September–October 2014
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THE JOURNAL OF THE COMMITTEE ON MONETARY AND ECONOMIC REFORM $3.95 Vol. 26, No. 5 • SEPTEMBER–OCTOBER 2014 CONTENTS 3 Why Bad Beliefs Don’t Die Always Fighting for Long Shots 6 Open Letter to Hassan Yussuff 7 Scientists Fight to Roll Back By Sean Fine, The Globe and Mail, August Snazzy in a beige linen suit with a striped Darkness 23, 2014 shirt and grey-patterned tie (only the open- 8 Oliver Promises Sweeping Wherever I’ve gone this year in Canada, toed sandals hint at non-conformity), the Tax Breaks lawyers are talking about Rocco Galati. 55-year-old comes from a world far from 9 Wynne Calls on Feds to Quadruple What’s Rocco going to do next? If the Ottawa’s Wellington Street, where the Su- Infrastructure Funds Prime Minister tries any funny business preme Court and the Parliament buildings 10 Re-democratizing the Economy — with the courts, Rocco will stop him. Rocco sit in a majestic row. He and his 12 siblings Bien Congress 2014 won’t sit by…. were born in Calabria, in southern Italy. 12 Why Are Stock Markets So It’s as if Mr. Galati, the Toronto lawyer Five of them died in early childhood. Volatile? A Serious Depression is who brought grief to the Conservative gov- His father, a farmer, was court martialled Pending as a Result of Austerity ernment, has been designated the Unofficial twice and interned because he didn’t want to 14 Towards a Positive Economics Opposition. He’s the first person ever to fight in Mussolini’s army. 16 The New World of Retirement: challenge a Prime Minister’s appointment “He always told me the fascists don’t Security for the Rich, Risk for of a Supreme Court judge. And he won. come marching in overnight. It’s a slow Everyone Else All the resources Stephen Harper and his march.” 17 A Practical Utopian’s Guide to the Coming Collapse government could bring to bear, and this His father came to Toronto in 1965, upstart spending $42,000 of his own money found work in construction, and brought Publications Mail Agreement No. 41796016 won the case. And he’s not done. the family over a year later. Only three of Canada’s Unofficial Opposition is eating the children received any formal education, a tuna salad, washed down with red wine (a Mr. Galati says. But that includes a brother Negroamaro, an earthy wine from Friuli), who, though he had only two years of public at an outdoor patio on College Street in To- schooling, went to the University of Toron- ronto’s Little Italy, just down the street from to as a mature student and became a lawyer. the three-storey house he has turned into an “Because of my sense of history, I don’t office for his small law firm. like the idea of injustice. Growing up in To- “The government never thought some- ronto was no picnic in the sixties and seven- one named Galati could defeat it,” he says. ties. It was a very brutal, racist environment. “They were so arrogant in assuming The police were enforcing wartime regula- that an argument from me couldn’t win or tions. On College Street, up until Trudeau shouldn’t win, because we live in a tribal rewrote the loitering laws, more than two culture. You’re only an expert if you’re Anglo Italian males could not congregate. They’d or francophone…. That’s been made clear get billy-sticked home by the police.” to me for 26 years. I’d put my win ratio in Although he is Catholic, he says his impossible cases up against anybody’s, yet family was Jewish, on both sides, at one I’m still ridiculed when I bring a challenge. time. (When I first met him at his office, he How does that work?” showed me his late grandfather’s Argentine But the real question is – why him? Why identification document from 1918, framed not someone else in this country of lawyers? on the wall. It has a Star of David on it.) Mr. Galati and I have a lot to talk about. He says most people don’t realize how many We have so much to talk about that the bat- Jews (and Muslims) used to live in Calabria, teries in my tape recorder run out of juice. or about the violence used to kill or convert Mr. Galati, an amiable provocateur, goes them in previous centuries. It’s a recurrent across the street to buy me new ones. Continued on page 2 Long Shots from page 1 ing the choice was illegal under the Supreme theme of his – the loss of historical memory. Court Act, which governs appointments. A fighter for long shots, he was a long Federal Court judges can’t be appointed for shot himself. He says he was once assessed any of the three spots reserved for Quebec in school as intellectually handicapped, judges, he said. FOUNDING EDITOR and it was only through the efforts of an There was nothing personal in it, he says. John Hotson 1930–1996 English teacher at his technical high school, “In fact, I like Justice Nadon. I was tor- who recognized his perceptiveness in Shake- mented by bringing the challenge. I thought PUBLISHER–EDITOR speare studies, that he was able to go to an he was a good judge. I got along with him. William Krehm academic school for Grade 13. That’s not the point. If it was my father, I ([email protected]) Bob Dylan saved him from life as an would have brought the challenge.” INFORMATION SECRETARY electroplater. He quit his job to move to Justice Nadon immediately stepped Herb Wiseman Montreal to learn to read the poet Arthur aside, pending a resolution of Mr. Galati’s ([email protected]) Rimbaud in French; he came to Rimbaud lawsuit. Then, Quebec’s National Assembly Economic Reform (ER) knowing that he had influenced Dylan. passed a unanimous resolution opposing the (ISSN 1187–080X) is published bi- “He was not very popular in his early appointment. Prime Minister Harper then monthly by COMER Publications years. That was to my liking – this guy asked the Supreme Court to rule on whether 27 Sherbourne Street North, Suite 1 stands on what he believes.” it was legal. Toronto, Ontario M4W 2T3 Canada Once again, his future (and Canada’s) So why didn’t anyone else challenge the Tel: 416‑924-3964, Fax: 416-466-5827 was altered by the kindness of a teacher. He appointment? “Look,” Mr. Galati says, Email: [email protected] enrolled in non-credit courses in poetry at “there are about 300,000 lawyers in Canada. Website: www.comer.org McGill University, and a teacher told him I think 299,995 think they’re all going to he’d written a publishable poem, and saw the Supreme Court and they don’t want to COMER Membership: Annual dues to it that McGill accepted him as a fulltime blow their chances. They’re worried about (includes ER plus 1 book of your choice): student. Despite an A average, journalism their reputation.” CDN$50 schools and teachers’ colleges rejected him Few thought he had a chance to win. Economic Reform subscription only: – he still wonders if it was because of his “Most people in the legal establishment One year (6 issues): in Canada, CDN$20; name. thought his case was frivolous,” University Foreign, CDN$40 At York University’s Osgoode Hall Law of Montreal law professor Paul Daly says. School, in Toronto, he learned that his love Fighting the odds is nothing new for Send request and payment to: of Bob Dylan stood him in good stead: Mr. Galati. Early in his career he argued 27 COMER Publications Constitutional law was like poetry. separate times in Federal Court that govern- 27 Sherbourne Street North, Suite 1 Toronto, ON M4W 2T3 “I had a professor at Osgoode, a very ment officials need to provide reasons for bright man, Graham Parker, who I took their decisions. Finally, in Baker v. Canada, ER Back Issues: CDN/US$4, includes courses on statutory interpretation from. a 1999 deportation case on which he was postage; additional copies same He said to me, ‘Do you read or write po- co-counsel with Roger Rowe, representing issue, $2; additional issue same order, etry?’ I said, ‘Yeah, I do both.’ He said, ‘I a Jamaican immigrant mother, he won his $3. Send requests for back issues to can tell. Reading statutes is as difficult as point at the Supreme Court. Herb Wiseman, 69 Village Crescent, reading poetry.’” “It was epoch-making,” Prof. Daly said. Peterborough ON K9J 0A9. He started his law career by working for “Your liberty and sometimes your life are – of all places – the federal Justice Depart- really in the hands of a government official. Copyright © 2014 ment. “It seemed the best place for me to get Because of Baker, the government has to COMER Publications to court frequently.” But he owed $122,000 give reasons for finding against you.” All rights reserved in bank and student loans, and the interest In the Nadon case, he had a secret advan- Permission to reproduce is granted rate was 22 percent; his salary was $29,000. tage: he knew the Supreme Court Act inside if accompanied by: “Copyright © 2014 COMER Publications. If not for his financial need, “I might have and out from another improbable case. Reproduced by permission of stayed, because I enjoyed the kind of law Four years ago, he learned that a judge COMER Publications” they did.” hearing a constitutional challenge of his was On September 30 last year, Prime Min- 77 – two years past retirement age – and Postmaster, please send address ister Stephen Harper announced his choice that the chief justice could appoint a retired corrections to: for a Quebec vacancy on the Supreme “deputy judge” if he needed someone to COMER Publications Court: Justice Marc Nadon of the Federal hear a case.