"George F. Walker revisits old characters in timely play about white working class"/ "Bronte: The World Without is bland and boring"

Nov. 28, 2016 "George F. Walker revisits old characters in timely play about white working class": Today I found this theatre review by J. Nelly Nestruck in the Globe and Mail:

• Title The Damage Done
• Written by George F. Walker
• Directed by Ken Gass
• Starring Wes Berger and Sarah Murphy-Dyson
• Venue Citadel
• City Toronto

If you want to understand the white working class, you could do worse than turn to George F. Walker.

Since the 1980s, the Toronto playwright has been drawing inspiration from the demographic he grew up in – you might call it the white poor, or white working poor, depending on your politics; the people now the subject of increased media scrutiny (and perhaps scapegoating) following the rise of Donald Trump.

In The Damage Done, Walker returns to a pair of characters he first created in 1992 named Bobby and Tina. These two Toronto east-enders first appeared aged 19, struggling with an unexpected pregnancy, in his much-produced young-adult play, Tough! 

In 2013, Walker unexpectedly returned to the two characters aged 21, dealing with a second pregnancy in a more problematic two-hander called Moss Park – named after the Toronto neighbourhood that became one of the poorest in the city after the deindustrialization of the 1970s.

Now, in this latest work getting its world premiere from director Ken Gass’s company Canadian Rep at a small theatre located in the real-life Moss Park, Bobby and Tina are pushing 40.

Fifteen years after finally calling it quits as a couple, they meet back at the park where the first two plays were set.

In the intervening years, Tina (Sarah Murphy-Dyson) has moved up and out of the old neighbourhood with their two children. With the help of long-term boyfriends, she put herself through school for social work – and, while the relationships didn’t work out, she now has a career and a house in the suburbs.

Meanwhile, Bobby (Wes Berger), who has only been tenuously involved in the lives of his daughters, still hasn’t settled on what to do with his life. 

He’s just learned how to operate a forklift, but is faking an ankle injury to get workers’ compensation – and, as Tina puts it, still dreams of the things he could be doing, instead of what he should be doing. (Toying with writing a play, the loveable lunkhead seems more of a stand-in for Walker than ever.)

Critic Jerry Wasserman has summarized the thrust of Walker’s major East End plays of the 1980s and early 1990s as being about “the attempt, mostly by women, to re-educate the corrupted and generally bewildered men responsible for the intolerable status quo.”

Tina, who always tries to project the image that she’s tough and together, starts off thinking she’s in one of those plays. 

As Bobby puts it, “I screw up; you still think it’s your job to straighten me out.” This time around, however, it’s really Tina who needs straightening out. She has to go away and wants Bobby to move into her house and take care of their teenagers .

The depths of her despair are only gradually revealed – though the Neil Young song the title comes from is a clue. Can Bobby finally be there for her?

All three Bobby and Tina plays are unusual in Walker’s sprawling canon in that they follow the classical unities – that’s to say, they tell a single story in a single place in real time.

This actually leads them to be less naturalistic than some of Walker’s other family plays, full of contrivance and exposition masked as argument. 

Both Berger and Murphy-Dyson do a fine enough job of finding their footing in this compressed atmosphere – but Walker’s repetitive structure of rehashed past, then revelation, makes it difficult for an audience to stay with them in the moment.

Walker’s play asks whether, to revisit the title of one of his earlier plays, better living is really possible when you grow up the way Bobby and Tina did – even if you get out of poverty and move to a nice suburb, can the mind ever find security?

In Gass’s production, which he designed himself, the stage is covered in dead leaves – and Joey Condello’s lighting design gives the impression of clouds passing. 

Maybe a production that more aggressively explored the artificiality of the writing, rather than trying to make it seem like a walk in the park, might be more satisfying. 

Because it’s clear this east-end space in which Bobby and Tina have been meeting for 20 years is a mental one as much as a physical one – and where 

Bobby has learned to exist comfortably within it, 

Tina still feels uneasy over leaving it.

A premiere of a Walker play is less of an event than it once was: At age 69, he’s more prolific than ever, averaging two plays a year since 2010. 

At this point, I’d be more interested in younger directors revisiting his older, larger-scale East End plays such as ove and Anger (1989) and Escape from Happiness (1991) to see what his white, working-class characters might have to say now to a world in the throes of Trumpism and a city in the wake of Fordism.

George F. Walker revisits old characters in timely play on white working poor

My opinion:

This is a life tip:

He’s just learned how to operate a forklift, but is faking an ankle injury to get workers’ compensation – and, as Tina puts it, still dreams of the things he could be doing, instead of what he should be doing. 

This is a writing tip:

This actually leads them to be less naturalistic than some of Walker’s other family plays, full of contrivance and exposition masked as argument. 

Jun. 23, 2018 "Bronte: The World Without is bland and boring": Today I found this theatre play review by J. Kelly Nestruck in the Globe and Mail:


Title: Brontë: The World Without 

• Written by: Jordi Mand
• Director: Vanessa Porteous
• Actors: Beryl Bain, Jessica B. Hill, Andrea Rankin
• Company: The Stratford Festival
• Venue: Studio Theatre
• City: Stratford, Ont.
• Year: Runs to Oct. 13, 2018

1 star out of 4

Charlotte. Emily. And Anne. The Brontë Sisters.

You can almost sing it to the tune of The Schuyler Sisters from Hamilton: An American Musical.

And with a young female playwright holding the pen and a diverse cast, the Stratford Festival’s new play, Brontë: The World Without, promised just such a similarly fresh, contemporary take on the 19th-century English writers who brought us the novels Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, respectively.

Unfortunately, what’s actually made it to the Stratford stage is a dull non-drama that smells of a commissioning process gone completely awry.

Brontë: The World Without does indeed show us a world without – without conflict, without characterization, without substance or style.

Without a clear reason for existing on stage, beyond the brand appeal of the Brontës.

Playwright Jordi Mand gives us scenes as flat as roadkill from the lives of Charlotte, Emily and Anne, all set in the parlour of their father’s parsonage.

The first is all economic exposition as Charlotte (Beryl Bain), Emily (Jessica B. Hill) and Anne (Andrea Rankin) sit around drinking weak tea and talking about how little money they have and how they might make ends meet.

As each possibility is crossed off the list – selling this or that possession, opening a school, tapping into a small inheritance – it’s a long wait for them to turn to the idea that they might try to publish the poetry that they’ve been writing in private.

It’s such a long wait, in fact, that it takes until the second scene for Charlotte to finally have her unbelievable light-bulb moment. 

The rest of the space before intermission is taken up by Charlotte and Anne trying to convince the fragile and frightened Emily to send her poetry off to a publisher under a male pseudonym along with them.

The one thing everyone who walks into Brontë: The World Without should know is that Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë were writers. 

It seems perverse to try to make the entire first half of a play ride on suspense over whether or not they will even try.

Overheard at intermission: “I hope somebody stabs someone with a quill in the second half.”

No such luck. But there is the potential for drama between these underwritten writers when a thin brown-paper package returns from a publisher. Clearly, two of the Brontës have had their first novels accepted and one has not.

Having made the mistake of reading the program notes before the play began, 

this was another tedious scene of non-suspense waiting for the package to be opened – but I remained curious to see how the sisters would handle this moment of division.

Alas, the discovery of who was rejected is where Mand ends her scene. 

And the next one picks up after such a long enough passage of time that the whole issue is rendered moot.

Director Vanessa Porteous, as if realizing that the play she’s been hired to direct is missing, stages long scene changes set to songs. Entire songs by Regina Spektor, Willow Smith and Meshell Ndegeocello.

These little music videos fill out the lives of the characters in a more lively way than the play itself. They wake you up, anyway – as Charlotte, Emily and Anne walk in and out of doors on fast-forward, shoot each other looks and furiously scribble with quills.

But then they’re back to quarrelling and quibbling, speaking flavourless dialogue that feels neither period nor contemporary.

Biographical tidbits are occasionally revealed, but there are no peeks inside of these iconic authors’ minds or imaginations, except into Anne’s in the very final moments of the play.

Not a poem is read. Not a novel discussed.

Love affairs,

 an alcoholic and opioid-addicted brother, 

a trip to London by Charlotte and Anne where they reveal to their publishers that they are women 

– all these potentially dramatizable elements are kept off the stage.

A character’s death is signalled entirely by coughing into a napkin and then showing that there is blood on it. This is a play premiering in 2018?

The cast is talented – with Hill, in particular, bringing an on-the-edge element to the character of Emily.

And Mand proved herself a talented writer with a show called Between the Sheets, developed and premiered by the independent company Nightwood in Toronto back in 2012.

The largest not-for-profit theatre company in the country, with all its resources, seems to have transformed her into a bland one. Stratford has let her down and, in turn, audiences by letting this pointless period piece make it all the way to production.

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/theatre-and-performance/reviews/article-review-bronte-the-world-without-is-a-bland-and-boring-period-drama/

Sept. 15, 2023 My opinion: If you want to make a story more interesting, you have to have drama, conflict, and tension.

I don't write plays or watch plays.

I watch TV and movies.  I have done screenwriting for years.

Here are the other 2 blog posts of the week:

"In a year of anti-Muslim vitriol, major brand advertisers promote inclusion"/ "Mining association launches regulations to diversify mostly 'male and white' industry"

http://badcb.blogspot.com/2023/09/in-year-of-anti-muslim-vitriol-major.html

"Three ways to figure out whether a company is really invested in change"/ "‘Woke’ ESG regulations leading to policy chaos with worst yet to come"

http://badcb.blogspot.com/2023/09/three-ways-to-figure-out-whether.html

Tues. Sept. 26, 2023 "Developer credits GST rebate for 5,000 rental unit plan": Today I found this article by Ben Cousins on BNN Bloomberg.  This is some good news:

A Toronto developer is crediting the federal government’s plan to remove GST from new rental buildings for its plan to bring 5,000 new housing units across the country.

Dream Unlimited Corp. announced plans to bring housing projects to urban centres in Ottawa, Saskatoon, Calgary and Toronto totalling more than 5,000 units.

Earlier this month, Ottawa announced it would remove the GST from new rental builds as part of its plan to boost the housing supply in Canada and address housing prices. Developers have largely applauded the move, as it represents about a 10 per cent savings on new projects.

“This legislation is a game changer for the development industry, and more importantly for Canadians,” Michael J. Cooper, president and chief responsible officer of Dream Unlimited, wrote in a news release Monday.  “The housing crisis has impacted every urban centre from coast to coast. What this legislation unlocks is our ability to get shovels into the ground quickly at a time when it’s never been more critical to build new homes.”

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/developer-credits-gst-rebate-for-5-000-rental-unit-plan-1.1976111

Tues. Sept. 26, 2023"Black 13-year-old who was treated like 'potential thief' by Vancouver boss awarded $27K by tribunal": Today I found this article on Yahoo and CBC.  

A 13-year-old Black girl who was wrongly singled out on suspicion of theft by her manager at a Vancouver juice bar has been awarded more than $27,000 in damages for discrimination.

The B.C. Human Rights Tribunal has found that because of her race and sex, the young worker was subjected to a "poisoned" work environment at Heirloom, a restaurant and juice bar in the upscale South Granville neighbourhood.

The teen's identity has been protected by the tribunal, and she is referred to as AB in a decision handed down on Friday. It says bias drove manager Nicholas Stone's decision to confront the teen — and none of her co-workers — about shortages in the cash register.

The encounter left her in tears.

"AB was singled out as a potential thief, despite there being no evidence to that effect," tribunal member Amber Prince wrote.

"In the absence of an explanation, Mr. Stone's heightened suspicion, scrutiny, and monitoring of AB is consistent with persistent and harmful stereotypes that Black people are prone to theft and that Black children are more adult and less innocent than other children."

After the original confrontation, and despite the restaurant owner's evidence that cash shortages are common and usually the result of innocent mistakes, AB was relegated to working in the back of the store, the decision says. When she quit her job, Stone declined to write her a reference letter.

Prince said it was likely discrimination was also behind those decisions.

"In arriving at these findings, I am not concluding that Mr. Stone intended to discriminate against AB," the decision says.

"None of us are immune from operating on unconscious stereotypes, given that such stereotypes continue to seep into our collective psyche."

https://ca.yahoo.com/news/black-13-old-treated-potential-220742597.html

My opinion: I felt like justice was served for the the 13 yr old.  Did they have cameras on the till?  I have worked at the Soup Place #2 and Juice Place #1 where there are cameras on the till.

Wed. Sept. 27, 2023 "Target closing 9 stores in U.S. due to growing theft problem": Today I found this article on the CBC:

Target said Tuesday that it will close nine stores in four states, including one in New York City's East Harlem neighbourhood, and three in the San Francisco Bay Area, saying that theft and organized retail crime have threatened the safety of its workers and customers.

The closures, which will be effective Oct. 21, also include three stores in Portland, Ore., and two in Seattle. Target said that it still will have a combined 150 stores open in the markets where the closures are taking place. It said it will offer affected workers the opportunity to transfer to other stores.

The Minneapolis retailer said the decision to close the stores was difficult.

"We know that our stores serve an important role in their communities, but we can only be successful if the working and shopping environment is safe for all," Target said in a statement.

Target said it has invested heavily in strategies to prevent theft, such as adding more security workers, using third-party guard services, installing theft-deterrent tools and locking up merchandise. It also has trained store managers and security-team members to protect themselves and de-escalate potential safety issues.

But it noted that it still faced "fundamental challenges" to operate the stores safely — and the business performance at the locations slated for closure was unsustainable.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/target-stores-theft-1.6979493

My opinion: They put time, effort, money and resources into solving the problem, but were unable to.  At least the workers can transfer to other stores.

If this happens in the US, it can happen in Canada.

Mon. Sept. 25, 2023 Downtown: I went to downtown for an appointment.

I then took the bus to City Centre.  I bumped into my friend Denny from the Personality Meetup group on the bus.

I went to get a free medium coffee in my thermos at McDonald's.  I redeemed the coffee card of where you buy 7 coffees and get 1 free.  My dad is the one who buys the coffees, and I put the stickers on the card.

Foreign currency exchange : I went to TD and I had a prescription bottle of coins from other countries I found in my home.  The woman said they don't take coins.  I gave her a 20 pesos bill and she said the bill has to be at least a $50 bill.

She told me to go the TD in West Edmonton mall:

"TD Bank offers services for all your banking needs, including foreign currency exchange. With our longer hours and over 50 currencies available, we are ready to help you with all your foreign currency needs whether you are visiting Canada or planning your next trip."

https://www.wem.ca/directory/stores/td-bank-foreign-exchange-centre

Wed. Sept. 27, 2023 Fix my flip phone: 2 days ago, my flip phone stopped working with the screen not showing up, or showing some, or being flipped upside down.  I turned it off for awhile and then turned it back on and it's the same.  I had this phone since 2018.

I went to Rogers at City Centre and they said they can't fix it.  I went to the 3 cell phone repair stores there, and they don't fix flip phones.  You have to buy these parts for it and it's expensive.  You might as well buy a new flip phone.

I went to Rogers, and I waited by reading for 5 min.  They sell flip phones for $111.  I then thought: "Why don't I call all these other cell phone repair stores and maybe they can fix it?"

I went home and called 13 places from West Edmonton mall, Kingsway, and Southgate mall and they all said the same thing.  It was like 20 min. on the phone.  Well it wasn't a lot of physical effort on my part.

I know my mom has an old flip phone that I can use.

Mon. Sept. 25, 2023 The Irrational:

"Alec Mercer is a world-renowned behavioral scientist who lends his expertise to an array of high-stakes cases involving governments, law enforcement and corporations with his unique and unexpected approach to understanding human behavior."

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16288838/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0_tt_7_nm_1_q_the%2520irr

My opinion: I saw the pilot.  This was average.  I will record the series and probably will watch all the eps in a couple of weeks.

Sept. 28, 2023 Robyn Hood: 

"Follows Robyn Loxley and anti-authoritarian masked hip-hop band, The Hood, as they call out injustices and fight for freedom and equality in the city of New Nottingham."

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt20918756/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_3_tt_1_nm_7_q_robyn

My opinion: The pilot was mediocre and then I never watched it again.  This seems like something for the CW and their superhero shows.

"In a year of anti-Muslim vitriol, major brand advertisers promote inclusion"/ "Mining association launches regulations to diversify mostly 'male and white' industry"

Jan. 6, 2017 "In a year of anti-Muslim vitriol, major brand advertisers promote inclusion": Today I found this article by Sapna Maheshwari in the Globe and Mail:

The gentle piano music starts as the doorbell chimes. A white-haired Christian pastor greets his friend, a Muslim imam, and the two converse and laugh over a cup of tea, wincing about their creaky knees as they prepare to part ways. Later, it spurs the same idea in each for a gift: kneepads sent via Amazon Prime. (It is a commercial, after all.)

The piano notes accelerate as the men open their deliveries with smiles, and then each uses the item to kneel in prayer: one at a church, the other at a mosque. The final chords fade.

The ad from Amazon and its message of interfaith harmony became a viral sensation this holiday season, at the end of a year in which talk involving Muslims became particularly ominous. 

Amazon – which aired the commercial in Britain, Germany and the United States – cast a practising vicar and Muslim community leader in the lead roles and consulted with several religious organizations to ensure the ad was accurate and respectful.

“This type of a project is definitely a first for us,” said Rameez Abid, communications director for the social justice branch of the Islamic Circle of North America, one group Amazon worked with.

 “They were very aware that this was going to cause controversy and might get hate mail and things like that, but they said it’s something that they wanted to do because the message is important.”

A slew of major U.S. brands – including Honey Maid, Microsoft, Chevrolet, YouTube and CoverGirl – prominently featured everyday Muslim men, women and children in their marketing last year. 

While such ads were apolitical in nature, focused on themes of community and acceptance, they were viewed as bold, even risky, in a year when there were campaign statements by U.S. president-elect Donald Trump about a Muslim registry and a ban on Muslim immigrants.

Several advertising executives likened the movement to the decision by mass marketers to cast same-sex couples and their children in ads for the first time in 2013 and 2014, making inclusion and acceptance a priority over potential criticism from some customers.

“With the kind of gay parent issue, we’ve gotten a little closer to acceptance, but the Muslim issue in America is still pretty raw for a lot of people,” said Kevin Brady, an executive creative director at the ad agency Droga5, which worked last year with Honey Maid on a commercial about white and Muslim-American neighbours. 

“I don’t think it should be, but it’s one that I think brands took an extra step of courage to really go out there with in 2016.”

A campaign for YouTube Music in the middle of last year highlighted five individuals, including a young woman in a hijab, rapping to a song by Blackalicious while walking through a school corridor. 

The inclusion of the ad, Afsa’s Theme, was purposeful, said Danielle Tiedt, chief marketing officer at YouTube, adding that highlighting diversity is “more important than ever.”

“I don’t think diversity is a political statement,” she said. “This is an issue of universal humanity.”

PressReader.com - Connecting People Through News

Jun. 22, 2023 "Mining association launches regulations to diversify mostly 'male and white' industry": Today I found this article by Naimul Karim on the Financial Post:

Canada’s largest mining association has announced new regulations that its members must follow to tackle issues such as sexual harassment, bullying and gender discrimination at a time when the industry is finding it difficult to attract workers.

Through its equity, diversity and inclusion protocol, the Mining Association of Canada, whose nearly 60 members including Barrick Gold Corp. and Teck Resources Ltd., hopes to attract more women, newcomers and minorities in a sector that’s “male dominated” and “homogeneously white,” the association said.

In February last year, Rio Tinto Ltd., one of the world’s largest mining companies, released a report based on a survey of about 10,000 employees, which suggested the presence of systemic bullying, sexual harassment and racism in its workforce.

The report helped pushed MAC to introduce its new protocol, the association’s chief executive Pierre Gratton said. The new regulation will compel its members to 

conduct similar independent surveys, 

be transparent 

and take steps to improve the working environment. 

If members don’t adhere to the regulation, they can be asked to exit the group as a last measure.

“There are still operations around the world where there aren’t any women’s toilets. 

Even things within Canada, mining equipment is not necessarily designed for female’s bodies,” Gratton said. 

“Companies need policies on anti-harassment and bullying against women, against minorities. Some of them have them, but to what extent are they fully implemented?”

Canada’s mining industry expects to have a shortage of about 80,000 to 120,000 workers by 2030, according to the non-profit Mining Industry Human Resources Council.

MAC’s workplace push is part of its Towards Sustainable Mining program, which helps miners manage environmental and social risks. The program already has about 30 indicators and eight protocols that deal with issues such as tailings management and communicating with Indigenous groups. Members are graded annually and handed scores from AAA to C.

Gratton said most companies in the early days of that program struggled to meet MAC’s regulations. But in the past 15 years, a majority of the companies improved and were given an A grade. 

This compelled MAC to redesign their criteria and make its indicators stricter. Gratton expects to see similar progress with the new protocol.

“In order to go up the curve and achieve the kind of results that they are going to be proud of, as opposed to embarrassed by, which I think it’s going to be a little bit like in the beginning, they are going to have to look at their HR policies, they are going to have to look to see if there’s unconscious bias or outright bias,” he said.

Critics such as the Mining Watch Canada, a non-governmental organization, believe that MAC sets weaker standards than some other associations.

But Anne Johnson, an assistant professor at Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., in August said MAC’s policies are “valuable” because they set “minimums” and require companies to improve over time.

“Incremental improvement is going to get us where we need to go,” she said.

Others agree. Marci Ien, the minister for women, gender equality and youth, said MAC’s new policies could play a key role in making communities feel safe in an industry that’s “predominantly male and white.”

Lana Payne, Unifor’s national president, said she was confident the new policies would make mining companies more accountable and transparent.

https://financialpost.com/commodities/mining/mac-urges-miners-diversify-mostly-male-white-industry

"Three ways to figure out whether a company is really invested in change"/ "‘Woke’ ESG regulations leading to policy chaos with worst yet to come"

Nov. 26, 2021 "Three ways to figure out whether a company is really invested in change": Today I found this article by Martin Pelletier in the Financial Post:

Martin Pelletier: Companies looking to change the world have to put their focus on their employees and keep it there

There has been a lot of interest over the past few years on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) investing, but, truth be told, I’ve found few really know what truly defines being an ESG-compliant company, other than in the sectors they operate in, and it’s often too easy to simply adjust one’s marketing materials.

There has been much talk of integrating ESG into a company’s reporting standards as they do with corporate compensation, 

but payout models haven’t really changed that much for senior management despite the increased disclosure.

This doesn’t mean we don’t believe in the power of investing in positive change, but there must be a better and more effective approach than the status quo. 

There also remains a tremendous economic incentive since those companies that genuinely embrace a socially responsible way of operating will be highly disruptive to those remaining under the old shareholder maximization model and they will ultimately make the world a better place.

There is no better way to do this than focusing on employees, just like Henry Ford did when he got started. 

For example, few know he implemented the $5, eight-hour day in 1914, which was double the industry pay for less work. 

However, his need for top-down control of Ford and his stubbornness ultimately led to the company being disrupted by more stylish and comfortable cars such as the Chevrolet.

It is no different today: companies looking to change the world and make it a better place have to put their focus on their employees and keep it there. 

This can be a difficult thing to do since we’ve all been taught the client is always right and the shareholder is the boss.

A socially responsible company is one we like to call open source. It is characterized by happy and motivated employees who see themselves as part-owners and, therefore, genuinely feel responsible for the future direction of the company.

As a result, they will often treat clients as if they are their own, which is in stark contrast to the traditional hierarchical structure layered with inefficiencies and riddled with ego. 

Ego is a real company killer and much more of a threat than outside competitors. More so, ego can lead to unethical behaviour, because self-interest and office politics become ingrained within the company’s culture.

If you’re wondering what an open-source company looks like, here are three ways to verify.

Bench strength and open communication: 

The company’s frontline staff should be highly competent and entrepreneurial in nature, 

and highly valued and respected by the organization. 

They are also fully supported by other equally valued employees who may be less entrepreneurial in nature, but are still able to recognize the importance of getting to yes instead of taking the easy path to no.

Employees are also the ones who know the changes a company needs to make in order to stay on the cutting edge. 

Therefore, it is important to have processes in place to ensure people feel they’re being heard and that they’re comfortable sharing ideas right to the top.

Empowerment and ownership: I really believe most people will make the correct choice between right and wrong when they understand there is a level of trust being placed with them. 

This means empowering them to say no to bad business or turning down potential business that would compromise doing the right thing, such as creating a conflict of interest or self-dealing. 

All employees should be participating in the success of the firm, so make them shareholders and you might be both surprised how loyal they are and be impressed with the decisions they make.

No middle management: Open-sourced companies never have a mid-layer of management with bosses upon bosses. They have tiers of support, not management. 

Once a mid-level structure is added as a means to manage a company’s rapid growth because “it’s the way it’s always been done,” it is game over. You’ve just become the very thing you were created to disrupt.

Maybe we need to eliminate ESG altogether and move to an employee-centred open-source model instead. This would be more difficult than a top-down, ego-driven structure that can virtue-signal away its actual ESG responsibility.

But if you really want to change the world, why not start with those lives you can directly impact and trust them to make the right choices for both the company and society? 

This is certainly one most of us in the investing world would much prefer to invest in and support.

Martin Pelletier, CFA, is a senior portfolio manager at Wellington-Altus Private Counsel Inc, operating as TriVest Wealth Counsel, a private client and institutional investment firm specializing in discretionary risk-managed portfolios, investment audit/oversight and advanced tax, estate and wealth planning.

Three ways to figure out whether a company is really invested in change | Financial Post

Sept. 8, 2023 "‘Woke’ ESG regulations leading to policy chaos with worst yet to come": Today I found this article by Terence Corcoran on the Financial Post:

In an underground retail passage leading to the Toronto subway at the intersection of Bloor and Yonge — a retail row owned by Brookfield Properties — many of the stores sit in post-COVID shutdown. To fill some of the empty window space, Brookfield has erected a billboard. Instead of erecting a “For Lease” sign, the billboard calls on subway passengers to join in “BREAKING THE PLASTIC HABIT.”

Commuters are asked to scan a QR code so they can promise to “Skip the plastics.” The scan opens on a page that says “Take the pledge!” by ticking a box that says “I pledge to Break the Plastic Habit” and another that says “My workplace pledges to Break the Plastic Habit.”

How cheap and easy it must be for a global real estate company to take public shots at the plastics industry, especially for a company like Brookfield Properties, a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management, which is chaired by Mark Carney, former central banker and leading global proponent of corporate adherence to strict environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices.

Plastics have been a Blookfield ESG target for years. Along with the world’s biggest asset managers and corporations, from such trillion-dollar giants as BlackRock to Canada’s major banks and down to airlines and Liberty Gold, a 30-cent-a-share mining company, the investment world has been churning out millions of pages of feel-good reports on how they are managing their way through a labyrinth of often unmeasurable aspects of their operations.

That easy PR part of ESG, labelled as “woke” by some and “greenwashing” by others, is coming to an end. Even BlackRock CEO Larry Fink seems to be turning his back on the ESG crusade. A Google news search of ESG produces a rundown of stories: the end of ESG boom; ESG blocks investment flows; institutions struggle with ESG metrics.

That struggle is set to turn into a regulatory nightmare as governments, financial houses, corporations and regulators attempt to create international standards to document and measure business operations that are largely unmeasurable.

The ESG regulatory hurricane is sweeping across Europe, North America and Asia. The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued new ESG disclosure guidelines in July that would require domestic and foreign registrants to report climate-related information.

Many corporations already do some of this, but coming soon is the need to document what is called “Scope 3” carbon emissions. In short, corporations will soon be forced to report not only on their direct carbon emissions but on “all indirect emissions … that occur in the value chain of the reporting company, including both upstream and downstream emissions.”

Scope 3 emissions targets are a product of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standards (GGPCS) regime, which is only one small aspect of an alphabet soup of rules that’s about to drown corporate managers and investors. There’s no space here to attempt to explore the whole global scene, even if I did understand it, but a good starting point is to look at the growth of regulatory acronyms.

ISSB: The International Sustainability Standards Board is developing standards “in the public interest” to install a high-quality, comprehensive global baseline of sustainability disclosures focused on the needs of investors and the financial markets. 

A key ISSB player is Richard Manley, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board’s chief sustainability officer. He heads the ISSB’s investor advisory group.

CSRD: The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive requires Europe’s companies to report on the impact of corporate activities on the environment and society, and requires a fully audited assurance of reported information.

ESRS: European Sustainability Reporting Standards were adopted July 31 and require reporting on sustainability-related impacts, opportunities and risks under the CSRD. 

These include a full range of environmental, social and governance issues, including climate change, pollution, biodiversity, ecosystems and resource use.

Workforce human rights reports include a company’s own workforce (social protection, persons with disabilities, work-related ill-health, and work-life balance). All these data points are included in ESRS.

ESG is a massive regulatory and corporate reform nicely described by Stuart Kirk, a former HSBC responsible investing executive, as “death by fatuous and incomparable data.”

One thing is certain about ESG regulatory reform: Taking the Brookfield Plastics Pledge was the easy part. The worst is yet to come.

• Email: tcorcoran@postmedia.com

https://financialpost.com/opinion/woke-esg-regulations-create-policy-chaos#:~:text=The%20ESG%20regulatory%20hurricane%20is,to%20report%20climate%2Drelated%20information.

2 HRS AGO

Thanks for the enlightening article on the anti capitalist woke cults unseen undemocratic unilateral imposition of its agenda on our world.

The plastics ban seems to have little to do or effect their main shrill alarmidt global warming/ life extiction threat ,will cost billions at the exprnse of other basic human needs ,and looks unlikely to succeed in its objective.

Like failed Defund the Police campaign,( causing a record increase in crime), or the anti oil csmpaign( causing spike in gas prices and impivereshing inflation,), the fanatical woke cults policy drives and influence has a track record of harm and injustice to humanity.

We need to liberate our nations from the woke cult tyranny while we can.

3 HRS AGO

Sounds like sponges to soak up all of the country’s unemployable. Value-added jobs are becoming rare. Believe what I believe and I’ve got a paycheque for you.