Editorials
Gradstudents Respond to NB Flat Tax Scheme
In June 2008, New Brunswick's Department of Finance released a paper entitled ``A Discussion Paper on New Brunswick's Tax System". The report recommends implementation of a flat-tax system, a dramatic decrease in corporate tax rates, and increases in consumption taxes. Unfortunately, the discussion paper paints an overly flattering picture of its proposed changes and ignores the negative consequences of a flat-tax system.
The Middle Ground Is Not Rational When It Comes To Climate Change
The article tries to suggest that there is a new position coming from the scientific community. It continues by stating that this position is the 'middle' position, presumably between those that deny that the entire science community is correct in their analysis that the earth is warming because of human behavior and those radicals that make the absurd claim that we should do something about it.
Come Clean On Blood Coal
On March 22nd, 2008, Adolfo Gonzalez Montes, was murdered. He was a worker at the Cerrejon Coal Mine in Colombia, and also a union leader with the National Union of Coal Mine Workers. He left behind a wife and four children.
American Gangster in Montreal: The True Story of Hal C. Banks
Canada’s Sweetheart: the Saga of Hal C. Banks (1985) is a docudrama about the Seafarers’ International Union and its corrupt, Al Capone-like American leader, Harold Banks. It was co-written, produced and directed by legendary Canadian film maker, Donald Brittain. This film was based on the true story of American trade unionist, Harold C. Banks, turned Canadian labour leader in the 1950s and 1960s. The story is rife with political intrigue, corruption, scandal, and organized crime. Essentially, a convicted felon with a shady past is allowed into Canada to destroy the Canadian Seaman's Union.It started with chains, bats, and pitched battles between communists and thugs (one such battle occurred in S.J. New Brunswick), but ends with fat-cat corruption and the complicity of the Federal Government. The true story and the film has all the trappings of a film-noir, or gangster inspired film, but these cinematic themes, and all the codes that they command, misses the broader, more important commentary that this chapter in Canadian history necessitates. This film is actually considered part of a minority genre known as working-class or labour films, but you'd never know it. Donald Brittain’s commentary overlooks key concepts in labour history that could have accentuated his film’s message.
Which Side is the Premier On?
As leader of the official opposition in 2005, Shawn Graham made a commitment to establish a public auto insurance system in New Brunswick. It seems that this priority has fallen off the Liberal agenda once in power. This pledge to provide public auto insurance wasn't just an empty promise of its leader, it was and still is the will of the Party as it was passed as a resolution at the New Brunswick Liberal Party Biennial Convention in 2005.
Capital Rules!
The economy has radically changed since the era when Adam Smith championed the "upstart" businessmen who dared to challenge the merchant monopolies that dominated the economy of his day. For Smith, the government created monopoly distorted the market, and granted unfair privilege and power to one sector of the population. In his view, this privilege could not be justified. It is highly unlikely Smith could have foreseen the day when private power would become so great that it would be possible for mega-corporations to sue governments for damages, and win! For reasons Similar to Smith's, I view NAFTA as a means by which Canada institutionalizes its subordination to American corporations.
Liberals engage in political double-speak to sell private health care to New Brunswickers.
Once again we see that the current NB Liberal Government does not understand the word 'democracy', nor does it understand that it is expected to govern in the interests of the people, not private business.
Francis of Atlantica
The realities facing the future of New Brunswick and the larger Atlantic Provinces are stark: young people leave for opportunity elsewhere, mills are closing, resource depletion and an environment that is getting more and more loaded with pollutants. All of these trends call for action. The region and it’s people have to reverse this course if we are to offer a decent life for future generations.
China: The Impact of Reform & Development
In 1998, the Yangtze River flooded killing more than 3000, demolishing five million homes and inundating 52 million acres of land. The economic losses have been estimated to be greater than $20 billion. There are two reasons for this catastrophe. The first and most obvious – two decades of unconstrained logging combined with destruction of wetlands. Without the basic ecological infrastructure required to manage the annual hydrological cycle, three thousand lives and more than $20 billion was lost overnight. The other reason, elusive in contemporary economic and political discourse, is the awareness of ecological systems as organs within a composite biosphere - a biosphere that possesses both the potential to preserve and expand wealth, as well as the capacity to annihilate it in seconds. Not only is this rather self evident truth marginalized generally, within China, total disregard for such considerations had been institutionalized as we will discover in the final pages of this essay.
Labour Le Travail: A Significant Collection in Canada's Working Class History
Labour / Le Travail is a bilingual and biannual journal covering a broad range of approaches to studying the working class in Canada. Based out of Newfoundland's Memorial University, L / LT has received international acclaim as a pioneer in Canadian working class history. This journal was born out of the political and socially tumultuous years of the '60s and '70s. Labour / Le Travail emerges from the New Left movement, and it might, as Verity Burgmann alludes, be a product of increased access by working class youth to universities across the country during the ‘50s and '60s.[1] The journal received its intellectual inspiration by a circle of historians inside the Communist Party of Great Britain, such as Eric Hobsbawn and E. P. Thompson.[2]
Rally for Choice Speech: Fredericton Sexual Assault Crisis Center
NB: Speech delivered by Krystal Payne, August 2006, at a Pro Choice demonstration in Fredericton, NB. The demonstration was planned and organized by the Access to Options Committee of the Fredericton Social Network.
Harper's Hollow Promise Doesn't Stop Attacks on Abortion Rights
Most Canadians believe abortion is a settled issue. But the emboldened demands of anti-abortionists show otherwise, as does the January election that sent 100 anti-abortion MP's to Parliament, 78 of them Conservative. The pro-choice movement is closely monitoring the actions and policies of this government, and we will act to prevent any incursions on women's reproductive rights in Canada.
A Tale of Two Protests, Discrimination, and a Somewhat Public Space
When does a protest become illegal? Do rights to freedom of expression depend on who you are? These are only two questions amongst many that come to mind in response to the differential treatment by City of Fredericton staff and members of the Fredericton Police force to two different groups in the summer of 2006.
Canada is Deeply Scarring the Haitian Poor –the People Must Remove this Dagger
Most notably, Canada’s gash has been made through participation in the February 29, 2004 coup of democratically-elected Haitian President Jean Bertrand Aristide and through the bloody aftermath that has followed the coup. The process ultimately breaks down into a class war pitting the elites in Haiti, Canada, France and the United States against the extreme poor people of Haiti—and indirectly against the poor people of Canada. But none of the significance in cruelty of Canada’s involvement in Haiti, and what it means in a bigger picture of historical oppression, can be understood without first dipping into the past.
Neoliberalism in Latin America
Neoliberalism as an economic ideology is spreading throughout the world via international financial institutions and transnational corporate hegemony. The effects of this colonial phenomenon is especially acute in Latin America where many nations faced debt crises directly related to the international economic system. In order for many nations in Latin America to deal with this economic crisis, they were forced to cede democratic control of their economies to these international actors. Although democratic procedures exist in most countries in Latin America which are implementing the reforms, real democracy is maimed by international economic interference in policy-making. Procedural democracy legitimizes the damaging effects which ensue from the neoliberal reform process. This is evident when we examine the nature of international lending institutions, the power of international capital, the degradation of worker and peasant lives, and the lack of popular opposition.
Budget's attacks on social and cultural research are short-sighted
Opinion Editorial Regarding 2009 Federal Budget
Process used by Self-Sufficiency Task Force Undemocratic -- Press Release
