Thanks very much for this report. Due to the atmosphere of utter lawlessness that is found in the industry-controlled "SRO" tribunals at present (https://www.obsi.ca/en/download/file/638) and (http://www.lautorite.qc.ca/files/pdf/consultations/assurance-planification-financiere/aout-2016/h_blanes.pdf), it will be essential that citizens’ groups become highly assertive in the cause of ensuring that rule of law returns and is safeguarded in the business practices of investment dealers and trade networks.
We as people who have been confronted with a dysfunctional governance model for years, will have to make sure that Chrystia Freeland and her colleagues are cognizant of some basic principles:
– Common law of contract; i.e., equal benefit between parties, no hidden provisions, the use of precedent case law, and disclosure of findings by courts and the reasons in law for decisions, are absolutely essential in restoring authentic governance, and to remove the arbitrary charade that has been practiced.
– Ensure that all levels of governance including those who staff complaint departments, are fully aware of all the rules against deceptive dealing in the criminal code [In Canada this is comprised of Articles 361-363 and 380 of the Criminal Code of Canada]. It is also essential that every person who is directly or indirectly a part of any governance level, must take the responsibility to ensure that the criminal code rules are understood by those who are involved with investment as consultants, or otherwise at any level.
– All personnel at all levels need to swear to uphold the two points above as the primary and most fundamental regulatory tools. This requires taking ownership of the duty to create a team of problem solvers within all other areas of practice that may have any jurisdictional role. There must be an absolute prohibition of referral from one indifferent agency to another, exhausting the client who is attempting to have a grievance faced and dealt with. There needs to be an international agreement to abolish this practice as a form of systematic dehumanization and violence toward persons.
– All personnel involved with investment and trade governance need to become fully familiar with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights [UDHR] and the Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. It must become understood that if the goal of trustworthy and investment-worthy business practices are to be achieved, so that Article 11 of the UDHR is to be accomplished, viz., the right to a continuing improvement in living conditions, this can only be accomplished if the quality of investment and the integrity of practices becomes increasingly honest and characterized by protection of respect for each side in trade deals, including all forms of securities transactions.
Instead of some additional judicial structure, every person who values the purposes of the UN Charter should be demanding that this trade adjudication process be conducted through the auspices of the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations in Geneva, and the Council of Jurists be expanded to administer this adjudicative body. We as citizens of founding nations of the UN, have to organize for focus on what is required to move in a process of continuity - toward the realization of the protections that the Charter of the UN was commissioned to accomplish. We have seen the toxic and discredited performance of all privatized and deregulated schemes over the past several decades - and how they erode trustworthy governance. I will suggest that in Canada, that Council of Canadians be supported by its members in organizing public action to accomplish the creation of legitimate governance of trade and investment, and to take aggressive and organized steps to prevent any further damage to the public interest by allowing self regulation of these areas of the economy.
Alan Blanes
Kelowna BC
Ph 250-300-8400