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…)

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20081006/greider

The Nation
19 September 2008 (Keep reading…)

Socialist Voice September 21, 2008

For the environment, there’s good news and bad news in Canada’s current federal election campaign. Good news: for the first time ever, climate change is a central issue in the political debates. Bad news: despite much sound and fury, none of the major political parties is proposing effective measures for dealing with the climate change crisis. The differences between them amount to “Don’t do anything” versus “Don’t do much.” (Keep reading…)

Truthdigg Sep 17, 2008

The financial crisis gripping the U.S. has the largest banks and insurance companies begging for massive government bailouts. The banking, investment, finance and insurance industries, long the foes of taxation, now need money from working-class taxpayers to stay alive. Taxpayers should be in the driver’s seat now. Instead, decisions that will cost people for decades are being made behind closed doors, by the wealthy, by the regulators and by those they have failed to regulate. (Keep reading…)

World Socialist Web Site 16 September 2008

The end of Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch, two of the largest Wall Street investment banks, one week after the government takeover of the mortgage finance giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, marks a new stage in the convulsive crisis of American capitalism. (Keep reading…)

Globe and Mail September 18, 2008

This week, I toured the rebuilt, expanded Royal Conservatory of Music on Bloor Street in Toronto, between the new museum and the new Varsity Stadium. It’s bright and busy, it hums (trills, rumbles, etc.). What a great tradition it has. Since 1886, it has pursued a mission of teaching and playing music across the country, breaking down distinctions between amateurs and pros, audience and performers. It built a system of grades and exams so widely dispersed it seems part of our cultural landscape, like Hockey Night in Canada. Stephen Harper has Grade 9 piano. (Keep reading…)

New York Times
September 16, 2008

The government tonight nationalized the American International Group, the financial giant that could not find anyone else willing to lend it the billions of dollars it needed to stay afloat. (Keep reading…)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~(((( T h e B u l l e t ))))~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ A Socialist Project e-bulletin … No. 137 … September 17, 2008 _________________________________________________________________ (Keep reading…)

Globe and Mail Update
September 11, 2008

It seems Stephen Harper and his family is once again reaching out to wish me and the rest of Canada’s Jewish population a happy Rosh Hashanah - the Jewish New Year. (Keep reading…)

http://www.counterpunch.org/chomsky09112008.html

CounterPunch September 11, 2008

Aghast at the atrocities committed by US forces invading the Philippines, and the rhetorical flights about liberation and noble intent that routinely accompany crimes of state, Mark Twain threw up his hands at his inability to wield his formidable weapon of satire. The immediate object of his frustration was the renowned General Funston. “No satire of Funston could reach perfection,” Twain lamented, “because Funston occupies that summit himself… [he is] satire incarnated.” (Keep reading…)