News & Updates

HSA Political Action Fund available to support members running or working in November municipal election HSA members who are running for municipal office, or working on campaigns to elect candidates for local government positions, can apply to HSA for the following financial support from HSAs Political Action Fund: 1. Members who are candidates can apply for up to 5 days...

Groups representing seniors, consumers and labour say access to affordable medicines threatened in CanadaOttawa (3 July 2008) - A coalition of groups representing seniors, consumers and labour is investigating a trend among provincial governments toward signing secret tender agreements with pharmaceutical companies.A research report released Thursday by Aidan Hollis, an economist at the University of Calgarys Institute for Advanced Policy...

Campbell River Courier-Islander The TELUS Tour for the Cure - an interactive touring exhibit promoting the value and importance of breast health and mammography, arrived at the Campbell River Common shopping centre Wednesday and will remain until Sunday. The tour is visiting 24 communities and providing 42 aboriginal breast health sessions around B.C. until November. Every woman in B.C. 40...

Toronto (19 June 2008) - The Ontario government has broken an election promise to set a minimum standard of care for the 75,000 people who live in long-term care nursing homes across the province. Premier Dalton McGuinty made the pledge in 2005. Critics have called for a standard of at least 3.5 hours of care daily for elderly patients living...

Ottawa (17 June 2008) - Health care is a major presidential election issue in the United States this year and Canada's public Medicare system and its advocates are attracting a lot more attention than normal. BusinessWeek magazine recently asked James Clancy, president of the 340,000-member National Union of Public and General Employees, to participate in its Debate Room forum on...

In the June 11 Vancouver Sun, the B.C. Federation of Labour, and several of its affiliated unions, including HSA, called on Canadians to move from apology to action to work to improve the lives of Canada's First Nations. The Canadian government's formal apology yesterday over horrific abuses in residential schools is an important first step. Now we all need to...

CoDevelopment Canada is organizing a small delegation to attend the 3rd Americas Social Forum in Guatemala in October 2008. HSA's Committee for Equality and Social Action supports the work of CoDev, an organization that links Canadian unions and community groups with counterparts in Latin America. Download information about the Americas Social Forum delegation here.

The Report: June / July 2008 vol.29 num.2 pril 28th is the International Day of Mourning for workers who have been killed or injured on the job or who have died from an occupational disease. Official statistics show a terrible toll of death and injury but they only tell part of the story. In BC in 2007, 139 workers died...

The Report: June / July 2008 vol.29 num.2by LAURA BUSHEIKIN ith her characteristic modesty, it might be understandable for medical laboratory technologist Nancy Banks to ask, -What, why write about me?" when approached about being profiled in The Report. With over 30 years of HSA activism behind her, Banks says she has participated on more HSA committees than she could...

The Report: June / July 2008 vol.29 num.2by LAURA BUSHEIKIN and YUKIE KURAHASHI o-Ann Tisserands job as a recreational therapist at Talarico Place in Castlegar is rewarding: in a facility where approximately 75 per cent of the residents are of Doukhobor heritage, each day brings rich cultural exchange. As well, many of the programs she coordinates have an inherently heart-warming...