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Canada’s corrupt foreign policy practices come home to roost on Parliament Hill
Canadian BusinessJustin Trudeau’s government is engulfed in a major political scandal that lays bare the role of corporate power in Ottawa. But SNC Lavalin’s important role in Canadian foreign policy has largely been ignored in discussion of the controversy. The PMO has been accused of interfering in the federal court case against the giant Canadian engineering and construction firm for bribing officials in Libya. Former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould claims she was repeatedly pressured to defer prosecution of the company and instead negotiate a fine.
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Trudeau and SNC-Lavalin: Of Hosts and Parasites
Canadian BusinessIt is not a pretty picture, but to anti-capitalists it could be a useful one. They might find fertile ground for the argument that, when the SNC-Lavalins of the world cheat and lie, they forfeit their right to exist as well as their assets, as is done when we deal with people that we like to label members of gangs and racketeers. These assets could be used for socially acceptable purposes, saving the jobs which, according to the Trudeaus of the world, can only be saved by allowing rapacious capitalists to satisfy their greed by hook or by crook.
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Corporate Canada Behind Slow Motion Coup Attempt in Venezuela
Canadian BusinessCritics of the Liberal government’s push for regime change in Venezuela generally focus on their deference to Washington. But, Ottawa’s hostility to Caracas is also motivated by important segments of corporate Canada. In a bid for a greater share of oil revenue, Venezuela forced private oil companies to become minority partners with the state oil company in 2007. This prompted Calgary-based PetroCanada to sell its portion of an oil project and for Canadian officials to privately complain about feeling “burned” by the Venezuelan government.
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Putting Public Ownership Back on the Table
Canadian BusinessIf we are to build a just society, we require a just economy. And while that must include better social programs financed through redistributive taxation, the democratic socialist project is not encompassed by social programs alone; it must concern itself with the democratization of the economy. And while this shouldn’t be done solely through state ownership—worker, community, and consumer cooperatives all being viable mechanisms here—public control will nonetheless be a central plank.
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Bill C-27 pension reform: an unprecedented attack on all
Canadian BusinessOn October 19, 2016, federal Finance Minister Bill Morneau tabled Bill C-27, taking aim at the Pensions Benefits Standards Act governing pension plans in workplaces under federal jurisdiction: crown corporations, air and rail transportation, telecommunications and banks. The proposed new legislation allows employers under federal jurisdiction to convert defined-benefit pension plans to target-benefit plans, which essentially means dumping safe pension plans for risky ones.
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Canada’s Five Giant Banks Ought to Be Nationalized, Not Bailed Out
Canadian BusinessCanada’s banking system is on the edge of a crisis, once again, with a collective debt of $1.8 trillion — and the public will be on the hook for most of it, sooner than most think. Last week, the Bank for International Settlements said Canada, Hong Kong and China’s banking systems are the world’s most at-risk of a severe crisis. BIS joins the IMF, Moody’s and S&P Global Ratings in warning record-high consumer debt could tank Canada’s “five giants,” in the case of a downturn.
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The Bank of Canada Should Be Reinstated To Its Original Mandated Purposes
Canadian BusinessIf properly and fully pursued it could be of great help in getting support from the electorate. As it stands, it seems that the international banking cabal appears to have such a grip on Canada’s current capitalist government that it has refused to act in Canada’s best interests. As in the case of getting Medicare enacted in Canada, it may be up to a social democratic party to eventually get the Bank of Canada reinstated as the country’s bank.
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The Canada Infrastructure Bank and the perversities of predatory capital
Canadian BusinessWhile it might have a friendlier face, there isn’t much difference between the probable consequences of this infrastructure bank and the mass privatization of public infrastructure planned by President Trump’s administration and similar initiatives carried out in other countries. It is important to resist each privatization proposal and expose each project for who it will benefit and who it will hurt,
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Canada’s ongoing complicity with exploitive extraction schemes
Canadian BusinessOne hundred and seventy-six years on, the Canadian state today remains more committed to — and dependent upon — the mining business than any other government in the world. Three-quarters of the world’s mining companies today are headquartered in Canada. The bulk of this investment comes from outside of Canada, while the majority of the production it finances also occurs abroad.
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For the 150th, let’s also re-make our economic myths
Canadian BusinessEvery society needs its myths. But as much as myths and stories can empower, they can also be damaging. Here are three economic myths about Canada that could use re-writing. The first economic myth to remake is that we are “hewers of wood and drawers of water” — or, in more contemporary terms, extractors of some of the dirtiest fossil fuels known to humankind.
