Editorials

By CAMPBELL CLARK

The Harper government will launch a cross-country campaign to defend its corporate tax cuts, trooping out cabinet ministers and MPs across the country to counter Liberal Leader Michael Ignatieff’s efforts to exploit the cuts as a potential election issue.

The political offensive was signalled to MPs in a memo from the Prime Minister’s Office on Sunday, but many of them, and especially a large part of the cabinet, have already been enlisted: On Wednesday, the biggest day of the campaign, 10 ministers will attend events to defend the cuts.

Many of the events will be held at businesses in various parts of the country, in an effort to convince Canadians that the corporate tax cuts are good for ordinary firms – not a gift for big banks, as Mr. Ignatieff asserts. Tory MPs across the country have been briefed with combative arguments to sell the cuts as good for “Main Street.”

“We will not sit back and let Mr. Ignatieff spread lies and misinformation about our tax cuts for job creators,” says a four-page memo sent to Conservative MPs and senators by Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s communications staff, a copy of which was obtained by The Globe and Mail.

full article http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-go-on-offensive-to-defend-corporate-tax-cuts/article1880416/

In 2011, Canada’s facing the possibility of another federal election if the Conservative government’s budget is defeated. Unfortunately, this occurs at a time when Canadian election turnouts are plummeting, and very few of our national politicians are trusted by the public.A mere 59% of Canadians voted in the last federal election, and in my home province of Alberta, a mere 41% of people came out to vote. More and more Canadians seem to be fed up with politics altogether, turning off and tuning out when they see the increasing levels of venom both sides of the political spectrum throw at one another.

A new book, MAKING WAVES, attempts to canvas the literary community in British Columbia for the last fifty years.  It fails, however, to reveal that "culture" (quite amazingly) was the site of a major battle to take B.C. out of Canada into the heart of the U.S. Empire.

Bankruptcy could permit a state to alter its contractual promises to retirees, which are often protected by state constitutions
 

CETA New Report: Keep Europe Out of the Tar Sands!

Published by The Council of Canadians, Friends of the Earth Europe,
Indigenous Environmental Network, UK Tar Sands Network, January 2011

Canada´s tar sands are attracting global concern and criticism. The
tar sands have become one of the last frontiers for "Big Oil,"
including major European multinationals BP, Total and Shell. The
unfolding social and environmental disaster in Alberta demands urgent
action, including the respect of Indigenous rights, stronger
regulations on carbon emissions, water use and contamination, and
more. Yet the proposed Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic
and Trade Agreement (CETA), if completed as planned, threatens to
undermine stricter tar sands regulations in Canada and stronger
climate policies in Europe. This is confirmed in legal analysis
prepared for the Council of Canadians and The Indigenous
Environmental Network based on draft CETA text....

For full report see:
http://canadians.org/trade/documents/CETA/briefing-CETA-tarsands.pdf

 

Probe International has learned from internal documents obtained
through an Access to Information request that Canada´s aid agency,
the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), was caught
completely off guard by the corruption scandal and had no knowledge
or ability to detect that its funds were being used inappropriately.

The documents paint a picture of an agency incapable of determining
if and how its money is being used to line the pockets of corrupt
officials. And while the documents obtained by Probe International
relate to the Zambian corruption case, they also show that Canadian
foreign aid programs in Kenya´s education sector have suffered a
similar fate.

Eventually, CIDA determined that $880,000 of Canadian taxdollars were
diverted by corrupt officials. In total, more than $7-million, including
money from other donors such as Sweden and the Netherlands, was stolen.

The documents also show that Canadian aid officials never laid out
strong procurement guidelines when they handed the money over.
According to one email, an official said, "effective performance of
public procurement is not an explicit condition of the CArr
(Condition Agreement)...nor is it a specific condition of payment."

Mr. Hu also may be the weakest leader of the Communist era. He is less able to project authority than his predecessors were — and perhaps less able to keep relations between the world’s two largest economies from becoming more adversarial.

The Gordon Campbell Liberal government of B.C. is increasingly exposed - in deep corruption and inner conflict. The NDP should sweep to power in the election to come, with a new leader and clean hands.  But unless it can re-make itself as a dynamic party with a platform of genuine renewal and a credible determination to pull up the rooted corruption, the election will go by default to the Mainstream Press and Media supported Liberals.

By Dana Gabriel

Canada and the European Union (EU) have already held five rounds of negotiations towards a Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) which will go beyond NAFTA. With the sixth round of talks scheduled to take place in Brussels, Belgium from January 17-21, Canadian and EU officials remain optimistic that a deal could be finalized by the end of 2011. Thus far, negotiations have included key areas such as goods, rules of origin, services, investment, government procurement, as well as others. As talks enter their final crucial stages, there are growing concerns over the threat CETA poses to Canadian sovereignty. Coupled with the financial turmoil sweeping Europe, deep economic integration with the EU could prove disastrous.

In a recent article Maude Barlow, national chair of the Council of Canadians, points out the dangers Canada faces with the current CETA trade model. She warns that, “CETA will open up the rules, standards and public spending priorities of provinces and municipalities to direct competition and challenge from European corporations.” Barlow goes on to say, “Europe is seeking a comprehensive and aggressive global approach to acquiring the raw materials needed by its corporations. At its heart, this deal is a bid for unprecedented and uncontrolled European access to Canadian resources.” She also added, “CETA will likely have a NAFTA-type investor-state enforcement mechanism, which means that European corporations will have the same right that U.S. companies now enjoy to sue the Canadian government if it introduces new rules to protect the environment.” If CETA includes something similar to NAFTA's Chapter 11 which gives corporations the power to challenge laws and regulations that restrict their profits, U.S. and Mexican companies could benefit from any rulings that favour the EU. Ultimately, like NAFTA and other trade deals, CETA will further serve corporate interests.

A report released in December of last year, entitled Public Water for Sale: How Canada will privatize our public water systems, “exposes how CETA would open up public municipal water systems across Canada to privatization.” The paper prepared by the the Council of Canadians and the Canadian Union of Public Employees cautions that, “public water in Canada will be lost unless the provinces and territories take immediate steps to remove water from the scope of the proposed Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement.” The Union of B.C. Municipalities supports a resolution by those cities and towns who wish to receive a clear, permanent exemption from CETA. Others have voiced opposition to any deal that could deny government the ability to favour local businesses and create jobs. There has been increased pressure on Ottawa to either fully or partly shield the municipal sector from government procurement of goods and services. Giving the EU full access to sub-national purchasing and contracting in Canada would open up areas such as school boards, universities, hospitals, as well as other provincial agencies.

full article http://beyourownleader.blogspot.com/2011/01/from-nafta-to-ceta-canada-eu-deep.html

By Rob Tripp

The number of penitentiaries listed for expansion in a $2-billion federal prison-building boom will rise to more than two dozen Monday as Conservative MPs make announcements on eight prisons in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario and Quebec.

By Jason Markusoff

There can be little to no accountability to citizens by provincial or federal politicians unless we, the people, awaken from the BIG Lie that has been perpetrated by the media, the corporations and the oligarcy of political parties. The BIG Lie is that the institutional design of our parliamentary system is a democracy. The truth is that what we have is NOT a democracy.

The role of the Mainstream Press and Media in relation to the corruption in British Columbia is mostly negative.  PART FOUR argues - using the BC Rail Scandal Basi, Virk, and Basi case as example - that "the Fourth Estate" supports and/or covers for corruption in the province.

The role of the RCMP in corruption in British Columbia open questions that will not go away. A focal point for examination is the BC Rail Scandal - and, particularly, the case conducted against "the three brown men": Dave Basi, Bob Virk, and Aneal Basi.