Undermining Canada, Undermining the World
by C. L. Cook
Canada is ready to fall. Following years of backroom machinations with representatives of foreign corporations on all levels of government, national sovereignty has become an illusion. Recent moves to "harmonize" more of the nation's laws in preparation for the so-called North American Union are in an advanced state, yet still governments remain mum, and the media refuses to press the issue.
It's a process happening in Ottawa, and in the provinces, and
it's accelerating. The April First enactment of the first stage of the
Trade, Investment, and Labour Mobility (Tilma) deal between Alberta and
British Columbia, ostensibly a "free trade" deal of sorts for
inter-provincial trade, will ultimately usurp the local
decision-making powers of municipalities in those two provinces,
clearing the way for unfettered business development.
This is
accomplished through a legal implement similar to the controversial
Chapter 11 provision of the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),
which holds government liable for lost business revenues due to
environmental, or other regulations. This liability is for "projected"
as well as real lost revenues.
That is to say: If a corporate
entity feels it could have made X millions, (or billions) of dollars
privatizing and selling the resources within the authority's area, but
was denied that because of existing laws, then the authority is on the
hook to supply those "lost" monies. The details of payment will be
decided by a tripartite panel of industry and government stakeholders
without public oversight or participation. As with the drafting of
these agreements, settlements too are to be held in camera, beyond the
purview of those who ultimately pay the penalties, the people.
The
Tilma provisions could go one further than Chapter 11, disallowing municipal
and regional development plans on such things as building height restrictions,
heritage designation and, in British Columbia, denying the Agricultural Land
Reserve, a system set up in the 1970's to protect dwindling farm lands
from suburban sprawl. But, at its heart Tilma is designed to do what
Chapter 11 too accomplishes, manifest an insidious coercion of city councils and
municipal boards to preemptively devolve legal protections and public
priorities for fear of falling afoul of prohibitively large lawsuits.
In simpler terms, this is called: Blackmail.
Tilma will not come into full effect until 2008, giving municipal,
city, and provincial governments the time they will need to shred and reconstruct all
laws that they may, in Tilma's terms:
"...ensure that its measures
do not operate to impair or restrict trade between or through the
territory of the Parties, or investment or labour mobility between the
Parties."
The chilling effects are already being felt, and local
legislators are now beginning to question the wisdom of this course
charted by the Premiers, without public consultation, that will
effectively neutralize municipal governance in both provinces.
Beyond
provincial borders, the deal is hailed as a triumph of Canadian good
business practice and ballyhooed by the federal government as a model
that should be adopted by all provinces, where they too should shred
existing laws and regulations to make way for a wave of corporate
investment and free flows of labour through "mobility."
Everyone Singing from the Same Hymn Book
As
ominous to political sovereignty the portent of the looming full
implementation, and perhaps spread, of Tilma is, some don't have to
wait to see the rights of their home and native land erased. In British
Columbia, the radical pro-business premier, Gordon Campbell, in the
year 2002, quietly signed into law a piece of legislation guaranteeing
the pre-eminent right of business over the citizenry. Under the
so-named 'Mineral Tenure Act' of 2002, according to Kendyl Salcito, of
The Tyee, mining corporations, best represented in the province by
massive, supra-national corporations, can stake a sub-surface mineral
claim on-line, show up at your house, and start digging. No private
property rights here.
Salcito records the rumblings coming:
"[...]
last year the province created an online staking system that allows
anyone with internet access and $25 to acquire a miner's license and
then, at $0.17 an acre, buy mineral rights to land. It doesn't matter
whether that land belongs to a neighbour, the Crown, or the "miner"
himself. Once you own the mineral rights, you are free to "explore"
your claims, wander the property, "poke at a few rocks," in the words
of MP Tom Christensen. And once you decide to start drilling and
digging, even the landowner's dwelling and buildings are at risk.
That's the law under the Mineral Tenure Act as of 2002, when the
section prohibiting miners from "obstruction or interference" with
activities (or buildings) on private land was repealed."
In his, 'A
Rancher's Radioactive Hell,' Salcito chronicles the battle between
rancher Joe Falkoski and the Zena Capital Corporation, an outfit that
showed up one day and began digging up Falkoski's [sic] land. Seems
Zena Corp. is on the hunt for Barite, a mineral found in and around
Kettle Valley.
The problem is: Kettle Valley's soil is radioactive,
giving Radon readings, according to the B.C. Centre for Disease
Control, that pose a threat to human health. No problemo for Zena
though, thanks to Campbell's loopy laws, the digging will continue come
hell, or green-glowing locals.
Barite is used to lubricate oil and gas rig drills, something infinitely more important to the well-being of Gordon
Campbell's good friends in the mining community than the health of Kettle Valley villagers.
But it's not just
in the wilds of the province that this kind of land grab can happen,
(as witnessed by some wag who tried to push the point with the premier
by staking a sub-surface claim on Campbell's own palatial Vancouver
area property) no-one's land is exempt. In another case of land
usurpation, Rob Westie's rural family home was invaded by a neighbour,
he found wandering his land with a spray paint can, marking prospective
dig sites. He then discovered he could do nothing to stop this trespass
[sic] because a "neighbour" squatting and prospecting on the land
adjacent had staked sub-surface exploration rights.
Though Westie's
MLA, Tom Christensen doesn't want to talk to him, or the press, B.C.
Minister of Mining, Bill Bennett has a few choice words to share with
Westie on the subject:
"[...] it probably comes as a big surprise to
them that they don't own the rights under them. If they're moving up
there then they are obligated to know what they're buying and what
they're getting into... I can't help it if somebody moves up there with
stars in his eyes and doesn't know what he's buying into."
The Minister
adds:
"We spend a lot of your tax dollars on public education."
Thanks for that, Bill.
Kendyl
Salcito notes, the "educational" materials necessary are housed in the
Mining Ministry's 'Access Centre,' conveniently located in Cranbook,
about 400 miles from Rob Westie's embattled homestead.
What Wonders Await Us!
Westie's commute
to Cranbrook should be made easier if the provincial government gets its way, and
pushes through their 'Pacific Gateway Strategy;' the "plan" is to pave and
plunder coastal B.C., allowing for massive road, port, and bridge
infrastructure expansion; the idea being: B.C. as the central
transit hub to expedite the delivery of cheap Chinese consumer crap to
minimum wage warehouse outlets across Canada and its U.S. "prosperity"
partner.
In Ottawa, Stephen Harper's
agents are no more interested in the public weal than Bennett et al. In
a "virtually" unprecedented act of anti-democracism, Tory Chair of the
Commons Standing Committee on International Trade, MP Leon Benoit shut
down the committee meetings in the middle of University of Alberta
professor, Gordon Laxer's testimony regarding tenets of the Security
and Prosperity Plan (SPP) signed by erstwhile Liberal Prime Minister,
Paul Martin with George W. Bush and then-president of Mexico, Vincente
Fox.
Laxer criticized provisions in the plan that guaranteed
predominant access to Canada's energy supplies by the United States,
regardless of Canadian needs. Calling the government's silence on the
issue "reckless and irresponsible," Laxer said what the agreement
means is Canadians left to "freeze in the dark" rather than let U.S.
energy quotas be reduced.
According to the Friday, May 11th Ottawa
Citizen, it was at this point, Benoit "threw down his pen" and declared
the meeting adjourned, before "storming out" of the room. The remaining
Liberal members and the vice-Chair voted to continue the meeting, and
record Laxer's testimony (absent government representation).
Committee
member and NDP MP, Peter Julian expressed shock, saying:
"It's shocking the extent to which the Conservative party will go to cover up information about the SPP."
Also
of concern to the remaining committee members: The recently announced
intention of the federal government to "harmonize" Canadian limits on
allowable pesticide residues found on produce; water export
restrictions; and government secrecy surrounding the agreement.
For its
part, the feds say they welcome "civil-society" groups to offer input.
While
the government welcomes your e:mail, they're not so crazy about civil
servants returning the favour. Wednesday saw the arrest in Ottawa of
Environment Canada media analyst, Jeffrey Monaghan, plucked from his
cubicle and led out of his office in manacles by the Royal Canadian
Mounted Police (RCMP).
According to The Gazette, Monaghan was taken
away for questioning about the leaking last month of the Tory plan to
ditch Canada's commitment to the Kyoto Accord. The leak was
particularly embarrassing for the newly minted Environment Minister,
John Baird coming in concert with pointed criticism of the
Conservative record on the environment from eminent Canadian
scientist and broadcaster, David Suzuki, and former U.S. Vice-President
Al Gore.
Jeffrey Monaghan was released by the RCMP without charge;
then he was released from his contract with Environment Canada, terminated one
day before his tenure was due to expire.
Monaghan called a press conference
Thursday, where he called the police action a result of a "witch hunt"
and lambasted the Tories, saying:
"What I can tell you is that the proposed charges against me pose a profound threat to the public interest."
Adding:
"[T]hey
are without precedent. They are vengeful, and they are an extension of
a government-wide communications strategy pinned on secrecy,
intimidation and centralization."
Secrecy, Intimidation, and Centralization
A
fittingly descriptive trio; the pillars of the wobbly stool that has
become Western Democracy, defining exactly what modern polity has
boiled down to under the auspice of America's leadership. Monaghan is
not alone in his persecution; Friday also witnessed, as a parting act
of filial devotion, by that other ally in George W.
Bush's Global War on Terra, Tony Blair, sentencing of two government
whistle-blowers under Britain's Secrecy laws.
David Keogh, a Cabinet Office
communications officer, and political researcher, Leo O'Conner were sent
up the river for six and three months respectively for leaking the
infamous memo of a meeting wherein George W. Bush seeks Tony
Blair's opinion on the political expediency of bombing the Qatar
headquarters of Arab media giant, al-Jazeera. (Blair didn't think it a
great idea, apparently).
There you have a snap of the New World
Order, ("odor" as one Rhymin' Simon friend of mine would have it) as it smells
here in Canada, and abroad.
Writing of this glorious new world, ex-pat
American, Chris Floyd observes:
"These are days of troubled sleep.
As in a dream, you walk familiar streets, living out your ordinary life
– going to work, having love affairs, watching sports, getting the car
fixed, worrying about bills, fighting a toothache, taking kids to
school, listening to music – and everything seems as it was before, as
it always was; you seem to be what you always were: a free person in a
free country. Then some discordant noise reaches your mind; you stir,
you open your eyes, and you remember: that's not how it is here
anymore."
Would that We finally wake.
Sources:
|
