#corporate governance services in Canada

[glcproca]

Unveiling Excellence: Corporate Governance Services in Canada by Golden Leaf Professional Consultants

In the dynamic landscape of business, corporate governance plays a pivotal role in ensuring transparency, accountability, and ethical conduct within organizations. As Canadian businesses navigate through an era of unprecedented challenges and opportunities, the demand for robust corporate governance services has never been higher. This blog explores the significance of corporate governance in Canada and sheds light on how Golden Leaf Professional Consultants stands out as a beacon of excellence in providing tailored corporate governance services.

Understanding Corporate Governance

Corporate governance refers to the system of rules, practices, and processes by which a company is directed and controlled. It encompasses the relationships among various stakeholders, such as shareholders, management, customers, suppliers, financiers, government, and the community. Effective corporate governance ensures that a company operates in a manner that meets the expectations of these stakeholders while maintaining its integrity and ethical standards.

Importance of Corporate Governance in Canada

Canada has earned a reputation for its strong commitment to corporate governance principles, recognizing them as essential for maintaining a fair and transparent business environment. The Canadian business landscape is characterized by a diverse array of industries, and each sector faces its own unique challenges. Effective corporate governance is crucial in fostering investor confidence, attracting capital, and promoting long-term sustainability.

Key Elements of Corporate Governance

Board of Directors: The board of directors is at the heart of corporate governance. It is responsible for making major decisions, overseeing company strategy, and ensuring that the interests of shareholders are protected. Golden Leaf Professional Consultants specializes in advising boards on best practices and governance structures.

Transparency and Accountability: Transparent reporting and accountability are fundamental to good corporate governance. Companies need to provide clear and accurate information to stakeholders, and Golden Leaf Professional Consultants assists in developing comprehensive reporting mechanisms.

Ethical Conduct: Upholding ethical standards is integral to corporate governance. Companies that prioritize ethical conduct are more likely to gain the trust of investors, customers, and the public. Golden Leaf Professional Consultants assists organizations in developing and implementing ethical guidelines.

Risk Management: Identifying and managing risks is a critical aspect of corporate governance. Golden Leaf Professional Consultants conducts thorough risk assessments and assists in developing robust risk management strategies.

Golden Leaf Professional Consultants: Elevating Corporate Governance Standards

As a leading provider of corporate governance services in Canada, Golden Leaf Professional Consultants has distinguished itself through its commitment to excellence, expertise, and client-centric approach. Here's how Golden Leaf stands out in the realm of corporate governance:

Expertise in Canadian Regulations: Navigating the intricate web of Canadian regulations requires in-depth knowledge and experience. Golden Leaf Professional Consultants boasts a team of experts well-versed in Canadian corporate governance regulations, ensuring that clients receive advice that is both relevant and compliant.

Tailored Governance Solutions: Recognizing that one size does not fit all, Golden Leaf offers tailored corporate governance solutions to meet the specific needs of each client. Whether it's a small startup or a large corporation, the consultants at Golden Leaf work closely with clients to design governance structures that align with their objectives.

Board Effectiveness Assessment: Golden Leaf conducts thorough assessments of board effectiveness to identify areas of improvement. This includes evaluating the composition of the board, its decision-making processes, and its overall contribution to the company's success.

Continuous Monitoring and Adaptation: The business environment is constantly evolving, and so should corporate governance practices. Golden Leaf Professional Consultants emphasizes continuous monitoring and adaptation, ensuring that clients stay ahead of regulatory changes and industry trends.

Case Studies: Success Stories of Golden Leaf's Corporate Governance Services

Streamlining Governance for a Tech Startup: Golden Leaf Professional Consultants assisted a tech startup in establishing a robust governance framework from its inception. By providing guidance on board composition, risk management, and ethical guidelines, the startup successfully attracted investors and scaled its operations.

Revitalizing Governance for a Traditional Industry Leader: A well-established manufacturing company partnered with Golden Leaf to revitalize its corporate governance practices. Through board effectiveness assessments and tailored solutions, the company enhanced its decision-making processes and improved stakeholder confidence.

Conclusion

In conclusion, corporate governance is the bedrock of a thriving business environment in Canada. Golden Leaf Professional Consultants, with its expertise, commitment to excellence, and client-centric approach, stands as a reliable partner for organizations seeking to elevate their corporate governance standards. By providing tailored solutions, adhering to Canadian regulations, and emphasizing continuous improvement, Golden Leaf exemplifies the essence of excellence in corporate governance services in Canada. As businesses evolve in the coming years, the role of robust governance will only become more crucial, and Golden Leaf is poised to lead the way in shaping the future of corporate governance in Canada.

[seadeepspaceontheside]

I have seen little to no support for the strike from fellow Canadians about the current Canadian Postal workers who are out there protesting for better work conditions. Canadian Postal workers =/= Canada post. Currently workers are striking for pay that has been stagnated as well as benefits being halted. Some of the things I want to debunk with all anti-worker talk about the strike. 1) "Our tax dollars pay for them! They should just go back to work! They are losing money!" False! They aren't GOVERNMENT JOBS they are a CROWN CORPORATION, they are still structured and operated as a legal corporation. The head people are still CEOS who get paid millions in bonuses as the corporation fails or makes bad decisions such as buying new vehicles that make workers feel unsafe, can't fit in urban areas, cost so much more! 2) "They don't provide a useful service its only flyers" "what about my cheque!" It can't be both, you can't claim Canada Post workers are useless for spam mail while also touting small businesses are failing, people needing their pay, and delivering where other courier services wont! Currently Canadian Postal workers will deliver benefit checks and child support on volunteer. 3)"Why are they striking now when its busiest??" They are striking now because it will affect you to care, its moot point to strike when there is little to no leverage against. THATS THE POINT OF ANY PROTEST! Show solidarity with the workers, if you have issues and want the strike to end complain to the company to work with the union (who have been asking for a resolution for years before wanting to strike) RAISE AWARENESS FOR IT.

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar’s “The Big Fix”

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/05/ted-rogers-is-a-dope/#galen-weston-is-even-worse

The Canadian national identity involves a lot of sneering at the US, but when it comes to oligarchy, Canada makes America look positively amateurish.

If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/12/05/ted-rogers-is-a-dope/#galen-weston-is-even-worse

Canada's monopolists may be big fish in a small pond, but holy moly are they big, compared to the size of that pond. In their new book, The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians, Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar lay bare the price-gouging, policy-corrupting ripoff machines that run the Great White North:

https://sutherlandhousebooks.com/product/the-big-fix/

From telecoms to groceries to pharmacies to the resource sector, Canada is a playground for a handful of supremely powerful men from dynastic families, who have bought their way to dominance, consuming small businesses by the hundreds and periodically merging with one another.

Hearn and Bednar tell this story and explain all the ways that Canadian firms use their market power to reduce quality, raise prices, abuse workers and starve suppliers, even as they capture the government and the regulators who are supposed to be overseeing them.

The odd thing is that Canada has been in the antitrust game for a long time: Canada passed its first antitrust law in 1889, a year before the USA got around to inaugurating its trustbusting era with the passage of the Sherman Act. But despite this early start, Canada's ultra-rich have successfully used the threat of American corporate juggernauts to defend the idea of Made-in-Canada monopolies, as homegrown King Kongs that will keep the nation safe from Yankee Godzillas.

Canada's Competition Bureau is underfunded and underpowered. In its entire history, the agency has never prevented a merger – not even once. This set the stage for Canada's dominant businesses to become many-tentacled conglomerates, like Canadian Tire, which owns Mark's Work Warehouse, Helly Hansen, SportChek, Nevada Bob's Golf, The Fitness Source, Party City, and, of course, a bank.

A surprising number of Canadian conglomerates end up turning into banks: Loblaw has a bank. So does Rogers. Why do these corrupt, price-gouging companies all go into "financial services?" As Hearn and Bednar explain, owning a bank is the key to financialization, with the company's finances disappearing into a black box that absorbs taxation attempts and liabilities like a black hole eating a solar system.

Of course, the neat packaging up of vast swathes of Canada's economy into these financialized and inscrutable mega-firms makes them awfully convenient acquisition targets for US and offshore private equity firms. When the Competition Bureau (inevitably) fails to block those acquisitions, whole chunks of the Canadian economy disappear into foreign hands.

This is a short book, but it's packed with a lot of easily digested detail about how these scams work: how monopolies use cross-subsidies (when one profitable business is used to prop up an unprofitable business in order to kill potential competitors) and market power to rip Canadians off and screw workers.

But the title of the book is The Big Fix, so it's not all doom and gloom. Hearn and Bednar note that Canadians and their elected reps are getting sick of this shit, and a bill to substantially beefed up Canadian competition law passed Parliament unanimously last year.

This is part of a wave of antitrust fever that's sweeping the world's governments, notably the US under Biden, where antitrust enforcers did more in the past four years than their predecessors accomplished over the previous 40 years.

Hearn and Bednar propose a follow-on agenda for Canadian lawmakers and bureaucrats: they call for a "whole of government" approach to dismantling Canada's monopolies, whereby each ministry would be charged with combing through its enabling legislation to find latent powers that could be mobilized against monopolies, and then using those powers.

The authors freely admit that this is an American import, modeled on Biden's July 2021 Executive Order on monopolies, which set out 72 action items for different parts of the administration, virtually all of which were accomplished:

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2021/08/party-its-1979-og-antitrust-back-baby

What the authors don't mention is that this plan was actually cooked up by a Canadian: Columbia law professor Tim Wu, who served in the White House as Biden's tech antitrust czar, and who grew up in Toronto (we've known each other since elementary school!).

Wu's plan has been field tested. It worked. It was exciting and effective. There's something weirdly fitting about finding the answer to Canada's monopoly problems coming from America, but only because a Canadian had to go there to find a receptive audience for it.

The Big Fix is a fantastic primer on the uniquely Canadian monopoly problem, a fast read that transcends being a mere economics primer or history lesson. It's a book that will fire you up, make you angry, make you determined, and explain what comes next.

[allthecanadianpolitics]

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau visited Inuvik, N.W.T., on Monday to sign a funding agreement with the N.W.T. government and the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation in support of Inuit-led child and family services. The agreement means the Canadian government will provide $533.5 million over the next decade for the implementation of Inuvialuit Qitunrariit Inuuniarnikkun Maligaksat — the Inuvialuit Regional Corporation's child and family services law. The N.W.T. government is also providing $209,391 annually for that. Trudeau said the goal is to strengthen the family unit and to avoid situations where the children are taken away from their parents.

Continue Reading

Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[sovlstr]

Mmmmm thinking about mafiafell…. Writing chapter 7….. thinking about names….Don fell… mob fell and mafiafell r pretty basic so that’s why….

Hm, I love getting inspired and analyzing characters. DF! Sans is just Red, DF! Papyrus is just Papyrus, DF! Gaster is only Wings to his grandchildren…. Oh yes, we’re using that theory here, I enjoy the dynamic seeing as to how the timeline played out. Really young Papyrus is a bit manipulated by Gaster, when Sans pushed his brother away Wings took it as an advantage…. when Papyrus was cripped and seemingly perma-disabled only then did Sans began to care. So Gaster mentored Sans in welding to makeshift him a proper jaw and took Paps another year before he could speak properly...

His speech pattern still remains disjointed so many times he’s removed from the front lines and Sans reserves all the temper of the 3.

And to think Maria is what catches the attention of the most angry skeleton! She and him both die, hm. Say 1950. I do so enjoy torturing them mwah ahaha.

1890-1950 MAFIAFELL TIMELINE

1890: First minster emergence from barrier, remain complacent in scattered regions across Canada

1896: Monster General takes first human soul on surface, first evidence of monsterkinds presence found in Canada. Stories and “myths” of creatures circulate. Thanks a lot Jeff.

1898: Increased tensions lead to monster communities forming isolated settlements near major trade centers (like [REDACTED]). Government begins recognizing monster populations.

1901: Monsters establish borders as recognition grows. American industrialists exploit monster labor for dangerous factory work, deepening resentment.

1908: Monsters migrate closer to cities and soon forms disrupt. Humans are viewed as economic competition.

1912: Monster raids on human lands increase hostility. In retaliation, the United States military experiments with living monster magic to counteract monster defenses.

1914: Tensions reach a boiling point, IB by real life European imperialism U.S. wages war against the monster kingdom under ideal of protecting American interests.

1916: The Siege of Underground occurs. Monster military collapses, King Asgore killed, and monster communities forcibly relocated to reserves for human study.

1917: Monsters granted “limited citizenship,” through heavily restricted rights. Former monster territories are absorbed into U.S. industrial zones and monsters begin to assimilate to human culture.

1920: President Kempt Warren promises normalcy but fails to resolve monster inequality. Magical weaponry development surges as corporations recognize its profit potential and smuggling of monsterkind begins in urban areas.

1922: Prohibition begins. Black markets thrive, selling magics, consumer goods, fleshtrade, and new monster alcohol. Organized crime explodes, involving human and monster gangs.

1924: Anti-monster sentiment fuels the rise of extremist political groups, demanding segregation and tighter restrictions. Monsters form their own unions and underground communities for protection.

1925: Early television prototypes powered by magical energy appear, revolutionizing entertainment and news. This blending of magic and technology creates a unique cultural identity.

1926: President William Cull focuses on economic growth, ignoring societal unrest. The divide between humans and monsters widens as monsters face violence, exclusion, and job discrimination.

1929: Stock Market Crash leads to the Great Depression. Monsters are scapegoated as job thieves and blamed for economic collapse.

1930: Magical weaponry and machinery technologies reach new heights, giving rise to armored cars, magic-powered aircraft, and industrial automation. Wealthy elites control most of this innovation.

1931: Prohibition ends. Human-run mafia families dominate trade in cities in exploiting magic services. Monsters partake with protection and roles of defense for human mafias.

1933: Fiere D. Roster becomes president, introducing “New Deal” to restore the economy. Monsters are largely excluded from government relief programs save for MLA(Monster Liberation Act- allows designated magic users government funding in independent merchant market.

1934(CURRENT): Monsters remain second-class citizens, confined to slums and ghettos. Cities like [REDACTED] form melting pots for poverty, crime, and societal divide. Progress in technology like magic radio, early television, and mechanized transport contrasts moral and social regression. Extremist human groups clash with monster rights activists.

1935: Monsters gain limited inclusion in labor unions, increasing political tension. Roster struggles to manage both economic recovery and societal divisions.

1936: Advances in magical medicine revolutionize healthcare but remain inaccessible to most monsters.

1938: Political radicals push for harsher policies against monsters, fueling riots in major cities. The military continues testing magic-infused weaponry, preparing for potential global conflict.

1939: With tensions escalating an arms race begins between the U.S. and other nations seeking to harness magical technologies. Canada and European powers grow wary of America.

1940: Monster-rights movements gain traction, demanding full citizenship and equal treatment. Whispers of a new global war loom as technological advancements make conflict inevitable.

1945: Supreme Court case “Arlow Trials” highlight case study of monster laborer accused of murdering human factor overseer. Explores dynamic of labor exploitation and systemic discrimination and opens perspectives for monster rights onpar with African-Americans.

1947: In the preparation for war, the HME(Human Monster Equals) act is formed giving monster same rights as humans. In the same situation as African+Americans John Crow laws are passed.

1950: WW2 erupts with America already a world power fueled by magic weaponry and advanced machinery. Monsters are drafted into the military further complicating societal role.

1950-1970: Post-war America emerges as a global superpower with magic-infused technology dominating industries. As result Canada is formed into America and no longer exists. Cultural divide shows signs of healing.

1970/Beyond: Magic becomes commercialized integrated into everyday life like television, transportation, and weapons. Monsters gradually gain equality but carry generations of discrimination and resentment.

[transsolidarityproject]

Youth Hotlines

Need a safe space to talk? The following organizations and resources are geared toward young people and their needs. Support the project by reblogging or visiting transsolidarityproject.wordpress.com. Updated last: 11/30/2024

🇫🇷 119 @ allo119.gouv.fr / 119 / The national hotline for children in France to address the physical, legal, emotional, and social needs of youth.

🇺🇳 211 @ 211.org / 211 / Referral and directory telephone service that connects callers with any/all resources that may be beneficial to their circumstances. 211 is available both in the entirety of the United States and Canada.

🇺🇸 Administration for Children & Families @ acf.hhs.gov / Official agency through the United States government that promotes the economic and social well-being of families, children, youth, individuals, and communities.

🇺🇸 Big Brothers Big Sisters of America @ bbbs.org / 813-720-8778 / Mentorship program in the United States that connects young people with meaningful connections with their adult volunteers.

🇺🇸 Boys Town @ boystown.org / 800-448-3000 / Housing and welfare agency for homeless youth and dysfunctional families in the United States.

🇺🇸 Break the Cycle @ breakthecycle.org / US-based organization that provides young people with educational tools and resources to end abusive relationships and cycles.

🇺🇸 Child Help USA National Child Abuse Hotline @ childhelphotline.org / 800-442-4453 / Network of counselors to support those concerned about child abuse via supportive listening, trauma-informed practices, and diversity in their crisis intervention.

🇺🇳 Childline @ childline.org.uk / 0800-1111 / International organization based in the United Kingdom that provides free confidential services over the internet and telephone.

🇺🇳 Crisis Text Line @ crisistextline.org / 741-741 / Global nonprofit that provides free confidential text-based mental health support and crisis intervention in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, and Ireland. While Crisis Text Line often interacts with youth, there is no age requirement or cut-off to use their services.

🇺🇸 DoSomething @ dosomething.org / 212-254-2390 / US organization that empowers young people with the tools and resources to create change in their communities and the larger world.

🇬🇧 HOPELineUK @ papyrus-uk.org / 0800-068-4141 / Confidential support and advice service that provides crisis counseling for youth ages 35 and under in the United Kingdom.

🇺🇳 It Gets Better Project @ itgetsbetter.org / Nonprofit that serves to uplift, empower, and connect LGBTQIA+ young people around the world.

🇦🇺 Kids Helpline @ kidshelpline.com.au / 1800-55-1800 / Free 24/7 online and phone counseling service for individuals ages 5 to 25 in Australia.

🇨🇦 Kids Help Phone @ kidshelpphone.ca / 800-668-6868 / Anonymous e-support and telephone service for kids, teens, and young adults in Canada.

🇩🇪 Kinder-und Jugendtelefon / 116111 / Counseling nonprofit that provides support for children, young people, and parents in Germany.

🇺🇸 LGBT National Youth Talkline @ lgbthotline.org / 800-246-7743 / Confidential telephone service for LGBTQIA+ young people ages 19 and younger in the United States.

🇺🇸 love is respect @ loveisrespect.org / 866-331-9474 / National resource to disrupt and prevent unhealthy relationships among young people in the United States as a project of the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

🇺🇸 National Center for Missing and Exploited Children @ missingkids.org / 800-843-5678 / Private nonprofit corporation that finds missing children and combats child victimization by working with families, victims, private industry, law enforcement, and the public.

🇺🇸 National Runaway Safeline @ 1800runaway.org / 800-786-2929 / National communications system for runaway and homeless youth in the United States, which caters to keeping young people as safe and healthy as possible in potentially dangerous situations.

🇭🇰 Parent-Child Support Line / 2755-1122 / Telephone service operated by Action Against Abuse to serve children, parents, professionals, and the general public to investigate child abuse.

🇺🇸 Partnership to End Addiction @ drugfree.org / 855-378-4373 / Youth-focused addiction prevention and treatment organization that supports individuals with substance misuse issues and their families in the United States.

🇺🇸 Polaris @ polarisproject.org / 888-373-7888 / Survivor-centered movement to end human trafficking, which operates and runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline and maintains the largest human trafficking dataset in North America.

🇺🇸 Stop Bullying @ stopbullying.gov / United States agency that utilizes the Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Justice to prevent and respond to bullying.

🇺🇸 Stop It Now! @ stopitnow.org / 888-773-8368 / Program that provides free direct support and information regarding child sex abuse in the United States.

🇵🇸 Sawa 121 / 121 / Free telephone service through the Sawa Foundation and European Union that gives victims of violence psychological support in the Middle East and Northern Africa.

🇺🇸 Teen Line @ teenline.org / 866-714-0090 / Anonymous and nonjudgmental space for teens in the United States to access peer-to-peer support, supervised by adult mental health professionals.

🇺🇸 The Trevor Project @ thetrevorproject.org / 866-488-7386 / Crisis service for LGBTQIA+ youth ages 13 to 24 in the United States.

🇺🇸 YouthLine @ theyouthline.org / 877-968-8491 / Free teen-to-teen crisis support available via telephone, text, online chat, and email in the United States.

Enjoy this content and work? Consider helping out by sharing this blog or visiting transsolidarityproject.wordpress.com.

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

June 17, 2024

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

JUN 18, 2024

Leaders from the Group of Seven (G7) met for their fiftieth summit in Italy from June 13 to June 15. Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States formed the G7 in 1975 as a forum for democracies with advanced economies to talk about political and economic issues. The European Union is also part of the forum, and this June, Ukraine president Volodymyr Zelensky also attended.

This summit was a particularly fraught one. When it took office, the Biden-Harris administration, along with the State Department under Secretary of State Antony Blinken, set out to reshape global power structures not only in light of Trump’s attempt to abandon international alliances and replace them with transactional deals, but also in light of a larger change in international affairs. 

In a speech at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies in September 2023, Blinken explained that the end of the Cold War between the U.S. and the Soviet Union had promised a new era of peace and stability, with more international cooperation and political freedom. But while that period did, in fact, lift more than a billion people out of poverty, eradicate deadly diseases, and create historic lows in conflicts between state actors, it also gave rise to authoritarians determined to overthrow the international rules-based order. 

At the same time, non-state actors—international corporations; non-governmental organizations, or NGOs, that provide services to hundreds of millions of people across the globe; terrorists who can inflict catastrophic harm; and transnational criminal organizations that traffic illegal drugs, weapons, and human beings—have growing influence.

Forging international cooperation has become more and more complex, Blinken explained, at the same time that global problems are growing: the climate crisis, food insecurity, mass migration and mass displacement of populations, as well as the potential for new pandemics. In the midst of all this pressure, “many countries are hedging their bets.” 

They have lost faith in the international economic order, as a handful of governments have distorted the markets to gain unfair advantage while technology and globalization have hollowed out communities and inequality has skyrocketed. “Between 1980 and 2020,” Blinken noted, “the richest .1 percent accumulated the same wealth as the poorest 50 percent.” Those who feel the system is unfair are exacerbating the other drivers of political polarization. 

These developments have undermined the post–Cold War political order, Blinken said. “One era is ending, a new one is beginning, and the decisions that we make now will shape the future for decades to come.”

In his inaugural address on January 20, 2021, President Joe Biden vowed to “repair our alliances and engage with the world once again.” Saying that “America’s alliances are our greatest asset” just weeks later at the State Department, the president and officers in the administration set out to rebuild alliances that had fallen into disrepair under Trump. They reinforced the international bodies that upheld a rules-based international order, bodies like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) organized in 1947 to stand against Soviet aggression and now a bulwark against Russian aggression. They began the process of rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement and the World Health Organization, both of which Trump had abandoned. 

Officials also worked to make international bodies more representative by, for example, welcoming into partnerships the African Union and Indonesia. They also broadened cooperation, as Blinken said, to “work with any country—including those with whom we disagree on important issues—so long as they want to deliver for their citizens, contribute to solving shared challenges, and uphold the international norms that we built together.”

At home, they worked to erase the “bright line” between foreign and domestic policy, investing in policies to bring jobs back to the U.S. both to restore the economic fairness they identified as important to democracy and to stabilize the supply chains that the pandemic had revealed to be a big national security threat. 

On April 28, 2021, in his first address to a joint session of Congress,  President Biden said he had told world leaders that “America is back.” But they responded: “[F]or how long?”  

That question was the backdrop to the G7 summit. Trump has said he will abandon international alliances, including NATO, in favor of a transactional foreign policy. He supports Russian president Vladimir Putin’s attempt to replace the rules-based international order with the idea that might makes right and that any strong country can grab the land of weaker states. 

Earlier this month, Biden used the occasion of the commemoration ceremonies around the 80th anniversary of D-Day to reinforce the international rules-based order and U.S. leadership in that system. On June 4, before Biden left for France, Massimo Calabresi published an interview with Biden in Time magazine in which Calabresi noted that the past 40 months have tested Biden’s vision. Russia reinvaded Ukraine in February 2022, and Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023. Putin is trying to create “an axis of autocrats,” as Calabresi puts it, including the leaders of China and Iran, the state that is backing the non-state actors Hamas in Gaza, the Houthis of Yemen, and Hezbollah in Lebanon in order to destabilize Israel and the Arab states. China is threatening Taiwan. 

Calabresi pointed out that Biden has responded to these threats by shoring up NATO and welcoming to it Finland and Sweden, with their powerful militaries. His support has enabled Ukraine to decimate the Russian military, which has lost at least 87% of the 360,000 troops it had when it attacked Ukraine in February 2022, thus dramatically weakening a nation seen as a key foe in 2021. He has kept the war in Gaza from spreading into a regional conflict and has forced Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to allow humanitarian aid into Gaza, although the Palestinian death toll has continued to mount as Netanyahu has backed devastating attacks on Gaza. Biden’s comprehensive deal in the Middle East—an immediate ceasefire, the release of all hostages held by Hamas, a big increase in humanitarian aid to Gaza, and an enduring end to the crisis with the security of both Israelis and Palestinians assured—has yet to materialize.

In Italy the leaders at the G7 summit stood firm behind Biden’s articulated vision, saying that the G7 “is grounded in a shared commitment to respect the U.N. Charter, promote international peace and security, and uphold the free and open rules-based international order.” On hot-button issues, the G7 backed Biden’s Middle East deal and support for Ukraine, agreeing to transfer $50 billion to Ukraine from the interest earned on Russian assets frozen in the European Union and elsewhere. 

The Biden administration announced additional economic sanctions to isolate Russia even more from the international financial system. At the summit, on June 13, 2024, Presidents Biden and Zelensky signed a ten-year bilateral security agreement that commits the U.S. to supporting Ukraine with a wide range of military assistance but, unlike the NATO membership Ukraine wants, does not require that the U.S. send troops. The agreement is legally binding, but it is not a treaty ratified by the Senate. If he is reelected, Trump could end the agreement.

Immediately after the G7 summit, world leaders met in Switzerland for the Summit on Peace in Ukraine, held on June 15 and 16. Ukraine called the summit in hopes of persuading major countries from the global south to join and isolate Russia, but the group had to be content with demonstrating their own support for Ukraine. Vice President Kamala Harris, who attended the summit, today posted: “The more than 90 nations that gathered at the Summit on Peace in Ukraine hold a diverse range of views on global challenges and opportunities. We don’t always agree. But when it comes to Putin’s unprovoked, unjustified war—there is unity and solidarity in support of Ukraine and international rules and norms.”

Earlier this month, Finnish software and methodologies company Check First released a report exposing “a large-scale, cross-country, multi-platform disinformation campaign designed to spread pro-Russian propaganda in the West, with clear indicators of foreign interference and information manipulation.” The primary goal of “Operation Overload” is to overwhelm newsrooms and fact-checkers and spread “the Kremlin’s political agenda.” 

Foreign affairs journalist Anne Applebaum told Bill Kristol of The Bulwark that China, Russia, Iran, Venezuela, and North Korea do not share an ideology, but “they do share a common interest, and the common interest is undermining…America, Europe, the liberal world, the democratic world.” They do this, she said, because the oppositions in their own countries are inspired by and use the democratic language of freedom and liberty and rights and rule of law, and leaders need to undermine that language to hold onto power. They also recognize that chaos and uncertainty give them business opportunities in the West. Disrupting democracies by feeding radicalism makes the democratic world lose its sense of community and solidarity.

When it does that, Applebaum notes, it loses its ability to stand up to autocrats. 

LETTERS FROM AN AMERICAN

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

[historia-vitae-magistras]

I know Matthew plays hockey, but does he ever want to just give up whatever his government job is and take playing hockey to the olympics or at least pro level? I mean it's got to be more fun than whatever secretarial, front man type corporate job he normally has to deal with when working with the gov right? Or maybe getting into farming or something. I dont know, he just seems like someone who'd eventually just lose his shit if he had to be stuck in an office for too long.

I honestly think most of his time in any government post is like the twice-a-decade he gives enough fucks to be involved. Like, what is he going to do in an office? Stamp government documents? Approve things? He's fucken useless in that environment. I think a couple of times he's said fuck it, started over and played pro hockey or Olympic hockey. He's not the only one who has probably smashed some faces. Alfred or Arthur had to help wipe and reset his identity because inventing a whole new set of documents is much more complicated nowadays than 100 years ago, but he's played and then faded into the background. He probably gets away with that more than a lot of nations can. Nice combo privilege of big bro's military-industrial complex and his own insignificance.

I've had him in the parks service as a bootlegger, a sailor, a ships carpenter, a diplomat, a firefighter, a medic, a search and rescue medic, especially a hockey coach, and a hockey player. I'm not about to write shit about people working in an office if I'm candid. I also think he drew a veterans pension for 110 years before the government went "hey wait, the last Canadian World War One vet died 10 years ago."

And as far as money goes. I think he and Alfred got their savings wiped in the 1930s, and Matt kept himself afloat via good ol' imperial nepotism via the old fart while Alfred was on his own. Since WW2, Matt's financial well-being has been so tied to Alfred's. I had an economics prof who joked that when the US economy stumbles, Canada breaks its neck, so there's some fuckery there, but let's be honest; Matt just occasionally gives Alfred the 'you have hurt my feelings' eyes and gets what he wants and like 500 apologies.

When I look at Alfred, I see someone who likes to work when it's something he's interested in. But Matt... always struck me as a bit French. Not that we don't work hard, but Matt hit the "they pretend to pay me, so I pretend to work' attitude sometime in the '70s. And he's half insane? Like man's wandering around the woods half feral for months on end in at least one of my timelines. He comes back needing anti-parasite meds, three kinds of antibiotics and Alfred going over his checkbook like 'what the fuck did you do with your dividend this time?" Like Afred's his own kind of batshit, but he's got a good head for numbers on his shoulders.

But yeah, the best way to keep him human is to let him do shit that actually appeals and keeps the depresso level below catastrophic so hockey, forestry, etc. Working in an office in Ottawa happens but it's rare, and when it goes on too long in tandem with being as lonely as he can be with only one major border, he ends up missing half his humanity and eating raw raccoon liver in the woods. Letting him slapshot Ivan in the face at the Olympics every now and again is good for the budget lmao.

[fatehbaz]

On January 18, 2023, as thousands of Peruvians were taking to the streets in Lima to denounce the spiralling political crisis in the country, Canadian Ambassador Louis Marcotte was meeting with the Peruvian Minister of Energy and Mines.

Protests have been ongoing since December [2022] [...]. Demonstrators have been met with widespread arrests and brutal violence. According to Yves Engler, since [protests began] [...] the Canadian mission has met with numerous top-level Peruvian officials in unprecedented fashion. [...] Ambassador Marcotte tweeted several photos from the meeting, using the occasion to promote mining as a benefit for communities and to express Canadian support for the upcoming Peruvian delegation who will attend the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada’s (PDAC) annual conference in Toronto from March 5 to 8. Each year, the world’s largest mining convention draws tens of thousands of industry experts, company officials, and government representatives to talk industry trends and promote an expansion of mining -- with little concern for the consent of those most affected, including in Peru. [...]

For years, MiningWatch Canada and the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP), alongside organizations including Red Muqui, Cooperacción, Derechos Humanos Sin Fronteras-Cusco and Derechos Humanos y Medio Ambiente DHUMA, have documented the many harms caused by industrial large-scale Canadian mining to rural communities, as well as the associated police violence that often accompanies the imposition of these projects. [...] [T]he systematic and often violent exclusion of Indigenous, peasant and rural peoples from the political economic system, as well as the legacies of land dispossession and contamination, are indeed linked to centuries of extractivism.

The ambassador’s tweet has to be taken within a context of centuries of colonial and decades of post-colonial violence against rural peoples at the behest of resource extraction. [...] Ambassador Marcotte chose to promote more Canadian mining investment in the country and plug PDAC 2023 -- where a session dubbed “Peru Day” promises to discuss “opportunities [...].” Canada’s priorities in Peru could not be more clear. [...]

---

Canadian companies invested over $8 billion in 10 projects [in 2021] [...]. Toronto-based Hudbay Minerals operates the Constancia mine; Vancouver’s Pan American Silver operates the Shahuindo and La Arena mines; and Teck Resources’, also headquartered in Vancouver, operates the Antamina mine, with a 22.5 percent ownership stake in the project. Antamina is Peru’s largest mine, ranking among the top 10 producing mines in the world in terms of volume, and is the single most important producer of copper, silver, and zinc in the country. In 2021, the mine generated over $6 billion in revenue and nearly $3.7 billion in gross profits. [...]

---

When Canadian mining companies are embroiled in a conflict with local communities [...] [in] Peru, companies benefit from state-sanctioned police protection and impunity. Companies can sign service contracts directly with the National Peruvian Police, and off-duty police officers are permitted to work for private security companies while using state property, such as weapons, uniforms and ammunition. [...]

Violence isn’t only used against rural peoples at blockades or during massive marches; it’s a daily occurrence [...].

As the Cusco-based organization Derechos Humanos Sin Fronteras has demonstrated through several environmental and social impact studies related to Hudbay’s Constancia mine, these contracts not only permit explicit state violence, they also form the backdrop of racialized and class-based intimidation and threats [...].

---

These harms are not minimal: contamination of agricultural lands and waterways around Pan American Silver’s Quiruvilca mine and the criminalization of community leaders and land dispossession due to environmental contamination at Shahuindo; violation of Indigenous self-determination and the right to a clean environment around Plateau Energy’s proposed lithium and uranium mine, sitting atop the region’s most important tropical glacier; undercutting of economic benefits for communities most affected by mining operations, and more.

---

Yet the Canadian embassy in Peru has a track record of ignoring the concerns of human rights and environmental defenders affected by Canadian mining projects in the country -- even ignoring the concerns of Canadian citizen Jennifer Moore who was detained in 2017 by Peruvian police while screening a documentary film with Quechua communities affected by Hudbay’s Constancia mine. Moore, who was subsequently banned from re-entering the country [...], is the focus of a recent report by the Justice and Corporate Accountability Project (JCAP) on the role of Canadian embassies in prioritizing the interests of Canadian mining companies at the expense of their own policies and commitments regarding the protection of human rights defenders. [...]

But it should be made clear: when the [Canadian] embassy chooses to promote mining in Peru during PDAC, it is doing so knowing the reality of what these activities mean for people who are facing ongoing threats, intimidation, and explicit state-sponsored violence.

---

Headline and text by: Kirsten Francescone. “State-sanctioned violence in Peru and the role of Canadian mining.” Canadian Dimension. 6 March 2023. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks and contractions added by me.]

[usafphantom2]

Canada selects Boeing's P-8A Poseidon as its new multi-mission aircraft

The partnership with Canadian industry will provide long-term economic prosperity to Canada 🇨🇦

Fernando Valduga By Fernando Valduga 11/30/2023 - 18:52 in Military

With the P-8, Canada guarantees the interchangeability of allies NORAD and FIVE EYES.

The government of Canada signed a letter of offer and acceptance of foreign military sales for up to 16 Boeing P-8A Poseidon aircraft, as part of the Canadian Multimission Aircraft Project (CMMA).

Canada joins eight defense partners, including all allies of FIVE EYES, the intelligence alliance that also includes the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, and becomes the fifth NATO nation to have selected the P-8 as its multi-mission aircraft. The first delivery is scheduled for 2026.

“The P-8 will strengthen Canada's defense capability and readiness, and we look forward to delivering that capability to the Royal Canadian Air Force,” said Heidi Grant, president of Business Development at Boeing Defense, Space & Security. “Together with our Canadian partners, we will deliver a strong package of industrial and technological benefits that will ensure continued prosperity for Canada's aerospace and defense industry.”

The P-8 is the only proven in-service and production solution that meets all CMMA requirements, including range, speed, strength and payload capacity. This decision will benefit hundreds of Canadian companies and bring decades of prosperity to Canada through the support of the platform provided by our Canadian industrial partners.

The acquisition of P-8 will generate benefits of almost 3,000 jobs and $358 million annually in economic output for Canada, according to a 2023 independent study by Ottawa-based Doyletech Corporation.

“This is a very important day for the Royal Canadian Air Force and Boeing,” said Charles 'Duff Sullivan, managing director of Boeing Canada. "The P-8 offers unparalleled capabilities and is the most affordable solution for acquisition and life cycle maintenance costs. There is no doubt that the P-8 will protect Canada's oceans and borders for future generations."

The partnership with Canadian industry will provide long-term economic prosperity to Canada.

The Poseidon Team is the cornerstone of Boeing's Canadian P-8 industrial partnership, composed of CAE, GE Aviation Canada, IMP Aerospace & Defense, KF Aerospace, Honeywell Aerospace Canada, Raytheon Canada and StandardAero. The team is based on the 81 existing Canadian suppliers for the P-8 platform and more than 550 Boeing suppliers in all provinces, contributing to the company's annual economic benefit of approximately CAD$ 4 billion for Canada, supporting more than 14,000 Canadian jobs.

With more than 160 aircraft delivered or in service and 560,000 collective flight hours, the P-8 has proven capabilities for anti-submarine warfare, anti-surface warfare, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and humanitarian assistance/disaster relief response.

Tags: Military AviationBoeingP-8A PoseidonRCAF - Royal Canadian Air Force/Canada Air Force

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Fernando Valduga

Fernando Valduga

Aviation photographer and pilot since 1992, has participated in several events and air operations, such as Cruzex, AirVenture, Dayton Airshow and FIDAE. He has work published in specialized aviation magazines in Brazil and abroad. Uses Canon equipment during his photographic work in the world of aviation.

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[justinspoliticalcorner]

Amanda Lewellyn at Vox:

Canada has a growing populism problem. Even Prime Minister Justin Trudeau thinks so. Like many other countries — including the United States — Canadians have spent the last several years dealing with pandemic restrictions, a rise in immigration, and a housing affordability crisis (among much, much else). And like many other countries, that’s showing up in a host of ways: Trust in institutions like the government and media is down. Sentiment on immigration is becoming more negative.

“Well, first of all, it’s a global trend,” Trudeau told Sean Rameswaram in an exclusive interview on Today, Explained. “In every democracy, we’re seeing a rise of populists with easy answers that don’t necessarily hold up to any expert scrutiny. But a big part of populism is condemning and ignoring experts and expertise. So it sort of feeds on itself.” As Trudeau points out, Canada is not alone. But our northern neighbor’s struggle is notable because the country has long been seen as resistant to the kind of anti-immigrant, anti-establishment rhetoric sweeping the globe in recent years — in part because multiculturalism is enshrined in federal law.

It goes back to the 1960s, when French Canadian nationalist groups started to gain power in Quebec. They called for the province’s independence from Canada proper. The federal government, led then by nepo daddy Pierre Trudeau, stepped in. Rather than validating one cultural identity over the other, the elder Trudeau’s government established a national policy of bilingualism, requiring all federal institutions to provide services in both English and French. (This is why — if you ever watch Canadian parliamentary proceedings, as I did for this story — politicians are constantly flipping back and forth between the two languages.) Canada also adopted a formal multiculturalism policy in 1971, affirming Canadians’ multicultural heritage. The multiculturalism policy has undergone both challenge and expansion in the half-century since its introduction. But Pierre Trudeau’s decision to root Canadian identity in diversity has had lasting impacts: Canadians have historically been much more open to immigration — despite having a greater proportion of immigrants in their population — than their other Western counterparts.

But in more recent years, that’s begun to change rapidly as large numbers of immigrants have entered the country amid a housing affordability crisis. An Environics Institute survey showed that in 2023, 44 percent of Canadians felt there was too much immigration — an increase from 27 percent the year before. That’s where Conservative opposition leader Pierre Poilievre comes in. Known as a “soft” populist, he’s started calling on Canada to cut immigration levels (so far, without demonizing immigrants, as we’ve seen from his populist counterparts elsewhere in the West). That said, he looks like a traditional populist in a lot of other ways: Poilievre embraced Canada’s 2022 Freedom Convoy protests, opposed vaccine and mask requirements, voted against marriage equality, has proposed defunding the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, wants schools to leave LGBTQ issues to parents, and has talked about repealing a litany of government regulations — from the country’s carbon tax to internet regulations. Basically, he’s against any “gatekeepers” to Canadians’ “freedom.”

[...]

The plan: Fight populism with policy

Enter: Trudeau’s half-trillion-Canadian-dollar plan for “generational fairness,” also known as the “Gen Z budget” for its focus on younger generations feeling the economic squeeze most acutely. [...]

Can it work?

The bet Trudeau is making is this: The best counterpoint to anti-establishment rhetoric is … using the establishment to make people’s lives better. “The biggest difference between me and the Conservatives right now is: They don’t think government has a role to play in solving for these problems,” Trudeau told Today, Explained. “I think government can’t solve everything, nor should it try. But it can make sure that if the system isn’t working for young people, that we rebalance the system. Market forces are not going to do that.” A key challenge will be demonstrating progress by the time elections roll around. Housing and real estate experts generally cheered the announcement — but noted that it might be years before people on the ground see any real change. Elections, on the other hand, aren’t yet scheduled but have to happen by October 2025 (parliamentary systems, man).

Even Canada isn't immune to the trend of increased right-wing populism, as it could end the reign of PM Justin Trudeau and his Liberal Party.

Trudeau is trying his best to counter it by enacting a Gen Z-focused budget plan.

[sparksinthenight]

Letter to the Canadian Government about Mandatory Human Rights and Environment Due Diligence Laws

Our names are ______. We are from ______. We are writing to you to ask that you create good Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence laws for all companies operating in, selling goods or services in, or headquartered in Canada. This will help workers, communities, and ecosystems around the world and contribute to the creation of a fair world where current people and future generations have what they need.

Right now, companies are doing horrific human rights abuses and environmental abuses all around the world.

First of all, workers are being horrifically overworked and incredibly underpaid in intensely dangerous working conditions. Three million workers die every year due to workplace accidents or poisoning. Fifty million people are literally being held in modern slavery. Ten percent of children worldwide are doing child labour. Two thirds of the world are in multidimensional poverty, where they don’t have five or more of their basic needs (such as food and sanitation and education) met. Forget living wages, most workers are not even paid bare subsistence wages. And experts have described working conditions as soul-destroying for workers around the world.

Local communities around factories and plantations and power plants and mines and whatnot are also being polluted. Chemicals from industrial developments leach into the ground, air, and water, poisoning people, destroying crops and plants, and killing local fish and wildlife. This leads to many people dying from being poisoned or losing their livelihoods. People lose their access to clean water and air, to food, and to life.

And the environment is being harmed by industrial activities too. We are at the start of the worst biodiversity crisis the earth has ever faced. Ecosystems all around the world are collapsing, and will continue to collapse. Not to mention, the climate is warming and causing devastation for people the world over. All humans rely on a healthy climate and healthy ecosystems for fertile soil, clean water, safety from extreme weather, pest and disease control, and the list goes on. But it is the actions of industry, companies, and supply chains that are the biggest contributor to the climate and biodiversity crises.

And often, when people stand up for the air and water and land, when they stand up for their communities and/or their fellow workers, they are threatened, intimidated, or even killed.

The companies that are headquartered in Canada or sell their products in Canada are benefitting from and causing all these problems. Their supply chains are rife with human rights abuses and environmental abuses, and they do not take adequate measures to stop the many abuses in their supply chains. Because of this, Canada and all Canadians are guilty of destroying the world and uncountable lives.

But a better world is possible. Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence Laws, or Mandatory Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Laws, or whatever you want to call them, would ensure that any companies that abuse the workers, local communities, and local environments tied to their supply chains are made to pay. Not just made to pay a fine, which companies don’t mind and only view as a cost of doing business, but actually made to face justice and jail time.

These laws are necessary in order to ensure that workers and other people are given the human rights and human dignity they deserve, and they are necessary in order to protect the world’s ecosystems so that future generations can live. Without due diligence laws, the situation will continue to get worse and worse. But with due diligence laws, we can see improvement.

Please enact Mandatory Human Rights Due Diligence Laws.

Thank you,

Send to:

Prime Minister Trudeau- justin.trudeau@parl.gc.ca

Deputy Prime Minister Freeland- chrystia.freeland@parl.gc.ca

Minister of Foreign Affairs Joly- melanie.joly@parl.gc.ca

Find your MP here: https://www.ourcommons.ca/members/en

Minister of Women and Gender Equality and Youth Ien- marci.ien@parl.gc.ca

Minister of Environment and Climate Change Guilbeault- Steven.Guilbeault@parl.gc.ca

Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Wilkinson- jonathan.wilkinson@parl.gc.ca

Minister of Export Promotion, International Trade, and Economic Development Ng- mary.ng@parl.gc.ca

Minister of International Development Hussen- ahmed.hussen@parl.gc.ca

Minister of Innovation, Science, and Industry Champagne- francois-philippe.champagne@parl.gc.ca

Minister of Fisheries, Oceans and the Canadian Coast Guard Lebouthillier- diane.lebouthillier@parl.gc.ca

[website-enjoyer]

if there is one thing i would like to get through the head of other people within the imperial core, it is this:

part 1: social democracy

because the countries of the imperial core are capitalist, most people in them have the experience of being exploited for a paycheck at work and living in a society full of inequality and injustice. this makes it easy for people to intuitively and organically arrive at the position that there should be higher taxes on the ultra-rich within the existing political and economic system, with those taxes being used to fund social programs like healthcare, education, or a universal basic income. it would create more well-paying, unionized, government jobs. this political position tends to go together with the desire to reduce inequality on the basis of gender, race, religion, sexuality, immigration status, and so on. people know that they are experiencing inequality and injustice, and they see a way to decrease it: get politicians to tax the rich and fund social programs, either by pressuring the existing ones or electing new ones. they generally want more social equality for their neighbours too. let's call this political program social democracy.

when climate disasters, economic crises, mass protests, or other social upheavals raise the question of replacing the entire political and economic system with something else, social democracy argues that it will give regular people more breathing room to survive, so that we all have more time and energy to organize for a more radical change. when capitalists demand austerity and the right wing aims to achieve it by slashing existing public services and replacing them with a more empowered patriarchal family unit, the defensive version of social democracy arises—which argues that corporate taxes shouldn't be lowered further, that funding for social programs shouldn't be cut even more, and that politicians need to be elected or pressured to stop the damage. these are some of the ways that advocates for social democracy adapt their argument to changing conditions.

it all makes intuitive sense, but it leaves out one important dimension of economic relations: the international dimension. in the imperial core, it is easier to remain ignorant about the international side of capitalism, because by definition the consequences of this side are mostly felt by people in other countries. it's different from the exploitation and inequality that we directly experience ourselves. to fully evaluate social democracy as a political program, we need to clear up our ignorance about the international side of capitalism. that means learning about imperialism.

part 2: imperialism

in imperialist countries, the export of capital acquires exceptional economic importance compared to the export of commodities. in other words: monopoly capitalists can make more money by setting up facilities in other countries and exploiting workers at them to a higher degree, rather than by selling domestically produced commodities on the world market.

take the mining sector in canada for example, which is a major part of the canadian economy. almost half of the world's publicly traded mining companies are based in canada. some of their activity does involve mining in canada and selling the products globally: mining is the single largest shipping sector by volume for canada's railways and ports, and minerals and metals accounted for 21% of goods exported from canada in 2022. however, in that same year, only 33% of assets (such as mines) owned by canadian mining companies were located in canada. most of them are located in latin america and africa, where they perpetrate extreme exploitation and horrific violence against workers, indigenous nations, and the ecosystem to an even greater extent than they do domestically.

so, in the canadian mining sector, the export of capital plays a more important role than the export of commodities, which is one of the key traits of an imperialist economy. another key trait of the imperialist stage of capitalism is the merging of industrial capital and banking capital into finance capital, which we also see in the case of canada's mining sector. for example: RBC, the largest bank in canada, is also the largest shareholder in Nutrien, the largest mining company in canada.

while canadian mining companies make up a large part of canada's internal economy—exploiting workers, destroying ecosystems, and stealing land from indigenous nations—two times as many of their assets are devoted to carrying out these same activities in other countries under worse conditions, all for the profit of canadian financiers. this is what is meant by imperialist wealth.

part 3: internationalism

so having looked at an example of imperialism, we can return to the question of evaluating social democracy. if higher taxes on the ultra-rich are used to fund more social programs in a given country, but those ultra-rich take most of their profits in the first place by exploiting workers to an even higher degree in other countries, then this political program does not actually reduce inequality—it only redistributes a larger cut of imperialist plunder to the citizens of the imperial core.

it does not actually give most regular people more breathing room to survive, or reduce the harm they experience, or give them more time and energy to organize for more radical change—the majority of the regular people in the equation are revealed to be living in other countries, experiencing just as much exploitation and receiving no social benefit regardless of the tax rate for the rich in the imperial core. these justifications are revealed to only serve the interests of imperial core citizens, expanding and entrenching their reliance on imperialist wealth to increase their standard of living at the continued expense of the rest of the world.

once exposed to these facts about social democracy, people in the imperial core who have organically reached it as their political position—through their own experiences of exploitation and injustice—have two options:

to maintain the same political program of electing or pressuring politicians to tax the rich for more social programs, but to admit that its basis of collective self-interest is the country of which they are a citizen, not the international working class. it means entering into a deal with the country's ultra-rich for a bigger cut of their profits, in exchange for maintaining the current imperialist system which dominates other countries under their control—including through war. ideologically, this means embracing nationalism—and by extension, the racism on which the whole system is built.

to seek a new political program of fighting against the whole capitalist imperialist system, overthrowing the control of the ultra-rich through socialist revolutions, with an expanded basis of collective self-interest in the international working class. it means supporting national liberation movements that are decried and villainized by your own government, with the understanding that your greatest oppressors gain most of their material power to control all of you by oppressing people in other countries. ideologically, this means proletarian internationalism.

the first option represents short-term self-interest. it's a less risky fight, and it might achieve somewhat better conditions for those pursuing it, but those gains can be lost again at any time because ultimately the capitalists remain in control of the system—and if keeping your standard of living high stops being the cheapest way to keep you under control, they'll switch to direct repression without pause. the second option represents long-term self-interest. it's a much bigger struggle, and it involves a more challenging transformation of your life and of society, but the people of imperialized nations around the world will be fighting it whether you're with or against them—and no empire lasts forever.

so if you've read to the end of this post, social democrat of the imperial core, which will it be: socialism or barbarism?

[mostlysignssomeportents]

Canada's privatised shadow civil service

PJ O’Rourke once quipped that “The Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work and then they get elected and prove it.” But conservative parties have unlikely allies in the project to discredit public service: neoliberal “centrist” parties, like Canada’s Liberal Party.

If you’d like an essay-formatted version of this post to read or share, here’s a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://pluralistic.net/2023/01/31/mckinsey-and-canada/#comment-dit-beltway-bandits-en-canadien

The Liberals have become embroiled in a series of scandals over the explosion of lucrative, secretive private contracts awarded to high-flying consultancy firms who charge hundreds of times more than public sector employees to do laughably bad work.

Front and centre in the scandal, is, of course, McKinsey, consligieri to opioid barons, murdering Saudi princes, and other unsavoury types. McKinsey was brought in to “consult” on strategy for the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), a Crown corporation that gives loans to Canadian businesses.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/business-development-bank-canada-hudon-mckinsey-1.6720914

While there, McKinsey performed as per usual, veering from the farcical to the grotesquely wasteful. Most visible was the decision to spend $320,000 on a livecast fireside chat between BDC president Isabelle Hudon and a former Muchmusic VJ that was transmitted to all BDC employees, which featured Hudon and the host discussing a shopping trip they’d taken together in Paris.

Meanwhile, BDC has been hemorrhaging top people, which leaving the organisation with many holes in its leadership — the kind of thing that would pose an impediment to its lofty goals of substantially increasing the support it gives to businesses run by women, First Nations people and people of color.

Hudon — a Trudeau appointee — vowed to “start from scratch” when she took over the organisation, but then went ahead and did what her predecessors had done: hired outside consultants who billed outrageous sums to repurpose anodyne slide-decks full of useless, generic advice, or unrealistic advice that no one could turn into actual policy. They also sucked up BDC employees’ time with endless interviews.

The BDC has (reluctantly) disclosed $4.9m in contracts to McKinsey. The CBC also learned that Hudon parachuted several cronies from her previous job at Sun Life into top roles in the organisation, and that BDC had reneged on promised promotions for many long-term staffers. Hudon also repeatedly flew a chauffeur across the country from Montreal to BC to drive her around.

In Quebec, premier François Legault hired an army of McKinsey consultants at $35,000 per day to advise him on covid strategy, for a total bill of $8.6m. McKinsey’s contract with the province stipulated that they wouldn’t have to disclose their other clients, even in the event that they had conflicts of interest:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/caq-legault-mckinsey-pandemic-consulting-1.6602374

The contract was kept secret, as was the long-running, $38m contract between McKinsey and the Hydro Quebec power authority:

https://ici.radio-canada.ca/nouvelle/1927738/mckinsey-hydro-quebec-consultants-barrages-affaires

Most of the bad press McKinsey gets revolves around the evil advice it gives — like when it advised opioid companies to pay cash bonuses to pharma distributors for every death-by-overdose in their territory (no, I’m not making this up):

https://pluralistic.net/2022/06/30/mckinsey-mafia/#everybody-must-get-stoned

But these rare moments of competence should be understood in the broader context in which McKinsey isn’t evil, they are merely utterly, totally fucking useless. The 2022 French Senate report on McKinsey really digs into this:

http://www.senat.fr/commission/enquete/2021_influence_des_cabinets_de_conseil_prives.html

They find that a quarter of the work McKinsey turned in was “unacceptable or barely acceptable in quality.” This is in line with the overall tenor of work performed by consultants. For example, when it came to giant Capgemini, the French Senate found that the work it provided was “of near-zero added value, indeed sometimes counterproductive.”

And yet, despite the expense and “near-zero added value,” hiring outside consultants is a reflex for neoliberal centrist leaders. Trudeau has presided over a massive expansion of the Canadian government’s reliance on outside consultants:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-liberals-spend-billions-more-on-outsourced-contracts-since-taking/

After campaigning on a promise to reduce outside consultancy, the Trudeau administration increased consultant spending by 40%, to $11.8 billion. This shadow civil service is not just more expensive and less competent that the real civil service — it is also far more opaque, able to fend off open records requests with vague gestures towards “trade secrecy.”

Since 2015, McKinsey has raked in $101.4m in federal contracts, even as the civil service has been starved of pay. Meanwhile, federal departments insist that they need to “protect Canada’s economic interests” by not disclosing outside contracts, and list their total spend at $0.00.

https://nationalpost.com/news/outsourcing-contracts-mckinsey-billions

The Professional Institute of the Public Service of Canada estimates that between 2011–21, the Canadian government squandered $18b on outside IT contracting that could have been performed by public servants. In 2022, the Government of Canada spent $2.3b on outsource IT contracts, while the wage bill for its own IT staff came in at $1.85b.

It’s not like these outside IT contractors are good at their jobs, either. The most notorious example is the ArriveCAN covid-tracking app for travellers, the contract for which was awarded to GCstrategies, a two-person shop in Ottawa, who promptly turned around and outsourced it to KPMG and other contractors, whom they billed to the government at $1,000–1,500/day, raking off 15–30% in commissions.

For months, the origins of the ArriveCAN app were a mystery, with the government insisting that the details of the contractors involved were “confidential.” But ArriveCAN was such a steaming pile of shit, and so many travellers (a population more likely to be well-off and politically connected than the median Canadian) had to deal with it, that eventually the truth came out.

The ArriveCAN scandal is ongoing — just last year, it cost the Canadian public $54m:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-arrivecan-subcontractors-multinationals/

Trudeau’s Liberals didn’t invent outsourcing high-stakes IT projects to incompetent grifters. Under Conservative PM Stephen Harper, Canada paid IBM to build Phoenix, an utterly defective payroll system for federal employees that stole millions from civil servants, bringing government to a virtual standstill. Thus far, the Government of Canada — which paid IBM $309m to develop Phoenix, as a “cost savings measure” — has paid $506m in damages to make good on Phoenix’s errors:

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-ottawa-paid-out-400-million-in-phoenix-pay-compensation-to-federal/

The Liberals didn’t invent Phoenix — but they did deploy it, after campaigning on the wastefulness and incompetence of the Tories’ outsourcing bonanza. And after Phoenix crashed and burned, the Liberals increased outsourcing spending.

All of this is well-crystallized in last week’s Canadaland discussion between Jesse Brown and Nora Loreto:

https://www.canadaland.com/podcast/853-the-indulgent-consultant/

And on his Substack, Paul Wells proposes that the Senate — a largely ornamental institution in Canadian politics — is the unlikely check of last resort on the Liberals’ fetish for outsourcing:

There are former deputy ministers at the federal and provincial levels, secretaries to cabinet, a former Clerk of the Privy Council, a former chief of staff to a prime minister. A lot of them can remember the days when big decisions weren’t farmed out to firms that make their founders rich and are spared the rigours of accountability for their counsel. Surely some of them would like to shine a light?

https://paulwells.substack.com/p/shine-a-brighter-light-on-contract?

Image: Sam (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Canadian_House_of_Commons.jpg

Presidencia de la República Mexicana (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Justin_Trudeau_June_2016.jpg

CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en

[Image ID: The legislative chamber of Canada's House of Commons; behind the speaker's chair, the back wall has been replaced by an enormous $100 bill. The portrait on the $100 bill has been replaced with an unflattering, braying picture of Justin Trudeau. The Bank of Canada legend across the top of the note has been replaced by the McKinsey and Company wordmark.]

[allthecanadianpolitics]

A consultant accused of overbilling the federal government by roughly $250,000 has been charged with fraud, the RCMP said Tuesday. In a media release, the RCMP said 62-year-old Clara Elaine Visser faces one charge of fraud over $5,000. The RCMP said that in the summer of 2021, Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC) launched an investigation of a federal consultant who did contract work with eight separate federal government departments and Crown corporations. "Evidence indicated that the consultant had submitted fraudulent timesheets that resulted in overbilling by an estimated $250,000 between January 1, 2020 and June 30, 2021," the RCMP said in the media release.

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Tagging: @newsfromstolenland

[mariacallous]

This week, as every week, Brexit enfeebled the UK. It was not a one-off disaster, like a fatal heart attack. Rather Brexit is showing itself to be a debilitating disease that never grants us a moment’s peace.

In the past few days

The post-Brexit trade talks between the UK and Canada collapsed. Despite all the promises of global Britain crossing the clear blue oceans and cutting deals with India, the US, Canada and China, we remain isolated.

After years of being too scared to actually take control of the UK’s borders, the government promised checks on imported food from the EU. The effect, according to the food industry, will be to raise prices and produce shortages. (Romantics searching for flowers for Valentine’s Day may well have their work cut out, despairing florists are already warning.)

Brexit took away the right of Brits to live and work where we pleased in the EU. For a while in 2023 it looked as if France would allow British expats to stay for longer than 90 days at a stretch. But the French courts blocked that concession to second home owners in the Dordogne.

Meanwhile the Brexit inspired border in the Irish Sea between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK continued to enrage Ulster Unionists, who in their hearts must now know that English Tories have played them for fools.

Finally, the Guardian reported that the EU's plans to increase bulk medicine procurement across the bloc risk creating shortages in Britain.

That’s just in the past few days.  

And yet the politicians who promised the electorate that leaving the EU would turn us into a world leader are simply not held to account.

You would have to be 35 or older to remember how the BBC used to deal with politicians who failed to deliver on their promises. In 2003 Tony Blair backed the US invasion of Iraq on the grounds that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction.

He didn’t.

BBC journalists tore into the then Labour government. Its ministers had taken us to war on a false prospectus, they claimed. Lied, in short.

And yet in a dereliction of journalistic duty the BBC has let the false prospectus of Brexit pass without the smallest attempt to remind its authors of their false promises.

Here is Daniel Hannan, the Zelig of British nationalism. For more than two decades, he popped up at what felt like every right-wing meeting and rally, urging ever more Utopian fantasies on the luckless British public.  

In 2016, he promised the revival of depressed British cities, a Silicon Valley in the East End of London, and falling prices and booming wages for us all.

Is he or any other Conservative or Faragist politician questioned to within an inch of his life by the BBC?

Of course not. Continuous funding cuts and right-wing attacks have destroyed the corporation’s ability to provide a vital news service. It’s given up on democratic accountability.

I can make one argument in its defence. If a BBC presenter were in the room with me now, I am sure they would say that the Labour opposition is giving them nothing to report. It is staying silent for fear of alienating elderly voters. The Liberal Democrats shut up for the same reason.

In its politicians and media, the UK is like the caricature Victorian family that puts on a show of respectability and says nothing about its dirty secrets.

No one, however, can shut up Professor Chris Grey, and our culture is the better for it. His Brexit & Beyond blog is the best source of information on our national malaise, and I was delighted to have him on podcast.

I will write a longer piece, which will bounce off our conversation about the purity spiral on the right Brexit set off. With a bit of luck that should be up tomorrow or on Wednesday. I am also working of a read on the lessons from the 1920s for the 2020s.