Question: Do Intersection Safety Cameras improve road safety in British Columbia, or are they simply another way for governments to collect revenue? Answer: Research from British Columbia and other jurisdictions indicates that automated enforcement reduces red-light violations, excessive speeding and serious intersection crashes. Whether the current system should do more to identify repeat offenders and hold them […]

It’s not utopian to envision a Canada with less pollution, lower household costs and a smaller gap between rich and poor. We have the technology, knowledge and skilled workforce to make it happen — and we’re seeing effective solutions employed worldwide. But time is running out, and consequences are mounting: record heat killing thousands; extreme […]

This Arc chases a theme I have been circling in various previous columns under different subject heads. Introduction: inner world, outer world, my world, your world – and The World. A person’s inner life and the World humans all live in might not be one Reality, a single state that we share. It was once […]

 An Alberta school chat listed girls to assault. The response shows Canada still has a rape culture problem By Nicolette Little, Adjunct Assistant Professor, Media and Technology Studies, University of Alberta  Gender-based violence researchers, feminists and activists use the term “rape culture” to describe a society where violence against women, girls and gender-diverse people is normalized, […]

Introduction: a liminal period of history Back in 2022, I wrote four chapters of connected Arcs (#182 to 185) on the subject of Our Liminal Time. One must understand what liminal means. Here is a good recent short essay on this word. https://www.verywellmind.com/the-impact-of-liminal-space-on-your-mental-health-5204371 I am returning to the subject now. The Tarot card for this […]

I had a great time last weekend at Sunfest in Castlegar and at Cherryville Days. This year’s theme for Cherryville Days was motorcycles. Graduation season has begun in the Kootenays. Congratulations to all our graduates, especially to the young folk walking across the stage over the next week at Stanley Humphries Secondary, J Lloyd Crowe Secondary, Kootenay-Columbia Learning […]

The climate crisis is not simply an isolated technological challenge. It’s part of a much larger “polycrisis.” After all, everything is interconnected. The magnitude of this “system disequilibrium,” as Canadian author, social scientist and Cascade Institute executive director Thomas Homer-Dixon calls it, can cause a sense of hopelessness, but it is resolvable — with major […]

 Rossland’s Mayor, Andy Morel, has added his signature to a letter signed by at least 300 other municipal leaders across the nation, urging Canada’s federal government to undertake a suite of actions intended to improve the country and our climate efforts.  The letter is part of a campaign by a large group of municipal leaders […]

We’re in the heart of spring celebration season across British Columbia. Communities large and small are gathering together to celebrate the places they call home. In Kootenay-Monashee, I’ve recently had the pleasure of attending Silver City Days in City of Trail and Beaver Valley May Days in Village of Fruitvale and I’m looking forward to soon attending upcoming events […]

The amount of traffic law enforcement considered “enough” is a major point of debate in British Columbia, but safety experts generally agree that current enforcement levels are not high enough to curb the rising trend of bad driving. There is no single numerical standard for “enough” enforcement. Instead, traffic safety metrics rely on outcomes. According […]