story499

It was yesterday that my son James suggested in one e-mail that I visit the web page of The Council of Canadians. This council was founded in 1985 and it is really what they proclaim to be, that is Canada's pre-eminent citizens' watchdog organization.

The chair of this council is Maude Barlow and she is an outstanding good person as I found out by the little navigating I have done in visiting the council's site. I suggest that our readers take a visit to the web pages of this organization as it is a revelation of what is fundamentally good with Canadian people. I was specifically surprised when in reading Barlow's notes on "The Corporate Colonization of Higher Education" she states that the boards of governors of our higher educational institutions have been "highjacked by domestic and transnational corporations who have targeted changing the political culture of post-secondary institutions as part of their long term strategic plans."

She also says that this corporate highjacking of our post-secondary institutions is what John Ralston Saul calls a "coup d'etat in slow motion." And I find significant that while I have been exposing the conspiracy or the big lie of the Free Market, we have Saul's understanding of a coup d'etat in slow motion by our corporate world in our most precious common goods: first education and possibly later health care. And as usual, the takeover of these common goods will be justified under the pretext to save money while in reality they will constitute a move to a more elitist and divided society. The effect of this coup d'etat is already evident as the University of Toronto is planning to have one of the best law school in the world by simply raising their fees incrementally to $25,000 per year.

Yes, there is a conspiracy taking place in Canada and all around the world and we have to stop the gospel of the Free Market.

References

Pertinent article published in Ensign

The Council of Canadians: http://www.canadians.org

The Corporate Colonization of Higher Education, Maude Barlow, Queen's University, Kingston, January 21, 2000 http://www.canadians.org/publications/speech-highered-queensu.pdf

Dean at U of T law school advocates higher tuition, Sarah Schmidt, December 15, 2001, National Post http://www.nationalpost.com/home/story.html?f=/stories/20011215/876612.html