Winnipeg Free Press October 1, 2008

Five political parties and an archaic and politically toxic first-past-the-post electoral system have long turned Canadian federal elections into a crapshoot. The Oct. 14 election promises to be the wildest crapshoot of them all. (Keep reading…)

Special to Canadian Dimension September 28, 2008

On September 26 the Canadian Jewish Congress commended the Liberal Party of Canada for dismissing Lesley Hughes, a federal candidate in a Winnipeg riding, for a factually wrong and ill advised comment she made in a paper delivered several years ago exploring a broad array of issues concerning the question of what really transpired to cause the events of 911. http://members.shaw.ca/mclachla/page3.htm http://web.archive.org/web/20040514163957/http://slate.msn.com/id/116813 Sylvain Abitol, Co-President of the CJC asserted, “Ms. Hughes crossed a line which cannot be crossed under any circumstances because there is no place in Canada for 9/11 Jewish conspiracy theories.” http://www.cjc.ca/template.php?action=news&story=978 I agree with the CJC’s contention insofar as we must strive to prevent ethnic or religious prejudices from colouring our interpretations of, and responses to, the assaults on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon seven years ago. (Keep reading…)

The Gazette (Montreal)
September 24, 2008

‘What worries us is that Canadian households have been running a larger financial deficit than households in either the U.S. or the U.K.’ (Keep reading…)

http://www.socialistproject.ca/bullet/bullet139.html#continue The   B u l l e t Socialist Project • E-Bulletin No. 139 September 25, 2008 (Keep reading…)

Globe and Mail September 25, 2008

A phalanx of actors and artists, led by veteran Gordon Pinsent, spoke forcefully yesterday against the Conservatives’ recent cuts to arts and culture, urging citizens who value culture to vote and press for a prominent place in federal decision-making. (Keep reading…)

Globe and Mail September 24, 2008

What sort of country do we want to live in? What sort of country do we already live in? What do we like? Who are we? (Keep reading…)

Globe and Mail September 24, 2008:

I’ve never understood how a call for tougher sentences is invariably interpreted as doomed to failure because there’s no evidence harsher punishment is a deterrent. (Keep reading…)

Globe and Mail Update September 24, 2008

Canada’s artists have launched a pointed and passionate attack at the nation’s political leaders, decrying Conservative Leader Stephen Harper’s statement yesterday that ‘ordinary’ Canadians don’t care about the arts. (Keep reading…)

The ACTivist magazine

The ACTivist
24 September 2008

When the bottom line is threatened, corporations typically show little concern for holding the line on political principles such as freedom of expression. In capitalism, freedom is too often just another word for maximizing profits. (Keep reading…)

Winnipeg Free Press September 24

Canada’s growing flirtation with private for-profit health care has led to the first legal assault on Canadian medicare under the investor-state clause of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Alone among the world’s trade treaties, NAFTA allows foreign investors to sue the Canadian government directly if any public policy or governmental action denies them investment or profit opportunities. To date, Canada has been hit by 15 such lawsuits costing more than $18.5 million with another $533 million in claims pending. This is by far the highest among the three NAFTA partners. Now, a group of 200 private investors led by Arizona businessman Melvin J. Howard is planning to use the NAFTA national treatment mechanism to pry open Canadian medicare — often described by neoconservatives as “the last great uncracked oyster in the North American marketplace.” In July, Howard filed legal papers to set the suit in motion and is only awaiting the outcome of the Oct. 14 federal election to start negotiations. Howard and his partners want to open a private surgical centre in B.C. similar to the Cambie Clinic owned by Dr. Brian Day, past-president of the Canadian Medical Association, but are facing what they call anti-American roadblocks in several municipalities. (Keep reading…)