Stephen Harper Shows Corporate Tax Cuts at Work

On March 19, 2008, Stephen Harper posed for a photo-op at London's Electro-Motive plant to showcase a $5-million federal tax break given to Caterpillar, the American buyers of the Canadian company.

When Caterpillar, famous for union busting in the United States, amid record profits, wanted the employees to take a 50% pay cut and surrender their benefits, amazingly no new Harper photo-op.

However, in an interview from inside the bubble, one of Harper's many royal messengers, trumpeted the royal decree:  “A low tax environment is the best way to ensure job creators come to Canada and stay in Canada, as proven by the nearly 600,000 jobs created in Canada since July 2009.”

Fortunately, when you live inside that bubble you are protected from an army of facts.  Safe within its walls, you can blanket yourself in terms like "job creators" and "tax relief".

And if the army of facts come knocking, reminding you that the Washington Post has proven that the "job creators" did not create jobs, or that Canada lost almost 300,000 good full time positions, replaced with part-time - BOING!  They just bounce right off.

When it turned out that our "tax relief" was only for the wealthy and that the average Canadian worker is paying more in taxes - BOING!  Look out!

The wealthiest Canadians are now earning 189 times more than the average Canadian - BOING!

The $5 million gift to Caterpillar actually cost us 460 more good jobs - BOING!

Payroll taxes also went up for small business - BOING!

Cost of living has risen by 9% since Harper took office while wages have become stagnant - BOING!

The number of low income families has increased in Canada since 2008 - BOING!

Since 2006, fresh vegetables are up 18%, bread up 37% and dental care up 14%, just as examples - BOING!

Since 2006, the debt Canadian families carry relative to their disposable income has risen by 20% and Canadian households now hold the highest debt amoung the top 20 advanced countries in the OECD - BOING!

Since 2005, gas prices have risen more than 20% - BOING!

Since Harper took power personal bankruptcies have risen by 33% - BOING!

The cost of running the government has risen by 21% in the past five years - BOING!

I could go on but I'm getting tired of bouncing off that impenetrable bubble.

Caterpillar should have to give that $5 million break they got from us as "job creators" back, now that they are simply "job destroyers".

BOING! BOING! BOING!

Canada's New Crime Bills are About Much More Than Being Stupid on Crime

When former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, met Conrad Black for the first time, he chewed her ear off about crime, with typical "hang 'em high" rhetoric.

She knew she had to be nice, because Black owned a large share of the media, but when he walked away she remarked to those around her, "compared to that guy, I'm a liberal"

So why is Conrad Black now going public, denouncing the 'Harper' government's new crime bills?

Maybe spending some time in the slammer has softened his stance, or maybe he has evolved, seeing that harsh punishments are not a deterrent. They only demoralize and provide incentives to continue to commit crimes.

In his book The Rights Revolution, Michael Ignatieff wrote:

I remember the men of Attica prison, in upstate New York, who staged an uprising to protest their living conditions. The state police and national guard took the prison by force and forty-three prisoners died. Before the final assault, one of the prisoners said: "We have resolved, after long and bitter experience, that if we cannot live like men, then we are prepared to die like men." From these examples, I learned that human beings value some things more than their own survival, and that rights are the language in which they commonly express the values they are willing to die for. (1)

Unfortunately, now that Ignatieff is a politician, his views would be deemed "soft on crime". However, we are not talking "crime", but the importance of human value and human rights.

Do we want our justice system to ignore those basic elements of a civil society?

Several years ago, the National Citizens Coalition, the group Stephen Harper has not only belonged to for more than three decades, but ran before becoming leader of the Alliance Party (now called the Conservative Party of Canada), also wrote of Canada's crime and how to deal with it.

One initiative they developed was called 'Turn in a Pusher'. (2) The title is self explanatory, but the belief that citizen warriors can end our drug problem, by simply going after the providers, is far too simplistic.

An ad hoc solution to a complex issue.

And that's exactly what these new crime bills represent. Justice is about more than crime and punishment, but the development of a system that places a high value on the human condition.

I can see right-wingers rolling their eyes, even as I type this, but let's put it another way. If you live in a prison town, as I do, would you prefer that those incarcerated are treated humanely, or be willing "to die like men" if they can't "live like men"?

Desperate people make desperate choices, and even if not inspired to riot, they will definitely be driven to escape, making communities less safe.

Unfortunately, you will never convince the 'base 'that keeps Stephen Harper in his job, of this, and Harper knows that. As a result, most of his decisions are made to appease that base, but what will this mean for Canada? What is all this appeasement doing to our foundation as a just and civil society?

Canada has been a leader in human rights and has always led by example:

Our legal culture has roots in the three great legal traditions of France, Britain, and America, and yet we do not carry the baggage of an imperial past or the menace of an imperial present. We have few enemies and many friends, and we have the problems to which the world needs answers. So it is not surprising that when the chief justice of our Supreme Court, Beverly McLachlin, visited a judicial training college during a recent trip to China, she found Chinese judges discussing Canadian Supreme Court cases."

When I visited the Constitutional Court of South Africa, I discovered that the judges there make frequent reference to the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The originality of Canadian rights culture may be obvious to South Africans, but it is not obvious to Canadians. (3)

We have never been chest thumpers, but our unique rights culture has served as a beacon to other nations, struggling to create their own democracies.

But what examples are we now setting? Even staunch right-winger New Gingrich, admits that heavy incarceration rates, have not worked in the United States. Yet the Harper government appears ready to repeat those mistakes.

And they are using the promise of "job creation", to gain our acceptance of these draconian new laws. There is something intrinsically evil about this notion. Surely we can create jobs, without having to trade away our souls in the bargain.

Canada's rights culture has created a society where crime rates have been falling for decades, and are now the lowest in our history. We are seen as an example of a justice system that seeks to rehabilitate, not simply incarcerate.

We need a government that is committed to restoring our proud tradition, not destroying it for political gain.

And that means voting out the 'Harper government'.

Sources:

1. The Rights Revolution: CBC Massey Lectures, By Michael Ignatieff, Anansi Books, 2000, ISBN: 978-0-88784-762-2, Pg. 3

2. Loyal to the Core: Stephen Harper Me and the NCC, By: Gerry Nicholls, Freedom Press, 2009, ISBN: 978-0-9732757-8-0

3. Ignatieff, 2000, Pg. 13

Shouldn't Tough on Crime Measures Include Being Tough on Corporate Crime?

The Conservative government is determined to forge ahead with their tough on crime agenda at a time when citizen crime is at it's lowest in our history.

As Edward Greenspan and Anthony Doob write in the Globe:

Everyone wants to reduce crime and use resources effectively. But the Conservative government’s “tough on crime” agenda would have you believe that crime is increasing and can only be reduced by using tougher penalties. This assertion is wrong, as is a study by an Ottawa-based think tank that reviewed the 2009 Statistics Canada report on crime.

Harper insider Scott Newark and the bogus MacDonald-Laurier think tank tried to suggest otherwise, but we're not buying it.

However, crime rates in another sector of the population is definitely on the rise. Corporate crime is the highest it's been in my memory, and yet instead of cracking down on it, the Harper government has put measures in place to make it easier for corporations to defraud the average taxpayer.

The new accounting laws that allow corporations to fudge their income statements, is not just about defrauding the wealthy, but also investments on our behalf through company pension funds and even CPP.

In his book Corporateering, Jamie Court asks why there are not "three strikes" laws and even the death penalty for big business when they commit criminal acts. Goldman Sachs and other Wall Street players spent no time in jail for creating the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.

Three strikes should apply to corporations, too. If a person can get jail for life for three criminal convictions, why shouldn't corporations face a similar standard? A corporate death penalty for any corporation convicted of three separate criminal offenses would set a new bar corporate responsibility and deter the corporate crime waves of tomorrow ... The first strike requires a full-page advertisement be taken out in major newspapers; the second necessitates a fine to the state treasury; the third results in the loss of the right to do business. Laws could be enacted at the state and federal level revoking the charter of any corporation that proved through its conduct that it was beyond rehabilitation. Trusteeships to take over of laid-off workers could be created. Mostly, however, such laws provide a deterrent to wrongdoing. (1)

Is that why all the hoopla about being tough on crime? They want to hide the fact that the corporate sector is being given a free pass? Something to think about.

Source:

1. Corporateering: How Corporate Power Steals Your Personal Freedom and What You Can do About it, by: Jamie Court, Penguin Books, 2003, ISBN: 1-58542-228-2, Pg. 256