Corporate Totalitarianism: The Move Away From Democracy In Canada

I have already used “the David Emerson case” to characterize open contempt for democracy and to show how barely disguised loyalty to Corporate Capitalism works in the political sphere. Who could be a better indicator of those things than a cabinet minister who changed parties, seemingly in minutes, in order to work for a government devoted to Private Corporate rule? Who better than a Canadian cabinet minister who must be guarded by police behind a security fence when he makes a “public” appearance, and who must hide from his so-called “constituents” when he visits Vancouver? In addition, what better Poster Boy does Corporate Totalitarianism have than David Emerson, former CEO of the “killer” Canfor forestry giant in B.C.? I call it “killer” Canfor because the accident/death record connected with Canfor’s operations is outstandingly bad. To digress a moment. So punch-drunk are the press/media reactionaries in their attempt to defend Emerson’s sleaziness that they regularly write to confuse the issue. John Twigg, subscription analyst of B.C. politics, for instance, wrote on March 10 that in “Canada’s political system we elect persons, not parties”.That utterly incorrect statement makes it possible for Twigg to write a number of pages of relative nonsense. We elect persons categorically and definitively connected to and identified with parties, as their names on the ballots show. In fact, Vancouver lawyer Peter Dimitrov makes a strong argument (Georgia Straight, Mar 9 06 11, and elsewhere) that Emerson’s actions, voiding his constituents of the party representation a majority of them voted for, may well constitute a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. But let us return to Canfor, the Private Corporation for which David Emerson was CEO. Report after report, news story after news story record that the accident/death rate in B.C. forests is alarming. Coroners’ reports and recommendations have been piled upon one another following unnecessary forestry and trucking deaths. The logging association newsletter and the Prince George Citizen have used phrases like “the staggering number of fatalities” and “the staggering death toll”. In 2005 the death toll continued to mount in the forest sector (and log trucking) in B.C., including worker deaths of people connected to the operations of Canfor – from 16 deaths in 2004 to 43 in 2005. The history, over a decade (part of that time, take note, during which David Emerson was Canfor CEO) reveals recommendations for change have often been pious and unanswered prayers. A new structure for safety has recently been put in place. Yet another new structure. Some people hope things will improve. Some show deep cynicism. A former Gordon Campbell cabinet minister (defeated), the new forest-safety ombudsman helped make the killer B.C. policies he has been appointed to paper over. With one stroke he gets a job and begins to blame the problem, unbelievably, on a “tough-guy” culture in the forests, not upon the real cause – government and corporate co-operation to sacrifice safety to profit-making. The deep cynicism has good reason. The whole busy-work activity to improve safety is built upon sham and sand. Corporate totalitarians care about profit, not about people. They know work conditions are unsafe. They don’t change them. They know truckers, for instance, are driving for grossly unsafe stretches of time in order to feed their families. The corporations responsible do next to nothing. Fatalities continue. Profits swell. Profit matters, people don’t. Over and over, people consulted about “the staggering death toll” point their fingers squarely at the large forest corporations – and Canfor is one of the big ones. When we know avoidable deaths continue as profit rolls, we know we are facing Corporate Totalitarianism. What is Corporate Totalitarianism, exactly? It is a condition in which Private Corporations gain the power of governments and use the power to violate democratic processes and the lives of vulnerable people in the drive for profit. It is a condition, increasing in Canada, in which governments act for Private Corporations, and not for people. It is a condition in which Private Corporations steal democracy and democratic power from voters. Private Corporations, in effect, bribe, coerce, and indoctrinate legislators or put forward Private Corporate loyalists as candidates for apparently “democratic” elections. Those people – in and out of legislatures – lobby and lobby for commercial terms favourable to themselves. The more they gain power, the more they abuse it. Witness David Emerson saying that he represents the constituency he betrayed and double-crossed. That is a good example of predator capitalist ethics at work. The more Private Corporations gain power, the more they work to abuse and enslave anyone who can increase profit. During the Second World War – as I pointed out in another column – some large German Private Corporations assisted the Nazis by “employing” oppressed people and working them to death – to increase profit. That is a perfect picture of Corporate Totalitarianism in its most “mature” phase. People in the know point their fingers, as I say above, squarely at the forest corporations. But that’s only part of the story. Corporate Totalitarianism is a co-operative venture. When the Gordon Campbell Liberal government took power in B.C., it slashed - on behalf of Private Corporations – safety, conservation, and labour laws and regulations. But before that, Gordon Campbell was connected to what I repeatedly allege was a fraudulent investigation and court action against NDP premier Glen Clark which slandered and destroyed him and crippled the NDP in B.C. I have repeatedly called for a full-scale, objective inquiry into those events. My own complaint to the Commission for Public Complaints Against the RCMP (about the Glen Clark investigation) took three years to answer. The Commission report found initial wrong-doing on the part of the RCMP in the matter of investigation (a very, very serious matter), and then left to the RCMP whether it would move to remedy the wrong-doing (which it, of course, didn’t). Experienced RCMP officers wrongfully terminated an investigation that may well have been the first step towards proving corrupt RCMP activity in the investigation of Glen Clark. The first suggestion of impropriety against Clark was made from Gordon Campbell’s constituency office. Glen Clark was “investigated” by what I allege was a highly biased (and perhaps corrupt) RCMP force, and he was tried by what I allege was a consciously or unconsciously incompetent judge, Madam Justice Elizabeth Bennett. Despite years of so-called evidence gathering and destruction of his political career, Glen Clark was acquitted unequivocally of wrong-doing. The compensation he received for the indignities he suffered has been continuing obloquy heaped upon him by writers for the CanWest monopoly press and media. CanWest is, of course, a cheerleader for Corporate Totalitarianism in Canada. Meanwhile, a close associate of Gordon Campbell, David Emerson, was climbing in power. He was named chair of the newly faked B.C. Ferry Corporation, until then owned by the people of B.C. They still own it, but the Campbell government has phonily “privatised” it. David Emerson chaired a Board that found a U.S. president for the new, phony structure. David Hahn knew nothing about ferries and came from a bankrupt U.S. Private Corporation. The disintegration of B.C. Ferries, assisted ably by David Emerson, is a showcase of Corporate Totalitarianism and its “co-operative” nature. Employing, I allege, the RCMP and the Supreme Court of B.C., corporate interests rid B.C. of an effective NDP. That, I allege, took cooperation. Then – on behalf of Canfor and other Private Corporations – the Gordon Campbell government stripped B.C’s safety, conservation, and labour laws. In addition, using David Emerson directly, Gordon Campbell re-jigged forest policy, leading to “massive deregulation, which reduced public oversight and turned every meaningful decision involving forestry to the [big] companies”. As industry minister for the federal Liberals, Emerson”played a key role in the $1.5 billion bailout for the forest industry”. [see Murray Dobbin, “Commentary”, Georgia Straight, Mar 2 06 17]. Pursuing personal, Private Corporate loyalties? Don’t be foolish. Emerson was fulfilling his democratic duty as a cabinet minister as he always has done, and continues to do. When the Campbell government turned B.C. Ferries into a phony corporation, and set it up for Private Corporate takeover (probably foreign), it appointed David Emerson chairman of the Board. And it wrote into the ferry legislation an “independent” Ferry Commissioner, appointing Martin Crilly to the position. The task of the Ferry Commissioner is to dismantle and sell-off B.C. Ferries. He is to destroy utterly the public corporation that belonged to British Columbians. But he is to do it “independently”, at armslength from the people who created him to destroy the Ferry system. Thus they call him the “independent” Commissioner of Ferries. The legislation which created his position says almost nothing about public service. In fact, the legislation takes care to limit or to prevent him acting to improve public service. Yet, when I visited Martin Crilly’s website, it claimed powers of public service oversight the Commissioner does not possess. I could not appeal to the B.C. Ombudsman because his budget had been slashed by the Campbell Liberals and, besides, access to him was blocked by the new Ferry legislation. I couldn’t use the Access to Information legislation because it was denied to any activity of the new B.C. Ferries, by legislation. Those are examples of repression of public democratic practices, as the almost personal attack on democratic equity by Madam Justice Brenda Brown in the B.C. Teachers’ Strike was an example of repression. Madam Justice Brown acted more like an employee of the Campbell cabinet than someone able to read and interpret Canadian law with fairness and balance. Such examples of “paper repression” will, inevitably, be followed by physical repression if the actors in question believe they may engage in physical repression without serious public backlash. Right governments (and increasingly the courts in their jurisdiction) are the servants of predator Capitalism for whom human rights and human life mean nothing. In such little and large ways are democratic rights stripped from Canadians. Governments more and more – taken over by Private Corporate owners – set up Boards of the kind David Emerson chaired and create “Commission” and “Authority” positions and others like the kind Martin Crilly fills. They are intended to keep Canadians away from seeing Private Corporate violations and to protect responsible ministers from having to answer for sell-out of the country, sell-out of assets that belong to the people, and the creation of law and regulation which release Private Corporations to violate Canadians in a hundred ways and even to be seriously implicated in their deaths. The purpose of the fake Board of the new Ferry structure and of the “Commissioner” of Ferries is to keep British Columbians away from Kevin Falcon, Minister of Transportation, as if he is not responsible for transportation in B.C. He is. He is responsible for the corrupt sale of B.C. Rail to a foreign owner – after an election promise by Gordon Campbell that B.C. Rail would not be sold. He is responsible for the decaying service of B.C. Ferries. Every obstruction is put in the way of British Columbians demanding responsibility from the Ferry service. But, recently, B.C. Ferries and Kevin Falcon’s irresponsibility were challenged. About 200 protesters made their way to Victoria and to the Legislative Buildings on March 2 to face Falcon. They were angry about increases to smaller coastal route travel costs which they estimated at 38% over the last three years. They were angry that a deck shelter on Quadra Island, used by the handicapped, was removed without any consultation. (Vanc. Sun, Mar 3 06 B4) They were angry at disguised fare increases through a new Coast Card purchase system. They were angry about more. I am told that B.C. Ferries has rewritten its basic statements about core services. The statement that the services “are vital to the economic and social health of many communities” has gone. Gone, too, apparently, is mention of “services to the disabled” and a statement that “ferry services are an extension of the highway system”. What has replaced those statements? What’d you’d expect as Corporate Totalitarianism takes over the ferry system: a statement about the need of “key infrastructure [whatever that gobbledegook means] for the 2010 Olympic Winter Games and to help meet the demands of the games”. Kevin Falcon, Minister of Transportation, refused to meet the 200 person delegation. Kevin Falcon, minister of transportation and minister in charge of the corrupt sale of B.C. Rail to foreign buyers, refused to meet a party of British Columbians that travelled to Victoria to discuss ferry services with him. That is a perfect example of contempt for democracy. Blatantly, it is a statement that Kevin Falcon doesn’t serve British Columbians. He serves Private Corporate interests. Why should Kevin Falcon meet with ordinary Canadians when he has the over-subsidized German shipbuilders he gave ferry contracts to as his possible companions? Or the Texans to whom B.C. Rail was sold in a trail of lies, court cases, raids on legislative offices, and (still) secret manipulations? Or David Hahn, yankee president of B.C. Ferries, brought from a bankrupt U.S. Corporation? Or perhaps Wally Oppal who I believe violated judicial propriety to step from a position of Appeals Court Judge to a candidacy for a place in Gordon Campbell’s sleazy government – now having achieved the record for the highest level of child poverty in Canada? Any B.C. Supreme Court Judge would be happy to associate himself (or herself) with that record. Now, as Attorney General, Wally Oppal is not investigating what I insist is the corrupt unseating of Glen Clark. Nor is Oppal investigating the suppressed Mindy Tran murder case. He is not investigating the corruption involved in the sale of B.C. Rail. He is obviously a perfect companion for Kevin Falcon. Or Kevin Falcon could choose David Emerson for a companion, close associate of Gordon Campbell, political whore, and one of Canada’s most visible supporters of predator Capitalism. With that dazzling array of sleaze to choose from, why would Kevin Falcon want to waste time meeting ordinary Canadians, the people he has sworn an oath to serve? Plainly, to suggest he should meet ordinary Canadians who have a complaint concerning the responsibilities of his ministry in the matter of Ferry service is to suggest something childish and unrealistic. Corporate Totalitarianism is interested in profit; ordinary people are garbage. [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on March 19, 2006]