World fired up about Canadian mining companies

They're fired up in Romania.

They're pissed off in Athens, and they're pissed off in Peru.

In fact, no matter where you go in the world, chances are you can find pissed off locals protesting yet another Canadian mining venture.

That's why the recent Harper government initiative to tie foreign aid to Canadian mining companies is guaranteed to destroy what little is left of the goodwill that the "Canada" brand enjoyed on the world stage as recently as a generation ago.

That was then.

Now we're a nation state in name only, one that exists to provide legal cover to some of the most rapacious mine operators on the planet.

But what do we care? As long as they pay a little tax here and leave their toxic mess somewhere else, everything is hunky-dory!

And labeling subsidies to those mining conglomerates "foreign aid" is what's known as a win-win in neo-liberal political circles.