Special Video offers insights for new members into saving Canada from Globalization agenda of U.S. Empire
Edited by Paul Chen
Is Canada worth saving? Is democracy worth saving? These are the two fundamental questions we must address now - before it is too late. Canadian values are disappearing rapidly as we lose our independence and our sovereignty. The country is being dismantled after more than a century of nation building. We are losing control of our most important industries. As we give up domestic ownership of our assets, we lose the most exciting and challenging jobs, which too often move to the new corporate headquarters outside Canada - and young people who want those jobs must follow. It's part of the brain drain.
Make a member pledge of at least $60.00, then email us your request, in order to get a copy of Tape 1 or Tape 2 of the Honourable Paul Hellyer's eloquent defence of Canadian sovereignty in relation to the Globalization agenda of U.S. Empire. The VHS video is entitled Former Deputy Prime Minister Paul Hellyer speaks out on Canadian Sovereignty, and Free Trade in the context of Corporate Globalization. LINK
The Hon. Paul Hellyer explores Canada as becoming the victim of a neo-fascistic Globalization agenda.
"We are told this process is both inevitable and good. It is only inevitable if we let it happen. It is only good for two to five percent of the world's richest and most powerful people. It is bad for the vast majority."
"I should make a distinction between those areas where global cooperation is both good and essential, and those areas where it is harmful. We must cooperate globally to protect our oceans, the ozone layer and prevent global warming. International cooperation is also required to protect endangered species, fight international crime and in other areas of mutual concern. What we have to stop is the relentless drive on the part of multinational corporations and international banks - centred largely in the five big powers - to take over governance of the world for their own benefit."
The Canada - U.S. Free Trade Agreement
The globalization process got a rocket-assisted boost with the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement (FTA). Canadians were led to believe that this was a trade agreement. When I read it, I found, to my dismay, that it was primarily an investment agreement. Sure it called for reductions in tariffs, but this was already happening under the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). The most important parts of the FTA were about investment. The Americans wanted our industries and resources - especially energy and water. They also wanted our land. Instead of Canada being open for business again, as Prime Minister Brian Mulroney proudly boasted, it was up for sale. [Get VHS video with a minimum Member Pledge of $60.00] LINK
Mr. Mulroney had allowed the Americans to insert a "national treatment" clause which was a new concept in international law that gave U.S. investors the same rights in Canada as Canadian citizens. I think this is wrong in principle! Where is the value of citizenship if foreign investors have the same rights? In fact, the "national treatment" clause gave American investors the right to invest in Canada without conditions and without limits. We can no longer say "You can't buy more than 50% of our forest industry or oil and gas reserves" - because the treaty says they can own all our reserves.
The same rule applies to our best farmland. With the FTA, Brian Mulroney accomplished two things: He virtually guaranteed the demise of Canada as a nation state, and he allowed the conquest of Canada by America. The conquest is still tentative, perhaps, for about two more years. Then we will reach the point of no return after which annexation by the United States will become inevitable. I am concerned that several hundred years of experiment in popular democracy is coming to an end because globalization is really a code word for corporate rule and colonization.
NAFTA - Canada is being sued
When we signed the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA), we granted U.S. and Mexican investors greater rights in Canada than Canadian citizens enjoy. Chapter 11, the disputes settlement chapter, allows foreign investors to sue if our governments - federal, provincial or municipal - pass any law or regulation that affect their corporate profits or potential profits. And we are being sued. [Get VHS video with a minimum Member Pledge of $60.00] LINK
The WTO is Anti-Democratic
The World Trade Organization is another threat to our democratic traditions. [Get VHS video with a minimum Member Pledge of $60.00] LINK
What Kind of Democracy?
The decline of democracy in the U.S. has reached the point where Lewis Lapham, editor of Harper's magazine, says the U.S. has two governments - the permanent government and the provisional government. The permanent government comprises: (a) the Fortune 500 list of the largest American corporations, (b) the largest law firms in Washington that do their legal work for them, (c) the largest public relation firms in Washington that do their advertising and public relations and (d) the top public servants both civil and military. These groups make up the permanent government that really runs the country. Then there is the provisional government - "politicians for hire". Every few years there is a charade called an election which picks a political actor to go on stage and read the scripts written by the permanent government. As some actors read scripts with less improvisation than others, the permanent government checks them out in advance and decides who they want. Then they put up the money to get them elected. [Get VHS video with a minimum Member Pledge of $60.00] LINK
George Bush become just one of the many products of a scripted political process.
There are strings attached
The evolution of the system has led to a government that is little more than a big bully enforcer for giant American corporations. The U.S. government goes to the WTO and gets a ruling forcing us to accept whatever big corporations want. Their giant corporations want to dominate world markets. In a "globalized society", people don't matter - only corporations do. Small independent operators and family farms are doomed by globalization. [Get VHS video with a minimum Member Pledge of $60.00] LINK
One of the cosiest arrangements has been between the U.S. government and Monsanto Corporation - now in the process of changing its name due to a bad image. Monsanto is the company that gave us Agent Orange, the allegedly safe defoliant used in the Vietnam War which has now claimed thousands of casualties. Monsanto is also one of the companies developing terminator seeds, seeds that cannot be replanted because they are genetically altered to be sterile. This is one of the most frightening developments in modern history. Attempts to corner world seed markets and sell only genetically altered seed would impoverish millions of people. When I learned that the U.S. Department of Agriculture had assisted Monsanto in the development of such a patently evil product I wondered how this could be possible in a democracy. [Get VHS video with a minimum Member Pledge of $60.00] LINK
Then I learned that one of Monsanto's key directors was one of President Clinton's key fundraisers. It is a matter of national shame that the Canadian government has been aiding and abetting the U.S. in promoting the interests of this destructive company including its increased control of Canadian agriculture. [Get VHS video with a minimum Member Pledge of $60.00] LINK
Ottawa is helping to drive Canadian farmers out of business. Globalization in agriculture means three or four giant agribusinesses are determined to monopolize the world food supply with their genetically-altered species and make us all dependent on them for our food. As we capitulate, and let our farmers go under, these aggressive corporations are buying up some of our best agricultural land. [Get VHS video with a minimum Member Pledge of $60.00] LINK
National Fire Sale
At the same time, many of our best companies are being bought out. Thirteen thousand Canadian companies have been sold to foreigners in the last decade or so - more than 10,000 to Americans. In a stunning admission to the National Post in then Industry Minister John Manley predicted the end of federal restrictions that prevent foreigners from buying Canadian airlines, communications companies and even banks. There will be nothing left of Canada but an empty shell. And the kind of corporate-controlled government that allows this to happen is a cruel joke. Canada and the world are being re-engineered without the consent of the citizens who are having their birthright sold out from under their feet. [Get VHS video with a minimum Member Pledge of $60.00] LINK
Corporations Rule the World
The substitution of corporate rule for democracy is being imposed around the world. Countries have to sign treaties that give transnational corporations the right to cherry-pick their industries and assets. If a country has a business that begins to cut into market share, the transnationals can buy it, make it part of their empire, shut it down or move it to Malaysia, for example. Under the rules of globalization, no country - other than the big five (or six) - can hope to achieve anything like self-sufficiency. [Get VHS video with a minimum Member Pledge of $60.00] LINK
Neo-Classical Economics - Bad economic theory and bad economic management
All of this change is justified in the name of laissez-faire economics, which insists that governments are bad and markets are good. Government-owned services must be privatized. Even basic services like health and education are on the block. This is all in accord with the ideas of Nobel laureate Milton Friedman and his colleagues at the University of Chicago. At first, the Friedman system (ideology) was called monetarism, but when that wasn't technically accurate, it was renamed neo-classical monetarism - and, more recently - just neo-classical economics. It should have been called retro-classical rather than neo-classical because it is not new. [Get VHS video with a minimum Member Pledge of $60.00] LINK
People are the Victims
The cold statistics can be translated into the heart-wrenching experiences of many Canadians. If you are a doctor or a nurse, you are likely to find yourself so overworked and stressed out that you are unable to provide the quality of care you want to give. The same can be said for many teachers whose workload has been increased to the point where they have felt obliged to reduce or eliminate participation in extra-curricular activities like drama or sports. [Get VHS video with a minimum Member Pledge of $60.00] LINK
Is There Any Hope?
There is hope but it will require a revolution of the intellect followed by a revolution at the ballot box. First, and immediately, we as Canadians have to abrogate the FTA and NAFTA in order to get rid of the "national treatment" clause that is killing Canada.
This does not mean turning the clock back ten years on trade! Canada can compete in trade. But we cannot compete in investment - we just don't have money on the same scale. So, we must try to replace the FTA and NAFTA with new fair trade agreements and, if that is not possible, rely on the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade which served us so well for so long.
Once we are rid of the "national treatment" clause, we must start screening foreign investment again and stop the sale of our best industries and with it stop much of the brain drain. Then, we must refuse to sign any more treaties, such as the FTAA (Free Trade Agreement of the Americas) that will extend the "national treatment" clause to the tip of South America. And, at the same time, we must take health care, education, agriculture and intellectual property off the table for the WTO negotiations.
To give up our sovereignty in these important areas would reduce all Canadian governments to a state of impotence. This must not be allowed to happen! Canada should say "No!" to any extension of WTO jurisdiction and influence until we can gauge the damage already done.
The Monopoly to Print Money
In 1974, the Bank of Canada owned more than 20% of federal government debt - the equivalent of an interest-free loan. But that is the year our central bank adopted the ideas of Milton Friedman and began to give back to the private banks their virtual monopoly to "print" money. The result is that today the B of C only owns about 4% of federal government debt and the shortfall has to be borrowed from the market, including the private banks, at high interest rates. In effect, taxpayers are subsidizing the private banks by $4-$5 billion a year.
There is insufficient space to discuss monetary theory here but anyone who is interested can read books on the subject including one or two of mine such as Surviving the Global Financial Crisis, or Stop: Think, the latest one. A system where private banks print nearly all of the money is not a stable system (44 recessions and depressions in 200 years) and is not one that will provide full employment for Canada or the world. There is simply not enough money in the hands of rank and file consumers.
So, we have to learn the lessons of history and revert to the system we had in effect from 1939 to 1974. Access to significant amounts of publicly-created, zero cost (debt free) money is the only way governments can meet the conflicting demands of increased expenditures for health care, education, environmental concerns, research and development, the arts and other legitimate areas of public concern while permitting lower taxes at the same time. [Get VHS video with a minimum Member Pledge of $60.00] LINK
The War for Independence
The next federal election will decide Canada's fate. If any party - or combination of parties - that supports the FTA and NAFTA forms the next government, Canada is dead. Our only hope is a genuine alliance of patriotic Liberals, Conservatives, NDPers, Bloc Québécois, and even people too cheesed-off to vote, getting together in one powerful movement to turn the ship of state around before it is too late. An independent Canada is best for the United States, the world and us. If we really believe that, we all have to enlist in Canada's war for independence and make it happen. [Get VHS video with a minimum Member Pledge of $60.00] LINK
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