The national president of CUPE walks out of a House Committee meeting on public transit after Tory MPs bait him.
ethics
What Eisenhower could teach the Tea Party
Fifty years ago this month, on January 17, 1961, outgoing U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower made one of the truly memorable presidential speeches of all time. Through his justly celebrated farewell address, Eisenhower wanted to alert his fellow Americans to two great dangers threatening public life in the Republic. For the first time in its history, the U.S. was home to a permanent arms industry. Allied with the military, this newly created military-industrial complex constituted a menace of "unwarranted influence" over U.S. decisions on momentous issues of war and peace, and for the structure of American society itself.
The Conflict of Interest Act is toothless and leads to conflict of ethics at the PMO
Nigel Wright's position in the PMO, as Stephen Harper's new chief of staff, is only possible because of huge loophole in ethics rules.
How is it that a senior executive, formerly one of the managing directors of private equity fund Onex, who stills own shares in this huge conglomerate corporation, could serve as chief-of-staff in the Prime Minister's Office and take part in policy decisions on many issues that affect the corporation?
Ignatieff and the death of Liberal class
On Oct. 27, the House of Commons narrowly defeated a private members bill, C-300, aimed at ensuring mining companies are accountable and responsible for human rights and environmental standards abroad.
Despite being a Liberal lead private member's bill by MP John McKay, Ignatieff's Whip, Marcel Proulx in caucus during the week of the vote, was quietly encouraging Liberal MPs to stay away from the third reading vote on Wednesday evening to ensure its defeat.
In apparent contradiction, a backgrounder was sent from Ignatieff's office to the caucus members just before the vote that appeared to support the bill.
This is how it read:
Lessons from the Guatemala syphilis experiments
News broke last week that the U.S. government purposefully exposed hundreds of men in Guatemala to syphilis in ghoulish medical experiments conducted during the late 1940s. As soon as the story got out, President Barack Obama phoned President Alvaro Colom of Guatemala to apologize. Colom called the experiments "an incredible violation of human rights." Colom also says his government is studying whether it can bring the case to an international court.
Born to do good?
There is a scandal at Harvard. The Harvard Crimson reports that psychologist and professor in the Department of Biological Anthropology Marc D. Hauser has been sanctioned for scientific misconduct. A popular teacher whose Evolution of Human Behavior (aka the sex course) is the second most popular course at Harvard (after Econ 10), Hauser used web-generated survey data to investigate the moral sense in humans, and ran a research lab for animal study.
CEP union president Dave Coles files a complaint over G20 police actions
CEP union president Dave Coles files a complaint over Toronto police actions during the G20 summit. (Photo: Cornelius Heesters)
Related rabble.ca story:
Ethics Commissioner finally rules properly in Paradis case, but what about others involved?
| March 23, 2012(de)Occupy Talks: Big Oil, tar sands and how the 1% defines 'ethics'
Mar 20 2012 - 7:00pm
Mar 20 2012 - 10:00pm
Location
Bloor Street United Church
300 Bloor St. W.
Toronto, ON Canada
43° 40' 1.3764" N, 79° 24' 7.326" W
See map: Google Maps
(de)Occupy Talks: Big Oil, tar sands and how the one per cent defines 'Ethics'
When: March 20, 7 p.m.
Where: Bloor Street United Church, 300 Bloor St. W.
Livestream: http://www.livestream.com/mediawrench
Tar sands extraction is one of the largest civil and environmental rights issues of this generation. The Harper regime, in alliance with the Alberta government and the largest oil companies in the world, have ignored First Nations' rights, broken global agreements and decimated hundreds of kilometers of land in Northern Alberta.
Ethics™: The newest political growth industry
If the meeting will please come to order... thank you.
I realize that this is not likely to be the most positive get-together, but recent events require our caucus to engage in some quick regrouping.
