Trade Justice Workshop: FIPA and CETA

Workshop on the FIPA and CETA: International laws created for corporations. 

"Trade is the transfer of power from citizens to corporations." Maude Barlow, Chair of the Council of Canadians 

 This workshop, given by our Trade Justice Chair, Jennifer Chesnut, will explore new generation trade pacts, the CETA and the Can-China FIPA, their purposes and consequences. We will map similarities between these deals and what they mean for the new frontier of international laws benefiting corporations. Special emphasis on Investor State Lawsuits and strategies for creating trade justice. 

 What do you think fair trade looks like? 

 Wed. Oct. 29/2014 @ 5pm EVAC, 757 Dundas St.

Annual General Meeting AND GREEN HOLIDAYS PARTY! Fri. Nov. 28

There is parking available at Catholic Central High School, kitty corner to the AGM site.

Proposed changes to by-laws:
http://londoncouncilofcanadians.ca/ProposedBylaws.pdf

Current Steering Committee:

     Chair:                          Roberta Cory 

     Secretary:                   Aldous Smith 

     Treasurer:                   Masoud Karimi 

     Media:                         David Heap 

     Membership:               Geoff Crealock 

     Website/Social Media: Robert Cory


Minutes of 2013 AGM:
http://londoncouncilofcanadians.ca/MinutesAGM2013.pdf

OCTOBER 2014 NEWSLETTER

The Council of Canadians is the VOICE of progressive Canadians in 52 cities all over Canada. It is grassroots and bottom-up in its organization, with a small paid staff of researchers in Ottawa who provide the data we need to campaign on issues. 95% of all operating money comes from individual donations. The average individual donation is $50. We are non-profit but are not a charity because we educate and lobby for social and environmental justice. Each chapter determines which issues are important to its local supporters and is as active in campaigns as time and energy allow. Our London Chapter has eight committees: 

The Solidarity Film Coalition manages the Cinema Politica film series, which shows documentary films at the Central Library on the second Monday of each month. The motto of Cinema Politica is “Screening Truth to Power”.

The Trade Justice Committee campaigns against corporate-driven international trade agreements that would take away Canadian democracy and basic rights of self- determination. It has been active in educating London City Council about the perils of the Investor-State clause of CETA, and has been instrumental in getting London City Council to vote unanimously to have the option to vote for an ‘opt-out’ of CETA. 

The Health Care Committee works with the London Health Coalition to keep health care public and is currently engaged in planning a campaign and rally for Nov. 21 in Queens Park, to resist the austerity budget and the adoption of two-tier health care in Ontario. 

The Peace and Human Rights Committee has been active in bringing back John Greyson and Tarek Loubani from an Egyptian prison, supports the boat from Gaza, and opposes war as a solution to problems, social, religious, political or otherwise. 

The Energy and Climate Committee opposes expansion of the Alberta Tar Sands and the movement of bitumen by pipeline and rail. Because we have probably gone past the threshold where our climate can right itself, our position is that any further use of fossil fuels is suicidal for humans and life on this planet. It is also our position that pipelines and rail transport of dangerous substances threaten cities, First Nations, and wildlife, and poison watersheds and rivers they pass through. We actively oppose the reversal of flow of Enbridge’s 38- year-old Line 9 pipeline, just north of London, which crosses the Thames River north of Fanshawe Lake.

The Water Committee will be approaching our new City Council next spring to ask that London become a Blue Community. This means enforcing the bottled water ban in municipal venues and committing to keeping London Hydro public. We have been supporting OPAL (Oxford People Against the Landfill) by protesting with them in Ingersoll, Woodstock, Beachville, and other nearby towns most Fridays at 3:00 pm. In 2015 we will be working with First Nations to organize a water walk along the Thames River from Tavistock to Lake St. Clair.

The Democracy Committee works with Leadnow to fight for fair elections and proportional representation, so that our election process is a more just and accurate reflection of the wishes of all Canadians.

The Food Security Committee is working with City Council to make London a pollinator sanctuary for bees and butterflies. It opposes GM foods, and supports urban agriculture and the distribution and marketing of local food.

 

We strongly urge citizens to go beyond emotional or intellectual sympathy with the campaigns of the Council of Canadians and to contact us and get involved. We will put you in touch with whichever committee chair is working on your favourite issue. Help make Canada THE CANADA WE WANT. 

CETA: One-Stop Shopping for Corporations

The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) is a quintessential “new generation” trade pact. Its purpose is to open trade to areas that are managed by government at the provincial and municipal levels. Large European corporations will be able to use their trade legal “favoured nation status” to have equal access to municipal and provincial contracts on things like city energy management. After many calls to make this deal public, on September 26, 2014, the EU disclosed the massive finished document on their website. Critics are upset about the diminishmed capacity of city councils to control assets and local jobs, purchase locally, and create future policy for sustainability. There are many other questions over eighty municipal councils, associations and school boards have expressed about the CETA in resolutions to provincial and federal government. Over fifty of them have asked to be exempted from the CETA. 

These exemption requests from Victoria to Toronto make up the only movement of one level of government against another in Canada since we started using free trade to change national policy in 1989. Maybe the over fifty councils, school boards and associations do not want to be involved at all because they were not allowed to see the details. Or maybe because Canada is offering the EU a one-stop-shop website where foreign corporations will be able to see what contracts are open for them to bid from coast to coast. For more info on the one-stop-shop site see the EU’s trade portal: 

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/in-focus/ceta/index_en.htm#outcome 

“With CETA, EU companies will be able to bid for public contracts in Canada…This includes the provincial authorities, (and) in 2011 procurements by Canadian municipalities were estimated at C$ 112 billion (approx. €82 billion)…European businesses will be the first foreign companies to get that level of access to Canadian public procurement markets. No other international agreement concluded by Canada offers similar opportunities…Canada will also create a single electronic procurement website that combines information on all tenders to ensure that the EU companies can effectively take advantage of these new opportunities.“

Jennifer Chesnut
Trade Justice Chair

Originally published on October 20, 2014 at
http://newgenerationtrade.com/2014/10/20/ceta-one-stop-shopping-for-corporations/

I’ve been thinking about how corporations are suing countries.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about transnational corporations suing countries. The fancy name for this is Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) and it happens in free trade. ISDS is on my mind a whole bunch as Germany speaks out about the inclusion of ISDS in the soon to be announced CAN-EU CETA deal.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/campact/sets/72157647398779707/ 

ISDS was first employed in NAFTA , the North American Free Trade Agreement. Some say this deal, circa 1994, was the first New Generation deal partly because of its use of Investor State. ISDS is a trade legal mechanism for how the pacts are enforced. It affords corporations the opportunity to sue nation states if the profits they expected from the opening of specific sectors in a free trade deal are diminished because the country has laws or policies that prevent earnings. Ethyl Corporation was the first to successfully sue Canada in the mid nineties, for approximately 16 million, when Canada attempted to bar its gasoline additives. Researchers in Canada believed their additives could be carcinogenic. Ethyl won on the grounds that profits expected as a result of NAFTA were lost. There have been hundreds of cases administered through trade tribunals since and the number of cases launched is on the incline every year. Through leaked texts in German news and other places, critics of CETA have said that corporations will be able to sue countries when municipalities use public money for various buy-local initiatives, municipal procurement, and protection of local public management, but no ones knows for certain as the text has not been shared publicly. 

Let’s talk trade that works. Opening borders to gastronomic delights! to expertise in regions that most benefit! How about encouraging the growth of sale in specialty items (like fair trade bananas) that could give economic stability to a struggling country? But when you get into lawsuits waged in a one way direction from corporations to countries, it feels like we are no longer talking about trade. The conversations turns a whole lotta dark. People don’t like it. Investor State creates an Investor’s State superimposed on a Nation State. This is the kind of trade that makes people uncomfortable. It’s the kind of design that will sink itself. 

People from Canada, Germany, France, and many other locales in between are bidding Investor State Adieu. Adios. Au Revoir. 

We are entering a new era — one of critical trade justice understanding that will not tolerate excessive corporate rights at the expense of family and community well being — whether or not we call them new generation free trade, CETA, or we@#$@#lkflskdjfls investor state ding-a-ling.

Jennifer Chesnut 
Trade Justice Chair

Originally published on September 21, 2014 at
http://newgenerationtrade.com/2014/09/21/ive-been-thinking-about-corporations-sueing-countries/

A People's Ceremony to Honour the 50+ Municipalities, School Boards and Associations Requested to Be Excluded from the CETA

No to CETA! No to Investor State! 

A Big Yes to Fair Trade!

London marked the CETA completion with their own ceremony. The Council of Canadians London Chapter hosted a rally outside city hall on Thursday, September 25th at 4:30 pm to share the historic resistance of the grassroots to the CETA. With about 50 people overall, the chapter enacted a ceremony to honour municipal councils who for the first time rejected a trade pact.

London Chapter representatives, Jennifer Chesnut and Aldous Smith, gave opening remarks about this municipal trade deal and Investor State. London Chapter justice folk singer, Margo Does debuted "The CETA Song". The chapter chair, Roberta Cory, ran work parties to create the many signs, including a sign for every municipal entity that requested an opt out. Chapter members Julie Picken-Cooper and Jessie Chesnut along with other supporters led the ceremony to recognize the municipalities requesting to be excluded from the CETA.

The National Council of Canadian's CETA google map was used to collect the data. 

Excerpts:

"We come together today on the eve before the official announcement of the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement to bear witness. We stand outside city hall in recognition of the municipal movement critiquing CETA that included more than eighty resolutions passed by municipalities, school boards and associations. We gather today to thank the many great city councillors in Thunder Bay, Hamilton, North Vancouver, Essex County, Toronto, and so many others who stood up to this deal to protect local choices, local jobs, and the well-being of families. Of those many, over fifty requested to be excluded from the CETA. None of these requests have been publicly acknowledged and debated. We will acknowledge them together today."

"We stand in solidarity with the Ottawa people’s response tomorrow under the tagline “The text might be finished but the fight is just beginning”. Organized by the Canadian Maritime and Supply Chain Coalition with support from the Trade Justice Network, the Quebec Network on Continental Integration (RQIC), and Campact Germany, we stand in solidarity with you."

The event was reported by local indie media here:

https://www.facebook.com/theindignants

https://www.facebook.com/events/1470686059864734/

Picture Credits: 
1. In blog body photo, Mike Roy of The Indignants; 
2,3,4. Kevin Jones



-- Jennifer Chesnut
          Trade Justice Chair, London CoC

Announcement of the rally:

http://londoncouncilofcanadians.blogspot.ca/2014/09/london-rally-on-eve-of-ceta-ceremony.html

CINEMA POLITICA presents "LIVING DOWNSTREAM" on Oct. 6, 2014

Monday, October 6, 2014
7:00 pm - 8:45 pm
London Public Library
Central Branch
251 Dundas St.
London, Ontario

Stevenson & Hunt Room

Free! 

A Canadian film this time! 

FRAGRANCE FREE EVENT! 
Please be respectful of attendees who have serious allergies! 

Details: 
http://cinemapolitica.org/london 

A powerful reminder of the intimate connection between the health of our bodies and the health of our air, land and water. 

Raised in small-town Illinois, cancer seems to run in Sandra Steingraber’s family. Sandra was diagnosed with bladder cancer when she was just twenty years old. Her mother was diagnosed with breast cancer when Sandra was in high school. Many of her aunts and uncles have struggled with the disease. One aunt even died from the same form of bladder cancer that Sandra had. But while cancer runs in her family, she cannot say that it runs in her genes. Sandra is adopted. This unusual twist led Sandra to ask what else families have in common besides their DNA. The answer is all around us: our environment. 

Based on the book: 
http://www.livingdownstream.com/about-book

Monthly Meeting October 9, 2014: featured speaker, Sean Quigley

Thursday October 9, 2014
6:30 pm
London Public Library
Landon Branch
167 Wortley Rd.
London, Ontario

Martha Bishop Room 

FRAGRANCE FREE EVENT! Please be respectful of attendees who have serious allergies! 

All are welcome! Free! Refreshments! 
Donations to the coffee fund accepted gratefully! 

After meet and greet and a short business meeting, 

SEAN QUIGLEY

Executive Director of Emerging Leaders London Community Network, 

will speak on 

“Where Did All Our Talent Go?”

followed by Q&A. 

"The focus of the talk will be an overview of the Economics of SWO, The Talent Drain in London, and the Inability of traditional institutions to engage with the 20 to 44 year old demographic. London has been going through a shift in economics and demographics over the last 6 years. With the huge loss of employment in our city, the mass exodus of the 20 to 44 year old demographic, and the inability of traditional clubs and institutions to resonate with this group. there is a looming choice for London. Will we look continue to look to the past or create a modern future?"

Minutes of our last monthly meeting: http://londoncouncilofcanadians.ca/LondonCoCMeetingMinutes.pdf

October Agenda 
6:30 - 7:00 coffee, tea, snacks, social 
7:00 - 7:30 Business: Reports and Coming events 
Chair - Roberta Cory - National CoC Conference and AGM in Hamilton 
Website/social media - Rory 
Trade Justice - Jennifer - report on Anti CETA action 
Cinema Politica - Paula M. - "Finding Dawn” November 10, Central Library 
Water - Julie - Saturday, Oct. 18, Kairos sponsored conference “Downstream” 
Health - Jeff - Wed. Oct. 15, 6:00 pm Fox and Fiddle 
Energy - Roberta - Global Frackdown on Saturday, Oct. 11 
Food Security - Pollinator Sanctuary London - Margo 
OPAL actions - every Friday at 2:00 pm - call Roberta 519-601-2053 if going 
Peace - David and Paula - Friday, Oct. 10, 5:00 pm Vigil at Victoria Park 
Tabling - “Voices” event - Goodwill Building - Saturday, Oct. 18, volunteers needed London CoC AGM announcement - Jessie C., Committee Chair - Friday, November 28, 2014 
Democracy - Fair Elections and Proportional Representation 

7:30 - 8:30 Speaker: Sean Quigley - The London We Want: “Where Did All Our Talent Go?” Q and A 

8:30 - AGM committee - meet with Jessie C.
8:45 - Cleanup volunteers needed to get out by 9:00 pm November meeting - AGM

London RALLY on the Eve of the CETA Ceremony!

We Stand on Guard for Canadian Cities!

No to CETA!
No to Investor-State!
And a Big Yes to Fair Trade!

The world famous CETApus of London, Ontario, 2011.

On Thursday, Sept. 25, 2014, at 4:30 pm, outside London City Hall, you are invited to take a stand for Canadian cities. Together we will mark the historic resistance to the CETA trade pact by city councils from Victoria to Thunder Bay to Toronto. These municipal governments, along with dozens of others, including London, represent the first ever cross-country resistance to a corporate trade pact. The CETA gives corporations the right to directly sue governments if new laws or regulations impact their profits. It also removes the right of municipalities to govern local assets publicly, in favour of privatization and foreign corporate management.

Together we will acknowledge London city council, which passed two resolutions to be excluded from the CETA, for which it has received no reply from either the federal or provincial governments. This gathering will also bear witness to the official announcement, on Friday, Sept. 26th in Ottawa, that negotiations for the Canada-EU Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement are complete. In reality, while the agreement is nearing completion, the CETA still needs to be ratified, a process which could take up to two years.

Following the announcement, the CETA cannot be changed. But it can be rejected!

Thursday, September 25

4:30 pm – 5:30 pm

Outside City Hall (300 Dufferin Avenue, London ON) 

Hosted by Council of Canadians, London Chapter 

More info: www.canadians.org/trade 

Local contacts:

Aldous Smith         tradejusticelondon@gmail.com 
Jennifer Chesnut   jennifer.reanne@gmail.com 

Come together, connect, and thank Canadian city councillors for standing up to protect families and democratic process.

Bring your voices, ears for listening, and determination for democracy. Stand tall together, knowing we are on the right side of history. No to CETA and Investor State! Yes to Fair Trade!

People's Climate March London, Ontario - Sept. 21, 2014

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

PEOPLE'S CLIMATE MARCH, LONDON, ONTARIO, SEPT. 21, 1:30 PM - RIVERSIDE DR. AT THE JET D'EAU FOUNTAIN 

On Sunday, September 21, 2014, 1:30 pm at the Jet d'Eau Fountain at the Forks of the Thames, London will march in solidarity with hundreds of thousands of deeply concerned human beings around the planet to say NO to runaway climate change. The People's March in New York City expects over 100,000 people with 496 buses coming from nearly all 50 states and Canada. Those who cannot get to New York City are marching in their own cities. London will join 125 other cities in Canada, including Peterborough, Brampton, Barrie, Owen Sound, Oshawa, Belleville, Sudbury, Toronto, Burlington, Guelph, Stratford, Waterloo, Kitchener, Hamilton, St. Catherine, and Niagara on the Lake for this historic moment in history. 

Canadians who are angry with our government for escalating climate change and have a different vision for Canada are encouraged to speak to the crowd. The renown Line 9 Snake, which made its debut in Queens Park last spring to protest the National Energy Board approval of the reversal of the 40 year old Line 9, will be walked around downtown as marchers carry signs denouncing the continued use of fossil fuels. The march will end at the Peace Garden in time for the dedication ceremony of the new Peace Plaque. This is a fitting terminus for the People's Climate March, since escalating climate change is a serious threat to world peace. Rising sea levels, deserts where people once farmed, and lack of drinking water will all lead to wars over scarce resources. 

Anyone with a troubled conscience about Canada's contribution to climate change is invited to add their numbers to this historic event and join us at the Forks. 

Roberta Cory 
Chair, London Chapter, Council of Canadians 
519-601-2053 

LONDON CLIMATE MARCH!

IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE NEW YORK MARCH

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2014

1:30 PM AT FORKS OF THE THAMES

 (next to the bridge at the water cannon off Riverside Dr.)

 ANYONE CAN SPEAK (briefly)
 YOUR OWN WORDS OR QUOTES

BRING SIGNS

WALK THE LINE 9 SNAKE

PHOTOS OF OUR MARCH WILL BE SENT TO JOIN THOUSANDS OF OTHERS FROM CITIES AROUND THE WORLD

WE WILL END THE MARCH AT THE PEACE GARDEN FOR THE REDEDICATION OF THE PEACE PLAQUE at 2:45 pm 

Please go to watchdisruption.com. It is a 51 minute film that will help you understand the crucial fight against Climate change.

September Monthly Meeting of the London Chapter of the Council of Canadians

Documentary film: "KOCH BROTHERS EXPOSED"

Thursday September 11, 2014 at 6:00 pm - 8:45 pm in  Landon Branch, London Public Library, 167 Wortley Road,  Martha Bishop Room.

The September Monthly Meeting of the London Chapter of the Council of Canadians starts at 6:00 pm; the film starts at 7:30 pm. 

All are welcome! Free! Refreshments! 

Donations accepted gratefully! 

Minutes of our June 16, 2014 Monthly Meeting:
http://londoncouncilofcanadians.ca/LondonCoCMeetingMinutes.pdf

"We've reissued Koch Brothers Exposed in an updated version, Koch Brothers Exposed: 2014 Edition, to shine a light on them. We've delved even deeper into where their money is going, who their money is hurting, and how much they are making..."
http://www.bravenewfilms.org/koch2014

Cinema Politica London Re-opens to a Full House!

Packed house at our screening of We Are Wisconsin last night! Cinema Politica London lives!...and rocks! Not a dry eye in the room! A special bonus was in person commentary from a WAW veteran, Sarah Roberts (now a Western University professor), after the film. 

Next showing: "Living Downstream" on Monday Oct. 6, 2014.

http://www.cinemapolitica.org/screening/london/living-downstream

CINEMA POLITICA LONDON REVIVED! TODAY!

Cinema Politica London is happy to be back under new management after a two year hiatus! It is now being run by the Solidarity Film Coalition, a committee of the London Chapter of the Council of Canadians. Co-sponsors include L.A.C.A.S.A. (Latin American Canadian Solidarity Association), the London Public Library, and Seeds of Hope. Our kick-off film is, appropriately, "We Are Wisconsin", a rousing cheer leading inspiration to action for grassroots movements! It is guaranteed to knock your socks off! 

TODAY! Monday Sept. 8, 2014 at 7 pm in Stevenson & Hunt Room, London Public Library, 251 Dundas St.

All of our showings are free of charge, but we do welcome donations any time.

http://www.cinemapolitica.org/london

Trade with the New Generations in Mind

I am fascinated by new generation trade pacts, described as the transfer of power from people to transnational corporations.* I find the topic both compelling and repelling. Despite the discomfort, the study of trade offers essential understanding for those interested in preserving natural life and community infrastructure from nation to nation. 

Years ago, my undergraduate professors startled me with the news that “new generation” trade deals give large corporations the opportunity to manage the public’s assets, and also to sue countries when public laws decrease corporate profits. Should we not ask for more in our global policy? Because if profit of the largest entities is the prime intention, than that is simply what we will get, and all the environmental and geo-political instabilities associated with that. When setting regulations between countries can we ensure resource security, vital public services, and the greater political security that comes with that? 

Trade deals are written in private. What if the best in us was put forward for their composition. What if the wisest elder, with a great sense of humour, soft heart, and economic knowledge sat at the table to negotiate? Why not seek robust economy based in real jobs and environmental security? 

Such global-impact regulations should be approached with loving-kindness. For no child in the so-called Global North will be secure in an insecure world and no child in the Global South, with all its restriction of access to clean water and basic human rights, will be fully nourished. We could take less in the North in exchange for greater security. 

We can do better than an international trade law that allows corporations to sue nations if corporate profits decrease over the use of public laws. 

People are awakening to what is truly valuable. When I think of the people in my city I see so many whose primary desire is security for families, friends and community. This is a reason to learn about trade pacts. 

As a North American, the place of birth of the “New Generation” deal, I feel a responsibility to be part of general dialogue to create fairer trade. I am curious about global law after the new generation pact and what else is possible! 

This blog is a creative space for exploring New Generation trade from a different perspective, one that is truly generational and focussed on what we are offering children and their children to come. In peace and faith! 

Jennifer Chesnut
Trade Justice Chair

*trade pact description from Maude Barlow, Chair of the Council of Canadians

Published originally on  August 30, 2014 in http://newgenerationtrade.com/2014/08/30/trade-with-the-new-generations-in-mind/

Monetary Reform

Open Letter to Hassan Yussuff: 

Congratulations on your recent election as President of the Canadian Labour Congress! We who are Canadian social activists both inside and outside the CLC greatly appreciate your long-time commitment not only to wage and benefit enhancements for workers, but also to social justice and environmental protection for all of us, nationally and globally. At present we are in crisis. Despite heroic efforts by many social activists, for many years we have been losing ground to the corporate agenda. This letter proposes a strategy by which the CLC, with its 3.3 million members under your leadership, could unite Canada's many social activists into a single movement to reverse this disheartening trend. 

Here is our situation, as the Making Waves document points out. In Canada there are hundreds of organizations—large and small, local, regional, and national—working valiantly on behalf of the 99% for various aspects of human and environmental welfare. We have the advantage that many highly committed people are working for the needed social changes which are supported by a large majority of Canadians. They achieve occasional victories, but mostly they are fighting losing defensive battles against exploitive initiatives by profit-oriented corporations, and against the Harper government and its lower-level government allies. Our efforts are defensive not only in the sense that they react to corporate initiatives, but also in the sense that mostly they are attempting to prevent loss of benefits we had previously enjoyed. For example we oppose cuts to health care services, education, and infrastructure, and we fight against damaging fracking, pipelines, and trade agreements. Not only are our efforts primarily defensive, but they are also largely separated from each other, as people quite reasonably take on limited issues that they can manage. 

Can we find some key issue which is so crucial to the entire range of issues on which we are already working that we can all benefit by taking on this additional issue together? Might such an issue enable us to break out of our usual defensive posture and go on the offensive to reverse the Harper-supported corporate agenda and to gain new advantages that we did not previously have? Might we frame this issue vividly and dramatically as an expression of our commitment to overcome the unjust corporate agenda and to foster a caring, environmentally sensitive social order? Might this issue enable us to reduce at its heart the power of corporate elites so that they can no longer run roughshod over us and the environment? 

Raising taxes on the rich would move us in the right direction. This measure is certainly needed to reduce the devastating impact of inequality which has been growing dangerously. It would reduce the power of the wealthy and would weaken the austerity agenda by providing financial resources for public benefit. Despite its obvious wisdom, it has been extremely difficult to build political support for this option, and not only because the wealthy exercise excessive power over politicians. There is widespread hostility toward taxes even among the less affluent whose taxes would not be raised. Although tax reform must not be overlooked, I suggest here that we focus on an even more powerful alternative strategy which is little known and all too much overlooked. 

There is hardly any public discussion of the fact that governments at all levels in Canada are heavily burdened by interest payments on their borrowings—some $60 billion every year recently—and close to $2 trillion since 1975! These payments are not necessary! Our governments have been borrowing at interest from private banks and other private moneylenders. The federal government could have been using our publicly owned Bank of Canada to provide needed loans at near-zero interest! Nearly all our activist groups could benefit from a return to this practice which was used effectively between 1938 and 1975, enabling Canada to get out of the Depression, through World War II, and for thirty more years to build up our social programs and infrastructure, bringing the most prosperous period in Canadian history—with negligible inflation. 

How does this monetary reform enable us to go on the offensive against the corporate agenda? It takes on the corporate elites at the heart of their power. This is not simply their enormous and growing wealth, but even more basically it is their control, through the privately owned banking system, over the power to create money out of nothing. They use this power to exploit us! With a return to the originally mandated purpose of the Bank of Canada, the power to create money out of nothing could be made available for public benefit. We activists need to unite to campaign for this result. An understanding of the workings of our money system is needed to clarify this strategic option. We take our present system for granted, and have little awareness how unjust and damaging it is. 

What is money, and where does it come from? We generally assume that government supplies our money, and indeed it does provide the cash we carry for small transactions. But cash is only about 2% to 3% of our money supply. Nearly all the rest, about 97% to 98%—money essential for facilitating economic activity—has been created as computer entries by the privately owned banks in their process of making loans. They would like us to believe that they are simply intermediators lending out the money of depositors. But this is not the case. When they make loans they create new money. When someone takes out a loan, the bank insists that the borrower provide collateral, some valuable asset that the bank can take over in case the borrower defaults on the loan. The bank gets to create that loan money out of nothing, and if we borrowers fail to pay it back fully, on time, with interest, the bank gets to take over our valuable collateral. 

That is bad enough. But it gets worse. When banks make loans, they create money for principal, but not for the interest they require to be paid. Borrowers have to compete with each other for money which has been created only as principal to pay both principal and interest, and also to have money for essential current use. People who owe nothing are also competing to use this same money supply. As competition prevails, impulses toward cooperation and charity are undermined. In this debt-money system there is always a shortage of money. Money to pay interest can only be obtained through even more borrowing and more debt. Obviously this is unsustainable. Defaults come on inevitably, and recession follows. 

This system is also inflationary. To pay interest along with their other expenses, businesses constantly strive to push up prices. In response, workers strive to raise wages. Hence inflation. The interest requirement is also a factor in driving businesses to pursue unsustainable growth. Moreover, as those who are economically vulnerable default on their loans, many are driven into poverty, and wealth becomes increasingly concentrated into the hands of a few, exacerbating the growing problem of inequality. 

When borrowers pay off their loans the banks keep the interest as their own, but they destroy the principal. The creators of money are also its destroyers! This is an enormous additional source of power often used to our disadvantage. If all borrowers—governments, businesses, and individuals—strove to exercise the virtue of thrift by paying off their debts, long before succeeding they would have driven the economy into deep depression. 

We are all in thrall to the banks—even those of us who carry no debt. On average about 40% of the prices of all the goods in our society is the result of accumulating interest expenses!  We could begin to reverse this and all the other damaging impacts of our money system by returning to using our publicly owned Bank of Canada to provide interest-free loans to all levels of government for public benefit. A bit more explanation is needed here. 

The power to create money out of nothing is awesome. Whoever gets to benefit from the first use of newly created money gets a free benefit! The process is essentially the same as when counterfeiters print and successfully pass off cash. But they face the difficulties of devising convincing facsimiles of modern cash, and they run the risk of arrest and punishment. Commercial banks can, entirely legally, quickly create any desired quantity of money with simple computer entries. This is easier than picking money off trees. And they tell us there is no such thing as a free lunch! 

Our Bank of Canada could use this same simple process to create money for public benefit, as it did in the past. It can lend money into existence—say, for investment in much-needed infrastructure, thus creating lots of jobs. At present governments borrow at interest and pay for such projects two or three times over. Interest-free loans would make it possible for them to pay for the projects just once out of tax income over the lifetime of each project—perhaps 30 to 50 years. This would free large amounts of tax funds for current program spending. 

There is another astonishing possibility. When additional new money is needed in the economy, as now, governments could simply spend money into existence as a free benefit for public use. Whether government-created money is lent or spent into existence, debt-free money is injected into the economy, making possible great reductions in the far-reaching problems resulting, as already mentioned, from our present destructive debt-money system. And governments could have access to abundant funds for initiating creative measures for social and environmental welfare, while gradually reducing their past debts. 

Having money-creation under government control is no panacea. Spending for human and environmental abuse, as in war, remains possible. Any campaign for monetary reform is a struggle for democratization of our money system, and such a campaign can readily be integrated with the wider struggle for greater democracy. We need to develop a high degree of public awareness regarding how our money system works, and procedures to assure that full, accurate, transparent information on the functioning of the system is publicly available, and widespread commitment to assuring that the system is benevolently used. Strong public understanding and support are necessary to resist the intense opposition that banks can be fully expected to mount against monetary reform. 

We must not wilt before the inevitable claim that government-created money is inflationary. We need to emphasize how damaging our present bank-created debt-money system itself is. It has its own long record of promoting steady, ongoing inflation, as already explained here. Inflationary pressures are built into its very genes. Moreover, there is much evidence to indicate that when governments have controlled their own money-creation they have managed their economies with very little inflation, as Canada did between 1938 and 1975. The record shows that hyperinflations, including that of Germany in the 1920s, were not driven by government irresponsibility, but by wealthy speculators, including banks, manipulating national currencies to their own great advantage (see Ellen Brown, The Web of Debt). 

While there are additional complexities regarding our money system which specialists in monetary reform need to master, the basics have been presented here. A campaign for monetary reform must aim to get elected a federal government which will use the Bank of Canada to create money out of nothing for public benefit as originally intended by the Bank of Canada Act, and as was done between 1938 and 1975. Here are five compelling reasons why activists should unite in a campaign to achieve this end: 

1. This campaign would enable us to go on the offensive against the power of corporate elites at its heart: their monopoly over the creation of money. 

2. This campaign would enable us to go on the offensive against our corporate antagonists so that they have to expend energy and give attention to our initiatives rather than forcing us simply to take defensive actions against their assaults on our welfare. 

3. This campaign would enable us to take action which is critical for all our separate struggles, and to combine our strengths into a single struggle. 

4. Victory in this struggle would not simply maintain or restore a previous beneficial status quo. It would defend us against the debt-driven, exploitive austerity agenda by enabling us to pay off public debts while providing abundant funding for improvements and initiatives for public benefit. 

5. If in our campaign we focus attention on the glaring injustices resulting from the elites' outrageous monopoly over the creation of money out of nothing, a power that could be made available for public benefit as in our past, we can make a compelling, dramatic case for our cause. 

A campaign for monetary reform will certainly be demanding. It requires bringing together many activist groups which already have challenging agendas. It requires a massive public education effort without assistance from the mainline media. It will face ferocious opposition from the banks, with the full assistance of the mainline media. It will need to convince a reluctant NDP to take up this cause. The Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform (COMER) has been working on this issue since the 1980's, and has much expertise, but has insufficient strength to manage the task alone. Nevertheless it has in progress a lawsuit against the federal government for its failure to carry out the mandate of the Bank of Canada Act. Apparently there is no other organization in Canada better situated than the CLC to lead a campaign for monetary reform. It is a tough assignment. But we need your leadership. Success could reverse the corporate agenda, and bring spectacular social and environmental improvement. 

George Crowell, member of COMER, taught Social Ethics in the Religious Studies Department, University of Windsor, 1968-96.

Beekeepers running out of time

Letter to London Free Press Aug 9 2014 

Beekeepers running out of time 

I am pleased to see an editorial comment on the pollinator crisis (Bee health worth million-dollar study, Aug. 5). Fred Rinne brings out some important points, for example that the topic needs more attention and humans are “messing with” the cycle of life. He also states that the federal government plans to spend more than $1million over a four-year period to study this issue. This may give the appearance that something is being done, however, many science-based studies have taken place over the past several years. Health Canada has come out with the report “Evaluation of Canadian Bee Mortalities that Coincided with Corn Planting” in Spring 2012, and issued the notice of intent, “Action to Protect Bees from Exposure to Neonicotinoid Pesticides” on Sept. 13, 2013. In this report, the Pest Management Regulatory Agency “has determined that current agricultural practices related to the use of neonicotinoid treated corn and soybean seeds are affecting the environment due to their impacts on bees and other pollinators.” Many other studies have been conducted through reputable institutions, including the University of Guelph, and our Ontario Bee Health Work Group, led by entomologist Tracy Baute, have shown that there are definite linkages between decline of the honey bees (and possibly other pollinators) and the use of pesticides, such as clothianidin and others. Perhaps the time for study is over, and a time for concrete action can begin. The governments should be listening more to the beekeepers and working much more closely with Ontario Beekeepers Association, rather than just throwing another study at this situation stretching over a long period of time. Time is something that the bees don’t have nor do the beekeepers, or fruit and vegetable growers. 

Margo Does 
London