CUSLI ExCo Apoints Diane Francis and Ross Hornby

The Canada-US Law Institute has appointed two new members to its Executive Committee: Ms. Diane Francis, award-winning columnist, bestselling author, journalist, broadcaster, and entrepreneur and Mr. Ross Hornby, Vice-President, Government Affairs and Policy at General Electric Canada.

Ms. Diane Francis is the Editor-at-Large at the National Post, a blogger with Huffington Post and a Distinguished Professor at Ryerson University’s Ted Rogers School of Management. She has written ten books on white collar crime, politics, immigration, economics and finance, including Who Owns Canada Now: Old Money, New Money and the Future of Canadian Business and Merger of the Century: Why Canada and America Should Become One Country. (source: www.dianefrancis.com)

Mr. Ross Hornby is responsible for GE Canada's engagement on public policy issues with governments and seeks to promote growth of the company's business in Canada and around the world. He joined GE in mid-2011 after a distinguished career in the Public Service of Canada. From 2006-2011 he served as Canada's Ambassador to the European Union in Brussels where he launched free trade negotiations with the European Union. Prior to that, he was Assistant Deputy Minister, Strategic Policy, at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, where played the leading role in the International Policy Review. Previously, he was Assistant Secretary, Treasury Board Secretariat, and Senior General Counsel with the Department of Justice. 

Justice Beyond the State: Transnationalism and Law, Sept. 20-21, Windsor University [Conference Announcement]

What...My Verizon Phone Will Work on Both Sides of the Canada-U.S. Border? Verizon May Enter the Canadian Marketplace, Ending One of the Most Recognizable Canada-U.S. Digital Border Barriers

One of the most recognizable Canada-U.S. border barriers may soon fall.

So, are you one of the many cross-border travelers who detests either (a) having two phones or (b) adjusting to life without your Verizon cell phone?

Well, your stress may soon be over. (Oh, also, Canadians may see more options for watching NHL and NFL games.)

From Michael Geist TheStar.com:

Reports that U.S. telecom giant Verizon may be preparing to enter the Canadian market has sparked considerable speculation on the likely impact of a company with a market cap greater than Bell, Rogers, and Telus combined. While much of the discussion has centered on wireless pricing, the more significant development may be the shift toward a single North American communications market.

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The prospect of a Verizon entry into Canada would put a single communications market into overdrive. On the telecom side, Verizon could use its Canadian network to change the approach to roaming in North America altogether, since it would be uniquely positioned to offer a single U.S. and Canadian network. 

The company could move to eliminate roaming fees for U.S. and Canadian customers, while offering cost-competitive U.S. and Canadian roaming together for international providers establishing wholesale roaming agreements. Such a plan would obviously be attractive to the corporate sector as well as regular cross-border travellers, leading to the gradual elimination of roaming and long distance charges for calls throughout North America.

On the broadcasting side, Verizon holds exclusive U.S. rights to both the National Football League and the National Hockey League. Those rights are currently held by BCE in Canada, but a Verizon entry into Canada could shake things up. Verizon could presumably complicate the BCE rights by offering free access to NFL and NHL games to Canadian customers when they travel to the U.S. More interestingly, it could make a play for joint U.S.-Canada rights in the future, moving closer to an elimination of the geographic divide on content rights.

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With satellite radio and Internet video already close to a single market, regulatory reform to longstanding policies such as simultaneous substitution a possibility, and the geographic lines on telecom, content, and broadcast distribution all increasingly blurred, the big question may be whether Canada is closing in on a common North American communications market.

RIP RIM's Blackberry Playbook; Update on RIM's Non-Demise Demise

By Keith Edmund White

Editor-in-Chief

Canada's tech-juggernaut, Research in Motion ("RIM"), now trading as Blackberry, is still adapting to the new world of mobile devices, but its still on path to release a new generations of devices--which can hopefully return this company to premier status.

(Check out Justin McNeil 2012 post The Decline and Fall of the Blackberry Empire.)

First, WSJ reports on Blackberry's 1st quarter loss (and likely 2nd quarter loss), because of Venezuelan foreign currency restrictions.  

(Learn more about Venezuela's long-standing currency issues in this handy Economist article.)

And, yes, Blackberry continues to lose subscribers, but it has the cash to push out its new generation of phones.

But, even when Blackberry does stuff right, that doesn't mean success in this heavily competitive global marketplace for mobile devices.

From Lance Ulanoff's excellent op-ed in today's Mashable, Blackberry PlayBook Is as Good as Dead:

Today, BlackBerry (the company formerly known as RIM) essentially put a nail in the PlayBook coffin by announcing that it would not be converted to the new Blackberry 10 OS. That mobile OS is clearly the future of the company. QNX, though, bought and now developed by BlackBerry, is the past. 

In a Q1 2014 earnings press release, BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins outlined the company’s near-term strategy: “Throughout the remainder of fiscal 2014, the company will invest in BlackBerry 10 smartphone launches, and the roll out of BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, to continue to establish the new BlackBerry 10 platform in the marketplace.”

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Will Blackberry ever build another tablet? If Heins can turn BB10 and its flagship phones into a success, then yes. But the signs are not promising. From the earnings statement:

“The smartphone market remains highly competitive, making it difficult to estimate units, revenue and levels of profitability ... Based on the competitive market dynamics and these investments, the company anticipates it will generate an operating loss in the second quarter.”

With this kind of fiscal outlook, it’s unlikely the company will invest heavily in new initiatives like rebooting its 7-inch tablet product line. 

So, PlayBook, it was nice knowing you. You were, in fact, impressive and innovative for your time. Your features like cards (at least on a tablet), swipe from bevel, true multitasking, wireless content sharing and more have all been copied by more successful mobile companies.
I guess you can take solace in that.

Video: Yesterday's WWC Cyber-Security Event Featuring U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security

Watch yesterday's Woodrow Wilson Center event on on Cyber-Security and public-private partnerships.

For a good, if now out-dated, recap on public-private partnerships & cyber-security, check out this Feb. 2011 article by Lawrence P. Farrell Jr.

Sequester's Bite: House Dem. Report Details U.S. Cutbacks to Critical Canada-U.S. Spending Priorities

BTBObserver shines light on a recent report documenting sequestration's impact on federal agencies, highlight cuts that affect the Canada-U.S. bilateral relationship:

The House Committee on Appropriations Democrats released a report detailing the considerable impact sequestration is having on important federal programs. 

Below are excerpts from the must-read report pertaining to the Canada-U.S. relationship:

Airport safety and wait times: …Sequestration reduced Customs and Border Protection’s (CBP) FY 2013 appropriated dollars by approximately $600 million, which required CBP to reduce overtime for CBP Officers (CBPO) beginning in early March. These cuts have already led to significant increases in wait times at air ports of entry. (Page 5).

Overall, USCG expects to have approximately 20-50 percent fewer assets in the offshore patrol areas for migrant and drug interdiction at various times over the next several months. The Coast Guard expects to submit a reprogramming request in the next few weeks that will mitigate some of the impacts, but will likely not completely restore planned interdiction patrols. (Page 6).

Ports of Entry: As noted above, sequestration reduced Customs Border Protection Officer (CBPO) overtime availability at the Nation’s ports. This slows the movement of goods across the border and impedes U.S. capacity to facilitate and expedite cargo, adding costs to the supply chain and diminishing global competitiveness.

Land border truck wait times have increased significantly.

• Del Rio and Mariposa both reported wait times of 120 minutes; normal wait times average 15 minutes for both locations.
• Pharr Cargo reported wait times of 105 minutes; normal wait times average 15 minutes.
• Detroit Fort Street Cargo reported wait times of 60 minutes; normal wait times average 5 minutes.
• Other POEs with wait time increases: Nogales, Peace Bridge, Progreso, and Rainbow Bridge. (Pages 18-19).

Maritime cargo also faced delays: LA/Long Beach reported container release delays of 144 hrs (6 days) and Port Everglades and Miami Seaport reported container delays up to 48 hours. And cruise ships saw the effects of reduced CBPO overtime. Los Angeles and Port Everglades reported increased processing times of 6.5 hours; normal processing time is 4 hours.

Sequestration will also affect Border Patrol coverage between ports of entry, but DHS is still attempting to find additional savings. CBP expects to submit a reprogramming notification soon to mitigate some of these impacts and to prevent the need to furlough CBPOs for an estimated 3-4 days. (Pages 18-19).

Read the entire report here.

Canada Needs Three Arctic Ports - Fmr. Canadian Northern Forces Commander

The Hill Times offers this editorial from Pierre Leblanc, former Canadian Northern Forces commander and current President of Canadian Diamond Consultants, Inc., urging Canada to construct three Arctic ports:

Canada needs three ports in the Arctic: on its West Coast, in the centre of the archipelago, and on the East Coast.

There is near-unanimous agreement that the Arctic is warming at about twice the rate of global warming elsewhere. There is also clear evidence that the arctic polar ice cap is fast disappearing. Human activity in the Arctic is increasing exponentially as the Arctic becomes increasingly accessible. Maritime traffic has grown significantly.


The U.S. Coast Guard has reported that commercial maritime traffic through the Northern Sea Route along the Russian Coast increased tenfold between 2010 and 2012. Canada’s Northwest Passage was free of ice in 2007, years ahead of scientific predictions. It has been free of ice every summer since.

There is growing interest in harvesting the natural resources that have been shielded by the permanent polar ice cap. This will naturally lead to further increases in human activity and a greater incidence of search and rescue operations and maritime accidents. Such incidents could lead to an environmental catastrophe, in what is recognised as a very fragile environment with a short vertical food chain. Almost any major accident in the Arctic will affect the “human security” of its inhabitants.

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Nunavut Premier Eva Aariak has stated that one of the anchors of sovereignty in the Canadian Arctic is having healthy communities. By investing and developing ports such as those proposed, the federal government could put concrete action behind Minister Leona Aglukkaq’s stated desire to develop the Arctic during Canada’s chairmanship of the Arctic Council. It would create a significant number of long term well-paying jobs for the communities in and around those ports. “Build a road and they will come” it is said. In the Canadian Arctic, ports will attract business. In so doing, Canada would also improve greatly its ability to deal with SAR [search and rescue] and marine pollution and meet its international commitments.