The farmers initiated the court action in 2002, arguing they had suffered damages as a result of the development and commercial introduction of genetically modified canola. They were in a Saskatoon courtroom last November in a bid to have their case certified as a class action.

It is time—well past time, in my view—for the United States to cease its Cold War-style reliance on nuclear weapons as a foreign-policy tool. At the risk of appearing simplistic and provocative, I would characterize current U.S. nuclear weapons policy as immoral, illegal, militarily unnecessary, and dreadfully dangerous. The risk of an accidental or inadvertent nuclear launch is unacceptably high. Far from reducing these risks, the Bush administration has signaled that it is committed to keeping the U.S. nuclear arsenal as a mainstay of its military power—a commitment that is simultaneously eroding the international norms that have limited the spread of nuclear weapons and fissile materials for 50 years. Much of the current U.S. nuclear policy has been in place since before I was secretary of defense, and it has only grown more dangerous and diplomatically destructive in the intervening years.

Today, the United States has deployed approximately 4,500 strategic, offensive nuclear warheads. Russia has roughly 3,800. The strategic forces of Britain, France, and China are considerably smaller, with 200–400 nuclear weapons in each state’s arsenal. The new nuclear states of Pakistan and India have fewer than 100 weapons each. North Korea now claims to have developed nuclear weapons, and U.S. intelligence agencies estimate that Pyongyang has enough fissile material for 2–8 bombs.

WASHINGTON -- A three-week hunger strike that now threatens the life of Haiti's jailed former prime minister, Yvon Neptune, is drawing international attention to the increasingly chaotic situation in the Americas' poorest nation.

Neptune, who served as prime minister under exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, began taking liquids at the request of his closest friends and family last weekend but remains in an extremely weak condition, according to reports from Port-au-Prince, where he has been held in a government house since March.

This is an article I wrote about the May 7th Day of Action against Wal-mart. Hopefully in the next couple days we will be able to get some pictures of the Saskatoon picket on the site.

-tyler

Saskatoon – On Saturday, May 7th, approximately two hundred labour and community activists gathered outside the new Preston Ave Wal-Mart to meet and greet shoppers.

As part of demonstrations organized across the country by the Canadian Labour Congress and local Labour Councils at 43 stores across Canada, the day of action firmly pronounced community and union disgust with  Wal-Mart's unethical (and illegal) union-busting.

On April 29th, leaving 190 people jobless, Walmart closed its store in Jonquiére, Quebec, one of only two unionized Wal-marts in North America. The United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) accuses Wal-mart of being rabidly anti-union; Wal-mart claims, however, economics forced it to close the store as it was unable to reach a tentative agreement with the union that would "permit it to operate the store in an efficient and profitable matter."

In response, labour activists distributed their own brand of coupons outside Walmarts across the nation. These ‘coupons’ denounced Wal-mart’s labour practices domestically closing unionized stores while posting $12 billion dollars in profits, as well as abroad as Wal-mart is a major retailer of foreign-made sweat-shop goods. They further criticized how the company siphons money out of communities, destroying local economies: for every two jobs Wal-mart creates, three are destroyed. 

By Geoffrey Lean, 24 April 2005

Scientists have begun putting genes from human beings into food crops in a dramatic extension of genetic modification. The move, which is causing disgust and revulsion among critics, is bound to strengthen accusations that GM technology is creating "Frankenstein foods" and drive the controversy surrounding it to new heights. Even before this development, many people, including Prince Charles, have opposed the technology on the grounds that it is playing God by creating unnatural combinations of living things.

On Thursday April 21, over 100 people rallied against Weyerhaeuser at the Toronto Stock Exchange, demonstrating their support for the Haida Nation’s logging blockades. They came to show that we stand with the Haida and their demands for self-determination, Native rights, ancient forests, and sustainable local economies.  Throngs of business people in the heart of the financial district were confronted by the sound of Native drummers, raging grannies, colorful banners, and pamphlets supporting the Haida and exposing Weyerhaeuser as an unethical and unsafe investment.

Last Updated May 2 2005 09:12 AM CDT CBC News

REGINA – The mother of a young man who is in jail for manslaughter says forced rehabilitation might have saved two lives. Last year, 18-year-old Wes Harker killed Gary Walter, a 56-year-old man with a mental disability, on a street in Nipawin. Harker is a drug addict who was high on cocaine and crystal meth at the time of the attack.