). ¶3. (SBU) The clash between the Americans and Canadians got started early in the season and has continued unabated. In episode one a Syrian terrorist with a belt full of gel-based explosives is removed from a plane in Canada while the Canadian-Syrian man sitting next to him is rendered by the CIA/CSIS team to Syria -- a fairly transparent reference to QCIA/CSIS team to Syria -- a fairly transparent reference to the Maher Arar case. Fortunately for the incarcerated individual, the sympathetic Canadian Immigration and Customs Security official recognizes the mistake and shrewdly causes the government to rescue him from a Syrian jail through organized media pressure. The episode ends with a preview of things to come when one of the Canadian immigration officers notes with disgust, "Homeland Security is sending in some hot shot agent." ¶4. (SBU) Episode two expands on this theme, featuring the arrival of an arrogant, albeit stunningly attractive female DHS officer, sort of a cross between Salma Hayek and Cruella De Vil. The show portrays the DHS official bossing around her stereotypically more compassionate Canadian colleagues while uttering such classic lines as, "Who do you think provides the muscle to protect your fine ideals?" and "You would have killed him. Let the American justice system do it for you." Her fallback line in most situations is "it's a matter of national security." ¶5. (SBU) But the one-liners and cross-border stereotypes really take off in episode three, in which an American OTTAWA 00000136 002.2 OF 003 rendition aircraft with three terrorist suspects on the "Guantanamo to Syria express" crashes in Quebec and the terrorists escape -- however, not before killing a Quebec police officer, whose sympathetic widow appears throughout the show. The DHS officer's answer to everything is American firepower, but in this episode even CSIS gets a chance at redemption as the CSIS officer in charge challenges her. Ms. DHS barks back, "You really want to talk territorial sovereignty, or should we talk about getting the terrorists back?" After being chased through the woods of Quebec by a cross-culturally balanced CSIS-JTF2 team which kills a 15-year-old terrorist in a shootout, the bad guys are finally cornered on the side of a pristine Canadian lake. Then, after a conversation with Washington in which she asks "can you bypass NSA and State?", our DHS official calls in an air-strike on the terrorists without Canadian concurrence. Canadian planes, another official has explained, are "already deployed to Afghanistan, helping our neighbors fight their war on terror." With only seconds to spare before the bombs are dropped on the Quebec site, the planes are called off when the CSIS-JTF team affirms positive control over the terrorists. Finally, in a last-minute allowance for redemption, the CSIS officer informs his DHS colleague that the captured terrorists will not be turned over to the U.S. but will stand trial for the death of the Quebec police officer. She does get the final word, though, hissing the classic phrase "you people are so nave," before the screen goes blank. DEA ALSO TAKES SOME HITS -------------- ¶6. (SBU) If that isn't enough, "the Border" is only one of the CBC programs featuring cross-border relations. "Intelligence," which depicts a Canadian intelligence unit collaborating with a local drug lord-turned government informant, is just as stinging in its portrayal of U.S.-Canada law enforcement cooperation. Through its two seasons, the program has followed plot lines including a DEA attempt to frame the Canadian informant for murder, a CIA plot to secretly divert Canadian water to the American southwest, and a rogue DEA team that actually starts selling drugs for a profit. A columnist in conservative Canadian daily newspaper "The National Post" commented, "There's no question that the CSIS heroes on 'Intelligence' consider the Americans our most dangerous enemies." EVEN THE LITTLE MOSQUE GETS IN TO THE ACT -------------- ¶7. (U) Even "Little Mosque on the Prairie," a popular Canadian sitcom that depicts a Muslim community in a small Saskatchewan town, has joined the trend of featuring U.S.-Canada border relations. This time, however, the State Department is the fall guy. A December 2007 episode portrayed a Muslim economics professor trying to remove his name from the No-Fly-List at a U.S. consulate. The show depicts a rude and eccentric U.S. consular officer stereotypically attempting to find any excuse to avoid being helpful. Another episode depicted how an innocent trip across the border became a jumble of frayed nerves as Grandpa was scurried into secondary by U.S. border officials because his name matched something on the watch list. Qhis name matched something on the watch list. GIVE US YOUR WATER; OH WHAT THE HECK WE'LL TAKE YOUR COUNTRY TOO -------------- -------------- ¶8. (U) And it appears that the season is just warming up. After CIA renditions, DEA murder plots, DHS missteps, and unhelpful consular officers, a U.S. takeover of Canada may have been the only theme left for the CBC "H20" mini-series. The series was first broadcast in 2005, when it featured an investigation into an American assassination of the Canadian prime minister and a very broad-based (and wildly implausible) U.S. scheme to steal Canadian water. A two-part sequel, set to be broadcast in March and April 2008, will portray the United States as manipulating innocent, trusting Canadians into voting in favor of Canada's becoming part of the United States. Then, after the United States completely takes over Canada, one brave Canadian unites Canadians and Europeans in an attempt to end America's hegemony. Another OTTAWA 00000136 003.2 OF 003 program could prove more benign but will certainly include its share of digs against all things American: Global TV reportedly is gearing up for a March 2008 debut of its own border security drama, set to feature Canadian search-and-rescue officers patrolling the U.S.-Canada border. COMMENT -------------- ¶9. (SBU) EKOS pollster Frank Graves told Poloff he thought that at this point such shows are reflective and not causal in determining attitudes in Canada. They play on the deep-seated caution most Canadians feel toward their large neighbor to the south, a sort of zeitgeist that has been in the background for decades. As one example, a December 2007 Strategic Counsel poll showed that nine percent of Canadians thought U.S. foreign policy was the greatest threat to the world -- twice as high as those who were concerned about weapons of mass destruction. What Graves does find disturbing -- and here he believes that the causal or reflective question is not important -- is that support for a less porous border is increasing in both Canada and the U.S.: in the U.S. because of generalized fear of terrorism and in Canada because of concern over guns, sovereignty, and the impact that a terrorist attack on the U.S. would have on trade. Graves has detected an increasingly wary attitude over the border that he believes could lead to greater distance between the two countries. ¶10. (SBU) While there is no single answer to this trend, it does serve to demonstrate the importance of constant creative, and adequately-funded public-diplomacy engagement with Canadians, at all levels and in virtually all parts of the country. We need to do everything we can to make it more difficult for Canadians to fall into the trap of seeing all U.S. policies as the result of nefarious faceless U.S. bureaucrats anxious to squeeze their northern neighbor. While there are those who may rate the need for USG public-diplomacy programs as less vital in Canada than in other nations because our societies are so much alike, we clearly have real challenges here that simply must be adequately addressed. Visit Canada,s Economy and Environment Forum at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/can ada WILKINS