Monitor Mar2015

7242019 Monitor Mar2015

httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmonitor-mar2015 140CCPA Monitor March 20151

Volume 21 No 9 Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives March 2015

ECONOMIC SOCIAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL PERSPECTIVES

MONITOR CCPA

(Continued on page 17

On January 25 a political earthquake brought theleft-wing Syriza coalition to power in Greece with asweeping mandate to end the six-year nightmare of

economic austerity imposed by the European financial andpolitical establishment

Following the 2008 global financial crisis the troika of theEuropean Central Bank European Commission and Interna-tional Monetary Fund backed by Germany forced Greece toaccept US$275 billion in bailout loans The money went largely

to servicing existing debt and it was conditional on implement-ing harsh structural adjustment reforms Under troika-mandat-ed austerity the Greek government has been forced to cut its

budget by 38 achieved by gutting public services laying offthousands of employees and slashing retiree pensions by 40

among other measures The Greekeconomy (GDP) shrunk by one-quarter unemployment roseto 28 (almost 60 for youth)

and average wages fell by 40Canada has never experi-enced anything comparablenot even in the depths of the

Great DepressionDespite increasing

taxes on middle- and lower-income groupsmdashincome

tax now accounts for 44of Greecersquos GDPmdashtheeconomic collapse hasmeant tax revenueshave continued to fall

Meanwhile wealthy elites and large corporations havemaintained virtual immunity from taxes through their accessto offshore tax havens and corporate transfer pricing Thishas driven up Greecersquos debt burden from 125 of GDP atthe time of the global financial crisis to 175 today For thelast two years Greece has been forced to run a primary fiscasurplus (before debt service payments) equivalent to 45 ofGDP all of it remitted to European public sector creditors

The troika framed its blueprint as short-term pain for

long-term gain but it has been nothing of the sort In effectthe punitive conditionality of the bailout package has beena recipe for long-term pain without a glimmer of recoveryRestructuring of the Greek debt was never in the cardsLeaked minutes from a May 2010 IMF board meeting revealedthe true purpose of the loans ldquo[They] may be seen not as arescue of Greece which will have to undergo a wrenchingadjustment but as a bailout of Greecersquos private debt holdersmainly European financial institutionsrdquo

During the first eight years of the euro zone commoncurrency banks in the countries with balance-of-paymentssurpluses (mainly Germany) chose to recycle their wealth bylending irresponsibly to Greece and other deficit countries in

southern Europe with little capacity to repay It created theillusion of prosperity or what has been described as PonziGrowth The 2008 global financial crisis triggered by falloutfrom the subprime mortgage lending fiasco exposed thisfatal flaw in euro zone

Greece was effectively insolvent but not allowed to declare bankruptcy for fear (in Berlin Brussels and the banks) that iwould set off a chain reaction in southern Europe The troikainsisted on bailing out failed banks with no conditions and no

questions asked while making draconiandemands on insolvent countries

To justify their actions policy-makers and much of the news media

propagated a narrative of debtorcountry profligacy A speedy re-turn to growth could only happenif these sluggish economies took

some strong medicine to boost con-fidence among private investors andfinancial markets As US economist

Paul Krugman commented after theelection ldquoBoth the European Com-mission and the European Centra

Bank decided to believe in the confi-

In Greece a new government pushes back against austerityBy Bruce Campbell


httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmonitor-mar2015 240CCPA Monitor March 2015 2

Over the last few years a great evil has beendescending upon our world an evil which hasbeen growing more and more powerful violent

jihadismhellip

mdash Prime Minister Stephen Harper on January 30

We are going to destroy the basis upon whichthey [the wealthy and political elite] have built for decade after decade a system a network thatviciously sucks the energy and the economic

power from everybody else in society

mdash Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis

The Monitor doesnrsquot normally have atheme but this month there are twothe electoral transition in Greece

toward a more meaningful democracyand the discouraging shift in the opposite

directionmdashin the form of unnecessary butpolitically useful anti-terrorism reformsmdashhere in Canada

We decided to feature the morepositive of the two situations on our coverBruce Campbellrsquos analysis of the meaningof Syrizarsquos January 25 win notably forEuropersquos austere social-democratic partiescontinues on page 17 Itrsquos followed by anarticle from Asad Ismi on the possibilityof a Greek exit from the euro zone anda warning against it from Greecersquos ldquorockstarrdquo finance minister the self-styled

ldquoerratic Marxistrdquo Yanis VaroufakisThe excerpt is taken from a speech

Varoufakis gave in 2013 in which hedisputes the idea attributed to Lenin thatthings must get much worse before they get

better that a more equitable social economymust grow out of depravity The problemhe says referring to Thatcherrsquos England butapplicable elsewhere was that things clearlycould just stay bad Prolonged recessioncould actually reinforce the economicsystem that produces it while sucking airout of any progressive or left alternatives

The irony is that things probably didhave to be as bad as they were in Greece forSyriza to get elected But this is not whatVaroufakis is worried about He and hisgovernment are concerned not to makethings even harder for the Greek peopleAn even deeper and more painful financialcrisis triggered possibly by leavingthe euro zone would certainly benefitldquoGolden Dawn the assorted neofacists thexenophobes and the spivsrdquo before it helpsa progressive left he says

The Canadian and Greek economicsituations generally are not comparablethough for many of Canadarsquos workingpoor the system throws up just as many

barriers to the ldquogood liferdquo as Dianah Smithdescribes in a series of personal vignetteson page 29 with class and race importanamong them Not surprisingly the economyis still the most important priority in pre-election opinion polls with the threat ofterrorism at the bottom of most lists

Like the Greek bailout negotiationsthe debate over Canadarsquos new securitylegislationmdashbills C-51 and C-44 inparticularmdashis moving quickly As I writethis C-44 is with the Senate The legislationauthorizes CSIS to operate abroad andin ways that might contravene foreignor international law and that could

put Canadian lives at risk accordingto Canadarsquos privacy commissioner BillC-51 creates a new offence of promotingterrorism defined broadly and gives CSISagents more policing powers at homemdashpowers they have not had since the spyagencyrsquos first recruits were still membersof the disbanded RCMP Security Service

Paul Weinberg calls them the ldquobad olddaysrdquo of Canadian spying in his featureon page 24 about the RCMPrsquos disruptionof progressive organizations like Praxis inthe 1970s C-51 which many experts believe

could bring those days back was just being debated by the House of Commonswhen we went to print with the NDP andGreens lining up against and the Liberalssaying they will support it and bring inaccountability measures if elected There isa detailed legal primer on C-51 by ClaytonRuby and Nader R Hasan on page 21

In the same section (page 27) JoyceNelson draws the links between these newsecurity laws and a private memberrsquos bill onprotecting Canadarsquos critical infrastructureincluding possibly from environmenta

protestorsmdashthe ldquoanti-petroleumrdquomovement as the RCMP refers to them in arecently leaked internal memo My interviewwith Roch Tasseacute on page 14 touches on theevolution across Liberal and Conservativegovernments since 2001 of the idea thatCanadarsquos economic security is equivalento its national security enforceable throughall the same tools used to combat what wenow call terrorism (Stuart Trew

Feedback monitorpolicyalternativesca

EditorialCCPA Monitor ISSN 1198-497X

CCPA Monitor is published 10 times

a year by the Canadian Centre for

Policy Alternatives The opinions

expressed in the CCPA Monitor are

those of the authors and do not

necessarily reflect the views of the

CCPA Please send feedback tomonitorpolicyalternativesca

EDITOR Stuart Trew

EDITOR EMERITUS Ed Finn

LAYOUT Susan Purtell

EDITORIAL BOARD Bruce Campbell

Kerri-Anne Finn Seth Klein Kate

McInturff Erika Shaker

CCPA NATIONAL OFFICE

500-251 Bank St Ottawa ON K2P 1X3tel 613-563-1341

fax 613-233-1458

e-mail ccpapolicyalternativesca

CCPA BC OFFICE

1400-207 West Hastings St

Vancouver BC V6B 1H7

tel 604-801-5121

fax 604-801-5122

e-mail ccpabcpolicyalternativesca

CCPA MANITOBA OF FICE

Unit 205 ndash 765 Main St

Winnipeg MB R2W 3N5tel 204-927-3200

fax 204-927-3201

e-mail ccpambpolicyalternativesca

CCPA NOVA SCOTIA OFFICE

PO Box 8355 Halifax NS B3K 5M1

tel 902-240-0926

e-mail ccpanspolicyalternativesca

CCPA ONTARIO OFFICE

10 Dundas Street East

PO Box 47129 Toronto ON M5B 0A1

tel 416-598-5985

e-mail ccpaonpolicyalternativesca

CCPA SASKATCHEWAN OFFICE

2nd Floor 2138 McIntyre Street

Regina SK S4P 2R7

tel 306-924-3372

fax 306-586-5177

e-mail ccpasasksasktelnet

CCPA web site

wwwpolicyalternativesca

Canada Post Publication 40009942



The Appeal of Middle-Class Economics

52 ndash Percentage of Canadians who self-identify as middleclass when asked to describe their ldquosocial and financial placein societyrdquo according to a November 2014 Pollara poll

73 ndash Percentage of Quebecers who said they were middleclassmdashthe province most likely to do so followed by Alberta(57) the Prairies (47) BC (46) Atlantic provinces(44) and Ontario (43)

57 ndash Percentage of men who said they think of themselvesas middle class compared to 47 of women

67 ndash Percentage of Canadians earning between $60000 and$100000 who said theyrsquore middle class For context the 2012after-tax median income of all families consisting of two ormore people was $71700

3 ndash Percentage of Canadians who considered themselvesupper class thank you very much

36 ndash Percentage of Canadians who said theyrsquore working classnot middle class

9 ndash Percentage of Canadians who considered themselves poorFor context Statistics Canada said 163 of children under17 lived in low-income households in 2012

82 ndash Percentage of self-described middle class Canadianswho own their home home ownership is a very middle-classsymbol in Canada

49 ndash Percentage of Canadians who said they feel confident

they can move up the socio-economic ladder through hardwork though the answer differs greatly depending on where you sit along the income ladder

20 ndash Percentage of self-ascribed poor Canadians who saidthey are confident in merit-based social mobility comparedto 47 of the working class 53 of the middle class and73 of the upper class

45 ndash Percentage of Canadians who are optimistic about the future of Canadarsquos middle class

90 ndash Percentage of Canadians who donrsquot feel financiallysecure

Sources ldquoOnly one-in-ten Canadians feels financially securerdquoThe Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy January 14 2015ldquoIn Search of lsquoThe Middle Classrsquo Canadians Under FinancialStressrdquo The Pearson Centre for Progressive Policy November2014 and ldquoPoverty In Canada 1 In 7 Lived In Low-IncomeFamilies In 2012 StatsCan Saysrdquo The Canadian Press Decem-ber 10 2014

Hennessyrsquos Index is a monthly listing of numbers about Canadaand its place in the world compiled by the CCPArsquos Trish HennessyFor previous months visit wwwpolicyalternativescaindex

HENNESSYrsquoS INDEX CONTENTSON THE COVER Bruce Campbell and Asad Ismi

find hope in Greecersquos adversity 17

Editorial 2

Hennessyrsquos Index 3

Letters to the Monitor 4New from the CCPA 5

Good News Page 32

BEHIND THE NUMBERS

NAFTA lawsuits are pounding Canada Why the left

should leave out business tax cuts Carbon taxes

need not be revenue neutral The hated municipal

property tax is failing cities 6-9

COMMENT

Is public municipal broadband the solution to

digital access 10

Supreme Court sides with labourhellip again 11

Two doctors on the Cambie Charter

challenge 12

An interview with civil liberties champion

Roch Tasseacute 14

Mexico needs help from the Three Amigos 16

FEATURES

Bill C-51 A Legal PrimerClayton Ruby CM and Nader R Hasan 21

Policing Praxis We should be seriously questioning

giving security officials more powers

Paul Weinberg 24

Policing Pipelines Security and surveillance

reforms could criminalize dissent

Joyce Nelson 32

Vignettes of the working poor

Dianah Smith 34

ARTS

The Answer is Still No reviewed in Books 33

Mommy by Xavier Dolan reviewed in Film 34

PERSPECTIVES

Donrsquot call them farms The case for a wind power

industry James Donald 35

The FINNish Line Give your children the gift of

reading Ed Finn 38



Letters

Maximum wage toldquolift all boatsrdquo

Perhaps in the upcoming election consideration should begiven to a maximum wage as well as a minimum wage

If the maximum wage would be set at some multiple ofthe minimum wage say 40 times or 100 times then if themaximum wage went up so too would the minimum wageEqually an increase in the minimum wage would lead toan increase in the maximum wage This I suggest wouldfinally achieve the oft-stated promise of a ldquorising economictide lifting all boatsrdquo

M Key Sundridge Ont

Carbon taxes should berevenue neutral

The editorial by Seth Klein was very good until it addressedthe question of what to do with the revenue from a carbontax (ldquoNow is exactly the right time to regulate oil and gasrdquoFebruary 2015) I am a strong supporter of returning itequitably to the people That way it is carbon progressivethat is those that emit the most will benefit the least

A revenue-neutral tax is also consistent with the beliefthat governments are not skilful in designing a low-carboneconomy and it avoids the fear of a government grab for newtaxes which is anathema for Conservatives Liberals andprobably also NDP supporters It is a most important first stepand can be followed with other targeted approaches for specific

emissions I recommend a carbon fee and dividend approachwhich is supported by James Hansen the foremost climatechange scientist and activist and also by the Green Party

D Kerr Collingwood Ont

Harris deserves an A gradeThe first third of Richard Nimijeanrsquos review of Michael HarrisrsquosParty of One (February 2014) is about the book The other two-thirds is about Mr Nimijean as he marked Harrisrsquos effort andgave it a C+ grade The suggestions made to this good studentappear to be notes for a book about Harper the reviewer will

never write Party Of One is the best book yet on Harperrsquosattack on the Canada that Canadians built from 1867 to 2007It deserves to be read by as many thinking voters as possible

R Harlow Mayne Island BC

Science and humandevelopment

Of the many wrongs treated by Stephen Lewis in his Symonlecture (ldquoA socialist takes stockrdquo February 2014) the muzzlingof scientists is the most damning Harperrsquos worst move was to

replace his science and technology advisor with the ScienceTechnology and Innovation Council which reports to theMinister of Industry As University of Toronto biochemistryprofessor Larry Moran has noted the role of the council isto promote technology not give advice In other words it isthere to promote unlimited and unsustainable growth

If and itrsquos a big if the Conservatives lose the upcomingelection the first thing a new leader should do is have thescience and technology council report to the Prime MinisterrsquosOffice and staff it with scientists devoted to maximizingthe societal benefits of sustainable growth Moreover thecouncil should be independent and include representativesfrom charities and NGOs for they pursue the same goal asscientists by minimizing the societal costs of development

B Unitt Brampton Ont

Celebrating our successesEd Finn needs to change his tune His latest article (ldquoKlein hasshown us Goliathrdquo February 2015) is rife with cynicism as hecasts doubt on the effectiveness of efforts by both politiciansand environmental activists to fight climate change Helauds Naomi Kleinrsquos ideas in her latest book all the whiledownplaying their potential impact as This Changes Everythingslides from bestseller lists What is the purpose served byexpressing such a bleak outlook

Up until now readers of the Monitor have no doubtassumed it is better to know the dirty truth than to live inthe bliss of ignorance Understanding reality is of course keyto solving the problem But this assumes a solution exists and

once we pass the ldquotipping pointrdquo towards runaway climatechange there is by definition no more solution What thenDoes the progressive movement disband Does the fightfor justice and income equality disappear when we realizethe planet can no longer even theoretically provide enoughabundance for all to share

I wonder at what age would Finn have us transfer hisgloomy outlook onto our children who inherit ldquoecologicaArmageddonrdquo And yet for adults as well as childrenthe sort of fear emanating from Finnrsquos writing can be asparalyzing as that which comes from Stephen Harperrsquos mouthFor progressive voices to be effective they must includemotivation and encouragement not reminders that most of

our efforts are futile Whatrsquos more a positive approach is justas important today while there is still t ime to avert collapseas it will be later

Organizations like 350org seem to understand this andmake sure at least half their Facebook postings report goodnews Indeed Irsquod much rather read about activistsrsquo successfulshutdown of the Toronto Stock Exchange on DivestmentDay than about Finnrsquos inability to summon ldquomore than asmidgeon of optimismrdquo We need to continually imagine theworld we want built on our successes small though theymay sometimes appear

L Maybam Terrebonne QC


httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmonitor-mar2015 540CCPA Monitor 5 March 2015

interests of big earners corporations andpolluters while underfunding publicservices increasing Medical ServicePlan premiums and all but admitting

defeat on the BC Jobs PlanldquoWe ended 2014 with a nearly $1 billion surplus The economy is projectedto grow by 13 over the next three years(nominal GDP) The government can nolonger plead poverty and can certainlyafford to begin implementing the $10day child care plan a comprehensivepoverty reduction planrdquo wrote IvanovaldquoUnfortunately Budget 2015 prioritizesrecording a large surplus over reaaction on pressing economic socialand environmental problems This is

a shortsighted budget that lacks visionand leadershiprdquo

Great expectations for TheRock In January the CCPArsquos Nova Scotiaoffice released a report by DeatraWalsh Mary-Dan Johnston andChristine Saulnier called GreatExpectations Opportunities andChallenges for Young Workers in Newfoundland and Labrador Thereport which draws on the experience

and insights of youth and employersfollows up on extensive researchundertaken to develop a YouthRetention and Attraction Strategy forthe province It identifies clear tensions

between the needs and expectations oyoung workers and employers

ldquoWhile it is true that young workersexpectations of high wages and rapidadvancement in work they find fulfillingmay be unrealistic given the currenteconomic climate so too are employersexpectations that young workers will be

ready and able to commit to positionswith little security and minimaltraining especially if pay is low and benefits are absentrdquo explained Walshthe primary author on the report

For more blogs reports commentary andinfographics from the CCPArsquos nationaand provincial offices visit www

policyalternativesca You can also join theconversation on Facebook and follow us onTwitter ccpa

A just transition for energyworkersldquoJust transitionrdquo is an approachto environmental policy-making

developed by the labour movementthat aims to minimize the impact ofenvironmental policies on workers inaffected industries and communitiesand to involve workers in decisionsabout their livelihoods A new reportfrom the Climate Justice Project co-authored by Karen Cooling Marc LeeShannon Daub and Jessie Singer drawson extensive interviews with resourcesector workers in several industriesto inform a strategy that ensuresclimate action doesnrsquot worsen already

high levels of economic insecurity inresource-dependent communitiesldquoParticipants cited cases of families

having faced extreme instability due tolost incomes including drug and alcoholaddiction increased domestic violencedivorce and the impact of strandedassets (for instance when a factory ina resource-dependent town closes thelocal residential housing market becomesglutted with properties which forcesdown property values)rdquo says the report

Just Transition Creating a green social

contract for BCrsquos resource workersBased on these interviews the

authors propose broad parameters forwhat a just transition strategy could looklike in BC including levying a fundon the oil and gas industry increasingpublic ownership of resourcesand considering other alternativemodes of development investing inapprenticeships and advance trainingprograms extending income security(EI) for up to four years and moreworker and family supports for when

a person loses his or her jobThe Climate Justice Project is a five-

year research project led by the CCPAndashBCand the University of British Columbiathat studies the social and economicimpacts of climate change and developsinnovative green policy solutions thatare both effective and equitable

Why capture carbon when you can eliminate itSaskPower opened its $15 billion

Boundary Dam Carbon Capture andStorage (CCS) Facility to much fanfarewith Premier Brad Wall hailing theproject as ldquoanother Saskatchewanfirstrdquo A new report from CCPAndashSK questions whether the rewardsfrom such an investment outweighthe risks Authors Brian Banks and

Mark Bigland-Pritchard conclude themassive investment in CCS technologywould have been much better spent onnew less expensive renewable sourcesof energy that would have reducedgreenhouse gas emissions much moreefficiently

Ontario school boards short-changedOntario has been putting pressure on theToronto District School Board to makecuts amidst swirling controversy about

trustee spending But whatrsquos at the heartof the problem CCPA research associateHugh Mackenzie has been tracking theflawed provincial funding formula foreducation since former premier MikeHarris first implemented it in the late-1990s In a new report Harris-Era Hangovers Mackenzie summarizesthe chronic underfunding that school

boards across Ontario (Toronto inparticular) have been struggling withfor almost two decades Until theprovince fixes the funding formula itself

Mackenzie predicts more headaches forOntario trustees

Budget busting in BCOn February 17 as BCrsquos financeminister wrapped up his budget speechin the provincial legislature CCPAndashBC economist Iglika Ivanova postedldquo11 things you need to know aboutBC Budget 2015rdquo on the Policy Notewebsite As the infographic on this pagesuggests the budget was lopsided in the

NEW FROM THE CCPA



nine active ISDS cases against Canada is a staggering $6 billionThe pervasive threat of investorndashstate challenges under

NAFTA Chapter 11 has the further effectmdashintended by itsadherentsmdashof putting a chill on public interest regulationCanadians and their elected officials should be deeplyconcerned Unfortunately compared to other parts of the worldthere is surprisingly little political debate about the corrosiveinfluence of ISDS on public policy and democracy in Canada

As Naomi Klein argues persuasively in her latest bookmeeting humanityrsquos global challenges including reining inmultinational financial firms or addressing the existentialthreat posed by rapid climate change will require moreand more assertive government intervention and regulationExtreme investor rights agreements including NAFTArsquosChapter 11 are relics of an era when market fundamentalismmdash

the belief in the virtues of fully liberalized marketsmdashwas theprevailing political wisdom It is time to move on

Scott Sinclair is a senior research fellow with the CCPA and directorof the centrersquos Trade and Investment Research Project

T T T

Small business tax cuts Been there done that

By Kaylie Tiessen

In the prelude to the 2015 federal election NDP LeaderThomas Mulcair is talking about job creation in

southwestern Ontario Hersquos promising more small businesstax cuts and credits as his entry point Itrsquos the political normthese days to promote low business taxes but in reality theidea is already old hat

About a year ago Canadarsquos Department of Finance releaseda report outlining the changes in effective tax rates for small

businesses (or Canadian-controlled private corporations CCPCsas they are called in tax language) between 2000 and 2011 Itshowed that at both the federal and provincial level these taxeshave decreased dramatically since 2000 a small business with$500000 in taxable income now pays less than half the combinedfederal and weighted average provincial corporate income tax i

Investorndashstate claims out of control

By Scott Sinclair

Over the last two decades Canada has been sued more

times than either Mexico or the United States underthe controversial investorndashstate dispute settlement

(ISDS) mechanism in the North American Free TradeAgreement (NAFTA) The situation is getting worse

As explained in our latest update and commentaryDemocracy Under Challenge Canada and Two Decades of

NAFTArsquos InvestorndashState Dispute Settlement Mechanismthe number of ISDS cases against Canada is rising sharplywith over 70 of all NAFTA claims since 2005 being broughtagainst the Canadian government From 1995-2005 there were12 claims against Canada while in the last 10 years there have

been 23 or nearly double As of January 1 2015 45 of NAFTA

claims (35 cases) were made against Canada compared to 22against Mexico and 20 against the USIt is apparent that the federal governmentrsquos strong

ideological commitment to ISDS and its willingness to settleand pay compensation is encouraging investorndashstate claimsagainst Canada As a result Canada has now been suedmore times through investment arbitration than any otherdeveloped country in the world

It was not supposed to play out this way at least thatrsquoswhat NAFTArsquos proponents claimed when the agreement wassigned ISDS was needed they said to address concerns aboutcorruption in the Mexican court system But most investorndashstate challenges since 1995 have involved public policy and

regulatory matters 63 of claims against Canada relate toenvironmental protection or resource management measuresCurrently Canada faces nine active ISDS claims on a wide

range of government measures that allegedly interfere withthe expected profitability of foreign investments These includechallenges to a ban on fracking by the Quebec provincialgovernment (Lone Pine Resources) a decision by a CanadianFederal Court to invalidate a pharmaceutical patent on the

basis that it was not sufficiently innovative or useful (Eli Lilly)provisions to promote the rapid adoption of renewable energies(Mesa Power) a moratorium on offshore wind projects in LakeOntario (Windstream Energy) and the decision to block acontroversial mega-quarry in Nova Scotia (ClaytonBilcon)

Canada has already lost or settled six ISDS claims paidout damages totaling over $170 million and incurred tens ofmillions more in legal costs Mexico has lost five cases andpaid damages of US$204 million ($257 million) The US hasnever lost a NAFTA investorndashstate case implying a bias amongarbitrators that is likely related to concern about how Congresswould react to having its sovereignty challenged in this way

Proponents of ISDS in trade and investment agreementssuggest Canadarsquos financial losses are not significant enoughto be a problem But as the number of cases against Canadaincreases so too does the average amount of relief sought Thetotal amount of compensation sought by foreign investors in the

BEHIND THE NUMBERS

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Other

Agricultural

Land use planning

Public services Postal services

Trade remedies

Health care pharmaceuticals

Administration of justice

Resource management

Environmentaprotection

Financial regulation taxation

NAFTA claims by measure challenged



would have paid just 13 years agoThis dramatic decrease is the result

of two changes First the businesslimitmdashthe ceiling on the corporateincome eligible for the small businessdeductionmdashincreased from $200000 in2000 to $500000 in 2009 This resultedin more (and higher-earning) businesses being eligible for the deduction

The second change over this periodwas a reduction in the tax rate appliedto small businesses across CanadaThe weighted average provincial andterritorial rate decreased from 69 in2000 to 43 by January 1 2014 Thefederal small business tax rate was 13in 2000 but by January 1 2014 it haddropped to 11 During this same timeperiod Ontariorsquos small business tax ratedropped from 7 to 45 BCrsquos from513 to 25 Saskatchewanrsquos from 8

to 2 Small businesses in Manitobawent from paying a 7 provincial taxrate 13 years ago to nothing at all (at theprovincial level) today

In this context the federal NewDemocrats now want to lower the small

business tax rate even furthermdashto 10immediately and 9 as soon as financespermit It echoes an Ontario NDP promiseto lower the small business tax from 45to 3 if elected in the recent provincialelection (they werenrsquot) It was an ill-advised proposal then and it is again now

The cuts are promoted as anincentive for small businesses to reinvesttheir earnings and create jobs It is notexactly working out that way

Data from Statistics Canada (LabourForce Survey estimates Table 282-0011)reveal that between 2000 and 2013 thenumber of incorporated self-employedindividuals in Ontario increased bymore than 40 Across Canada 43of all self-employed individuals areincorporated Furthermore the shareof self-employed individuals with no

employees increased from 12 to 20over the same time period

More than 50 of incorporated small businesses in this category (ie withoutemployees) were involved in the followingsectors construction professionalscientific and technical services financeinsurance real estate health care andsocial assistance It appears that thecombination of federal and provincial

business tax changes is inducing self-employed high-income earners (eg

doctors lawyers accountants and smallconsultancies) to incorporate to takeadvantage of lower tax rates

As CCPAndashON researcher HughMackenzie pointed out in a recent Behindthe Numbers blog we donrsquot normallythink of these people as small businessowners But they are able to pay a much

lower marginal tax rate than the averagewage earner simply by incorporating asa business (which is naturally attractivewhen the option is available) It providesa way for high-earning individuals andfamilies to reduce their taxes as well astheir contribution to public servicesthat build equity and fairness into theeconomy

This tax policy is one amongmany factors contributing to incomeand wealth inequality in Canada Itis also undermining fiscal health and

the governmentrsquos ability to pay for theservices Canadians benefit from After 14years of the same old pattern it is worthnoting that more could be achievedthrough investing in public servicesthan can be achieved through tax cutsthat donrsquot deliver their intended results

Kaylie Tiessen is an economist with theCCPAndashOntario Follow her on Twitter KaylieTiessen

T T T

What if First Nations (andtheir poverty) were counted

By David Macdonald

Kudos to the Globe and Mail for its January 23 front pagestory highlighting the official

unemployment rate does not countFirst Nations reserves You heard thatright First Nations reserves some of thepoorest places in the country are notincluded in official unemployment data

As unbelievable as that soundsthe reality is worse Reserves areroutinely excluded from all regularlyupdated measures of poverty wagegrowth average incomes etc Theexception to this rule is during a census(every four years) And as a result oflegislation making the long-form censusvoluntary concerns have been raisedabout the future reliability of thesedata Otherwise reserves some of thepoorest places in Canada are statistic-

free zones Out of sight out of mindAs someone who works regularly

with Statscan data this was hardlynews to me But Irsquom glad the issue hasfinally gotten the attention it deservesHow can we have an accurate pictureof whatrsquos happening in Canada whenwersquore deliberately excluding some of thepoorest parts of our country from our basic statistics

So what might unemploymentin Canada look like if reserves wereincluded

Since this data isnrsquot collectedmonthly the only reliable figures arefrom the first week of May 2011 when theNational Household Survey (NHS) wasconducted The seasonally unadjustedunemployment rate for Canada was76 at that point which was close tothe comparable Labour Force Survey

(LFS) estimate of 75 But on reservesit was a shocking 22 Had reserves been included in the calculations theCanadian unemployment rate wouldhave been 78 not the official 76

When reserves are included inthe calculations the employment rate(ie the proportion of the workingage population that has a job) fallsfrom 611 to 609mdashpretty incredibleconsidering people on reserves makeup only 1 of the Canadian population

Thatrsquos for 2011 But what would it

look like todayThe graph shows that when reserves

are included the unemployment rate isa little worse than the official statisticsindicate for Canada Ontario and QuebecBut it is substantially worse for the Prairieprovinces and British Columbia Ifeveryone were counted including peopleliving on reserves the unemploymentrate in December 2014 would have

jumped from 52 to 58 in Manitobafrom 36 to 43 in Saskatchewan andfrom 54 to 57 in BC

What if the jobless on reserves werecounted Excluding the poorest placesin Canada from basic data collectionmay paint a rosier picture but certainlynot a truthful one

Canada has a responsibility to FirsNations peoples who live on reserve theydeserve to be counted Yes that will cosmore money But not including peopleon reserves in data gathering ignoresthe appalling poverty that successivegovernments have both facilitated and



allowed to deepen for generations in this wealthy countryNotes for stats nerds These calculations are

approximations The on-reserve designation was imputed

by using band membership crossed with non-CMA locationsfrom the NHS Individuals PUMF It is clearly not perfectand should be treated as a proxy This approach while fastoverestimates the number of people on reserves Irsquom applyingdifferences in non-seasonally adjusted figures from 2011 toseasonally adjusted LFS data from Dec 2014 Those differencesmay not hold although there is really no way of knowingsince reserves arenrsquot included in the LFS

Regular data collection should happen on reserves but the blame for this not happening should not be placedentirely at the feet of Statistics Canada It s more expensiveto collect data on reserves particularly if they are remoteAusterity-driven budget cuts have significantly strained the

departmentrsquos resources

David Macdonald is a senior economist with the CCPA Followhim on Twitter DavidMacCdn

T T T

The case against a revenue-neutral carbon tax

By Marc Lee

I

rsquom a fan of carbon taxes but increasingly they comewith the term ldquorevenue-neutralrdquo attached Advocates ofneutrality many of them from BC are promoting this

provincersquos carbon tax in other jurisdictions including OntarioThey base their arguments on a naive view that once youput a price on carbon (to change marketplace incentives) all

becomes well In reality revenue neutrality is a bug not a benefit of BCrsquos carbon tax framework

First of all while economists love the idea most ordinarypeople simply donrsquot get it To be revenue neutral a carbon taxmust somehow flow back out of government coffers typicallyas an income tax cut or else as tax credits or a fixed dividendIn some cases people donrsquot believe this is going to happenas promised and in BC they would be right two-thirds ofcarbon tax revenues have been used to support corporate

income tax cutsMore importantly while people may not like paying taxes

when they do they want to see that money build stuff Thatis how people understand taxes And we will need to builda lot of stuff to get us off fossil fuels walkable and bikeablecommunities public transit energy-efficient buildings zero-waste systems renewable energy forest conservation andother stewardship measures etc You canrsquot buy any of thiswith a tax cut

The ability of many economic actors to respond to a carbonprice is constrained by circumstances If you live in the suburbsyou often donrsquot really have an option but to keep driving If youare a renter you have no control over investments in your homersquosenergy efficiency Even if you are a concerned homeowner thearea of energy efficiency is plagued by market failures (eg lackof information) such that profitable investments go unrealizedin favour of the status quo

Big-picture climate action requires that we act togetherto make systemic changes and infrastructure investments toreduce our emissions Carbon pricing is part of the answer but regulations and public investment are also needed Too

many carbon tax advocates tend to pit carbon taxes againstthose other measuresThe case for revenue neutrality is often made on the

grounds that people wonrsquot support a carbon tax otherwiseHerersquos what Washington Governor Jay Inslee had to say abouthat as his state considers a more aggressive climate action plan

My conclusion is that a revenue-neutral proposal does not give you additional support either in the legislature or inthe public It actually has diminished support Thatrsquos from a guy whorsquos been in this business for 22 years and both wonand lost elections Itrsquos important to listen to people and Irsquovelistened to people and thatrsquos the conclusion that Irsquove reached

Advocates of revenue neutrality also make unsupported claimsabout the benefits of tax cuts especially personal income taxcuts In particular the claim these will be beneficial by loweringthe tax-based disincentive to work is just plain wrong Even ineconomic theory the impact is ambiguous (eg there are bothincome and substitution effects in response to a tax change)People cannot easily alter their hours of work in response topersonal income tax rates and studies show that their impacon work effort is basically zero In fact the top 1 facing thehighest top marginal tax rates tends to work longer hours

If you want to maximize the economic benefit of thosecarbon tax revenues public spending is widely recognized to

be the better approach Multipliers for public investment aremuch higher than for tax cuts That is they have a bigger impacon employment and provide a bigger boost to GDP So to theextent that carbon taxes are part of the answer they are moreeffective economically and in terms of affecting the change wewant if revenues are used to support climate action initiatives

Some perspective on effectiveness also comes from thecollapse of market prices for oil a price impact that far outweighany carbon pricing on offer Historically price swings due tomarket forces swamp carbon pricing efforts Vancouver providea good example as the price of gas fluctuates even on a weekly

basis by more than the amount of the carbon tax If we were to boost gas prices back to June 2014 levels we would be looking a

25

35

45

55

65

75

85

C a n a d a

Q u e b e c

O n t a r i o

M a n i t o b a

S a s k a t c h e w a n

A l b e r t a B

C

U n e m

p l o y m e n t r a t e

Official rate (2014)

If First Nations reserves were included(they are not)

What if the jobless on reserves counted



a carbon tax of more than $200 per tonneFinally revenue neutrality is bad

public finance We will need to fundpublic services well after we solve ourcarbon crisis and this takes stablerevenue sources income and sales taxes

being the main options Economistsoften neglect this in models whichassume that government interventionin hypothetically perfect marketsmakes things worse by deviating fromthe fantasy equilibrium This includesresults from computable generalequilibrium (CGE) models presented asempirical fact when in reality they justtake bad theory and put numbers to it

Supporters of the revenue-neutralBC model also tend to gloss over theprovincial governmentrsquos obsession withnatural gas exports which if successfulwould pump hundreds of millions of

tonnes of CO2 into the air each yearIf we are to stay below an average2degC rise in global temperaturesmdashtherequirement for avoiding the worstimpacts of climate changemdashmajorconstraints on carbon will be neededand a large portion of our fossil fuelreserves will have to stay in the groundUnder these circumstances we must be asking what type of carbon pricingscheme helps us meet this challengeconsistent with Canadarsquos plausible shareof the global carbon budget

Income transfers do need to be partit because carbon taxes are regressivethey hit low-income households morethan high-income households Thatrsquoswhy I support an enhanced credit forlow- to middle-income householdsIt would be similar to how Old AgeSecurity and the Canada Child TaxBenefit reach a high percentage ofhouseholds but direct the most incometo those who need it the most

Proponents of the naive market viewhave come up with some catchy sloganslike ldquotax what you burn not what youearnrdquo Irsquoll give them that But theirapproach is too rooted in neoclassicaleconomics and it is biased towardsindividual- or firm-level decision-making in response to price changes Tohave fair and effective carbon pricing weneed to give up on revenue neutrality

Marc Lee is a senior economist withthe CCPAndashBC Follow him on TwitterMarcLeeCCPA

T T T

Municipal headaches

By Eve-Lyne Couturier

M

unicipal taxes Just thinkingabout them can causeheadaches For most of the

year we nearly forget how they helpfinance our town or city When the tax

bill comes we open it with tremblinghands wondering about the magnitudeof this yearrsquos hike For many householdsespecially the elderly or young familiesthis annual letter can spell an end tothe home-owning project Wages rarelyfollow the staggering rise in the priceof real estate At the same time sincethe property tax is the only means ourmunicipalities have of financing theiractivities we often get stuck with a

form of tax-based urban planning inwhich municipalities favour real estatespeculation in a way that hurts thefinancial health of households and local business

Hence the property tax fails on atleast two counts it does not respect theability to pay taxes and it encouragescities to make planning decisions aimedat fostering real estate growth Therersquosalso a third disadvantage a propertytax partly disconnects tenants fromtheir municipality Even where rentstake into account municipal taxes (andlandlords are allowed to pass on 100of the annual hike) we still sometimeshear that municipal elections are strictlya landownerrsquos affair since they are theones receiving the tax bills

Bearing these critiques in mindin January IRIS (Institut de rechercheet drsquoinformations socio-eacuteconomiques)published a study on municipaltaxation If property tax is not workingproperly we asked then what are the

alternatives In fact throughout theworld cities employ a variety of tools forcollecting revenue from their residentsScandinavian countries rely primarilyon an income tax Hungarian andChilean municipalities collect sales taxthat makes up more than half of their taxrevenue In OECD countries the averagedistribution is roughly 40 from incometaxes another 40 from property taxesand 20 from sales taxes Howeverin Canada as in all English-speaking

countries (as well as Israel) almost almunicipal revenue is derived fromproperty taxes (974 in Quebec) Thereis room for some rebalancing here

In our opinion there are five guidingprinciples that should orient efforts tomake the municipal tax system more jusand equitable municipal autonomy intermunicipal solidarity progressiveness thereduction of speculative real estate andencouraging environmentally sustainable

behaviour From these principles wearrived at an option for municipal taxationthat is supported by a municipal incometax combined with a form of taxation thatakes into account real estate value andto some extent ecological considerationsOur proposal is tax neutral we are notattempting to increase or decrease taxrevenues for municipalities but to find afairer way of collecting them

Even though tax revenue would be levied mai nly by the provincialgovernment each town and city wouldstill be able to determine the tax ratesimposed on residents These sums wouldthen be redistributed to cities one part asa direct payment and another allocatedthrough an equalization mechanismcalculated by municipal governmentsthemselves In this way the first twoprinciples of fair taxation would berespected Since tax bills would be basedmainly on income this option is also

more progressive than when only assetsare taken into account By diversifyingthe sources of tax revenue we also satisfythe fourth principle since increasing thevalue of houses would no longer be themain driver of municipal taxation andtax-based urban planning would lose itsappeal Finally ecological taxation (ega carbon tax) would encourage certain

behaviours and discourage others Onceagain the objective is not to bring moremoney into municipal coffers but to createfriendlier and more sustainable cities

Could we implement these changestomorrow morning Probably notHowever we have to start thinkingabout these options today to questionthe framework wersquove been caught infor too long when it comes to our citiesWe can do better by doing differentlyMaybe just talking about it will helplighten our collective headache

Eve-Lyne Couturier is a researcher with IRISa Montreal-based progressive think-tank



ldquoIf you want it done right you have to do it yourselfrdquoIn a bold take on this adage more and more

municipalities across Canada have taken it uponthemselves to ensure affordable citywide Internet accessthrough community-based networks known as municipal

broadband typically operated by local governmentspublic utilities co-operatives non-profits or public-privatepartnerships Recent developments in the United Stateshighlight their significance and potential role in galvanizingCanadarsquos otherwise lacklustre digital policy

In January US President Obama delivered a landmarkspeech in favour of municipal broadband from the smallindustrial town of Cedar Falls Iowamdasha town notable for itsultra-fast 1 Gbps (1000 Mbps) municipally owned Internetservice Shortly after the US Federal CommunicationsCommission (FCC) redefined ldquobroadbandrdquo Internet to mean

a minimum speed of 25 Mbps a forward-looking nationalstandard that showed an understanding of peoplersquos needsin the digital era Meanwhile New York State is investingUS$500 million to provide 100 Mbps Internet to every residentand business by 2019

By comparison Canadarsquos most recent stride forward indigital strategy arrived last April in the form of IndustryCanadarsquos Digital Canada 150 which ostensibly aims to delivera minimum of 5 Mbps Internet service to 98 of Canadians

by 2017 Put bluntly the federal governmentrsquos most prominentaspiration for Canadarsquos digital future maxes out at one-fifthof the US legal minimum Canadarsquos bottom-third OECDranking for upload and download speeds (Ookla Net Index

2015) only adds to the dismayIn contrast to this federal timidity pioneering municipalities

have sensed which way the data is blowingOlds Alberta became Canadarsquos first gigabit town after

big carriers refused to collaboratively expand services Takingmatters into its own hands Olds launched a municipal Internetutility called O-Net offering its 8600 rural residents 1 GbpsInternet that is symmetricalmdashboth uploads and downloadsare that fastmdashand unlimited (no data caps)

Stratford Ontariorsquos municipal data utility RhyzomeNetworks serves seven rural communities Rhyzomeestablished Stratfordrsquos reputation as a technological innovationhub inspired the University of Waterloo Stratford Campusand invigorated rural medical care

In New Brunswick Fredericton and Moncton boast freecitywide municipal Wi-Fi Meanwhile QNet in CoquitlamBritish Columbia leases excess fibre capacity to anyoneresulting in local residents being offered unlimited Internetplans for just $20 a month

Megabit for megabit these cities are punching abovetheir weight Their initiative demonstrates how municipal

broadband is rooted in sound policy and can have significant benefits

For municipalities increased cost-effectiveness efficiencyeconomies of scale revenue and savings ensue not least

for other municipal services that can use the enhancedconnection to improve their own functionality for residentsQNet for instance saved Coquitlam approximately $360000per year in telecommunications costs and generated a $75000surplus in 2013

Municipal broadband also stimulates the local economy by attracting and retaining small businesses while cuttingtheir expenses and enabling them to compete with globalenterprises and creating employment such as the 700 jobsthat emerged in Stratford Furthermore all generated valueremains within the community itself through spending orreinvestment instead of flowing out toward distant headoffices

In terms of the public good municipal broadbandpromotes universal Internet access particularly in low-incomeor rural communities that are underserved or passed over

as insufficiently profitable by private Internet providersMunicipalities taking up the broadband slack recognize thatInternet access is now an essential service in every sense ofthe term and should not be left to private enterprise alone

Where private companies do provide Internet servicethey lack the accessibility responsiveness transparencyand accountability to the public that a community-based broadband network has We frequently learn this the hardway such as when Telus blocked its own unionrsquos websitefrom Internet subscribers during a 2005 strike or when BelMobility charged northern subscribers fees for a 911 serviceit never set up

Opponents argue that municipal broadband burdens

taxpayers with risk that could be allocated to businessesand constitutes unfair competition that interferes with free-market efficiency They also argue that municipalities lackthe competency to manage the complex systems required andwill be less responsive to technological change

However Canadian incumbent carriersmdashthemselves beneficiaries of government subsidiesmdashsorely need thecompetition that municipal broadband could provide Anypublic project carries risks Municipalities have demonstrabletrack records managing transit sewage water roads and othercomplex critical infrastructure all of which theoreticallycould be privatized but are not for overriding policy reasonsin view of the public interest

As a form of local activism it may be no coincidencethat small cities and rural towns are leading this particulartechnological charge O-Net Accounts Director NathanKusiek told one CKFM reporter ldquo[W]ersquove had interest fromcommunities probably on a weekly basis asking us how wersquovedone this how they would do it if we can help them so thereare several communities that are in talks with usrdquo

Perhaps Industry Canada could give them a call as well

Cynthia Khoo is a policy research intern with OpenMediaca acommunity-based organization that safeguards the open InternetSteve Anderson is the executive director of OpenMediaca

Comment Hope Springs Municipal

How small towns are driving Canadarsquos digital futureBy Cynthia Khoo and Steve Anderson



On January 30 the Supreme Courtof Canada reaffirmed that astrong base of fundamental

rights for union members is a cornerstoneof Canadarsquos democracy protected by ourConstitution In a five-to-two majoritydecision the Court ruled that the rightto collective bargaining including theright to strike is a constitutional rightfor all workers in Canada regardless ofwhether they work in the private sectoror the public sector

The case involved a Charter challengeto two labour laws passed by the BradWall government in Saskatchewan in June 2008 with a focus on Bill 5 the

Public Service Essential Services ActBill 5 used the language of ldquoessentialservice employeesrdquo to effectively takeaway the right to strike from almost allpublic sector workers in the province

According to the Supreme Court ldquotheconclusion that the right to strike is anessential part of a meaningful collective bargaining process in our system oflabour relations is supported by history by jur isprudence and by Canadarsquosinternational obligationsrdquo It thereforedeclared the Public Service Essential

Services Act to be unconstitutionalThe Court said some restrictions

on the right to strike for workers whogenuinely perform essential servicesmay be justifiable But it added that inthese cases the means chosen by thegovernment to deal with the issue must beldquominimally impairing that is carefullytailored so that rights are impairedno more than necessaryrdquo In orderfor such a limitation to be acceptablethere must be an ldquoindependent reviewmechanismrdquo to determine whether

services are truly essential There mustalso be a ldquomeaningful dispute resolutionmechanismrdquo to resolve any bargainingimpasse for workers who cannot strike

This means a government asemployer cannot unilaterally declare agroup of workers to be essential theremust be a legitimately independentprocess to determine who is actuallyproviding a service that if interruptedldquowould threaten serious harm tothe general public or to a part of the

populationrdquo And if the decision aboutwho is providing an essential servicewould result in a loss of the effective right

to strike for some employees there must be some kind of independent arbitrationto deal with any bargaining impasse

This is now the base for collective bargaining in Canada It does notderive from statute but out of the veryConstitution of the country

Though it is a response toSaskatchewan law the Courtrsquos decisionapplies to the entire country includingall provincial governments It will haveimplications in Nova Scotia for examplewhere the new Liberal government has

been intentionally trampling the rightsof public employees The provinces willhave to be much more respectful of therights of their employees than they have been in the recent past

The Court ruling also appliesfederallymdashto a government with atrack record of attacking the rights ofits employees It will affect Bill C-4which amended the Public ServiceLabour Relations Act to give the federalgovernment the ldquoexclusive rightrdquo todetermine which services are essential

and the number of positions requiredto provide those services The bill isexactly the kind of law that the SupremeCourt has ruled to be invalid

Bill C-4 also radically altered thearbitration system The list of factorsthat an arbitration board or PublicInterest Commission must considerwhen deciding on compensation issuesis being reduced to retention and abilityto pay again as unilaterally defined

by the government No one could readthe Supreme Court decision and comeaway thinking this sort of predeterminedarbitration would be considered asfair and independent The federalgovernment will now have to revise itslegislation to bring it into conformity withthe Constitution of Canada Anythingless would be contempt of court

There were two other recentSupreme Court decisions that shouldresult in a serious rethinking by thefederal government

In 2009 the Harper government

passed the Expenditure Restraint Actwhich imposed caps on salary increasesfor federal government employeesprohibited any additional compensationincreases (eg allowance bonusdifferential or premium) and prohibitedany changes to the classification systemthat resulted in increased pay rates Inseveral cases the legislation overturnedpreviously negotiated collectiveagreements containing wage increasesabove the imposed salary caps

Unions challenged this latterprovision saying that retroactivelychanging collective agreements in thisfashion was an infringement on the

rights of public employees Provinciacourts in Quebec and British Columbiafound the law to be acceptable Theselower court decisions were appealed tothe Supreme Court

In a very unusual move the SupremeCourt has referred these cases back tothe provincial courts that ruled againsthe unions Lawyer Peter Engelmannof Sack Goldblatt Mitchell LLP said ldquoIfthe court was signaling that the appealswill be unsuccessful they could have jusdenied leave but they didnrsquot do thatrdquo

It seems clear the Supreme Court wassaying that based on its recent rulingsthe lower courts needed to revisit theirdecisions about the federal law

The Court also recently overturneda long-standing ban on unions in theRCMP The government is reportedlystill studying that decision

The Constitution includes the rightof working people to choose and join aneffective union that is independent oftheir employer And it includes the rightof that union to engage in collective

bargaining with the right to strike being a necessary part of that process

How many times in how manyways must the Supreme Court ruleon this before federal and provincialgovernments realize that they are notabove the law

Larry Brown is the national secretary-treasurer of the National Union of Public andGeneral Employees and the president of theCanadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Comment Essential Services

Supreme Court affirms workersrsquo constitutional rightsBy Larry Brown



On March 2 the Supreme Court of British Columbiais scheduled to hear a case that could severelyundermine a medical care system that has served

Canada well and is still the envy of many other countriesThe story began when after hearing about possible

double-billing and other illegal charges the BC Ministryof Health agreed to audit the Cambie Surgery Centre aprivate surgical clinic in Vancouver headed by Dr BrianDay In spite of Dayrsquos talk of openness Cambie seriouslyresisted this audit And in 2009 in apparent retaliation he andseveral colleagues filed a counterclaim against the provincialgovernment alleging the Medicare Protection Act violatesthe Charter of Rights and Freedoms

This effectively postponed the audit But when theMedical Services Commission finally got access to the

books government auditors found that the Cambie clinics

had broken the law by massively overbilling patients and theprovince for services covered by the BC Medical ServicesPlan In a period of just one month Cambie had illegally billed patients over $500000

Why the Cambie case is importantThe purpose of the Medicare Protection Act like parallellegislation to implement the Canada Health Act in all otherprovinces is to ldquopreserve a publicly managed and fiscallysustainable health care system for British Columbia in whichaccess to necessary medical care is based on need and not anindividualrsquos ability to payrdquo Day on the other hand claims he isa defender of the patientrsquos right to receive timely quality care

insisting that long wait times for some medical procedures justify the establishment of a parallel private system for thosewho can afford to pay

Dayrsquos case is similar to a recent challenge in Quebecagainst the provincersquos former ban on private health insuranceIn what is known as the Chaoulli decision the SupremeCourt of Canada narrowly found that the law violated theQuebec Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that in Quebeconly long wait times justified private payment Because theCambie case is challenging the Canadian Charter of Rightsand Freedoms if Day wins medicare across the countrywould be in great danger

Patients are understandably concerned about wait times

In some situations for some surgical conditions they can betoo long and that needs to be fixed Fortunately many deliverymodels now exist in Canada and BC that have streamlinedthe process hastening access to care and they have done sounder the publicly financed system Rather than relievingthe wait times private payment by those who can afford itwould only compound the problem

Following the moneyAt first glance it might seem logical that allowing patients topay privately at for-profit clinics would take paying patientsoff public wait lists allowing others to move up the list faster

This is not how it would workThe core of the problem is that our supplies of surgeons

nurses and operating time are limited Because many surgeonswork in both the public and private systems when they areat for-profit clinics they are less available in public hospitalsWait times would naturally go up for the majority of patientswho cannot afford private care

This is described as the ldquocrowding outrdquo phenomenonWe can witness it in action in Australia and Quebec wherea parallel private tier for health care has increased wait timesfor all but those who can afford to avoid them

Currently BC patients wait one week for heart surgerycompared to 15 weeks for hip surgery and 19 weeks forknee surgery The longest waits in BC are for orthopedicprocedures since Day and his colleagues are not available toperform them when they are busy serving patients in their

private clinics In addition the private system tends to skimoff the easier cases leaving patients with more difficult issuesin the now underserved public system

Myth of cheap efficient private careThe Cambie Charter challenge has many economicconsequences Under NAFTA when Canadian surgeonscharge patients privately US surgeons could make a caseto be allowed to do the same In particular NAFTA opensCanada up to multinational health insurance companiesintending to sell private insurance products to cover the costsof privately funded physician services Just as multinationalswant access to our minerals water and fossil fuel resources

so too do they want access to our health care sectorThe high cost of private health insurance is only half the

equation Evidence from the US shows that delivery of for-profit medical care is much more expensive with administrativeoverheads taking up about 30 of costs compared to abou10 in Canada Paying shareholders requires ldquoefficienciesrdquo to

be found constantly either by sacrificing high-quality care fopatients or by lowering worker wages

The Cambie case also threatens medical educationWe depend on public hospitals to train our future healthprofessionals For-profit facilities are much less involved withtraining future health professionals as training takes timeaway from generating profits through higher patient turnover

A moral dilemmaUnfettered private for-profit health care both its deliveryand financing creates a serious social and moral problem breaking the solidarity between rich and poor Eliminatingthe protections of the BC Medicare Protection Act legitimizesgreed

Surgeons at the private clinics claim their primaryinterest is in helping the public by shortening wait lists andthis is why they are waging their Charter challenge If thatwere the truth they could be providing medically necessaryservices now in their private clinics at rates negotiated by

Comment The Cambie Charter Challenge

BC doctor wants you to fear medicareBy Dr Duncan Etches and Dr Michael C Klein



family practitioner nearing the end of a longand distinguished career as a teacher andleader in medical professional affairs Dr

Michael C Klein is a professor emeritusin family practice and pediatrics at theUniversity of British Columbia a formerhead of family practice at BC Womenrsquos

Hospital and BC Childrenrsquos Hospital andcurrently Senior Scientist Emeritus at theChild and Family Research Institute inVancouver

to private for-profit clinics The keyhowever is that those clinics and theirsurgeons receive the same fees forproviding care privately as they wouldin the public system Day and colleagueswant to unilaterally decide their feesthey want to be able to set rates far greaterthan what they customarily charge undermedicare If Cambie wins we all lose

Dr Duncan Etches is an experienced

the government and Doctors of BC Butin fact these surgeons are charging farmore for similar services than they doin the public system revealing theirmore important motivation behind theCambie case making more money

Private for-profit delivery alone isnot currently unlawful so long as it isadministered through the public systemBritish Columbia and other provincescan and do contract out some services

There is certainly plenty of waste in health systems but onearea that seems to have escaped close scrutiny is the wastein private drug plans in Canada

Estimated at over $5 billion a year this represents overhalf of the annual prescription drug bill paid by privateinsurers in Canadamdashmoney that could be better spent onincreasing salaries and improving other benefits such asdental care

The biggest part of an employeersquos benefits package istheir drug plan Unlike public drug plans in Canada privateplans are notoriously inefficient often covering higherpriced drugs that do not deliver better health outcomesfor users or using sub-optimal renewal intervals

Why are private plans so inefficient in Canada Wecan learn much about why companies squander moneyon prescription drugs by looking at how they negotiate

drug plans with their employees and other players in theinsurance universe Our new study in health policy analyzeshow drug plans are negotiated in the private sector

By carrying out interviews with experts from privatesector companies unions insurers and plan advisersthe study was able to delve into the experience of theinterviewees to understand the basics of how things workin negotiating drug benefits in unionized settings

Our findings show everyone keeps each other inthe dark about the drug plans they negotiate Employerswho understand the technical details of their drug planswithhold data on drug spending from employees thus

garnering them an advantage in the negotiating processUnion experts may understand their drug plans areinefficient but they often lack sufficient detail of drugspending to convince employees about the need to introducecost-containment measures

Employers want their drug plans to be as competitiveas those offered by other employers So what happens whenthe norm is to cover all new drugs at any cost even if thedrugs do not provide additional therapeutic value Theend result is that everyone buys generous plans instead ofincreasing employee compensation

Everyone we spoke with agrees about the need toeducate employees and employers alike Everyone agrees

(even insurers) that exorbitant drug costs are a big issuefor Canadians

Insurers could publicize a need to change this irrational

norm of covering everything since covered drugs often donot provide additional therapeutic value for money Onesolution would be to proactively implement managed drugformularies However the financial incentives of insurersare not aligned with those of their clients because inefficientdrug plans are unfortunately very profitable for insurers

The problem is insurers are paid as a percentage of thedrug bill So the bigger the bill the more they makemdashaprinciple that absolutely counters the drive to root out andeliminate waste in the compensation package Sometimesdrug companies explicitly target private drug plans for theirproducts because such plans do not implement restrictionsto yield value for money

During our study we also learned that unless unionsand employers demand drug plans that deliver only drugsthat are safe and cost-effective they will remain incapableof cutting out wasteful spending on drugs Because of thelack of trust and of information sharing between unionsand employers it is unlikely to happen soon

Most of the interviewees agreed a universal pharmacareprogram in Canada makes sense and we need to move inthat direction

It is time to seriously consider what can be done toreform drug coverage and eliminate wasteful spending onprescription drugs The system will not change by itself

Tackling the wastefulness of private drug plans would notonly increase the disposable income of all Canadians itwould reduce labour costs and increase the competitivenessof Canadian enterprises

Sean OrsquoBrady is a PhD student at the School of IndustrialRelations University of Montreal Marc-Andreacute Gagnon isan assistant professor with the School of Public Policy and

Administration Carleton University Alan Cassels is an expertadvisor with EvidenceNetworkca a researcher with the facultyof human and social development at the University of Victoriaand a research associate with the CCPAndashBC This article ran inthe Vancouver Sun on February 10

Canadian employers waste $5 billion a yearon inefficient drug coverage

By Alan Cassels Sean OrsquoBrady and Marc-Andreacute Gagnon



In July after nearly a half-century of defending humanrights and civil liberties in Canada and abroad Roch Tasseacutewill retire leaving his current post as co-ordinator of the

International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group (ICLMG)which he has held since its creation in 2001

The Franco-Ontarian began his life in activism as asocial worker and community organizer in Ottawarsquos easterntownships spending four years in the 1970s with the federallysponsored Company of Young Canadians a creation of theTrudeau government ldquoto co-opt the activism of the radicalsin the late 1960srdquo he jokes over a coffee in early FebruaryAfter the project was disbanded Roch became the editor ofa newspaper serving the francophone community outside ofQuebec where he worked until 1985 That was the year hetook responsibility for Inter Paresrsquos Central America programwhich brought him to Nicaragua El Salvador Guatemala andeventually Chiapas Mexico where civil wars had displaced

entire communities and state repression was the norm Witha network of NGOs Roch took part in UN-brokered peacenegotiations in the late-1980s that saw the return of refugeesand the reconciliation of warring factions among them theContras and Sandinistas in Nicaragua

With relative stability in the region came internationalinvestment In 1999 Roch spent a few years doing contractwork for MiningWatch and other groups monitoring theimpact of Canadian mining companies in Central and LatinAmerica ldquowhich was almost as bad as being in the warzonesrdquo he tells me Our conversation about his life career(and retirement) inevitably focused on the new wave of anti-terrorism legislation introduced over the past few months

and what the ICLMG is doing to challenge itStuart Trew What attracted you to the International CivilLiberties Monitoring Group

Roch Tasseacute ICLMG was created in 2001 I applied and gotthe job I was not a lawyer The committee told me after Iwas hired that it was on the basis of my coalition experiencewhile working for Inter Pares Soon after I got the job thefirst big issue was Maher Arar and working for a year on hisrepatriation to Canada We did it jointly with others of courselike Amnesty International and unions But ICLMG was Ithink a key player Then we got the OrsquoConnor Commissiongoing and that went on for two-and-a-half years ICLMG

had intervener status during the commission I sat in everyfrickinrsquo public hearing For me it was all legal training watch-ing the work of the commission and learning the issues andsocializing with the lawyers I learned more about nationalsecurity operations and agencies and how they work theirdeficiencies and strengths through all the witnesses whoappeared at the OrsquoConnor Commission

A lot of the work wersquore still involved in is a result ofthe OrsquoConnor Commission Wersquore still calling for oversightand review of national security agencies basically theimplementation of Justice OrsquoConnorrsquos recommendationsThere is a new generation of parliamentarians some very

young who have no idea what the OrsquoConnor commission wasall about There are policy advisors to the Minister of PublicSafety who donrsquot even know who Maher Arar is There is nohistorical memory (or much) on the Hill And now with thenew legislation adopted after Octoberrsquos Ottawa shootingsmdashBill C-44 and Bill C-51mdashit almost feels like wersquore back in 2001with a new wave of anti-terrorism measures when peoplehave not even digested the impact of the first wave in 2001

ST Can you describe a bit the impact of this first wave ofterrorism law

RT A lot of what happened to Maher Arar Abdullah Almalkand others was just the behaviour of the security agenciespost-911 with or without new powers in law They abusedtheir powers For example through information sharingwhich led to the rendition and torture of several Canadianindividuals But the first wave of legislation created a paradigm of dealing with terrorism as an enemy and the conceptof the war on terror was born Destroying a building wasalways a crime But suddenly if it was motivated by religiousor political motivations they call it terrorism The massacreat the Eacutecole Polytechnique in Montreal where a crazy guykilled 14 women was not an act of terrorism A lone wolwho shoots one guy on Parliament Hill is called terrorismItrsquos a concept that can be manipulated for political reasonseasily And wersquove seen the slippery slope in governmentdocuments over the years and in CSIS reports not explicitlychanging the definition but naming some threats to Canadaunder anti-terrorism documents For example environmentalactivists are seen as people opposed to the national interestsof Canada The association between economic interest andnational interests has been expressed more clearly than ever before by this government

ST What do you think are the most important factors contributing to that first legislative response

RT When you have technology that can make surveillance soeasy it must have been extremely tempting for all police andintelligence agencies to have access Thatrsquos one factor from

before September 11 2001 Then we had the big market bursof the IT industry in the mid-90s when a lot of the companiescontrolling these new technologies needed to rebuild theirmarkets so the opportunity to offer massive surveillancetechnology was salvation for them A third factor is obviouslythe pressure from the US government on all its allies including Canada after 911 to adopt laws similar to the PATRIOTAct Within weeks we had written and adopted anti-terrorismlegislation very similar to the US and one wonders still howthey were able to draft it so quickly Then you had the politicamotivation what I call political theatre under pressure fromallies [but also] from the public who were scared after 911

I remember being in a parliamentary committee overthe Public Safety Act which followed [in 2003] the first AntiTerrorism Act where MPs were challenged by witnesses on why

Interview Roch Tasseacute

The misuses of national security



nothing Canada can do to protectthe rights of its people so with moreinformation sharing wersquore putting alot more Canadians who travel abroadat risk The risk in 2001 was to berendered to torture The risk today is

being the victim of a drone assassinationconducted by the United States So theimplications are even worse than in 2001Itrsquos like we havenrsquot even learned from theOrsquoConnor and Iacobucci Commissions

A new government must also factorin the Edward Snowden revelations

The massive spying operations ofCSEC have to be reined in We need aparliamentary committee on nationasecurity that could re-examine thewhole function and mandate of CSECIt has never been examined seriously

by parliamentarians most of whomdonrsquot even understand what it does Itrsquosalmost a state within a state right nowand that needs to be addressed

Fundamentally the next govern-ment must redress for all past abusesWe still have Almalki Ahmad El-Maati

Muayyed Nureddin Benamar Benattaand others who have shown throughlitigation against this government andin past commissions of inquiry thattheir rights have been violated Thenext government has to address thesecases Apologize redress compensatefinancially Omar Khadr has to be dealtwith as a child soldier for the first timeI suspect both opposition parties would

be very receptive to correcting thoseabuses

ST Letrsquos say a new government is elect-ed in October What does it need to doto make things right

RT At the minimum the introduction ofvery robust oversight and review on allagencies would have to be a priority tomitigate the potential dangers of abuse

Ideally a new government shouldabrogate the Anti-Terrorism Act andmany of the new acts that have passedsince This might be possible in somecases The new bill last week (C-44)

granted CSIS for the first time policepowers CSIS was created as a result ofthe McDonald Commission becauseof all the abuses that were done bythe RCMP when the RCMP did bothfunctionsmdashintelligence gathering andpolicingmdashwithout oversight A lot ofthese abuses happened in the lsquo70s duringthe FLQ crisis burning barns disruptingmeetings stealing all the membershiplists of the Parti Queacutebeacutecois to find outwhich federal employees belonged tothe PQ surveilling NDP activists in the1974 election This bill last week givesCSIS police powers that are exactlywhat the RCMP had before If that is notabrogated wersquove gone 40 years backwardin the security regime of this country

Plus what was the origin ofthe abuses after 911 that led to therendition and torture of CanadiansInformation sharing with foreign statesThe government is expanding that withalmost no limits Once information isin the hands of another country therersquos

they need these powers since it wouldnot prevent the next attack and theyresponded ldquoYou might be right but thepublic would never forgive us if we didnot introduce new measuresrdquo So the MPswere admitting they had doubts thesemeasures would do anything to protectthe public It was more the theatre theoptic and I believe C-51 is another case Itwonrsquot necessarily provide more securityAnd in this case itrsquos very electorally

based the manipulation of fear gettingpolitical capital out of showing yoursquoregoing to be harsh against terrorism

ST Roxanne James parliamentary sec-retary to the Minister of Public Safetyrecently said the government knowswhatrsquos in Canadarsquos best interests andthat increased oversight of security agen-cies would create ldquoneedless red taperdquoWhat do you make of this attitude

RT The government refused to invitethe federal privacy commissioner to thehearings on Bill C-44 The new commis-sioner had expressed publicly some con-cerns and the government didnrsquot wantto hear those concerns They actuallyturned him down and all the civil liber-ties organizations Not a single one wasinvited to testify

The most serious impact of all thesemeasureshellipis that they take away legalstandards or legal procedures from

the courts and give them to ministersLike the security certificate processwhere you donrsquot charge people youget a minister with the power to issuea security certificate for someonersquosdetention Or the no-fly list whereyou donrsquot go in front of a judge to geta warrant to put a person on the listmdashitrsquos at the discretion of the ministermdashand where under the legislation justintroduced theyrsquove widened the criteriato put somebody on the no-fly list withno redress no recourse

This tendency to take everythingout of the judicial system and put itin the hands of ministerial arbitrarydecision-making powersmdashitrsquos theexecutive taking away both from thelegislative and the judicial Wersquore reallymoving away from the three pillars ofthe balanced Canadian system Weresemble more and more the republicanmodel of the United States where all thepower is in the hands of the presidencyand the executive



Prime Minister Stephen Harperrsquos decision to delay thisyearrsquos North American leaders summit does MexicanPresident Pentildea Nieto a huge favour Postponement of

the meeting originally slated for Ottawa in February allowsPentildea Nieto to avoid a forum in which he could be questionedabout the human rights crisis that has only grown under hisadministration

On September 26 police opened fire on a busload ofeducation students from Ayotzinapa in Iguala Guerrero Sixwere killed and another 43 students forcibly disappearedThe DNA of just one of the students has been identifiedfrom a bag of ashes while the whereabouts of the rest isstill unknown

This event and the bungled investigation that has

followed illustrate the shocking levels of collusion betweenelected officials public security forces and organized crimein Mexico They also underscore the lack of political willto address escalating violence The situation has led tounprecedented mobilizations with hundreds of thousandsof citizens repeatedly taking to the streets to protest endemicviolence impunity and corruption in Mexico

The ldquoThree Amigosrdquo summit an annual meeting ofNAFTA leaders was the moment for Canada to publicly askhard questions and apply pressure for change

The federal government could have urged Mexico to setup a full impartial investigation into the Ayotzinapa caseThe official investigation in Mexico has been sluggish and

limited failing to properly address allegations of complicity by armed forces and others in authority It has relied primarilyon testimonies from gang members who allege corrupt policeofficers handed the students over to them at the behest of thelocal mayor so they could be killed and their bodies burnedin a garbage dump

However investigative journalists from the Universityof California Berkeley and Proceso magazine have foundevidence that key witnesses in the governmentrsquos investigationwere tortured and that federal armed forces may have beendirectly involved Additionally scientists at the NationalAutonomous University of Mexico determined that it isimpossible that 43 bodies could have been burned at theCocula garbage dump as claimed They urge an investigationof private and state-owned incinerators

Canada has lost an opportunity to push the Mexicanpresident to address the pervasive links between criminalgroups and government officials security forces andpolicemdashlinks that are exposed by this crisis The summit inOttawa could have also been a forum to impress upon PentildeaNieto the importance of respecting freedom of expressionand assembly

The Mexican governmentrsquos reaction to the protests thaterupted after the disappearances has been troubling Policehave used disproportionate force against demonstrators

and resorted to arbitrary arrests and ill-treatment of thosein custody Several Mexican states have adopted or soughtto adopt laws expanding the use of force by police duringdemonstrations And there are disturbing reports thatMexicorsquos intelligence agency is investigating human rightsdefenders and lawyers who counsel the families of thedisappeared Ayotzinapa students calling them ldquosubversiverdquoand ldquodangerous to governancerdquo

Mexico and Canada are tied together by trade investment

security co-operation and tourism Since NAFTA cameinto force Canadian investment in Mexico has grownexponentially Canada is now the largest foreign investor inMexicorsquos mining sector with greater mining assets in Mexicothan in any other country in the world Yet while the rest othe world has been speaking out the Canadian governmenthas maintained a public silence about the horror that tookplace last September and the conditions that make suchmurders and disappearances possible

The postponement of the summit cannot be an excuse fordelaying action to address Mexicorsquos growing human rightscrisis Canada must add its voice to those countries callingon the Mexican government to get serious about stopping

the violence impunity and entrenched corruption that have become commonplace in what is now being characterizedas a narcostate

Canada cannot let business interests in Mexico preventit from taking a stand on human rights

Jim Hodgson and Tara Ward are co-chairs and Brittany Lambert thco-ordinator of the Americas Policy Group a working group of theCanadian Council for International Co-operation that is focused ondevelopment and social justice issues in the Americas This articleoriginally appeared in Embassy Magazine and is reprinted with

permission

Comment CanadandashMexico Relations

A missed opportunity for ldquoThree Amigosrdquoto talk about human rights in Mexico

By Jim Hodgson Tara Ward and Brittany Lambert

ldquoThey took them alive We want them back alive Solidarity withthe 43 disappeared studentsrdquo (Photo Sortica)



linked bonds and will likely do thesame with the European Central Bankand European creditor governments

The Syriza planThe Syriza government has pledged toend corruption reform the bureaucracyend the tax immunity for wealthy Greeksand halt the fire-sale privatizationof public assets In its first week inpower the government scrapped theprivatization of Greecersquos main ports andthe state electricity company The Syrizaprogram also includes measures toalleviate poverty such as food stampsreconnecting electricity to homes thathad been cut off rehiring public sectorworkers tax cuts for all but the rich a big increase in the minimum wage andpensions and a moratorium on privatedebt payments to banks above 20 of

disposable incomeSupport for anti-austerity approacheshas come from an unlikely quarterThe expat Canadian Mark Carney nowgovernor of the Bank of England arguedin a recent speech for an end to hardlineeuro zone budgetary policies and arapid movement toward a fiscal unionthat would transfer resources from richto poor countries

Syrizarsquos election victory offerslessons for Europe and indeed globallyFirstly it has dealt a blow to the neolibera

obsession with austerity that prevailsamong European policy elites How biga blow and the extent to which resistancespreads to other countries remains to

be seen But on the whole this is goodnews Second it demonstrates that a newprogressive political force can emergefrom outside the established politicaordermdashone that rejects the conventionarules of the game in this case to take up a

bold anti-austerity plan connected deeplyto the aspirations of the Greek people

Third it raises hopes for a realistichumanistic path out of the mess inwhich Europe finds itself a path thatwould allow the debtor countriesof southern Europe to escape theirausterity trap and begin a sustainablerecovery The alternative is that in theface of continued misery populationswill turn increasingly to right-wingnationalist and racist parties from theNational Front in France to GoldenDawn in Greece These groups are benon dismantling Europe not mending it

economic crisis to climate changemdashithas global consequences but they are feltin distinct ways depending on whereyou live

ldquoCanada has been having arelatively good crisis compared to myhome countryrdquo he said But thingslooked different if you comparedCanadarsquos performance to its closesteconomic twin Australia which in2008 shirked austerity to pursue a moresuccessful stimulus program over alonger period As a result Australia hada more positive employment and GDP-per-capita performance than Canada

Varoufakis argued prescientlythat the Harper government would bemaking a mistake by emulating Britainrsquosresponse to the crisis a combination ofloose monetary policy (low interest rates)and fiscal austerity (major spending

cuts) He called the idea of expansionaryausterity a fairy tale that would depresseconomic recovery More generally hesaid a Canadian recovery that wasdependent on global imbalancesmdashnamely the export of primary productsto claim a part of Chinese surplusesmdashwould be inherently unstable

Sadly but not surprisingly theeconomistrsquos wise counsel for Canadianpolicy-makers has not been heededAs a result according to senior financedepartment officials Scott Clark and

Peter DeVries writing in iPolitics ldquoTheHarper governmentrsquos austerity-ledgrowth strategy of deficit eliminationsmaller government and policylsquoabstinencersquo has failed dismallyrdquo

Since the election in GreeceVaroufakis has vowed to put an endto the ldquofiscal water boardingrdquo thathas inflicted unimaginable pain andsuffering on Greek society The financeminister has said that Greecersquos debtrepayment needs to be tied to its abilityto restore growthmdasha position supportedpublicly by US President Obama Andhe has ruled out Greece taking a newinfusion of cash saying it was time to endthe countryrsquos debt addiction cold turkey

Varoufakis wants the primarysurplus to be reduced to 15 of GDPwhich would provide the necessaryfiscal space for a national stimulusprogram In early February he wasreportedly negotiating with theInternational Monetary Fund to swapGreecersquos sovereign debt for growth-

dence fairymdashthat is to claim that the di-rect job-destroying effects of spendingcuts would be more than made up for by a surge in private-sector optimismrdquo

The repeated failure of Greece torespond to the plan brought repeated cashinfusions and new rounds of onerous

conditionality The Angela MerkelndashledGerman government (supported by a largemajority of the population according topolls) is the power behind the extremeausterity program This ideologicalintransigence and astonishing callousnessin the face of an ongoing humanitariancrisis is a sad case of a country forgettingits own history Harsh debt repaymentconditions imposed on Germany afterthe First World War planted the seeds ofNazism and ultimately led the continentstraight back into war More positively

Merkel should recall how in 1953 a largeportion German debt was written off withrepayments tied to the countryrsquos growthperformance (Greece estimates that it isowed $200 billion in reparations fromGermany for the destruction wrought

by the Nazis)

Reforming Greece warningCanadaGreecersquos new finance minister YanisVaroufakis a former professor ofeconomics at Athens University and

the University of Texas is charged withnegotiating a new deal for his countrySeveral years ago I became aware of hiscritique of European austerity policiesnotably his Modest Proposal for Resolvingthe Eurozone Crisis co-written in 2010with economist and former British MPStuart Holland and now in its fourthiteration co-written by professor JamesGalbraith It puts forth a set of practicalpolicy proposals that would stem thecrisis without breaking existing eurozone rules without the core countrieshaving to pay more for the debts of theperiphery and without any furthererosion of national sovereignty

I invited Varoufakis to speak at anAlternative Federal Budget roundtableon Parliament Hill in January 2012 to bolster our own efforts to challenge theHarper governmentrsquos austerity agendaHe gave a commanding performanceshredding any argument for severe cutsand suggesting Canadians take noteAmong other things he compared the

(Greece continued from page 1)



Syriza to power mark the beginning of the end of the scourgeof austerity Or will this movement be stillborn in the faceof European intransigence and a callous disregard fordemocracy with the consequence of prolonged sufferingand uncertainty for the future of the euro zone

This is a fast moving story with Greecersquos new financeminister as the chief author We will be watching it unfoldwith great interest

Bruce Campbell is the executive director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

Finally Syrizarsquos win on a platform of radical changeis a warning to the established social democratic parties inEurope and beyond that have been apologists for and at timesenforcers of austerity Witness the fate of the Greek socialistparty Pasok reduced to less than 5 of the popular votePodemos the Spanish left-wing party that grew out of thecountryrsquos indignados movement is only a year old but pollsshow it in very good position ahead of this springrsquos elections

The challenges facing the new Greek government areenormous The forces acting against what it is trying to doare formidable Will the political earthquake that brought

I moved to England to attend universityin September 1978 six months or so

before Margaret Thatcherrsquos victorychanged Britain forever Watchingthe Labour government disintegrate

under the weight of its degeneratesocial democratic programme led meto a serious error to the thought thatThatcherrsquos victory could be a good thingdelivering to Britainrsquos working andmiddle classes the short sharp shocknecessary to reinvigorate progressivepolitics to give the left a chance to createa fresh radical agenda for a new type ofeffective progressive politics

Even as unemployment doubledand then trebled under Thatcherrsquosradical neoliberal interventions

I continued to harbour hope thatLenin was right ldquoThings have to getworse before they get betterrdquo As life

became nastier more brutish andfor many shorter it occurred to methat I was tragically in error thingscould get worse in perpetuity withoutever getting better The hope thatthe deterioration of public goodsthe diminution of the lives of themajority the spread of deprivationto every corner of the land wouldautomatically lead to a renaissance ofthe left was just that hope

The reality was however painfullydifferent With every turn of therecessionrsquos screw the left became moreintroverted less capable of producinga convincing progressive agenda andmeanwhile the working class was beingdivided between those who droppedout of society and those co-opted intothe neoliberal mindset My hope thatThatcher would inadvertently bring

about a new political revolution waswell and truly bogus All that sprangout of Thatcherism were extremefinancialization the triumph of theshopping mall over the corner store the

fetishization of housing and Tony BlairInstead of radicalizing British

society the recession that Thatcherrsquosgovernment so carefully engineeredas part of its class war againstorganized labour and against thepublic institutions of social securityand redistribution that had beenestablished after the war permanentlydestroyed the very possibility of radicalprogressive politics in Britain Indeedit rendered impossible the very notionof values that transcended what the

market determined as the ldquorightrdquo priceThe lesson Thatcher taught me

about the capacity of a long-lastingrecession to undermine progressivepolitics is one that I carry with me intotodayrsquos European crisis It is indeedthe most important determinant of mystance in relation to the crisis It is thereason I am happy to confess to the sinI am accused of by some of my criticson the left the sin of choosing not topropose radical political programsthat seek to exploit the crisis as anopportunity to overthrow Europeancapitalism to dismantle the awful eurozone and to undermine the EuropeanUnion of the cartels and the bankrupt bankers

Yes I would love to put forwardsuch a radical agenda But no I amnot prepared to commit the same errortwice What good did we achieve inBritain in the early 1980s by promotingan agenda of socialist change that

British society scorned while fallingheadlong into Thatcherrsquos neoliberaltrap Precisely none What good will itdo today to call for a dismantling of theeuro zone of the European Union itself

when European capitalism is doing itsutmost to undermine the euro zone theEuropean Union indeed itself

A Greek or a Portuguese oran Italian exit from the euro zonewould soon lead to a fragmentationof European capitalism yielding aseriously recessionary surplus regioneast of the Rhine and north of the Alpswhile the rest of Europe would be inthe grip of vicious stagflation Whodo you think would benefit from thisdevelopment A progressive left that

will rise Phoenix-like from the ashesof Europersquos public institutions Orthe Golden Dawn Nazis the assortedneofascists the xenophobes and thespivs I have absolutely no doubt as towhich of the two will do best from adisintegration of the euro zone

I for one am not prepared to blow fresh wind into the sails of thispostmodern version of the 1930s Ifthis means that it is we the suitablyerratic Marxists who must try to saveEuropean capitalism from itself so

be it Not out of love for Europeancapitalism for the euro zone forBrussels or for the European CentralBank but just because we want tominimize the unnecessary human tollfrom this crisis

Excerpt from a lecture by Varoufakis atthe 6th Subversive Festival in Zagreb in2013 as adapted by the Guardian UK on February 18 2015

Mrs Thatcherrsquos LessonBy Yanis Varoufakis



In a stunning victory on January 25the leftist Syriza party won Greecersquosnational elections by a wide margin

earning just short of a majority of seatsin parliament Syriza campaigned on apromise to end the austerity measures(privatization wage constraintspublic service layoffs etc) that werea condition on 240 billion euros ($339 billion) of European loans to help paydown Greek debt Syriza promised theelectorate they would renegotiate the

bailout conditions and reduce totalGreek debt now at 323 billion euros($456 billion) by up to half Newlyelected Greek Prime Minister Alexis

Tsipras made good on that promise byinsisting the current bailout packagewhich ends on February 28 will not beextended on Europersquos harsh terms

ldquoSyrizarsquos victory came like a breathof fresh air and has given the Greekpeople their dignity and pride backhaving been fleeced by EU bankers andthe establishmentrdquo said Cyprus-basedauthor and news commentator AndreasC Chrysafis ldquoThe Syriza Party has risenout of the ashes of despair and Tsiprasand his group have provided the last

glimmer of hope to the people of GreecerdquoSixty per cent of Greecersquos debt is

owed to European Union governments10 to the International Monetary Fund(IMF) and 6 to the European CentralBank (ECB) all of which are collectivelyknown as the troika In return theseinstitutions demanded draconianeconomic and social reforms that weredutifully carried out by the previousGreek government over the past fiveyears They included especially severegovernment cutbacks in health care and

education spending privatizations theslashing of wages (by 50 in some cases)and pensions higher taxes and themass firing of public servants including35000 doctors nurses and other healthworkers As a result of these cuts theGreek economy has shrunk the healthcare system has collapsed and infantmortality has risen by more than 40

Public protest against theimpoverishment of Greeks to the

benefit of European creditors is directly

responsible for bringing Syriza topower The party is a coalition ofeurocommunists social movementsand anti-globalization activists YanisVaroufakis Greecersquos new financeminister has said austerity ldquoturnedthis nation into a debt colonyrdquo Syrizahas promised to restore the minimummonthly wage to 751 euros ($1060) rehiredismissed public sector workers restorecollective wage agreements subsidizefood and electricity for the poorest

Greeks and reverse privatizationsSimilar European austerity

programs imposed since the 2008 crisishave devastated Spain Portugal ItalyIreland and Cyprus subjecting thecontinent to three recessions in five yearsRecognizing this failure the ECB recentlyinitiated a limited fiscal stimulus similarto the one launched in the US in 2008

but it may be too little too lateldquoThe Federal Reserve the central

bank of the United States is a neoliberal

entity but it has acted very differentlyfrom the ECB and European authoritiessince the 2008-2009 world financialcrisis and recession As a result ofthese differences in policy euro zoneunemployment is more than twice that othe US and the euro zone has had severamore years of unnecessary recessionrdquoexplained Mark Weisbrot economistand co-director of the Washington DCndash

based Centre for Economic and PolicyResearch in an interview

The Nobel Prizendashwinningeconomist Joseph Stiglitz also blamesthe EU for Greecersquos predicament

ldquoGreece could be blamed for itstroubles if it were the only countrywhere the troikarsquos medicine failedmiserablyrdquo he wrote in a February 5commentary ldquoBut Spain had a surplusand a low debt ratio before the crisis andit too is in depression What is neededis not structural reform within Greeceand Spain so much as structural reform

Cover

Grexit option looms with bailout expiryBy Asad Ismi

Greecersquos Yanis Varoufakis at a February 11 meeting of EU finance ministers



ultimatum and holding out for a better dealIf the bailout ends on February 28 (the Monitor went to

print in mid-February) the Greek government will forgo anadditional 72 billion euros ($102 billion) and will thereforenot be able to make debt payments due in March which couldforce Greece out of the euro zone

ldquoThe Eurogroup stand was expected The northernstates never wanted to help Greece at all except withinthe boundaries of the existing harsh bail-in troika loanresolutions which have destroyed the nationrdquo said ChrysafisldquoThe Eurogroup acted like a school teacher reprimanding anaughty student who dared to speak out This is the start ofthe demise of the EU which demands absolute obedience toits terms for poisoned loansrdquo

ldquoOne reason the EU does not want Greece to leave it isthat the most likely outcome would be that Greece after aninitial financial crisis would recover more rapidly than therest of the euro zone and other governments would also wanto leaverdquo argued Weisbrot ldquoIf Syriza succeeds either insideor outside of the euro it will likely have an important effecton most or all of the euro zone Popular sentimenthellipalready

correctly sees the austerity of recent years as a failure IfSyriza can provide a successful alternative this will encourageothers to demand one

ldquoThe most obvious place for contagion is Spain where theleftist Podemos party formed only about a year ago recentlyshot up to first place in the pollsrdquo he added ldquoThe institutionsof the euro zone will have to change their policies to allow forfaster growth and more employment or the euro zone couldeventually dissolverdquo

Chrysafis suggested Europe was trappedldquoIf the EU fails to agree to renegotiate the Greek debt

sensibly Greece will raise the money elsewhere Russia hasalready offered a US$10 bill ion ($124 billion) loan to Greecerdquo

he saidldquoEU citizens have had enough of EU incompetence and

policies that bring stagnation rather than prosperity The EUhas brought ruin and unemployment to millions of citizensespecially the young and they simply no longer trust it I willnot be surprised to see the gradual erosion and downfall ofthe EU in the next 10 yearsrdquo

On February 10 Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenosleader of the right-wing Independent Greeks with whichSyriza formed a coalition government proposed alternativefinancing solutions from outside the euro zone

ldquoWe want a deal But if there is no deal and if we see thatGermany remains rigid and wants to blow Europe apart then

we will have to go to Plan B We have other ways of findingmoneyrdquo he said ldquoIt could be the United States at best it could be Russia it could be China or other countriesrdquo

Kammenos said that Greece would prefer to leave theeuro if membership means submitting to a ldquoEurope underGerman dominationrdquo

According to Nikos Chountis Greecersquos deputy foreignminister ldquoThere have been proposals offers I would sayfrom Russia for economic support as well as from Chinaregarding help investment possibilitiesrdquo

Asad Ismi covers international affairs for the Monitor

of the euro zonersquos design and a fundamental rethinking ofthe policy frameworks that have resulted in the monetaryunionrsquos spectacularly bad performancerdquo

The structure of the euro zone makes Greecersquos problemsharder to deal with according to Stiglitz because monetaryunion means ldquomember states cannot devalue their way outof trouble yet the modicum of European solidarity that mustaccompany this loss of policy flexibility simply is not thererdquo

Philippe Legrain who was an economic advisor to thepresident of the European Commission (the EUrsquos executivearm) from 2011 to 2014 agrees with Stiglitz regardingEuropean culpability In a pre-election article this Januaryhe pointed out that the bailout benefited European banks notGreece and violated the EUrsquos own treaty rules Legrain wrote

Greecersquos reckless borrowing was financed by equallyreckless lenders First in line were French and Germanbanks that lent too much too cheaply

By the time Greece was cut off from the markets in 2010 itssoaring public debt of 130 per cent of GDP was obviouslyunpayable in full It should have been written down as

the IMF later acknowledged publicly Austerity wouldthen have been less extreme and the recession shorter andshallower But to avoid losses for German and French bankseuro zone policy-makers led by German Chancellor Angela

Merkel pretended that Greece was merely going throughtemporary funding difficulties Breaching the EU treatiesrsquoldquono-bailoutrdquo rule which bans euro zone governments from bailing out their peers they lent European taxpayersrsquomoney to the insolvent Greek government ostensibly outof solidarity but actually to bail out creditorshellip

So whatever you think of Syrizarsquos left-wing politics it is justified in demanding debt relief from the EU

The EU does not see it this way Amply displaying the lackof European solidarity that Stiglitz mentioned the EU has sofar refused to renegotiate the terms of its bailout loans withGreece Varoufakis has visited seven European capitals sinceSyrizarsquos victory meeting other finance ministers and offeringconcessions but he has been rebuffed at each step

Varoufakis then attended a meeting of euro zone financeministers on February 11 and 16 to present his proposalswhich included a retraction of an earlier demand for a debtwrite-down replaced by a scheme involving growth-linked

bonds that would be used to repay the Greek debt These bonds would be paid only when the Greek economy startedshowing growth Varoufakis also agreed to enact 70 of theEUrsquos austerity conditions In return he asked for a bridgingloan to meet Greecersquos debt obligations once the austerity-basedloan expired on February 28

The February 11 and 16 meetings collapsed with noagreement Austerity is Greecersquos only option as the EU seesit The EU finance ministers led by Wolfgang Schaumluble ofGermany and his Dutch counterpart Jeroen Dijsselbloeminsisted that Greece renew the bailout agreement beforeFebruary 28 and fulfill all accompanying austerity conditionsThe ministers gave Varoufakis an ultimatum agree to anextension of the bailout by the end of the week or lose allloans The Greek finance minister stood firm rejecting the



Six Muslim young adults stand infront of a mosque late at night inheated discussion in some foreign

language They may be debating themerits of a new Drake album They may

be talking about video games or sportsor girls or advocating the overthrow ofthe Harper government Who knowsThere is no evidence one way or the other

Just stereotypes But the new standardfor arrest and detentionmdashreason tosuspect that they may commit an actmdashis so low that an officer may be inclinedto arrest and detain them in order to

investigate further And now officerswill no longer need to ask themselveswhether the arrest is necessary Theycould act on mere suspicion that anarrest is likely to prevent any terroristactivity Yesterday the Muslim men werefreely exercising constitutional rights tofreedom of expression and assemblyToday they are arrestable

Overview The Anti-TerrorismActBill C-51 the Anti-Terrorism Act 2015

would expand the powers of Canadarsquosspy agency allow Canadians to bearrested on mere suspicion of futurecriminal activity allow the Minister ofPublic Safety to add Canadians to a ldquono-fly listrdquo with illusory rights of judicialreview and perhaps most alarminglycreate a new speech-related criminaloffence of ldquopromotingrdquo or ldquoadvocatingrdquoterrorism These proposed laws aremisguided and many of them are likelyalso unconstitutional The bill ought to berejected as a whole Repair is impossible

New offence of promotingterrorismBill C-51 creates a new criminaloffence that likely violates s 2(b) of theCharter Newly proposed s 83221 ofthe Criminal Code provides as follows

Every person who bycommunicating statementsknowingly advocates or promotesthe commission of terrorism

offences in generalmdashother than anoffence under this sectionmdashwhileknowing that any of those offenceswill be committed or being recklessas to whether any of those offencesmay be committed as a result ofsuch communication is guilty ofan indictable offence and is liableto imprisonment for a term of notmore than five years

The new offence will bring within itsambit all kinds of innocent speechsome of which no doubt lies at the coreof freedom of expression values thatthe Charter was meant to protect AsProfessors Kent Roach and Craig Forcesepoint out the new offence would sweepwithin its net the following scenario

Take just one hypothetical An academic or foreign affairscolumnist opines ldquowe should

provide resources to Ukrainianinsurgencies who are targetingRussian oil infrastructure in aneffort to increase the political cost ofRussian intervention in UkrainerdquoThe speaker says this knowing thather audience includes support

groups who may be sendingmoney to those opposing Russianintervention1

Providing resources to a group one ofwhose purposes is a ldquoterrorist activityrdquois a terrorism offence And causingsubstantial property damage or seriousinterference with an essential serviceor system for a political reason and ina way that endangers life to compel a

government to do something is a ldquoterroristactivityrdquo This is so even if it takes placeabroad So a criminal prosecution of thecolumnist in the hypothetical situationdescribed above is a real possibilityunder the new law It is constitutionallyunacceptable and dangerous

The new offence is broader thanexisting terrorism offences in theCriminal Code in that it does not requirean actual terrorist purpose So someonecan be guilty of this offencemdashlike the

columnistmdashdespite completely innocenpurposes such as attempting to provokedemocratic debate or proposing a solutionto an intractable international conflictThe speakerrsquos purpose does not matterthey are liable if they are reckless as tothe risk that a listener ldquomayrdquo thereaftercommit an unspecified terrorism offence

Criminal culpability would extend beyond the speaker of the impugnedwords Like all criminal offences aperson can be guilty if they aid or abetthe individual who actually commitsthe offence Not only the columnist

but also their editors publishers andresearch assistants become criminalsIt should be noted that there are other

ldquopromotingrdquo and ldquoadvocatingrdquo offencesin the Criminal Code The Code containsa prohibition on willful promotion ofhatred

2 It also contains a prohibition on

advocating sexual activity with underagechildren3 But hate propaganda andsexual activity with underage children aremuch narrower than the vague referenceto ldquoterrorism offences in generalrdquo Inaddition unlike willful promotion

of hatred which contains an expressexception for communications made inprivate the proposed new offence can

be applied to statements made in privateThis is all the more concerning given theCanadian Security Intelligence Servicersquos(CSIS) expansive anti-terror wiretap andsurveillance powers

4

Another truly bizarre aspect ofthe new offence is the use of the termldquoterrorism offences in generalmdashotherthan an offence under this sectionrdquoThe Criminal Code already contains

14 broadly worded terrorism-relatedoffences ldquoTerrorism activityrdquo is a definedterm under s 8301 of the CriminalCode but this is broader It applies tomore speech than speech advocating orpromoting terrorist activity or the 14terrorism offences in the Criminal CodeThe new offence is meant to includespeech promoting and advocatingldquoterrorism in generalrdquo a deliberatelyopaque and unknowable term

Even if the government exercises

Bill C-51 A Legal Primer

Overly broad and unnecessary anti-terrorism reformscould criminalize free speech

By Clayton Ruby CM and Nader R Hasan



provision a judge may issue a warrant if satisfied that thereare reasonable grounds to justify the belief that the requestedmeasures are required to enable CSIS ldquoto reduce a threat to thesecurity of Canadardquo and are ldquoreasonabl[e] and proportiona[te]rdquo

This is an odd standard which judges will find difficultif not impossible to apply The ordinary standard for issuanceof a warrant is based on reasonable grounds to believe thata criminal offence has been committed (in the case of awarrant to arrest)8 or reasonable grounds to believe that thesearch of a place will afford evidence of an offence (in thecase of a search pursuant to judicial warrant)9 These aredeterminations that can be made objectively based on theevidence by an impartial judicial officer By contrast whethera given measure would proportionately ldquoreduce the threat tothe security of Canadardquo is not like these other tests It amountsto asking judges to look into a crystal ball to determine ifCanada will be safer in the future if a CSIS officer takes somemeasure This is not a determination that judges are equippedto make The limits will vary with the judges chosen by CSISnot with the evidence

The expansion of CSISrsquos powers is troubling given the

RCMPrsquos notorious history of commingling intelligencegathering and law enforcement It is also troubling for theadditional reason that there is very little oversight of CSISactivities At present CSIS is accountable only to the SIRCCSIS has a budget of over $500 million annually10 SIRChas an annual budget of $3 million and is staffed by fourpart-time committee members11 It no longer has a directorgeneral who watches the watchers By contrast spy agenciesin other countries are supervised by powerful parliamentaryor congressional committees The sweeping new powerscoupled with the woeful lack of oversight risks turning CSISinto a dangerous ldquosecret police forcerdquo

Preventive arrest powersThe current anti-terrorism sections of the Criminal Codealready contain provisions for preventive arrest preventivedetention and preventive restraints on liberty Preventivedetention is at odds with our legal tradition of only prosecutingand punishing crimes that have been committed already andonly after those offences have been proven by the prosecution

beyond a reasonable doubt Preventive detentionmdashiedetention on the suspicion that someone may or will commita crime at some point in the futuremdashis the opposite of thatlegal tradition and is inconsistent with the constitutionallyprotected right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty1

Prior to the enactment of the 2001 anti-terrorismprovisions the only other preventive detention scheme inthe Criminal Code was the dangerous offender regime13 Buto be found a dangerous offender or a long-term offenderunder Part XXIV of the Criminal Code an offender must have been already convicted of a serious personal injury offenceand there must be evidence that the individual constitutes athreat to the life safety or physical and mental well-being ofother persons based on evidence of repetitive or persistentserious criminal behaviour14 By contrast the anti-terrorismCriminal Code provisions permit the arrest and detention ofindividuals who have not been convicted or even chargedwith any offence based on what they might do

restraint in laying charges and arresting people the resultis an inevitable chill on speech Students will think twice before posting an article on Facebook questioning militaryaction against insurgents overseas Journalists will be wary ofquestioning government decisions to add groups to Canadarsquoslist of terrorist entities

New CSIS powersCSIS was created in 1984 by an Act of Parliament To thatpoint security intelligence in Canada was the purviewof the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) SecurityService5 However in the 1970s there were allegations thatthe RCMP Security Service had been involved in numerousillegal activities In 1977 as a result of these al legations JusticeDavid McDonald was appointed to investigate The McDonaldCommission published its final report in 1981 with its mainrecommendation being that security intelligence work should be separated from policing and that a civilian intelligenceagency should be created to take over from the RCMP SecurityService6 CSIS was created to be that civilian intelligenceagency At the time of its creation CSIS was subject to general

oversight review by a new body the Security IntelligenceReview Committee (SIRC) which has been starved ofresources as well as by the Office of the Inspector Generalwhich was abolished and disbanded in 2012

The idea behind CSIS was that abuses of power were lesslikely to occur if intelligence gathering was separated fromlaw enforcement Bill C-51 erodes the distinction betweenCSISrsquos traditional intelligence gathering role by giving it broadnew powers to engage in law enforcementndashtype activitiesUnder Bill C-51 CSIS would be able to take ldquomeasuresrdquo toreduce threats to the security of Canada For example s 121(1)of the proposed act states

If there are reasonable grounds to believe that a particularactivity constitutes a threat to the security of Canada theService may take measures within or outside Canada toreduce the threat

The power under s 121 is broadly defined giving CSISvirtually unfettered authority to conduct any operation itthinks is in the interest of Canadian security The definitionsare so broad that they could apply to almost anythingincluding measures to disrupt or interfere with non-violentcivil disobedience Only the following activities are explicitlyexcluded from these new powers as per s 122(1) of the act

In taking measures to reduce a threat to the security of

Canada the Service shall not(a) cause intentionally or by criminal negligence death orbodily harm to an individual

(b) wilfully attempt in any manner to obstruct pervert ordefeat the course of justice or

(c) violate the sexual integrity of an individual

These limited exclusions leave CSIS with incredibly expansivepowers including water boarding inflicting pain (torture) orcausing psychological harm to an individual The governmenthas pointed out that in order for CSIS to take measures unders 121 CSIS must first apply for a warrant Under the warrant



put on the no-fly list is a less seriousrestraint on liberty than being subject toa security certificate s 7 of the Charteris still triggered and thus the coreprotections of s 7 such as the right toknow the case to meet should applyThe currently proposed procedureunequivocally violates that right23

Clayton C Ruby is one of Canadarsquos leadinglawyers an outspoken proponent of freedomof the press a prominent member of theenvironmental community and a memberof the Order of Canada Nader R Hasan

practises criminal constitutional andadministrative law at both the trial andappellate levels They are partners at RubySchiller Chan Hassan Barristers

ldquolikelyrdquo is equally important Necessityin this context suggests that the policeofficer suspects that no measure otherthan arrest will prevent a terrorist actLikelihood is not necessity Under thenew provision the police officer needonly suspect that the arrest is more likelythan not to prevent terrorist activity

Canadians do not want governmentto arrest individuals based on religiousand ethnic stereotypes But underthe new standard it will be nearlyimpossible to challenge their decisions

No-fly list powersBill C-51 codifies the Minister of PublicSafetyrsquos power to put Canadians on aso-called no-fly list which prevents themfrom getting on an airplane The ministercan add anyone to the no-fly list on meresuspicion that he or she will engage in

an act that would threaten transportationsecurity or travel by air for the purposeof committing an act of terrorism19

Putting someone on the no-fly listis a significant restraint on liberty Andonce on the no-fly list the procedure tohave onersquos name removed from the listis complex and difficult Someone onthe no-fly list has the right to appealthe ministerrsquos decision to a judge of theFederal Court but it is a very narrowand futile appeal It is not nearly enoughfor the individual to show that the

minister was wrong to put them on theno-fly list they must also show that theminister has acted unreasonably20

Moreover the review procedurein Bill C-51 for challenging the no-fly list designation incorporates theprocedure from the Immigration andRefugee Protection Actrsquos byzantinesecurity certificate regime This meansthe minister can ask the Court to holdpart of the hearing in secretmdashtheindividual challenging his or her no-fly list designation their lawyer and thepublic are excluded from the courtroomwhen the government presents its case21 The judge hearing the appeal can basehis or her entire decision on evidencethat was presented during the secretportion of the hearing

In 2007 the Supreme Court held thatthis procedure was unconstitutionalunder s 7 of the Charter when appliedto the judicial review of the detentionof a non-citizen detained pursuant toa security certificate22 Although being

The current preventive detentionscheme is already constitutionallysuspect The proposed amendments inBill C-51 will further lower the thresholdfor preventive arrest and detentionincreasing the risk that entirely innocentpeople will be swept up on meresuspicion Under the current s 833(2)of the Criminal Code a peace officer isempowered to lay an information and bring an individual before a provincialcourt judge if the officer

(a) believes on reasonable groundsthat a terrorist activity will becarried out and

(b) suspects on reasonable grounds that the imposition of arecognizance with conditions on a

person or the arrest of a person isnecessary to prevent the carrying

out of the terrorist activity15

Where exigent circumstances exist orwhere laying the information would

be impractical the individual may bearrested without a warrant16

The new measures would allowlaw enforcement agencies to arrestsomebody if they suspect that a terroristact ldquomay be carried outrdquo instead of thecurrent standard of ldquowill be carriedoutrdquo Bill C-51 also substitutes ldquolikelyrdquofor ldquonecessaryrdquo such that s 833(2)

would now enable a peace officer to layan information or effect a warrantlessarrest if the officer

(a) believes on reasonable groundsthat a terrorist activity will may be carried out and

(b) suspects on reasonable groundsthat the imposition of a recognizancewith conditions on a person or thearrest of a person is necessarylikely to prevent the carrying outof the terrorist activity

17

Both changes result in a significantlowering of the standard for arrest anddetention

The changes to the law are significantin two respects The substitution ofldquomayrdquo where it currently says ldquowillrdquois a significant watering down of thestandard ldquoWillrdquo when coupled withldquoreasonable grounds to believerdquo denotesevidence-based probability18 whereasldquomayrdquo denotes mere possibility

The shift from ldquonecessaryrdquo to

References1 Roach Kent and Forcese Craig ldquoBill C-51

Backgrounder 1 The New Advocatingor Promoting Terrorism Offencerdquo

(February 3 2015) Available at SSRN

lthttpssrncomabstract=2560006gt2 Criminal Code RSC 1985 c C-46 s

319(2)3 Criminal Code s 1631(b)4 Canadian Security Intelligence Service Act

RSC 1985 c C-23 s 215 Government of Canada Canadian

Security Intelligence Service ldquoHistory ofCSISrdquo online lthttpswwwcsisgccahstrrtfctshstrindex-enphpgt

6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)

8 Criminal Code s 5049 Criminal Code s 48710 Government of Canada Canadian

Security Intelligence Service PublicReport 2011-2013 online lthttpswwwcsisgccapblctnsnnlrprt2011-2013PublicReport_ENG_2011_2013pdfgt

11 Government of Canada SecurityIntelligence Review Committee ldquoSIRCat a Glancerdquo online lthttpwwwsirc-csarsgccaanrran2013-2014sc4-enghtmlsc4-1gt

12Charter of Rights and Freedoms s 7 and s11(d)

13 Criminal Code Part XXIV

14Criminal Code s 75315Criminal Code section 833(2)16Criminal Code S 823(4)17 ATA s 1718 See R v Brown (2012) 92 CR (6th) 375

(Ont CA) (for discussion of ldquoreasonablegroundsrdquo)

19 ATA s 820 ATA s 16(5)21 ATA 16(6)(a)22Charkaoui v Canada (Citizenship and

Immigration) [2007] 1 SCR 350 atparas 53-64

23 Ibid



This is a cautionary story of what might happen ifwe return to the bad old days of the RCMP SecurityService which was caught disrupting and using dirty

tricks against a wide range of unsuspecting groups before itwas eventually disbanded its spying responsibilities handedto a newly formed Canadian Security Intelligence Service Itis important to remember this period in light of proposedlegislation that would expand CSISrsquos investigative powers aswell as the types of activities its agents and the RCMP willconsider as threats to the country

T T T

Letrsquos start in late 1968 at the height of lsquo60s idealism whentwo University of Toronto professors Stephen Clarkson andAbraham Rotstein kick-started a Toronto-based researchinstitute called Praxis Their intent was to spark politicaldiscussion and debate within the wider community (outside

academe) on issues like poverty and democracy throughresearch pamphlets books and public seminarsldquoVery briefly the idea is to create an Institute of Social

Studies whose raison drsquoecirctre would be to encourage researchand long-range imaginative thinking on the various aspectsof the future development of our societyrdquo Clarkson wrotein the minutes of an initial ldquobrown bagrdquo Praxis discussion

In some ways then Praxis is a precursor to the CanadianCentre for Policy Alternatives but with a less secure funding base Clarkson and Rotsteinrsquos creation lived solely on grantsfirst from the Toronto Star newspaper and later from consultingand research contracts with government The money floweduntil 1972 when Praxis was forced to shut down

There is some indication from RCMP files at the Libraryand Archives Canada that the Security Service was pushinggovernment managers to avoid Praxis that the organizationwas spied on and that Canadarsquos national police had a murkyand still not fully explained relationship with those who broke into the grouprsquos Toronto offices in December 1970 The background for all of this gleaned from more than 6000 pagesfrom those archived documents is the subject of this story

Researching the researchersDuring its short existence Praxis was always small largelymade up of researchers community organizers and graduatestudents It quickly became a magnet for cutting-edge workon housing and welfare leading to contracts with clientssuch as Canada Mortgage and Housing and the Manitobagovernment

Praxis was at the same time plugged into the late-1960supsurge of citizen advocacy by and in support of low-incomegroups So it was not surprising that the research organizationwas recruited by the federally funded National Council ofWelfare to organize a controversial national poor peoplersquosconference in Toronto for January 1971 Statements by thedelegates about capitalism and the plight of the poor garnereda lot of press and only intensified the suspicions of the RCMPSecurity Service

Attention from the Mounties came early In 1969 Clarksoninnocently wrote a letter to the Department of External Affairsin Ottawa requesting that employees particularly diplomatsconsider taking a year off for research and study (a sabbaticalat Praxis

ldquoThis would have to be conditional on our accepting theman [sic] and the project as sufficiently interesting But thereis a need to let top grade diplomats return to academic realityand this might provide a useful experimentrdquo Clarkson wrote

The proposal created a bit of a furor in Ottawa Thedepartment official who received Clarksonrsquos inquiry turnedit over to WL Higgitt a senior officer at the RCMP SecurityService who urged co-operation in order to find out whaPraxis was up to

ldquoIt would be a considerable advantage for the governmenif the currents and possible direction from the subversive

elements within the corporation could be establishedrdquo Higgittwrote in an April 14 1969 memoBut what really raised the research institutersquos profile

was its campaign in March 1970 expressed during a packedmeeting in Toronto to run an alternative slate of candidatesto the board of the cityrsquos Social Planning Council (SPC) Theobjective was to encourage the rather stuffy social agencyto engage in a more ambitious range of research into sociaproblems Howard Buchbinder a new hire at Praxis took thelead His background as a former community organizer in theUS War on Poverty and a popular (at least among students)radical social work professor from St Louis probably helpedhim nail the job

ldquoThe primary area of activity seems to be centred aroundthat of attempting to infiltrate dominate or take over control ofthe Metro Toronto Social Planning Councilrdquo said a somewhaconspiratorial-minded RCMP source inside Praxis

Praxis was in the minds of the Security Service aneacuteminence grise manipulating well-meaning activist groups

behind the scenes One anonymous analyst described theresearch institute as the ldquocentral nervous systemrdquo for theextra-parliamentary opposition (EPO)mdasha term borrowedfrom the New Leftmdashof disloyal and whistle-blowing civiservants in the federal government

What also had the Mounties concerned according tohistorian Kevin Brushett author of The Uncomfortable Few TheCompany of Young Canadians and the Politics of Youth 1965ndash1975(forthcoming) was the propensity of certain governmentministers in the early years of the Trudeau governmentGerard Pelletier being one of them to encourage young peopleto join the civil service as ldquoshit-disturbersrdquo to introduce freshideas and innovation Journalist Sandra Gwyn called themthe ldquoguerrilla bureaucratsrdquo

Break and enterThis obsession with Praxis took on a darker hue one winteryToronto evening On December 18 1970 unknown (and stillunidentified) burglars crept into the back of a semi-detached

Feature The Praxis Affair

Therersquos a reason we put limits on spying within CanadaBy Paul Weinberg



inside the Edmund Burke Society whowas suspected of carrying out the breakin and arson

One of the officers Grant wrotea June 13 1977 memorandum aboutthe Praxis experience He describedmasquerading as a member of anextreme-right group from New YorkState in order to get a meeting with oneof the possible burglars who turnedout to be a ldquohardened lsquostreet-wiseyoung political thugrdquo Grant noted theldquoradical rightrdquo group (ie the Burkersin Toronto was quite capable of carryouout violent acts

ldquoIt was also my position that therevelation of the original informantrsquosidentity to the MTPD (Metro TorontoPolice Department) would place himin extreme jeopardy at the hands of the boy and his confederate(s)rdquo

Memoranda on a burglarySeven years later the RCMP SecurityService was in trouble from revelations

the receptive Mounties after the MetroToronto Police refused to take them

Worthington kept all this close to hischest for several years until writing aboutit in a Toronto Sun column on February4 1977 that was headlined ldquoI gaveRCMP Praxis filesrdquo It explained howldquoa couple of guys arrived one morningrdquoat the Telegram (the columnistrsquos formernewspaper) bearing a large stack of filesweighing 20 to 30 pounds that wereldquounceremoniously shoved in my arms

ldquoI went through them and theyrelated to Praxis Just Society StopSpadina Metro Tenants and thePoor Peoplersquos Conferencerdquo wroteWorthington

The second batch of stolen Praxisfiles was given to two RCMP officersGK Grant and Ron Pankew by anintermediary in the vicinity of theRCMP office near Jarvis Street inToronto Pankew had been previously intouch with the go-between who turnedout to be an informant for the Mounties

house at 373 Huron Avenue whichserved as an office for Praxis makingoff with a load of internal documentsThe records of other groups based inthe same dwelling including the JustSociety (a welfare recipient group) aswell as a community group fighting theproposed Spadina expressway werealso taken

In addition to theft the intrudersset fire to the house causing thelandlord the University of Toronto tohave the damaged structure torn downalmost immediately There is still onlygreenspace where the house once stood

Two sets of stolen Praxis documentsended up in the hands of the RCMPSecurity Service in early 1971 Onecame from right-wing Toronto Telegram

journalist Peter Worthington whohad in the weeks prior to the burglary

written a series of articles critical ofa ldquoradicalrdquo research institute livingoff federal government contracts Hisreferences to a ldquomicroberdquo like Praxisldquogetting inside the establishmentstructurerdquo could have come right outof RCMP literature on the EPO

To discourage federal governmentmanagers from hiring Praxisthe Mounties circulated copies ofWorthingtonrsquos articles to specific federalcabinet ministers including RobertAndras minister of state for urban

affairs RCMP Security Service inspectorG Belgalki started a December 1 1970memo this way

ldquoDear Bob Attached for yourinformation are two articles by PeterWorthington on the Praxis Corporationset up at 373 Huron Street which clearlydefine the objectives of this organizationproviding they can get governmentfunds to carry onrdquo

The inspector then ramped up thehyperbole

ldquo[Praxis] are very vociferous andthey are backed by a great many peoplewho have not taken the time to find outwhat is behind their activities and theinnocents are sucked in to act as shieldswho believe they are serving the causeof democracy in the interests of poorpeople in our societyrdquo

The plot thickened when after thePraxis break-in Worthington foundhimself in possession of the stolendocumentsmdasha gift from the burglarsthemselvesmdashwhich he delivered to



Competing versions of eventsOn July 4 1977 Venner issued a counter-memorandumsuggesting Grant had ldquodistorted the facts very seriously severatimesrdquo Venner did not challenge any of the details reported byGrant on the pickup of the Praxis documents or the encounterwith one of the burglars But he disputed any suggestion ofcoaching statements or fixing the judicial process

Grant and Pankew were wrong to state ldquoI was somehowtrying to shift all the blame to them and thereby spare otherssenior to them from any criticismrdquo Venner wrote

ldquoIt is hard to know what to make of the lsquohe said he saidrecriminations in terms of which of these guys was tellingthe truth or any approximation of itrdquo Whitaker told me Buhe said itrsquos clear that once the RCMP had the stolen Praxisdocuments they were going to make use of them

ldquoThe Mounties knew they had a problem receivingand retaining stolen documents not to speak of potentiaconnection via their undercover sources with arson Coveringtheir asses in the face of several investigations was their primedirectiverdquo said Whitaker adding he has not seen any evidenceof direct Mountie involvement in the Praxis break-in

But veteran Toronto lawyer Paul Copeland a formerPraxis counsel during its unsuccessful legal actions againstthe RCMP Security Service does not rule out the possibilityHe finds the June 1977 statement by Grant credible

ldquoIt is probably an accurate rendition of what the RCMPwas doing I am surprised about how nervous they were Theconspiratorial nature of this is unbelievable I donrsquot think thesecurity mindset in CSIS and the RCMP today has changeda whole lotrdquo he said

One thing the two menmdashGrant and Vennermdashagreedon in 1977 was that the RCMPrsquos priority was protecting itsinformant inside the Edmund Burke Society thus no chargescould be laid against the Praxis burglars by Toronto police

ldquoYou donrsquot burn a sourcerdquo was how Venner put it Copelandfinds this unacceptable

ldquoI am not surprised that they claim they did not want toexpose the informant Given the activities of the Burkers inmy view they should have arrested them and if necessaryput their informant in the witness protection programrdquo

Much later in 1998 the federal government agreed topay an undisclosed amount to the former Praxis board as asettlement in the case perhaps acknowledging in a subtleway some responsibility for what happened in late 1970

The final word comes from an unrepentant Worthingtonwho in an email to me a few years ago denied he might haveinspired the Praxis burglars or that he knew them

I donrsquot think the policemdashlocal or RCMPmdashwere in the leastinterested in catching the burglars I didnrsquot know them andwas mainly anxious to distance myself from whoever did[the Praxis break-in] Just didnrsquot want to know And thecops never questioned memdashjust were happy to accept thedocuments which as I remember didnrsquot amount to much

GK Grant and Peter Worthington are deceased Pankew andVenner declined to be interviewed for this story

Paul Weinberg is a Hamilton-based freelance writer His workappears in rabbleca and NOW magazine

of illegal acts and dirty tricks against Quebec separatistsand the Canadian left in the late-1960s and early-1970sTrudeau established a royal commission led by Judge DavidMcDonald to investigate solutions for a wayward SecurityService Its findings would lead to the establishment in1984 of a civilian spy agency (CSIS) limited to collectingintelligence and analysis

In the run-up to the McDonald hearings and certainly

justifying their outcome the RCMP Security Servicepanicked destroying records of its operations involvingthe disruption of certain groups This was done to avoidwhat had happened to the FBI in the US where publicrevelations of a similar though much larger covert counter-intelligence program better known as COINTELPRO hadrecently surfaced

ldquoAs the McDonald Commission found this was clearlyan attempt to destroy evidence of wrongdoingrdquo said RegWhitaker security analyst professor and co-author of the2012 book Secret Service Political Policing in Canada from theFenians to Fortress America

The RCMP asked Superintendant John Venner operations

manager for the Security Service in Toronto to investigateallegations that the Mounties had either instigated the burglary and arson at Praxis or encouraged surrogates todo the deed After some inquires Venner determined thecrime had been committed by freelancers without supportfrom any police force

But other issues still loomed Namely that the SecurityService had accepted and retained for seven years theproceeds of a crime without informing the victim and ownerof the stolen goods

ldquoSuperintendent Venner stated that the Security Servicecould very well be destroyed over this issue (Praxis Affair)rdquosaid Grant in his June 1977 memorandum He and Pankew

were especially worried that they might take the fall fortheir role in the Praxis affair rather than the higher-ups inthe Security Service

Grant wrote that the two of them were being coachedon what had transpired in early 1971 and had been askedto undergo a ldquotailoredrdquo half-hour question-and-answerprocess that felt at times he said like a rehearsal for a futureappearance before the McDonald inquiry

ldquo[We] would be supplied with questions and thecorresponding answers This was what the Force [blankspace] wanted to hearrdquo Grant wrote ldquoOur primary concernwas that we were being counselled to participate in what weconsidered to be a scheme to obstruct justicerdquo

Grant said he and Pankew were also informed that acivil action pursued by former Praxis staffer Buchbinderagainst the illegal holding of Praxis property by theRCMP Security Service would be effectively blocked Theldquojudicial system would place barriers in the way makingit impossible for Buchbinder to lay chargesrdquo wrote theofficer

One of the senior officers who was also a legal advisordubbed the process a ldquobureaucratic containmentrdquo accordingto Grant ldquoHe said it was sort of sad that the system could dothisrdquo (In the end neither Grant nor Pankew had to testify before the inquiry)



Since Octoberrsquos shooting and attack on Parliament Hillthe Harper government has introduced or passed fourpieces of legislation that impinge on civil liberties in ways

that almost certainly contravene legal protections in CanadarsquosCharter of Rights and Freedoms Though the governmentclaims these reforms are meant help security agencies confrontnew terrorist threats to Canada they could be used to hassleand spy on a larger group of people at home and abroad inparticular those opposed to the governmentrsquos energy agendaEqually worrying is that the laws are being introduced withoutany corresponding oversight of security activities

In the order they were introduced there is Bill C-13highly unpopular and long-delayed online spying legislationthat passed the Senate in November and received royal assentDecember 9 The bill creates legal incentives for Internet serviceproviders to voluntarily intercept and hand over personal

information on their customers to law enforcement agenciesthat request it even when they donrsquot have a warrant DavidChristopher with the group OpenMedia says ldquoimportant partsof this legislation have already been ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Courtrdquo

Then came Bill C-44 tabled in Parliament in the immediateaftermath of the Michael Zehaf Bibeau attacks which expandsCSISrsquos surveillance reach removes legal hurdles to agentsoperating abroad (even in contravention of foreign or internationallaw) grants anonymity to CSIS informants and alters theconditions under which a personrsquos Canadian citizenship can

be revoked Bill C-44 which was deemed ldquohighly problematicrdquo by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association (CCLA) passed third

reading on February 2 and was with the Senate at time of writingWhere the governmentrsquos security and energy agendas

more clearly overlap are in Bill C-639 introduced as a privatememberrsquos bill by Conservative MP Wai Young on December 3and Bill C-51 the Anti-Terrorism Act 2015 tabled on January30 Both refer to the protection of ldquocritical infrastructurerdquodisruption to which would ldquoproduce serious adverse economiceffectsrdquo and are obviously aimed at ongoing protests againsttar sands expansion and pipeline projects

Threats to critical infrastructureYoungrsquos private memberrsquos bill which is supported by Harperrsquos

justice minister Peter MacKay creates a new Criminal Codeoffence for anyone who ldquodestroys or damages any partof a critical infrastructure renders any part of a criticalinfrastructure dangerous useless inoperative or ineffectiveor obstructs interrupts or interferes with the lawful useenjoyment or operations of any part of a critical infrastructurerdquo

This language could criminalize peaceful and (currently)lawful protests if they interfere even temporarily with ldquocriticalinfrastructurerdquo defined broadly in the legislation as ldquoincludingservices relating to energy telecommunications finance healthcare food water transportation public safety governmentand manufacturing the disruption of which could produceserious adverse economic effects or endanger the health or

safety of Canadiansrdquo The bill imposes a mandatory minimumsentence of two to 10 years and fines of $500 to $3000

Toronto lawyer Ed Prutschi told the National Post inDecember the fact that energy infrastructure was includedin this definition has one obvious purpose ldquoIt would haveapplication for pipeline protestsrdquo He noted the legislationdoesnrsquot necessarily require any damage to have been done just that a person be in the way as many people were duringa protest in Burnaby last year against Kinder Morganrsquos TransMountain pipeline expansion As the Post noted Young is theMP for Vancouver South which is adjacent to the mountain

From November 19 to 27 at least 100 protesters werearrested for crossing a police line in a municipal conservationarea on Burnaby Mountain where Kinder Morgan crewshave been doing preliminary workmdashbefore approval ofthe projectmdashin preparation for tunneling Bill C-639 would

appear to offer the police a bigger stick for discouraging theseprotests since participants could face new fines and jail time just for exercising their right to dissent

Authoritarian tacticsThe BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) considers theConservative private memberrsquos bill a direct attack on ourconstitutional and Charter rights suggesting Canada isldquoborrowing tactics from dictatorial governmentsrdquo ExecutiveDirector Josh Paterson slammed the bill during a meetingin Bangkok in December where he was participating in aninvestigation of political rights violations in the context ofnatural resource development

ldquoWe are at the United Nations to cry foul on Canadarsquoslatest attempt to criminalize peaceful protestrdquo Patersonsaid in a news release ldquoNow striking flight attendantsand kids protesting pipelines on Burnaby Mountain could

be considered criminals Either of these lawful protestscould count as a crime under this law if they interfere withsomething of economic value That is simply ridiculous andit violates the fundamental freedoms of Canadiansrdquo

Paterson further stated ldquoWe are meeting in Bangkokwith representatives from non-democratic countries whereprotest is a serious crimehellip Canada has not only broken withour own constitution in criminalizing protest spying onFirst Nations and denouncing community groups itrsquos also

breaking its international commitments to protect the freedomof expression and freedom of assembly of Canadiansrdquo

RCMP critical infrastructure teamIn Youngrsquos media release presenting Bill C-639 MinisterMacKay claimed it was ldquothe product of extensive cross-Canada consultation consistent with our Governmentrsquospriority to create safer communitiesrdquo But the bill is obviously based on a March 2011 report written by the RCMPrsquos CriticaInfrastructure Intelligence Team which consulted primarilywith private energy companies

The document recently obtained by Carleton University

Feature Criminalizing Dissent

Governmentrsquos anti-terror laws target anti-pipeline foesBy Joyce Nelson



criminologist Jeff Monaghan warnedldquoEnvironmental ideologically motivatedindividuals including some whoare aligned with a radical criminalextremist ideology pose a clear andpresent criminal threat to Canadarsquosenergy sectorrdquo It said Canadarsquos lawenforcement and security agencies ldquohavenoted a growing radicalized faction ofenvironmentalists who advocate theuse of criminal activity to promote theprotection of the natural environment rdquo

This is from the same RCMP teamthat spied on Quebec residents opposedto shale gas development among othergroups

The RCMP report and Youngrsquosproposed legislation dovetails with theCanadandashUS Beyond the Border ActionPlan the result of perimeter securityand economic integration talks launched

by Canada and the United States in late2010 The protection of shared criticalinfrastructure is listed as a priority insecurity documents on the governmentrsquosBeyond the Border website

ldquoCanada and the United Statesshare a significant quantity of criticalinfrastructure assets and systemsincluding pipelines the electric gridand transportation systemsrdquo they sayldquoIt is imperative that our countrieswork together to protect these assetsTo effectively do this our governments

will require a close collaboration withthe private sector as they own muchcritical infrastructure in questionrdquo

The plan mentions a pilot project between New Brunswick and Maineldquoto learn how best to work together oneach of the elementsrdquo But according tonews reports that pilot project has beendelayed since July 2013 because the UShas requested that its cross-border policeofficers be exempt from Canadian lawInternal RCMP briefing notes regardingthis ldquosovereignty issuerdquo apparentlystymied the project temporarily

On October 28 US Secretary of State John Kerry was in Ottawa to express hisgovernmentrsquos condolences for the killingsof two Canadian soldiers during separateattacks the previous week Reinforcingthe importance of policy alignment Kerrysaid the US and Canada would ldquoworkquietly and carefullyrdquo to strengthensecurity between the two countriesldquomaking certain that every possible stoneis turned over every possible policy is

reviewed because our obligation isobviously to protect our citizensrdquo

Bill C-51Kerryrsquos October meeting in Ottawa andthe Burnaby Mountain pipeline protestsafterwards provided convenient cover forthe introduction of Bill C-639 Then came

theCharlie Hebdo

shootings in Paris in January Just weeks later the governmenttabled more alarming security legislationBill C-51 the Anti-Terrorism Act 2015

Harperrsquos proposed update to theexisting anti-terrorism legislation grantsCSIS the authority to block Canadianwebsites The bill further defines ldquoterroristpropagandardquo as ldquoany writing sign visiblerepresentation or audio recording thatadvocates or promotes the commission ofterrorism offences in generalor counselsthe commission of a terrorism offencerdquo

The CCLA says the bill ldquobroadensCSISrsquos powers significantlyrdquo and ldquomaycriminalize legitimate speechrdquo notinga ldquopotential chilling effect on academicsand journalists and bloggersrdquo whocould face up to five years in prisonThe chilling effect comes from thevagueness of language in the bill whichallows government departments toshare personal information related toactivities that ldquoundermine the securityof Canadardquo defined quite broadly toinclude ldquointerference with critical

infrastructurerdquo but also ldquointerferencewith the capability of the Governmentof Canada in relation tothe economicor financial stability of Canadardquo

C-51 exempts ldquolawful advocacyprotest dissent and artistic expressionrdquoas threats to the security of Canada butas a Globe and Mail editorial asked inFebruary ldquohow well do governmentsdefine those things in times of lsquogreatevilrsquordquo Privacy Commissioner DanielTherrien expressed similar fears in hisresponse to the legislation

This Act would seemingly allowdepartments and agencies to sharethe personal information of allindividuals including ordinaryCanadians who may not besuspected of terrorist activities

for the purpose of detecting andidentifying new security threatsIt is not clear that this would be a proportional measure that respectsthe privacy rights of Canadians

The bill also lowers the threshold forldquopreventive arrestsrdquo makes it easierto place people on no-fly lists givesauthorities the power to hold suspectedldquoterroristsrdquo without charge for sevendays allows a judge to impose up to ayear of house arrest on someone who hasnot been charged or convicted of a crimeand allows CSIS agents to ldquodisruptrdquothreats to Canadian security includingldquocovert foreign-influenced activitiesrdquo

Importantly Bill C-51 would let lawenforcement officials detain someone onthe grounds they ldquomayrdquo have terroristplans where currently the law allowsfor preventative arrests only when it issuspected they ldquowill commit a terrorismoffencerdquo Micheal Vonn the BCCLArsquospolicy director has warned ldquocriminalizingpeoplersquos words and thoughts is misguidedand wonrsquot make Canadians any saferrdquo

Vonn and others have said the bill isldquolikely unconstitutionalrdquoIn Parliament on February 2 Green

Party leader Elizabeth May asked PublicSafety Minister Steven Blaney if thenew anti-terrorism bill ldquowill apply tononviolent civil disobedience such as thaagainst pipelinesrdquo He did not directlyanswer the question saying only thatterrorism ldquois a criminal act and those whogo against the Criminal Code will meetthe full force of the lawrdquo May told MPsthey ldquomust not allow the Conservatives

to turn CSIS into a secret police forcerdquoAs of early February the RCMP is stil

refusing to release what CommissionerBob Paulson calls a ldquovideo manifestordquomade by Zehaf-Bibeau days before hisOctober 22 attack on Parliament HillThe RCMP claims the video shows theshooterrsquos political motives and containsa religious reference On the basis ofthis unreleased video the Harpergovernment is claiming the shooting wasa ldquoterrorist actrdquo rather than the actionsof a deranged individual in need of help

If the Harper government isso concerned about ldquohome-grownterroristsrdquo maybe it should shut downthe tar sands In mid-January the NationaPost reported at least three ldquoradicalizedyouthrdquo (including Zehaf-Bibeau) headedto the tar sands ldquoto earn money to financetheir terrorist activitiesrdquo

Joyce Nelson is an award-winning freelancwriterresearcher and the author of fivebooks



BrotherIn a few weeks my brother may be heading to Alberta Again

He went out west last spring hoping like many beforehim and undoubtedly many after him to find some measureof security in full-time well-paying permanent employmentI knew he was struggling even with his three part-time jobs

but I still worried when he first told me about his plans ldquoI just want one jobrdquo he explained as he prepared to leavethat first time If this worked out as hoped he planned tosettle down buy a house and finally experience the as yetelusive ldquogood liferdquo

In Ottawa he saw mom and dad on a regular basiswas a member of a small congregation and hung out withfriends that hersquod known most of his life I asked him if he wasworried about being isolated He shrugged off my question

saying that with all the money he would be making he couldafford to come home once a month Plus he reminded methat he didnrsquot have much of a life in Ottawa he was tiredof hustling he was ready to give the finger to Ottawa andto never look back

ldquoWelcome to Fort Crack-Murrayrdquo was one of thegreetings he received on the first day he arrived in FortMcMurray Alberta He laughed over the phone as he told meabout the greeting But I didnrsquot laugh I had no worries abouthim falling into drugs hersquod never been a drinker didnrsquoteven smoke But I really worried that he would be exploitedrobbed or mugged Physically he was a big guy Words suchas ldquohuskyrdquo and ldquoheftyrdquo would be good descriptors of my

brother but he wasnrsquot an aggressive or intimidating manWe talked several times during his first week in Fort

McMurray He found housingmdasha room in a basement witha private bathroom but no kitchen During the first week oftwo weeks of on-the-job training things seemed to be goingwell Over the next few weeks the phone calls became lessfrequent When I asked about his contract or details aboutthe company his answers became vague Still it came asa surprise that less than a month after hersquod driven acrossthe country to this new Mecca he returned to Ottawaunimpressed uninspired and slightly jaded

As often happens the delivery fell short of the promiseHe said his training was inadequate He didnrsquot get the amountof shifts that he was promised and at times he felt that hissafety was being compromised When he complained hissupervisors were unresponsive And of course everyoneknew that he was totally dispensable

He returned to three part-time jobs with the hope ofincreased shifts and eventually more steady work Thathasnrsquot panned out So less than one year later he is willingto try again

SisterAfter my sisterrsquos long-term relationship dissolved shetook on a weekend part-time job This was in addition to

her full-time job during the week It meant she would beworking seven days a week in order to ldquomake ends meetrdquoThe weekend job consisted of folding hundreds of piecesof linens and towels The workers mostly older immigranwomen recently arrived from Eastern Europe Africa and theCaribbean were stationed on an assembly line a massivepile of towels and linens would drop from a cage that movedalong a wire above these stations The job was to fold all ofthis linen in record time and to bring these piles to anotherstation The cage would come by frequently dropping pileafter pile of freshly laundered towels and linens in front oeach workstation There were daily quotas and if you wereunable to meet it you would be let go

My sister worked at this job for three years She nowsays that her back knees and feet are messed up because

of the many hours of standing she did during each shift

MomMy mom is a writer like me But unlike me she doesnrsquot havethe luxury of time or the necessity of energy to pursue hercreativity At 62 she spends most of the day on her feetworking in the dining room of a seniorsrsquo residence Sheserves meals clears the dining room sets up for howevermany meal services will take place during her shift Shetells me that sometimes shersquos so tired at the end of a shiftthat when she gets home she doesnrsquot make it upstairs to her

bedroom She falls asleep on the couch in her work clothesStill she writes sporadically on her days off on rare evenings

when she has energy or in the mornings before she goesto work She has papers scattered all over her apartmentevidence of her stops and starts Shersquos looking forward tofocusing on writing when she retires

DadAlthough mom was always with us at night as I kid I oftendidnrsquot feel safe enough to fall into a sound sleep until dadwas home But his cleaning jobs were always evening orovernight shifts so staying awake was not always feasibleOne early winter morning I was startled out of sleep by a banging on our apartment door I couldnrsquot make out whawas being said but I knew it was something serious by theformalness of momrsquos voice The next morning I learnedabout the accident Driving home from a late night shiftdad had fallen asleep at the wheel and driven his car intoa concrete light post When I returned home from schoolat the end of the day I was frightened by how he lookeda bandaged head swollen and bruised face and one armin a sling He had trouble speaking because of the stitchesin his tongue

Many years later mom told me that he had ldquowalkedrdquohome from the crash Hersquod told her he didnrsquot want to calthe police or go to the hospital He ended up not having achoice as the police followed his footsteps and blood trail in

Feature Invisible Lives

Vignettes of the working poor By Dianah Smith



friend and companyrdquo Our job was tofocus on school listen to them and ourteachers and whatever other adultsspoke to us

Finally and maybe mostsignificantly beginning in junior highand continuing throughout high schoolseveral adults took me under theirwing These adults including teacherslibrarians guidance counsellors andsocial workers ldquolooked outrdquo for meBy Grade 11 I was no longer livingat home due to many circumstancesundoubtedly exacerbated by oureconomic struggles Seeing a friendlyface and knowing that there was atleast one adult who had my well-beingand interest at heart sometimes madethe difference between hope anddespair

Despite all of this teachers college

wasnrsquot something that I plannedI think this desire for academicldquosuccessrdquo without knowing how toactually achieve it may be a commonexperience for many poor peopleEconomically disadvantaged peopleare unfamiliar with how the systemworks and therefore donrsquot know how tonavigate much less ldquoworkrdquo the systemas many economically advantagedpeople do The poor often end up

being casualties of the system with afew lucky exceptions

Me (now)A teaching degree a creative outletand perhaps a bit of luck and goodtiming have (for the moment) savedme from joining the (swelling) ranksof the working poor Unlike manyrecent bachelor of education graduatesI entered the teaching profession at atime when jobs were still available Iwas hired as a full-time teacher withinseveral months of graduating fromthe Ontario Institute for Studies inEducation (OISE) With full-time workmy first priority was to pay off mystudent loans I committed to puttinghalf of my monthly salary toward mystudent loan payments Growing uppoor I was used to living on very littleso living on half of my teaching salarywasnrsquot a big challenge I was in a sharedliving situation so also had very lowexpenses

Working full time I was able to payoff my debt within three years Withou

helped you make eye contact initiateconversations believe for a momentthat you were somebody

In the senior grades of high school Inoticed a kind of camaraderie betweenmiddleupper-class students andteachers They (teachers and students)spoke with authority about currentevents stories in the papers thingsthat were happening in the worldThe participants in these conversationswere mainly students whose familiessubscribed to the Ottawa Citizen or theGlobe and Mail and discussed newsstories over breakfast or at dinner withtheir parents Many of these studentsalso went to Mont Tremblant duringthe Christmas break and Floridaduring the March break There was noentry point to these side discussionsthey werenrsquot part of the lesson so there

were no readings handed out or textto refer to The assumption that ldquoweshould know these thingsrdquo hung inthe air To not know these things orshare these experiences meant that youremained on the fringesmdashliterally andfiguratively

Mercifully this humiliationalienation was limited to the school dayAt that time there were no cellphonesFacebook or Instagram I can onlyimagine how the ability to constantlyand instantly post about your activities

whereabouts not to mention selfies andimages of vacations birthdays and barmitzvahs adds to the sense alienationof todayrsquos economically disadvantagedyoung people

A trifecta of circumstancescontributed to my educational pathI hesitate to say educational ldquosuccessrdquoas I feel that word is loaded with manyassumptions When my siblings and Iwere reluctant to do our homework myDad would often say ldquoDo you wantto end up like your mother and mecleaning up after peoplerdquo Despitetheir unfamiliarity with the Canadianeducation system and their limitededucational achievements my parents(similar to many immigrants) valuededucation and instilled that value inmy siblings and me

Falling in with the ldquorightrdquo crowdwas also a significant influence Theright crowd was somewhere betweennerds and geeks Again my parentsalways warned against rdquotoo much

the snow right to our apartment doorarriving not long after he did

Me (then)I grew up knowing intuitively notto ask for particular things becausethey were not possibilities toys newclothes shoes participating in after-school clubs going to sleepovers orfriendsrsquo houses There were no secondsat the dinner table and the kitchenwas off-limits between meals Momkept a mental inventory of what wasin the fridge and cupboards and mysiblings and I were warned that wersquodhave to wait until the next payday toreplace bread milk lunchmeat etc thatdidnrsquot ldquostretchrdquo for however long it wassupposed to stretch for

It was normal for my siblings andme to wear ill-fitting or worn-out shoes

clothes that wersquod ldquogrown out ofrdquo orneeded to be ldquogrown intordquo The needfor a specific itemmdashgrey skirt and blue sweater for the school choir forinstancemdashwas cause for stress And arequest to attend a meeting at schoolwould elicit a monologue from momMemorable lines included whetherteachers didnrsquot understand that peoplehad to work and that this ldquofoolishnessrdquocould wait and was this meeting goingto put food on the table

As a kid I knew we were poor but

the feelings of shame (that somehowwe were to blame for this poverty) onlyentered my life when my childhoodcircles expanded beyond myneighbourhood A recommendation

by my Grade 6 French teacher to enrollin a French immersion program led meto a predominantly white and middle-class junior high school outside ofmy neighbourhood As a poor blackkid attending a predominantlywhite middle-class junior high andthen high school not only did I feeldifferent I felt less valued in who I wasas a person and in my contributionsacademically and socially Plaidpinned-down collars and pennyloafers dominated my junior highMy family shopped at Giant Tiger andBiway Giant Tiger and Biway didnrsquotsell Polo Lacoste or Esprit The Biwaydidnrsquot even have a change room As akid a logo or brand name did what asurreptitious swig from a micky did inadulthood provided false courage that



the weight of a large debt I had room to breathe and that breathing room allowed me to see that I actually did notenjoy teaching full time Eventually I transitioned to part-time teaching and then resigned as a full-time teacherand transitioned to occasional teaching As an occasionalteacher I donrsquot have the benefits wages or security of afull-time teacher However I do (usually) make enough tocover my living expenses and have some comforts

Work that pays a living wage has allowed me to havethe kind of life that has eluded my immediate familyone with dignity choice and opportunity to dream Ithas also allowed me time for reflection I was able to lookat my life and to understand that my and my familyrsquoschallenges were not about personal failure There wereand still are systemic and structural obstacles that createsustain and entrench economic disadvantage In the enditrsquos our society that suffers the greatest loss with fracturedfamilies hollowed-out communities and individuals whoare not able to reach or even explore their full humanpotential

Dianah Smith is a writer currently completing her first novelan arts educator facilitating writing workshops in schools andcommunity settings a program co-ordinator with a communityarts festival and an occasional teacher with the Toronto DistrictSchool Board This article appears in the winter 2015 issue ofOur Schools Our Selves which is available for purchase atthe CCPA Bookstore wwwpolicyalternativesca

A legacy gift is a gift you plan now thatwill benefit the CCPA in the future

Legacy gifts are not just for the wealthyor the elderly Legacy gifts allow you topotentially contribute more than at anyother time in your life The most popularoptions are setting up a gift in your will

(a bequest) and life insurance Legacygifts can be in any amount and can alsotake the form of real estate appreciatedsecurities retirement plans art or trusts

Development Officer Katie Loftuswould be happy to assist you with yourgift planning Katie can be reached at

613-563-1341 ext 318 or katiepoli-cyalternativesca You can also visit usonline at wwwpolicyalternativesca ccpavisionaries

ldquoa legacy gift to the CCPA alsoconstitutes a precious gift to ourchildren and grandchildrenrdquo mdashEd Finn

Leave a legacy that reflects yourlifelong convictions

Arrange a legacy gift to theCanadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

The CCPArsquos first-ever annual report is now

available for download at wwwpolicyalter-

nativesca It includes a summary of all the

good work we did last year messages from

our national and regional directors and or-

ganizational financial statements



After years of negotiation an agreementhas been reached between FirstNations the BC government andthe Nature Conservancy of Canadato protect ancestral burial grounds ofthe Cowichan Tseycum PenelakutTsawout Tsartlip and Pauquachincanpeoples against development on GraceIslet off Salt Spring Island in BritishColumbia (The Tyee January 16)

On January 2 New Orleans became thefirst US city to find homes for all of its50000 known homeless veterans Theprogram is being hailed as a model for

the rest of the country (The ChristianScience Monitor January 9)

In early January Gerhld Acosta ahitchhiker looking for a ride home fromhis job at a paper mill in southwesternUruguay got the surprise of his life whenthe occupants of the SUV that stopped topick him up turned out to be President Jose Mujica and his wife Senator LuciaTopolansky Such encounters withMujica often nicknamed ldquothe worldrsquospoorest presidentrdquo are not rare He

recently donated 90 of his salary tocharity saying ldquoI do fine with thatamount I have to do fine because thereare many Uruguayans who live withmuch lessrdquo ( Huffington Post January 29)

Cree Instructor Dorothy Thunderhas partnered with Antti Arppe alinguistics professor at the University ofAlberta to produce an electronic PlainsCree-to-English dictionary They arehoping it will be ready within a year(CBC February 2)

In mid-2013 New Yorker Robert Leethe son of Korean immigrants launchedRescuing Leftover Cuisine a non-profitthat combines the goals of preventinghigh-quality food from being wastedand putting an end to hunger Sincethen his organization has partneredwith more than 30 local restaurants andmarkets to secure food donations while

building a volunteer network of morethan 1400 people to hand-deliver food

to homeless shelters across the city Theorganization has saved and shared morethan 45000 pounds of food at a cost of

just 10 cents per pound ( Huffington Post January 30)

University of Copenhagen plantecologist Jacob Winer has found theamount of weeds in corn grain and

bean fields can be reduced by modifyingsowing patterns and planting seedscloser together Herbicide use is curbedsimply by out-competing the weeds forspace (Seed Daily January 15)

A new study shows that protectivelegislation a change in public attitudeand land-sharing conservation practicescan result in increased numbers of brown bears wolves Eurasian lynxand wolverines throughout mainlandEurope (The Guardian UK December 18)

A rare Sierra Nevada red fox a distinctsubspecies of the common red foxwas caught on camera on December 13and again on January 4 in CaliforniarsquosYosemite National Park It was the first

sighting in the park in more than acentury (The California Aggie February 10)

Forty years ago the bald eaglepopulation of New Jersey numbered onesingle nesting pair People took actionpassed the Clean Water Act and theEndangered Species Act and bannedDDT In 2014 the state now boasts156 eagle pairs with 115 of those pairssuccessfully breeding producing 201young (NorthJerseycom January 23)

Citing better field patrolling andmonitoring as possible reasonscampaigners fighting to protect Indiarsquostiger population are encouraged by theincrease from 1706 animals in 2011to 2226 in 2014 (The Guardian UK January 20)

A herd of 30 wild bison has been letloose in Illinoisrsquo Nachusa Grasslands torestore natural grasslands to the Prairiestate Itrsquos the first time the animal has

been east of the Mississippi in 200 years(OnEarth magazine January)

Stanford solar physicists have devisedartificial intelligence techniques thatcould provide advance warning ofgigantic solar flares and their impactson Earthrsquos communication and powersystems (Space Daily January 15)

In 2004 a fire destroyed the diesel powerplant on the tiny Caribbean island ofBonaire (pop 14500) off the coast ofVenezuela Today the community is onthe way to being powered entirely byrenewable energy with 12 wind turbinesproducing 11 MW of wind power batterystorage of 6 MWh five diesel generatorsfor backup and a biodiesel (algae) planin the works (Rocky Mountain Institute

blog January 7)

St Kitts and Nevis also in theCaribbean wants to ldquoharness thepower of the sunrdquo in the words ofthe island nationrsquos prime minister DrDenzil Douglas The countryrsquos firstsolar farm was commissioned in 2013and the groundbreaking for its secondinstallation took place in early January(Inter Press Service January 13)

It turns out people want to save energyto save the planet not to save moneyAfter receiving emails about the amounof pollution they were creating and howthatrsquos been shown to cause childhoodasthma and cancer one of the controlgroups in a recent UCLA study cut itsenergy use by 8 The health messagewas most effective in households withchildren at home which cut their power by 19 (The Daily Climate January 12)

2014 was a ldquomassiverdquo year for renewableenergy suggests a report by WorldWildlife Fund Scotland with enoughwind power generated on December10 to supply 634 million homes for theday (The Scotsman December 22)

According to Statistics Canada crime inCanada has fallen to its lowest point sincethe 1960s (The Toronto Star January 28)

The Good News PageCompiled by Elaine Hughes



Extracting stories ofresistance

The Answer Is Still NoBy Paul Bowles and Henry Veltmeyer

Fernwood Publishing (2014) 156pages $2295 (paperback)

Reviewed by Angela V Carter assistantprofessor at the University of Waterloo

The Northern Gateway pipelineis one of several proposals for transporting tar sands

bitumen from Alberta to non-US markets in this caseto Asia via the port of Kitimat on British Columbiarsquos northwestcoast The tremendous opposition to this particular Enbridgeproject expressed in recent testimony to the governmentrsquos JointReview Panel intrigued two university professors Paul Bowles

and Henry Veltmeyer who set out to understand the pipelineresistance movement They travelled from Prince George toPrince Rupert interviewing activists and community membersalong the pipelinersquos suggested route through BC

The Answer Is Still No is the result of those conversationsmdash10chapters covering a dozen interviews bookended by anintroduction and afterward that draw on the authorsrsquocombined expertise in economics and international studiesBowles and Veltmeyer provocatively conclude that despitethe Harper governmentrsquos unambiguous support for pipelineprojects and the corporate pressure to see them completedldquothere is one certainty the Enbridge pipeline will never be

builtrdquo Why Because ldquothe people of northern British Columbia

and their supporters elsewhere will not let it happenrdquoIn one chapter Jasmine Thomas from the Saikrsquouz

First Nation (50km west of Prince George along the Trans-Canada Highway) captures the perspective of Indigenousorganizations working to protect the Fraser River watershedThomas emphasizes the scope and diversity of strategies used

by First Nations from lobbying for changes to the federalgovernmentrsquos review processes to raising awareness atshareholder meetings of Canadian banks to learning fromthe experiences of communities confronting the negativeimpacts of oil projects in Ecuador and the Gulf of MexicoThomas describes how First Nations women have led the BCresistance from the grassroots What they call ldquoanti-Enbridge

headquartersrdquo is essentially ldquofour of us women sitting in aliving roomrdquo She underscores the important relationship thathas developed between First Nations communities and non-governmental organizations that recognize the fundamentalimportance of First Nations leadership and sovereignty

In another chapter John Ridsdale chief of the TsayuClan and a co-ordinator at the natural resource departmentof the Office of the Wetrsquosuwetrsquoen describes the attempts bypipeline companies to gain consent by dividing opinionin First Nations communities for example or avoiding acumulative impact analyses of their projects Ridsdale alsocovers how the federal government has supported extraction

through regulatory changes (eg the retreat in the 2012federal budget from protecting the vast majority of Canadianlakes) contrasting the shortsightedness of corporations andgovernment with his communityrsquos long-term commitment toprotecting its lands and waterways Like Thomas Ridsdalereflects on how this pipeline debate is unifying disparategroups and people including recreational fishers agriculturaand forestry workers ldquoEnbridge did us a favourrdquo he saysldquoFor them to bring us together like that was amazingrdquo

The interview with Nikki Skuce of ForestEthics providesanother window into the pipeline fight She explainshow environmental organizations have learned from theexperience of opposing other extractive projects in the regionFor example the most recent debate on coal-bed methanetaught activists the value of creative strategies of resistanceof using a blend of public debates and information sessionspublic pressure on corporate boards support for concerned

municipalities lobbying at different levels of government anddirect action In the Enbridge pipeline case Skuce credits FirstNations and other northern communities and communityorganizations (versus national or international NGOs) withleading the resistance While the larger NGOs are present andthere are often divergences of opinion and sometimes conflictoverall the relationship is co-operative Successful resistanceto other projects has built a sense of empowerment she says

In contrast to typical academic work Bowles and Veltmeyelet the intervieweesrsquo words stand for themselves in these editedtranscripts The result is a number of unique and broad-rangingconversations that have become all the more important sinceThe Answer is Still No was released last spring The Northern

Gateway project received cabinet approval in June 2014 subjectto the 209 conditions of the Joint Review Panel Enbridge saysit will start building the pipeline in 2016 and be moving oil

by 2019 But legal challenges against the project are mountingSo far 19 lawsuits have been filed against Northern Gateway

by environmental groups labour unions and First Nationscommunities emboldened by the recent Supreme Court ofCanada decision to grant Aboriginal title to the Tsilhqotrsquoin FirsNation Public support is growing for an NDP private memberrsquos

bill that would ban oil tankers on BCrsquos north coast And othermajor pipeline projects for moving Alberta bitumen west eastand south have been met with protest civil disobedience andlawsuits Resistance to these projects continues even as oil

prices plunge while industry and federal government officialscontinue to promote the Northern Gateway and other contestedprojects as essential to Canadarsquos energy future

The Answer Is Still No provides an informed historicaand on-the-ground view of the movement resisting EnbridgersquosNorthern Gateway pipeline Importantly the book alsosupplies something that is much needed in Canadian debatesabout energy optimism It shows us that First Nationscommunities united with a broad range of NGOs and locagovernments can successfully confront what sometimesappears to be an unbreachable governmentndashcorporateconsensus on the extractivist agenda

BOOKS



There can be no doubt that Xavier Dolanrsquos appearance onthe horizon of Canadian cinema (or the internationalfilm world for that matter) is an unprecedented affair

When his debut film I Killed My Mother screened at Cannesin 2009 the writer-director-actor was only 19 He received astanding ovation that lasted eight minutes To watch his firstfilm is to understand why

It was revolutionary not only for being a personal film by a teenager about his mother but also in that it enacts apalpable shift in the power balance between the adult andthe child in popular consciousness Since that early Cannes breakthrough Dolan has made four other films Heartbeats (2010) Lawrence Anyways (2012) Tom at the Farm (2013) and

Mommy (2014) Each is an accomplishment in terms of

presenting a confident sophisticated and authentic take ondiversity sexuality disability love play and workDolanrsquos world which has been described as post-gay

is full of ambition To quote the lead character of Lawrence Anyways ldquoListen Irsquom looking for a person whowithout beinga pariah will question not only the rights and values of themarginalized but also those of the people who claim to belsquonormalrsquordquo One could say that matches Dolanrsquos own demandfor the depolarization of queer and straight play and workmarginal and normal Being queer is no longer the issueIt is rather that things have moved forward to this urgentquestion if queer is normal and it is how does it affect theoverall economy of human relations

You may well ask But first to the plot of Dolanrsquos Mommywhich again presents the single mother and only son duoDiane (Anne Dorval) and Steve (Antoine-Olivier Pilon)upping the stakes from I Killed My Mother in a violent andpowerful Oedipal relationship The story is launched withSteversquos expulsion from school for acting out against anotherchild The mother brings him home and almost immediatelythough unrelatedly loses her job Torn between managingher sonrsquos volatile temperament which ranges from life-threatening tantrums to bouts of passionate affection andlooking for work Diane turns to neighbour Kyla for help

Kyla who has developed a stuttering problem whilegrieving her dead son resulting in her losing her teaching job takes on Steversquos homeschooling The two mothersmdashbothrejected from their workplacemdashand their delinquent son

bounce along in a fragile bubble of happiness until Dianefaces a lawsuit from the parents of Kevin Steversquos damagedschoolmate Troubles multiply

In Mommy Dolan has moved away from theautobiographical focus of his first film Then we saw ateenager struggling against the pressures of his motherrsquos bourgeois suburban conformity Here we are forced into aninterstitial social space (ldquowhite trashrdquo) where a precariouslyemployed impoverished widow struggles to keep her familyafloat Both worlds feature lenient mothers teachers who quit

Ode to the playful mother Reviewed by Chandra Siddan

FILM

or get fired from their jobs and absconding or dead fathersInstitutional figures abound to pick up the slack but they arenot inspiring Work is forced upon children from above to

prepare them for fast-approaching wage slavery and theyturn mutinous It is not just fathers (in their institutional or biological sense) who have failed here but the very value theyare meant to stand for the virtue of work

A powerful artistic device that Dolan uses to effect in Mommy is the square frame Just when we have stoppednoticing the 11 square frame Steve in an ebullient momentlong-boarding in the street and holding up honking trafficreaches out from within to open the frame into panoramicview It is an exciting cinematic moment that shows whichcamp Dolan supports in the standoff between problematicchildren and punitive adults See Steve is not only a child but also a mentally challenged child adding disability to the

powerless minority status of the child as a politicalpersonalentity His non-conforming difference and provocativeplayfulness opens the square frame of work the key certaintyof everyday human relations His expansive slownesssabotages the speed of the blinkered world of employment

What Dolan gives us is a dream of amnesty not only fromldquofather knows bestrdquo parenthood but the imperative of workitself His ideal parent is female dressed to kill and playfulShe is not the depressive sacrificial wage slave guilt-trippingher son into ldquotaking responsibilityrdquo but the playful motherwho joyously leaps into his games and dances with himHeacutelegravene Rimbaud in I Killed My Mother is playful not only withher son but in her own life and opens spaces for his creativity

to blossom in such a way that play and work overlapIn Mommy the father is dead But the mother has stepped

albeit reluctantly into the departed fatherrsquos shoes holdingthe torch for depressive forbidding adulthood goadingthe child into work dreaming of his eventual growth intoresponsibility success and marriage The sonrsquos persistentrefusal to grow up is framed not as failure but as a politicalact and there you have Dolanrsquos post-gay politics

Chandra Siddan is a Toronto-based writer and filmmakerMommyhad a theatrical release in May 2014 and will be out on DVD thisspring



was around 25 in Germany 12 in theUK and just under 13 in the UnitedStates

In Canada the proportion of

electricity from wind power generatedin 2013 was low at around 3 but whengeneration from hydro is added thetotal share of electricity from renewableenergy was over 60 These are some ofthe highest national levels of renewableenergy in the world (See Figure 1 for a

breakdown of renewable energy outputin Canada)

Globally on the other handthe amount of energy derived fromrenewable sources sits around 10 Althe concern about climate change has

not resulted in a significant shift awayfrom fossil fuels It seems very unlikelythat this latest IPCC warning will haveits desired effect of changing this reality

At the IPCC report launch UNSecretary-General Ban Ki-moon feltthe need to include a specific messageto investors ldquoPlease reduce yourinvestments in the coal and fossil fuelndash

based economy and [move] to renewableenergyrdquo He cited the continuing rise inglobal production and consumption of

The concern about climatechange began in the late 1980swhich is also when the UN

Intergovernmental Panel on ClimateChange (IPCC) was set up Over thepast decade the issue has becomeincreasingly divisive with the resultthat little constructive discussion has been possible Both those who stronglysupport action to address climatechange and those who oppose it have become entrenched in their views Thisis apparent on the matter of renewablepower

In Canada we rely on a readilyavailable supply of electricity at an

affordable cost in order to maintainour high standard of living For mostof us there would seem to be no reasonwhy anyone should object to renewableenergy as the means to generate ourelectricity provided it meets those basiccriteria After all technologies such aswind and solar power existed beforeconcerns about climate change arose

Unfortunately the more renewableenergy is positioned as a key part ofthe answer to addressing our climatechallenge the more it has become drawn

into that polarized debate Scepticismabout the capacity of renewables to meetour energy needs persists despite thetechnical issues being much the sameas those that exist with fossil fuelndashbasedpower The attitude is fed by perceptionsuntil now quite useful of wind solar biomass and other renewable energiesas being green light organic

If grappling with rising greenhousegas emissions will require a rapid shiftfrom fossil fuels to renewables (andmost experts agree it will) perhaps itrsquostime to think of the transition not asa greening of the grid but as the large-scale job-intensive industrial makeoverit will be

Propping up old technologyThe scientific community reached aconsensus that the world is gettingwarmer some years ago and thesense of urgency around the need toact only grows stronger The recentlypublished fifth assessment report of

the IPCC concludes that the warmingof the planet is clearly evident andunprecedented in the recent historyof the Earth The wording of the most-

quoted phrase in the report ldquoseverewidespread and irreversible impactsrdquocould not be stronger

Like when previous IPCC reportshave been issued the new assessmentforces politicians and policy-makers tostate their positions on the issue Theymake commitments set targets andsometimes even pass legislation that iseither aimed at reducing greenhousegas (GHG) emissions or expandingrenewable energy But as time passesthe news media inevitably moves on toother things politicians fail to followthrough on their promises Most ifnot all of the targets for expandingrenewable energy are either missed orrevised

Some countries have made moreof a shift toward renewable energythan others For instance Denmarkand Spain generated 33 and 20of their electricity from wind powerrespectively in 2013 In the same yearthe level of overall renewable generation

Perspectives

Is renewable energy too green for its own goodBy James Donald



In reality renewable energyis highly industrial Solarcells and wind turbines are

designed by skilled engi-neers and manufactured inhuge specialized facilities

only supply electricity intermittently and it causes stabilityproblems for the electricity network Letrsquos call these thetechnical issues The second set relates to climate changeand the concepts of green technology and the green economyThese issues are subtle and underlie the technical issues wersquolcall them the conceptual issues Letrsquos deal with the two sets(technical and conceptual) in that order

Electricity is generated and transported in hugequantities and mainly consumed in very small quantities Theinfrastructure required to generate and transport electricityin the quantities required is expansive This is the case for althe main generation technologiesmdashhydro solar wind coalgas and nuclearmdashand runs to many many billions of dollarsin construction costs With the possible exception of nuclearpower (due to the timeframe required to manage nuclearwaste and the lack of an acceptable method of disposal) noneof these technologies is inherently more expensive than theothers

Differences in cost between generation technologiesare based on the same factors that generally determine thecost of any kind of technology scale and maturity of the

industry and government support At the moment the scaleand maturity of the fossil fuel industry remains well beyondthat of renewables But the latter are catching up and giventhe same level of support there is no reason to believe theycould not provide affordable power In addition renewabletechnologies have the inherent advantage of not requiring asupply of fuel to operate So they have no fuel costs and noexposure to the risks of fuel price volatility

The term intermittent has beenvery damaging to public confidence inrenewable energy It is also incorrectStrictly speaking all electricitygeneration is intermittentmdashit is either

on or off And nothing (not evennuclear) runs all the time Running anefficient power station means ensuringequipment is well maintained which

requires systems to be regularly taken off-line servicedrepaired and parts replaced Things also break down To deawith these issues electricity systems need to have responsivespare generating capacity to avoid a shortfall Renewableenergy is no less reliable than fossil fuels but technologiessuch as wind and solar power are more variable in terms ofhow much electricity can be produced at any one time

The variable nature of wind and solar power presents twoissues First neither can be relied upon to meet a shortfall inpower as output cannot be increased if the strength of thesun or the wind is insufficient In the industry increasinggeneration is called ldquoramping uprdquo Only certain technologiescan ramp up quickly Gas-fired generation is often used todeal with shortfalls but hydropower is the technology mosable to ramp up quickly This makes Canada particularlywell placed to accommodate variable power generationespecially in the big hydro-using provinces of BC ManitobaNewfoundland and Labrador and Quebec

Second frequent changes in generation output causeproblems for the stability of the electricity networkElectricity systems have to be designed to deal with a

coal most of it to produce electricity Between 2007 and 2012annual coal production rose from 656 billion to 789 billion

tonnes while consumption went up from 652 billion to 767 billion tonnesA large proportion of investment in fossil fuels comes from

the same governments who say they want to expand renewableenergy A recent report from the Overseas DevelopmentInstitute (ODI) a leading independent UK think-tank oninternational development and humanitarian issues statesthat G20 governments are spending approximately $88 billiona year subsidising exploration for newoil gas and coal reserves This includesdirect government spending as well asother subsidies such as tax benefits Thereport highlights that the top 20 private

oil and gas companies globally invested just $37 billion in exploration in 2013less than half the sum of the annualsubsidy This underlines how fossil fuelexploration activities are highly dependent on public finance

Research has shown that subsidising renewables offersconsiderably more economic benefit than subsidising fossilfuels The ODI found that each dollar of public money spenton renewables in the US attracts $25 in private investmentwhereas each government dollar spent on fossil fuels onlydraws $13 of investment from private sources This makescommon sense given the relative maturity of the twoindustries The potential for expansion and wider economic

benefit is much greater for the renewables industrySo why do we and our governments talk about wanting to

expand renewable energy create green jobs and tackle climatechange but at the same time put the bulk of energy investmentinto fossil fuels Whatrsquos stopping us from diverting publicmoney away from fossil fuels and into renewable energy whenit would both reduce GHG emissions and produce greatereconomic benefits for the taxpayer

Technical misconceptionsThere are two sets of issues The first includes the commoncriticisms that renewable energy is too expensive it can

Large Hydroelectric

72

SmallHydroelectric 4

Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15

SolarPhotovoltaics 1

Figure 1 Canadarsquos total renewable energycapacity by resource type (2013)

SOURCE Canadian Industrial Energy End-Use Data Analysis Centre(CIEEDAC) database



new industry but one with huge potentiato become a major global playeremploying large numbers of long-termskilled workers It should be seen as thenew heavy industrymdashan industry thatwill provide the infrastructure we needin the future and bring greater economic

benefits than investing in fossil fuelsIn summary the commonly

raised technical issues do exist forrenewables but are not substantiallydifferent from those associated withother forms of electricity generationThey can be managed in other wordsPublic investment is required to dothis and current public expenditureon energy will need to be redirectedaway from fossil fuels and the existinggrid network

But more importantly for renewable

energy to become our main source ofelectricity we need to have confidencein its capability and to recognize thereal potential it offers as a major newindustry both now and far into thefuture

James Donald is an expert in renewableenergy project development with 10 yearsexperience He led the development ofseveral major renewable projects in the UKand now lives in BC

Both terms suggest something low-techand natural something green and notindustrial While this kind of languageis intended to highlight the benefits ofrenewable energy it is both incorrectmdashwind turbines do not mill anythingmdashand unhelpful in the context of the

polarized debate on climate changeInstead of creating an image of a robustindustry that can reliably supply powerand create employment these termsfeed scepticism as to the capability of thetechnology undermining confidence inthe industryrsquos investment potential

In reality renewable energy ishighly industrial Solar cells andwind turbines are designed by skilledengineers and manufactured in hugespecialized facilities The componentsare transported on barges ships and only

the biggest trucks all of which requiresgreat logistical skill Safely transportingthe blades of the largest wind turbinesmust often be done at night sincesome roads need to be closed to allowhuge low-loader trucks to manoeuvreBuilding a renewable energy powerstation like any large infrastructureproject requires construction crews to

build access roads pour foundationslay cables and erect structures

Renewable energy is still a relatively

level of energy variability and can beadapted to accommodate more thancurrently allowed for You just needto direct network investment towardthe necessary adaptations BC Hydroforecasts in its service plan that itwill spend nearly $35 billion on thenetwork and $18 billion on generation(not including the cost of building theSite C dam) over the next three yearsSignificant investment is going intomaintaining the current systems thatcould be redirected toward adaptingthe network to accommodate morerenewable energy

Producing reliable and affordableelectricity is an expensive feat ofengineering whatever kind oftechnology is used But by directinginvestment at adapting the electricitysystem and achieving the right mix of

generation technologies these technicalissues can be efficiently managed andvariable renewable energy such aswind and solar power can very reliablyproduce the bulk of power needed

Mental block on renewablesSo if the technical issues are not sodifferent for renewable energy than forfossil fuels and could be managed byredirecting existing investment why isit not happening This is where we comeup against the real barriers to renewable

rollout the conceptual issuesAs mentioned above renewable

energy is increasingly presented as theanswer to climate change as concernsover GHG emissions grow The desire todo this is understandable since climatechange seems to be the trump card inthe debate between fossil fuels andrenewables Renewable energy is alsoone of the clearest examples of a green technologymdashthe type of technology a

green economy could be built onldquoGreenrdquo generally means non-

polluting but the concept has moreconnotations than that Greentechnology is seen as clean and light incontrast to more traditional industries(eg the factory the shipyard theautomotive plant) which are describedas dirty and heavy To put it another wayto be green is to be non-industrial

Letrsquos take as an example the commonterms for wind power Wind turbinesare frequently referred to as windmills and wind power stations as wind farms

In July 2012 Vestas workers in Colorado celebrated building their 1000th wind tower(Photo Vestas)



The FINNish Line

Hold on to the will to readBy Ed Finn

Caleb Crain described the phenomena in a 2007 essay for TheNew Yorker quoting government stats that showed the steepesdeclines have been in ldquoreading for literary experiencerdquo thekind that involves ldquoexploring themes events characterssettings and the language of literary worksrdquo

Crain interviewed sociologists who warned that readingwill become once again the province of a special ldquoreadingclassrdquo who do it as ldquoan increasingly arcane hobbyrdquo Everyone

else will watch television If this is thecase it ldquowould change the textureof societyrdquo Crain wrote ldquoA readerlearns about the world and imaginesit differently from the way a viewerdoes according to some experimentapsychologists a reader and a viewereven think differentlyrdquo

Maryanne Wolf of Tufts Universitywhose book Proust and the Squid TheStory of Science and the Reading Brain is discussed in the essayresponded to Crain in The New Yorker with these remarks

As it develops expertise the circuitry for reading in the

brain becomes both ldquosmallerrdquo in its streamlined regions

and also ldquolargerrdquomdashthat is more widely activatedmdashin those

regions engaged in sophisticated thinking like inference

critical analysis and insight This type of activation is the

basis for ldquodeep readingrdquo and the highest forms of thought in

a society from novel thinking to the deliberation of virtue

My primary concern for the future of reading is that these

critical areas will be short-circuited in the next generationof readers whose formative years may be immersed too

early in digitally driven media The addictive immediacy

and the overwhelming volume of information available in

the ldquoGoogled worldrdquo of novice readers invite neither time

for concentrated analysis and inference nor the motivation

for them to think beyond all the information given Despite

its extraordinary contributions the digital world may be

the greatest threat yet to the endangered reading brain as

it has developed over the past five thousand years

To the extent that a disinclination to read can impair the

intellect it cannot help but limit a personrsquos ability to think (andact) creatively to undertake projects that call for planning ordesigning original approaches The pool of ldquodeep thinkersrdquomay be drained among the young If there was ever a timein the recent history of humankind that called for deepand innovative thinking it is surely today on the edge ofecological catastrophe

Author Ursula Le Guin who has also pondered thedecline of reading points out the main difference betweenreading and viewing in this excerpt from her 2008 essay in

Harperrsquos Magazine

Once yoursquove pressed the on button the TV goes on and

Polls of reading habits in both Canada and the UnitedStates typically find that one in three people no longerreads even a single book a year Thatrsquos a concern but

the good news is that two-thirds of adults are still reading booksmdashand at an impressive average rate of one a month Sotherersquos no danger of books becoming obsolete any time soon

Still the decline in newspaper and magazine reading isprecipitous Canadarsquos pre-eminent journal on the left for muchof the 20th century Canadian Forum wasone of the first victims forced to closedown in the late 1990s Other progressivemags such as This Magazine CanadianDimension Our Times and Briarpatch arestill hanging on thanks to dedicatedstaff and contributors but the struggleto maintain readers and revenue is

arduousNewspaper subscription rates inCanada are in a relatively slow decline There are readersout there but as print ad revenues fall media companiesare erecting paywalls and shedding jobs to maintain profitsCirculation figures from the United States tell a slightlydifferent story Like in Canada ad revenues drop year afteryear but so do subscription rates Over a recent 15-year periodUS subscriptions to daily newspapers fell by 30 Staffs are

being cut investigative reporting stifled foreign bureausclosed

Concurrent with this decline in print readership howeverhas been an upsurge in Internet publications and social media

Newspapers and magazines continue to refine their onlinepresence to attract online subscribers (and thus advertising)Although an increasing amount of content beyond specialtyor extended coverage is provided for a fee a good portion isunavoidably free According to the Newspaper Association ofAmerica the digital delivery of newspaper media hit anotherpeak of 166 million unique visitors in October 2014 a 17increase from the year before

The fundamental issue I want to address here however isnot whether itrsquos a good thing for people to get their information(and entertainment) in print or electronically but whether themigration to the web is conducive to a decline in reading

In some ways people are reading a lot more as theFacebook and Twitter posts scroll down their monitor ortablet screens and some of it is well written informativeand mentally stimulating But a lot of web content is hastilyand badly written or consists of gossip weather forecastssports scores stock reports and other such trivia This is notthe kind of reading that engages the mind the spirit or theimagination In some cases it might be turning people offreading altogether

Alarmingly losing the will to read tends to erode theability to read The US Department of Education which keepstrack of the average Americanrsquos reading proficiency reporteda significant drop since the start of the 21st century Author

The fundamental issue is notwhether itrsquos a good thing forpeople to get their informa-tion in print or electronicallybut whether the latter is con-ducive to a decline in read-

ingmdashand reading proficiency



Attaining high linguisticability in early childhoodseems to protect againstAlzheimerrsquos Asked what isthe most important thinga parent can do with theirchildren a psycholinguistrsquosanswer is simple and directread to them

on and on and all you have todo is sit and stare But readingis active an act of attention ofabsorbed alertnesshellip A book wonrsquotmove your eyes for you the wayimages on a screen do It wonrsquotmove your mind unless you giveit your mind or your heart unless

you put your heart in it It wonrsquotdo the work for you To read a storywell is to follow it to act it to feelit to become itmdasheverything shortof writing it in fact Reading isnot ldquointeractiverdquo with a set of rulesor options as games are readingis actual collaboration with thewriterrsquos mind No wonder noteverybody is up to it

Keeping the mind active andinvolved through readingmdashinquiring

speculating analyzing inferringprojectingmdashmay also protect you fromAlzheimerrsquos Parkinsonrsquos and otherforms of dementia

In the mid-1980s Dr DavidSnowdon then at the University ofMinnesota became fascinated by the

teaching nuns in the School Sisters ofNotre Dame who live much longer-than-average lives many remainingactive and alert into their 90s and quitea few living over a century Snowdenvisited and interviewed the nuns andreceived permission to dissect the

brains of a few who passed away Hefound they were remarkably free fromthe degenerative diseases of senility

One of Snow-donrsquos key findingsdescribed in his2001 book Agingwith Grace Whatthe Nun StudyTeaches Us AboutLeading Longer

Healthier and More Meaningful Liveswas that attain-

ing high linguis-tic ability in early childhood seems toprotect against Alzheimerrsquos The nunshad all been taught to readmdashand to lovereadingmdashat an early age

Dr Susan Kemper a psycholinguistassociate of Snowdenrsquos with specialized

knowledge about the impact of agingon language skills measures a personrsquosidea density which is the ability tocomprehend interpret and processwritten language The cognitive abilitiesof the nuns scored at a very high level

In Aging Gracefully Snowdon andKemper are asked by one parent ldquoWha

does this mean for our childrenrdquo Kemperrsquos answer is direct ldquoRead to themitrsquos that simple Itis the most impor-tant thing a parencan do with theirchildrenrdquo

W hy B ecause idea densitydepends on twoimportant learnedskills vocabularyand reading com

prehension ldquoAndthe best way to increase vocabulary andreading comprehension is by startingearly in life by reading to your childrenrdquo

I was fortunate that my mother readto me from my infancy and taught meto read on my own before I reached myfifth birthday The love of reading wasprobably the greatest gift she ever gaveme and one that my wife and I havepassed on to our children in turn

No doubt many parents even inthe digital age continue to inculcate

this reading habit in their sons anddaughters But is it a declining practiceDo most children today learn to developthis vital skill Do they continue to useit to improve and build on it Or do theyget drawn away from the intellectuallyrewarding but challenging world of

books to the more visually and verballyattractive worlds of the televisioncellphone tablet and other high-techgadgetry

Do such youngsters suffer animpairment of their reading skills with

all that entails for their future careersand lifestyle and even their health

These are questions to be grappledwith as we move deeper into the digitarevolution The fate of reading materialand of reading itself may have muchgreater significance for our societyperhaps even our planet than weimagine

Ed Finn is Editor Emeritus of the CCPAMonitor

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives will host its second Telephone Town Hall on

March 4 between 715 and 815 pm Eastern (Ontario-Quebec) time Last yearrsquos event was

a huge success with over 4000 participants We look forward to welcoming even more

of you to the discussion this time

All you have to do is answer the phone when we call you on March 4 shortly after 700

pm Eastern (Ontario-Quebec) time so please remember to adjust that according to your

time zone In the coming weeks we will provide more information about how you can

join us We look forward to spending some time with you on March 4

CCPA TELEPHONE

TOWN HALLCCPA TELEPHONE

TOWN HALLWHEN March 4 715ndash815 PM ET

WHERE We will call you

WHAT Executive Director Bruce Campbell hosts a

discussion with senior CCPA economists David Macdonald and Armine

Yalnizyan followed by questions from town hall participants


httpslidepdfcomreaderfullmonitor-mar2015 4040

ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES

wwwpolicyalternativesca | ccpapolicyalternativesca | (613) 563-1341 | 500-251 Bank Street Ottawa ON K2P 1X3

CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other

Tax receipts are issued for contributions of $15 or more

983149 I prefer to receive my Monitor by e-mail983149 I prefer a printed Monitor mailed to my address983149 No Monitor thanks983149 Please do not trade my name with other organizations

Payment Options983149 Monthly $ (monthly amount)For automatic payments please enclose a void cheque or fill in your credit cardinformation below You can stop payments at any time by contacting the CCPA

983149 Annually $ (annual amount)

Please enclose a cheque (made out to ldquoCCPArdquo) for your annualcontribution or fill in your credit card information below

Credit Card983149 Visa 983149 Mastercard Card

Card Number

Expiry Date Signature

Your telephone number is required to process credit card transactions

Contact InformationName

Address

City Prov Postal Code

Telephone

E-mail983149 Yes I prefer to receive my tax receipt and updates by e-mail

Support the CCPA

Registered Charity 124146473 RR0001



Over the last few years a great evil has beendescending upon our world an evil which hasbeen growing more and more powerful violent

jihadismhellip

mdash Prime Minister Stephen Harper on January 30

We are going to destroy the basis upon whichthey [the wealthy and political elite] have built for decade after decade a system a network thatviciously sucks the energy and the economic

power from everybody else in society

mdash Greek Finance Minister Yanis Varoufakis

The Monitor doesnrsquot normally have atheme but this month there are twothe electoral transition in Greece

toward a more meaningful democracyand the discouraging shift in the opposite

directionmdashin the form of unnecessary butpolitically useful anti-terrorism reformsmdashhere in Canada

We decided to feature the morepositive of the two situations on our coverBruce Campbellrsquos analysis of the meaningof Syrizarsquos January 25 win notably forEuropersquos austere social-democratic partiescontinues on page 17 Itrsquos followed by anarticle from Asad Ismi on the possibilityof a Greek exit from the euro zone anda warning against it from Greecersquos ldquorockstarrdquo finance minister the self-styled

ldquoerratic Marxistrdquo Yanis VaroufakisThe excerpt is taken from a speech

Varoufakis gave in 2013 in which hedisputes the idea attributed to Lenin thatthings must get much worse before they get

better that a more equitable social economymust grow out of depravity The problemhe says referring to Thatcherrsquos England butapplicable elsewhere was that things clearlycould just stay bad Prolonged recessioncould actually reinforce the economicsystem that produces it while sucking airout of any progressive or left alternatives

The irony is that things probably didhave to be as bad as they were in Greece forSyriza to get elected But this is not whatVaroufakis is worried about He and hisgovernment are concerned not to makethings even harder for the Greek peopleAn even deeper and more painful financialcrisis triggered possibly by leavingthe euro zone would certainly benefitldquoGolden Dawn the assorted neofacists thexenophobes and the spivsrdquo before it helpsa progressive left he says

The Canadian and Greek economicsituations generally are not comparablethough for many of Canadarsquos workingpoor the system throws up just as many

barriers to the ldquogood liferdquo as Dianah Smithdescribes in a series of personal vignetteson page 29 with class and race importanamong them Not surprisingly the economyis still the most important priority in pre-election opinion polls with the threat ofterrorism at the bottom of most lists

Like the Greek bailout negotiationsthe debate over Canadarsquos new securitylegislationmdashbills C-51 and C-44 inparticularmdashis moving quickly As I writethis C-44 is with the Senate The legislationauthorizes CSIS to operate abroad andin ways that might contravene foreignor international law and that could

put Canadian lives at risk accordingto Canadarsquos privacy commissioner BillC-51 creates a new offence of promotingterrorism defined broadly and gives CSISagents more policing powers at homemdashpowers they have not had since the spyagencyrsquos first recruits were still membersof the disbanded RCMP Security Service

Paul Weinberg calls them the ldquobad olddaysrdquo of Canadian spying in his featureon page 24 about the RCMPrsquos disruptionof progressive organizations like Praxis inthe 1970s C-51 which many experts believe

could bring those days back was just being debated by the House of Commonswhen we went to print with the NDP andGreens lining up against and the Liberalssaying they will support it and bring inaccountability measures if elected There isa detailed legal primer on C-51 by ClaytonRuby and Nader R Hasan on page 21

In the same section (page 27) JoyceNelson draws the links between these newsecurity laws and a private memberrsquos bill onprotecting Canadarsquos critical infrastructureincluding possibly from environmenta

protestorsmdashthe ldquoanti-petroleumrdquomovement as the RCMP refers to them in arecently leaked internal memo My interviewwith Roch Tasseacute on page 14 touches on theevolution across Liberal and Conservativegovernments since 2001 of the idea thatCanadarsquos economic security is equivalento its national security enforceable throughall the same tools used to combat what wenow call terrorism (Stuart Trew

Feedback monitorpolicyalternativesca

EditorialCCPA Monitor ISSN 1198-497X

CCPA Monitor is published 10 times

a year by the Canadian Centre for

Policy Alternatives The opinions

expressed in the CCPA Monitor are

those of the authors and do not

necessarily reflect the views of the

CCPA Please send feedback tomonitorpolicyalternativesca

EDITOR Stuart Trew

EDITOR EMERITUS Ed Finn

LAYOUT Susan Purtell

EDITORIAL BOARD Bruce Campbell

Kerri-Anne Finn Seth Klein Kate

McInturff Erika Shaker

CCPA NATIONAL OFFICE

500-251 Bank St Ottawa ON K2P 1X3tel 613-563-1341

fax 613-233-1458

e-mail ccpapolicyalternativesca

CCPA BC OFFICE

1400-207 West Hastings St

Vancouver BC V6B 1H7

tel 604-801-5121

fax 604-801-5122

e-mail ccpabcpolicyalternativesca

CCPA MANITOBA OF FICE

Unit 205 ndash 765 Main St

Winnipeg MB R2W 3N5tel 204-927-3200

fax 204-927-3201

e-mail ccpambpolicyalternativesca

CCPA NOVA SCOTIA OFFICE

PO Box 8355 Halifax NS B3K 5M1

tel 902-240-0926

e-mail ccpanspolicyalternativesca

CCPA ONTARIO OFFICE

10 Dundas Street East

PO Box 47129 Toronto ON M5B 0A1

tel 416-598-5985

e-mail ccpaonpolicyalternativesca

CCPA SASKATCHEWAN OFFICE

2nd Floor 2138 McIntyre Street

Regina SK S4P 2R7

tel 306-924-3372

fax 306-586-5177

e-mail ccpasasksasktelnet

CCPA web site

wwwpolicyalternativesca

Canada Post Publication 40009942





















Editorial 2



Good News Page 32

BEHIND THE NUMBERS





COMMENT


digital access 10



challenge 12


Roch Tasseacute 14


FEATURES




Paul Weinberg 24



Joyce Nelson 32


Dianah Smith 34

ARTS



PERSPECTIVES




reading Ed Finn 38



Letters




M Key Sundridge Ont


















































NEW FROM THE CCPA








T T T


By Kaylie Tiessen






By Scott Sinclair















BEHIND THE NUMBERS

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Other

Agricultural

Land use planning


Trade remedies



Resource management























T T T


By David Macdonald
























T T T


By Marc Lee

I

















25

35

45

55

65

75

85

C a n a d a

Q u e b e c

O n t a r i o

M a n i t o b a


A l b e r t a B

C

U n e m















T T T

Municipal headaches


M









































































































































































































permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA






















Editorial 2



Good News Page 32

BEHIND THE NUMBERS





COMMENT


digital access 10



challenge 12


Roch Tasseacute 14


FEATURES




Paul Weinberg 24



Joyce Nelson 32


Dianah Smith 34

ARTS



PERSPECTIVES




reading Ed Finn 38



Letters




M Key Sundridge Ont


















































NEW FROM THE CCPA








T T T


By Kaylie Tiessen






By Scott Sinclair















BEHIND THE NUMBERS

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Other

Agricultural

Land use planning


Trade remedies



Resource management























T T T


By David Macdonald
























T T T


By Marc Lee

I

















25

35

45

55

65

75

85

C a n a d a

Q u e b e c

O n t a r i o

M a n i t o b a


A l b e r t a B

C

U n e m















T T T

Municipal headaches


M









































































































































































































permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA




Letters




M Key Sundridge Ont


















































NEW FROM THE CCPA








T T T


By Kaylie Tiessen






By Scott Sinclair















BEHIND THE NUMBERS

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Other

Agricultural

Land use planning


Trade remedies



Resource management























T T T


By David Macdonald
























T T T


By Marc Lee

I

















25

35

45

55

65

75

85

C a n a d a

Q u e b e c

O n t a r i o

M a n i t o b a


A l b e r t a B

C

U n e m















T T T

Municipal headaches


M









































































































































































































permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA































NEW FROM THE CCPA








T T T


By Kaylie Tiessen






By Scott Sinclair















BEHIND THE NUMBERS

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Other

Agricultural

Land use planning


Trade remedies



Resource management























T T T


By David Macdonald
























T T T


By Marc Lee

I

















25

35

45

55

65

75

85

C a n a d a

Q u e b e c

O n t a r i o

M a n i t o b a


A l b e r t a B

C

U n e m















T T T

Municipal headaches


M









































































































































































































permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA









T T T


By Kaylie Tiessen






By Scott Sinclair















BEHIND THE NUMBERS

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20

Other

Agricultural

Land use planning


Trade remedies



Resource management























T T T


By David Macdonald
























T T T


By Marc Lee

I

















25

35

45

55

65

75

85

C a n a d a

Q u e b e c

O n t a r i o

M a n i t o b a


A l b e r t a B

C

U n e m















T T T

Municipal headaches


M









































































































































































































permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA





















T T T


By David Macdonald
























T T T


By Marc Lee

I

















25

35

45

55

65

75

85

C a n a d a

Q u e b e c

O n t a r i o

M a n i t o b a


A l b e r t a B

C

U n e m















T T T

Municipal headaches


M









































































































































































































permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA










T T T


By Marc Lee

I

















25

35

45

55

65

75

85

C a n a d a

Q u e b e c

O n t a r i o

M a n i t o b a


A l b e r t a B

C

U n e m















T T T

Municipal headaches


M









































































































































































































permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA












T T T

Municipal headaches


M









































































































































































































permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA



























































































































































































permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA





























































































































































permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA



























































































































permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA































































































permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA
































































permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA












































permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA






















permission



























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA
























by the Nazis)






















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA



















































Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA























Cover




























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA



























































4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA





























4



















































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA














































17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA


























17











6 Ibid 7 ATA s 211(2)










23 Ibid





T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA






T T T













































































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA


























































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA





































































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA








































theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA














theCharlie Hebdo








































































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA


























































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA



































































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA












































blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA

























blog January 7)
































BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA




























BOOKS














FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA















FILM































Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA
























Perspectives























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA























Large Hydroelectric

72


Other Renewable28

Wind 8

Biomass 15






























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA




























The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA




The FINNish Line











































































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA





































CCPA TELEPHONE









ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA




ECONOMIC

SOCIAL

AND

ENVIRONMENTAL

PERSPECTIVES


CCPA MONITOR

Ways to Give

983149 $300 983149 $100 983149 $75 983149 Other







Card Number




Address


Telephone


Support the CCPA


Documents

Monitor Mar2015