Editorial: Bill C-365 is a time-wasting distraction
Conservative Member of Parliament Mel Arnold wants to make theft of firefighting equipment, which theft causes "actual danger to life," a specific Criminal Code offense with a maximum penalty of imprisonment for life. That's the same maximum penalty as mischief causing actual danger to life. Anyone who was evacuated from...
COLUMN: Bye bye bugs -- is this the new silent spring?
Masses of monarch butterflies fluttering across Toronto’s waterfront. Painted ladies (often mistaken for monarchs) descending on Montreal. Combined with the hottest September ever recorded in the Great Lakes region, it’s been a strange time in Eastern Canada. We should savour the joys of these captivating critters while we ...
COLUMN: Arc of the Cognizant ― Self, History, Meaning, and Where Humanity Goes From Here
“I cheat and I lie, I do what I have to do, to get by — But I know what is wrong and I know what is right — And I die for the truth, in my secret life.” -- Leonard Cohen, In my secret life Interiority and Spirituality The one place we all hold most private, most wholly belonging to our selves, is the inside of our minds, our...
OP/ED: When fear finds you ... fight back
Are we learning anything? Are we trying to solve underlying problems? It's what I've been thinking about as the rinse and repeat cycle of terrorism and mass shootings continues. So many good, innocent people lost. Dreams and legacy unrealized. I don't think it's good enough to just report it anymore with sense of shock, or ...
COLUMN: A Bill to improve the Species at Risk Act
Last Friday, I tabled my Private Members Bill, C-363, in the House of Commons. This bill would patch a large loophole in the Species at Risk Act, or SARA, that has allowed previous governments to wilfully ignore scientific advice as to which species need protection in Canada. SARA is designed to be transparent and timely. ...
COLUMN: The other reasons for rising ICBC rates -- what we weren't told
The Insurance Corporation of British Columbia which was, only a decade ago, a financially sound crown corporation, is on the ropes today. What happened? The information ICBC offers on its “Rate Pressures” web page speaks of “significant external pressures on ICBC’s insurance rates”. From 2014 to 2016 the number of crashes...
Letters: Discarded bags of dog poop proliferating near trails
We have been increasingly distressed by the many, many bags of dog feces neatly bagged and thrown on the mining school road and on out the trails and presumably all over Rossland. The bears are hungry now and dog feces are rich in nutrients, and ugly as this photo is, people need to know that they are threatening the ...
COLUMN: Finance committee chair Wayne Easter defends the privileged, undermines modest tax reforms
What is it about progressive politicians going to Ottawa only to end up as arrogant and nasty conservatives? My old friend Pam Wallin was one of the kindest people I knew in Regina in the 1970s when she was a member of the Waffle group in the NDP. She turned into one of the nastiest Conservative senators. And the last encounter...
B.C.'s Wild West reputation laid to rest — NOT!
The headlines should have read “B.C.'s Wild West reputation laid to rest.” Instead, British Columbians woke up to “Taxpayers would give millions to political parties in NDP plan,” all thanks to an ill-advised decision to slide two unexpected provisions into the government's campaign finance reform package: a transitional...
Site C or No Site C — Public hearing Tuesday in Nelson
British Columbians are facing a crucial test in the coming weeks – reaching an opinion on the planned Site C dam. Currently estimated to cost $8.8 billion, the hydroelectric dam on the Peace River is the single most expensive public infrastructure project ever proposed in B.C. history. Originally put forward along with a...
