Bye Bye Bell

So the Ontario Teacher's Pension Plan won the war for Bell Canada.

I am disgusted. This is one of our crown jewels. The only reason why someone would want to take a company private, or try to sell it to get it out of public hands, is if something untoward has been happening at head office. Even if there was nothing wrong done, it stops the snooping by ordinary folks. By getting it out of the public eye it gets out of the hand of securities regulators also.

I call upon the forensic accountants at the RCMP to go over the books before letting this sale to go forward. If there has been even the slightest evidence of malfeasance, those involved, including the executives at head office, should face indictments.

Besides that, this makes a mockery of "solidarity forever." As is the case with the meatpackers, you now have one union stacked against another. Teachers also owns Cadillac Fairview (a shopping mall developer), Canary Wharf (a hot business complex in London), and big chunks of Canadian and foreign banks as well as minority interests in Microsoft, Samsung and the US mortgage lender Freddie Mac -- just to name a few.

What does that say for the future of organized labour in this country where the efforts of the unions gave us reasonable working hours, maternity leave, and universal medicare and so many other things we hold dear?

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