SPP; chemicals; meat; PR; depression over-diagnosed

[angela bischoff]

1.
August 17, 2007

Help Stop the Secret Deals
for Increased Integration with the U.S.


George Bush, Stephen Harper and Mexican President Felipe Calderon will be
meeting behind closed doors in Montebello, Quebec, on August 20-21, 2007.

Their agenda? To change hundreds of Canadian regulations, laws and
policies — social, cultural, economic, international and security — to
match those in the U.S., creating a  “fortress North America.”

This scheme, originally proposed by the Canadian Council of Chief
Executives (a lobby group representing the country’s biggest corporations)
has been developing in secret for over four years.

While corporations such as Wal-Mart and Exxon have been heavily involved
in this process, the public and Parliament have been completely excluded.

The scheme goes by the deliberately deceptive title “Security and
Prosperity Partnership of North America” (SPP). It is, in fact, a scheme
to transfer power from democratic institutions to corporate board rooms.

When decision making takes place behind closed doors, human rights disappear.

“The Security and Prosperity Partnership, sadly, appears to trade basic
human rights for continued access to the U.S. market,” warned Alex Neve,
Secretary General for Amnesty International Canada, and Roch Tassé,
coordinator for the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group, in the
Globe and Mail.

Please go to RightonCanada.ca to send your letter urging Stephen Harper to
immediately stop the backroom deals, disclose everything that takes place
at the Montebello meetings and put the SPP to a national and parliamentary
debate so that Canadians can have their say. Let Prime Minister Harper
know that you want the government to give priority to human rights and
democracy.

At the same time, you will be sending a letter to your own MP, asking her
or him to take a stand on the issue. RightonCanada has also written to
every MP urging that he or she take a stand. We will publish their
response (or non-response) on our website so as to make each MP publicly
accountable.

As well, visit the Council of Canadians' website to learn more about the
SPP and Canadians' efforts to stop secret deals that threaten our
sovereignty and democracy.

That’s what democracy means.

With thanks,

  Kathleen Ruff
Founder of RightOnCanada.ca
and Senior Advisor to the Rideau Institute Maude Barlow
National Chairperson of the Council of Canadians
and Vice-President of the Rideau Institute

------------------------------------------
2.
Help Ban Harmful Chemical ˆ Bisphenol A. It‚s in hard plastic baby bottles
and drinking bottles, tin cans and pop cans. And studies show it leaches
into food, water and baby formula. It‚s called Bisphenol A, a harmful
chemical that mimics human hormones.

'Environmental Defence' is calling for a ban on Bisphenol A in food and
beverage containers. We need your help.
<http://www.environmentaldefence.ca/toxicnation/join/petition.php>Sign our
online petition.The federal government is reviewing the safety of
Bisphenol A in the coming months. Your signature will help us show the
government that Canadians are concerned and want action.

<http://www.environmentaldefence.ca/toxicnation/action/bisphenolfaq.htm>Read
more about Bisphenol A and its potential health effects.
<http://www.environmentaldefence.ca/toxicnation/join/petition.php>Sign the
online petition to ban Bisphenol A.

----------------------------------------
3.
Meat is Murder on the Environment
July 18, 2007
NewScientist.com

A kilogram of beef is responsible for the equivalent of the amount of CO2
emitted by the average European car every 250 kilometres, and burns enough
energy to light a 100-watt bulb for nearly 20 days.

Read full article here:
http://environment.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19526134.500

------------------------------------------
4.
Getting a voting system that provides proportional representation is one
of the most important ways to get green and justice issues onto the
official agenda.

Canada is one of the few remaining western nations that does not have
proportional representation in its electoral processes.

Ontario is having a referendum in October to vote on a new electoral
system. Here's our chance!

Fair Vote Canada is supporting the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting
system that would be based on proportional representation (that is, if 40%
of the electorate votes for a particular party, then that party gets 40%
of the MPPs, unlike now where we have a first-past-the post system where a
small percentage of the vote gets all the political power).

Check out Fair Vote Canada's website on this:
http://www.voteformmp.ca/

-------------------------------
5.
Fri 17 Aug 2007

'Thousands wrongly being treated for depression'
ANGUS HOWARTH

DOCTORS are over-diagnosing depression, resulting in thousands of 
people wrongly being prescribed drugs to treat it, an expert warns 
today.

Professor Gordon Parker says the current threshold for what is 
considered to be "clinical depression" is too low and he fears that 
it might lead to the condition becoming less credible.

He argues that the problem has been reduced to the "absurd" and we 
risk medicalising normal human distress and viewing any expression of 
depression as necessary of treatment.

Prof Parker, a psychiatrist based at Australia's University of New 
South Wales, says it is "normal to be depressed" and points to his 
own cohort study, which followed 242 teachers.

After 15 years of research, 79 per cent of respondents had already 
met the symptom and duration criteria for major, minor or very mild 
"subsyndromal" depression.

Anti-depressants have a range of side-effects. About 25 per cent of 
patients have problems when stopping them and studies have found that 
they can cause a rise in suicidal thoughts and actions. Patients also 
report a loss of libido.

Prof Parker blames the over-diagnosis of clinical depression on a 
change in its categorisation, in 1980, which saw the condition split 
into "major" and "minor" disorders. He says that the simplicity and 
gravitas of "major depression" gave it credit with clinicians, while
its descriptive profile set a low threshold.

Full article continued here:  http://news.scotsman.com/uk.cfm?id=1300982007


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