Economic Treason -Part 2

In the fall of 2008 I was writing about the pitfalls of bail-outsand the Royal Bank outsourcing – all of which goes to show there is nothing new under the sun...which probably explains why this Toronto Star editoral misses one salient and important point in calling for a review of the Temporary Foreign Workers program - and I quote. 

As a private company, RBC has the right to outsource work and deal with any ensuing fallout for giving Canadian jobs to lower-paid workers overseas. (Toronto Star)

Really now.  Just how ‘private’ is the Royal Bank of Canada?  All the Canadian banks have been coddled, feed and protected by government legislation from foreign competition for decades, and  in the last 5 years; the Royal Bank (like other Canadian Banks) have suckled the $114 Billion from the public teat to ensure the financial prosperity of those very banks which are currently outsourcing Canadian jobs to foreign countries. 

(graphic shamelessly stolen from Blazing Catfur)

If I were the Prime Minister of Canada and channeling my inner Maggie Thatcher I would order my Minister of Human Resources to do the following without wobbling. 

1.    1.    Immediately cancel all foreign worker and visa permits by companies whose business is to outsource labour from Canada or import cheap foreign labour into Canada.  There is simply no need for any consulting firm, such as iGate or the Tata Consulting Group, to import any to worker under a TFW permit to work for them in Canada. You can conduct business here, but you must hire Canadian workers for your Canada operations.

2. Any company which has laid- off workers in the last 24 month period is simply ineligible to hire anyone through the TFW program.

3. Any business which takes public funds or is protected from competition via government regulation is not allowed to hire anyone under a TFW program or allowed to ‘outsource’ their business operations outside of Canada in order to conduct business in Canada. In this way, IBM Canada cannot use IBM India to conduct business operations in Canada. IBM is welcome to build up their business in India for Indians but it cannot build prosperity for IBM India from the pockets or on the backs of Canadians.

4. Any firm which relies on no or low skilled workers is completely ineligible to hire anyone under a TFW permit with the exception of migrants in agricultural farming.  There is simply no excuse for Tim Horton's Bell and McDonald's to not hire local workers.  

5. Any business entity which hires a skilled foreign worker must prove there was no Canadian willing to fulfill the position after a six month national search and pay a TFW a salar;y 20% higher than the prevailing Canadian labour market rate for a similar job in their area. Furthermore, each employers must pay for extensive health care coverage and benefits for a TFW employee.

6. To be eligible to hire any skilled foreign worker under a TFW permit a company must prove there is already an in-house apprenticeship or training program in place for training locals for such skills.

7. Any Canadian corporation who has business operations outside of Canada must pay a supplemental corporate tax rate based on the percentage of its business interests currently operating outside of the country which directly contributes to its functioning as a business entity in Canada. 

For example, Bell Canada has moved its' Canadian call centers and billing operations to the Philippines. Let us pretend Call Centres and the Accounts Receivable department of Bell Canada makes up 17% of Bell's total workforce operations; so consequently, Bell Canada needs to pay an additional 17% surtax on corporate earned income in Canada. Don’t want to pay a 17% surtax – hire Canadian and keep your operations in Canada for Canadians. 

8. I realize that Stephen Harper has spent a great of time and money to sign free trade deals with everyone and their grandmother, but to safeguard Canadian industries;  let’s add an employee surtax for every good or service which needs to be imported into to Canada…I realize the Free Traders will be howling but there is no such thing as free trade with countries whose governments subsidize their industries and workers – think China.

All of which is all well and good – except the Prime Minister Stephen Harper will not any such actions because his government has been far too busy promoting the prosperity of foreign workers in the interests of his corporate crones to concern himself over the prosperity ordinary  Canadians….and I quote  -

Canada announced it would spend $15.5 million over four years to support job training of young people in the Philippines as well as help streamline the regulations around infrastructure projects. (the National Post)

While $15.5 Million over four years for job training of young people in the Philippines might not seem to buy a great deal of bang for your buck in Canada; this is huge money for the Philippines  - who incidentally just happen to benefit extraordinarily from the Temporary Foreign Workers program.  

But more importantly, ask yourself; why a Canadian Prime Minister is financially supporting the employment aspirations of non-Canadian young people during one of the most serious economic crisis Canada has faced since the Great Depression? And it is under this same Prime Minister’s watch that the Temporary Foreign Workers program has expanded just so damned dramatically.

I may have had to give back my Capitalist decoder ring and I have a number of people accusing me of being a liberal because I am firmly in the ‘anti-Harperite’ camp but it is my belief that there is nothing conservative about the Harperites other than their name.  In my defense, I can say at least I am not a liberal progressive and have to wrestle with progressive ‘values’ or feel conflicted by opting to choose the welfare of my fellow compatriots over all else.    

Economic Treason

The Times of India:

Last week, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that RBC — iGate's second-largest client contributing a little over 10% of its $1.1 billion sales — was planning to fire close to 50 employees in its investor services department and replace them with Indian employees on contract with iGate. It is typical for Indian IT services companies to send their staff to client locations on contract, while it puts in place processes to transition work to be done from India or other lower cost locations.

 “We work very hard as an institution to ensure that we put a very high priority on Canadian jobs,” Mr. Nixon said on a CBC morning radio show in Toronto."

Gord Nixon,

President and CEO

Royal Bank of Canada

  Gord Nixon, RBC President and CEO, opening the first office of the Royal Bankof Canada in India at Bandra Kurla, Mumbai.

The Harperite government of Canada has poured money - a great deal of money – CANADIAN (and NOT INDIAN) taxpayer money – to keep thebig Five Banks in Canada a float and able to turn profits reaching in manycases into billions since the ongoing financial crisis of 2008 in Canada.

Furthermore, banks in Canada are a fully protected species. The Big Five Banks in Canada are underwritten by the federal government and are nurtured and sheltered from foreign competition by federal legislation.

Canadian banks function and exist purely to serve the financial needs of Canadians.   

Given the banking relationship with the government and people of Canada – do not for a minute deceive yourself into believing a single position/job and/or service for any operation or any department in a Canadian bank should be outsourced to anyone other than Canadian labour located and performed on Canadian soil.

The Iron Lady

"The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people's money."
Baroness Margaret Thatcher
Ocotober 13, 1925 - April 8, 2013 

There is nothing new under the sun

Ten years after leaving high school my only friend from those days ran into two girls we went to high school with in a Toronto Deli. They did not remember him, but when he mentioned my name the women could not hold back from indulging in their 15 minutes of hate. I was fascinated by their reaction because I did nothing to them, I could not even put a face to their names, but still, their hate for me lived on long after I left their reality.

I did not start out being the most hated girl in my High School but it was what I became. In fact, my last year in Cameron Heights Collegiate started so well. Six weeks into the school year I gave a three part presentation for Canadian Law on ‘censorship’. I delivered it while wearing high heels, nylons, garter belt, panties and a corset. I had a very young teacher who was very unsure of herself and more interested in being our friend than our teacher. This was why I believed I would get away with it. After the presentation, I had a circle of girlfriends, the phone rang for me non-stop. There was not a party I was not invited to attend. My school ‘creds’ were made as the uber wild child.

A funny thing about those parties; there always seemed to be one girl who drank or smoked too much and ended up in a room surrounded by predatory young males. Countless times, it was me pushing my way into the room and drawing a line of 'NO” around the girl. I do not remember a single party where I did not drag a semi-conscious female out the door and into a cab. Amazing what a little bit of chutzpah and ninety pounds of determination can pull off when there is someone willing to say no and call evil by its' name. Only one girl objected into being put in a cab because she was afraid of what her parents would say. I told her if her parents raised objections she should ask them if they would rather she was gang raped. She got in the cab.

Why was I never that girl who was out of control and caved completely under the influence? I had a Bubbe who warned me from the time I was young that I could never afford to 'let myself go' in a party. According to Bubbe, there was always a predator waiting to pounce the minute you were not in complete control. This was the reality of her day, and I realized early, I did not want to take a chance to find out if she was always right. Not everyone has a Bubbe, and even if everyone did, why should a few drinks mean you are open season?

But this wasn't why I was hated. I was hated because I took a stand against my best friend and all round popular girlfriend Linda. Linda came from a privileged WASP home, three years of private school and all the trappings great wealth provides. Linda was ashamed of her privilege and was in full rebellion against her parents and everything they stood for. . Linda loved my 'chutzpah' and envied my life with my meshuga mother, broken home, and ethnic background. This was the end of the Seventies when the cult of victim-hood was born and Linda was one of the first victims I met. And me? I wanted to live her life – sans rebellion.

Linda had bright eyes and the most beautiful laugh. I have never heard anyone laugh quite like her, it was pure music. She ended up shacking with the high school basketball star a few months just before winter break. I had met her boyfriend three years before at a different high school. We were both ‘niners’ together. Chad was always trying to get me to come practice to watch him play. I just was not interested in sitting on the benching going rah-rah every time he got the ball. I just was not that kind of gal.

By spring break, Linda had dropped out of school to support her and Chad. Chad would not drop out of school. He had to study hard and concentrate on his basketball career. He had high hopes of being drafted or winning a scholarship to a US college, and hence, a second shot at being drafted into the NBA. Linda was being the 'good' woman and standing by/supporting her man. Near the end of the Spring break I met up with her and the other girls in our circle for lunch. I was overwhelmed and needed a break from editing a short film I had shot for my 'mass media' class.

It started off like any other time with the girls. We were all laughing and telling stories, and then Linda took centre stage with a tale of jock groupies. She told us, when Chad was at KCI, he and the other players on the team would 'invite' girls to watch them play. Afterwards, the guys would pick one or two 'groupies' and force those girls to do have sex with the whole team in the basement locker room of the school. It did not matter if a girl said no – once a girl came - she was open season. This was the price of being admitted to practice. Linda claimed everyone knew the rules but I didn't. I thought an invite to watch practice was simply an invite to sit on the bench and not lie on it.

I had never heard anything so appalling and was in complete shock. All the other girls at the table went along with Linda and were laughing about those stupid slutty groupies. I was stunned at how close I came to sharing the same fate as those faceless, nameless girls being pilloried as jock groupies, and by implication; defective human beings.

Eventually, I found my feet and stood up to tell my friends what I thought of their morals in no uncertain terms. I gave Linda - and everyone else in the restaurant - an earful on the real deal about her serial rapist boyfriend. I left in a rage and huff to stew in my own self-righteous fury. I was so busy with the film that I did not notice my phone stopped ringing. Nothing prepared me for the first day back at school after March break. No one would talk to me. No one answered my 'hi's', wave or even nod at me as I walked down the hall. By the time I turned the corridor towards my locker a strange silence reined among my peers.

I saw why as soon as my locker came into view. A red lipstick message was left for me and the student body. Hell, even a blind man could not have missed that message. Someone had drawn a picture of me felicitating an anonymous penis with my home telephone number written in red lipstick. It was the first time my locker was vandalize, but it wouldn't be the last. I was called all manner of choice epitaphs from the time.

In the matter of a few days, I was a 'pariah'. Stories of my alleged sexual prowness went around like wildfire. I got suspended for three days for turning around and punching the guy who sat behind me English who started to make disparaging comments about me in class. No one took my side, in fact, everyone in the class claimed he said nothing...I was cut everywhere...my phone never rang except for crank calls and there were no more parties for me. I was gropped as I made my way in the stairwells between classes.

No one would sit with me in the cafeteria and often people would throw food at me. No one would stand with me outside in the smoking section. Within days, I could not even smoke in the designated smoking section and instead had to make my way to a hill which overlooked the football field. My peers would throw their cigarette butts at me if I stayed in the official section. My one and only friend from that period could not handle the bounce I was getting. He had a enough troubles of his own so I never judged him for only seeking me out in private when the risk was discovery was low. Not one of the girls I had 'saved' stood with me. In fact, they became my harshest and most vocal critics. I was completely person non grata. I had three months of this treatment, and when school ended, I left the city and never looked back. There are no 10th, 20th, 25th or even 30th year High School reunions for me.

What happened in Steubenville is not just a one-off scenario - a perfect storm of colliding circumstances but a very old tale which crosses borders, cultures and transcends time. My story is as Canadian as it comes, and it happened over 30 years ago. Steubenville has been happening for a very long time in the lives of girls and women.

I wish I could have been there to cart that little girl home before anything happened to her. I only wish there was someone who felt it was more important to do the right thing and take a stand to protect her when she was least able to protect herself. It is easy to blame the victim for over indulging and her parents for a lack of supervision, but the reality is, we continue to fail to be our brother's keeper and so our children continue to fail to keep each other safe.

There are predators surrounding us every day of our lives and at any age, just waiting in the corner for that one moment when we lose control so they can pounce and feed off our misery. What we can do is to teach our children that any act which degrades, humiliates or exploits another human without their expressed consent diminishes all of us. We can teach our children that passing on nude pictures and/or videos of the worst moments of a human life via social media has no place in public discourse and is an act of appalling moral turpitude.

Memo to the Ontario Conservative Party

 I realize those who voted in Tim Hudak for Conservative party leader didn’t have much option given the candidates running for leadership, but for G-d’s sake;  stop letting him speak in public.  It’s fracking embarrassing every time he opens his mouth

 

Someone needs to point out to Hudak that suggesting public sector unions have ruined and/or run the Ontario economy is an entirely different argument than promoting the merits of small government.

I am all for developing the so-called ‘ring of fire’ but having development turned over to someone -  like say - the Chinese mining companies (The Federal Conservative’s Favourite Miners) will hardly put the Ontario economy back on track…and just because the Chinese have allowed pollution to run rampant and decimate their country is not a reason to allow the same to be done to our own.

Just how stupid is Netflick?

Apparently, very.  Ajami won nominated for an Oscar but not because the movie is a 'moving drama set inside the West Bank'.  There is no West Bank in Ajami. It is set in Jaffo - right beside the city of Tel Aviv.

I cannot shake the feeling Hamas would approve of Netflix's description.

Shamefull

December 2010.

Prime Minister's Office statement: "The government made this decision because we do not believe Canadians should be forced, under threat of fines, jail, or both, to disclose extensive private and personal information."

I agree with the Prime Minister.  But that was then, this is now; The TorontoStar circa – January 2013.

Audrey Tobias passed the war memorial on her careful walk up the snowy stone steps of Old City Hall on Wednesday morning.  She is 88 and a war veteran. She came to court to fight for peace and answer for her crime: refusing to fill out the 2011 census form.

No one should ever be prosecuted for failure to fill and/or return census data in Canada for any reason…and yet, apparently the country is now run contrary to the Prime Minister’s publicly stated position and we prosecute 88 year old war veterans for failure to return a completed Census form. Talk about a Liebral in Conservative clothing.