Secrecy has always been the norm in the pharmaceutical arena, but over the past decade it has taken on even greater significance as the funding of medical research has swung from something that was done to improve public health to something that is done for commercial gain.
Corporations and corporate power
Deregulation is one of neoliberalism's five big initiatives (free trade, privatization, service cuts, and tax cuts make up the rest). And it shows how successfully the neoliberals have framed the issue.
Who in their right mind would want more red tape?
Well, for starters, pretty much anyone who flies in Canada, eats food, drives a car, uses prescription drugs, or lives some place that could catch fire. That's just the short list.
In the many conversations I’ve had about gasoline prices since a short report I wrote for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives was released in early May (Gas Price Gouge), I’ve heard just about every justification for high gas prices one could imagine.
OTTAWA—Canadians have been paying too much for gas for nearly two years, says an analysis released today by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
The analysis, by economist and CCPA research associate Hugh Mackenzie, calculates how much Canadians should be paying for gas and finds that since August 2005 prices have consistently exceeded levels that would be justified on the basis of costs and normal profit margins.
“For example, drivers in Toronto are currently being overcharged 15 cents per litre,” Mackenzie says.
Most private sector employers have always regarded their employees as necessary evils, and unions as UNnecessary evils. When profits have to be shared with workers, the share going to owners, managers, and shareholders is correspondingly lessened, so payroll costs have always been kept as low as possible. Since the main role of unions is to prevent employers from cutting payroll costs, the unionization of employees has always been fiercely opposed.
Last June, “the three amigos”—the name the press gave the leaders of Canada, Mexico and the U.S. because they were meeting in Mexico at the time—launched the North American Competitiveness Council (the NACC).
For a politician, the only thing worse than having to use up political points cleaning up someone else’s mess, is cleaning up when the mess was created by tax cuts -- that you originally supported in opposition -- turned out to be a bad idea.
That’s the unenviable prospect faced by Conservative Finance Minister Jim Flaherty when BCE and Telus finally forced the government’s hand on the income trust file.
Earlier this year, I wrote a three-part series under the overall theme I called “the Big Business Bang Theory,” in which I ascribed most of the world’s ills to the unbridled destructive activities of transnational corporations. Since then, I’ve seen or heard nothing that invalidates this theory, and an awful lot that supports it.
Contrary to a widely popular feel-good myth, Canada did not reject participation in the U.S.-led "Ballistic Missile Defence" (BMD) weapons program. Unfortunately, BMD is still very much alive and well and thriving in Canada. In fact, Canada has been complicit in BMD for many years. Our contributions to BMD have even surpassed the efforts of many other nations that have, at least, been honest enough to admit their involvement.