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By Greg Fingas, on May 19, 2013, at 12:01 pm This and that for your Sunday reading.
- Justin Ling writes that the Cons’ aversion to accountability isn’t limited to their own government, as they’re one of the few holdouts against transparency in resource-sector reporting of payments to governments abroad.
- Meanwhile, Stuart Trew discusses an international citizens’ initiative to keep the Trans-Pacific Partnership from imposing harmful copyright rules: A coalition website, launched this week as a 17th round of TPP negotiations gets underway in Lima, Peru, calls on TPP negotiators to “reject copyright proposals that restrict open Internet, access to knowledge, economic opportunity and fundamental rights.” The website (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on May 18, 2013, at 10:45 am Assorted content for your weekend reading.
- Not surprisingly, plenty of commentators have weighed in on the latest set of Senate scandals engulfing Mike Duffy, Pamela Wallin, Nigel Wright and Stephen Harper among others. Diane Francis takes the opportunity to point out that the Senate is an institutional anachronism (a point with which I of course agree). Murray Mandryk notes that the Cons’ story involves the belief that their clan can do no wrong, Chantal Hebert sees the Cons having simply changed the party name in the Liberal culture of entitlement they once claimed to despise, while Andrew Coyne (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on May 16, 2013, at 10:58 am This and that for your Thursday reading.
- Duncan Cameron is the latest to weigh in on the Cons’ distorted sense of priorities in directing public research money toward private profits: Publicly available research is important. Since no one knows where discoveries or advances in knowledge will lead, the entire scientific community needs access to new research. There is no other way to maximize potential societal benefits. Learning is cumulative, innovative thinking flows from research building on public research.
Now with the privatization of research findings, discoveries and knowledge become industrial secrets, unavailable to Canadians who have paid for it, (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on May 15, 2013, at 10:10 am Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
- Michael Babad takes a look at Bureau of Labor Statistics data on wages and employment levels – reaching the conclusion that the corporatist effort to drive wages down does nothing to improve employment prospects. But the absence of any remotely plausible policy justification hasn’t stopped the Sask Party from “modernizing” the province’s rules governing work by setting them back upwards of half a century.
- Meanwhile, Pat Atkinson rightly notes that the most important problem with the Cons’ push for temporary foreign workers is the “temporary” part. And Nicholas Keung and Dana Flavelle (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on May 12, 2013, at 11:52 am Miscellaneous material for your Sunday reading.
- Daniel Boffey catches one of David Cameron’s top aides saying what most Cons leave as an unstated assumption: that recession and depressed wages are good for business (as long as “business” is defined only to mean short-term profits based on exploitation): The prime minister’s adviser on enterprise has told the cabinet that the economic downturn is an excellent time for new businesses to boost profits and grow because labour is cheap, the Observer can reveal.
Lord Young, a cabinet minister under the late Baroness Thatcher, who is the only aide with his (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on May 10, 2013, at 9:32 am Assorted content to end your week.
- Yes, it’s for the best that some of Canada’s pre-eminent scientists are offering to walk Joe Oliver through the realities of climate change. But Nik Beeson’s offer of political detoxification looks like the more important step for those of us who aren’t in denial about the science: When pushing an oil addiction to a planet in the midst of catastrophic climate change is called ‘ethical,’ we have indeed entered a very Orwellian world, where words come to mean their opposites. Calling Canada’s oil more ‘ethical’ is precisely as logical as saying my crack (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on May 7, 2013, at 9:41 am This and that for your Tuesday reading…
- Joseph Stiglitz discusses the abuse of intellectual property law to turn publicly-funded research into privately-held profit centres (no matter how many people die as a result): (A) Utah-based company, Myriad Genetics, claims more than that. It claims to own the rights to any test for the presence of the two critical genes associated with breast cancer – and has ruthlessly enforced that right, though their test is inferior to one that Yale University was willing to provide at much lower cost. The consequences have been tragic: Thorough, affordable testing that identifies high-risk (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on May 6, 2013, at 9:51 am Miscellaneous material to start your week.
- As would-be frackers show us exactly why it’s dangerous to give the corporate sector a veto over government action, Steven Shrybman suggests that corporations are mostly doing only what we’d expect in exploiting agreements designed to prioritize profits over people: Canadian businesses are simply playing by the rules of free trade which encourages the outsourcing of everthing that isn’t glued to the local Tim Hortons or the tar sands (to cite two prominent examples): that means value-added processing (where the jobs are) of natural resources that are simply ripped and shipped to the (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on May 5, 2013, at 11:41 am Assorted content for your Sunday reading.
- Aviva Shen looks at Monsanto’s history of regulatory capture – with the recent “Monsanto Protection Act” serving as just a minor example in a long list of control over U.S. law: Monsanto insists that its revolving door is in overdrive because Monsanto employees are simply the best qualified for positions in these agencies, who certainly don’t hold onto their loyalty to the company in their new roles.
Yet it’s hard to ignore how Monsanto has benefited from these connections. The USDA has never denied a single application for Monsanto’s genetically engineered crops. (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on May 4, 2013, at 12:34 pm This and that for your weekend reading.
- Helene Leblanc argues that we should make sure the Internet is treated as a commons accessible to all, rather than a privilege denied to many (particularly in rural areas): Many Canadians living outside urban centres do not have access to high speed broadband Internet and a significant number connect at speeds of 1.5 megabits per second — only marginally faster than dial-up.
In the year 2000 Estonia declared Internet access a fundamental human right, something essential for life in the 21st century, and launched a program to expand rural access. Finland (Read more…)
By Obert Madondo, on May 1, 2013, at 1:18 pm By: Obert Madondo | The Canadian Progressive: Over 70 community groups have signed a letter demanding the immediate cancellation of anti-immigrant reality TV show, Border Security. The letter is addressed to Public Safety Minister Vic…
The post Over 70 Community Groups Demand Cancellation of “Border Security” Reality TV Show appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
By Greg Fingas, on May 1, 2013, at 9:43 am Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
- Thomas Walkom writes that yesterday’s minor tinkering aside, the goal of the Cons’ temporary foreign worker program is still to drive down Canadian wages. And Miles Corak argues that the resulting distortion of employment markets shouldn’t be any more acceptable to a libertarian than a progressive: Flooding the market with workers from elsewhere, year in and year out – even during a major recession – is not about an acute labour shortage. It is nothing more than a wage subsidy to low-paying firms, a subsidy that stunts the reallocation of goods, capital, and (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on April 30, 2013, at 9:49 am This and that for your Tuesday reading.
- We shouldn’t be surprised that the corporate sector is reacting with contrived outrage to the Cons’ tinkering with a severely flawed temporary foreign worker program. But Jim Stanford points out what it would take to actually move labour standards upward rather than including Canadian workers in a race to the bottom: (T)he Harper government is now moving to avert a political disaster in the making. Advance coverage in the Globe and Mail indicates its proposed changes will include a new fee for temporary foreign worker permits, and requirements that employers promise to (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on April 28, 2013, at 11:18 am Miscellaneous material for your Sunday reading.
- Daniel Kaufman notes that the EU is on the verge of implementing new standards for transparency in oil extraction – while recognizing that big oil has fought the effort every step of the way in an effort to keep its activities secret. And Shaun Thomas discusses the no-knowledge zone set up around the Northern Gateway pipeline, as Nathan Cullen’s questions within the review process revealed that the federal government hadn’t so much as talked to First Nations or affected industries about the possible impact of an oil spill.
- But then, the Cons (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on April 28, 2013, at 11:18 am Miscellaneous material for your Sunday reading.
- Daniel Kaufman notes that the EU is on the verge of implementing new standards for transparency in oil extraction – while recognizing that big oil has fought the effort every step of the way in an effort to keep its activities secret. And Shaun Thomas discusses the no-knowledge zone set up around the Northern Gateway pipeline, as Nathan Cullen’s questions within the review process revealed that the federal government hadn’t so much as talked to First Nations or affected industries about the possible impact of an oil spill.
- But then, the Cons (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on April 25, 2013, at 9:31 am This and that for your Thursday reading.
- Andrew Simms and Stephen Reid note that the corporatist dogma that everything is done more efficiently in the private sector has no apparent basis in reality: The myth of private sector superiority says that the private sector is efficient and dynamic, the public sector wasteful and slow; that the more we can get the private sector to run things the better. That the head of a massive public enterprise like the Olympics can so blithely discount what underpins it demonstrates its reach. In fact, while billboard adverts said we had commercial sponsors (Read more…)
By Greg Fingas, on April 24, 2013, at 9:35 am Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
- George Monbiot discusses the fallout from decades of corporate-controlled governments abdicating their responsibility to consider the public interest: In other ages, states sought to seize as much power as they could. Today, the self-hating state renounces its powers. Governments anathematise governance. They declare their role redundant and illegitimate. They launch furious assaults on their own branches, seeking wherever possible to lop them off.
This self-mutilation is a response to the fact that power has shifted. States now operate at the behest of others. Deregulation, privatisation, the shrinking of the scope, scale and spending (Read more…) the state: these are now seen as the only legitimate policies. The corporations and billionaires to whom governments defer will have it no other way.
Just as taxation tends to redistribute wealth, regulation tends to redistribute power. A democratic state controls and contains powerful interests on behalf of . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on April 21, 2013, at 12:10 pm Assorted content for your Sunday reading.
- I wouldn’t go as far as Haroon Siddiqui in suggesting that all temporary foreign worker programs be shut down entirely (at least absent some concurrent change to encourage a flow of new workers who are able to set down roots in Canada). But he’s dead on in his scathing assessment of the Cons’ current version: Now Canada is flooded with temporary workers — 338,189 as of December 2012. In fact, there may be more. Ottawa has no way of knowing how many stayed behind at the end of their temporary visas. Canada has (Read more…) exit controls.
They were all brought in ostensibly because of extensive skilled labour shortages. But with 1.33 million jobless, there’s no shortage of labour for the 250,000 job vacancies. That’s nearly six jobless Canadians for every available job.
As for skills shortages, there are certainly some. . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Sunday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on April 20, 2013, at 5:13 pm Assorted content for your weekend reading.
- Daniel Cohn theorizes that the only real problem with RBC’s outsourcing of Canadian jobs is that they called attention to the government policies which facilitated that outcome. But for those of us who think there’s actually a problem with an economy designed around minimizing wages and employment, Susan McIsaac and Matthew Mendelsohn offer some suggestions to turn the tide. And Tavia Grant points out that the Cons’ preference for cheap, disposable foreign labour might help employers, but certainly doesn’t produce positive results for Canada as a whole.
- In the same vein, Andrew (Read more…) discusses how the last great set of attacks on workers in the name of economic efficiency proved an utter failure in producing any policy outcome other than increased inequality: Thatcherism did not provide an enduring solution to the problem of how to attain stable growth. Business profitability was . . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Saturday Afternoon Links
By Greg Fingas, on April 17, 2013, at 9:31 am Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
- Thomas Walkom points out that banks are far from the only corporations who are conspicuously moving jobs offshore to the detriment of Canadian workers and citizens: Unions are being ground down; wages are being ground down. Jobs are being ground out of existence. With the economy so weak and foreign competition so fierce, domestic firms find it harder to expand.
For many, the only solution is to squeeze their workers.
Before the Great Recession, goods moved easily across borders. So did capital. But what’s new about this slump is that labour has become
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on April 16, 2013, at 9:58 am This and that for your Tuesday reading.
- George Monbiot comments on the outsized influence of advertisers on children: How many people believe this makes the world a better place? A company called TenNine has hung hoardings in the corridors and common rooms of 750 British schools. Among its clients are Nike, Adidas, Orange, Tesco and Unilever. It boasts that its “high impact platform delivers right to the heart of the 11-18 year old market“.
Other firms are closing in. Boomerang Media, which represents Sega, Atari, Virgin, Umbro and others, has persuaded schools to distribute Revlon perfume samples
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Tuesday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on April 15, 2013, at 9:28 am Miscellaneous material to start your week.
- Peter Gillespie discusses the problems with tax cheats (and the overseas tax havens which encourage them): Multinational corporations and banking and financial institutions routinely use tax havens to lower or eliminate their tax obligations, avoid regulation, and shield themselves from liability. Tax havens host more than two million “international business corporations,” often little more than shell companies with a postal address. The British Virgin Islands, with a population of 30,000, hosts an estimated 460,000 business corporations. One modest building in the Cayman Islands is home to more that 18,000 of these entities.
Last
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
By Admin CP, on April 12, 2013, at 8:59 pm She Fixes So Many Problems By: Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: The Neighbourhood Immigrant Settlement Worker (NISW) is one of the programs established by the Province of Manitoba to help newcomers adjust to life in Canada. The program is funded by Citizenship and Immigration Canada and Manitoba Immigration and Multiculturalism, [...]
The post The Impacts of the Neighbourhood Immigrant Settlement Worker In Canada appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
By Greg Fingas, on April 11, 2013, at 9:38 am This and that for your Thursday reading.
- Thomas Walkom adds another piece to the picture showing the Cons’ efforts to shift both jobs and wealth offshore, pointing out that lax visa rules have only encouraged RBC-style outsourcing schemes. Craig McInnes recognizes that a cheap, low-rights worker strategy is a problem whether labour is imported to Canada or exploited abroad. Haroon Siddiqui, David Doorey, Heather Mallick and Barbara Yaffe express their own outrage about the deliberate elimination of Canadian jobs. And the Alberta Federation of Labour calls attention to the scope of the temporary foreign worker program.
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. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
By Greg Fingas, on April 10, 2013, at 9:51 am Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading.
- Lana Payne offers an introduction to austerity for Newfoundland and Labrador residents who are just learning about it on a provincial level: In Canada, Prime Minister Stephen Harper has also taken a rather deep liking to austerity.
It is a ready-made excuse to gut government and change the positive role it should play in our lives, in building a better society, in sharing economic wealth and mitigating the inequality gap.
It is another excuse to trash government as a catalyst to build opportunities for all citizens; another excuse to turn Canada into a
. . . → Read More: Accidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
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