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Chapter Action Update
Council protest at Scotia Surgery  As reported in the Chronicle-Herald, "A group of protesters gathered in Dartmouth on Saturday to praise public health care and denounce a stopgap arrangement between the provincial government and a private medical clinic on Acadia Street. About 20 demonstrators assembled in an empty parking lot across the road from the Scotia Surgery Inc. building and criticized a Health Department-approved contract, signed earlier this year, between the Capital district health authority and owners of the for-profit clinic." Energy day of action More than 35 chapters participated in the “Take Charge” national day of action on February 2, calling for a Canadian energy strategy. Through public forums, meetings with Members of Parliament, leafleting and other creative actions, chapters highlighted the need for a Canadian energy strategy that would address where our energy comes from, where it is going, and the high price of environmental devastation that comes with producing it. World Water Day plans Chapters are actively planning for World Water Day on March 22. We anticipate that more than 40 chapters will mobilize to demand the development of a national water policy for Canada and that the Canadian government formally recognize water as an internationally respected human right. Blue Covenant tour a success Chapters organized a very successful tour to promote Maude Barlow’s new book Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water between October and December. Through chapter-organized events, Maude spoke to more than 3,900 people across Canada. In addition, 1,500 membership brochures and 5,000 copies of Canadian Perspectives were distributed to the public, and there was significant national and local media coverage quoting Maude and chapter activists. TILMA victory in B.C. Through public pressure aided by the good work of regional organizer Carleen Pickard and chapters in British Columbia, Premier Gordon Campbell’s government was forced to withdraw Bill 17 from the B.C. legislature. Bill 17 would have given the Trade, Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA) a binding legal enforcement March 13, 2008 “Social Murder” book tour Seven chapters in the Atlantic region hosted book tour events in February for Social Murder and Other Shortcomings of Conservative Economics, by Council Board member Robert Chernomas and Ian Hudson. The book addresses the issues of corporate power and influence, highlighting the destructiveness of global capitalism and conservative economic theory. Best Kept Secret Thirty-five chapters participated in 14 “Best Kept Secret” local and regional training sessions with the Council’s health care campaigner, Guy Caron, in January and February. With these trainings now complete, chapter activists will be speaking about the economic advantage of public health care to a variety of audiences in local communities across the country. Anti-recruitment campaign Chapter activists have been writing to Defence Minister Peter MacKay and their provincial and territorial ministers of education to demand that the Canadian Forces stop their recruitment and outreach activities in Canada’s elementary and high schools, universities and colleges. They have told these ministers that our children should be learning about peace-building, the avoidance of violent conflict, global justice and true security, and shouldn’t be subjected to glamourized and misleading images of the military through publicity videos and brochures. Let them stay Chapters have been contacting their Members of Parliament and demanding that U.S. war resisters be allowed to stay in Canada. In a vote of 7 to 4, the Standing Committee on Citizenship and Immigration passed a motion last December recommending that the government immediately implement a program to allow war resisters and their families to stay in Canada. The committee also called for an immediate halt to deportation proceedings in these cases. On alert Chapter activists continue to respond to the Council’s Action Alerts by sending letters to the Prime Minister, key Cabinet ministers, their local MPs, and various listservs. Recent alerts have included opposition to the Harper government’s Bill C-3 security certificate legislation, a call to ban the environmentally harmful practice of uranium mining in Canada, and a continued demand to put the Security and Prosperity Partnership to a vote in the House of Commons. Brent Patterson is the Director of Campaigns/Organizing at the Council of Canadians.
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