It’s just under a year that Search and Rescue volunteer Sheilah Sweatman went out on a “recovery mission” near Nelson, B.C. only to have her life ripped away.This past weekend two more female search and rescue volunteers lost their lives in a “training mission” near Skookumchuck Rapids just outside of Halfmoon Bay, B.C. What...

Anyone who thought Dan Albas’ private member’s bill was going to open the floodgates to cheap cross-border shopping for wine should think again. When Albas’s Bill C-311 is finally passed, the provinces will experience an immediate shortfall in revenue. Indeed, John Skinner, the owner of Painted Rock Winery in Penticton is...

All of the celebrations surrounding SunFest recently have me thinking about small-town dynamics. I am definitely a small-town girl through and through. I love the community support, the sense of safety, and being able to walk down the main drag and wave at a dozen people I know as they drive by. Don’t get me […]

The words that title my piece are biblical and mean, roughly, “number, number, weight, division.” They are apt to this moment. I believe that numbers, judgment, and a state of feeling divided, are clues to our malaise as Canadians right now. To say that Stephen Harper divides Canadians like no other prime minister before him...

BC’s Special Committee on Cosmetic Pesticides reportrecommended against a ban on the sale and use of common pesticides for lawns and gardens. Prevent Cancer Nowhas reviewed the BC report. Its conclusions are based on blind faith in Health Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA). We believe that faith, and the...

Shouldn’t the economy be working for all of us by now? After all, we’ve been swallowing the prescription of the world’s financial leaders since the ‘80s, yet our quality of life is going down. We see the harsh results everywhere. People around the world, including the students in Quebec, are courageously defending their beliefs...

IntegrityBC has called on the B.C. Liberal party to stop behaving as though B.C. charities are a private piggybank to help beef up party coffers, this after Elections BC told the party to return a 2011 donation from the Vancouver Art Gallery Association.  It was  the second time in as many months that Elections BC has had to...

“We become civilized only by knowing what to refrain from doing.” – Nassim Taleb We have been warned. The Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline will change Canada as we know it; it is a path to a future Canada that will be an undemocratic petro state. That was the message delivered Wednesday (May 30) by award-winning author...

This was published at Foreign Policy. There are some, perhaps many, Syrians who detest their government and are entirely aware of its treasonous nature — yet wish for the demonstrations and the guerrilla actions of the Free Syrian Army (FSA) to stop and for President Bashar al-Assad’s regime to regain control as soon as...

Ahhhh, spring is now, finally, here. It’s a time of year when thoughts turn to love …which makes me giggle now, as I look at my husband. He’s possibly the last guy in the world I ever would have pictured myself with, no matter how carried away I was with Spring Fever, and I am […]