Murray Dobbin

Canadians at odds with their government on Israel

rabble staff — Fri, 17 Feb 2017 00:09:34 +0000

Friday, February 17, 2017

As the future of Israeli Jews and Palestinians spirals down into an inevitable and inexorable apartheid struggle, Canadians are being denied their fundamental right in a democracy. That is the right to an honest and frank debate about one of the most important issues faced by the international community -- the ongoing illegal occupation of Palestinian land and the brutal suppression of Palestinian human rights.

It's not that Canadians don't care or don't try to inform themselves. It's that both the media and federal governments are loath to even talk about it. With these two institutions maintaining a steadfast silence there can be no genuine debate. And so we betray both Israelis and Palestinians by condemning them to a future of violence.

Pro-Israeli government policy is built on a foundation of untested assumptions about Canadian attitudes. A new EKOS poll reveals this to be convenient but quite false.

Transformative change in 2017 starts with community

rabble staff — Thu, 05 Jan 2017 19:55:12 +0000

Friday, January 6, 2017

As has been pointed out by too many people, 2016 was a devastating year for progressives (a homely term for all those who are want equality, democracy and ecological sanity). There is no need to repeat the list of atrocities, failures and disappointments, as we all have them indelibly marked on our psyches. One result of the annus horribilis is that activists everywhere have pledged to try harder -- at what is clearly not working. There is even a sense of optimism rooted in the old left-wing shibboleth that "the worse things get, the better" -- meaning, of course that if things get really, really bad, people will rise up (and overthrow the 1%).

To enact transformational change we have to radically shift the way we engage people and move away from presenting them with problems to talking about possibilities.

'All for ourselves and nothing for other people': The takeover of economics by neoliberalism

rabble staff — Fri, 16 Dec 2016 13:17:54 +0000

Friday, December 16, 2016

All for ourselves, and nothing for other people, seems, in every age of the world, to have been the vile maxim of the masters of mankind.

-- Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

The economics profession has become a self-satisfied apologia for the plunder of society's wealth by the greedy and ruthless 1% -- the "masters of mankind."

Welcome to CETA and the Liberals' faith-based reality

rabble staff — Fri, 25 Nov 2016 13:56:44 +0000

Friday, November 25, 2016

"Sweep away the community of honest brokers in America [and] we'll be left with a culture and public dialogue based on assertion rather than authenticity, on claim rather than fact."

-- U.S. journalist Ron Suskind, 2004

When it comes to trade and investment deals, the facts mean nothing. The federal government makes its own "reality" by crafting "facts" to fit its policy objectives.

There are lessons for Canada's elites in the U.S. election

rabble staff — Fri, 11 Nov 2016 13:34:53 +0000

Friday, November 11, 2016

Hubris: extreme pride, especially pride and ambition so great that they offend the gods and lead to one's downfall.

In the aftermath of the stunning results of the U.S. election, the mix of emotions and hard-nosed analysis spans the spectrum from feeling sorry for the irrational and politically illiterate American voter to visceral fear about the consequences of their electing a thuggish buffoon as president. But common to all reactions, I suspect, is a smugness rooted in our sense of superiority -- as if our elites are somehow more attentive to the public interest and the lives of ordinary Canadians.

While clearly not as grim as the U.S., features in Canadian politics and society mimic those that led to the election result in the U.S.

Dear CRA: Don't let Cameco get away with its $2.2-billion tax evasion

rabble staff — Fri, 28 Oct 2016 13:11:54 +0000

Friday, October 28, 2016

Cameco, the Saskatchewan-based uranium mining colossus, is currently in Federal Court facing charges by the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) that it illegally avoided a stunning $2.2 billion in Canadian income taxes. It is not only the largest such case in Canadian history but one of the most shameless tax dodges ever hatched by a Canadian corporation. The court case has been delayed for years and just the fact that it has finally made it before a judge is good news. But the news could quickly turn bad if, facing defeat, Cameco makes a pitch to settle for less than the full amount. That would be a miscarriage of justice.

At a time when more and more attention is being paid to off-shore tax havens and the billions we lose to them, Canada needs to make an example of this irresponsible corporate "citizen."

Putting patient food in the hands of corporations reveals the trouble with normal

rabble staff — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 02:36:37 +0000

Friday, October 14, 2016

It's amazing what we gradually accept as normal -- even admirable -- in how we treat each other in Canada. Practices that were once seen as a repugnant surrender to government indifference, like food banks, are now virtually celebrated as a high point of citizen engagement and promoted as such by our public broadcaster once a year. And other practices, like hospitals and seniors' care homes that once had their own kitchens and cooking staff, are seemingly a thing of the past, a "luxury" that we have no hope of ever getting back.

As Bruce Cockburn's song suggests, the trouble with normal, is it always gets worse.

It's amazing what we gradually accept as normal -- even admirable -- in how we treat each other in Canada. As Bruce Cockburn's song suggests, the trouble with normal is it always gets worse.

'The world must jettison neoliberal ideology': A globalization wake-up call

rabble staff — Thu, 29 Sep 2016 23:18:52 +0000

Friday, September 30, 2016

If recent mainstream economic reports are to be taken seriously, some of the big brains managing global capitalism these days are starting to lose faith in their neoliberal ideology. Some come close to sounding like virtual heretics -- like Jonathan Ostry, the IMF's deputy director of research and lead author of an article ("Neoliberalism: Oversold?") in the IMF's official publication. He stated, with a childlike innocence: "[s]ome aspects of the neoliberal agenda probably need a rethink.

If recent mainstream economic reports are to be taken seriously, some of the big brains managing global capitalism these days are starting to lose faith in their neoliberal ideology.

Trade deals' investor-state provisions: A sub-criminal conspiracy?

rabble staff — Fri, 16 Sep 2016 13:41:19 +0000

Friday, September 16, 2016

There is a glaring disconnect in the world between economic growth, and trade and investment agreements.

At the same time that Canada and other countries are pushing hard for huge multi-national deals -- the TPP, CETA and the U.S.-EU deal, the TTIP -- all the evidence suggests that global trade is on a long-term downward trend. Nothing in the near or middle term future suggests that it will recover to anything like its China-driven peak.

Financial Times analyst Martin Wolf recently argued bluntly that globalization no longer drives the world economy.

If global trade isn't going to pull the world economy out of its persistent doldrums, why are countries putting so much political energy into signing these agreements?

Canadian media is failing citizens with its reporting on corporate rights deals

rabble staff — Fri, 15 Jul 2016 13:24:33 +0000

Friday, July 15, 2016

The Trudeau government is hell-bent on ratifying two massive investment agreements -- the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) and Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) -- that will radically undermine Canadian democracy. Yet very few Canadians are informed about these deals because our mainstream media has been so irresponsible in reporting on their impacts. The first-order irresponsibility is the media's absolute determination to cast these deals as "trade deals" when even a casual reading reveals that they are corporate rights agreements which, because they are treaties, trump our courts and constitution.

The Trudeau government is set on ratifying two massive investment agreements -- yet very few Canadians are informed about these deals because of our mainstream media's irresponsible reporting.

As NATO war-mongering against Russia intensifies, Canada faces a difficult choice

rabble staff — Fri, 24 Jun 2016 01:11:09 +0000

Friday, June 24, 2016

No area of public policy is so shrouded in secrecy, obfuscation and outright deception than foreign policy. Most of the time it doesn't seem to matter much to the majority of voters who have more pressing things to worry about. But when Canadians read a headline that says "Russia mobilizing for war" one would hope they would take notice. A more absurd declaration is hard to imagine but there it was -- coming out of the offices of CSIS, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service. It was just the latest alarmist rhetoric in a steady stream of anti-Russian propaganda that coincided with the largest NATO military exercise -- dubbed Anaconda -- since the end of the Cold War.

NATO is requesting that Canada join a 4,000-troop contingent that would form a permanent NATO presence in countries bordering Russia. Will Prime Minister Trudeau make the courageous choice and say no?

Israel and the real 'new anti-Semitism'

rabble staff — Fri, 10 Jun 2016 13:28:14 +0000

Friday, June 10, 2016

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If Israel is to survive and flourish as the democratic nation it claims to be, the status quo cannot continue says Murray Dobbin.

We may finally be seeing the end of corporate globalization

rabble staff — Thu, 26 May 2016 19:33:40 +0000

Friday, May 27, 2016

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Since the Canada-U.S. Free Trade Agreement in 1988, promoters of investment protection agreements have held sway. But 30 years after the first experiment, signs of resistence are growing.

Government should pursue wealthy tax dodgers, not serve the rich and powerful

rabble staff — Fri, 13 May 2016 04:11:19 +0000

Friday, May 13, 2016

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Note to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau:

We will not be distracted forever by your explanation of quantum computers and yoga poses. Or even by the admittedly impressive list of low-hanging fruit (the return of the long-form census, the inquiry into missing Aboriginal women) you have picked thanks to Stephen Harper.

Are Justin Trudeau's Liberals the same old Bay Street Party? The litmus test will be how he deals with tax law-breakers at accounting firm KPMG and their apologists in the Canada Revenue Agency.

Saudi arms deal sheds unsavoury light on Liberal foreign policy

rabble staff — Fri, 29 Apr 2016 01:33:35 +0000

Friday, April 29, 2016

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The decision to sign the Saudi arms deal speaks volumes about Trudeau's foreign policy, revealing a government with a progressive public face contradicted by a ruthless disregard for human rights.