Recent controversy over a natural gas pipeline blockade and the differing priorities of hereditary chiefs and elected band councillors illustrates a fundamental problem with our systems of governance and economics. Elected councils for the Wet’suwet’en and other Indigenous bands have signed lucrative “impact benefit agreements”...

Global warming isn’t a partisan issue — or it shouldn’t be. The many experts issuing dire warnings about the implications of climate disruption work under political systems ranging from liberal democracies to autocratic dictatorships, for institutions including the U.S. Department of Defense, World Bank, International Monetary...

We’ve heard a lot in the news lately about the challenges facing the oil sector, but much less about the serious problems confronting another natural resource industry—forestry. Two years ago, the United States placed significant import tariffs on softwood lumber.  Those illegal tariffs are still in place, yet we hear almost...

In this coldest time of the year, we often think of the people in our area who are homeless.  Some have ended up on the streets and in rough camps because of mental health issues, addictions, or a combination of the two.  Some are children fleeing abusive parents or women fleeing abusive spouses; others have become disabled. ...

Canadians have not managed to forge a route to electoral reform yet, federally or provincially – despite at least 17 reports over the years, starting in 1923, all of which have recommended some form of proportional representation.  For a list, with brief explanations and the outcomes, click this link.  When BC voters were...

The future of development in Alberta’s oilsands lies in underground, steam-assisted operations that represent some of the country’s fastest growing greenhouse gas emissions. These projects have never been subject to federal environmental reviews and that’s not expected to change with Ottawa’s new-and-improved assessment rules....

By Walter Sinnot-Armstrong, for Aeon Many of my best friends think that some of my deeply held beliefs about important issues are obviously false or even nonsense. Sometimes, they tell me so to my face. How can we still be friends? Part of the answer is that these friends and I are philosophers, and philosophers learn how to...

From ECOJUSTICE; by Charles Hatt and Alan Andrews As heatwaves and forest fires broke out across Canada last summer, Ecojustice analyzed the “climate state of play.” Now, we’re back with an update. In the months since Ecojustice’s last analysis of the ‘climate state of play’ in Canada, the...

Cannabis was legalized in Canada this October, but unfortunately the federal government didn’t include one important piece in that legislation:  expungement of the records of a half million Canadians with criminal records for simple possession of cannabis.  These people are saddled with a criminal record for doing something...

When faced with conclusive evidence of a major threat to citizens, a true leader would do everything possible to confront it. So, what was the U.S. president’s reaction to a U.S. scientific report compiled by more than 300 scientists and endorsed by a dozen different agencies, including NASA, NOAA and the defence department,...