Monday Morning Links

Miscellaneous material for your Monday reading.

- Dr. Dawg views the latest attacks on workers by employers in Canada as a new front in all-out class warfare. And the New York Times notes that some of the main policies being pushed by the anti-worker side serve absolutely no purpose other than to damage unions and the workers who stand to benefit from them.

- Yes, the real story in the tar sands lobby's cynical effort to attack the international environmental movement is the fact that far more has been spent pushing for the interests of the oil industry:

West Coast Environmental Law executive director Jessica Clogg said its campaigns are not dictated by the sources of its funding.

She said, instead, they seek funding to support the initiatives they decide on as a British Columbia organization.

"Polls have shown that 75 to 80 per cent of British Columbians are opposed to tanker traffic on our coast," said Clogg.

She also argued their funding is dwarfed by that of oil producers and refiners, which put up $100 million to promote the Northern Gateway project and push it through the regulatory review.

One of those was China state-owned Sinopec Corp. Enbridge also put up another $100 million of its own money.

- But for those who do distinguish between foreign and domestic oil interests, Alison points out that even on that point there's far more reason for concern about foreign intervention on the side of the tar sands than in the opposite direction.

- Roy Romanow worries that the Harper Cons' decision to do absolutely nothing with health care other than cut back on funding expectations may do serious damage to the concept of a universal national health care system:

“To say, ‘Goodbye and good luck’ could be the beginning of the end of a reformed modern-day functioning health-care system,” said Romanow.

“If that argument is advanced, we have a prescription for a patchwork-quilt series of programs by the provincial governments based on their fiscal capacity.

“It will mean more privatization in more provinces, or some combination of private and public. It will be a very much weakened fabric of national unity without Mr. Harper’s direct involvement.”

- Finally, Joan Bryden runs down the endorsements in the NDP's leadership race. Mia Rabson hopes the leadership campaign will lead to a strong push for proportional representation. And Lou Arab offers his analysis of the candidates.