Posted: April 20, 2004
Updated: April 21, 2004

Drug makers deceive doctors - Gordon Guyatt
  Pay "authors" of major studies for use of their name, credibility; ask minimal participation in research or writing.
 

Workplaces

US set to grant companies $80 billion pension holiday - Mike Martin
  Canadian workers face a third wave of attacks on their rights.
 

"Stealth" executive payouts under fire from shareholder activists - Patrick Brethour, the Globe and Mail
  Union members target padded pensions in effort to protect their own pensions.

Floodway follies - Doug Smith, CCPA
  Manitoba construction contractors fight forced unionization on public works project.
 

Communities, rights and change

Charest blinks - Reuel S. Amdur
  Faced with plummeting popularity - two-thirds of Quebeckers tell pollsters they don't like what he's doing - Quebec premier makes a sharp left turn.

Your health and health care
Compassionate care benefits not compassionate enough - Pat Armstrong and Kathleen O'Grady, Network
  Whopping majority of unpaid caregivers ineligible to participate.

Reproductive choice not a reality in rural and remote regions - Nancy Johnson (pseudonym), Network
  Lack of privacy and information hinder access.

Commentary
Our world needs loyalty - Daniel Ellsberg
  The world's most famous whistleblower, Mordechai Vanunu, is about to be released from prison.

Women in the election - Rosemary Speirs, Equal Voice
  Percentages of women candidates do Canada no honour.

Living on the line takes its toll for Svend Robinson - Ish Theilheimer
  Courageous MP likely to come back.
 

Canada has little to gain, much to lose from a customs union with the US - Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives
  Would be more likely to lower Canadians' living standards than improve them, report concludes.

Linda McQuaig is taking time off from column-writing to finish a new book, due out in September. Her column returns May 10.
 

Watershed ways

A better energy future for Ontario - Lynn Jones
  The world is in the process of an energy revolution shifting from a carbon-based system to one based on renewables and hydrogen.

If you can't beat 'em eat 'em - Melanie Ogilvie
  Take a walk on the wild side with Dandelion, the ultimate bad boy of edible plants.

The world owes 100 million children an education - Rieky Stuart, Oxfam Canada, and Terry Price, Canadian Teachers' Federation
  Global coalition takes message to World Bank and IMF.

Hot headlines
New reports on US planting WMDs in Iraq - Mehr News via commondreams.org
  "Immediate discovery" of hidden weapons might prevent further decline in Bush's popularity as election approaches.

Setting the record straight - Michael Moore, Alternet.org
  The one way Iraq is NOT like Vietnam is that it hasn't taken the public four long years to figure out they were lied to.

The Sharon-Bush axis of occupation - The Nation
  Each leader does his best to confer legitimacy on the other's failed policies.

Brazen challenge in South African election - Gwynne Dyer, Tehran Times
  Despite monumental problems, overall calm and patience prevail with ANC.
 

Take action!
What are you doing about Afghanistan? - Sonali Kolhatkar
  An open letter to anti-war activists.

Global Campaign for Education gears up - Canadian Teachers' Federation
  Lobbying and classroom activities focus on "Children Missing an Education".

Feedback from our readers
New Ontario water regulations shutting down rural social facilities - tOM Trottier
  Why not allow safe, inexpensive solutions instead?

And vive la difference - Philip Conlon
  Quebec is what makes Canada different from US.