Global warming isn’t a partisan issue — or it shouldn’t be. The many experts issuing dire warnings about the implications of climate disruption work under political systems ranging from liberal democracies to autocratic dictatorships, for institutions including the U.S. Department of Defense, World Bank, International Monetary...

Introduction: last year of our Second twenty-first-century Decade (!) Year-end and year-start reviews can be an occasion for melancholy or celebration, and yet I personally feel neither. Mostly I feel astounded to find myself 19 years into the twenty-first century, and the third millennium, when it seems not so long ago that the pregnant year […]

We’ve heard a lot in the news lately about the challenges facing the oil sector, but much less about the serious problems confronting another natural resource industry—forestry. Two years ago, the United States placed significant import tariffs on softwood lumber.  Those illegal tariffs are still in place, yet we hear almost...

Dear Editor:  We just had a direct democracy referendum on the issue of electoral reform. How much more democractic (the will of the people)  can  we get.  The issuewas decided by the plebians  not the aristocracy, not judges, not political parties and not politicians. There is no way the Canadian people are going to have...

In this coldest time of the year, we often think of the people in our area who are homeless.  Some have ended up on the streets and in rough camps because of mental health issues, addictions, or a combination of the two.  Some are children fleeing abusive parents or women fleeing abusive spouses; others have become disabled. ...

Canadians have not managed to forge a route to electoral reform yet, federally or provincially – despite at least 17 reports over the years, starting in 1923, all of which have recommended some form of proportional representation.  For a list, with brief explanations and the outcomes, click this link.  When BC voters were...

It's that time of year again -- to propose a few New Year's resolutions for B.C.'s political class and this year there's a bit of a theme to the resolutions: transparency. No ill can come from it and it will fit into most holiday budgets to boot. First up: allow individuals who are the subject of an inquiry, or investigation,...

The future of development in Alberta’s oilsands lies in underground, steam-assisted operations that represent some of the country’s fastest growing greenhouse gas emissions. These projects have never been subject to federal environmental reviews and that’s not expected to change with Ottawa’s new-and-improved assessment rules....

By Walter Sinnot-Armstrong, for Aeon Many of my best friends think that some of my deeply held beliefs about important issues are obviously false or even nonsense. Sometimes, they tell me so to my face. How can we still be friends? Part of the answer is that these friends and I are philosophers, and philosophers learn how to...

From ECOJUSTICE; by Charles Hatt and Alan Andrews As heatwaves and forest fires broke out across Canada last summer, Ecojustice analyzed the “climate state of play.” Now, we’re back with an update. In the months since Ecojustice’s last analysis of the ‘climate state of play’ in Canada, the...