How would you feel if someone told you that every one of your paycheques was being used to support war crimes and keep the companies accused of these atrocities rolling in lucrative business? And how would you feel if you lived off the avails of torture and bloodshed through the Canada Pension Plan (CPP), upon your long-awaited retirement after paying into it? This appears to be our dirty little secret, that Canadians enjoy prosperity at the unethical demise of others.
In a recent interview with Harry Fear we touched on CPP investments and how they contribute to the Israel-Palestine conflict; through complicity in drone warfare, an illegal wall, the death of children and suppression of human rights.
While this was enough to make anyone angry, it wasn't until I received mortified responses from baby boomers that I investigated further. The messages from this demographic were compelling and show that we're ready to take action to restore our reputation and the shame of these transgressions will not be tolerated.
It's claimed the amounts we contribute to CPP are not enough to cover the population's living expenses and as a result, the plan turns to the stock market in an effort to generate a sustainable future. We've done well enough that organizations are pushing for expansion, to allow Canadian retirees a degree of pride that sustains them above the poverty line. With the amount of privatization, downloading and user fees they will surely need it; but the Harper government says we can't afford to treat our own a little better.
It may indeed be a matter of priorities, but not as we are led to believe from a lack of funding. Instead it's the difference between humanitarian care for Canadians, versus the pursuit of power in a vicious, military-industrial complex. At the end of the day CPP relief is not available to seniors because the government wants a greater share to invest in pet projects of warfare.
Our domestic (PDF) and foreign portfolios (PDF) are available on the CPP Investment Board website. Scanning through the foreign list we come across L-3 Communications Holdings, where we invested $10 million in solidarity with a company held responsible for the Abu Ghraib prison scandal.
Everyone remembers the horrifically iconic photographs that circulated media from the darkest corners of Iraq. What Canadians may not have realized is that our holding, L-3 Communications, was the first private contractor to settle with victims for $5.8 million to account for their role in the torture and inhumanity.
Reprieve is a UK charity focused on the human rights of prisoners. They cite L-3 Communications as not just a violator in the Abu Ghraib case, but also as a"key drone component manufacturer" for the American-made predator. This is the weaponized, remote control aircraft responsible for increasing attacks on civilians in Pakistan and Yemen.
According to international law it's illegal to use armed drones in non-war zones, but no one from the company will acknowledge these concerns. In the meantime, as many as 885 innocents were killed, accounting for 176 children in Pakistan alone. That means every working person in Canada paid about $5 in CPP contributions to make it happen and we continue to perpetuate violence in this corner of the world.
But our unethical investments don't end there. We support Elbit Systems Ltd., on the forefront of miniature drone cars that also kill by remote control. They can take action of their own accord, without the need for human intervention to shoot whatever these Guardium models deem a threat in their computerized judgement. Automatic killing machines pose a challenge to human rights and yet the Canada Pension Plan is behind pushing them to market.
Canadians hold another $16 million in CAE, as a partner to Elbit for the purpose of developing Integrated Soldier Systems. Most information has been removed from public view by the Department of National Defence since the project was approved for a tendering process by the Canadian government. Earlier research (PDF) indicates the creation of veritable robo-cops like what we've seen in the movies, complimented by eyepieces with pop-up TV screens to feed intel to the troops. This is the military meets Xbox and CPP facilitates this development too.
With the presence of hacktivist groups like Anonymous watching over the battlefield and increased warnings from CSIS regarding digital espionage as the biggest threat to our security, a new industry of war games is birthed against conventional wisdom that places profit front of mind with little regard for human beings.
In fact, Chinese-based servers are responsible for hacking into Canada's defence research, treasury and finance departments in an unprecedented breach of our most classified information. Ironically, the Integrated Soldier System was housed in a compromised department and it may still come to pass that the government looks to Anonymous for protection at the rate we're going.
By no means are these the only examples of our financial stake in conflict, but they do represent some of the most heinous crimes and self-inflicted danger that our savings are used to promote. With every paycheque we're breaking human rights around the world. CPP has been manipulated to terrorize Palestinian children by the hundreds of thousands. Hundreds more are killed across the Middle East and a majority of countries where drones are hovering equipped with missiles. The ones that aren't weaponized perform surveillance to challenge North American civil liberties and we're so heavily invested in warfare that if peace occurred, our retirement fund would become bankrupt.
It's important to understand that CPP is not a tax and therefore doesn't qualify as government revenue (PDF) to do with as it pleases. Despite this, the investment board is a crown corporation that is directly responsible to the federal government and immediately after Prime Minister Stephen Harper was elected in 2006, they updated their policies to encourage aggressive tactics.
Dramatic changes followed quickly. In 2007, new legislation altered CPP practices through measures contained in Bill C-36. By April 2007, all CCP assets were transferred to control of the investment board (PDF, see pg. 18, New Investment Policy) and in 2012 they changed from passive management to active management techniques. Aggressive trading requires a team of involved experts and staff at the CPP ballooned from 70 to 811 in the same short period [LINK]. They've opened offices in Hong Kong and London, took on riskier markets, decreased Canadian equities in favour of foreign projects, hedged currency and shifted public holdings to private interests. Our hard-working dollars used to find their place in safer government bonds, but the lion's share was migrated to a war-centric market.
The investment board explains they're unique from other retirement funds and they're padded to take on the risk. They're only expected to share 25 per cent of profits to provide for CPP benefits and the working class pays the rest. With $170 billion in assets now and 18 million people to cover, the plan can already sustain itself for another 75 years. (PDF, see pgs. 1-21, CCPIB Annual Report 2012).
Since Conservative rule and the CPP makeover, we've borne the brunt of losses great as 18.6 per cent. We must divest from the war machine and put our money where it doesn't kill, if not for humanitarian grounds then because financially it doesn't make sense. As international diplomats have said, "Canada is not the good guys anymore -- we all have a bit of blood on our hands."
See Part II, CPP and the Conflicts of Interest....
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Nice to see someone else talk about it to.
The world's top war industries
http://coat.ncf.ca/research/Pensions-Top100.htm
F-35 contractors
http://coat.ncf.ca/research/Pensions-F35.htm
Cluster-munitions
http://coat.ncf.ca/research/Pensions-CB.htm
Nuclear weapons
http://coat.ncf.ca/research/Pensions-Nukes.htm
See "Killer Pensions: Pension funds force Canadians to invest in war industries"
http://coat.ncf.ca/articles/killer-pensions.htm
"Profiting from Israeli Apartheid:
CPP Investments Supporting Israel's Military-, Police-, Surveillance-, Prison-Industrial Complex
Part 1 http://coat.ncf.ca/P4C/66/66.htm
Part 2 http://coat.ncf.ca/P4C/67/67.htm
Join 1300+ who’ve signed our petition
http://peaceaction.ca/cpp-israel/
In 2003, COAT began the first campaign to oppose unethical CPP investments.
"Operation Embedded Complicity:
Canada, Playing our Part in the Business of War"
http://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/52/52.html
COAT research inspired a day-long Parliamentary debate led by NDP MP Pat Martin to prohibit CPP investments "in companies...that manufacture and trade in military arms and weapons, have records of poor environmental and labour practices…contrary to Canadian values."
"Martin said his motion was inspired by a recent study by the Coalition to Oppose the Arms Trade, which linked CPP investments to top U.S. military contractors." (Ottawa Citizen, Feb. 8, 2004.)
Please support our efforts!
I mulled over what we as Canadians can do to stop this inhumane action. I've come up with a localized solution. Now that political party candidates of local wards across the country seek support for their election or re-election campaigns in behalf of their political party, is this just not the most opportune time for Canadians to ask some pivotal questions like: What is your position on this CPP supporting war crimes issue? Do you even know about it, and if not, why? If you do, what is your position on it (since seniors are part of the constituency you wish to represent)? If you do not support what your government is doing, what are YOU prepared to DO to oppose this atrocity?
Do you not think their answers will separate the wheat from the chaff? Will their response not indicate if they actually have the best interests of their constituents at heart? Does it not reveal who is worthy of your political support, regardless of the campaign promises they make or the parties you prefer to support & have aligned yourselves with in the past for whatever reason?
What matters is what these hopeful governmental representatives are prepared to do in your best interests.
Even if you are NOT a senior now, you WILL be a senior at some point down the road. It's show & tell time as far as I'm
For example - If I buy 10,000 shares of "L-3 Communications Holdings" at $1,000 per share for a total cost of $10 million. L-3 Communications Holdings does not receive a single penny from that stock trade & never will.
Please educate yourself on how the stock markets function before suggesting Canadian's are supporting war crimes & such.
However, the reality is they pay intense heed to what happens to them and the repercussions of those happenings for their shares. They also pay similar attention to share ownership' for with it comes voting power and with that comes real influence.
The things covered in this article do matter; and the corporate influence our CPP dollars wield is very real. Please give your fellow Canadians more credit for their intelligence and integrity. We can "get" this stuff just fine, if it's honestly explained; and we can make honourable decisions about it if we don't get distracted with misdirection and sophistry.
Don't get me wrong: your direct approach suggests you're someone trying to be a "straight shooter" cutting through the nonsense. In times like these, we can use a ton of that, given what we're inundated with every second. But don't settle for just being a "straight shooter": aim at being a marksman, instead. Be sure to really take in the whole picture before identifying a target and then take the extra care to ensure that your aim is true.
The articles suggestion that CPP is funding war crimes is ludicrous. If you know anything about the markets you already know this.
I did honestly explain how CPPs investment in this company works, none of that investment supports this company directly in any fashion.
As for voting rights, CPPs ownership stake gives them nothing in the way of influence. Unless you are a very substantial shareholder in a company, voting rights are meaningless. By substantial I am talking 10% ownership or greater. I'd have to look but CPPs little $10 million investment wouldn't even amount to 1/10th of one percentage point in ownership.
These are legitimate businesses listed on stock exchanges we invest in. If I happen to invest in a company that manufacturers something that is used in wars, big deal.
So what? Your against our troops having modern equipment designed to keep them alive ? Probably, which makes anything else you have written irrelevant.
That's rhetoric, not critical thought. This being a darned serious topic with profound and sweeping implications, it deserves the latter, not the former. Why not give it a go?
Mar 2006 +15.5%
Mar 2007 +12.9%
Mar 2008³ -0.29%
Mar 2009 -18.6%[7]
Mar 2010 +14.9%[7]
Mar 2011 +11.9%[7]
Mar 2012 +6.6%[7]
There are plenty of other, more progressive ways our money could be put to profitable use - and with far better long term outcomes for both the annuitants and the world as a whole.
The author would have you believe that "Conservative rule" (what a joke), has resulted in massive losses for the CPP, when the exact opposite is true.
1. It is possible for that which is found by investigation to warrant an attack - yes, even an attack on Stephen Harper and the Conservatives. So, such a piece CAN be both.
2. It need not be a matter of EITHER the CPP OR the Ontario Teachers Pension Fund: they can - and might well - both be in the wrong. However the Teachers Fund doesn't affect all Canadians; and it is to that much wider audience that this article is addressed.
If you know of other offenders out there, by all means please expose them and help the tide of negative public opinion guide them also towards nobler pursuits.