Consumer news

Soda pop Co-opt
  Literary hero Harry Potter not safe from the sugary embrace of the Coca-Cola Company.
 

Self serving banking
  Don't expect financial institutions to protect you. From the Consumer Council of Canada.
 

Life-threatening allergies in schools
  For some kids, it's just a peanut butter sandwich. For others with severe allergies, it could mean sudden death.

The Attack and after

Stopping the angry tidal wave that feeds terrorism - Mel Watkins
  An urgent call for the peace and global democracy movements to unite and mobilize.
 

The Straight Goods Cyber Forum with Larry Solway
How absurd - tax cuts when governments need money
  Larry says if government wants to make sure money gets into the economy ­ spend it. What bugs YOU most in the wake of Sept. 11? What are your thoughts?

Take the Straight Goods Cyber Forum survey and qualify for the Straight Goods draw.

Join Larry's cyber-forum and share your views.

Media File
Thanksgiving Day 2001 in wake of Sept 11th tragedy - Barrie Zwicker
  In an information war the target is the civilian population at home - you and me.
 

The algebra of infinite justice
  Internationally acclaimed feminist novelist Arundhati Roy pleads for reason in the face of terror: "In America there has been rough talk of bombing Afghanistan back to the stone age'. Someone please break the news that Afghanistan is already there." A link to ZMag.

Petrotyranny: the world's worst enemy - John Bacher
  Major oil companies are keeping democracy down.
 

Vanessa Redgrave vs. The Independent
  Activist actor takes on her publisher, arguing that we need justice, not bombs, to deal with terrorism. A link to the Independent.

Chomsky replies - to Hitchens attack on 'rationalizing'
  "He can't mean what he's saying." A link to the Nation.
 

Thin proof and a hard sell for US in Middle East
  Robert Fisk writes that the Americans are finding it tough to rally the Arab world, especially as Blair's document relies mostly on conjecture rather than evidence. Another link to the Independent.

Causes of Terrorism
  Hatred and revenge only add to suffering, writes philosopher Randal Marlin.

You cannot slaughter people into submission - Sunera Thobani's Oct. 2 Parliament Hill speech
  Was it offensive and inappropriate, as Joe Clark and Gordon Campbell claim, to say US foreign policy is soaked in blood? See for yourself.

US Nazis praise the suicide hijackers
  America's most extreme right-wing "patriot" organizations - those supported by Timothy McVeigh, the 1995 Oklahoma City bomber - have welcomed the September 11 terrorist attacks as a strike on their common enemy: the government.

CONSUMER ALERTS
Nigerian e-mail scam still making the rounds
  Don't get hoaxed.

Don't ever dial area code 809!!
  A phone scam which asks you to dial 809 could end up costing over $24,000. (Thanks to reader Ray Chapeskie for this one.)
 

Health care

Health care handouts
  Eleventh-hour funding makes things worse for Ontario hospitals - Dr. Gordon Guyatt.
 
 

Cutting BC's Pharmacare won't cut health costs - Daniel Cohn
  Cuts will merely shift drug costs onto individuals and employers and risk increasing hospital costs.

Straight Goods Book Excerpt

The No-Nonsense Guide to World History
  The tangling of history and political argument. From Between The Lines Books.
 

Future of the Left
Recent by-elections in Quebec a wake-up call
  André St-Hilaire of Ste-Foy, Quebec looks at a disastrous by-election not only for the PQ but the left in his province - and how this compares with the left's fortunes in the Rest of Canada.

Take action
Save Radio Canada International!
  CBC's new "re-deployment" strategy threatens to turn RCI into part of their Domestic service. Here's how you can fight to keep the station on the air.

Tell your MP you want mandatory GE food labelling
  And tell the biotech-dominated Canadian General Standards Board know the weak voluntary labelling "standard"' they propose is unacceptable.

Environment
Chemical pollutants more dangerous than tests reveal
  Hazards that are tested one by one in the lab become a more toxic chemical cocktail in the environment. A link to the Ottawa Citizen.

Humour
Confessions of a yenta
  Think it sucks? Send us better.
 

Posted: October 08, 2001