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Some want global intervention against ‘rogue’ climate states. That may not end so well for us.

‘Is it acceptable that a single government can unilaterally adopt environmental policies that put millions at risk?’ a recent Globe op-ed asked of Brazil. Uhhh… Photo of Amazon forest fires taken Aug. 26, 2019, by Leo Correa, AP Photo.

The two both ask and answer their own question in the Globe and Mail piece.

“Is it acceptable that a single government can unilaterally adopt environmental policies that put millions at risk?” they write. “It is urgent that the international community find ways to influence rogue states whose irresponsible policies accelerate global warming and undermine the collective effort to address the existential threat posed by climate change.”

It’s a comfortably sanctimonious argument, especially from inside the glass house of Canadian climate policy.

Admittedly Bolsonaro is an ogre whose popularity among Brazilians has plummeted since he was elected last year.

But Axworthy and Rock should be careful what they wish for — if the world really was empowered to intervene when rogue states ignore the climate crisis, would we get off easily?

Canada was recently ranked last of the G7 economies in terms of meaningful climate action — tied with the U.S. under Donald Trump. Of all the G20 countries, Canadians produce the most greenhouse gases per capita.

While the Justin Trudeau government touted its pledge of $15 million to fight Amazon wildfires on behalf of the planet, this represents only 0.5 per cent of the $3.3 billion in taxpayer subsidies that Canada shovels at the fossil fuel sector each year.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

China Imposes Death Penalty On Canadian Convicted Of Drug Smuggling

January 14, 2019

China Imposes Death Penalty On Canadian Convicted Of Drug Smuggling

As was widely expected after a Chinese court ordered a retrial of Canadian national Robert Schellenberg on drug trafficking charges last month, the Canadian national has now been sentenced to death for allegedly smuggling “an enormous amount of drugs” into China. He had earlier been sentenced to 15 years.

The harsh sentence, like the arrests of Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor on vague charges of threatening national security (an investigation is reportedly ongoing, according to Chinese officials), is widely suspected to be retaliation for the arrest of Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou (who is also the daughter of the conglomerate’s founder).

Breaking- Chinese state media: Canadian Robert Schellenberg sentenced to dead for drug smuggling after Chinese prosecutors appealed his 15-year original sentence.

Few details about Schellenberg’s case have been shared with the media, other than the fact that he was arrested in 2014, long before the Huawei dispute erupted. Canadian diplomats had reportedly been working with the Chinese government on the case. The retrial was ordered after Chinese prosecutors argued that Schellenberg’s sentence was too lenient.

Robert Schellenberg

In a report published late last week, Canada’s Globe and Mail carried remarks from Schellenberg’s family, who said they feared his life was being used as a bargaining chip in the international dispute.

“There’s no way they are not using him as a pawn,” said Lauri Nelson-Jones, Mr. Schellenberg’s aunt, in an interview.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

China May Import Its Workers To Canada As It Seeks “Total Access” To Canadian Market

April 2, 2017

China May Import Its Workers To Canada As It Seeks “Total Access” To Canadian Market

China’s ambassador to Canada, Lu Shaye, told the Globe and Mail that Beijing is seeking full access to Canada’s economy ahead of free trade talks, a move that could result in Chinese state-owned companies bringing their own employees to work on projects in Canada. Charles Burton, an associate political science professor at Brock University, said bringing their own workers abroad is “normal practice” for Chinese companies. “It’s not as if [the Chinese] would be asking something of Canada that they don’t expect from other countries,” he said.

Earlier this year, Canadian and Chinese officials held exploratory talks on a free trade deal and another meeting is set to take place this month, Lu told the Globe, just as the US prepares to renegotiate NAFTA with Canada and Mexico.

Lu said that his government wants to avoid discussions of human rights issues, fearing it could become a “bargaining chip” in negotiations. Additionally, anticipating what has become an increasingly regular response by sovereign governments to China’s money-laundering disguised as M&A ambitions, the ambassador said China’s government would interpreted any attempt by Ottawa to block takeovers of Canadian companies on national security grounds as protectionism.

“Investment is investment. We should not take too much political considerations into the investment,” he said. “Just like the negotiations of the (Canada-U.S.) FTA, we should not let political factors into this process. Otherwise, it would be very difficult.”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Canada Moves To Burst Housing Bubble, Closes Foreign-Buyer Loophole

October 4, 2016

Canada Moves To Burst Housing Bubble, Closes Foreign-Buyer Loophole

In a move which many Canadians, especially those who have been persistently priced out of the housing market, welcomed with open arms, overnight Finance Minister Bill Morneau unveiled new measures aimed at slowing the flood of foreign money pouring into overheated housing markets like Vancouver and Toronto, a move which some dubbed an unprecedented federal intervention in the sector.

As first reported by the Globe and Mail, Ottawa announced it would close a tax loophole that allows non-residents to buy homes and later claim a tax exemption on the sales.

According to the revision, the government will make sure the principal-residence exemption is only available to individuals who reside in Canada in the year the home is purchased, which immediately excludes thousands of “hot money” Chinese tourists who come to Canada simply to park billions in Chinese cash.

The Ottawa shift comes after home prices soared dramatically the last few years in the Vancouver and Toronto markets, triggering a vigorous debate about the role of foreign money. As reported in the summer, British Columbia imposed a 15-per-cent foreign buyers tax on homes which led to a dramatic cooling in the Vancouver housing market. Just today we learned that Vancouver home sales had plunged another 32.6% relative to a year ago as the market remains paralyzed as a result of a lack of buyers willing to chase near record prices.

The finance minister also announced new measures to combat offshore speculation, including closing the loophole. The moves follow a Globe and Mail investigation that revealed a network of speculators flipping homes for profit and avoiding taxes by classifying them as principal residences.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Alberta Loses Most Jobs In 34 Years As Oil Crunch Cripples Labor Market

January 27, 2016

Alberta Loses Most Jobs In 34 Years As Oil Crunch Cripples Labor Market

Times are tough in Alberta and to be sure, we’ve piled it on heavy when it comes to cataloguing the long list of pitiable outcomes that have accompanied crude’s steep slide.

The province is at the center of Canada’s dying oil patch and as crude extended its seemingly endless decline last year, Alberta saw oil and gas investment plunge by a third. That’s bad news for authorities who count on resources for 30% of provincial revenues.

Rig activity fell by half in the first seven months of 2015 and as the job losses mounted, the sorrow deepened – literally. Suicide rates jumped by 30% and in Calgary commercial break-ins almost doubled from a year earlier, while bank robberies were up 65% and home invasions increased 52% (read more here).

Meanwhile, food bank usage spiked as those who used to be donors found themselves depending on the free meals for subsistence.

And speaking of food, prices for fresh fruit and vegetables are seeing double-digit inflation thanks to the plunging loonie.

All in all, a very bad situation indeed and on Tuesday we learned that the picture was actually materially worse than an initial round of statistics led us to believe.

“Statscan’s annual revisions of its national Labour Force Survey data ratcheted up Alberta’s net job losses last year to 19,600, from the 14,600 the statistical agency originally reported in its final 2015 survey released in early January,” The Globe And Mail reports, adding that the losses “exceed the 17,000 jobs Alberta shed in the Great Recession in 2009.”

In fact, 2015 was the worst year for job losses in the province since 1982.

By the end of last year, Alberta’s unemployment rate had risen to 7.1% from just 4.8% at the end of 2014. As The Globe And Mail goes on to note, that’s the highest level in two decades. And it’s projected to get worse. Alberta could see unemployment rise to 7.5% in H1.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

‘Footprint Rationalization’: Sears adds to Woes of Canada’s Malls

January 26, 2016

‘Footprint Rationalization’: Sears adds to Woes of Canada’s Malls

The industry spirals into turmoil.

After bouts of store closings that started in 2013, Sears Canada has about 95 department stores, 10 outlet stores, and 40 home stores left. Now, according to the Globe and Mail, it will close even more stores.

It’s been tough for brick-and-mortar retailers in Canada. The collapse of the price of oil and the brutal drubbing administered to the tar-sands sector, the high-cost oil producer globally, haven’t helped. The overall economy is uneasy. And the migration to online shopping is unstoppable, a phenomenon that is also wreaking havoc among brick-and-mortar retailers in the US.

How tough is it in Canada’s retail land? Some salient recent examples:

Target, after only a little over two years in Canada, shuttered its 133 stores and was gone by April 2015, an episode that cost it $7 billion.

Best Buy closed 66 of its Future Shop stores in March 2015 and converted the remaining 65 to struggling Best Buy stores.

Then there’s Blacks, a Canadian camera shop chain that also sold cellphones and other things. It and its 113 stores were acquired by Canadian PE firm ReichmannHauer Capital Partners in 2007, when PE firms piled into brick-and-mortar retail. RHCP was smart enough to sell it in 2009 to telecom operator Telus, who shuttered the remaining stores in August 2015.

Sony closed all of its 14 stores in Canada in early 2015.

Mexx Canada, a Netherlands-based retailer, liquidated all its 95 stores in Canada in early 2015.

Reitmans, a Canadian retailer specializing in women’s clothing under a number of different store brands, announced in November 2014 that it would close 107 Smart Set stores.

A spate of US retailers, including Gap and Staples, have announced that they would close stores in “North America,” without specifying how many of their stores in Canada would be closed.

In terms of population, Canada is smaller than California. So this has an impact.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

World’s Climate Threatened by Greed and Militarism, Official Canada Remains Part of the Problem, Not Solution

January 18, 2016

World’s Climate Threatened by Greed and Militarism, Official Canada Remains Part of the Problem, Not Solution

shutterstock_80847415

A leading columnist in Canada’s Globe and Mail daily newspaper known in the past to voice concern about the global warming emergency has penned two columns recently in support of Alberta tar sands pipelines, including praising the efforts of the premier of Alberta to sell the construction of these project to an increasingly sceptical and wary public in Canada

Jeffrey Simpson has argued for years for a more rational capitalist approach to energy production in which some account would be made for the global warming emergency. He co-authored a book in 2007 with several climate scientists titled Hot Air: Meeting Canada’s Climate Change Challenge.[1] But his columns in the January 14 and 15 editions of the Globe reveal him as just a born again shill for the Alberta tar sands industry.

Simpson begins his Jan 14 column (accessible online to Globesubscribers only) with, “Alberta Premier Rachel Notley, to her government’s great credit, has tried for the first time to outline a comprehensive and serious plan for the province to curb greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change.”

Simpson is referring to Premier Notley’s fanfare announcement on November 22, 2015 purporting to be an energy “plan” with greenhouse gas reduction components. The “plan” includes a few piecemeal promises such as reducing coal-fired electricity production in Alberta over the next few decades (presently, the province generates 50 per cent of its electricity from coal). But the centrepiece of her “plan” is to green light an increase in tar sands production in the coming years by as much as 43 per cent, most of which would be sold in foreign markets. A plan to “curb greenhouse gas emissions”, indeed.

Edmonton writer Gordon Laxer explained in a commentary published in the Edmonton Journal on December 3:

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Let’s Help Canada’s Newspapers Stop Embarrassing Themselves

October 31, 2015

Let’s Help Canada’s Newspapers Stop Embarrassing Themselves

In this post-Harper era, our democratic institutions must be fixed. Start with media.

Observing the cathartic effect of the end the Harper regime reveals just how traumatized millions of Canadians were by nearly 10 years of rule by this vindictive prime minister. The analogies and metaphors keep coming: like getting out of jail, like waking up from a nightmare, like the end of an occupation.

This election will provide students, pundits and authors with career-building opportunities to dissect the results. Part of that analysis will, of course, examine the unprecedented assault on democracy carried about the Conservatives. As it should, because undoing the damage must be the litmus test for the new Liberal government and Parliament.

However, while it is critical to track these efforts, the other democratic institution which needs renewed attention is the media and in particular the newspapers in this country. Regrettably, we have adapted to the outrageous concentration of newspaper ownership in Canada, greater than in any other developed Western nation.

But the newspapers perhaps did us a favour in the last week of the campaign with their inane endorsement of the Harper autocracy for yet another four-year term. Postmedia and the Globe and Mail actually managed to write editorials justifying the re-election of a man turfed from office by a tsunami of voter revulsion.

The Globe and Mail and the National Post editorials both declared their support because of Harper’s economic record — but ignored all the actual evidence. The Globe declared: “The key issue of the election should have been the economy and the financial health of Canadians. On that score, the Conservative Party has a solid record.” And the National Post: “Harper’s commendable record in office cannot be dismissed. Our economy is in good shape…”

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

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