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New Brunswick warned to lift ban on low-risk activities, such as walking, hiking, and fishing, on Crown land

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Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms announces that a legal warning letter has been sent to Premier of New Brunswick Susan Holt and Minister of Natural Resources and Energy Development John Herron, urging them to reverse their province-wide ban on public access to Crown land.

The universal ban on access to nature across the province applies to low-risk activities such as hiking, cycling, fishing, or even walking a dog in order to prevent forest fires, according to the Premier and Minister.

Constitutional lawyer Allison Pejovic states that these sweeping restrictions violate Canadians’ right to liberty – protected by section 7 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Ms. Pejovic writes that “walking through the woods and fishing do not pose a risk of starting fires. Punishing Canadians by restricting their freedom to roam and enjoy nature is disproportionate and not rationally connected to preventing forest fires.”

Less restrictive measures, such as banning smoking and recreational fires, increasing patrols on Crown land, and improving forest management, could address legitimate fire concerns without violating citizens’ liberty.

The letter cautions that if the province proceeds with “overbroad, arbitrary, and grossly disproportionate restrictions,” the province could face a legal challenge and be brought to heel in court. Ms. Pejovic remarks that “treating people as the problem rather than targeting actions that actually create fire risks shows a serious and concerning disregard for human rights and individual liberty.”

The letter urges the province to immediately remove the ban on harmless recreational activities on Crown land.

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BlackRock CEO Larry Fink is new co-chair of WEF, finds no misconduct in Klaus Schwab

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From LifeSiteNews

By Andreas Wailzer

In what appears to be the most obvious conflict of interest in history, the World Economic Forum which was formed to infiltrate governments and influence government decisions has elected two of the world’s largest hedge fund managers as co-chairs.

The World Economic Forum (WEF) has elected BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Roche Holding vice-chair Andre Hoffmann to serve as interim co-chairs of its board.

Last Friday, the WEF announced that the investigation into Klaus Schwab had found no misconduct by its former chairman and founder. In the same press release, the globalist organization also announced Fink and Hoffmann as new interim leaders.

Schwab was under investigation in April this year after a whistleblower alleged financial impropriety and behavioral issues. The 87-year-old Schwab had already resigned from his position as chairman of the board shortly before the investigation was launched.

“Minor irregularities, stemming from blurred lines between personal contributions and Forum operations, reflect deep commitment rather than intent of misconduct,” the WEF stated in regard to the allegations made against Klaus Schwab and his wife Hilde.

WATCH: Dark origin and agenda of Klaus Schwab’s World Economic Forum

“Following a thorough review of all facts, the Board has concluded that, while the organization must evolve toward a more institutional model, there is no evidence of material wrongdoing by Klaus Schwab,” the organization concluded.

Larry Fink is no stranger to the critics of the globalist “Great Reset” agenda spearheaded by Schwab. He founded BlackRock, the largest asset manager in the world, presiding over $10 trillion in assets, more than any country except the U.S. and China.

He announced in 2017 that he intends to use the enormous power he wields to engage in “forcing behaviors” in support of diversity and inclusion – and to promote the ESG agenda endorsed by the World Economic Forum. Fink, at the time, even threatened any companies who refuse to submit to his vision with punitive economic measures.

“You have to force behaviors. If you don’t force behaviors, whether it’s gender or race or just any way you want to say the composition of your team, you’re going to be impacted. That not just recruiting, it’s development,” Fink said. “We’re gonna have to force change.”

Over the last several years, the WEF’s annual meeting of political and business elites in the Swiss mountain town of Davos has become synonymous with globalism. Even the mainstream news outlet Reuters wrote that the gathering “has in recent years drawn criticism from opponents on both left and right as an elitist talking shop detached from lives of ordinary people.”

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ESG: The Use of Non-Financial Metrics by the Investment Industry is a Lawsuit Waiting to Happen

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From the Fraser Institute

By Bryce Tingle

Relying on deeply flawed ESG (environment, social and governance) ratings is incompatible with investment fiduciaries’ legal obligations

ESG ratings discourage companies from growing

The ESG ratings industry is an expensive distraction for public companies. It provides, in the form of low scores, a cudgel for activists, outsiders, and shareholders to use against companies who refuse to invest in improving their scores, although these investments are a waste of resources because the scores measure nothing useful. This makes Canada’s public markets much less appealing for companies considering listing their shares. In turn, for a private company that seeking an exit to investors, this makes selling the company to a larger competitor more attractive. As
many of these buyers are foreign (especially in advanced industries like technology and pharma) innovative Canadian businesses do not scale up in this country (Tingle and Pandes, 2021: 10). The choice of innovative businesses to sell themselves, rather than go public, is very bad for Canada.

ESG ratings obscure the contributions companies make to society

The ESG ratings agencies perpetuate a harmful lie about the ways in which companies contribute to the growth and success of Canadian society. Companies create the wealth we enjoy (and use for various public purposes), they employ us, and they provide us with the goods and services
we need. Companies should be celebrated for these contributions to our society and not asked to solve social problems unrelated to their competitive activities in various markets. Their failure to deliver on these social expectations will generate greater levels of distrust in Canadian institutions.

ESG ratings are a false alternative to legislation

In practice ESG has come to be seen as a valid alternative to government regulation for solving certain kinds of social and environmental problems. As we have seen, it is incapable of doing so and is not even really intended to do so. The public is taking investment managers’ marketing copy and applying it to really serious problems.

Again, the inevitable failure of ESG to solve these problems will breed cynicism, but it also distracts us from the kinds of regulation that will
actually accomplish the social and environmental goals we have for our society.

If a fund claims to invest based on ESG considerations, the fund managers should have to show their own work and demonstrate it is rationally related to the ESG outcomes promised to beneficiaries. Merely following deeply flawed ESG ratings is, as we have seen, not acceptable. We do not tolerate fraud elsewhere in our capital markets; there is no reason to tolerate it in the claims investment funds make in order to raise money from retail investors.

A Lawsuit Waiting to Happen: The Use of Non-Financial Metrics by the Investment Industry

  • Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) scores are sold to investment fund managers to assist them in making investment decisions. The scores are generated by a large industry of third-party firms and embedded in ratings, rankings, and indices.
  • The various elements in ESG scores stand in contrast to the traditional financial metrics relied upon by previous generations of investors.
  • Can investment fund professionals, who manage the wealth of other people, legally rely on ESG data in making their investment decisions? Over 88% of fund managers overseeing US$3.16 trillion of investment funds purport to use these ESG scores, a problem if the scores are inaccurate.
  • A decade of careful investigation in dozens of empirical studies has found:
    • ESG funds market themselves as advancing environmental and social objectives, but the ESG ratings those funds depend on are explicitly not about protecting the earth and society from the impact of corporate behaviour, but protecting the corporation from society.
    • Turning the welter of complex criteria into the simplistic ratings sold to investment funds requires judgement calls about what is material for a company or industry, and how to weigh various factors in coming up with a final score.
    • ESG ratings of the same company vary widely from one rating agency to another, demonstrating low validity and suggesting the ratings are not measuring anything real.
    • ESG ratings fail to predict future environmental and social performance, such as the exposure of a company to government fines, labour actions, or pollution violations.
    • ESG ratings of companies do not predict future operating performance or the trajectory of stock prices.
    • ESG ratings do not correlate with reduced investment risk.
    • Corporate disclosure of ESG-favoured information seems, ironically, to be connected to less ethical and more self-interested managerial behaviour.

Click here to read the report (20 pages)

Bryce Tingle

N. Murray Edwards Chair in Business Law, University of Calgary
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