Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Canada’s 100 highest paid CEOs have set a new record: their total compensation in 2015 hit a new high at $9.5 million, on average, according to a new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).   Details here.

Take this, David CameronQ

Briarpatch Magazine While environmentalists may not often approach the issue of the environment from the point of view of labour, they have made sincere efforts to link their concern with the issue of labour generally. STORY HERE.

Are hungry kids a priority for the Harper government? by Larry Powell The forum (for the riding of Dauphin - Swan River - Neepawa) was sponsored by the Mission and Services Committee of the Neepawa United Church. It drew about 80 people to the church on Wednesday. But only four of the five candidates (see below) took part in the debate -  Ray  Piché  (Liberal),   Kate Storey (Green Party),  Inky Mark (Ind.) and  Laverne Lewycky (NDP) . The 5th candidate, the sitting Conservative MP for the area, Robert Sopuck (represented by the empty chair on the right), did not attend. His office manager in Neepawa, Christine Waddell, said he was in Inglis, a small community in the western part of the riding for the evening. She did not elaborate. But she did explain that a campaign worker was mistaken when he told forum organizers earlier that Mr. Sopuck would, in fact be there. Piché , the Liberal candidate, said the MP's absence showed “disrespect” for the rest of the candidates

Winnipeg Free Press GREENVILLE, N.C. - Duke Energy has pleaded guilty in federal court to environmental crimes and agreed to pay $102 million in fines and restitution for illegally discharging pollution from coal-ash dumps at five North Carolina power plants. Story here.

Huffington Post On a December afternoon, Frances Amy Richardson took a break from her quilting class to reflect on a groundbreaking experiment she took part in 40 years earlier. Story here. Related: A Town in Manitoba, Canada Without Poverty. An Experiment With Basic Income (Video)

      SUM       of    + US                   Fighting for people over profit. Sign the petition to Tanzania's President. President Kikwete: keep your promise to the Maasai people and cancel the deal that would kick them off their ancestral land to make way for a Dubai-owned hunting reserve, and guarantee permanent rights to their lands in writing.   CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE PETITION !

Is a world-wide ban now the only ethical thing to do? by Larry Powell Did your parents farm In Canada in the years following World War 11 , as mine did? If so, little would they have dreamed of the health dangers lurking within the popular chemical, DDT, which they might well have been spraying on their fields. The product was applied widely (some say indiscriminately) back then to kill bugs that were consuming food crops and forests and spreading human diseases like typhus and malaria. Just as common were assurances from government and industry that “all was well.” But DDT was banned in North America in the 70’s after Rachel Carson exposed it in her book, “Silent Spring” as the culprit in massive die-offs of birds and fish and as a “definite chemical carcinogen.” DDT made a significant resurgence in the early 2000’s, however.  That’s when the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the World Health Organization began promoting programs to control malari

Council of Canadians More than 100 people from the Cross Lake First Nation (Pimicikamak Cree Nation), located north of Lake Winnipeg, occupied the grounds of the Jenpeg hydro-dam last week. Chief Catherine Merrick said the First Nation is taking control of its traditional territory and evicting Manitoba Hydro. Story here.

Dear Editor, As a member of the Green Party, I'd like to invite two prominent Conservatives in my area, Ken Waddell, the publisher of the Neepawa Banner (formerly the Mayor) and Robert Sopuck, my Member of Parliament, to join the "Greens!" I was delighted, Mr. Waddell, to read your recent column, supporting (or, at least inviting a debate on) a guaranteed minimum income, as embodied in the successful "Mincome" pilot project in Dauphin back in the 70s. It so happens my party has endorsed such a policy for years. I actually wrote a paper for the Green Party of Manitoba myself a few years ago, detailing the success of "Mincome" and pointing out what a "win-win" effort it was, enriching the lives of many poor and disadvantaged people in just about every way that counted. And I don't think we need to agonize over how to pay for it. 

Larry, Recent reports disclose the horrific reality behind the Tetley tea empire -- workers on plantations in northern India, including children, are  paid less than $3 a day to pick our tea. Boycott Tetley !

Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives Five years after a global recession knocked the wind out of Canada’s labour market,  the compensation of Canada’s CEO elite continues to sail along.  Details here. Fall of 2011. Ordinary Canadians  rally at  the Manitoba legislature  to protest against  corporate  greed.  Has anything changed? (PLT Photo)

Huffington Post BERLIN (AP) — A U.N.-mandated tribunal has ordered Russia to immediately release a Greenpeace ship and its crew in return for a 3.6 million euro ($5 million) bond. Details here.

OpEd News - by Chris Hedges New York - I was in federal court here Friday for the sentencing of  Jeremy Hammond  to 10 years in prison for hacking into the computers of a private security firm that works on behalf of the government, including the Department of Homeland Security, and corporations such as Dow Chemical. Details here.

Greenpeace Hi Larry, 263 cities, 43 countries. Today, thousands of people took their outrage over the ongoing detention of the Arctic 30 straight to the doorsteps of Russian embassies and oil giants Shell and Gazprom. In a massive global day of action people all over the world demanded the release of the Arctic 30 and showed the oil companies that we will not let them get away with the silencing of peaceful protest.

That’s what the new rules being smuggled into trade agreements are delivering. By George Monbiot, published in the Guardian 5th November 2013 Remember that referendum about whether we should create a single market with the United States? You know, the one that asked whether corporations should have the power to strike down our laws? No, I don’t either. Mind you, I spent ten minutes looking for my watch the other day, before I realised I was wearing it. Forgetting about the referendum is another sign of ageing. Because there must have been one, mustn’t there? After all that agonising over whether or not we should stay in the European Union(1), the government wouldn’t cede our sovereignty to some shadowy, undemocratic body without consulting us.  Would it?

Avaaz Help free 30 brave men and women of Greenpeace. They face long prison terms for simply protesting against oil drilling in the fragile Arctic eco-system. Please sign the petition! You can help!

TruthDig.com The final days of empire give ample employment and power to the feckless, the insane and the idiotic. Details here.