To the leaders of my province, I am a 34-year-old farmer in the Southern Interior working with my wife and son to build a business growing and selling food.   We do not have the finances to own farmland, so we operate entirely on leased parcels. Because large agribusiness and government subsidies to the industrial food system...

Colonies and Nations Two things happening in Canada now must move one to ask why Canada is. Immigration of alien cultures here is one, and Quebec sovereignty is the other, reason to ask: Why is there a jurisdiction, this political entity, called “Canada”? The historical answer comes most readily to me, with my background as...

A group of Selkirk College Recreation, Fish and Wildlife Program students welcomed spring by spending a pair of frigid nights in the West Kootenay backcountry. As part of an annual field trip for the program, 10 students and two instructors spent March 20 and 21 in the Selkirk Wilderness Ski tenure near Meadow Creek in […]

Like all of you, teachers only want the best for their students. Despite bargaining for more than a year with the government there has been little progress made at the negotiating table. We have been waiting, very patiently, for the government to provide the necessary funding required for us to move forward in achieving a...

The Kootenay Literacy Competition (KLC) awards were handed on March 14 in Nelson. Of the award winners was a local resident. Leslie Davidson from Grand Forks won in the Adult Creative Non-Fiction category, along with Graham Kenyon of Rossland. Davidson won for her short story “Hold On.” The winners were given their awards at...

This open letter to Mayor Brian Taylor was submitted by Grand Forks resident Julia Butler.  Dear Mayor Taylor At the council meeting on March 10, I presented council with a letter from Coralee Oakes, Minister of Community, Sport and Cultural Development stating, “I assure you that the Province of British Columbia does not...

Columbia Basin Trust’s new Environment Strategic Plan is now completed and will guide the Trust’s water and environment initiatives from 2014 to 2019. It sets goals in five areas: water, ecosystems, climate change, environmental education, and helping to strengthen organizations that focus on the environment. The plan is now...

In 2012, readers were introduced to Bern Fortin in Deryn Collier’s breakout novel, CONFINED SPACE, which was nominated for an Arthur Ellis Award and was the One Book One Kootenay selection for 2013. The second in the series, OPEN SECRET, hits bookstore shelves next week, and to celebrate Bern’s return, fans can attend several...

According to BC Hydro, in Earth Hour 2014 their customers accrued less than half the savings achieved in 2013. Is this because the lights people turned off were more efficient lights or is it because fewer lights were turned off? Maybe it’s a combination of both; however, it’s my belief that climate change has almost disappeared...

April is National Poetry Month and Selkirk College writing instructor Almeda Glenn Miller and Business Administration student Melissa McCready are combining efforts to create a delicious metaphor. Miller is currently promoting her new book, a volume of poetry titled Begin with the Corners. On Friday night at Nelson’s Kootenay...