In this Election, Will I Give My vote to My Current Member of Parliament?

Our federal Parliament has now dissolved and the 2019 election has been called. Every eligible voter, all of us, must decide to whom among the candidates in our own federal constituencies we will give our vote. Will I vote for my current Member of Parliament (MP) the return to the next Parliament as my representative? No, I will not.

Why not? Partly for the same reason that I could not vote for her during the last election. At the time I found much about her candidacy that attracted my vote. Yet, to me, the sovereignty-deleting ISDS provision in so-called free trade agreements then under negotiation or pending negotiation had to be a major national issue (see my post from that time). I questioned each of our then candidates on this matter. My then MP, a senior Cabinet Minister in the previous government, easily supported her government’s ready abrogation of our national sovereignty through ISDS and its inherent characteristic of raising international corporations from being subjects of their home nations and welcome guests within other nations to be, in effect, non-territorial sovereign entities (I called them non-territorial kingdoms) equal in stature with sovereign nations. As a candidate, my current MP never answered my question or commented on the issue and that turned my vote away from her. After the 2015 election, I learned why she did not answer or address the issue as, instead of the “Real Change” promised during the election, the new government, of which she became a part as a Cabinet Minister, proceeded to perpetuate the previous government’s support for ISDS. Dismayed at this let-down, I later wrote an open letter to my new MP, made a submission to the House of Commons Standing Committee on International Trade, and an open letter to our Prime Minister with my concerns, all to no avail. Sadly and to Canada’s shame, that the renegotiation of NAFTA into the USMCA removed ISDS had nothing to do with Canada’s negotiating position but resulted entirely from American effort. TiSA, still under negotiation with Canada’s participation continues to include possible “backdoor” access to sovereignty-deleting ISDS. As a Cabinet Minister in our current government, my current MP continues to support subsuming our sovereign right to govern ourselves as a free and independent nation to ISDS.

As a more immediate reason why I cannot give my vote to my current MP, I look at the SNC Lavalin scandal. My MP supports our Prime Minister in spite of his interference in the judicial process, an unethical and, likely, unconstitutional action that, in times past, would have either brought on the resignation of a truly honourable Minister of the Crown or generated a cabinet or even caucus revolt to force such a resignation. Not only that, but my MP then accepted, however temporarily, the appointment to replace Jane Philpott at her Cabinet Ministry when Dr. Philpott took the highly honourable step of resigning in support of former Attorney General Jody Wilson-Reybould’s concerns over attempted Prime Ministerial interference with her authority concerning the judicial case involving SNC Lavalin.

So, to whom will I give my vote? Right now, I simply do not know.

When I vote, I vote the person; I do not vote the party. I will listen to whatever all our other candidates have to say on various issues. In particular, I will listen for strong affirmation of judicial independence from political interference and for strong acknowledgement and support for Canada’s independence as a free, self-governing, and sovereign nation not subject to corporate overrule via ISDS. I will look for commitments to support and/or enhance Canada’s existing health care system. I will also want to listen to candidates thoughts on local issues of a federal nature.

Above all though, and even more importantly in consequence of the growing environmental crisis, I will look for substantial intention to contribute to bringing Canada into a strong role in precluding the impending world-wide anthropogenic climate disaster and ending the currently proceeding anthropogenic mass extinction of living species. I will anticipate learning of intended action to transfer subsidies away from carbon dioxide and methane releasing industries and personal activity, turning those subsidies over to industries and personal activities that involve no carbon dioxide or methane release. I hope to learn of support for an industrial activity that isolates carbon for non-carbon dioxide releasing purposes or sequesters it.

Delta candidates, I await all that you have to say. Please say it with grace and intelligence.

Christmas Letter '17

Nadolig Llawen! Merry Christmas! Buon Natale!

Christmas 2017.

From our home to yours, dear Family and Friends,

Again it is our pleasure to share a little bit of our lives over the past year at this very special time of year.  We hope you enjoy a full and restful Christmas/New Year season.  2017 has remained a typical year for us, happy with mostly ordinary challenges.

Tina continues to take casual shifts, nursing at VGH  while she enjoys her retirement.  She also keeps up her cello lessons at the Delta Community Music School under the tutelage of Bo Peng, accepting gradually increasingly more challenging music to learn.  When Bo introduced Tina to a cello that more suitably matched her stature, she readily accepted the opportunity to change instruments. Now, Tina also enjoys the new cello’s music.

With exercise and prescribed medication, Ted's health continues as stable except for a bit of a cardiac scare earlier this month from atrial fibrillation that doctors assured us posed no threat. Otherwise, he is bothered only by occasional colds.  He continues to alternate 3 days of swimming (2500 m. in roughly 50 min.) with 3 days of cycling (16.4 km. in roughly 50 min.), sometimes substituting a good stiff walk (a little over 4.3 km. in roughly 45 min.), although through the current month that schedule has been somewhat disrupted.  In addition, Ted often walks Adam once or twice a day, depending on Angela’s working and studio activities.  With stops for sniffing and other doggy business, these walks do not constitute measurable exercise but can take an hour or more each.

Angela and her friends in the Dusty Babes Collective continue to work in their studio in south Surrey near White Rock. She has spent much of Tuesdays to Fridays with her own works at the studio.  Angela continued her part-time position as Monday ceramics studio technician for the South Surrey Recreation Centre in addition to her Saturday ceramics studio technician work for Vancouver’s West End Community Centre but added periodic stints teaching ceramics classes at South Surrey on Tuesday evenings. Angela’s immediate supervisor at South Surrey moved on to other opportunities at the beginning of December and Angela promptly received the call to take his place as the lead studio technician. This is still part-time work, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but, when she teaches on Tuesdays, her schedule becomes quite full. Busy Angela, the West End Community Centre has called her to take selected extra Tuesday and/or Thursday shifts this month. Tina and Ted both remain in wonder at the beauty of Angela’s ceramic creations which range from handcrafted ceramic buttons through cups and bowls of various sizes and exquisitely delicate ceramic sculptures to large vases. Last spring, the Dusty Babes received the honour of having two members, Angela and Amelia Butcher, accepted to have their works on permanent display at the Gallery of BC Ceramics. The Dusty Babe’s open studio, earlier this month, successfully presented and sold works by the entire collective. In addition, the Dusty Babes look forward to fulfilling their invitation to present a group show at this prestigious gallery of ceramic art, not yet scheduled in the new year, and at a scheduled showing of their works at a gallery in Gibson’s Landing, come spring.

Outside of her art, Angela continues her interest in sophisticated board games which she shares with her girlfriend, Christy, enjoying relaxing time to play each Sunday.

David continues his musical studies as a founding student in the new strings music program within the Music Department of Kwantlen Polytechnic University, commuting to the Langley campus for his final year.  His focus remains on his viola, giving him great success while he really enjoys his studies.  The strings program remains very small which means that no large ensemble (required as part the music degree program) exists, although the university attempted an approximation of a large group by forming a chamber orchestra with instructors from the Borealis String Quartet. This did not persist with the new term in September and KPU welcomed the Langley School District Honour Orchestra onto campus for rehearsals while taking the KPU string students into that large ensemble. David plays Principal Viola. Kwantlen also requires music students to participate in small ensembles and kept the chamber orchestra with Borealis as a small ensemble. We enjoyed the end-of-term recitals and concert performances by David as a solo performer with piano accompaniment and by his trio (David, a cello student, and a piano student from Kwantlen Music’s piano program) in March and by his solo performance with piano accompaniment and with the chamber orchestra at the end of term this month.  Outside university, David continues with private study on his viola with Robert Hirschhorn Rozak.

David continued private study on piano, at the Delta Community Music school, in Garth Preston’s studio, through the spring but did not resume with autumn, concentrating on his university studies.  David anticipated being free to take his viola to play and perform with the Stradivari Ensemble in the New Year but their rehearsal scheduling just did not work for him.  As anticipated, David did accept the Vancouver Welsh Mens’ Choir invitation to audition to join the choir and was accepted.  He attended a few rehearsals in the New Year, welcomed warmly, but found that learning choral music distracted him from his studies and regretfully decided he could not continue. He did want to keep up with some form of orchestral playing beyond what KPU offered. With a bit of investigating, David learned of the West Coast Symphony Orchestra, semi-professional organization that mixes professional and amateur musicians. He auditioned, was readily accepted in the viola section, and joined rehearsals late in the autumn. David looks forward to being part of his first concert with the WCSO in the New Year.

David continues to enjoy writing, especially fiction, with which he extends his imagination. He is currently in the midst of a major rewrite of The Stolen Treasure, a novel he had originally developed as a young teen.  His novel, The Sheltered Life of Betsy Parker, published two years ago as a digital copy continues to draw ongoing interest and responses on the GoodReads literary sharing site. David keeps the second addition available both digitally and as hardcopy on Amazon. From the events in the novel for which wrote piano tunes, David and his Music Technology instructor for developed a musical media project during the spring term. That instructor also introduced him to the Sarah McLachlan School of Music as a volunteer supporting young music students who share in David’s ASD, a very satisfying experience for David.

David’s ASD remains a significant factor in his life, limiting his social connection among his contemporaries and gave him a second crisis mental health issue early in the year. He had the courage to share this publicly and his ASD specialist psychiatrist and our minister at Ladner United Church, together, give David wonderful support in response through that issue. Tina and I feel deeply thankful for such readily at-hand support.

Other than a few quick trips to Vancouver Island, our only get-away this year was a return to Cusheon Lake Resort on Salt Spring Island for the Canada Day weekend.  This brought us our familiar enjoyments of the lake, Beddis Beach, Ruckle Park, Ganges, and Salt Spring Island Gelato at Harlan’s as well as their, remarkable for a small community, Canada Day fireworks.

This year brought two significant life events for us to mark. We helped Ted’s immediately younger brother John celebrate his seventieth birthday in Calgary in September. In the extended family, Ted has become a great uncle once more. His nephew, Gareth and wife Zoë remain at the University of Melbourne where Gareth works on a post-doctoral fellowship studying the effects of artificial lighting on cricket and other insect populations. They now have their first born child making grandparents of Ted’s little brother Norman and his wife Barbara, just born as Ted writes this.

Also with the extended family, in March Ted went Calgary with Norman to support John as he proudly presented some of Dad’s memoirs and poetry to the Calgary Welsh Society at their annual St. David’s Day luncheon. John’s wife, Liz, daughter Leah and our Cousin Iris Macleod also attended. The membership received the presentation and accompanied by a PowerPoint slide show very well. Ted’s extended family also grew as he located a long-lost family member.  Several years ago, Ted had done genealogical DNA testing with 23andMe. As part of their service, they advise of others in their database with closely matching DNA.  One such person turned out to be Crystal Adamek, the daughter of Ted’s late half-brother, Bud (Edward Joseph Hopkins)’s only son, Ted’s nephew, long lost to the family ever since he was adopted as a young boy by his mother’s second husband. Born Victor Warren Hopkins, he is now Victor St. Laurent and lives in Swan Hills, Alberta, sharing Ted’s interest in amateur astronomy.  Victor and his wife Della with Crystal, her husband Wayne, and baby daughter give new branches to the Family Tree! Ted and John keep occasional contact with them both as we delight in welcoming them into our extended family and Ted and Victor sway comment on night sky events.

Looking beyond ourselves, Ted remains troubled by the direction Canada’s new federal government continues to take: not enough of the promised “real change” and too much keeping the destructive policies of the defeated previous government.  This applies most strikingly to the government’s approach to so-called free trade treaties (more accurately characterized as international corporate protection deals) containing the sovereignty-attacking ISDS provision that treats international business corporations not as subjects of nations and welcome guests within other nations but more as non-territorial kingdoms apart from and equal with nations. Ted’s concern impelled him to prepare a petition in response to NAFTA renegotiation, focussed on this element of the treaty. He copied the text to his blog. He is deeply disappointed with the lack of participation in this petition as Canadians seem either no longer to have care about retaining our national sovereignty or do not understand the threat.  We also share a certain unease with many around us at the actions of the new President of our neighbours to the south and his Republican-dominated Congress.

We continue to share many Canadian’s concern for the plight of the many refugees from those horrible civil wars in Syria and Yemen. May a way to peace be found quickly.  Our congregation at Ladner United Church still supports one Syrian refugee family after two others attained sufficient independence to make their own decisions and relocate closer to relatives in Ontario.

Catinka, in her eighteenth year, remains very much queen of our house, while Angela’s ducks continue to hold authority over our backyard. Jemima and Rebeccah again resumed their egg production with the new year, just as heavily as last year, then slowed and stopped completely when they moulted with the end of summer.  They have not yet returned to laying again.  Adam, Angela’s red-haired standard poodle, continues to endear himself to us all.  He keeps quite the collection of “friends” that he loves to greet and engage in play when out and about, his favourite game being “Chase Me,” running in great circles centred on the one of us who is out with him while his “friend” chases him along an inner circle.  To Adam’s dismay, many of his “friends” still give up on this game. He runs too fast for them.

As winter came back to us, we have enjoyed south Delta’s annual return of Trumpeter Swans and the vast flocks of Snow Geese. Very soon, trees along Highway 10 will burst into our annual crop of Bald Eagles. At home, our bird feeder remains frequented by Chickadees, House Finches, and Juncos while Anna’s Hummingbirds use their feeder more frequently and Steller’s Jays enjoy our steady supply of peanuts.

Ted continues to seek players to experiment with his invented team sports of Two Ball and Delta.  Lacking sufficient contact of his own among sports-minded youth, he continues to approach schools as their Physical Education and intramural sport programs likely offer the best chance of drawing sufficiently large groups of players together.  This remains disappointing as no schools have taken up either game yet.  Ted also keeps up his web presence for the games, periodically posting to the site blog, and on Facebook.  These continue to catch some attention worldwide, but he still awaits word of anyone actually playing either game.  You are most welcome to have a look and draw the games to the attention of sport-minded people you may know.

And now we look forward to 2018.  Recent weeks, of course, have filled us with Christmas preparations.  We hope yours have gone well and we wish you a Merry and Blessed Christmas and all happiness in the New Year.

With our love,

Ted, Tina, David, and Angela.

P. S. That this letter arrives on Christmas Eve is entirely deliberate.

Blwyddyn Newydd Dda! Happy New Year! Felice Nuovo Anno!

Petition Re NAFTA and ISDS

I have prepared a petition in response to the opportunity to seek removal of ISDS from NAFTA given by the intention of the new President of the United States to open NAFTA for renegotiation.  The text of the petition follows.  Unlike the actual petition which cannot contain hyperlinks, this copy contains links to various related articles about ISDS.  The petition itself is on Change.org; do not attempt to sign it here.

Petition Re NAFTA and ISDS

To:  Prime Minister, The Right Honourable Justin P. J. Trudeau,

Minister of International Trade, the Honourable François-Philippe Champagne,

The Parliament of Canada, and

the rest of the Government of Canada

Whereas The new President of the United States of America has stated his intention to open the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) for complete renegotiation; and

Whereas Negotiations for NAFTA and for other so-called free trade agreements have been and continue to be conducted in secret by government trade negotiators with the exception that representatives of international corporations with interest in the effects of international trade are permitted access to these negotiators and to contribute to treaty development while:

• wholly domestic Canadian businesses with an interest in how international trade may affect their own local business operations,
• organizations concerned about environmental issues and how international trade may impact the Canadian and worldwide environment,
• labour organizations with concerns about how international trade may affect working Canadians,
• Canadian agricultural organizations with concerns about Canadians’ capacity to feed ourselves while also trading internationally,
• organizations attentive to health and safety issues and concerned with the effect of international trade on those issues, and
• others with interest in the effect of international trade on Canadian society

          are all prohibited the same access to Canada’s government trade negotiators; and

Whereas NAFTA contains provision for Investor/State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) through the International Centre for Settlement of Investor Disputes (ICSID); and

Whereas ISDS permits international corporations to sue Canada by tribunal outside of any national judiciary to overturn new law enacted out of our sovereign right to govern ourselves; and

Whereas ISDS suits get decided in secret trials without recourse to appeal, utter anathema to a free and democratic society, never open and public; and

Whereas The evil of ISDS lies in its capacity to defeat the sovereign right of nations, Canada included, to govern themselves by granting international corporations with investments in Canadian business the right to sue Canadian federal, provincial, and local governments in these SECRET TRIALS outside of the Canadian judicial system if new environmental, labour, health and safety, business practice, etc. law impinges on their investment; and

Whereas These secret ISDS trials exist in one direction only – international corporations may sue nations, Canada included, but nations may not sue international corporations – ISDS raises international corporations from their proper status as subjects of nations and welcome guests within Canada to superiors of nations; and

Whereas Decisions by ISDS tribunals are based solely on the impact new Canadian law may have upon a complainant corporation’s investment, with all other factors (environmental, labour, health and safety, business practice regulation, etc.) government must consider when drafting law, regarded as irrelevant to each case; and

Whereas Decisions by ISDS tribunals are based upon neither existing statutes of any kind nor active precedents, implying that Canadian governments cannot know, when preparing new law, if our actions may be subject to attack under ISDS and, thus, may feel need to clear any new law with international corporate boards of directors if Canada wishes to preclude attack by ISDS suits; and

Whereas The above four conditions transform international corporations from subjects of nations or welcome guests within Canada to, in effect, non-territorial kingdoms and reinforces the current dangerous trend corrupting Capitalism toward Capital Feudalism by which:

• Capital replaces land as the feu;
• International banking replaces the Church as the external power;
• Non-territorial international corporations replace kingdoms as the fundamental holders of the feu;
• Corporate CEOs replace kings as the authorities by which the feu gets distributed and to whom loyal attachment must return;
• Major corporate internal divisions and subsidiaries replace baronies, earldoms, dukedoms, counties, etc. as subordinate holders of the feu;
• Corporate vice presidents, very senior managers, and subsidiary CEOs replace the various Lords of the Realm;
• Corporate managers and highly skilled technical professionals replace knights;
• Contractors replace the freeman peasantry; and
• Ordinary common working people are reduced to the new serfs;

All while the role of sovereign nations and democratic decision making diminishes into insignificance, reducing Canada and participating nations to resource and labour colonies of international corporations; and

Whereas As a consequence of our participation in NAFTA, Canada is already the developed nation most frequently attacked with ISDS suits, with one immediately a recent case in point, an ISDS judgment against the province of Ontario; and

Whereas NAFTA is widely considered to be a template and precedent for many other so-called free trade agreements in which Canada currently participates or are under negotiation with Canada’s participation;

Therefore We the undersigned Canadians, prepared, “O Canada, We stand on guard for thee,” do petition you to:

Require that The sovereignty-deleting Investor/State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) through the International Centre for Settlement of Investor Disputes (ICSID) provision be wholly removed from a renegotiated North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA);

Require that In place of ISDS, a renegotiated NAFTA provide that Canadian operations of international corporations which find themselves at issue with our governments at any level should bring the matter to an open and public Canadian court within the Canadian judicial system for decision under Canadian law in the same way as wholly domestic Canadian corporations and Canadian citizens must do;

Require that Alternatively, in place of ISDS, a renegotiated NAFTA provide that, if an issue exceeds the competence of Canadian courts, an international corporation should openly and publicly request its home nation government (by home nation, we do not mean that nation within which an international corporation is chartered or locates its corporate head office; we mean that nation in which the plurality of the corporation's equity capital ownership resides) to pursue the matter in an open and public international court on a sovereign nation versus sovereign nation basis that clearly holds international corporations as subjects of sovereign nations and not as equals with, nor as masters of, sovereign nations;

Require that In line with this government’s commitment to be fully open to Canadians, the renegotiation occur openly for public scrutiny; and

Require that Representatives of:

• wholly domestic Canadian businesses with an interest in how international trade may affect their own local business operations,
• organizations concerned about environmental issues and how international trade may impact the Canadian and worldwide environment,
• labour organizations with concerns about how international trade may affect working Canadians,
• Canadian agricultural organizations with concerns about Canadians’ capacity to feed ourselves while also trading internationally,
• organizations attentive to health and safety issues and concerned with the effect of international trade on those issues, and
• others with interest in the effect of international trade on Canadian society

have the same access and opportunity to contribute to a renegotiated NAFTA as do representatives of international corporations.

Therefore also We Canadians who love our sovereign, “True north, strong and free,” do petition you to:

Commit to Seek to remove ISDS from all other so-called free trade agreements to which Canada is party, as those agreements come up for renewal,

Refuse to Sign or ratify so-called free trade agreements currently under negotiation as long as they contain ISDS,

Refuse to Participate in any new so-called free trade negotiations if parties to those negotiations intend to include ISDS.

Thank you for your attention.

The Single Most Vital Issue for the Current Canadian Federal Election

Many issues of great importance require close examination before we vote this October 19th:

•Issues around the environment and sustainability hold great importance but, if an international corporation can sue Canada in secret trial by tribunal outside of our justice system, and without recourse to appeal, to overthrow Canadian government actions in response to these environmental issues, efforts by any level of Canadian government will be futile;

•Issues around the economy and employment hold great importance but, if an international corporation can sue Canada in secret trial by tribunal outside of our justice system, and without recourse to appeal, to overthrow Canadian government actions in response to labour, health and safety, business practice, etc. issues, efforts by any level of Canadian government will be futile.

Thus, the fundamental issue to address during this election has to be that of Canada’s sovereign right to govern ourselves as a free and independent nation, “The true north strong and free.”

The first question every voter should ask of every candidate for election to Parliament from each riding across our much loved nation should be, “Are you Committed to Canada’s sovereignty as a free and independent nation?”

•If an incumbent candidate who supports the current government answers, “Yes,” then the only possible follow-up question must be, “If you are committed to our sovereignty, why do you support a government that suborned Canada’s national sovereignty and continues to suborn?”

-This so-called loyal Conservative government negotiated in secret, then signed and eventually ratified the Canada-China Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Agreement (FIPPA) which goes far beyond simply providing for freer trade but, in effect, diminishes Canada to a resource colony of the Communist dictatorship in Beijing for the next thirty-one years.  With the inclusion of the investor-state dispute settlement (ISDS) provision, Chinese firms (which are merely arms of the Chinese Communist dictatorship) with investments in Canadian business now have the right to sue Canadian federal, provincial, and municipal governments in secret trials by tribunals outside of our justice system if new environmental, labour, health and safety, business practice, etc. law impinges on their investment.  That is to say, Canada now has to clear such new laws, regulations, and court judgements with Beijing in order to bring them into effect.

-Similarly, this government participates in Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA), Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), and Trade in Services Agreement (TiSA) secret negotiations and has signed other so-called free trade agreements, all of which include provisions for ISDS by which international corporations can turn to the International Centre for Settlement of Investor Disputes (ICSID) to sue sovereign nations in secret trials by tribunals outside of any national judiciary to overturn new law enacted out of a nation’s sovereign right to govern itself (fortunately pre-existing law as at signing an ISDS containing agreement cannot get attacked, but participating nations will have to clear such new laws, regulations, and court judgements with corporate head offices if they hope to remain safe from attack).  This provision raises international corporations from the subjects of nations to, in effect, non-territorial kingdoms equal with or superior to no-longer sovereign nations while reducing nations to resource and labour colonies of those multinational corporations.

-For these actions Prime Minister Harper and those of his ministers involved in these negotiations should be called to answer to the charge of treason.

•If a non-incumbent candidate who supports the current government answers, “Yes,” then the only possible follow-up question must be, “If you are committed to our sovereignty, are you aware that the current government suborned Canada’s national sovereignty and continues to suborn?”

•If a candidate who does not support the current government answers, “Yes,” then a possible follow-up question would be, “If you are committed to our sovereignty, what are your thoughts on so-called free trade treaties Canada has already signed which include the sovereignty destroying ISDS provision and where do you stand with regard to Canada’s participation in TPP and the secret negotiations toward CETA, TTIP, and TiSA?”

-Instead of ISDS, Canadian operations of international corporations that find themselves at issue with our governments at whatever level should bring the matter to an open and public Canadian court within the Canadian judicial system for decision under Canadian law in the same way as Canadian corporations and Canadian citizens must do.

-If an issue exceeds the competence of Canadian courts, an international corporation should be required to publicly request its home nation government to pursue the matter in an open and public international court on a sovereign nation versus sovereign nation basis that clearly holds international corporations as subjects of sovereign nations and not equals with sovereign nations.