Things to help us feel better are welcome during a season that can be hectic, stressful, demanding – and, for many, isolating and lonely. The demands of holiday entertaining can raise blood pressure levels and jangle nerves.  Soothing music, designed to be calming and healing, might help, and is guaranteed to cause fewer...

By Sharon J. Riley, for The Narwhal The fate of a massive new oilsands project is being seen as the litmus test for the future of the oilsands themselves.   There’s a huge oilsands project that’s getting a lot of attention these days — and it’s not the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. A massive new oilsands mine project...

Many years ago, I helped the parents of a seriously disturbed young person by obtaining a court order for his involuntary committal. He had been delusional, and doing things that could easily have resulted in his own death.  The parents had made one attempt on their own, but had failed to convince a court of the need to protect...

By Raynold Wonder Alorse, for The Conversation Modern society has given significant attention to the promises of the digital economy over the past decade. But it has given little attention to its negative environmental footprint. Our smartphones rely on rare earth metals, and cloud computing, data centres, artificial intelligence...

Taxes – who wants to think about taxes at this time of year?  Can’t we put it off for a few months? Relax – this isn’t about doing the dreaded tax return.  It’s about trends in taxation, and what they achieve.  Or not. And what voters can do about it.  Besides, it can take...

A Kootenay man, environmental consultant Michael Keefer who lives in Rossland and Cranbrook, was invited to go to Uzbekistan for a conference on solutions to the Aralkum Desert problem.  While there, he toured the area and took many hundreds of pictures.  When I sat down with Keefer, who told me fascinating tales ...

By Sarah Cox, for The Narwhal Behind the sheen of its CleanBC program, the province holds back hydro power to instead import cheap electricity from 12 states including Wyoming, Utah, Nebraska and Montana which generate 55 to 90 per cent of their power from coal British Columbians naturally assume they’re using clean power...

On Sunday I returned to Ottawa to prepare for the opening of the 43rd Parliament. Last week I was given my shadow cabinet roles—critic for Natural Resources and deputy critic for Transport.  I was the critic for Natural Resources for the last four years so know that file well, and issues of transport intersect natural resources...

On November 12, Veneto, Italy’s regional council was debating climate policy in its Venice offices. Minutes after a majority voted against budget amendments to address climate disruption, the chambers were inundated with water. Venice is known for flooding, but it’s getting worse, and the timing in this instance felt like a...

Symbol and revenge: being human in peace and war “The Fuhrer alone is the present and future German reality.”-- M. Heidegger “Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord.” -- Deuteronomy, 32:35 What is a symbol? Let me cite my dictionary: “an object, animate or inanimate, standing for or calling up something moral or intellectual; an...