The Bay Canada

The Northlands offered little of interest to most Europeanswho came to America. Where Northlands settlement did occur, itsfocus was usually either extractive or military. Frenchvoyageurs, fur trappers, and traders pushed their canoes farbeyond the agricultural settlements along the lower St. LawrenceRiver as early as the middle of the 17th century, extendingFrench political control across the Great Lakes. The Hudson'sBay Company, an early British fur trading company, establisheditself on the margins of Hudson Bay in Canada and then pushedsouth and west, thus blocking further French expansion westward. By the mid-18th century, the Hudson's Bay Company, which had beengranted a trade monopoly to the area by the British government,was in control of the entire boreal forest reaching from HudsonBay westward to the Rocky Mountains, with further extension ofinfluence into the Arctic. This vast extractive empire broughtwith it only a minimal number of small and widely scatteredsettlements. ... [Read More]

920 List of Countries/Posts Classified for Allowances & Differentials

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Canada

Quebec's Indian people remain overwhelmingly opposed to separation from Canada and deeply distrust the separatist government of the province. Despite the Quebec Premier's recent overtures to the leaders of the Cree and Inuit nations, surveys indicate that most of Quebec's 60,000 Indians would favor partition of the province in the event of Quebec's separation from Canada. Indian leaders maintain that a sovereign Quebec would treat Indians as another ethnic minority instead of as sovereign nations within the territory of the province. To address these sentiments and respond to a pending lawsuit, in 1998 the Quebec government agreed with the Cree and Mohawk tribes to initiate negotiations regarding longstanding grievances over timber resources, public rights of way on tribal lands, and management of development in the James Bay region. In 1999 Quebec gave the Mohawks increased fiscal rights and powers, and the first summit in 11 years between Quebec's First Nations and the provincial gov ... [Read More]

Reciprocity Schedule

Updated 31 March 2003 Reciprocity Schedule Visa Classification Fee [Read More]

Canada

Quebec's Indian people remain overwhelmingly opposed to separation from Canada and deeply distrust the separatist government of the province. Despite the Quebec Prime Minister's recent overtures to the leaders of the Cree and Inuit nations, surveys indicate that most of Quebec's 60,000 Indians would favor partition of the province in the event of Quebec's separation from Canada. Indian leaders maintain that a sovereign Quebec would treat Indians as another ethnic minority instead of as sovereign nations within the territory of the province. To address these sentiments and respond to a pending lawsuit, in 1998 the Quebec government agreed with the Cree and Mohawk tribes to initiate negotiations regarding longstanding grievances over timber resources, public rights of way on tribal lands, and management of development in the James Bay region. In March 1999, Quebec gave the Mohawks increased fiscal rights and powers. In June 1999, the first summit in 11 years between Quebec's First Nation ... [Read More]

F) Canada, Mexico, and Central America

The effectiveness of both national and bilateral efforts against drug crimes will depend largely on demonstrable progress in disrupting and dismantling transnational narcotics trafficking organizations. This includes apprehending, prosecuting and convicting major drug traffickers, and exposing and prosecuting individuals and businesses involved in providing critical support networks such as money laundering and front companies, security, transportation, and warehousing. Successful law enforcement efforts will be rendered meaningless without strong judicial action. In addition to striving toward the broad strategic objectives, U.S.-Mexico law enforcement cooperation needs to focus on resolving specific obstacles:While we made measurable progress in 2001 in reducing the production and flow of illicit drugs through Mexico and into the U.S., cooperation needs to be institutionalized if we are to sustain these efforts. Continuation of programs to exchange information and experie ... [Read More]

U.S. Dept. of State Geographic Index: M
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Farming the Sea, By Colin Woodard, Global Issues, April 2004

Studies by the Atlantic Salmon Federation - an early proponent of the industry - showed that the proportion of farmed salmon in local wild salmon runs increased from 5.5 percent in 1983 to 90 percent in 1990. The farmed salmon can out-compete their wild cousins, but are not genetically adapted to return to their birth stream to breed and thus do not reproduce and rebuild the stocks. As further evidence that aquaculture was disrupting the ecological balance, residents blamed the farms for a perceived increase in shoreline algal growth, claiming that feces and uneaten food falling from the cages was triggering the blooms. When the industry tried to expand down the Maine coast, some local communities rebelled, refusing to grant site permits, for fear of pollution. ... [Read More]

V. Country Narratives -- Countries A through G

Cyprus is a destination country for women trafficked from Eastern and Central Europe for the purpose of sexual exploitation. Traffickers who forced women into prostitution continued to fraudulently recruit victims for work as dancers in cabarets and nightclubs on short-term "artiste" visas, for work in pubs and bars on employment visas, or for illegal work on tourist or student visas. There was increasing evidence of Chinese women being trafficked for sexual exploitation in Cyprus. The Government of Cyprus does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so. Cyprus made some progress in its anti-trafficking efforts over the past year. The new police anti-trafficking unit produced successful results and showed vigilance in combating the problem. Government recognition of the problem improve ... [Read More]

Department of State Washington File: Text: U.S. Envoy to Canada Speaks on Success of NAFTA

By now I hope it is clear to you that free trade has served the North American Hemisphere very well, indeed. The challenge is to deepen that highly productive cooperation, and then to broaden it to other countries of the Americas. U.S. exports to Latin America last year totaled $55 billion (only slightly less than our merchandise exports to Japan. Last November, Canada hosted a summit of the 34 Trade Ministers of the Western Hemisphere who continued the progress on negotiating the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). In just over one year, they will meet again in Buenos Aires, by which date a draft text for a future FTAA should be in preparation. The leaders of the 34 democracies in this hemisphere will gather in Quebec City in April of next year where confirming our path to hemisphere free trade will be at the top of the agenda. Although it will be a few years in the making, an expansion from NAFTA of 400 million persons to an FTAA of over 700 million should offer extraordinar ... [Read More]