Canada Tar Sands Foreign Owned
" What in the world is China up to? Over the past several years, the Chinese government and large Chinese corporations (which are often at least partially owned by the government) have been systematically buying up businesses, homes, farmland, real estate, infrastructure and natural resources all over America. In some cases, China appears to be attempting to purchase entire communities in one fell swoop. So why is this happening? Is this some form of "economic colonization" that is taking place? Some have speculated that China may be intending to establish "special economic zones" inside the United States modeled after the very successful Chinese city of Shenzhen. Back in the 1970s, Shenzhen was just a very small fishing village, but now it is a sprawling metropolis of over 14 million people. Initially, these "special economic zones" were only established within China, but now the Chinese government has been buying huge tracts of land in foreign countries such as Nigeria and establishing special economic zones in those nations. So could such a thing actually happen in America? Well, according to Dr. Jerome Corsi, a plan being pushed by the Chinese Central Bank would set up "development zones" in the United States that would allow China to "establish Chinese-owned businesses and bring in its citizens to the U.S. to work." Under the plan, some of the $1.17 trillion that the U.S. owes China would be converted from debt to "equity". As a result, "China would own U.S. businesses, U.S. infrastructure and U.S. high-value land, all with a U.S. government guarantee against loss." Does all of this sound far-fetched? Well, it isn't. In fact, the economic colonization of America is already far more advanced than most Americans would dare to imagine.
So what happened?
Well,
we entered into a whole bunch of extremely unfavorable "free trade" agreements, and countries such as China began to aggressively use "free trade" as an economic weapon against us. "
" Then along came the declassification of FBI records and releases of intelligence documents, and scholars such as M. Stanton Evans to sift through them. But the far-reaching implications of such research – that anti-Communist “witch-hunters” were right all along
These massive probes yielded, as Evans notes, some 5,000 pages of Senate hearings, plus 1,000 pages of exhibits and, from the FBI, 24,000 pages of now-declassified records.
They reveal the workings of a vast, complex influence operation, Evans writes, that “assiduously worked to guide official and public thinking, and hence the course of U.S. policy,” in this case regarding the Far East.
An open and quickly shut-down case is more like it. What followed was cover-up, perjury and grand-jury rigging by, among others, high-ranking Washington officials. Some were eager to prevent a national security scandal from engulfing the Truman White House. Others were acting to shield a far wider Communist-led conspiracy mounted by confederates inside the State Department, Treasury, White House and elsewhere in the US government, working not merely to filch secret documents but to ensure, through influence and subversion, the Communist takeover of China. These powerful forces of suppression proved overwhelming. The Amerasia case was scuttled, the scandal was buried, and, within a few years, China was Red. "
"the proposed $10-billion Terminal 2 expansion at the Roberts Bank Superport, which now consists of two terminals, the Westshore coal facility and the Deltaport container operation.
With little opportunity to increase industrial capacity along the prohibitively expensive Burrard Inlet waterfront, Port Metro Vancouver—which is the name of both Canada’s largest and busiest port and a federally established corporation—is set to quadruple its container import-export capacity at Deltaport in the coming years. After all, China beckons.
In fact, for the prime agricultural land below the bridge where Steves stands, a 135-hectare industrial park is slated. Below, too, will be six to eight new sets of train tracks to serve the enlarged port.
And the mysterious series of bridges now under construction over Highway 99 and Highway 17 just south of the Massey Tunnel is part of the new 40-kilometre-long South Fraser Perimeter truck route, built specifically to service the new terminal.
As a Richmond city councillor, he’d travelled to Xiamen, China, six months earlier to celebrate that coastal town’s sister-city linkage to Richmond.
The farms and birds he’d anticipated seeing didn’t exist anymore. Instead, Xiamen had become a high-rise city of 2.2 million, its industrialized waterfront marked by train tracks, container cranes, and moored cargo ships.
When Steves asked Xiamen’s mayor where his city’s people—with their farms gone—would get their food, the mayor replied, trying to flatter his foreign guest, that he’d heard that where Steves lives there’s plenty of agriculture.
The solution, the mayor said, is simple: Xiamen would import its food from all the farms in Richmond."
"A number of Chinese tourists are giving birth in Canada as a way to circumvent their country's strict one-child policy and
to get their child a coveted Canadian passport."
Canada Under Siege
"The Conservative government covered expenses for some of the country's top executives as they accompanied the prime minister around China a year ago"
"The government proceeded without any input from First Nations, or Canadians for that matter, so this isn't just a First Nations fight. It just so happens that First Nations are one of the parties that can stop the FIPPA,"
"The Canada-China deal would last for 31 years and was set to be ratified late last year, but public pressure has been building against it from people concerned about the environment and potential job losses."
"Gus Van Harten, an international trade law expert from Osgoode Hall Law School, has filed an affidavit in the case, saying the treaty may be unconstitutional because state-owned Chinese companies would be allowed to dispute laws and regulations passed by provinces."
" PARLIAMENT HILL, Ottawa—Mounting evidence that China’s communist regime is killing prisoners of conscience to sell their organs needs to be investigated, Canadian members of Parliament said Tuesday. "
Government suggests controversial online spying Bill C-30 may be in the works
I’m really worried about what the Harper Conservatives have planned next. We’ve already seen them try to sneak through the potentially devastating Canada-China FIPA. It is only because of public outcry that Harper has not yet ratified the treaty - but it could happen any day. The Green Party needs your help to continue to make sure this treaty never becomes reality.
Now, there are other threats on the horizon and we need your help again!
The Prime Minister is now determined to implement the highly secretive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPP), which will have major impacts to Canada’s policy, economy and environment. The TPP will:
Allow foreign investors and corporations to sue Canada if any level of government passes laws that reduce their profits or adversely affect their businesses.
Promote and protect exploitative tar sands development while safeguarding corporate profits at the expense of the health of our economy and environment.
Introduce harsh laws on Internet use allowing for strict criminal penalties for minor, non-commercial copyright infringements, and force Internet providers to disclose personal information to authorities without safeguards for privacy.
You can send Harper a message that the veil of secrecy surrounding this agreement is completely unacceptable in our democratic society.
While representatives of major corporations have access to the text of the agreement, elected officials, advocacy organisations and citizens are being left out in the cold. These negotiations must be opened to public input and comment.
The Green parliamentary political parties from Canada, Australia and New Zealand issued a joint statement opposing this deal in August of last year.
Send the message to the Harper Conservatives that Canadians will only support fair, transparent and genuinely progressive trade agreements that promote sustainable development and the creation of new jobs alongside the protection of the environment and human rights.
Sincerely,
Emily McMillan
Executive Director
Green Party of Canada
" “I don’t want to sound apocalyptic about it,” Kirkpatrick told the Georgia Straight over the phone. “But it will definitely entrench the multinational corporations having a much more significant power over the Canadian government and future Canadian governments.”
Kirkpatrick is also worried about how the TPP could affect Canadian copyright law. He’s toying with ideas for Internet parody videos, but he’s worried that the TPP could restrict the use of copyrighted material as inspiration for satire. With that in mind, Kirkpatrick decided to sign the online petition. "
"The S.D. Myers case should be a clear warning to anyone looking at the Canada-China Investment Treaty that international arbitration can come to bizarre conclusions. Chapter 11 of NAFTA has had a higher proportion of environmental law challenges than in other areas of public policy. Mexico lost to Metalclad, a US-based hazardous waste disposal company that wished to locate a large toxic facility in San Luis Potosi. The state level government rejected the application and the federal government of Mexico was successfully sued.
A thorough review of the regulatory process by the Commissioner for Environment and Sustainable Development, within the office of the Auditor General, assessing why certain pesticides and toxic substances have not been banned could provide empirical evidence of the chilling effect. In my view that is the single greatest environmental threat in this treaty. I believe municipal, provincial, territorial and the federal government will find themselves second-guessing policy and law-making related to environmental quality, health and safety based on how they imagine the investors awarded these powers by the TPP might respond."
"This
concentration of power in one element of Canada’s political structure, for whatever murky historical reason, is an invitation to social disaster. The illusion of “efficiency” in political decision-making is subverted by the
opportunity for hard-line autocracy.
In the 21st century, when my patients are being encouraged to take increasing responsibility for their lives, such a concentration of power is anachronistic and backward.
The final element in Canada’s structural pathology is the expansion of the influence of the “corporation”, a business model that uncouples personal responsibility from profit, and places dollar gains above all others.
It is significant that as I sit talking to you here the Enbridge consortium is applying to expand its Kitimat terminal from 11 to 16 oil tanks. What clearer demonstration of absolute confidence in an eventual approval could there possibly be?
Taken together:
1. the relentless marginalization of First Nations, with their intimate connection to the ecosystem;
2. the electoral system, which readily generates non-representative governments;
3. the huge concentration of political power in the Prime Minister’s office; and
4. the rise of corporate influence.
The result, in a situation like the one we are addressing today, is growing social pathology. Frustration, anger, cynicism, depression and distrust of leadership are on the ascendancy, as noted in the Edelman Trust Barometer, released just before the World Economic Forum in Davos.
A patient of mine in his mid-twenties came to my office recently to say that he was deeply depressed and anxious, not about his love life, or his financial situation, but about the overheated, depleted future he was heading towards.
He felt that the government in this country was acting now to make it worse for him and his young children later.
So what is the cure for this disease?
It is four-fold, in my opinion.
1. First, we must, as a nation, work out a respectful, mutually satisfactory relationship with Canada’s First Peoples – not destroy their culture by stealth.
2. Second, we must reform the electoral system to make it radically more representative.
3. Third, we must alter the power balance in the federal governance system so that one person cannot pre-empt democratic processes as Stephen Harper is now doing.
4. And fourth, we must rein in the overwhelming power and influence of the corporate sector.
Until we do these four things, our country is vulnerable to political, social and ecological upheaval that will retard our development as a nation, and likely offer ruin to the lives of future generations. "
" “Commissioner Vaughan tells us the Federal government is in a complete state of unpreparedness should an major offshore oil spill happen. He also forecasts a growth of the number of supertankers cruising on the West Coast: 1,800 new tanker movements, including supertankers,” said Green Leader Elizabeth May, Member of Parliament for Saanich-Gulf Islands.
“In a context in which Harper’s Conservatives have a never ending desire to boost oil development, the Commissioner’s report is extremely worrisome,” added May. "
"The Port of Prince Rupert confirms that it has had "very preliminary" talks with Nexen Inc., about using trains to bring oil from Alberta to the north coast port city."
" Canadian taxpayers may have to foot the bill for future environmental disasters like oil spills, according to Scott Vaughan, outgoing federal Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development. "
" In his report tabled this morning, the Commissioner of the Environment and Sustainable Development revealed Environment Canada and Health Canada do not have a complete list of substances used in hydraulic fracturing (commonly known as fracking). "
"How does it work? Often like this:
A business agrees to buy pricey ads with the assurance those ads will be accompanied by stories that fit desired themes but which seem to have sprung straight from the publication's newsroom. Indeed, custom content often runs under the bylines of staff reporters and without any disclaimer."
"Allegations of censorship under corporate pressure have erupted after the Vancouver Province newspaper pulled an animated cartoon spoofing an Enbridge Inc. promotional TV ad from its web site."
Elizabeth May on the state of "Democracy"
Stephen Harper is remaking Canada, one brick at a time. The legislative fabric of the country is being decimated through omnibus bills and legislation designed, not as good public policy, but as messages suited for a focus group. He is re-making our civil service into an arm of his PMO, filled with terrorized and demoralized men and women who hope that someday they will be permitted to do their job once again. And he has rallied Canadians to any number of Roman-like circuses to keep our minds off the activity behind the Coliseum. In 2012, we saw $28 million splashed around for the celebration of the Bicentenary of the War of 1812. The 60th anniversary of her Majesty’s reign cost $8 million and $5 million each for the centenaries of the Grey Cup and the Calgary Stampede. Clearly, Stephen Harper likes whipping us up into a fervor about anniversaries of milestones in Canadian history – but only certain milestones….
The 30th anniversary of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms went uncelebrated.
Green points
Reform our voting system. Hold a national discussion on the health of our democracy, address the growing and undemocratic power of the Prime Minister’s Office and explore the options for a more meaningful electoral system. Consider the risks of “first past the post” and vote on whether it should be replaced. Consider proportional representation.
Access to information.
Seek true solutions to the increasing corporate control in Canadian journalism. Whatever is “dumbed down” must be “smartened up.”
Fair global trade.
Reform, revise and rethink our trade agreements. Trade is a part of a sustainable future only when it is fair for all.
Healthy industry. A healthy agriculture sector, with support for those who wish to transition to organic farming. A healthy fishery, with an end to devastating draggers. A sustainable forest industry with
more emphasis on value added, and less raw log or unprocessed pulp export. More jobs for more people making real things.
Get the prices right. Get the prices right for long-term sustainability.
Avoid structural deficits. Implement a revenue-neutral carbon pricing architecture to modernize our economy. Build a
“Made in Canada” Green economy.
"it is not just desirable, but urgent, not least to prevent the Conservatives from consolidating their grip on power: the longer they stay in power, the more opportunity they will have to change the rules to their advantage, and the harder it will be for any opposition party to dislodge them. Defeating the Conservatives, all three parties would say, is not only a matter of partisan preference, but of democratic necessity.
Not coincidentally, all three parties broadly agree on another matter: the need to reform our democratic institutions, to prevent such accumulations of power — by any party. In particular, all three support, or say they do, some form of electoral reform."
Rueben George - Enbridge Rally
"As 2013 dawns, we are swept up in the first significant grassroots mobilization since Occupy. Idle No More has inspired me, and I have written a number of articles (here and here) to try to bring a green perspective to the issues. As the primary catalyst for the Idle No More movement was the Harper agenda of anti-environmental laws passed through omnibus legislation, with no consultation with First Nations, shouldn't the rest of Canada step up to support them? After all, Canadians were not consulted either. None of the changes were set out in the campaign platform of Mr. Harper's party in the 2011 election. Even Conservatives must be wondering about the Canada-China Investment Treaty, thinking, "I didn't vote for this." Let us all be Idle No More."
" even more so China, now target Canadian and American secrets — diplomatic, economic, industrial, scientific — with an astonishing fervour.
Quite apart from lost profits, corporate espionage hurts advanced societies, especially when it succeeds in stealing away innovation — and the jobs that would go with it. "
"Since 2001, British Columbians have been witness to the sale of key parts of B.C.'s infrastructure, transfers of its wealth to private interests and sweetheart deals for industries that can afford well-connected lobbyists."
" The MLAs -- Vicki Huntington, Bob Simpson, and John van Dongen -- are calling for six measures to improve the democratic process in B.C. As presented on Simpson's website, three measures involve election reform and three involve legislative reform:Taxpayers on hook for environmental disasters: outgoing commissioner "
The best defense against tyranny, A Gun Behind Every Blade of Grass
