Students from Seven Summits Centre for Learning are doing their part to increase ecosystem health in the Kootenays. According to the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, invasive species are the second greatest threat to biodiversity, after habitat loss.  Invasive species are plants, animals, and pathogens that...

Don’t be fooled.  Don’t give out any information on the phone to anyone who calls up and claims to represent your credit card company.  Anyone from your credit card compoany does  NOT need you to give them any information about you or your card; they would already have what they need on file.  Anyone who […]

As leaves change colour and drop from trees, and a chill in the air signals the approach of winter, many of us are thinking of the fall harvest and hearty soups and dishes that will soon warm our bellies. Not everyone is lucky enough to enjoy such thoughts. About four million Canadians — including more than a million children...

It's amazing what we gradually accept as normal -- even admirable -- in how we treat each other in Canada. Practices that were once seen as a repugnant surrender to government indifference, like food banks, are now virtually celebrated as a high point of citizen engagement and promoted as such by our public broadcaster once...

I’ve often thought politicians inhabit a parallel universe. Maybe it’s just widespread cognitive dissonance, coupled with a lack of imagination, that compels them to engage in so much contradictory behaviour. Trying to appease so many varying interests isn’t easy. Rather than focusing on short-term economic and corporate...

The Minister of Fisheries and Oceans is breaking the law by not testing B.C. farmed salmon for a virus that has spread like wildfire in Norway and Chile, before allowing them to be transferred into open-net ocean pens alongside wild fish. “According to federal fisheries laws, the Minister of Fisheries and Oceans is required...

Are you interested to learn about environmental activities and projects happening in Rossland and how you can get involved?  Come to the Annual General Meeting for the Rossland Society for Environmental Action (RSEA) on Tuesday, October 25, to hear about RSEA’s recent successes,  plans for the future and to provide input on...

Here is Part II of this lengthy article.  To review Part I, click on this link. The 60’s Generation and political change: No revolution The question again puts my focus on the effects of the ‘60’s on culture. We heard then about a Generation Gap. Parents and their boomer children were divided by age, and age determined one’s...

There will many announcements and pronouncements for and against the federal government’s approval of the Petronas LNG project if, in view of the 190 pre-conditions, approval is the appropriate term. What aroused my curiosity was the identity of developer: who is Petronas? Petronasis an oil and gas giant created a little over...

How much do you pay for BC Medical Services Plan (MSP)?  This year, if you're a single person who earned $21,900 (or so) last year ("adjusted net income"), you'll pay nothing  -- as long as you applied for Premium Assistance.  But if you're a couple, and you and your spouse earned a total of $30,001 last year, then this year...