Ms. Jen Gerson & National Post

You are essentially a petri dish example of exactly what Jen Gersen writes about with the full weight of empirical evidence provided by the trusted institutions of scientific research.

And you got......... what? Your gut hunches?

LikeReply814w

Stephen Dillman ·

Queen's University

Still searching for an excuse, any excuse, and they still don't get it, and maybe never will.

LikeReply114w

Bruce Kay ·

- Just jerking your chain Rog, proving Jen's point, thanks for stepping up yo

LikeReply214wEdited

Bruce Kay ·

LikeReply814w

Stephen Dillman ·

Queen's University

Still searching for an excuse, any excuse, and they still don't get it, and maybe never will.

LikeReply114w

Bruce Kay ·

- Just jerking your chain Rog, proving Jen's point, thanks for stepping up yo

LikeReply214wEdited

John Wilberry

Bruce Kay lol "full weight of empirical evidence provided by the trusted institutions of scientific research." What a crock of shyt, Jen provides zero evidence, if you want scientific look up the Harvard study that proved MSM was 80% negative on Trump and 64% negative on HRC. Jen also conveniently omits the fact that social media allows people to bypass biased media.

LikeReply514w

Stephen Dillman Certainly not Bruce Kay anyway.

Bruce Kay ·

You're an idiot Willberry Dough Boy. All and any actual science of human cognition shows clearly and as conclusively as CO2 is a greenhouse gas, that you are pissing in the wind every time you think. Science is fun eh?

LikeReply114wEdited

JW Garvin

Nut!!!!

Your such a sanctimnious lot in Toronto...arent you now.?

How about telling the news as it is..hmm? How about some real investigative reporting.?? I'm sure that with our present Government you could easily find some good material. You all wonder why your ratings are so low..? I'll give you a hint, its cause you LIE, Obfuscate, Opinionate and push Social Change Agenda ad nausea. That is MSM in a nutshell.

The Reason for this is that you ALL have been indoctrinated in Marxist -progressive theory whether you know it or not...its a stink that comes from pretty much all of you.

You would all do well to emulate what the REBEL does...they go after the REAL Stories..instead of printing FLUFF.

this is the first time in history when people can clearly voice their own opinion without it being filtered or amalgamated by some political party claiming to represent the interests of the public. In other words, don't tell us what we think, we'll tell you.

Theo Groenevelt ·

SAIT

Darrell Busche ·

North Peace Senior Secondary

Patrick McMurphy , you must be drunk

Show 1 more reply in this thread

Alain Desgagne

Hey Jen, here's a thought...you write near the end of your column,

"The profit ain’t in truth. It’s in telling people what they want to hear."

But I would suggest a slight change to this. The sentiment above could be more accurately rephrased.

"The profit ain’t in truth. It’s in buying people with their own money."

The genesis is governmental misuse of funds - generally - and a growing patronizing attitude that government knows best how to run the lives of its citizens....See More

LikeReply1714wEdited

James Francis

It was an amazing feat from Russia that’s for sure. Just imagine for a moment the complexities of physically forcing 63 MILLION people to put their X beside Trumps name.

Reply314w

Craig Hall ·

Centennial College

James Francis It's still a fair amount less than put their X beside Hillary's name, and that should trouble anyone who believes in democracy.

Reply14w

James Francis

Craig Hall

Considering we in Canada live in a country that voted the Trust fund, sock loving Kodak Kid in with a vote count of only 29% of eligible voters, your argument about believing in Democracy has the sum total of zero for credibility.

Reply114w

Mike Power

And make sure Jen, you get a dig in against Rebel. Of course you did. You see FB, Twitter, blogs,have given the liitle people chance to show the MSM the contemp it so deserves in many cases. Didn't i just see today the media sanitizing Morneau and making excuses for Trudeau. When instead they should be asking for Morneau's resignation. Thank God for Rebel. They go where you angels fear to tread and yes come out with some scars. I will take them over you elitist pc lot any day.

LikeReply1214w

Mike White ·

Works at Retired

It has certainly radicalized liberal-democracy and helped to polarize people. However, newspapers like the NYT and the G&M or CNN are no longer objective news sources but simply cheering sections for egalitarian politics and the Parties that push that message. Same with republican or establishment conservatives . There is no one representing moderates or independent voters.

LikeReply614w

Ron Broda ·

North Saanich

Sadly many people see only what they want to see or whatever validates their own particular viewpoint. It's too bad that the art of critical thinking is in such short supply.
Just because the majority thinks so doesn't make it right. It is always best practice to at least consider alternate view points, evaluate their validity, think for yourself and then decide. Hmm... kind of obvious! Isn't it? How come so few do it?

LikeReply714w

Gertrude Taylor

Consider, evaluate and then decide? That's too hard. It's so much easier to let other people do your thinking for you.

Reply14wEdited

Bruce Kay ·

"Cue, here, the letter-writers who are already crafting thoughtful and personal responses to this column explaining that their sense of distrust and outrage...."

On the contrary, a accurate sumation, representative of our best understanding of human cognition and entirely accurate as to the single greatest threat to democracy as we understand it.

A electorate informed only by their own common sense.

Fire Comrade Black and Hex Barfy if you care the slightest.

Jou L Ma

At least learn to spell before you try to sound clever.

Reply414wEdited

John Wilberry

Yes, let's limit free speech so that just liberal views are heard, lol you're dumber than ever Bruce.

Reply114w

Bruce Kay ·

Show 5 more replies in this thread

Muzzle? You paranoid freak. Laugh and mock sure but if we muzzled them, late night comedy would be in crisis

Reply214w

Gordon Moore

"As long as it’s not mainstream, few seem to apply the level of scrutiny or skepticism that is, rightly, expected of outlets like this one."

She is assuming that people don't give the same level of scrutiny.
Maybe they do give the same level of scrutiny and find that too much of the mainstream media is very biased towards the left-wing and Liberals, and don't trust it anymore.
Maybe she and the mainstream media are the problem.

LikeReply314w

Lynn Seguin

When liberal bag men on the CBC tell me that Trudeau is the darling of liberal democracy in the rest of the world; I take that with a grain of salt and I get my analysis elsewhere. The rest of the world must be puzzled but so long as the CBC doesn't show the PMO wearing clown shoes in this country; the rest of the world can keep their masks on.

Reply14w

John Dowell

That antidote, of course, to all the misinformation floating around is being well-informed. Too many cannot be bothered so they go out to vote (if they even bother) as low-information voters, impressed by superficialities or grossly minsinformed by social media. I wish the hell they would stay at home and let people who take the time to know the issues do the voting. We should not be encouraging mass voter participation. Those who care will vote.

Jennifer Friesen Sluiter ·

Ottawa, Ontario

Bias in an article is easy to spot. It's all down to the adjectives, you see. "Journalists" these days seem absolutely incapable of reporting on an event without bias and without attempt at editorializing. Editorializing is best left to more mature, senior staff for reasons which are so obvious that they needn't be listed. And this piece demonstrates perfectly the problem at hand. It is not a report. It is not news. It is an essay. Newspapers and news outlets are expected to report news on events. This is their function. But in the search for a wider audience and more and more money...See More

Stephanie Zee Fehler ·

I haven't gone to the alternative media for regular news. but the Hillary/Trump election was a watershed event for me and a lot of people like me, who realize that "mainstream media" is not just dead, completely bought and sold and no longer willing to maintain even a pretense of objectivity, but rotting, devolving into partisan activism and namecalling. I miss the few journalists who have an above average command of English and a knowledge of both history and the mechanics of logical thought. But Rex Murphy and Conrad Black can't make up for the fact that I feel dirty reading the news now. At first, I tried to cobble together an aggregator with right wing alternatives (as the left has destroyed most media outlets now), but it's just not worth it. I want to know what is happening in the world, but news agencies will not help me. Instead I am cultivating friendships with ordinary people all over the world, checking reddit, writing letters, and trying to just care less.

Dan Knight ·

Nelson, British Columbia

Jen Gerson is one of the few rising stars in mainstream journalism. I've been following her writing since she first started out, and while half of what she writes I don't agree with, the other half I do. Proving two things: Her balanced independance journalism and my personal bias.

The second best thing about her writing is it appears she is honing her wordsmithing craft. In time, she will be a fine replacement for Rex Murphy's prose.

Lynn Seguin

"What is happening on Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms right now will go down as one of the greatest experiments in mass manipulations in human history. " All true for those who are invested in using it to manipulate the public. It brings to mind Vote Compass although that manipulation was carried out by the national broadcaster. The real question for independent thinkers is whether or not they know BS when they see it; not whether they should shut down their twitter feeds and facebook accounts. You can be sure that our own political elite will not be shutting down their accounts. Not many people know about logic fallacies and the ways one can be emotionally manipulated to be accepted by the group. I see it in operation every day with our own political masters. Yes Trump is full of crap and so is Trudeau and they are both doing as much damage as they possibly can to Canada.

James Hickey

Most of the interent is used for porn and I am only swayed by women and ignore most other things unless it involves women such as when my wife tells me to do something. Do we really live in a democracy beyond the one man one vote concept, I do not think we do. Our elected politicians work for the wealthy and special interest groups first and often resist what the majority desires such as fair taxes. I doubt that it makes much difference in the long term who is elected since the system responds to changes that are not controlled by any group or person. Hilary had more votes but the majority did not vote for her or Trump. Normal voting patterns predicted that Trump would win regardess of what anyone claims.

Peter Lee ·

University of Bristol

The media became a serious and major problem, when they decided the facts were not important, their opinions were. So they changed from news reporting organsations to colouring the news with their own opinion. Why they thought their opinion as journatlists were more valid and important than anybody else's I'm not sure. They continue to discuss President Trump problem with the truth, but if the truth be known they equally as guilty.

Neil Pottle ·

Proprietor at BarNone

Most people get better at what they do the longer they do it. The exceptions are academics and journalists. Some of these manage to get worse. Like this author and andrew coyne.
This time Jen you are so wrong that you now have the same credibilty as the worst of what you are criticising.

Gordon Moore

"Rather, they consume media like the Rebel or Breitbart or Occupy Democrats. "
Please notice the examples given are all right-wing media outlets.
Isn't that a sign of bias?

Bruce Stanley ·

Mohawk College

We live in an era where Liberals are actually proud of the fact that they refuse to hear both sides and will do eveything in their power to shut down opposing points of view.. When that's allowed to happens you end up with an empty headed HIMBO leading the country to ruin.

Geoffrey Brittan ·

Trent University

The headline reads, "Jen Gerson: The greatest weakness in Western democracies is us," which is awful English. The headline should read, "Jen Gerson: We are the greatest weakness in Western democracies."

It is amazing just how low our language facility has fallen. Even professional writers are unable to put a sentence together or spot errors prior to publication.

Mark Shore

It's a reference, not an error. The English language is a flexible tool.

https://humorinamerica .wordpress .com/2014/05/19/the-morphology-of-a-humorous-phrase/

Reply14w

Geoffrey Brittan ·

Trent University

Mark Shore
No, it's an error.

Reply14w

James Hickey

My grand daughter is fourteen and she seems pretty wise and well adjusted and she does like to text a bit. Odd that a female journalist would slander all young women and old men in one sentence.

Franco Prairie ·

Works at Self-employed

Jen Gerson,
"Writer of politics, pipelines, and funny animal stories.Calgary Herald, Abu Dhabi Media Company, The Globe and Mail."
lol
Abu Dhabi, The Globe and Mail. Not much to add, her strong left wing bias, pro islamic support clearly shows in her assaults of the duly elected American President.

Of course the Canadian electorate is not polarized. The whole diatribe is not about Western Democracies but the Trmp democracy and as a result Jen talks forever and says nothing.

Rick Mailloux

You can blame the modern American way. Beauty over intelligence, sports over politics, materialistic items over substance.

You are taslking about Trudeau I presume.

Reply14w

Ivan Paul Dobren ·

McGill University

.
"Tweeted, sigh, President Donald Trump on Saturday. Proving, yet again, that the leader of the free world is a particularly callow 14-year-old girl trapped in the body of a 70-year-old man."

Tell us something we don't know.....................

.

Bruce Stanley ·

Mohawk College

Apparently you still haven't figured out Jrs an idiot. Slow learner or what. Here's where you extoll the virtues of a top education to explain the fact you're never right.

Reply14w

Bill Kiechle

Yawn. Another fake news attack from the left. Media hacks see that they can sell any phoned it crap as long as it has an anti-Trump spin.
No wonder people don't trust the media any more.

LikeReply2214w

Abhijeet Ranade

Thanks dead American guy.

Reply114w

Jane Ann Turn that around and you are the problem.

Reply114w

Chris DiCesare ·

Brantford, Ontario

maybe Gerson should take some time out to read something other than the NYT, WaPo and try getting television news from someone other than MSNBC or NBC or CNN - might get a better prospective to write from but I doubt it Gerson will not receive information that she doesnt agree with and will not give fair standing - but the opinion writer can write her opinions based on faulty info - that is how we get fake narratives - but dont stop Gerson ur a warrior in the name of what?????????

Gerald Read

This is exactly true. FB preys on all of us for their cheap ratings and that is as much as they care about us or our political structure.

John Wilberry

It's called the internet, feel free to get your information beyond FB. Open a twitter account and get feeds from hundreds of news source and blogs delivered to you. Who in their right mind uses FB as their source? It's a messaging system I am forced to use because NP uses it. FB is for idiots.

Reply14w

Tj Hamilton ·

York University

Having a liberal journalist criticize and name call is like watching a one year old fill their diaper... and just as consequential.

LikeReply514w

Craig Cooper ·

Harvard University

On display right here in the comments section.

Bryan Dickerson

The people should just shut up and let their betters tell them how to vote - National Post

Eugen Proton ·

Toronto, Ontario

Unnamed sources say corrupt main stream media doesn't have monopoly on information anymore

Maria Horovitz ·

Toronto, Ontario

Read fate of empires of John Glubb. Western democracies are dying.

David Lundquist ·

Academy of Hard Knocks

Total agreement with you. The appeals to confirmational bias is addicitve and leaves all of us feeling like "we must be on the right track"

Lack of critical thought, information overload and failure to consider both sides of an argument when discussing issues is leaving us as helpless and lemmings.

Ron Boal

Wow, there are a lot of moronic Trump cultists on this page.

Alan Bonnell

re: Trump's comment about Kim,,,, Screw the thought police, I thought it was funny!

Russ Duncan ·

Peterborough, Ontario

95% is trying to point out the hypocrisy and stupidity of this man

Alex Black

This is probably one of the most interesting and underreported subjects of all time. It truly is time to start criticizing the tech companies who are getting away with murder. In what ways are the tech companies making our lives better? What ways are they making our lives worse? In what ways are they causing real harm? These are big questions we need to start asking much more vigorously. This is the 2nd article I've read from NP on this important subject recently. Keep it up National post! People are bored with Russia, Russia, Russia and other click bait subjects. This is a good article and would like to read more on same subject .

Donald Catton ·

Works at Mr.Ted.

Failed mass manipulation...

Gary Reid ·

Works at Retired

I do wonder about how much time people spend on social media (and I do appreciate the irony that this is a Facebook post). It is as if there are two separate worlds, .... reality and the on-line world. I wonder how many people get lost in the artificial world ... never interacting face to face with real people, never going outdoors, never living in three dimensions.

Jen Gerson: The greatest weakness in Western democracies is us

Hugh Whittington ·

Works at Self-employed

Is trhere

加拿大《全国邮报》（National Post）是一份全国性英语报纸，1998年10月创刊，读者主要为高级知识分子、工商金融界人士、加拿大政府官员、以及常驻加拿大的外交人员。目前，该报发行量约35万份，其社论和新闻报道经常被国外报刊引用或转载。

《全国邮报》成立之初，立志挑战主要全国性大报——《环球邮报》（The Globe and Mail）。但是十年之后，《环球邮报》仍然占据着优势。《全国邮报》却由于内部种种问题发展不大。

政治立场上，《全国邮报》代表加拿大保守派(Conservative)，而《环球邮报》则代表自由派（Liberals)。特别《全国邮报》是加拿大少数无条件支持以色列的媒体之一。

1998年10月创刊，由霍林格公司创办，总部在多伦多。创刊号达到创纪录的50万份，但由于投入资金过大，在头21个月就损失了近9900万美元。2001年加西环球通信公司买下了《全国邮报》，现在发行量为30多万份。

《金融邮报》，曾是加拿大唯一的全国性金融日报，英文，总部设在多伦多。该报长期是周报，由麦克莱恩—亨特公司出版。1987年太阳出版公司买下该报后于1988年2月将其改为日报（但周报照出）。该报的金融消息丰富，反映加拿大商界各方面的观点。1997年布莱克买下该报，《全国邮报》创刊后它作为其财经部分一起发行。

Jen Gerson November 12, 2017 7:23 PM EST

We all imagine ourselves to be great, independent, thinkers. We are lab rats pushing a lever for our daily outrage or humour pellet

Frank Li ·

Waterloo, Ontario Feb 16 2018 12:23

"None of this is Russia’s fault."
Jen Gerson is always in a sharp sight。

Jen Gerson: Sears Canada's legacy: private profits and socialized losses

Jen Gerson January 14, 2018 5:48 PM EST

While Sears' shareholders pocketed payouts of $3.5 billion, the chain's pension plans remained underfunded to the tune of $270 million

Jen Gerson: Putting too tight of a cap on election spending and donations could do more harm than good

Jen Gerson August 10, 2016 2:41 PM EST

Parties would simply shift as much spending as possible into the pre-writ period, furthering the trend of endless campaigning that we see in the U.S.

Jen Gerson: It's important to see women in power, even if you don't like them

Jen Gerson August 3, 2016 9:58 AM EST

Jen Gerson: Seeing a female boss, a female partner, a female CEO and, yes, a female president matters

WatchJen Gerson: The badly behaved man vs. the predator — why we need to distinguish between sex offenders

Jen Gerson January 4, 2018 12:36 PM EST

Put all offences — and all men — on a gradient and serial predators will hide in the grey. If we misdiagnose the problem, our solutions will fail

The holy and uncorrupted arm of St. Francis Xavier is crossing Canada for a two-week tour

Jen Gerson January 3, 2018 5:43 PM EST

The relic of St. Francis Xavier, whose body lies in Goa, India, will be viewed and venerated by tens of thousands of Catholics as it makes its way from St. ...

Anne Applebaum on Soviet famines, Ukrainian independence and Donald Trump

Jen Gerson January 2, 2018 12:43 PM EST

The Pulitzer-winning author's new book, Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, was released earlier this year. She spoke to the Post's Jen Gerson

Jen Gerson: Happy New Year: 2018 is going to be even worse

Jen Gerson January 1, 2018 7:08 PM EST

Mass shootings, refugee crises and American politics — 2017 was grim, but the 12 months ahead will probably be darker still

Jen Gerson: Perhaps what Trudeau really needs is an etiquette commissioner

Jen Gerson January 1, 2018 12:12 PM EST

The Aga Khan controversy isn't a sign of corruption so much as the naïveté evoked by a life insulated by wealth, power and celebrity

Christmas company, ranked: The people you'll spend the holidays with from least to most inviting

Jen Gerson December 21, 2017 9:01 AM EST

Managing the holidays is really a test of one's ability to manage these interlopers

Jen Gerson: UCP house leader was wrong, but it didn't hurt his party

Jen Gerson December 17, 2017 3:19 PM EST

There is no dispute that Nixon, then a 25-year-old small businessman who clearly feared the loss of business, did the wrong thing

WatchJen Gerson: The Weinstein Effect is the first cultural victory social conservatives have scored in decades

Jen Gerson December 11, 2017 7:41 AM EST

While the so called Weinstein Effect has removed the veil of shame that has kept women silent, so too must it also spell the end of the sexual amorality that ...

Jen Gerson: Alberta NDP's reputation will hinge on how well it keeps wage growth under control

Jen Gerson December 3, 2017 4:47 PM EST

Alberta's debt is only sustainable as long as the government can keep its spending growth curves, and its labour costs, in particular, under control

Page 1 of 77

Digital Editor for Full Comment.

@jengerson Email

http://nationalpost.com/author/jengerson

Jen Gerson: The greatest weakness in Western democracies is us

Jen Gerson

November 12, 2017 7:23 PM EST

We all imagine ourselves to be great, independent, thinkers. We are lab rats pushing a lever for our daily outrage or humour pellet

Jen Gerson: Sears Canada's legacy: private profits and socialized losses

Jen Gerson January 14, 2018 5:48 PM EST

While Sears' shareholders pocketed payouts of $3.5 billion, the chain's pension plans remained underfunded to the tune of $270 million

Jen Gerson: Putting too tight of a cap on election spending and donations could do more harm than good

Jen Gerson August 10, 2016 2:41 PM EST

Parties would simply shift as much spending as possible into the pre-writ period, furthering the trend of endless campaigning that we see in the U.S.

Jen Gerson: It's important to see women in power, even if you don't like them

Jen Gerson August 3, 2016 9:58 AM EST

Jen Gerson: Seeing a female boss, a female partner, a female CEO and, yes, a female president matters

WatchJen Gerson: The badly behaved man vs. the predator — why we need to distinguish between sex offenders

Jen Gerson January 4, 2018 12:36 PM EST

Put all offences — and all men — on a gradient and serial predators will hide in the grey. If we misdiagnose the problem, our solutions will fail

The holy and uncorrupted arm of St. Francis Xavier is crossing Canada for a two-week tour

Jen Gerson January 3, 2018 5:43 PM EST

The relic of St. Francis Xavier, whose body lies in Goa, India, will be viewed and venerated by tens of thousands of Catholics as it makes its way from St. ...

Anne Applebaum on Soviet famines, Ukrainian independence and Donald Trump

Jen Gerson January 2, 2018 12:43 PM EST

The Pulitzer-winning author's new book, Red Famine: Stalin's War on Ukraine, was released earlier this year. She spoke to the Post's Jen Gerson

Jen Gerson: Happy New Year: 2018 is going to be even worse

Jen Gerson January 1, 2018 7:08 PM EST

Mass shootings, refugee crises and American politics — 2017 was grim, but the 12 months ahead will probably be darker still

Jen Gerson: Perhaps what Trudeau really needs is an etiquette commissioner

Jen Gerson January 1, 2018 12:12 PM EST

The Aga Khan controversy isn't a sign of corruption so much as the naïveté evoked by a life insulated by wealth, power and celebrity

Christmas company, ranked: The people you'll spend the holidays with from least to most inviting

Jen Gerson December 21, 2017 9:01 AM EST

Managing the holidays is really a test of one's ability to manage these interlopers

Jen Gerson: UCP house leader was wrong, but it didn't hurt his party

Jen Gerson December 17, 2017 3:19 PM EST

There is no dispute that Nixon, then a 25-year-old small businessman who clearly feared the loss of business, did the wrong thing

WatchJen Gerson: The Weinstein Effect is the first cultural victory social conservatives have scored in decades

Jen Gerson December 11, 2017 7:41 AM EST

While the so called Weinstein Effect has removed the veil of shame that has kept women silent, so too must it also spell the end of the sexual amorality that ...

Jen Gerson: Alberta NDP's reputation will hinge on how well it keeps wage growth under control

Jen Gerson December 3, 2017 4:47 PM EST

Alberta's debt is only sustainable as long as the government can keep its spending growth curves, and its labour costs, in particular, under control

Page 1 of 77

Jen Gerson: Sears Canada's legacy: private profits and socialized losses

Jen Gerson January 14, 2018 5:48 PM EST
http://nationalpost.com/news/canada/jen-gerson-sears-canadas-legacy-private-profits-and-socialized-losses

While Sears' shareholders pocketed payouts of $3.5 billion, the chain's pension plans remained underfunded to the tune of $270 million

Every senior pensioner who must trek back to Home Depot in his twilight years is going to raise questions about whether or not treating pensioners as secondary to other kinds of creditors in cases of bankruptcy is a fair ordering of priorities. Jessica Nyznik / Examiner

For those who mark such things, Sunday was the last in which any Sears Canada store would ply its wares. As a Heartless Millennial, I admit no sentimentality about this passing. I have no memory of flipping through its catalog for Christmas presents — although I suppose I must have — and the iconic department store made no attempt to appeal to me, or to anyone like me, until my Amazon and pop-up-shop habits were immovably established.

Instead, I find my sympathies reserved for the likes of Ron Husk, recently profiled by CBC in Newfoundland and Labrador.

The 72-year-old retiree is now pulling shifts at Home Depot after working for 35 years selling appliances for Sears. Thanks to the nature of bankruptcy, his defined benefit pension is likely to be cut by as much as 20 per cent — although the lawyers and actuaries are still working out the details.

While Sears’ shareholders pocketed payouts of $3.5 billion, the chain’s pension plans remained underfunded to the tune of $270 million. While its executives enjoyed dividends, they also accepted multi-million dollar retention bonuses in the company’s closing months.

Maybe those incentives weren’t quite high enough. In the end, they didn’t seem to do much good. Regardless, none of them now need worry about how to make ends meet.

It’s Husk, and more than 16,000 retirees like him, who is left to fill in the gap because he relied on a corporate defined benefit pension.

His life insurance, health and dental benefits are gone, too. Cancelled in September, according to the CBC.

“That leaves me in a spot where, well, I’m going to need more money to make ends meet,” he said.

“At 72 years old, you don’t expect these things to happen.”

This might be an odd lament for a millennial like me, who would never deign to hope to see the sweet side of a defined benefit pension. It might be a good thing to grow up in such times; I’ll never live to be deluded by concepts like job security or loyalty. It’s not a bad thing to expect the worst, to think transactionally, to learn to manage one’s own RRSP account, or to look out for oneself first.

No corporation will ever disappoint me.

However, if fair-minded businesses wish to reduce the cries of more onerous regulation, stories like Husk’s don’t play well. Every senior pensioner who must trek back to Home Depot in his twilight years is going to raise questions about whether or not treating pensioners as secondary to other kinds of creditors in cases of bankruptcy is a fair ordering of priorities.

It’s not hard to imagine a world in which executive retention bonuses and dividend payouts are made contingent on fully funding pension plans, for example. If corporate boards are not willing to hold their executives to account, they should not be surprised to find a government eager to do so.

Ontario has attempted to ameliorate the plight of bankrupt pension plans by creating the Pension Benefits Guarantee Fund, which guarantees the first $1,000 of pension income lost in such a case; that figure has been set to rise to $1,500. (Sears employees in other provinces are out of luck.)

The PBGF strikes me as well-intentioned, but still fundamentally problematic. It’s using taxpayer funds to secure individual benefits at the expense of a province that is already deeply indebted.

Further, it gives us yet another example of privatizing profits and socializing loses; of placing those who were least responsible for Sears’ decline — the likes of a go-getting appliance salesman like Ron Husk — on the hook for his bosses’ failures.

In the end, that could be what defines Sears’ legacy, far more so than mouldering catalogs and storied corporate histories.

44 Comments

John Williamson ·

Works at Self-employed

Sears is not just a failure of capitalism....taxpayers and pensioners might have searching questions of Canada’s pension regulators who have allowed many of Canada’s largest corporations to build a pension funding deficit of over $38 billion...

LikeReply134w

Warren K. Smith ·

Nanaimo, British Columbia

Sounds like a failure of government.

Jake Johnson

Warren K. Smith - It's a private business.....government has nothing to do with it??

Tod Martens ·

NAIT

John, this isn’t a failure of capitalism.

Tree Topper at Logged for years, currently employed by Aerial Tree Service

Ken Sharp ·

If these companies that are going bankrupt are allowed to underfund Pension plans, why do the top people get paid out? If this requires a law to change this, then it is a failure if government

LikeReply74w

Charlene Pursey ·

Philosopher at large at A New Employer

Tod Martens What is the failure then?

Roy Brander

Warren K. Smith : I love you guys. When government makes a mistake, it's a failure of government. When private institutions make a mistake (or a crime) its a failure of government.

Then you go back to saying that ("the dead hand of") government should stop regulating them, often the next day.

Jake Johnson

Ken Sharp - So if government makes a mistake, it's a failure of government and if a private business makes a mistake, it's also a failure of government..?......ok.....got that!!

John Williamson ·

Works at Self-employed

Sorry...I thought I was clear that the failure of the company (and the manner of its passing) was completely a failure of management...The fact that the employee's pension is not adequately funded is also a failure of management AND the failure of the Government who oversees company's obligations to fund their pensions.

Maureen Matthew

Jake Johnson All pension plans are held in trust and governments have oversight responsibility

LikeReply44w

Including our very own federal government.

Jim Somerville ·

Ottawa, Ontario

The problem is with DB pension plans. Ban them, everybody gets a DC plan with the money *theirs* to see fit to invest as aggressively as they want. No more shared pots of money with unrealistic payout promises attached to them....

Renée-Anabelle Campeau ·

Parsons School of Design

Sears and Target have flopped...can we just get Zellers back please...I LOVED Zellers and they had the best hamburgers at their pastel green restaurants...

LikeReply94w

Mayer Nathan Jo

Zellers was worse. Garbage products, disheveled stores-products were never displayed properly and were always a mess. The buyers couldn't figure out what sizes people actually need. No loss when they closed; Hudson's Bay is barely better (same crap 25% more expensive)

Charlene Pursey ·

Philosopher at large at A New Employer

Mayer Nathan Jo Zellers was better than Walmart. They had quality products for the price.

Renée-Anabelle Campeau ·

Parsons School of Design

Zellers was Canadian had way better selection of merchandise and their restaurants had the best burgers

Alf Bailey

Strip the company bare, then screw the employees. This isn't a Canadian first. Look at the airline business history. The government is not looking out for the average Joe.

LikeReply154w

Kris Roenigk

Aren't they? (sarcasm off)

Margaret Crook

Why is it a government's fault? It's the business that made a mess of things. It's not up to governments to bail out businesses.

Margaret Crook Could of fooled me - government bails out or "invests" in businesses all the time in Canada. Crony capitalism which means everyone in Canada pays for it.

Chris Davis ·

Mississauga, Ontario

Since 2005 Sears Canada paid out $2.2 billion in three special dividends to its parent and hedge fund owner and another $900 million to shareholders, while leaving soon-to-be ex-employees and former employees with a $327 million pension deficit. Canadian government should pursue the parent and hedge fund owner for a) the pension shortfall, b) unpaid employee severance, c) a pecuniary penalty, and d) legal costs. But won’t.

LikeReply134w

Jim Mason

I understand that you might consider the actions by Sears Canada that you list to be reprehensible, but did any of them break Canadian law?

If so, then perhaps you could provide us with chapter and verse.

If not, then on what grounds could the Canadian government "pursue the parent and hedge fund owner"?

I consider the actions of doctors that kill innocent, defenceless humans that are unborn to be reprehensible but, unfortuantely, abortion is not currently against the law in Canada. But perhaps, like the actions by Sears Canada that you dislike, it should be.

Chris Davis ·

Mississauga, Ontario

Jim Mason it’s called neglect of fiduciary duty.

DeAnne Csada

The government is allowed to use pension funds that don’t even belong to them as they wish, to peruse Sears, they would have to stop doing this themselves and we all know that won’t happen!!

Show 1 more reply in this thread

Mark Alexander Turbett ·

Veteran at Canadian Forces

One thing that workers could do is to contribute to their own pension plan so that they won't have their futures under someone else's control.

DeAnne Csada

Except that when money is being deducted off your cheque, you shouldn’t have to worry that it won’t be there - basically companies are allowed to steal these funds with the notion they will get paid back in the future. Pension funds should be legally locked and untouchable by those collecting it.

Gary Douglas ·

Woodbridge, Ontario

72 year olds don't deserve this, having to resort to desperately trying to find work, when they should be relaxing and enjoying fruits of many years of hard work. Yet, relying on a company like Sears to bail you out as a long time employee, when such fact is not going to happen, suggests that individuals should plan for their future retirement regardless how secure they may think by other means. Get a TFSA; and early!

LikeReply64w

Clayton Eccleston ·

Truck Driver at Canada Colours and Chemicals

Good advice! Or take to bank robbing it's far more lucrative!!

Charlene Pursey ·

Philosopher at large at A New Employer

You should be able to trust your employer and those handling your pension funds. I was contacted by Coop grocery stores about a pension I had contributed to for 5yrs. in my 20's. When I left I was young & didn't care about a pension. I didn't even know I had decided to leave the money in the pension plan. They finally got hold of me (I had moved a lot) & informed me that my contributions had grown to $25,000. I was pleasantly shocked. Now that's an honest pension fund. The Sears workers should have been able to rely on that money, that no one could use or take away what they had contributed to.

Reply64w

Mike Ball ·

Works at Self-employed

Trudeau is trying to take the TFSA away . Harper raised it to 10500 so people can save without government taxing but Trudeau lowers it for what reason? Because the government cant control how much you earn inside.

Mayer Nathan Jo

It shouldn't require more onerous regulations, but revamping the insolvency laws so pensioners and workers are properly protected. The pensions and back pay should come first.

LikeReply74w

Maureen Matthew

So where exactly were all the government oversight agencies (staffed by people making very nice salaries) to ensure that the company was putting what was due into the pension plan? Probably the same place that they are since most government funded pension plans are underwater. Here in Regina our city's pension plan is vastly underfunded, but the city as a plan comprised mainly of raising property taxes to fund the plan (sewers, water mains breaking constantly - on my crescent last summer we had SIX watermain breaks and this winter 3 so far. So taxes to fix infrastructure are an afterthought). But it must be difficult to decide which to fund - overstaffed bureuacracy or essential services.

Rob Ellerby ·

Sheridan College

Retention bonuses being paid to tank a company simply don't make sense. They should be contingent on keeping the business going.

LikeReply44w

Jim Mason

I think the rationale is that if you have people in charge of the winding up process who are incentivized to minimize the losses to all stakeholders, then you are more likely to get a result that does just that, than if the people in charge get paid the same amount even of no one else gets anything.

Mike Pasemko

Once a Rape and Pillage (Hedge) Fund targets a company, that company is doomed. The business model requires that the company fail and enter bankruptcy. I've worked for two companies that were targeted by pillagers that operated very similarly to the hedge funds. As soon as you hear the term "unlock shareholder value" you know that the raping and pillaging is about to begin. The technique is to purchase the company with as low a down payment as possible, and get the existing shareholders and creditors to carry the balance as an unsecured mortgage. Then sell off as many of the assets as po...See More

Stephen J. Pye ·

Ramp Attendant at Canadian North

Jen Gerson is sadly fooling herself if she thinks that learning to manage her own RRSP fund is going to save her and her Millennial ilk, in thier old age. I'd love for her to provide the contact information of the folks holding her funds that aren't contected in any way, to any "Corporation". Millennials that don't understand the concepts of "Security and Loyality", are in for a rude awakening.
The pensions should be protected by law in the best case, and at least, by morality in the worst case.

LikeReply13w

Fred Weyerman ·

Ownership at Hytek Electronics

I stopped patronizing Sears long ago. They sold little that I wanted at prices that were high compared to the competition, and failed to jump on the Amazon bandwagon of online sales despite having a catalog that lasted for months in many outhouses everywhere. Pity about their employees getting shafted and criminal how it happened while execs got huge bonuses fro running the place into the ground. End of? Just another "muricin retailer going under. I miss Eaton's more.

Barry Moss ·

ASIC/FPGA Design Engineer at Moss Design Services

We need a couple of changes in law. First, companies should not be able to pay dividends or engage in sharebacks while their pension fund is underfunded. This would highly incentivise CEOs and boards of directors to make sure the pension fund is properly funded. If they give themselves bonuses while shareholders are left in the cold due to mismanaged pesion plans they will soon feel the pain of a shareholder revolt. Secondly, the pension fund's solvency needs to be adjudicated by an organization that is at arms length from the company. Finally, the pension plan shouldn't be able to invest in the company's own shares or bonds, with a possible of exception of an ETF which owns those shares as part of a wide basket of stocks matching financial indexs like the S&P500. This avoids government being on the hook for corporate malfeasance, while providing a big incentive for corporations to live up to their responcibilities.

Abe Preisinger

It is terrible for the people affected, however the issues are a little more complicated, as the company couldn't have funding and would have gone bankrupt much sooner! There are however many governments who don't fund their pension obligations properly!

None do.

David Fife

In Canada, most pension plan are provincially regulated & most provinces do an abysmal job. They allow firms to underfund such pensions. Also, no government in Canada, save Ontario, has any legislation guaranteeing pensioners anything if their employer goes bankrupt or files for creditor protection. As regards pensions, workers in the US have better pension protection due to federal legislation there than workers in Canada. Hard to believe but true!

Ivan Paul Dobren ·

McGill University

.
Well, welcome to disaster capitalism. MANY of us have been saying/suggesting for many years pensions/pension fund contributions have to be safeguarded/upheld on the same level of urgency as investors and bond holders $$$$ is and always has been

Will “that” ever happen in our “markets know best society? Like hell it will.

You don’t have to go any further than the Post/Postmedia who are “short” in their pension fund to the tune of 74 MILLION dollars. Same old, same old BS......
.

LikeReply4wEdited

Mike Stahan

That's privatization in general. Privatized profits and socialized loses with the majority of the money being forced into the hands of a few at the expense of many...

LikeReply14wEdited

Diane Snell ·

Sales representative at Royal LePage Heartland Realty

Weren't the lessons from the Nortel demise enough to make significant changes in pension policy? Contributions for the pensioned employee should be managed and held by the Government for distribution. Even defined contributions such as this one.

Ivan Paul Dobren ·

McGill University

.Weren't the lessons from the Nortel demise enough to make significant changes in pension policy?
......................

No. Bay Street insisted.........

Joseph Sequeira ·

None

The problem in Canada is that we have a government which is far more concerned with killing off Canadians with the pro-obortion policies than helping those strggling to maintain life

Cindy Garford Webster

Good grief. Don't be so idiotic. This has nothing to do with abortion, which is not remotely any of your business. The topic is pension funds. Stick to it.

Margaret Tanaka ·

Works at Retired

The underfunding of the pension to that extent is so very wrong when huge dividends are paid out at the same time.

Tod Martens ·

NAIT

Jen Gerson, if you plan to never be disappointed by a corporation because you have taken matters into your own hands, why would you make a veiled suggestion that regulations might help future workers from a fate similar the Sears workers? Would you be quicker to recommend that workers follow your example than to rely on the government?

Krystyna Ross

I remember reading at least ten years ago that Sears had been purchased by an asset stripper and this was always the game plan. Pen.sions should not be on the table as assets that can be stripped

Regardless of anything else in this article all government pernsion plans are underfunded so why pick on private enterprise.

Darryl Moore

Not true. OTPP is fully funded, and HOOP is over funded. Not sure about others, but that is enough to prove your statement false.

Reply24w

Paul Rankin ·

Fanshawe College

At what point can we not re-write what a corporation is and its responisibilites to its employees/commuinites it serves rather than shareholders the elite continue to fcuk with employees while crushing communities

Dave Vachon ·

Grill master at Krusty Burger

Disgraceful ... and why FDR's New Deal has been systematically destroyed by this trickle-down economic theory and deregulation that do absolutely nothing for the majority of the population.

Timothy Brett

Profit before social responsibility should be illegal.

Tree Topper at Logged for years, currently employed by Aerial Tree Service

Not saving for your own retirement should be illegal.

Reply44w

Ken Sharp ·

Our cpp funds were I believe loaned out at cheap rates to "friends" years back and did not get the return they should have, that was out of the taxpayers hands. Also when one is living in existing from paycheck to paycheck it's a little difficult to save for anything.

Reply24w

Adam Leighton ·

York University Students

Lyndia Edwards but the fella in this article DID save for his own retirement, he contributed to the pension fund. Now it’s his, he paid, he earned it, but Sears won’t keep their financial commitment, of course they paid the executives and the share holders, it is like stealing from the employees.

Reply114w

Show 3 more replies in this thread

Sébastien Dubois

Sears Canada's legacy: private profits and socialized losses

a.k.a. modern capitalism

LikeReply44w

Tod Martens ·

NAIT

Socializing losses is not the choice of corporations but of the government of Ontario.

Syl Carle

But, but the Liberals are in power now, they said they would fix that. They promised.

JB Wistles

SHARE HOLDERS. Their greed is responsible for so much worker angst. They are responsible for jobs going overseas because they want more profit to add to their bloated portfolios. I believe in capitalism BUT that 1% has GOT to be addressed. Forcing a company like Sears to liquidate so they can line their pockets and find another poor company to start it all over again. Wrong just wrong.

Warren K. Smith ·

Nanaimo, British Columbia

Pensioners are shareholders.

Reply14w

David Woodburn ·

Works at Retired

Oh come on, surely you don’t think it’s just the one percent who own shares in public companies......that is either seriously ill-informed or willfully misleading. Yo7 look old enough to know better

Reply14wEdited

David Woodburn Socialists only think groupthink and profits are greedy.

Show 1 more reply in this thread

Michael Marchand

the art of taking from the poor to give to the rich....smh!

Tim Das ·

Toronto, Ontario

The absolute worst aspects of capitalism come to life in one infuriating case study.

Bruce Browning ·

Elliot Lake, Ontario

From My View; Go to Sears USA, they are doing great while slicing and dicing K-Mart : > (

Ron Thibodeau ·

Ryerson University, Toronto, ON

With it went the hopes of 200 for steady employment at a new call center in Edmundston at a former TeleTech facility.

John MacKenzie

Add this to the list of lost jobs in Canada.

Ben d'Avernas ·

Works at Self-employed

Why is it that Sears CEO's get bonuses for running the company into the ground,?

Michael Piet ·

Edmonton, Alberta

Say isn’t the Amazon CEO the richest man in the world???

Jim Mason

Yes ... but what has that to do with this article?

According to an article "All the companies in Jeff Bezos’s empire, in one (large) chart" posted Jan 9 2018 at marketwatch . com/story/its-not-just-amazon-and-whole-foods-heres-jeff-bezos-enormous-empire-in-one-chart-2017-06-21, Bezos was, on that day, "worth ... $105.1 billion ..., making him now worth more than Bill Gates ever was."

However, looking through the list that is contained in that article of all the companies in which Bezos has invested (interesting reading actually), Sears in not in the list.

So, again, what does your comment have to do with the NP article?

Duncan Bowman ·

Red River College

Just so I'm clear here, it's okay for governments to loot pensions, but not for private companies?

Far too many Canadians cannot see the truth of what you say. Government is the worst offender but in their case they just print more money to cover their obligations and we then suffer as the value of our useless currency continues to drop. But this is Canada so who cares. Canadians sure as hell don't.

Michel Letour

Would seem Sears has actually been in the real estate business all these years . Perhaps the pension holders could have a class action against Sears against the real estate holdings .