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Wednesday, January 07, 2015

Projected on the side of a building in Spokane, Washington in 2013, the message against 'fast track' authority, which would restrict lawmakers ability to weigh in or make changes to the deal, has been key in the fight against the Trans-Pacific Trade Partnership agreement. The reason: If the American people knew what was in this deal they would never allow their members of Congress to vote in favor of it. (Photo: Michael Beasley of Spokane Coalition Builders/flickr/cc)

Republicans who now run Congress say they want to cooperate with President Obama, and point to the administration’s Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP, as the model. The only problem is the TPP would be a disaster.

January 28, 2015

The negotiations for the Trans Pacific Partnership - a free trade zone of twelve countries including Canada - could be concluded this March. The TPP, representing 40 per cent of the world's economy, would also include the United States, Japan, Australia, Brunei, Chile, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore and Vietnam. Council of Canadians chairperson Maude Barlow has described the TPP as a deal that will only benefit the wealthy 1 per cent, not the rest of us who make up the 99 per cent.

August 6, 2014

For months, the Saskatchewan government has come under fire for its decision to subject the province’s health care system to lean management, which has its origins in the Toyota Production System and auto manufacturing in Japan. After spending over $40 million on the lean expertise provided by John Black and Associates, a U.S.-based consultancy that has pioneered the application of lean operations to the healthcare industry, health care professionals and unions have emerged as outspoken critics of the process. Dr. Ann-Marie Urban (RN), an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Nursing at the University of Regina, provides insights to the consequences of lean on nurses and the politics of care.

By Ann-Marie Urban

Canada gets B grade overall in Conference Board of Canada report

Feb 12, 2015

British Columbia is home to the healthiest Canadian population, while residents in Newfoundland and Labrador and the three territories are the least healthy, according to report card released Thursday by the Conference Board of Canada. The report compared residents' health in each province and territory, while comparing Canada as a whole to the U.S., Japan, Australia and 12 countries in Western Europe.

February 17, 2015

Various so-called 'free trade' agreements are taking aim at the advancement of health care for all. Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) This is an almost-finalized agreement between Canada and the European Union that will face ratification votes in the latter half of this year or early in 2016.

As we've highlighted, this deal would lengthen the patent protection for pharmaceutical corporations

April 12, 2016

Last month made five years since the nuclear plant at Fukushima, Japan suffered meltdowns. The release of highly toxic radiation from the reactors was enormous, on the level of the Chernobyl disaster a generation earlier. But Fukushima is arguably worse than Chernobyl.