There are 104 corporations in the list and, of these, 81 had under-funded pension liabilities.

The sole point I wish to make is that Stelco's under-funded pension liability is nowhere close to being Canada's worst corporate offender. In fact I could also state that companies resident in Quebec were clearly the worst, and many of those that are close to friends in Ottawa are close by on the "bad boys" list.

But, I don't want to go there.

The Ontario government representatives that a week ago got involved in the CCAA bankruptcy court managed restructuring of Stelco " as bad as it is " had absolutely no right to make public statements that served only to poison the proceedings.

Had the Ontario government taken any time at all to look into the matter before putting their feet into their collective mouths, they would have seen that Ontario mining and metals companies, quite similar to Stelco, like Inco and Falconbridge for example, were much worse offenders.

But nothing was said about that.

In addition, other leading Ontario companies like Magna, Shoppers Drug Mart, Manulife and Nortel, are all much worse offenders than Stelco!

So what's going to be done about it?

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** Numbers are for year ended Jan. 31, 2003

* Company reports in U.S. dollars, but numbers have been converted to Canadian dollars using Bank of Canada average for 2002

Unrecognized losses are taken from figures recorded in notes to financial statements. Some of these losses may be partly offset by unrecognized gains for past pension surpluses.

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And the problem isn't Canadian home-grown either. Take a look at the Dow 30 companies and you'll be shocked at the under-funding of pension liabilities.

What's interesting to me is that these corporations are the biggest media advertisers, and the biggest political lobbyists, so they get away with it. "To hell with the workers; to hell with social equity", seems to be the message out of the capitols, the corporate boardrooms and the complicit media.

Rather, the public gets dummied down into discussions of ‘What's going to happen to MSO after Martha gets out of prison?' or ‘Are Wal-Mart sales up a tenth of a percentage point this week?'

I tell you, it's all about OPI (Other People's Intentions).

I say, "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice; shame on me." The longer you get fooled, or ignore these realities, like under-funded pension liabilities, the less you have the right to complain when all hell breaks loose.

BCara@BillCara.com