Harper VS the Environment

The latest targets of Harper’s mega-cuts? Our air, forests, animals and the rest of the environment. The launch of the new Conservative budget means that plans are in place to “streamline” and “limit” the review process for resource development in order to fast-track projects like the oil sands.

Translation: less regulation, less oversight and free reign for industry to plunder Canadian minerals and exploit our land as they see fit. Just the way corporate lobbyists wanted it when they made deals with Harper behind the scenes.

And the remaining regulations are just as disturbing. The new plan removes bears, caribou, beavers, forests—almost every feature of the environment—from environmental assessment.

So what are the new “review processes” going to review? If Harper has his way, nothing at all.

The True Face of Our Democracy

In the past three and a half years, the Harper government appointed 100 federal judges across Canada – and 98 of them were white. That’s right. In a country where 1 in 5 citizens belongs to a visible minority and where aboriginal people are losing land without legal recourse, our government continues to shun our diversity and maintain a one-perspective-rules-all philosophy.

And the worst part?

These appointments are made in secret. Behind closed doors and without public debate, the cabinet Justice Committee “deliberates” about whom to install next—a process that reportedly involves choosing strictly from amongst government supporters. A judicial post is, after all, a reward deserved only by those friendly to the Harper administration.

That’s not to say that the previous administrations have been much better. They haven’t: Liberal governments have been just as prone to putting politics ahead of public interest in their judicial appointments. But the process sure as hell isn’t getting any more fair or transparent under Harper. With a shameful history of suppressing women’s rights, cutting public services, and stealing Canadian votes in ridings across the country, Harper’s rotten record on selecting judges is yet another element of his larger, democracy-killing agenda.

The Evil Lobby Hobby

Each year, Canada's largest 1,000 corporations spend more than $25 BILLION on their lobbying and promotion efforts, employing 10,000 full-time lobbyists across the country. 

Their methods?

Blackmail, bribery, coercion—the works. These unelected people fight—and fight hard—to remake our society to serve their interests, and we have no say in the matter.

What about activist and citizens groups? Don’t they fight back?

They try. But with only 500 lobbyists and $50 million at their disposal (500 times less than corporations), it’s a losing battle. Money talks, and corporate greed rules, on Parliament Hill.

“Taxes are for the little people.” Leona Hemsley

The total amount now stashed away by corporations in tax havens has reached $11.5 trillion.

What do tax havens do? Not only offer an escape from tax, but also provide secrecy, an escape from financial regulation, and a chance to shrug off laws and rules of other jurisdictions.

Tax havens are heaven for greedy corporations. In Canada and elsewhere, they allow the richest people and companies to bleed society dry - steal our water, air, oil, transit, healthcare and manpower while completely avoiding their fair tax shake.

The stats are disgraceful: Canadian corporations laundered $88 billion overseas in 2003, an increase of 800% (and counting) since 1990. And 88 of the USA’s 100 biggest corporations have huge subsidiaries in tax havens, alongside 99 of the 100 biggest companies in Europe.

This way of hiding money is not just a dirty trick and not just illegal (though it is both). It’s killing democracy. Paying into our society and being represented by our government are supposed to go hand-in-hand. Yet in Canada and other so-called “democracies”, we have a system in which corporations pull our leaders’ strings even while avoiding their democratic obligations.

In the end, as always, it’s the little people—the 99%—who are made to bear the extra burden.