Editorial

Doublespeak, 1990 |

The Doublespeak Commission of the Canadian Council of Teachers of English gave its 1989 Public Doublespeak Award to Finance Minister Michael Wilson for his tortuous defence of the Tory refusal to make good on its election promises. And in winning the prize, Wilson beat out an almost equally convo- luted comment by External Affairs Minister Joe Clark who was trying to explain how a Canadian bank could lend millions to South Africa despite a government ban.

That was last year.

This year, his eye firmly on the 1990 prize, Clark is out of the starting gate fast. He knows Wilson will be to beat again, bamboozling us on the Goods and Service Tax scam. He also knows Crosbie will perform verbal contortions defending free trade, and he has already heard Mulroney tell Atlantic Canada there’s no crisis there. _

Clark knows he’s in a serious fight.

So he struck his first blow in Parliament Jan. 22, adroitly explaining why Canada still permits U.S. cruise testing here, despite the dramatic changes in the international climate.

Responding to sharp questions from the NDP and Liberal defence critics, Clark “welcomed” the thaw in the cold war, the changes in Eastern Europe and steps toward disarmament. He loved the initiatives shown by Warsaw Pact

states.

But cruise testing will go on, he insisted. Why? Because, doublespoke Joe Clark, rearmament is necessary for disar- mament. A solid NATO front, bristling with doomsday weapons got the world

this far. Why quit now? he reasoned.

Clark strained every muscle to convince us that testing a deadly, new stealth cruise missile in a simulated attack against the USSR actually helps lessen tensions and builds confidence between our two countries. According to his logic, the Soviets must love being threatened with nuclear annihilation, they

respond to it so favourably.

The reality, of course, is that Clark still touts the “peace through strength” cold war line. Washington still calls the shots. The ‘“‘Soviet threat” mentality that spawned the Tory defence white paper still prevails.

No amount of Clark doublespeak can hide the fact that a new made-in- Canada foreign policy was never needed more than now.

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EDITOR

: Sean Griffin ASSOCIATE EDITOR

Dan Keeton

BUSINESS & CIRCULATION MANAGER Mike Proniuk GRAPHICS

Angela Kenyon

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hey’re not exactly treading on uncer-

tain ground — since the government in Ottawa will do exactly what the busi- ness community wants anyway — but it is worth noting that coverage in the business press has ventured into the field of corpo- rate tax handouts since the new year opened.

Cases in point are two pieces that appeared in the daily Financial Post in the last week. One was by Post staff writer Alexander Ross entitled Corporate Wel- fare, the other a guest commentary on corporate tax breaks by Carleton Univer- sity political economy professor Duncan Cameron.

That the Post should discuss the issue isn’t too surprising, of course — after all, it is federal budget time and its readers aren’t about to line up outside the steps of Parliament to demand a more equitable tax deal for all Canadians. And little of that coverage ever makes it into the pages of the daily press, which traditionally has taken a hands-off attitude when it comes to applying investigative journalism to the corporate sector.

But that lack of wider coverage is par- ticularly unfortunate because even what relatively little data Ross and Cameron provide underscores what dozens of unions and people’s organizations have been saying — that the corporate sector gets off lightly while working Canadians are carrying a higher income tax burden as

include the GST.

According to Cameron, who looked at the most recent tax statistics from 1987, there were 118,162 corporations, with combined profits of $25 billion, which paid nothing whatsoever in corporate income tax that year.

Similarly, although another 362,828 corporations, which reported combined

well as a load of new taxes, which could

People and Issues

profits of $87.7 billion in 1987, actually did pay taxes, they paid them at far below the prescribed rate. Cameron writes: “The corporate tax rate was supposed to be 36 per cent. Thanks to a leaky system, the effective rate of taxation of those profits was 17.7 per cent, about half the posted Tate. 3

What is worse is that many of the same corporations which don’t pay their share of taxes and appear before parliamentary committees calling for cuts to social spend- ing are those that go in the back door in Ottawa asking for corporate handouts — and get them.

. Ross cites figures from 1988 to show that major multinational companies such as Noranda, Johnson & Johnson and Repap Enterprises were recipients of huge grants from federal coffers. In the case of mining and forest products giant Noranda, whose profit in 1988 was $603 million, the com- pany received three separate grants for a total of $23 million. Repap Enterprises, the pulp and paper conglomerate, received just slightly less at $22.9 million. Even Campeau Corporation, which went through the U.S. and Canada buying up compan- ies before filing for bankruptcy under a mountain of debt, got $503,000.

To paraphrase the old adage, when it comes to business, the government giveth and the company taketh away.

Cameron points out that if a minimum tax rate of 20 per cent had been applied to all corporations — the rate that applies even in the free enterprise U.S. — it would

have raised an additional $8.2 billion. And although tax reform is supposed to snag more corporations in the tax net (while reducing the corporate rate), a minimum tax rate of 20 per cent would still bring in an additional $3 billion, according to fig- ures provided by the Canadian Labour Congress.

Cameron suggests, however, that the rate be restored to 36 per cent and that more of the loopholes that corporations use to evade taxes be closed.

“If corporations paid their share of taxes,” he notes, “we wouldn’t have to listen to business groups tell us, on behalf of those that don’t pay taxes, to cut back in spending for education, health and income support for the needy.”

* * Eo

he life of one whose list of activities for

the progressive and labour movements could fill volumes and which spanned sev- eral decades ended Jan. 26 when Edna Sheard died following an illness at Bur- naby General hospital. She was in her 90th year.

Edna was born in Bracebridge, Ont. in 1900, but spent most of her life in British Columbia. She worked as a domestic in her early years, and as an electrician’s and welder’s helper during World War II. But following the role of many women of the day, much of Edna’s work consisted a kind of extended motherhood — a valu- able service in itself — to the participants of various labour, unemployed and solid- arity activities from the early Thirties on.

Edna was a participant and support volunteer, providing medical attention to the wounded, in many of the province’s key labour battles, including the hunger

march of 1932 and the Battle of Ballantyne ‘

Pier, both savagely attacked by police. She organized several “Socks for Spain” cir- cles to support the Canadian volunteers in the 1937-39 civil war in Spain.

Her surviving daughter, Agnes Jack- son, recalled her mother’s activities in a 1951 Pacific Tribune tribute: “Marching on picket lines during the Burn’s strike; working in the Canadian Labor Defense League; writing and distributing leaflets; leading a delegation to the Japanese con- sulate here to protest the invasion of Man- churia; organizing activities of the Women’s Labor League — all these were just a part of her activities.”

The article also recalled Edna’s cook- ing, mending and washing duties in sup- port of the Post Office and Art Gallery occupations in Vancouver. Edna was still

- active on picket lines in 1966, taking part

in and getting arrested on the line at Len-

-kurt Electric, broken up by the RCMP.

Edna is survived also by son Bill Mar- tin, seven grandchildren and 15 great- grandchildren. A private funeral for family members was planned.

Donations in her memory may be made to the Communist Party, of which she was a member for most of her life, and the Pacific Tribune.

* * *

brief correction to the People and

Issues item about the late peace acti- vist Stan Morrison in the Jan. 22 issue. He was not, as we wrote, chair of the B.C. Peace Council, but of the Canadian Peace Congress branch in Regina. He was, how- ever, an active member of the B.C. Peace Council for many years.

4 Pacific Tribune, February 5, 1990