OTTAWA, April 13, 2012 — The Health Department of the Native Women's Association of Canada (NWAC) is extremely distressed and concerned over Health Canada's decision to cut all funding for projects aimed at improving the health of Aboriginal women in Canada.
by Luke Allnutt
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's interview show airs on Kremlin-controlled RT on April 17 and the television station has promised that the first guest will be so controversial it will lead to calls to shut it down.
OTTAWA, April 13, 2012 — Today is Day 31 of my indefinite hunger strike against Prime Minister Stephen Harper's new draconian crime law, deceptively christened he Safe Streets and Communities Act, formerly crime Bill C10. I'm an Occupy Ottawa activist and progressive political blogger. I started my hunger strike on March 14. I have lost 21 pounds since I started the peaceful protest. I want to thank all of you around Canada and the world for your continuing support. Please be assured that my life is not in danger.
by Marjorie Kelly
Our economic system is profoundly broken. To anyone paying attention, that much is clear. But what's less clear is this: Our approach to fixing the economy is broken as well. The whole notion of "fighting corporate power" arises from an underlying belief that there is no alternative to capitalism as we know it.
by Linda McQuaig
There's a striking photo of Ronald Reagan and members of his inner circle, cocktails in hand, practically doubled over with laughter.
OTTAWA, Straight Goods News, April 3, 2012 — Five days after the Conservatives brought down a budget cutting services, pensions and jobs, the Auditor-General has slammed the government for multi-billion-dollar mismanagement of the purchase of fighter jets.
For months, Opposition critics have hammered away at the government over reports of problems with the proposed purchase of 65 F35 stealth fighters. The government has planned to buy them with neither a competitive bidding nor a compelling case that Canada needs or can afford these planes.
by Dennis Gruending
Farmers fought long and hard to create the Saskatchewan Wheat Pool in 1924. Eighty-eight years later the company, now known as Viterra, is being sold to a Swiss-based multinational called Glencore for $6.1 billion. This is a sad story, a kind of morality tale about the gradual destruction of self-help, local initiative, community control and co-operation. With a few exceptions, there has been virtually no critical media analysis of this event that looks at it from the bottom up.
So, as someone who grew up in a small prairie village where the Wheat Pool elevator and the local Pool committee were fixtures, let me offer some observations. I'll begin with an anecdote. I co-hosted CBC Radio's morning show in Saskatchewan in the 1980s. One day I did an interview with EK (Ted) Turner, a farmer who served for many years as the Pool's president. A disgruntled Pool member had provided me with information about an impending increase in Turner's salary to something like $120,000 per year. The farmer thought this was outrageously high. I asked Turner about it in the interview (I admit it was a bit of an ambush) and he was clearly taken aback. That salary today, if one accounts for inflation, would be about $250,000 per year.
Rene Ross, Executive Director, Stepping Stone
It was a Monday morning three years ago, shortly after the Stepping Stone drop-in centre opened, when Abigail* turned up to report she had been attacked. She wanted the incident added to our "bad date list," the only warning tool available to sex workers in our region when they face threats and acts of violence.
Abigail met a "walking date" in the North End of Halifax. She told us there was nothing about his looks or demeanor that looked "off" or threatening to her. At the time, she was working in a well-known stroll area with a significant police presence.
by John Baglow
with YouTube video by Samantha Bayard. Click here for a complete YouTube playlist of post-Budget interviews
OTTAWA, Straight Goods News, March 29, 2012 — The strategy was simple: prepare us for an attack by chainsaw-wielding maniacs — then just slap us around a little and break a few fingers. Folks will still sigh in relief, or so the Harper government is hoping with this year's Spring surprise.
Taking a well-aimed swipe at the Liberals, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty stated in the House on Thursday that there was "no need to undertake the radical austerity measures imposed by the federal government in the 1990s." But the budget is, as a whole, radical enough to hurt almost every ordinary Canadian.
It's a crassly ideological one, in fact, feeding just about every known Conservative prejudice. It imposes an austerity upon working Canadians that we simply do not need. As Andrew Jackson, Chief Economist of the Canadian Labour Congress, notes, our deficit is not particularly alarming-about 2 percent of GDP. Canada is in good financial shape, in part due to stimulus spending after the 2008 recession. The government pats itself vigorously on the back for that successful Keynesian move, although it was forced upon the unwilling Conservatives by the opposition parties back in the minority days.
Almost needless to say, the federal public service takes a direct hit — 19,200 federal public employees are about to be tossed onto the street. With them, of course, go the services they provided to Canadians, as well as additional jobs in the private sector: less money in the local economy has its inevitable effects. Jackson expects that 50,000 jobs in all will be lost. The National Capital Region will bear the brunt of the cuts.
by Jim Shultz
From insurance companies lording over health care to global conglomerates taking control of our water, corporate giants wield more and more influence over our lives and our environment. So how do we fight back? How do we take on corporate power and actually win?
“The CEO told the lawyers to make the case go away.”
The Democracy Center recently published a new citizen's resource that looks up close at the strategies that people and communities are using worldwide to successfully tackle corporate giants. We call it Beating Goliath and you can download a free copy here. As Occupy and other movements across the world take up anew the question of how to combat corporate power, here are three good lessons from the front lines.
1 Make it Personal: The Battle Against Bechtel
In 2000, under pressure from the World Bank, the government of Bolivia privatized the public water system of its third largest city, Cochabamba, and leased the water to a subsidiary of the California corporate giant, Bechtel. When Bechtel raised rates astronomically within a few weeks, the city rebelled in the now-famous Water Revolt and forced Bechtel to leave. The following year Bechtel struck back, filing a $50 million demand for lost profits against the people of Cochabamba, in a trade court operated by the same World Bank.
The global campaign against Bechtel's anti-Bolivia lawsuit was based on one key principle: Make life miserable for the corporation's CEO, Riley Bechtel, and other company officials. Corporations are designed to shield their top executives from accountability. Anti-Bechtel campaigners gave Mr. Bechtel no such luxury. They bombarded him with emails to his personal account. They lambasted him by name over and over again in the media. Protesters shut down access to his San Francisco headquarters and in Washington picketed the home of one of his subordinates.
