–Global monopoly capitalism continues to cause hunger around the world.

–The nutters are out in full force over this. Congrats to Morgentaler, he deserves it. However, we still have a lot of fighting to do as this province still does not provide accessible abortion services to women, PEI doesn’t provide even inaccessible services, and NS only has one hospital that provides them. The reality is that the progressive movements in this country have not won this battle yet.

–Cuba’s biotech industry.

–It is hardly news for those that are involved in this debate. The fight continues.

–World food prices continue to have an effect on the lives of the majority.

–More on why privatization is not an answer to better health care.

Racist behaviour in our country’s “multicultural” metropolitan centres is often more vulgar and violent than outside. Here’s a perfect example.

“Last September there were a rash of disturbing attacks against Asian fishermen [just north of Markham, ON] … Six assaults were eventually reported to York police. Arrests have been made in five. Dozens more victims told stories of harassment, racial slurs, theft and assault on Chinese-language call-in shows. Incidents were reported as far away as Peterborough and Westport … Were these attacks racially motivated, or just a troubling example of tensions between locals and anglers, who are often Asian? As the debate raged, nine parked vehicles were vandalized with swastikas, anti-Semitic graffiti and homosexual slurs in late September … In late October, two men strung up a black-painted skeleton from a noose at the end of their yard in Keswick. The life-size dummy dangled from a flagpole beneath an oversized Confederate flag. It hung there for several weeks until a police officer noticed.”

“We could talk about so many other issues – the UN Declaration on Indigenous Peoples, First Nations poverty, drinking water – and the list is quite extensive.”

150,000 children were removed from their communities and put in the “residential school system”, and according to CBC Newsworld, this includes those kidnapped from their mothers immediately after birth.

–A definite victory for the people of Saint John.

–Ya, there’s a shocker.

–The statement is so inconsistent I don’t know where to start. If biofuels are causing increased starvation because the market favours fuel over food because profits on the international markets are blind to hunger in developing nations, then how is it that more profit driven markets directing distribution and growth are going to help the starving? The answer is that they are not. Export barriers are not the problem either. When governments impose export barriers it is in response to angry people who cannot buy food. There is an artificial increased demand (for a short time) and thus prices come down. However, if the heads of countries want a longer term solution they they are going to have plan and co-ordinate the distribution in their own countries before they see what is available to export. Making developing countries open their boarders to food export when their population is starving is not only immoral, it is a policy that will lead to massive civil unrest. It is also completely hypocritical for the developed world to demand free markets only for the developing world. Until we get a rational system of trade and development established using new economic theories (not this 19th Century liberal nonsense) we are not going to be able to solve these issues.

–For those that heard the crap that passes as news on CBC radio this morning on the food crisis and how we should question the use of organics, I give you the actual Agricultural Report. In addition, searching Leftnews will give you a slew of reports, studies, and political economic analyses from the UN that show that genetically modified, monoculture crops, and the “Green Revolution” powered by cheap oil and fertilizer are the real culprits of the food crisis. The data is in for the academic community and those that engage in economic analysis, it is about time that the CBC news department starts listening to the facts instead of Agro Industry lobbyists.

Women in regions with the highest incidence rate of all types of cancer do not have the highest smoking, obesity or alcohol consumption rates. So what’s missing in the equation? We know little about the extent to which environmental hazards – industrial emissions, pesticide use, etc. - contribute to disease. The Conservation Council of N.B. has called for the provincial Wellness Action Plan to address potential environmental factors.

Rates per 100,000 population, women, N.B., 1998-2003
Overall rate of cancer, highest: Saint John/St. Stephen, 383 /100,000 (lowest: Bathurst/Caraquet, 319).
Breast cancer, highest: Fredericton/Woodstock, 108 (lowest: Campbellton/Belledune, 87).
Brain, highest: Moncton/Richiboucto, 7 (lowest: Campbellton/Belledune, 3).
Leukemia, highest: Moncton/Richibucto, 9 (lowest: Miramichi/Doaktown, 4).
Lymphoid, highest: Moncton/Richibucto, 24 (lowest: Madawaska/Edmundston, 20).
Colorectal, highest: Moncton/Richibucto, 48 (lowest: Campbellton/Belledune, 36).
Squamous (skin), highest: Saint John/St. Stephen, 34 (lowest: Bathurst/Caraquet, 11).
Basal (skin), highest: Saint John/St.Stephen, 115 (lowest: Madawaska/Edmundston, 54).
Lung, highest: Saint John/St. Stephen, 59 (lowest: Madawaska/Edmundston, 41).
Pancreas, highest: Miramichi/Doaktown, 14 (lowest: Fredericton/Woodstock, 8).

Highest smoking, obesity and alcohol consumption rates, women:
Alcohol consumption: highest rate, Bathurst/Caraquet, 36% (Saint John/St. Stephen: 24%, Moncton/Richibucto: 31%; Fredericton/Woodstock, 28%).
Obesity: highest rate, Miramichi/Doaktown, 28% (Saint John/St. Stephen: 24%, Moncton/Richibucto: 22%; Fredericton/Woodstock, 24%).
Smoking: highest rate, Madawaska/Edmundston, 23% (Saint John/St. Stephen: 21%, Moncton/Richibucto: 20%; Fredericton/Woodstock, 20%)

- From Age-standardized incidence rates per 100,000 population, women, N.B., 1998-2003 and Selected Cancer Risk Factors 2005, compiled by Conservation Council of N.B. with data from N.B. Department of Health & Statistics Canada. For more on cancers and environmental factors, see Health Watch at www.conservationcouncil.ca/Health-Watch/

–More corporate backed fraud in the science community.

–Canadians want higher taxes and increased public-owned and run services — new poll results.

–The union responds to the superbug reports.

Fundy Royal NDP candidate and economist Rob Moir was among the keynote speakers at Moncton’s Public Awareness meeting to discuss the effects of test drilling and uranium mining on our health and ecosystem. Dr. Moir’s presentation outlined the overall effects that uranium exploration and mining has on the economy.

Moir toasted the crowd with a glass of Moncton city water, and commenced by saying, “Thank you Moncton for keeping water public, and here’s to keeping it free of radioactivity.”

“Residual antibiotics have been detected in Chilean salmon that have been exported to the United States, Canada and Europe [it is] estimated that 70 to 300 times more antibiotics are used by salmon producers in Chile to produce a ton of salmon than in Norway … Researchers say that some antibiotics that are not allowed in American aquaculture, like flumequine and oxolinic acid, are legal in Chile and may increase antibiotic resistance for people.”

–More public support for public health. The only people that are fighting for this are the unions and their supporters. Support the workers, your health may depend on it.

–Too bad we do not have some central planning around the prescription of anti-biotics and enough will to engage in an education program around anti-biotic soaps and drugs. Apart from this, it is the underfunding of our public healthcare system and the outsourcing of the cleaning staff that have lead to the current crisis in hospitals. We need to have an infusion of money into the system and it needs to be broad and sustained if we are going to stop this situation from getting worse.

–When people start to gush over the “great work” that the Gates Foundation is doing in fighting AIDS you can point to this article and say you reserve judgment.

–For those that continue to think that regulation is always bad.

The Conservation Council of New Brunswick has examined emissions data for the Irving Oil refinery in Saint John provided by the company to Environment Canada for the past 10 years and found that emissions of some VOCs and metals, specifically aluminum, have increased more than 10 times since the upgrade.

Figures released today by the Conservation Council of New Brunswick conservatively estimate that between 300 and 700 New Brunswickers die annually as a result of exposure to environmental hazards such as indoor and outdoor air pollution, pesticides and contaminants in food and water. That’s about three to seven times more than die annually from motor vehicle accidents in the province.

–We protest as the corporations slowly poison us and our families.

Inka Milewski, science advisor to the Conservation council of New Brunswick, said from Miramichi that New Brunswick Environment Minister Roland Haché should issue a ministerial order to fix the problem. Further, she says the arsenic in the sediment shows that Environment Canada did not fulfill its responsibility to protect this ecosystem, and she wants a public inquiry to determine why. Randy Nason, an organic farmer and retired teacher at Cumberland Bay, wants NB Power to immediately stop effluent from entering the lake. He then wants experts to produce a remedial plan. Environment Canada found arsenic ranging from 15 to 301 parts per million in the lake sediment, and from 54 to 213 parts per million in a zone from 10 to 100 metres from the effluent outfall. Bielecki said the CCME sets its guideline at a maximum of 5.9 parts per million.

What if Irving Oil’s proposed new oil refinery is subject to a federal environmental review. That’s the Conservation Council’s what if.

Canada’s Environment Minister John Baird is facing a lawsuit for his lax treatment of Irving Oil’s proposal to construct a massive oil refinery in Saint John. The Conservation Council’s Fundy Baykeeper and Friends of the Earth Canada commenced the lawsuit to ensure that the multi-billion dollar refinery – which is expected to generate greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to New Brunswick’s biggest coal-burning power plant– faces the full scrutiny of an environmental assessment by the federal government.

–Yet another example of why a two-tiered system does not work for health care.

–Not surprising — but it seems that we need reminding every once in a while.

–This is as outrageous as it is crazy. They screen organs for HIV, they allow men and women who engage in the same “risky behaviour” as gay men give organs (and blood). It makes not sense and is targeting a social group based on myths and stereotypes. It is completely unfair to the donors and the people in need of organs. This, on top of the blood issue makes Canada look like it is targeting this social group. Shame on Health Canada.

–One does not have to wonder very much why the “official” figures are so much lower than reality. The neo-liberal project continues.