Throwing ICE into the Canadian grocery basket

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When it comes to institutional ethics, few muddle the concept more than political activists and academics. The depth of the muddle is on full display in media coverage of the latest leftist attack on corporate Canada. Over the past week, news stories have pounced on a development highlighted in a recent Globe and Mail headline: “Vancouver mogul Jim Pattison’s company under fire for proposed sale of U.S. property to ICE.”

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For readers who are living far from the madding crowd, ICE is the U.S. government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement unit deployed by the Trump administration in various American cities, including Minneapolis where ICE forces have recently killed two demonstrators. The morality of these individual killings, and the ethical and political issues surrounding ICE’s activities and purpose, can rightly be condemned.

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But it’s a long and bumpy road from the deployment of ICE to what has now turned into an attack on a few Canadian corporations that have had business dealings with the U.S. government organization. Two small companies have faced activists: Hootsuite, a Vancouver-based tech company, is under fire for doing business with ICE, along with Ontario armoured vehicle maker Rocher for selling trucks to ICE.

But nobody has been more prominently under scrutiny than Vancouver billionaire Jim Pattison.

Ranked 11th last year among Canada’s richest individuals, with a net worth estimated at $11.9 billion, Pattison is a sitting target. Privately owned, The Jim Pattison Group operates 20 national and international divisions, including food, forest products, advertising, media, and automobile retailing. As a multifaceted creator of wealth and growth, Pattison is an unmatched Canadian entrepreneur — which, of course, makes him vulnerable........

© Financial Post