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COMMENTARY: An unlikely friendship: MacAulay, Ashcroft and new security arrangements after 9/11

Dec. 3, 2001 was warm with bright skies as then U.S. attorney general John Ashcroft touched down in Ottawa. Fires still burned at Ground Zero in New York City at the site of the fallen towers. Later that morning, he signed the northern border memorandum of co-operation with Canada’s solicitor general, Lawrence MacAulay, and immigration minister, Elinor Caplan. The agreement expanded integrated border enforcement teams, strengthened intelligence sharing, providing RCMP access to FBI fingerprint data bases and envisioned co-ordinated visa and new biometric screening processes.

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Ashcroft’s public praise at the signing’s press conference, calling MacAulay a “good friend” and describing Canadian law enforcement under his leadership as a “model partner” was more than a diplomatic courtesy.

For Islanders, the moment proved that a man forged by Island life, a potato farmer who understood fishing quotas and seasonal rhythms, could carry local values into national security talks, and win trust at the highest levels when it mattered most. MacAulay’s Island roots were the foundation of who he was. Islanders know the value of steady, practical........

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