By Holly Clermont, from The Conversation When my kids were little, we would play a game during the TV commercials. What was the main message, I would ask. To whom was it targeted? Did you find it convincing? Why or why not? I hoped this would encourage critical thinking, build some awareness of unscrupulous messaging and wrest...

By Ben Parfitt, in The Narwhal Provincial investigators found companies weren’t fully compliant with regulations 70 per cent of the time in the five years since a digital database of shipments was replaced with paper files shoved in cardboard boxes. B.C. rarely inspects hazardous waste handlers even though the province knows...

Some people have land that can grow crops, but they don’t want to farm; others want to farm and can’t find land. The solution – a program that matches people who want to farm with those who have land available to lease, and want it to stay in production or start producing crops. It's called the BC Land Matching Program (BCLMP)....

As natural environments and geographies shape language, so too does language shape the way we see nature and, subsequently, the impacts we have on the lands and waters that surround us.   Western culture and the English language primarily view nature as something owned by humans that can be exploited. That’s why Canadian...

By Edward Xie and Danyaal Raza, from the Broadbent Institute Blog page People are struggling. As front-line workers in emergency rooms, isolation shelters and clinics, we see how the COVID-19 pandemic has devastated health and livelihoods. We’ve witnessed the toll that the last several months has taken on workers, families,...

“... Thinking your mind was my own, in a dream -- What would you wonder and how would it seem? Living in castles a bit at a time, the King started laughing and talking in rhyme. Singing words, words... between the lines of age.”   Neil Young, “Words,” Harvest   “Though it all may be One / in the Higher Eye. Down here where ...

By Bill Bogart, for The Conversation A highly regarded British think tank focused on reforming drug laws thinks Canada’s legalization and regulation of cannabis has gone well. Transform has been monitoring Canadian reform efforts for some time, and advised the Canadian government and some provinces on how to develop regulations...

During and after his 2016 campaign, the current U.S. president promised to make coal great again. He also claimed climate change was a hoax, so it’s no surprise that he’d promote a cheap, outdated, polluting, climate-altering fuel even as cleaner alternatives continued to become more efficient and cost-effective. Since then,...

During a pandemic crisis, and a climate change crisis, and a plastics pollution crisis, it may seem trivial to be concerned about the names of a couple of hockey teams. But is it, really?  We’re talking about the Rossland Senior Warriors.  The logo is a well-designed stylized drawing of an Indigenous guy with some feathers ...

Diversity is strength. That’s true in nature and human affairs. But recent painful events have shown society has yet to grasp this. The appalling deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Toronto’s Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Chantel Moore from Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation and many others — all at the hands of those tasked to serve...