COLUMN: From the Hill -- Electoral Reform, and a Cycle Tour of the Riding
As summer winds down, our thoughts naturally turn to back-to-school shopping and back-to-work after a break for a good Canadian summer. I’ll be going back to Ottawa in September to resume work on all the issues before Parliament; one of the major issues we will be discussing is electoral reform. In last year’s campaign, both...
Letter: How do privately owned prisons compare with privately owned senior facilities?
To The Editor: I have been trying to increase public awareness of the poor quality of care that our seniors receive in facilities with the hope that more people will raise their voices against this outrage, to our provincial government. The Senior Advocates reports verify that the quality of care is declining due in part to...
Opinion: Electoral Reform -- What System Should We Have?
On Thursday, September 1, from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at the Fireside Inn at 1810 Eighth Avenue in Castlegar, this riding's Member of Parliament will host a Town Hall meeting on Electoral Reform. As with any Town Hall meeting on any topic, the outcomes of such a meeting are more likely to be useful if people attending have done...
COLUMN: On Inequality and Hierarchy
We deserve equal rights, though we are not equally-talented beings “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights…” I think very few readers cannot identify this ringing phrase from the American Declaration of Independence,...
COLUMN: From the Hill -- Site C and Treaty 8
On February 18th of this year a group of First Nations activists came to Ottawa to speak to the government about the Site C dam project on the Peace River. They met with myself and other MPs in the BC NDP caucus to discuss their attempts to delay construction of the dam until the concerns of their people were heard in federal...
EDITORIAL RANT: Rape Culture Sums Up Human Society, So Far
A reader recently commented privately about the recent "Rape and Consequences" article, and expressed dismay that Canada's "rape shield" legislation is not more effective at curbing defence attorneys' strategy of "whacking the victim" in court. Her comment made me think: our society's acceptance of "rape culture" is...
LETTER: Local postal workers union frustrated over flawed negotiations
Dear Editor On behalf of the women and men who process and deliver your mail and serve you at the Castlegar Post Office, I want to thank the public for your participation in the postal review and especially for your ongoing support during our difficult negotiations with Canada Post. You may remember that on July 2nd, Canada...
COLUMN: What Caribou Need to Survive
(Editor's Note: Southern BC is also home to most of the world's at-risk population of Mountain Caribou, and the comments in the column below about the need for undisturbed habitat apply equally. For a BC government document on the Mountain Caribou's need for "large tracts of old-growth forest in the Interior Wet Belt," ...
OPINION: Rape and Consequences
The Rossland Telegraph Things are beginning to look up for rape victims. Recently, a judgment by Alberta Court of Queen's Bench Justice Juliana Topolniski reversed an acquittal of a teen charged with sexual assault. The language in her ruling made it very clear that she was disappointed, to say the least, with the lower...
OPINION: Does Family Planning Have Environmental Effects?
The following article was originally posted on the Worldwatch Institute blog. Worldwatch is an independent research organization based in Washington, D.C. that works on energy, resource, and environmental issues. Ask environmental leaders where voluntary family planning fits into their organizations’ missions and goals,...
