| Activist Arrested After Yelling at Health Minister
Calgary activist Lily Pham says she still can’t believe she was arrested just for trying to get provincial Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh to answer a question during the Friends of Medicare health care symposium on May 1.
Pham was charged with causing a disturbance after she began yelling at Dosanjh during a media scrum. She says she was trying to ask Dosanjh a question about how the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) could negatively affect Canadian sovereignty over our health care system, but he refused to speak to her privately so she decided to interrupt the media scrum. The FTAA has not been signed yet and negotiations are continuing.
Pham was arrested by Campus Security at the University of Calgary and then put in a Calgary Police Service jail cell for two hours. She says she was also told she was banned from the university for life.
"This incident showed me our society is profoundly undemocratic," says Pham.
Lanny Fritz, Campus Security manager at the U of C, says Pham is not banned for life, just "indefinitely."
"If she wants to get ahold of me and have the issue reviewed, she can easily do that," he says. "Or if she becomes a student it’s automatically lifted."
Fritz says Pham was asked several times to leave the building while she was yelling at the health minister, but she refused.
Fair Trade Fair
CUSO and TransFair Canada will be holding a Fair Trade Fair on May 7 at the Carpenters Union Hall. Calgarians will be able to buy a wide variety of fair trade products at the event, including olive oil, soccer balls, coffee, tea, sugar, chocolate, handicrafts and sweatshop-free clothing. There will also be bison and organic fruits and vegetables for sale by local producers, as well as coffee tastings, music, a variety of ethnic food, and a silent auction. Workshops on free trade will be held throughout the day. For more information about the fair call Traci Dunlop at 283-2871 (ext. 3) or e-mail her at traci.Dunlop@cuso.ca.
Alberta Urged to Sign Child Care Agreement
CUPE, the Canadian Union of Public Employees, is calling on the provincial government to sign a child care deal with the federal government.
Recently both Saskatchewan and Manitoba signed deals, which will lead to increased funding in the provinces for child care programs.
Alberta has been a hold-out on the national child care program because the province wants the federal government to also fund private-for-profit day cares. CUPE argues that private-for-profit day cares offer a lower quality of care than publicly run day cares.
The province has said it is consulting with Albertans about what they want before signing any deals.
Children’s Services minister Heather Forsyth told CBC this week that Alberta has reached a verbal agreement with the Liberal government on child care. She said Social Development Minister Ken Dryden agreed that the province could use the new child care funding, expected to be $70 million, for both non-profit and private-for-profit day care centres. Alberta is now waiting to sign the deal, said Forsyth.
Correction
An article on proposed changes to Devonian Gardens failed to mention that the city held two public open houses on the plans. |
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