Herr Harper: Master Of The Twitterverse

Given the Prime Minister's penchant for control, I suppose this story should come as no surprise, but does rather conspicuously give lie to his claim of running an open and transparent government, doesn't it?

OTTAWA - Pity the poor government tweet, nearly strangled in its cradle before limping into the Twitterverse.

Newly disclosed documents from Industry Canada show how teams of bureaucrats often work for weeks to sanitize each lowly tweet, in a medium that's supposed to thrive on spontaneity and informality.

Most 140-character tweets issued by the department are planned weeks in advance; edited by dozens of public servants; reviewed and revised by the minister's staff; and sanitized through a 12-step protocol, the documents indicate.

Insiders and experts say the result is about as far from the spirit of Twitter as you can get — and from a department that's supposed to be on the leading edge of new communications technologies.

The documents, obtained through the Access to Information Act, show such a high level of control that arrangements are made days in advance to have other government agencies re-tweet forthcoming Industry Canada tweets, because re-tweets are considered a key measure of success.

In turn, Industry Canada agrees to do the same for tweets from the Business Development Bank of Canada and others.

Formal policy for the department was set into a protocol last October, with a 12-step process that requires numerous approvals for each tweet from Industry Minister James Moore's office or from the office of Greg Rickford, the junior minister.

Public servants vet draft tweets for hashtags, syntax, policy compliance, retweeting, French translation and other factors. Policy generally precludes tweeting on weekends, and the minister's personal Twitter handle must be kept out of departmental tweets, though his name and title are often included.

The Voice of Labour Roars

Although those in the embrace of neo-liberalism would have us believe that unions and worker solidarity are but a quaint historical artifact, the size of yesterday's rally in London, Ontario protesting the predatory practices of Catterpillar Inc. suggests otherwise.

In response to the company's attempt to halve the wages of its workers at Electro-Motive Canada and severely reduce pensions and other benefits,

A crowd of more than 10,000 descended upon this city’s Victoria Park to support local workers who have been locked out of their jobs since the new year. They came from all over, from Timmins, Sudbury, and Pennsylvania in scores of buses. They came to protest corporate greed and Stephen Harper.

Ken Lewenza, president of Canadian Auto Workers, offered a sobering warning to the Harper government, which permitted the sale of the company to U.S.-based Caterpillar, and now seems egregiously unconcerned about the disastrous consequences that decision has wrought:

“If the government doesn’t step in, Canada will become a low-paid workforce .... We need to protect the middle class if we want a more equal society.”

Apparently any concern for the fate of the middle class is trumped by Mr. Harper's ideology, an ideology which seems to believe that unfettered capitalism can do no wrong.

Caterpillar, Inc. - A Reprehensible Corporate 'Citizen'

When I think of caterpillars (which, until recently, I have to admit, has been rarely), I think of a slow-moving yet determined creature on its way to metamorphosis, often into something quite beautiful. Unfortunately, that gentle imagery must be cast aside when considering Caterpillar Inc., an ugly corporate entity intent on wreaking havoc to those in its employ.

As previously noted, Electro-Motive Canada, a subsidiary of the company, has made untenable demands of its workers, resulting in a lockout at its London plant. In The Star today, David Olive writes on how the gutting of contracts is a practice well-documented in Caterpillar''s American operations, employing a tactic best described as a war of attrition against its employees:

The firm has a practiced skill at “taking a strike” for as long as required until workers straggle back to work across their own picket lines.

Indeed, the usual excuse of seeking increased productivity during difficult times doesn't even apply to its ruthless tactics:

Well ahead of the Great Recession, during a banner year for the world’s largest maker of construction and mining equipment, Cat insisted that its managers gird for a worst-case scenario of an 80 per cent plunge in sales over two years.

And on a single day in 2009, Caterpillar blithely laid off 11,000 employees, or 9 per cent of its global workforce. Like most U.S. employers, Cat has a hair-trigger for layoffs at the first sign of tough times.

Despite this well-documented practice, it was given permission by Industry Canada in 2010 to purchase Electro-Motive Canada in London, for generations the North American locomotive arm of General Motors Corp.

And yet silence over this outrageous corporate behaviour, which would assumes violates the terms of the foreign takeover, ensues from both the Harper government in general, and Industry Canada is particular.

Where is the outrage?

What were the terms, if any, that Industry Canada stipulated for Electro-Motive's purchase?

Where are the leaders of the opposition parties, who have thus far observed the same stony silence as the government?

Who will speak up in defense of good-paying Canadian jobs?

One shudders to consider the answers.

Caterpillar Locks Out Employees at London Plant

After unilaterally imposing the terms of its last contract offer on its workers, terms of which entail the halving of wages and a substantial reduction in benefits, Electro-Motive Canada, a subsidiary of U.S. industrial giant Caterpillar Inc., has locked out its Lomdon-based workers.

The Harper government, which permitted the company's sale to an American corporate entity through Industry Canada, remains silent on the performance guarantees given by Caterpillar as a condition of the sale.

A great beginning to 2012, one that follows a pattern well-established in 2011.

One final note: Caterpillar's earnings for the third quarter ending Sept. 30 totaled US$1.14 billion, up 44% from a year earlier.

Industry Canada Fails Yet Another Group of Canadian Workers

Hot on the heels of the Harper government's capitulation to U.S. Steel in Hamilton, yet another failure by Industry Canada to protect the interests of Canadians is evident in the latest contract 'offer' from London, Ontario-based Electro-Motive Canada, a subsidiary of U.S. industrial giant Caterpillar Inc.

The C.A.W. has taken a strike vote, with a Saturday night deadline, after the company offered to chop the workers' $35 hourly wage in half, the rejection of which seems to have bewildered the company:

We are disappointed that a competitive collective agreement could not be reached with the union,” the company said in a statement through Toronto public relations firm Fleischman-Hillard.

What is especially demoralizing about this situation is that it comes three years after $5 million in tax breaks [were] announced on the factory floor by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Although since sold to an American company, the government refuses, as it did in the U.S. Steel takeover of Stelco, to reveal the terms stipulated by the government in the purchase; Industry Canada, an increasing oxymoronic and redundant department thanks to the Harper government's policy of appeasement of the all things American, states: “It would be inappropriate to comment on this matter until the future of the plant is more clear.”

Happy New Year, everyone. Thanks to the incompetence or indifference of our political 'masters,' it sounds like 2012 will see 'business' as usual for unfettered capitalism and our rapid return to being hewers of wood and drawers of water.

Watch This Video To See What's Wrong With Canada's Foreign Investment Review Policy

This video, from Michael Moore's website, shows the social and economic devastation that will result from the decision by Brazilian-owned Vale to close its nickel and smelter refinery in Thompson Manitoba in 2015.

After receiving approval to buy Inco, the mine's previous owner, in 2006, and after receiving a $1 billion loan from the Harper Government last fall with the promise of increasing jobs, Vale has shown what kind of corporate citizen it is upon announcing this closure, which will result in upwards of 500 job losses.

This is the most recent in a series of disastrous decisions made by Investment Canada and Industry Minister Tony Clement, and mirrors the action taken by U.S. Steel in closing its Hamilton operations shortly after being given the green light to take over the former Steel Company of Canada.

Isn't it strange that it takes a foreign national, Michael Moore, to publicize what we Canadians should all be outraged about?