in transition

CANADIAN CENTRE FOR POLICY ALTERNATIVES JULY/AUGUST 2018 $6.95 Contributors

Martin Adelaar is a retired Cynthia Khoo is a public of Technology (UOIT), and energy management interest lawyer who focuses one of the world’s foremost consultant and advocate on internet policy and digital authorities and renowned and a member of the Ottawa rights. Her column, Below the authors on hate crime. She is Renewable Energy Co- Fold, appears regularly in the Director of the newly formed Vol. 25, No. 2 operative. Monitor. Centre on Hate, Bias and ISSN 1198-497X Extremism at UOIT. Canada Post Publication 40009942 Frank Bayerl is a retired Marc Lee is a senior economist translator and regular with the British Columbia Roger Peters is a retired The Monitor is published six times volunteer at the CCPA’s office of the Canadian Centre environmental researcher, a year by the Canadian Centre for national office in Ottawa. for Policy Alternatives. consultant, writer and Policy Alternatives. Simon Enoch is Director of the Laura Macdonald is a professor advocate, and a founding The opinions expressed in the CCPA-Saskatchewan. in the department of political member of the Ottawa Monitor are those of the authors science and the Institute of Renewable Energy Co- and do not necessarily reflect Gerard Di Trolio writes Political Economy at Carleton operative. the views of the CCPA. about labour and politics. His articles have appeared in University, and co-investigator Peter G. Prontzos is Professor Please send feedback to RankandFile.ca, where he is an on the SSHRC-funded research Emeritus of Political Science at [email protected]. editor, Jacobin, In These Times, program Austerity and its Langara College in Vancouver, Alternatives. and a CCPA-BC research Editor: Stuart Trew Alternet and elsewhere. associate. Senior Designer: Tim Scarth Ellen Gould is a researcher Shoshana Magnet is Associate Layout: Susan Purtell on international trade and a Professor of Feminist Katie Raso is Digital Editorial Board: Peter Bleyer, research associate with the and Gender Studies and Communications Officer with Alyssa O’Dell, Seth Klein, Kate CCPA-BC. Criminology in the University the CCPA. She has worked McInturff, Erika Shaker, Emily Turk of Ottawa’s faculty of social with a variety of progressive Amy Hall is a freelance CCPA National Office: sciences. organizations including journalist covering social Canadian Doctors for Medicare HELP US SHED LIGHT ON THE 141 Laurier Avenue W, Suite 1000 and environmental justice Paula Mallea is a CCPA Ottawa, ON K1P 5J2 and Media Democracy Days in stories from the local to the research associate who Tel: 613-563-1341 Vancouver. global. She previously worked practised criminal law for 15 Fax: 613-233-1458 ISSUES THAT MATTER TO YOU. at New Internationalist and years in Ontario and Manitoba. Mark Rowlinson is Assistant to [email protected] Her latest book, Beyond the Canadian National Director www.policyalternatives.ca has written for publications including the Guardian, Incarceration: Safety and True at the United Steelworkers. CCPA BC Office: Ecologist and Red Pepper. Criminal Justice, was released Jim Stanford is a former (we’ve got some bright ideas) 520-700 West Pender Street in November by Dundurn economist with Unifor, a Vancouver, BC V6C 1G8 Elaine Hughes is an Press. environmental activist in long-time research associate Tel: 604-801-5121 Howard Mann is an associate with the CCPA, and currently Fax: 604-801-5122 several non-profit groups including the Council of and senior international law Director of the Centre for [email protected] advisor with the International Future Work in Sydney Canadians, where she chairs MAKE A DONATION Tax receipts are issued for contributions of $15 or more. CCPA Manitoba Office: the Quill Plains (Wynyward), Institute for Sustainable Australia. Unit 205-765 Main Street Saskatchewan chapter. Development. Geoff Stiles is a retired Winnipeg, MB R2W 3N5 Murray MacAdam is a veteran energy consultant, blogger Tel: 204-927-3200 Nadia Ibrahim is a researcher I would like to make a monthly contribution of: I would like to make a one-time donation of: in the areas of international social activist and freelance and researcher, with a special Fax: 204-927-3201 writer living in Peterborough, interest in Canadian carbon OR $300 $100 $75 Other ____ [email protected] trade, environment and $25 $15 $10 Other ____ climate policy. She is also Co- Ontario. mitigation policy and the CCPA Nova Scotia Office: ordinator of the Trade Justice Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood role of renewable energy in P.O. Box 8355 developing countries. 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work in transition Climate change, technological disruption, inequality and shifting labour relations challenge us to think of better ways to organize society, the economy and ourselves. Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, Simon Enoch, Cynthia Khoo, Katie Raso and Fiona Jeffries consider where we are, and where we need to be, on the just transition to a more sustainable, more worker-friendly future.

COLUMNS FEATURES BOOKS Alternate Futures: How “progressive” An extended summer The contradictions of can trade really be? reading guide with reviews pension fund activism 13 We asked the experts 32 and recommendations from the CCPA and friends 46 Work Life: All power to the Solidarity with energy co-operatives 42 Indigenous workers 15 A different take on Venezuela’s election 44

Editorial 2 | Letters 3 | Up Front 5 | Index 7 | New From the CCPA 11 | Behind the Numbers 14 | Good News Page 31 From the Editor

STUART TREW In between days

ERE AT THE CCPA, where our core hand,” since this would “make dealing usually blamed on one or all of Donald mandate is social justice via with a potentially AI-overrun future Trump, Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping. smart policy, we’re pretty much much less daunting.” These leaders can see the cracks in the Hconstantly thinking about what Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood lists neoliberal world order but are not in- needs to change in our lives, our econo- some of the proactive and reactive terested in patching them. Rather, they my and our ways of governing to make policies that will be essential to a just are trying to create a new order in their society more equitable, and life more transition in Canada’s important fossil own interests (to the great frustration fulfilling, for the greatest number of fuel sectors (page 16). “Sooner or later, of lesser powers). “Into this ferment, people. Broadly speaking, you could we will move on from coal, oil and progressives must inject an ambitious, say our mandate is transition, the natural gas,” he writes, pointing out honest and pragmatic vision of how theme of this summer edition of the the geological and economic barriers to manage international trade, capital Monitor. to our dependence on carbon for and human flows in ways that protect Some of our ideas for what a fair, energy. “For fossil fuel communities and enhance living standards, equality or just, transition to a better future across the country, it is more impor- and the environment,” writes Jim Stan- would look like don’t change that tant than ever to plan for a future ford in our special feature on Canada’s much as governments—provincial without those energy staples. If they “progressive trade agenda” (starting on or national—come and go or mar- don’t, the next bust might be their page 32). kets rise and fall. Until a time comes last.” Martin Adelaar, Roger Peters History may sometimes slow down when there is no more need of money, and Geoff Stiles write about the need enough to create an illusion of perma- for example, the wealth produced for the transition to renewables to be nence in human interactions, in one collectively by society should be led by workers and co-operatives, and country or globally, but we are clearly more fairly redistributed. We can its capacity to democratize our energy not living in one of those periods. do this by taxing relatively higher systems—and perhaps other public The crisis to which world leaders are incomes to pay for income support bodies—in the process (page 42). fumblingly responding is producing and retraining programs for the Speaking of worker-led change, nostalgia for equally illusory “good less well-off or job-displaced, and by Fiona Jeffries speaks to a key organizer old days,” and right-wing populist subsidizing affordable, preferably free in Ontario’s $15 and Fairness campaign governments that would turn back the public services that benefit everyone about how grassroots organizing for clock—on gender and racial equality, regardless of income. Redistribution better worker protections convinced environmental protections, etc.—to is a long-standing M.O. of the left, a tentative labour movement and relive them. Thankfully, Canada is not tried and tested in the liberal welfare initially disinterested government there yet, though the election in Ontar- state, but in need of a new operating to overhaul the province’s legislation io of a new Progressive Conservative system for an era of automation and and boost the minimum wage (page government may be a sign we’re not rising precarity. 28). If governments simply listened far off either (see Trish Hennessy and Cynthia Khoo talks about just how to the best ideas and implemented me on page 10). “We have taken back widespread this idea is, even among policy appropriately, we wouldn’t be Ontario,” said premier-designate Doug the tech crowd, in her feature article in the situation we’re in today. Jeffries, Ford in his acceptance speech, using, on the challenge presented by artifi- and the $15 and Fairness successes to whether wittingly or not, the coded cial intelligence (AI), and what a digital date, remind us that politics is a power language of far-right groups for whom just transition would look like (page struggle in which ideas fuel but are “we” usually means white Canadians 22). We obviously can’t sit back and insufficient to the task of progressive (see Barbary Perry on page 8). hope the robot revolution creates as change. But nor has the federal government, many good new jobs as it promises to Other social justice priorities, or most provinces for that matter, destroy, she writes. But then stressing other transitions, are complicated by responded with enough urgency or about the new “brain drain” of STEM bigger-picture changes over which pro- creativity to the confluent shifts in eco- graduates to the United States won’t vincial and even national governments nomic, social and climatic conditions help either. Rather, says Khoo, we have very little control. The G7 summit that are changing the world in dramat- should be future-proofing society in Quebec this June offered a close-up ic ways. It is our job, as social justice by “attacking inequality first, with view of the disruption to the global warriors, to plot a just transition to the political and economic tools already at political-economic order that is today future that we all deserve. 2 difference between the two represents an incredible liberals,” the adjective provinces is that Ontario historic democratization being necessary in the T shut off its coal burning and of what mostly, for the U.S. where “liberalism” has has taken the cost hit from last century, has been come to mean something that on consumers’ bills. monopoly public or private very different from its origin Nova Scotia still continues corporations delivering in the ideas of Tocqueville to get the majority of its (often dirty) power to the and J. S. Mill. Like those power from burning coal Canadian public with costly exemplars, Buchanan and alongside about 20% new inefficiencies and, still Koch believed that the wind power (built in the to this day, over-priced state should encroach Leers last decade), supplied from and cost-overrun mega on the liberty of each both private producers projects. Not to mention individual if, and only if, his and Nova Scotia Power, the non-adoption of load or her actions cause harm our private monopoly management technologies to others. Of course, there utility, which also owns in use in Europe and is much to be said against Power to wind projects. For Nova Scandinavia for many this doctrine. Wrong, or at the people Scotians, the longer we years. How much simpler any rate naïve it may be, it delay getting off coal the it would be to generate is preposterous to suggest The recent article by more expensive the impact power on our rooftops. that it is wicked. Edgardo Sepulveda about will be on our power costs. Home retrofits and solar Jim Buchanan was a electricity in Ontario In his article, Edgardo technologies should be socialist in his youth, but (“Power to the people,” Sepulveda misunderstands available at a low cost for was converted to liberalism May/June 2018) begs the that renewable energy those least able to afford at the University of Chicago question: Why did govern- contracts given to the it, to eliminate energy by Frank Knight, one of ments, both Conservative private sector are long-term poverty and make these the most powerful critical and Liberal, feel the need fixed-rate contracts, which homes carbon neutral. The thinkers of his generation. to reduce the influence of are called levelized rates. only question is whether He became an eminent publicly owned power in While those rates might governments care to deliver academic economist and the province? The answer seem expensive or high- such benefits. among many achievements is simple. By 2003, publicly priced in the first few years, pioneered what is called Neal Livingston, owned power brought by the end of the contract Public Choice Theory, for CCPA–Nova Scotia research Ontario almost $40 billion term, levelized rates have which he won the Nobel associate, Mabou, N.S. in nuclear debts, dirty proven historically to be Prize for Economics in 1986. coal for 25% of supply, a good deal for both the In traditional economic a major infrastructure consumer and the utility theory, individuals were deficit and an almost buying that power. Anyone No Trump assumed to pursue their impossible nuclear waste who asserts that nuclear chump private interest through storage problem. In short, power is a good, cheap transactions in the market, public power failed the option is misrepresenting I was surprised and sad- but were assumed to act people, with its focus on to the public the very real dened to read the attack for the common good centralized plants and an and not very hidden costs on my late friend James when operating in the overreliance on centralized of rebuilds that have gone Buchanan reported by public sector. Public nuclear and coal. Publicly hugely over budget, and Luke Savage in his review Choice Theory begins owned utilities in the rest of radioactive waste that has of books about the “radical with the assumption that the country would be well huge long-term costs and right” in the United States politicians, bureaucrats advised to learn the lesson, risks for storage. It never (“Conservatism against de- and voters are like all other and act accordingly. Public ceases to amaze me how mocracy,” May/June 2018). human beings, and usually power that doesn’t serve some people in Ontario still His source was Nancy act rationally to get what the public will not and seem to be brainwashed MacLean’s Democracy in they want. As a result, should not stand. that nuclear power is the Chains, which asserts that economists are now able best option. Buchanan “developed a to analyze public policy Glen Estill, Lion’s Head, Ont. The distribution of brilliant, if diabolical, plan” and political phenomena electricity should be to undermine American somewhat more accurately I found the article “Power publicly owned. The democracy, in which he than formerly. to the people” sort of generation of electricity, was abetted by the wealthy It was after the Public bizarre. Residences in as we advance further philanthropist Charles Choice Center moved Ontario pay more or less into renewables with wind Koch. Both Buchanan from Blacksburg to George the same power rates as we power and solar power and Koch thought of Mason University in 1983 do in Nova Scotia. A major and home-sized storage, themselves as “classical that I got to know Jim 3 WORTH REPEATING through my Australian friend to pay for the costs of living and colleague Geoffrey and participate fully in their Brennan, who collaborated communities has to be the with Buchanan in two bottom line.” This misses the “This pipeline will get built.” important books. Though he point that it is inequality per Prime Minister Trudeau at a news conference in London, was not always easy to get se, not just income security, England on April 19. on with, and though we had that must be fixed. The defin- one violent confrontation at itive research was published “This was never going to be an easy fight—Indigenous a conference in 1985, he was in The Spirit Level by Kate people and our allies have to dig in for the long haul in this scrupulously fair-minded and Pickett and Richard Wilkinson. battle on many fronts to keep the tar sands in check: at never resented disagreement. They correlated inequality the source and along the Kinder Morgan route, but also I was particularly touched with many social ills and along the proposed Enbridge Line 3 pipeline where tribes when he wrote to me in 2002 demonstrated that a better in Minnesota are ready to stop it and all along the Keystone to congratulate me on an level of equality would be good XL route.” article I had published in for the whole of society, not Southern Economic Journal. just the lower classes. I call Assembly of First Nations (AFN) Manitoba Regional No one else has ever done it the false consciousness of Chief Kevin Hart on May 30, responding to the Trudeau that. the wealthy classes, but don’t government’s decision to purchase Kinder Morgan’s Trans It is outrageous to assert, look to the wealthy to fix it. Mountain pipeline. as Nancy Maclean appears The failure to deal directly to have done, that the with inequality instead of “China and Russia are now undermining the international Public Choice Center and its concentrating on low incomes order from within the system by exploiting its benefits founder were at the bottom is prevalent among left-leaning while simultaneously undercutting its principles and ‘rules of a sinister conspiracy: what organizations, perhaps due of the road.’” an even less well-informed to the extreme opposition Excerpt from the 2017 U.S. National Defence Strategy. author called “a hidden by so-called think-tanks and program for suppressing neoliberal politicians. The “Depressing.” democracy on behalf of the Monitor should not fall into German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s response when asked very rich.” Of course, Jim the trap of failing to attack to assess the G7 meeting in Quebec in June, at which had controversial political the super-wealthy through tax Canada and European leaders clashed with U.S. President opinions, and of course many policy and other means. Donald Trump about tariffs, America’s withdrawal from the at the centre share at least Don Kerr, Collingwood, Ont. Iran nuclear deal, and his generally disrupting “the rules of some of those views. He was the road.” properly skeptical about the ability of “democracy” “Being on television, being recognizable, this is unnatural. as commonly understood to Corrections So I chose to live in this world. I was in an equally if not more do much to promote human dysfunctional world before that, when I was a chef. Which happiness. But I am morally Apparently we have big eyes is healthier, which is better for trying to maintain some kind certain that never in his life when it comes to money. of relationship with people who don’t do what you do? Is it did he favour or support racial The Note from the Editor possible? Can you be a good person? I’ll let you know when segregation, nor lift a finger in the May/June 2018 issue I figure it out.” to help the very rich. And I mistakenly claimed the CEO of The late Anthony Bourdain, who died from suicide in early can reassure the nervous that Hydro One in Ontario made $6 June at the age of 61, speaking to Maclean’s in October 2016. the Public Choice Center is billion a year when he actually pretty much like most other makes $6 million. And in the “The greater the material differences between us, the more research centers in most other same issue’s Good News Page important status and money become. They are increasingly universities. it should have read that the federal government has direct- seen as if they were a measure of a person’s inner worth. A. M. C. Waterman, ed $4.3 million (not billion) into And, as research shows, the result is that the more unequal St. John’s College, two Kingston, Ontario prison the society, the more people feel anxiety about status Winnipeg, Man. and how they are seen and judged. These effects are seen farms. A thousand thousand across all income groups—from the poorest to the richest (thousand?) pardons for the tenth of the population.” typos. Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, authors of The Inner Inequality and class Level: How More Equal Societies Reduce Stress, Restore The article “Real income Sanity and Improve Everyone’s Wellbeing, writing in the Send thoughts, feedback, security in Ontario” (May/ Guardian (U.K.). corrections, poems, praise June 2018) argues, “Making or complaints to monitor@ sure everyone has enough policyalternatives.ca. 4 Up Front

PETER G. PRONTZOS officers could order a first strike à la General Jack D. Ripper in the film Dr. Strangelove, and there is also the pos- Saying “No” to the sibility of misunderstandings and errors that could accidentally trigger a nuclear Doomsday Machine war. We have come too close to such a catastrophe many times. During the Cuban Missile Crisis in he decision by the Trump regime (and now Russia) deliberately target 1962, when a Soviet submarine was to unilaterally abandon the 2015 cities, which would create global attacked by U.S. destroyers, two of the TJoint Comprehensive Plan of casualties in the billions. Any survivors three ranking Soviet officers wanted to Action (JCPOA), the Obama administra- would envy the dead, writes Ellsberg, respond with a nuclear torpedo. Luckily, tion’s inspired nuclear accord with Iran as they would also have to cope with the third officer, Vasili Arkhipov, vetoed (along with China, France, Germany, the effects of the smoke from fires that that option, thus saving humanity from Russia and the United Kingdom), is not would form “a blanket blocking most disaster. The danger is even greater now only ignorant and illegal, but it could all sunlight around the earth for a decade because there are more nuclear powers too easily destabilize the Middle East, or more.” This “nuclear winter would and today’s bombs are many times more leading to even more bloodshed. In reduce sunlight and lower tempera- powerful than the one that destroyed the worst-case scenario, there is even tures worldwide to a point that would Hiroshima. a chance that cancelling the deal could eliminate all harvests and starve [nearly Another factor, of course, is the set the stage for a nuclear conflict, everyone] to death.” power of what Cold War U.S. president launched perhaps by the United States Ellsberg also explains that it is Dwight D. Eisenhower rightly called “the and Israel against Iran. Paranoia? I hope not just Trump or Russian President military-industrial complex,” which prof- so. Vladimir Putin who might launch a its to the tune of hundreds of billions Even before the latest escalation genocidal nuclear war. Lower ranking of dollars every year and is not shy to by Washington, the world was closer make contributions to its allies in both to nuclear apocalypse than at any political parties. It is hardly surprising, time since the Cold War. This is the then, that the nuclear arms buildup that frightening conclusion of former U.S. was started by the Democrat Obama Defense Department analyst Daniel is continuing under the presidency of Ellsberg, best known for releasing the Republican Trump. The plan: modernize Pentagon Papers in 1971. By telling the the three legs of the nuclear triad— world how the U.S. government lied With respect to submarines, bombers and land-based about its reasons for attacking Vietnam, Iran, the United missiles—at a cost of over $1 trillion. he helped to end that war. Michael T. Klare, professor of peace However, as he explains in his States is following studies, writes, “the U.S. military has… 2017 book, The Doomsday Machine: almost the committed itself and the nation to a Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner three-front geopolitical struggle…in (Bloomsbury), Ellsberg copied other se- identical script Asia, Europe, and the Middle East…. cret documents that were perhaps even that preceded its What appears particularly worrisome more significant. The whistleblower about this three-front strategy is its recounts how the nuclear war-fighting illegal invasion of immense capacity for confrontation, plans of the U.S. and the Soviet Union Iraq in 2003. miscalculation, escalation, and finally 5 designed—as they always have been or strictly internal prescriptions of the land. NotEstimated just how nuclear we’ve arsenals been in 2015 since the first missionaries arrived and many critical Indigenous writers, dispossessedSOURCE: of it ARMSor how CONTROL to exerciseASSOCIATION 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-Indigenouscatastrophe is greater economies than it was in the put another way, to help us assimilate. peoples how to get past colonialism, for that matter),Cold War.”he insists Likewise, they themust International For Canadians today, this recon- Manuel would say the answer is sim- be rooted inCampaign a deference to Abolish to the Nuclearland Weapons ciliation framework’s discourse has ple: “Canada needs to fully recognize and includes(ICAN), a section awarded of the the book 2017 Nobel Peace reached dangerous levels of satura- our Aboriginal and treaty rights and reminding usPrize, of our says near America’s apocalyptic military policy is “a tion. Manuel writes: “Everything is our absolute right to self-determi- circumstancesblueprint to drive for the nuclear point. war.” reconciliation. When they join a round nation. At the same time, we will Despite thisICAN foreboding, received the awardtone for sponsor- dance, they call that reconciliation. recognize the fundamental human is generallying hopeful. a treaty In to thatoutlaw spirit, nuclear weapons When their eyes tear up in discussing right of Canadians, after hundreds of the writing thatis accessible. was adopted The by Recon the United- Nations our poverty, that is reconciliation. At years of settlement, to live here.” ciliation ManifestoGeneral Assembly can be read when as two-thirds of the same time, when they are denying But he also knew that Canadians an introductorythe world’s text for countries Canadians voted in favour. our constitutional rights, they call that (and it should be noted that this who have littleNone of understandingthe nuclear states, of including reconciliation of Aboriginal title with book is addressed in large part to colonialism,the or U.S.,as an signed intervention on. Neither did the Crown title. In fact, every new plan to Canadians) would prefer the difficult into counterhegemonicTrudeau government. theorizing. As Peggy Mason, steal from us is called reconciliation.” path, because ultimately our interests For me, havingpresident studied of theand Rideau taught Institute, ex- While other academics debate the diverge. So, Indigenous people must Indigenous politicsplains, “It for will a decade be imperative, now, therefore, meaning and scope of reconciliation, cultivate a sophisticated and commit- Manuel reframesfor Canada my and thinking other NATO on members Manuel shows how its already been ted grassroots movement with those issues I longwho considered do not possess straightfor nuclear- weapons co-opted and weaponized. in solidarity—environmentalists and ward. Whileto there ‘hold are the elements line’ at the that upcoming NATO In a review of Unsettling Canada racialized Canadians in particular— require elaborationSummit herein Brussels and nuance on 11-12 July 2018.” I wrote thatactual Manuel war.” is like Worse, a tall the old U.S. to is forcedevel -justice.a bomb Now, shelter. there Whenis much his fatherthere, says this is nonethelessMason adds athat tremen it is even- more im- cedar. He seemsoping to smallerhave a view nuclear of the weapons more: that strategies that nuclear for investor weapons risk are neededdously toimportant portant book to resist for nuclearmultiple modernization landscape inare its more entirety, likely and to beforebe used againstanalyses, a land prevent management the U.S. plans, from the finishing audiences. last because it is “an exponential increase the rest of us.non-nuclear His analysis country from above like Iran. deployment inof a international war, Ritchie (Ron legal Howard) in- While sagely Art in Manuel the killing is irreplaceable, power of the warheads effectively puts the current conver- struments, pipelinereplies, “In subversion an atomic plans, war, does he anybody does leave and an delivery inheritance. vehicles Among that are far more sation around reconciliationart of the problem into the is thateven some a six-step finish program first?” for decoloni- those gifts isaccurate,The Reconciliation have much Man longer- ranges rightful context.Ppeople believe it is possiblezation. toThese Inmyriad January, of tacticsThe Bulletin are ofifesto Atomic, in which as well Manuel as many finds other a path dangerous new More thanwin that, a and nuclear the focus holocaust. really designedActually, to fundamentallyScientists moved challenge its Doomsday for Clock,us. Now it’sfeatures.” our task to clear it. M of the latterthis half delusion of the book, was answeredis what thein the legitimacy TV the of “symbolic the settler time state ofand civilization’s THIS REVIEW FIRST RAN ON INDIAN & COWBOY, we’re going tositcom do about Happy it all. Days, Bypassing as the Cunningham force an alternative destruction,” arrangement. to 11:58 p.m.,A MEMBER-SUPPORTEDadding, umanity INDIGENOUS is MEDIA now at its most dan- PLATFORM. IT IS REPRINTED HERE WITH PERMISSION the nihilism familyof much was of deciding the settler-co if they- shouldCentral build to“The this dangernew arrangement, of some sort ofFROM nuclear THE AUTHOR. Hgerous moment in history. We lonial frameworks and the structural and a latent theme throughout, is

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If you’d like to learn more, our Development Officer Katie Loftus would be happy to assist you with your gift 6 planning. Katie can be reached at 613-563-1341 ext. 31857 or at [email protected]. do, however, have alternatives. For starters, Ellsberg makes 20% a convincing case for a drastic reduction in the numbers of Drop in average market nuclear weapons. The good news? The 70,000 nuclear weapons incomes for the lowest decile that were in existence 30 years ago have been reduced to only in Canada in that same time around 16,000. span. Going further, we should also heed the advice of Henry Kissinger, Sam Nunn, William Perry and George Shultz. In a $76,000 New York Times review of Ellsberg’s new book, Graham Allison wrote: “In 2007, these four leading Cold Warriors, who served Median market income of a at the highest levels of government under Republican and Index family in Manitoba. Democratic presidents, endorsed the goal of ‘a world free of Inequality in Manitoba nuclear weapons’ and outlined an agenda to achieve that goal.” 60% Every year, the world’s nations spend around $2 trillion on Drop in the share of income the military. Think of all the good that we could do when those $262,000 going to the bottom 60% resources are invested in eliminating poverty, cutting taxes, Average market income of of the population between funding health care, and creating millions of jobs in renewable the top 10% of Manitoba 1976–2014. energy and other “green” projects. households with children We must also create situations that bring out the best in us. (2014). 0.5% One of the important insights in The Doomsday Machine is Income share of the bottom that the people who planned for nuclear war were, in Ellsberg’s $4,500 words, “not evil…. They were normal Americans, capable and end of the income spectrum patriotic.” This “banality of evil,” a term coined by Hannah Arendt Average market income in 2011–2014. It was a meagre and explored by social psychologists like Philip Zimbardo (e.g., of the bottom 10% of 1% in the period 1976–1979. in his Stanford Prison Experiment), suggests good people will Manitobans (2014). collaborate with evil in the wrong situations. $6.2 billion When will we actually have “a world free of nuclear weapons”? $6,600 Annual cost to the Canadian President Eisenhower believed that, “people want peace so Average market income health care system of much that one of these days governments had better get out of the bottom 10% of “excess burden of disease of the way and let them have it.” To do so, we must create a Canadians (2014). attributable to health global peace movement that will have the vision and strength inequality,” according to to demand that governments “get out of the way” and finally $104,000 the Public Health Agency of rid the world of nuclear weapons—before our luck runs out. Canada (2016). A new peace movement is especially vital, since, with respect Average family market income in Canada, which to Iran, the United States is following almost the identical 110 script that preceded its illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003: scare is $12,000 higher than people with propaganda about non-existent “weapons of mass the average family market Number of Canadians who destruction”; ignore the international inspections that find no income of $92,000 in die prematurely every day evidence for these lies; then attack in defiance of international Manitoba (2014). due to income inequality, ac- law. The predictable result would be millions dead and driven cording to a 2014 Upstream from their homes, and the proliferation of even more heinous 43% article by Dennis Raphael and Toba Bryant. terrorist organizations like ISIS. Amount the average Regarding the 2015 nuclear accord, Jon Swaine of the Guard- Manitoba market income ian (U.K.) reminds us there is a “general consensus that Iran increased between was complying with it, had dismantled its nuclear programme 1996–2014. and was allowing international inspections.” That truth appears to be irrelevant to the U.S. and Israel. It needn’t be Canada’s 63% deceit as well. Prime Minister Trudeau has a chance to press the Trump administration, as Britain, France, Germany and other Increase in the average allies have done, when he attends the NATO summit this July. market income of the Let’s hope he takes it. highest decile in Canada between 1976–2014.

SOURCE Manitoba Inequality Update: Low Income Families Left Behind, a new CCPA-MB report by Ian Hudson and Benita Cohen (available at www.policyalternatives.ca). 7 REUTERS/CARLO ALLEGRI

TRISH HENNESSY for progressives to play through social AND STUART TREW justice, environment and labour move- ments. In the next four years, that role will be to hold the line. Ontario election All parties contending in the June election promised to cut emergency post-mortem room crowding in hospitals. The Ca- nadian Centre for Policy Alternatives will track any movement on this front ntario is in uncharted territory Progressives who hoped Ontario and make the case for investments in after a bizarre and dramatic was on the brink of a major expansion nurses, new beds, and improvements Oelection produced a Progres- of social programs—universal dental to home care and long-term care for sive Conservative majority government, care, pharmacare, child care, afforda- seniors. All parties also promised an NDP opposition and the end of ble housing—will now be tasked with investments in mental health. We’ll be official party status for the provincial turning that hope into resolve. We will there with our allies making sure that Liberals. need it to protect the most vulnerable happens. Sure, there have been PC govern- in this province from the kind of mas- And let’s not give up on a $15 min- ments before. But there has never been sive public service cuts that did harm imum wage, on $12 a-day-child care, a PC government quite like the one we to real people and entire communities on universal pharmacare and dental are about to experience under Premier under the previous PC government led care. Let us resist having our vision Doug Ford, who swept into power on by Mike Harris. Liberal governments for Ontario’s future hemmed in by the a thin platform that was never fully since 2003 eventually undid some of government in power and continue to costed. Economists estimate at least that damage from those years, but push for a progressive, equitable future. a $10 billion fiscal hole in the party’s there remains much more to redress. Opposition parties will undoubtedly promises. That means there will either Democracy isn’t just about casting be taking stock of what happened and be deep and painful cuts, a lot of unful- a vote at election time. It happens in what it means for their future. The filled promises, or both. between elections, too. There is a role Liberals, in search of a new leader, may 8 gravitate back to the right in response BARBARA PERRY to Ford’s win. But let there be a lesson in the politics of privatization: Kathleen Wynne was a fairly popular premier Moving until her government decided to hand majority shares of Hydro One over to to the right the private sector. There’s a lesson here, too, for any government that wishes to be activist, to move the needle on pro- he white nationalist rallies that to further RWE causes through slightly gressive social policy: don’t wait until have peppered the country, be- more subtle means, in a way that makes the year before an election to lead the Tginning in the early part of 2017, it more palatable, more acceptable to a way. Don’t act like you’ll have more than are tangible indicators that there is a vi- public sensitized by a generation of dis- one mandate to make a difference. Be able and increasingly active right-wing course of equality, multiculturalism and bold. extremist (RWE) movement in Canada. diversity. In a word, hate is increasingly The NDP, who won 40 seats in the In 2015, Ryan Scrivens and I published “mainstream,” and thus increasingly 124-seat legislature, would be wise to the first contemporary—and compre- legitimate. consider how much their proposals to hensive—assessment of Canadian The alt-right, which styles itself as the protect workers and to expand social RWE activity. We estimated, conserv- “intelligentsia” of the right, can take a lot programs resonated with the general atively, that just over 100 groups were of credit for this mainstreaming of hate. public. The plurality of voters chose operating across the country. However, In truth, there is little to distinguish parties that wanted to expand the in the lead-up and aftermath of Trump’s them from the traditional far-right. The public sector. upset presidential victory in the U.S., messaging is the same—the West is Which brings us to strategic voting the RWE movement appears to have losing its distinct Euro-culture thanks and our first-past-the-post system. As shifted quantitatively and qualitatively. to a misguided emphasis on multicul- in most recent Canadian elections, the Many groups are larger, bolder in their turalism and open immigration—while new government secured a majority online and offline activism, and there the framing may vary, to make it more with only 40% of the popular vote. B.C. are more of them (up to 25% more). palatable, as noted. Rather than use the campaigners for electoral reform are There is also evidence that, with the coarse language of race and racism, the using the result to bolster their claim emergence of the alt-right, the audi- alt-right speaks of culture loss, or pres- that proportional representation will ence and membership associated with ervation of “Canadian values.” It’s much make provincial elections more dem- the contemporary RWE movement in harder to find fault with this coded lan- ocratic. In Ontario, where an Ipsos poll Canada is broadening. guage in isolation. It is the cumulative suggested 42% of people who went to When we think of the extreme right, effect of their strident critiques of the the polls on June 7 voted strategically, we typically envisage the tattooed, Liberal Party (Trudeau in particular), proportional representation would snarling, angry young white male. There of diversity policy, of globalization, as liberate people to vote according to is a great deal of truth to that image. examples, that reveals the exclusionary their values, not the candidates they Members of La Meute, Atalante, and core of their ideology. don’t want to see in office. Blood and Honour do not make any Like contemporary right-wing popu- Ontario’s next chance for electoral effort to soften their malevolent image. lists, such as Donald Trump and Doug reform may be years away. Before then, Selfies and other photos posted to RWE Ford, the alt-right has a certain appeal the left and progressive voices will need websites often feature images that for that portion of the population that to prepare to push back against the reflect “tough guy” postures. Yet these eschews both the principles and prac- inevitable austerity agenda of service are the storm troops, the front lines. tices of multiculturalism, which they and tax cuts, while strategically pursu- Behind the lines stand others who seek feel threaten the state of their lives or ing coalitions for longer-term, profound of the nation (and usually both). Public and progressive structural changes to opinion polling over the past couple address income inequality, climate of decades reveals antipathy if not change, job precarity, electoral reform, downright hostility among these people the fiscal health of the public sector, toward some of the same issues tar- and fundamental human rights. Many right-wing geted by the alt-right and the far-right. Along the way, you can count on the The message of hate disseminated by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives extremist groups RWE groups speaks to existing popular to hold this new PC (and any) govern- are larger, bolder concerns: this is at the heart of the ment to account, to make the case for legitimacy of their rhetoric. strategic investments in public servic- in their online and For example, a Maclean’s poll released es, to track any cuts, offer alternative offline activism, in 2013, during the course of my project solutions and speak truth to power. with Ryan, found that 54% of Canadians That’s what we do and it is what we will and there are held an unfavourable view of Islam, up continue to do. more of them. sharply from 46% in 2009. To put this 9 in perspective, 39% held an unfavour- Many individuals are lured in by online websites, chat groups and social able opinion of Sikhism, while all other people they know personally. Group media platforms find themselves able religions were regarded unfavourably members are often friends or asso- to freely communicate racist or sexist by less than 30% of Canadians. The ciates, sometimes even relatives of or other sorts of views that might be sentiment reached its highest rating potential recruits, prior to joining. They unpalatable in other contexts. At the in Quebec, a province with extensive are thus encouraged by people they core of all of these mechanisms, how- skinhead activity in particular among know and presumably trust. Others may ever, is consistent messaging about the other RWE groups. A 2015 EKOS poll be new “acquaintances,” people met in inherent superiority of those of white revealed that opposition to immigration bars and clubs with whom adherents European heritage relative to all other had doubled since 2005, to 46%. In the and promoters strike up conversations. identity groups. same poll, 41% of respondents indicated They strive to find mutual points of inter- they felt there were “too many” visible est and, often, grievance. Just lost your he current vibrancy of the RWE minorities immigrating to Canada. job, you say? Women aren’t interested Tmovement in Canada is cause for in you? Here are some explanations for concern. Even CSIS (the Canadian Se- ow are these concerns leveraged your woes! curity Intelligence Service) was finally Hto draw people into the RWE So begins the process of pulling peo- forced to acknowledge that right-wing movement? There is a continuing re- ple into the movement. The next step extremism represents a “growing liance on street-level and face-to-face may simply be another beer and more threat,” something they had heretofore recruitment. Recent months have seen conversation. This may be followed ignored. a resurgence of old-fashioned strate- by an invitation to visit a particular Far-right ideologies have inspired 19 gies of pamphleting, whereby flyers are website, and later, the closed forum murders in the past four years. In 2014, distributed locally on utility poles and associated with a group. Or the poten- Justin Bourque killed three RCMP windshields, even in mailboxes. tial recruit might be introduced to white officers in Moncton. In 2017, Alexandre On November 14, 2016, for example, power music, seductive in its beat and Bissonnette murdered six Muslim Toronto residents woke up to find racist messaging. In any event, the process men in Quebec City. And in 2018, Alek posters scattered across city neigh- is generally gradual and seemingly Minassian killed 10 pedestrians on a borhoods. The hateful propaganda, sporadic. Toronto sidewalk. All of these acts were titled “Hey, white person,” encouraged There can be no doubt that the inspired by some strain of RWE, whether readers to join the alt-right movement internet has facilitated recruitment to anti-statism, Islamophobia or misogyny. and subscribe to a list of “pro-European” the RWE movement. It is an add-on to These acts of terror alone should inspire websites. That same morning, residents personal recruitment as well as a stan- recognition of and action against the in a predominantly Chinese community dalone tool for “self-radicalization” of far-right. in Richmond, British Columbia, were lone actors. Whether directed there by We have seen some encouraging shocked to find racist pamphlets in recruiters or pamphlets, or discovered grassroots activism in the form of their mailboxes. The flyers stated: “STEP independently by seekers, the various anti-racist rallies countering the racist ASIDE, WHITEY! THE CHINESE ARE websites, social media platforms and rallies. And we have seen some symbolic TAKING OVER.” While crude and typi- discussion forums have the potential gestures at the federal level, in the form cally not very creative, such pamphlets to engage the imagination of would-be of Motion 103 condemning Islamopho- have the capacity to draw particularly right-wing extremists. bia and other forms of systemic racism. disaffected people to related websites There is something for everyone. Yet we have seen far too little in the way where the messaging is more expansive. Video games will appeal to youth, as of concentrated state-sponsored coun- do the frenetic white power music and terterrorism efforts directed toward the related music videos. Dating sites will far-right. If the hatred and violence is appeal to others. International forums to be eradicated, it will require a much Alek Minassian, Alexandre allow connections with like-minded more systematic strategy of engage- Bissonnette and Justin Bourque were peers elsewhere across the globe. ment and containment. There is work all inspired to commit acts of terror Indeed, sociability is particularly im- to be done. by right-wing extremism. portant in so much as users of these

10 the expansion of the line. Housing as CCPA launches CCPA Researcher Hadrian a human right Talking Points Mertins-Kirkwood likewise attacked the business case CCPA-BC Economist Marc The March/April issue of for Trans Mountain in a May Lee has submitted a “view the Monitor, featuring a 29 BehindtheNumbers.ca from Metro Vancouver” to cover story on marijuana blog post. The govern- the federal government’s legalization, sparked an ment’s economic rationale National Housing Strategy idea here at CCPA for a for purchasing the pipeline consultations. At its core, new series of public events New from “is based on a series of risky inadequate affordable we’re calling Talking Points. the CCPA assumptions that may very housing stock is “a problem These will be moderated well backfire,” he wrote. of financialization,” panel discussions on “If the federal govern- writes Lee, meaning “the current issues that will ment is wrong on any of treatment by many actors be recorded, turned into Powering Canada these fronts, then Canadian of housing primarily as an podcasts and shared with today and tomorrow taxpayers are stuck with a investment, rather than CCPA supporters and the giant financial liability,” said a place to live.” Instead, general public. The first On May 1, the CCPA, the Mertins-Kirkwood. it should be framed as a edition of Talking Points Parkland Institute and The CCPA-Saskatchewan human rights issue. To that took place in Ottawa on the Corporate Mapping also looked at the oil end, Lee encourages the June 21, and featured a Project jointly released industry in a report out government to enhance the lively dialogue on who is Canada’s Energy Outlook, May 28 on the province’s Canada Housing Benefit— winning and who is left an extensive analysis fossil fuel philanthropy. proposed to deliver $2,500 out of Canada’s budding of the country’s energy A Prairie Patchwork by a year when it is rolled out Cannabis Capitalism. system that assesses our Simon Enoch, director of in 2020—by guaranteeing Panelists included lawyers future options for main- the CCPA-SK, and Emily that qualifying renters Trina Fraser and Yavar taining energy security and Eaton, associate professor (below a certain income Hameed, marijuana activist meeting Canada’s climate at the University of Regina, threshold) do not pay more and spoken word artist commitments. Author highlights the uneven than 28% of their gross John Akpata, and the CCPA David Hughes, an Earth costs and benefits of the income on rent, as under Media and Public Relations scientist with 32 years oil boom for oil-producing Manitoba’s successful Rent OfficerAlyssa O’Dell. The of experience at the communities. Urban Assist program. event was moderated by Geological Survey of municipalities in particular As CCPA-MB director Monitor Editor Stuart Trew Canada, says we’ve “had a are often incapable of Molly McCracken explains and will be available for good run” with fossil fuels, capturing enough of the oil in a BehindtheNumbers.ca download as a podcast but with oil and gas sector revenues to cover the costs blog post in June: “Rent shortly. jobs flatlining, and the need associated with a booming Assist is indexed to 75% of to lower emissions, we “will oil patch. Instead, many [Median Market Rent] and require both non-renewable Saskatchewan municipali- increased to match MMR For more reports, and renewable energy ties have had to rely on oil annually. The amount a commentary, infrographics resources in the future and industry philanthropy for recipient receives is set and videos from the CCPA’s need to be realistic about the provision of essential based on their income, national and provincial what we can expect from infrastructure and public family size and residence. offices, visit www. various energy options, as services that most of us Tenants pay a base amount policyalternatives.ca. well as means to reduce would consider to be a gov- and then Rent Assist tops consumption.” ernment responsibility. The them up to 75% of MMR.” In In a May 31 Maclean’s CCPA report recommends this way, rental assistance column, Hughes challenged that Saskatchewan should goes directly to renters the federal government’s adopt a resource revenue– and not to landlords and case for purchasing the sharing plan akin to B.C.’s developers. Both Lee and Trans Mountain pipeline Fair Share Agreement that McCracken contend that from U.S. owner Kinder could help communities a rights-based approach Morgan, since the alleged absorb the shocks of the to housing will require price differential between commodity cycle, maintain forward-looking fiscal vision oil headed to the U.S. local services and continue from the federal govern- and what that oil would to co-ordinate, purchase ment, as well as enhanced earn in “tidewater” on the and invest in the programs, housing supports for those West Coast would not equipment and personnel most in need. notably decrease with they need. 11 GET TO KNOW THE YELLOWHEAD INSTITUTE

Shiri Pasternak (pictured, right) is on First Nation governance and Research Director at the Yellowhead Aboriginal policy; 4. To support Institute, a new First Nations–led Indigenous students and researchers; think-tank based at Ryerson and 5. To build solidarity with University in Toronto and directed Canadian students and researchers. by Gchi’mnissing Anishinaabe writer M: Who was Chief William and educator Hayden King (pictured, Yellowhead? left). Pasternak, who teaches criminology at Ryerson, is the author SP: Chief Yellowhead (Misko Aki) of the award-winning book Grounded governed an area that stretched Authority: The Algonquins of Barriere from east Toronto to Muskoka as Lake Against the State (University an Anishinaabeg Ogimaa, from of Minnesota Press), and a principal 1815 to 1860. Unlike many of the investigator, with other scholars colonists that other think-tanks and and community partners, in a SSHRC institutions take their names from in Partnership Development Grant Canada, Yellowhead was a respected called “Reconciling Sovereignties: leader who made difficult choices to CLIFTON LI, RYERSON TODAY New Techniques for ‘Authorizing’ protect his peoples’ land and assert Extraction on Indigenous their jurisdiction in a time of great administrative and service-oriented. Territories.” change. He was a British Loyalist Rather than deal with territorial during the War of 1812, but was soon Monitor: What is the mission of the authority of treaty and title nations, after the subject of aggressive British Yellowhead Institute? policy reforms are tending toward assimilation policies. These included sectoral, incremental approaches that Shiri Pasternak: Yellowhead aims being at the first reserve experiment do not fully recognize Indigenous to shape public debate in Canada in Canada and subjected to numerous peoples’ rights and responsibilities on topics related to Indigenous fraudulent land surrenders. In spite to authorize consent for development governance by generating critical of this, he defended Anishinaabe on their lands. research on colonization and jurisdiction, was also a champion of by publishing perspectives that inter-national Indigenous diplomacy M: What’s next for the institute? reflect First Nations’ visions of and he is remembered for his SP: Over the summer, we will be self-determination. Yellowhead political acumen. releasing more analysis, from different also strives to foster dialogue on M: Your first report rates the Trudeau First Nations perspectives, on the Indigenous governance across fields government’s recent Indigenous government’s rights framework, of study, between the university and policy reforms. How do they do? proposed legislation, internal the wider community, and among reorganization within Indigenous Indigenous peoples and Canadians. SP: Unfortunately, not well. We look Affairs, and other urgent matters. We First Nation–focused and rooted in at everything that has been drafted will release policy briefs on a regular community networks, the Yellowhead and proposed over the last couple of basis on a variety of topical and Institute is positioning itself to years—including draft legislation, pressing issues affecting communities articulate alternatives to current land claim reform and new fiscal on the ground, and are continuing to ways of understanding and engaging policies—and conclude that all design long-term research projects with Aboriginal policy. the old policies are being recycled and collaborations. At an event this and rebranded as new. What has M: Is the goal to influence fall, we will announce the inaugural changed is the acceleration of these government policy, public opinion, all jury for the Art Manuel Award to be policies. Much of the new funding of the above? granted to an individual or group that announced in the budget is dedicated is engaged in impactful Indigenous SP: The Yellowhead Institute has to capacity-building that will carve a governance research or practices. five core objectives: 1. To support deeper path for First Nations toward governance work at First Nations these forms of self-government. The The Yellowhead Institute will launch and urban communities; 2. To hold promise of meaningful recognition officially during Social Justice Week federal and provincial governments in “self-government” agreements (October 23-27) at Ryerson University. accountable and to Influence policy; is undermined by their actual form, Visit www.yellowheadinstitute.org to 3. To provide public education which is still reserve-based, heavily check them out! 12 Webber’s response to some progressive skeptics is ALTERNATE that we must acknowledge that conflicts of interest are inherent to power, not finance, and that labour has proven FUTURES itself susceptible to such conflicts in the past. So, as far as problems go, this is a good one to have, he says, because it ROBIN SHABAN would be a sign that labour has amassed real power. While Webber may have a point (if a rather fatalistic one), his argument does not really get at the heart of the concerns The heart of labour’s about shareholder activism held by critics like Skerrett and Roberts. pension contradictions At the same time, I respectfully disagree with the claim that, as a means to advance social justice, inside corporate strategies are inherently problematic. I grant that the vast majority of pension funds likely do not engage in much RECENTLY FINISHED DAVID Webber’s new book, The Rise of the shareholder activism, let alone the kind that might advance Working-Class Shareholder: Labour’s Last Best Weapon worker or social justice interests. However, Webber has (Harvard University Press), about the potential of share- effectively shown that it is possible, though perhaps not Iholder activism for exerting workers’ power in the United easy or very quick, to be a successful shareholder activist States. He argues that unions can use the financial power working toward noble goals. they possess in the form of massive pension funds to influ- Removing union pension funds from financial markets ence corporate boards and the political system, and reform avoids one contradiction, but without directly attacking the corporate landscape for the benefit of union members their roots in the exploitation of workers. Financial and society at large. markets will still exist, albeit with fewer big players, and Webber, a law professor at Boston University, gives a powerful participants will continue to undermine the play-by-play account of how labour’s shareholder activists interests of labour. Could union pension funds do more engage in the fight and showcases the individuals who by participating in markets as a positive agent of change were instrumental in key campaigns. His optimism is than if they were to pull out completely? captivating—Webber eschews “doom and gloom” to lay out the challenges to unions in a pragmatic, straightforward way—but the book is too dismissive of skepticism about the strategy from progressive voices. The reality is pension funds The unavoidable reality is that pension funds almost almost always invest in always invest in enterprises that undermine the interests of workers. From a union perspective, leveraging financial enterprises that undermine power gained from investing in this way is therefore con- the interests of workers. tradictory, even morally questionable. In fact, this point is the focus of another new book released this May, aptly titled The Contradictions of Pension Fund Capitalism The same contradiction that plagues union pension (Cornell University Press). funds shows up in other aspects of our lives, too. It is either At a book launch for this collection on pension funds, very difficult or very expensive to get through a month I asked co-editors Kevin Skerrett and Chris Roberts, both without consuming some objects or services that have not long-time Canadian union activists, what they thought of been produced in part by exploited labour (not to mention Webber’s call for labour to more fully engage in shareholder exploited animals, or the environment in general). Yet, we activism. They shared two main criticisms that stuck with continue to push for social justice, and sometimes win, me. Firstly, they argued that Webber’s anecdotes are not within these confines of modern capitalism. The contra- representative of how union pension funds operate, and dictions need not be an impenetrable barrier to progress. that there are very high barriers to undertaking socially Fundamentally, I think the decision to engage in share- minded shareholder activism. Their second issue was that holder activism is about striking a fair balance between our shareholder activism “nibbles at the edges” of the deep, moral ideals, our goals for greater justice, and the reality persistent problems of financial markets and capitalism. of the situation we currently live in. As a strategy it has In order to protect workers and provide a dignified challenged the hubris of Silicon Valley CEOs by putting retirement for all Canadians, Skerrett and Roberts assert their jobs on the line for violating privacy and undermining that fundamental pension reform is needed. Their vision democracy, and drawn the attention of Canadian mining is to remove pensions from financial markets and replace shareholders to the human rights abuses their investments the private pension system with an expanded Canada make possible in the Global South. Pension Plan. They argue that Canadians should have While shareholder activism may require navigating universal access to a pension without contributing to a contradictions, it does not have to mean accepting them.

fundamentally problematic financial system. ROBIN SHABAN IS AN OTTAWA-BASED ECONOMIST WHO COVERS FINANCE FOR THE MONITOR. REACH HER AT [email protected].

13 United States has a trade surplus with Canada in steel: in 2016, over 10 million tonnes of steel with a market value of over US$8.8 billion was traded between Canada and Behind the numbers the United States. Finally, the U.S. labour movement has not advocated for tariffs against Canada. My union, the MARK ROWLINSON United Steelworkers, passed a unanimous resolution of the executive board (comprising elected directors from all over North America) condemning the imposition of these Trump’s tariffs tariffs against Canada.

The NAFTA connection The only plausible rationale for these tariffs seems to be N MAY 31, the Trump administration announced 25% that Trump believes imposing them on Mexico and Canada tariffs on Canadian steel and 10% tariffs on Canadi- will give him more leverage in the NAFTA negotiations. If an aluminum, effective June 1, ending a temporary true, this is concerning because by most accounts we are Oexemption Canada had secured in March when the nowhere near any kind of deal, “skinny” or otherwise. That Trump tariffs were first announced. South Korea, Brazil suggests we may be living with these tariffs for some time. and Argentina were able to negotiate quota arrangements To his credit, Prime Minister Trudeau reacted swiftly with the U.S., but not us. The consequences for Canada by imposing $16.6 billion worth of counter duties on U.S. will be significant. steel and aluminum and a variety of other products aimed at specific markets in certain states—from maple syrup The tariffs to toilet paper. But while Trudeau and Trump tangle over Canada is the largest foreign supplier of both steel and tariffs, the central problem facing North American industry aluminum to the United States, accounting for 48% of alu- and workers remains unresolved. minum and 17% of steel imports. In steel, the United States is the destination for 90% of Canada’s exports and almost The real threat 45% of domestic Canadian production. In aluminum, 84% The North American steel and aluminum industry has of Canadian primary aluminum production is exported to been under attack from unfair, illegal and predatory the United States. The North American steel and aluminum foreign competitors for nearly two decades. Chinese market is highly integrated; so too are the various industries subsidies and overproduction have created a global steel (e.g., autos, aerospace) that use steel and aluminum. glut and depressed prices leading to a decimation of the There is no logical rationale for these tariffs. They North American steel sector and the U.S. aluminum sector. were imposed under section 232 of U.S. trade law, which (Editor’s note: for more on China and tariffs, see Gerard Di empowers the U.S. government to raise tariffs in order to Trolio on page 41.) protect U.S. national security. U.S. experts and industry Of great concern for Canadian workers is that U.S. tariffs representatives nearly all agree that Canadian steel and will amplify Canada’s exposure to unfair imports originat- aluminum imports do not constitute a threat to national ing offshore. If the world’s dumped and subsidized steel security. By U.S. statute, Canada’s productive capacity and aluminum cannot find a home in the United States, it in steel and aluminum is assumed to be part of the U.S. will surely find its way into the Canadian market. Canada industrial base for purposes of national defence. must immediately take steps to protect Canadian steel and Moreover, in steel, Canada and the United States enjoy aluminum producers from this diversion. a balanced and complimentary trade relationship. The The Canadian government must also act quickly and ag- gressively to identify trade actions and other mechanisms to protect the Canadian market. Canada’s response could include actions initiated under Section 53 of the Customs Tariff Act and WTO-compatible safeguard actions to pre- vent a destabilizing surge of steel and aluminum imports into Canada. Furthermore, Canada’s steelworkers need support sim- ilar to what was afforded to Quebec’s aluminum workers and forestry workers. Canadian steel communities are already hurting, and they need an assistance package to help steelworkers and their communities in the face of temporary layoffs as a result of these tariffs. Editor’s note: The Trudeau government was considering, but had not yet announced, support for workers and in- dustries affected by the Trump tariffs as the Monitor went to print.

14 REUTERS/LEAH MILLIS Indigenous people were often active in unions and in strike actions. In his 1996 book, Rolf Knight describes In- digenous fishermen supporting strikes on the Fraser River WORK LIFE in 1893, and addressing rallies “in support of the striking fishermen.” Indigenous longshoremen played a key role in LYNNE FERNANDEZ 1906 in the formation of a local of the Industrial Workers of the World. There is a history of Indigenous wage workers across all Indigenous of Canada—in the sugar beet fields of Alberta; the mining, logging and pulp-mill sectors of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, workers and unions, Ontario and Quebec; and in Atlantic Canada, where the Mi’macq worked in many sectors. There is also a history Part I of unions discriminating against these workers. In 2016, I interviewed Leslie Spillett, an Indigenous leader in Winnipeg and former trade union leader, who confirmed that even today some Indigenous people see unions as HERE ARE MANY barriers keeping a large portion of just another colonial institution, engaged in practices at Canada’s Indigenous population from decent work, odds with and likely to undermine Indigenous cultures, an injustice that modern unions grapple with. In order at the same time as they work to exclude them from paid to understand this situation, any study of Indigenous employment. My report with Jim (find it at www.policy- people, wage labour and trade unions must account alternatives.ca/publications) provides several examples Tfor the historical experience of colonialism and the rac- of unions discriminating against Indigenous workers. We ism that was, and remains, a part of that experience. Two recent reports released by the CCPA-Manitoba set out to do just that. In one of those reports, published in January, Jim Silver Indigenous workers were and I recount the colonial dispossession of Indigenous lands and resources (primitive accumulation by the new essential to the emergence settler state) as laid out in the 2015 Truth and Reconcilia- of capitalist industrialization tion Commission’s final report. Indigenous economic and political systems were eliminated, cultural and spiritual in many parts of Canada in practices constantly attacked, and many tens of thousands the late 19th and early 20th of Indigenous children imprisoned in residential schools in an effort to indoctrinate them to allegedly superior centuries. European ways of being. Forced to adapt to a new socioeconomic environment in which they were systematically marginalized and also describe instances of solidarity. demeaned, many Indigenous people, including children, In 1962, 80 Indigenous workers from Norway House and turned to wage labour. Some did so because they were left Split Lake picketed the Inco mine in Thompson, Manitoba, with no alternatives; others if it suited their circumstances demanding the chance to work for wages (Inco refused to and their determination to survive as Indigenous peoples. hire Indigenous workers). In a telegram to the Winnipeg In still other cases, Indigenous people were forced by the Free Press, the International Union of Mine, Mill and state to engage in wage labour. Smelter Workers wrote: “Indians all the way from Nelson Whatever their reasons, Indigenous people have par- House are parading at the International Nickel Company’s ticipated in the labour market to a much greater extent gates demanding their right to work. Many of these people than is generally recognized. In the late 19th and early were the first here, clearing the land where the company 20th centuries, Indigenous workers were essential to the now stands. Now that the dirty work is finished they feel emergence of this country’s capitalist industrialization. they have been cast aside. They want the same rights and According to John Lutz, in a 1992 article in the Journal of privileges as their white brothers.” the Canadian Historical Association, thousands of Indig- Archaic language aside, the above example exemplifies enous labourers once worked in the coastal canneries of what the labour movement could and should be doing to British Columbia earning wages lower than their non-In- reach out to Indigenous workers. In my next Work Life digenous colleagues—an income that was only partially column (in the September/October Monitor), I will describe compensated for by fishing and other primary economic how some of today’s unions are working hard to include activities outside the market. But Indigenous workers Indigenous workers, and how unions could be playing a were gradually replaced by Chinese workers, who could key role in meeting some of the Calls to Action of the Truth be paid equally low wages but who did not have access to and Reconciliation Commission.

non-capitalist means of subsistence. LYNNE FERNANDEZ HOLDS THE ERROL BLACK CHAIR IN LABOUR ISSUES AT CCPA- MANITOBA. FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER @LYNNEFERNANDEZ.

15 16 HADRIAN MERTINS-KIRKWOOD CANADA’S JUST TRANSITION With a little forward planning we can kick our addiction to fossil fuels, empower energy workers and set a positive example for the world.

HE CENTREPIECE OF the former flag of Fort St. John, need for fossil fuels ensured most coal, oil and gas towns British Columbia is a black gas rig on a stark white ended up back on their feet. cross. Evergreen trees stand to one side with a red That context has changed as governments in Canada and Tmining building on the other. The city, about a half- beyond commit to the fight against climate change. It is hour drive to the northern Alberta border, was founded now clear to most people that, sooner or later, we will move by European settlers in the late 18th century to facilitate on from coal, oil and natural gas. For fossil fuel communities the fur trade with the Dunne-za (Dane-Zaa) and other across the country, it is more important than ever to plan Indigenous peoples, but it was the discovery of a massive for a future without those energy staples. If they don’t, the natural gas field in 1951 that produced the region’s defining next bust might be their last. industrial boom. Dozens of oil and gas companies rushed into Fort St. John in the following decades to survey land and drill Stumbling into action on climate change wells, attracting an influx of settlers and investment. De- The environmental harm caused by burning fossil fuels is velopment was helped along by the Crown’s expropriation not breaking news. Climate scientists have been talking of Indigenous peoples’ mineral rights in the region—a seriously about the causes and risks of anthropogenic (hu- purported “error” the courts only partially remedied 65 man-caused) climate change for at least 50 years. Indeed, years later. Forestry, mining and other industries prospered oil giant ExxonMobil was excoriated last year when it came during that time, but fossil fuel extraction was always the to light that the company’s own scientists identified a clear primary money maker. As its flag made clear, Fort St. John link between fossil fuel emissions and climate change in the was emphatically a gas town. 1970s and ‘80s even as Exxon engaged in a public campaign Today, the flag of “The Energetic City” is more modern of climate denialism. and restrained, but the fossil fuel sector remains as central Climate change is not news to governments around as ever. Of the 17,000 working people in Fort St. John, more the world either. Advocacy from the scientific and envi- than 10% are directly employed in the oil and gas industries. ronmental communities sparked the formation of the Thousands more work in construction and other sectors Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988. A supporting fossil fuel extraction. The town is home to B.C.’s few years later, in 1992, the United Nations Framework Oil and Gas Commission and its mayor, Lori Ackerman, Convention on Climate Change was created at the Rio is one of B.C.’s most outspoken proponents of resource Earth Summit and subsequently ratified by 197 countries. extraction. Yet the political attention that climate change is getting For much of the 20th century, towns like Fort St. John today is refreshingly urgent compared to even a decade ago. were inextricably linked to Canada’s national project. The Perhaps governments have been spurred to action by its extraction, processing, transportation and consumption of increasingly obvious symptoms: rising global temperatures, coal, oil and natural gas was widely understood to be both ocean acidification, surging sea levels and more frequent productive and patriotic. Though resource towns routinely extreme weather events are all unfolding today as climate experienced booms and busts, the world’s unassailable scientists predicted. 17 ILLUSTRATION BY REMIE GEOFFROI Or perhaps governments see the writing on the wall Though tempting in the short term, foot-dragging by as the private sector divests from fossil fuels and global Canadian governments—or flat-out obstructionism, as markets shift toward alternative energy sources. The cost in Saskatchewan’s legal challenge to the federal carbon of renewable energy has fallen so fast in the past few tax—will only delay the inevitable as the rest of the world years that wind, solar and geothermal power are now cost takes action. Carbon pricing, for example, will soon be in competitive with fossil fuels, which is driving massive new place in 42 countries, including the economic powerhouses demand for transition. of China and the EU. Whatever the reason, climate action has become a top political priority globally. Governments have set out greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduction targets and The geography of vulnerability reaching those targets is now a central objective of much The roughly 2,000 oil and gas workers in Fort St. John aren’t government policy. To date, those policies have focused the only ones put at risk by new climate policies at home mainly on growing the clean energy economy. However, and abroad. There are more than 200,000 fossil fuel workers since human-caused climate change is primarily a result in Canada—and half a million jobs indirectly linked to the of GHG emissions from the combustion of fossil fuels, sector—spread out across dozens of resource-dependent fostering the growth of alternative, renewable energy regions. sources such as wind, solar and geothermal power is only As you’d expect, Alberta is the nexus of Canadian coal, half the equation. To actually reduce emissions, govern- oil and gas employment. Overall, 6% of jobs in the province ments must also deliberately phase out the production are directly tied to the fossil fuel sector. Calgary is home and consumption of fossil fuels. to about 60,000 fossil fuel workers, followed by Edmonton Ontario’s phase-out of coal-fired electricity generation with its 30,000. was the largest emissions reduction initiative in North But major cities like Calgary and Edmonton are also American history. Unless and until oil and gas are similarly economically diversified. The greatest vulnerabilities lie phased out across the country, Canada cannot meet its in places like Fort McMurray, in the heart of the oil sands, long-term emission reduction targets. The need for sup- where one in every three workers is directly employed in ply-side restrictions holds even if coal, oil and gas remain oil and gas. Once indirect and induced jobs are included, profitable and productive. practically the entire workforce of Fort McMurray is Yet, despite federal and provincial commitments to dependent on the oil industry. fighting climate change, the current pace of Canada’s Of the 20 regions most dependent on coal, oil and gas clean energy transition is slow and ultimately insuffi- production in this country, Wood Buffalo, which includes cient to achieve meaningful change. And some egregious Fort McMurray, is far and away the leader. In fact, 14 of the government policies, such as tax subsidies for oil and gas top 20 such regions are located in Alberta. Outside that producers and the stubborn promotion of new oil pipelines, province, only Estevan and Weyburn, both in Saskatche- are fundamentally at odds with our governments’ stated wan, and Fort St. John, B.C, crack the top 10. environmental objectives. Yet fossil fuel dependence is not exclusively a western Nevertheless, if and when Canada’s provincial and problem. There are pockets across the country where the federal leaders truly commit to a clean energy transition, share of fossil fuel jobs is relatively high. Sarnia, Ontario is oil and gas will face significant and potentially terminal home to a handful of oil refineries that drive the local econ- headwinds. Emissions caps on the extractive sector and omy. Several towns on Canada’s East Coast are similarly carbon pricing for the broader economy are two policies tied to refining or fossil fuel–based electricity generation. already in place where the level of ambition could soon be Many coal towns are already reeling from government ratcheted up to drive much deeper changes to the energy policies to phase out the carbon-intensive resource as system. a power source. If and when the provincial and federal governments get serious about transitioning away from oil and gas, the remainder of these fossil fuel–dependent regions will be hit hard.

Toward a planned transition The transition to a lower- There is little doubt some jobs will be lost as the fossil fuel economy is gradually replaced. To ensure a dramatic carbon economy will ultimately decline in fossil fuel production doesn’t unfairly punish create more—and better—jobs the workers and communities whose livelihoods depend on it, environmental and labour activists are increasingly than it destroys, but those calling for a just transition—a social justice framework for opportunities will not be widely ensuring vulnerable workers and communities aren’t left behind as the world shifts toward a lower-carbon economy. shared in the absence of The “just transition” concept has caught on around the deliberate planning. world and is now recognized by the United Nations. In 18 South Africa the conversation centres Relative contribution of the fossil fuel industry to the economy, by province (2016) on coal miners. In the Philippines the 0% 1% 2% 3% 4% 5% 6% 7% priority is truck and bus drivers. But British Columbia everywhere the central concern is Alberta that in addressing the climate change Saskatchewan emergency, the interests of workers Manitoba are put front and centre. Ontario Canadian and American labour Share of jobs (top axis) Quebec unions were the first and loudest Share of GDP (bottom axis) New Brunswick proponents of a just transition for the North American fossil fuel sector. Nova Scotia Among other policies, they’ve long Prince Edward Island called for income supports, retraining Newfoundland and Labrador programs and pension bridging for Territories laid-off workers. Unions have also 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% been adamant that workers should be directly involved in any transition decisions. Total contribution of the fossil fuel industry to the economy, by province (2016) Decades of advocacy have started 0 30 60 90 120 150 to bear fruit in Canada. The federal British Columbia government created a Just Transi- Alberta tion Task Force in fall 2017 that will Saskatchewan study the national coal phase-out Manitoba and release its recommendations on Ontario Jobs, thousands (top axis) a just transition for coal workers by Quebec the end of this year. Though oil and GDP, billions (bottom axis) New Brunswick gas phase-outs aren’t yet on the table, Nova Scotia Canada’s coal transition will no doubt Prince Edward Island set a precedent. Newfoundland and Labrador At the provincial level, the gov- Territories ernment of Alberta announced a Coal Community Transition Fund $0 $20 $40 $60 $80 $100 to support economic development and diversification in that province’s coal towns. Months later, Alberta announced a Coal Workforce Tran- sition Program to provide financial processes more climate-friendly, such new opportunities for workers and assistance directly to workers who as tax incentives for energy efficien- communities in the process. are forced to retire, retrain or relocate. cy research and clean technology Recent research from the CCPA adoption. categorizes these policies as “reactive,” Whereas reactive policies are mostly Ensuring equity in a just transition which means they’re designed to concerned with fossil fuel workers Frequently lost in this conversation minimize the harm caused by climate and their communities, proactive are the workers outside the fossil fuel policies to workers and communities. policies seek maximum inclusivity in sector who are nevertheless affected In contrast, “proactive” just transition the emerging low-carbon economy in by the clean energy transition. Iron- policies are designed to maximize every part of the country. The prin- ically, these workers are often more the benefits. The transition to a low- ciples of a proactive just transition dependent on the fossil fuel industry er-carbon economy will ultimately are as necessary in hydro-powered than coal, oil and natural gas workers create more—and better—jobs than it Quebec as they are in oil-fuelled themselves. destroys, but those opportunities will Saskatchewan. Across the country, fossil fuel not be widely shared in the absence of Ultimately, if the broad goal of a just workers receive an average total deliberate planning. transition is to ensure an equitable, income of $141,000 per year ($68 per Proactive just transition policies productive outcome for all workers, hour), which includes benefits and include expanded apprenticeships in then a mix of reactive and proactive government transfers. In contrast, the renewable energy industries and new elements is necessary. Canada can’t average Canadian worker receives just investments in clean energy infra- only play defence as the world moves $59,900 a year, while accommodation structure. They also include support off fossil fuels. We must also push a and food service workers make $30,300 for emissions-intensive and trade-ex- lower-carbon offence by investing on average. Though income alone does posed industries to make industrial in the clean economy and creating not determine economic security, we 19 can see the typical oil and gas worker is more likely to be The transition to a clean economy will be difficult wheth- in a better position to retrain or relocate than a worker in er it is equitable or not, but that is all the more reason to a different sector who lives in the same place. insist on a just transition for all workers in this country. Not only do fossil fuel workers generally earn relatively Change may be inevitable, but hardship and inequality higher incomes, but they are also predominantly male and are political choices. from privileged demographics. Women and marginalized groups, on the other hand, are often relegated to less secure jobs. A greener horizon In Fort McMurray, for example, only a fifth of oil and gas As the largest city in the Peace River region, Fort St. John workers are women and only a fifth are recent immigrants. embodies many of the challenges, opportunities and con- Yet in Fort McMurray’s accommodation and food services tradictions we face across Canada as we consider a national sector more than 60% of workers are women and 40% are just transition. recent immigrants. The gender pay gap in Alberta is $31,000 In addition to its oil and gas sector, the area is one of per year for full-time employment. Northern Alberta is B.C.’s biggest agriculture and forestry centres. All of this among the worst places in the country for women’s eco- primary economic activity feeds into a growing services nomic security. sector that employs many people in health, education Indigenous workers are well-represented in the fossil and tourism. The Energetic City is also at the centre of a fuel sector, but they are disproportionately relegated to growing alternative energy system that includes a handful lower-income and less secure jobs. Indigenous workers of private wind farms. report being the “last hired, first fired” on many extractive At the same time, the Peace River region is the planned projects. home of the proposed Site C dam, an unnecessary, expen- Responding to these inequities in fossil fuel communities sive and highly divisive mega-project that exemplifies what does not mean abandoning workers with greater degrees an unjust, status quo transition to a cleaner energy system of privilege. Instead, support should be provided to all will look like. workers and families commensurate with their needs. In contrast, community-level renewable projects offer Reactive just transition policies would identify degrees greater social, political, environmental and economic of vulnerability and respond accordingly. benefits (see “All power to the community” on page 42 of Proactive transition policies must also prioritize equi- this issue). According to the B.C. First Nations Clean Energy table outcomes. For example, only 14% of apprentices in Working Group, there are already four renewable energy the skilled trades are women and only 9% are recent im- migrants. If this worrisome lack of diversity persists in the emerging clean economy, reproducing social inequalities, Booming: Fort. St. John in 1960 it will be hard to call the transition a success. TOURISM FORT ST. JOHN

20 projects with Indigenous involvement EVEN ON THE PRAIRIE, SUPPORT FOR in northeastern B.C. and another 18 under development or consideration. A JUST TRANSITION GROWS The region offers considerable poten- SIMON ENOCH tial for further energy democracy. Fort St. John is exploring some smaller-scale transition initiatives of All this talk of Kinder Morgan’s Trans results of a poll they conducted with 500 its own. In 2015, the city completed Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) adult Saskatchewan residents on issues North America’s northernmost “pas- being in the “national interest” might related to oil extraction, the environment sive house” as a demonstration project strike some ears as a novel justification and climate change. in energy efficiency. The standalone for an energy project. But for those of us building is 99% more efficient than Though a small majority of respondents in Saskatchewan, it appears that Justin a typical Canadian home and it pro- opposed putting a price on carbon, more Trudeau and Rachel Notley are merely duces about half the energy it needs than four out of five people agreed that stealing a page from a very well-worn using solar panels. The Passive House the province should transition away political playbook. project was specifically designed as a from fossil fuels (see chart), with 26% model for northern communities that There is probably no bigger booster of listing environmental damage as the don’t have consistent, year-round solar the oil industry than the Saskatchewan most important risk from the industry resources. government. Former premier Brad Wall in Saskatchewan. Furthermore, 64% of For a town so entwined with the took any and every opportunity to respondents said the government should oil and gas industry, Fort St. John’s champion the industry while publicly invest more in wind power and 73% want willingness to invest in a cleaner opposing virtually any policy—higher investment in solar. economy hints at a life after fossil royalties, increased regulation, carbon While some respondents were unsure fuels. The transition will not be quick pricing—that might threaten its about renewables, very few opposed or easy; the town won’t give up its oil profitability. government investment in wind (7%) or and gas industry without a fight and Wall was particularly adept at presenting solar (4%). Almost 66% of respondents the Site C dam is an ill-fated step in the interests of the industry as akin to agreed that Canada should do more to the wrong direction, not to mention the interests of the province. A threat support clean energy even if it increases an insult to Indigenous communities to one was a threat to the other. This electricity costs, and 58% agreed who were promised reconciliation. But conflation of interests served a distinctly that governments should protect the the emergence of new industries and political purpose: the government environment even when increased costs energy initiatives points to new pos- regularly used oil as a wedge issue to or new regulations hurt industry. sibilities for today’s fossil fuel regions. sow public doubt about the opposition Communities across the country These results, in a province that NDP’s loyalty to the province. will need to take similar steps, on a continually equates industry priorities much grander scale, in the coming Too often, the provincial NDP with the national interest, illustrate decades as Canada transitions to a succumbed to the trap, fearful of the plainly the growing public recognition lower-carbon economy. That shift electoral consequences of being tarred that a transition away from fossil fuels is entails risks and inevitable costs, but as insufficiently pro-industry. The not only needed but politically feasible. also significant economic opportuni- government’s success at stymieing Politicians that continue to conflate ties with obvious benefits for public dissent has surely contributed, even if in criticism of pro-industry regulation health and the natural environment. a small way, to Saskatchewan having the with disloyalty may find themselves The world is moving on from fossil highest carbon emissions per capita in left behind by a public that is willing to fuels whether we like it or not, but the the country and the weakest oil and gas entertain a much more robust definition just transition framework offers us a regulations in North America. of what is actually in our collective pathway to change that is proactive interest. Now, Prime Minister Trudeau and Premier and equitable rather than reactionary Notley are deploying the rhetoric of “the and divisive. A just transition is demo- WOULD YOU SUPPORT A TRANSITION national interest” to frame TMX opponents cratic in its worker-centred approach, AWAY FROM FOSSIL FUELS COAL, OIL, GAS as insufficiently patriotic. Despite recent FOR THE SASKATCHEWAN ECONOMY? economically sound in its long-term polls showing support for TMX on the strategy, and ultimately the best way rise in much of Canada, in Saskatchewan Yes, immediately 17.3% forward if we are going to meet our public opinion is calling into question climate commitments while ensuring such claims that we must be united in our Yes, over 10 years 33.3% a brighter future for all. loyalty to the oil and gas industry. Yes, over 20 years 22.8% In a new report for the CCPA-SK, Winds of Yes, over Change: Public Opinion on Energy Politics 50 years 11.6% in Saskatchewan, authors Andrea Olive, Not at all 15.0% Emily Eaton and Randy Besco analyze the 21 22 CYNTHIA KHOO The revolution will not be automated Asserting a place for humans within the technosocial gestalt

CCORDING TO A popular apocryphal tale, the United In 2016, Sunil Johal, policy director of the Mowat Centre, States and Soviet Union both realized during the and Mowat policy associate Jordann Thirgood released a space race that a standard pen would not work in report called Working Without a Net: Rethinking Canada’s Aorbit. NASA spent millions of dollars to develop an Social Policy in the New Age of Work. The report analyzes “anti-gravity” pen that would. The Soviets used a pencil. how Canadian labour will be affected by both job automa- The story is not true. However, as analogy, it help- tion and platform capitalism, and concludes with a slate of fully illustrates a critical point at the heart of law- and astutely broad-minded policy recommendations for how policy-making aimed at preparing society for another tran- governments might futureproof certain sectors. Call it a sitionary era of technology-driven labour upheaval. NASA just transition for the digital age. Among Johal and Thir- faced a simple problem obfuscated by rapidly advancing good’s recommendations are a universal child care program technology, so the counterfactual space agency assumed paid for through progressive taxation, more investment the solution would also need to be on the cutting edge. In in affordable housing, and the expansion of health care reality, both the problem (how to write) and solution (with to include a universal pharmacare program. a pencil) were manageable based on well-worn ways of What is striking here is how similar these digital tran- thinking and ideas that long pre-existed, needing only to sition policies are to the measures frequently assigned to be taken up in earnest. the just transition for carbon economy workers. Those The point here is that if we focus too much on the new grappling with two of the most significant questions technology itself, we risk overlooking the more central confronting our collective vision for the future have drawn questions, such as making sure our astronauts are fairly the same overall conclusions: remedying socioeconomic compensated and won’t run out of oxygen while scribing inequality, strengthening safety nets for the vulnerable, away on humanity’s behalf. We risk missing the belt for the and divesting from certain belief systems around labour asteroids, so to speak. Or, in today’s terms, we are missing and value are all integral to the decarbonization of some the labour rights and income inequality issues for the industries and what might in the far distance come to be job-automating, artificially intelligent robots. seen as the re-humanization of work. Lost in these separate conversations is how reforms t will not be enough, to meet the challenge that automation such as national child care or affordable housing would presents, to sit back and hope that the industrial robot create a more democratic and equitable society for all Irevolution eventually generates enough commercializ- of us, as people, not only as “workers.” They are valuable able innovation and new jobs to accommodate displaced and necessary reforms to a just future in their own right, humans, let alone to ensure that they thrive in the future independent of what else that future holds. of work. Rather, we should be preparing a comprehensive Indeed, were such laws and systems already a reality— package of new laws and social insurance reforms (e.g., better employment standards, for example, and fairer to EI and other systems) that can guarantee maximum wealth distribution—AI-driven automation might not sociopolitical and economic equity in response to both con- be such cause for alarm in the first place. Technological ventional, eroding employment models and the emerging, change on the scale we appear to be expecting today would often more precarious models that platform capitalism arrive genuinely as a boon that all members of society could (popularly known as the “gig economy”) facilitates, and equally benefit from, as the welfare-state economist John that automation and artificial intelligence appear set to Maynard Keynes predicted. Instead, governments must accelerate. now play catch-up and fearlessly course-correct at scale. To return to our analogy, AI did not cause today’s yawning Inquiring into the chasm between Keynes’s vision and wealth gap, which we can lay at the feet of all-too-human today’s reality, anthropologist David Graeber asserts, in capitalist structures, modes of thinking and governance. his well-known essay On the Phenomenon of Bullshit Jobs, However, attacking inequality first, with political and “The answer clearly isn’t economic.” Equally, the answer economic tools already at hand, would make dealing with clearly isn’t technological. It is, as Graeber goes on to a potentially AI-overrun future much less daunting. state, “moral and political.” When it comes to ensuring a 23 IRENE BELTRAME / MEATSPACE PRESS (CREATIVE COMMONS) ILLUSTRATION BY ALISHA DAVIDSON

just transition to a sustainable and democratic society in For example, speakers on the RightsCon panel I attended which all individuals may thrive, neither carbon nor Silicon pointed out that when it comes to digital innovation, tax will do. Rather, those obligated to act in the public interest policy favours capital at the expense of labour, by incen- must exercise ironclad political will and ethical courage to tivizing “innovation” through tax credits and discouraging ensure no one is left behind in the wake of technological support for and investment in workers through tax liability. innovation and progress. Additionally, the surplus profits that companies accrue, and which owners pocket through automation, flow neither ll of the above is not to say that digital rights are sepa- back to workers themselves nor into improving society as rate from a just transition for labour in the digital age. a whole, particularly after taking into account systematic AOn the contrary, many central digital rights issues play and aggressive tax avoidance practices. out in the context of employment relationships, such as It is no coincidence that recent years have seen research- the right to privacy online, freedom of expression, online ers and media give more serious consideration to the idea content moderation, and algorithmic accountability. In this of a universal basic income (UBI). Regardless of one’s sense of protecting people’s rights as exercised through and opinion of the UBI itself, that a primary response to the made meaningful on the internet, in the context of their AI revolution might be a socioeconomic policy that dates rights as workers, digital rights are labour rights. back, in Canadian political discourse, to the 1930s—and Three broad principles emerged from a panel I attended was piloted in Manitoba in the 1970s—again demonstrates at the RightsCon 2018 conference in Toronto this May. The how technological advancements can be the catalyst for panel, titled “Robots and Rights: Exploring the Impacts reform, but are likely not the lens through which the most of Automation on the Future of Work,” raised some of effective solutions will materialize. the same issues as Johal (who was on the panel) and Second, all stakeholders in our shared society must learn Thirgood in their report. At the heart of these principles to acknowledge and validate the many kinds of unpaid, is recognizing the reality that fundamental sociopolitical invisible, undervalued, discounted and often gendered and economic inequities are deeply entrenched in Canada or racialized labour on which society relies. That, in turn, today and predate the emergence of artificial intelligence. requires explicitly recognizing and fairly compensating First, the growing wealth gap requires intrepid action to such work on par with the kinds of jobs that Canadian address meaningfully. Though average wages have stagnat- society currently rewards. ed, the country’s top 1% of the population by income had One speaker on the RightsCon panel suggested the an- accumulated 15% of Canada’s total household wealth by swer to automation may lie not in “more jobs,” but “different 2011. A just transition involves establishing socioeconomic jobs.” This could mean replacing displaced knowledge and structures and systems that distribute wealth, profits and manual work with “empathy work,” examples of which economic value more equitably across different income include senior care, health care, childrearing, community brackets. organizing or relationships management. These high-effort 24 interactions do not often count as for- relational worlds. Canada should seize element of their driving while a mal “work,” even though they demand the opportunity that the automation camera stays trained on their faces. a high degree of emotional labour, time upheaval gives us to flip that formula Companies use such mandatory sur- and energy to carry out, particularly if on its head. veillance data to assess routes, driver they occur in the workplace on top of Third and last, the Canadian performance and risk scores, among one’s formal job description. They are government should respond to other variables, which are then fed tasks most frequently carried out by mass automation by strengthening into systems notorious for errors and women, visible minorities and other protection for workers’ rights across that harm real people due to making marginalized individuals, often with- the board, to insure against increased decisions based on their distorted or out recognition, acknowledgement or moral hazard and exploitation on the mistaken data shadows. pay. part of AI- and automation-equipped It remains to be seen how the Johal and Thirgood recommend businesses. Digital rights issues impact of the GDPR will play out on investments that could drive new abound in this context. the ground, but as far as privacy and generations of workers toward careers For example, the European Union’s data protection rights are concerned, in empathy and caring fields, similar General Data Protection Regulation Canadian lawmakers concerned with to the current attention paid to in- (GDPR), implemented in May to great a just digital transition may want to creasing enrolment in STEM (science, fanfare and trepidation after a two-year start casting their eyes across the technology, engineering and mathe- grace period, specifically addresses pond for inspiration. matics). Critically, placing an equal workers’ data. This matters because value on the caring economy as on employment is often a battleground espite the severe and widespread stereotypical ideas about innovation for privacy rights. Activities such as concerns with algorithmic would contribute to breaking down monitoring employees’ internet use, Dtransparency and the opacity of gender stereotypes, instilling greater keylogging and ubiquitous tracking AI-driven automation, their arrival respect for such work, and ensuring of detailed metrics regarding physical has made one thing quite clear: our fair and higher pay and benefits across location, health, communications and present-day society is not ready, and the workforce. work performance likely cross the line it has nothing to do with the new In the context of digital policy, from legitimate business interests to technologies themselves. content moderation on online plat- invasion of personal privacy. They Increasing income inequality, un- forms usually arises as a freedom of also risk infringing upon workers’ dervalued and unrecognized labour, expression issue. This is also a good freedom of expression or freedom of a growing wealth gap, the erosion of example of devalued labour. Content association—rights particularly fun- workers’ rights, widespread work pre- moderators spend their days clicking damental in a labour justice context. carity, policies systemically favouring through the worst and most violent, The GDPR strengthens protections capital at the expense of labour, and abusive, graphic and traumatizing for EU workers in at least three nota- an outdated social safety net are the material that humanity has to offer. ble ways. First, the regulation does not natural result of capitalist logic and its They work for little pay, no benefits or only apply to full-time employees but institutions set up to govern Canadian security (as many are contractors), less also to other individuals whose data society. They are old problems, albeit recognition and esteem compared to enters a company’s orbit, such as job now with a robotic twist. coder colleagues, thankless outcomes, candidates and part-time workers. If we do not address these problems and at the high human cost of their Second, according to an Article 29 directly for what they are, independ- psychological well-being. Working Party opinion, employees ent of the technology that brought Automating content moderation, mostly cannot consent under GDPR. them into sharper relief, we risk sorely despite what Mark Zuckerberg tells This recognizes the inherent power misdirecting the future of work in the U.S. Congress, is unlikely in the imbalance between employers and Canada. But more than that, we risk near future due to the difficulty of employees, and in many cases will squandering the current political mo- training AI to assess borderline or force employers who want to collect mentum, popular interest and ethical nuanced cases correctly. Late 2017 and use workers’ data to find other self-awareness to bring about the free, saw Facebook and Google announcing legal grounds to do so. equitable and democratic society we plans to hire 10,000 more moderators Third, the GDPR generally prohibits should already have. each. In Bullshit Jobs, Graeber ob- relying solely on automated decisions A just transition does not mean served, “[I]n our society, there seems that result in legal or “similarly signifi- transforming just enough to preserve a general rule that, the more obviously cant” consequences for an individual, a broken status quo. Done right, a just one’s work benefits other people, the such as hiring or dismissal. In her transition could be transcendent. And less one is likely to be paid for it.” This book Weapons of Math Destruction, there would be nothing artificial or rule applies as much to those who about algorithmic discrimination automated about it. make the internet at all bearable as to and non-accountability, Cathy O’Neil their offline counterparts who care for relates that in the United States, and maintain the infrastructure and commercial truck drivers work functioning state of our physical and with installed devices logging every 25 KATIE RASO Disability and the job churn ILLUSTRATION BY KATIE RASO For disabled workers, it’s not enough to do more with less. In the new economy, you’ve got to do it with a 24/7 smile.

N 2016, Finance Minister Bill Mor- the case, some housekeeping on the for every one person with a “severe” neau told reporters that millennials term disability is needed. disability who finds work, three do not. needed to get used to “job churn,” a For the purposes of this article, When disabled workers do find Icareer path eked out from short-term disabled workers are those individuals employment it is often in sales, and and precarious work. Prime Minister who are or want to be in the labour they make far less money than their Trudeau welcomed the idea of the force who also have a physical or abled counterparts. While the median churn, saying that changing jobs fre- mental disability. Physical disabilities personal income in 2012 for a Canadian quently allowed workers to have new may be visible (related to mobility, worker was $31,200, for disabled work- experiences. But treating growing pre- for example) or invisible (chronic ers it ranged from $10,800 to $24,200 carity as the welcome and inevitable illnesses). Mental disabilities include depending on their disability type. “As evolution of Canada’s job market mental illness (like post-traumatic a result,” researcher Michael Prince shifts undue burden onto workers: if stress disorder), neurodevelopmental laments, “Canadians with disabilities you are struggling to exist in this new disorders (autism) and learning disa- have not seen the promise of equality system, it’s not the system’s fault. It’s bilities (dyslexia). Statistics Canada of opportunity in the labour market yours for not being resilient enough. delineates disability into 10 categories: fulfilled.” The “job churn” celebrates the no- pain related, dexterity, developmental, In the 1970s and 1980s, the federal tion of the grind, glorifies busyness mobility, flexibility, hearing, mental government introduced several an- and encourages abandonment of any health, memory, learning, and seeing. ti-discrimination and employment semblance of work-life balance. Good Canadians with disabilities face equity measures designed to reduce things come to those who hustle, we are exceptionally high rates of unem- barriers to employment. The Em- told. This new intensified employment ployment. Over 400,000 disabled ployment Equity Act, for example, landscape, with its increased expec- working-age Canadians are currently requires employers to be proactive in tations and decreased protections for unemployed, despite being willing and identifying and eliminating employ- workers, is simply not a possibility for able to work. While Canada’s unemploy- ment barriers against persons in four many people, and it leaves disabled ment rate is currently sitting at 5.8%, designated groups: women, “visible Canadians totally sidelined. the rate for disabled Canadians is much minorities” or racialized people, people higher. Canadians with “mild” disabili- with disabilities, and Indigenous peo- or the 10.1% of working-age Cana- ties are most likely to find employment, ples. Similarly, the Canadian Human dians who are disabled, struggling and their unemployment rate is 35%. Rights Act states that employers Fto find full employment is already For those with “severe” disabilities that have a duty to accommodate disa- a churn. Before getting to why that’s rate jumps to 74%. Put another way, bled employees and to take all steps 26 short of undue hardship to eliminate What makes the gig economy so subtly suggest the employer is only discrimination. alluring for employers is that it shifts interested in hiring abled workers. But legislation on its own has not a great deal of risk and responsibility In advance of writing this article, I addressed the divide between disabled to workers. Gig employers have lower asked a group of disabled millennials workers and the rest of the workforce. overhead costs. Drivers for Uber, for to tell me what key words in job post- Between 13.5% and 34.6% of disabled example, provide their own cars. ings cause them to self-select out of workers believe they have been Workers with Hyr are classified as applying for work. At the top of the list refused a job in the past five years be- independent contractors and, as such, were ideal candidate descriptors like cause of their disability. More broadly, restaurants hiring them need not plucky, high energy, able to go above a recent BMO survey found that 48% contribute to their CPP or EI. Upstart and beyond, enthusiastic, and always of Canadians “believe a person is allows firms to completely outsource on. When it comes to duty descrip- more likely to be hired or promoted if all their creative and clerical needs. tions, the workers who spoke to me they hide their disability.” Given both So where do disabled workers fit said their red flags were around being these findings, it is not surprising that in? Duty to accommodate states that expected to take on extra evening and 20.4% to 36.7% of Canadian Survey on employers are required to address weekend work, and to strive for perfect Disability (CSD) respondents reported employment barriers with one ex- attendance (sometimes incentivized that their employer was unaware of ception: the Bona Fide Occupational through bonuses). their disability. Requirement (BFOR). An employer can From these conversations, a clear More than 30 years after anti-dis- argue that they do not have a duty to image begins to form of the working crimination measures were enacted, accommodate if an aspect of a job can- world that disabled millennials navi- people with disabilities continue to not be modified or adapted without gate. Yes, Mr. Morneau, it is one that is face discrimination while looking undue hardship for the employer. shaped by churn culture. for work and “experience additional The gig economy, which has stripped These postings go beyond a mental- disadvantages such as lower com- away employers’ responsibilities to ity of doing less with more. They are pensation and weaker job tenure,” their employees, has created an entire looking for gig-style availability from according to CSD reports. Clearly, the labour ecosystem within the BFOR their employees: always on, always work to eliminate discrimination and loophole. It is a labour market that ready to jump in on a project regard- barriers facing disabled Canadians has survives on nimbleness and just-in- less of the hour, their health at the been left unfinished. time delivery of labour’s services, a moment, and whether overtime will Rather than assessing where the system that by design does not have be compensated. Even job postings failures are in the policies we’ve en- room for accommodation, especially that end with accessibility statements acted, our leaders are pressing ahead not a disabled worker’s need for an paint a picture of their ideal candidate with unbridled enthusiasm into the adapted schedule or access to assistive as someone who might need accom- churn, leaving disabled workers to devices, for example. modation but would never ask for navigate a gig economy with even it—because they are so grateful for fewer protections than the broken hile the gig economy is a sub- the work and so enthusiastic about system we had before. section within Canada’s labour being part of the team. Wmarket, its ethos helps shape the This climate leaves disabled millen- he gig economy refers to an broader employment environment nials with an impossible choice: apply employment landscape wherein wherein millennials (born between for jobs that expect the successful Ttemporary positions are common, the early 1980s and early 2000s) are candidate to be “always on” and risk if not the norm, and organizations increasingly told that they need to declining health to meet these ex- contract with independent labourers settle for less. pectations, or try to find a workplace for parcels of work (bit jobs). Though The Poverty and Employment in that isn’t operating under a maximum the arrival of app-driven employers Southern Ontario research project extraction approach to management. like Uber, Upwork and Hyr gets much (PEPSO) reports that 52.9% of non-un- Increasingly, those positions are hard- of the attention when we talk about ionized workers aged 25–44 don’t have er and harder to find. “job churn,” temp agencies, zero-hour health benefits and 47.7% don’t have With the federal government cele- contracts (i.e., short-notice retail shifts) paid time off from work. Benefits brating flexible employment there’s an and declining union membership all are critically important for disabled obvious lack of political will to ensure contribute to today’s rise in precarious workers as more than three-quarters that disabled Canadians are able to pur- forms of work. According to Randstad of people with disabilities take pre- sue meaningful careers. It’s not enough Canada, freelancers, independent con- scription medication. to shrug off this marginalization of dis- tractors and consultants now make up The medication issue speaks to abled workers as the cost of innovation. 20–30% of the Canadian workforce. the larger vulnerability that disabled Over a million Canadians are waiting More notably, 85% of the companies workers now face in Canada’s chang- for the employment equity measures surveyed by Randstad intend to adopt ing labour landscape. Increasingly, of the last century to take hold and for a a more “agile workforce” in the near disabled millennials looking for work guarantee that the coming churn won’t future. are reading job postings whose details leave them in tatters. 27 FIONA JEFFRIES Getting to $15 and Fairness How large numbers of society’s most vulnerable organized and won a historic victory

NTARIO IS IN the middle of a la- commentary centring on the signifi- the campaign itself to the tremendous bour organizing renaissance. cance of these changes in relation to gains it extracted: the unprecedented On November 22, 2017, the Fight the machinations of the embattled timeline for raising the minimum wage Ofor $15 and Fairness campaign (and since vanquished) Liberal Party to $15; the introduction of equal pay for celebrated the provincial legislature’s of Ontario. If some commentators part-time workers and some paid sick passing of Bill 148, the Fair Workplac- were ready to attribute the new law to time; the reigning in of the abuses of es, Better Jobs Act. The campaign’s the force of former premier Kathleen misclassification, zero-hour contracts feisty, creative struggle to raise the Wynne’s moral convictions, others and on-call scheduling; the re-intro- minimum wage and establish a se- saw in it no more than craven political duction of card-based certification in ries of worker protections for those opportunism heading into the 2018 some sectors where precarious work toiling in precarious jobs achieved a provincial election. dominates; and the adoption of more remarkable triumph that changed the For their part, the labour and left stringent enforcement mechanisms. lives of millions of Ontarians. What media portrayed the passing of Bill 148 It is hard to disagree that these makes these legislated gains even as a long-fought victory and, given the gains are well worth reporting. For more impressive is the fact that it was worker-hostile climate in the province, the millions of workers who will workers employed in precarious jobs an extremely surprising one. But sto- benefit directly and indirectly, the who, through their organizing efforts, ries tended to move too quickly from new legislation means not only an made this possible. increase in wages but also an increase But the crucial role played by in workers’ control over their working workers in this story has garnered conditions. But it is to the detriment surprisingly scant attention. Big media March for a $15/hr minimum wage of the left that we have failed to pay outlets focused on chronicling the at the University of Minnesota, more attention to the on-the-ground mounting anxiety among Canadian April 2015. organizing efforts represented by the businesses, with some additional FIBONACCI BLUE (FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS) $15 and Fairness campaign, especially 28 since workers in precarious jobs are often seen as paragons But there are also important differences between the of the growing ranks of the unorganized. campaigns. Two main distinguishing features are the distributed and grassroots character of the movement in Ontario and the scale of the struggle on each side of the A difficult sector to organize border. In the U.S., the Service Employees International Scholars who study the rise of precarious jobs over the Union (SEIU), one of the country’s largest unions, led the last two decades don’t always see eye to eye, but they Fight for $15 campaign for many years, pouring millions generally agree on how difficult precarious workplaces are of dollars into it and helping 400 New York City fast-food to organize. Precarity makes workers reluctant to protest workers stage (in 2012) the sector’s biggest strike action their condition, they argue; pervasive fear and vulnerability in U.S. history. achieve the same results for business as Pinkerton guards In Ontario, by contrast, the $15 and Fairness campaign used to with bats and bullets. has been run out of the Toronto-based Worker’s Action Temp worker pools and the fast-food, retail and building Centre (WAC), a small, spunky outfit with a skeletal staff services sectors present other big challenges for organizers. of full-time organizers. Its limited resources betray the fact The jobs they offer tend to be massively dispersed, and that $15 and Fairness has received nowhere near the level workers may not even know who their employer is. The of support from labour that the Fight for $15 once did in construction crews erecting Toronto’s highrise condos or the U.S. laying out Ottawa’s new light rail transit line are often The second distinguishing feature is that in many states contracted by an array of employers and subcontractors. in the U.S., wages and working conditions are legislated Outsourced building janitors can find their employer has at the municipal level, whereas in Ontario minimum changed overnight because the contract was flipped to wages and most workplace protections are provincially another firm. Temp agency workers move constantly from regulated. For this reason, the $15 and Fairness campaign workplace to workplace, rarely knowing where they will had to encompass the whole province rather than targeting be from week to week. individual cities. Such a challenging organizing landscape may help ex- In 2014, when WAC set out to reignite an earlier effort to plain why some unions and progressives initially thought raise the minimum wage, its staff and activist base began by the demands of the campaign were unrealistic. It seemed building up campaign groups in scores of cities all around reasonable to assume that the Liberal government of the Ontario. day would not support such a high wage demand; after all, “The organizing infrastructure in the province still hasn’t even the NDP’s minimum wage promises were capped at recovered from the Harris days,” argues Fight for $15 and $14 an hour. Given this context, it is more than pertinent Fairness organizer Karen Cocq. “As time goes by, more and to ask: how did some of society’s most vulnerable workers more people lack the experience, resources and capacity manage to execute a winning campaign yielding a range of to be able to creatively mobilize on labour issues in and unprecedented legislative gains that many in the labour outside of unions.” This frayed organizing infrastructure movement believed were impossible? meant that workers needed to be given the tools and the ex- perience of organizing if the campaign was to go anywhere. I met with Cocq recently to discuss what made $15 and How the victories were won Fairness so successful. Out of this conversation emerged In seeking an answer to this question, we may be tempted to three key organizing priorities that drove the campaign and draw comparisons to the Fight for $15 campaign currently enabled it to build the kind of grassroots power necessary being fought across the United States. Not only has this to bring about structural change. struggle garnered a huge amount of publicity, but it has also seen some significant if more uneven (compared to Ontario) gains. The City of Seattle passed a $15-an-hour 1. Echoing workers’ complex and urgent issues wage ordinance, for example, and other cities have achieved When I ask Cocq how the campaign’s issues, concerns and victories around non-wage demands such as scheduling priorities were identified, she says they came directly from rules. In New York City, workers must know at least two the communities where the organizing was taking place, weeks in advance when they will be working. “by starting with asking questions.” It was through this The Ontario and U.S. campaigns share a few other process of talking and listening to workers in precarious things in common, including the wage demand for $15 jobs that organizers grasped the importance of expanding an hour, the devotion to improving working conditions the parameters of the original campaign to increase the beyond income, and an emphasis on legislative reform minimum wage. rather than seeking change at the level of individual Cocq recounts how, through a constant cycle of focus employers. It is also just as difficult to access precarious groups, sidewalk discussions and kitchen table encounters, workplaces in Ontario as in the U.S. For this reason, it became abundantly clear that workers were concerned both campaigns have deployed tactics based on creative about a range of problems. A higher minimum wage, action, including targeting corporate brands, lobbying organizers were told, would only address one aspect of government officials, and mobilizing in the streets outside multifaceted challenges, like having to send a sick child workplaces and government offices. to school because they can’t take a day off work, trying to 29 juggle more than one part-time, casual get involved. Relationships are social communities, schools and places of or on-call gig, and navigating child care power.” worship.” Cocq points to the example or school given erratic schedules. As straightforward as this sounds, it of a woman who became a $15 and Many of the “beyond the wage” is something that Cocq believes many Fairness organizer in Toronto’s Regent issues raised through the Ontario of us have forgotten: “[If] you think Park. “Her social skills were her organ- campaign relate to the need to attend meetings are the way things happen izing skills,” Cocq says, explaining how to the often invisible background then you’re not seeing three-quarters this woman met regularly with other conditions that make life possible of the things people are doing, things women in the neighbourhood. “She and bearable—from having time to that are happening, the networks used their existing social networks and buy and prepare food for oneself or people have, the relationships people relationships to organize with them in one’s family to taking care of aging have and how you turn all that into a way that that worked for them.” parents. This kind of unpaid work social power. It is a latent social power Developing this deep level of rec- has an obvious gender component, that people use in all kinds of ways, ognition and trust among workers as women still shoulder dispropor- whether it’s a community feast at the and their communities helped the tionate responsibility for managing Gurdwara or a protest in front of the campaign to cultivate a spirit of cour- the complex demands of domestic Ministry of Labour.” age and audacity, but also a sense of and social life. And a disproportionate Key to the relationship-centred ownership over its ultimate success. number of workers in precarious work form of organizing pursued by the A few days after the Fair Workplac- are women, especially newcomer and $15 and Fairness campaign is figuring es, Better Jobs Act went into effect racialized women. It is not surprising, out how to nurture those people in the on January 1, 2018, a few Tim Hortons then, that women made up a signifi- movement that are best positioned to workers in Cobourg, Ontario used cant share of the campaign’s activist tap into relationship networks and social media to declare their boss base. build their leadership. was punishing them in response to The incorporation of demands be- “It’s not me who should be going the new legislation. Their postings yond the minimum wage into the $15 to Rexdale (in Toronto) to talk to went viral, triggering online calls for and Fairness campaign reflected the newcomer Somali youth working in a boycott of the beloved brand. $15 and priorities and desires expressed by the temp agencies,” says Cocq. “But we Fairness organizers held press rallies workers. WAC was able to recognize have workers who have relationships and staged demonstrations outside these demands and bring them to the in—and are part of—those commu- Tim Hortons franchises. forefront thanks to a pre-existing and nities.” She recounts how it wouldn’t “Workers know that the govern- on-going commitment to building be unusual to see, at WAC meetings, ment didn’t just hand down this relationships with them. “workers who range in age from 21 to victory,” says Cocq. “They know they 64, who are from all parts of the city, won this.” For many, she adds, this who speak Punjabi, Somali, Spanish, feeling translated into a long-term 2. Mobilizing through Mandarin or Tamil, who are white commitment to struggling for better relationship building Anglo working class folks, all in a working and living conditions within $15 and Fairness benefitted from room together strategizing, making and beyond the workplace. WAC’s years of building a membership decisions together, learning from each Instilling such a long-term commit- base in ways that reflect this commit- other.” ment to struggle matters even more ment to creating and strengthening now that the Progressive Conserv- relationships, to build power from atives are back in power in Ontario. the ground up. Cocq relates this 3. Building workers’ leadership When we met in May, Cocq told me she approach to a model of worker-cen- This relationship-building approach saw ceaseless organizing as “the key to tred organizing that seeks to build differs markedly from established top- dealing with the inevitable corporate workers’ confidence and leadership down political campaigns, which tend backlash to increased worker power through campaigns that can win to focus on activating the already mo- and protections.” concrete gains. “The $15 and Fairness bilized. “If we can invest in [workers] so These were prescient words: the day campaign took that model [and] just we can actualize those relationships, after Ontario’s provincial election, an kind of massified it.” [we can] convert the fire that they op-ed in the Financial Post wasted It all begins with a solid understand- have into something bigger,” Cocq no time calling on Premier-designate ing that the model is “really about adds. “That builds a kind of resilience Doug Ford to repeal Bill 148. In this relationship building,” says Cocq. and responsiveness, a diversity of new political landscape, there is a clear “And that’s everything from building people power and experience that is need to continue organizing in order relationships with workers to building invaluable.” to defend the movement’s important alliances. It’s that deep relationship For this reason, a third priority of the gains. building that creates the infrastruc- campaign is to invest heavily in “build- tures you can then tap into to be able ing up a diverse and broad group of to mobilize people. Relationships instil worker organizers who could lead the trust and encourage a willingness to campaign’s efforts in their workplaces, 30 went completely electric in we are more prepared to “learned.” New plants put transit last year, and China leave a better planet to our into the soil of an uprooted is leading the world in children, grandchildren and plant that had been tricked e-bus use, with more than the generations to come.” / into thinking it would be 350,000 on the road. Dutch engineering prodigy crowded out will also start / CITYLAB / INSIDEEVs Boyan Slat was 19 when he to divert resources from / Curbed developed the Ocean Array root to above-ground Cleanup system (pictured) growth to compete for overnors in the U.S. for removing plastic from space. / Whitehorse, Yukon The good GClimate Alliance, made the Great Pacific garbage resident Ione Christensen’s news page up of states representing patch (between Hawaii sourdough starter, alive 40% of the population and and California) where since at least 1897, will be half the country’s GDP, the pollutant has been entered into Belgian baker Compiled by have renewed their pledge accumulating. The system Karl De Smedt’s “library” Elaine Hughes to the Paris Agreement a will finally set sail from San of about 100 different year after President Trump Francisco this summer and strains and shared with ive years after Tallinn, withdrew U.S. support for is hoped to have cleaned up Italian researchers who are Fthe Estonian capital, the initiative. / California, half the plastic garbage in studying the DNA profiles made public transit free for which is part of the alliance, the patch within five years. of the world’s sourdoughs. registered city residents, has just announced that / EcoWatch / Futurism / Alberta’s edible plants are the whole country is beginning January 2020, all / Lifegate going organic, especially getting on board. As of new homes and apartment in the province’s most July 1, Estonia will be “the buildings in the state must lants are constantly northerly municipality, largest 24/7 free public have some form of solar Psending and receiving Mackenzie County, which transit zone in the world,” power—a move expected signals that determine has the highest number of where it will be “possible (if to reduce greenhouse their growth strategies organic farmers, supported complicated) to travel by gases equivalent to taking based on who (which by a two-year, $300,000 bus from one end of this 115,000 cars off the road. other plants or trees) are crop diversification 1.3-million-strong Baltic / In May, Chile became doing what nearby. A new program. According to nation to the other without the first country in the study published in the Statistics Canada, 90% of paying a cent,” writes Americas to ban plastic journal Plos One appears the people in Mackenzie Feargus O’Sullivan. / A fleet bags. “We have taken a to confirm that plants will County work in agriculture of 18 electric buses are to fundamental step to take secrete chemicals into the or forestry. / Guardian (U.K.) be tested on five routes better care of Chile and the soil when their leaves brush / Alberta Farm Express in three Canadian cities planet,” tweeted President up against other plants, and (Vancouver, Brampton and Sebastián Piñera. “Today that this message can be York Region) as part of a demonstration project organized and funded by the Canadian Urban Transit Research and Innovation Consortium (CUTRIC), a nonprofit outfit founded in 2014 with nearly 100 public and private sector members. / U.S. cities are also showing enthusiasm for electric buses, with New York City trialing models as part of a larger bid to reduce emissions. Last month, Los Angeles announced it will spend $36.1 million on electric buses, joining London (U.K.) and Paris (France) in pledging to go electric by 2025. The Chinese city of Shanghai (pop. 25 million) 31 Progressive trade

JIM STANFORD Griffin Cohen. On top of their enormous contributions to progressive economics in Canada, every one of them has influenced and mentored me personally in important ways; What does I pledge to return the favour, by supporting up-and-coming progressive economists as they find their role in our strug- progressive trade gle to build a more diverse and emancipatory economics. My lecture today will discuss the need for, and possible policy look like? components of, a progressive trade policy. Progressive economists in Canada have been fighting neoliberal trade deals for a generation—to the point where we sometimes HE PROGRESSIVE ECONOMICS FORUM awards a biennial sound like a broken record. But suddenly, neoliberal trade prize named after John Kenneth Galbraith to recognize policy is at a crossroads, and everything is on the table. lasting contributions to progressive economic theory This reflects the cumulating failures of the existing trade Tand policy in Canada. The 2018 Galbraith Prize was system: in particular, the imbalances and dislocations awarded to Jim Stanford, former economist with Unifor caused by decades of beggar-thy-neighbour competition (previously the Canadian Auto Workers), long-time re- to run ever-larger trade surpluses, and the race to the bot- search associate with the CCPA and currently Director of tom in social, labour and environmental standards that the Centre for Future Work in Sydney Australia. Stanford the current business-friendly rulebook of globalization delivered a lecture on occasion of his award at the Canadian facilitates and endorses. Economics Association meetings in Montreal in June, on the This moment also reflects a growing crisis in democracy theory and practice of progressive trade policy. The follow- in the advanced capitalist economies. Existing democratic ing excerpt from his talk leads off our Monitor feature on mechanisms are proving inadequate to channel popular the promises and problems with the Trudeau government’s discontent in positive, evidence-based directions. Instead, so-called Progressive Trade Agenda. ugly and increasingly dangerous forms of right-wing pop- ulism are capitalizing on discontent, creating a platform for am humbled and deeply honoured to receive the Gal- inconsistent, arbitrary and ultimately destructive policy braith Prize, named after one of my true heroes. I was responses. Donald Trump and his xenophobic unilateralism I lucky enough once to meet Dr. Galbraith in person, when is the most important case in point, but the phenomenon is I was a graduate student at Cambridge University. He was much broader—and, with Doug Ford’s election in Ontario, a towering figure, both intellectually…and in his physical we see it taking firm root in Canada’s political culture as stature! I am also incredibly grateful to the 14 individuals well. who co-nominated me for this award, and to the selection Into this ferment, progressives must inject an ambitious, committee of the Progressive Economics Forum. Finally, I honest and pragmatic vision of how to manage internation- would like to acknowledge and thank the previous winners al trade, capital and human flows in ways that protect and of the Galbraith Prize: Mel Watkins, Kari Polanyi Levitt, enhance living standards, equality and the environment. A John Loxley, Mike McCracken, Lars Osberg and Marjorie progressive understanding of globalization and its effects 32 must be rooted in our overall alternative analysis of how n that light, here are 10 key themes that I think are cru- the capitalist economy works, and doesn’t work, and draw cial to a progressive vision of globalization, one that is on heterodox economic theories of why international trade Iconsistent with progressive goals of employment, equity and investment flows can cause lasting hardship and losses and sustainability: (in contrast to conventional trade theory, which always 1. Preserve the power to regulate. A crucial tool for sees trade as a “win-win” outcome). limiting the negative effects of private profit-seeking In my full lecture (a considerably abridged version of business is government’s ability to regulate the conditions which is published here) I discussed the major channels and side-effects of private production: through labour laws, through which progressive policy tries to make the econ- consumer protection standards, environmental rules and omy work better for the majority within one national other means. Neoliberal trade deals define these regula- economy. These core strategies are useful in thinking about tions as “trade barriers,” banning many of them, in other progressive international trade policy, because exactly cases establishing “ratchet” rules so that the intensity of the same tools will be important in our efforts to achieve regulation can only diminish over time. These provisions progressive economic outcomes under globalization. The should be eliminated from trade deals; government can most important strands of progressive strategy include: and should retain the authority to regulate any business 1. Stimulating more output and employment through activity in the public interest. measures like fiscal and monetary policy and other macroe- 2. Active sector development strategies. To participate conomic levers. Unemployment always exists in capitalism. successfully in global commerce, every country needs a But when unemployment is lower, workers are better off, healthy share of desirable tradable industries—sectors for many reasons. characterized by technology intensity, high productivity 2. Empowering workers to win a better deal in the and income potential, strong supply chain linkages and distributional struggle that is a hallmark of the economy. strong export orientation. Governments need to actively This means stronger minimum wage laws and other la- support these strategic industries (which can include bour standards, stronger income security programs and high-value traded services, not just manufacturing and other social policies, and stronger unions and collective other goods-producing sectors) to maximize potential bargaining. gains from trade. Ideally, these sector strategies would be 3. Regulating private production to reduce the harm negotiated on a multilateral basis, so all countries can attain imposed on workers, communities and the environment— a fair share of high-value industries, rather than waging a through labour laws, consumer protection standards, beggar-thy-neighbour war to increase one country’s market environmental measures and more. share at the expense of others’. 4. Challenging the dominance of private investment and 3. End preferences for investors. Another symptom production in the economy by establishing and expanding of the unbalanced priorities of neoliberal trade deals is a strong public and non-profit section of the economy, and their extraordinary provisions to protect and privilege expanding the sphere of collective social consumption (to businesses and the investors who own them—everything supplement private consumption). from strengthening patent and copyright restrictions to These have been the most important ways that progres- the anti-democratic judicial mechanisms of investor-state sives, over the history of capitalism, have tried to shape dispute settlement. These preferences have no justification the economy to attain higher living standards, protect the in a progressive policy vision, which is premised precisely environment and build stronger, more equal communities. on constraining the actions of private firms, not privileging To a large extent, describing “progressive trade policy” their freedom and mobility. Fundamental decisions such should start by preserving and enhancing our capacity to as patent systems, company taxes, consumer protection apply those same key strategies. regulations and others should be left fully within the Moreover, it is important to note that the themes listed purview of national democratic decision-making. above, for the most part, are not usually discussed in trade 4. Regulate capital and currencies. Flows of foreign di- agreements (whether bilateral, multilateral, or at global rect investment (FDI) can enhance the productive capacity institutions like the WTO). So focusing on trade agree- and know-how of the host country, and in some cases de- ments—what is in them and what is not in them—may not liver benefits to the source economy as well. However, FDI be the most important avenue for achieving a progressive must be held accountable to public interest goals through trade policy. a thorough review process, to block unproductive invest- Finally, almost all the progress made along those four ments (like takeovers that do not enhance investment but avenues was achieved through progressive organizing merely transfer control) and extract commitments from and campaigning at the national or sub-national level, incoming firms to high-value domestic activity (such as not the international level. So to pursue a progressive global product mandates, commitments to R&D, and more). vision of international trade, we still need to focus first International financial flows are more volatile, and their and foremost on winning progressive policies at the benefits more questionable. Hence cross-border financial national level—rather than focusing solely on changing flows should be tightly constrained through stricter bank- the wording of trade agreements or trying to build new ing regulations (especially governing short-term money international institutions. flows), limits on international investments by pension funds and other financial institutions, and transactions 33 taxes. Manipulation of exchange rates is another financial than the modest efficiency improvements predicted in factor that distorts trade patterns. Existing practice allows neoclassical trade theory. But those surpluses imply cor- countries to suppress exchange rates in order to achieve responding deficits (and stagnation and unemployment) larger trade surpluses. Limiting that practice will be impor- among their trading partners. We must replace that tant in a broader system for managing trade imbalances beggar-thy-neighbour quasi-mercantilism with a more (see below). balanced adjustment process that limits trade imbalances 5. Invest in public export infrastructure. Canada has and shares the burden of adjustment fairly between both obvious need for a massive and lasting expansion of in- surplus and deficit countries. Trade surplus countries must vestment in public infrastructure, and the macroeconomic recycle net earnings into new spending (including imports and job-creation benefits of infrastructure spending are from other countries) or else face restrictions on access to well-known. Export infrastructure can be one useful com- foreign markets. That recycling would in turn stimulate ponent of this broader infrastructure strategy; investments stronger output and job creation on all sides. should be directed into transportation, communication, 10. An inclusive, fully employed economy. Trade policy research and development, and other facilities that support elites talk a lot these days about making sure the “gains export-oriented enterprises. from trade liberalization are shared more broadly,” conced- 6. Market access conditional on human and labour ing that many segments of society have not benefited from rights. Most free trade deals now pay token attention to globalization (but still not conceding that anyone suffered labour and environmental issues. But their various “side actual losses). This won’t happen automatically. Indeed, deals” or special chapters never have real force. Suppression the gains from economic expansion, wherever it comes of basic human, labour and environmental rights distorts from, are never broadly shared without active measures to competitiveness and hence influences production and in- make it so. So an overarching commitment to job creation, vestment patterns. Limiting this damage requires powerful economic inclusion and equality is thus the most important remedies, not symbolic commitments. Preferential market prerequisite for ensuring that the large majority of people access under trade deals should be conditional on partic- experience rising incomes and better security. The exist- ipating countries meeting basic standards of democracy, ence of a consistently inclusive domestic economic agenda human rights, labour rights and environmental protection. explains why opposition to trade liberalization is mild in Failure to meet universal standards should result in coun- the social-democratic countries of Europe: there, most tries losing that access, either through the imposition of people know they won’t be left behind byany economic significant trade penalties or through exclusion from the change (whether globalization, technological change or trade zone altogether. any other), and hence can embrace change rather than 7. Meaningful adjust­ment, transition and training sup- resisting it. ports. Conventional trade policy also pays lip service to the risk that certain industries and groups of workers may his vision of actively managed international trade and suffer losses because of exposure to international com- investment does not imply erecting barriers to trade, petition. But there is rarely any meaningful commitment Tnor restricting the amount of trade. To the contrary, by to transition, relocation or retraining assistance to help eliminating deflationary biases inherent in the existing affected workers adapt. As part of a broader focus on job trade system (whereby all countries try to achieve trade creation (see below), well-funded skills, adjustment and surpluses, and deficit countries suppress domestic demand early retirement programs can reduce the human costs to reduce imports), our progressive approach would stim- of sectoral and employment shifts resulting from inter- ulate more trade, not less. It cannot therefore be described national trade. as protectionist or anti-trade. 8. Humane and just immigration. Migration is one of The coming years will constitute a turning point for the the most important and potentially beneficial aspects international trade system, which is coming apart at the of globalization, but also one fraught with hardship and seams after decades of imbalance and dislocation. Donald risk. High-quality migration programs should permanently Trump and other erratic populists, who ultimately want settle migrants (including refugees, who will become ever to reinforce corporate power (albeit in a more nationalist more numerous), supporting them with services, housing framework), will not help those suffering under globali- and employment, and protecting them under the same zation. Instead they will lead the world into intensifying laws and standards that apply to other workers. Tempo- social conflict, recession, and even war. rary migrant labour programs are highly vulnerable to Into this maelstrom, progressives need to energetically exploitation and abuse; these programs should be phased inject a more hopeful and positive vision of how to rein out (with pathways to permanent migration for existing in globalization, seriously address trade imbalances and temporary foreign workers). resulting unemployment, and make rising living standards, 9. Manage trade imbalances fairly. Successful export inclusion and sustainability the goal of economic policy countries (such as China, Germany and Korea) have every (including trade policy) rather than an afterthought. This incentive, and full permission, under current trade rules is truly a time for progressive trade economists to think to accumulate ongoing surpluses. Their experience of suc- big, and to make our voices heard. cessful export-led growth proves that super-competitive jurisdictions can experience gains from trade far larger 34 AMY JANZWOOD threat of a corporate lawsuit—start to turn the taps off fossil fuel exports. While taking the most harmful language out of trade Rewiring our “trade deals, we might also consider adding new rules that are pro-climate. The leaders of all three NAFTA countries have brains” for the climate pledged to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies by 2025, but none have any plans to do so, and Canada has crisis been unwilling to release much information on its public transfers to industry. NAFTA currently allows Canada to subsidize the discovery and development of oil and natural RADE ETCHES PATTERNS and relationships into our global gas without fear of tariffs from the U.S., when instead the economic system that become deeply entrenched over deal could be changed to penalize government handouts time. This is not dissimilar to the way that neurochem- to the fossil fuel sector. Tical patterns are etched into our brains in a way that Given the political hurdles to co-operation on subsidies, makes overcoming addiction, mental illness or trauma so as well as carbon duties and taxes, a trade negotiation like challenging: perceptual responses are hard to change be- NAFTA might not be the most appropriate venue for this cause they are literally fixed in the cells of our mind. So, kind of climate action. Still, there is no good reason why too, trade flows and rules, fixed in a web of international climate change should not be considered in all phases of agreements, can be difficult to change—even when they free trade negotiations and in all parts of the agreements. are not inherently beneficial for people or the planet. This could be done through ex-ante assessments of carbon Much like pipelines and other costly, long-term fossil fuel emissions produced through greater trade liberalization, infrastructure, trade agreements contribute to the rigidity and by adding responsibilities for investors (emitters) and of our carbon-based economy. The North American Free rules for emissions reduction. Trade Agreement (NAFTA), for example, is a key vehicle Canada’s free trade agreements must also recognize the for the movement of hydrocarbons. Proportionality rules right of Indigenous peoples to free, prior and informed in its energy and trade in goods chapters require Canada consent as enshrined in the United Nations Declaration to maintain a consistent share of energy exports to the on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. This is particularly U.S. The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers relevant in ongoing negotiations for the Canada–Pacific (CAPP) openly credits NAFTA with the incredible growth Alliance Free Trade Agreement, since Canadian compa- in exports of oil and gas, and has suggested that without nies are heavily invested in the extractive sectors in Latin the agreement the rapid pace of oil sands development America. More broadly, trade agreements could include would have been “unimaginable.” CAPP continues to lobby binding, enforceable rules and mechanisms to redress the federal government to further ease the movement of environmental and social injustices caused by corporations hydrocarbons to the U.S. For example, they are asking operating at home and abroad. for a specific rule of origin for diluent, products added to In short, Canada’s trade agreements do more to get in the bitumen oil to make pipeline transport easier. way of addressing today’s climate and ecological crises than In the current NAFTA renegotiations, environmental they do to protect the environment. We need to be thinking NGOs and activists have challenged these and other trade much more creatively about “alternative trade” if we’re rules that interfere with Canada’s ability to protect public going to fix this problem. To return to the brain metaphor, health and the environment, such as NAFTA’s investor-state overcoming our addiction to fossil fuels requires us to rewire dispute settlement (ISDS) process. In May, Canada lost our “trade brains” so that our trade rules facilitate, rather its legal challenge to an investor-state ruling claiming than frustrate, healthier and more humane relations. the environmental assessment process that rejected a planned quarry in Nova Scotia violated the U.S. mining company’s minimum standards of treatment in NAFTA. Notwithstanding Canada’s decision to purchase the Alber- ta-B.C. Trans Mountain pipeline, current U.S. owner Kinder Morgan has claimed a right to file a NAFTA lawsuit as a last resort in case its pipeline expansion falls through. In both cases, the rigidity of trade agreements—to the benefit of fossil fuel companies—is apparent. In April, I was part of a gathering of trade activists, organ- ized by the Council of Canadians, tasked with reimagining Canada’s trade agenda, specifically in my case to make trade more environmentally sustainable. There are a few clear starting points. Removing ISDS provisions from all trade agreements and taking the proportionality clause out of NAFTA are two of them. Canada won’t be able to meet its climate targets if it can’t simply—without penalties or the BREWBOOKS (FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS) 35 ELLEN GOULD critiquing Leblanc’s reliance on one historian’s view of the original intent behind Section 121, the Supreme Court said that “the historical evidence nowhere suggests that prov- Supreme Court inces would lose their power to legislate under s. 92 of the Constitution Act, 1867 for the benefit of their constituents flattens “free even if that might have impacts on interprovincial trade.” The Court’s unanimous decision is a stunning setback the beer” campaign for what has been termed “trade creep,” or the increasing dominance of trade considerations over more and more areas of government policy. Canadians are being subjected HE SUPREME COURT gave Canadians cause to celebrate to an ever-louder drumbeat to embed the restrictions on this April in its R v Comeau decision. However, because government contained in international free trade agree- of the way the ruling was covered in the media, most ments within domestic law. Tpeople will not know how much was at stake and what After Comeau had won in provincial court, one commen- we might have lost had things gone the other way. tator portrayed him as a “national hero” striking a blow Tagging it the “free the beer” case, the media generally against the supposedly huge economic burden caused criticized the Supreme Court’s decision as an affront to by interprovincial trade barriers. Former Senator David some fundamental right to cheap beer. In 2012, New Brun- Angus, when asked to justify his oft-repeated claim these swick resident Robert Comeau was fined for possessing barriers cost $50 billion a year, admitted he was taking high alcohol he had purchased at liquor outlets in Quebec in numbers out of the air to make a political point. contravention of New Brunswick’s Liquor Control Act, which limits the quantity of out-of-province alcohol bsent from most media reporting on the Comeau case residents can possess. Comeau took his case to provincial was discussion of whether New Brunswick could have court and convinced judge Ronald Leblanc that the Liquor Avalid reasons for not wanting to have its alcohol leg- Control Act was unconstitutional. islation undermined by cross-border beer runs. Comeau Leblanc did not follow Supreme Court precedent and himself complained he did not know why he can buy cars gave a novel interpretation to Section 121 of the Constitu- or clothes in other provinces and bring them back but not tion that says goods from any province shall be admitted beer. free into other provinces. He acknowledged that finding While getting lower prices and more choice through New Brunswick’s law unconstitutional would fundamen- interprovincial competition may seem like an unques- tally change Canadian federalism and “have a resounding tionable benefit, alcohol is no ordinary commodity. A impact.” World Health Organization report identifies higher prices, When the Crown appealed to the Supreme Court, Can- restricted availability, and government alcohol distribution ada’s top justices unequivocally rejected Leblanc’s ruling. monopolies as proven methods of reducing alcohol-related The Court clarified the meaning of Section 121 (see box), harm. And more revenue from higher taxes on alcohol can saying it cannot be interpreted as “imposing an absolute help governments address the added health and criminal free trade regime within Canada” or in a way that “would justice costs that result from its consumption. impinge on legislative powers under ss. 91 and 92 of the Con- This case, though, was about much more than alcohol. stitution Act, 1867.” (Sections 91 and 92 spell out the division The basic argument that Comeau’s lawyers advanced of powers between federal and provincial governments.) In before the Supreme Court is that an extremely broad inter- pretation should be given to what constitutes a “non-tariff” trade barrier, which they defined as any “restriction on the movement of goods that is not a tariff trade barrier.” By doing so, they attempted to import international trade agreement concepts into the Canadian constitution. Since the 1990s, these agreements have been less about lowering tariffs and more about redefining pretty much anything government does as a possible trade barrier. That way, environmental regulation, consumer protections, health and safety rules and publicly delivered services can be challenged in a legal context that gives priority to commercial interests. Comeau’s lawyers also argued that certain powers governments currently have, like maintaining provincial liquor distribution monopolies, should be simply prohib- ited outright as unconstitutional. They stated Section 121 should be “paramount over any legislative restriction on the interprovincial movement of goods made under either s. 91 or 92.” That would prohibit, for example, legislation 36 MORGAN (FLICKR CREATIVE COMMONS) in Northwest Territories that allows its citizens to decide SECTION 121 for themselves in local plebiscites whether they want their communities to be dry. OF THE CONSTITUTION Given how difficult it is to change the Canadian Con- stitution, such government policy options would in effect ACT OF 1867 be eliminated for all time, regardless of the wishes of the CANADIAN MANUFACTURES, ETC. electorate. The Supreme Court ruled, however, that laws that have only incidental effects on trade do not violate ALL ARTICLES OF THE GROWTH, PRODUCE, OR Section 121: “To prohibit incidental impacts on cross‑bor- MANUFACTURE OF ANY ONE OF THE PROVINCES SHALL, der trade would allow s. 121 to trump valid exercises of FROM AND AFTER THE UNION, BE ADMITTED FREE INTO legislative power.” Of course, stripping governments of EACH OF THE OTHER PROVINCES. their constitutional powers would have been a desirable outcome for the anti-government interests supporting Comeau.

f you are wondering how a retired worker like Comeau had the money to hire a team of lawyers and take a con- Istitutional challenge all the way to the Supreme Court, the answer is that he did not. The Canadian Constitution that might restrict trade if they can prove they are “neces- Foundation (CCF) backed him, seeing in the case an oppor- sary.” So, in contrast with trade panel rulings, the Supreme tunity to advance a key aspect of their agenda—to get a Court decision means no judicial weighing of whether Supreme Court ruling “against government meddling in governmental objectives are “legitimate” or sufficiently all transactions across provincial boundaries.” “important,” no second-guessing governments on wheth- The CCF, whose directors include board members and er they could have done something else that was more staff from the Fraser Institute, also contributed to Brian effective and less trade restrictive. Day’s challenge to B.C.’s ban on private health clinics. Like In a blow to Alberta’s recent legislation targeting B.C. its counterparts in the U.S., such as the Federalist Society, for the latter’s opposition to the Kinder Morgan pipeline, the CCF works to achieve constitutional rulings that would the Supreme Court did state that laws with the purpose set government on a permanent right-wing trajectory. of punishing other provinces could be judged to have the Provincial governments intervened at the Supreme primary purpose of restricting trade and therefore be Court to say they were working toward eliminating inter- unconstitutional. provincial trade barriers through negotiation. They cited the recently signed Canadian Free Trade Agreement that rovinces intervened in the beer case with eloquent argu- provides for monetary penalties of up to $10 million and ments on why the Court should not agree with Comeau. allows businesses to launch CFTA challenges against gov- PAlberta stated Section 121 should not be interpreted in ernment legislation. The CCF, though, dismisses the CFTA a way that would frustrate provincial capacity to support as having too many exceptions and sought to do away with local industry and employment. Ontario said Comeau’s them with one fell swoop through a constitutional ruling. argument would “constitutionalize a particular economic But it was a high-risk gamble for the CCF to tell the philosophy that views unfettered trade as a supreme good Supreme Court its previous decision on Section 121 had to be facilitated, and government regulation of goods as an been made in error, and a gamble that they lost badly. The evil to be minimized.” It would require deregulation and Court did not have to clarify the meaning of Section 121. The invite judicial activism, empowering judges to rule on the fact that the lower court judge had not properly followed merits of government policies. precedent was enough to overturn his decision. Quebec said its margin of maneuver to legislate in the However, since they had been invited to interpret Sec- public interest would be greatly diminished. B.C. warned tion 121, the Supreme Court did so—with no dissenting that if all differences in provincial regulations and taxes opinions, and in a way that left the CCF and right-wing were defined as a “non-tariff barrier,” this interpretation commentators apoplectic. would be incompatible with both democracy and feder- In order to establish that a law violates Section 121, the alism and would violate “the right to decide differently.” Court ruled a complainant would have to prove that the One would hope that the provinces would remember law “in essence and purpose” restricts the trade of goods their words the next time they are asked by the federal across a provincial border. If that cannot be proven, the government to give their consent to a free trade agreement complaint immediately fails. If complainants pass the that offends these democratic values. first hurdle, then they additionally have to prove that the primary purpose of the law is to restrict trade. Laws that have incidental effects on trade as part of a broader regulatory scheme “do not offend” Section 121. Unlike the WTO and other trade regimes, the Supreme Court did not say governments can only maintain laws 37 LAURA MACDONALD, NADIA IBRAHIM and investment. For decades, feminists have argued that AND SCOTT SINCLAIR trade is not gender-neutral, and that without interven- tion by government, civil society and/or the corporate sector, benefits tend to go disproportionately to men. The Gender, trade Trudeau government first exhibited a gender approach to trade policy in its negotiation of the Canada-Chile Free and austerity Trade Agreement (2017), which includes a gender chapter modelled on that of the Chile-Uruguay FTA. The Liberal government is also pushing for the inclusion of a gender HE TRUDEAU GOVERNMENT has espoused a Progressive chapter in a renegotiated NAFTA and has raised it as part of Trade Agenda (PTA) in its pursuit of international its agenda in deals with China and India, and a renegotiated free trade agreements. This stance, particularly the deal with Israel. Tgovernment’s pledge to include gender and Indigenous Interviews with representatives of women’s groups, chapters in a renegotiated NAFTA, has garnered much labour and other civil society actors, as well as the Cana- public attention and sparked welcome debate. Yet many dian government, have provided insights into the gendered researchers, activists and civil society organizations have impacts of trade policy, the effectiveness of Canada’s PTA questioned whether the PTA is genuinely progressive or and recommendations for improvement. While many agree merely window dressing for what continue to be pro-cor- that standalone gender chapters in trade agreements are porate trade deals. in theory a good thing, as they demonstrate, according to What is “progressive trade” anyway? New research by the the Conference Board of Canada’s Barbara MacLaren, “a CCPA and Carleton University, under the SSHRC-funded positive symbolic recognition of (or commitment to) gender Austerity and its Alternatives project, analyzes the “pro- equality,” they may be just that—symbolic. gressiveness” of Canada’s trade agenda by looking in more Based on the text of the Canada-Chile gender chapter, detail at its gender dimensions and gleaning insights from and statements from the Trudeau government around a interviews with government and civil society actors. In our NAFTA gender chapter (which suggest similarities between view, there are several different ways of thinking about a the two), the language of gender chapters—like other “pro- “progressive” trade agenda and what it would entail. Such gressive” chapters for labour and environment—tends to an agenda may, for example, emphasize one or more of the be weak and purely aspirational. Provisions are voluntary following four criteria: and lack effective enforcement mechanisms—the “teeth” required to realize the chapter’s stated goals. Aspira- Helping marginalized groups to participate in the ben- • tional commitment without enforcement “represents a efits of trade; fundamentally weak approach,” according to one labour • Ensuring formerly marginalized groups participate researcher we interviewed. meaningfully in trade policy-making and negotiations; The Canadian government recently announced that its updated trade agreement with Israel will include a gender Providing adjustment assistance and support to groups • chapter that will be subject to the dispute settlement pro- adversely impacted by trade and trade agreements; and/or cess, provided that both parties agree to take a matter to • Ensuring that trade agreements provide the policy dispute settlement. This would make the gender chapter flexibility to redress historic human rights abuses, enable the first of its kind. A Canadian government trade official affirmative action, include clear, enforceable anti-discrim- described this as “a huge step forward,” underlining the ination provisions, safeguard public services relied upon importance of willing trade partners. by women, and support alternative, more inclusive forms In addition to the need for enforceable provisions, ad- of economic development. vancing gender equity requires gender mainstreaming, or the adoption of a gender lens throughout an entire agree- So far, our research finds that while the Canadian ment or trade policy agenda. For example, the protection of government’s effort to incorporate a gender dimension public services such as not-for-profit child care, exempting into its trade policy under the PTA banner includes some preferential government procurement policies aimed at progressive elements, these are not always addressed women or minority-owned businesses or not-for-profits, meaningfully. Furthermore, some important features of and enforceable labour rights, including those for migrant a potentially progressive agenda are missing, an omission workers, would contribute to a gender-equitable trade pol- which may exacerbate the already-existing gendered icy. This idea must be supported by gender mainstreaming impacts of austerity policies and trade liberalization. throughout the Canadian government. According to one trade union representative we spoke to, the PTA is “a really great exercise in public relations, The PTA and gender but there seems to be nothing of substance behind it.... The Liberal government’s PTA calls for examination in The gender chapter especially aligns with the general global trade and trade agreements of gender equality, as positioning of the Trudeau government. They want to be well as issues like labour rights, the environment, Indige- seen as [Canada’s] first feminist government and are clear nous rights, small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)

38 on that. On trade, but also on many issues, their rhetoric relationship.” This would involve a shift away from the is much stronger than the follow-through.” current preoccupation with economic growth, resource In gender chapters, the main focus “is on supporting extraction and corporate rights, and toward trading re- a small group of women (i.e., women entrepreneurs and lationships and agreements that place human rights and business owners) to benefit from trade,” said Francesca economic, social and ecological justice at their foundation. Rhodes of Oxfam Canada. While this is important, it does not represent or benefit the majority of women, and does not reflect the fact the majority of vulnerable workers— What makes trade progressive? those performing unpaid, low-wage, precarious and care While the Trudeau government’s feminist approach has work—are women. Nor do gender chapters “ameliorate resulted in some innovative policies, the fact that this shift what we see as negative aspects of other elements of a is coming from above, and not as a result of pressure from trade agreement (e.g., ISDS, regulatory co-operation),” said or genuine consultation with Canadian feminist organiza- Angella MacEwen, economist with the Canadian Labour tions, undermines much of the progressive potential of a Congress. feminist approach to trade policy. The limited results, as Complementary laws and policies to promote gender demonstrated by the unenforceable gender chapter in the equity may include protecting existing public services, Canada-Chile agreement or the creation of the Canada-U.S. strengthening domestic social policy (including support women entrepreneurs’ council, reflect elitist liberal femi- for care work) and preserving future policy space (e.g., nist priorities and do not address the inequalities faced by for expanded pharmacare and child care). According to a most women in a globalizing political economy. Canadian trade official, the government considers “public First, regarding consultation, the current government interest”—such as the protection of the right to regulate, has done a far better job of meeting with women’s groups carve-outs for public services and health care—to be an and other civil society actors on trade policy matters than important, cross-cutting aspect of the Progressive Trade the previous Conservative government. However, the Agenda. customary secrecy of trade negotiations, including the A fundamental weakness of the government’s PTA is the confidentiality of negotiating texts, strictly limits how failure to undertake a gender impact assessment of existing informed and meaningful such consultations can be. or future trade agreements. Intersectional gender-based Secondly, regarding impact on marginalized groups, analysis throughout all stages of trade policy–making is there are reasons for concern. As feminist economist essential for understanding gendered impacts of trade Armine Yalnizyan has highlighted, most of the attention and advancing gender equity. In its announcement of in the NAFTA negotiations has been focused on traditional trade negotiations with the Mercosur bloc, the Canadian industries such as manufacturing and energy, where the government committed “to expanding…the impact assess- best jobs are disproportionately held by men. Less attention ment process to include, for example, labour and gender.” has been given to the service industries, which could be hit The availability of gender-based data will be essential to hard by any agreement to raise the limits on cross-border undertaking these assessments and improving trade policy. electronic shopping, worsening already precarious employ- Although the Trudeau government has arguably engaged ment relied upon disproportionately by youth and women. in more stakeholder consultations than its predecessor, It’s also not clear what, if any, consideration the govern- civil society actors have identified a lack of “meaningful ment has given to assisting groups adversely affected by consultation,” particularly with women’s organizations, new concessions in a NAFTA 2.0. This would be difficult due in part to a lack of transparency. This stands in contrast to do without serious efforts to analyze the impact of the to other negotiations, such as international climate talks, current NAFTA rules on women and other vulnerable in which civil society is engaged, permitted to see draft text groups, even before trying to estimate the impacts of a and able to present alternatives. renegotiated deal. There is little doubt that the focus of the women’s move- Finally, regarding policy flexibility, the Trudeau govern- ment on trade and gender issues has declined compared ment’s approach to safeguarding public services under to the movement’s high level of involvement during the trade treaties has not changed from previous govern- Canada-U.S. FTA and NAFTA negotiations of the late 1980s ments. Despite a strong mandate to fully exclude public and early 1990s. This is likely because, as MacEwen put it, services, negotiators continue to rely on the same flawed limited capacity is “common across government depart- reservations that have been widely criticized, including ments, labour and women’s organizations.” It can also be by the 2002 Romanow Commission into health care, as difficult to mobilize members, supporters or the broader providing only partial protection for new or expanded public around trade issues in general due to their complex public services. and seemingly abstract nature, according to another union A meaningful and truly progressive trade agenda re- researcher we interviewed. quires changes both in domestic policy related to trade and Echoing more critical theoretical perspectives, Unifor’s in trade treaties themselves. Otherwise the “progressive Angelo DiCaro called for “a fundamental rethinking or gender agenda” will not improve the lives of most women reforming of the global trading system.” Likewise, Rhodes and do little more than “pink-wash” a business-as-usual told us that “a truly progressive trade agenda would require approach. a rethinking of the fundamental objectives of a trading 39 HOWARD MANN nothing about it because the ability of courts to review arbitration awards is remarkably constrained under federal arbitration law. Her ruling opens the door for a final NAFTA Time’s up award on damages by the arbitration tribunal, claimed to be over $400 million by the company, for a quarry that for ISDS was never built.

here can be no more pretense that the investment DECISION BY JUSTICE Anne Mactavish in the Federal chapters of CETA or CPTPP are more environmentally Court of Canada this May should spell the end of the Tfriendly, or more protective of the right to regulate, than investment chapter in the North American Free Trade NAFTA or other prior treaties. This is because the language AAgreement (NAFTA), and ignite a renegotiation of sim- on fair and equitable treatment for investors in those two ilar chapters in the Canada–EU trade agreement (CETA) newer treaties is the same language used by the arbitration and the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for tribunal in Bilcon v. Canada to establish the scope of such Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP). treatment under NAFTA. That is to say, while the language Justice Mactavish was ruling on a federal claim for judi- in the text of the agreements themselves may differ, the cial review of an arbitration award against Canada under test to apply by arbitrators in NAFTA is precisely the same the controversial investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) as the text now in CETA. provisions in Chapter 11 of NAFTA. The legal question was Consequently, as Justice Mactavish stated in her ruling, relatively narrow: under what circumstances could the the CETA and CPTPP texts present the exact same risks Court overturn an arbitral award under NAFTA? as NAFTA does to public interest and environmental pro- The NAFTA arbitration, Bilcon v. Canada, arose after a pro- tection decisions. The new agreements therefore broaden posed quarry in Nova Scotia was rejected by the provincial those risks exponentially by extending this protection to and federal governments on the basis of a recommendation European and Asian investors in Canada, who will be able by a joint environmental assessment panel. The joint panel to challenge via ISDS new and existing laws affecting their had found the U.S. company’s proposal would create harm investments. Sadly, both the Conservative and Liberal that was simply beyond mitigation and should therefore governments knew of this risk before finalizing the EU be rejected. Federal and provincial ministers agreed and and Asia-Pacific deals. The Bilcon arbitration decision was nixed the quarry. Bilcon, which is based in Delaware, took out long before the ink on CETA and CPTPP was dry. The this decision to the NAFTA ISDS process instead of the fact the same language appeared in the Bilcon decision Canadian court system. They won their claim in 2015 on the and in the CETA investment chapter text was noted by basis that the decision was arbitrary and discriminatory government lawyers and negotiators, who simply refused and contrary to NAFTA’s requirement to provide fair and to make the necessary changes. equitable treatment to potential foreign investors. The There is not even a fig leaf left now to argue that the majority decision ruled, along the way, that the approach investment chapters in CETA or CPTPP are better for of the joint review panel was in breach of Canadian law, a environmental protection and the right to regulate than key part in their reasoning. NAFTA. Linguistic sophistry in post-negotiation state- It is widely acknowledged that the arbitration decision ments extolling the values and virtues of the agreements raised serious concerns—so serious that the decidedly does not override what those agreements actually say. environmentally unfriendly Harper government took After the Mactavish ruling, it’s time to get serious about the unusual step of asking the Federal Court of Canada ISDS. With NAFTA renegotiations still underway (as the to review it. The most critical element was the ISDS panel’s Monitor went to print), Canada can simply support the interpretation of fair and equitable treatment (in NAFTA U.S. proposal to take ISDS out of the agreement, which Article 1105). The result of the interpretation was seen as would stop the risks to Canadians. For CETA and CPTPP, turning back environmental law by decades, according to there are opportunities still to reopen negotiations before the dissenting voice on the panel, Donald McRae, one of the texts are ratified by all parties and enter into force. the world’s most respected arbitrators. Judge Mactavish The “investment court system” proposed in CETA does not put her concerns as follows: change this need: as discussed here, the language of the text (defining fair and equitable treatment, for example) I accept that the majority’s Award raises significant policy is the problem. concerns. These include its effect on the ability of NAFTA Canada continues to call for progressive trade and Parties to regulate environmental matters within their ju- investment agreements. The time is ripe to act in relation risdiction, the ability of NAFTA tribunals to properly assess to NAFTA, CETA, CPTPP and other ongoing negotiations. whether foreign investors have been treated fairly under The Federal Court of Canada has, if nothing else, driven domestic environmental assessment processes, and the home that point. potential “chill” in the environmental assessment process THIS ARTICLE ORIGINALLY APPEARED ON THE INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR that could result from the majority’s decision. SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT BLOG AND IS REPRINTED HERE WITH PERMISSION. This is an extraordinary assessment for a Federal Court judge to make. Justice Mactavish then said she can do 40 GERARD DI TROLIO its head in Argentina, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Africa, to name but a few countries. But China is not at the centre of every trade dispute Trump’s involving steel. New Zealand complains that Malaysia is dumping the metal onto its market, while Malaysia tariff trap complains that Taiwan is doing the same. The problem is clearly a product of instability in the current global eco- nomic order, one that is further complicated by the World ONALD TRUMP’S UNEXPECTED victory in the 2016 presi- Trade Organization’s inability to settle a proliferation of dential election created a paradox for labour and other steel-related disputes. We need a heterodox solution, so progressive movements. Here was a rather extreme where to look? Dright-wing politician who nonetheless opposed the North American labour unions see some hope in NAFTA corporate free trade deals Republicans love and the left has 2.0. They are calling on their governments to use the re- always opposed. The confusion lives on in debates about negotiation to increase wages and improve labour laws in Trump’s steel tariffs and efforts to renegotiate NAFTA. Mexico, safeguard “buy local” procurement policies and Earlier this year, the Trump administration announced protect Canada’s pro-worker supply management systems it would be applying high tariffs on imported steel and for dairy, poultry and eggs. At one point, the Canadian aluminum. Initially, when the tariffs appeared to apply government, backed by Unifor and other Canadian unions, only to China (most other countries, including Canada, appeared to be asking the Trump administration to ban were given temporary exemptions), several U.S. unions right-to-work laws that make it harder to unionize and supported them. Now that the Trump exemptions have easier to decertify unions in many U.S. states. been revoked for Canada, Mexico and the European Union, Making such demands on governments is essential. Their labour support for the policy is in doubt. There are two willingness, at least in North America, to entertain alterna- good reasons why it should never have been offered. tives to the status quo trade vision is a sign of how serious First, many of the countries exempted from the tariffs policy-makers are taking the current crisis in globalization. (e.g., Argentina, South Korea) have weaker worker protec- But while it may be expedient to focus on the opportunities tions and safety and environmental standards than the presented in one localized trade negotiation (NAFTA), U.S., so why pick on China? Furthermore, China accounted labour and other progressive organizations should still for only 2.9% of U.S. steel imports in 2017 while South Korea be striving for transnational co-operation to reform the supplied 9.7%. We must also acknowledge that global com- broader economic order. petition is not the only reason for the loss of steel jobs in That does not mean totally abandoning (or fully em- the U.S. Productivity per hour in the steel industry grew bracing) things like tariffs. An equitable global economic fivefold from the early 1980s to 2016, meaning fewer workers order should allow for tailored development models on are needed wherever the metal is made. a country-by-country basis. Economist Ha-Joon Chang Second, embracing Trump’s tariffs, and perhaps by makes a compelling case that tariffs and state intervention, extension his erratic foreign policy, will have a corrosive not laissez-faire doctrine, were the critical ingredients in effect on international solidarity. Canadian and European Western countries’ industrialization. These tools should labour unions denounced the tariffs. And as the unofficial still be available to countries in the Global South so that labour movement in China continues to grow and win they, too, can develop nascent industries—even if it means strikes, anti-Chinese rhetoric may get in the way of building shutting out foreign competition entirely. worker-to-worker bridges across the Pacific. Economically and politically, though, tariffs may not That China is dumping steel on the world market is make sense here in North America. For one thing, Trump’s beyond dispute. Over the last few years, the Chinese central aluminum and steel tariffs are unlikely, in the absence of an government has pledged it will deal with domestic steel overall industrial strategy or international co-ordination overcapacity, for example by lowering production by 150 to curb overcapacity, to create or protect enough decent million metric tonnes by 2020. But progress has been slow, American jobs. More worryingly for the left, backing the leading to accusations these efforts are not genuine. U.S. president risks appearing to endorse his racist and The reality is more complex. A 2016 study from Duke Uni- xenophobic agenda. This will only hamper the albeit dif- versity noted that Chinese provincial officials, especially in ficult task of uniting national labour movements behind the country’s interior where steel is one of the few major a common demand for a global economy that is equitable industries, are resisting efforts to curb overproduction. For for workers on every continent. example, some provinces are demolishing obsolete factories then claiming to have complied with central government orders, without having any effect on capacity. At the same time, according to the study, major Chinese state-owned Anti-Chinese rhetoric steel companies, like Hesteel and Shougang, have pledged may get in the way of to invest in new steel mills in Africa and Southeast Asia, which may worsen the glut. Lest we think that Chinese building worker-to-worker steel dumping is only a U.S. concern, the issue has reared bridges. 41 Feature

MARTIN ADELAAR, ROGER PETERS AND GEOFF STILES All power to the community Regaining public and community control of our electricity system

OVERNMENTS TRIGGER STRUCTURAL Aside from public utility–owned large But close examination of those issues when applying liberal hydro facilities, the majority of dis- participating in this initiative reveals market concepts to our electric tributed renewable energy capacity that municipalities, as well as co-op- Gpower systems benefitting a few is privately owned and operated, a eratives and other local stakeholders, and hurting the majority as manifest- situation largely created by regressive are excluded from the independent ed by increased corporate ownership provincial government policies that IESO Market Renewal Working Group. and increased energy poverty. Howev- favour large corporate investment in Meanwhile, the IESO has established a er, in the Canadian context, it would the electricity sector. “CEO Roundtable” to “create alignment be wrong to conclude that the growth In this ownership model, provincial at the executive level,” but it also does of renewable energy is somehow a key intervention is designed to grease the not include representation from the driver of such outcomes when instead wheels (i.e., de-risk) the marketplace so co-operative and communitybased it offers us a platform for taking back that private entities can develop and sectors. our economy. operate utility-scale wind and solar This de-risking model has considera- In Canada and globally we are in projects. Consequently, 87% of new ble agency among economic and policy the early days of a technological rev- renewable power capacity in Ontario elites. Earlier this year, it was endorsed olution whereby services previously has been captured by the private sec- in a report by the Ottawa-based Smart dependent on fossil fuels are being tor, including large, often foreign-based Prosperity Institute, a think-tank that increasingly electrified. Renewable companies, frequently over the objec- argues “the primary engines to drive electricity is already cost competitive tions of local municipalities. clean innovation across the Canadian with other forms of supply and its Sadly, the NDP government in economy are private investment and growth potential is enormous. Even- Alberta is making the same mistake. initiative.” Because of “the array of tually, distributed renewable sources Their Renewable Electricity Program market barriers facing clean inno- such as wind, solar and smaller-scale recently selected three bids amount- vators,” the Smart Prosperity report hydro will become the most common ing to about $1 billion of private sector says, “governments can de-risk and forms of electricity supply in a pre- investment in four large-scale projects. catalyze the large amounts of private dominately decentralized smart grid. While demonstrating that renewables investment needed to grow these Currently, renewable energy pro- are price competitive with fossil fuel– inventions into market successes.” vides about 18% of Canada’s primary based electricity, the Alberta process Unfortunately, this approach leaves energy supply, which is dominated by has marginalized community-based little room for alternative economic large hydro (about 67% of the total). developers. models that encourage participation Distributed renewable sources of wind To reverse this trend toward privat- by co-operatives, communities (e.g., and solar power currently represent ization, we need to move away from municipalities) and First Nations in nearly 6% of the renewable supply. the current model so that priority can the renewables market. However, wind and solar electricity’s be given to renewable power capacity share of the primary energy mix has that is owned and controlled publicly e must caution that a return been growing significantly. At over by community-based enterprises. In- to the old, publicly owned but 12,000 megawatts, Canada’s wind ca- deed, without radical policy changes, Wcentralized model would also pacity alone represents about 6% of the prevailing ownership model will be counterproductive, as it never total electricity supply and it has been be tough to dislodge. really fostered community-based growing at a rate of 15% a year since For example, under the auspices of ownership and control. Aside from 2009. By 2016, Canada’s solar capacity the Independent Electricity System occasional consultations and oppor- was 2,310 megawatts, almost all of it Operator (IESO), Ontario has begun tunities to act as interveners in utility in Ontario. a “market renewal” initiative to “lay regulatory proceedings, municipalities Unfortunately, to now, the renew- the foundation for a more dynamic and citizens really have no standing able energy technical revolution is market place in the future, leading to when it comes to controlling their not being accompanied by a similar lower costs for consumers and new op- electricity system. Although many revolution in economic democracy. portunities for market participants.” Ontario utilities are municipally 42 owned, the returns on shareholder equity typically go into general revenue, where the prospect of surpluses being used to enhance democratic forms of energy ownership and investment is subject to the vagaries of local politics. So, what would a more democratic energy system look like and what policies would we need? First, we must urgently consider co-operative and com- munity-based enterprises as the most viable and effective model for the renewable energy sector. In the words of Charlie Angus, NDP MP for Timmins–James Bay in North- ern Ontario, co-operatives and community enterprises “meet community needs locally, to build prosperous and equitable communities, and lay the foundations of a more democratic economy.” Indeed, more than 10 million Canadians are already members of co-operatives and credit unions. In renewa- ble energy co-operatives across the country, such as the Ottawa Renewable Energy Co-operative (OREC), Solar Share in Toronto and the SES Solar Co-op in Saskatoon, members purchase securities and reap an annual return on The Tiny House Warriors install solar panels on one of investment in addition to full repayment of capital. They 10 homes built last year along the route of the proposed are proof that citizens will invest millions of dollars of their Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. “community savings” in local renewable energy projects if GREENPEACE CANADA there is a sound business case. By mid-2016, 24 Ontario renewable co-operatives com- prising 7,000 members had successfully raised over $100 the approach recently proposed by the CCPA (see article million leading to 75 MW of installed or planned renew- by Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood in this issue). able electricity (solar and wind) projects. There are also Step 2 is to ensure that utilities are not only brought into significant local economic development benefits. OREC’s full public ownership but to reform their ownership and 2017 Community Impact Report stated that its investment management structure so that they function democratical- of $7 million resulted in $2.5 million worth in local jobs, ly and are accountable to the communities in which they $35,000 in other local economic activity, and $60,000 in operate. This reform must extend to a more central role lease payments to local schools and other community for community-based democratic enterprises to plan local facilities. grid development and regulate its evolution and operation Other models can also play a role in the renewable energy in a renewable future. marketplace, including community economic development Finally, Step 3 is to ensure that renewable energy investment funds, and First Nations and labour pension co-operatives, First Nations and other democratic energy funds. Together, these investment sources can be used so ownership models gain predominance to sell power from that communities can reap the huge local economic devel- renewable sources directly to customers through net opment and job opportunities inherent in the transition metering. These entities should be empowered to invest to decentralized, distributed power. in and own renewable non-electric supply (e.g., renewable Step one is to put the brakes on much of what is passed fuels), as well as energy efficiency projects. off as electricity market renewal. We need time to consider a In its recent report to the federal government, the broad range of policies, regulation and approaches, drawing Smart Prosperity Institute quotes World Economic Forum from other jurisdictions where appropriate. Germany and founder Klaus Schwab, who referred to technological in- Denmark vigorously supported community-owned power novation’s potential “to lift humanity into a new collective in the early days of their renewable market reforms, and consciousness based on a shared sense of destiny.” This is government investment strategies in Scotland and Greece nonsense. If technology had such magical qualitites we favour local investment. We can look also to several U.S, would already be living the utopian dream. states that have passed “community solar” legislation The reality is that Schwab and his peers see the clean enabling businesses and residents to invest in and own energy revolution as a new market opportunity, not as solar capacity in their community, reaping the benefits of a platform for social change. Unless we act soon to take fixed price power. back our economy, starting with our electricity system, that Closer to home, we can consider new business models self-interested vision may become the only one on offer. for community investment (e.g., tax credits) such as Nova Scotia’s Community Economic Development and Invest- ment Fund (CEDIF). Finally, we must also ensure that “just transition” policies are in place to help workers who may be negatively affected by the shift to a renewable grid, like 43 International

ASAD ISMI Maduro wins another Labour delegation observes fair, secure election in contrast to Canadian claims of fraud

ENEZUELAN PRESIDENT Nicolás Ottawa started sanctioning Venezue- “The Venezuelan electoral process Maduro was re-elected for a la in September 2017 in co-ordination produced a fair election,” says Wayne second six-year term in nation- with the Trump administration, im- Milliner, equity officer with the Val elections held on May 20. As posing an “asset freeze” on the country Ontario Secondary School Teachers the candidate of the United Socialist and “dealings prohibitions” on targeted Federation (OSSTF), who was part Party of Venezuela (PSUV), Maduro officials. Forty Venezuelan officials of the delegation. “This process is got 67.8% of the vote, while his clos- have had their assets in Canada impressive as overseen by the Na- est rival, the right-wing Henri Falcón, frozen. Canada has also funded the tional Electoral Council (CNE) and received 21%. The opposition was di- Venezuelan opposition and expelled demonstrates organization, access to vided and some parties boycotted the the country’s diplomats from Ottawa. information for voters, security, iden- poll, which may have been a factor in Canadians who visited Venezuela tification authentication, automation the relatively low voter turnout (for to observe the election as part of a and oversight. Venezuela) of 46.1%. labour union delegation, however, do “We also had the opportunity to However, in lockstep with U.S. policy, not agree with their government’s witness the process after the polls the Canadian government denounced policy. closed and how the electronic vote the election results as “fraudulent, count is double-checked against the illegitimate and anti-democratic.” paper ballots in 54% of all polls. Our Following the vote, the Department [Canada’s] election processes are far of Global Affairs imposed further Re-elected Venezuelan less sophisticated and we could learn economic sanctions on the Maduro President Nicolás Maduro holds a lot from the CNE.” government, including against 14 a copy of the constitution while Raul Burbano, program director Venezuelan officials Canada claims to addressing the National Constituent of Common Frontiers, a coalition of be responsible for “the deterioration of Assembly on May 24. Canadian labour unions and non-gov- democracy in Venezuela.” REUTERS/MARCO BELLO ernmental organizations, was part 44 of the same observer delegation. He Venezuela. On May 21, the Lima Group and Canada’s sanctions to the alleged- agrees with Milliner, telling me the issued a statement condemning the ly deteriorating political and economic Venezuelan electoral system is “100% Venezuelan election, discouraging crisis in the country, claiming in auditable at every stage, including the financial institutions from doing October, “This is our neighbourhood. electoral register, the software and business with the Maduro govern- This is our hemisphere. Canadians the voting books.” The whole process ment, downgrading their diplomatic feel strongly about human rights for is presided over by international ob- relations and announcing the creation people in other countries.” servers and representatives of each of a high-level meeting of regional Yet this concern for human rights participating political party, he adds. immigration officials to discuss the and democratic procedures does not Burbano also contrasts the real numbers of Venezuelan refugees seem to extend to the people of other choice he says Venezuelans have at leaving the country. According to Lima Group member countries with the polls and the one voters have the UNHCR, there has been a 2,000% pitiful records in these respects. in most Western democracies. “In increase in global asylum applications Honduras, where Canada backed a Venezuela there is a plurality of by Venezuelans since 2014. military coup in 2009, subsequently political voices and political parties” Yet, according to Alfred M. Zayas, suffered under a repressive regime he says. “Maduro represents a real the UN independent expert on the that killed hundreds of environmen- socialist alternative—the Bolivarian promotion of a democratic and equi- tal activists, human rights defenders Revolution—which has won presi- table international order who visited and journalists. In November 2017, the dential elections since 1999 and given Venezuela in an official capacity in regime retained power through an the people free medical care, free December 2017, it is wrong to define election recognized as fraudulent by education, land reform, subsidized the situation in the country as a “hu- independent observers but legitimate accommodation and food, as well manitarian crisis.” He told Venezuela by Canada and the U.S. genuine participatory democracy.” Analysis in December that while there Nor is Freeland protesting the are shortages of some products, in- governments of Brazil and Paraguay, aduro’s victory is even more cluding food products, “the population which gained power through leg- significant, for Burbano, “because does not suffer from hunger as for islative coups this year. Or that of Meven with the difficult economic example in many countries of Africa Mexico, which stifles labour rights situation in Venezuela, caused in and Asia—or even in the favelas of São and is substantially responsible for large part by the economic embargo Paolo and other urban areas in Brazil a devastating human rights crisis [enforced by the U.S. and Canada] and and other Latin American countries.” involving 180,000 homicides and sabotage by the Venezuelan business Milliner drew similar conclusions to 33,000 disappeared people over the elite, the majority of Venezuelans still Zayas during the delegation to observe last decade. voted for him. This tells you that the the Venezuelan election. “As a Canadian of Latin American Bolivarian movement continues to “As a first-time visitor to Venezuela, origin, I am ashamed of the Justin be the dominant political force in the I expected some of the stories and Trudeau government’s Latin Amer- country. It signals that Venezuelans coverage expressed by the Canadian ican policy,” says Maria Paez Victor, want to stay the course and continue and American media reflected in what a Canadian-Venezuelan sociologist down the road of alternatives to the I saw,” he tells me. “Nothing could be and director of the Canadian, Latin corporate neoliberal model.” further from the truth. I travelled American and Caribbean Policy Cen- Milliner adds that Venezuela is throughout the greater Caracas area tre (CALC). “This is a colonial attitude a “post-capitalist system trying to and saw middle class and poor neigh- of domination towards Venezuela and survive in a world that does not want bourhoods. I saw active construction Latin America.” a successful progressive example to sites, stores full of produce, fish and Freeland’s “sadly passé, Cold War exist.” This includes the Canadian meat shops, drug stores with shelves mentality and anti-socialist ideology, government, whose hostility toward of merchandise, cars on the road and has thrown Canada into the U.S. Maduro is motivated by the desire to people going to and from work. I saw adventures of regime change,” says win favour with Washington, which people living their lives as you would Paez Victor, who points out that wants to militarily overthrow Maduro. almost anywhere. while accusing Maduro of being an- Canada also wants to maintain the “During the entire trip we encoun- ti-democratic, Freeland has refused neoliberal economic model in Latin tered one person at a stop light asking to let Venezuelan citizens residing in America, especially for the benefit of its for money, something I encounter five Canada vote in their elections. mining companies, which always saw times every day getting to work in “With duplicity and cynicism, the rise of progressive governments Toronto,” he adds. “This trip reinforced Canada disallowed the Venezuelan since 1999 (the “Pink Tide”) as a threat. that you should never judge a country authorities in Canada to have election Canada currently leads a bloc of or its people by the media.” stations, alleging they were ‘protect- 12 mostly Latin American countries ing’ Venezuelan democracy!” she called the Lima Group that is op- anadian Foreign Affairs Minister says. “George Orwell himself would posed to progressive social change Chrystia Freeland has linked her be astonished at this hypocrisy.” in the Americas, but especially in Caggressive anti-Maduro rhetoric 45 Books

REVIEWED BY AMY HALL Chronicles of repression and resistance

WHEN THEY CALL YOU A TERRORIST: dominant themes throughout Khan- Why was she often left without a A BLACK LIVES MATTER MEMOIR Cullors’s life story. The impacts on her father or one of her brothers while PATRISSE KHAN-CULLORS and her loved ones are heartbreaking: growing up? Why was she shocked AND ASHA BANDELE her ex-army father, repeatedly impris- when her white school friend’s dad oned while struggling to move past his (who was also her family’s slum St. Martin’s Press (January 2018), $32.50 addictions; her older brother, battling landlord) asked her what she wanted severe mental illness, encountering to do for a career when she grew up? T WHAT POINT do you become a ter- nothing but violence and degradation Why did she and fellow members of rorist? Is it when, as a Black man as he moved in and out of prison; her her queer community face so much going through a mental health mother, holding down several jobs stigma, and often end up dropping out crisis, you get into a minor road while raising children and grandchil- of school, leaving home or both? Why accident with a white woman? dren on a shoestring. were her family and Black community AIs it when you’re sleeping in bed and Khan-Cullors herself was first overwhelmingly more likely to live in the next thing you know you are being arrested—taken from school by the poverty, poor housing, have bad health dragged out by armed police because police—when she was 12 years old. or be unemployed compared to the you “fit the description” of someone She and bandele skilfully describe at middle class, white community just who has committed a robbery? Or is more than one point in the book the next door? it when you organize with your com- confusing complexities of childhood The U.S. state has waged war on munity and inspire a global movement emotions, including the overwhelming Black people since it began forcibly for Black liberation? guilt (is it my fault?) when something removing them from Africa and As Patrisse Khan-Cullors and asha goes wrong. Importantly, the book making them slaves on land stolen bandele explore in their “Black Lives never separates the “domestic” from from Indigenous peoples. This war Matter Memoir,”When They Call You the political and economic. It is pep- on working class people of colour a Terrorist, in the eyes of the U.S. state pered with historical references that continues to this day, through their it could be any one of these moments. place the story in context, and Khan- criminalization from childhood and The prison-industrial complex, Cullors’s relationships are discussed mass incarceration. It keeps people and its friend the war on drugs, are on both personal and political levels. in poverty and in underresourced but overpoliced communities. Racism has been the tool by which those with power have justified these conditions. Criminals and the lazy do not deserve to be free. The writers play with time a lot throughout the book. While it is al- ways written in the present, the order in which events take place is not linear. At times this can be difficult to follow, but it reflects how we remember our lives and how these past experiences impact on our present. When They Call You a Terrorist doesn’t go in depth into the inner workings of the Black Lives Matter

Khan-Cullors speaking in Tottenham, North London in January 2015 STEVE EASON 46 network, but it is an important read REVIEWED BY MARC LEE for anyone who wants to understand one of the perspectives that helped give birth to the movement. For those How bad could it get? of us who didn’t grow up working class and Black in the U.S., it’s a sharp reality Let’s not find out. check. Khan-Cullors’s and bandele’s account is also reflective, exploring how the organizers have learned from mistakes along the way. Thrust into challenging situations Worst-Case Economics steps into since she was a young child, forced to this fray with a refreshing look at fight for justice and recognition from the state of the discipline and how the people she loves, Khan-Cullors has, its standard toolkit leaves us poorly along with other Black Lives Matter equipped to address crises, whether of co-founders and organizers, taken the climate or financial variety. Over that fight to the global stage. Alicia the years, I have greatly admired Frank Garza, Opal Tometi, Khan-Cullors and Ackerman’s work on cost-benefit hundreds of others have built Black analysis, the social cost of carbon and Lives Matter into over 40 chapters in the economics of climate change. This the U.S. and inspired groups across the book compiles much of that analysis world. In Canada, Black Lives Matter under one cover, but goes beyond it by Toronto shut down the Pride Parade WORST-CASE ECONOMICS: critically examining how economists in 2016 and has continued to fight for EXTREME EVENTS IN CLIMATE think (or don’t think) about extreme victims of police violence and the AND FINANCE events. rights of migrants. FRANK ACKERMAN Ackerman shines when dissecting Black Lives Matter built on the work Anthem Press (October 2017), $62.96 the core assumptions of neoclassical of generations of civil rights activists economics, the dominant academic to expose the racism ingrained in U.S. form of the discipline. His critique society. Legal equality was not enough ONG AGO, ECONOMICS was termed begins with 19th century economic to ensure that Black people had the “the dismal science,” but in re- models emulating classical physics same freedom and opportunity as cent years that title has arguably and the concept of equilibrium. But white people. Vitally, the network has been passed on to climate science, while physics moved on in the 20th also worked to keep Black, queer and with its regular and dire warnings century, economics did not. So we female voices at the forefront of its Labout the future. are left with theoretical models movement for change. Faced with the certainty of rapid that require an array of simplifying As the title of this book shows, the global warming and ecological disrup- assumptions that abstract away from white establishment clearly sees the tion, governments have been slow to the nature of real-world economic movement as a threat. Activists in respond. The 2015 Paris Agreement problems. the U.S. have been labelled as “black offers some hope, as does the small In the simplified neoclassical view identity extremists” by the FBI and but growing share of renewable of the economy humans are assumed are often branded as terrorists by the technologies in the energy mix. But, by to be rational, self-interested maxi- right. Undercover officers have infil- and large, we are not doing enough to mizers of personal benefit who are trated groups of Black Lives Matter keep global temperatures from rising unswayed by advertising, fashion or activists, gaining access to their text more than 1.5 to 2 degrees Celsius the behaviour of their peers. In this messages. Khan-Cullors, Garza and above pre-industrial levels—the limit universe there is no market power, Tometi were sued by a right-winger we have to meet to avoid the worst of insider information or external costs who claimed they instigated riots. climate change. imposed on third parties (like carbon The election of Donald Trump, Is inertia on the climate challenge emissions). which is touched on near the end of related to our inability to imagine the To be fair, each of these limitations the book, presents new challenges that consequences of inaction? Life is lived has been explored in the economics Black Lives Matter seems determined in the immediate whereas climate literature, but usually only as one-offs to take on. Ultimately this is a story change is a slow burn with unclear while other standard assumptions are of survival and the determination spatial and temporal repercussions. upheld. Ackerman points out that it to thrive, throwing love and mutual We understand that tipping points is precisely these deviations from the support in the face of a state that has with irreversible consequences lie model—bounded rationality, suscep- shown neither. ahead, but do not really know at what tibility to social pressures, imperfect point those critical thresholds will be markets—that are central to under- crossed. standing financial or climate crises. 47 That said, Ackerman may be putting “There is no fixed (i.e., the standard bell curve). The same too much blame on economics and not non-linear relationship is likely for cli- enough on the failure of politics to formula for good mate extremes, meaning our standard implement adequate climate policies. policy decisions practices greatly understate the likeli- Climate change is a collective action hood of extreme events. Such extreme problem that requires governments to about the greatest weather events are already becoming step in. This fundamentally conflicts risk, no calculation our new normal: heavy precipitation with conservative values and the free events that overwhelm storm sewers; market worldview of the right. that leads heat waves causing premature death; One area where economists have automatically to extreme dry conditions fueling forest had a disproportionate effect on the fires, etc. public climate conversation is around the right answer.” Insurance is central to any response carbon taxes. The economics of pricing to this new normal. Ackerman notes carbon go back to Arthur Pigou who, that people are risk averse and there- observing the many smokestacks of fore willing to pay for a proposition England in the 1920s, came up with that is likely to lose them money on the idea that there are external costs Standard cost-benefit analysis is average in order to guard against a imposed onto third parties from cer- particularly ill-suited for addressing truly catastrophic outcome. It would tain market transactions. In the case extreme risks in Ackerman’s view. be interesting to scale this thinking of emissions the fix is to “internalize Even under ideal circumstances, globally to events too large for private the externality” through a price on attempting to put a dollar value insurance companies to handle, such carbon. on human life or suffering is a task as regional crop failures or disasters Ackerman comments that “‘getting fraught with difficulty. For finance that displace millions of people. the prices right’ is an incomplete re- and climate, cost-benefit analysis has We should also be modelling sce- sponse to climate change and other limited utility because it looks at po- narios to help us make decisions. But complex environmental problems.” tential outcomes in terms of averages when all we can know is what the We don’t actually know when cer- and does not consider low-probability worst-case scenario might look like, tain tipping points will be reached, events with catastrophic implications. the precautionary principle should and poorly understand the value of It is one thing to assess risk when guide our decision-making. Ackerman expected damages. We can develop dealing with well-defined problems invokes the wartime mobilization as a estimates from models but they are with an accumulated evidence base model for rapidly dealing with climate riddled with uncertainties about the from past events; quite another when change. future. At one extreme, the “dismal uncertainties abound and climate The book’s links to our growing theorem” proves the value of carbon change itself affects the probabilities understanding of financial crises reductions to be literally infinite if we and magnitudes of damages. provide much interesting fodder. But accept worst-case scenarios that de- In place of neoclassical approaches, the analogy is imperfect. Economic stroy the sources of human well-being Ackerman shows that financial crises thinking based on periodic financial or that undermine the ability of the are far more common than would be crashes does not ultimately translate human race to survive. expected from a “normal” distribution well into the climate discussion, with its irreversible and catastrophic tipping points such as changes in the Earth’s ocean circulation system, the collapse of the Amazon rainforest or the loss of Greenland’s ice sheet. “There is no fixed formula for good policy decisions about the great- est risk, no calculation that leads automatically to the right answer,” concludes Ackerman. “Politics, ethics, and judgment inevitably enter the decision-making process, along with science and economics.” In other words, just get on with it. The future is at stake and we can, and must, do better.

Flooding in Jakarta in February 2017. KOMPAS/HENDRA A SETYAWAN (HAS) 48 REVIEWED BY FRANK BAYERL about a future for humanity beyond to even a relatively nearby exoplanet our home planet. suitable for colonization, and which Despite its freezing temperatures, are already transforming society on Space junky carbon dioxide atmosphere and Earth. much lower surface pressure than Digital immortality, for example, Earth, Kaku sees Mars as a realistic would involve transferring the con- “terraforming” goal for humans. Ice tents of our brains to transistors or under the soil could be extracted and their equivalent in future computers. melted for drinking water and oxygen. “If our mind can be digitized, then is Underground shelters could be built the soul just information?” Kaku asks, for protection from radiation and the noting that if your mind is uploaded fierce cold. It would cost a fortune, into a computer, you will spend eter- but the author optimistically sees a nity trapped in a machine. Viewers of permanent base on Mars as possible the British sci-fi television seriesBlack by 2050. Mirror have been exposed to several Beyond the red planet, some of the terrifying, though darkly hilarious, moons of Jupiter and Saturn seem to visions of how this might work in THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY: offer conditions conducive to human practice. TERRAFORMING MARS, exploration, if not habitation. Jupiter’s If we are to travel the universe in INTERSTELLAR TRAVEL, moon Europa is covered with ice that search of new worlds to inhabit, we IMMORTALITY, AND OUR DESTINY likely hides an ocean of liquid water also have to be prepared to meet other BEYOND EARTH below it, and Titan, Saturn’s largest forms of intelligent life or robots, MICHIO KAKU moon, has a thick atmosphere mostly which are better adapted to space Doubleday (February 2018), $39.95 of nitrogen, and lakes of ethane and exploration than biological beings. methane, which could be turned into The possibility of the existence of an inexhaustible supply of energy. more advanced civilizations raises far F YOU ARE feeling somewhat over- The next leap beyond our solar more questions than we can answer in whelmed this summer by fears of a system, to planets orbiting other stars, our present state of knowledge, says global trade war, an interprovincial or exoplanets, would be an order of Kaku, who leaves that conversation to war of words over a proposed pipe- magnitude larger. The sheer distances the realm of speculation. line, or any of the myriad threats involved—the nearest star is more He is less concerned, it seems, Ito our survival as a species, you may than four light years away—would re- about speculating on the more find at least temporary refuge in outer quire new means of propulsion. Kaku problematic and politically fraught space. discusses such exotic technologies as notion of civilizational advancement. The sweeping title of Michio Kaku’s laser sails, light sails, ion or plasma For Kaku, humanity is transitioning new work, The Future of Humanity, engines and even antimatter rockets, from what he calls a Type 0 to a Type fairly captures the volume’s contents, all of which are currently unproven. I civilization, i.e., we are just emerging which range from the relatively mod- These technological thought experi- from sectarianism, dictatorship and est and foreseeable (journeys to Mars) ments sometimes give the impression religious strife, and advancing toward to such wildly speculative, far-future that Kaku is detached from our present a planetary culture based on science goals as colonizing planets in other mundane reality. But, in a similar vein and prosperity. One wonders, at this solar systems, modifying ourselves to Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus: A point, if he reads the news at all. For biologically to adapt to life in space, Brief History of Tomorrow, the scien- Kaku, the success of his transition is and digitizing our brains to ensure we tist also devotes considerable space threatened mainly by global warming make it alive to distant stars and even to ethical questions surrounding the and bioterrorism. other galaxies. role of artificial intelligence, human If Kaku glosses over history and Kaku, a renowned theoretical bioengineering and the search for dig- avoids political economy and class physicist and founder of string field ital immortality—technologies that conflict, he excels when it comes to theory, begins by listing some of the would be required, he says, for travel clearly explaining difficult concepts existential threats that humanity like faster-than-light travel, worm- faces just from our natural environ- holes, dark matter, string theory and ment: the inevitability of another multiple universes. In this way, he is ice age some thousands of years off; Kaku excels much like that other great pop-scien- the ever-present possibility of a cat- tist, the late Stephen Hawking, who astrophic meteor or comet impact; when it comes to Kaku quotes optimistically in the and the certainty that our sun will, in clearly explaining conclusion of The Future of Humanity: some five billion years, expand into a “If we can avoid disaster for the next red giant and engulf the Earth. It only difficult scientific two centuries, our species should be makes sense, proposes Kaku, to think concepts. safe, as we spread into space.” 49 Books

REVIEWED BY PAULA MALLEA Double jeopardy Two very different books expose the structural failures of Canada’s penal system

TAKING THE RAP: WOMEN DOING to evacuate the site. Hansen’s group respect, be able to defend yourself, TIME FOR SOCIETY’S CRIMES also failed to predict that police radios do not establish an attachment to ANN HANSEN might set off the bomb, which they anything because everything can be did 10 minutes early. As one of the 10 taken away—even your life. Between the Lines (May 2018), $29.95 people injured in the blast said, it was Her description of prison life reso- a “brainless” scheme. nates, as do her accounts of managing AFTER PRISON: NAVIGATING Hansen continued with her version life on the outside. She is gradually EMPLOYMENT AND REINTEGRATIONS of political action after she and the released and goes to work making ROSE RICCIARDELLI other Squamish Five members were cabinets. She establishes a degree of AND ADRIENNE M. F. PETERS (EDITORS) arrested. She threw tomatos at her stability, but is revoked twice for minor Wilfrid Laurier University Press (December 2017), $31.99 sentencing judge, and one of her first infractions. These two occasions of acts in prison was to overthrow the being returned to prison have a seri- lunch cart to protest a perceived injus- ous effect on her psychologically. She T FIRST GLANCE, Ann Hansen’s tice to another inmate. The response becomes paranoid and afraid, believing new memoir Taking the Rap and by the institution was to deliver lunch all the prisoners are talking about her. the more scholarly compilation to no one that day. Lesson learned. Her For years after she is released from After Prison by Rose Ricciardel- politics and activism would cut no ice both revocations, Hansen becomes li and Adrienne Peters do not in the penitentiary. reclusive, feeling that she has some Ahave much in common other than a Hansen is at her best when de- form of post-traumatic stress disorder shared locale. But read together, they scribing life in the former Prison for (PTSD). She also develops a heroin do enhance our understanding of how Women in Kingston. The book is a habit as a way of compensating. Canada’s prison system is failing socie- much-needed exposé of incarceration, Hansen especially notes the differ- ty, women in particular, when it comes with its petty payback, mindless vio- ence in the administration of one to reintegrating the incarcerated after lence, failure to produce much by way prison before and after the advent their terms have been served. of rehabilitation, and corrupt culture. of the Conservative government in Taking the Rap is a wild ride with the Guards bring in drugs as a way of con- 2006. When she first stayed at Grand Squamish Five, a group of anarchists trolling the population. Punishments Valley Institution for Women it was that travelled the country in the early are arbitrary and widespread. Indige- “amazing,” she writes. There were no 1980s lobbing bombs in order to draw nous women are overrepresented and bars, the guards were in civvies, the attention to the evils of capitalism (and treated differentially. Hansen sees all “con” and “bull” code was gone (these in the hope of pushing other activists of this during her years inside. dictated an “us vs. them” approach to to be more extreme). Hansen, a senior Hansen says she did not abandon corrections, where guards and prison- member of that group, begins her story her principles in prison, but realized ers were never friendly to each other with its exploits and excuses. There she would need to be pragmatic if she and there was an ugly, adversarial at- was no intention to injure people in the was ever going to emerge whole from mosphere). When she was returned to infamous 1982 bombing of the Litton the experience, and in order not to Grand Valley after the Harper govern- factory in Toronto, for example. Any jeopardize others. She admits that her ment’s “tough on crime” agenda was injuries were the fault of the authori- own behaviour was shameful and des- implemented, she found that things ties, writes Hansen, since they are the picable, and that being in prison made had changed markedly. The staff were ones who failed to evacuate the plant her into a “giant asshole” at times. tough and wore uniforms, the former within 25 minutes, as the Squamish She lists the coping mechanisms that cozy housing was gone, there was lots Five warned them to do. prisoners use to do their time: wear of double-bunking, consequences for A truck containing 550 pounds of a mask, speak only when spoken to, misbehaviour were tougher than back dynamite had been parked at the door- establish a reputation, conceal your in 2006—tougher even than in the way to the plant, near a busy highway feelings, appear to be cold, detach Prison for Women. in Toronto. It should have been clear from physical and emotional pain Hansen saves her final political that 25 minutes was not enough time in order to obtain higher status and statement for the epilogue, where 50 she restates her Marxist view that when applying for jobs. Stigma does criminal record affects job perfor- we will have prisons until capitalism not go away, even when the prisoner mance or termination. They gathered and the neoliberal political system are has been exonerated from his or her data on 425 production workers and abolished. While her political analysis crimes. The long absence from society found no support for the assump- is sparse, there is no gainsaying her and the workforce still convince many tion that former prisoners would be lived experience, from which we can prospective employers that such a “trouble at work.” They encourage learn much. She says that prisons person will not perform as well as the development of “second chance” are society’s most important social others. Employers and the public in businesses like Dave’s Killer Bread control mechanism and that prison- general are not well-informed about in Oregon, owned by an ex-prisoner ers are scapegoats. She supports this prisons and prisoners and so may who hires ex-prisoners, who perform position by pointing out that 75% of make unwarranted assumptions as well as those without a criminal women prisoners are non-violent. The about who they are and how they record. percentage of women—especially might perform. In a chapter concentrating on the Indigenous women—in maximum Kemi S. Anazodo et al. set the stage special needs of South Asian and security is far higher than for men. with a chapter that describes how Muslim offenders, Christine Victoria And the number of federal women reintegrating into society after a long Hough laments the new tendency to prisoners increased from 350 to 850 separation is not easy, and having a job privatize services in many sectors, in one decade. is important to easing the transition. including the criminal justice sys- It is when Hansen lays out the These authors also say that a punitive tem. A study by Adrienne M. F. Peters statistics and her own experience system of justice makes it harder for describes a different type of special navigating the prison system that this wrongdoers to reintegrate than would offender, setting out the special needs book is strongest. When she tries to a system of restorative justice. of gang-involved youth. She cites justify her own actions and insist they Prisoners with mental health Canada as a leader when it comes to did not constitute terrorism (because diagnoses have special difficulties moving away from punitive responses she did not intend to hurt people), she in obtaining employment. In her to youth crime. For example, Vancou- weakens her argument. chapter, Krystle Martin recommends ver’s successful PLEA Community Asked in an interview in 2002 what that such prisoners be assessed im- Service program includes a Career she would say to someone who might mediately upon arriving in prison so Path segment, while other programs want to emulate her actions, Hansen as to match them up with potential may include housing and and other finally admits that “they should employers when the time comes. She individual support plans. probably really think about it, not and other authors emphasize that au- The creation of such plans account- romanticize it.” She says she is not sure tomatic criminal background checks ed for the astounding success of Jerry that they would accomplish anything impede the employability of many Miller who reduced the numbers of except going to prison and hurting ex-prisoners, even where a particular youth in custody in Massachusetts in other people. This self-enlightenment offence should not cause concern to the 1970s from 1,000 to 40 within five serves as the best outcome of the an employer. And she makes a strong years, without an increase in the crime many wasted years she endured and argument for the early expungement rate. This underused model has been the pain she both suffered and caused. of criminal records. available to us for years. The client-cen- Samantha McAleese provides a very tred case management approach is t requires quite an adjustment to readable analysis of the importance of described at length here by Ashley move from Hansen’s breezy account pardons and points out that obtain- Brown, who also emphasizes the Iof her years in prison to the austere ing a “record suspension” (as Canada importance of access to employment. language of academe in the Ricciardel- now calls them) has become much Which brings us back to Ann li and Peters book. In After Prison a harder (it takes longer and is more Hansen. The former Squamish Five number of authors talk about employ- expensive) under the “tough on crime” prisoner walked into a job immediate- ment and the part it plays in helping regime. She talks about the “Ban the ly upon her release from prison. She ex-prisoners to succeed upon release. Box” campaign in the United States, had trained as a cabinetmaker and Anecdotes illustrate the difficulties where employers are encouraged not there was ample need for her skills encountered by former prisoners (in- to eliminate people from their hiring in the Kingston area. A reduction in cluding the story of lifer “James Young” process because of criminal records. available programs in recent years, in Chapter 1), and there is a good deal McAleese argues that making it more however, means that few prisoners of theory that may appeal more to the difficult for people to obtain pardons will benefit from this type of training. specialist. and thus employment will lead to In this respect, both Taking the Rap It is generally agreed that securing more rather than less crime, pointing and After Prison paint a grim picture employment upon release improves out how specious is the counter-claim of the prospects for ex-prisoners who the likelihood that an ex-prisoner will that harsh restrictions somehow help will need to work when they return not reoffend. At the same time, many victims. to their homes and communities. of the authors here point out the An empirical study by Mike Harmon obstacles that prisoners encounter et al. investigates whether having a 51 REVIEWED BY HANNAH WYILE all-encompassing control exerted might compete with non-Indigenous over Indigenous lives by the Canadian farmers. Joseph also underscores both state. continual resistance to Indian Act Law of To list just a few of them, these policies by Indigenous peoples and policies include the imposition of initiatives by the Canadian govern- subjugation the elected band council system; the ment to criminalize their resistance. disruption of Indigenous cultures and The book concludes with a short systems of governance; the removal section on the need to dismantle of children to residential schools; the the Indian Act, along with a brief imposition of a harmful gender hier- consideration of recent Canadian gov- archy; and the creation of the reserve ernment announcements that seem system, which as Joseph notes was to give Joseph hope for this prospect. “created as a means of containing and However, many questions remain controlling Indians while providing regarding the logistics of dismantling European settlers full access to the fish the act, particularly with respect to and game, water, timber, and mineral attitudinal shifts required on the part resources that had formerly sustained of Canadians and their governments, Indian life and culture.” Joseph care- as is clearly highlighted in the late fully intertwines passages from the Arthur Manuel’s recent book The Rec- Indian Act, quotations from political onciliation Manifesto (reviewed in the 21 THINGS YOU MAY NOT KNOW and bureaucratic leaders such as John January/February 2018 Monitor). For ABOUT THE INDIAN ACT A. Macdonald and Duncan Campbell Manuel, meaningful reconciliation is BOB JOSEPH Scott, and descriptions of the effects not possible while Indigenous nations Indigenous Relations Press (April 2018), $19.95 the legislation had on Indigenous continue to be asked to relinquish peoples, foregrounding both the at- their right to self-determination as titudes that gave rise to the law and part of negotiating their way out from E OFTEN EXTOL the Constitu- related policies, and their destructive under the Indian Act. tion and the Charter of Rights consequences. These are challenging but essential and Freedoms in Canada, but Joseph also highlights contra- questions to contemplate. None of us don’t often acknowledge the dictions that belie some of the living here today is responsible for ways another document is Indian Act’s proclaimed benevolent creating the Indian Act, but we are Wfoundational to the creation of this intentions. Whereas the government’s collectively responsible for the power country as we know it today: the Indi- purported goal was assimilation, the relations it continues to perpetuate, an Act. The Indian Act is central to the creation of reserves and the pass where some people are subjugated by unjust displacement of treaties as the system (whereby the Indian agent’s it while the rest of us benefit materially guiding agreements for sharing these permission was required for leaving from its legacies. Working toward more lands. It enacted the dispossession and the reserve) were mechanisms that just relationships between Indigenous oppression of Indigenous peoples—as enforced segregation rather than and non-Indigenous peoples and the nations and as individuals—that en- integration. Residential schools were lands we share requires understanding abled the acquisition of territory for allegedly supposed to offer Indigenous the history of the Indian Act and its the establishment and governance of children an education that would pre- role in dispossessing and subjugating Canada as a settler colony. Without it, pare them for life in Canadian society, Indigenous peoples. While 21 Things the current configuration of Canada but as Joseph writes, in many cases does not necessarily provide a clear and its provinces and territories might they “often degenerated into exploited road map for answering all of these not exist. Without it, those of us who child labour.” Key bureaucrats like questions, it pushes us to be open to have come from elsewhere over the Scott supported the residential school looking for the answers and sets us last five centuries might live here in policy while knowing how many chil- at the beginning of the path. We have a just form of coexistence with Indig- dren were dying in the schools. to start from a place that is rooted in enous peoples. Some of these policies expose historical fact and understanding of Bob Joseph’s 21 Things You May the double-standard of a Canadian Indigenous peoples’ experiences of Not Know About the Indian Act is a government that, while convinced In- the policies they have been subject- valuable introduction for those unfa- digenous peoples should not continue ed to and their resistance to them. miliar with the act and how it shapes their own ways of life, was also not Joseph’s book provides an accessible contemporary realities. Rather than comfortable with them thriving in the entry point to begin developing that undertaking an exhaustive chronicle mainstream. For instance, Indigenous understanding. of the act and its effects,21 Things people were pressured to adopt Euro- presents a short list of policies that, pean agricultural practices, but then even while being selective, gives the restricted from selling the products reader a striking impression of the of their labours over concerns they 52 SHOSHANA MAGNET their careers, their artistic visions and Appetites, her posthumous follow-up their political space in society. (she died of lung cancer in 2002), Knapp With the release last year of This Is presents one of the most desolate yet The making Just My Face, Sidibe joined a dialogue moving descriptions of the political started by feminist memoirists who reasons for women’s loneliness that I of feminist are carefully detailing the personal have ever read. Building on Germaine and political factors that contribute Greer, who wrote about how often we to loneliness, and how the act of writ- see women weeping in society—at the loneliness ing, in Sidibe’s words, can help women movie theatre, emerging red-eyed and “find purpose for pain.” alone from the bathroom, etc.—Knapp studies In her 2016 book The Lonely City observes: (Picador), Olivia Laing documents the women weep…because they feel pow- ways that the geography of Manhattan erless, and because they are exhausted ODERN LIFE IS increasingly atom- makes it “possible—easy, even—to and overworked and lonely. Women ized. We work harder and longer feel desolate and unfrequented in weep because their own needs are into the day than people used to, oneself while living cheek by jowl unsatisfied, continually swept into the and are increasingly reliant on with others.” Loneliness, according to M background as they tend to the needs social networking technologies to con- the author, doesn’t require “physical of others. They weep because the men nect with others when we know, and solitude, but rather an absence or in their lives so often seem incapable research tells us, this is less satisfying paucity of connection.” of speaking the language of intimacy, than face-to-face interactions. I am a Like Sidibe, Laing notes the political and because their children grow up person who struggles with loneliness, nature of loneliness, claiming that and become distant, and because but it was only through reading about being a woman who is single and they are expected to acquiesce to this other women’s experiences of being lonely in her thirties is “no longer distance, and because they live lives of alone that I came to understand how, socially sanctioned and carries with chronically lowered expectations and as cultural critic Olivia Laing put it, it a persistent whiff of strangeness, chronic adjustment to the world of “loneliness and isolation are political deviance and failure,” a halo inviting men, her interest in connection consid- as well as personal.” sexist tropes of the spinster life. Laing ered trivial, her core never quite seen or Gabourey Sidibe’s beautiful memoir, compares loneliness to being hungry known…her true self out of alignment This Is Just My Face (HarperAvenue), “in a place where being hungry is with so much that is valued…her love, makes the connections between lone- shameful, and where one has no in a word, unrequited. liness and a political climate of white money and everyone else is full.” supremacist patriarchy viciously These feelings of shame and What can a feminist loneliness studies apparent. Famous for her Oscar-win- loneliness are tied up with whether offer? For Laing, the “strange, almost ning performance as Precious in the one’s “body or sexuality is considered magical thing about [books on loneli- 2009 movie of the same name, Sidibe’s deviant or damaged,” writes Laing, ness] is that in examining loneliness tell-all depicts, sometimes hilariously highlighting the cruel systemic de- they also serve as an antidote to it.” and often devastatingly, her feeling terminations of who is considered Sidibe’s memoir felt like a kind and of violent exclusion from the film desirable, which remain bound to generous hand extended to me over industry as a woman of colour and sizeist, queerphobic, ableist assump- the void. Fifteen years after Knapp, the its effects on her well-being. tions about a person’s ability to find actor’s descriptions of her communi- The book begins with the star’s romantic partners, to make new ty, family and art being continually potential cover shoot for Vogue. friends, to connect. sidelined by an individualist, celebri- Rushing to discuss the idea at the Before Laing there was Caroline ty-oriented, racist and sexist culture magazine, Sidibe overhears Vogue’s Knapp, most famous for her 1996 continue to expose the ways we are (former) editor-at large, André Leon memoir Drinking: A Love Story. In all kept isolated from one another, and Talley, repeatedly saying he is going the devastating emotional toll this can to put that “fat bitch” and that “Black take. bitch” on the cover. Talley is speaking Writers like Laing, Sidibe and Knapp to Sidebe’s director on Precious, Lee struggle to understand the complex Daniels, who says nothing. meaning of loneliness, but also its The anecdote captures perfectly the healing and generative capacity. Their emotional toll of being systemically Sidibe’s memoir writing is a pathway that interrupts forced onto the outside. In Sidibe’s ex- all of our aloneness by giving voice to perience we find both the loneliness of felt like a kind and our shared pain of isolation, and by the child who listens from the doorway generous hand exploring an artistic space in which of the lunchroom to the other children to connect not only with each other laughing, and the exclusion of so many extended to me but with ourselves and our deepest women of colour from decisions about over the void. longings. 53 CCPA SUMMER PICKS

SETH KLEIN / DIRECTOR, CCPA-BC Demers. This is Charlie’s first “crime” social safety net. No wonder Finland I’ve got several books on the go novel, full of funny plot twists and took top spot in the UN’s 2018 World heading into the summer, more than very rooted in Vancouver’s real Happiness Report! That’s why I’m I can mention here. I’m halfway estate crisis and other realities. so excited to dive into The Finnish through Yanis Varoufakis’s Adults Way by Canadian-Finnish journalist in the Room: My Battle with the LYNNE FERNANDEZ / RESEARCH Katja Pantzar (TarcherPerigee). The European and American Deep ASSOCIATE AND PROJECT CO-ORDINATOR, book promises practical tips on Establishment (Farrar, Straus CCPA-MANITOBA staying happy and healthy, which Giroux), a political-economic memoir I’m looking forward to reading are always welcome, but I’m also of the economist’s short-lived and two novels this summer. The first interested in learning more about tumultuous experience as Greece’s is Canadian Heidi Spink’s The the social and cultural factors that finance minister. Varoufakis is a Dictionary of Animal Languages make Finland such a standout. What terrific writer, and this is a great (Penguin Canada), called “an atlas of lessons can we learn, at the policy introduction to modern economics. the heart” by one reviewer. I don’t level or otherwise, for improving Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, know what to expect, but I am an social well-being in Canada? Changing Worlds by Adrienne animal lover and fascinated by Maree Brown (AK Press) has been inter-species relationships. I have GAURI SREENIVASAN recommended to me many times also discovered my favourite books DIRECTOR OF POLICY AND RESEARCH for its insights into the political by jumping into the unknown. The I was captivated by the wonderful challenges progressives face at this second book will be something by Canadian author Carrianne Leung moment. Rod Mickleburgh’s On the recently deceased Philip Roth, as she read from her collection That the Line: A History of the British perhaps his 2010 fictionEveryman Time I loved You (HarperCollins) at Columbia Labour Movement (Vintage), in which he wrote “Life’s the Ottawa Writer’s Festival recently. (Harbour Publishing) looks terrific, most disturbing intensity is death.” I felt instantly at home and drawn as does Judy Rebick’s Heroes in my Though I think that can wait till in to her stories of growing up in the Head: A Memoir (House of Anansi I’m in the warm sun of a luminous suburbs of the 1970s—“Scarberia,” as Press), a personal and courageous northern Spanish beach. she and so many of my friends call account of her experience with it—trying to navigate relationships childhood sexual abuse and multiple HADRIAN MERTINS-KIRKWOOD with other kids, teachers and personality disorder. Finally, for a RESEARCHER neighbours across lines of race, age great romp, I highly recommend My visit to Helsinki two years and place. From her reading, and a Property Values (Arsenal Pulp ago was a revelation in social peek inside my new copy, I know Press), the latest book by my friend, development, from the vibrant I’m going to enjoy connecting with the comedian and essayist Charlie public spaces to the world-leading Leung’s tender insights into feelings 54 of belonging and difference, and the how new technology will radically the Search for Stability (Wilfred complex boundaries between kids transform the nature of professional Laurier University Press), which and adults. work and the elite quality of relates the stories of young people professionals. Four Futures: Life in three Canadian cities as they try SHEILA BLOCK / ECONOMIST, CCPA-ONTARIO After Capitalism by Peter Frase to find their way off the street, and I’m looking forward to reading (Verso) argues that automation and Todd Tucker’s Judge Knot: Politics The Very Marrow of Our Bones, a the impact of climate change will and Development in International debut novel by Christine Higdon spell the end of capitalism, leaving Investment Law (Anthem Press), a (ECW Press). It’s about family, room either for a resurgent Left to novel take on investor-state dispute messy secrets and two women who shape the future or something that settlement that I’ve just couriered to disappear from a small working looks more like barbarianism. CCPA trade researcher Scott Sinclair class town in B.C. I’m also intrigued for a review. because it’s a novel where a woman SIMON ENOCH / DIRECTOR, CCPA-SK who leaves her children (five of Suspect the sharing economy is just CHRISTINE SAULNIER them!) is portrayed sympathetically. a scam to make us all work harder DIRECTOR, CCPA-NOVA SCOTIA for less? Think “disruption” is just This has been a great year for books ALYSSA O’DELL / MEDIA clever tech jargon to avoid laws and written and published by Maritimers. AND PUBLIC RELATIONS OFFICER regulations? In Live Work Work In March, investigative journalist This summer I’ll be reading There Work Die: A Journey into the Savage Joan Baxter released The Mill: Fifty There, the first novel by Tommy Heart of Silicon Valley (Henry Holt Years of Pulp and Protest (Nimbus), Orange (McClelland & Stewart). and Co.), Corey Pein punctures which chronicles the controversial I’m excited to dive into his portrait the hype to reveal the thoroughly life to date of a mill in northern Nova of an America few of us have ever dystopian future these tech bros Scotia. In April, Fernwood published seen—the urban Indigenous have in store for us. Everything you a timely book by Dalhousie nursing community in California—through suspected is true! professor Ingrid Waldron, There’s a “multigenerational story about Something in the Water, examining violence and recovery, memory and STUART TREW / EDITOR, THE MONITOR the legacy of environmental racism identity, and the beauty and despair I always plan to read more in the and its health impacts in Indigenous woven into the history of a nation summer than I actually do, but rarely and Black communities in the and its people.” plan what the books will be. This province. Next on my list is the year, if I remember, I hope to pick up autobiography Doug Knockwood, TRISH HENNESSY / DIRECTOR, CCPA-ONTARIO Mistaken Identity: Race and Class Mi’kmaw Elder: Stories, Memories, My summer reading list includes a in the Age of Trump by Asad Haider, Reflections (Roseway Press), “a dive into AI, automation, digitization editor of the “militant research personal story of how one man and the future of work. The first is collective” Viewpoint Magazine. overcame the ravages of colonialism, Automating Inequality: How High- According to publisher Verso, Haider racism, tuberculosis and alcoholism Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish draws on an intensive reading to become an honoured and the Poor by Virginia Eubanks (St. of Black revolutionary theory respected Elder.” I also hope to get Martin’s Press), a book that Naomi and history to argue that today’s to a 10th anniversary edition of the Klein says is “downright scary— identity politics “marks a retreat children’s book Everybody’s Different but…you will emerge smarter and from the crucial passage of identity on Everybody Street (Nimbus) by more empowered to demand justice.” to solidarity, and from individual Sheree Fitch, which de-stigmatizes The Future of Professions: How recognition to the collective mental health, is beautifully Technology Will Transform the Work struggle against an oppressive social illustrated by Emma Fitzgerald, and of Human Experts by Richard and structure.” A few books mailed to is perfect for reading out loud to your Daniel Susskind (Oxford University us at the Monitor look promising, children, grandchildren or the whole Press) makes bold predictions about too, including Homeless Youth and family this summer.

55 Books

REVIEWED BY MURRAY MACADAM Moral imperatives

many Canadians know that Chris- few chapters lift up initiatives far less tians saved thousands of Chileans known. One was an effort to raise the from torture and death under the tragedy of violence against women in Pinochet regime by persuading the northern communities led by a feisty Canadian government to accept them nun, Marie Zarowny, supported by as refugees? That they joined forces Catholic bishops. However, an account with others to help end apartheid? of the clash between anti-abortion That more than 600,000 Canadian Catholics and more progressive ones Christians signed petitions to cancel around the International Women’s debts in the Global South? And that March in 2000 makes for painful they’ve sparked debate about how reading. capitalism fails to work for so many? Opponents of the Kinder Morgan JOURNEYS TO JUSTICE: REFLECTIONS Activists will appreciate the nuts pipeline can take heart from an ON CANADIAN CHRISTIAN ACTIVISM and bolts of how the churches organ- account of the successful campaign EDITED BY JOE GUNN ized campaigns, among them the one in the 1970s to stop the Mackenzie Novalis (2018), $14.95 to push banks and corporations not to Valley pipeline, a David-and-Goliath invest in apartheid South Africa. The battle pitting Christians, Indigenous large-scale education and mobiliza- peoples and others against oil and gas HILE WRITING THIS review, I tion of church people is portrayed as companies and their allies. took a break to serve meals essential, along with forging alliances The book doesn’t only look back- to low-income people at my with allies outside the churches. ward, but wraps up with a “Where church. I enjoyed our crew’s Another key element outlines how Do We Go From Here” section by camaraderie, meeting guests, faith groups have confronted capi- two young Christian social justice Wand felt good about serving healthy talism, challenging us to think about advocates who point to new ways of food for people who can’t afford it. our values and those upon which our organizing for the future based on But afterwards, I felt frustrated. Why, economy is based. A bold reflection in lessons from the past and on collabo- I asked myself, do so many people in 1983 by Canada’s Catholic bishops noted ration with people from other faiths this affluent nation have to rely on that the suffering of jobless Canadians or with no faith. handouts to ward off hunger? Why is constituted “a moral disorder” and that Today, churches and other faith- it far easier to involve people in char- “the needs of the poor have priority based organizations continue itable efforts like meal programs than over the wants of the rich, the rights educating and advocating on such inspire them to tackle the root causes of workers are more important than issues as ending fossil fuel subsidies, of hunger and poverty? profits, and the participation of the nurturing reconciliation efforts, That’s why Journeys to Justice, ed- marginalized takes precedence over an fighting racism and Islamophobia, and ited by veteran social justice activist economic system that excludes them.” urging the federal government to stop Joe Gunn, executive director of the The bishops called for an alterna- compelling refugees to pay their travel Christian-based public advocacy tive economy based on participatory costs to Canada. organization Citizens for Public Jus- democracy. United Church moderator Occasionally, excessive details tice, is a breath of fresh air. Based on Bill Phipps led a major effort within make the book drag a little. The interviews with key players in various his church in the 1990s focusing on “churchy” language in spots may put campaigns, the book chronicles the how “the Market had become God,” off non-Christian readers. But even efforts of faith-inspired social justice to remind church members that as mainline churches lose members, activists to move from charity to economic justice is a fundamental Journeys to Justice reminds us of the justice by influencing public and cornerstone of biblical theology. impact that people of faith can still corporate policies in Canada. Heady stuff, indeed. have, especially when they join forces The remarkable achievements While many will recall campaigns to with like-minded partners.

of churches over the past 50 years end apartheid, stop the Mackenzie Val- JOURNEYS TO JUSTICE IS AVAILABLE FROM CITIZENS would surprise many people. How ley pipeline and welcome refugees, a FOR PUBLIC JUSTICE (WWW.CPJ.CA). 56 HELP US SHED LIGHT ON THE ISSUES THAT MATTER TO YOU. (we’ve got some bright ideas)

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