CCPA Monitor back issues from December 2006:
GROWING GAP, GROWING CONCERNS: CCPA launches major project to promote equality in Canada
Dec 01, 2006; ... Fiscally, Canada has been in the most secure situation in its history. Yet reports indicate that the gap between the rich and the poor persists. The gap widened between 1980 and 2000, and is threatening to become a permanent fixture in Canada. The gap is widening even though the economy ...
EDITORIAL: What about prevention?
Dec 01, 2006; ... A deficiency of Vitamin D, according to recent studies, makes people more susceptible to some cancers and a range of other ailments. Most of us don't get enough of this essential nutrient from the sun, particularly during the winter. So we need to take supplements, and many of us do. But many ...
Worth Quoting
Dec 01, 2006; ... Globalization's downside "Globalization isn't just about a rising number of export markets for Western producers. It's about massive waves of income redistribution ...from workers in the West to workers in low-income countries as capital leaves high-cost sites in North America and Europe ...
Arms sales hit new record
Dec 01, 2006; ... Worldwide spending on weapons is expected to reach record levels in 2006 at a time when the arms industry is increasingly able to avoid export controls, human rights and aid agencies say. By the end of the year, military spending is expected to reach $1,058 billion, about 15 times the amount ...
INDEX: Europe
Dec 01, 2006; ... * The defeat of the European constitution last year has left many wondering about its future. Undoubtedly the European Union, despite Its resilience, faces many serious challenges, including the rising power of corporations, a decline of wages, sharp inequalities among the member states, low ...
INEQUALITY AND ICARUS: What's inequality got to do with global warming? A lot
Dec 01, 2006; ... Recent statistics from the United Nations on the distribution of the world's wealth tell us that the number of people with financial assets of $30 million or more has soared to 85,400, an increase of more than 10% over the previous year. These "ultra-high-net individuals," we are informed, now ...
THE NEW FACE OF RETIREMENT: Many Canadians forced to work longer than they'd hoped
Dec 01, 2006; ... AAs the baby boomers get closer to retirement, it's becoming clear that many will have to abandon their dreams of "freedom 55." Some of them will be lucky if they reach their "freedom" goal by the time they're 65. Many will have to go on working as they grow older. It's the new face of ...
Billions for beauty
Dec 01, 2006; ... Americans now spend an astounding $15 billion a year on cosmetic surgery in a beautification frenzy. The sum is double the entire annual CDP of Malawi and more than twice what the United States has contributed to AIDS programs in the past decade. Demand has exploded to produce a new ...
INDEX: Poor women's health
Dec 01, 2006; ... * The gap between rich and poor women In Canada continues to widen, and is most evident In their condition of health. The poorest women in Canada (the poorest 27%) report themselves to be in poor to fair health, while only 5.7% of the wealthiest women say their health is poor or only fair. This ...
FACING SOME HARD TRUTHS: Progressives need to relearn how they "frame" their message
Dec 01, 2006; ... The first time you come across them, it doesn't seem to make any sense. They could be family members, co-workers, neighbours, or friends-and yet you can't understand them: the sometimes NDP, sometimes Conservative voters. The kind of people who give generously at anti-poverty ...
Mobile phones causing immobile sperm
Dec 01, 2006; ... Men who use mobile phones for long periods of time may be at risk of damaging their sperm, according to research by the American Society for Reproductive Medicine. Samples taken from men attending fertility clinics revealed that their sperm declined steadily in number, quality, and ...
THE EUROPEAN MODEL: It's not perfect, but European system is world's best
Dec 01, 2006; ... Like the famous Dickens opener in A Tale of Two Cities-"it was the best of times, it was the worst of times"-Europe has always excelled at both the best and the worst. In the 20th century alone, Europeans committed some of the most horrendous crimes ever conceived by a perverse humanity: ...
Europe vs U.S.-in figures
Dec 01, 2006; ... * Europeans work, on average, 350 fewer hours per year than U.S. workers. Most Europeans take four to six weeks vacation while the figure in the U.S. is two to three weeks. The work-week in Europe is more closely regulated, with France leading the way with a reduction to a 35-hour work-week ....
Non-profit drug firm using medicine shelved by Big Pharma
Dec 01, 2006; ... Black fever, also known as kalaazar, is the world's deadliest parasitic disease after malaria. Each year it kills about 500,000 people, who rapidly lose weight and die painfully with swollen livers and spleens. Its victims are united by one factor that also explains why, until now, the disease ...
GLOBAL WARMING, GLOBAL WORDING: Most government "action" on climate change just rhetoric
Dec 01, 2006; ... There is historical precedent for re-naming the purported Clean Air Act devised by the federal Conservative government. It should be called the Clean Air Procrastination Act. We start by going back to Confucius, who spoke of the need for the "rectification of names." Obscurity of ...
THE WORLD'S MOST POWERFUL DICTATORSHIP: Don't be fooled: IMF still rich world's financial overseer
Dec 01, 2006; ... The glacier has begun to creak. In the world's most powerful dictatorship we detect the merest hint of a thaw. I am not talking about China or Uzbekistan, Burma or North Korea. This state runs no torture chambers or labour camps. No one is executed, though plenty starve to death as a result of ...
To be or not to BBC
Dec 01, 2006; ... Following his well-publicized visit to Thames Marsh to chide the local Council on its failure to build fall-out shelters, Minister of Administrative Affairs Jim Hacker agreed to tape an interview with the BBC-TV's Ludovic Kennedy on the subject of civil defence. The ensuing repercussions were ...
Solar harvest
Dec 01, 2006; ... The fields of Bruno Gartner's 200-acre farm in Buttenwiesen, Germany, are covered with 10,050 solar panels. Although the electricity is only used to meet national demands at peak periods, the farm could easily supply power permanently to 7,000 ...
FISCAL AND ENVIRONMENTAL FEDERALISM: Oil-rich provinces' wealth should be shared nationally
Dec 01, 2006; ... Federal Environment Minister Rona Ambrose's new green plan, unveiled in October, was greeted by a chorus of boos from pretty well everyone the plan was intended to impress. (Big business loved it, but they were already firmly in the Conservative camp.) The Clean Air Act didn't mention the word ...
AT WORK INSTEAD OF IN SCHOOL: Child labour drops, but many youngsters still exploited
Dec 01, 2006; ... Images of children lugging heavy carts and blackened by coal dust in mines could disappear within a decade after a sharp fall in child labour over the past four years, the International Labour Organization said in a recent report. The ILO said that labour is still a hard reality for one ...
ALL-OUT ASSAULT ON CANADIAN WHEAT BOARD: Harper bent on stripping farmers of their marketing power
Dec 01, 2006; ... Canadians rarely get to see the naked power of the state unleashed against an internal foe, perceived or real. We see this happening in other countries, where authoritarian rulers use the state's civil service to suppress free and open public discussion and dissent to the regime's ...
THE DUAL MARKET MYTH: Canadian Wheat Board couldn't survive single-desk loss
Dec 01, 2006; ... When Agriculture Minister Chuck Strahl set up his Task Force to slash and burn the Canadian Wheat Board, he asked the CWB if it were willing to take part in planning its own execution. Wisely, the CWB declined. It did, however, offer to answer any questions the Task Force might pose. As ...
POWER TO THE PEOPLE (IN SUITS): New kind of business lobby ominous threat to democracy
Dec 01, 2006; ... Last June, "the three amigos"-the name the press gave the leaders of Canada, Mexico and the U.S. because they were meeting in Mexico at the time-launched the North American Competitiveness Council (the NACC). The NACC, described in government press releases as a partnership between ...
Manitoba going sweat-free
Dec 01, 2006; ... Manitoba's provincial government is going sweat-free, set to become the first province in Canada to ensure that none of the clothes it buys come from sweatshops. Tracey Danowski, assistant deputy minister in the province's Department of Transportation and Government Services, said the ...
BEWARE THE THREE AMIGOS: Voters should know that cutting taxes means cutting services
Dec 01, 2006; ... Federal Finance Minister Jim Flaherty is considering a massive tax break exclusively for the benefit of couples with widely disparate incomes. It begs a couple of questions. If we're all in line for big tax cuts, how are we going to pay for the public services we depend on? And ...
THE "NECESSITY" OF POVERTY: System that impoverishes people "needed" to end poverty
Dec 01, 2006; ... The collapse of the Doha "development" round of trade talks has been widely lamented as bad news for the world's poor. But poverty is not exclusive to developing countries, and there is little danger that the poor are going to become an endangered species, whatever the deal on ...
SAVING THE WORLD: New book offers workable ways to avert planetary disaster
Dec 01, 2006; ... SAVING THE WORLD: New book offers workable ways to avert planetary disaster Book Review by Paul Bobier Plan B 2.0: Rescuing a Planet Under Stress and a Civilization in Trouble, by Lester Brown, Earth Policy Books, $35 hardcover, $19.95 paperback. This year, five well-promoted books on ...
THE NEED FOR INCOME SECURITY (PART II): Objections to basic income not based on sound reasoning
Dec 01, 2006; ... Before considering the advantages of a basic income, and the reasons for unions to take a leading role in its advocacy, it is worth dealing briefly with the main objections that have been made over the years. Since this has been done in depth elsewhere, this section will be relatively brief, ...
NAFTA STILL NOT WORKING FOR WORKERS: Three-country study details trade pact's harmful effects
Dec 01, 2006; ... Twelve years under the rules of the North American Free Trade Agreement, or NAFTA, has had a perverse impact on the distribution of income, wealth, and political power across the continent. A new three-country report shows that NAFTA has not lived up to its promise of better jobs and ...
MEMOS FROM OUR MEMBERS
Dec 01, 2006; ... Out on a limb The Editor: If one is to have any valid grasp of the realities of the world, The CCPA Monitor is a necessity, and both Ed Finn's and Jane Smiley's superb articles in the October issue say it all about the mystifying and raving stupidity of corporations and their ...
INDEX: Peacekeeping
Dec 01, 2006; ... * Number of Canadian military personnel on UN peacekeeping missions worldwide as of August 31, 1991: 1,149. * Number of Canadian military personnel on UN peacekeeping missions worldwide as of August 31, 2006: 56. * Number of military personnel (all nationalities) on UN ...
Switzerland sets example in eliminating GM food
Dec 01, 2006; ... While the rest of the world wrestles with a biotech industry determined to own and contaminate the world's food and fields through genetic modification, tiny Switzerland-in its quiet, efficient, and pragmatic way-is eliminating CM from its fields, its food, and its society. More than 12% ...
GM cotton crop problems
Dec 01, 2006; ... Genetically modified (GM) cotton crops in China that are designed to withstand attack from pests are failing to live up to their billing, a recent study from Cornell University has found. The reason is that eradicating one pest has opened the door for others, which are now attacking the ...
ME AND MY STEM CELLS: Why the stem cell controversy should be a non-issue
Dec 01, 2006; ... Stem: To originate, derive, or be descendent ... My funny symptoms began the summer I was eight years old. The doctor said it was my imagination. When I was 16,1 lost, then regained, the sight in both eyes. The family doctor told my parents that I did too much reading. But when I ...
The return of a bad idea
Dec 01, 2006; ... The Conservatives are at it again. Federal Finance Minister Flaherty is reviving and polishing-up the Conservative Party's ill-conceived election proposal to end taxation of individual capital gains if the proceeds are re-invested. Light taxation of capital gains compared to wages is ...
The Good News Page
Dec 01, 2006; ... Zanzibar bans plastic bags ZANZIBAR-Zanzibar has banned the import and production of plastic bags to protect its environment and tourism industry. Just off the coast of Tanzania in the Indian Ocean, Zanzibar is on a major route for plastic bags heading for the east African ...
GLOBAL CLASS WAR: Time to create democratic alternative to corporate power
Dec 01, 2006; ... GLOBAL CLASS WAR: Time to create democratic alternative to corporate power Book Review by Teresa Healy The Global Class War: How America's Bipartisan Elite Lost our Future and What It will Take to Win it Back, by Jeff Faux (Hoboken, New Jersey: Wiley, 2006) Since March 2005, when Canada ...
CANADA'S PRE-EMINENT ENVIRONMENTALIST: David Suzuki tells how early life shaped love of nature
Dec 01, 2006; ... CANADA'S PRE-EMINENT ENVIRONMENTALIST: David Suzuki tells how early life shaped love of nature Book Review by Roy LaBerge David Suzuki: The Autobiography, 406 pages, $34.95, Greystone Books, Toronto, Vancouver, Berkeley. Millions know Dr. David Suzuki, the broadcaster, writer, scientist, ...
CALLING PREMIER MCGUINTY: Where will all of Ontario's nuclear waste be stored?
Dec 01, 2006; ... Ontarians will go to the polls next October to elect their provincial government. If last September's provincial byelection in Toronto is any indication, energy policy and ethics will play a major role in the next election. Indeed, the new NDP MPP who won the byelection claims energy was ...
Nuclear meltdown barely avoided in Sweden
Dec 01, 2006; ... Four of the 10 nuclear reactors in Sweden have been shut down indefinitely following a near-catastrophic event last summer to rival Chernobyl. "It was pure luck there wasn't a meltdown," said a former director of a nuclear plant in the town of Forsmark, which went out of control in July ...
THE DENIAL INDUSTRY: Exxon-funded "citizens' groups" scoff at global warming
Dec 01, 2006; ... ExxonMobil is the world's most profitable corporation. Its sales now amount to more than $1 billion a day. It makes most of this money from oil, and has more to lose than any other company from efforts to tackle climate change. To safeguard its profits, ExxonMobil needs to sow doubt about ...
Christmas is coming-all the way from China
Dec 01, 2006; ... Christmas this year is coming not in sleighs or sacks, but on board huge cargo ships from China laden with all the toys, decorations, cards, and other products associated with the annual December holiday season. These immense ships-some over 300 metres long, 60 metres high, and as wide as a ...
Investors can check on firms' impact on climate change
Dec 01, 2006; ... Investors can now assess how the world's 1,800 biggest companies and their products are contributing to climate change before investing in them, say the developers of a new rating system. The "Envimpact" rating weighs the most environmentally-sensitive phase in the life-cycle of the ...
LIVING WITH UNCLE: Pundits discuss danger of Canada becoming U.S. vassal state
Dec 01, 2006; ... LIVING WITH UNCLE: Pundits discuss danger of Canada becoming U.S. vassal state Book Review by Roy LaBerge Living with Uncle: Canada-U.S. Relations in an Age of Empire, edited by Bruce Campbell and Ed Finn, James Lorimer & Company Ltd., Toronto, $24.95. The "uncle" in the book title ...