The Straight Goods Report

Gas pains, tar ponds and scam spam

Editorial by: Straight Goods Publisher, Ish Theilheimer

  We fell for it. Some days you have to wonder how we all got along before e-mail. Like last week when we posted what we thought was an amusing set of stats about a "sick workplace" in Straight Goods' humour section. The stats purported to prove that Canada's House of Commons is full of thieves, abusers and pervs. We posted it because several of us had received copies of this from different people, because it seemed plausible given goings-on in Parliament and, thus, amusing.
  So imagine our mortification when alert readers reacted with indignation and pointed out to us that this joke was actually a clone of an American scam spam.
  "I first heard this as stats on the U.S. House of Representatives," wrote reader Katie FitzRandolph. "I suspect it is an urban myth... Publishing something like this undermines credibility." We agree and apologize. We're learning. Ouch.
  Gas prices. To prove that we're learning, we did not put too much credence in the several e-mails we saw multiple e-mails warning of surging gas prices and urging boycotts of oil companies. With chastening experiences like the sick workplace scam in mind, we asked Pat Daley to get the straight goods. When she looked into the future of gas prices and this particular e-mail, she found some interesting things. 1) Gas prices will not go down, which we suspected. 2) People don't want to give up driving their cars or their car use habits, which we suspected. 3) The idea that gas prices will double or triple this summer is a "ludicrous" notion. American broadcast consumer advocate Clark Howard supposedly started the e-mail, but Howard, it turns out, emphatically denies it.
  "A spam email... claims Clark is calling for a national boycott of two major oil companies for the purpose of driving the price of gas down," his website says. "Clark did not write the email message, nor does he favor boycotts."
  How many news stories did that scam generate? Quite a few, I suspect. You've got to check your sources.
  Cafeterias and private prisons. That's what I like about Ariel Troster's article about cafeteria giant Sodexho Marriot. Ariel, a young Montreal journalist, has done a thorough and careful job of looking at the company's holdings in private prisons, and what consumers - cafeteria customers, mostly students - are doing to pressure the company to drop its prison holdings. The development of this fine piece of journalism was helped by careful editing and fact-checking from Straight Goods' newest intern Beate Schwirtlich in Guelph, Ontario. We're glad Straight Goods provides a place for developing Canadian writers and editors.
  Greener workplace grass? What are the facts when it comes to comparing Canadian and US workplaces? Straight Goods' labour reporter Paul Weinberg attempted to find out. With a bigger proportion of Canada's workforce unionized and stronger worker protection laws, workplaces on this side of the border may be fairer and safer. But Paul found that Canadian workers on the whole have made little progress in wages and that few new quality jobs have been created in the decade since free trade came in. Do you have a view on how workplaces stack up across the border? Please send a note and state your view.
  Syndey Tar Ponds hunger strike. One story straight from the source is Elizabeth May's personal hunger strike on Parliament Hill, pleading with the federal government to save the Sydney Tar Ponds families in Cape Breton. A few years ago, Elizabeth - herself a Cape Bretoner - and Maude Barlow got to know "Canada's Love Canal" victims doing research for their book Frederick Street - Living and Dying on Canada's Love Canal. We interviewed Elizabeth by cell from the Hill. Read the story and visit the Sierra Club site for more on how you can help her. You've got to read about it at Straight Goods because the mainstream media has a policy not to report on hunger strikes. The Globe told May that directly.
  E-Social Democracy. On the subject of electronic activism, Straight Goods is getting ready for an exciting new venture in e-democracy. It's the on-line version of The Future of Social Democracy conference being held in Montreal May 25-26. Hosted by former NDP leader Ed Broadbent and Canadian historian Desmond Morton, the conference brings together a variety of thinkers and activists to look at the future. To broaden the discussion, Straight Goods was asked to develop an on-line conference. Our webmaster Michael Cowley-Owen has been working hard to invent a system of bilingual forums and surveys that allow Canadians to express their views. Stay tuned for notice of the launch and how to get involved.

Ish Theilheimer lives on a farm near Killaloe in Eastern Ontario and is Publisher of Straight Goods.

The Straight Goods Report is a new weekly column being distributed to newspapers, web 'zines and portals, and radio stations all over Canada. You need not ask permission to reproduce it in your print or web publication, but please include our URL and let us know where you are posting it.

- Ish Theilheimer
- Killaloe, Ontario
- May 14, 2001
- ish@straightgoods.com

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