COLUMN: Renewable Communities Produce Energy, Jobs and Hope
Anishinaabe economist and writer Winona LaDuke identifies two types of economies, grounded in different ways of seeing. Speaking in Vancouver recently, she characterized one as an “extreme extractive economy” fed by exploitation of people and nature. The second is a “regenerative economy” based on an understanding of the land...
Column: PART II -- Human nature: a meditation on politics and history
(Part One ended with this paragraph: On the political right and left, fascists and communists have similarly tried to impose social engineering on the peoples they ruled. But the fascist type of right-wing ideologues are modernists, not traditional conservatives.) Part Two: It is time to consider conservatism. Conservatives:...
COLUMN: Human Nature: a meditation on politics and history
“[A]s individuals express their life, so they are. Hence what individuals are depends on the material conditions of their production... History involves 'a continuous transformation of human nature'... '[there is] human nature in general, and then human nature as modified in each historical epoch' ”...
Op/Ed: Site C work stoppage: a First nations view
Editor's Note: This is a press release from the Union of BC Indian Chiefs. The Treaty 8 First Nations taking the Site C project to court have just secured a major work stoppage in the lead-up to a court injunction application set to be heard this summer. On January 15th, the West Moberly and Prophet River First Nations filed...
Editorial Musings: Some good news from Teck. And other things to consider.
It’s wonderful to be able to pass on some good news, especially about such a vital part of our region. Teck Trail Operations is full of good people and it does an amazing amount of social and economic good in all our local communities. Teck Trail Operations has issued a press release assuring us that their operations will...
MP speaks to BC/Alberta angst
Pipeline politics have been in the news a lot over the past couple of weeks, as British Columbia and Alberta square off over Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain expansion project. Both provincial governments are doing exactly what they promised to do when elected, so their positions are not surprising. But where is the federal ...
Editorial: Fingerprints, security, and 'Big Brother'
A recent news item explained that a Vancouver doctor is upset that he was forced to undergo fingerprinting to prove that he was not a sex offender who had the same (or similar) name. He is quoted as asking, “Why are we being pulled aside as if we were criminals?” Well, there’s the matter of having the same name as a criminal. ...
COLUMN: We can't afford to ignore climate change
Contrary to a common perception, ignoring climate change won’t make it disappear. Global research going back to 1824 in fields ranging through physics, oceanography, biology and geology have confirmed human activity — mainly burning fossil fuels, raising livestock and destroying carbon sinks like forests and wetlands — is...
OP/ED: BC Poverty Reduction Coalition says minimum wage hikes inadequate
The BC government’s announcement to increase the minimum wage to $15/hour is good news for low-wage workers in BC but the long timeline will continue to keep workers in poverty for too long. Following the recommendations from the first Fair Wages Commission report, the government will increase the minimum wage incrementally...
From the Hill: Cannings' Bill C-354 passes at second reading
Yesterday MP Richard Cannings’ Bill C-354 an Act to amend the Department of Public Works and Government Services Act, (Use of Wood) passed its first vote at second reading. The bill will now be sent to the House of Commons Standing Committee on Natural Resources for review. Bill C-354 proposes to require the federal government...
