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This is the Life: Thanks, democracy — it's been a slice

The good ship Democracy has sailed with the further transfer of traditional government powers to the private sector...
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Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.

Do you ever get the idea that the good ship Democracy has sailed and that we weren’t invited to the bon voyage party?

I refer to the further transfer of traditional government powers to the private sector, much like the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) did when it was ratified. While there is plenty of evidence that it has been positive for the overall economy of the signatory nations, it is also undeniable that we have seen the decimation of our manufacturing industry, the erosion of the middle class, more money landing in the pockets of the top one per cent of “earners” and family incomes that have stayed static, in real dollar terms, ever since.

The signs are all around us, but none provided a clearer confirmation than news of another international agreement that Canada is about to sign on to. And no, I’m not referring to the free trade agreement with Europe.

In a recent story on the online news service the Tyee, Gus Van Harten, an associate professor at the Osgoode Hall Law School, commented on the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID), an arm of the World Bank. ICSID provides a framework under which investors, typically global corporations, can sue governments.

It isn’t hard to see how these claims can come about. Think, for instance, what might happen if B.C.’s full tilt boogie entry into the development of shale gas reserves turns out to be an environmental disaster. The provincial government of the day would have to make a choice between stepping in and restricting or even banning the practice and facing legal action by companies that have made infrastructure investments and paid for rights to access the gas deposits.

Countries signing on to the ICSID Convention agree to abide by its rules, which include allowing only companies to take legal action within its framework. There is no opportunity for appeal or judicial review. Lose the case and pay up.

It gets more insidious. Investor-state arbitrators, who serve as judges in disputes, operate for profit. According to Van Harten, they often also work as lawyers and lobbyists. He says some “appear to have an interest to favour foreign investors because of their singular capacity to bring claims and trigger arbitrator appointments.” In other words, they get their business from companies who make claims and not from governments, so there is a built-in benefit to favouring the private sector in these cases.

If a country doesn’t like a decision, too bad, so sad. Under the convention, “Each contracting state shall recognize an award … as binding and enforce the pecuniary obligations imposed by that award within its territories as if it were the final judgment of a court in that state.” In other words, the ICSID’s powers are equivalent to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Bad enough? How about that should a country have the audacity to challenge a decision, it goes to a committee chosen by the World Bank president? Under a cozy, informal little agreement with Europe, the U.S. government chooses the World Bank president and Europe names the head of the International Monetary Fund.

Van Harten writes that Prime Minister Stephen Harper has indicated he plans to sign Canada onto the ICSID Convention, effectively giving over some our sovereignty to for-profit arbitrators appointed by the U.S.

What’s in it for Harper? Well, he’s clearly not enamoured by our existing government institutions, like Parliament and the Senate. He appears to favour the corporate world over government. By embracing this murky process, he’s sending a signal to investors that Canada is indeed open for business, and that they shouldn’t worry about little things like governments to get in their way.

The whole idea gives me a headache. Or as Jake was wont to say in W.O. Mitchell’s Jake and the Kid stories, “It’s enough to give a gopher the heartburn.”

Lorne Eckersley is the publisher of the Creston Valley Advance.