Corporations and corporate power

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The pandemic has once again exposed how unsustainable and inequitable the current food system is. In April of 2020, for example, while millions of Canadians faced financial insecurity and food insecurity, the Dairy Farmers of Ontario—the provincial organization that sets milk production quotas—began ordering farmers to dump their "surplus" milk. News agencies across North America reported the surpluses of dairy, eggs and produce caused by the closures of hotels and restaurants being dumped, crushed and otherwise destroyed.
Despite a devastating pandemic and ensuing financial crisis, Canadian CEOs enjoyed ever-healthier paycheques in 2020—thanks, in part, to alterations of bonus pay rules.
VANCOUVER - Despite Canada’s climate change commitments, the country’s “big six” banks continue to finance and support expansion of fossil fuel industries, says a new Corporate Mapping Project report released today.  The extent of the banks’ support since the oil price collapse in 2014 shows how that this backing hinders Canada’s progress on reducing emissions, report author and academic Donald Gutstein writes. 
On his first day in office, US president Joe Biden revoked the permit for the controversial Keystone XL (KXL) pipeline. The partially built project was supposed to carry bitumen from the Alberta tar sands to Gulf Coast refineries in the United States. Green-lighted by Donald Trump in 2017, but delayed in the courts for years, this climate-busting project is now thankfully dead.
Andy Morffew (Flickr Creative Commons)   Throughout 2019, we saw multiple variations on the same grim headline: “Dead Whale Found With 48 Pounds of Plastic in Belly.” “Dead Whale Found With 88 Pounds of Plastic in Belly.” “Dead Whale Found With 220 Pounds of Plastic in Belly.”
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Trade Justice Network host a conversation with global experts on the Indian and South African governments' proposal at the WTO for a waiver from certain intellectual property rights in the TRIPS agreement so that countries can confidently and affordably respond to the COVID-19 emergency. Special attention is paid to Canada's opposition to the TRIPS waiver, shared by the U.S., EU and other rich countries, which is debunked by webinar participants. Speakers include:
This report looks at CEO pay among Canada’s top-paid chief executive officers in 2019, based on company proxy circulars filed in 2020, and compares this to average incomes in the rest of the population in 2019. Though this same data is not yet available for 2020, the report also estimates, based on company share performance in 2020, whether the top-100 CEOs are likely to have seen their bonus-based pay increase, decrease or stay the same compared to last year.
OTTAWA––Heading into the COVID-19 pandemic, Canada’s 100 highest paid CEOs made 202 times more than the average worker made in 2019, according to a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). While this gap narrowed slightly compared to 2018, when the average top paid CEO made a record 227 times the average Canadian income, this is only the third year it has been higher than 200:1. 
The winter/spring 2020 issue focuses on the ways in which the neoliberal education agenda and austerity governments are reshaping education across the country, and the impact of these changes on kids — particularly the most vulnerable — and communities. But it also illustrates the passion with which the public will defend its schools and support their educators and education workers. It includes a cross-country scan of standardized assessment policies. 
The summer/fall 2020 Our Schools/ Our Selves digs into the underlying issues of equity and access that have been revealed and exacerbated by the COVID-19-related shutdown and subsequent move to online and remote learning; a cross-country scan provides an overview of the various funding mechanisms currently in place for public education in each province and territory to illustrate the link between funding, policy and priorities.