Corporate Coup-de-tat

Two weeks ago I heard an interview on The Current (CBC) with Diane Finley, Minister of Human Resources and Skills Development, about social bonding or contracting. This scheme would have the Government of Canada contracting out social justice type of services to major corporations such as banks and resource extractors and insurance providers instead of non-profit agencies. At first, I had to mentally re-orient myself - I thought I was listening to another CBC program called "This is That" on Saturdays at eleven. Checked the calendar and it was indeed a weekday, time for The Current and it was not a spoof interview. So, what this means is that the Government is seriously exploring having banks, Cameco, Power Corp. and others take care of services for homeless people, prisoner rehabilitation, victims of child abuse, etc. This means that the very forces which encourage poverty, crime and inequality are going to be responsible for services related to these such social concerns, AND they will be paid by government to do so. Last week I saw another story on CBC regarding how the Harper government is cutting back on CIDA funding and instead working with mining corporations to deliver the services that NGO's and CIDA personnel were delivering previously overseas. If you don't believe me, look it up and weep. Sometimes I find it impossible to believe what I am hearing. What made this story even more surreal is that the day before this story came out, CBC reported that group from Guatemala had come to Canada to challenge the activities of a Canadian mining company operating in Guatemala, including reports of theft of property, physical violence and rape. Two different news items in two different weeks. The common thread here is that so-called free enterprise corporations have not only gained a firm grasp over our lives in terms of commodities and the market, they will soon be able to dominate our whole lives. No longer will anyone look at root causes of poverty, crime, abuse, sickness and inequity, such as seasoned social justice activists would, but we will only deal with the symptoms, the same way the medical institutions have done. To control our economic lives was not enough for the corporations, they now want to control every aspect of our humanity. "We asked for signs the signs were sent: the birth betrayed the marriage spent Yeah the widowhood of every government -- signs for all to see." Leonard Cohen, in "The Anthem"