maplesyrup

CORPORATE CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY AND THE WESTRAY MINE DISASTER Does anyone remember the Westray Mine Disaster in Nova Scotia? This is what can happen when business is given carte blanche by corrupt governments that are just shills for the business world. Unfortunately there have too many incidents like this. Of course the capitalist bosses don't give a damm about the working conditions underground because they never have to go down into the mine themselves. Have you ever been in a mine? I was once and I was never so happy to get back up to the surface.

I would like to see how long a radio station or any media outlet in Canada using public airwaves, that advocated gassing corporate executives, would last. This is just a group of right wing zealots that have no place on Canada's airways. Perhaps CHOI needs to be charged under Canada's hate crime legislation. Free speech my f------ ass!

-from another discussion board but whose premise I basically agree with.

Organizations have a limited amount of resources. They deploy these resources to deliver a service or produce a product. Every time resources are diverted from the organizations primary function of delivering the service or producing a product they loose efficiency. Loss of efficiency decreases productivity. Unions divert attention from production and use organizational resources thus they decrease productivity. Costco is not kicking Wall marts butt. Wall mart is the largest company in the world and has been for years now. They only have one direction to go. You mention happy union workers. Do you think wages are the only thing that make workers happy because I have met many unhappy well paid workers? Let's take away executives overblown salaries and perks and see how happy they are. What a bunch of dribble!

Bush's Big Blunder: Chalabi Things just seem to be going from bad to worse for President Bush these days. How in the world will he extricate himself this time from what appears to be another huge mistake in judgement?

Milestone of 1,000th U.S. Death in Iraq Looms for Bush I remember what seems like a long time ago someone stating that it is the US body bag count which will determine the outcome of the next election. This cannot be a good omen for the GOP.

Romanow: Get health acts together Thank goodness for Romanow. Canadians are really getting angry with lying politicians, especially those that are lying about their hidden agendas on health care. Our politicians should have the balls to admit they want to privatize health care but they won't, because they would turfed out of office so quick it would make your head spin. Canadians do not want a parallel private health care system that would drain the public system of all the best resources, and are quite willing to pay for a sound public system. What Canadians won't stand for is an unfair system, where the rich go to the front of the line.

So if one is poor one deserves to die. Oh yea right, the BC Liberals are left wing. Why bother debating with comments like that?

Nonsense. Granted labour unions have dropped the ball a bit by not unionizing low income workers, and they need to really look at that issue, however as has already been stated here, every single employee benefits from organized labour's efforts. The only reason employees have any of these benefits is that workers got together in the form of unions. When unionized employees are receiving $20-$25 an hour for their efforts it is difficult for employers of non-unionized workers to pay minimum wages, eh. But they would in a flash if they could

What in the world does this mean? Care to back up this statement with any substantive facts?

The CRTC received over 90 complaints concerning CHOI's denegrating blacks and women, who still have a lot of trouble being treated as equals, by certain segments of our society . One of the things I value about Canadians is that most of us realize putdowns of others, who are different than ourselves, is not an appropriate form of behaviour anymore, eh? I am proud that the CRTC had the courage to take on CHOI, as the CRTC by its actions is helping to educate Canadian society about what is acceptable in our communities. Is this the CBC - Don Cherry equivalent problem for private broadcasters? Maybe CHOI needs to put their commentators on a 7-second delay as well.

I don't know if it is the first, but the City of Vancouver has stood up to this scum called Wal-Mart and has blocked them from building in Kitsilano, probably the most desirable residential area in Canada. Too bad more muncipalities don't have the guts to say NO to these business creeps that would destroy communities. Wal-Mart sex bias case has corporate attorneys jittery

I don't see any difference between Fox News in the US and Pravada in the old Soviet Union. You are correct to begin to use the term totalitarian in conjunction with the US at least, and perhaps Canada as well. The increased reduction in citizens participating in the voting process is a good example to back up your comments. The US is now rapidly bordering on a fascist society.

I wonder how many Canadians are actually familiar with the 5 principles of the Canada Health Care Act: 1 - Public Aministration Is this where the loophole is that somehow is allowing the for profit lobbyists to sneak in through a back door? Maybe this section needs to be tightened up, eh? 2 - Comprehensiveness 3 - Universality 4 - Portability 5 - Accessibility Canada Health Act

Did anyone ever visit the "The ArK' in PEI? I wonder if it is still in existence. Deja vu anyone? The Seventies: The Ark on Prince Edward Island

Dyke attacks 'unquestioning' US media I remember reading this article, or something similiar to it during the US led War on Iraq and getting this profound sense of sadness for our journalist community in North America. Our media is truly sick and it is time we begin to repair it. One very significant initiative would be to break up all these large media conglomerates so that no one group exercises too much power.

Yes actually Bush's policies have lead to more Global Warming, more Terrorism, etc. It always gives me a chuckle to see people who believe what the propangandist US media spews out hook, line and sinker. Isn't it about time you started getting your information from a variety of sources, as every credible US media outlet has now apologised for being a Bush Administration lapdog: The Post on WMDs: An Inside Story The US media is probably the unhealthiest media in the free world, as I remember watching their media coverage leading up to the War on Iraq and wondering to myself where are the dissenting opinions? It was as if the US media had turned themselves over to the Pentagon for decisions on what how and where to print the War news. To blindly accept what the American media pump out is just plain stupid as the continuing facts about Iraq point out. Americans are being slaughtered there, as well Iraqis, all in the name of oil company profits. Thank goodness at least for Canadians Chretien had the wisdom to see through the White House bullshit.

Before people start shooting off their mouths about what a grreat job the Conservatives did in Ontario here is part of the Harris legacy: Row with Spain threatens trade

Social policy for the rich Yup, this is what one gets when one elects a Conservative premier. Unbelievable! When are Canadians going to wake up and stop voting in these politicians who don't represent their interests. I suppose Charest thinks that because he is a federalist premier he can get away with whatever policies he wishes. It is almost tempting to go back to Quebec for the next provincial election so I can vote against this sick government.

U.S. Must Redo Canadian Lumber Import Levy, WTO Says (Update1) Canada has been screwed since Day One with these trade agreements with the US. We need to pull out of them now. The US are just a bunch of bullies whether is it is a trade agreement with Canada, or invading Iraq, a defenceless nation. (9)

Willly...........chill man. You come across as attempting to be an authority on everything. One has to have had their head buried in the sand to not be aware of all the problems that have arisen from these Fish Farms in BC. Threats - Open Netcage Fish Farming Fish Farming Fish Farming I could go on and on but I think you get the point.

BTW, I forgot to mention that my favourite event at the Stampede is the piglet races. Do they still have those piglets racing for that Oreo cookie as the prize? (78)

Kimmy----it all depends on attitude. I was an Anglo growing up in Quebec and I could have let the French Nationalism of the Quiet Revolution get to me, or I could have celebrated Quebec's progress, with other Quebeckers. I chose the latter. Quite frankly I am tired of both Quebec separation, and Western alienation. They all sound like a bunch of crybabies to me. Time to get over it. If some people from Ontario don't appreciate the West be thankful. Can you imagine what traffic would be like if they all liked the West so much they decided to move out here?

Unions came into being for one very good reason - management was abusing the workers. Period. I have not seen anything coming from management that shows that anything has changed. Actually it is time in Canada for our governments to bring in (READ: FORCE OUR STONE AGE MENTALITY EMPLOYERS TO DO IT) some progressive benefits for the Canadian workers such as: 1 - Holidays should be administered by the government the 4% or 8% should be contributed weekly by the companies to the government and employees should get their holidays based strictly on their age. No one should be getting less that one months vacation, but the older you are the longer your vacation period should be. But it should have nothing to do with how long you have worked for a particular company, or what your position in the company is. It is time to relieve management of all these perks they give themselves. 2 - Penson plans, and other parts of the benefit packages, also should be completely administered by the government, and should be completely portable, so that employees are not impeded from changing jobs for fear of losing their pension, or any other part of their benefit package. 3 - Canada needs to support worker owned co-operatives. There have been some very successful ones such Montdragon in Spain where they have over 100 separate worker owned businesses. They have been going for I think maybe 50 years and have never had a bankruptcy. Canada's business community is quite frankly boring, stifling, and completely lacking in imagination. We have had a major rip off of our financial resources by corrupt management exemplified by companies like Enron, etc. These people are greedy pigs and need to be severely controlled. It is time for Canadians to take back their country from the multinationals. And the sooner the better. (161)

The business community shares a large part of the blame for those Ontario deficits. And to suggest that welfare reciprients are paid more than minimum wage workers is just not true. But to sort out a lot of these chronic problems we need a guaranteed annual income plan. Workers obviously need to be paid a lot more than that of course.