Category: Odious Debts

SNC-Lavalin executive reveals illegal political donations before corruption inquiry

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(March 15, 2013) A vice-president from SNC-Lavalin, Canada’s largest engineering company, admitted yesterday before Quebec’s Charbonneau inquiry into corruption in public-works contracts, that it organized its employees to make more than $1 million in illegal political donations. While there was no direct link between the donations and a quarter-billion dollars in contracts the firm was awarded by the provincial government, Yves Cadotte insisted, the company did not want to take any chances.

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Dam fever threatens viability of Three Gorges Dam

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(June 6, 2012) Reporter Shi Jiangtao sounds the alarm on China’s dam-building frenzy along the upper reaches of the Yangtze River, revisiting the findings of the 2011 Probe International study, “A Mighty River Runs Dry,” by geologist Fan Xiao.

Omen on the Yangtze

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(April 17, 2012) Twenty years ago this month, China’s epic Three Gorges Dam received construction approval from the Chinese government, with the blessing of a Canadian government report: both governments stood to benefit from the ill-conceived state vanity project at great cost to many. Probe International’s Patricia Adams looks back at how the symbol of China’s ‘rise’ has become an omen of all that is wrong with China and why a country like Canada would inflict such risks on citizens elsewhere.

Nationalizing China

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(June 24, 2011) China is heading for a degree of government ownership and central planning unseen since Mao’s passing. This Financial Post article by Probe International’s Patricia Adams looks at the advance of the state at the expense of China’s private sector and its foreign competition. In fact, she notes, western companies – feeling unwanted – are beginning to pull up stakes in China. And that suits China just fine.