Posted: July 16, 2002

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The Straight Goods Cyber Survey and Speakers Corner America for itself   Larry Solway loves Americans, but is stunned by Bush's naïve proposal for peace in the Middle East.   Share your theories in the Straight Goods Cyber Survey and Speakers' Corner.

Straight Goods to host Acoustic JamFest on Golden Lake Weekend workshop to bring players and singers together with folk circuit leaders in lakeside paradise. Click here to sign up

Death rates higher in for-profit hospitals - Dr. Gordon Guyatt
  38 million-patients study reveals significant increased mortality in for-profit versus not-for-profit hospitals.
 

Straight Goods2002 readers' survey - a conversation with 300 readers   Five lucky readers win T-shirts. Thanks to everyone who took part!

Stories and events from the past year at Straight Goods

Health Care
Patients without doctors
  Sure, every Canadian should have 24-hour access to a trusted medical practitioner. But what if you can't get one? Dr. Rosana Pellizzari says the real problem is political.
 

Freebies influence medical students - Kaisa Walker and Sondi Bruner, (University of Toronto) Varsity
  Gifts, meals and even money given to medical students by drug companies dramatically influence how graduates think of the pharmaceutical industry.

Consumers
Shock auto repair bandits into refunding your money
  Para-legal Bob Salvador explains how to use the law to get back at dishonest garage mechanics.

Bottled water: fact and hype - Susan Hirshorn
  'Pure' may not mean what you think. It's usually safe, but not necessarily safer than tap or well water.

Whistle-blowers at Health Canada protect food safety
  Despite gag orders and reprimands, scientists fight to stop approval of hormones and antibiotics.
 

Environment

Summertime protection from UV radiation - Suzanne Elston
  Headlines about ozone depletion are gone but danger remains.
 

"Heritage" fishing and stocked salmon in Ontario waters
  Will sport fishers now take it as their right to tinker with the environment by stocking non-native fish in lakes and rivers? - Chief Ralph Akiwenzie

Big oil moves in on Cape Breton shorelines - Holly Dressel
  Oil exploration appears set to go ahead on the sensitive shoreline of Cape Breton. All regulatory agencies oppose it. It would be completely illegal on the east coast of the U.S. and the entire West coast of North America. Why is Nova Scotia giving it nothing but green lights?

Will Bruce County become Canada's Yucca Mountain?
  The proposed site for tens of thousands of tonnes of radioactive waste is raising controversy on both sides of the border.
 

Media Files
Venezuela - coup and counter-coup
Conservative media pushed Venezuela coup but outraged public defeated it - Gregory Wilpert
  Coup leaders' deluded selves, underestimating Chavez' popularity, but re-instated president has many personal flaws to overcome.

Few items have elicited more interest or controversy at Straight Goods than Barrie Zwicker's What Happened? series. Here are links to past articles.   What really happened on Sept. 11th?: Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; and Part 5

CanWest censorship, bias includes the Middle East - Bruce Wark
  Asper papers sport Middle East bias and full-page ads celebrating the Charter of Rights, while Bush is nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Is political satire obsolete?

Workplaces
Unions take Ontario to court to block hydro reform - Canadian Press
  CEP and CUPE file joint injunction to block the planned privatization of Hydro One.

No respect for unpaid caregivers
  The story of the little woman shafted by the little guy from Shawnigan and company.