Canadian-based corporations are sitting on lots of excess cash. Many Canadians are looking for work, better jobs, or more hours. Large-scale public expenditure is going unfunded: shortages exist in infrastructure for urban transit, education, public health facilities, recreation, and culture.

The Harper Conservatives plan to give the corporations a tax reduction in the next budget, so they will get even more money to sit on. Will Canadians be better off because corporations pay income tax at a lower rate? Somebody must have thought so, because corporate taxes have been reduced over the last 10 years in Canada. 

Massey Energy runs the Upper Big Branch (UBB) mine in Montcoal, W.Va., where 29 miners were killed last week. The loss of life is tragic, but the UBB explosion is more than tragic; it is criminal. When corporations are guilty of crimes, however, they don't go to prison, they don't forfeit their freedom -- they just get fined, which often amounts to a slap on the wrist, the cost of doing business. No one makes this clearer than the CEO of Massey Energy, Don Blankenship. He has been the bane of climate-change activists and mine safety advocates for years. This latest mine disaster, if nothing else, will surely bring needed attention to this poster boy for malevolent big business trampling on communities, the environment and workers' rights.

A landmark class action case is under way in a New York federal court, with victims of apartheid in South Africa suing corporations that they say helped the pre-1994 regime. Among the multinational corporations are IBM, Fujitsu, Ford, GM and banking giants UBS and Barclays. The lawsuit accuses the corporations of "knowing participation in and/or aiding and abetting of the crimes of apartheid; extrajudicial killing; torture; prolonged unlawful detention; and cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment." Attorneys are seeking up to $400 billion in damages.