The Canadian Press: http://www.capebretonpost.com/index.cfm?sid=306802&sc=621

Last year, the federal government conducted a very quick and quiet review of our post office called the Canada Post Corporation Strategic Review (CPCSR). The government did not hold public hearings during the CPCSR and is not consulting with the public on CPCSR report recommendations.

The CPCSR report, which was released in April 2009, recommended against postal deregulation, but with the exception that international letters be removed from Canada Post's exclusive privilege to handle letters. The government accepted this recommendation in June 2009 when it introduced Bill C-44.

The report also recommended that Canada Post's universal service obligation be defined in a clear 'contract' or 'service charter' between the Government of Canada and Canada Post to clarify expectations and responsibilities relating to service. In September 2009, the government announced a very short and somewhat vague Canadian Postal Service Charter.

Institute of Public Administration of Canada: upholding or subverting the public interest?
Friday, 11 September 2009
By Marylynn Côté and Julie Michaud

The Institute of Public Administration of Canada recently held its national conference at the Delta Hotel in Fredericton. Some question whether the organization really seeks to uphold the public interest.Fredericton – From August 23rd to August 26th, the Institute of Public Administration of Canada (IPAC) held its national conference at the Delta Hotel in Fredericton. The association of public servants, academics, and others interested in public administration advocates that “public employees should seek to serve the public interest by upholding both the letter and the spirit of the laws established by the legislature or council and of the regulations and directions made pursuant to these laws.”

OTTAWA, Aug. 14 /CNW Telbec/ - Opponents of the Security and Prosperity Partnership (SPP)are celebrating a preliminary victory in reaction to the announcement on the official U.S. government SPP website that the pact "is no longer an active initiative" says the Council of Canadians. Two years after the controversial SPP summit in Montebello - where police agents provocateurs were exposed trying to subvert the peaceful protest there - opponents of the
SPP have succeeded in making the initiative politically poisonous for governments to support.

While the 'deactivation' of the SPP is a significant victory, the Council of Canadians cautions that opponents of deep integration must remain vigilant, given that many of the SPP's key priorities - energy integration, regulatory convergence, security policy harmonization - cropped up in the final leaders' declaration from the Guadalajara summit this week.

Angelina Martz
Saint John

The fifth North American Leaders Summit will take place in Guadalajara, Mexico, from August 8 to 11. Canadians have not been informed by our government officials about this meeting. As yet we have not been given any indication of what our government's priorities will be and if it is committed to not restarting the failed Safety and Prosperity Partnership (SPP) dialogue.

In February 2008, U.S. President Barack Obama promised to convene annual meetings with the leaders of Mexico and Canada that "will seek the active and open involvement of citizens, labour, the private sector and non-governmental organizations in setting the agenda and making progress." This is what the people of Canada, Mexico and U.S.A. would like to see included in these meetings.

From the Council of Canadians
http://www.canadians.org/integratethis/

The next North American leaders summit – where Canada, the United States and Mexico have met to discuss progress on the Security and Prosperity Partnership – is less than four weeks away and Canadians have been told nothing about it.

The U.S. State Department has posted that the meeting will take place August 8 to 11, but Canadian embassy officials in Mexico would not confirm this date when asked. The Guadalajara Reporter says the leaders will meet in the central Mexican city of Guadalajara, but the White House will not confirm that either.

By Murray Dobbin
June 19, 2009
rabble.ca

It is ironic that homo sapiens, we big-brained and clever species, can trace almost every tragedy and failing to one generic cause: a failure of imagination.

We seem to be an idiot savant species -- stunningly clever at so many things, capable of greatness, creativity and sacrifice for others, melding genius and love when we are at our best, and greed and hate at our worst.

But whether it is the individual who fails to imagine the consequences of punching someone in a bar or a whole society which fails (like California) to imagine the consequences of starving itself of the revenue needed to function, observers from another world could easily conclude that we are terminally stupid. Or, as John Ralston Saul put, unconscious as a civilization.

Kevin Miller, Bangor Daily News / Also published in the Telegraph-Journal: http://telegraphjournal.canadaeast.com/search/article/699314
Published Monday June 15th, 2009

AUGUSTA - Lawmakers gave final approval Friday to a bill scrapping a 2004 law that prompted Irving Woodlands LLC to halt operations on its land throughout northern Maine.

The Senate voted 27-5 to repeal the law that allowed independent contractors working for Irving to enter into collective bargaining.

But before the vote, Sen. Troy Jackson, an Allagash Democrat who led the fight to pass the collective bargaining bill, gave an emotional floor speech that underscored the ongoing tensions over the issue.

A New Brunswick court has struck down part of the province’s labour law that strips casual workers of basic rights.
June 17, 2009
http://cupe.ca/law/cupe-nb-casual-rights

A New Brunswick court has struck down part of the province's labour law that strips casual workers of basic rights.

In a decision released today, Justice Paulette Garnett of the New Brunswick Court of Queen's Bench ruled that the New Brunswick Public Service Labour Relations Act is contrary to section 2(d) of the Charter of Rights which protects the right to freedom of association.

“We are very pleased with this victory. We have casual workers in this province who have been working as ‘casual’ in the public sector for years. Those workers have no rights, earn less and have no benefits,” said CUPE New Brunswick president Daniel Légère.

Go to: www.nuclearfreenb.org for more information about uranium and nuclear power in New Brunswick from the Campaign for a Nuclear Free New Brunswick.