Posted By Editor’s Note. First, in the spirit of full disclosure, the guest blog below is by my brother Graham. Second, as the short bio at the end indicates, he is a successful businessman who thinks for himself and isn’t fussed about being perceived as “politically incorrect.” The issue he raises below tends to be ignored by the mass media (he would term them the “corporate media, lamestream media or lackeys of capitalism”).
The Financial Independence Hub is happy to live up to its name and provide a platform to air this intriguing issue. We’d like to think this is the sort of “challenging content” referred to in Tuesday’s blog by Chartered Financial Analyst Andrew Teasdale that’s relevant but seldom found in “ normal channels.” Findependence.TV plans to run the resulting video of the upcoming event after it is held this Saturday.
By Graham Chevreau,
Special to the Financial Independence Hub
A Brief Summary of the National Debt
A couple of months ago I watched a YouTube video created by Bill Abram entitled “The Crime of the Canadian Banking System.” In the video, Bill makes use of a very informative Statistics Canada graph showing Canada’s national debt over the period of 1940 to 1987.
The graph shows that Canada’s national debt was below $20 billion over the period of 1940 to 1974. After 1974, however, the graph headed dramatically upwards and, by 1993, the national debt was $423 billon. Bill Abram pointed out that of the $423 billion; $386 billion was interest on debt!
Now I do remember the Philadelphia Flyers won the Stanley Cup in 1974, but I had apparently forgotten that in 1974 operational control of the Bank of Canada was also turned over to the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), a private central bank owned by the private banks of Europe and Great Britain. It also turns out that since 1974, Canada has paid over $1 trillion dollars in unnecessary interest to a private bank. Who knew?
I finished watching the video, rolled my eyes, grumbled “damn banksters,” picked up my hockey equipment, then went off to my old-timer’s game and forgot all about Canada’s national debt.
So What and Who Cares?
A couple of weeks after watching the Bill Abram video, I read about a lawsuit filed by Rocco Galati on behalf of the Committee on Monetary and Economic Reform (COMER – www.comer.org). Galati is the Toronto Constitutional lawyer who brought down Stephen Harper’s choice of Justice Marc Nadon and rattled the legal underpinnings of the Conservative government. Mr. Galati specializes in constitutional and immigration law.
In 2011, the Federal Court of Appeal ruled that the Federal Court was in breach of the law after Galati questioned why retired judges over 75 were being retained as deputy judges, despite mandatory retirement language in the Federal Courts Act. Thirteen deputy judges had to be let go.
CBC News quoted Mr. Gallati as saying “People said to me in that case, ‘They’ve been doing it for 60 years, how can it be wrong?’ I said ‘Nobody’s challenged it.’ ”
The Lawsuit
On December 12, 2011, Rocco Galati, on behalf of COMER, commenced legal action against: HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN; THE MINISTER OF FINANCE; THE MINISTER OF NATIONAL REVENUE; THE BANK OF CANADA; and THE ATTORNEY GENERAL OF CANADA. The action states that since 1974 there has been a gradual but sure slide into the reality that the Bank of Canada and that Canada’s monetary and financial policy are dictated by private foreign banks and financial interests contrary to the Bank of Canada Act and the Constitution Act of 1982.
In a press conference held on April 26, 2014, Mr. Gallati explained that a Federal Court Justice had agreed that the lawsuit filed by COMER was justiciable (justiciability concerns the limits upon legal issues over which a court can exercise its judicial authority). The question that the courts will be required to answer relates to whether Canada’s Finance Minister and Governor of the Bank of Canada have complied with their statutory and constitutional duties and obligations.
There is other activity worldwide relating to reform of money creation. In November 2014 there was an excellent UK back-benchers debate on Money Creation and Society. Steven Baker, Conservative, Wycombe, eloquently described the situation in this video.
Saturday January 24, 2015 – Updates on the Lawsuit and Other Important Information
The COMER lawsuit has so captured my fancy that I will be giving up watching Duck Dynasty, as well as my weekend hockey activities, to attend an update on the lawsuit on Saturday January 24, 2015.
Rocco Galati, COMER, the Public Bank Institute, and other interested groups are holding a meeting to update interested people at the Council Chambers, Toronto City Hall, 100 Queen Street West. The meeting will begin at noon and a variety of presentations will be offered until 5:00 pm. Admission is free and all are welcome. Findependence.TV and the Financial Independence Hub will be covering this very interesting event.
Stay tuned!
Graham Chevreau is an EHS (Environment, Health and Safety) Management Consultant in Waterloo, Ontario, practicing as Chevreau Consulting Ltd. He is the only sibling of Hub CFO Jonathan Chevreau.
