Honourable Minister McCallum, The West Kootenay Friends of Refugees agreed to sponsor a Syrian family of four, through the BVOR program, on Jan.6/16.  As you are probably well aware, this is an exciting commitment for dozens of people in any sponsoring community.  We have spent countless hours fundraising and preparing the community of Rossland BC to welcome this […]

Discussions on electoral reform are as persistent in Canadian politics as is their failure to achieve results. Before any decisions are contemplated on what kind of electoral system would best serve Canadian democracy, we ought to reflect on which objectives elections are to advance in a democratic society. What is a democracy?...

Dear Editor, This week, all School District #20 employees received an email from our superintendent delineating another example of our government manipulating funding formulas to extract every possible penny from Boards of Education. Our School District's 2016/2017 projected budget deficit increased from $650,000 to $950,000...

By David Suzuki More Affordable + More Jobs In the midst of controversy over B.C.’s Peace River Site C dam project, the Canadian Geothermal Energy Association released a study showing the province could get the same amount of energy more affordably from geothermal sources for about half the construction costs. Unlike Site C,...

Canadians had high expectations for change but instead of help, this budget is marked by the Liberals backtracking on their promises to tackle inequality. In particular, breaking promises to First Nation children, just like so many previous Liberal and Conservative governments “Residents of South Okanagan — West Kootenay were...

Earth’s oceans, lakes, rivers and streams are its circulatory system, providing life’s essentials for people, animals and ecosystems.  Canada has one-fifth of the world’s freshwater, a quarter of its remaining wetlands and its longest coastline.  With this abundance, it’s easy to take water for granted.  Many of our daily...

Stephen Harper, Donald Trump, and Angry Democracies “It’s an angry world but no doubt everything will go as planned.”                                                                        -- Neil Young, Angry World, from Le Noise The unavoidable comparison: Canada observes the USA When I was in secondary school and my young...

Tuesday, March 8, 2016:  Today, at Selkirk College in Castlegar, local women are being celebrated for their achievements under our relatively enlightened  culture.    Yesterday, a BC man was sentenced to 21 years in prison without any chance of parole for murdering his ex-girlfriend because he saw her studying at a university...

Medical research on the potential benefits of treatment with cannabidiol (CBD) is beginning to show results.  A presentation to the U.S. Senate Caucus on International  Narcotics Control in June of 2015, by Nora D. Volkow, Director of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, pointed out,  "Rigorous clinical studies are still...

Dear Editor, School District #20 is facing its largest budget deficit in its history ($1,350,000) in 2016/2017 and we know who is causing the problem:  Our Premier and her government. Here are a few examples of why we believe this to be a fact: BC’s Compliance Branch auditors are “clawing back" every penny of Special Education...