THE JOURNAL OF THE COMMITTEE ON MONETARY AND ECONOMIC REFORM

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CONTENTS Eulogy for William Krehm 2 SNC-Lavalin and the Rule of Law ’s SNC-Lavalin Affair: By Jonathan Krehm Capital. Unfortunately, as a teenager with The Site C Dam Project and My father passed away peacefully at my head on fire – these were the opening Bulk Water Export home on Friday, April 19, at 11 pm, in his years of the Depression – I could not avoid Canada’s Corrupt Foreign Policy 106th year. He had an amazing full life. We polemicizing against Winston Churchill on Come Home to Roost were blessed that he enjoyed relatively good my exam paper on history. Obviously this The Real SNC-Lavalin Issues health until the end. and the diverted time His generation is did not help my chanc- Why Wilson-Raybould Was Right now gone. His pass- es for a scholarship, Sordid SNC-Lavalin Affair ing marks the end of which in fact I didn’t Exposes Canada as a Plutocracy, an era. Not just for us get. So I spent two Not a Democracy here gathered, but also years in a mathemat- Neoliberal Fascism and the Echoes for those who remem- ics and physics courses of History, Part II ber the struggles of the without money to buy A General Comment about the past. He was the last books. It did nothing Inquiry living North American for my chances of be- A Comment about Paradigm Shift who went to Spain to coming a physicist or 19 BC Leads the Way to a Better support the Spanish Re- a mathematician. But Future for People and Planet public during the Span- it worked wonders for 20 Statement on the Passing ish Civil War. my learning enough of William Krehm He was a fine ama- about mathematics and teur musician. He their powerful legiti- Publications Mail Agreement No. 41796016 played the violin from mate uses to keep me age 9 to 95. For 50 in trouble ever since.” years he hosted chamber music on Sunday He was a self-taught polyglot. His Span- evenings several times a month. Some of ish, French, German were excellent. He also ’s finest string players were regulars read in Russian, Italian, Latin, Hebrew and at these evenings. He reviewed music in Ancient Greek. Even in his last year, suffer- the 1950s and early 1960s in a variety of ing from dementia, his Spanish and German AGM Announcement places including . Ezra were still there. Schabas, a former principal of the Royal But throughout his life he was always a There will be an Annual General Meeting Conservatory, once told me he thought Bill rebel. He and my late Uncle Aubrey first on June 29, 2019. had been the best music critic in Toronto. organized a protest against an anti-Semitic The location will be posted on the website, With no business background he entered teacher in Grade 9 at Parkdale Collegiate. www.comer.org, as soon as the informa- real estate development in the mid 1950s. He While in New York at the age of 16 he tion is available. became a house builder, land developer, and joined the American Trotskyist Movement. real-estate investor. The prosperity my family His political activities continued in enjoys today emanates from his efforts. and throughout the 1930s. In the From his early childhood he was a vora- movement he met my mother. It was sort of cious reader. In 2009 he wrote: “I wrote my a family affair. junior senior matriculation examination My mother Gladys and her two sisters, without attending high school in those Rae and Dorothy, were members of the final two years, and also found the en- LRWP as were my two uncles, Aubrey Joel ergy and possibly misplaced dedication to and Moie Bohnen. Their small but dynamic go through the three volumes of Marx’s group became the largest Trotskyist group Photo: James M. Ireland Continued on page 3 SNC-Lavalin and the Rule of Law Canada’s SNC-Lavalin announced that Site C would proceed. At FOUNDING EDITOR Affair: The Site C Dam the time, Chief Roland Willson of the West John Hotson 1930–1996 Moberly First Nation called the entire five- Project and Bulk Water stage process a “‘farce,’ and said the govern- PUBLISHER–EDITOR Export ment hadn’t finished the second stage of the William Krehm development process, so he doesn’t know ([email protected]) By Joyce Nelson, Global Research, March how it can go ahead to the third. Willson INFORMATION SECRETARY 13, 2019 said First Nations in the area haven’t seen Larry Farquharson In all the press coverage of the “the SNC- studies on land use, wildlife, the fishery or Lavalin affair,” not enough attention has been the cultural significance of the region, and Economic Reform (ER) paid to the company’s involvement in Site the process can’t move on to environmental (ISSN 1187–080X) is published bi- C – the contentious $11 billion dam being monthly by COMER Publications constructed in BC’s Peace River valley. 27 Sherbourne Street North, Suite 1 Toronto, Ontario M4W 2T3 Canada The Liberals say that any pressure they Tel: 416­‑924-3964, Fax: 416‑466‑5827 put on Jody Wilson-Raybould to rubber- Email: [email protected] stamp a “deferred prosecution agreement” Website: www.comer.org for SNC-Lavalin was to protect jobs at the company. But the pressure may have been COMER Membership: Annual dues to protect something much bigger: the (includes ER plus 1 book of your choice): Liberals’ vision for Canada’s future. Site C CDN$50 epitomizes that vision. Economic Reform subscription only: The “Many Lives” of Site C One year (6 issues): in Canada, CDN$20; Foreign, CDN$40 Birthed in 1959 on the drawing boards Site C dam (Source: CC BY-SA 3.0) of the US Army Corps of Engineers and BC Send request and payment to: Electric (then owned by Montreal-based assessments [Stage 3] without that work.”3 COMER Publications Power Corp), the Site C dam has been Nevertheless, the process did move on, 27 Sherbourne Street North, Suite 1 declared dead, then alive, then dead again and SNC-Lavalin may have been involved Toronto, ON M4W 2T3 several times over the next five decades until in the next stage of the planning process, ER Back Issues: CDN/US$4, includes 2010, when BC Premier Gordon Campbell as well. The Dogwood Institute recently 1 postage; additional copies same issue, announced that Site C would proceed. reported that SNC-Lavalin was “an environ- 4 $2; additional issue same order, $3. Tracking SNC-Lavalin’s involvement in mental consultant for Site C.” Send requests for back issues to COMER, Site C during recent years has been difficult, In 2011, SNC-Lavalin Chair Gwyn 27 Sherbourne Street North, Suite 1 but Charlie Smith, editor of The Georgia Morgan (image on the right) became an Toronto, ON M4W 2T3. Straight, has filled in some of the missing advisor to BC Liberal leadership winner information. Christy Clark during her transition to the Copyright © 2019 Sometime in 2007, the Site C dam proj- premiership. Morgan had joined the SNC- COMER Publications ect was quietly moved to Stage 2 of a five- Lavalin board in 2005 and was chair of the All rights reserved stage process. Smith wrote, “SNC-Lavalin company from 2007 until 2013. As The Permission to reproduce is granted and Klohn Crippen Berger were prime Tyee reported in 2014, “Morgan retired in if accompanied by: consultants for Stage 2 of the Site C project. May 2013, the month after SNC-Lavalin “Copyright © 2019 COMER Publications. This had to occur before the project could agreed to a 10-year corruption-related ban Reproduced by permission of proceed to Stage 3 in the five-stage planning from the World Bank related to a power COMER Publications” process. The decision to advance to Stage project in Cambodia and a bridge in Ban- 3 was based on a prediction in the Stage 2 gladesh. Among the SNC-Lavalin com- Postmaster, please send address report that demand for BC electricity will panies on the World Bank [corruption] corrections to: increase 20 to 40 percent over the next 20 blacklist are divisions involved in publicly COMER Publications years. ‘As extensive as BC Hydro’s hydro- funded BC projects like the Bill Bennett 27 Sherbourne Street North, Suite 1 electric assets are, they will not be enough Bridge, Canada Line and Evergreen Line.”5 Toronto, Ontario M4W 2T3 to provide future British Columbians with Going Forward PRINTING AND DISTRIBUTION electricity self-sufficiency if demand contin- ues to grow as projected,’ the Stage 2 report At the time of Gwyn Morgan’s 2013 Watt Solutions Inc., London [Fall, 2009] declared. Bingo. This gave the retirement from the SNC-Lavalin Chair- Printed in Canada on recycled paper. pro-Site C politicians in the BC Liberal manship, the company was being investi- party…all the justification they needed.”2 gated in at least ten countries, including: On April 19, 2010 Premier Campbell Bangladesh, Cambodia, Ghana, India, Ka-

2 | Economic Reform January–February 2019 www.comer.org zakhstan, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, on the five biggest infrastructure projects the lead design contract was indeed issued Uganda and Zambia.6 in Canada, according to trade magazine in 2015, this would fit with Christy Clark’s While we have no way of knowing ReNew Canada. Those contracts alone effort to push the project past “the point of whether Gwyn Morgan, as an advisor to amount of $52.8 billion, and include proj- no return.” Christy Clark as of 2011, in any way lob- ects for Bruce Power and the Darlington bied on behalf of SNC-Lavalin, we do know nuclear plant in Ontario as well as the Site Help from Trudeau that “Morgan’s personal, family and corpo- C dam in BC.”12 In February 2015, under the Harper rate donations to the BC Liberals totalled While the exact amount of the Site C government, federal fraud and corruption more than $1.5 million.”7 lead design contract is not known, it is likely charges were filed against three of SNC- At the same time, in 2011 SNC-Lavalin at least $1 billion in BC taxpayer dollars. If Lavalin’s legal entities over its dealings in had won the engineering, procurement and construction management (EPCM) Eulogy from page 1 contract for the Muskrat Falls hydro proj- in Canada by 1935. In 1936 Bill was sent his CBC job disappeared. Bill had been let ect in Newfoundland. But the company to Europe and when the Spanish Civil war go twice in five years because of his political was apparently so “distracted” by corrup- broke out he became involved in the inter- past. It was time for change. He decided tion charges internationally that eventually national effort to aid the Spanish Republic. he did not want to work for someone else crown utility Nalcor had to take over the He ended up in Barcelona writing for the and became a house builder and a land project, which went way over budget and is International Newsletter of the POUM, developer. His business prospered and then now the subject of an inquiry.8 the anti-Stalinist party that George Orwell expanded in 1963 when a partnership was That didn’t dissuade the BC Premier fought for. As described in Orwell’s book formed with Ben Cowan, one of Gladys’ from going forward. On December 16, Homage to Catalonia, Bill was caught up brothers. The partnership was called the 2014, the Christy Clark provincial gov- in the dreadful events known as the May O’Shanter Development Co. Ltd. and has ernment gave approval for Site C, despite days and was imprisoned when the Com- continued through to this day. recommendations by the Joint Review Panel munist Party moved to crush its Left Wing But the rebel in Bill did not go away. (JRP), which had concluded two months allies in the fight against Franco. Bill, after By the mid 1960s he started writing about previous that Site C’s hydropower was not a two-week hunger strike, got moved from economics. He was very critical of macro- needed in the time-frame that BC Hydro a jail run by Russian secret police to a less economic theory and what he felt were the was arguing. (Recall that the Stage 2 report ominous one run by Spaniards. He spent resultant central-bank policies. Although had claimed a 20-40% increase in demand the summer of 1937 in jail. Until his old not an academically trained economist, over the next 20 years.) JRP member Harry age he was reluctant to talk of these events. he did get papers published in journals in Swain had concluded that demand for elec- They left scars. France and Holland as well as at home. In tricity in BC has been flat dating back to In 1939 he travelled to Mexico with two the mid 1970s he started writing books on 2005. objectives in mind. He had an appointment economics. His last book was written in While the newly elected BC NDP gov- to meet Leon Trotsky and he planned to 2002 at the age 88. He and Professor John ernment in 2017 debated the cancellation write an article on the fate of Spanish Re- Hotson from Waterloo met in 1971 and or suspension of Site C, the Financial Post publican refugees in Mexico. He never did started to collaborate, founding COMER, reported that Montreal’s SNC-Lavalin is get to meet Trotsky but was one of those the Committee on Monetary and Economic “part of the lead design team for the [Site C] who stood guard at the funeral home the Reform, in 1986. project.”9 That little-known contract may night after Trotsky was assassinated to make In 2008 at the age of 94, Bill sued the have been signed much earlier. sure his body was not desecrated. The article Bank of Canada in order to make the Bank On February 21, 2018 the Journal of was more successful. He sent it to Time live up to its own mandate. In 2017 the case Commerce reported on the progress being magazine. Henry Luce liked it and hired was finally lost when the Supreme court made by Site C’s lead design team, com- him as a Time correspondent. Bill had lever- denied leave to appeal. From the age of 13 prised of SNC-Lavalin and Klohn Crip- aged his political activities into a journalistic to 103, 90 years of Fighting the Good Fight! pen Berger and involving “approximately career. Gladys joined Bill in Mexico in 1941 40-plus engineers, nine modellers and 15 where they were married. They lived in Our Comment drafters.”10 SNC-Lavalin Building Informa- Mexico City, then Guatemala and finally in When the COMER suit was launched, tion Modeling (BIM) Manager Rodrigo Lima, Peru, where my brother, Adam, was the government immediately put forward a Freig told the Journal that, “In three years born in 1947. “motion to strike” – that is, to declare that the and 43 models later, we only had two model By the end of the 1940s with the Cold matter was not one able to be settled in court. crashes, related to slow server speeds.”11 War changing the political climate. Bill’s While the government succeeded in That comment would suggest that the left-wing past was becoming a liability. He curbing the progress of COMER’s legal lead design contract had quietly been issued was also very critical of American Foreign challenge, regarding the failure of both gov- to SNC-Lavalin and Klohn Crippen Berger policy in Latin America. He was let go from ernment and the Bank of Canada to fulfil sometime in 2015. Time and he and Gladys returned home to their responsibilities, under the constitu- Toronto. I came along in 1951. tion and the Bank of Canada Act, the suit Turning off the Tap: Site C and His journalistic career in Toronto led to raised the level of awareness – nationally Water Privatization in Canada being a music critic on air in the early days and globally – on critical monetary issues, A few days ago (March 7), the Canadian of CBC television. Then a visit from RCMP and opened the way for others to proceed. Press reported: “SNC-Lavalin is working to question him about his radical past and Élan www.comer.org January–February 2019 Economic Reform | 3 Libya. But after the Trudeau Liberals were Bulk Water Export dam will submerge 78 First Nations heritage elected in Fall 2015, the company “signed In two slightly different chapters within sites (including burial grounds) and flood a deal with that will allow the en- two recent books, I have argued that the Site about 3,816 hectares (9,430 acres) of prime gineering and construction company to C dam on the Peace River is perfectly placed agricultural land in the Peace River Valley continue bidding on federal contracts until to facilitate bulk water export east of the A similar scenario is being played out criminal charges it faces are resolved.”13 Rockies and into the American Southwest. in with Hydro-Quebec’s massive As we know now, SNC-Lavalin also Readers can consult my Chapter 10, “Water $5 billion Romaine Complex, which is began lobbying extensively for a deferred Export: The Site C End-Game” in editor damming the River Romaine and flooding prosecution agreement (DPA) that would Wendy Holm’s Damming the Peace: The 100 square miles of land; in Newfoundland effectively free the company of charges with- Hidden Costs of the Site C Dam (Lorimer where the Muskrat Falls mega-dam project out forcing it to admit wrongdoing. In 2018), and the chapter entitled “Site C and “boondoggle” is now the subject of a public exchange, the company would pay a fine NAWAPA: Continental Water Sharing” in inquiry; in Manitoba where several mega- and prove that it has changed its prac- my latest book Bypassing Dystopia: Hope- dam projects are poised to flood First Na- tices to prevent a repeat of any wrongdoing. filled Challenges to Corporate Rule (Water- tions land. The Trudeau government quietly inserted shed Sentinel Books 2018). Now, thanks to the Trudeau govern- changes to the criminal code allowing for SNC-Lavalin’s involvement in Site C ment’s Mid-Century Long-term Strategy, DPAs in its 2018 Budget. According to re- has been so well-hidden that the company that same scenario is poised to repeat itself cent report by the Buffalo Chronicle (March name does not appear anywhere in Dam- many times in the coming years. 11), SNC-Lavalin’s in-house attorney Frank ming the Peace. But by the time I was writ- Iacobucci “was instrumental in persuading” ing the water-chapter for my own book, Long-Term Strategy Trudeau to insert that new legal provision SNC-Lavalin’s connections to Site C were In 2017, the Trudeau government re- into the budget bill.14 becoming clear enough for me to state that leased its Mid-Century Long-Term Strategy The Buffalo Chronicle also notes that in the company “is intricately involved in Site (MCS) intended to reduce emissions of October 2018, Trudeau asked Iacobucci C.” Only now are we learning just how in- greenhouse gas (GHG) at rates to comply to lead the government’s negotiations with volved they are. with its Paris Climate commitments. indigenous communities in BC regarding SNC-Lavalin has had its eye on conti- Scientist David Schindler has summa- the TransMountain Pipeline expansion proj- nental water-sharing for at least three de- rized the MCS: “In brief, Canada has agreed ect – a project that SNC-Lavalin hopes to cades. Back in the 1980s the SNC Group (as to reduce its GHG emissions by 80 percent construct. Quoting an unnamed source, it was called at the time) was part of a con- by 2050, using 2005 emissions as a baseline. the Chronicle states: “Iacobucci, who was sortium called Grandco, which was promot- This sounds wonderful, until one reads already angry that [Jody] Wilson-Raybould ing a continental water-sharing plan entitled how this is to be done, as described in the was refusing to allow his client [SNC-Laval- the Grand Canal Project. Grandco’s other report. All the scenarios used to achieve the in] to negotiate a deferred prosecution agree- consortium members included the UMA miraculous carbon reduction goals rely on ment, feared that his consultations in British Group of Calgary, Underwood McLellan replacing fossil fuels by generating massive Columbia could be construed as improper. Ltd. of Saskatoon, Rousseau, Sauve & War- amounts of hydroelectric power, which He would only agree to take the role on the ren Inc. of Montreal, and Bechtel Canada is assumed to emit no GHG…. The re- condition that Trudeau replaced her with a Ltd. (son of US Bechtel, the world’s largest quired hydro development would require ‘more doting’ Member of Parliament.”15 engineering firm). the equivalent of building over one hundred The full story of Iacobucci’s role in the Grandco’s head lobbyist was Canadian Site C dams in the next thirty-two years, an SNC-Lavalin scandal has yet to emerge, but financier Simon Reisman (uncle of cur- extraordinary plan….”17 it’s clear that the Trudeau government has rent Bilderberg member Heather Reisman). Once all that water has been impound- been exceedingly accommodating to the After Simon Reisman publicly advocated ed behind the dams, it is subject to NAF- company’s wishes. for Canadian water export, Prime Minister TA treatment (including in the rewritten The Georgia Straight’s Charlie Smith has (himself an advocate for USMCA agreement) as a tradable “good” or further spelled out the Trudeau govern- large-scale water exports) appointed him as commodity. Chrystia Freeland and the nego- ment’s help: “Keep in mind that Trudeau Chief Negotiator for the 1988 Canada-US tiators for the USMCA did not secure an ex- helped SNC-Lavalin with its World Bank Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the predeces- plicit exemption for water under the goods, problem by endorsing the Asian Infrastruc- sor to NAFTA, signed by Jean Chrétien in services, and investment provisions of the ture Investment Bank. This entity was cre- 1994. Both the FTA and NAFTA essentially deal. According to Bill C-6 (which became ated by China as a rival to the US-led World strip Canada’s sovereign right to protect our law in 2001), as Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bank on infrastructure financing. SNC- water resources and make Canada vulner- Freeland has water-export licensing authority Lavalin might be debarred from World able to massive water export. and can issue permits for water export. Bank financings, but it can bid on AIIB- While Site C may provide energy and As I explain in some detail in Damming backed projects. Trudeau also helped SNC- water for fracking in BC and potentially the Peace and Bypassing Dystopia, massive Lavalin and other companies involved in for tar sands mining in Alberta, in the long drought and over-use of freshwater in the huge public projects by creating the Canada term the “end-game” of Site C, according Colorado River region and in the US South- Infrastructure Bank. And the Trudeau gov- to Wendy Holm, is water export because west have prompted big investors like the ernment accelerated construction of the Site that freshwater water “will have a far higher Blackstone Group (with Brian Mulroney C dam by awarding federal permits over the value” than oil and gas. The vast 83-kilo- on its board) to look north for water-invest- opposition of First Nations in the area.”16 metres-long reservoir needed for the Site C ment opportunities. The Blackstone Group

4 | Economic Reform January–February 2019 www.comer.org has been involved in water issues for years, a 10-year ban on federal contract bids would mean for SNC- Wilson-Raybould claims she was repeatedly and in 2014 it announced a new portfolio Lavalin,” Toronto Star, March 7, 2019. pressured to defer prosecution of the com- 13. Ross Marowits, “SNC-Lavalin Gets OK From Ottawa To company called Global Water Development Bid on Contracts, Despite Criminal Charges,” The Canadian pany and instead negotiate a fine. Partners to “identify, develop, finance, con- Press, December 10, 2015. Facing a 10-year ban on receiving fed- struct, and operate large-scale independent 14. “‘Political grandmaster’ Frank Iacobucci is at the center of eral government contracts if convicted of water development projects.” SNC-Lavalin, Kinder Morgan scandals,” The Buffalo Chroni- bribing Libyan government officials, SNC The Blackstone Group is just one of cle, March 11, 2019. began to lobby the Trudeau government to many investment firms eyeing Canada’s 15. Ibid. change the criminal code three years ago. freshwater resources. The Bank of America 16. Smith, op. cit. The company wanted the government to 17. David Schindler, “Will Canada’s Future Be Dammed? Site Merrill Lynch – which designed the Canada C Could Be the Tip of the Iceberg,” chapter in Wendy Holm, introduce deferred prosecution agreements Infrastructure Bank – has predicted a global editor, Damming the Peace: The Hidden Costs of the Site C Dam, in which a sentencing agreement would water market worth $1 trillion by 2020. Toronto: James Lorimer & Co., 2018. allow the company to continue receiving Obviously, SNC-Lavalin wants to be government contracts. At SNC’s request the Our Comment about DPAs in on all that MCS hydroelectric develop- government changed the criminal code but ment and other projects to be financed by A deferred prosecution agreement (DPA) Wilson-Raybould resisted pressure from the Trudeau’s Canada Infrastructure Bank in is a provision enabling a large corporation PMO to negotiate a deferred prosecution the coming years. But if they have to face like SNC, to go on receiving government agreement with the company headquartered prosecution, the company risks being barred contracts despite past wrongdoings. in Montréal. from federal contracts for ten years. Wilson-Raybould’s persistent opposition Incredibly, before Trudeau went to bat The Trudeau government says it is at- to the government’s intention to seek a DPA for SNC after the firm had either been tempting to protect SNC-Lavalin jobs. That for SNC-Lavalin, has drawn much public found guilty or was alleged to have greased may be true, but it is also likely that the attention to this practice. palms in Libya, Bangladesh, Algeria, In- Trudeau government is attempting to pro- If DPAs are such a good idea, why sneak dia, Kazakhstan, Tunisia, Angola, Nigeria, tect its long-term vision for Canada: a vision in the enabling legislation for one, under Mozambique, Ghana, Malawi, Uganda, that jettisons “reconciliation” and the envi- cover of an omnibus bill? Cambodia and Zambia (as well as Québec). ronment in favour of damming the country That “an ounce of prevention is worth a A 2013 CBC/Globe and Mail investigation and then draining it. pound of cure” has always seemed to me to of a small Oakville, Ontario, based division Freshwater has been turned into a com- be a good idea. of SNC uncovered suspicious payments to modity and it will be worth far more than One has to wonder what a DPA really government officials in connection with 13 oil or gold in the near future. Follow the costs – and who really pays for it – the ef- international development projects. In each money. That’s what SNC-Lavalin is doing. fect that bribery would have on the cost of case between five and 10 percent of costs The original source of this article is Global construction; the cost of the investigation were recorded as “‘project consultancy cost,’ Research; Copyright © Joyce Nelson, Global that leads to prosecution; the expense of sometimes ‘project commercial cost,’ but Research, 2019. “closely monitoring the operations” of “one [the] real fact is the intention is [a] bribe,” a Joyce Nelson is the author of seven books, of the world’s largest electrical engineering former SNC engineer, Mohammad Ismail, including Beyond Banksters and its sequel companies”! told the CBC. Bypassing Dystopia. She can be reached via One has to wonder, too, what sort of While the media has covered the com- www.joycenelson.ca. profit would tempt a corporation to risk pany’s corruption and lobbying for a de- prosecution in the first place? ferred prosecution agreement, they have End Notes How difficult is it to qualify for a DPA? barely mentioned SNC’s global importance 1. “The Site C Dam: A Timeline,” The Narwhal, December Does the punishment fit the crime? or influence over Canadian foreign policy. 12, 2017. Or does crime really pay after all? Canada’s preeminent “disaster capitalist” 2. Charlie Smith, “Does Andrew Weaver’s response to Site C Élan justify his removal as head of the BC Greens?”, The Georgia corporation, SNC has worked on projects Straight, December 15, 2017. in most countries around the world. From 3. Quoted in “Site C dam project moving forward on Peace Canada’s Corrupt Foreign constructing Canada’s Embassy in Haiti to River,” The Canadian Press, April 19, 2010. Chinese nuclear centres, to military camps 4. Lisa Sammartino, “SNC-Lavalin tentacles reach deep into Policy Come Home to Roost in Afghanistan and pharmaceutical factories BC,” dogwoodbc.ca, February 25, 2019. 5. Bob Mackin, “Ex-Head of Troubled SNC-Lavalin Named By Yves Engler, therealnews.com, March in Belgium, the sun never sets on SNC. Chair of BC Crown Corp,” The Tyee, May 5, 2014. 3, 2019 Its work has often quite controversial. 6. “Public Risks, Private Profits: Profiles of Canada’s Public- Justin Trudeau’s government is engulfed SNC constructed and managed Canada’s Private Partnership Industry,” Polaris Institute & CUPE, in a major political scandal that lays bare main military base in Kandahar during the June 2013. corporate power in Ottawa. But, SNC- war there; SNC Technologies Inc provided 7. Sammartino, op. cit. 8. Andrew Nikiforuk, “Redeemable? SNC-Lavalin’s Criminal Lavalin’s important role in Canadian foreign bullets to US occupation forces in Iraq; Record,” The Tyee, February 22, 2019. policy has largely been ignored in discussion SNC has billions of dollars in contracts with 9. Jesse Snyder, “‘It’s going to cost a fortune’: Cancellation of of the controversy. the monarchy in Saudi Arabia. $8.8B Site C dam would scrap billions of dollars in contract The Prime Minister’s Office has been Across the globe SNC promotes neolib- work,” The Financial Post, June 2, 2017. accused of interfering in the federal court eral reforms. The company greatly benefits 10. Warren Frey, “Updated: Site C’s virtual construction a com- plicated endeavour,” Journal of Commerce, February 21, 2018. case against the giant Canadian engineering from governments shifting to public-private 11. Quoted in ibid. and construction firm for bribing officials partnerships. SNC is also a member or spon- 12. Christopher Reynolds, The Canadian Press, “Here’s what in Libya. Former attorney general Jody sor of the Canadian Council on Africa, Ca- www.comer.org January–February 2019 Economic Reform | 5 nadian Council for the Americas, Canada- signed invoice,” he said. “And payment is “Ottawa’s support for SNC, despite cor- ASEAN business council, Conseil des Rela- always in the form of a cheque, not cash, so ruption allegations in 15 countries,” to the tions Internationales de Montréal and other we can claim it on our income tax!” fact that “the company has proven to be a foreign policy lobby/discussion groups. In 1977, the US Foreign Corrupt Prac- loyal foot soldier, fighting for controversial SNC has been one of the largest corpo- tices Act outlawed bribes to foreign officials. foreign policy decisions under both Liberal rate recipients of Canadian “aid.” The com- Ottawa failed to follow suit until the Or- and Conservative governments.” pany has had entire departments dedicated ganisation of Economic Co-operation and He goes on to cite various examples to applying for Canadian International Development (OECD) launched its anti- of cooperation between SNC and Cana- Development Agency (CIDA), UN and bribery convention in 1997. The OECD dian governments, as “a strong proponent World Bank funded projects. SNC’s first convention obliged signatories to pass laws of neoliberalism, promoting, for example, international contract, in 1963 in India, was against bribing public officials abroad and privatization of water services in a number financed by Canadian aid and led to further two years later Canada complied, passing of countries. work in that country. the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Joyce Nelson, in her article on the Site In the late 1960s the firm was hired to Act (CFPOA). Still, for the next decade C Dam project further corroborates SNC’s manage CIDA offices in African countries Canadian officials did little to enforce the role in Canada’s foreign policy, arguing that where Canada had no diplomatic represen- law. The RCMP waited until 2008 to create “the pressure on Jody Wilson-Raybould may tation. In the late 1980s CIDA contracted an International Anti-Corruption Unit and have been to protect something much bigger SNC to produce a feasibility study for the didn’t secure a significant conviction under than jobs – the Liberals’ vision for Canada’s Three Gorges Dam, which displaced more the CFPOA until 2011. future,” explaining the common goal of than a million Chinese. During the oc- As the recent scandal demonstrates – and such projects in terms of a “predicted global cupation of Afghanistan CIDA contracted the Financial Post noted years ago – SNC water market worth $1 trillion by 2020.” SNC to carry out its $50 million “signature has “considerable lobbying power in Ot- All this is borne out in the desperate ef- project” to repair the Dahla dam on the tawa.” Placing its CEO among the 50 “Top fort to reign Wilson-Raybould in. Arghandab River in Kandahar province People Influencing Canadian Foreign Pol- Élan ($10 million was spent on private security icy,” Embassy magazine described SNC as for the dam). “one of the country’s most active companies The Real SNC-Lavalin Issues In 2006 SNC was bailed out by the internationally,” which “works closely with By Judy Kennedy, Annapolis NDP, Orange Canadian aid agency after it didn’t follow the government.” The now-defunct weekly Zest, March 2019 proper procedure for a contract to renovate concluded, “whoever is heading it is a major Mainstream media have obsessed over and modernize the Pallivasal, Sengulam player” in shaping Canadian foreign policy. whether the PMO & Associates have un- and Panniyar hydroelectric projects in the And, as it turns out, in shaping the way duly influenced Jody Wilson-Raybould to southern Indian state of Kerala. A new state things are now done at home in Ottawa. allow the deferred prosecution agreement government demanded a hospital in com- (DPA) process in the prosecution of the pensation for the irregularities and SNC got Yves Engler is a Canadian commentator and criminal case against SNC-Lavalin. By so CIDA to put up $1.8 million for the proj- author. His most recent book is The Ugly Ca- doing they have succeeded in drawing atten- ect. (SNC-Lavalin initially said they would nadian – ’s Foreign Policy, tion away from the basic issue: sanctioning put $20 million into the hospital, but they and previously he published The Black Book the criminal behaviour of those who headed only invested between $2 and $4.4 million.) of Canadian Foreign Policy and Canada in the corporation. Company officials have been fairly ex- Haiti: Waging War on the Poor Majority. The Liberals smuggled an amendment plicit about the role Canadian diplomacy to the Criminal Code – Sec. 715.32 – into plays in their business. Long-time president Our Comment the Budget Implementation bill of 2018, Jacques Lamarre described how “the of- Were Canada’s chief engineering and Harper style, thus avoiding Parliamentary ficial support of our governments, whether construction corporation to forfeit the discussion. It is a bad piece of legislation. It through commercial missions or more pri- right to foreign contracts, presumably those permits those responsible for criminal acts vate conversations, has a beneficial and con- would go, instead, to foreign competing of bribery and corruption to bypass the con- vincing impact on our international clients.” corporations. sequences of a conviction under the regular Even SNC’s use of bribery has a made- The political and economic ramifica- process in favour of a mere “hand slap” and in-Ottawa tint. For years Canada lagged tions of that would most certainly extend a fine, available only to big corporations. behind the rest of the G7 countries in crimi- beyond “nine thousand jobs in Quebec.” As Attorney General, Jody Wilson-Ray- nalizing foreign bribery. For example, into As Yves Engler has pointed out, the con- bould had the duty to consider the Public the early 1990s, Canadian companies were troversy has focussed on the scandal of Prosecutor’s decisions in cases of significant at liberty to deduct bribes paid to foreign corporate power in Ottawa, while “SNC’s public interest. SNC-L’s application for the officials from their taxes, affording them an important role in Canada’s foreign policy DPA process was certainly that. She agreed “advantage over the Americans,” according has largely been ignored.” with the Public Prosecutor that it didn’t to Bernard Lamarre former head of Lavalin In a Global Research article, SNC- qualify. It didn’t because of one of several (now SNC-Lavalin). In 1991, Bernard, the Lavalin The Corporate Face of “Ugly Cana- factors that the prosecutor must consider, older brother to SNC-Lavalin’s subsequent dian,” March 11, 2019, Engler contends particularly whether the corporation “was head Jacques Lamarre, told Maclean’s that that “some Canadian diplomatic posts are convicted of an offence or sanctioned by a he always demanded a receipt when paying PR arms for SNC-Lavalin.” regulatory body, or whether it entered into international bribes. “I make sure we get a On the other hand, he has attributed a previous remediation agreement or other

6 | Economic Reform January–February 2019 www.comer.org settlement, in Canada or elsewhere, for Why Wilson-Raybould fraud and corruption under the Criminal similar acts or omissions.” Was Right Code and the Corruption of Foreign Of- The World Bank happens to have a list ficials Act. The company allegedly paid $48 of such offenders: its Debarred Firms list of By Michael Harris, thetyee.ca, February million in bribes to get contracts in Libya, those convicted of bribery and corruption 15, 2019 including the Great Man-Made River Dam, offences and barred from applying for the Her government was intensely lobbied, but Benghazi Airport, and the prison with that Bank’s funds for ten years. During the ten- the law is clear. Orwellian name, Judicial City. The work year period up to 2018 SNC-L is mentioned We may not yet know if Jody Wilson- represented the kind of Big Moolah that 101 times on that list. (I counted and may Raybould was pressured by Justin Trudeau weakens corporate ethics at the knees. have missed some.) It is also mentioned or the PMO to let SNC-Lavalin duck a The RCMP laid charges on February 15, 42 times under “Other Sanctions.” These criminal trial, but there is no doubt that is 2015 after a lengthy international investiga- offences were committed globally, not just exactly what the company wanted. tion that also uncovered alleged payments in Canada. Clearly, the corporation didn’t Under a so-called deferred prosecution of $160 million to the son of then Libyan qualify for the DPA. This has now been agreement (DPA), the prosecutor stays pro- dictator Muammar Gaddafi. confirmed by the Federal Court. ceedings against the organization, which in The Mounties also exposed a plan to So why did the PMO & Associates per- turn pays a fine, offers some form of reme- spirit Saadi Gaddafi off to Mexico if things sist in trying to change the AG’s decision, diation, and agrees to stronger reporting got dicey in Libya. Things got quite dicey. defying the Conflict of Interest Act? requirements. If the company meets all the His father was later deposed and murdered, They said she should still consult expert terms of a DPA, charges are dropped. and Saadi went to jail. opinion. Well! Ms. Wilson-Raybould hap- Much has been said about how a reason- A full three and a half years after being pened to be the Minister of Justice as well able attorney general might opt for the DPA charged with fraud and corruption in the as the AG as the bill was being drafted. As considering all the harm a criminal convic- Libya case, the Canadian engineering firm such she certainly was aware of and had to tion of the engineering giant might do to found itself exactly where it didn’t want to have consulted others regarding its content the economies of Quebec and Canada. be – facing a criminal trial. over the three years of its navigation into But if you read the actual language creat- A preliminary hearing began on October law. Particularly as it was to apply to SNC- ing the DPA option, it will become clear 29, 2018, just 19 days after the company L which had been charged in Canada with why Wilson-Raybould and her director of was turned down for a remediation agree- such offences prior to the last election. public prosecutions Kathleen Roussel were ment by Wilson-Raybould’s justice depart- This leads us to another clause of the law, not only correct in their decision, but re- ment. Quebec judge Claude Leblond will the one describing factors that must not be quired to make it. decide if the evidence presented by the considered. Subsec.(3) states :”if the organi- When firms are charged under theCor - RCMP merits a criminal trial. SNC-Lavalin zation is alleged to have committed an of- ruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, as was requested and was granted a publication ban fence under section 3 or 4 of the Corruption SNC-Lavalin, “The prosecutor,” states the on the proceedings. of Foreign Public Officials Act, the prosecutor legislation, “must not consider the national Of note. The preliminary in this case must not consider the national economic inter- economic interest, the potential effect on was originally scheduled for September 10, est, the potential effect on relations with a relations with a state other than Canada, 2018. But it was postponed until after the state other than Canada, or the identity of or the identity of the organization or indi- activation of the new Criminal Code provi- the organization or individual involved.” vidual involved.” sion – a development that SNC-Lavalin’s (italics added) More on this later. First some back- lawyer said “was probably a good thing” in Yet Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! is all we hear from the ground. its case. The new law, featuring the deferred PMO folks: have they not read the law? The new law was unveiled in 2018 as an prosecution agreement, came into force on The Minister of Justice had to have ap- amendment to the Criminal Code put for- September 19, 2018. proved the amendment. But did she have a ward by then justice minister Jody Wilson- The Globe and Mail reported a con- choice, given the hundreds of thousands of Raybould herself. It was tucked into an versation between Trudeau and Wilson- dollars that SNC-L has allegedly contributed omnibus bill to approve the federal budget, Raybould on September 17, 2018, just to the Liberal party? And if she had resigned you know, the omnibus bills the Liberals two days before the new law came into at that point someone more pliable would hated when Stephen Harper was using them effect. Trudeau claims that he told Wilson- have replaced her, as was done in January. to keep Parliament in the dark. Raybould that decisions involving the DPA What Jody Wilson-Raybould did was ap- The amended law, which is dubious at were hers alone to make. prove a text that could and would ultimately best since there has always been a thing That is a curious thing to tell an accom- – even affirmed by the Federal Court – apply called prosecutorial discretion, made it pos- plished former Crown prosecutor who prob- to SNC-Lavalin! sible for offending companies to negotiate a ably has a better grasp of the law than the for- What a landmark case! non-criminal penalty for a criminal act. mer teacher. On October 10, 2018, federal It seemed tailor-made for the situation prosecutors under Wilson-Raybould decided Our Comment SNC-Lavalin was facing back in February to proceed to trial against SNC-Lavalin. A landmark case, indeed! Could this 2016, when discussions about DPA legisla- revelation lead us to insights into the need, tion first began. Perhaps that’s why when the Past Crimes and Probes and the way, to spring ourselves from the legislation was passed in 2018, it was made SNC-Lavalin is the same company whose neoliberal trap? retroactive. former CEO, Pierre Duhaime, turned a Élan SNC-Lavalin has been charged with blind eye to the massive McGill University www.comer.org January–February 2019 Economic Reform | 7 Hospital fraud involving SNC-Lavalin exec- Canada, the Privy Council Office and of Court should go nowhere. Roussel made the utives and Harper appointee Arthur Porter. course the PMO. right call – and so did Wilson-Raybould. That is called breach of trust. The Globe and Mail reported that lob- In shuffling out his former justice minis- It took a stunning six years for Quebec byists for SNC-Lavalin visited officials in ter, Trudeau did not. prosecutors to get that case to court, which the PMO 14 times, including 12 visits It is widely believed that the prime min- led to Duhaime’s guilty plea and criminal with principal secretary Gerald Butts and ister demoted Wilson-Raybould. What no conviction. the PM’s senior Quebec advisor, Mathieu one knows for sure is why, despite the PM’s Porter, whom Harper appointed to over- Bouchard. latest explanation that Scott Brison’s sudden see Canada’s spy service, died a fugitive After those sessions, there was even a resignation from cabinet was the only rea- from justice after spending two years in a one-on-one meeting between Wilson-Ray- son Wilson-Raybould was moved. Panamanian jail. bould and Butts at the Chateau Laurier in Though it is a matter of optics rather Porter’s wife Pamela got 33 months in Ottawa on December 5, 2018. than documented evidence, the timing is prison after pleading guilty to two counts of Butts says he told the minister to seek seriously suspicious. The minister was de- money laundering. the advice of the Clerk of the Privy Council. moted just months after Roussel’s decision Riadh Ben Aissa, a former SNC-Lavalin Canadians have yet to hear Wilson-Ray- to proceed to trial against SNC-Lavalin executive, got 51 months in prison after bould’s recollections of the meeting. rather than negotiate a DPA. To regular pleading guilty to using false documents, a Was the PM’s principal secretary talk- people, that looks a lot like payback. plea that saw 15 other charges against him ing about the SNC-Lavalin case? If so, And then there is the telling comment of dropped. that would be strange. Wilson-Raybould’s Canada’s new justice minister, Quebecker By comparison, Duhaime fared much director of public prosecutions had decided David Lametti, that the SNC-Lavalin case better. The former SNC-Lavalin CEO got to proceed to trial with the company weeks is still under consideration. 20 months of house arrest, 240 hours of earlier. Lametti told several news agencies, in- community service, and a court-ordered cluding the Globe and Canadian Press, that payment to a victim’s centre of $200,000. Upholding the Law he could still intervene in the SNC-Lavalin SNC-Lavalin Inc. was also banned by the As a source close to the story told me on case. As “a final step” he could even issue a World Bank for 10 years on any of the proj- background, “All this talk about pressure. directive to prosecutors to do a negotiated ects it financed – a result of the company’s The proof of the case is in the demotion. settlement of the matter. sleazy business practices in obtaining con- They wanted her to give SNC a pass. She re- My question is this: Since the director tracts in third-world countries. The same fused, as is her right. But then they demoted of public prosecutions has already made her ban would apply in Canada if the company her, which sends a message: Do as we want decision under the law, and the Prosecution were to be criminally convicted. or you will be punished. All the rest is fog.” Service was designed back in 2006 to be Final irony? An interesting speculation. But this independent of political interference, why is SNC-Lavalin, Canada’s great born-again much is inarguable. SNC-Lavalin lurched the matter still under consideration? company if you buy the bumph about their and lobbied, kicking and screaming in its Isn’t it true that the director has the ethical resurrection, is now being investi- attempt to avoid criminal prosecution in the power to make “binding and final deci- gated by the RCMP and Quebec prosecu- Libya affair. Despite ceaseless pressuring, sions to prosecute offences”? If not, then tors for a new scandal from the bad old days they lost their prolonged bid to get a free all we are left with is politics. That’s why – an alleged kickback payment to Michel pass through the normal criminal justice it is so tempting to conclude that Wilson- Fournier, former boss of Canada’s Federal system. Or at least they have for now. Raybould simply didn’t give the PM and her Bridge Corporation. It is worth saying that director of public colleagues the decision they wanted – and As reported by the CBC, Fournier has prosecutions Roussel was not exercising paid the price. already plead guilty to receiving $2.3 mil- animus against the company with her deci- SNC-Lavalin is all about jobs, cash, and lion from an SNC-Lavalin affiliate in order sion not to enter into a deferred prosecution billions in support from Export Devel- to win a $127 million contract to renovate agreement with SNC-Lavalin. As noted opment Canada. With 8,500 Canadian Montreal’s Jacques Cartier Bridge. earlier in this piece, she was following the employees, and worth around $10 billion very law the company wanted to invoke. It on the market, it is in one respect like the A Frenzy of Lobbying states, in part: crooked investment banks in the US back in Now SNC-Lavalin’s latest mess has “Despite paragraph (2)(i), if the orga- 2008, too big to fail. That could have been crashed onto the centre stage of Canadian nization is alleged to have committed an what Wilson-Raybould was reminded of in politics in an election year. The company offence under section 3 or 4 of the Cor- all those “discussions” that the government has importuned the Liberals for a break in ruption of Foreign Public Officials Act, the said were perfectly normal. this case. According to the CBC, the com- prosecutor must not consider the national And in a way they are. It is true that an pany relentlessly lobbied federal officials on economic interest, the potential effect on attorney general can direct their director of the subject of justice and law enforcement relations with a state other than Canada, public prosecutions, but that is an extremely since 2016. or the identity of the organization or indi- rare occurrence. In the United Kingdom, Targets of their lobbying included Fran- vidual involved.” for example, it has been done, but almost cois-Philippe Champagne, now Infrastruc- In addition to criminal charges, that is always in the name of national security. ture minister, and top officials from Glob- exactly the charge SNC-Lavalin is facing, As for an attorney general discussing al Affairs Canada, Export Development which is why the company’s request for a a case with cabinet colleagues, that too is Canada, Public Services and Procurement judicial review of this matter by the Federal understandably and properly done from

8 | Economic Reform January–February 2019 www.comer.org time to time. But only if the conversations The infiltration of neoliberal principles grudgingly permitted to cast their ballots amount to information exchange, not pres- like privatization and deregulation, and of – a long delay that lasted in Canada as well suring. When an AG acts, they act alone, strategies like “free trade” into our political as the US. free of government or policy direction. As economy have served the corporate purpose The freedom to vote, however, even for the director of public prosecutions, aside well. when ostensibly extended to all citizens of from the AG, they are not answerable to any The Lavalin “scandal” has led us to firm a country, does not automatically make that politician. insights into the process and the need to country a democracy. If the governments The last word in this vital matter of confront it. thus elected still give priority to policies cabinet colleagues assisting a sitting attorney Joyce Nelson’s article on the Site C Dam and laws that favour the upper-class elite, general on a case goes to a long gone politi- refers to the highly pertinent example, re- while neglecting the needs of middle- and cian who died at the age of 101, Sir Hartley ported in The Buffalo Chronical, of Prime lower-class citizens, the latter’s right to vote Shawcross. Minister Trudeau’s asking SCN’s lawyer, is effectively nullified. Shawcross was the attorney general of Frank Iacobbuci, to lead the government’s This is what happens when large corpo- England back in 1951, and gave the world negotiations with indigenous communi- rations amass so much political as well as the Shawcross Principle, laying out how the ties in BC regarding the Trans Mountain economic power that they are able to subvert relationship between the AG, the director Pipeline Expansions project. He would only “democratically” elected governments. In of public prosecutions, and cabinet ought “agree to take the role on the condition that effect, they transform them into servile vas- to work. All federal and provincial attorneys Trudeau replace Jody Wilson-Raybould sals of the owners, executives, investors, and general in Canada have since adopted his with a ‘more doting Member of Parliament,’ major shareholders of the big corporations. doctrine. On the precise issue of how cabi- fearing that, given she was refusing to allow Such as SNC-Lavalin. net can properly interact with an AG, this is his client, SCN to negotiate a DPA, his what Shawcross had to say: consultations in BC could be construed as Study Exposes US Plutocracy “The assistance of his colleagues is con- improper.” If you think I exaggerate, consider the fined to informing him of particular con- In who’s best interest was that arrange- findings of a prolonged study of the political siderations, which might affect his own ment?! What will it take to become a real system in the US conducted a few years ago decision, and does not consist, and must democracy? by researchers at Princeton and Northwest- not consist in telling him what that decision Are we up to it? ern universities. ought to be. The responsibility for the even- Élan They concluded that the US can no lon- tual decision rests with the attorney general, ger be called a democracy. They described its and he is not to be put, and is not put, under Sordid SNC-Lavalin current political form – even before Donald pressure by his colleagues in the matter.” Trump became president – as “an oligarchy We need to know what happened to Wil- Affair Exposes Canada ruled by a small, powerful group of people son-Raybould, honest to Sir Hartley we do. as a Plutocracy, Not with an entrenched commitment to serving Mr. Prime Minister, it is one thing to their special interests.” move a senior cabinet minister, quite an- a Democracy In short, a plutocracy. other to demote them. The question stands: By Ed Finn, rabble.ca, Economy, Politics in Commenting on this study, consumer why did you demote Canada’s first Indig- Canada, March 1, 2019 activist Ralph Nader noted that half the enous justice minister? With all the political commentators pon- families of four or more in the US “have If you won’t answer that question with tificating on the SNC-Lavalin affair and incomes too low to lift them out of poverty. something other than a flimsy process ex- former attorney general Wilson-Raybould’s We have the highest child poverty rate in planation, then at least waive the solici- explosive testimony to the House of Com- the developed world, and the lowest average tor/client privilege in this matter so that mons justice committee, I wouldn’t dare wage. Electorally [as this study finds], the Wilson-Raybould can tell Canadians herself venture to offer my own modest opinion on US is a money-driven two-party tyranny – what really happened. the imbroglio if I didn’t think I had some- yet we’re still lecturing other countries on thing original to say. democracy!” Michael Harris, a Tyee contributing editor, is To put it bluntly, I’m convinced that the Former New York Times correspondent a highly awarded journalist and documentary eruption of this political scandal occurred Chris Hedges claims that the conversion maker. Author of Party of One, the bestsell- because we live in a plutocracy rather than of democracy to plutocracy has given cor- ing expose of the Harper government, his a democracy. porate oligarchs most of the wealth, power investigations have sparked four commissions The Oxford dictionary defines plutoc- and privilege, “while the rest of us struggle of inquiry. racy as “government by a wealthy elite.” as part of a vast underclass, increasingly im- US president Abraham Lincoln once poverished and ruthlessly repressed. There Our Comment defined democracy as “government of the is one set of laws and regulations for us, How does government support become people, by the people, and for the people.” another set for a corporate power elite that collusion and, finally, submission to corpo- But, since women and people of colour were functions as a global mafia.” rate power? Is it inevitable that, “democrati- denied voting rights at that time, he was That Canada has also become a plutoc- cally” elected governments be transformed careful not to say “government of, by, and racy is clear. David Moscrop, political scien- “into servile vassals of the owners, executors, for all the people.” tist at the University of British Columbia, investors, and major shareholders of the big Indeed, more than 80 years were to pass referring to the US study, pointed out that corporations”? before women and people of colour were “oligarchic forces” have also undermined www.comer.org January–February 2019 Economic Reform | 9 democracy in Canada. “Policy outcomes lapse since the Great Depression. afterward, the company still sacked thou- skewed to favour an elite are unlikely to If the US at the time had been a democ- sands of employees while company execu- benefit most Canadians,” he says. racy, the blame and punishment for the tives raised their own salaries. He points to the inherent unfairness meltdown would rightly have been imposed Financial Post columnist Andrew Coyne’s of our first-past-the-post electoral system, on the culprits – the owners and managers acerbic reaction was to quip that “Bombar- which remains in effect after Prime Min- of the financial institutions. But all but a few dier is not in the transportation industry; it’s ister Trudeau cynically broke his promise of them not only escaped prosecution and in the government subsidies industry.” to replace it with some form of democratic jail terms, but were saved from collapse by Commenting on this and other huge proportional representation. enormous government bailouts. government handouts of public cash to the “Only twice over the past two decades,” Only in a plutocracy could such a mon- corporations, the Huffington Post’s Mike Moscrop points out, “has a winning party strous injustice be inflicted and rationalized. Milne made this cynical observation: “In received more than a 40 percent minority And the same plutocratic perversity prevails the land of government plenty – that vast of the vote. Giving these and other serious in Canada, if not quite to the same drastic landscape populated with the tax dollars of shortcomings, we can’t claim to be living in extent. Canadians – there is no shortage of politi- a democracy. A plutocracy would indeed be For example, although our federal gov- cians willing to hand out and defend sub- a more accurate description.” ernment boasted that Canadian banks sidies to big business, and no dearth of didn’t need any bailouts during the 2007- corporations willing to take the cash.” Plutocracy Spawns Poverty, 08 economic crisis, a CCPA study found Inequality that they actually received a combined $114 Companies Subsidized, Social The inequitable society that has been billion in cash and loan support from the Programs Cut created by the plutocrats’ dominant eco- Canadian and U.S governments. While Ottawa and the provinces con- nomic system – laissez-faire capitalism – Our federal government also bailed out tinue to maintain and even increase the has enriched and empowered an affluent General Motors and Chrysler with $13.7 amounts of their tax revenue they expend in minority in Canada, as it has in the US billion in public money. Although it was all business subsidies, they have proportionate- and elsewhere. The plutocratic one percent claimed to be in the form of loans, the auto ly reduced their spending on social services. wallow in luxury while millions of Canadian companies failed to repay nearly $4 billion The OECD’s latest report on the social families are destitute and millions of un- of that amount, so the Trudeau government expenditures of its 34 member countries derpaid workers scrabble precariously from last year gave up and wrote it all off as a ranked Canada 24th for the relatively low paycheque to paycheque. free gift. 17.2 percent of GDP it spent on social We live in a country in which – despite Such huge bestowals of public funds on services. Most of the 23 countries that sur- a recent decline in national poverty rates big corporations is standard practice in a passed Canada had social spending rates of – more than 750,000 children still remain plutocracy. A recent study by the University 23 percent of GDP or more. Some, includ- impoverished while just two of our richest of Calgary’s School of Public Policy found ing Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, business tycoons – media magnate David that the federal government and the four France, Belgium, Italy and Ireland, had rates Thomson and Holt Renfrew owner Galen largest provinces spend $29 billion every higher than 28 percent. Weston – hold a combined wealth of more year subsidizing business firms. The decision of Canadian governments than $33 billion. And the collective wealth Of that huge largesse, $14 billion comes to convert so much of the tax revenue they of the next six richest Canadians amounts to from the federal government and $14.6 bil- derive from workers into mammoth hand- another hefty $30 billion. lion from the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, outs to corporations could only be main- Is this not also the Oxford dictionary’s Alberta, and British Columbia. The most tained in a plutocracy. This depletion of tax definition of a plutocracy? extravagant and harmful subsidy, by far, is revenue through profligate business boun- Only in a plutocracy could this sort of in- the $3.3 billion a year that our federal and ties gives political leaders the contrived ex- humane disparity persist. Only in a plutoc- provincial governments lavish on the large cuse that they simply can’t afford to improve racy could the big corporations exercise such oil and gas companies. This is a gargantuan the social services they had deliberately overwhelming political influence. Only in a annual gift to the worst polluters of the stripped of adequate funding. plutocracy do governments meekly coddle, environment. In effect, it helps them keep protect, and subsidize large corporations, increasing the toxic carbon emissions that Inexcusable and Sustained Pressure and supinely bow to their wishes. cause global warming. Now let’s apply these stark realities to the Among other prominent corporate re- intense and long-sustained political pres- Canada Also Subsidizes Big Business cipients of massive government gravy, in sure exerted on Wilson-Raybould by Justin The most striking example of this politi- addition to SNC-Lavalin, is aerospace com- Trudeau and his staff to intervene in the trial cal subservience to the big business barons pany Bombardier, which is also based in of SNC-Lavalin – specifically, to save the occurred during the crippling recession in Quebec. It also has a history of malfeasance Montreal-based firm from a conviction for 2007-08. That momentous economic crash and currently faces bid-rigging and cor- its charges of corruption. was precipitated by the big unregulated ruption charges in the courts of Sweden The company had every reason to expect American banks and other large financial and Brazil. A few years ago, when suffering such a “get-out-of-jail-free” rescue from a firms. Their greed, reckless low-cost mort- serious financial setbacks, Bombardier was political party whose election campaigns it gages, short-selling, insider trading, money- bailed out by a $3.7 billion government had so generously funded, and with whom laundering, and other infamous schemes subsidy. It was allegedly intended to enable it had developed such a long and cozy rela- inevitably triggered the worst financial col- the company to avoid layoffs, but, shortly tionship. And the Liberals had every reason

10 | Economic Reform January–February 2019 www.comer.org to expect they could provide the company totalitarianism. According to Wolin, the po- rative that normalizes political inaction as it with that deliverance, which in a plutocracy litical state was replaced by a corporate state shifted the weight and responsibility of all is almost taken for granted. that exploits all but the ruling classes, emp- social problems onto the individual rather For a plutocracy to function as intended, ties politics of any substance through rigged than the society.4 however, all of a government’s cabinet mem- elections, uses the power of capital to define In the age of neoliberal myth-making, bers have to be “team players.” They have to citizens largely as consumers of products, systemic deficiencies such as poverty, home- share the same perverted priorities – and and applies the power of the corporate state lessness and precarious employment are the same willingness, if necessary, to put as a battering ram to push through policies now relegated to individual failures, char- expedience ahead of principle in the service that strengthen the power of capital. acter deficits and moral turpitude. Corre- of corporate overlords. For Wolin, neoliberalism was the end- spondingly, notions of the social, systemic However, when Trudeau appointed Wil- point of a long process “to transform ev- and public disappear, serving to expand son-Raybould attorney general, he rashly erything – every object, every living thing, the base of those who feel voiceless and placed a non-conformist and incorruptible every fact on the planet – in its image.”1 He powerless, opening them up to the crude wolf in his flock of compliant cabinet sheep. believed that this new political formation and simplistic emotional appeals of au- She was never going to put the interests of and form of sovereignty in which econom- thoritarian figures such as Trump. In truly a criminally depraved corporation ahead of ics dominated politics was hostile to both demagogic fashion, Trump promises a new the public interest. social spending and the welfare state. Wolin world order that will be fashioned out of Her valiant adherence to that moral and rightly argued that under neoliberalism, the rhetorical bombast of dehumanization, ethical principle triggered the colossal po- political sovereignty is largely replaced by bigotry and a weaponized appeal to fear and litical uproar that followed. It also inadver- economic sovereignty as corporate power hate. As the poor and discarded vanish from tently exposed the existence of plutocracy takes over the reins of governance. the political discourse of democracy, they as the real type of government that prevails The dire consequence, as David Harvey become susceptible to a “volatility and the in Canada. points out, is that “raw money power wield- fury that [mutilates] contemporary politics That fundamental aspect of the SNC- ed by the few undermines all semblances that thrives on an appetite for authoritarian Lavalin affair would not have been so widely of democratic governance.”2 Policy is now and fascistic impulses.”5 publicized without Wilson-Raybould’s rev- fashioned by lobbyists representing big busi- elations, but it has still been studiously ig- nesses such as the pharmaceutical and health Fascism by Trial in the Age of Trump nored by the mass media pundits. As usual. insurance companies, going so far in the In a thoughtful analysis, the Irish jour- case of the drug companies to drive the opi- nalist O’Toole asserts neoliberalism creates Ed Finn grew up in Corner Brook, New- oid crisis to increase their profits.3 the conditions for enabling what he calls a foundland, where he worked as a printer’s Under neoliberalism, the welfare state trial run for a full-blown state of contempo- apprentice, reporter, columnist, and editor of has been largely dismantled, while the pow- rary fascism: that city’s daily newspaper, the Western Star. er of a punishing apparatus of an emerging “To grasp what is going on in the world His career as a journalist included 14 years as police state has been expanded, buttressed right now, we need to reflect on two things. a labour relations columnist for the Toronto by a pervasive culture of fear that exempts One is that we are in a phase of trial runs. Star. He was part of the world of politics be- itself from the legalities and constitutional The other is that what is being trialed is tween 1959 and 1962, serving as the first obligations of a democracy, however neu- fascism – a word that should be used care- provincial leader of the NDP in Newfound- tered. Wolin was keenly aware of the ruth- fully but not shirked when it is so clearly on land. He worked closely with Tommy Douglas lessness of corporate culture in its willing- the horizon. Forget ‘post-fascist’ – what we for some years and helped defend and promote ness to produce striking inequalities in an are living with is pre-fascism. Rather than Medicare legislation in Saskatchewan. epical war on the promise and ideals of a overthrow democracy in one full swipe, it substantive democracy. has to be undermined through rigged elec- Neoliberal Fascism and the Wolin’s great contribution to theories of tions, the creation of tribal identities, and totalitarianism lies in his ability to lay bare legitimated through a ‘propaganda machine Echoes of History, Part II the authoritarian economic tendencies in so effective that it creates for its followers a Part I of this article ran in the November- neoliberalism and its threat to democracy. universe of “alternative facts” impervious to December, 2018, issue of ER. What he did not do is associate neolib- unwanted realities….’ Fascism doesn’t arise By Henry A. Giroux, Social Project, The eralism and its enervating effects closely suddenly in an existing democracy. It is not Bullet, August 20, 2018 enough with certain legacies of fascism. easy to get people to give up their ideas of What is crucial to understand is that In this absence, he was unable to predict freedom and civility. You have to do trial neoliberalism is not only a more extreme the resurgence of strongman politics in runs that, if they are done well, serve two element of capitalism, it has also enabled the United States and the ascendant fas- purposes. They get people used to some- the emergence of a radical restructuring of cist investments in white supremacy, racial thing they may initially recoil from, and power, the state and politics, and in doing sorting, ultra-nationalism, a war on youth, they allow you to refine and calibrate. This so converges with a style of fascism suited women’s reproductive rights and a race- is what is happening now and we would be to the American context. Political theorist inspired, eliminationist politics of dispos- fools not to see it.”6 Sheldon Wolin, in his book Democracy ability. What he underemphasized was that Ultra-nationalist and contemporary Incorporated, was one of the first to analyze neoliberalism impoverished not only society versions of fascism are gaining traction the transformation of a capitalist democracy economically while serving the interests of across the globe in countries such as Greece into what he called an inverted form of the rich, but it also created a powerful nar- (Golden Dawn), Hungary (Jobbik), In- www.comer.org January–February 2019 Economic Reform | 11 dia (Bharatiya Janata Party), and Italy (the posts designed to serve the public. Most, about Trump’s racist vocabulary is that it League) and countless others. Needless to like Scott Pruitt, the former head of the En- registers a move from the coded language of say, they have been emboldened by Trump, vironmental Protection Agency, and Betsy benign neglect to policies marked by malig- who has displayed a close admiration for DeVos, the secretary of Education, have nant cruelty that legitimates state violence. authoritarian leaders such as Russia’s Vladi- proved to be either corrupt, incompetent, Trump’s allegiance to white supremacy mir Putin, Turkey’s Recep Tayyip Erdogan or often both. Along with the Republican is hard to miss, though many deny it by and China’s Xi Jinping. He recently praised Congress, Trump has vastly increased the focusing more on his economic policies North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for his military budget to $717 billion, creating rather than his white supremacist agenda. “intellect and personality” and without huge financial profits for the military-in- Ta-Nehisi Coates offers an insightful analy- irony stated “He speaks and his people sit dustrial-defense complex while instituting sis of Trump’s white supremacist ideology: up at attention. I want my people to do the policies that eviscerate the welfare state and “It is often said that Trump has no real same.”7 further expand a war machine that generates ideology, which is not true – his ideology Trump also has used his power to pardon mass suffering and death. is white supremacy, in all its truculent and people such as right-wing pundit Dinesh Trump has reduced food assistance for sanctimonious power…. His political career D’Souza and former Arizona sheriff Joe Ar- those who are forced to choose between began in advocacy of birtherism, that mod- paio, who defied court orders to stop racially eating and taking medicine, and his policies ern recasting of the old American precept profiling Latinos. He has publicly accused have prevented millions from getting ad- that black people are not fit to be citizens Democrats in Congress for not standing equate health care.9 Last but not least, he has of the country they built. But long before following his State of the Union address and become a cheerleader for the gun and secu- birtherism, Trump had made his worldview has conducted a foreign policy that trashes rity industries going so far as to call for the clear. He fought to keep blacks out of his Western allies while celebrating authoritar- arming of teachers as a way to redress mass buildings, according to the US govern- ian strongmen. shootings in the nation’s schools. All of these ment; called for the death penalty for the In addition, Trump consistently pro- policies serve to unleash the anti-liberal and eventually exonerated Central Park Five; motes extremist policies and surrounds anti-democratic passions, fears, anxieties and railed against ‘lazy’ black employees…. himself with far- right-wing ideologues such and anger necessary to mainstream fascism. Trump inaugurated his campaign by casting as Attorney General Jeff Sessions, National himself as the defender of white maiden- Security Adviser John Bolton and senior Trump’s Politics of Disposability hood against Mexican ‘rapists,’ only to be adviser Stephen Miller – all hard-liners Trump’s neoliberalism aligns with fas- later alleged by multiple accusers, and by on just about every issue. Steve Bannon’s cism particularly through his embrace of his own proud words, to be a sexual violator early presence in the Trump administra- white supremacy and his commitment to an himself…. In Trump, white supremacists tion was symbolic of the extremism Trump expanding notion of disposability. Trump’s see one of their own.”11 brought to the White House. Bannon, who view of disposability takes on a double reg- Author John Feffer goes further and served as former senior counselor to the ister. First, he produces economic policies argues Trump’s hatred of immigrants is president, ran Breitbart, a white nationalist that support the neoliberal conviction that clear not only in his push for “extreme tabloid. Now freelancing, Bannon contin- human beings without economic value, measures to keep them out of the United ues to normalize white supremacist ideas in those who make no contribution to the States: a wall, a travel ban, a zero-tolerance his endless speeches and public appearances. market, are refuse, waste and excess, and family-separation policy” but also signifies Trump shares Bannon’s allegiance to white have no possible social use. In neoliberal- his view of them as a “threat that transcends supremacy and has relentlessly catered to ism’s survival-of-the-fittest ethos, which the political. It’s a matter of blood and soil, the racial fears and economic anxieties of an amounts to a form of econocide, redun- the touchstones of extreme nationalism.”12 abandoned white working class. Moreover, dancy becomes code for disposability in What Feffer fails to acknowledge is that he has created a new synergy between his economic terms. The only relations that Trump’s view of ethnic sorting is also remi- authoritarian demagoguery and an array matter are those compatible with economic niscent of a central policy of earlier forms of fascist groups that include the alt-right, decision making and the imperatives of cap- of fascism. Under Trump’s “zero-tolerance” white nationalists, militia groups and others ital. As Anis Shivani observes, “Anyone not border crackdown, immigrant families in who embrace his militarism, race-based law willing to conceive of themselves as being the language of a fascist past disappear, and order agenda and his overt contempt of present fully and always in the market,” who are lost or categorized as “deleted family undocumented immigrants and Muslims.8 presents a burden to the state, or refuses “to units.”13 Trump has elevated himself as the patron invest in their own future…will be subject The United States is in a dangerous mo- saint of a ruthless neoliberalism. This is to discipline and refused recognition as [a] ment in its history, which makes it all the evident in the various miracles he has per- human being.”10 more crucial to understand how a distinc- formed for the rich and powerful. He has Trump extends the logic of redundancy tive form of neoliberal fascism now bears systemically deregulated regulations that and disposability beyond economic catego- down on the present and threatens to usher extend from environmental protections to ries to all those others who cannot fit into in a period of unprecedented barbarism in worker safety rules. He has enacted a $1.5 a white nationalist script. This is the lan- the not too distant future. In an attempt trillion tax policy that amounts to a huge guage of the police state – one fashioned by to address this new political conjuncture, gift to the financial elite and all the while the history of US apartheid. The endpoint I want to suggest that rather than view maintaining his “man of the people” pos- of the language of white supremacy via a fascism simply as a repetition of the past, ture. He has appointed a range of neoliberal regressive crime policy is a form of social it is crucial to forge a new vocabulary and fundamentalists to head major government death, or even worse. What is frightening politics to grasp how neoliberal fascism has

12 | Economic Reform January–February 2019 www.comer.org become a uniquely American model for the without fear of being targeted by the state ‘Untermensch’ or underman, subhuman” in present. One way to address this challenge because of our faith, skin color, or sexual referring to “Jews, gypsies, gays, and other is to rethink what lessons can be learned orientation.”17 groups as well as the slaughter of Russian by interrogating how matters of language It is worth noting that words are not boys at the Eastern Front.”20 Making them and memory can be used to illuminate the just about the production of meaning but appear as less than human paved the way dark forces connecting the past and pres- also about how they generate consequences, “toward permitting their elimination.”21 ent as part of the new hybridized political especially in light of how such meanings – A convergence between Trump’s language nightmare. buttressed by state-sanctioned relations of and the race-based ideology of Holocaust- power – function in a larger context. Some era Nazis was clearly heard when Trump The Language of Fascism meanings have a force that others don’t, implied a moral equivalency between the Fascism begins not with violence, police especially because power confers authority violence perpetrated by white supremacists assaults or mass killings, but with language. and can set in motion a range of effects. This and neo-Nazis marching in Charlottesville Trump reminded us of this in 2015 while is particularly clear in light of how Trump and the presence of peaceful protesters dem- announcing his candidacy for president. He uses the power of the presidency at times onstrating for the removal of a Confederate stated, without irony or shame, that “when when reacting to critics, especially those statue. Trump’s scapegoating rhetoric of Mexico sends its people, they’re not sending who garner some public attention through demonization and bigotry not only dehu- the best. They’re sending people that have their criticism of him or his policies. His manizes racialized others, it also prepares the lots of problems and they’re bringing those attempts to squelch dissent takes on a rather ground for encouraging hate groups and an problems. They’re bringing drugs, they’re ruthless register as he often publicly humili- intensification of hate crimes. bringing crime. They’re rapists and some, ates those who criticize him, threatens their The FBI has reported that since the I assume, are good people….”14 This is livelihood and uses language that functions 2016 election, hate crimes have increased; more than the language of polarization or a to incite violence against his critics. We have there have been a disturbing number of strategic dog whistle, it is an overt discourse seen too many instances in which Trump’s stories that include Nazi swastikas being and theatrical performance in the service of followers have beaten critics, attacked jour- painted on school walls, synagogues being white supremacy and racist violence, a logic nalists and shouted down any form of cri- firebombed and a spike in violent attacks largely missed by the mainstream press at tique aimed at Trump’s policies – to say on Muslims and foreigners.22 Trump’s use the time. This initial blast of racist invective nothing of the army of trolls unleashed on of dehumanizing language invites compari- served to forecast how Trump’s campaign intellectuals and journalists critical of the sons with the insidious rhetoric of fascism’s and presidency would appeal to white na- administration. past. Not only have his crassness, vulgarity tionalists, the alt-right and other neo-Nazi As a tool of state repression, language and humiliating tweets upended traditional groups. holds the potential to open the door to fas- standards of presidential comportment (to The language of fascist violence takes cism. As Rose Sydney Parfitt observed, “The say nothing of governance), he has also many forms, and Trump provided another language, symbols and logic of fascism are revived a language of malign violence that disturbing example of his use of language being deployed today more overtly than at echoes “the early warning signs of potential as a tool of power and domination that ex- any time since the early 1940s.”18 Trump genocide and other atrocity crimes.”23 pands what earlier fascist regimes had done. uses language that dehumanizes and makes Early in his presidency, Trump had his ad- it more acceptable for individuals to ratio- Fascism, History and Memory Work ministration prohibit officials at the Centers nalize racist beliefs and practices. Under the Neoliberal fascism converges with an for Disease Control from using words such Republicans’ “Southern strategy” and later earlier form of fascism in its commitment as “vulnerable,” “entitlement,” “diversity,” in the Clinton, Bush and Obama admin- to a language of erasure and a politics of “transgender,” “fetus,” “evidence-based” istrations, racism was either coded in dog- disposability. In the fascist script, historical and “science-based.”15 Banning words such whistle discourses or rendered unspeakable memory becomes a liability, even danger- as “vulnerable,” “diversity” and “fetus” sig- in the language of color blindness. Trump ous, when it functions pedagogically to nals Trump’s war on empathy, equality and discarded such formalities by making racist inform our political and social imagina- women’s reproductive rights. Soon after- language overt, shockingly deployed as a tion. This is especially true when memory ward, the Trump administration started badge of honor, and pragmatically used as a acts to identify forms of social injustice erasing all references to climate change and nod to his base of support. and enables critical reflection on the histo- greenhouse gases from government web- Reminiscent of Nazi tactics to dehu- ries of repressed others. This was certainly sites as well as information about LGBTQ manize enemies, he has called some un- true given the embarrassing backlash that Americans.16 documented immigrants “animals” and occurred when Ben Carson, the US secre- Such actions share a legacy of state cen- “criminals,” and has used the word “infest” tary of Housing and Urban Development, sorship, the repression of dissent by banish- in referring to immigrants on the southern claimed slaves were immigrants, and when ing freedom of speech and book burning, border. Columnist and author Aviya Kush- Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos stated all of which were part of the playbook of ner asserted Trump’s tweet claiming that im- black colleges and universities were “pio- fascist regimes. Author Ruth Ben-Ghiat is migrants will “infest our country” bears an neers of school choice.”24 right in stating that each of the words on alarming resemblance to the Nazi claim that Unsurprisingly, historical memory as a Trump’s censorship list “is part of an ongo- Jews were carriers of disease.19 In response form of enlightenment and demystifica- ing war about the future of our democratic to Trump’s use of the term “animal” to refer tion is surely at odds with Trump’s abuse rights to speak and research freely, to control to some immigrants, Juan Cole argues the of history as a form of social amnesia and our own bodies and identities, and to live Nazis used the term as a “technical term, political camouflage. For instance, Trump’s www.comer.org January–February 2019 Economic Reform | 13 use of the 1930s-era slogan “America First” find new ways of challenging the ideologies uncertainty, social amnesia has become a marks a regressive return to a time when and power relations that put them into play. power tool for dismantling democracy. In- nativism, misogyny and xenophobia de- Trump’s distortion of language and public deed, in this age of forgetfulness, American fined the American experience. This incho- memory are part of a larger authoritarian society appears to revel in what it should be ate nostalgia rewrites history in the warm politics of ethnic and racial cleansing that ashamed of and alarmed over. glow and “belief in an essential American eliminates the genocidal violence waged on Even with the insight of history, com- innocence, in the utter exceptionality, the Native Americans, black slaves and African- parisons between the older orders of fascism ethical singularity and manifest destiny of Americans. and Trump’s regime of brutality, aggression the United States.”25 Philip Roth aptly char- Indifferent to the historical footprints and cruelty are considered by commenta- acterizes this gratuitous form of nostalgia in that mark expressions of state violence, the tors to be too extreme. There is a cost to his “American Pastoral” as the “undetonated Trump administration uses historical am- such caution. As writer Jonathan Freedland past.” Innocence in this script is the stuff of nesia as a weapon of (mis)education, power points out in The Guardian, “If the Nazi mythologies that distort history and erase and politics, allowing public memory to era is placed off limits, seen as so far outside the political significance of moral witnessing wither and the architecture of fascism to the realm of regular human experience that and historical memory as a way of reading, go unchallenged. What is under siege in it might as well have happened on a distant translating and interrogating the past as the present moment is the critical need to planet – Planet Auschwitz – then we risk it impacts, and sometimes explodes, the keep watch over the repressed narratives of failure to learn its lessons.”27 Knowing how present. memory work. The fight against a fascist others successfully fought against elected Under Trump, language and memory are erasure of history must begin with an acute demagogues such as Trump is crucial to a disabled as words are emptied of substantive understanding that memory always makes political strategy that reverses impending content and the space of a shared reality cru- a demand upon the present, refusing to ac- global catastrophe. cial to any democracy is eviscerated. History cept ignorance as innocence. The story of a fascist past needs to be and language in this contemporary fascist As reality collapses into fake news, moral retold not to simply make comparisons script are paralyzed in the immediacy of witnessing disappears into the hollow spec- to the present, though that is not an un- tweeted experience, the thrill of the moment tacles of right-wing media machine, which worthy project, but to be able to imagine and the comfort of a cathartic emotional is state-sanctioned weaponry aimed to dis- a new politics in which new knowledge discharge. The danger, as history has taught tort the truth, suppress dissent and attack will be built, and as Arendt states, “new us, is when words are systemically used to the critical media. Trump uses Twitter as a insights…new knowledge…new memories, cover up lies, falsehoods and the capacity to public relations blitzkrieg to attack every- [and] new deeds, [will] take their point of think critically. one from his political enemies to celebrities departure.”28 This is not to suggest that his- In such instances, the public spheres who have criticized him.26 The merging of tory is a citadel of truth that can be easily essential to a democracy wither and die, journalism as entertainment with a culture mined. History offers no guarantees and opening the door to fascist ideas, values and addicted to speed, brevity and the porno- it can be used in the interest of violence as social relations: Trump has sanctioned tor- graphic exposure that digitization affords well as for emancipation. For instance, as ture, ripped babies from their parents’ arms, has emptied speech of any substance and writer Ariel Dorfman observes, when the imprisoned thousands of young immigrant further legitimates the unspeakable. Lan- white supremacist and neo-Nazis marched children, and declared the media along with guage no longer expands the reach of his- in Charlottesville: “[They carried torches] entire races and religions to be the enemy of tory, ethics and justice. On the contrary, it to evoke memories of terror, of past parades the American people. In doing so, he speaks now operates in the service of slogans, bigot- of hate and aggression by the Ku Klux Klan to and legitimates a history in which state ry and violence. Words are now turned into in the United States and Adolf Hitler’s Frei- violence becomes an organizing principle an undifferentiated mass of ashes, critical korps in Germany. The organizers wanted of governance and perversely a potentially discourse reduced to rubble, and informed to issue a warning to those watching: that cathartic experience for his followers. judgments a distant radioactive horizon. past violence, perpetrated in defense of the At the same time, the corruption of Under the Trump presidency, neoliberal ‘blood and soil’ of the white race, would language is often followed by the corrup- fascism has restructured civic life that valo- once again be harnessed and deployed in tion of memory, morality and the eventual rizes ignorance, avarice and willful forget- Donald Trump’s America.”29 disappearance of books, ideas and human ting. In the current Trumpian moment, Trump’s selective appropriation of his- beings. Prominent German historians such shouting replaces the pedagogical imperative tory wages war on the past, choosing to cel- as Richard J. Evans and Victor Klemperer to listen and reinforces the stories neoliberal ebrate rather than question fascist horrors. have made clear that for fascist dictators, the fascism tells us about ourselves, our relations The past in this case is a script that must be dynamics of state censorship and repression to others and the larger world. Under such followed rather than interrogated. Trump’s had an endpoint in a politics of disappear- circumstances, monstrous deeds are com- view of history is at once “ugly and reveal- ance, extermination and the death camps. mitted under the increasing normalization ing.”30 Such narratives undermine moral Trump’s language of disappearance, de- of civic and historical modes of illiteracy. witnessing, transform agency into a weapon humanization and censorship is an echo One consequence is that comparisons to of violence, and use history as a tool of and erasure of the horrors and barbarism of the Nazi past can whither in the false belief propaganda. All the more reason why, with another time. His regressive use of language that historical events are fixed in time and the rise of neoliberal fascism, there is a need and denial of history must be challenged so place and can only be repeated in history for modes of historical inquiry and stories the emancipatory energies and compelling books. In an age marked by a war on terror, that challenge the distortions of the past, narratives of resistance can be recalled to a culture of fear and the normalization of transcend private interests and enable the

14 | Economic Reform January–February 2019 www.comer.org American public to connect private issues fine human agency beyond the bonds of people think, desire, hope and act. How to broader historical and political contexts. sociality, equality, belonging and obliga- might language and history adopt modes of The production of new narratives ac- tion. All problems and their solutions are persuasion that anchor democratic life in a companied by critical inquiries into the past now defined exclusively within the purview commitment to economic equality, social would help explain why people participated of the individual. This is a depoliticizing justice and a broad shared vision? The chal- in the horrors of fascism and what it might discourse that champions mythic notions lenge we face under a fascism buoyed by take to prevent such complicity from un- of self-reliance and individual character to a savage neoliberalism is to ask and act on folding again. Comparing Trump’s ideology, promote the tearing up of social solidarities what language, memory and education as policies and language to a fascist past offers and the public spheres that support them. the practice of freedom might mean in a de- the possibility to learn what is old and new All aspects of the social and public are mocracy. What work can they perform, how in the dark times that have descended upon now considered suspect, including social can hope be nourished by collective action the United States. The pressing relevance of space, social provisions, social protections and the ongoing struggle to create a broad- the 1930s is crucial to address how fascist and social dependency, especially for those based democratic socialist movement? What ideas and practices originate and adapt to who are poor and vulnerable. According to work has to be done to “imagine a politics in new conditions, and how people capitulate the philosopher Byung-Chul Han, the sub- which empowerment can grow and public and resist them as well. jects in a “neoliberal economy do not consti- freedom thrive without violence?”34 What tute a we that is capable of collective action. institutions have to be defended and fought The Disappearing Social The mounting egoization and atomization for if the spirit of a radical democracy is to Since the 1970s, the social structure has of society is shrinking the space for collec- return to view and survive? been under relentless attack by an assem- tive action. As such, it blocks the formation This article first published on theTruth - blage of political, economic and educational of a counter power that might be able to put Dig.com website. forces of organized neoliberal agendas. All the capitalist order in question.”31 the commanding institutions of corpo- At the core of neoliberal fascism is a view Henry A. Giroux currently is the McMaster rate capitalism have enshrined a notion of subjectivity that celebrates a narcissistic University Professor for Scholarship in the of citizenship that reduces individuals to hyper-individualism that radiates with a Public Interest and the Paulo Freire Distin- consumers while promoting regressive no- near sociopathic lack of interest in others guished Scholar in Critical Pedagogy. His tions of freedom and choice defined primar- with whom it shares a globe on the brink most recent books include The Violence of ily through the practice of commercial ex- of catastrophe. This project is wedded to a Organized Forgetting (City Lights, 2014), change. Freedom, in the neoliberal edition, politics that produces a high threshold of Dangerous Thinking in the Age of the New has been transformed into an obsession disappearance and serves to disconnect the Authoritarianism (Routledge, 2015), coau- with self-interest, part of a war culture that material moorings and wreckage of neo- thored with Brad Evans, Disposable Futures: ruthlessly pits individuals against each other liberal fascism from its underlying power The Seduction of Violence in the Age of while condoning a culture of indifference, relations. Spectacle (City Lights, 2015), and America violence and cruelty that rejects any sense of Neoliberal fascism thrives on producing at War with Itself (City Lights, 2016). His political and moral responsibility. This often subjects that internalize its values, corroding website is www.henryagiroux.com. takes the form of the freedom to be a racist, their ability to imagine an alternative world. homophobe and sexist, to experience the Under such conditions, not only is agency End Notes liberty to hate and demonize others and to depoliticized, but the political is emptied of 1. Anis Shivani, “This is our neoliberal nightmare: Hillary inflict violence and emotional harm under any real substance and unable to challenge Clinton, Donald Trump, and why the market and the wealthy win every time,” Salon, June 6, 2016. the guise of freedom of speech. Such values neoliberalism’s belief in extreme inequal- 2. David Harvey, “Organizing for the Anti-Capitalist Transi- also mock any form of dependency, empa- ity and social abandonment. This fosters tion,” Monthly Review, December 15, 2009. thy and compassion for others. fascism’s deep-rooted investment ultra-na- 3. Jeremy B White, “Los Angeles sues drug companies for ‘driv- Atomization, fear and anxiety are the tionalism, racial purity and the politics of ing opioid epidemic’; Lawsuit accuses companies of ‘borrowing breeding ground of fascism. Not only do terminal exclusion. from the tobacco industry’s playbook’,” The Independent, May 3, 2018. such forces undercut the radical imagina- We live at a time in which the social is 4. Kean Birch and Vlad Mykhnenko, “Introduction: A World tion and collective resistance, they situate individualized and at odds with a notion Turned Right Way Up,” The Rise and The Fall of Neoliberalism: language and memory in the vise of a poli- of solidarity once described by Frankfurt The Collapse of an Economic Order (New York: Zed Books, tics of depoliticization. Neoliberal fascism School theorist Herbert Marcuse as “the 2010), pp. 7-8. 5. Leon Wieseltier, “How voters’ personal suffering overtook insists that everything, including human refusal to let one’s happiness coexist with reason – and brought us Donald Trump,” Washington Post, beings, are to be made over in the image the suffering of others.”32 Marcuse invokes June 22, 2016. of the market. Everyone is now subject to a forgotten notion of the social in which 6. Fintan O’Toole, “Trial Runs for Fascism Are in Full Flow,” a paralyzing language of individual respon- one is willing not only to make sacrifices for Irish Times, June 26, 2018. 7. Candace Norwood, “I want ‘my people’ to ‘sit up at atten- sibility and a disciplinary apparatus that others but also “to engage in joint struggle tion’ like in North Korea,” Politico, June 15, 2018. revises downward the American dream of against the cause of suffering or against a 8. See David Neiwert, Alt-America: The Rise of the Radical Right social mobility. Time is now a burden for common adversary.”33 in the Age of Trump (New York: Verso, 2017). most people and the lesson to draw from One step toward fighting and overcom- 9. See, for instance, Paul Street, “Capitalism: The Nightmare,” this punishing neoliberal ideology is that ev- ing the criminogenic machinery of termi- Truthdig, September 20, 2017. 10. Anis Shivani, “This is our neoliberal nightmare: Hillary eryone is alone in navigating their own fate. nal exclusion and social death endemic to Clinton, Donald Trump, and why the market and the wealthy At work here is a neoliberal project to neoliberal fascism is to make education win every time,” Salon, June 6, 2016. reduce people to human capital and rede- central to a politics that changes the way 11. Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The First White President,” The Atlan- www.comer.org January–February 2019 Economic Reform | 15 tic, October 2017. And, though Gerry Butts, and the clerk questioned since.) 12. John Feffer, “Donald Trump’s Flight 93 Doctrine,” The of the Privy Council, Michael Wernick, In response, Wilson-Raybould “ex- Nation, July 23, 2017. were recalled after Jody Wilson-Raybould’s plained to him the law and what [she had] 13. Nick Miroff, Amy Goldstein and Maria Sacchetti, “‘Delet- ed’ families: What went wrong with Trump’s family-separation testimony, the Liberals denied her an op- the ability to do and not to do under the effort,” The Washington Post, July 28, 2018. portunity to reappear before the committee Director of Public Prosecutions Act, around 14. Amber Phillips, “‘They’re rapists.’ President Trump’s to respond to discrepancies raised by them. issuing directives or assuming conduct of campaign launch speech two years later,” The Washington Post, June 16, 2017. Though she was reluctantly allowed to prosecutions. 15. Lena H. Sun and Juliet Eilperin, “CDC gets list of forbid- “speak [some of] her truth,” she has been She told him she had done her due dili- den words: Fetus, transgender, diversity,” The Washington Post, kept from speaking it all. Why? gence and had made up [her] mind on SNC December 15, 2017. Wilson-Raybould’s testimony was spe- and was not going to interfere in the deci- 16. Hilary Brueck, “The Trump Administration has been qui- etly removing content from federal websites – here’s the before cific, detailed, direct, and well documented. sion of the Director” and after,” Business Insider, January 11, 2018. She testified – not just that she ‘felt,’ or “The Prime Minister reiterated his con- 17. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, “Beware of President Trump’s Nefarious ‘thought’ it a consistent and sustained effort cern.” Language Games,” The Washington Post, December 21, 2017. by many people to interfere in the exercise Interestingly, he didn’t dispute her cor- 18. Rose Sydney Parfitt (Cihan Aksan and Jon Bailes, eds), of prosecutorial discretion in [her] role as rectness, he stressed yet again “the potential “One Question, Fascism (Part One): Is Fascism making a comeback?“ State of Nature Blog, December 3, 2017. the Attorney General of Canada – but that loss of jobs and SNC moving.” 19. Aviya Kushner, “‘INFEST’ – The Ugly Nazi History of she experienced that. The following quotations are a sampling Trump’s Chosen Verb About Immigrants,” Forward, June In her introduction, Wilson-Raybould of the pressure reported by Wilson-Ray- 20, 2016. outlined the details of what she recognized bould, that continued even after she had 20. Juan Cole, “What Have We Become? What We Have Always Been,” Common Dreams, May 17, 2018. as “an inappropriate effort to secure a de- told them that “they needed to stop.” 21. Ibid. ferred prosecution agreement (DPA) with December 5, 2018, at a meeting with 22. Clark Mindock, “Number of hate crimes surges in year SNC-Lavalin” – an effort that went on Gerry Butts: of Trump’s election,” The Independent, November 14, 2017. between September and December of 2018. Wilson-Raybould: I raised how I needed 23. Ibid. Ruth Ben-Ghiat, “Beware of President Trump’s Ne- She pointed out that throughout the everybody to stop talking to me about SNC, farious Language Games.” 24. Danielle Douglas-Gabriel and Tracy Jan, “DeVos called many phone calls and meetings that ensued as I had made up my mind and the engage- HBCUs ‘pioneers’ of ‘school choice.’ It didn’t go over well,” The “there were expressed statements regarding ments were inappropriate. Then Gerry took Washington Post, February 28, 2017. the necessity of interference in the SNC- over the conversation and said how “we 25. Ariel Dorfman, “How to Read Donald Trump: On Burn- Lavalin matter, the potential consequences, need a solution on the SNC stuff.” He said ing Books but Not Ideas,” TomDispatch, September 14, 2017. 26. Michael S. Schmidt and Maggie Haberman, “Mueller and veiled threats if a DPA was not made I needed to find a solution. Examining Trump’s Tweets in Wide-Ranging Obstruction available to SNC.” December 19, 2018: Inquiry,” The Washington Post, July 26, 2018. She went on to explain the rule of the She was asked to have a call with the 27. Jonathan Freedland, “Inspired by Trump, the World Could AG, stressing that “it is well established that clerk. She took the call from home, where Be Heading Back to the 1930s,” The Guardian, June 22, 2018. the attorney general exercises prosecutorial she was alone. She “was determined to end 28. Hannah Arendt, “The Image of Hell,” Commentary, Sep- tember 1, 1946. discretion. She or he does so individually all interference and conversations about the 29. Ariel Dorfman, “How to Read Donald Trump: On Burn- and independently,” and that, “these are matter once and for all.” ing Books but Not Ideas,” TomDispatch, September 14, 2017. not cabinet decisions.” She stated specifi- “The clerk said he wanted to pass on 30. Cass R. Sunstein, “It Can Happen Here,” The New York cally what is appropriate and what is not where the Prime Minister was at.” Review of Books, June 28, 2018. 31. Byung-Chul Han, In the Swarm: Digital Prospects, tr. Erik appropriate. “The clerk said that ‘the PM is quite Butler (Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press, 2017), p. 13. She asserted that “the remainder of [her] determined, quite firm, but he wants to 32. Herbert Marcuse, An Essay on Liberation (Boston: Beacon testimony [would be] a detailed and fac- know why the DPA route, which parliament Press, 1969), p. 14. tual delineation of approximately ten phone provided for, isn’t being used’.” 33. Carl Cassegard, “Individualized Solidarity,” Eurozine, July calls, ten in-person meetings and emails “He said: ‘I think he is going to find a 18, 2018. 34. Richard J. Bernstein, “The Illuminations of Hannah Ar- and text messages that were part of an ef- way to get it done, one way or another. So endt,” The New York Times, June 20, 2016. fort to politically interfere regarding SNC, he is in that kind of a mood and I wanted the SNC matter for purposes of securing a you to be aware of it’…the clerk said he was A General Comment DPA.” She promised the committee con- worried about a collision ‘because the Prime temporaneous notes which she had made Minister is pretty firm about this’.” about the Inquiry “for most of these conversations,” “detailed “On January 7, I received a call from the The composition of the House of Com- notes, in edition to her clear memory.” PM and was informed I was being shuffled mons justice committee hardly guaranteed She then presented a stunning account out of my role as Minister of Justice and impartiality. of developments that took place between Attorney General of Canada… I believe the For their part, the opposition laid siege, September 4, 2018 and January 7, 2019. reason was because of the SNC matter.” while the government exercised its majority Despite their oft-repeated assurances “On January 11, 2019 the Friday before power. When, for example, the opposition that they understood that the ultimate deci- the shuffle, my former deputy minister is put forth a motion to provide the commit- sion was up to her, the PM and others in- called by the clerk and told that the shuffle is tee with texts and documents that the Prime volved never gave up trying to persuade her, happening… the clerk tells the deputy that Minister’s friend and advisor, Gerry Butts, to quote the PM at a meeting September 17, one of the first conversations that the new said he had gotten through counsel, the “to help out to find a solution here for SNC, minister will be expected to have with the recorded vote was defeated by the Liberal citing consequences like jobs lost and SNC’s Prime Minister will be on SNC-Lavalin.” majority. moving from Montreal.” (A threat widely It would seem that Jody Wilson-Ray-

16 | Economic Reform January–February 2019 www.comer.org bould knows a “veiled threat” when she parent the truth of his analysis. Court.” hears one! Joyce Nelson’s argument that the Site “So why,” she asks, “did the PMO and Wilson-Raybould’s testimony rang true. C Dam Project “epitomizes the Liberals’ associates persist in trying to change the It was powerful, well documented, clear, vision for Canada’s future,” could certainly AG’s decision, defying the Conflict of Inter- authentic and unmistakably sincere. account for their relentless, desperate efforts est Act? The inquiry raised more questions than to persuade Wilson-Raybould to change Good question! it answered and elicited a call for a public her mind. The following excerpts from Wilson- inquiry. That the Trudeau government would Raybould’s testimony both corroborate Élan “award federal permits over the opposition her contention and raise questions about of First Nations in the area” and instead, the broader import of the SNC “scandal.” A Comment about accelerate Site C’s construction is a clear (Questions like: why would governments expression of its priorities, and supports go to such length to protect corporations Paradigm Shift Nelson’s argument. like SNC-Lavalin whose name appears on Hazel Henderson, in Building A Win- A paradigm capable of spawning a vi- the world banks list of offenders 101 times Win World, identifies the common defini- sion that “jettisons ‘reconciliation and the – and what are the ramifications of that tion of sustainable development as “develop- environment, in favour of damming the practice?) ment which meets the needs of the present country and then draining it,’ is – at best – Following a brief summary of events, without compromising the ability of future questionable! up to and including her November 22. generations to meet their own needs.” It was Wilson-Raybould who factored meeting with Mathieu Bouchard and Elder The model dominating political econo- law and principle into the equation. She tes- Marques, Wilson-Raybould affirmed her mies today – world wide – becomes less and tified that even after the courts and a judge position and its rationale. Her account less sustainable, as the need for sustainability was being asked to look at the Director traces development up to her “shuffle.” grows – ever more clearly, ever more urgent! of Public Prosecution’s discretion, she was At that point she paused “to comment on We are living through a critical mo- subjected to a long meeting with Mathieu [her] own state of mind” and, in exaspera- ment. Until our response is informed by a Bouchard and Elder Marques from the tion said: significant paradigm shift, we put our very PMO’s office, who argued that “there were “We either have a system that is based survival at risk. options,” and that [she] “needed to find on the rule of law, the independence of In The Great Transformation, The Politi- a solution.” Whereupon, she “took them prosecutorial functions and respect for those cal and Economic Origins of Our Time, Eco- through the DPP Act, section 15, section charged to use their discretion and powers nomic Historian, Karl Polanyi, celebrated 10, and talked about the prosecutorial inde- in a particular way, or we do not… the passing of the self-adjusting market pendence as a constitutional principle and “The consistent and enduring efforts, economy. that they were interfering.” even in the face of judicial proceedings on In its concluding chapter, Freedom in a Throughout the struggle over SNC, Wil- the same matter and in the face of a clear Complex Society, he argues that, “the true son-Raybould was arguing from a paradigm decision of the director of public prosecu- criticism of market society is not that it was rooted in principle. tions and the attorney general to continue based on economics – in a sense, every and The Prime Minister and his staff con- and even intensify such efforts, raises serious any society must be based on it – but that sistently ignored her arguments. Their re- red flags in my view. its economy was based on self-interest,” and sponses had nothing to do with what was “Yet this is what continued to hap- that, “if industrialism is not to extinguish right or wrong in law; they never challenged pen….” the race, it must be subordinated to the her arguments – their arguments were prag- December 18, 2018: requirements of man’s nature.” matic assertions about unfavourable politi- From a transcript of the report by Ray- The chapter essentially identifies and cal and economic consequences. bould’s chief of staff, regarding a meeting compares two very different paradigms. On Judy Kennedy dives to the core of the is- with Gerry Butts and Katie Telford: “Basi- the one hand, “planning and control are sue: “sanctioning the criminal behaviour of cally, they want a solution, nothing new. being attacked as a denial of freedom”; “free those who headed the corporation.” They want external counsel retained to give enterprise and private ownership are de- In taking issue with “[permitting] those you an opinion on whether you can review clared to be essential to freedom”; “the free- responsible for criminal acts of bribery and the DPP’s decision here and whether you dom that regulation creates is denounced as corruption to bypass the consequences of should, in this case. unfreedom.” a conviction under the regular process, in “I told them that would be interference. To the contrary, he supports a para- favour of a mere ‘hand slap’ and a fine, avail- Gerry said: ‘Jess, there is no solution here digm that recognizes that, “freedom’s utter able only to big corporations,” she focusses that does not involve some interference.’ frustration in fascism is, indeed, the inevi- attention on the basic problem of a severe “At least they are finally being honest table result of the liberal philosophy, which lack of accountability in our political and about what they’re asking you to do….” claims that power and compulsion are evil, economic systems. December 19, 2018: that freedom demands their absence from Kennedy explains that SNC didn’t qual- “I was asked to have a call with the a human community. No such thing is ify for a DPA, “because of one of several clerk…. possible; in a complex society this becomes factors that the prosecutor [must] consider,” “He said he wanted to pass on where the apparent.” whereby, “clearly, the corporation did not prime minister is at…. Alas, the former paradigm has frustrated qualify for the DPA.” This she points out, “The clerk said that the prime minister is Polanyi’s expectation and made all too ap- “has now been confirmed by the Federal quite determined, quite firm, but he wants www.comer.org January–February 2019 Economic Reform | 17 to know why the DPA route, which parlia- freedom, equality and a just society this can ment provided for, isn’t being used. About Our Commenter have first-hand. “‘I think he is going to find a way to get Élan is a pseudonym representing two of the “So when I pledged to serve Canadians it done, one way or another. So he is in that original members of COMER, one of whom as your minister of justice and attorney kind of mood and I wanted you to be aware is now deceased. The surviving member general, I came to it with a deeply ingrained of it….’ could never do the work she is now engaged commitment to the rule of law and the “You know, he does not want to do in were it not for their work together over importance of acting independently of par- anything outside of the box of what is legal many years. This signature is a way of ac- tisan, political and narrow interests in all or proper. He said that the prime minister knowledging that indebtedness. matters. wants to understand more, to give him “When we do not do that, I firmly be- advice on this or give you advice on this, if and told that the shuffle is happening and lieve and know we do worse as a society… you want to feel more comfortable you are that she will be getting a new minister. “I was taught to always hold true to your not doing anything inappropriate or outside “As part of this conversation, the clerk core values and principles and to act with the frame. tells the deputy that one of the first con- integrity. These are the teachings of my par- “I told the clerk that I was 100 percent versations that the new minister will be ents, my grandparents and my community. confident that I was doing nothing inap- expected to have with the prime minister “I come from a long line of matriarchs propriate. I again reiterated my confidence will be on SNC-Lavalin….” and I’m a truth teller, in accordance with the in where I am, and my views on SNC and In her concluding remarks, Raybould laws and traditions of our big house. the DPA have not changed. makes it clear to the committee that she “This is who I am and this is who I al- “I reiterate this as a constitutional prin- is concerned that she is still not allowed to ways will be.” ciple of prosecutorial independence. speak freely. ❧ ❧ ❧ “I warned the clerk in this meeting that She ends her testimony with a mov- So much for transparency, environmen- he was in this call, that we were treading on ing explanation of the paradigm that has tally conscious policies, “reconciliation”! dangerous ground here. I also issued a stern informed her response to the SNC-Lavalin Today’s dominant paradigm – neoliberal- warning because, as the attorney general, I matter. ism – is one whose priorities dictate a very cannot act in a manner and the prosecution “I must reiterate to the committee my different agenda. Joyce Nelson, in Bypassing cannot act in a manner that is not objective, concern outlined in the letter to the chair Dystopia: Hope-filled challenges to corporate that isn’t independent. yesterday, that is, Order-in-Council #2019- rule, outlines that agenda, in a list she advis- “I cannot act in a partisan way and I 0105 addresses only my time as the attorney es readers to think of as, “the dirty dozen”: cannot be politically motivated. This all general of Canada and therefore does noth- • Deregulation screams of that… ing to release me from my restrictions that • Open borders for Capital “He said again that the prime minister apply to communications while I proudly • Small government/Big State was in a pretty firm frame of mind about served as the minister of veterans affairs and • Tax cuts for multinational corporations this and that. He was a bit worried. I asked in relation to my resignation from the post or • Austerity budgets what he’s worried about. my presentation to cabinet after I resigned. • Union-busting “The clerk then made the comment “This time period includes communi- • Privatization of public assets about how it is not good for the prime cations on topics that some members of • Corporate rights (or “free trade”) deals minister and his attorney general to be at the committee have explored with other • Tax havens loggerheads. witnesses and about which there have been • No limits to growth “I told the clerk that I was giving him public statements by others…. • Central bank “independence” my best advice and that if he did not accept “I hope that through my narrative today, • Privatization of the money-creation func- that advice, then it is the prime ministers the committee and everyone across the tion prerogative to do what he wants, but I am country who’s listening has a clear idea of This is an agenda almost guaranteed to trying to protect the prime minister from what I experienced and what I know of who effect the level of ignorance and desperation political interference or perceived political did what and what was communicated. that renders a populace susceptible to fas- interference or otherwise… “I hope and expect the facts speak for cism’s false promise of security. “The clerk said that he was worried themselves… Neoliberalism didn’t just happen; it was about a collision because the prime minister “It has always been my view that the carefully planned and activated over several is pretty firm about this… attorney general of Canada must be non- years. In Democracy in Chains, Nancy Ma- January 7, 2019: partisan, more transparent in the principles cLean discusses its history. “I received a call from the prime minister that are the basis of decisions and, in this It began as a reaction to the dismantling and was informed I was being shuffled out respect, always willing to speak truth to of segregation in public schools. Colgate of my role as minister of justice and attorney power… Whitehead Darden Jr., president of the general of Canada…. “Indeed, one of the main reasons for the University of Virginia, and a brilliant econo- “I believe the reason was because of the urgent need for justice and reconciliation mist, James McGill Buchanan, embarked on SNC matter. today is that, in the history of our country, a mission to resist desegregation. “They denied this to be the case. we have not always upheld foundational MacLean’s history of its extraordinary January 11, 2019: values such as the rule of law in relations to success reveals the astonishing paradigm “The Friday before the shuffle, my for- Indigenous Peoples. behind it. She defines “what this cause really mer deputy minister is called by the clerk “And I have seen the negative impacts for seeks” as “a return to oligarchy, to a world in

18 | Economic Reform January–February 2019 www.comer.org which both economic and effective political implementing these ideas. argues that without economic democracy, power are to be concentrated in the hands In consequence, she points out, we face political democracy is impossible. of a few.” She recognizes that “the first step an ineluctable choice between neoliberalism In Talking to My Daughter about the towards understanding what this cause actu- and, democracy, and warns that “if we delay Economy, Yanis Varyoufakis, former minis- ally wants, is to identify the deep lineage of much longer, those who are imposing their ter of finance in Greece, argues the need for its core ideas.” What follows is an authorita- stark utopia will choose for us.” authentic democracy, asserting that “it’s im- tive and stunning narrative that explains In Debt or Democracy, Public Money for possible to talk about the economy without the remarkable success of the neoliberals in Sustainable and Social Justice, Mary Mellor talking about politics.” BC Leads the Way to a Better Future for People and Planet By Rick Smith, The Broadbent Blog, De- dress climate change can be a way to drive This approach, of course, is a strong cember 6, 2018 growth in the province’s already thriving counter narrative to the ritualistic doom- Maybe it was the months of smoke-filled clean-tech industry (270 plus companies saying of Conservative leaders across Can- skies or the flash floods following hard on generating $1.8 billion in annual revenues ada, who find pricing pollution somehow the heels of long droughts. Or maybe it was and employing 8,500 people). It contains abhorrent. The BC government under- mountainsides covered in beetle-killed trees numerous examples of companies hard at stands that pricing pollution is fundamental or glaciers melting to slivers of ice. Whatev- work developing and commercializing in- to achieving its ambitious plan to move the er the reason, British Columbia has got the novative low carbon solutions – from air- province to a modern, low-carbon economy, message when it comes to climate change. source carbon capture to batteries for elec- but smart enough to realize that people will The province’s new CleanBC climate ac- tric ships – and sees in that a promising new need help with the impacts – whether it is tion plan combines precision with ambition direction for a province that has long been a through assistance with money-saving home in a way that makes the token effort released hewer of wood and drawer of water. retrofits, a break on a zero emissions vehicle by Ontario just the previous week almost The province is, of course, advantaged or skills training to be part of a new green laughable. First, there are the ambitious – with abundant clean energy, but it will need workforce. but completely rational – targets: 40 percent more, and the plan commits to continuing One of BC’s biggest challenges will be by 2030, 60 percent by 2040 and 80 percent development of solar and wind resources, squaring the circle on achieving its climate by 2050. These targets demonstrate that which can be combined with the existing targets while promoting LNG development. the government has listened to the growing water power system to create a steady renew- The government says it has factored in the warnings by scientists that we have little able power supply for a wide range of uses, additional emissions that will be created by time left to get our act together. Compared from remote communities now dependent LNG into its plan and that they will not to Ontario’s decision to actually roll back on dirty diesel to energy hungry resource throw the province off track. But clearly, its targets by close to 30%, this is refreshing industries. LNG adds some heavy lifting to the neces- recognition that we need to act now – before Equally, it recognizes the often synergis- sary carbon reduction in the years ahead. it is too late. tic benefits of moving to low-carbon solu- Perhaps the best omen for success in The precision lies in the way the govern- tions, whether it is eliminating the harmful the BC plan is its commitment to equity ment has laid out a multi-sectoral strategy byproducts of burning diesel or making the and reconciliation. Reconciliation with the for achieving these reductions, from intro- commute to work a little bit easier with bet- First Nation peoples who are often seeing ducing a mandate that all vehicles sold in ter transit and better-planned communities. viscerally the damage being done by climate the province be zero emissions by 2040 to Interestingly, while putting the positives change to beautiful BC, and reconciliation requiring that every new building is “net-ze- of climate action front and centre, the plan with the planet itself. ro energy ready” by 2032. The 68-page plan does not shy away from acknowledging that BC has essentially mapped out a bridge (compare that to the 16 pages of vague com- change can be difficult. It recognizes the to a low-carbon future that includes every- mitments in Ontario’s effort) outlines a slew need to help average people “shift” to new one in the journey. Other provinces would of initiatives, from ramping up production approaches, noting “making these changes be wise to follow its lead. of biofuels and electrifying industrial opera- cannot leave anyone behind.” And it seeks tions (including oil and gas operations) to to ensure that heavy industries are also able Our Comment improving the energy efficiency of social to adjust to a steadily rising carbon price, What will it take for Ontario – for Can- housing stock and expanding use of energy- which will increase to $50 per tonne by ada – to get the message? To recognize the saving heat pump technology. 2021. Its industrial incentive program is need to act now?! But the most refreshing thing about BC’s designed to reward companies that meet An honest cost/benefit assessment of plan is that rather than positioning climate “world leading” emissions benchmarks, climate action has to recognize the “huge action as a social burden or an economic which clearly differentiates it from Ontario’s opportunities that can be realized by taking cost, it recognizes the huge opportunities largely unexplained plan to require compa- a proactive approach to a devastating prob- that can be realized by taking a proactive nies to hew to unspecified emission levels lem,” and to acknowledge the unthinkable approach to a devastating problem. The BC while simultaneously exempting entire in- catastrophe that we can otherwise expect. government understands that action to ad- dustrial sectors, such as the auto industry. Élan www.comer.org January–February 2019 Economic Reform | 19 He contends that: “A decent, rational to our very existence, and switch to a 21st- hobbled by a dysfunctional voting system society must democratize not only the man- century model that will serve the critical that was scrapped long ago by most major agement of money and technology but the needs of our time. democracies.” management of the planet’s resources and Perhaps the greatest significance of the “We need a fair and proportional voting ecosystems as well. Why so much empha- SNC “scandal” will turn out to be the wake- system.” If a party receives 25% of the votes sis on democracy? Because, to paraphrase up call that it could be to the need for such it should have 25% of the seats. “The core Winston Churchill’s tongue-in-cheek re- a paradigm shift. principle [of proportional representation] mark, democracy may be a terrible, terrible The move to “authentic democracy” is to treat all voters equally – to make every form of government – as flawed, fallible, must begin with electoral reform. vote count.” inefficient, and corrupt as the people who As Fair Vote Canada stresses, our First- To learn more about democratizing our participate in it – but it’s better than any of past-the-post voting system originated in electoral system, check out www.fairvote.ca. the alternatives” (p. 180). the 12th century…“when people believed Under the present system we have been “For him, the choice comes down to the the earth was flat.” The United States and reduced to voting for the lesser evil between momentous clash between two opposing parts of the United Kingdom are the only two strings of the same team. How demo- proposals: ‘democratize everything!’ versus other major Western Democracies using cratic is that?! ‘commodify everything!’” (p. 180.) this winner-take all system. There is absolutely no one unable to One thing is indisputable. Humanity is In a real democracy, every vote would contribute in some way to this historic de- at a crucial crossroads. We can continue on count. In Canada, “in a typical federal elec- velopment! our present, free-market course, or we can tion, just over half of voters cast ineffective LEARN! JOIN! ACT! acknowledge the threat that has become votes”! “Our 21st century democracy is Élan

NEWS RELEASE Statement on the Passing of William Krehm

By Larry Farquharson, COMER Informa- governmental, self-proclaimed ‘bank to the portantly, Bill proposed practical solutions, tion Officer central bankers,’ the Bank for International found within the subject of his primary April 21, 2019, Toronto, ON – It is with Settlements (BIS) in Basel, Switzerland. focus, the Bank of Canada. The BoC is Ca- deep sadness we report that William Krehm Bill, his COMER co-founders and nadians’ publicly owned central bank that is passed away on April 19, peacefully, in his COMER supporters have worked tirelessly governed solely by the Bank of Canada Act, sleep, at his home. He was in his 106th year. to educate Canadians on the desperate need where such solutions are clearly spelled out Bill, as he was known, was a noted activ- to restore our central bank to its intended in legislative language and have been since ist, journalist, businessman, thinker and purpose, to ensure equitable and sustainable the Bank’s founding in 1935, and its nation- philanthropist. monetary and economic policies that work alization in 1938. These are the ideals and Among his many endeavours, Bill was for people, instead of against people. intentions entrenched in the crown agency a founding member of the Committee on Indeed, COMER’s journal, ER, contains envisioned by its founders to promote and Monetary and Economic Reform (COM- years of Bill’s eloquent and comprehensive support a vibrant and effective economic ER) in the 80s, an academic think tank writings, dealing with a broad spectrum of fabric for the benefit of all Canadians. established in response to the growing threat monetary and economic issues, including In 2011 Bill launched a federal court case of unsustainable monetary and economic problems rooted in an accounting system to compel the Government of Canada to systems both in Canada and internationally, that fails so spectacularly to properly value return the Bank of Canada to its legislated and the alarming intrusion into sovereign all natural resources, including human po- role and purpose. After numerous court financial and political matters by the non- tential, and government assets. More im- proceedings, the Supreme Court of Canada dismissed COMER’s application for leave to appeal ending this case’s 6-year journey through the courst. Bill, and COMER, resolved to continue the fight to hold the Bank of Canada, and both its political and private banking mas- ters, to full account. While Bill will be dearly missed, the substantive and powerful legacy of his life- long passion and dedication remains, and the mission and work he and his visionary colleagues put into motion so earnestly and with such foresight over 30 years ago, will continue through COMER and our com- mitment to carry forward the work Bill started.n

20 | Economic Reform January–February 2019 www.comer.org