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  • A16 - Mass Economic Protest in Washington
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  • Conservative Senator Calls for Liberalization of Drug Laws
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  • newsMost of the news is now at - Federal Election 2001 news
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    Canada, U.S., Climate & the Revolution -  May 10, 2001
    From:  The David Suzuki Foundation
       The David Suzuki Foundation launched http://www.energyrevolution.net on Earth  Day.
       At www.EnergyRevolution.net, you can walk through a simulated "Canada Town" to explore climate solutions and impacts.  The affects of climate change on Canadian communities are clear: more violent weather, more forest fires, more water problems, more disruption of species and ecosystems, and more smog. Air pollution from fossil fuel is already responsible for 16,000 premature deaths in Canada every year.
       The campaign site will outline developments and action opportunities leading up to the U.N. Climate Summit this July.  Countries around the world will be meeting in Germany to revitalize the international effort to fight climate change. President Bush is trying to derail this process and Canada is threatening to join the U.S.  In cyberspace and in the streets, tell your friends about the revolution.  Order campaign materials online.
       Every revolution is about power
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    GM Food: Public Wants the Right to Know – May.2001
    OTTAWA - New Democrat agriculture critic Dick Proctor this week called on the federal government to take immediate steps to implement a labeling process that will make consumers aware of all genetically modified products, produce and components in processed foods.
       Speaking in the Commons, Mr. Proctor said: "One of the reasons consumers are interested and concerned about this issue is that they believe genetically modified foods may contain allergenic, toxic or even carcinogenic aspects. They do not know and they darn well want the right to know."
       He said, "Public opinion polls indicate that in excess of 90 percent of Canadians believe they should have the right to know what is in the food they are ingesting.  I have difficulty understanding why the government has been dragging its heels to the extent that it has on this issue."
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    Free Trade/Globalization – a simpler argument against it.
    * I usually do write-ups covering what other people say on the issues. Their arguments are often complex so I've done a simple one in this letter to a friend.
    - read the article.
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    NDP Mounts Attack on Druf Profiteering Bill – May.2001
    OTTAWA - New Democrat Members of Parliament this week expanded their attack on a government bill to amend the Patent Act that would raise the price of prescription drugs in Canada and take over $200 million from Canadians families.
       Introduced in the Senate, the bill (S-17) is intended to comply with a World Trade Organization ruling that Canada lengthen the term of patent protection on drugs from 17 years to 20 years, making cheaper generic drugs less available.
       "The bill is intended to come into compliance with World Trade Organization rulings" NDP industry critic Bev Desjarlais said in the Commons Thursday. "It is not intended to do what is best for Canadians, what is best for Canada or, for that matter, what is best for the people of the world."
       Winnipeg-Transcona MP Bill Blaikie said:  "… today we are against Bill S-17 which is part of a sequence of bills that have progressively eliminated the ability of Canada to have its own independent drug patent and drug pricing policy. The fact that we could not and cannot maintain a system that worked so well for Canada, which was the result of a political decision taken in this country many years ago, is for us transparently what is wrong with the free trade agreement."
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    MarijuanaJ Party ballot initiative tour
    http://www.bcmarijuanaparty.ca
       We are hammering the Liberals at every whistlestop regarding ballot initiatives. We had our first platform stolen by Unity today when Delaney saw the sense in  our "NO RCMP in BC" platform and adopted it as his own.
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    See the BC Election Circus Site by Guerrilla Media - April.18.2001
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    NDPer Lorne Nystrom Presents PROPORTIONAL REPRESENTATION BILL - April.2.2001
    OTTAWA - NDP electoral reform critic Lorne Nystrom took another step Thursday in his ongoing campaign to modernize Canada's electoral system by introducing in the House of Commons a private member's bill calling for proportional representation.
       Mr. Nystrom's bill would initiate a process of public consultation that might lead to a national referendum on proportional representation.
       "Canada's current electoral system betrays the will of the voters," Mr. Nystrom said. "The composition of Parliament does not mirror the way people vote. Only three governments have been elected with a genuine majority of the votes in the last 24 federal elections. It's no wonder that only 60 per cent of eligible voters went to the polls last November. The very idea of democracy is increasingly at risk."
       The introduction of Mr. Nystrom's bill also coincides with the founding meeting of Fair Vote Canada, a coalition of citizens dedicated to raising awareness and assisting in the implementation of a fairer electoral system. The meeting sponsored by Mr. Nystrom and was held on March 30 and 31 in the Parliament Buildings.
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    Parliament to Debate FTAA – March.2001
    OTTAWA - The House of Commons will hold a special debate on the  proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas Tuesday, March 27, starting at 6:30 pm (Eastern Standard  Time).
    This is a so-called take-part debate, which does not end with a vote,  and there is no time limit. The debate will be carried live on CPAC.
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    NDP Globalization Web Site – March.2001
       New Democrat Members of Parliament have established a web site  focusing on World Trade and Globalization.  Please visit the site at www.ndpontrade.parl.gc.ca
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    Some Facts on Energy Conservation – March.2001
    - If existing buildings were retrofitted, and new ones were designed, to be energy efficient, Toronto and all of Ontario would need no more electricity than what is produced at Niagara Falls and at the various hydro dams around the province?
    - Two-and-a-half to five times more jobs are created by developing energy efficiency than are created by building and operating a new power generating station?
    - It is cheaper to increase energy efficiency than it is to continue operating a thermal generating plant - regardless of whether it is run on coal, natural gas or nuclear energy - even when the cost of building the plant and delivering its power are not counted in the
    equation?
    - Through energy efficiency, Seattle saved twice as much energy as Chicago did. As a result, its electricity prices were half those in Chicago?
    - Nearly 70 per cent of the energy in the fuel used to generate electricity at Ontario's coal-fired and nuclear generating stations is wasted and released as heat emissions?
    http://www.rmi.org
    http://www.tellus.org
    http://www.eren.doe.gov
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    NDP Attacks Toll Highway Plan – March.2001
    OTTAWA - Canadians already pay enough taxes and should not have to pay tolls to use public roads, NDP Transportation Critic Bev Desjarlais told the House of  Commons this week.
    Earlier Liberal Transportation Minister David Collenette admitted under questioning by Ms.Desjarlais the federal government is considering toll roads as a solution to the massive under funding of the national highway system.
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    At Straight Goods – March.2001
    - Dummy’s Guide to Quebec City Protest - Darryl Leroux. An activists’  manual
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    Democracy Watch Calls for Investigation of Cash-for-Access Scheme at Summit of the Americas – March.23.2001

       OTTAWA - Today, in an open letter to federal Ethics Counsellor Howard Wilson, Democracy Watch called for an investigation of the Ministers and other public office holders involved in designing and approving the cash-for-access scheme at the upcoming Summit of the Americas in Quebec City.  In return for paying amounts ranging from $75,000 to $1.5 million, Canadian corporations will receive, among other things, the right to attend "networking events" at the Summit and, in some cases, to choose "priority seating" at Summit events.
            Democracy Watch believes that this scheme violates the Conflict of Interest and Post-employment Code for Public Office Holders, which requires public office holders (including ministers, secretaries of state, deputy ministers and some ministerial staff) to "uphold the highest ethical standards so that public confidence and trust in the integrity, objectivity and impartiality of government are conserved and enhanced" and prohibits public office holders from, among other things: assisting private entities, and having even "the appearance of being placed under an obligation to any person or organization, or the representative of a person or organization, that might profit from special consideration on the part of the office holder."
            "Giving corporations access to policy-makers in return for money is not only undemocratic, it's unethical," said Duff Conacher, Coordinator of Democracy Watch. "Such cash-for-access schemes reveal that rather than being objective and impartial, Canada's public officials are open to being
    bought by corporate interests."
            In its letter to the Ethics Counsellor, Democracy Watch calls for an investigation of the scheme and a ruling about Code violations before the opening of the Summit of the Americas.  Democracy Watch does not believe that Prime Minister Chretien's rationale that such schemes are good
    because they save taxpayers from having to pay the full cost of such events in any way aligns with the democratic principles set out in the Code.
            "Saving taxpayers money is not a valid reason for abandoning the important principle of governing with integrity," said Conacher, "The ethics rules exist to prevent such undemocratic behaviour, and we call on the Ethics Counsellor to act with integrity and stop this unethical cash-for-access scheme."
    FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
    Duff Conacher, Coordinator
    Tel: (613) 241-5179
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    FTAA - Opposing it Every Day - Sat.Feb.17.2001
    (Brief notes on Free Trade Across the Americas - Responding to the Human, Environmental & Spiritual Threat)
    - Read the full report by Gary Morton
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    Health Canada scientists gagged - Feb.2001
    * Editor's Note - Scientists and other officials should probably not be advising people to eat beef at all. Nowadays beef cows are grain-fed and so diseased they have to be pumped full of antibiotics to survive. Unless it is beef from cows raised in a freer manner, eating beef is supporting animal cruelty and risky.
       Health Canada reimposed a gag order Monday on its scientists after two of them questioned a decision to ban Brazilian beef.
       Dr. Margaret Haydon,  a scientist who questioned the ban last week was told that the department's public relations officers were the only ones authorized to speak to the media about Health Canada policies.
       The gag order was reimposed less than five months after Madam Justice Danièle Tremblay-Lamer ruled it was "unreasonable" for Health Canada to ask its scientists not to speak out on public health matters.
    The reaction was swift from groups who fought to have the previous gag order lifted.
       "In a democracy, people who speak out in the public interest should be allowed to speak out in the public interest — no matter who they work for," Angela Rickman, deputy director of the Sierra Club of Canada, said.
       Maude Barlow, national chairwoman of the Council of Canadians, said the government is censoring the wrong people. "These are highly trained scientists who are the only ones who should be advising the public on health matters, rather than the politicians and the bureaucrats," she said. "The government is clearly backpedalling like crazy because of a silly and short-sighted ban on Brazilian beef."
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    Canadian Human Rights protesters clash with Chinese police - Feb.2001
    Beijing — Shortly after Prime Minister Jean Chrétien delivered a major speech on human and legal rights Tuesday, Chinese security officers grabbed two Canadian students for protesting at a gathering of Team Canada business leaders.
       Kate Woznow, 20, and Sam Price, 25, of the group Students for a Free Tibet unfurled a banner and chanted "Free Tibet before free trade" in the midst of a swarm of Chinese and Canadian business people. Security guards grabbed them.
       The student protesters said that Canada should be demanding China first clean up its human rights record if it wants to do business.
       "We are opposed to Team Canada's developing closer trade ties with China without ensuring that human rights are improved," said Freya Putt, 22, another member of the protest group. "We believe that China will listen to economic pressure."
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    3.7 Million Canadians below Poverty Line - Dec.2000
     Welfare rates in all the provinces are well below the poverty line. 3.7 million Canadians live below the poverty line in Canada. Low-income cutoffs depend on family size and take into account the varying costs of living associated with different communities -- rural, remote or urban.  In 1998, a family of four living in a city of 500,000 or more would be counted as low income if its after-tax income fell below $27,890. For the same family living in a rural area, the cutoff was $18,285.
      The National Anti-Poverty Organization's updated poverty figures conclude that 16.4% of Canadians -- about 4.9 million -- are poor.
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    Canada fails on child poverty - Dec.2000
       The National Council of Welfare's poverty profile reveals that in the past nine years child poverty has skyrocketed.
        "In spite of talk by governments about putting children first, approximately one in five children in Canada, or 1.3 million, were poor in 1998," said the report, entitled Poverty Profile 1998.
        "This is an increase of roughly 400,000 or 42% since 1989, the year of the House of Commons (all-party) resolution to end child poverty by 2000.
       "Ontario had, by far, the largest increase in poor children over this time period ... (it) almost doubled from 254,000 in 1989 to 463,000 in 1998."
     - The poverty rates of single-parent mothers and their children are shockingly high -- 54.2%. For single-parent mothers under 25 it was 85.4%.
     - Poverty among young people in general has grown to 43.3% from 28% for families with heads under 25 years and to 61% in 1998 from 48% in 1989 among singles under 25.
       The situation for seniors improved: 17.5% lived in poverty in 1998, down from 34% in 1980, which is when several levels of governments stepped in to address the problem.
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    Legal Marijuana -- but how do you label Marijuana? Dec.24.2000

       Alberta judge Darlene Acton has suspended the Canadian law against cultivating marijuana as unconstitutional because it doesn't allow for medical use of the drug. The charge of cultivating marijuana had been brought against Grant Krieger. He grows and ingests pot to alleviate the symptoms of his multiple sclerosis. Defence lawyers called it a great victory and you can be sure that statement will be echoed in the alternative press and much of the mainstream press.

       Though I'm not on the extreme right of the political spectrum, I still have to wonder if it is any victory at all. It is true that I have no illnesses of my own, and if I did I wouldn't smoke grass. I don't take drugs or smoke things to maintain health, not even aspirins.

       Marijuana is carcinogenic, yet that would make little difference to someone already suffering a deadly or soon to be fatal disease. Yes, it will be harder for the government to bust harmless people for growing pot. The problem is that it will be at least a year and probably a lot longer before anything is settled on a supply of legal marijuana. Which means that anything goes as to what people will label as marijuana - most of it being smoked by recreational users.

       Here's an example of what you may be smoking. One guy stated that he grew his grass in pots filled with the scrapings off the sides of ships. This would be barnacles and polluted fish oil crap. During the growth period he added chemicals to boost growth and sprayed the plants with more chemicals. His plants grew much larger and were mutated with silver spots covering the leaves. During the curing process he sprayed them with a product from the hardware store that is generally used for restoring paper. This was to make the leaves cure in a smoother fashion. And there were other things he used as sprays on the finished product.

       Perhaps his recipe is one of many. Maybe some people will grow genetically modified pot - which means that in the end many users will be smoking some pretty weird stuff.

       I wouldn't smoke it, and if I don’t see marijuana as cool, perhaps it is because I equate it with Beatle cuts and the emergence of the sixties generation. Something that people smoked once - when it was naturally grown - and don't bother with now that it is sold by bikers and criminals carrying submachine guns.

       Some of the stuff on the market must be harmful and deadly, and if the government had any sense at all they would provide legal grass that is grown organically.

       The current legal victory is really mostly a victory for criminals who want to grow and sell genetically modified, chemically altered mutant sewer weed.

    Gary Morton
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    Thousands march in Montreal against forced megacity - Dec.2000
       Blowing whistles and carrying placards, tens of thousands of angry Quebecers marched through downtown Montreal Sunday to protest against the province's undemocratic plan to force the creation of a megacity.
       "The government cannot ignore what has happened here today," Verdun Mayor Georges Bosse said yesterday afternoon, shortly after tens of thousands of people took to the streets to protest against Quebec's municipal-merger plans. "I think when 75,000 people show up on a winter's day they deserve to be listened to."
       The people are against Bill 170. The legislation Quebec wants to adopt byChristmas that would merge Montreal Island's 28 municipalities into a megacity with 26 boroughs.
       The crowd roared as speakers demanded that the provincial government consult residents instead of pushing ahead with the merger. And residents quietly argued that their sense of community will disappear in a megacity.
       Critics have challenged Premier Lucien Bouchard to hold a referendum on the question of amalgamation.
       "'We're asking for only one referendum and we promise that we will respect the results,'' said Montreal North Mayor Yves Ryan.
       The Parti Quebecois government also hopes to force amalgamations in the Hull and Quebec City regions.
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    New Site for Online Discussion of Government Bills. UVOTEOnline is currently discussing Bill 147 and will be discussing federal bills in the New Year.
    http://uvoteonline.net
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    Stepping off the Toxic Treadmill - Dec 2000
    From: dbell@worldwatch.org
         Synthetic chemical pollutants that are poisoning both people and wildlife could be largely eliminated without disrupting the economy, reports a new study by the Worldwatch Institute, a Washington DC-based environmental research organization.
    - Read the full report.
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    Nuclear Subsidies to AECL Total $16.6 Billion - Dec.2000
       A report released by the Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout, says that Canadian government subsidies to Atomic Energy of Canada Limited (AECL) now total $16.6 billion. The government has backtracked on its 1996 promise to dramatically reduce AECL's subsidies. AECL was supposed to receive $100 million in the fiscal year 1999-2000, but in fact received $156.5 million.
       David Martin, author of the report called "Financial Meltdown", stated, "Tax dollars are too valuable to waste on the failing nuclear industry. AECL's $156 million subsidy last year could have purchased 50 MRI machines and operated them for a year; or it could have paid for about 2,200 nurses for one years, or for 12,500 heart operations."
       "AECL is in a state of financial meltdown. The Chretien government is committed to ongoing nuclear subsidies, but after 50 years of subsidies, it's high time to call a halt." Stated Elizabeth May of the Sierra Club of Canada.
       Campaign for Nuclear Phaseout coordinator Kristen Ostling said, "Last year, the government spent 13 times more on subsidies to AECL ($156 million) than it spent on its total funding for renewable energy ($12 million). For economic and environmental reasons, nuclear power should be phased out."
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    Pledging Allegiance
    by Tooker Gomberg and Kelly Reinhardt - Nov. 27, 2000 - The Hague, Netherlands
    On Friday we burned our Canadian passports. We did it in outrage at our country's deplorable performance at addressing the climate catastrophe, a.k.a. climate change. The Canadian government has been woefully lacklustre on the home front, but what set us off was Canada's negotiating position at the World Conference on Climate Change in The Hague, Netherlands.
    - read the full article
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    Colombia's "Never Again Project" (November 28, 2000)
    * Rights Action sends this post concerning the important "Nunca Mas" project in Colombia.
       Canadian churches and human rights activists were present in Bogota today, November 28, to lend both physical and moral support when 'at risk' human rights groups made public the explosive report of Colombia's "Never Again" Project."
      It is a very timely project, as the US government has agreed to a $1.3 billion military package [weapons, military equipment, training, intelligence, and direct US military involvement], that will worsen the already extremely bad human rights situation, as set out in the Nunca Mas Project.
    - read the entire post and info on how to take action
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    Police Attack Peaceful March Against Third World Debt
    MADRID - SUNDAY 26TH NOVEMBER 2000
    - read the entire detailed post.
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    Environmental Warfare -The Americans and the Russians have developed capabilities to manipulate the World's climate - Nov.2000
    - Read Environmental Warfare by Michel Chossudovsky.
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    Pierre Trudeau Dies - Sept.28.200
       Former prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who touched the lives of a generation of Canadians in countless ways, died Thursday afternoon at the age of 80. A state funeral is being planned.
    - Story at the CBC

    Quotations from Pierre Elliott Trudeau:

    "The state has no place in the nation's bedrooms." -- Dec. 22, 1967.

    "I will use all my strength to bring about a just society to a nation living in a tough world." -- April 7, 1968, Ottawa news conference the day after winning the Liberal leadership.

    "Living next to you is in some ways like sleeping with an elephant: No matter how friendly and even-tempered the beast, one is affected by every twitch and grunt." -- March 25, 1969, speaking to the Press Club in Washington, D.C.

    "When they get home, when they get out of Parliament, when they are 50 yards from Parliament Hill, they are no longer honourable members, they are just nobodies." -- July 25, 1969, House of Commons.

    "Fuddle duddle." -- Feb. 16, 1971, Trudeau's account of what he said to an Opposition MP in the Commons.

    "I believe that Canada cannot, indeed that Canada must not survive by force. The country will only remain united --it should only remain united -- if its citizens want to live together in one civil society." -- Nov. 15, 1976, national TV and radio address regarding Parti Quebecois election in Quebec.

    "The French won't take us over and neither will the Pope, although he's not the menace he used to be." -- Nov. 25, 1976, news conference.

    "So long, trained seals!" --Oct. 21, 1977, concluding a news conference in Ottawa.

    "We peer so suspiciously at each other that we cannot see that we Canadians are standing on a mountaintop of human wealth, freedom and privilege." -- Dec. 31, 1980, New Year's message.

    "I walked until midnight in the storm, then I went home and took a sauna for an hour and a half. It was all clear. I listened to my heart and saw if there were any signs of my destiny in the sky, and there were none -- there were just snowflakes." -- Feb. 29, 1984, announcing at a news conference he was resigning as Prime Minister.

    "I think we have to realize that Canada is not immortal; but, if it is going to go, let it go with a bang rather than a whimper." -- March 30, 1988, denouncing the Meech Lake Constitutional Accord before a Senate Committee.
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    NOT CALM at Burnt Church - Wed, 27 Sep 2000
    Info from Ann Pohl <annpohl@interlog.com>
       The situation remains critically tense at Burnt Church.
       Many traps HAVE been removed. However, there is still considerable resistance within the community to allowing the DFO to remove any more.
       A recent press release from non-Native observers states that they have seen no guns in evidence since the beginning of their support effort there a year ago. The conclusion derived from this news is chilling: the considerable media about weaponry and the possibility of an armed confrontation may be yet another SET-UP to project the image of Aboriginal Rights activists as violent, militant and unreasoning. As we know all too well from Oka, Gustafsen Lake and Ipperwash, this media spin is created in order to justify terrible levels of repression that Canadians would never countenance on any other group of people within (or. for that matter, outside) their national borders. It also leads to criminalization of the people who are the victims of the states' human rights abuses - and to death.
    If you have not yet written to the government of Canada to express your concern, panic or disgust at what is happening, NOW IS THE TIME TO DO SO: Prime Minister Chretien   <pm@pm.gc.ca> Tel: (613) 992-4211; Fax: (613) 941-6900
    News sites on the Issue

  • http://www.afn.ca/Burnt%20Church/burnt_church_news.htm
  • http://www.tao.ca/~beinglightbeing/burntchurch/
  • http://www.canadianaboriginal.com/news/
  • http://www.prairienet.org/cpt
  • http://www.turtleisland.org/

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    Clean Air Web Site - Sept.21.2000
       This fall, at the UN Climate Summit in the Netherlands, the world will decide how to address one of the greatest threats to humanity and the natural world -- global warming. Sadly, Canada is trying to weaken the international Kyoto Climate Treaty.  There are solutions.
    http://www.clickforcleanair.org
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