CANADIAN CENTRE FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 $6.95 Contributors

Jeremy Appel is a multimedia Asad Ismi covers Juliette Majot is Executive Vol. 24, No. 5 journalist and currently international affairs for the Director of the Institute for ISSN 1198-497X Canada Post Publication 40009942 a reporter/editor at the Monitor with an emphasis Agriculture and Trade Policy. Medicine Hat News. on U.S. and Canadian The Monitor is published six times imperialism and grassroots Lynn McDonald is a former a year by the Canadian Centre for struggles against it in the Policy Alternatives. Matt Cicero is a writer, artist, MP, professor emerita at the activist and ritual abuse Global South. University of Guelph and The opinions expressed in the survivor. As an activist he Member of the Order of Monitor are those of the authors has been most involved Hayden King is from Canada. and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA. in Indigenous solidarity Beausoleil First Nation on organizing, and prison and Gchi’mnissing in Huronia, Toby Sanger is an economist Please send feedback to police abolition. He blogs at Ontario. He is the Director with the Canadian Union of [email protected]. stonesandsticksandwords. of the Centre of Indigenous Public Employees. Editor: Stuart Trew wordpress.com. Governance at Ryerson Senior Designer: Tim Scarth University. Paul Weinberg is a Hamilton, Layout: Susan Purtell Barbara McElgunn is Editorial Board: Peter Bleyer, Ontario-based freelance Alyssa O’Dell, Seth Klein, Kate Health Policy Advisor with Devlin Kuyek is a Montreal- writer whose work has McInturff, Erika Shaker, Emily Turk the Learning Disabilities based researcher at Grain, appeared in NOW Toronto, Association of Canada. focusing on monitoring and rabble.ca, the Globe and CCPA National Office: analyzing global agribusiness, HELP US SHED LIGHT ON THE 500-251 Bank St., Ottawa, Mail, Straight Goods and the ON K2P 1X3 Ben Isitt is the author of including the global land Monitor. tel: 613-563-1341 From Victoria to Vladivostok: rush. fax: 613-233-1458 Canada’s Siberian Expedition ISSUES THAT MATTER TO YOU. [email protected] (UBC Press), and a historian David Macdonald is a senior www.policyalternatives.ca and legal scholar specializing economist with the Canadian CCPA BC Office: in relations between social Centre for Policy Alternatives (we’ve got some bright ideas) 520-700 West Pender Street movements and states and co-ordinator of the Vancouver, BC V6C 1G8 in Canada and globally. Alternative Federal Budget. tel: 604-801-5121 Alongside his academic work, fax: 604-801-5122 Ben serves the public as a [email protected] Shoshana Magnet is city councillor and regional Associate Professor of MAKE A DONATION Tax receipts are issued for contributions of $15 or more. CCPA Manitoba Office: director in Victoria, B.C. Feminist and Gender Studies Unit 205-765 Main St., Winnipeg, and Criminology in the MB R2W 3N5 tel: 204-927-3200 University of Ottawa’s faculty I would like to make a monthly contribution of: I would like to make a one-time donation of: fax: 204-927-3201 of social sciences. OR $300 $100 $75 Other ____ [email protected] $25 $15 $10 Other ____

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CLIMBING UP, KICKING DOWN CEO PAY AND INEQUALITY IN CANADA 22

Canada’s CEOs are breaking pay records, yet they are some of the first people to oppose raising the minimum wage and making our tax system fairer—key planks of any plan to reduce inequality. David Macdonald explains why CEO compensation is important and what we can do to shrink the gap between what Canada’s richest corporate executives are paid and what average workers earn.

BEHIND THE NUMBERS FEATURES COMMENTARY What the census tells The Canada Infrastructure It’s time to abolish us about inequality Bank: A shareholder shopping solitary confinement Sheila Block 7 spree for public assets Lynn McDonald 21 Just in time Toby Sanger 27 The massive carbon footprint for a just transition “Progressive trade” versus of big meat and big dairy Michael James 8 sustainable growth: Juliette Majot and Devlin Kuyek 41 Reasons to be skeptical The fight to stop CETA in Europe. Canadian retailers need of KPMG advice Stuart Trew 32 to catch up to U.S. on toxics Jim Silver 9 With Mexico on the brink, Barbara McElgunn 53 Membership-only is the left poised to take BOOKS clinics blur lines in health care the presidency? Rebecca Graff-McRae11 Asad Ismi 42 Braving the Wilderness by Brené Brown Canada and the Bolshevik Revolution Reviewed by Shoshana Magnet 55 IN THE NEWS Ben Isitt 43 The Reconciliation Manifesto The B.C. budget we need When CSIS comes knocking: by Arthur Manuel Marc Lee and Alex Hemingway 14 Allegations of Islamophobia Reviewed by Hayden King 56 Ottawa safe injection site and a fratboy culture put spy agency Jeremy Appel interviews Kevin Taft defies government and gets results practices in the spotlight on Canada’s deep oil state 58 Matt Cicero 18 Paul Weinberg 49 Finding a cure for affluenza in true materialism Richard Denniss 60

Editorial 2 | Letters 3 | New From the CCPA 4 | Good News Page 54 From the Editor

STUART TREW Disruption we can get behind

ISRUPTION. IT’S THE catchphrase more backward, more unequal than We scored wins on the Airbnb file du jour, usually wielded by one the one we are living now. The main last year, too. In December, Vancouver presumptuous tech upstart or innovation of most self-declared and Toronto took steps to regulate Danother to challenge the market disruptors is that they’ve found a the online service, based in part on power of an alledgedly ossifying in- way to take an even bigger share of research about its impacts on housing cumbent. Frequently, but not always, the wealth from the workers who and rental stock from the CCPA. And as to justify the displacement of low- or produce it than was possible before David Macdonald reports in our cover middle-income workers with an even we all carried around the internet in feature (page 22), Canada’s CEOs— more precarious, low-cost, on-demand our pockets. richer than they’ve ever been since we workforce. It’s not the disruptors who are the started recording their compensation Uber and Lift (now in Toronto) are biggest problem, it’s the inequality— levels—have not been able to stop the disrupting taxi and public transit sys- in incomes, in power and in access to $15 minimum wage hikes introduced tems, they say, by encouraging people scarce resources—which is worsening in Ontario, Alberta and soon B.C. to drive others around for relatively in Canada, to the benefit of a small That measure has the potential to lift low pay and scant if any benefits. number of established and disruptive millions of people out of poverty with Uber’s ultimate plan is to relaunch elites alike. modest impacts on the revenues of with driverless cars (and buses), In fact, disruption to this status quo only the largest Canadian companies. putting even its current freelance would be a very good thing. (It’s been There’s obviously much more work workforce (and, they hope, many of the CCPA’s mandate for more than 35 to do, most obviously on climate today’s public transit operators) out years.) Even minor adjustments are change. “Real change” and a few green of a gig, let alone a job. welcome on the pathway to social energy partnerships with Canadian Airbnb, which takes a cut from home justice. In this respect, we can look tech start-ups and Chinese investors room and apartment rentals posted back at 2017 for inspiring examples have not disrupted the hold that to its website, claims it is not just of positive change. Perhaps most Canada’s fossil fuel industry has on disrupting the power of the big hotel importantly on gender equality. power in Ottawa and the provinces chains, but “empowering people and Last February, software engineer (see Jeremy Appel’s interview with helping them combat wage stagnation Susan Fowler took Uber down about Kevin Taft on page 58). On our Behind and worsening economic inequality.” five rungs when she exposed endemic the Numbers blog in December, Marc No doubt they are for many people sexism and a fratboy culture at the Lee pointed out Canada is still a “rogue filling a void created by stagnant company, earning her the title of state” on climate under the Trudeau incomes and rising household debt. Person of the Year from the Financial government. But municipalities have found the Times, beating out French President “Industry, the largest source of company, and similar home-sharing Emmanuel Macron, Chinese President emissions in Canada, largely gets apps, are also disrupting the housing Xi Jinping and Saudi Crown Prince a pass on direct regulations to re- stock, contributing to rental shortages Mohammed bin Salman. duce emissions,” he writes. “Special and higher rents in some places. Fowler’s intervention—she pub- treatment for fossil fuels, chemical Netflix, Amazon Prime and YouTube lished a blog on the sexual harassment production and other carbon-inten- are the disruptors of our television she experienced at the Silicon Valley sive sectors is wrapped in vague calls watching habits, offering everything firm, including being propositioned for innovation and technology, which satisfyingly on demand, but without for sex by her boss on her first day basically amount to wishful thinking.” having to collect GST or HST in Can- and human resources turning a blind Only a serious just transition plan (see ada—money that could be used to eye—“was one of the most important Michael James on page 8) will be able invest in popular Canadian content or testimonies in what…has become an to break Big Oil’s grip on policy levers (god forbid) just pay for more efficient avalanche of allegations about sexual in this country. transit systems, more affordable hous- harassment and assault that have On trade (page 32), infrastructure ing, and other social services where brought down some of the most im- spending (page 27), Canada’s national disruption is not a positive word. portant men in media, entertainment security practices (page 49), reconcil- The CCPA and many others have and business, and which hold the po- iation with First Nations (page 56), repeatedly pointed out that, con- tential to improve the way women are pensions (page 4), and so many other veniences aside, the life promoted treated at work permanently,” wrote areas, I’m hoping we’ll see much more by these upstarts is often nastier, Leslie Hook in FT. positive disruption in 2018. M 2 Weinroth fingers Jews happened otherwise. Are policies with regard to as thinking of themselves Pappé and Weinroth also economic liberalism versus T as “God’s chosen people,” trying to tell us that the civil liberties. in the context of being ancient, formative history Trudeau seems sincere superior to, and disdainful of the Jews in Palestine in supporting the civil of, others, an anti-Semitic doesn’t count? That it’s all a concept of liberalism, but trope. She refers to the big put-on? he adheres strongly to the phrase as one of the “pro- Mulling all this over, I neoliberal ideology when verbial idioms of Jewish passed the review by a it comes to economics. exceptionalism.” The root cousin of mine, a lawyer in (Harper was against all meaning of the phrase (I Jerusalem who is originally forms of liberalism.) The Leers had to look it up because from Vancouver. He’s a prime minister’s position I’ve never considered genuine liberal and opposes is well aligned with the myself chosen one way or the Israeli settlements on Business Council of Pappé review rings false the other) is that Jews, in the West Bank. He began by Canada, with their belief a covenant with God, were pointing out that although that the market is always Michelle Weinroth’s polemic chosen to be “a light unto the article is entitled “A right, that GDP solves channeling Ilan Pappé’s the nations” by practising Handbook for a just peace everything and that we condemnation of Israel monotheism. in the Middle East,” there is must be aligned with U.S. rings false on a whole series Nor, however, does no proposal for peace. It’s corporate interests. (Trump of points (“A handbook for the phrase preclude a simply a diatribe against is a complicating factor; a just peace in the Middle belief that God has a Israel. “There is not even a U.S. business is worried East,” September/October relationship with other hint of a direction in which about him.) 2017). Most particularly, peoples. Sometimes it’s to go to solve the conflict,” There is consistency she writes off in passing interpreted simply as being he writes. in Trudeau’s economic the endless history chosen to do good things. Weinroth may think she’s liberalism when it comes to of anti-Semitism, and The only time it’s used the talking truth to power, as electoral reform, jobs over indirectly the Holocaust, way Weinroth uses it is as she claims for Pappé, but human rights, militarism, as legitimate rationales an anti-Semitic slur. The genuinely talking truth to globalization, big business for the foundation of a applicable Jewish “idiom” power means having criti- vs. small entrepreneurs, predominantly Jewish state, here, surely, if one looks cal acuity, and her gushing economic growth over and scorns the defensive at the creation of Israel in over the book doesn’t show climate change action, psychology those historical context, is “survival.” The that. Critical analysis is corporate taxation and forces have produced, as exceptionalism is having especially important in this private-public partnerships. if Israel has been making a a good part of your ethnic case because of Pappé’s This can be contrasted with mistake all along in thinking group exterminated. questionable reputation as his support of feminism, it has to defend itself. Pappé and Weinroth a historian as different from services to Indigenous It’s one thing to condemn try to trivialize the a propagandist. See, for peoples, restitution versus the Jewish settlements identification of Jews with example, “The Liar as Hero,” retribution, immigration, in the West Bank and the Palestine. They say that by Benny Morris, in New etc., although we may feel Netanyahu government, in the pre-Zionist period, Republic, March 16, 2011. his actions fall short of the or the displacement of the that identification was verbiage. Herschel Hardin, West Arab population in 1948, just religious and spiritual, Liberalism is a difficult Vancouver, B.C. or even the return of Jews not political. “Political” word. Economic liberalism to Palestine if you’re so isn’t defined in the review. is problematic whereas civil inclined. It’s another thing Presumably, it means liberty is positive and the to dismiss the forces of anything that has to do Liberalism and distinction must always be suffering and persecution with the story of a people neoliberalism identified clearly. that led to the creation of as different from strictly Don Kerr, Collingwood, Ont. Israel as of no applicable religious practice. That I appreciated the article consequence, which effec- connection, however, deep on Justin Trudeau where tively she does. Without in Jewish tradition, never Richard Nimijean held that understanding—by went away, as the energy him to account for his Send all feedback, blanking out or tossing off of the Zionist movement unfulfilled promises (“A corrections, poems, praise that core reality—Pappé’s ultimately showed in portrait of Justin Trudeau,” or complaints to monitor@ book, or Weinroth’s practice, an energy September-October 2017). policyalternatives.ca. interpretation of it, isn’t animated by the profound However, the author should going to help anybody find connection. Nothing even have observed there are a just peace in the region. remotely like it would have clear consistencies in his 3 relatives and friends of while men with the same justifiable? Is it doing any the MMWIG—who are level of education earned good for our economy and left dealing with their grief $82,082—a difference of our society?” with very few government more than $13,000. supports available.” Cost “What this data suggests of Doing Nothing gives an is that women with the Take action: B.C. needs insight into the emotional same credentials at the a fracking review journeys of the families left same point in their working behind, highlighting the lives are being paid less British Columbia is long New from need for government to than men and that, really, is overdue for a thorough and the CCPA take action to reduce the a call for more pay trans- transparent review of how cases of MMIWG, whatever parency,” added Block, who natural gas is produced in its cost, and whatever the suggested that employers the province. The CCPA-BC outcome of the current should report and post has launched an online The high cost of inquiry. hourly pay arrangements, campaign calling on the doing nothing for especially for temporary, provincial government to MMIWG part-time and contract establish a formal public CCPA in the news employees who are more inquiry to investigate the The inquiry into missing often than not female. social, environmental and and murdered Indigenous The CCPA is frequently Also in November, CBC’s financial risks associated women and girls (MMIWG) asked to comment on Power and Politics asked with fracking and what was showing strains issues of social and eco- CCPA Executive Director should be done about heading into 2018 from nomic justice and the fall Peter Bleyer on the show to them. B.C. residents can the resignation of key was especially busy in that talk about the bombshell read and add their name staff and commissioners respect, with journalists release of the international to the letter at www. and growing calls to reset coming to us for feedback Paradise Papers. The policyalternatives.ca/ the process. A new study on the census, the Paradise leak included millions of fracking-inquiry. from the CCPA-Manitoba Papers leak, corporate tax-related files from two outlines the root causes of pension shortfalls, the major offshore law firms, violence against Indigenous NAFTA renegotiations and reigniting the debate about Pensions suffer as women, and finds that the rising child care fees among tax haven use by Canadian shareholders celebrate Cost of Doing Nothing— other topics. companies and individuals, for families, business and In late November, the including former prime A new study by the CCPA government—would be Toronto Star editorial board ministers. and the Canadian Labour high. backed demands from At around the same Congress—The Lion’s “While acknowledging the Equal Pay Coalition, time as the Paradise Share: Pension deficits the wrongdoing from a the CCPA-Ontario and Papers leak, Canadians for and shareholder payments moral perspective…we’re others for governments Tax Fairness released an among Canada’s largest able to estimate that at and companies to improve important report that found companies—examines least $7.0 million was pay transparency after that Canada’s 60 biggest the status of the defined spent in 2014 in direct newly released census publicly traded corpora- benefit (DB) pension expenditures to deal with data revealed persistent tions have more than 1,000 plans of Canada’s largest the issue of MMIWG in gender-based wage gaps subsidiaries in offshore tax publicly traded companies, Manitoba, revealing only across all labour fields. havens, diverting up to $15 and compares it to the the tiny portion of the cost “Whether it’s a male-dom- billion annually away from healthy dividends and other of doing nothing,” write inated field like STEM government coffers. payouts the same com- Marina Puzyreva and John (science, technology, engi- “We’re talking about panies are showering on Loxley in their report, which neering and mathematics) huge amounts of money, shareholders. The results was commissioned by and or a female-dominated field major corporate players, may shock you. prepared in consultation like nursing, men continue extremely wealthy Thirty-nine of the compa- with the Assembly of to earn more and that is individuals, who are getting nies listed on the S&P/TSX Manitoba Chiefs through a result of direct sexism away with murder,” Bleyer 60 maintain DB pension the Manitoba Research in the labour market,” said during his Power and plans whose total value Alliance. CCPA Senior Economist Politics appearance, where accounts for one-third of all “More importantly, Sheila Block told the Star. he discussed the leak and private sector pension plan apart from direct According to the census, need to close existing assets in Canada. However, economic impact, there women holding a bachelor’s tax loopholes. “I’m not only nine of those plans is a whole population of degree had a median saying it’s all illegal, but the were fully funded in 2016. To co-victims—families, income of $68,342 in 2016 question is, is it morally put it in perspective, the 39 4 permission from regulators Are Canadian companies leaving their pensioners before making shareholder high and dry? repayments. In 2016, Canada’s largest 60 publicly-traded companies paid out four times more to shareholders than it would take to eliminate A path to their pension deficits. $15/hour in B.C.

British Columbia’s current minimum wage keeps far too many people $46.9 in poverty. More than billion 400,000 people—22% in payouts to Shareholders of all paid employees in the province—would get a raise and significantly benefit from a new $15/ hour minimum wage, as introduced in Alberta and Ontario. In its submission to the B.C. Fair Wages $10.8 Commission, the CCPA-BC billion proposes increasing the in pension deficits minimum hourly wage to $13 in March 2018, $14 in September 2018, and reaching $15 by March 2019. The CCPA further propos- es that “future minimum wage increases be guided by a rationale such as pegging the minimum wage to 60% of the average industrial wage, or 10% above the poverty line for a single person as calculated by the low-income measure If companies can afford to pay their shareholders, (LIM) or the market basket they can afford to keep their pension plans funded. measure (MBM).” The minimum wage would then Learn more at policyalternatives.ca/lionsshare become “a mechanism to reduce wage inequality” as well as a poverty-fighting tool. companies oversaw a com- CCPA Senior Economist and share buybacks since bined $10.8-billion deficit David Macdonald, who 2010. The CCPA/CLC report in their pension plans last co-authored the report recommends limiting For more reports, year. Meanwhile, they had with Cole Eisen and CLC shareholder payouts commentary and no problem satisfying their Social and Economic Policy when pension plans are infographics from the shareholders, collectively Director Chris Roberts. underfunded, increasing CCPA’s national and increasing payouts from “This isn’t a question of premiums (in the case of provincial offices, visit $31.9 billion in 2011 to $46.9 capacity, it’s a question of Ontario’s Pension Benefits www.policyalternatives.ca. billion in 2016. priority.” Guarantee Fund) for “For almost all compa- Sears, for example, has companies not making up nies, DB plan shortfalls a $267-million pension shortfalls, and requiring could be rapidly eliminated shortfall as it shutters its sponsors of severely with little impact on share- last stores, but has paid underfunded pension plans holder payments,” said $1.5 billion in dividends to notify and obtain 5 Meet the CCPA’s new Director of Policy and Research

HE CCPA IS very excited to What drew you to the CCPA? tax reform, job growth and trade welcome Gauri Sreenivasan strategies will create a more even Truth be told, I’ve been skulking to its team. Gauri has worked playing field for ordinary Canadians around the CCPA for years hoping for progressive causes in and build a secure future for their for an invite to the party. I was a Tcivil society, parliamentary and families? How will that differ for long-time admirer of the Alternative academic spheres for over 20 years, women, for racialized Canadians, Federal Budget, and deeply involved including at the Canadian Council for for Indigenous peoples, for youth, in the Trade and Investment International Co-operation (CCIC), for people with disabilities and for Research Project—from the Doha where she led international trade, different parts of Canada? And who Development Round WTO days investment and human rights policy will mobilize to resist those changes, to the Colombia-Canada FTA fight work with colleagues in Canada and and how? and work on CETA. So I was thrilled across the Global South. Gauri went As we head into the next federal about the opportunity to join the to work on the Hill following the election, progressive people and organization at this important 2011 federal election, as Director of organizations need to find each juncture. There is significant public Parliamentary Affairs for the Official other, sometimes in uncommon and political appetite in Canada Opposition. She comes to the CCPA places, and work concertedly for policy alternatives that chart after three years as Policy and together to link the issues, see the ambitious, evidenced-based and Program Director at the Federation whole picture, and push, where realistic strategies to build a more for the Humanities and Social we can, for change that can’t be just and sustainable future. I am Sciences, the national platform rolled back. We must pay particular inspired by the excellent work the for Canada’s 91,000 scholars and attention to the sustained action team does, and excited by what students in the humanities and that will be needed to secure the the CCPA’s impact can be, working social sciences. Gauri has two national project for reconciliation strategically with other change teenage daughters, a husband, a dog between Indigenous and non- actors in and outside of government. and a cat, who are all marvelous. Indigenous Canadians. One of the The Monitor sat down with her in most important conversations December. this country has never had is now cresting with possibility just as some are ready to move on to the next Gauri, most importantly for Monitor theme. We can’t let that happen. readers, is the West truly the best? And then there’s that little thing Ooh, nice try. I am a child of the called NAFTA…. Rockies, but a long way from there now. Born and raised in Calgary, I Any New Year’s resolutions for benefited greatly from strong public 2018? bilingual immersion education and To work and learn with others with the strength that comes from being ruthless focus, constant honesty and part of a large nerdy brown family relentless hopefulness for a better that didn’t eat meat or ski. (Still world. That might be corny, but true. And no, I have never even tried What issues do you think will be you’re the one that asked for a New bacon.) I was eventually drawn to front and centre in 2018? Year’s resolution. Ontario for university and never really made it back out of the Central If the saga of the finance Indeed we did. Canadian vortex. Love visiting the department’s floundering Welcome to the CCPA, Gauri! edges, though! engagement with Canadians M regarding small business tax reform tells us anything, it is that there is an explosive debate ahead of us on the best strategies for building a more equitable economy. Which

6 average masks larger differences by race and gender. Racialized women’s in- comes were 53% of what non-racialized men take home (a 47% income gap), for example. And racialized Canadians had a low-income rate of 20.8% in 2015 Behind the compared to 12.2% for non-racialized Canadians. The new census data records that in the five years before 2016, 1.2 million new immigrants arrived in Canada, numbers accounting for 3.5% of the total pop- ulation. But again, the average total income of recent immigrants was 63% SHEILA BLOCK | NATIONAL of the non-immigrant average income in 2015—a 37% gap. Though a slight improvement from Canada’s population the 39% gap in 2005, this average also masks larger differences by gender. is changing, not becoming Women who are recent immigrants had a total average income that was more equal 41% of what non-immigrant men made on average in 2015 (a 59% gap). Recent immigrants also have a higher low-in- ensus data for 2016 released near 30.4%—almost double the poverty rate come rate of 31.4%, more than double the end of last year shows an in- for non-Indigenous children. the rate for non-immigrants. Ccreasing share of the population Between 2006 and 2016, the racialized These summary statistics provide us is made up of racialized, immigrant and population in Canada also increased— with evidence that income inequality Indigenous people, but the income gap from 5 to 7.7 million people. As a share in Canada is persistent for racialized between them and other Canadians of total population, this represents an people, recent immigrants and Indig- remains stubbornly wide. increase from 16.2% to 22.7%. However, enous people. We need to dive into For example, there were 1.7 million the income gap between racialized and these numbers more deeply to more Indigenous people in Canada in 2016, non-racialized Canadians isn’t budging. fully understand the mechanisms and accounting for 4.9% of the population, In fact, the gap slightly widened over manifestations of persistent income which is up from 3.8% in 2006. The aver- this period. inequality, but these findings should age income of this group, however, was The average total income of racialized not be a surprise to any Canadian. 75% of the non-Indigenous income in Canadians was 74% of the non-racial- Six years ago, Grace-Edward Gala- 2015 (a 25% gap), a very minor improve- ized Canadian income in 2015—a 26% buzi and I published a report, Canada’s ment from the 27% gap in 2005. That income gap, up from 25% in 2005. This Colour-Coded Labour Market, which average also masks larger differences. documented employment and income Indigenous women’s incomes were 55% inequality for racialized Canadians. The of non-Indigenous men’s incomes—a CCPA’s David Macdonald has partnered 45% gap. with Dan Wilson to document Indige- There are other gaps as well. First nous child poverty and the income gap Nations individuals had an average between Indigenous and non-Indige- total income of $31,519 in 2015, which nous people for many years. is 66% of the non-Indigenous average The latest census data simply con- total income. In other words, the aver- firms the reality that racialized people, age income gap between First Nations people who are recent immigrants, and and non-Indigenous people in Canada First Nations Indigenous people continue to face dis- is 33%. crimination and that income inequality This data show that Indigenous individuals had an doesn’t just magically reverse itself. people continue to be more likely to average total This will require policy development, live in poverty as measured by the af- implementation, and hard dollars. M ter-tax low-income measure (LIM-AT). income of $31,519 SHEILA BLOCK IS A SENIOR ECONOMIST WITH Indigenous people have a low-income THE CCPA-ONTARIO. FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER in 2015 — 66% of @ rate of 23.6%, much higher than the SHEILA_M_BLOCK. 13.8% for non-Indigenous people. The the non-Indigenous poverty rate for Indigenous children is average. 7 MICHAEL JAMES | NATIONAL civil society groups—claim a mission of developing and promoting the prin- ciples of a just transition. We’re just in time But what are we talking about when we use the term “just transition”? for a just transition This concept advocates for precisely what it says: a transition away from a high-carbon economy to one that is or most working people, environ- oil and natural gas industries come equitable by design. A just transition mental concerns have historically increasingly under fire, these words is an approach to climate policy that Fbeen a bit like Harvey Dent—two remind us that the lives and fortunes values, accommodates and involves faced. One face says that poisoned of working people across the world are workers from the outset. water supplies and changing weather tied up in policies designed to mitigate Any semblance of justice in poli- patterns threaten our health, our way and adapt to climate change. cy-making requires open conversation of life and our planet. The other face Our post–Paris Agreement world between all stakeholders, with par- says we do not entirely understand has witnessed a recent surge of dis- ticular attention paid to the voices human-environment interaction and cussion and publication regarding just and concerns of those people most cannot endure the loss of good-paying transition, with labour organizations vulnerable to the possible effects of jobs in economies focused primarily on and their supporters leading the way. change. A just transition toward a more resource extraction and energy produc- Coalition organizations like Blue Green sustainable economy, then, requires an tion. As a result, working people often Canada and the Labour Network for understanding of the social dimensions end up on both sides of environmental Sustainability—which bring together and consequences of new policies. That policy debates. labour unions, environmentalists and means respectful, democratic dialogue Organized labour has grappled with between affected communities, indus- this apparent contradiction for decades. Demonstration against open-cast try and government—not top down In the 1990s, the phrase “just transition” brown coal mining in Garzweiler, prescriptions. was adopted by organizations attempt- northwest of Cologne, Germany, For labour organizations, just ing to square job-related concerns with November 5, 2017. transition means that workers who environmental concerns. As the coal, REUTERS/WOLFGANG RATTAY will be directly affected by Canada’s 8 commitments to reduce emissions— JIM SILVER | MANITOBA namely, those employed in coal, oil and natural gas production—must be recognized for their contributions Reasons to be skeptical and brought along, rather than left behind, in the shift to a more sustain- of KPMG’s advice for the able economy. This will require careful, democratic planning in phasing out province fossil fuel extraction and combustion, income and training supports, and tar- geted investments in areas dependent t is curious that the Pallister govern- year, the firm acknowledged “it has on high-carbon jobs. ment would have hired consulting been alleged that tax advice given So can we do it? For advocates of a Ifirm KPMG to provide advice on how to Gupta entities involving offshore just transition the answer is yes, but to manage the province’s affairs. Not structures was illegal or improper,” but principled, thoughtful policy-making that Canadian governments don’t do added “KPMG did not act unlawfully or will be a key component of success. this all the time. But KPMG’s actions improperly in giving the advice.” Given Representatives from the Alberta across the world and in Canada—some KPMG’s activities elsewhere, the claim Federation of Labour and Canadian illegal, many promoting the interests of calls to mind Richard Nixon’s famous as- Labour Congress to the UN’s Framework the exceptionally rich at the expense surance to Americans: “I’m not a crook.” Convention on Climate Change have of the rest of us—suggest we should In 2014 and 2015, KPMG SA did con- advocated for the principles of just be wary of whatever input they have to sulting work and produced a report transition to be included in policies de- offer. for the South African Revenue Service signed to reduce pollution and carbon In South Africa, KPMG is currently (SARS). In their September 2017 press emissions. These organizations, and a embroiled in a major scandal involv- statement, the company said their own constellation of like-minded groups, rec- ing its relationship with the wealthy, report’s findings “should no longer be re- ognize that climate policies will produce influential and controversial Gupta lied upon” after it was revealed “to have economic disruption, and that disrup- family. KPMG SA was the auditor for been seriously compromised by the tion—if left unmitigated—will directly the family’s companies when in 2013 inclusion of at least 16 points in its rec- impact workers. But done properly, this several million dollars were diverted to ommendations and findings copied and transition can address climate concerns a lavish Gupta wedding in Sun City. The pasted from recommendations made by while providing a robust array of good company admitted in a September 15, SARS’ own legal representatives.” jobs to reinvigorate our economy. 2017 press statement that “the audit In other words, KPMG was investigat- At the CCPA, research into the teams failed to apply sufficient profes- ing SARS but allowed the government policy framework for a just transition sional skepticism and to comply fully agency’s legal firm to write the con- to environmental and socioeconomic with auditing standards.” clusions to what was meant to be an sustainability is in high gear. Our pre- KPMG SA also provided tax avoidance “independent” report. The revelations liminary review, which will be published advice to Gupta businesses (offshore were enough for South Africa’s leading on the CCPA website in January, has tax avoidance schemes are a specialty big business association, BLSA, to focused on the strengths and gaps in of KPMG). In the same statement last suspend KPMG’s membership (even existing federal and provincial transi- tion policies, as well as the potential impacts on workers of climate policies put in place to support Canada’s Paris Agreement commitments. Our work will help inform the devel- opment of a social safety net robust and adaptive enough to support workers as they transition to new green sectors. The low-carbon transition may be inevitable, but a just transition is not. Purposeful, evidence-based policy is critical to developing a low-carbon future that creates opportunity for everyone who lives and works in Canada. M MICHAEL JAMES IS A MASTERS STUDENT IN THE INSTITUTE OF POLITICAL ECONOMY AT CARLETON UNIVERSITY AND A CO-OP STUDENT IN THE CCPA’S NATIONAL OFFICE.

PHOTO BY HÅKAN DAHLSTRÖM/FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS 9 after KPMG SA had fired nine of its top While helping the governing international body of executives). KPMG’s global chairman soccer,” reported the New York Times. has apologized for the firm’s failings in wealthy people At the same time, more than 1,000 South Africa, which were compared to and corporations current and former female employees at a “near-death experience” by the new KPMG US are engaged in a class action head of KPMG SA. avoid paying gender discrimination lawsuit accusing Closer to home, KPMG US paid a fine taxes, KPMG is the company “of developing a hostile of $456 million in 2005 for an illegal tax work environment in which women avoidance scheme—part of a “deferred busy advising are underpaid and rarely promoted to prosecution agreement” designed to governments how leadership roles,” according to a May avoid an indictment. The IRS put it this 2016 report in Accountancy Age. The way in an August 29 statement that to cut spending on article adds, “the lawsuit contains year: “In the largest criminal tax case public services. details of how KPMG slashed [the lead ever filed, KPMG has admitted that it plaintiff’s] base salary by $20,000 while engaged in a fraud that generated at she was on maternity leave because she least $11 billion dollars (sic) in phony was being paid ‘too much.’” KPMG has tax losses which, according to court denied these allegations. papers, cost the United States at least Still closer to home, CBC reported $2.5 billion dollars in evaded taxes.” in March 2016 that the Canada Reve- Between 1996 and 2003, KPMG “con- of its tax officials had been fired or nue Agency (CRA) had a year earlier spired to defraud the IRS by designing, forced to retire, and that the company offered amnesty to wealthy Canadians marketing and implementing illegal tax had “undertaken significant change in caught using an offshore tax “sham” shelters,” the statement continued. its business practices.” Nevertheless, designed, marketed and implemented Mark Everson, then commissioner of the firm was once again in hot water by KPMG. Jonathan Garbutt, described the IRS, added the following: in April 2017, after it reportedly fired six as “a veteran Bay Street tax lawyer,” is employees, including the head of its quoted describing the CRA plan as “out- At some point such conduct passes audit practice in the U.S., for receiving rageous,” since it suggests “If you’re rich from clever accounting and lawyering improper warnings of impending audits and wealthy, you get a second chance, to theft from the people. We simply by the non-profit Public Company Ac- but if you’re not, you’re stuck.” can’t tolerate flagrant abuse of the counting Oversight Board. Although the letter offering amnesty law and of professional obligations by “The announcement is another to the wealthy tax avoiders is silent tax practitioners, particularly those potential blow to KPMG’s reputation about whether KPMG would also be associated with so-called blue chip after questions have been raised in offered amnesty, it was reported at the firms like KPMG. recent years about why it failed to time that “experts consulted by CBC Responding to these findings of ille- uncover illegal sales practices at Wells News raised concerns that the large gality, KPMG said more than a dozen Fargo or potential corruption at FIFA, accounting firm, with close ties to

Boost the impact of your monthly CCPA donation just by switching from credit card to direct debit! YOUR Switching to direct debit contributions from your bank account can save up to 6% in processing fees every month. That means more of your contribution will be DONATION put to work funding research that promotes equality and social justice.

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Send mail to 500-251 Bank St, Ottawa, ON K2P 1X3. For more information, contact Jennie at 1-613-563-1341 10 FURTHER ext. 305 or [email protected]. the federal government, could also be REBECCA GRAFF-MCRAE | ALBERTA off the hook.” (A Fifth Estate/Enquête investigation later found that some correspondence from the CRA’s lead Membership-only enforcer went missing and was likely deleted leading up to the amnesty.) clinics blur lines Starting in 1999, KPMG marketed the tax-avoidance scheme to Canadians in health care with a net worth $5 million or more. One KPMG client told the Fifth Estate “the tax dodge was based on a simple—if eoliberalism is a way of defining the province (and many more across fictitious—idea that ‘high net worth’ human beings by the market, of the country) that are owned by just a clients give away their fortunes to an Ntransforming them from political handful of companies operating on a Isle of Man shell company. The money citizens into mere consumers. This de- similar business model. would be invested offshore and would politicization is nowhere more insidious These clinics first emerged in Alberta be returned back to Canada, again than in health care, where the principles as an ostensible solution to long wait untaxed, also as a so-called gift.” of universality and equal access still times and general physician (GP) short- One wealthy family in Victoria, B.C., underpin the Canadian system. ages, since they allowed some people who put $26 million into the scheme Some health care providers, however, to bypass the public system. In reality, in 2002 and 2003, is reported to have have found ways to commercialize parallel private systems do nothing to paid a mere $3,049 in taxes over 10 medicine while professing to remain improve wait times and actually reduce years leading up to 2011, while KPMG within the bounds of the Canada Health the number of physicians and other collected $300,000 in fees. When the Act. Accessory fees, block fees, private health providers working in the public parliamentary finance committee held surgical fees and membership fees are system. Seeking another justification hearings on tax evasion and avoidance all attempts to profit from the ill, the for the private clinics, at the height of in June 2016, the director of Canadians injured and the “worried well”—other- the oil boom they were promoted as for Tax Fairness reported that he “got a wise healthy people who, fearing they a luxury benefit for corporations to gag order” prohibiting him or any other may be unwell, seek out medical advice attract in-demand executives. witness from referring specifically to for reassurance. Yet despite the proliferation of exclu- KPMG, as insisted by KPMG lawyers. Private membership clinics, for exam- sive, fee-based clinics, and a growing It is a splendid irony that even while ple, exploit gaps in and pose a risk to the acknowledgement of their potential to helping wealthy people and corpora- public system. The Parkland Institute erode the public system, there is shock- tions avoid paying their fair share of has identified 10 for-profit medical ingly little information available about taxes (and taking a cut of 15% of the clinics in Alberta, eight of which oper- the number of such facilities, their taxes that are avoided), KPMG is still ate on a membership basis. They exist practices and the indirect costs to the busy advising governments, like the within a network of over 30 facilities in public. My new Parkland report, Blurred one currently running Manitoba, to cut Lines: Private Membership Clinics and spending on public services that are im- Public Health Care, attempts to fill that portant to all of us, and especially those information gap. who do not qualify as high net worth. Private membership clinics are not Boost the impact of your monthly Given KPMG’s record, of which I am harmless appendages to the health relating only a small part, why would system. Investigations by the Globe CCPA donation just by switching the Pallister government have hired and Mail (in collaboration with the this company to provide advice on Ontario Health Coalition) and CBC from credit card to direct debit! governing Manitoba, at a reported have uncovered serious allegations of cost of $740,000? Either they knew the systemic wrongdoing at private clinics YOUR Switching to direct debit contributions from your bank company’s history and contracted them across the country. account can save up to 6% in processing fees every out anyway, or they did not know, which The unexpected closure this past would be just as irresponsible. Which- Allegations of September of Alberta’s membership month. That means more of your contribution will be ever the case, it seems fairly obvious lobbying, conflict fee–based Landmark Collaborative put to work funding research that promotes equality whose interests KPMG serves, and that Health clinic left patients, physicians DONATION should make almost all Manitobans of interest and employees with unanswered and social justice. skeptical of their advice M. and experimental questions and no recourse. Meanwhile, JIM SILVER IS A PROFESSOR IN THE UNIVERSITY OF allegations of lobbying, conflict of inter- It’s easy. Just send us a quick note with WINNIPEG’S DEPARTMENT OF URBAN AND INNER- therapies by the est and experimental therapies by the CITY STUDIES AND A RESEARCH ASSOCIATE WITH CAN GO your phone number and a void cheque. THE CCPA-MANITOBA. Pure North clinic Pure North clinic provoked a scandal that implicated Alberta’s deputy min- provoked a ister of health. Send mail to 500-251 Bank St, Ottawa, ON K2P 1X3. scandal in Alberta. For more information, contact Jennie at 1-613-563-1341 FURTHER 11 ext. 305 or [email protected]. FEES CHARGED BY CLINIC

Annual Platinum or Executive Health Clinic Name Membership Fee Renewal Fee Other Packages Assessment Fee

Preventous Collaborative Health $4,895 $3,300 $1,595

Provital Health & Wellness $4,200 $3,360 $6,300 $1,375

Advanced Primary Care $3,025 $2,775 n/a

InLiv $4,495 $3,200 (excludes $1,495 executive heatlh assessment)

Copeman $4,495 $3,495 $1,850

Femme & Homme Concierge Clinic $3,800 $8,500 and up $1,900

North Town Medical Clinic Not available Not available

Dominion Health $1,775 SOURCE: BLURRED LINES, PARKLAND INSTITUTE (2017)

Between 2012 and 2014, Alberta responsibility with frontline cuts to “We will act” on any findings of fraud at Health audited three clinics to deter- health services, with private enterprise the Copeman clinics. mine if their billing practices and access filling the void. Frequently, high-profile The legacy of PC-era laissez-faire ide- policies violated the Canada Health party members will profit financially and ology still prevails in much of Alberta’s Act. The Copeman Healthcare clinics politically from these investments in a political and economic discourse. Given in Edmonton and Calgary are currently privatized system. these challenges, does the political undergoing such an audit. But in re- So what of the governing NDP? In will exist to protect and strengthen searching my report, I found it difficult its 2015 campaign platform, the party Alberta’s public health care services to access information concerning the championed the public health care and resist privatization by stealth? In- audit process, which is convoluted, system and vowed to “end the [Progres- creased transparency regarding the ambiguous and obscure. The regula- sive Conservatives’] costly experiments operation of private clinics, alongside tions related to freedom of information with privatization.” Health Minister improved oversight and regulation, (FOI) requests also frustrate attempts Sarah Hoffman has made a few pivotal would send a clear signal to Albertans to piece together an accurate picture decisions that suggest this is still the that equal access to high-quality, effi- of the clinics under scrutiny. plan: the reintegration of laboratory cient health care is truly a right and not The most significant barrier to services into the public system; halting a privilege. M transparency was that any information the privatization of laundry services; REBECCA GRAFF-MCRAE IS RESEARCH MANAGER that may impact the business interests the extension of midwifery services; FOR PARKLAND INSTITUTE AND AUTHOR OF THE NEW REPORT BLURRED LINES: PRIVATE MEMBERSHIP of a third party is considered exempt and calling a fresh audit prompted CLINICS AND PUBLIC HEALTH CARE, WHICH IS from FOI requests and therefore by new allegations against Copeman AVAILABLE AT WWW.PARKLANDINSTITUTE.CA. FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER @POLISCIRISH. routinely redacted or denied. When Healthcare in 2016. attempting to shed light on the inter- Amidst this support for public fi- section of corporate business practices nancing and public delivery of health and government operations, this rule care services, the NDP’s ambivalence effectively privileges corporate rights regarding private membership clinics over accountability and transparency seems somewhat irregular. The gov- in the public interest. ernment is clearly aware of the threat We can trace the roots of the current posed by these clinics and their prac- wave of health privatization back to the tices, yet its efforts to address the issue Klein era. Today, the United Conservative appear piecemeal rather than part of Party continues to promote a similar a coherent policy. It is not clear what economic strategy that equates fiscal Minister Hoffman means when she says

12 a tax-free savings account (TFSA) instead, because money ALTERNATE drawn from a TFSA does not impact GIS. In true backwards fashion, consider using an RRSP only FUTURES after you turn 65, once you start earning OAS, GIS and CPP benefits. Adding money to an RRSP after you turn 65 ROBIN SHABAN effectively “reduces” income for the purposes of calculating GIS payments, giving you more GIS. The very useful pamphlet, Low Income Retirement Plan- Retiring on a low ning: Four Things to Think About (available on Stapleton’s website openpolicyontario.com), illustrates the point this income? Ignore way. Mary is single, just turned 65 and has an income of $18,000. Her current income makes her ineligible for GIS. However, through her working years she did not contribute the conventional much to an RRSP, so she has $60,000 of contribution room. To maximize her GIS payments, Mary took out a $10,000 wisdom. RRSP loan each year, which reduced her taxable income to zero, making her eligible for some GIS income. After she turns 71, she will be forced to make withdrawals on her RRSP (the RRSP will transform into a registered retirement F YOU ARE planning your retirement, and expect to make income fund, or RRIF), will no longer be eligible for GIS less than about $20,000 each year after you turn 65, take and will have to pay higher taxes. However, the additional all the personal finance articles you have collected over income she got from higher GIS payments combined with Ithe years, crumple them up in a big ball, and toss them in the trash. That advice doesn’t apply to you, and could actually leave you financially worse off. John Stapleton explained why during a talk at the Ottawa library this October titled “Planning for Retire- If you anticipate retiring ment on a Low Income: What You Need to Know.” To on a low income, consider best manage your finances as you approach old age, he said, it is often best to do the opposite of what most withdrawing all your personal finance writers, financially savvy friends and money from RRSPs before conventional wisdom have told you, particularly as it relates to RRSPs. you turn 65. For example, if you expect your post-65 income (exclud- ing Old Age Security payments) to be less than $17,688 a year, or $23,376 in the case of couples, your best financial strategy is to maximize the income you can get from the her lower tax rate is greater than the additional taxes she Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS), a refundable tax will pay once she turns 71. credit and companion program to OAS. There are many other factors to consider if you are GIS is geared to income, which means the government anticipating retiring on a low income, such as how many calculates how much to give you each month based on your hours you should work (the “St. Patrick’s Day rule”), deciding previous year’s income as reported on your taxes. For every whether to take early CPP benefits, receiving honorariums, dollar of income you earn over $3,500—from any source and so on. I highly encourage you to take a look at the including employment, pensions, RRSP withdrawals, CPP pamphlet Low Income Retirement Planning: Four Things benefits, investments, or honorariums over $500—you to Think About. Income tax clinics may also offer individ- receive 50 to 92 cents less in GIS/OAS. ualized advice. So, maximizing your GIS payments means managing But most importantly, the first step in maximizing your income to minimize the amount of GIS/OAS that is clawed benefits is to file your taxes! If you do not file your taxes, back. To do this, you can use RRSPs and other financial you cannot receive GIS payments or many other benefits tools in the opposite way to how mid-and high-income you are entitled to. retirees would use them. For this article, I’m going to talk Fundamentally, more needs to be done to help recipients about RRSPs. of programs like GIS to both understand the complexities of Conventional wisdom says you should deposit your these programs and develop financial strategies for retire- retirement savings into an RRSP from which you draw ment. Mid- and high-income Canadians have vast numbers once you retire. However, if you anticipate retiring on a of experts at their disposal to help them plan for retirement low income, consider withdrawing all your money before (for a fee). There should be better supports to assist lower-in- you turn 65 (they call this “melting” your RRSP). Money come Canadians who face the same realities. M taken out of an RRSP after you turn 65 counts as income ROBIN SHABAN IS AN ECONOMIST BASED IN OTTAWA. YOU CAN REACH HER AT against your GIS. If you have savings, look into opening up [email protected]. 13 In the news

THE B.C. BUDGET WE NEED A new government has the resources to fix the province’s shortfalls on housing, education, health care and climate. CCPA researchers explain how they could do it.

When the previous B.C. government modest down payment with a com- HOUSING brought in a 15% foreign buyer tax in mitment to build a total of 3,700 new August 2016, Metro Vancouver’s hous- housing units (1,700 affordable rental ritish Columbia’s real estate boom ing market paused with a drop in real and 2,000 modular units to house the has created winners and losers, estate transactions and a dip in prices homeless). This half-billion-dollar Bleading to a growing housing at the high end of the market. More investment in new housing is much affordability crisis with tremendous recently, however, the upward trajec- needed, but these amounts are spread social and economic consequences. tory in prices has returned: housing over three to four years and cover the Metro Vancouver continues to was 17% more expensive in September entire province, not just Metro Van- have a massive housing affordability 2017 than it was 12 months earlier. couver, where the affordability crisis problem—in both home ownership Rental housing stock has also become is most acute. and rental markets—that threatens more expensive due to extremely low The February budget needs to to undermine the region’s long-term vacancy rates. make stronger annual commitments prosperity. Moreover, the 2017 Home- The 2018 provincial budget needs toward the new government’s election less Count revealed that homelessness to launch a comprehensive housing af- promise of 114,000 new units over 10 in Metro Vancouver is up 30% from fordability plan for Metro Vancouver years. A diverse range of housing 2014; shockingly, one in five homeless and other parts of B.C. facing afforda- options—from housing for people people were employed full or part bility challenges. The government’s who are homeless, to assisted living time. budget update in September made a and residential care for seniors, to 14 flow of rental income over the lifespan of residential real estate in Metro Van- of the buildings. couver. This should be viewed as part In addition, the 2018 budget should of a broader, long-term plan to manage support and upgrade existing afforda- the local housing market in the inter- ble housing stock through a Housing ests of those who live and work in the Renewal Fund. In particular, co-op- city. The foreign buyer tax should be eratives and social housing run by extended to all parts of B.C. non-profits, as well as interventions in On the other hand, the budget the private rental market, are needed should end the HOME partnership and could be combined with energy program of interest-free loans to efficiency retrofit programs. first-time buyers (for five years, with To finance these essential housing the loan repaid with interest over the investments, and to make the tax following 20 years). The new program system fairer, let’s make the property was widely and rightly panned by tax system progressive. As I’ve written economists when announced in De- previously in the Monitor, we can do cember 2016 for the same reasons it that by applying a property surtax of won praise from developers and the 0.5% on home values between $1 mil- construction industry: it artificially lion and $1.5 million, 1% between $1.5 boosts the market by encouraging new million and $2 million, 1.5% between $2 buyers to take on increased household million and $3 million, and 2% above debt. $3 million. In the lead-up to the February Such a progressive property tax on budget, eyes will also be on the federal all residential properties, regardless government, which has just released of whether or not the owner resides a national housing strategy. Now that in B.C., would raise substantial reve- all levels of government are talking nues—about $1.7 billion per year in about new affordable housing invest- Metro Vancouver alone—to support ments, hopefully 2018 will see a return an ambitious affordable/social hous- to partnerships for a multi-decade ing construction plan while tackling housing build out to address the crisis. growing wealth inequality. (Marc Lee, senior economist with the Another way to make the property CCPA-BC.) tax system more progressive would ILLUSTRATION BY KATIE RASO be to reformulate the $800-million- per-year Home Owner Grant (HOG) into a housing grant that would go to owner and renter households alike and be linked to income. That is, it could be designed to provide greater help to low-income households then innovative tenure arrangements like phased out gradually as household community land trust models—could income rises (as is the case for Old Age be financed. This build-out should Security or the Canada Child Benefit). focus primarily on rental housing This new housing grant would level and include a spectrum of housing the playing field between renters and options that work for people with owners. For example, the government different incomes and at different has promised a renter’s rebate of $400 stages in their life. The lion’s share, per year (at an estimated cost of about HEALTH CARE however, should be focused on social $200 million per year) while currently and co-op housing. all homeowners receive $570 per year rovincial health spending as a A housing commitment to build in the HOG. Shifting to a new housing share of our economy has been 11,400 units per year translates into grant would eliminate the HOG for Prelatively steady in recent years, an annual public investment of the wealthiest households in order and is projected to fall from 7.8% of about $3 billion per year, although to provide a grant to renters. GDP in 2009 to 7.4% in 2019, accord- this amount could decrease if public In regards to other actions taken ing to the government’s September land owned by municipalities or the by the previous B.C. government to budget update. B.C. government is contributed. This address affordability, the February If, however, we want to tackle the upfront capital cost, however, would budget should maintain the 15% prop- opioid crisis, enhance seniors care, re- be more than paid back through the erty transfer tax on foreign purchases duce surgical wait times and decrease 15 drug costs, government leadership invest in new urgent care centres bargaining. It was also vital after years and investment are needed. around the province. of chronic underfunding by the previ- The September budget update Budget 2018 should also fast-track ous government. included a three-year commitment the development of a drugs program The new funding to restore class to fight the opioid emergency and to increase access to needed medicines size and composition provisions ille- fund the establishment of a new and reduce costs. We recommend mak- gally stripped from teachers’ contracts Ministry of Mental Health and Ad- ing this the first phase in developing means that thousands of new teachers dictions, both of which are welcome a universal pharmacare program, have been hired and class sizes are and urgently needed. Budget 2018 which a growing body of evidence being reduced across the province. must provide the funding to bring demonstrates would reduce drug costs This February’s budget should programs and supports online as dramatically. invest the resources necessary to rapidly as possible. Finally, for capital expenditures— ensure that students with learning Earlier this year, the previous gov- including hospitals, residential care disabilities, special needs and those for ernment, after failing to meet its own facilities and urgent care centres—the whom English is not a first language minimum staffing guidelines in more 2018 budget should end the use of can reach their full potential. One in than 90% of seniors’ residential care wasteful public-private partnerships four classes in the public school sys- facilities, promised $500 million to (P3s). The P3 model has been repeat- tem had four or more children with begin meeting those minimums. The edly shown to increase costs while special needs during recent school new government must move quickly unnecessarily privatizing public years—a dramatic increase over the to turn this promise into reality and goods and frequently diminishing past decade. aim to accelerate the original four-year the quality of services, including in The restoration of class compo- timeline so that staffing levels at least the health sector. As a matter of good sition contract provisions will go a match the minimum standards. public policy, the infrastructure of our long way to address the problem. But The substantial cuts to B.C.’s home health care system should be owned even before the contract stripping of and residential care system by the collectively by British Columbians. the early 2000s there was room for previous government forced seniors Each of these recommended policies improvement in the level of support to rely more heavily on emergency has the dual benefit of increasing available for students. Dedicated room visits and increased the need quality of care and helping contain resources are also needed to properly for inpatient hospital beds. Those health care costs. In contrast, failing fund implementation of the recent pressures, in turn, lead to overcrowded to make proper long-term investments curriculum overhaul and to increase hospitals and longer wait times for in the public universal health system the number of educational assistants surgeries, demonstrating the need would mean that British Columbians and other support staff in schools. to follow through on reinvestment will spend more to get less. (Alex Hem- On the capital side, investment in residential care, as well as support ingway, public finance policy analyst plans should be fast-tracked to relieve services like home nursing and help with the CCPA-BC.) overcrowded schools in some districts with cooking and bathing. and complete necessary seismic Other key measures to reduce upgrading to keep all B.C. kids safe. surgical wait times include actively Capital funds are also needed to cover managing wait lists and adopting deferred maintenance needs that have best practices in surgical procedures piled up during the long period of and patient care, like those already underfunding. developed by local surgical teams here Public funding of private schools in B.C. and by public health systems in should be reviewed with an eye to other provinces and countries. eliminating the practice, particularly We also recommend that the in the case of elite private schools 2018 budget include measures to that currently receive 35% of the improve patient care by developing per-student funding supplied to the interdisciplinary teams of health public sector. The total public funding care professionals who work closely EDUCATION of private schools in B.C. is nearly $400 together. These teams could include million this budget year. physicians working with dieticians, he B.C. government’s September On the post-secondary side, the physiotherapists and nurse prac- budget update included significant September budget update took the titioners. This dovetails with both Tnew funding for K-12 education. welcome step of eliminating tuition commitments in the government’s This was expected in light of last fees for adult basic education and Eng- confidence and supply agreement year’s Supreme Court of Canada ruling lish language learning programs, and with the B.C. Green Party, as well as that teachers have a right to negotiate expanded tuition waivers for youth with their election commitment to class size and composition in collective aging out of the foster care system.

16 We recommend that this year’s budget per child. This is another positive step diesel power. Another key strategy is build on this by extending eligibility that will help address the regressive expanding low-carbon district energy for tuition waivers to age 30 (it’s cur- nature of the carbon tax for low-in- in urban areas, modelled on Vancou- rently 26) as well as eliminating fees for come households. ver’s Neighbourhood Energy Utility, other important adult developmental A key recommendation of the previ- which taps waste heat from the sewers education programs like adult special ous government’s Climate Leadership to provide space and water heating in education and Career Choices, which Team was that B.C. should go back to southeast False Creek. were also tuition-free prior to 2014. increasing the carbon tax annually Zero waste. Invest to develop There is a pressing need to increase by $10 per tonne starting in 2018. ͸ new capabilities for processing funding for colleges and universities. Our research has argued that half of recycled materials in B.C. Bring in For public post-secondary institu- carbon tax revenues should flow into a deposit-and-return systems for con- tions, provincial operating grants have reformed carbon credit, and the other sumer packaging and containers. Use plummeted as a share of revenue and half be made available to fund climate provincial procurement power and institutions have been forced to in- action initiatives. minimum recycled content require- crease reliance on tuition fees, which is First, carbon pricing must be ments to boost the domestic market pushing student debt to new heights. sensitive to equity impacts. Moving for recycled materials. Budget 2018 must also increase forward, we recommend a reformed financial support for post-secondary carbon credit system that would reach ͸ Forest conservation and steward- students. We recommend a compre- a larger share of B.C. households. This ship. Focus on sustainable forestry hensive grants program to make credit would gradually phase out and value-added activities to create post-secondary education free for as income rises, but overall 80% of good jobs in rural areas. lower-income families, with the future households would receive at least a Just transition. Develop and sup- aim of a universal reduction and ulti- partial credit. ͸ port just transition policies to ensure mately the elimination of all tuition Second, for B.C. to say no to liquefied B.C. resource industry workers and fees. (Alex Hemingway) natural gas (LNG) and other propos- their communities are not left behind. als to expand fossil fuel production and infrastructure, an alternative In addition, B.C. must plan for adapt- investment agenda is needed. With ing to climate change. Last summer’s additional carbon tax revenues and record wildfire season is estimated to an ambitious capital/infrastructure cost the provincial treasury $500 mil- plan, B.C. could pursue more aggres- lion (not counting private insured and sive climate action investments. For uninsured losses). This highlights the example: growing future costs of our collective inaction. Retrofitting buildings. Re-invest ͸ In recent years, the B.C. budget has in the LiveSmart B.C. home retrofit routinely allocated only $63 million program, with emphasis on multi-unit per year toward firefighting while buildings, including rental housing, costs have typically been much higher. and older (less energy efficient) hous- This represents a budgetary form of ing stock. In addition, energy retrofits climate change denial, a belief that an ENVIRONMENT AND of public buildings, including schools, extreme wildfire season only happens CLIMATE hospitals and other public buildings. rarely when such seasons seem to be ritish Columbia’s carbon tax ͸ Low-carbon transportation. Large occurring at least every couple of raises $1.2 billion per year for the new investments in public transit for years. This ongoing need for firefight- Bprovince, but under the previous Metro Vancouver and other cities ing should be reflected in the budget. government’s policy of “revenue in B.C. are needed to improve the Budgets are about choices. The neutrality” about two-thirds of that quantity and quality of services and new B.C. government has taken some money went to pay for corporate tax to give people more and better options important steps to improve carbon cuts. If these revenues were allocated for getting around. pricing, but for B.C. to reassert the instead to climate action initiatives mantle of leadership the 2018 budget Renewable energy. The province the impact of the carbon tax would ͸ must step in with new climate action needs to shift to 100% renewable be much greater. investments. (Marc Lee) energy as quickly as possible. Meas- M The September B.C. budget update ures that can insert small and broke with revenue neutrality, a community-scale renewables should welcome development, and increased be supported, including efforts by the low-income carbon credit to a First Nations to get communities off maximum of $135 per adult and $40

17 In the news

PHOTO BY PARKER TOWNES (THE FULCRUM)

MATT CICERO Safe injection site defies government and gets results Overdose Prevention Ottawa has saved lives and changed the public conversation on drug policy

his summer, a group of harm and former drug user. Volunteers say consumers’ knowledge. In Canada reduction advocates set up a cou- approximately one person a week dies 2,816 people died from drug overdoses Tple of large tents in a tiny park in as a result of drug overdoses in Ottawa. in 2016, and the number of deaths was downtown Ottawa so that people would Jamison was one of the small group predicted to be higher in 2017. have a space to smoke and inject drugs of people who were fed up with waiting “I think it was brought to more public without risking their lives. for government action. They decided to attention when people from all back- Organized by a group calling them- open a site where people could smoke grounds started dying. It wasn’t just selves Overdose Prevention Ottawa and inject drugs in safety. Their sense of marginalized street people, but young (OPO), the pop-up overdose prevention urgency sprang from the overdose crisis girls in Kanata [an Ottawa suburb] who site opened in response to an alarming occurring throughout Canada and the were dying,” Leila Attar, a core organizer spike in life-threatening overdoses that United States. with Overdose Prevention Ottawa, told included the deaths of three people in The epidemic began several years me. the Ottawa area. ago when drugs such as fentanyl and Over the past three years, as the “People are dying in ridiculous num- carfentanil were added to street drugs opioid crisis has grown, the demo- bers,” said Robert Jamison, an advocate to increase their potency, without graphics of those dying by overdose 18 Recommendations for a B.C. Opioid Action Plan

he following recommendations are PILLAR 3: OPIOID patients can be supported with SDOH taken from an open letter to the ADDICTION TREATMENT interventions, counselling and so forth TB.C. government, dated October as below. 30, 2017, calling for “a comprehensive Develop comprehensive, integrated • SDOH supports for individual patients: review of the [opioid overdose issue] opioid addiction treatment centres income, housing, food, social support, and the generation of strategic staffed with addictions specialists that education and others. interventions addressing the multiple include: causal factors.” The letter, which was • Integrated primary health care for • Baseline care with options for signed by Seth Klein, director of the treating co-morbidities (mental injectable or oral pharmaceutical CCPA–BC, outlined four pillars that illness, chronic pain, hepatitis, HIV, opioids, including Suboxone, should be part of an urgent B.C. Opioid cardiovascular disease, diabetes) and methadone, diacetylmorphine (heroin), Action Plan. other addictions (alcohol, tobacco). hydromorphone (Dilaudid) and oral slow release morphine. Experience • Counselling and psychosocial supports has shown that for most patients, (e.g., 12 steps) and supportive PILLAR 1: PREVENTION Suboxone or methadone will meet residential care to enable transition their needs, but for a small minority from opioid treatment with heroin, Given that opioid addiction is a “disease these other options are required. Oral hydromorphone, etc., to methadone of despair,” co-ordinated action is opioid antagonists such as naltrexone or Suboxone and, when possible, to needed by all levels of government may also be considered. As these abstinence. to address the [social determinants medications will be prescribed by of health, or SDOH] (poverty and • Training and education for employment physicians with addictions training, homelessness, etc.) and socioeconomic such as peer counselling or as clinical judgement will ensure that the inequity through strategies with appropriate to past education, training most cost-effective and appropriate legislated goals, budgets and timelines. and work experience. medication will be prescribed. • For some, eventual abstinence and This approach is recommended for PILLAR 2: HARM REDUCTION return to family, community and work. several reasons: Many of these actions have been • The provision of pharmaceutical PILLAR 4: ENFORCEMENT initiated but need expansion: opioids in a therapeutic setting has been shown in a number of • Make naloxone more available: “take Possession of small amounts of jurisdictions to virtually eliminate home” supplies and the expanded drugs for personal use should be infectious diseases (hepatitis and use of nasal spray format (for first decriminalized. Treating people as HIV) and overdose deaths related responders uncomfortable with criminals contributes to their ongoing to opioid use (as patients are no injections). stigmatization, and leads to social longer consuming illicit street drugs isolation and solo drug use without • Explore and evaluate drug checking contaminated with toxic materials such supportive peers and access to naloxone programs to establish the evidence for as fentanyl or infectious agents). and other emergency measures, and drug checking as an intervention to • To maximize the goal of replacing the thus contributes to the epidemic of prevent overdoses and deaths. toxic illicit drug market as the primary opioid deaths. Decriminalization can be • Expand the availability of supervised source for people not yet in addiction implemented more quickly through local consumption (injection) services (SCS) treatment, pilot and evaluate several police procedural change and does not for those continuing to use illicit street low-threshold [public] programs need the lengthy legal and legislative drugs. delivered through a wider array of processes to achieve legalization of points of service including clinics, opioids. • Explore, legislate and institute community health centres and harm permanent Overdose Prevention • Opioid addiction treatment should reduction programs. Service (OPS) models, especially be made available in all corrections in settings which do not have the • When pharmaceutical opioids are facilities. resources for full SCS. widely available, the criminal street market is largely eliminated and much • Expand the availability of non-opioid To read the full letters to the B.C. public expenditure avoided. pain care services (non-opioid government: https://phabc.org/ medications, myofascial release • And when brought into a secure, bc-needs-opioid-action-plan-open- treatment, etc.). supportive therapeutic setting these letter-government-bc/. 19 has changed. No longer are overdose “People need to s a result of the pop-up site, the deaths happening almost exclusively City of Ottawa opened its first to poor white people and poor people understand that supervised injection site on of colour. Now middle- and upper-class these are human ASeptember 25. The city has also sped people are affected as well. up approval for more sites. In Ontario Canadian drug policy, as in the United beings, they’re not alone, one person dies of a drug over- States, has been one of the primary urban lepers. They dose every 10 hours. mechanisms through which Black “People need to understand that people, Indigenous people and people suffer their whole these are human beings, they’re not of colour have been criminalized and life to die in an urban lepers. They suffer their whole subjected to police violence, arrest and life to die in an alleyway,” said Jamison. incarceration. alleyway.” OPO’s defiant efforts are part of a In August 2017, the UN Committee on broad movement for drug policy reform. the Elimination of Racial Discrimination The Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network stated in its review of Canada that it was listed six actions for governments to “concerned at the reported high rate of “The ultimate solution to this entire take to tackle the overdose epidemic: incarceration of Indigenous peoples overdose crisis and every single problem “Scale up overdose response measures; and persons belonging to minority with drug policy is decriminalization,” improve access to treatment for opioid groups, in particular African-Canadians, said Marilou Gagnon, a core organizer dependence; rapidly expand access to due to…overpolicing, drug policies and and nurse volunteer with Overdose safer consumption services; implement racially based sentencing.” Prevention Ottawa. comprehensive harm reduction in In 2007 the federal Conservatives prisons; strengthen harm reduction; he Ottawa safe injection site intensified the war on drugs and drug and end the ‘war on drugs.’” wasn’t much to look at. Three users through policies such as the Ottawa’s overdose prevention took Tcanopy tents with plastic tarps for National Anti-Drug Strategy, which down its tents and closed for the winter walls sat in a tiny park with a few small prioritized the use of police and prisons at the end of November. The closure trees and some worn and dying grass in an attempt to reduce drug use, and was announced on the same day a safe located beside a large empty parking the Safe Streets and Communities Act, drug use trailer opened one block away. lot. Another canopy tent sheltered a which introduced mandatory minimum But in its two-and-a-half months, the couple of plastic tables, which served as sentences for drug offences. OPO site had over 3,400 visits. Not one the reception desk and were also used The overdose epidemic has resulted drug user has died there. In a statement, to distribute food and drinks. Behind the in increased interest in drug policy from organizers said they were proud of their tables were boxes filled with medical the public, activists and the media. So efforts: gear, blankets, and other supplies. far, critics say, the federal and provin- For 74 days, we have operated without The day the pop-up site was erected cial governments are not adequately any support from any level of govern- there was a heavy police presence and addressing the crisis. ment. It is only through the tireless people were afraid of being arrested. “Right now the Liberals who are in efforts of our more than 200 volun- The site didn’t have any permits and power seem to be pretty opposed to teers, and through the donations of was not officially sanctioned by Health decriminalization, which a lot of experts thousands of private supporters [that Canada. believe is a way to address this crisis,” we] were we able to stand up where The Ottawa site followed on the heels said Attar. our government had failed so many. It of similar sites in Vancouver, Toronto Advocates of decriminalization point is shameful that so many individuals and elsewhere, and received extensive to the success of Portugal. In 2001, in have had to sacrifice so much to fix media coverage. In this context, with the midst of a heroin epidemic that that failing. But it is also truly inspiring overdose deaths at an all-time high, saw approximately 1% of the popula- to see the love, the compassion, and local politicians and Ottawa police tion addicted to the drug, the country unwavering support of our neighbours chose to let the site continue operat- decriminalized drug use and began in the face of this emergency. We have ing. Mayor Jim Watson has called the addressing it as a health issue instead created a powerful community of advo- life-saving site illegal, while councillor of a criminal issue. Decriminalization cates and we will continue to use that Mathieu Fleury publicly called for the has reportedly lowered the number strength to both demand and actively site to be raided by police. of drug cases by 75%, deaths due to build a better city for everyone. The war on drugs is killing people and overdose are five times lower than the M devastating families and communities. average in the European Union, and the THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN RICOCHET ON According to many civil society organ- rate of drug-related HIV infections has NOVEMBER 11, 2017. IT IS REPRINTED HERE WITH izations, such as the Vancouver-based dropped by 95%. PERMISSION FROM THE AUTHOR AND THE ONLINE NEWS OUTLET. Pivot Legal Society, decriminalization of drug use is central to ending the overdose epidemic.

20 Opinion

LYNN MCDONALD It’s time to abolish solitary confinement

ANADA’S FEDERAL CORRECTIONAL Proposed reforms not clear what prompted the officers’ investigator has described soli- Both the federal and Ontario gov- entry to his cell, and no charges have tary confinement as “the most ernments have promised legislative been laid. Caustere and depriving form of reform. In short, the 15-day limit is a com- incarceration that the state can legally The Ontario government com- promise measure that is not based administer in Canada.” missioned Howard Sapers, a former on evidence but indeed contrary to However, he used the term “segrega- federal correctional investigator, to considerable research documenting tion,” the standard euphemism used conduct a review of the use of solitary harm. There is no good reason to stick in the corrections system. In reality, in Ontario prisons. His report, which to it. solitary means confinement in a very was largely excellent, recommended Will correctional officers be at small cell, 23 hours a day, without better oversight of solitary confine- greater risk if solitary is abolished meaningful human contact. It is the ment, a 15-day time limit for inmates completely? Again, there is no good most extreme form of punishment in solitary (and a maximum of 60 days research to back up this widely held after hanging, flogging, the paddle, and in a year), and the exemption of preg- claim. Some countries effectively bread-and-water diets, all of which nant women, nursing mothers and the do without solitary and some U.S. have been abolished in the prison mentally ill. The Wynne government states have radically reduced its use. system. promptly committed to implementing Correctional Service Canada, and Solitary is used for several purposes these recommendations. the equivalent provincial and terri- in Canadian prisons: as punishment The federal government introduced torial services, should be looking at for infractions of prison rules; for the its own reforms last spring in Bill C-56. alternatives. protection of staff and other inmates; As in Ontario, the legislation would and for self-protection (e.g., where an limit stays in solitary—initially to 21 incarcerated former police officer days, then dropping to 15—and sets a Support for abolition fears attack). Suicidal and mentally maximum of 90 days per year for any The abolition of solitary confinement ill inmates are still routinely placed inmate. However, wardens will be able has been endorsed by the College of in solitary, despite repeated reports to override these limits under certain Family Physicians of Canada, among showing how harmful it is for their circumstances, a loophole that was other organizations. Some groups already vulnerable state of mind. roundly criticized, along with other support abolition for women inmates, The stated purpose of incarceration, contradictory elements of the law. but such a law would likely result in a for every type of prison in Canada, is For example, the 15-day limit is Charter challenge. rehabilitation. Solitary confinement based on a United Nations declaration That solitary is disproportionately was originally established with “pen- that solitary confinement beyond that used for Indigenous and Black inmates itence” in mind (time to reflect, no bad point is tantamount to “torture.” Why and the mentally ill has prompted influences), hence “penitentiaries.” 15 days? How is it that 16 days or more human rights commissions and civil Solitary, however, soon proved to is cruel and unusual punishment, even rights groups to condemn it. How- make inmates mad, not rehabilitate torture, while 14 or 15 days in solitary ever, the point remains that, even if them. would be fine? applied equally to all groups, solitary There is now a vast academic and Doctors have pointed out that both is harmful. professional literature documenting physical and mental harm occurs even By law, solitary confinement is the harm of solitary confinement, aug- with stays in solitary of two or three supposed to be used only when there mented by reports from coroners and days. The UN report that recommend- is “no reasonable alternative,” with inquiries on particularly scandalous ed the 15-day limit itself acknowledged release “at the earliest appropriate cases. Recommendations are made, that harm occurs with as little as 48 time.” The reality is that officials leave yet little changes. The federal govern- hours, as a recent case in Ontario inmates in solitary for horrendous ment has reduced its use of solitary appears to demonstrate. periods of time, and no one is held since 2014, likely in response to recent In December 2016, Soleiman Faqiri, accountable for ensuing suicides or lawsuits, and notes that assaults on an Ontario inmate with schizophrenia, other consequences. prison staff have not increased. But died in solitary after being beaten The time has come to stop the ex- the government still insists that and pepper sprayed by correctional cuses, by legislating an end to solitary solitary is needed. officers 11 days after his arrest. It’s confinement. M 21 Cover

STORY BY DAVID MACDONALD / CLIMBING ILLUSTRATION BY YAREK WASZUL AND Executive compensation is at UP record highs. Why are CEOs KICKING complaining about tax fairness DOWN and a $15 minimum wage?

22 WOMEN STILL NOT WELCOME AT THE TOP

Canada’s richest CEOs are an insular group that hardly reflects the diversity of the Canadian workforce. Of the richest 100 executives, five are named Paul, four are named Brian, three are named David, Donald, James, Jeffrey, Michael, Richard or Stephen, and three are E HAVE TO tell the truth about income inequality women whose names are Nancy, Dawn and Linda. As and what it means for Canadians,” said Prime imbalanced as this might seem, it’s an improvement from Minister Justin Trudeau in a speech on the state 2015, when there were only two women in the top-100 of Confederation in Charlottetown, P.E.I. this No- CEO ranking. vember. I couldn’t agree more. It’s something we A recent survey of 222 companies in the U.S. found that “Whave been trying to do at the CCPA for 11 years now through while women make up nearly half (47%) of entry-level our annual report on the growing gap between average CEO employees they represent only one-fifth of those in pay in Canada and the average income for everyone else. the C-Suite. Research in both the U.S. and Canada This year, that gap is bigger than it’s ever been. finds that women are less likely to be given high-profile In 2016, Canada’s 100 highest-paid CEOs made on average assignments, which creates a barrier to advancement $10.4 million — 209 times the overall average income of $49,738 into the ranks of management. In interviews, women who that year. This is the first time since the CCPA started record- have held C-Suite positions say they are often not viewed ing data on executive compensation that the ratio of CEO pay as “CEO material,” even when their performance is rated to average pay has topped 200:1 (it was 193:1 in 2015). It is the higher than their male peers. first year that the average compensation of Canada’s top 100 CEOs has surpassed the $10-million mark. Not only are women “leaning in” at the same rate as men, To put those figures in context, by 11 a.m. on January 2, the but they are being punished for doing so. A survey of top average top CEO will have earned what an average worker will companies in the U.S. found that when women asked for take home all year. The time will be 10:57 a.m. to be precise, better pay and promotion they were 30% more likely than or about when you’ve finished your second morning coffee. men “to be labelled intimidating, bossy or aggressive.” When we started compiling this data, the average CEO had These subtle forms of discrimination have a cumulative to work until at least the late afternoon on January 2 to make negative impact equal to more overt or explicit forms the average yearly income. At this rate, it won’t be long before of discrimination — thus the impact of ongoing they achieve that feat before you’ve eaten breakfast. discrimination will be felt to a greater degree at the peak Between 2015 and 2016, average worker pay rose by 0.5% — a of women’s careers. $228 bump from $49,510 to $49,738 — which is a pay cut in real terms when you factor in relatively low inflation rates. Canada’s top 100 CEOs, on the other hand, saw an average pay hike of 8% between 2015 and 2016. Why should we care what they are making in the C-Suite? RICHEST CEOS BY NAME OCCURRENCE Well, there are a number of reasons to worry about rising CEO pay, all of them linked to basic notions of fairness. NAME OCCURRENCES IN TOP 100 Around the world the gap between CEO pay and average worker incomes is used as a proxy for income inequality. In Paul 5 Canada, the growing gap has been a consistent reminder Brian 4 that there is enormous wealth circulating through the economy — it is simply not making its way into the hands David 3 of middle- and lower-income Canadians, into government Donald 3 coffers as tax revenue, or into much new investment in jobs. There are ways to fix that situation, for example with simple James 3 tax reforms, or by clamping down on tax havens. But those Jeffrey 3 at the top, who benefit from the status quo, continue to get in the way of efforts to rebalance the scales. Michael 3 For example, as stock-based compensation in a growing Richard 3 stock market pushes already high CEO incomes into the stratosphere, many of these same men (and they are always Stephen 3 predominantly men — see sidebar) are among the loudest All Women (Nancy, Dawn & Linda) 3 critics of plans to raise minimum wages in several provinces. 23 A $15-an-hour wage, as proposed in Recommendations BAY STREET Ontario, Alberta and B.C., would lift CEO compensation is increasingly taking minimum-wage workers out of poverty the form of stocks and stock options. The AND TAX for the first time in decades, with large base CEO salary made up 14% of total OUTRAGEOUS spinoff benefits to the economy at large. compensation on average in 2008 and HAVENS If shareholders can afford this year’s 11% in 2016. And as stock market values CEO pay hike, they should be endorsing recovered after the 2008-2009 slump, so FORTUNES higher wages at the bottom as well. has the stock incentive portion a CEO’s A new report from Canadians for A second reason CEO pay seems so ever-growing pay. Share awards made up Tax Fairness explores the extent of outrageous today is that the majority almost half of the total compensation of corporate Canada’s involvement of Canada’s biggest publicly traded com- the richest CEOs in 2015. in known tax havens and provides panies — many of the same companies The sudden rise in this value in the clear recommendations for a strong whose executives are on the top-100 last three years is matched by the rapid government response. The report list — oversee substantial deficits in fall in the importance of stock options finds that of the 60 largest companies their employee pension plans, putting in CEO compensation. This is almost on the Toronto Stock Exchange, only the retirements of those workers at risk. certainly due to federal discussions over four do not list subsidiaries in known In 2016, Canada’s largest companies paid this period about possibly cancelling or tax havens. out four times as much money to share- lowering the stock option deduction, a “Companies often argue that their holders (including corporate executives) sweetheart tax expenditure that costs investments in those jurisdictions as it would have cost to fully fund their the government about $740 million a are legitimate businesses and not worker pension plans. year and benefits almost exclusively brass plate subsidiaries, but the Sears Canada serves as a cautionary the top 1%. evidence suggest otherwise,” says tale in this respect. With all stores Although criticism of the stock op- Diana Gibson, author of Bay Street winding down operations as a result of tion deduction and other skewed tax and Tax Havens: Curbing Corporate insolvency, the company’s defined-bene- expenditures gained traction this fall, Canada’s Addiction. “Statistics fit pension plan has a $26-million funding as the federal government zeroed in on Canada data on activity for majority- shortfall. Yet since 2010, Sears paid back tax abuse by private corporations (some owned affiliates abroad tells us that $1.5 billion to shareholders in dividends of it exposed in the Panama and Paradise many of these companies have very and share buybacks — five-and-a-half Papers leaks), the loophole remains open. few employees. In Bermuda, for times more than it would have cost to While closing the stock option loophole example, those affiliates reported $31 erase the deficit in its pension plan. could produce millions in new tax reve- billion in Canadian assets but only 35 For almost all companies, pension plan nues for the federal government, it might employees.” shortfalls could be rapidly eliminated also simply encourage corporate boards with little impact on shareholder pay- to shift the executive compensation mix Dennis Howlett, executive director ments. This isn’t a question of capacity, from stock options to straight grants of of Canadians for Tax Fairness, adds: it’s a question of priority. stock. “Dollars parked in offshore accounts Third, and by no means finally, Cana- It is unlikely that any one measure — to mean lower corporate tax revenues, da’s wealthiest continue to profit from increase transparency in executive com- and thus individual Canadians have costly tax loopholes the government has pensation, for example, or make minor to pay higher taxes. Canadian foreign yet to find the political courage to close changes to tax measures — will curtail direct investment (FDI) in tax havens (see Lynne Fernandez on page 36). The overall growth in CEO pay. That will take reached $284 billion in 2016 and we billions of dollars in taxes not collected more comprehensive tax reforms, as I estimate that the revenue losses for could be used to pay for programs that outline in more detail in this year’s CEO Canadian governments due to tax all Canadians need: affordable child care, pay report (see www.policyalternatives. haven use are between $10 and $15 housing and other public infrastructure, ca). billion.” and improved pensions and employment Reducing income inequality resulting The report lays out a clear set of insurance. from the continued, disproportionate actions that need to be taken to This does not even account for the increase in CEO compensation will not curb corporate Canada’s tax haven additional tens of billions Canadian be simple. But achieving this goal would habit, including implementing the companies are hiding in offshore tax have significant benefits in the form of economic substance test for offshore shelters (see sidebar). As long as such higher tax revenues, better company subsidiaries, capping interest loopholes and tax holidays remain performance, and more social cohesion payments to offshore subsidiaries and open we will lack the means with which in Canada. renegotiating Canada’s tax treaties governments might start to reduce ine- We should not treat it as normal or with tax havens to ensure that there quality in Canada. inevitable, and certainly not as desire- is a floor for taxes paid. able, that Canada’s richest CEOs should take home the average worker’s salary Adapted from the Canadians for Tax by breakfast on January 2. M Fairness website.

24 OUTRAGEOUS FORTUNES

ust for fun, the Monitor compared the CEOs at time of listing in 2016 and may have CCPA’s list of highest-paid CEOs with the moved on since then. For example, Guy list of companies with the most offshore Laurence, former CEO of Rogers, was one Jsubsidiaries compiled by Canadians of Canada’s top-paid executives in 2016, for Tax Fairness and the list of biggest saw the biggest year-over-year increase in corporate pension deficits inThe Lion’s compensation; his company paid out $988 Share, a new report from the CCPA and million to shareholders while maintaining the Canadian Labour Congress. Note that a $387-million shortfall in the company’s the total number of offshore subsidiaries defined benefit pension plan. The upside? here represents the listed and implied Rogers appears to only have two offshore subsidiaries revealed in the Paradise Papers subsidies located in tax havens compared as compiled by Canadians for Tax Fairness. to Sun Life’s 74. Also note that these were the company’s

Total CEO Increase in CEO Dividends Paid # of Offshore Pension Plan CEO and Company Compensation, Compensation, to Shareholders Subsidiaries* Deficit 2016 ($ millions) 2015-2016 ($ millions) ($ millions)

Donald Walker, $28.61 120% $4,997 74 -$1,420 Magna International Inc. Guy Laurence, $24.6 30% $3,598 18 -$1,369 Rogers Communications Inc. James Smith, $17.78 24% $2,219 17 -$655 Thomson Reuters David McKay, $12.25 15% $1,536 15 -$387 Royal Bank of Canada Brian Porter, $11.76 14% $1,074 14 -$337 Bank of Nova Scotia William Downe, $10.64 11% $988 13 -$302 Bank of Montreal Russell Girling, $10.14 8% $982 11 -$294 TransCanada Corporation Dean Connor, $9.0 8% $600 6 -$248 Sun Life Financial Inc. Louis Vachon, $8.12 5% $385 2 -$31 National Bank of Canada Dino Dello Sbarba, $5.5 5% $210 3 -$67 Saputo Inc.

25 Given the considerable expense involved in setting up one or more CCPCs, it was suspected that only high-income families found it worthwhile to hire a tax-avoidance spe- WORK LIFE cialist to get one going. Nonetheless, there were complaints that the Liberal government was going after struggling LYNNE FERNANDEZ middle class families. A study by Michael Wolfson, Mike Veall and Neil Brooks examined the percentage of tax filers who owned over 10% Canada’s weak-kneed of shares in at least one CCPC (between 2001 and 2011) and slotted them into income deciles. The result was dramat- retreat from tax ically skewed, with at least 65% and in some years a full 80% of the tax filers who owned shares falling into the top fairness 0.01%. Less than 5% of tax filers in the bottom half of the income distribution owned a CCPC. When the CCPA’s Macdonald took a detailed look at the small businesses using CCPCs, he also found it was the HE CONTROVERSY OVER the Liberal government’s pro- richest families who were sprinkling the most income. Fur- posed tax changes for small business owners has been thermore, very few women benefit from income sprinkling, rumbling across the country since the summer. The despite the contentions of the small-business lobby groups CCPA supported some of the changes, for example the that female entrepreneurs would be adversely affected by plan to close the income-splitting (or “sprinkling”) loop- the proposed changes. Thole, which economist David Macdonald called “an important Despite all the evidence that some of Canada’s wealthy first step to restoring fairness to Canada’s tax system.” But as Hugh Mackenzie pointed out (also on the CCPA’s Behind The Numbers blog), once the Conservative Party Working Canadians and business lobby got hold of the narrative, and framed the tax reforms as a “small business tax increase,” the are shouldering a battle was lost. The Liberals buckled under pressure, and disproportionate share of the goal line of tax fairness receded once again into the hazy future. the tax bill, which increases In his book Capital in the Twenty-First Century, Thomas inequality and undermines Piketty made the connection between inequality and tax policy: “the resurgence of inequality after 1980 is due largely public services. to the political shifts of the past several decades, especially in regard to taxation and finance.” Since then, in Canada those shifts took two main forms. families use CCPCs to avoid paying their fair share of taxes, The first was a shift of the tax bill from business to fam- the Liberal government not only backed off on some of the ilies through large reductions of corporate income taxes proposed changes, it then lowered the small business tax! and a proliferation of business subsidies and tax credits. We don’t know how the coming changes will net out, but The second was a shift of the tax bill from higher-income don’t expect the status quo to look very different. In fact, to middle- and modest-income families. tweaking the rules around CCPCs doesn’t begin to address The federal corporate tax rate in Canada fell from 36% the real problems with our tax system. in the 1970s to 15% today. In the 1980s, the highest personal It is estimated that income sprinkling costs Canada around marginal tax rate was 34% on income greater than $63,000. $500 million a year in foregone taxes. In contrast, Macdonald Today the highest rate (29%) falls on income over $132,000. found that Canada’s five most regressive tax expenditures In 1966-67, 64% of Ottawa’s revenue from combined add up to around $10 billion a year. That’s $10 billion that personal and corporate income tax came from individuals could be spent on pharmacare, daycare, education and and 36% from corporate income tax. In 2015-16, the personal improving living conditions in First Nation communities. income tax portion was 78% and the corporate 22%. With Given the Liberals’ retreat from even modest tax propos- corporations getting off easier all the time, it’s no wonder als, it is hard to see this government reversing the more that wealthy professionals are eager to take advantage of regressive tax changes brought in since the 1980s. Which their ability to flow income through Canadian-controlled is really too bad. It means the vast majority of working professional corporations, or CCPCs. Canadians will continue shouldering a disproportionate Family businesses can use a CCPC to distribute income share of the tax bill, which increases inequality and from a high-income earner to a family member with less deprives public services of the funds they need to make income so that the income transferred is taxed at a lower everyone’s lives better. M rate—the so-called income sprinkling problem. Other tax LYNNE FERNANDEZ IS THE ERROL BLACK CHAIR IN LABOUR ISSUES WITH THE avoidance opportunities in a CCPC include the ability to CCPA-MANITOBA. YOU CAN REACH HER AT [email protected] AND FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER @LYNNEFERNANDEZ. defer taxes from one year to another. 26 Feature

TOBY SANGER A shareholder shopping spree for public assets How predatory private finance seized control of Canada’s new infrastructure bank.

HIS PAST NOVEMBER, Amarjeet was obviously lost on the Trudeau makes no financial or economic Sohi, the federal minister of in- government’s communications gurus. sense for the government or for the frastructure and communities, While the federal government can vast majority of Canadians—unless finally announced the 10 “pro- borrow (by selling bonds) at what are you’re one of the private financiers or fessionals” his government was historically extremely low rates, it has professionals who will profit from it. Tappointing to the board of directors set up an infrastructure bank that It wasn’t originally meant to be this of the newly created Canada Infra- will instead pay four times as much way. In their 2015 election platform, structure Bank. The very same day, to borrow from the private sector. Justin Trudeau and the Liberal Party the federal finance department issued This absurd “buy high, sell low” of Canada promised to establish $500 million in ultra-long bonds at an approach to paying for infrastructure a Canada Infrastructure Bank “to interest rate of just 2.25%. This, said provide low-cost financing for new department officials, would “reduce infrastructure projects.” This commit- the cost of government financing over Finance Minister Bill Morneau (right) ment was reiterated in the mandate the long term and reduces refinanc- with Dominic Barton, the McKinsey letters the prime minister provided as ing risk, all to the benefit of Canadian consultant leading the government’s instructions to his ministers of finance taxpayers.” economic advisory council, in and infrastructure. It sounded like a The irony of making these two October 2016. very positive initiative at the time. But announcements at the same time (CHRIS WATTIE/REUTERS) the idea became corrupted by private 27 finance: the Canada Infrastructure Bank has turned into private finance to lend instead to private business, but there a bank of privatization instead. was lacklustre pickup. Wary of more speculative investments, corporations ublic infrastructure and investment banks have played and private finance are exerting enormous pressure on and continue to play important roles in economic devel- governments to privatize public assets and to engage Popment around the world and in Canada. These public in public-private partnerships (P3s). These projects can banks are seeded with initial capital from governments and provide private financiers with secure returns far above backed with government guarantees, which allows them to what they’d receive from lending to governments directly. borrow at low rates on financial markets and provide loans They’re cannibalizing public sector assets because there’s at relatively low rates of interest. International examples too much private finance for the private business invest- include the World Bank and numerous other regional and ment opportunities. national investment and infrastructure banks. Public infrastructure projects, whether they are P3s or Business Development Canada (BDC) provides loans more fully privatized projects, can provide investors with and other financial services primarily to small- and medi- secure, high rates of return because most forms of public um-sized businesses. Export Development Canada (EDC) infrastructure—such as highways, bridges, airports, public assists exporters with trade financing, credit insurance and transit, water or power utilities—involve some form of nat- other services. The Canada Mortgage and Housing Corpo- ural monopoly. It does not make sense, for example, to build ration (CMHC) provides low-cost loans, loan insurance and two airports in a mid-sized city, or for hydro distributors other services to increase the supply of affordable housing to compete against each other. That’s exactly why these and the stability of the housing market and financial projects were established as public monopolies and assets system. in the first place—to eliminate gouging and exploitation Most provinces also have financing authorities that by private monopoly ownership. provide municipalities with loans at lower cost than if they Unfortunately, it took very little time for the newly borrowed individually from financial markets. We might elected Trudeau government to succumb to the pressure not approve of everything these banks do, and people of big money to turn what could have been a good idea into from different political stripes question whether publicly a vehicle for private finance to profit off the public purse. financed banks and lending agencies should help support Two months after taking office, in January 2016, Prime private investments, but the fact remains that largely pub- Minister Trudeau attended the World Economic Forum, licly-financed investment and infrastructure banks have an annual gathering of plutocrats in Davos, Switzerland. operated successfully for many decades, investing both in There, at a breakfast organized by Dominic Barton, the public infrastructure and in private projects. global head of McKinsey & Company, Trudeau met with With public borrowing rates barely above inflation and Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock Inc., the world’s largest in- close to historical lows, it’s the perfect time to borrow vestment firm, and other powerful bankers and investors. directly—or through a public infrastructure bank—to The details of what they discussed are anyone’s guess. The pay for large-scale public investments. But this isn’t how thrust of it, however, would soon become apparent. Canada’s titans of private finance feel about it. Instead of In March 2016, Finance Minister Bill Morneau announced seeing low government borrowing rates as an unparalleled who he had appointed to his new advisory council on eco- opportunity, they see them as a major problem. nomic growth. The chair would be none other than Mr. There is more than $14 trillion of private finance world- Barton, and the vast majority of members were either CEOs wide willing to accept slightly negative interest rates for or investments executives. There was no one from labour, the security of lending to governments. In other words, no one you could vaguely say represented the people the investors are paying governments for the privilege of Liberals so frequently claim they are standing up for: “the lending them money. Governments and central banks took middle class and those working hard to join it.” their rates below zero to encourage commercial banks and But there was Michael Sabia, CEO of the Caisse de dépôt et placement, Québec’s largest pension fund. And Mark Wiseman, who was briefly CEO of the CPP Investment Board before joining both his wife and Fink at BlackRock (as global head of an “active equities” unit). This group quickly went to work to redirect the Liberal election promise so that it served a more private purpose. Morneau outsourced policy-making about the bank from his department to the new advisory council and With rates close to through Barton to McKinsey, which has been responsible for the content of the council’s relatively unsubstantial historical lows, it’s the reports. The group’s first set of recommendations included perfect time to borrow a proposal for an infrastructure bank that would rely heavily on higher-cost private sector financing and use directly—or through a it to privatize public infrastructure instead of providing public infrastructure bank. low-cost financing as the Liberals had promised. 28 PRIVATE FINANCING CAN DOUBLE THE COST OF INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS

PRINCIPAL PRINCIPAL $100 MIL $100 MIL

FINANCING COST OVER FINANCING COST 30 YEARS OVER 30 YEARS $38 MIL $164 MIL

COST AT 2.25% COST AT 8% PUBLIC FINANCING PRIVATE FINANCING

The model for the infrastructure but then, by the slimmest of margins, include a focus on P3s, or are involved bank that Morneau proposed in his allowed it to proceed. Canada’s new with companies that could profit from 2016 fall economic update, and then privatization bank could get to work. their projects. in his budget bill in April 2017, was The bank will also be allowed to very little changed from the proposal here are major problems with entertain “unsolicited bids,” giving developed by this advisory council, the proposed bank. Most impor- the privateers on the board the ability McKinsey and BlackRock. In fact, as Ttantly, and controversially, it will to cherry-pick the public assets and researcher Ken Rubin and Globe and result in the massive privatization infrastructure projects they think Mail reporter Bill Curry revealed, the of public infrastructure. Among the will be most lucrative for potential pri- briefing notes and presentation to potentially lucrative public assets vatization. There is no requirement to help Trudeau and his ministers dis- on offer are Canada’s airports, ports make these deliberations public. The cuss the bank with foreign investors and utilities. But on top of this, and bank has the potential to be a jackpot were developed in conjunction with quite disturbingly, the infrastructure for private investors while leaving the BlackRock officials. bank and private investors will also cupboard bare for public sector. In effect, the Liberal government significantly determine which “pub- The federal government will finance turned over design and development lic infrastructure” projects go ahead, the bank with an initial $35 billion, of this bank to the very people who giving extraordinary influence and but the rest will come from the pri- will profit most from it: the largest control over the direction and opera- vate sector. Because private finance private sector investors and pension tion of the projects to private finance. demands much higher returns from funds in the world. As NDP finance Perversely, the infrastructure bank their investments than the rates the critic Alexandre Boulerice said, “If is restricted from having any rep- federal government can borrow at, this isn’t a major conflict of interest, I resentation on its board from any level projects financed through the bank don’t know what else you could call it.” of government. In other words it will could easily cost twice as much over Even Conservative MP Pierre Poilievre be controlled entirely by private sector their lifespans than if they were pub- was aghast, claiming it would turn interests, even though the legislation licly financed. over control of the bank to “powerful claims it will act in the public interest. As the accompanying chart il- financial interests.” The appointments to the bank’s board lustrates, the financing costs for a Breaking another election promise, of directors demonstrate just that: $100-million project at a rate of 2.25% the Liberal government rammed while half are women, several have would amount to just $38 million approval of the infrastructure bank Liberal party connections, and many over 30 years. At a rate of 8%—the through Parliament by including it in a others have been involved in P3 and mid-point of the 7-9% rate of return Harper-style omnibus budget bill. The privatization projects, work for private private investors expect from infra- Senate almost voted to split the bill, finance corporations or law firms that structure investments, according 29 In effect, the government and it won’t be subject to the stronger transparency and accountability rules that govern public projects. Those turned over design and who do disclose information could be subject to fines and development of this bank jail time. The transparency provisions in the infrastructure bank to the very people who legislation, and the move to privatize public infrastructure will profit most from it: in general, run contrary to the Trudeau government’s promises to increase accountability in government and the largest private sector for public services. investors and pension funds o summarize, there is no reason the federal government in the world. couldn’t have made the Canada Infrastructure Bank into Ta truly Public Infrastructure Bank that would provide low-cost loans to large public infrastructure projects. Such a bank could be established as a Crown corporation with in- itial capital contributions from the federal and other levels of government, backed by a federal government guarantee. Caisse president Sabia—the financing costs alone would The bank could then leverage its assets to borrow directly total $164 million, more than the initial capital cost of the on financial markets at low rates for capital investment in project! This higher rate would quadruple the financing new infrastructure projects. costs and double the total costs of projects. The absurdity is the government does this already, all the Given these numbers, it’s easy to see why private time. We have public banks and other lending institutions, finance is pushing so aggressively for a more privatized such as the BDC, EDC and CMHC, that take advantage of infrastructure bank, and why it’s such a bad deal for the lower-cost public finance and government guarantees to public. While private finance firms such as BlackRock may support and subsidize private investments. The Canada provide the financing upfront, all the money to pay for this Infrastructure Bank could have done the same but instead infrastructure will ultimately come from the public, both will use much higher-cost private financing for public through annual availability payments from governments infrastructure. and higher user fees, which are set to increase considerably. It’s important that government officials and the public These fees will restrict access and hurt people earning be made wholly aware of how much more these projects middle and lower incomes the most. will cost; each privatization proposal must be scrutinized The Liberal government has emphasized that the to expose who will benefit and who will be hurt. However, infrastructure bank will provide financing for only because much of the information will be kept confiden- “revenue-generating infrastructure” and for either new tial, and the costs will be spread out over many years, we projects or projects that involve additional investment. might not find out these details until much later, when Because most public services involve some form of natural the money’s all spent. monopoly, it will be hard for people who use these services There is some hope on the horizon. Canada’s Public to avoid the increased costs. Already user fees for many Sector Accounting Board is considering new, stronger public services—including water, public transit, tuition rules that would require governments to be much more and recreational services—are increasing faster than transparent about the long-term costs of entering into overall inflation, as governments dump costs onto users public-private partnerships and other private infrastruc- to avoid raising other taxes. ture contracts. However, these rules may or may not cover Advocates for privatization through the infrastructure projects approved by the infrastructure bank. Auditors bank, including former Bank of Canada governor David general, politicians and public officials should also be Dodge, have also argued that Canadians should pay even pressured to increase transparency and accountability higher user fees for private infrastructure investments, and and conduct much more stringent public reviews of these that governments should try and convince the public that types of projects. this would be a good thing. Further increases will hurt low- Such accountability measures will help, but ultimately er-income and middle-income Canadians the most. They we need a more fundamental shift of power—from will also harm the economy, as Australia’s commissioner concentrated private capital to a much more equitable of competition, formerly an advocate of privatization, economic order with more public ownership. The pressure recently warned. to privatize and cannibalize the public sector will not abate Private profits may benefit from the infrastructure bank, until this transformation in governance happens. M but transparency and accountability in public project A PREVIOUS VERSION OF THIS ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE SUMMER ISSUE OF delivery will suffer. As the Columbia Institute has noted, CANADIAN DIMENSION. when private finance is involved in public infrastructure projects, their “interests are given a veto over releasing information” even when the funding all ultimately comes from the public sector. Information will be kept secret 30 countries legislating the suspension of internet access for hate speech or online abuse. The FBI has not hounded (to financial ruin and suicide) a CEO who misused customers’ personal data. BELOW THE FOLD Paradise Papers–named individuals have yet to undergo harsh interrogations on their tax evasion. Download a 99-cent song CYNTHIA KHOO for free, however, and beware the legal boilerplates of wrath. What is it about copyright that leads to such distorted sensibilities? The internet has notoriously “disrupted” other Dramatis Principiis industries, but why have taxi drivers, Canada Post and phone companies, for example, not run roughshod over the OPYRIGHT PROTECTS THE dramatic. However, copyright Charter in their own responses to internet-driven upheaval? should not be as dramatic as it has been in the re- To begin with the obvious, landline phone companies sponse of some copyright-reliant industries to the are now internet and mobile wireless companies; they have internet and technological change. cannibalized and surpassed their former selves. As for Whether in plot twists, tragedy, farce, heroics, villainy Canada Post, the drop in letter mail is somewhat counter- Cor suspension of disbelief, the tale of copyright-meets-“Hello, balanced by the uptick in online shopping deliveries. And it World!” has all the elements of great storytelling. Unfortu- is hard to imagine the government levying email providers, nately, in this story of policy debate gone sideways, there are or prosecuting for significant jail time every individual who far too many disproportionate measures, to much cavalier mails a letter without a proper postage stamp (an offence disregard for human rights, democratic institutions and under the Canada Post Corporation Act). core values of a progressive society. Several factors distinguish taxis from copyright. First, Among the casualties: where Uber is legal, taxi drivers do not have a book they ͸ Freedom of expression (website-blocking tribunals, as can fastball-pitch at wrongdoers. Second, where Uber is proposed in Canada by Bell last year); illegal, taxi drivers rely on municipal officers to enforce their interests, whereas copyright owners must pursue alleged Privacy rights (monitoring traffic through content ͸ infringers themselves. Third, Uber is the Goliath working the filters; disclosing internet service provider subscriber Hill while traditional taxi drivers turn to protests and hunger information); strikes to assert their interests. Finally, taxi associations ͸ Disability rights (anticircumvention rules discriminat- are new to this situation; copyright industries have spent ing against those who can only access content by breaking decades honing their opposition to technological evolution. digital locks); The tentative conclusion here is that copyright ͸ Cybersecurity (when Sony surreptitiously installed enforcement in the internet context appears prone to rootkits on its customers’ computers without knowledge overreaching, undermining civil rights and democratic or consent; when researchers risk copyright liability for values to protect powerful private interests rather than investigating security flaws in medical devices or voting marginalized individuals or the public interest. Driving machines); forces? The internet has not naturally replaced the reve- ͸ Critical news reporting (when the Vancouver Aquarium nues it impacted; copyright owners only have themselves used copyright to sue Gary Charbonneau for his critical to rely on for enforcement (unless they conscript inter- documentary on their captive cetacean program); mediaries or criminalize copyright, which moves it into state enforcement territory); and copyright associations are Access to knowledge (Crown copyright bars access to ͸ disproportionately powerful relative to individual users. publicly funded government documents; the legal database There is a need to enforce copyright. Creators deserve PACER in the United States charges citizens to access their their full due, which has typically been siphoned off by in- own laws); dustry—before, apart from, and for many until the internet ͸ Internet access (the U.K., France, New Zealand and changed things. However, copyright interest groups have Korea all proposed or passed laws that would result in in- shown they cannot be trusted to self-regulate. ternet access being suspended or terminated for copyright Privacy law inspires one solution. In 2013, a global co- infringement); alition established the 13 International Principles on the ͸ Due process (punish-first-ask-later systems such as Application of Human Rights in Communication Surveil- notice-and-takedown or YouTube’s copyright policies); and lance. They set out what is required for state surveillance ͸ Proportional justice (Colombian scientist Diego Gómez to operate in keeping with international human rights law. faced up to eight years’ imprisonment for sharing one re- We need a similar set of principles to temper the excesses search paper online as a university student; internet activist of online copyright enforcement today. Aaron Swartz shared a large volume of academic papers and After all, the Renaissance is famed for its art and its com- many believe the subsequent relentless federal prosecution mitment to human rights. The internet should be too. M for 13 felonies contributed to his suicide at age 26). CYNTHIA KHOO IS A TORONTO-BASED LAWYER WHO FOCUSES ON INTERNET POLICY AND DIGITAL RIGHTS. HER NEW COLUMN IN THE MONITOR DELVES “BELOW THE FOLD” TO EXPLORE THESE ISSUES BEYOND THE HEADLINES AND As Lawrence Lessig wrote after Swartz’s death, “I get wrong. ALWAYS WITH A VIEW TO THE PUBLIC INTEREST. YOU CAN REACH CYNTHIA AT But I also get proportionality.” We do not see several major WWW.CYNTHIAKHOO.CA. 31 32 Feature

STUART TREW “Progressive trade” versus sustainable growth As European nations slowly ratify the Canada–EU free trade deal, social justice activists are exposing how its “comprehensive” economic rulebook threatens the cause of a more equitable, ecologically responsible future.

S CETA a progressive trade deal? That was the question I should be cornerstones of any self-declared progressive was asked to answer during a six-city European tour in government. October to countries that haven’t yet ratified the agree- CETA would also, if fully implemented, expand, and risks Iment. It’s certainly the presumption of Canadian Foreign legitimizing, a global corporate rights regime (investor-state Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland and European Trade dispute settlement, or ISDS) that has become discredited Commissioner Cecilia Malmström, who claim CETA should globally. TransCanada’s US$15-billion NAFTA lawsuit be a benchmark against which to judge all future free trade against the Obama administration’s decision to kill the deals, including a rewired NAFTA. But should it really? Or Keystone XL pipeline, and a slew of cases against Canadian does branding CETA and deals like it “progressive” create a environmental decisions, expose the absurd corporate bias distorted picture of what they can achieve, and for whom? in this aspect of modern trade deals even in the face of It’s an important question and an important time to ask catastrophic ecological crisis. it. Even though most of CETA is now provisionally in force In these and other ways, despite its progressive branding, in Canada and the EU, at the insistence of the Belgian state CETA represents the tired, old regressive vision of globali- of Wallonia the deal can still be stopped if one or more zation that the Trudeau government claims it wants to European state parliaments decides to vote against it. It’s upend—and which, in Europe at least, more forward-think- a doubly important question given the political context in ing governments may eventually vote to reject. Germany, Austria, Poland and Italy, where far-right groups are winning popular and electoral ground by appealing to he creation and expansion of public services is one of the economic insecurities, many of which can be linked to neo- few surefire ways governments can directly stimulate liberal reforms introduced over the past 30 years—reforms Tsustainable growth in good, well-paying, unionized that CETA and deals like it lock into place in perpetuity. and in many cases badly needed jobs. Think of how many But it is also an awkward question. We are told by Prime families would benefit from an affordable national child Minister Trudeau, Malmström, Freeland and other earnest care plan, or a bump in long-term care beds and home politicians that CETA is the “most progressive trade agree- care services. Imagine if Canada’s postal network were ment” ever negotiated. When Canada and the EU signed enhanced by adding low-fee banking and internet services, CETA in late 2016 these people claimed it was a symbol of delivered by respected public sector employees. their governments’ “openness to the world” while others The benefits of all these services for consumers are were turning inward. They said it represented a different clear. But the new jobs would have a much wider positive kind of globalization that would work for everyone. If impact on Canadian society. Higher unionization rates are they are right, then perhaps progressive parties in Europe closely correlated to overall prosperity among the working should support CETA. And perhaps it should serve as a and middle classes (see Jordan Brennan’s April 2014 CCPA benchmark for the NAFTA renegotiation. report, The Creation of a Shared Prosperity in Canada). But they are not right. While we certainly need a new The gender pay gap, as well as the gap in incomes between model of globalization, CETA is most definitely not it. The racialized and non-racialized employees, also tends to be agreement will constrain our ability to create and enhance smaller in the public sector than in the private sector. It public services, and to regulate for public safety, envi- therefore makes perfect sense that the creation and expan- ronmental and consumer interests—two priorities that sion of unionized public services should be a fixture in any

PHOTO BY JAKOB HUBER/CAMPACT 33 progressive, feminist government’s treatment, most-favoured-nation has already been ordered to pay €22 tool kit. treatment, and senior management million plus interest and legal fees CETA, on the other hand, more and boards) for some public services, in compensation because, in 2002, than any previous Canadian trade including “public education, public the government reversed the health agreement, puts roadblocks between training, health, and child care.” Pro- privatization policies of the previous us and this vision of a more caring vincial governments, however, have administration, requiring health in- and equitable society. That’s because left unprotected many public services surers to operate on a not-for-profit it goes further in liberalizing trade under their and municipal jurisdiction, basis.” in services in a way that will lock in including transit, waste management, In Canada, after NAFTA was signed, existing levels of privatization and retirement homes, etc. several provinces that had been encourages more of it in the future; it What’s the risk in all of this? First, looking at creating a public drivers’ goes further in actively discouraging the closed list of partially excluded insurance program backed off be- the creation of new public services or services leaves Canada and EU cause of threats from U.S. investors public expansion in existing sectors member states vulnerable to trade in the private insurance sector. Gus such as retirement homes and child and investment disputes when gov- Van Harten and Dayna Nadine Scott care. ernments expand into non-covered explored the potential for regulatory Like NAFTA before it, CETA’s ser- areas such as transit, public banking, chill due to ISDS threats in a 2016 vices and investment chapter takes a public internet services, etc. Even in Osgoode legal studies research paper. “list it or lose it” approach to shielding areas Canada has attempted to shield Based on extensive interviews with service sectors from the full force of from full liberalization, like child care, current and former government offi- the agreement. Where Canada or EU the government may still eventually cials, mostly in Ontario, they found member states have not taken full res- face investor-state disputes, since it cases of ministries changing their ervations (or protections) for a service is not possible to take reservations decision-making to account for trade sector, they will not be able to limit the against CETA’s indirect expropriation concerns, including ISDS. number of private service providers and “fair and equitable treatment” The paper also notes the impor- in that sector, create public or arms- provisions, which are the most used by tance of the government’s own trade length private monopolies to supply investors globally when challenging lawyers in the policy vetting process, the service, or insist that the service government decisions. suggesting the potential for an should be delivered by a certain type “Around the world, public service institutional bias against activist or of entity such as a not-for-profit. regulations have been targets of progressive policies that would swiftly Public services are captured in CETA investor-state claims,” wrote the and effectively make people’s lives bet- in ways that could have been avoided Brussels-based Corporate Europe Ob- ter, as a public drivers’ insurance plan but weren’t. Language that would servatory in a November 2016 briefing would have then, or a national public have safely protected all public servic- paper, The Great CETA Swindle. “When, child care system would today. Given es, whether they are delivered today in response to its 2001-2002 economic these hidden and legal constraints on in the private or public sectors, was crisis, Argentina froze utility rates to government’s ability to create new proposed by public interest lawyers secure people’s access to energy and services, it’s not surprising public and trade unions, but it was ultimately water, it was hit by numerous law- sector unions wanted a more rigorous rejected. As CCPA Senior Trade Fellow suits. Estonia is currently defending carve-out in the final Canada-EU deal. Scott Sinclair explains, contrary to a €90 million claim over its refusal “No fewer than 11 EU member states what Canada and the EU declared to increase water rates. And Slovakia have committed long-term care, such in their 2016 joint “understanding” of as residential care for the elderly, how CETA should be interpreted, once in CETA,” said the European Public any government chooses to privatize Service Union in a CETA fact sheet. a service, they or future governments “Such commitments could stand in cannot bring these services back the way of measures to protect the under public control without facing health care and long-term care sector possible foreign investor claims for against the asset-stripping strategies compensation. of financial investors that led to the In response to pressure from pub- collapse of, for example, Southern lic sector unions, the EU and some Cross in the UK.” CETA even includes member states took so-called Annex Public services an “understanding” on new services 2 market access reservations that to are captured in that have not yet been classified, some extent protect the ability of which are to be promptly incorporated governments to make changes in the CETA in ways into the scope of the agreement after future to how public services are reg- that could have negotiations are requested by one ulated. Canada likewise took a limited party or the other. reservation (against CETA’s services been avoided but In these ways, CETA interferes with rules related to market access, national weren’t. one of the most promising tools our 34 governments have—the expansion of public services or The consolidation of the the creation of new ones—to foster sustainable growth in jobs that cannot be offshored, that pay decently, and free trade era came with a that provide services that people need right now: child concentration of power and care, long-term care, new public transit systems, and the list goes on. wealth at the top. The money is literally trickling down, progressive government concerned with sustainable growth would also, I think, act in the most precaution- leading to highly unequal A ary way possible when handling matters of food and outcomes. consumer product safety, biodiversity preservation, and ecosystem survival. Surely taking the safest road in all of these areas is more important than protecting limited commercial goals. Once again, under CETA, almost the exact opposite is expected to happen—in that the agree- ment treats precaution as a subservient goal to the right of companies to profit from their products, even if there is evidence those products, like GMOs, pesticides and other chemicals, are causing harm to our bodies or the Earth. losing a WTO case on the issue brought by Canada and The Canadian government is enthusiastic about CETA’s the U.S., but it’s now considering banning glyphosate, a regulatory co-operation chapter, a first of its kind inside widely used herbicide applied to GM crops in Canada that a modern trade deal. On a quick glance, it looks like a has been linked to cancer. During one of my tour stops in simple commitment to eliminate duplication and reduce Ljubljana, Slovenia this October, Max Bank, a campaigner costs to business while still maintaining high standards. with the Cologne-based group LobbyControl, questioned And really, who could disagree with reducing “non-tariff” whether Canada and the EU could possibly co-operate on barriers to trade? In the North American experience of this GM crops in a way that benefits consumers. “Canada is kind of co-operation, however, there is evidence of positive the fifth largest producer of GMOs and the EU bans such regulations being delayed and in some cases suppressed GMOs. How can you align such regulatory systems? That to suit industry’s wants—in direct contravention of the seems implausible to me.” precautionary principle. European and Canadian business lobby groups, however, The key barrier that regulatory co-operation puts before think it has to happen. They call regulatory co-operation us in our road to sustainability is its trade screen on all “the next big trade barrier” they want governments to new public health and environmental measures. If a new deal with, the natural next step of globalization on their rule is expected to affect commerce with an important corporate terms. A WTO “non paper” is proposing that trading partner—even in the absence of a possible ISDS regulatory co-operation could be a way to rejuvenate claim—regulators are required to consider alternatives, or stalled global trade talks, and that it could be started voluntary measures. Trade department officials will direct by like-minded countries in a plurilateral fashion. Trade the process of co-operation, not health and environmental Minister Freeland calls regulatory co-operation a “bread ministries, based on input mainly from industry stakehold- and butter” trade issue. It has nothing to do with trade. It ers, with a much more limited role for non-industry voices. is about deregulation and is another reason progressives In the case of CETA, Canadian officials say their objective should reject CETA as being anti-sustainable growth. is to stop divergent regulations from being developed “We not only have concerns of regulation downwards but that would interfere with Canada–EU commerce. And the also how democracy will be shaped by such [co-operation] regulations can be very different, for good reasons. processes,” Bank told me. “There is an imbalance already in EU citizens are uncomfortable eating genetically power between corporations and government institutions, modified foods or feeding them to their livestock, and EU with corporations having increasing power, and regulatory decision-makers are still committed to the precautionary co-operation is one of the mechanisms in trade agreements principle such that there are stricter tests companies must that shifts the power even more in their favour. That’s why pass before introducing new pesticides or other chemicals we’re very concerned about this blueprint in CETA and into the food system and consumer products. The EU is that we can now see in other EU agreements with Japan, considering a total ban on neonicitinoid pesticides. Canada, and in the NAFTA renegotiations.” on the other hand, is taking its time on single-pesticide studies, in co-operation with U.S. regulators, and with any inally, and related to these two issues of sustainable ban not scheduled to come into force before 2021. Even if economic growth and public interest regulation, there is we took neonics off the market, Canadian growers spray Fthe question of what our democracies will look like after multiple other products on their crops that are banned CETA. Will governments be in a better position to respond as toxic in Europe. to public demands related to jobs and climate change, or Then, of course, there is the GMO issue. Not only did to change course economically (for example, to make the EU decide to maintain a ban on GM imports despite Canada less dependent on resources and carbon-intensive 35 INVESTOR-STATE DISPUTES FILED UNDER NAFTA (ALL COUNTRIES)

Inactive Decided Decided Settled with Settled without Compensation Total claims Ongoing or withdrawn for state against state compensation compensation paid to investors

CANADA 40 7 16 7 5 3 2 $217,706,000 U.S. 21 3 8 7 5 0 0 $0 MEXICO 23 0 9 11 0 0 1 US$204,680,000

TOTAL 84 10 24 25 10 3 3 $477.9 MIL (CDN)

SOURCE: COMPILED BY SCOTT SINCLAIR, CCPA.

agricultural export-led growth)? To Trade deals from NAFTA onwards is currently being sued by a fracking the extent that CETA is like older included strict rules on how foreign company—for Quebec’s moratorium Canadian trade deals, the answer will investors (and their investments) on extraction under the St. Lawrence be no. were to be treated, by governments River—and by Omnitrax, the U.S. op- Free trade deals are purposely or national courts. This had little to erator of the only rail link to Churchill, designed to limit government poli- do with trade—it was about locking Manitoba, which is claiming the cy-making options, to force countries in corporate expectations of global federal government violated NAFTA into what Thomas Friedman fondly expansion with as little risk to share- by insisting the company abide by described as a “golden straightjacket” holders as possible. Governments its contractual obligation to fix the in his famous 1999 paean to globali- could intervene in the economy in broken line. zation, The Lexus and the Olive Tree. ways that disrupted the “natural” Instead of addressing the problems “Once your country puts on the impulses of capital to seek out profit, with the investor-state system, as Golden Straightjacket,” he wrote, but only if they were willing to pay Sinclair writes, “CETA only pays lip “its political choices get reduced to a price. service to them while entrenching Pepsi or Coke—to slight nuances of In Germany, two outrageous recent and expanding the ISDS regime tastes, slight nuances of policy, slight Vattenfall claims—against environ- through an investment court system alterations of design to account for mental policies taken at the local and (ICS). While the new system improves local traditions…but never any major national level—have turned much some procedural aspects of ISDS—for deviation from the golden rules.” of the country against ISDS in CETA example, by making arbitrators less The rules are golden, Friedman and its defunct U.S. counterpart, the prone to conflicts of interest—the claimed, because they make countries Transatlantic Trade and Investment substantive protections afforded to rich. Conformity pays. And the tighter Partnership. In one of those cases, the investors are largely unchanged.” The the chains on your straightjacket, the Swedish energy company is asking for fair and equitable treatment clause in richer you were supposed to become. more than €4 billion in compensation CETA is actually more expansive than The free trade era, with its mantra of for Germany’s decision to phase out in NAFTA, and the indirect expropri- government austerity and privatiza- nuclear power. A decision in that case, ation clause is vague enough that it tion, made some people very rich, but which was brought under an ISDS could still apply to situations where those riches were not at all evenly process in the Energy Charter Treaty, unanticipated regulatory changes shared. In fact, income inequality in was expected by the end of 2017. deprived a foreign investor of their Canada grew markedly between 1995 Canada’s NAFTA experience with profits. (a year after NAFTA was signed) and ISDS has also been bad (see table). People oppose ISDS because it gives 2010, according to Statistics Canada. With 70% of all NAFTA challenges companies a free pass. The system The rules of trade and the global aimed at Canada, we have become the basically insures foreign investors, economy, in other words, are heavily most sued developed country in the using public taxpayers’ money, for skewed. Perhaps nowhere is this more world. Corporations have successfully any potential future changes in the apparent than in these deals’ invest- challenged non-discriminatory public business environment in the countries ment protection chapters. interest regulations, including a ban in which they invest. Workers, on the Investor-state dispute settlement on a toxic gasoline additive (Ethyl other hand, have no such protection in (ISDS) was to be a second enforcer vs. Canada) and an environmental deals like CETA against plant closures, of the newly constrained neoliberal assessment that recommended toxic spills or human rights violations. global order, alongside the WTO state- against a massive quarry on the Bay This is blatantly obvious in cases of to-state dispute settlement process. of Fundy (Bilcon vs. Canada). Canada western mining abuses in the Global 36 I S DS THE MULTILATERAL INVESTMENT COURT. AN ISDS POISON PILL... WITH VITAMINS. South. But we’ve also seen it happen in Canada, where a forestry company walked away from the province of ia Eberhardt, of the Brussels-based outside of Canada’s legal system. The Why is the EU pursuing the initiative? Corporate Europe Observatory, MAI was about dramatically expanding And what does the debate look like in Phas played an outsized role in the the ISDS system, the global corporate Europe? campaign to educate Europeans about court would institutionalise it further but The European Commission is pretty the corporate bias inherent in investor- without expanding that system. open about its intentions: the proposed state dispute settlement and deals like You’ve called this court a “poison court should re-legitimize the ISDS CETA. Her organization’s reports with the pill with vitamins.” What do you system, which is being questioned Transnational Institute (and other groups), mean by that? Are there legitimate around the world. Without this re- including Profiting from Injustice and improvements on ISDS? legitimization, the commission will have The Zombi ISDS, helped mobilize a new a hard time expanding ISDS further. generation of trade justice activists and Yes, there are. The most significant one And this is exactly what it is planning have convinced governments on the need is that the people deciding the cases to do through new treaties like CETA. to reform or kill the ISDS regime. Eberhardt would be more independent. Today’s Unfortunately, this agenda is supported is now grappling with the EU proposal for ISDS cases are decided by for-profit by a large majority of EU member states a multilateral investment court, an MAI arbitrators who earn more money the and the European Parliament. But there reboot of sorts that has the potential, at longer a case takes, the more cases they is also a lot of resistance. Already, least in theory, to dial back some of the accept, and the more cases get filed. 420,000 citizens have signed a petition worst corporate “rights” in deals like That creates huge conflicts of interest against the court. And the German NAFTA. But as she told the Monitor, the and is an enormous incentive to rule in judges association has just come out MIC could just as easily entrench a more favour of the investor—because this with a pretty strong statement against anti-democratic ISDS regime. keeps the system lucrative for them it, while questioning the need for ISDS and a money-making machine for the In a nutshell, what is the EU proposing generally. arbitrators. Replacing this crooked for this multilateral investment court? system with an independent court Are other, non-EU countries supportive Eberhardt: The EU proposal would mean would be an improvement. However, it of this court? What are the next steps that investor lawsuits against states, would come at the high price of further for the EU? such as the many filed against Canada institutionalizing and thereby locking In their recent trade deals with the EU, under NAFTA’s Chapter 11, would no in a system that has already proven Canada and Vietnam have committed longer be decided by three for-profit dangerous for taxpayers, decisions in to work towards the court. South Korea lawyers, but by a proper international the public interest, and our democracies. and Argentina have reportedly also court. If, for example, Mexico, Canada We should get out of ISDS by cancelling expressed support. But others have and the U.S. signed the convention, existing investment treaties, and not raised reservations, including Bolivia, which would establish the court, all give the system even greater authority India, Indonesia, Japan, the U.S., South future NAFTA investor claims would through a court. Just like we wouldn’t Africa and Ecuador. So it is really hard automatically be decided by this new swallow a poison pill just because there to tell at this moment if the initiative global court for corporations. are a couple of vitamins in there. will ever get enough support outside of It sounds a bit like the failed MAI the EU. In any case, the EU will push the (Multilateral Agreement on Investment), proposal in the context of the broader but you say there are important discussions about reforming ISDS, which differences? are happening in the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law The key difference is that the multilateral (UNCITRAL). It’s important that civil investment court is a purely procedural society accompanies these discussions initiative. It would not give a company with strong campaigning against ISDS like Lone Pine the right to sue Canada in all its disguises. Because the global over the Quebec fracking moratorium. investment regime, or global regime of It would just mean that a NAFTA lawsuit corporate impunity as others would call like Lone Pine’s versus Canada would be it, is deeply wounded. Preventing its handled by the court, under the court’s further expansion and lock-in and even procedural rules. The MAI, on the other steps towards its dismantlement are hand, would have given a company like absolutely possible. But we have to get Lone Pine new substantive rights and active to make that happen. the respective procedures to claim them 37 Newfoundland and Labrador without A progressive of extreme-right parties in Europe, compensating its workers or cleaning including Alternative for Germany up its mess, and with a $130-million government would (AFD), which earned 13.3% of the vote NAFTA settlement from the federal apply a human in September elections, and Austria’s government in its pocket. Freedom Party, which gained 5.5 points All this suggests strongly that, rights framework to capture 26% of the vote in October. should CETA’s investment court ever to all its goals and These political groups, both of which come into existence, we can expect oppose CETA (albeit frequently from a even more ISDS cases against totally priorities. It would racist perspective not shared by their legitimate government policies and put consumers countries’ labour unions and ENGOs), legal rulings by the courts. Even speak directly to voters’ economic in- investment lawyers admit it will be first, and respond securities in order to push regressive, business as usual for them under with precaution to divisive policies that take us much CETA compared to past investment further away from where we need to treaties. possible threats to be on climate change, international Why then do some progressive lead- human and animal solidarity and equality. ers claim that the investment “court” According to polls, nearly will kill ISDS? It’s the complete oppo- health. three-quarters of Austrians and well site: CETA legitimizes ISDS by giving over three-quarters of the country’s ad hoc arbitration a flimsy veneer of social-democratic party (SPÖ) opposed judicial credibility. CETA, and the EU/ CETA in the fall of 2016. The former Canada-proposed multilateral invest- SPÖ government nonetheless decided ment court (see interview with Pia not to block the deal’s passage at the Eberhardt), institutionalizes ISDS in European council when it came to a such a way that it will be very difficult vote on October 14 that year. Today, for future governments to ever loosen though the party maintained most the ties of Friedman’s malfunctioning borders, but wages not so much. In of its vote in the last election (while straightjacket. Mexico, the labour share of income the Greens did not win a single seat), dropped by a quarter from what it the SPÖ will be relegated to the oppo- ETA, TTIP and other European was before the agreement came into sition benches, fighting a right-wing comprehensive economic and force. Farm prices collapsed for many coalition looking to weaken or destroy Ctrade deals (with Japan, New sectors in Canada. Consolidation in postwar Austrian institutions built to Zealand and Australia, for example) the beef, pork, and grains sectors has maintain social solidarity as a bulwark have sparked massive opposition put all the power and control over pro- against fascism. The people I met in across the political spectrum in many duction into the hands of a handful Vienna could find no silver lining in countries. Free traders sometimes con- of multinational trading firms. For this bleak situation. descendingly dismiss such concerns as many Canadian farmers, export-led Clearly, Austria’s election was not a a sign of backwardness or “anti-trade” growth turned into a dependence on referendum on CETA. The agreement protectionism. But in most cases highly carbon-intensive trade (see barely featured in political campaigns, these public reactions are the result page 42) under terms set in corporate which were too often focused on of real-world experience with over 30 headquarters in Brazil, the United refugees and trumped up fears about or 40 years of neoliberal economic and States or Saudi Arabia. the country’s national security. If, social policy reforms. But across the economy, corporate however, progressives are seen to be These people will not be convinced consolidation was arguably a much supporting deals like CETA, which also that signing more of the same kinds more important result of NAFTA pit workers against each other and of deals that CETA represents is than increased trade flows. In another put multinational corporate interests going to help them find a good job report for the CCPA, Jordan Brennan over the interests of the people, why and secure their family’s well-being found that the consolidation of the would voters trust that they have the into the future. In fact, a 2015 Tufts free trade era came with a concentra- country’s best interests at heart? To University study suggests the trade tion of power and wealth at the top. criticize status quo globalization (as and investment rules in the deal The money is literally trickling down, Prime Minister Trudeau and Trade are likely to suppress job growth leading to highly unequal outcomes Minister Freeland do frequently), then and lower labour’s share of national across North America and within each back the agreements that lock it into income, albeit marginally. If this is NAFTA country. In other words, deals place, Canadian and European pro- surprising, it shouldn’t be. It was a big like NAFTA and CETA contribute to gressives cede ground to reactionary, but underreported part of the NAFTA inequality, and inequality can have nativist forces that could set the goal experience. dangerous political outcomes. of progress back decades. After NAFTA, trade expanded We’ve seen the fallout in the rise of significantly across North American strongmen like Trump and the success 38 hen I was in Paris in October, I spoke to Jacques Maire, the invisible hand of the market to guide us toward a more the French MP responsible for CETA, about his gov- sustainable economy, we are going to be waiting a long Wernment’s remaining concerns with the deal and its time. Even the staunchly neoliberal Economist magazine plans regarding ratification. Though President Emmanuel warned, in its November 18 issue, that there is no foresee- Macron has announced France will ratify some time next able market in taking carbon out of the atmosphere. It will year, he has also said future EU deals need to do a much be up to government to fund and direct the process, which better job of accommodating the Paris Agreement and is fundamental to the goal of holding global temperature global sustainable development goals. On October 25, the increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Trade and investment deals French environment minister, Nicolas Hulot, said France that get in the way will need to be rewritten, ignored or would seek a “climate veto” in CETA to protect measures discarded. designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from trade Canada’s now two-year-old Liberal government came or investment claims on behalf of the oil industry. Canada to power in 2015 promising progressive change and a new is apparently open to the idea (which tells us a lot about vision of inclusive growth. They could have looked harder its seriousness and enforceability). at this free trade deal CETA, negotiated entirely by the most This posture by the French government is both a vindi- right-wing government Canada has seen in a long time, and cation of the progressive European opposition to CETA and wondered whether it was compatible with that vision. If a cop-out by Europe’s leaders. It simply pushes further into they did wonder that, they didn’t dwell on the question the future a problem we need to solve today—a problem for very long. With a minor adjustment to the investment that agreements like CETA, with their excessive corporate chapter—at the European Commission’s urging—and a protections, only make harder to solve. If we are waiting for written “understanding” of questionable legal value, CETA was transformed magically into the most progressive trade agreement ever negotiated. CETA protest outside the European Parliament in In fact, like most Canadians free trade deals, including Strasbourg, France in February 2017 ahead of a the TPP11 Canada endorsed in November, CETA is a chain final vote on the agreement. tied to our ankles as we try to swim our way out of the deep PHOTO BY STOP TTIP and rising waters of climate change, the inequality trap and

39 growing democratic malaise. It seems Trade Minister instrument, a UN treaty perhaps, to me progressives have no choice in that could address human rights the matter. They must oppose CETA Freeland calls abuses committed by transnational because of how much it gets in the regulatory co- corporations. The process for such way of sustainable growth and de- a treaty was started in 2014, on the velopment. The two projects cancel operation a “bread initiative of Ecuador and South each other out. and butter” trade Africa, and with the backing of more A progressive government is than 200 civil society organizations concerned first and foremost with issue. It has worldwide. (Ecuador terminated 16 increasing the welfare of its people, nothing to do with of its bilateral investment treaties but also of people around the world. in May 2017, claiming they “not only It is internationalist and democratic. trade. It is about failed to attract additional investment It believes in equality and will inter- deregulation. or advance the country’s development vene in the economy to redistribute plan, they also diverted millions of society’s wealth from those who have dollars of government money to much to those who have less. No one fighting costly lawsuits.”) A working should live in poverty; no one should group of the UN’s human rights com- be without decent work and a place mittee (OHCHR) has been discussing to live. the proposal since then and held a A progressive government would third negotiating round in Geneva in apply a human rights framework to October. all its goals and priorities. It would “Such a binding treaty is long over- put consumers first, and respond agreement as is, and a positive decision due,” said Alexandra Strickner, chair with precaution to possible threats to from the European Court of Justice, of Attac-Austria, during my stop in human and animal health. Important- for that to ever happen. Vienna. “Most developed countries, ly, a progressive government would do “It was a huge victory for us, to turn however, are trying in one way or everything in its power now to quickly this whole (ISDS) system into some- another to stop the process from going transition away from fossil fuels so thing toxic, which was the result of the on. They continue to be committed to that future generations can avoid the social movement educating people but expanding corporate rights via trade worst effects of climate change. also changing the discourse in Europe and investment agreements. While we Unfortunately, CETA puts barri- completely,” said Nelly Grotefendt, a need to continue to struggle against ers between us and this vision of a trade policy officer with the German those agreements, we should be doing better, more caring society. Barriers NGO Forum on Environment and more to support the binding UN treaty impeding the regulation of services, Development, during one of our as well. Most of developing countries and the creation of new public conversations in Berlin in October. have ratified the UN’s human rights services. Barriers in the form of ex- “But obviously… there are still very charter. It is our task to hold them treme investment protections and a problematic chapters [in CETA] that responsible, and to build the legal regulatory co-operation chapter that we have to keep on working on. It’s still architecture that allows for that to will, and is intended to, put pressure highly problematic for the agricultural happen.” on governments to reduce standards sector, for example, in Canada but also In the process of advancing alter- to the lowest common denominator. in the European Union. Regulatory natives to corporate globalization, And, if more indirectly, barriers to our co-operation is going to be a big topic like the UN binding treaty, EU trade ability to guide the public agenda, as that we have to talk about. justice activists may yet score the far-right parties profit from economic “This entire issue of shrinking ultimate win—a parliamentary vote disillusionment to take control of the policy space is a big topic in Germa- against deals like CETA, or at least state and direct it against the poor and ny, so maybe we can also link these harder demands than France could disenfranchised. two discourses to one another,” she muster to change the text, to make it The good news is that while the continued. “Our job is going to be more sustainable, before agreeing to government of Canada has put to link what social movements are the deal. CETA behind it—locked the new demanding on the ground to what’s Why not? What good reason is there straightjacket tight and swallowed going on at the European level.” To not to reopen CETA so that it might the key—the European trade justice do that, said Grotefendt, campaign- become a tool for truly sustainable movement continues to fight ratifi- ers have regrouped as a trade justice growth rather than a barrier to it? If cation in Germany, France, Ireland, movement. “It’s time for us to tell our this cannot be done, then CETA must the Netherlands, Slovenia, Austria alternative to [our governments], to be tossed into the dustbin of history, and elsewhere. Because of that fight, say there is something else besides where it clearly belongs. M CETA’s investment provisions may the commission’s strategy.” never come into effect. It will take One of those alternative agenda all EU member states ratifying the items is a binding international 40 Opinion

JULIETTE MAJOT AND DEVLIN KUYEK Big meat and big dairy’s climate emissions put ExxonMobil to shame

ID YOU KNOW that three meat dairy production and consumption The big meat and dairy companies companies—JBS, Cargill and around the world, at all costs. also speak of finding efficiencies while Tyson—are estimated to have One consequence, among many, is expanding production. They claim that Demitted more greenhouse gases that livestock production now contrib- the only way to effectively reduce last year than all of France and near- utes nearly 15% of global greenhouse emissions is by squeezing out ever ly as much as some of the biggest oil gas emissions, even more than the more milk from each dairy cow or by companies like Exxon, BP and Shell? transportation sector. If production bringing beef cattle to slaughter ever Few meat and dairy companies continues to grow as projected by more quickly. calculate or publish their climate the FAO, emissions will escalate to Such “solutions” would only emissions. So, for the first time ever, the point where industrial meat and compound the industry’s horrific we have estimated corporate emis- dairy production alone will undercut treatment of workers and animals sions from livestock, using the most our ability to keep temperatures from and exacerbate the environmental comprehensive methodology created rising to an apocalyptic scenario. and health crises caused by the to date by the UN’s Food and Agricul- The world’s largest meat and dairy industry. They would also condemn ture Organization (FAO). companies would have us believe a the 600 million small-scale farmers We’ve found that the top 20 meat different story. They would likely de- and 200 million herders who depend and dairy companies emitted more fend their production as necessary for on livestock for their livelihoods, and greenhouse gases in 2016 than all of world food security, and suggest they who do feed billions of people every Germany, Europe’s biggest climate should be let off the hook, or better yet, day with moderate amounts of meat, polluter by far. If these companies get incentives for tinkering with their dairy and eggs. were a country, they would be the greenhouse gas emissions. These small producers are the back- world’s seventh largest greenhouse This is not true. bone of food systems that can arrest gas emitter. These companies produce a vast and address climate change. They are It’s now clear that the world cannot amount of highly subsidized meat the ones who need to be supported avoid climate catastrophe without and dairy in a handful of countries and strengthened. addressing the staggering emissions where these products are already The first step toward that goal from the largest meat and dairy overconsumed. They then export should be to redirect public money conglomerates. their surpluses to the rest of the from factory farming and agribusi- Over the past few decades, the world, undercutting the millions of ness toward small-scale agroecological meat and dairy majors have become small farmers who actually do en- family farms. Governments should immensely powerful and have suc- sure food security, and bombarding also use their buying power to support cessfully pushed policies to support consumers with unhealthy processed small producers, helping them build rapid growth of industrial meat and foods. jobs and markets for local products. As numerous cities make energy choices to tackle climate change, so too should municipalities invest in farm-to-hospital and farm-to-school programs that deliver healthier food and strengthen rural communities while emitting fewer greenhouse gases. It is time to stop the dairy and meat giants from destroying the climate and shift our support to making our small farmers, herders and ranchers resilient. M THIS ARTICLE FIRST APPEARED IN THE GUARDIAN (U.K.) ON NOVEMBER 7, 2017. 41 Feature

ASAD ISMI With Mexico on the brink, is the left finally poised to take the presidency?

INCE TAKING OFFICE in 2012, Mexican The same poll found 80% of Mexicans to discourage legitimate independent President Enrique Peña Nieto has disapprove of how the president has competition—the likely cause in the faced almost constant protests handled the economy, 77% disapprove fatal shooting of two mining workers Sagainst government corruption, of how he is fighting corruption, 74% involved in a work stoppage at a an inability or unwillingness to deal disapprove of the government’s record Canadian-owned mine in November. with criminal and official violence in on crime and drug trafficking, and 72% At least a hundred journalists have the country, and regressive neoliberal don’t like how the PRI has handled been killed since 2000, making Mexico reforms introduced by his Institution- relations with the U.S., Mexico’s top the third most dangerous country in al Revolutionary Party (PRI). trading partner. It’s looking more and the world for reporters after Iraq and In 2014, the president’s wife, Angéli- more likely the electorate will make Syria. Mexico’s National Commission ca Rivera, as well as his PRI finance these views heard in elections this for Human Rights pointed out in minister got into trouble after it was June. November that of 176 investigations reported they had bought mansions “No Mexican president in recent into attacks on journalists in recent from a contractor with lucrative history has been so hated and so re- years, only 10% have resulted in con- connections to the government. Ri- pudiated by his own people as Peña victions—an impunity rate of 90%. vera sold her home a year later, and Nieto,” says John Ackerman, law According to Jesse Franzblau, writing an investigator appointed by Peña professor at the National Autonomous for The Intercept in June 2017, the Nieto (and therefore of questionable University of Mexico (UNAM) and journalists being targeted in Mexico independence) eventually absolved editor-in-chief of the Mexican Law share “a commitment to documenting them both of wrongdoing. But the Review. “Mexico is undergoing a blood- political corruption and state links to controversy never settled, as further bath, with the level of violence under drug trafficking.” cases of PRI corruption suggested the Peña Nieto even exceeding that under problem was endemic. his predecessor, Felipe Calderón, while eña Nieto is not just seen by the This past summer, Javier Duarte, impunity is out of control.” public as personally benefiting the former governor of Veracruz, once There were 12,155 homicides record- Pfrom corruption, but also as giving praised by the president as “part of a ed between January and June 2017, away the country’s wealth to foreign- new generation” of PRI leaders and according to Mexican government ers while adding to the immense reformers, was deported to Mexico statistics released in July. These are poverty many Mexicans already suffer. from his Guatemala hideout, accused the highest numbers on record since In December 2013, the Mexican senate of stealing US$3 billion from state 1997. The increase in violence has been approved PRI legislation to allow do- coffers. Two other PRI ex-governors, attributed to turf wars among cartels mestic and foreign private companies Roberto Borge of Quintana Roo state that are increasing their heroin and to explore and drill for oil and gas for and Tomás Yarrington of Tamaulipas fentanyl production in the wake of the first time in the country’s history. state, were also arrested last year on marijuana legalization north of the This deeply unpopular move, which corruption charges, the former as he border. ended state subsidies to the industry, was about to board a plane to Paris in Then there is the state-sanctioned increased gasoline prices by an June. The latter is accused by the U.S. violence against political opponents amazing 20% last January, increasing of taking millions of dollars in bribes of one stripe or another. An increas- inflation by 400% and provoking from the Gulf and the Zeta cartels, two ing number of atrocities are carried violent demonstrations in a country of the most violent drug trafficking out by the military, including the where half the population lives in cartels terrorizing Mexico. disappearance in 2014 of 43 students poverty. “We see [this privatization] Peña Nieto’s approval ratings have, at the Ayotzinapa rural college, as an attack against the population, not surprisingly, dropped significantly and the killings of civilians by state as a robbery, taking into account the over the past six years, from 61% be- forces in Tlatlaya, Apatzingán, Villa levels of income of the population,” fore he was first elected to only 28% Purificación, Ostula, Tanhuanto and Jose Narro, director of the workers’ today, according to a Pew Research Nochxitlán. Corrupt state- and compa- group Coordinadora Nacional Plan de Centre poll released in September. ny-supported unions also use violence Ayala, told Reforma in December 2016. 42 “Petroleum revenues are crucial for Peña Nieto’s he public reaction to official cor- Mexico because they fund a third of ruption and violence, increasing the official budget,” says Ackerman. approval ratings Tpoverty, and the sale of precious “So this privatization signifies the have dropped public resources to multinational looting of Mexico, which is going to corporations has been manifested, create a fiscal crisis. Mexico already markedly over partly, in the popularity of Andrés owes 50% of its GDP in debt and in 2016 the past six years, Manuel López Obrador and his Na- and 2017 there have been very serious tional Regeneration Movement Party budget cuts. The PRI has doubled the from 61% before (MORENA). The former mayor of national debt in the last five years.” he was first Mexico City narrowly lost to Calderón Anna Zalik, an associate professor at in the 2006 federal election and then York University and expert on Mexico’s elected to only again to Peña Nieto in 2012. But he was oil sector, agrees that opening extrac- 28% today. the frontrunner candidate going into tion to foreign investment amounts 2018, campaigning on a leftist platform “to giving away the country’s wealth that includes reversing the petroleum and will have very negative effects privatization, fighting corruption and on people’s daily needs” by increasing reviving economic conditions in the prices for many necessities. She points countryside. out that the Canadian government “I think López Obrador can win in strongly encouraged this disastrous 2018,” says Ackerman. “The big issue, privatization for the benefit of Ca- however, is that the entire system, nadian corporations poised to enter meaning the mainstream media, the Mexico’s oil sector. electoral authorities, the government, “In the last five years, through agreement’s energy chapter, known as the U.S. government and the interna- Export Development Canada, the the “proportionality clause” because of tional financial and political elites, Canadian government has provided its “language preventing Canada, and have stacked the cards against him billions of dollars in financing toward any other signatory, from reducing and electoral fraud is very much a the recently privatized Mexican ener- the proportion of its produced energy permanent reality in Mexico. In the gy sector as well as to TransCanada exported to a NAFTA member.” Such past these powerful forces have en- Pipelines’...activities in the United language prevents the redirection of sured the continuity of neoliberalism States,” Zalik says. “TransCanada po- exports for domestic use and may in Mexico, partly through fraud in the sitioned itself as a major operator in prohibit fuel subsidies for consumers, 2006 and 2012 elections.” Mexico in the lead-up to Mexico’s she says. The question for Ackerman is, can controversial energy reform,” which Mexican workers have fared poorly Mexico have a fair election in which involved the “dismissal of over 40,000 under NAFTA. The agreement “leaves the party that wins the most votes ac- workers from Mexico’s energy utility out both peasants and Indigenous tually takes power? He points to Latin company in 2009.” agriculture [who] are seen as dispen- America’s move to the left during the TransCanada is a 100% owner sable,” says Pedro Torres, president of last 17 years and how many of its gov- of seven pipelines in operation or the National Association of Marketing ernments have been able to channel construction in Mexico that are Companies of Rural Producers. “In public discontent with neoliberalism’s worth about US$5 billion and are “all turn, this has caused a major in- failures into official policy, producing underpinned by 25-year agreements crease in hunger in the countryside, a massive redistribution of income with Mexico’s state power company,” migration and the undermining of across the continent. according to a 2016 company press self-employment and autonomous In contrast, Mexico has not had a release. The company will be deliver- production. All this has led the youth single, even mildly leftist government. ing gas to Mexico, imported from the to join criminal and drug trafficking Ackerman warns that the continued U.S., for generating electricity. Mexico’s groups.” failure of the country’s political sys- imports of U.S. natural gas have risen Instead, Torres proposes that tem to respond to popular demands sharply over the past 10 years, which Mexico should leave NAFTA to focus will have dire consequences. means reduced energy sovereignty for on strengthening peasant and Indig- “Another neoliberal government in the country, fewer jobs in the energy enous farming and their associated Mexico after the 2018 elections will be sector and less investment in renew- commerce and marketing. “I believe a total disaster for the well-being of its able energy infrastructure. that all Mexicans must be active in people. If the combination of neolib- This situation could be about to the development of the nation,” he eralism and political authoritarianism get worse for Mexico, depending on says. “We cannot protect only the persists, Mexico will increasingly be- the outcome of the ongoing NAFTA wealthy who have the most resources. come a country ruled by militarization renegotiation. Zalik warns that Employment must be better paid so and massacres.” M Mexico, with Canada’s support, may that Mexican families can afford their finally sign on to Article 605 of the main needs.” 43 Feature

BEN ISITT Canada and the Bolshevik Revolution As government sent troops to return czarist rule, workers and soldiers mutinied for the red cause

HE WORLD MARKED the 100th Origins of Canada’s monarchies (Czar Nicholas II and anniversary of the Bolshevik intervention in Russia King George V were first cousins) Revolution in November, an At the time the Russian Bolsheviks and established economic and mil- Tevent that gave rise to one of seized power in Petrograd (now St. itary connections. Canadian army the more unorthodox states in world Petersburg) on November 7, 1917, officers were stationed in Petrograd, history, and shaped international and Canada was a steadfast ally of Rus- and the British Empire had provided domestic Canadian politics for much sia. This association reflected family substantial amounts of war materiel of the 20th century. It is worth revis- ties between the Russian and British and financial loans to the Russian iting how differently Canada’s elite state to aid its efforts during the reacted to that moment a century First World War. In the Far East port ago—in support of military action— Vladivostok’s Golden Horn Bay, of Vladivostok, an estimated 700,000 compared to rank and file workers and Russia’s outpost on the Pacific tonnes of rolling stock, ammunition, soldiers, who were inspired to push for Ocean and the beachhead of Allied submarines manufactured in Canada a similarly radical transformation in intervention in the Russian Civil War. and other such materiel was stock- class relations at home. SIDNEY RODGER FAMILY COLLECTION piled on the wharves. 44 Over eight months in 1917, Russia underwent a rapid 1917: “Is it not high time that the workers of the western transition—from a 300-year-old absolutist monarchy to world take action similar to that of the Russian Bolsheviki a provisional government to a radical socialist government and dispose of their masters as those brave Russians are headed by Vladimir Lenin and the Bolshevik Party (Russian now doing?” Social Democratic Labour Party). The Bolsheviks’ decision These feelings intensified in the late stages of the war, as to repudiate billions of rubles of foreign loans owed to carnage on the battlefields of the Western Front combined British and French banks, and to enter into a separate with conscription, inflation and state repression to impel a peace deal with Germany at Brest-Litovsk (today the Be- growing number of Canadian workers to view Bolshevism larusan city of Brest) in March 1918, fractured traditional as an effective, logical response to the two-fold scourges allegiances. While Canada and its allies never formally of war and capitalism. declared war, from that point forward Russia was treated As Canada’s Siberian Expedition mobilized conscripts as a de facto enemy. and volunteers from every Canadian province, the labour On far-flung fronts surrounding the world’s largest state, councils of Canada’s largest cities (Vancouver, Winnipeg, the Allies made common cause with monarchists and other Toronto, Montreal) adopted resolutions sympathizing White Russian forces to limit and reverse the influence with the Bolsheviks and demanding “Hands Off Russia.” of Bolshevism. At the port of Vladivostok in early 1918, Similar positions were adopted by the United Farmers of Japanese, British and American warships dropped anchor Ontario and farmer organizations in Saskatchewan. Even in Golden Horn Bay, deploying marines and then ground the business-aligned Globe newspaper of Toronto called for forces to occupy the city and topple the local Bolshevik Canada to cancel the Siberian Expedition in the interests administration. In a coalition war effort with the Czech of political stability. Legion, White forces and Chinese troops crossed into In Victoria, the local labour council and Socialist Party Russia from nearby Manchuria. connected directly with conscripts converging on the city’s Against this backdrop, the Canadian government of Sir Willows Camp, organizing two large “Hands Off Russia” Robert Borden pledged more than 5,000 troops to intervene mass meetings in local theatres attended by an estimated in Russia’s civil war in August 1918. They were split into the 800 Siberian troops—about a quarter of the force awaiting following groups: deployment to Russia. “Well, things are beginning to look awful black over here,” Siberian Expeditionary Force (Vladivostok): 4,200 troops ͸ a soldier wrote to his sister-in-law from the Willows Camp. ͸ Syren Party (Murmansk): 600 troops “We are going to be railroaded to Siberia, and we cannot do a thing to help ourselves. They started to dish out our ͸ Elope Party (Arkhangelsk): 500 troops ͸ Dunsterforce (Baku): 40 troops

The government also created a Canadian Siberian Eco- nomic Commission, with representatives of the Canadian Pacific Railway and Bank of Montreal, instructed to work with the Allies to re-establish productive industries and commerce in Siberia, and investigate local conditions of transport, agriculture, mining, forestry, fishing and finance, “with a view to the development of Canadian trade.” The commission deployed with the advance party of Canadian troops, and in early 1919 the Royal Bank of Canada opened a branch in Vladivostok in a 57-tonne prefabricated building.

Mobilization and munity In the closing months of 1918, as the war on the Western Front ended, bringing a gruesome close to the slaughter of more than 60,000 Canadians, the government conscripted workers and farmers for battle in the new theatres of war in Russia, relying on dubious legal authority in provisions of the Military Service Act 1917 for “the defence of the realm.” Not surprisingly, mobilization of the Siberian Expedition provoked sharp debates in Canada—and triggered a muti- ny in Victoria, B.C. the day the soldiers embarked for Russia. Sections of Canada’s working class sympathized strongly Canadian soldiers attend a “Hands Off Russia” protest meeting with the Russian Revolution. The president of the B.C. organized by the Victoria Trades and Labour Council and Socialist Federation of Labour, Joseph Naylor, a socialist coal miner Party of Canada, December 1918. from Cumberland on Vancouver Island, had asked in late SIDNEY RODGER FAMILY COLLECTION 45 On December 21, 1918, a platoon of French-Canadian troops mutinied in downtown Victoria, B.C. while marching from the Willows Camp to the wharf to deploy for Vladivostok as part of Canada’s intervention in the Russian Civil War. B.C. ARCHIVES

Canadian military map showing the location of Allied, White Russian and Red Army forces, and the Allies’ vulnerable line of communication along the Trans-Siberian Railroad, which was subject to dozens of partisan attacks in early 1919. CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM 46 clothes to us the first day, and out of Fourteen Canadians are buried cancel the expedition and bring the 78 of us 77 refused to take them.” at the Marine Cemetery on the troops home. Prime Minister Borden, then in outskirts of Vladivistok, forgotten This reflected the chaotic state of Europe for peace talks following the victims of a forgotten war. affairs in Siberia and unreliability of November 11 armistice, ignored these STEPHENSON FAMILY COLLECTION, MCMASTER the Trans-Siberian Railroad, the Allies’ appeals and advice from his own cab- UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES AND RESEARCH COLLECTIONS sole line of communication between inet to cancel the mission, declaring the beachhead in Vladivostok and that Canada had made commitments the active front between the Red and to certain “well disposed persons in shackled in the ship’s hold, pending White armies, 6,000 kilometres west Russia” and that the Siberian Expedi- court martial proceedings and con- in the Ural Mountains dividing Asia tion would proceed. victions in Vladivostok for “joining in and Europe. Canada’s commander in The outcome of this clash of ide- a mutiny while on active service in His Vladivostok, Major-General James ological interests was a mutiny in Majesty’s armed forces.” Elmsley, provided a frank assessment Victoria the day the 259th Battalion before the main body of his troops had (Canadian Rifles) deployed for Russia. even reached Vladivostok: At the downtown street corner of Doing nothing in Siberia I feel certain that when the time Fort and Quadra Streets, a platoon of A great irony of the Siberian Expedition comes for my troops to move west I Quebecois troops refused to march is that Canada went to extraordinary shall find that the foundation of all and were prodded at bayonet point lengths to deploy military force in military operations, a secure L. of C. down to the wharf. It took 21 hours to pursuit of the anti-Bolshevik cause, (line of communication), is wanting. get the soldiers aboard the troopship but less than a month after the main However anxious we may be to assist SS Teesta before it sailed for Vlad- body of troops arrived in Russia, the a good cause, I would feel that I was ivostok—with a dozen ringleaders Canadian government decided to 47 and brothels. More than half of the medical cases at the Canadian military hospital at the Second River barracks were associated with sexually transmitted infections. As one commentator noted, the Canadians were unlikely “tourists” in Vladivostok during one of the most challenging chapters in that city’s history.

Demobilization and class conflict in Canada The Canadians returned from Vladivostok aboard four ships between April and June 1919, arriving in a country sharply divided along the lines of social class, as general strikes paralyzed production from Victoria, Vancouver and Prince Rupert in the West, to Edmonton, Calgary, Regina and Winnipeg in the Prairies, and as far east as Amherst, Nova Scotia (where Leon Trotsky, commander of the Red Army and Soviet commissar of war in 1919, had been detained by British intelligence for three weeks in a prisoner-of-war camp in April 1917 while travelling from exile in New York back to post-Czarist Russia). Canadian soldiers on the other military fronts encircling the Soviet state at Murmansk, Arkhangelsk and Baku were similarly evacuated after seeing limited combat, as the Red Army and partisan units gained the upper hand over divided Allied and White Russian forces, culminating in Canadian “tourists” in Vladivostok, 1919. Lacking authorization to Bolshevik victories. In October 1922 the last Allied units proceed “Up Country” to the Siberian interior, the troops occupied evacuated from Vladivostok’s Golden Horn Bay, as units of their time with guard duty and a range of recreational pursuits. the Moscow-aligned Far Eastern Republic entered the city CANADIAN WAR MUSEUM limits. The Allied intervention and White Russian challenge to Bolshevik power had ended in failure. “This expedition was a political error, a military mistake, and a wanton extravagance,” Dr. Henri Sévérin Béland, breaking faith with my own government if I moved a single Member of Parliament for Beauce, told Canada’s House of unit from Vladivostok under these conditions. Commons in June 1919 as the last Canadians returned from The Borden government reluctantly accepted its command- Vladivostok and the country erupted in general strikes. ing officer’s advice, ordering the demobilization of units For the next 70 years, hot and cold wars would sever still in Canada and requisitioning ships to bring the troops Vladivostok and the Soviet Union from the wider world. already in Russia home. This came with an extravagant Red scares in Canada and other countries sought to contain price tag demanded by the Canadian Pacific Steamship the ideas of “Bolshevism” and thwart radical labour political Service for passage aboard the transpacific ocean liners action, creating divisions within the political and industrial Monteagle, Empress of Japan and Empress of Russia: $125 arms of the Canadian working class that persist today. per enlisted man (more than $1,600 per person in today’s Relations between Canada and Russia would not be currency) and $250 for officers travelling first class. “normalized” until the 1990s, following the dissolution of A small contingent of about 50 Canadians were recalled the Soviet Union and the ascendancy of the neoliberal from the Siberian city of Omsk near the Urals, where they variant of capitalist rule, which, as Naomi Klein pointed out had established a base headquarters to aid the forces of in the Shock Doctrine, was implemented in a particularly White leader Admiral Aleksandr Kolchak in anticipation ruthless fashion in Russia by western financial institutions of the arrival of the main body of Canadians. Another in the 1990s. group of Canadians, numbering 200 soldiers, participated Today, interests and aspirations that motivated Bolshe- in a short-lived inter-allied operation to reclaim the town vism in Russia and Canada in 1917 continue to give rise to of Shkotovo near Vladivostok, after Bolshevik-aligned social movement mobilizations for equality, solidarity and partisan units toppled the local White garrison, liberating a more balanced ordering of social and global relations. a prison and threatening the coal supply for Vladivostok The lone reminder of Canada’s ill-fated intervention in the and the railroad. Bolshevik Revolution is a monument, on a forested hillside However, the vast majority of the 4,200 Canadians who outside Vladivostok, erected prior to the evacuation of the served in Vladivostok in 1919 never saw combat, instead last Canadian units in 1919. M occupying time with guard duty and a range of recreational pursuits: boxing, hockey, soccer, hiking and day leave in the centre of Vladivostok, where they visited cinemas, markets 48 Feature

PAUL WEINBERG CSIS is stuck on ILLUSTRATION BY REMIE GEOFFROI the threshold of change Amidst allegations of Islamophobia and misplaced priorities, Canada’s spy agency continues to show up unannounced at people’s workplaces and homes. Reformers want the counterproductive practice to stop.

S FAR BACK as October 2005, questions the (usually) plainclothes investigations in the post-9/11 period. during a Senate committee officers wanted answered, minus We would find out later, from a leaked hearing on the Anti-terrorism a lawyer present. “The practices of memo written by agency employee Act, Jim Judd, then director of security agencies have resulted in a W.J. Hooper, that the review was over the Canadian Security Intelli- chill that has alienated a significant before it began. Agence Service, admitted his agency proportion of the Canadian popula- “Subsequent to the Director’s re- had a problem relating to some new tion,” another witness had told the marks this issue was reviewed at an immigrants and visible minorities in same committee earlier that year. [CSIS] Ops Committee on November 8, Canada. While denying accusations of racial 2005,” it reads. “The Committee clearly Judd was facing heat about CSIS profiling by CSIS, Judd promised that recognized that the practice of unan- showing up unannounced at people’s day to officially review the practice nounced visits remains a legitimate homes and workplaces, without of workplace visits employed by his investigative strategy.” Hooper ends proper identification, and with prying agents in their domestic anti-terrorism his memo urging CSIS employees to 49 “exercise good judgement in using this technique and to Liberal security reforms on their way through Parlia- consider alternative interview venues.” ment may eventually add extra layers of scrutiny to CSIS’s Ottawa lawyer Bijon Roy, who obtained this internal intelligence-gathering practices. But unless the new review CSIS memo, says intelligence agents have since 9/11 spe- bodies have more teeth than they do now, and without a cifically targeted Canadian Muslims and caused a great will to change on the part of Canada’s secretive spy agency, deal of stress for them in the process. security watchdogs worry the institution is destined to “We certainly have encountered situations where it repeat past missteps, and to miss more pressing threats seems like CSIS agents were consciously leveraging their to the public. presence at the workplace as a way of putting pressure on individuals to co-operate with them,” he tells me. “There ast July, five senior CSIS intelligence officers launched a would be nothing discreet about it, and nothing that would $35-million Federal Court lawsuit against their employ- not raise eyebrows from co-workers or managers.” Ler. The 54-page filing included disturbing allegations of The issue has not gone away in 2018. Canadian Muslims racism, homophobia and Islamophobia experienced on the continue to feel targeted and stigmatized by CSIS agents, job over the past 15 years. who arrive on surprise visits to their workplaces, or to their “CSIS is a workplace rife with discrimination, bullying homes late in the evening, says Faisal Bhabha, a York Uni- and abuse of authority, in which the tone set by man- versity law professor and a legal advisor for the National agement, namely to mock, abuse, humiliate and threaten Council of Canadian Muslims. employees, has permeated the workforce,” it read. “Not “It means that the community is less likely to turn only do members of management comport themselves to these agencies when they have something to report. in a manner to facilitate this culture, but they refuse to It makes so-called counter-radicalization efforts more acknowledge it constitutes wrongful conduct.” difficult.” In a statement on October 25, the agency’s new director, In the process, Bhabha adds, the intelligence establish- David Vigneault, admitted that “retribution, favouritism, ment comes to view the Canadian Muslim community as bullying” and other inappropriate behaviour continue to either a source of information about terrorism or else an exist within the Toronto regional office of CSIS. This was inherent threat, and not as potential victims of terrorism despite steps by the agency to alleviate these problems, themselves. This is despite the fact the most heinous including mandatory training for all agency employees recent act of terrorism in Canada—the killing of six men in the last two years and “enhancements to executive as they prayed at a Quebec City mosque a year ago this accountability.” January—was committed against Muslims by a white “For 15 years as I was working to advance national secu- supremacist, he says. rity investigations, I was also fighting racism and bigotry,” A recent lawsuit against CSIS by former officers (it was said “Bahira,” one of the complainants in the lawsuit against settled in mid-December) is making it more difficult for the agency, in an email to the Star responding to Vigneault. the agency to hide its dirty laundry. It’s also begging ques- “Today, I feel somewhat vindicated. I believe CSIS needs a tions about whether an apparent internal fratboy culture workforce that is strong, engaged, and diverse at all levels. might be affecting operations, and costing the government Canadians deserve that.” millions. Two days later, however, CSIS asked the Court to throw Canada has been forced to pay out a little over $50 million out the lawsuit, claiming the allegations it contains had to settle legal cases brought against the government by been dealt with. Federal lawyers also came out swinging, Maher Arar, Omar Khadr, Abdullah Almalki, Muayyed arguing that the damages sought by the plaintiffs for the Nureddin and Ahmad El Maati. Each of these men was discriminatory practices were “excessive and remote.” And imprisoned, interrogated and tortured in a foreign jail though Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale promised (Syria in the case of all but Khadr, who was tortured by the House of Commons there would be “appropriate con- the U.S. at Guantanamo Bay) based on unreliable evidence sequences,” the government turned down a call from the of alleged terrorist links supplied by CSIS or the RCMP and NDP and others for a public inquiry into what they fear shared with their foreign counterparts. are deeply rooted systemic issues within CSIS. CSIS settled the lawsuit in December on terms that were not made public. Vigneault claimed in a statement that the agency: “does not tolerate harassment, discrimination, or The intelligence bullying under any circumstances. The complexity of the ever-evolving threat environment requires that all CSIS establishment has come to employees are equipped to give their best. As such, I strong- view the Canadian Muslim ly believe in leading an organization where each employee promotes a workplace which is free from harassment and community as either a conducive to the equitable treatment of all individuals.” source of information about here are no statistics to give us a high-level picture of terrorism or else an inherent how Canadian Muslims view their relationship with threat. Tnational security agencies. But there is quite a bit of 50 anecdotal evidence from the stories they tell to family and friends. Univer- sity of Ottawa criminology professor Baljit Nagra recounts some of them in her new book, Securitized Citizens: Canadian Muslims’ Experiences of Race Relations and Identity Formation Post-9/11 (University of Toronto Press). In 2014 and 2015, Nagra and her colleagues conducted a survey of about 95 Canadian Muslims living in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver on various national security issues including home visits. The endeavour was supported by Pub- lic Safety Canada’s Kanishka Project (named after the Air India plane that was bombed in June 1985, killing 329 people, most of them Canadians), es- tablished by the Harper government to provide research on “preventing Criminologist Baljit Nagra at her The good news here is that younger and countering violent extremism.” University of Ottawa office people in the Muslim community are “We found that the interviewees PHOTO BY THE MONITOR less intimidated to state their opinions, felt that their communities had been she concludes. The bad news is that watched by CSIS and were afraid,” o’clock. It was really embarrassing, the these stories suggest an overbearing Nagra tells me. “They felt their men said, for them to have [the encoun- Canadian state is attempting to silence mosques might be monitored by ter] in front of their families, in front them. people watching from the outside and of their children. It was an experience “As a Muslim in a role with some there was a concern that CSIS might that was traumatic,” she recounts. profile, the only opinions I’ve ever hire people as informants for them in Once these men contact their paid a personal price for have been the community. There is a sense of not lawyers about CSIS pressures, the concerning Israel,” says Bhabha. “I’ve knowing whom to trust.” intelligence agency tends to back off, been described as both an anti-Semite In contrast to the more “profes- adds Nagra. Typically, non-citizens are and a terrorist sympathizer in hate sional” RCMP officers on criminal most vulnerable to the agents, who blogs. If I were a law professor who investigations, “CSIS agents are very can have an impact on their status was not Muslim I doubt it would be rude and not pleasant to deal with,” in Canada. What comes out loud and the same.” the professor was told. Furthermore, clear, she says, is the disrespectful Karine Martel, a media spokesper- Canadian Muslim men in particular manner in which these agents ap- son for Public Safety Canada, says the say they are “pressured” to turn in- proach Canadian Muslims. CSIS activities exposed in research formant on their communities, and “What the government should by Nagra and other academics on the agents will not take “no” for an answer. do is try to make [them] feel more Kaniska-supported team do not reflect According to Nagra, the men are told welcome, tell them that they are Ca- any official policy. “if you don’t do this we are going to nadian, that Muslims are respected…. “As part of its mandate, CSIS investi- keep on bothering you, we are going The focus should be on anti-racism, gates threats to the security of Canada to keep on watching you.” policies of inclusion and an end to and collects information through a Imams represent an important marginalization.” variety of sources and methods. One target group for CSIS agents who are Nagra notes that many of the way that CSIS may collect information looking to recruit informants to report agents’ questions are based “on a is by talking to members of the public on suspicious individuals within a lot of ignorance” about Islam, and regarding potential threats. Inter- mosque. One imam told Nagra that permeated with a sensationalized views with CSIS agents are always the agents insisted he keep tabs on notion that Muslim youth are ripe voluntary.” a particular person whom he did not for terrorism. In interviews for her know. Experiences like this have so book, the criminologist heard two he only known example of some- rattled families that some men have accounts, one directly and the other one taking the issue of CSIS visits felt pressured to withdraw from secondhand, of CSIS agents paying a Tbefore the Security Intelligence high-profile religious posts. visit to the homes of people who had Review Committee (SIRC) involves “What people found disturbing was expressed views on Palestine or the Ken Stone, a white Jewish Canadian that the CSIS agents would come to Canadian government’s war-on-terror man with a rich history of left-wing your home late at night at nine or 10 policies during radio shows they host. and anti-war activism. 51 As extremist right-wing Like SIRC, however, the NSIRA will only have powers to advise and not to force any of these agencies to pursue groups emerge in this a specific action—like, say, ending the practice of surpris- country, Canadian Muslims ing people on their doorstop, or redirecting resources to growing threats such as right-wing extremism. Jeffrey are unfortunately reluctant Monaghan, a Carleton University criminology professor to report hate crimes and expert on the surveillance of activist groups, says the decision to frighten and intimidate Canadian Muslims in committed against their this way is “strategic,” not accidental. community. “Most people and politicians don’t know what security is doing. They only put their nose in when there is a dramatic event, like a shooting on Parliament Hill or something like that. Otherwise the [national security] agencies are very powerful. They have strong bureaucracies that have their “As a life-long activist, Ken is someone who might well own strategic agenda.” have caught the attention of various agencies at some point Barbara Perry of the University of Ontario Institute or another,” says Bijon Roy, Stone’s lawyer. “But never before of Technology, an expert on hate groups and co-author in his life of activism has he been personally approached of a 2015 report on right-wing extremists in Canada (also and questioned about his views or his activities.” funded by the Kanishka Project), argues that CSIS has been It all started one evening in January 2013, when two reluctant in its previous threat assessments to seriously female CSIS agents dressed in black, a bit like police officers, acknowledge the greater potential threats posed by violent showed up unannounced at Stone’s suburban home in anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and other Hamilton, Ontario. They asked him about an opinion piece racist groups, especially in Quebec and Alberta, who have he had written for the local daily newspaper about Iran, been inspired by the election of a xenophobic U.S. president where he had visited to attend a conference on Palestine. and legitimation of the “alt” agenda. Stone, who was on record opposing the international sabre Perry can cite two known instances of deaths directly rattling on Iran and its purported nuclear ambitions, re- connected to the actions of Islamic-inspired extremism: fused to talk to them. Martin Couture-Rouleau’s 2014 car-ramming attack that Stone would later file several complaints to SIRC about the killed a Canadian Forces warrant officer, Patrice Vincent; incident. In one of them, he claimed the CSIS agents were at- and Michael Zehaf-Bibeau’s rifle assault on Parliament Hill tempting to intimidate him and his family and to discourage that same year, during which he killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo. the exercise of their Charter rights of free expression and Contrast this to the more than 120 instances of aggression association. Gene McLean, a Harper-appointed SIRC board by right-wing extremists between 1980 and 2015, including member, rejected Stone’s argument in the decision on that Justin Bourque’s killing of three RCMP officers in June 2014, case, but agreed with the Hamiltonian on two other points. and last January’s savage slaying of six Muslims as they Firstly, SIRC wrote, the CSIS agents had apparently prayed in Quebec City. failed to properly inform Stone that he did not have to As we head into 2018, Perry says there is a new and speak to them. Other people who experience home visits belated change of attitude at CSIS, which has until now may not fully appreciate or understand that they can shut been caught up in the post-9/11 mindset. “The next [CSIS] the door on a visiting CSIS agent and refuse to answer threat assessment should be out shortly, so we’ll know then their questions. McLean urged CSIS to “review its policy to if they’ve changed their tune.” clarify the responsibilities of CSIS employees with respect In the bigger picture, the question is whether CSIS or to voluntariness of interviews.” any other federal security or law enforcement agency can The SIRC report also criticized the agency for allegedly undo the damage of more than a decade of singling out losing notes taken by one of the agents who visited Stone’s law-abiding Muslims with home and workplace visits. As house, and the failure of her colleague to write anything “scary” right-wing groups emerge in this country, Canadian down during the short encounter. “CSIS bears the responsi- Muslims are unfortunately reluctant to report a hate crime bility to provide all relevant information to the Committee committed against their community, says Perry who has in order for it to carry out its investigation,” it stated. CSIS done extensive research on Islamaphobia in Canada. can legally ignore SIRC recommendations, which are not “One of the things that Canadian Muslims tell me more binding on the agency. than anything is the distrust of law enforcement and se- As Tim McSorley of the International Civil Liberties Moni- curity because so many members of [their] community are toring Group explained in the last issue of the Monitor (Nov/ under undue surveillance and always considered security Dec 2017), the Liberal government plans to replace SIRC with risks.” a National Security and Intelligence Review Agency. The new “I am allergic to the police,” is one of the comments Perry body will oversee the work of four security agencies—CSIS, heard during her interviews of Muslims. She discovered a the RCMP, the Communications Security Establishment reticence to “draw attention” to oneself and one’s family in and the Canada Border Services Agency—but can only hear the current climate. M complaints against the first three (i.e., excluding CBSA). 52 Opinion

BARBARA MCELGUNN U.S. retailers lead Canada on toxics

OR MORE THAN a decade, human bio- diabetes), brain development and formulated products by 2020. The monitoring studies in the U.S. and cancers of the reproductive system. policy will include beauty, baby care, Canada have measured the “body They should be considered unsafe at personal care and household cleaning Fburden” of chemicals present in any exposure level. products. Target has also committed to our blood, urine, and in fetal umbilical In response to customer concerns, phasing out perfluorinated chemicals cords. These population-wide surveys U.S. and European retailers are (PFCs) and flame retardants from tex- consistently find numerous “chemicals asking manufacturers and suppliers tiles (including clothing, carpets and of concern” (COCs) in our bodies, indi- to remove COCs from the product upholstered furniture) by 2022. cating chronic and ongoing exposures. supply chain. Where such policies In other examples, the pharmacy The sources of exposure are all too have a consistent and global reach, all CVS announced it will remove three common. Bisphenol A, though banned consumers will benefit. For example, harmful classes of chemicals from its in baby bottles, is still used in other IKEA has said it is cutting chemicals store-brand beauty and personal care consumer products, including cash like polyvinyl chloride or brominated products by 2019, Johnson & Johnson register slips. Many chemicals such flame retardants from all its products has removed formaldehyde from its as flame retardants can be found in worldwide. More often, however, children’s products, and Unilever an- house dust. Phthalates and pesticide corporate policies seem to be either nounced it will disclose the previously residues show up in our food, and the country specific or else it is difficult hidden chemicals used in its fragrances. list goes on. to figure out where the rules apply. It can be difficult to impossible to Some COCs have been linked to The U.S.-based Mind the Store discern online whether the Canadian multiple adverse health effects and campaign, led by the Safer Chemicals counterparts of these large companies conditions. Additional and largely un- Healthy Families coalition and the En- are taking similar precautionary known risks arise from combinations vironmental Defense Fund, has helped action. Loblaws removed artificial col- of multiple chemicals. But even as the bring about corporate policies aimed ours and flavours from its President’s peer-reviewed scientific evidence on at eliminating dangerous chemicals Choice line of products in 2013, and health impacts piles up, regulators and promoting safer alternatives. In some Canadian fast food companies have been very slow to act. When a similar vein, the Chemical Footprint have policies on how source foods are they do, a troubling double-standard Project provides an online assess- raised. But these are rare examples is frequently applied. ment tool for companies in the U.S. where clear corporate information is In Canada, before a chemical is and Canada to measure their use of available in Canada. significantly restricted or banned, harmful chemicals in their products Many people suppose that their companies and regulatory agencies and production processes. chemical “body burden” comes mainly seem to require conclusive proof of In 2013, Walmart launched a policy from polluting smokestacks, tailpipes harm to humans and/or the ecosystem. on sustainable chemistry in consum- or other obvious pollution sources. By contrast, thousands of chemicals ables. The U.S. retailer says its goal is We need to start thinking as hard have come onto the market with to reduce or eliminate eight publicly about exposures in the home and the little to no safety testing at all. And listed chemicals of concern from the workplace, in furnishings that get into though the approval of new chemicals personal care, paper, cleaning, pet and house dust, and from personal care involves some limited toxicity data, baby products it sells (an estimated products that we use every day. this is only true for chemicals that will 90,000 items made by 700 companies). The federal government is under be produced in large volumes. In April 2016, Walmart reported a 95% pressure from environmental, medical This light-touch regulation is of reduction by volume in use of a named and public health groups to strength- particular concern when applied to list of high-priority chemicals from en its chemicals regulatory system in endocrine disruptors, chemicals found certain products sold in U.S. locations, the current review of the Canadian in a wide range of consumer products and a 45% decrease in a broader list of Environmental Protection Act. In the that can disrupt the body’s highly priority chemicals. meantime, as the wheels of regulation complex hormonal systems at very Another U.S. retailer, Target, grind ever so slowly, Canadian retailers low doses and notably during critical recently published a chemicals pol- should follow their U.S. affiliates’ -ex periods of prenatal embryonic and icy that includes plans to phase out ample by enacting corporate policies fetal development. These chemicals phthalates, nonylphenol ethoxylates to reduce the chemical burden in our have been linked to numerous effects, (NPEs), parabens, formaldehyde bodies and improve children’s chances e.g., on metabolic systems (obesity and and formaldehyde-donors from for health and development. M 53 emissions. Following UN their decades-long commit- Dakota, a language at risk climate talks in Bonn ment to preserving and of dying, is being offered this November, Germany, protecting lands, waters to high school students Sweden, Belgium’s Wallonia and the environment for on the Lower Sioux Indian region, Italy and Ireland future generations. The Reservation. “Without raised more than $93 couple have been prom- our language and culture, million for the Adaptation inent opponents of the we’re just people,” said Fund set up 10 years ago controversial Site C dam, 15-year-old student Trella to finance projects for the Kinder Morgan pipeline, Oldrock. “I want to keep it The good managing climate impacts the Ajax open-pit copper alive.” Most of America’s in developing countries. mine and the salmon farm more than 550 tribes are news page German towns will also industry, to name a few engaged in some form of receive one billion euros big fights. / EcoWatch / language preservation Compiled by ($1.5 billion) in 2018 to Reuters / Associated Press work, according to Elaine Hughes invest in electric buses, / Georgia Straight Diana Cournoyer of the charging stations and more National Indian Education environmentally friendly Association. Volunteers Light on climate traffic infrastructure. Syria Paths to reconciliation from the Cape Cod–based and Nicaragua, the last Mashpee Wampanoag utch product designer remaining holdouts of the anice Keil, a secondary Tribe, whose ancestors DErmi van Oers (pictured) Paris climate agreement, Jschool teacher from hosted a harvest cele- and her team are working formally joined at the end of Peterborough, Ontario, bration with the pilgrims on the first atmospheric 2017. The Mexican govern- owns 100 acres of land in in 1621 (the basis for the lamp powered by living ment has created North Northumberland County, country’s Thanksgiving plants. Their Living Light America’s largest marine in the territory of the tradition), have been doesn’t need an electric park (roughly the size of Mississauga. As an act of working with families and socket and can harvest its southern Ontario) around reconciliation, she wants to elders for more than 20 own energy through the a swath of four islands restore the land to tallgrass years to help reclaim their photosynthetic process. about 386 km southwest prairie and then return it to language, Wopanaotooaok, Van Oers is already of Baja, California. It is the Alderville First Nation, which, like hundreds of applying the technology hoped the new marine claiming that the land is other native tongues, fell to public spaces and is protected area will help at the heart of the path of victim to the erosion of working with the Dutch city hundreds of species of reconciliation, since white Indigenous culture through of Rotterdam to light up a marine life stressed by settlers stole it and it needs centuries of colonialism. park. Britain and Germany commercial and illegal to be returned. The U.S. Kisis-Isquao Cappo, from are contributing $153 fishing. In the Okanagan state of Minnesota has the Muscowpetung First million to fight deforesta- (B.C.), Grand Chief Stewart dedicated $2.4 million over Nation (about 50 km east tion and climate change in Phillip and Joan Phillip the next two years toward of Regina), and her younger Brazil’s Amazon rainforest, have been awarded the revitalizing American brother, Haydar-Ali Cappo, which is seen as essential 2017 Eugene Rogers Indian languages. This fall, both attend Greenall for absorbing carbon Environment Award for for the first time, a class in High School in Balgonie, Saskatchewan. Earlier this year, 14-year-old Haydar-Ali came home upset that classmates were making fun of Indigenous legends shown in a movie about Canada’s people. The next week, his 16-year-old sister went to school dressed in her full traditional outfit including moccasins and a ribbon skirt, posting the act on social media and inviting other Saskatchewan teens to join her with the hashtag #wearingmyculture. / CBC / Star Tribune / Associated Press 54 Books

REVIEWED BY SHOSHANA MAGNET Agreeing to disagree (and how to)

BRAVING THE WILDERNESS: our ability to weather conflict and shows us how to take the time to get to THE QUEST FOR TRUE BELONGING discomfort in professional or social know the person on the other side of AND THE COURAGE TO STAND ALONE settings—in our ability to clearly and the ideological fence, have those hard BRENÉ BROWN confidently expess ourselves. conversations, and remain prepared The problem, she claims, is that to stand alone. But as much as I found Random House (September 2017), $37 many people feel bound together this book powerful and helpful (as with others only through fear and soon as I was done reading, I sent an contempt for those who do not share email to my colleagues about a point LONE? LONELY? Brené Brown’s the group’s common beliefs. Brown of difference that had been bothering latest book, Braving the Wilder- argues that we need to develop me at work), I feel somewhat less ness, has insight to shed on what ways of disagreeing with each other connected to it than Brown’s previous she terms “the lonely feeling.” without cruelty, so that speaking our work. Like Michael Harris in his ode, own opinions does not “jeopardize A big sticking point for me was that ASolitude (Doubleday Canada, April belonging.” Our preparedness, in the although Brown continues a con- 2017), on the importance of disconnect- words of Maya Angelou, “to belong versation started by Black feminist ing from social media, or Olivia Laing no place at all” is what enables us to thinkers (hooks and Angelou among in her beautiful memoir, The Lonely be more genuine, free and powerful, them, as she thankfully mentions on City (Picador, March 2016), about the Brown says. page 1), and despite endorsement of soul-crushing post-breakup period, Brown does not ask us to give up her work from Oprah Winfrey, Brown Brown, too, sees the positives in being our opinions, only to lean in to the no longer explicitly describes herself alone. In this case, on being strong discomfort of being in disagreement. as a feminist (as she did in her first enough to state dissenting opinions, With some helpful pointers, she book), nor is this term indexed in Brav- share one’s authentic feelings and be- ing the Wilderness. I found myself lieve them to be worthy, even if that longing for the author to stand in the leaves you alone in a crowd. wilderness, to place herself and her Let me first confess that I’m a huge work alongside that of other feminist Brown fan. I have pushed her previous activists calling for emotional justice, books exploring shame and human and this longing did not diminish connection onto untold friends and while reading the book. family members. Her famous June Critique notwithstanding, I found 2010 TED talk about the importance the book overall to offer an emotion- of being open to vulnerability (32 ally wise, articulate breakdown of the million views and counting) was in- importance of dissent. Citing Michelle strumental in my decision to have a Buck’s work on conflict, Brown encour- baby on my own. I’ve probably shown ages us to move in and listen when the short animated film based on her having an argument, by giving us some explanation of the difference between of the language (“help me understand empathy and sympathy to more than why this is so important to you”) to 1,000 undergraduate students. guide difficult conversations in con- Brown’s Braving the Wilderness structive directions. At this polarizing reminds me of other groundbreaking and heartbreaking moment in history, books that probe the complexities it’s pretty good advice. M of difficult emotions, books like bell hooks’s trilogy on love, or Kristin Neff’sSelf-compassion (HarperCollins, June 2015). Here she is concerned with 55 Books

REVIEWED BY HAYDEN KING Colonialism is temporary, Art Manuel endures

THE RECONCILIATION MANIFESTO: that others miss. This novel analysis of Second in the triad is dependency. RECOVERING THE LAND seemingly disparate settler strategies, Here, Manuel offers some sympathy AND REBUILDING THE ECONOMY and the philosophical underpinning for First Nation leaders trying their ARTHUR MANUEL AND reproduced through time, creates an best in a suffocating system. But in GRAND CHIEF RONALD DERRICKSON image of the colonizer we can actually a stinging censure, he also illustrates see. Not a small feat considering that how our leadership has betrayed us. Lorimer (October 2017), $22.95 much of this policy is designed and This is a systemic problem in the sense implemented by faceless lawyers and that the Indian Act has organized EAR THE END of Art Manuel’s first bureaucrats. chiefs to “represent two masters who book, Unsettling Canada: A Na- From papal bulls to the British are in direct conflict with one another. tional Wake-Up Call (Between North America Act, the White Paper to And one of those masters, the federal the Lines, 2015), he wrote that comprehensive claims, Manuel starts government, pays their salaries.” “one thing is for certain: the with a sketch of dispossession (the This line of critique is delivered most Nflood waters of colonialism are, at long first in the triad of colonialism): how forcefully against national leaders, last, receding.” Manuel was neither each strategy has aimed to “break the from Phil Fontaine to Perry Bellegarde, extoling “sunny ways” nor convinced link between Indigenous peoples and chiefs who have gone from “hanging reconciliation offered long delayed their ownership and jurisdiction over around the Liberal fort [to] disappear- justice. No, Manuel, perhaps more their lands.” These legal fictions—all ing into it.” than any thinker in Canada, under- rooted in white supremacy—flow one For Manuel, this leads to the third stood the dynamics and strategies of into the next, successive articulations element of colonization, oppression, violent and “demented” contemporary of the same dispossessive push. And which is especially cunning consid- colonialism. Rather, Manuel saw that they have been remarkably effective, ering the Canadian system results our collective resistance, as Indige- at least in law, leaving First Nations in “our poverty and misery [being] nous peoples and those in genuine with just 0.02% of their former lands. administered by our own people.” solidarity, was becoming effective. The leadership accepts meagre At this critical moment, Manuel’s programs and services, and have (posthumous) second book, The been conditioned to withdraw from Reconciliation Manifesto: Recovering conflict in cases where the scraps the Land and Rebuilding the Economy might be threatened. This grim cal- arrives. At 43 chapters (44 if including culation is the result of a history of the insightful “Letters to Friends and violence. When First Nations do rise Enemies”) and over 300 pages, the up, they are more often than not met book is comprehensive. The first half with criminalization, discipline and identifies the sources and contours of coercion. “the triad of colonialism” (disposses- Offering ample evidence to validate sion, dependency and oppression) and his framework, the critical contribu- the latter half focuses on “simple and tion in The Reconciling Manifesto is difficult” solutions.The Reconciliation the revelation that contemporary Manifesto picks up where his last book reconciliation discourse maintains left off to offer clarity and hope to the trend. Like the White Paper, which those committed to the struggle. used the civil rights discourse of a Like many political texts on Indig- “just society” to sell the extinguish- enous-state relations, Manuel starts ment of Aboriginal rights and title, with that historic overview. A key reconciliation is used in similar ways. distinction, though, is his ability to Yes, there are more resources for pro- make connections between early and grams and services to help “close the late articulations of colonial policy gap.” But these are “measures that are 56 designed—as they always have been or strictly internal prescriptions of the land. Not just how we’ve been since the first missionaries arrived and many critical Indigenous writers, dispossessed of it or how to exercise through the residential school expe- Manuel is refreshingly pro-active, jurisdiction over it, but our obligations rience and the fitful Liberal bursts creative, and importantly, persuasive to it. While Manuel advocates for the into nothingness like the Kelowna (not to mention witty). rebuilding of Indigenous economies accord—to fix Indigenous peoples.” Or When asked by non-Indigenous (as well as non-Indigenous economies put another way, to help us assimilate. peoples how to get past colonialism, for that matter), he insists they must For Canadians today, this recon- Manuel would say the answer is sim- be rooted in a deference to the land ciliation framework’s discourse has ple: “Canada needs to fully recognize and includes a section of the book reached dangerous levels of satura- our Aboriginal and treaty rights and reminding us of our near apocalyptic tion. Manuel writes: “Everything is our absolute right to self-determi- circumstances to drive the point. reconciliation. When they join a round nation. At the same time, we will Despite this foreboding, the tone dance, they call that reconciliation. recognize the fundamental human is generally hopeful. In that spirit, When their eyes tear up in discussing right of Canadians, after hundreds of the writing is accessible. The Recon- our poverty, that is reconciliation. At years of settlement, to live here.” ciliation Manifesto can be read as the same time, when they are denying But he also knew that Canadians an introductory text for Canadians our constitutional rights, they call that (and it should be noted that this who have little understanding of reconciliation of Aboriginal title with book is addressed in large part to colonialism, or as an intervention Crown title. In fact, every new plan to Canadians) would prefer the difficult into counterhegemonic theorizing. steal from us is called reconciliation.” path, because ultimately our interests For me, having studied and taught While other academics debate the diverge. So, Indigenous people must Indigenous politics for a decade now, meaning and scope of reconciliation, cultivate a sophisticated and commit- Manuel reframes my thinking on Manuel shows how its already been ted grassroots movement with those issues I long considered straightfor- co-opted and weaponized. in solidarity—environmentalists and ward. While there are elements that In a review of Unsettling Canada racialized Canadians in particular— require elaboration here and nuance I wrote that Manuel is like a tall old to force justice. Now, there is much there, this is nonetheless a tremen- cedar. He seems to have a view of the more: strategies for investor risk dously important book for multiple landscape in its entirety, and before analyses, land management plans, the audiences. the rest of us. His analysis from above deployment of international legal in- While Art Manuel is irreplaceable, effectively puts the current conver- struments, pipeline subversion plans, he does leave an inheritance. Among sation around reconciliation into the even a six-step program for decoloni- those gifts isThe Reconciliation Man- rightful context. zation. These myriad of tactics are ifesto, in which Manuel finds a path More than that, and the focus really designed to fundamentally challenge for us. Now it’s our task to clear it. M of the latter half of the book, is what the legitimacy of the settler state and THIS REVIEW FIRST RAN ON INDIAN & COWBOY, we’re going to do about it all. Bypassing force an alternative arrangement. A MEMBER-SUPPORTED INDIGENOUS MEDIA PLATFORM. IT IS REPRINTED HERE WITH PERMISSION the nihilism of much of the settler-co- Central to this new arrangement, FROM THE AUTHOR. lonial frameworks and the structural and a latent theme throughout, is

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From revolving door to revolution in the patch Kevin Taft sees an end to oil industry dominance in Canada. But as he tells Jeremy Appel, getting there will be “long and messy.”

HY ARE OSTENSIBLY environmen- I tried to bring some theory to the strength. A key variable for Alberta is tally friendly governments, idea of a deep state by connecting it to that we have a comparatively small like the federal Liberals and the notion of capture. There’s a long population, so all of Alberta together WAlberta NDP, still so attached history of literature studying how has less people than metropolitan to oil sands extraction, with its dis- democratic institutions get captured Phoenix or Seattle, and we own the proportionate impact on carbon by private interests. The question I third largest oil reserves on the plan- emissions? Former Alberta Liberal had is, what happens when a whole et. This little population of Albertans leader Kevin Taft has an answer in his series of democratic institutions are owns more oil than all of Russia or all recent book, Oil’s Deep State (Lorim- captured and held by the same private of the United States. er, September 2017), and it’s one that interests? It’s an overwhelmingly large re- many Canadians and Albertans will What happens when the governing source for such a small population. find unsettling. party, the opposition party, the regula- As that resource is being developed, Taft argues that the oil and gas tors, the civil service, universities, for especially the oil sands, the economic industry has developed a strangle- example, are all captured and held by weight of that has bent our demo- hold over federal and provincial the same private interest? I argue at cratic society into a warped shape. It governments, as well as large swaths that point you have a state within a gives immense power to the private of academia and the media, corroding state, which I call a deep state. interests who have managed to gain Canadians’ ability to meaningfully control of that resource. JA: How did the non-renewable energy address the threat of climate change. It’s very difficult for a government industry get so powerful in Canada in Jeremy Appel spoke with Taft about to manage a resource as large as the general, and in Alberta in particular? his analysis, how we got to this point oil sands without losing control of the and what the future holds for oil’s KT: It was a very slow process in Al- resource. I think that the only country deep state. berta. The oil industry here has been who’s done that really effectively is active for 100 years and gradually built Norway. We had a chance. In his first JA: When we hear about the deep state term or two, Peter Lougheed actually it’s usually a reference to the power stood up and waged a struggle with elite running the show in Washington, the oil industry. He wrestled a lot of D.C., despite Trump’s alleged goal to control away from the industry and “drain the swamp” of corporate influ- into the hands of the people who ence. What do you mean by the term actually own the resource, which is in your book? the government and people of Alberta. KT: When I finished the manuscript, Those successes of the early the term “deep state” hadn’t hit the Lougheed years began to decline in the popular agenda very much yet. In later 1980s, and Ralph Klein’s election fact, it was a concern of mine and the in 1992 led to a complete abdication of publisher’s that the term wouldn’t control of our oil resources, turning it really resonate with people. over to the private sector. We’re going It’s a term that goes back to the to pay a price for that. 1970s and has been used commonly JA: What happened in the intervening in Europe, Turkey, the United States years, from Lougheed’s battle with the and Canada. What’s happened in the industry to Klein’s subservience to it? U.S. since the Trump election is that the far-right has grabbed and torqued KT: There was a broad shift in the so- the term “deep state” for their own cial-democratic discourse through the purposes, and that’s what happens 1980s. You had the rise, generally in the with political language, unfortunately. English-speaking world, of the right. 58 You had Margaret Thatcher in the U.K. and Ronald Reagan in the U.S., as well as the Chicago school of economics, who became champions of markets and the private sector. That was combined with a slowing in Alberta’s economy in the later 1980s and then a very deliberate and successful attempt, starting in the very late ‘80s and through the 1990s, by people in the industry, to take command of the Alberta government. You had, for example, a whole series of energy and finance and other cabinet ministers coming from the oil industry, spending a couple of terms in cabinet and then going back to the industry. It’s no surprise that those people took the royalty and regulatory systems and turned them to the benefit of the industry. JA: How did your personal experience in Alberta politics inform your analysis? KT: My experience had a profound shaping of my view. When I left politics [in 2012], I really left it completely. It was a couple of years after I left that I was invited by a university in Australia to give some serious thought to the relationship between fossil fuels and democracy. As I began reading, thinking and studying the theory, I realized that everywhere I looked, when I was in office, the oil industry was right there. Whether they were lobbying me, or when I walked over to the legislature they’d be lobbying the government, financing the political parties, funding the universities. Everywhere I turned, there would be the oil industry. When you’re in the middle of it, that just seems normal. But after a couple years away, and doing more serious thinking, I realized it was the oil industry that was running Alberta, not the people of Alberta. the evidence in court. When I read through all those We have to remember the interests of the oil industry filings, it’s just stunning to see how systematically the oil are not the same as the interests of the people of Alberta. industry works to orchestrate the public agenda, whether That’s something Peter Lougheed said over and over again. it’s pipelines, approval of oilsands expansion, undermining The people of Alberta have to think like owners and we environmental initiatives. stopped doing that in the early 1990s. We’ve given up one This is not random chance. You can trace this back to of the most valuable resources on the planet. a core, which is the command centre of the oil deep state in Canada—the Canadian Association of Petroleum JA: More recently, Ed Stelmach attempted to raise royalty Producers. rates and the industry responded by shifting its financial support from his PC party to the upstart Wildrose. What JA: What’s the way out of this situation? does this tell us about the machinations of oil’s deep state? KT: Change in Alberta is going to be forced from outside. KT: Behind the scenes there’s a very well-orchestrated cam- That change is going to come in a few forms. paign by the oil industry to control the public agenda. The One is that a very rapid shift in energy technology is backstory to the rise of the Wildrose party is part of that. going to unfold in the next decade. It takes away a good I spend the first two chapters of the book talking about part of the market for Alberta oil, which will unfortunately oil lobbyist and former Stephen Harper adviser Bruce bring Alberta’s economy to its knees, creating a political Carson’s court case in Ottawa. All the documents, emails, crisis in this province. bank statements and minutes tabled lay bare some of the Another way out is the kinds of citizen actions that we’re behind-the-scenes efforts, and millions of dollars spent, seeing across the country and around the world—the by the oil industry to get a grip on the civil service, Envi- actions of First Nations, court actions challenging the ronment Canada, Natural Resources Canada, the political pipelines and escalating civil disobedience. system, through cabinet ministers and prime ministers, top Frankly, a form of energy revolution is coming that will civil servants, the universities and provincial governments. put the end to the oil industry, but that’s not going to be Of course, the public would never have a clue that that clean and tidy. It’s going to be a long and messy process. M happened if a court case hadn’t allowed the police to ac- tually seize these documents and computers, and present 59 Books

RICHARD DENNISS Buying into a materialist future

FFLUENZA HAS NOT just changed the the thrill of hunting for a bargain. For For those interested in the impact world, it has also changed the way others, it is the quest for the new or of consumption on the natural envi- we see the world. Short of money? the unique. And for others still, it is ronment it is crucial to make a clear ABorrow some. Caught in the rain? that moment when the shop assis- distinction between the love of buying Buy an umbrella. Thirsty? Buy a bottle tant hands them their new purchase, things and the love of owning things. of water and throw the bottle away. beautifully wrapped, with a bow, just While consumerism and materialism Our embrace of “convenience” and as though it’s a present. are often used interchangeably, taken our acceptance of our inability to But the love of buying things can, literally they are polar opposites. If plan ahead is an entirely new way of by definition, provide only a transient you really loved your car, the thought thinking, and over the past 70 years sense of satisfaction. The feeling can of replacing it with a new one would we have built a new and different be lengthened by the “thrill of the be painful. Similarly, if you really loved economic system to accommodate it. chase,” and may include an afterglow your kitchen, your belt or your couch, There is nothing inevitable about that includes walking down the street then your materialism would prevent this current way of thinking, consum- with a new purchase in a branded you rushing out and buying a new one. ing and producing. On the contrary, carry bag. It might even extend to the Symbols matter, and psychological the vast majority of humans who moment when you get to show your benefits matter. The fact that people have ever lived (and the majority of purchase to your friends and family. are willing to spend their own time and humans alive today) would find the But the benefits of consumerism are money to show they fit in or to make idea of using our scarce resources to inevitably short-lived as they are sure they stand out should be of little produce things that are designed to linked to the process of the purchase, or no concern to others. But for those be thrown away absolutely mad. But not the use of the product. So while who are concerned with the impact the fact that our consumer culture is consumerism is the love of buying of 7.5 billion humans’ consumption a recent innovation does not mean things, materialism is the love of the decisions on the natural environment, it will be easy to change. Indeed, the things themselves—and that’s an the choice of such symbols matters last few decades have shown how important distinction. enormously. Whether people choose to contagious affluenza can be. But we signal their wealth by spending money have not always lived this way, which on huge cars or antique paintings is proves that we don’t have to persist arbitrary, but that does not mean the with it. We can change—if we want to. environmental consequences aren’t For millennia, the ability of humans highly significant. to survive and thrive was based on Put simply, if we want to reduce the our ability to think very differently impact on the natural environment of from the way the average consumer all of the stuff we buy, then we have in a modern shopping centre thinks. to hang on to our stuff for a lot longer. Affluenza is so entangled with our We have to maintain it, repair it when modern culture that its impact on it breaks, and find a new home for it our words and our thinking can be when we don’t need it any longer. If hard to spot, but think for a moment we want to cure affluenza, we have to about the term shopping centre. You get more satisfaction from the things go to a food market to buy food, and we already own, more satisfaction a fitness centre to get fit, so we must from services, more satisfaction from go to a shopping centre to get some leisure time and less satisfaction from shopping done, right? We have been the process of buying new things. M acculturated to enjoy the process, not EXCERPT FROM CURING AFFLUENZA: HOW TO BUY the product. LESS STUFF AND SAVE THE WORLD BY RICHARD DENNISS (BETWEEN THE LINES, JANUARY 2017), I define consumerism as the love of EDITED AND ADAPTED WITH PERMISSION. buying things. For some, that means 60 HELP US SHED LIGHT ON THE ISSUES THAT MATTER TO YOU. (we’ve got some bright ideas)

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