Will Canada's Public Bank Save Us?

I’ve talked about how the Petro dollar has been ruling the world of commerce since the 1944 Agreement of Bretton Woods which made the US more or less the world’s reserve currency.  At the time the US currency was backed by gold.  But in 1971 the US dumped gold and chose to use a fiat dollar with nothing to back it except the strength of its workers and the US military.  This meant that when nations wanted to trade with the US they must first buy US dollars. The buying nations were also encouraged to use US dollars to buy US bonds.  The US was strong, most of the other nations had been devastated by the Second World War. These nations desperately needed energy to rebuild. The US had the energy and know- how.  Thus the entire trading word fell under the tight grip of the American dollar that came to be known as the Petro dollar.

All of the wars in the Middle East and Africa, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria were all fought (and are still being fought) over their resistance to the Petro dollar and the US takeover of their oil fields.    People have died in the millions in the struggle to get off the Petro dollar and reclaim their country’s independence.  Ancient towns and cities have been leveled, entire countries such as Libya and Afghanistan are on their knees.   The citizens of these countries are left to try to find new shelters in mostly unfriendly lands where many have little in common with the values of modern European society.  The newcomers will have bread, but not roses. At least any time soon.  All this unimaginable suffering and there is more in the offering if the war hawks in the US have their way.  Currently in Syria there is a last ditch struggle going on by the US to stay in Syria.  For what?  To try to protect the Petro dollar.

But Syria wants to determine its own fate, joining with Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran.  They are all in the process of ditching the Petro dollar, or planning to, and using their own currencies.  This is the death knell for the Petro dollar being the world’s currency.  It will be only one of many currencies.  The US will fight to the death to prevent this.  Which is why they won’t leave Syria when they have no right to occupy a sovereign country that does not want them there.  But regardless of what happens in Syria the death of the Petro dollar is imminent.  What will that mean for the US?  So long awash in Petro dollars there will be a devaluation of US currency which will bring inflation.   And Canada?

There is one chance for Canada to escape devaluation and inflation.  Even though we Canadians may be financially glued bone to bone with the US, unlike most other nations (including the US) we have our own public bank.  Our public bank is not tied to any private banking systems including the Federal Reserve systems.  Why is Ottawa not using our public bank now that it would allow the Canadian government to borrow with little or no interest for public expenditures?  Next time.

Caveat emptor - Buyer Beware

 

We brought Trudeau. In return he bought us a pipeline. Well, Trudeau didn’t buy the Trans Mountain pipe line.  We did.

First, I want to say how proud I am of the First Nations people involved in the struggle against the Trans Mountain pipe line.  They were spectacular. They stood for all of us (or at least the majority of us).   And yes, so did the others on the blockade lines, especially the older women.  Been there, done that, so know how miserable it can be.  The federal verdict was a surprising and most wonderful federal ruling.   But there is, as always, a down side.  It seems that the Canadian people are now the proud owners of a $4.5 billion pipeline that probably will never be built.

Reasons?  The judge’s rulings have to do primarily with two things that weren’t done properly by Kinder Morgan.  There was the lack of a review on marine shipping (impact on sea life) and failure of duty to consult Indigenous people.  Are these two conditions likely to change if another company wants to buy in? I doubt it.  The whales and dolphins won’t disappear from the federal judicial view, and I think that Indigenous people, having spoken, won’t be struck silent by a “flipper”, as Trudeau called a potential buyer of the pipeline. I think we are going to be stuck with $ 4.5 billion debt that cannot retrace its steps and will have to be incorporated into the national budget.

Trudeau is actually in a very bad position.  If he doesn’t manage to flip the pipeline, it will remain his failed legacy forever.  And if, miracle upon miracles, he does manage to sell it, the protesters of all stripes, both First Nations and their supporters, will be waiting. 

As the old saying goes: Caveat emptor - buyer beware.

The tie that binds: Kinder Morgan and Justice K.M. Affleck

And just what is this tie that binds Justice K.M. Affleck and Kinder Morgan?  Why, the injunction, of course.  Like the one Justice Affleck handed out to Kinder Morgan on March 14, 2018 in order to shoo citizens away from protesting the trans-mountain pipeline on Burnaby Mountain.

‘On Burnaby Mountain’ has a musical ring to it.  It sounds like the title of a bitter- sweet country song.  But in reality what is happening there is just all bitter.  When the protesters gather there to try to protect the mountain they are handed Justice Affleck’s injunction.   This piece of paper annuls the protester’s right to freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, freedom of equality under the law and the right to a fair trial.  All of this just in one or two pieces of paper?  This bit of paper being handed to an unknowing protester is capable of destroying all of the legal rights due every citizen under Canadian law?  Absolutely.  That’s why Justice Affleck and most of his brothers (that’s what judges call each other: brothers) issued the injunction in the first place.   To make the citizen protester helpless before the court.

Why do the BC judges do this?  To protect corporations from the anger of citizens who want the destruction of our earth and waters stopped. There is no other reason.  Justice Affleck did not have to give out the injunction to Kinder Morgan.  He could simply have told Kinder Morgan that if protesters were bothering their operation to call the police or the RCMP.  The police would then come, arrest the protesters, stand them before a judge, and a date would be set for their trial.  As the citizen protesters have obviously committed some kind of an infraction of the law, which is coded in the criminal code, as all legal infractions are, the citizen protester is afforded his and her legal rights under the law of the land.  But no.  Environmental protesters are placed into a special category, one that requires that all their legal rights be suspended.  This is the secret, unspoken agreement between our BC judges and corporations who claim and are granted, more rights than real citizens.

I would say to the protesters, yes, continue with the protests on the mountain but send some of the protesters into the city.  Why the city?  Because that’s where the judges are giving out these injunctions.  The justices of British Columbia should be picketed.  In front of the Supreme Court of British Columbia in Vancouver.  A protest line there would be fruitful.  It is judges like Justice Affleck who unfailing serve their unspoken alliance with the corporations.  Instead of telling corporations to call the police when annoyed by citizens, they give out injunctions.  This makes protesting citizens legally trapped and helpless before the court, instead of confident of their rights under the constitution and the criminal code as all other citizens are.   And this is the main reason, in my opinion, that is hastening the environmental destruction of BC land and waters. And where is our honourable David Eby, the Attorney General, on this?  Next time.