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Budge over, Drudge, make room for Straight Goods
If only Canadians would get mad
 By: Ish Theilheimer
Last week's Straight Goods story by Charlie Angus about toxic U.S. military waste headed to northern Ontario via the port of Vancouver became a top news story across Canada. Although news viewers and readers didn't hear or see our site mentioned very often, our reporter's hard work put the Straight Goods on the table for Canadians.
While other outlets, especially the Edmonton Journal and CBC, carried elements of the story, Charlie Angus has most doggedly exposed the inter-governmental political football game and the $1.25 million HRDC grant that set up the US-owned toxic processor in Kirkland Lake and started the whole controversy in the first place.
Three weeks ago, Straight Goods shook up federal politics with its exclusive interview with former health minister Diane Marleau. Reverberations are still being felt in the House of Commons, with NDP leader Alexa McDonough pushing Prime Minister Jean Chretien to come clean on his secret deal on private health care between the feds and Alberta. But the charges lack deniability (as the Americans say) due to the groundbreaking research of Colleen Fuller.
Albertans, by the way, agree with Straight Goods that private health care is not an answer to medicare woes. Even the scab-produced Calgary Herald reported Saturday that 52% of Albertans oppose Bill 11, the legislation that enables public funding for private surgical centres and opens the door for widespread privatization of health care. Imagine if someone else had asked the question.
We're glad Straight Goods is having such a positive effect on national affairs. If you've got the goods, please let us know.
Snailmail spam:
$20 million in federal bucks for frankenfood promo
Speaking of goods, some wild stuff has shown up in the snailbox this week. For instance, you have to love "Food Safety and You." You probably received it too. It's the 4-colour, textured paper 24-page piece of propaganda that probably cost about a dollar each to print. (Add postage, production, focus groups and needed retreats to warm climes, multiply by 20 million or so Canadian households and you probably have a tax expenditure of $20-30 million.)
And why the big expense? What do Canadians urgently need to know that made this $20 million worthwhile, as opposed to, say, health care? Was it:
the two-hour rule: Don't let perishable foods linger at room temperature for more than two hours when entertaining.
ALWAYS CLEAN your hands, utensils and cooking surfaces.
Or was the real meat and potatoes on page 8: "How are new food products approved?" It would warm the cockles of your heart to read what they say about frankenfood. For instance:
"WHAT ARE 'FOODS DERIVED FROM BIOTECHNOLOGY?'
SIMPLY PUT, biotechnology is the use of living organisms, or their parts, to produce new products. If you've ever eaten bread or cheese, or used antibiotics, then you've ingested something that was produced with biotechnology.... yada yada yada..."
So this thing cost about $20 million to produce and there are 20 million or so Canadian households. Here's a tip for Agriculture Canada and Health Canada:
SAVE A TREE AND JUST SEND US THE LOONIE.
Chretien vs Harris - the new Certs Twins
Finally, there's Ontario taxpayer-financed campaign against the federal cuts to health care and the taxpayer-financed federal government campaign against Ontario's taxpayer-financed campaign.
We taxpayers have a lot to be proud of. We're producing a pile of TV ads, leaflets, and spin. I hear the Ontario campaign alone is worth $2.8 million. We got a spiffy blue leaflet in the snailbox this week called "Health Care Spending: An Update" as part of the campaign. It was paid for by Ontario taxpayers.
When I was a lad, we had the Certs twins arguing over whether Certs was a candy mint or a breath mint. We now know Certs is actually two mints in one.
Mike and Jean are arguing over who is killing medicare. Canadians know the truth: they're two medicare-killers in one.
If only Canadians would get mad.
- Ish Theilheimer
- April 3, 2000
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