AUPE gets off its ass

They have a great looking web page, they have up to date press releases and photos. So how come its taken them years to have their communications guy finally post their press releases to LabourStart?

I did it for them gratis for years cause they seemed to forget about this important source of labour news. Well I am happy to let the guy paid to do it, do it. Thanks Climenhaga. Took ya long enough.

Canada/North America AUPE and Calgary Health Region reach tentative agreement for 5,200 GSS workers [Alberta Union of Provincial Employees] For more info 20-Apr-2006 There are 4 more Canada stories today.

Wonder when Gil the former PR guy for the AFL and now their president will get off his ass and do the same thing for the AFL website.He is after all a hands on kinda guy. Probably when he corrects all the dead links on their website and updates it to include Mayweek and Public Interest Alberta.





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Dead Way

The peasants have surrounded the castle, the monster is put to the torch and the mad doctor is in chains.

King Ralph has lost another one. Just like Same Sex Marriage, the gun registry, Kyoto, the Vriend case, etc.. Talk tough, carry a big wad of cash, and run away.

The Third Way in Health Care reform is dead. Horray cry the Volk of Alberta, the monster is dead.

But lets not party too soon contrary to the blatherings of some.

Don't forget this is the PC's, the Party of Calgary and Presto is still waiting in the wings for an invitation to the dance. And Presto likes the Third Way.

And who actually embraced the Third Way, except the Tory-appointed Calgary Health Region, an outfit hell-bent to let docs cash in on queue-jumpers since some in this city have the fat wallets to get the red-carpet treatment? Even Ralph's own MLAs finally gave the deal the thumbs-down. Tories flatline Third Way

So on May Day in Edmonton , there will be massive march in celebration of the workers holiday and a protest against the Third Way the people need to really make sure the monster is dead. Bring your stakes and signs.

As workers, we must recognize and commemorate May Day not only for its historical significance, but also as a time to organize and speak out around issues that are impacting working-class people today. The March has historically been an opportunity for people to take to the streets and show their commitment to fairness, justice and respect in and outside of the workplace. In this spirit, this year’s March will provide a forum for the public disapproval and resistance to the Alberta Government’s plan for “third way” health care reforms. Edmonton May Week Labour Arts Festival


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America's Snow Job

He would be an appropriate press flak for the Bush regime. Then they could have their own Sunday morning talk show too. Wait they already do, and they have their own station too, heck why even hire him, just use Fox to broadcast all official White House PR. Wait they already do. FOX News' Tony Snow Among Possible White House Spokesman Candidates


Snow repeated falsehoods, offered new one in attempt to rebut Media Matters

See he is perfect for the job. And as another draft dodger that would make a full deck in the White House.



Also See:

Fox Bashing

Fox News Format Infiltrates Canada

An alternative to FOX NEWS

Canada vs Fox

Navel Gazing T.V.

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Harper Full Of Gas

Uh oh the Harpocrite broke another promise. He is telling Canadians to live with high gas prices.

In the 2004 election campaign, and when he was Leader of the Opposition ,he called on the government to eliminate the GST on gas prices. Now he says his teeny tiny 1% GST cut will suffice. Ha, ha, oh thats rich. Rich for gas gouging Big Oil that is sitting on massive reserves in Canada and so do not have to raise the gas prices.

And guess who is really upset with this....why Harpers allies on the right like the Canadian Taxpayers Federation and gasp, the Blogging Tories. So I guess the honeymoon is now officially over.


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The Iranian View

Amidst the sturm and drang and the druming of war with a possible U.S. Nuclear attack on Iran the MSM and the blogs have missed the opportunity to give the Iranian view of their pride in joining the Nuclear club.

Yes pride. Mis-placed of course, but none the less pride just like the Americans have over being a nuclear power. Because with the advent of nuclear power, not the bomb perse, but the ability to produce their enriched uranium for nuclear power plants for 'domestic' use and thus the ability to produce the waste used for a bomb, the Iranian population are united in their view that this now makes them a Great Power.

In truth, the politicians who have overseen Iran’s nuclear file, whether under the presidency of Hashemi Rafsanjani or Mohammed Khatami, and to this day, under President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, are aware that the development of nuclear technology should not push Iran into crises that prohibit the country from using this technology for peaceful means.

As Iranians celebrated the announcement that their country had joined the nuclear club, conservative writers and journalists defended this incredible achievement but did not call for Iran’s exit from the nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT). Instead, they demanded the articles in NPT to be implemented.

The Editor-in-Chief of Kayhan, Hossein Shariatmadari, known for his extremist views on such topics, demanded the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Mohammed El Baradei, investigate whether the NPT treaty had been breached, before submitting his report to the UN Security Council or the IAEA.

Yet, the academic Davoud Hermidas Bavand saw that from this point onwards, the Iranians should manage the nuclear file with great care and attention. He added that El Baradei’s talks in the Iranian capital would provide an indication of the IAEA’s intentions that it accepts Iran’s uranium enrichment program given that it has not breached any international treaty or it rejects it. In this case, it would throw the ball in the UN Security Council’s court.

Compared to their neighbours in the Middle East, this puts Iran on par with Israel. Israel who has the bomb but is not a member of the NPT, nor is India, both American allies. While Iran is a member of the Nuclear Club and subject to UN sanctions and IAEA observations.

The Bushehr nuclear reactor lies on the shores of the Gulf, and it is closer to Manama or Doha than to the Iranian capital which lies in the interior. This means Tehran is almost safe, much more so than the capitals of the Persian Gulf , in case a mishap or an attack. A nuclear Iran is not evidence the country has become a power in the industrial sense. Iran … “I cry out in the Gulf”

And while the U.S. and its allies threaten Iran over its joining their exclusive nuclear club, the point is that the Iranian people are united in their support for this. Which makes any attempt to mobilize the reformers to oppose the current regime a phantasmagoria.

In the world of geopolitics Iran becoming a Great Power, a global nuclear power places that country in an exclusive club. One whose membership is rather selective about who gets to join.

Missing in this one sided rant by the American Empire is the simple fact that all signatories to the NPT agree to eliminate nuclear weapons. The U.S., which along with Russia have the most nuclear weapons and WMD of other kinds, has refused to reduce its stockpile. In fact with the Bush policy of pre-emptive strikes, it is expanding its small scale nuclear capability with bunker bombs etc .

If sanity is to be regained then the world, the UN, countries like Canada need to demand that the U.S. and Russia along with all countries with nuclear weapons begin the mass destruction of these weapons for the safety and good of the planet.

That was and is the purpose of the NPT. And countries that do not belong to the NPT should be shunned until such time as they are forced to allow inspectors to check their weapons.

Canada has long been an advocate of Nuclear non proliferation, however under the Harpocrites it appears that the government in its hypocritical condemnation of Iran in support of the Bush regime seems to forget this.Harper says Canada stands with allies against Iran

If Canada is to condemn anyone it should be Israel, not likely with Zionist sympathisers like Stockwell Day in cabinet, and India, as well as those countries not members of the Nuclear Club; the NPT.

Canada could be a voice of sanity and calm in this current attempt by the U.S. to drum up support for another idiotic pre-emptive assault on a Soveirgn country. The real question is why after the end of the Cold War we see an increasing proliferation of nuclear weapons not a decrease. We are now less safe than we were when a balance of MAD existed between the Soviet Union and the U.S.

Canada as a country with NO nuclear weapons has the political responsibility and obligation to pose an alternative to this MADness and call for an end to all WMD. Period. And it the Harpocrites won't do it in a minority government then it behooves the Opposition to unite around this and demand it.




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Quit Yer Whining

Bush Calls Rising Gas Prices 'Major Problem' for Country

Yo America quit yer whining about gas prices.

Here in Alberta we are paying $4 a gallon, and we own the stuff.

While in the U.S. gas prices are half that.

You want good news or bad news? For commodities, it doesn't matter

But others hold out little hope for lower oil prices in the near future. "I think the price is going to go higher," said Peter Tertzakian, chief energy economist and director of ARC Financial Corp. in Calgary.

With China showing no signs of slowing and North American demand for gasoline remaining strong, "in the near term there isn't a lot of spare capacity out there to make the markets feel comfortable," said Mr. Tertzakian, author of A Thousand Barrels A Second: The Coming Oil Break Point and the Challenges Facing an Energy Dependent World.

While it's true that U.S. crude oil inventories are high, "that's like saying the gas tank is high in my car. But the issue isn't the gas tank in your car, it's at the pump."

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Alberta Gets No Respect

All that whining from Calgary, 60 per cent of Albertans want more respect: poll and the Oilers and Flames are in the NHL Playoffs.

Sheesh Toronto is out of the playoffs, how much more respect do ya want.

Especially since the Oilers played so lousy this year.

How much sweeter can it be when the Maple Leafs are out again, lets see they haven't been in the playoffs since Canada's Centennial.

So suck it up Alberta, and lets play hockey.



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Kielburger Wins Nobel

Congratulations to Craig Kielburger the founder of Free the Children who mobilized a grassroots movement amongst Canadian youth to fight against Child labour and Sweatshops. That movement grew into an international campaign that is growing every day.

Children's advocate Kielburger wins global honour

Craig Kielburger, who began his fight for the rights of children as a 12-year-old boy outraged by the death of an activist who opposed child labour in Pakistan, has won the "Children's Nobel Prize. Swedish authorities announced on Tuesday that the 23-year-old, who lives in Thornhill, Ont., had been awarded the 2006 World Children's Prize for the Rights of the Child.

See My Boycott Nike site for more on child labour and Sweat shops.

Also:

Where Are Your Clothes Made

Gildan Sweat Shop Success Story

Haiti Quebec's Shame

Canada's Dirty Secret: Haiti

Jack Abramoff Sweat Shop Lobbyist

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May I See Your Passport Please

Well that's that. Our tough talking Conservative Government; Harper, McKay and now Day, all told the US where to stick their mandatory passport plan and of course the US listened.

Michael Chertoff, the U.S. Homeland Security secretary, told Stockwell Day, Canada's minister of public safety, that the new regulations will come into effect Jan. 1, 2008. U.S. won't delay introducing new border security measures

Opps, oh well there is still softwood lumber....bet the Conservatives are successful in making their new friends in the White House quiver and shake over that issue too.


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A Vision Of Things To Come

Ralph Klein, Preston Manning and Mike Harris have all touted their "Third Way" for Health Care reform in Canada as NOT being modeled on the US but on Europe and the UK. Well lets look at the success the UK is having with its third way model of public private healthcare delivery. Opps better not. Blair faces inquiry into NHS crisis


One of the problems of the GP contract - like so many Labour health reforms - was the number of other radical changes, some of them contradictory, being pursued at the same time. The prime minister has still not learned. In an address to the New Health Network think-tank yesterday he listed four big reforms which the government is pursuing. This month marks the nationwide introduction of payments by results, the biggest change since the NHS was launched 58 years ago, under which finance flows to hospitals, ambulance services, primary care and mental health teams according to the numbers of patients treated, rather than a block contract. On top of that, the government is expanding patient choice, introducing more independent providers and promoting GP commissioning. He could have noted two other reforms - both currently unnecessary - involving radical restructuring of primary care trusts and strategic health authorities. Right goals, too many wrong results


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