THOUGHTS OF A NON-WOKE, RETIRED CANADIAN ECONOMICS PROFESSOR

 

It is dangerous these days to voice politically incorrect views, but at age 87, nature is already almost finished cancelling me and after over 20 years in mandated retirement, I need not fear losing my job at the university.

So, protected from the consequences of being accused of being a racist and ignorant of the vast improvements the woke revolution is bringing to Canada, here we go.

The under-representation of groups signals Racism

Last week, my daily newspaper subscription came with the unsolicited summer issue of the very glossy S/ magazine (sic), published by Contempo Media in Toronto. It sells for $6.95 at newsstands, so I should be grateful for getting it free.

I flipped the pages of the magazine, enjoying with some envy, the pictures of beautiful women and luxury goods, when I was struck by something unusual. Women with non-European features seemed to dominate the pages in which they modelled clothing and jewelry.

So, I did a bit of counting and found that the magazine has 84 pages. On each of 34 pages appear the full features of a female model. Of these 34 page, 15 showed African, 10 Asian, and 9 European facial features and skin color. Four of the pages in the latter group show the lovely Julia Roberts who was the star of the film Beautiful Woman. 

The army of fairness warriors argues that systemic racism exists whenever in any occupation or cultural venue the proportion of people with different ethnic backgrounds is unequal to that existing in the total population. The 2016 census found that visible minorities constituted 22.3 percent of Canada’s population but on the most coveted fashion pages of a widely circulating and read fashion magazine, visible minorities make up 74 percent.

I wonder whether this astounding over-representation of visible minorities in the magazine industry will be used as yet more evidence that systemic racism is rampant in Canada; whether politicians and the media will shame the industry into apologizing for it; whether the media will produce emotional reports of suffering by the many aspiring women of European ancestry whose careers are limited, and whether the Woke Society of Magazine Publishers (?) will require editors and staff of magazines to attend courses on how to recognize racism and eliminate it in their organizations.  

One way to eliminate racism in advertising is used in the full-page ad for Breitling watches which gives nearly equal space to three women with European, Asian, and African features. It does not reflect these groups in proportion to their prevalence in all of Canada, but the legendary, creative minds in the advertising industry surely can come up with ways to achieve this goal using the Breitling as a starter.

Mass Graves and Unreported Deaths

Canada’s history of dealing with natives is a tragedy and should be acknowledged. But reporting of this history should be based on facts to prevent unnecessary trauma and outrage that often arises when misleading and incomplete information fails to show what really happened.

The recent discovery of buried native children on the grounds of the Kamloops residential school led to the use of the wrong and incendiary use of the words “mass graves.”

Mass graves in history were the result of soldiers murdering people in large numbers and dumping them in a trench, which the victims often had been forced to dig themselves. Not even the most diligent searchers of evidence of atrocities produced by residential schools could discover the existence of such mass murder and graves in the residential schools.

The media after some time stopped referring to mass graves and instead now talks about “unmarked graves”, a change prompted in part by the actions of natives themselves. But the damage has been done to the reputation of the church and government of Canada, even in the rest of the world. The outrage felt by many after they learned about the existence of mass graves has set back our collective efforts to come to terms with an historic tragedy.

These efforts would be helped also if the deaths of children in residential schools were reported not as absolute numbers but seen in the context of deaths in all of Canada. We should estimate how many children in total attended the schools and what percent of them died while there and were buried in unmarked graves during all the years the schools operated. This percentage should be compared with that of children who died during the same period in all of Canada.

It could be that the percentage for the residential schools is higher than for the rest of Canada, but it is not obviously so. During these decades under consideration, children died everywhere in Canada in large numbers from the Spanish Flu, smallpox, whooping cough, diphtheria, polio, and other diseases that have now been tamed by vaccines and better health care.

If it turns out that mortality among children in residential schools and the rest of Canada was the same, there is the other problem that the deaths of many in residential schools were not reported to their parents and they were buried in unmarked graves.

This practice is very unfortunate, but it also should be considered in historic perspective. The Spanish Flu and other pandemics caused extra-ordinary dislocations and financial problems for all Canadians. It would be interesting to know whether during these difficult times the normal interment customs were curtailed in the rest of Canada as well as residential schools.

My call for data needed to compare death rates and funeral practices in residential schools and the rest of Canada does not represent an effort to downplay the damage the residential school system has done to the cultural life and economic well-being of Canada’s indigenous population. Instead, it is motivated by the desire to help reconciliation by creating a better understanding of role played by developments beyond the residential schools rather than deliberate, callous, and uncaring policies of the system and of the schools’ teachers which so often are blamed for the problem.

 

 

 

CERTIFYING COVID IMMUNITY

 

Some governments are known to plan the introduction of systems for the issue of vaccination passports, which certify that holders are vaccinated against the Covid-19 virus. It is expected that governments and private organizations will use these passports to operate more safely and efficiently.

For example, it was reported that “On May 18, the Oregon Health Authority announced that “businesses, employers, and faith institutions” could admit fully vaccinated, unmasked persons—but only if they first ask for and inspect “each individual’s proof of vaccination prior to entry or admission.””

A recent Leger poll of 1,529 Canadians found that 61 percent wanted the government to create such a system even as it is strongly opposed by many who do not fully understand its true nature and economic benefits. 

No detailed descriptions are available of how a passport system will work. However, the basic features of such a system are obvious and underly the following account. Such a system would work like the loyalty programs used by supermarkets and other retailers. Membership in the loyalty programs is voluntary and free. It entitles holders to receive a discount on their purchases at the cash register.

In the same way, vaccination passports, which might be called Immune Certificate Cards (ICC) are obtained voluntarily, free of charge and entitle bearers to certain benefits. For example, when buying tickets for a hockey game or concert, ICC holders receive a discount on the posted price by swiping their card and entering a security code on one of the widely used electronic card readers.

Cash discounts are most conveniently applied by businesses such as restaurants, theatres, and sports arenas and places of worship that can reserve different sections for customers with and without ICCs. Businesses like retail stores, banks, government agencies and medical service providers can provide benefits to ICC holders by allowing them to line up and given service without meeting government required conditions such as wearing masks and keeping distances.

Such discounts are available already to international travelers landing in a growing number of countries. Ownership of ICC is required to board cruise ships.

Businesses do not have to offer discounts to ICC holders, but it makes eminent economic sense to do so. After all, it costs less to seat immune customers at the traditional than the government required density. Economic considerations and competition will determine the number of seats sold to the ICC holders and others, and the level of discounts.

Some Canadians will not obtain ICCs for religious or ideological reasons, or because they fear possible adverse health effects. Others cannot get vaccinated because of existing health conditions or disabilities. The proposed system does not discriminate against either group. Members of the former group make the deliberate choice to forgo the benefits. Members of the latter group of unfortunate individuals will have to join the ranks of people who are served by Canada’s social service providers.

The design and operation of the proposed ICC system will be technically challenging, costly, and time-consuming. However, Canada’s credit card companies should be able to deal readily with these issues. Their business uses skilled technicians operating a system which could easily be expanded to include the issuance of ICC if the federal government pays for the cost.

The companies operating such a system need access to information on the vaccination status of Canadians, which exists in provincial government databases. This information should be made available to the issuers of ICC, which are equipped to protect the confidentiality of this information much as they do with the credit rating of their customers.

The decision to create and operate an ICC system should be determined by its benefits and costs. The benefits arise mainly through the acceleration of the return to normal economic activities: sales by restaurants, theatres, sports arenas, airlines, cruise ships and other businesses that increase profits, employment, and tax payments. Many Canadians will receive psychological benefits from unrestricted attendance of educational institutions, recreational facilities, and traditional places of work, as well as the absence of restrictions on travel and visits to health and personal care providers.

It is difficult to make exact estimates of these benefits and costs. However, the problems facing Canadians are so serious and costly that even rough estimates are worth the effort. A first step might be to consult with credit card companies to determine the feasibility and likely cost of an ICC system. Let us get going.

 

 

ALLOWING CRUISE SHIPS IN CANADIAN PORTS

 

Looking out my apartment window across Vancouver harbor, I see the manifestation of another catastrophic policy of the federal. Canada Place, which during normal times would be hosting at least three cruise ships loading passenger for trips to Alaska is totally empty.

During normal times, some of these ships would take passengers on a cruise originating and ending in Vancouver but many would be on their way from Seattle to Alaska and back because the Jones Act required that ships carrying passengers between two US ports must either be staffed entirely by US citizens or stop at a foreign port between them.

This act has now been suspended to restore cruise ship travel to Alaska and to help recovery of that state’s badly suffering tourist-dependent industry. That state’s tourist industry lobbyists can be counted on working hard in Washington to get this suspension made permanent as, without stops in Canada, tourists are likely to spend more time in Alaska enjoying its many attractions.

Let us hope they succeed, and the suspension of Jones Act will be permanent. The act is an economically destructive left-over from the era of nationalist trade policies in the 1920s, which today benefits only a small number of politically influential members of unions in the US maritime sector and imposes high costs on the US economy.

If the Jones Act were removed permanently, cruise ships starting their journey in Seattle would almost certainly continue to stop in Vancouver and Victoria, which offer cruise ship passengers many excellent popular opportunities to sightsee, shop, and dine in Canada’s unique cultural setting. The modern Vancouver airport facilities would again be used by passengers coming from distant places. Cruise ship operators would buy well-priced fuel to run their ships and fresh BC food, and other goods needed to serve their passengers.

The problem facing the province’s cruise ship industry is that the federal government has prohibited cruise ships from entering Canadian harbors until early in 2022, which guarantees the loss of billions of dollars of income by BC businesses and workers that serve cruise ship passengers on land and sell supplies to the ships’ operators. Large federal and provincial tax revenues and charges for the use of docking facilities are lost forever.

The government policy preventing cruise ships from landing on West Coast ports was adopted over the concern that passengers landing in Canada would carry and spread the virus among our population. This concern is no longer valid because cruise ship operators will allow on board only staff and passengers that have been vaccinated. This policy was adopted because the market for cruises had dried up completely in the wake of the widely publicized suffering and deaths of passengers on cruise ships at the start of the pandemic.

One problem with this system is that fake documents could be used to gain access to cruises by passengers who are not vaccinated. This problem can be solved by requiring passengers to possess internationally recognized and government issued vaccine passport. Such vaccine passports are used in some European countries and Israel and may be issued in Canada in response to public demand from many citizens eager to use cruise ships and enjoy uncomplicated air and land travel to and from foreign countries, especially the United States. Private sector systems for the issue of fake-proof documents are likely to become available soon and could be used instead of state-sponsored passports.

The cruise ships can also use quick tests detecting infections before and after passengers go on land excursions. This policy will make the risk of passengers infecting people on land extremely low and compare favorably with the likelihood of infection facing all Canadian residents.

The recent developments in the cruise ship industry and the start of excursions from Seattle to Alaska make it extremely urgent that the government repeal the existing legislation forbidding cruise ships from entering ports on Canada’s coasts. If enacted quickly enough, some cruise ships might return during the 2021 season. Quick removal is needed also to allow cruise planners the long time required to arrange for cruises in 2022 and beyond.  

I hope our government will act quickly and look forward to once again watching majestic cruise ships pass under the Lions Gate bridge and docking at Canada place. And returning the smiles on the faces of passenger visiting our mountains, parks, and restaurants.

Update: Jonathan Helton from the Grassroot Institute of Hawaii informs me that the legislation passed by Congress involves suspension of the provisions of the Passenger Vessel Services Act from 1886, not the Jones Act from 1920. He assures me that most media outlets do not distinguish between these two laws.

Herbert Grubel

Emeritus Professor of Economics

Simon Fraser University