Photo by DRheaume Canada’s banking system is on the edge of a crisis, once again, with a collective debt of $1.8 trillion — and the public will be on the hook for most of it, sooner than most think. Last week, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) revealed that Canada,
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Canadian Dimension: The Bank of Canada Should Be Reinstated To Its Original Mandated Purposes
Photo by Bank of Canada Few people understand the Canadian government’s relationship with the Bank of Canada or the nature of the Bank’s original raison d’être. Back in 2011 a lawsuit had been filed in the Federal Court by the Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform against the Government of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: The Canada Infrastructure Bank and the perversities of predatory capital
Photo by Chris Wattie In their election platform and in ministerial mandate letters, the federal Liberals promised they would “establish the Canada Infrastructure Bank to provide low-cost financing (including loan guarantees) for new municipal infrastructure projects.” This had the potential to be a positive initiative. The federal government can borrow
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: For the 150th, let’s also re-make our economic myths
Every society needs its myths. But as much as myths and stories can empower, they can also be damaging. Here are three economic myths about Canada that could use re-writing. The first economic myth to remake is that we are “hewers of wood and drawers of water” — or, in
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Where One Canadian Mining Company Goes, Violence Follows
Banro Corporation’s gold mine in Twangiza, Democratic Republic of the Congo • Photo by SKY News Where one Canadian mining company goes in the Congo violence seems to follow. Last week a police officer and soldier were killed at a Banro Corporation run mine in the east of the country.
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Corrupt Canadian Banking Practices
Photo from Public Domain A recent photo in French daily Liberation hints at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce’s role in facilitating tax avoidance, which is partly an outgrowth of Canadian banking prowess in the Caribbean and Ottawa’s role in shaping the region’s unsavoury financial sector. Just before the second
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Toronto’s Buried History: The Dark Story of How Mining Built a City
Photo by Mining Injustice Solidarity Network On Sunday March 5th, the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) hosted its 85th annual conference in downtown Toronto. With more than 20,000 attendees and 900 exhibitors, the conference is the largest of its kind in the world. During those four days, delegates
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Note to Tar Sands Campaigners
Angel Boligan (Cagle Cartoons). It’s a “no brainer,” declares Stephen Harper. The Keystone pipeline must be built now to bring crude oil from the Alberta tar sands to refineries and markets in the US. By the same token, the Northern Gateway and/or the Kinder Morgan pipelines must be constructed to
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Free Trade Benefits Canada, eh?
Photo by Patrickklida Every time I pass through Oshawa, Ontario I think of the Free Trade Agreement between Canada and the USA. Oshawa is the home of General Motors of Canada, the largest producer of motor vehicles in Canada. Not that long ago Canada was the fourth largest producer of
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: It is time to confront Canada’s staple trap
Canadian postcard, 1907 Forbidden to text while driving, you can waste your time checking the fluctuating price of gas at every gas station you see and how at each station it differs from yesterday. All you will learn is that the price shifts up and down over space and time
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Alain Deneault in Conversation with Canadian Dimension
Jethro Tulin, an Indigenous Ipili from the Highlands of Papua New Guinea and leading organizer of resistance against the mining bosses. Here Tulin is speaking outside Barrick Gold’s 2009 Annual General Meeting. Photo by Allan Lissner (allan.lissner.net); posted by the Porgera Alliance (porgeraalliance.net). Québec author Alain Deneault has a research
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Canadians will forever be indebted because of Jim…
Canadians will forever be indebted because of Jim Flaherty. Regardless of what one thinks of the recently deceased man on a personal level, if one uses objective, non-emotional criteria, it is clear that he was probably the worst finance minister in Canadian history. Unfortunately for us, his replacement, Joe Oliver,
Continue readingCanadian Dimension | Articles: The Lac Megantic Rail Disaster
In recent years, some residents of Lac Megantic have repeatedly put forward the view that the operation of the former CPR mainline linking Montreal with St. John New Brunswick through the center of the town is unsafe. Until July 6th of this year, it would appear that this view was
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Hooray! Sun News Network (SNN), aka Scum “News" lost…
Hooray! Sun News Network (SNN), aka Scum “News” lost their hypocritical bid to force all Canadian cable TV viewers to pay for their shitty channel regardless of whether we want to watch it. The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) correctly declined to award special treatment to the undeserving TV
Continue readingCanadian Dimension | Articles: The Presumed Innocence of Capitalism and Lac-Mégantic
“If the soul is left in darkness, sins will be committed. The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who creates the darkness.” — Monseigneur Bienvenu in Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables It is always the same. First the shock and horror, then the anger. A terrible
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Why are Canada’s Trains Vulnerable? Good Old Capitalist Cost-Cutting
The fireball in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, flashed around the world last week as a very hot news item. Thirty-five people are now confirmed to have been killed, with 15 more still missing and presumed dead, as a result of the explosions of crude oil carried by the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic
Continue readingCanadian Dimension | Articles: Why are Canada’s Trains Vulnerable? Good Old Capitalist Cost-Cutting
The fireball in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, flashed around the world last week as a very hot news item. Thirty-five people are now confirmed to have been killed, with 15 more still missing and presumed dead, as a result of the explosions of crude oil carried by the Montreal, Maine and Atlantic
Continue readingCanadian Dimension Feed: Quebec’s Lac-Mégantic oil train disaster not just tragedy, but corporate crime
Five days after a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, the rural town resembles a scene of desolation. Its downtown is a charred sacrifice zone. 50 people are likely dead, making the train’s toll one of the worst disasters in recent Canadian history. In the explosion’s
Continue readingCanadian Dimension | Articles: Quebec’s Lac-Mégantic oil train disaster not just tragedy, but corporate crime
Five days after a train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, the rural town resembles a scene of desolation. Its downtown is a charred sacrifice zone. 50 people are likely dead, making the train’s toll one of the worst disasters in recent Canadian history. In the explosion’s
Continue readingThe Ranting Canadian: Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 2 Two current issues that were…
Toronto Mayday 2013 – Photo set 2 Two current issues that were emphasized at the 2013 International Workers Day rally in Toronto were the deaths of hundreds of garment workers in a recent factory collapse in Bangladesh (and the continuing systematic exploitation of all sweatshop workers in that country) and
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