GLOBALIZATION IS KILLING CANADA: FIGHT FOR YOUR FREEDOM ( Archived) (10)

by: Hellyer, Hon. Paul

Paul Hellyer has held senior cabinet posts in the governments of Lester B. Pearson and Pierre E. Trudeau, achieving the rank of Senior Minister (later designated Deputy Prime Minister). He is the author of ten books including The Evil Empire: Globalization's Darker Side and Stop, Think. Paul Hellyer has already enjoyed a rewarding career in both politics and business but he has reentered the political scene as leader of the Canadian Action Party.

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. In effect, Canada has become a victim of globalization. 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.

Mr. Mulroney 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.

I agree with you Kid.

Someone said the other day, that it is not against the law to commit Treason. Is that true? I always thought it was against the law.

Aggressive Agribusiness One of the coziest 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. 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. 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.

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 early March, 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.

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.

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. It is the same old pre-depression boom-bust system. Mainline economists won’t admit it, but their 25-year experiment with neo-classical economics has been a monumental flop and resulted in a monumental 2,289% increase in federal debt. The increase in debt was not primarily due to overspending as the right insists. It was primarily due to the slow growth of the economy and debt compounding at high interest rates due to monetarist policies. Compound interest was the real culprit.

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. If you are a student, you may graduate with as much or more debt as the mortgage on your parents’ first house. And, no matter who you are, if you lack skills, you may be unemployed from time-to-time because a globalized market system is not designed for full employment (four percent). Demand management, as practiced in the early post-war years is a neo-classical “no no”. Your company may be bought and downsized leaving you with few options after long years of faithful service. This is just part of the price of globalization.

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 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. There is no other way to reconcile the claims of left and right.

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, Reformers, NDPers, Bloc Québeçois, 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.

* * *

Editor's Note: Globalization directly affects our personal freedom to choose the food and medicine we need for our health. Consumer Health Organization is presenting this article so that you may be aware of the CAP and their platform in the upcoming election.

Well, I am reading a book,

Final Warning: A History of the New World Order
Illuminism and the master plan for world domination
-- by David Rivera, 1994

It explains it all very clearly. It's an online book.
It can be read here:



Just click on the blue Chapters and sub-chapters to read them.