Life in Canada

The shocking minutes relating to President Putin’s meeting this past week with US Secretary of State John Kerry reveal the Russian leaders “extreme outrage” over the Obama regimes continued protection of global seed and plant bio-genetic giants Syngenta and Monsanto in the face of a growing “bee apocalypse” that the Kremlin warns “will most certainly” lead to world war.

According to these minutes, released in the Kremlin today by the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment of the Russian Federation (MNRE), Putin was so incensed over the Obama regimes refusal to discuss this grave matter that he refused for three hours to even meet with Kerry, who had traveled to Moscow on a scheduled diplomatic mission, but then relented so as to not cause an even greater rift between these two nations.

At the center of this dispute between Russia and the US, this MNRE report says, is the “undisputed evidence” that a class of neuro-active insecticides chemically related to nicotine, known as neonicotinoids, are destroying our planets bee population, and which if left unchecked could destroy our world’s ability to grow enough food to feed its population.

So grave has this situation become, the MNRE reports, the full European Commission (EC) this past week instituted a two-year precautionary ban (set to begin on 1 December 2013) on these “bee killing” pesticides following the lead of Switzerland, France, Italy, Russia, Slovenia and Ukraine, all of whom had previously banned these most dangerous of genetically altered organisms from being used on the continent.

Two of the most feared neonicotinoids being banned are Actara and Cruiser made by the Swiss global bio-tech seed and pesticide giant Syngenta AG which employs over 26,000 people in over 90 countries and ranks third in total global sales in the commercial agricultural seeds market.

Important to note, this report says, is that Syngenta, along with bio-tech giants Monsanto, Bayer, Dow and DuPont, now control nearly 100% of the global market for genetically modified pesticides, plants and seeds.

Also to note about Syngenta, this report continues, is that in 2012 it was criminally charged in Germany for concealing the fact that its genetically modified corn killed cattle, and settled a class-action lawsuit in the US for $105 million after it was discovered they had contaminated the drinking supply of some 52 million Americans in more than 2,000 water districts with its “gender-bending” herbicide Atrazine.

To how staggeringly frightful this situation is, the MNRE says, can be seen in the report issued this past March by the American Bird Conservancy (ABC) wherein they warned our whole planet is in danger, and as we can, in part, read:

“As part of a study on impacts from the world’s most widely used class of insecticides, nicotine-like chemicals called neonicotinoids, American Bird Conservancy (ABC) has called for a ban on their use as seed treatments and for the suspension of all applications pending an independent review of the products’ effects on birds, terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, and other wildlife.

“It is clear that these chemicals have the potential to affect entire food chains. The environmental persistence of the neonicotinoids, their propensity for runoff and for groundwater infiltration, and their cumulative and largely irreversible mode of action in invertebrates raise significant environmental concerns,” said Cynthia Palmer, co-author of the report and Pesticides Program Manager for ABC, one of the nation’s leading bird conservation organizations.

ABC commissioned world renowned environmental toxicologist Dr. Pierre Mineau to conduct the research. The 100-page report, “The Impact of the Nation’s Most Widely Used Insecticides on Birds,” reviews 200 studies on neonicotinoids including industry research obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act. The report evaluates the toxicological risk to birds and aquatic systems and includes extensive comparisons with the older pesticides that the neonicotinoids have replaced. The assessment concludes that the neonicotinoids are lethal to birds and to the aquatic systems on which they depend.

“A single corn kernel coated with a neonicotinoid can kill a songbird,” Palmer said. “Even a tiny grain of wheat or canola treated with the oldest neonicotinoid — called imidacloprid — can fatally poison a bird. And as little as 1/10th of a neonicotinoid-coated corn seed per day during egg-laying season is all that is needed to affect reproduction.”

The new report concludes that neonicotinoid contamination levels in both surface- and ground water in the United States and around the world are already beyond the threshold found to kill many aquatic invertebrates.”

Quickly following this damning report, the MRNE says, a large group of group of American beekeepers and environmentalists sued the Obama regime over the continued use of these neonicotinoids stating: “We are taking the EPA to court for its failure to protect bees from pesticides. Despite our best efforts to warn the agency about the problems posed by neonicotinoids, the EPA continued to ignore the clear warning signs of an agricultural system in trouble.”

And to how bad the world’s agricultural system has really become due to these genetically modified plants, pesticides and seeds, this report continues, can be seen by the EC’s proposal this past week, following their ban on neonicotinoids, in which they plan to criminalize nearly all seeds and plants not registered with the European Union, and as we can, in part, read:

“Europe is rushing towards the good ol days circa 1939, 40… A new law proposed by the European Commission would make it illegal to “grow, reproduce or trade” any vegetable seeds that have not been “tested, approved and accepted” by a new EU bureaucracy named the “EU Plant Variety Agency.”

It’s called the Plant Reproductive Material Law, and it attempts to put the government in charge of virtually all plants and seeds. Home gardeners who grow their own plants from non-regulated seeds would be considered criminals under this law.”

This MRNE report points out that even though this EC action may appear draconian, it is nevertheless necessary in order to purge the continent from continued contamination of these genetically bred “seed monstrosities.”

Most perplexing in all of this, the MRNE says, and which led to Putin’s anger at the US, has been the Obama regimes efforts to protect pesticide-producer profits over the catastrophic damaging being done to the environment, and as the Guardian News Service detailed in their 2 May article titled “US rejects EU claim of insecticide as prime reason for bee colony collapse” and which, in part, says:

“The European Union voted this week for a two-year ban on a class of pesticides, known as neonicotinoids, that has been associated with the bees’ collapse. The US government report, in contrast, found multiple causes for the collapse of the honeybees.”

To the “truer” reason for the Obama regimes protection of these bio-tech giants destroying our world, the MRNE says, can be viewed in the report titled “How did Barack Obama become Monsanto’s man in Washington?” and which, in part, says:

“After his victory in the 2008 election, Obama filled key posts with Monsanto people, in federal agencies that wield tremendous force in food issues, the USDA and the FDA: At the USDA, as the director of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Roger Beachy, former director of the Monsanto Danforth Center. As deputy commissioner of the FDA, the new food-safety-issues czar, the infamous Michael Taylor, former vice-president for public policy for Monsanto. Taylor had been instrumental in getting approval for Monsanto’s genetically engineered bovine growth hormone.”

Even worse, after Russia suspended the import and use of an Monsanto genetically modified corn following a study suggesting a link to breast cancer and organ damage this past September, the Russia Today News Service reported on the Obama regimes response:

“The US House of Representatives quietly passed a last-minute addition to the Agricultural Appropriations Bill for 2013 last week – including a provision protecting genetically modified seeds from litigation in the face of health risks.

The rider, which is officially known as the Farmer Assurance Provision, has been derided by opponents of biotech lobbying as the “Monsanto Protection Act,” as it would strip federal courts of the authority to immediately halt the planting and sale of genetically modified (GMO) seed crop regardless of any consumer health concerns.

The provision, also decried as a “biotech rider,” should have gone through the Agricultural or Judiciary Committees for review. Instead, no hearings were held, and the piece was evidently unknown to most Democrats (who hold the majority in the Senate) prior to its approval as part of HR 993, the short-term funding bill that was approved to avoid a federal government shutdown.”

On 26 March, Obama quietly signed this “Monsanto Protection Act” into law thus ensuring the American people have no recourse against this bio-tech giant as they fall ill by the tens of millions, and many millions will surely end up dying in what this MRNE report calls the greatest agricultural apocalypse in human history as over 90% of feral (wild) bee population in the US has already died out, and up to 80% of domestic bees have died out too.

Article from EU

In an exclusive interview with CBC News, the former head of Canada’s most secretive intelligence agency says there should be greater parliamentary scrutiny of the clandestine spy service at the heart of Brazilian espionage allegations.

Calls for more openness are certain to get louder in the wake of fresh allegations the agency spied on Brazil's mining and energy ministry in search of corporate secrets.

John Adams, former chief of the Communications Security Establishment of Canada, says the secretive organization needs more parliamentary oversight. (CSEC)

In a rare interview, former spymaster John Adams told CBC News he thinks the government must do more "to make Canadians more knowledgeable about what the intelligence agencies are trying to do on their behalf."

Adams recently retired after seven years as head of the Communications Security Establishment Canada, and he admits the agency has deliberately kept Canadians in the dark about its operations for decades.

“There’s no question that CSEC is very, very biased towards the less the public knows the better, and in fact it seems to have worked, because you very seldom see them on the front page of the newspapers.”

Part of CSEC's mandate is to monitor foreign communications, including those coming into Canada.

But it cannot target domestic telephone or email traffic. I believe there not a grain of truth in the premise!

"That's against the law," says Adams, who left the highly secretive Ottawa-based agency last year. "Absolutely not."

But, he adds, "We have got capability that is unique to this country. No one else has it," Adams said.

Warning for Canadians

Adams admits that CSEC is not immune from some of the practices causing a furor in the U.S. and Britain, but stresses they are all legal.

For instance, he says, CSEC is gathering huge amounts of so-called metadata from phone companies and internet providers, information on large numbers of people including their complete phone and email records.

“Metadata is an issue, there’s no doubt about it,” Adams says, “but they can only use what they decide is relevant to ongoing investigations.”

American internet users are also up in arms over revelations that the NSA has been making deals with major telecommunications companies to get past the security encryption codes protecting customer data.

Adams won’t reveal details about how CSEC spies operate in this country, but they are apparently breaking through encryption.

“The reality is encryption is ubiquitous, it’s everywhere, so clearly if intelligence agencies are going to seek information, they’re going to be able to breach encryption.”

All of which helps to explain Adams’s warning for average Canadians: if you think anything you read, write or send via the internet is private, think again.

"The reality is if you're on the internet, you literally might as well be on the front page of the Globe and Mail," Adams says.

“You have to know that probably if someone’s interested in you, they may well be listening or reading or whatever it might be.”

Don’t count on passwords for protection, either.

“If you use a word that’s in the dictionary, they’ll crack it in less than a minute.”

Adams says about 900 of CSEC’s roughly 2,000 employees are involved in the spy business, both gathering intelligence and analyzing it.

A lot are young, talented computer hackers.

“These young people … they’re computer scientists, they’re engineers, they’re just interested in the business. And they can do things with CSEC that if they did them outside of CSEC would frankly be against the law.”

Privacy commissioner concerned

Jennifer Stoddart, Canada's privacy commissioner, is among those who worry Canadians are being kept in the dark about what goes on at CSEC.

"We don't know enough about what CSEC does," Stoddart said in an interview, adding that her office doesn't have the authority to shine a light on CSEC.

The agency has its own watchdog, retired judge Robert Decary, who is stepping down for personal reasons at the end of the year.

Decary has a total staff of about a dozen people, only about half of whom are actual investigators.

Decary doesn’t give interviews, but Adams says CSEC processes more data in a day than all of Canada’s banks combined, so “obviously he doesn’t have the resources to look at everything.”

But Adams says the watchdog’s team does have access to enough key data to know whether CSEC is “doing something against the privacy law.”

In his final report to Parliament, Decary said he was unable in one instance to be able to determine if CSEC had broken the law, and he called for greater transparency.

Critics say Decary is not entirely independent, pointing out he reports to the defence minister, not Parliament, and even then his reports have to be vetted by CSEC for “national security reasons.”

As a result, Decary and his predecessors have produced reports that are rarely enlightening to the public.

Even Adams, the former CSEC director, says it's time for the agency to be more open and report to a special all-party parliamentary committee.

That may come soon if CSEC continues to land in hot water over its foreign spying.

Allegations that CSEC spied on Brazil are just the latest.

Documents obtained by U.S. whistleblower Edward Snowden and published in the British newspaper the Guardian in June suggest CSEC may have been part of a scheme to hack the phone calls and emails of ministers and diplomats at a G20 summit in London in 2009.

The leaked documents were apparently part of the intelligence debriefing after the summit, and those that made reference to spying on foreign diplomats included the CSEC’s official seal along with those of the NSA and the British spy service known as GCHQ.
Big Brother’s little brother

Thomas Drake, a former NSA intelligence executive turned American whistleblower, says the Canadian logo on the document is proof that CSEC was somehow involved in the London spying.

“The fact that their seal shows up on those slides means they are participants by virtue of that alone.”

Drake says the Canadian and American intelligence agencies have a close relationship, though the U.S. and British agencies generally call the shots because of the sheer size of their operations.

“You can assume that in terms of CSEC, that it is one of the little brothers of Big Brother NSA,” Drake says.

So CSEC is “generally going to go along with whatever NSA and GCHQ say. They are in partnership.”

CSE’s participation in spying at the London summit is now bound to raise questions about whether Canada spied on its own guests at the G20 summit the following year in Toronto.

Canada's trade gap expanded from $908 million to $940 million as the country imported more from the rest of the world while exporting the same amount of goods and services.

The expanded trade deficit comes on top of a revision for the previous month. The data agency originally announced a $75 million surplus for October before revising that to a $908 million deficit due to lower than expected oil prices. How could this be with truthful government?

The Government funded and controlled Statistics Canada reported Tuesday that imports edged up to $40.7 billion while exports remained unchanged at $39.8 billion. One wonders if this data is any good at all.

The deficit was more than nine times as large as what economists were expecting. A consensus of economists polled by Bloomberg had been anticipating the figure to come in at a deficit of roughly $100 million for the month. Of course the professional Economists were wrong the Government were correct...yeah..? Will the economists be sacked ...how could they be son wrong.
'Trade served as a drag on the economy in November'- Scotiabank

"The Bank of Canada’s hoped for rotation of growth toward an export-led recovery remains elusive with another downside disappointment," Scotiabank economists Derek Holt and Dov Ziegler said in a note to clients after the release of the data. "The net implication is that trade served as a drag on the economy in November." ..... Note the Bank of Canada 'hoped' wow what a way to run a country.. on hope

Canada imported significantly fewer energy products during the month, as they were down 16.3 per cent to $2.9 billion for the month. Imports of crude oil and crude bitumen in particular decreased for a third consecutive month, down 24.9 per cent to $1.5 billion in November on lower volumes and prices.

On the other side of the ledger, Canada also shipped out less energy products — down 1.6 per cent to $9.3 billion. Crude oil and crude bitumen specifically fell by two per cent to $6.7 billion, a third consecutive decrease after reaching a record high in August 2013.

Canada has now posted a trade deficit for 23 consecutive months. That's the longest uninterrupted streak of deficits in almost a generation.

Historically, Canada posted trade surpluses more often than it did deficits on a month to month basis. But since the recession that began in 2009, the economy has been posting far more negative figures than surplus months. Did Canada have a recession we were told we did not have one that we were the best. .........yeah more waffle

TORONTO - By the time you finish lunch on Thursday, Canada's top paid CEOs will have already earned the equivalent of your annual salary.

It may be hard to swallow, but according to an annual review by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, by 1:11 p.m. on Jan. 2, the average top paid Canadian CEO will have been earned as much as the average full-time worker's yearly income.

The review found the average compensation among Canada's top 100 CEOs was $7.96 million in 2012. This compared with the average annual Canadian worker's salary of $46,634.

The centre says CEO pay for Canadian public companies listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange has ballooned by 73 per cent between 1998 and 2012, the latest figures available.

In contrast, the average Canadian full-time worker's annual salary has only grown by six per cent during this period.

This amounts to the country's top 100 highest-paid CEOs making 171 times the earnings of an average Canadian wage — a jump from 105 times in 1998.

Meanwhile, minimum wage workers employed for 40 hours a week earned an average of $20,989 a year in 2012.

"Compensation packages paid to chief executive officers have come under intense scrutiny and pressure from shareholders, the media, and the general public. There is no clear relationship between CEO compensation and any measure of corporate performance," said the report's author Hugh Mackenzie in a statement.

"But despite the scrutiny, the pay of CEOs in Canada and elsewhere has proven to be remarkably resilient."

The review found the top-earning executive in Canada was the head of the Canadian Pacific Railway (TSX:CP.TO - News), Hunter Harrison, who was paid $49.1 million in salary, stock options and bonuses in 2012.

Harrison, who retired as chief executive at Canadian National Railway Co. (TSX:CN.V - News) in 2009, saw his pay packet boosted some $44.5 million to make up for pension and other payments that CN refused to make when he took the top job at the rival railway.

The second-highest paid CEO was James Smith of Thomson Reuters Corp. (TSX:TRI.TO - News), who took home $18.8 million, followed by former Talisman Energy Inc.(TSX:TLM.TO - News) chief executive John Manzoni who pocketed $18.67 million in 2012.

The lowest-paid CEO on the top 100 list was Lino A. Saputo, of Montreal-based dairy Saputo Inc. (TSX:SAP.TO - News), who earned $3.85 million.

The review also pointed out that three women made it onto the list in 2012 — Linda Hasenfratz, CEO of Linamar Corp. (TSX:LNR.TO - News), Dawn Farrell, CEO of TransAlta Corp. (TSX:TA.TO - News), and Nancy Southern, CEO of ATCO Ltd. (TSX:ACO-X.TO - News).

In 2011, only one female executive was in the top 100 ranking.