Posted: May 07, 2002
Updated: May 09, 2002

SRI Reports
Innovative green loan fund facilitates fair trade coffee - Paul Pellizzari
  Fund helps overcome small farmers' lack of access to capital, which has limited the success of fair trade.

Health Care

Medical savings accounts - part fund, part insurance plan- are no answer to Canadian health care challenges - Dr. Gordon Guyatt

In the news
A victory for respect - and pensions - A Straight Goods interview with Leah Casselman
  OPSEU bargained from strength, won big gains from a government with little wiggle room.

Sodexho beats hasty retreat on BC union blacklist plan - NUPGE
  Chief apologist Jon Kristjanson springs into the breach once again.

The Straight Goods Cyber Survey and Speaker's Corner with Larry Solway Confronting anti-semitism   Why should Jews be compelled to conform to a higher moral standard when fighting for survival? Visit the Straight Goods Cyber Survey and Speakers' Corner on Terrorism, Resistance, and Self-defence and tell us you think. Qualify for a prize in the weekly Straight Goods draw.

Harper ducks Calgary by-election campaign against NDP's Bill Phipps - Penney Kome
  Grits sit out campaign but former United Church Moderator campaigns to send a message of national and international solidarity.

Note to readers: Last week Straight Goods was shut off for no sensible reason by our original host company. We are moving this week to a new, Unix-based host - connectunion.com, a unionized Canadian company that strongly supports what SG is about. We mention Unix because it works slightly differently than our previous server so, if you come across a page that doesn't work (properly or at all), please contact the Webmaster (link at the bottom of every page). Some features such as rotating banner ads and on-line membership sales are not yet available. We hope to be fully functional by next week.

Private members bill aims to provide transparency in public institutions like hospitals and municipalities - Mick Lowe
 
 

Community, Rights and Change
Legal Aid Ontario exploits paralegals - Reuel S. Amdur
  The hourly rate paid to paralegals hasn't changed since 1987, yet their services can be crucial to arguing a case through Legal Aid.
 

Ethics and government
The professionalization politics bleeds over from US to Canada - Aaron Freeman
  'Soft money' abounds on both sides of the border.
 

Media files

Halifax Daily News editor jumps ship over CanWest editorial policy - Bruce Wark
 

London-based Index on Censorhip reports CanWest controversy

Middle East
Sharon's best weapon - Naomi Klein, In These Times
  The left must confront anti-Semitism head-on.

Anti-semitism - the shame of Europe
  Italian columnist Oriana Fallaci sees the "rise of a new fascism much more grim and revolting because it is conducted and nourished by those who hypocritically pose as do-gooders."

Apartheid in the Holy Land - Desmond Tutu, The Guardian
  South Africa's experience proves peace based on justice is possible.

Hot headlines
Suu Kyi freed from house arrest in Burma
  Reports from The Guardian and an NPR radio interview with three Burmese dissendents and host Dick Gorddon, formerly of CBC.

Kissinger begins to stoop under the weight of legal scrutiny - Steve Boggan, The Independent
  Court rejects application to arrest Nixon's right-hand man over covert CIA activities in the 1970's

From the publisher
Power to the people - light on - Ish Theilheimer
  Hydro privatization debacle and OPSEU strike victory could mark turning points in public-private war if activists can capture public imagination.