Briarpatch articles from May 1999

Briarpatch archives from May 1999

Breaking sweat: U of T students campaign for sweat-free clothing.
May 1, 1999... University of Toronto students want to ban the use of sweatshop labour in the production of U of T clothing. In November 1998, the U of T Students Against Sweatshops began their campaign, signing petitions and handing out leaflets describing...

Windshield washing in Winnipeg: squeegee kids campaign to overturn an oppressive bylaw.
May 1, 1999... On the corner of Portage and Broadway in Winnipeg, Andrew "Tiger" La-liberty and Ryan "Moss" Peatson washed the car windshields of surprised motorists. "Last fall a cop smashed my head into the top of his police car and cut my forehead...

Secret no more: how the feds tried to keep tax loopholes for the wealthy a secret.
May 1, 1999... Interesting things were happening in the Department of Finance in 1991, and few Canadians knew anything about them even though their impact would affect everyone. First, the Department worked hard to silence the Mimoto report which showed that...

Electoral reform: smaller political parties win a legal victory.
May 1, 1999... For the first time (and the last?), a recent Globe and Mail editorial started off with the words, "Long live the Communist Party of Canada." The occasion was the legal victory scored by the CPC in its battle against the Canada Elections...

NDP in power.
May 1, 1999... Social activists, trade unionists and disillusioned NDP members got together on the weekend of March 13 to discuss the fate and future of the party in a conference called, "The NDP in Power: A Critical Assessment." "The conference was a chance...

Defying an unjust law.
May 1, 1999... Saskatchewan nurses are angry. Angry with the Saskatchewan Association of Health Organizations (SAHO) for what Bev Crossman, the Saskatchewan Union of Nurses chief negotiator, compared to "bargaining with a post." Among the union's demands...

Fair trade: the benefits of fair trade.
May 1, 1999... Canadians will be joining in an International Day to celebrate Fair Trade on May 8. Fair Trade Day will focus attention on consumer choices and the benefits of Fair Trade to small producers in developing countries. The lives of many small...

Why kill social history?
May 1, 1999... A young science major told me about her required liberal arts course in Canadian history. "Women in New France in the 1600s played major roles in their society," she said, "more so than women anywhere else at that time." Enthusiastically, she...

No pasaran: remembering the Canadian heroes of a forgotten war.
May 1, 1999... "These people deserve our homage and it is going to get fuckin' done," he thunders over a dinner table at a clamorous Chinese restaurant in Vancouver. "These people" are the Canadian men and women who served in the Mackenzie-Papineau...

Constancio Pinto.
May 1, 1999... Constancio Pinto is the representative of the National Council of Timorese Resistance (CNRT) in the U.S. He is a former guerrilla fighter and key organizer of the clandestine resistance in East Timor. He was forced to flee East Timor in...

In the shadow of empire: Canada for Americans.
May 1, 1999... by Joseph K. Roberts Monthly Review Press, 122 West 27th Street, New York, NY 10001, 1998. reviewed by Lukin Robinson Canada lives in the shadow of the U.S. empire. The purpose of Roberts' book is to explain the country to...

On the attack: corporate censorship is alive and well.
May 1, 1999... As the Briarpatch editor, it's my job to give others the chance to rant about things that piss them off. This time, it's my turn. I was reading the February issue of the Wisconsin-based magazine The Progressive. In the issue, Ben Lilliston...