Through activities like the Council’s mock birthday bash for George Bush, our resistance to Atlantica and our intervention at the Canadian Medical Association meeting in Charlottetown, the Council of Canadians maintained a high profile in the media over the summer months.
Activists voice their anger at candidate to head CMA
A group of protesters, led by the Council of Canadians, stood in the rain Sunday afternoon outside the Delta Hotel where the Canadian Medical Association kicked off its annual meeting.
The CMA’s four-day meeting in Charlottetown is supposed to be a gathering of Canadian physicians to discuss national health issues, but a debate over public and private health care overshadowed all other events on the weekend.
In particular, the protesters voiced their frustration over the possible election of Day, a Vancouver-based orthopedic surgeon, as CMA president this week.
– Charlottetown Guardian, August 21, 2006
What gifts will Harper bring Bush this time?
On President George Bush’s 60th birthday, he will be visited by Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Having watched our government go to great lengths to please
Bush, Canadians can’t help but wonder what treats Harper has planned for the president this time.
If the Liberal government maintained a marginal distance from the U.S. by signing on to the Kyoto Protocol, refusing to participate in the Iraq war etc., Harper made it a point early on to show the Bush administration a much friendlier Canada. In his throne speech, Harper said he considered the U.S. to be“Canada’s best friend.” Then he went on to prove his friendship.
The Harper government promptly scrapped Kyoto and pledged its support to the war on terror by extending Canada’s mission in Afghanistan. It has become clear today that this is not a peacekeeping mission; it is a full-fledged combat operation.
– Toronto Star, July 6, 2006
(Opinion piece by Maude Barlow)
Atlantica raises concerns, says activist
A leading Canadian activist said people in Fredericton need to get more involved in discussions about the creation of a trade corridor through Atlantic Canada
and the northeastern United States.
Maude Barlow, national chairwoman of the Council of Canadians, said people need to understand what the proposed Atlantica trade corridor is and what it
could mean for ordinary people.
“We need to decide whether it is sane, sustainable and good for communities now, before they move forward on it,” Barlow said Thursday while speaking to
educators gathered for a conference at the University of New Brunswick.
– The Daily Gleaner (Fredericton), June 23, 2006
Water war heats up
In Langford, privatization of sewers to Terasen, Inc. has been quietly locked in by a 21-year contract with an option for a 21-year renewal.
Sewer privatization could also happen in Whistler, B.C., where a lively debate is underway, and in other municipalities.
It could be followed by the privatization of water management. Linkage of incoming and outgoing water under the flag of a multi-national corporation has happened in other places, and lobbyists are pressing for it here.
Public water defenders say the privatizers are dangerously wrong.
Greater Victoria Water Watch, Vancouver Island Water Watch and the Council of Canadians argue that water is a vital public resource and a human right;
privatization would harm consumers and taxpayers.
– Vancouver Island News Group, June 7, 2006
Meera Karunananthan is The Council of Canadians’ Media Officer.
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