Dear Laurie Charlton, I write in response to your recent condemnation of council's process in hiring our new CAO/CFO. I've added some headings to break things up. Yup, council screwed upI agree. Council made a big mistake when they decided to keep CAO Victor Kumar's resignation confidential, limited their job search to a...

“The strong do what they will, the weak do as they must.”  - Thucydides, c. 405 BCE, viewing Greek wars. I teach a history course entitled “Chosen Peoples”: ancient Israelites, pagans and Christians are the topic. With synchronistic wonder, a crisis has come upon us in the Middle East involving Iran/Persia and Israel/Judah....

September – the month that summer comes to a screeching halt, kids go back to school, zucchinis take over the world, and Christmas commercials begin to play on T.V. I have never been a real ‘September fan’ … to me, it has always represented a bleak, slippery slope leading to a dark pit of wintery […]

Reading letters to the editor and speaking with individuals here and there in our communities has led me to understand that convincing some people that humans have a part in climate change is about as likely as convincing others that our current MP is doing a good job, or that our MLA belongs to the right party. I've had the...

IntegrityBC launched an online petition on Sunday calling on the B.C. government to reconsider its decision not to recall the legislature next month. IntegrityBC noted that Ontario's MPPs are already back in session. In October, they'll be joined by MLAs in Alberta and Saskatchewan. In November, MLAs in Newfoundland and...

I live on a sailboat. My “backyard” is Georgia and Johnstone Straits. And, yes, I am a NIMBY. To anyone who wants to transport Alberta’s tar sands oil through BC’s pristine wilderness to load onto tankers, I say: Not In My Backyard. We all know what the dire environmental consequences will be if several hundred oil tankers ...

Nicolas Peissel is a self-described “methodical” person. The 35-year-old Montrealer inherited his sea-faring skills honestly, having grown up on a farm where his parents spent the better part of 10 years building a sailboat to live out their dreams. A decade of work as a shipwright gave Nicolas the opportunity to sail all sorts of […]

September 17, 2012 – As Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu calls "for the US to establish a firm "red line" that Iran's nuclear program can't cross without risking a military response," and the West is marched ever closer to war with the Islamic Republic based on tired and repeated lies, three important points must be […]

Ever since the BC Liberal government surprised residents of BC’s Kootenays with its March 20, 2012 approval for the controversial Jumbo Glacier Resort, people have been asking: Why now? After all, the Jumbo Resort proposal has been around since 1989 and has been successfully opposed by local people for more than twenty years....

With Parliament back in full swing I would like to reflect a bit on the 2011 general election which for several reasons was quite historic. The 41st Parliament obviously changed our party by thrusting us into the role of Official Opposition for the first time, but it also changed the face of the House of Commons, by making ...