Greene to introduce resolution declaring Antifa a terrorist organization

BY LAUREN SFORZA - 03/05/23 

REPEAT AFTER ME; ANTIFA  

MEANS ANTI-FASCIST

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) at the Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., on Friday, March 3, 2023.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said on Sunday that she will be introducing a resolution to declare Antifa as a terrorist organization on Tuesday, after blaming the group for protests at a police training facility in Atlanta.

“Antifa are domestic terrorists and I’m introducing my resolution to officially declare them a terrorist organization on Tuesday,” she tweeted on Sunday.

A progressive group called “Stop Cop City” has been protesting against the new training facility being built in the wooded parts of Atlanta since plans for it were announced, arguing it will promote the militarization of the police and may result in environmental concerns.

Fox 5 reported Sunday that the facility was on lockdown after at least one construction vehicle was set on fire amid the latest protests on Sunday.

Greene blamed the far-left organization Antifa for the incident on Twitter, though she did not offer any evidence that Antifa was behind the protests on Sunday.

“This is domestic terrorism. It was planned for weeks and announced on social media. Antifa are self proclaimed communists and consistently organize to attack our government over and over again. They should be taken seriously and not tolerated anymore,” she tweeted.

In January, Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) issued a state of emergency after peaceful protests broke out in response to a police shooting of an activist during an operation to clear out the construction site for the facility.

Greene’s resolution would not be the first of its kind. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.) introduced a resolution in 2021 to designate Antifa as a terrorist organization, but the resolution did not get any traction in the Democrat-controlled House. 

Jimmy Carter’s space policy and the saving of the space shuttle

BY MARK R. WHITTINGTON, OPINION CONTRIBUTOR - 03/05/23 

Photo by Scott Cunningham/Getty Images

Former president Jimmy Carter prior to the game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Cincinnati Bengals at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on September 30, 2018 in Atlanta, Georgia.

Former President Jimmy Carter, aged 98, has entered hospice care, signaling to the world that he is experiencing his last days of life. The news has caused a reappraisal of both his presidency and his post-presidency, mainly the latter, which has been exemplary.

Carter’s single term in office is not known for any space initiatives. President Kennedy launched America to the moon. President Nixon started the space shuttle program. President Reagan initiated the program that began the International Space Station. After two false starts under American presidents named George Bush, President Trump and now President Biden have sent America and much of the world on a voyage back to the moon and eventually on to Mars under the Artemis Program.

The Carter presidency, despite a dearth of high-profile new space projects, did have an official, albeit vaguely worded space policy. Carter also made a decision concerning the space shuttle program that affected the course of NASA and American space efforts in a decidedly positive way.

The Carter administration issued its official space policy in the form of Presidential Directive/ NSC 37 on May 11, 1978. The document did not contain any specific proposals. Rather, it listed some general principles that just about any administration of the latter third of the 20th century might have supported.

For example, one of the “basic principles” for the Carter-era space program was “the exploration and use of outer space in support of the national well-being and policies of the United States.” That was nice insofar as it goes, but it lacked detail. What programs included “the exploration and use of outer space?”

The document also stated, “The United States shall conduct civil space programs to increase the body of scientific knowledge about the earth and the universe; to develop and operate civil applications of space technology; to maintain United States leadership in space science, applications, and technology; and to further United States domestic and foreign policy objectives.” The policy directive was not specific as to how the civil space program would do these things.

NASA pursued two major programs whose origins predated the Carter presidency. Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launched in 1977, beginning a multi-decade voyage of exploration to the outer planets. The space agency also continued to develop the space shuttle, an ostensibly reusable rocket ship that would take humans and cargo to and from low-Earth orbit.

In January 1978, NASA announced a new class of astronauts who would fly the space shuttle, dubbed “The 35 New Guys.” The term was something of a misnomer, as the group contained a number of women, including Sally Ride, who would become the first American woman in space, and Judith Resnick, who would die on board the Challenger.

Carter’s crucial role in developing the space shuttle is not well known. According to Eric Berger, writing for Ars Technica, in 1978, NASA concluded that it could not meet any meaningful flight schedule given the state of the program and the budget it had been allotted. The story has become a far too familiar one for post-Apollo NASA programs, a program fraught with cost overruns and schedule slippages, Then-NASA Administrator Robert Frosch had two options. The space agency could either morph the space shuttle into a purely research vehicle, giving up the idea of it delivering crews and payloads to space, or it could ask for more money. With that choice in mind, Frosch had a meeting with Carter to give him the bad news.

The meeting did not go as Frosch had feared it would. “When Frosch went to the White House to meet with the president and said NASA didn’t have the money to finish the space shuttle, the administrator got a response he did not expect: ‘How much do you need?’”

The president’s response is even more remarkable given the fact that Carter didn’t much care for human spaceflight. He believed that robotic space probes were sufficient to explore the universe at much less cost. Carter’s vice president, Walter Mondale, was vehemently opposed to the shuttle program, believing that the money spent to sustain it should be instead used to fund social programs.

However, Carter believed that the shuttle was an important national security asset due to its role in launching military satellites. So, he pushed for supplementary funding for the project and saved the shuttle from cancelation. Thus, an unlikely president saved American human space flight. The shuttle and all it accomplished in subsequent decades became a part of Carter’s legacy.

Mark R. Whittington is the author of space exploration studies “Why is It So Hard to Go Back to the Moon?” as well as “The Moon, Mars and Beyond,” and “Why is America Going Back to the Moon?” He blogs at Curmudgeons Corner. 

Diversified Canadian banks well protected in tough times: Analysts

Holly McKenzie-Sutter, BNN Bloomberg

Analysts say Canadian banks may be protected by their diversified structures and the delayed impacts from higher interest rates as they report earnings amid ominous headwinds in the global economy.

John Aiken, head of Canada research at Barclays, said Monday that “the beauty” of Canadian banks is that their diverse set of financial activities sets them up well to withstand tough economic times.

“When you look at the banks and what they've cobbled together in terms of their structure, it is very well diversified, and they do have a mix of businesses where if something's not going well in the economy, that is actually promoting another part of the business,” Aiken said in a Monday interview with BNN Bloomberg.

Aiken said U.S. banks, which are not as diversified in their activities, may be more profitable under strong economic conditions, but “Canadian banks always significantly outperform on the down cycles.”

BMO and Scotiabank are due to report results on Tuesday, while earnings from RBC, TD and National Bank are expected on Wednesday. 

CIBC was the first major bank to report on Friday, when adjusted earnings per share came in at $1.94.

The bank’s provisions for credit losses rose $295 million in the quarter, below average estimates for $345 million.

Nigel D'Souza, financial services analyst at Veritas Investment Research, said estimates were likely “too pessimistic” about credit losses, something he said takes time during difficult economic periods, particularly as Canada’s labour market continues to show strong employment numbers.

He said he expects credit losses to build in Canada, but not right away.

“It’s going to take longer than I think consensus expects, because you need unemployment to move higher, and you need debt servicing costs move higher, and both of those metrics are currently near cycle lows,” he said.

HOUSING MARKET IMPACT

Aiken said he’s not worried about the housing market’s impact on Canadian banks, which he said have “a lot of downside protection” from a potential housing market crash – though his research team is not forecasting that scenario at the moment.

“If I were running a Canadian retail bank, I would still be taking any residential mortgage I can put on the books, because when you look at how the market is structured, the banks are very protected against a crash,” he said.

D’Souza observed “limited selling pressure” in Canada’s real estate market, as many mortgage holders are still employed, and higher interest rates brought in by the Bank of Canada have not yet translated into higher mortgage payments for many people.

He said other forms of consumer debt likely pose greater threats to the banks’ bottom lines.

“Residential mortgages aren't the driver of credit losses for the banks,” he said.

“Credit cards, auto loans, unsecured lines of credit, commercial lending, that's where we think the risk is, not in the mortgage book or from real estate.”

Carmaker, Rio Tinto investments give McEwen Copper more time to go public

James Attwood, Bloomberg News

Investments by European automaker Stellantis NV and mining giant Rio Tinto Group are giving Rob McEwen’s copper venture more breathing space before going public.

The Canadian entrepreneur now expects to hold an initial public offering for his namesake copper unit in the second half of the year instead of the first half. That’s after Stellantis and a Rio unit each took a 14.2 per cent stake in McEwen Copper, providing enough funding for its Argentine project until next year.

“It gives us a lot of additional flexibility depending on what the market is doing,” Michael Meding, who leads the unit, said in an interview alongside McEwen while attending an industry event in Florida.

Stellantis’ entry into McEwen Copper’s shareholder register represents the first major equity investment by a carmaker in a copper company, according to McEwen, the founder of Goldcorp Inc.

If the high attendance of auto executives at this week’s BMO Capital Markets mining event is any measure, it won’t be the last. The auto industry is stepping up efforts to secure supplies of the materials needed to move away from fossil fuels. General Motors Co. is said to be vying for a stake in Vale SA’s base metals unit as Tesla Inc. weighs a takeover of Sigma Lithium Corp.

The transaction with Stellantis gives the maker of Peugeot cars and Jeep sport utility vehicles the right to a portion of future production from the Los Azules deposit in Argentina’s San Juan province. If all goes to plan, the project will start producing in 2028, giving Argentina a source of copper cathode for local industries, Meding said. He expects to file for environmental permits in April.

In terms of the size of the copper unit’s IPO, McEwen said it will be determined by capital needs and ensuring enough of a free float for liquid trading. He expects the offering to take parent company McEwen Mining Inc.’s holding in the unit below the 50 per cent threshold.

Companies must listen to racialized employees in tackling racism at work: experts

Sammy Hudes, The Canadian Pres

Experts say commitments to tackle racism in the workplace have not been met with enough action as a report released Tuesday found more than 70 per cent of Black Canadians still experience racism or microaggressions on the job.

While one-third of respondents to a KPMG survey indicated they experienced less racism at work over the past year, 39 per cent said they faced the same amount or more. Twenty-eight per cent said they experienced no racism.

The survey included 1,001 self-identifying Black employees and was conducted between Dec. 21 and Jan. 9.

Tarisai Madambi, co-lead of KPMG’s Black Professionals Network, said that while many companies have taken steps such as setting diversity targets or establishing employee resource groups to advance racial equity, it's just as important to act on the recommendations of racialized employees.

"This helps organizations better understand the roots of systemic racism and address it," said Madam

"For way too long, many of us racialized individuals have sometimes been led to believe that we're imagining our experiences. The experiences are real and they are valid."

According to the survey, 80 per cent of respondents feel they can speak up about racism at work without being stigmatized and that they have allies who will stand up for them when they witness instances of discrimination.

But more than three-quarters of Black Canadian workers said their company needs a major culture change to become more equitable.

The survey found 88 per cent of Black Canadian workers feel companies need stronger commitments and targets for hiring and promoting Black people. 

Eighty-six per cent called for more appointments of Black people to boards of directors or senior management ranks, while 82 per cent urged more anti-racism education and training for employees and management.

Madambi, KPMG's director of management consulting, said Black Canadians want their employers to "walk the talk" on anti-racism commitments that followed the 2020 murder of George Floyd and subsequent calls for change. While she said those commitment have not waned, companies are "struggling in terms of balancing their priorities."

"I think the hardest part is getting the commitment and the conviction that what organizations are doing is the right thing," she said.

"Nobody wants to feel like they are being forced into things. The last thing I would like to see is organizations making commitments because they feel like they're doing this as a checkbox or a compliance matter. It really needs to be something that we believe in."

Gordon Blackmore, a consultant for the Halifax-based Black Business Initiative's Diversity Employment Network, said Black people often stay in jobs where they experience microaggressions due to "fear that things may be worse" elsewhere.

"It's sort of the devil you know is better than the devil you don’t," said Blackmore.

He stressed that companies serious about undergoing institutional change must allocate the same level of resources behind their diversity, equity and inclusion strategies "that they would if they were changing over to a new computer model or a new sort of business process."

"Having your DEI policy is sort of like going to a personal trainer. The personal trainer can develop the plan for you, can let you know what you need to do in order to have success, but at the end of the day, if you don't take that plan and follow it, then you're never going to have the success," said Blackmore.

"Until there's that level of commitment, there's not a lot of positive change that can really happen and I worry that a lot of things will be done as window dressing."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2023.

Baytex signs agreement to buy Ranger Oil in deal valued at $3.4B including debt

The Canadian Pres

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Baytex Energy Corp. has signed a deal to buy U.S. company Ranger Oil Corp. in a deal valued at C$3.4 billion, including assumed debt.

Ranger Oil operates in the Eagle Ford shale region in south Texas, an area where Baytex also has assets.

Under the terms of the agreement, Ranger shareholders will receive 7.49 Baytex shares plus US$13.31 in cash for each Ranger common share.

The companies valued the total consideration at about US$44.36 per Ranger share.

Baytex also says it plans to begin paying a dividend once it closes the Ranger Oil deal and increase share buybacks.

The company says management expects to recommend a quarterly dividend payment of 2.25 cents per share.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 28, 2023.

 

Markets broadly 'misinterpreted' Baytex's Ranger Oil acquisition: Eric Nuttall

Daniel Johnson , BNN Bloomberg

Following a recent announcement that Baytex Energy Corp. signed an agreement to acquire Ranger Oil Corp., one prominent energy investor said he thinks there is widespread confusion among market participants regarding the deal.

Baytex announced that it signed an agreement to acquire U.S.-based Ranger Oil on Tuesday in a deal valued at $3.4 billion, including assumed debt. The deal would increase Baytex’s presence in the Eagle Ford shale area of south Texas, a region in which Baytex already has assets. 

“We saw Baytex [shares] fall nine per cent on the day of [the announcement] and I think there was a lot of confusion around what were they trying to achieve with that acquisition,” Eric Nuttall, a partner and senior portfolio manager at Ninepoint Partners, said in an interview with BNN Bloomberg Thursday.

The Calgary-based energy company said it plans to start paying out dividends to investors and increasing share buybacks after its acquisition deal closes. 

“So the attributes for which we liked Baytex before, I always think about mergers and acquisitions, do I like the company better today than I did yesterday? Are they a better company today than they were yesterday? I would say, 'yes,'” said Nuttall.

Nuttall said his organization “crunched the numbers” on the acquisition and found it could result in a cash flow accretion of roughly 20 per cent per share. 

“Meaning next year, 2024, every share will generate 20 per cent more free cash flow. It also allows them to expedite how much of the free cash they're getting back,” he said. 

However, Nuttall said following acquisition announcement he thinks there is a short-term overhang on the stock and recommends the company market “aggressively” to try and find a new U.S. investor.

“We’ve been very clear on what we want from our major holdings. We want them to maximize free cash flow, we want them to increase cash flow, and we want them to pay it back to us. And I think people misinterpreted the acquisition and how that helps Baytex achieve that,” he said. 

Bay du Nord not liable for end-use emissions, marine shipping, company lawyer says

The Canadian Press

A lawyer representing the Norwegian energy firm behind a proposed offshore oil project in Newfoundland and Labrador says the company is only responsible for the immediate environmental impact of the project itself.

Environment groups and eight Mi'kmaq communities in New Brunswick are asking the Federal Court this week to overturn Bay du Nord's federal approval for using a flawed environmental assessment.

They say the review didn't look at the end-use greenhouse gas emissions from the oil Bay du Nord will produce or the marine impact of extra oil tankers in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Equinor's Canadian lawyer told the judge today neither of those are within the direct scope of the project and were rightfully not considered.

The groups opposing the project say in 2018 the Federal Court of Appeal overturned approval for the Trans Mountain pipeline in part because it failed to fully consider the impact of oil tankers on killer whales.

Equinor's lawyer says unlike Trans Mountain, the Bay du Nord project has multiple options for routes to ship the oil and there is no certainty yet on who will buy it or where it will go.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 2, 2023.

First Horizon tumbles on TD’s delayed US$13.4 billion takeover

Kevin Orland, Bloomberg News

Toronto-Dominion Bank’s US$13.4 billion acquisition of First Horizon Corp. may be delayed even more than the Canadian lender projected last month. Shares of the Memphis, Tennessee-based bank slumped.

First Horizon was told by Toronto-Dominion that it doesn’t expect to receive the necessary regulatory approvals by May 27 — as it had projected in early February — and that it can’t provide a new projected closing date, according to a regulatory filing Wednesday.

“TD has initiated discussions with FHN regarding a potential further extension of the outside date,” First Horizon said in the filing. “There can be no assurance that an extension will ultimately be agreed or that TD will satisfy all regulatory requirements so that the regulatory approvals required to complete” the takeover.

First Horizon shares slid 12 per cent to US$21.69 at 11:17 a.m. in New York. Toronto-Dominion declined 0.7 per cent to C$90.18 in Toronto.

“Although we believe that this is simply a required regulatory disclosure, we cannot deny that it brings additional uncertainty in terms of the timing and ultimate completion of the acquisition of First Horizon by TD,” Barclays Plc analyst John Aiken said in a note to clients. “The likelihood of the deal not being completed has increased based on this disclosure.”

Toronto-Dominion said in an emailed statement that it “remains committed to the transaction,” but can’t comment further until it reports fiscal first-quarter results Thursday.

Toronto-Dominion is working on a major U.S. expansion centered on the First Horizon deal, which would give it more than 400 new branches in the country and add more than 1.1 million individual and business customers across 12 states, primarily in the Southeast. The bank also is bulking up its presence in US capital markets with the us$1.3 billion acquisition of Cowen Inc., a deal that has received regulatory approvals and was on track to close Wednesday.

The First Horizon deal has faced more opposition in Washington, with Senator Elizabeth Warren calling for regulators to block the deal.

“We believe that TD is ultimately still committed to the deal,” research firm United First Partners said in a note. “We think today’s selloff is largely overdone and would recommend buying into the weakness.”

ICYMI

Majority of Canadians feel like they're being targeted more than ever by financial fraud: Survey

Hilary Punchard, BNN Bloomberg 

The majority of Canadians feel like they’re being targeted more than ever by financial fraud, according to a survey by TD Bank Group.

In a survey released Tuesday, it found six-out-of-10 Canadians (62 per cent) say they’re being targeted by financial fraudsters and almost eight-in-10 (78 per cent) say they don’t have confidence in their ability to identify scams.

It also found almost half of respondents (47 per cent) think a higher cost of living will make them more vulnerable to financial fraud and scams.

"As Canadians report being targeted by a record number of financial fraud attempts, many can benefit from using the tools and resources available to protect themselves and their loved ones," Mohamed Manji, vice-president of Canadian fraud management at TD, said in the report.

"It's very important to exercise caution, especially at a time when fraudsters may take advantage of the economic challenges many Canadians are currently facing.”

TOP FINANCIAL SCAMS

When it comes to being targeted for financial scams, the most common method Canadians reported was email and text message fraud (72 per cent), followed by phone calls (66 per cent).

The report found less individuals are being targeted over social media, with only 26 per cent reporting cases of fraud on these platforms.

Canadians also said the biggest factor behind financial fraud targets are their age  (43 per cent), followed by loneliness (35 per cent), newcomers (34 per cent) and financial hardship (32 per cent).

STIGMA AROUND FALLING FOR FINANCIAL FRAUD

The report said there’s still a large stigma around falling victim to financial fraud.

Almost one-third (31 per cent) of Canadians said they wouldn’t tell someone if they fell for a scam.

Another report released by CPA Canada on Tuesday found younger Canadians are more likely to suffer from fraud, with 63 per cent of individuals aged 18 to 34 reporting that they’ve been taken advantage of by fraudsters at least once in their life.

The CPA survey said one of the big reasons behind this is younger Canadians’ online exposure. It found 78 per cent of respondents said they use online banking for their debit cards, while 72 per cent monitor their credit cards online.

“The more we're online, the more we're opening ourselves up to smart scammers, so extra diligence is required,” Doretta Thompson, financial literacy leader at CPA Canada, said in the release.