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kankrilicious69 · 2 years

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Cronus is Coded to be a Transman

(TRIGGER WARNINGS FOR: Discussions of in text and IRL transphobia, dysphoria, mentions of Mituna, White Knighting, mentions of poor allyship, mental health, anti-otherkin talking points, discussion of March Eridan, and discussion of Homestuck characters being transphobic)

anyways

Cronus Ampora

a dancestor who appeared in the second of three Openbound sequences in Homestuck Act 6 Intermission 3. Like most dancestors, people tend not to remember much of the specifics about this character. Often portrayed in fanworks as a romantic try-hard just trying to get a date/laid, and a slightly less woobiefied version of his relative Eridan. People do often acknowledge that he fucking sucks (I feel no need to remind people why, as it isn’t too important to the contents of this essay) and he’s often paired with Kankri in fanworks due to him being one of 3 trolls Cronus interacts with on screen in canon.

But did you know Cronus curates a personal blocklist?

the 2nd of the 3 Openbound segments was released on September 24th of 2012, a year often considered to be the PEAK of tumblr and its to-this-day reputation as an SJW cesspool of identity politics and essays about leftist talking points that don’t matter. Now, personally I think more websites should adopt a 2012 tumblr take on politics. I think we should be able to send as many death threats and illicit pictures of cumflated furries to right-wing politicians as possible to keep them out of online spaces so they cannot curate an easily assessible platform to spread their biggoted ideologies to the general online public, but that is just a personal opinion!

But my opinion doesn’t matter right now, what matters is the opinion of AH in 2012. And their opinion seemed to be tumblr bad, if you know anything of these Openbound segments. Each of the 10 dancestors* is based on specific groups of tumblr users from that era, and usually a rather cruel and often times incredibly abelist take on said tumblr users. And Cronus is no exception!

Cronus Ampora is based on otherkin individuals, a phenomenon that began to be found online in around the 1990s, and over the years began cropping up more and more in online spaces, and ESPECIALLY on tumblr during the early 2010s.

For context, an otherkin is defined by Google.com as “ a person who identifies as nonhuman, typically as being wholly or partially an animal or mythical being.” or “ denoting or relating to people who identify as nonhuman.”. There is obviously more in depth sources from people who do identify as otherkin online that is easily accessible, but for now these definitions will suffice.

You see, as Cronus is in fact an alien, he is otherkin with HUMANS! Specifically a 1950s human greaser. And here's where the crux of the matter lies. In AH writing Cronus to represent a 2012 otherkin tumblr user, they accidentally coded him to be trans.

I know what you’re thinking. “Benny you’re a fucking idiot who just typed over 5 paragraphs for this bullshit and it makes no sense and I hate you now.” and that’s ok! But I’m right, so listen. On tumblr during 2012, there was a large amount of otherkin identifying users on this website, but an important thing to not is almost ALL of these otherkin identifying users where LGBT+, and there was heavy emphasis on that T. You see, a lot of the 2012 otherkin tumblr users where minors who were just beginning to work out their identities and were using the online space to help them do that, not all of course, but a large amount. and the overlap between otherkin identifying tumblr users who were ALSO Homestuck fans during the 2010s was an even HIGHER number of minors working out their identities. Of course I have no fancy statistics to break out or some graphs of numbers of users at the time, but I don’t. So just take my word for it as a guy who had a tumblr in 2012, identified as otherkin, was a Homestuck fan, and was identifying as transgender at the time**.

So that’s it, right? Cronus is a mean caricature of teenage otherkin Homestuck fans at the time, and otherkin Homestuck fans were mostly transgender, so that’s the post, right? WRONG. FUCK YOU WE’RE JUST GETTING STARTED, FREAK!

Here's where we start broaching the textual implications of dysphoria and transphobia in Cronus's life.

For context, this conversation with Meenah takes place shortly after an argument between her and Cronus happens over some shit with Mituna that does not matter to this post.

and so here we see Meenah bringing up the fact Cronus “thinks he’s an alien” in the argument. Cronus reacts with apprehension and confusion, and Meenah continues on to critique his choice of hairstyle and fashion. Cronus avoids the topic, instead opting to explain his cigarette is not a wand because his wizarding days are behind him, and to then further explain what a cigarette is. Meenah does not drop the subject and continues to pry, coming right out and asking Cronus if he thinks he’s a human now. Cronus says that its a private matter and doesn't see why he needs to talk about it with Meenah. Meenah then calls this a desperate cry for attention.

So like, Meenah is being transphobic here, right? No, I get it, this is a silly goofy “oh lol Cronus thinks he’s a human lol what a cringe weirdo he’s obviously just a troll trying to get attention lol”. But isn’t this familiar?

Cronus in this situation is semi-closeted, not wanting people (specifically Meenah) to know about his identity, while still outwardly presenting himself as his identity. And when one of his peers finds out and brings it up, he tries to avoid the topic, instead opting to try and derail the conversation by bringing up other things like what a cigarette is or how to use it. But when Meenah pushes further, he simply comes right out and says he does not want to to talk about this, especially with her. That is the basics of this conversation, and I understand this is just Meenah confronting Cronus on his Otherkin identity, and him possibly playing coy to try and get her more interested in this topic, but let’s sink our teeth deeper into the subtext of this conversation first.

But let’s take an even further step back and look at some of the subtext of this conversation. Meenah’s immediate reaction to confronting Cronus on his identity is to criticize his outward appearance, she criticizes his hair style first and foremost, and when it comes to peers criticizing recently outed transgender individuals, hair is usually one of the first things to get brought up, especially among transmen. Having shorter hair or more masculine hairstyles on AFAB people is often criticized for being unwomanly, and when its found that the individual is identifying as transgender, it is taken as an offense far more, as hair is often considered a heavily gendered aspect of one’s appearance in our western society.

Secondly, she compares his cigarette to a wand, and Cronus immediately corrects her that he does not do the wizard thing anymore. Wizards in Homestuck are almost always paired with women. Rose, Eridan, Roxy, and Calliope are the 4 wizard themed characters up to this point. Now, Eridan is not a woman, but I feel the need to argue that Eridan’s use of wizard themes is inherently feminine/tied to femininity. His use of magic is also a topic I will touch on later on though. Also of note, March Eridan came out during 2011, and greatly effected the fandoms view on him. The March Eridan look was even made canon during the Ministrife flash,

which is basically an honorary 4th part of the Openbound segments. And After Roxy and Calliope’s introductions, Wizards became an even more feminine centered theme. Calliope herself being arguably an icon of femininity within the story, and her wizard themes and imagery only cement the idea that they are a feminine concept within the story.

So through Cronus’s rejection of his past wizard enjoyment, it comes off as if he is rejecting feminine interests, opting to instead get involved in the greaser fashion, considered in modern times to be some of the peak male/masculine aesthetics.

After this, Meenah doubles down on confronting Cronus on the matter, explaining she’s heard rumors of his new identity, and flatly asking if that’s true. Cronus continues to dodge talking about it, Not uncommon for trans people who do not wish to be outed, But he does not outright reject the sentiment either, also very common among trans people. It can be hard to stay in the closet, to lie and say you are you AGAB*** (or in this case, ASAB) even when it would be in your best interest, especially when you keep in mind that Cronus along with all of the other dancestors is about 19.5 years old****

Now, all of this just does not feel like Cronus baiting Meenah into further prying into his identity for attention to me, he has spoken in ways that seem baiting before, in this earlier interaction with Meenah from earlier.

But none of this has felt like bait, Cronus in the identity altercation with Meenah comes off as very awkward and standoffish, and Meenah’s cruel comments genuinely do seem to rub Cronus the wrong way.

Now, let’s continue with this interaction, let’s get into the next half of this interaction.

Let’s talk about Kankri.

So I will say preemptively, I have a lot of thoughts about Kankri. A lot. but we aren’t getting into that here.

Here we see Kankri showing up to this conversation and immediately defending Cronus, who tries to assure him that he can handle the situation himself. Meenah then promptly leaves, as she usually does when Kankri shows up, because she doesn’t like him, and makes a back-handed comment about the two working out their emotions together in the same way a pair of trolls in a quadrant would (especially those who are moirails or possibly even matesprites). Cronus then reacts negatively, upset that Meenah has once again left, lashing out at Kankri for making her leave.

Now, here we have Cronus in the middle of an argument with Meenah and it’s going incredibly negatively, but he still reacts as if he had a chance with her when she finally leaves, this could either be interpreted as him taking this interaction as blackrom flirting, but I feel like we could tie all of this together further into his transmale coding.

Kankri here is very obviously playing the ally, and a bit of a cringe one at that, white knighting for Cronus’s identity towards Meenah. Bringing up how Meenah should not shame Cronus for his dysphoria. Now in terms of gender, there are many allies who do go out of their way to try and vouch for trans people, and while their hearts are in the right place, bringing up people’s dysphoria can be embarrassing and counterproductive. And even further, being a transman who is being white knighted for can feel very embarrassing. Nobody wants to feel like a damsel in distress, especially those who don’t want to be damsels in any situation, and it can feel very emasculating for others to try and defend them in situations where they can hold their own ground, which can lead to gender dysphoria.

And for Meenah to then leave before Cronus even has a chance to further defend himself can come off as if she took the white knighting of a cis***** man to finally leave Cronus be. Now obviously that’s not what's happening in this situation, but it can be easy for trans people to let their anxiety and dysphoria mix and lead to overthought conclusions like this in situation like these. Even going so far as to question whether or not Kankri even had good intentions in this situation, question the grounds of their friendship all together.

But here’s were the conversation continues

Here we see Kankri comforting Cronus, explaining that he doesn’t need to go after a girl like Meenah who doesn’t respect his identity. Though his wording is obviously a jab towards how the author does not believe in otherkin beliefs, which is not an uncommon use of Kankri. The author uses him both as a strawman for their distaste in tumblr based politics and commonly found identities on the site, while also using him as a mouthpiece to mock said identites and politics. But taking what Kankri says at face value, he is supporting Cronus, and so that’s what we’ll be focusing on.

Cronus calms down a bit from his intial lashing out, and agrees with Kankri that he doesn’t need Meenah if she isn’t going to appreciate him for who he is, and how few of his peers truly do appreciate him (singling Meulin out, lol).

Cronus then begins to question whether Meenah was right, and if he really is doing this for attention, and if he should give up. And for a lot of younger trans people, this can be a common thought. Whether or not they really are the gender they think they are, and I don’t think I need to explain how if you think you’re trans, you are probably trans. It isn’t a mental illness that only an elite with 7 degrees can diagnose, if you feel like you’ve been born in the wrong body, or as if the world around you is looking at you wrong, or as if you yourself aren’t identifying as the right person, you are more than likely right, and you are trans. And once again I will bring up that Cronus is only 19.5, he is still by definitions a teenager, so it’s not surprising that he’s still working out his identity, and the cruelty of his peers does genuinely make him consider giving up and going back to identifying in a way that makes him more appealing to them.

And then Kankri reassures him, letting him know that it would be a huge slap to those like Cronus, and that it’d be incredibly invalidating and triggering to them. The thing is, Cronus is the only person Kankri knows who’s identifies this way. Of course there is Horrus, who is hoofbeast kin, but that's different. Kankri specifically brings up how Cronus is alienkin, which Horrus ISN’T, and while Kankri does often talk about and discuss large groups that aren’t really a thing, this comment does seem very aimed towards Cronus. Because it is true that going back in the closet and giving up on furthering ones transition can be incredibly invalidating to ones’ self, and very triggering of dysphoria, depression, anxiety, and many other things that can stem from detransitioning.

Kankri follows this up by saying he knows Cronus wouldn’t do this, because Cronus wouldn’t stoop that low. Kankri is, through saying this, attempting to comfort Cronus by boosting his ego. Which is an affirmation Cronus is usually desperately looking for. Kankri is a good friend and ally in this way, knowing how to reassure his friend’s identity while cheering him up at the same time in the process. Kankri then reassures Cronus that he believes in his identity, and is here for Cronus if he ever needs to talk, and that Cronus’s feelings and problems are important.

Cronus is now cheered up, and is reassured that his identity is real, unlike magic.

Now the thing is, this comment about magic does feel like it comes from nowhere, but this branches even further into Cronus’s masculinity. Magic within Homestuck is real, but it is a very feminine thing. There is a staunch dichotomy between the phallic imagery/masculinity of guns, and the yonic imagery/femininity of magic. Yet another play into the male Caliborn and the female calliope. Let’s take a step back and think about the use of guns in Homestuck.

The 5 characters to use guns in Homestuck are Jade, Eridan, Roxy, Jake, and Caliborn. But Jade, Eridan, and Roxy all get rid of their guns, instead trading them in for magic. That leaves 2 characters, Jake and Caliborn. Now, we could argue about Jade and Roxy’s shedding of guns as a transfeminine metaphor, Jade even adopting the witch role, a role very close to that of a wizard. But that can be for another time,

But this is also a reversal of Eridan specifically, who started out using guns, but then later went on to use magic, but he only began using magic after centering his identity around his attempt to establish a relationship with rose and Kanaya. Kanaya being the one who teaches Eridan about magic. Kanaya meanwhile is frequently associated with Nun/Mother imagery and themes in Homestuck, and is also a lesbian. This combined with Rose’s influence leads to Eridan’s magic use being incredibly feminine in text.

Not only this, but wands in Homestuck are almost always portrayed with needles, which have historically in fairy tales represented womanhood, and Homestuck draws a lot of it’s tone from old fairy tales, so I think it’s safe to say that the use of needles could at the very least be a subconscious draw from those stories.

Meanwhile it can be assumed that Cronus attempted use magic, only to then adopt the gun. This in itself can once again be a straightforward transmale metaphor for Cronus.

And here we have another backhanded remark about otherkins, implying that otherkin people don't actually have identity issues, but instead just want to kin things because they like it. Which is not true.

But to tie this further into Cronus’s transness, a lot of trans people don’t know they can be trans until they are introduced to the concept, a lot of people spend a long time of their childhoods and even adulthoods feeling out of place or wrong, but once you see communities and people and just know of the concept, it can all feel like its clicked into place, and it makes sense.

So in a way yes, Cronus being introduced into human culture, a culture that does have transness, finally let him understand his feelings and make sense of them to figure out who he truly was.

In conclusion, Cronus Ampora can easily be read as a trans man, who just wants to be validated by his peers. And though a large amount of them refuse to, Kankri is a good friend and ally to Cronus, and supports him through his transition.

*Meenah and Aranea don’t quiet count, as they are actual characters within the story instead of a strange fever dream-esque deep dive into our author’s personal opinions on the tumblr based fanbase of Homestuck

**I am still transgender, I’ve only gotten stronger

***Assigned Gender At Birth, or in this case, Assigned Species At Birth

****yes i know theyre immortal ghosts or whatever shut up i don't care that isn't important and it basically doesn't fucking matter cause they still act and look like they're still 19.5 anyways so who CARES THIS IS AN ESSAY ABOUT TRANGENDER CRONUS FOR FUCKS SAKE

*****in this situation, we should assume Kankri is cisgender, as there isn't too much coding in the actual text to assume otherwise, especially in this scenario.

#cronus ampora #cronus #meenah #kankri #kankri vantas #Ch99 ch99 catastr9phes #Kankris c99l essays #transphobia #trans cronus #homestuck #dancestors #dancestor #headcanon

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mikemortgage · 6 years

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Canada’s real corruption scandal: How Ottawa bungled a flawed OECD anti-bribery code and triggered the SNC crisis

There would be no corruption in a perfect world. The global economy would be a clean zone, free of crooked politicians, bribing corporations, sleazy grifters and sophisticated influence peddlers trolling through the underworld economy, skimming cash from taxpayers, citizens and shareholders.

The opening words of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) anti-bribery convention, ratified by Canada in 1999, describe bribery as “a widespread phenomenon in international business transactions, including trade and investment, which raises serious moral and political concerns, undermines good governance and economic development, and distorts international competitive conditions.”

It’s a watery description of purpose that could encompass most routine government policy-making. But the OECD Convention on Combating Bribery of Foreign Public Officials in International Business Transactions was portrayed in 1997 as the cornerstone of a new global effort to rid the world of corporate bribery and corruption.

Terence Corcoran: Trudeau’s inner circle was right to try sparing SNC-Lavalin’s life

Terence Corcoran: SNC-Lavalin would get a deal anywhere else. Why not here?

Terence Corcoran: If it weren’t for meddling governments, we wouldn’t even need lobbyists

Fritz Heimann, legal counsel to General Electric Co. and a prime corporate lobbyist for the convention, even called it the “most significant achievement to date” in the move to reform international business.

But after more than two decades in operation, the convention has left a trail of dubious results and negligible achievement. Its major impact internationally has been to install a prosecution regime that shakes down international companies for billions of dollars in penalties, as if corporations were the cause of the corruption that engulfs most of the world’s nations.

Government enforcers in the United States have nailed 170 companies with US$9 billion in settlements over the past decade. In Canada, the OECD convention threatens to bring down engineering giant SNC-Lavalin Group Inc. — and Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government to boot.

Adding to the perception that the Government of Canada may be guilty of wrongdoing, the OECD on Monday issued a condescending statement, saying it was “concerned” and will “closely monitor” future developments in the SNC-Lavalin case.

Unfortunately, nobody seems to be closely monitoring “with concern” the OECD’s anti-bribery regime. The 36-member organization’s massive and escalating enforcement efforts against western corporations have done little, perhaps even nothing, to reduce bribery and corruption where it matters: the real world, where most nations are in various stages of corrupt disrepair.

Rather than receding, national corruption levels remain unchanged since 1997 and may even be increasing, according to Transparency International’s annual corruption index. Indeed, most of the world is beset by corruption, aside from Canada, the U.S., the United Kingdom, Australia and a few European countries.

But Canada’s recent arrival in the global corruption spotlight is mainly a product of the OECD convention and its bungled adoption by Ottawa under lobbying pressure from activists and some U.S. corporations. The first major bungle was by the Stephen Harper Conservatives in 2013/14, followed by the Trudeau Liberals in 2017/18.

Its deeper origins, however, can be found in the bowels of Washington politics in the post-Watergate era. The OECD convention was concocted after U.S. politicians discovered their anti-corruption crusade of the 1970s — which led to the creation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in 1977 — left U.S. corporations out of the running for international business deals.

It’s useful to recall that corruption has a rich history around the world, including in the U.S. In light of this week’s college bribery scandal, it also exists in surprising forms.

In his 1984 book Bribes: The Intellectual History of a Moral Idea, the late John Noonan sifted through thousands of years of history to document bribery as a legal and routine practice dating back to at least 1500 BC.

Among the anecdotes in his 700-page work, Noonan describes the plight of Francis Bacon, the 16th-century father of the scientific method, who fell from political grace after his conviction for having enhanced his 3,000-pound income as England’s Lord High Chancellor with a bribing system that bought in 12,000 to 16,000 pounds a year from litigants.

Samuel Pepys, the famous 17th-century diarist and reputed founder of the British civil service, was a “bribe-taker on a grand scale,” Noonan writes. Despite a salary of only 350 pounds, Pepys managed to accumulate a stash worth 7,000 pounds in only seven years.

Through the 19th century, U.S. politics was rife with corruption. “Bribery was a way of life in this country,” Noonan states. A serious crackdown on bribery in the U.S. only began in the 20th century after a series of scandals, including the 1939 conviction of Martin Manton, a New York judge, for accepting US$186,000 from various corporations, including American Tobacco Co.

The U.S. anti-corruption crusade that launched a chain of events leading to Canada’s current SNC-Lavalin crisis was triggered by the Lockheed Aircraft Corp. bribery scandal of the 1970s. Unlike previous bribery cases that involved only local officials, Lockheed had paid foreign politicians and other international fixers and greasers to secure sales of its aircraft.

Other companies, including Gulf Oil, Northrop Corp. and Exxon Mobil, were also subject to high-profile congressional badgering for paying large sums to foreign politicians and officials.

These U.S. multinational corporations allegedly roamed the world sowing corruption. Among the recipients were officials in West Germany, Japan, Italy, Holland, Honduras and Saudi Arabia. The key Saudi cash collector was arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi, who received more than US$100 million from Lockheed during the 1970s.

Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi in 1990. Khashoggi received more than US$100 million from Lockheed during the 1970s.

During the congressional hearings, which became classic anti-corporate circuses, chief executives from scores of U.S. corporations were subject to grandstanding inquisition from politicians. New companies and foreign countries were added to the headlines: United Brands Co., Ashland Oil Co., Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia and Peru, among others.

Throughout hearings in 1975 and 1976, the message was clear: “Corruption is the dry rot of the capitalist system,” said New York Senator Clarence Percy. Senator Frank Church, who headed what became known as the Church Committee, also saw corruption narrowly as a U.S. corporate problem.

At the end of the congressional parade, the U.S. produced the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. Signed into law by then president Jimmy Carter, the FCPA set a global precedent.

“The FCPA was a pioneering statute and the first law in the world governing domestic business conduct with foreign government officials in foreign market,” Southern Illinois University (SIU) law professor Mike Koehler wrote in an Ohio State Law Journal article in 2012.

A less charitable description is that the FCPA is an attempt by the U.S. to impose its laws extraterritorially and an attempt to criminally punish bribery that fails to go after the real source of the problem — a problem identified at the time by numerous government officials.

A state department legal adviser, Mark Feldman, told the politicians that it would “not be advisable” to adopt an FCPA that essentially required the U.S. to hold corporations responsible for practices that were normal abroad.

“That kind of legislation we would oppose,” the adviser testified, “not because we differ with the moral imperatives involved but we feel that the enforcement of such legislation would involve us in the surveillance of activities taking place in foreign countries, including the behaviour of foreign officials, and would fundamentally intrude our moral views into foreign societies which may have different conditions.”

There were alternatives to the FCPA, Feldman said, such as leaving the main responsibility for enacting and enforcing criminal laws against corruption with the foreign state. The U.S. has an important role to play cooperating with other countries, but it should not be acting alone, he added.

Another state department official said there were many advantages to a “multi-lateral approach” based on international agreements rather than U.S. unilateralism.

But congressional leaders had little patience with an international initiative that could take years, even decades. They wanted action in 1977. The U.S., Senator William Proxmire said, has “a very, very serious corruption problem” that needed immediate attention. Whether they would succeed was not the issue.

As a result, by 1997 — 20 years after adopting the FCPA — not much had changed internationally, except that major U.S. corporations began to complain they were losing out in international competitions to corporations from other countries — France, Germany and elsewhere — that seemed to turn a blind eye to corporate misbehaviour abroad.

In other words, global corruption continued without the participation of U.S. corporations, which were losing business adhering to U.S. law.

Enter the OECD, backed by some key U.S. corporations such as GE, as well as World Bank chief James Wolfensohn and the anti-corporate NGO Transparency International (TI).

TI co-founder Frank Vogl, in Waging War on Corruption: Inside the Movement Fighting the Abuse of Power, describes some of the lobbying campaign that led to the 1997 OECD anti-bribery convention.

The campaign landed in Ottawa, where Vogl and Wesley Cragg, TI Canada president and a York University professor, met with senior Canadian government officials “to encourage them to take an active lead in securing an OECD agreement and become the first government to pass a national law to ratify. Top Canadian businessmen from mining company Placer Dome, GE Canada and Bell Telephone Canada joined our presentation to senior Canadian politicians and officials. One official encouraged us hugely: then Canadian aid agency head Huguette Labelle.”

Huguette Labelle in 2012.

Labelle, who headed the now-defunct Canadian International Development Agency, went on to become a chair of Transparency International and an active campaigner for the OECD convention.

Canada ratified the anti-bribery convention in 1999 by passing the Corruption of Foreign Public Officials Act. Since then, the OECD’s Working Group on Bribery has ritually hounded Canadian officials for failing to live up to the convention.

In 2011, the working group delivered a 70-page critique of Ottawa’s anti-corruption activity that said a lack of resources was preventing Canada from prosecuting cases, pointing out that only one company had been pursued. The critique also noted Canada told the working group that “it is willing to consider providing for automatic debarment in the case of foreign bribery.”

Therein lies the first OECD trap that ensnared SNC-Lavalin.

Over the next few years, the Department of Public Works and Government Services adopted a series of administrative integrity provisions that penalized companies prosecuted for foreign corruption. Companies would be “debarred” from government contracts for 10 years if charged, let alone convicted.

Debarment, in effect, became an administered double-jeopardy penalty imposed above and beyond any legal penalties set by a criminal court at the end of a trial. Corporate law firms called such moves a “game changer” in the world of corporate law.

Michael Osborne at Toronto-based law firm Cassels Brock & Blackwell LLP said the debarment policy is fundamentally flawed because it makes no allowance for corporate reform and contrition. SIU professor Mike Koehler agrees. “I’ve long felt that Canada has a debarment issue … that should be addressed,” he said in an email.

Despite legal criticisms that the integrity regime measures were, among other things, retroactive and possibly unconstitutional, the OECD-led changes to Canada’s corporate prosecution regime were enthusiastically adopted by the Harper Conservatives.

As the rules were brought in, and before SNC-Lavalin was charged in 2015, nobody appears to have noticed that Ottawa had set in motion a process that could destroy companies. It was also a penalty other countries did not impose.

But an RCMP commissioner outlined the seriousness of the allegations against SNC-Lavalin later that year: “Corruption of foreign officials undermines good governance and sustainable economic development.” One suspects OECD tentacles may have reached a little too deep into the Canadian legal fabric when the RCMP announces that laying charges to protect “sustainable economic development” is a criminal priority.

After the SNC charges were disclosed, a slow political panic set in. Canada had apparently buckled under OECD pressure for tougher enforcement and debarments, even though other countries, including the U.S. and Britain, did not install debarment under their foreign corruption rules.

Instead, the U.S. and Britain had established Deferred Prosecution Agreement (DPA) regimes that allowed companies to settle corruption charges without trial and the risk of debarment. DPAs would allow companies such as SNC-Lavalin to negotiate their way out of a foreign corruption prosecution.

To fix this gap in the Canadian anti-bribery regime, Ottawa held consultations and, contrary to some commentary, the final move was not buried in a federal budget bill. The changes to the criminal code were based on dozens of intervenor comments in a report supporting made-in-Canada DPAs. It seemed like a way out for Trudeau.

Unfortunately for the Liberals and SNC-Lavalin, the new DPAs were mostly constructed along guidelines set out by the OECD’s anti-bribery regime. Under Article 5 of the OECD convention, DPAs cannot be granted if the objective is to protect “the national economic interest.”

In its nagging note to Canada on Monday, the OECD warned Ottawa against breaching Article 5, even though both the U.S. and Britain appear to do so without reprisal.

For example, Koehler believes the US$800-million DPA settlement Britain extracted from Rolls-Royce PLC in 2017 violated the OECD national economic interest rule. More recently, Koehler said the U.S. violated the rule when it launched an action against Chinese companies that “compete with American businesses.”

By erratically following the OECD’s flawed, ineffective and ultimately troublesome attempt to rid the world of bribery and corruption, successive Canadian governments have bungled Ottawa into a needless scandal and a political crisis. And the world is no closer to corruption-free perfection than it was 40 years ago.

Financial Post

• Email: [email protected] | Twitter: terencecorcoran

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