The City of Regina’s planned annexation of new lands for development may be scaled back considerably under a new proposal revealed at an R.M. of Sherwood meeting Wednesday evening. After publicly advertising an ambitious annexation plan on the weekend, the City administration is now recommending annexation only of lands designated for “imminent development”.

Lands identified for “long term development” will be left under R.M. jurisdiction, meaning they will remain farmland for now. The change in plans coincides with today’s news that Regina’s population dropped between 2004 and 2005, and amid controversy over land owned by members of the Fiacco family.

ActUpInSask.org is pleased to present the second in John W. Warnock's two-past series on Mexico.

by John W. Warnock
ActUpInSask.org

There was very little coverage of the Mexican election in the North American media this past July. But editorial opinion after the results were reported was uniform: Andres Manual Lopez Obrador and the Party of the Democratic Revolution (PRD) should shut up, accept their defeat and wait until the next election. Nevertheless, a few newspapers did mention that the president-elect Felipe Calderon of the National Action Party (PAN) would have a difficult time dealing with a "deeply divided country" where around 50 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Wasn't the North American Free Trade Agreement supposed to fix this problem? According to the World Bank, 50 percent of the population is living in poverty and around one-fifth are living in "extreme poverty," with an income of less than one U.S. dollar per day. This World Bank standard may be relevant to some countries in Africa, but it is ridiculous to apply it to Mexico where no one can survive on one dollar a day.

Political conflict is rising in Mexico. Election results are in dispute, and workers are striking. Below is the first report in a series by political economist and author John W. Warnock, posted specially to the Act Up website.

Part 1: The Bankers' Alliance Holds on to Power

by John W. Warnock

For a brief time the media in Canada and the United States gave some coverage to the July 2 election in Mexico. There was a threat from the social democratic left - the possibility that Andres Manual Lopez Obrador (AMLO) might emerge as the next president. The U.S. government, concerned about the spread of the new socialism across Latin America, settled back when the Mexican establishment carried the day. Nevertheless, the election produced a major shift to the left, angered the poor and disenfranchised, and heightened social divisions and political resistance.

Mexico was ruled by a succession of generals until President Lazaro Cardenas (1934-40) restructured the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI). A populist party, it included the trade unions, peasant organizations, a civic alliance, and small business organizations. The PRI governed Mexico between 1929 and 2000 as a one-party state. Through the system known as  "Presidentialism," the PRI completely dominated. Elections were a farce as the PRI won them all, legislatures rarely had any representation from other parties, and the President appointed everyone, including his own successor.

 Are people following this story? Scary stuff. I reprint this from Maisonneuve Magazine's MediaScout, an excellent daily summary of the day's top stories with critical commentary on how they are being covered by the nation's major media.
     --Dave

TORIES TAKING NAMES
by Ceri Au
September 21, 2006

Journalistic careers come in all shapes and sizes. There are the adrenaline-junkie war correspondents, constantly globe-trotting to the hot spot du jour. There are fashion reporters who skulk about the red carpet and meditate on the meaning of “worst dressed.” And then there are the reporters who do the somewhat unglamorous work of sifting through stacks of government documents, scouring department memos and briefing notes in search of news. These journalists take elected officials and their staffs to task by demanding evidentiary proof that the government is operating by the book. Through Access to Information request forms, the inner-workings of government are available for public consumption. Furthermore, under the Privacy Act, the details of all such queries are confidential. Yet this week, the name of a prominent journalist—the Canadian Press’s Jim Bronskill—entered the public domain in connection with an access to information request he filed. Beyond the portend of a political scandal that could ensnare members of Harper’s inner-sanctum, the Bronskill affair points to a more sinister trend in political communications—media control.

Last week, Act Up provided information about Mayor Fiacco and family’s landholdings in Devonia Park, south of the Regina airport. For those of you new to the issue, or wanting to learn more, click on ‘read more’ (below) for back-story and additional information about the land. Feel free to add your own comments and information that may not be included in this report.