Article content

Imagine checking your bank balance to find your account had been drained. Or opening your kids’ education account to see a zero balance. Or logging into your retirement savings and finding it’s gone.

Now imagine you know who took it. That politicians let them. That they wrote laws so courts can’t help you. Even that a top politician was benefiting from it.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or PARKIN: Liberals more interested in protecting Morneau than Canadians' pensions Back to video

It’s no surprise why the Sears bankruptcy is a big discussion in workplaces and among friends. What was done to Sears workers is immoral. And Canadians in company-run pensions are afraid it could happen to them.

It wasn’t inevitable. Sears wasn’t a company that just couldn’t keep up with a changing world. NDP Pensions Critic Scott Duvall called it “almost a planned bankruptcy.” Others have called it vulture capitalism.

Whatever it’s called, since 2005, almost $2 billion was extracted from Sears Canada through special dividends. In November 2013, while losing $49 million a quarter, a special $5 dividend sucked nearly $500 million out of the company.