The Canadian National Railway was our greatest Crown corporation.

 How Canadians were deceived, when their greatest Crown corporation was sold out from under them.
Canadians were told that " We want to make sure...that no single individual or company owns more than 15 per cent of the shares." (See" CN Commercialization Act, House of Commons May 15 1995.)
     American billionaire Bill Gates now owns 15% of CN Rail. According to a Bloomberg article by Josh Wingrove and Frederic Tomesco, restrictions will be lifted, allowing Bill Gates to own 25 percent of CN Rail. (See the article "Proposed Canadian law opening CN Rail to Bill Gates faces delay" April 13 2018).
     We were told that several CN buildings would not be part of the privatization package:
Mr. Jacques Jobin (Spokesperson, coalition pour la savegarde du Pont de Quebec): "We have recently learned that several CN buildings including the CN Tower would not be part of a privatization package."
     The CN Tower was privatized, the Tower is a Canada Lands Company asset; the CLC denationalizes federal buildings and land in this country. Even the communications infrastructure is non-federal owned, check out the Federal Directory of Real Property website:
Property 22714
CN Tower (Antenna)
Organization: Public Services and Procurement Canada
Use: Communications
Interest: Lease or Licence
Address: 301 Front Street, Toronto, ON.

During the 1995 privatization, a major Canadian National Railway property in Paris France was sold, the Hotel Scribe Paris:

Hotel Scribe Paris Opera by Sofitel- France.

"The Company is expected to raise funds to reduce debt prior to the sale by selling assets such as CN Exploration, which it has currently done, and the Scribe Hotel in France which is currently being marketed." (From: CN Commercialization Act, House of Commons May 15 1995.)
Garry Breitkreuz - Yorkton-Melville SK, Reform Party- said that CN's non-railway real estate assets were the most valuable part of the company. (CN Commercialization Act, House of Commons May 15 1995.)
So why was the real estate transferred to an arms-length, commercial Crown corporation that sold off most of the real estate, and kept most of the money to fund it's operations? Via Rail was entitled to the train stations, the railway yards, the CN towers in Toronto, Edmonton and London, Ontario; the railway tracks and rights-of-way, the repair shops. The CNR owned 35,000 kilometres of tracks.
Not only was the real estate taken from the Citizens of Canada, by 1978 the following Canadian National Railway services were divested:
trucking
passenger rail service
ferry operations
CNCP telecommunications.
And in the year 1988 the CNR hotels were transferred to the CPR: Chateau Laurier, Ottawa; Queen Elizabeth Hotel, Montreal; Jasper Park Lodge, Alberta; Hotel Macdonald; Hotel Vancouver; Bessborough, Saskatoon; Nova Scotian, Halifax; Fort Garry, Winnipeg; Newfoundland Hotel, St. John's; Beausejour, Moncton; Pictou Lodge, Nova Scotia.
     Doug Young promised that CN's Head Office would always be located in Montreal:
Doug Young: House of Commons - May 15, 1995: "The Head Office will remain in Montreal".
But Doug Young never told us that the Corporate Headquarters and Central Station in Montreal would be sold off in the year 2007, to Homberg Investments. CN made a lease-back agreement with the new owner of the 17-storey office tower.
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Bill Blaikie, NDP Member of Parliament  for Winnipeg, Transcona in Manitoba, had this to say about the commercialization of our oldest Crown corporation:
     "This is a very sad day for me. I will have been in this House for 16 years come next week. I have spent those 16 years defending and promoting the role of CNR as a publicly owned railway company."