Human beings should be treasured. Material is to be used. Our crises now all originate from one source – things are treasured, people are used. Very little commentary is posted after my columns. I do wonder if I am writing into a vacuum sometimes. But then, I have felt the same over a dozen years of broadcasting a program on...

The BC budget for 2013 fails women and children right here in the Kootenays, according to Castlegar and District Community Service Society’s Mary DeVan. DeVan issued the following press release panning the province’s lack of action in responding to violence against women and children: The 2013 BC budget was released yesterday, and there are no […]

First, let me acknowledge that this is a very challenging and demanding task and I believe the Electoral Boundary Commission has overall worked hard to try to come up with something manageable in an environment where there will always be disagreement and inevitable disappointment. I will also go on record in suggesting my...

Reports about the behaviour of some Senators have once again unleashed a flurry of demands to either abandon or at least reform that venerable institution. Defenders refer to the Senate as the “Chamber of Sober Second Thought.” It is not how the Constitution defines it, although sobriety may have been a consideration in the...

Submitted by Grace McGregor, Regional District Kootenay Boundary Area C Director It has been my pleasure for the past four years to be involved in discussions with other elected officials, academics and numerous community leaders throughout BC in the creation of “The Rural BC Project.”  The article that follows is an explanation...

As Rossland revisits the idea of a 21st century carshare, Allyson Kenning offers a timely look back at an old idea that sounds strangely new. -ed. In the summer of...um, 1992 (I’m dating myself here!), I was freshly out of highschool and not sure what to do with myself, so I started applying for jobs. A steam laundry in...

The West’s hypocrisy and oil-greed are coming home to roost with a vengeance in Libya as the Arab spring in that country turns into a nightmarish winter characterized by armed gangs, economic collapse, a decline in services by an incompetent government and increasing political domination by radical Islamists. Whether or not...

They're off. The start to B.C.'s official pre-campaign period for the 2013 election campaign is well underway.    Day one of the pre-campaign would have been an easy miss, coming as it did on the same day a meteor crashed to earth and the Canucks fell to the Dallas Stars.    Heck, Elections BC didn't even post a news release...

Canada now has an Ambassador of Religious Freedom. By definition the basis of religion is in the realm of metaphysics, but metaphysics surely cannot be the focus for our newest Ambassador. How does our federal government define religion? Are Taoism and Confucianism religions, or are they an amalgam of spirituality, ethics and...

Caution: This columm not for the overly lady-like or prudish individual.             After a holiday season filled with copious amounts of chocolate, wine, carbs, multiple turkey dinners, and more chocolate and wine, I decided to take on a new years’ resolution in hopes of starting my year out right. And because I was feeling particularly masochistic, […]