January 25, 2016 • No. 1 | PDF Previous Issues
Make This a Year to Remember!
All Out for Democratic Renewal in 2016!
Renewal Update greets its readers, subscribers and contributors on the occasion of the new year and thanks everyone for their support last year and for their new year greetings.
The past year will be remembered as one in which Canadians expressed their opposition to the Harper dictatorship and united in action to defeat it. From all walks of life and all parts of the country, Canadians, Quebeckers and Indigenous peoples stood as one in defence of the rights of all and in defence of the natural and social environment. Renewal Update is proud to have played its part in 2015.
Just over one year ago on January 23, 2015, the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada (MLPC) launched Renewal Update as an on-line publication to inform readers about what is going on in the Parliament and related political affairs and the work for the renewal of the political process. The first issue announced political pickets on the occasion of the opening of Parliament and gave the opinion of the MLPC that renewing the democracy and empowering the people, so that private interests can no longer usurp the public authority, is the main problem which requires a solution at this time. Renewal Update discussed the importance of working out a stand that favours the people in the federal election and pledged to “play its part by informing its readers about the concerns of the people and keeping them up to date on matters of interest.”
Renewal Update published 214 issues in 2015, regularly Monday to Friday and during the election seven days a week. At all times Renewal Update concerned itself with raising substantive issues and informing Canadians about matters of concern and, most importantly, the urgent necessity for the democratic renewal of the political process. During the election, MLPC candidates did the same in all candidates meetings and interviews as part of the broad movement to defeat Harper and to keep the Liberals at bay.
The Liberal sweep in the federal election presents a new situation for Canadians who were saddled with 10 years of Harper minority then majority rule. The necessity for the democratic renewal of the political process in Canada remains a matter of greatest importance. This year, Renewal Update will publish regularly once a week. Every day the website of the MLPC will carry up-to-date news and views of the MLPC and readers and updates on the work of the political forums being held across the country.
The program of the Marxist-Leninist Party this year is to encourage the holding of these political forums all over the country so that people have a place to raise their concerns and work out what’s what. This is particularly important when dealing with a Liberal majority government which knows how to talk the talk but walks in the opposite direction. We will work to lift the veil on all the Liberal reviews and consultations and what it means when the government talks about openness, transparency and accountability. We will continue to report on the actions of the people to say No! to what is unacceptable and their demands for the protection of the natural and social environment and for Canada to be a force for peace internationally.
With this issue, Youth for Democratic Renewal, the youth organization of the MLPC, is proud to take over both the website of the MLPC as well as the publication of Renewal Update. We encourage you to send your views, comments, questions, reports and photos. Readers and supporters are also encouraged to make a financial contribution to the MLPC by sending a cheque or money order made out to the MLPC, P.O. Box 666, Postal Station C, Montreal, Quebec, H2L 4L5. The MLPC will issue a tax receipt for all political contributions over $20.
Parliament Opens Today
New Liberal Government Reveals Its Agenda
“Power to the People”
The 42nd Parliament of Canada resumes on January 25. Following the inauguration of the new government, Parliament had sat from December 7 to 11, 2015 before the customary adjournment for the rest of December and January. The current session will continue until the Parliament takes summer recess in late June.
The first items on the agenda in the House of Commons and Senate are the continuing debate on an Address in Reply to the Speech from the Throne (delivered by Governor General David Johnston on December 4, 2015). Three days of debate remain on the Address in Reply to the Throne Speech, finishing January 27. Six more private members’ bills have been added to the order paper for the opening of the House of Commons but the government’s agenda has not yet been announced.
Since Parliament adjourned, the activities and agenda of the government have been further elaborated, in Prime Minister Trudeau and various ministers’ participation in international meetings, the government’s “consultations” on various matters, its ongoing participation in bombing runs in Iraq and Syria, its cabinet meetings and numerous official appointments.
Among other international appearances, Trudeau delivered a speech to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland on January 20 entitled “The Canadian Opportunity” which is being portrayed as Trudeau calling for a “rebranding” of Canada and making the case for global monopoly investment in Canada. “Canada was mostly known for its resources. I want you to know Canadians for our resourcefulness,” he said. Trudeau’s pitch ended with, “If you are looking for a country that has the diversity, the resilience, the positivity and the confidence that will not just manage this change but take advantage of it, there has never been a better time to look to Canada.”
Trudeau revealed more about his government’s outlook on the economy, noting that many employees in the high tech sector in the U.S. and in international firms are Canadian or Canadian-educated, including at the University of Waterloo. With such a “diverse and creative population, outstanding education and healthcare systems, and advanced infrastructure,” as well as “social stability, financial stability and a government willing to invest in the future,” Canada is the place for the global monopoly firms gathered at the World Economic Forum to invest, Trudeau suggested.
Meanwhile Defence Minister Harjit Sajjan made his first visit to NORAD headquarters in Colorado, U.S. on January 20 to discuss “a number of issues important to the Canada-U.S. defence relationship, including continental defence, new challenges to North American aerospace defence and NORAD’s continuing evolution to meet those challenges.”
Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Dion announced January 21 that he will host the foreign ministers of the U.S. and Mexico in Quebec City on January 29 at a North American Foreign Ministers Meeting. A statement from Global Affairs Canada (formerly the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade) stated that the meeting will strengthen cooperation on climate change as well as “explore opportunities for greater collaboration on regional and global issues, enhancing security cooperation and improving North American competitiveness by reducing impediments to trade between the three countries.”
Media report that the 30-member Cabinet held its first meeting of 2016 at a retreat in St. Andrews by-the-Sea, New Brunswick from January 17 to 19. Joining them was Michael Barber, the former UK government consultant known for his theory of “Deliverology” and operating a “delivery unit” in the Tony Blair government.[1] The CBC reported that Barber spoke to the cabinet January 17 “about how to monitor progress and success on targets such as those included in each minister’s mandate letter from Trudeau,” and stated that he spoke “in glowing terms of the government that had contracted his services.”
Speaking to the Ottawa Citizen in St. Andrews by-the-Sea, Barber said Canada’s federal arrangements have to “be managed” to implement his system, “And the way to do that is for the delivery unit or the delivery function, and indeed the politicians who are overseeing that, to think about the relationships they build.” The Citizen says Barber is “confident Matthew Mendelsohn, the former Ontario public servant tapped to be the Liberals’ own delivery guru, would be able to implement the system.”
The meeting took place at the Marriott Algonquin Resort which the Cabinet reserved exclusively, while media stayed at other locations in town. The Prime Minister’s Office said the meeting was held in New Brunswick “as part of the government’s ongoing efforts to show Canadians – from all regions of the country – that their needs and aspirations are being listened to and factored into decisions being taken.”
Like the appointment of Mendelsohn as Deputy Secretary to the Cabinet (Results and Delivery), recent high-level appointments in the diplomatic service have favoured those with a background in the Ontario Liberal government.
Note
1. For more information about “Deliverology” and the Trudeau government, read Renewal Update, November 3, 2015 – No. 207 and TML Weekly, January 9, 2016 – No. 2
Choice of New Clerk of Privy Council Will Worry Many
The appointment of Michael Wernick as Clerk of the Privy Council and Secretary to the Cabinet on January 22, 2016 will worry many. He was previously Deputy Minister of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada from May 2006 to July 2014, and Senior Advisor to the Privy Council Office from July to September 2014.[1] Wernick’s Privy Council biography credits him with assisting in “advancing the Government’s Aboriginal and Northern agendas” including 23 pieces of legislation passed by the Harper government against Indigenous peoples as well as “modern treaties and new self-government arrangements.” Wernick’s position is called non-political and non-partisan but his background reveals a clear partisanship to private interests.
Wernick is also a member of the Carleton University Board of Governors. After students protested against rising tuition fees at a March 30, 2015 meeting of the Carleton Board Wernick responded by likening the students’ tactics to those of “Brownshirts and Maoists”[2] in an e-mail to fellow board members. He stated that the students’ protest had “no place in a lawful democratic society.” As Chair of the Board of Governors’ Governance Committee, Wernick subsequently proposed amendments to the Board’s bylaws to remove student and worker representatives from the Board; impose a permanent “gag order” on Board members preventing them from speaking publicly about Board proceedings; and close all Board meetings to the public. These measures are still under consideration.
Notes
1. Wernick was previously Deputy Clerk of the Privy Council, working below Janice Charette who served as Clerk from October 2014 until Wernick’s promotion. Wernick “has the unique distinction of having been deeply involved in the transition process and start up of three new governments, and attending the swearing in and first Cabinet meeting of three Prime Ministers (Martin in 2003, Harper in 2006, Trudeau in 2015),” the Privy Council Office (PCO) informs.
The PCO informs that the position is “the most senior non-political official in the Government of Canada, and provides professional, non-partisan advice and support to the Prime Minister on all policy and operational issues that may affect the Government of Canada.”
Wernick’s role is also to ensure that “the Government of Canada has the policy, management and human resources capacity it needs to design and deliver high quality programs and services to and for Canadians,” the PCO says.
2. A brownshirt is “a member of a Nazi militia founded by Hitler in Munich in 1921, with brown uniforms resembling those of Mussolini’s Blackshirts. They aided Hitler’s rise to power, but were eclipsed by the SS after the ‘night of the long knives’ in June 1934. Also called Storm Troops or Sturmabteilung.” (Oxford)
(Carleton University Graduate Students’ Association)
Diplomatic Appointments Linked to Anti-Social Offensive and Privatization of Public Assets
Minister of Foreign Affairs Stéphane Dion made a number of diplomatic appointments on January 16, two of which are noteworthy because the appointees do not come out of the foreign service but are linked directly with the Liberal Party and to the program of privatizing public assets as well as upholding monopoly right.
Marc-André Blanchard was appointed Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Canada to the United Nations. Blanchard is a lawyer and former CEO of the Canadian law firm McCarthy Tétrault. His areas of expertise listed by the firm are: Corporate Commercial Litigation, International Trade & Investment Law, Litigation and Securities Litigation.
His official biography notes that Blanchard advised Rio Tinto plc on the acquisition of Alcan Inc. Rio Tinto Alcan subsequently locked out workers at its facility in Alma Quebec. Blanchard represented CGI Information Systems, which was contracted by eHealth Ontario to design and build an online registry of diabetes patients, in an arbitration proceeding concerning the cancellation of its contract. This refers to a $102 million lawsuit by CGI against the Ontario government’s eHealth agency after eHealth cancelled the contract for the diabetes registry which CGI claimed it had done significant work on. The case went to a confidential arbitration process. Blanchard was also part of the litigation teams involved in the fight over the control of both Air Canada and Le Groupe Vidéotron Ltée.
He is a graduate in international relations from the London School of Economics and was a member of Justin Trudeau’s transition team.
The other appointment which indicates the direction in which the Trudeau government is taking Canada is that of David MacNaughton as Ambassador to the United States. MacNaughton was formerly Chairman and CEO of StrategyCorp[1], a large public affairs, communications and management consulting firm and also at one point head of the public relations firm Hill and Knowlton. Considered part of the Liberal “old guard,” he goes back to the time of the David Peterson government in Ontario and in 1995 ran as a Liberal candidate in the Ontario provincial election.
From October 2003 until joining StrategyCorp in 2005, MacNaughton served as Principal Secretary to Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty where he “focused on bringing private sector principles of sound business management to the Ontario government.” His responsibilities as Principal Secretary included a particular emphasis on energy, budget and asset management. In this role he would have worked with one of the members of Trudeau’s inner circle in the Prime Minister’s Office, Gerald Butts, who was director of policy and research in McGuinty’s office.
Biographical notes provided by Global Affairs Canada say that between 1996 until 2003 MacNaughton was “president of a company specializing in private-public partnerships and a senior advisor to one of Canada’s leading investment banks.” MacNaughton has served on the Board of Directors of the Iogen Corporation of Ottawa and was Chairman of the Board of Comcare Ltd, a private health care provider and Chairman of Aereus Technologies.
MacNaughton published articles in the Globe and Mail and National Post in 2013 and 2014, respectively. In the first he argued that “Ontario needs fundamental change, not a fight over austerity vs. stimulus” where he advanced a broad program of privatization of public assets and social programs. In 2014 the National Post article entitled “Build infrastructure through sales, not debt” MacNaughton outlined the program now in full effect under the Ontario Liberals to build infrastructure using the short term cash flow from privatization.
Note
1. StrategyCorp is a public relations and consulting firm whose main emphasis has been on the program of the Liberal government in Ontario and now federally. They have followed the question of privatization of public assets outlined in the Clarke Report which called for the privatization of public assets such as Hydro One. The fact that the Trudeau government has hired MacNaughton, the Chairman of the firm as Canada’s Ambassador to the U.S. indicates that Strategy Corp and its program have become part of the Trudeau government.
