The past year has been an eventful one. In January the Haiti earthquake hit. My staff and I worked for days with Foreign Affairs, a School District and Mt. Sentinel School of South Slocan to safely locate, press for transportation assistance, and rescue a class of high school students caught in Haiti. In February, […]

By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily With the latest unemployment figures painting a bleak picture of the province, the situation appears equally dismal in the Kootenay region. The latest figures from Statistics Canada indicate the unemployment rate reached 7.6 per cent in December, up from 6.9 per cent in November — with the rate at […]

Organized crime has hit the West Kootenay, according to Nakusp RCMP. The bust of a drug dealer in the town, located 147 kilometres north of Nelson at the edge of the Slocan Valley, shows how a dealer allegedly ran a business across the street from an elementary school, Nakusp RCMP said. A 34-year-old man has […]

A further measure of relief from residential property taxes for rural West Kootenay homeowners takes effect in 2011, with the start of the Northern and Rural Area Homeowner Benefit. This benefit provides up to $200 for homeowners living outside of the Capital, Greater Vancouver and Fraser Valley regional districts, such as those residing in the […]

PART II: This past year, my staff and I had the privilege of assisting constituents faced with federal bureaucratic problems – unfair treatment, misinterpretations or just plain despair at not seeing any hope in their particular plight.  For the most part, I find the federal public service is exceptionally professional, knowledgeable and helpful, and should not be […]

I took it upon myself to start a detox last week. Just a short one, three days. I know what you’re all thinking: A detox around Christmas? You’re nuts! But truthfully, I eat fairly healthy most of the time, and I’m not one to indulge on holiday treats regardless. I had high hopes. This would be easy! But as […]

Selkirk College’s Mir Centre for Peace will be opening its doors to the general public on a weekly basis starting January 2011 to increase awareness of the Centre and assure participation in events hosted by the Peace Café. A display entitled 1000 PeaceWomen Across the Globe will be available for onlookers to view and Peace […]

One of the hallmarks of a democratic state is its commitment to free, public and political expression. Indeed, no society can call itself truly democratic if it does not guarantee its citizens the inalienable rights to gather, communicate their opinion and demonstrate their support for or against any political position they wish. If these assertions […]

A new sledding season has begun and British Columbia is the perfect place for outdoor winter fun, but Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson  ants to remind everyone that B.C.'s backcountry can be a dangerous place for riders who don't follow the rules. Some snowmobilers are using Forest Service roads and putting...

In his essay “Propaganda and Demotic Speech” (1944) George Orwell lamented “the bloodless dialect of Government” and the “inflated bombastic style” with which newspapers report on governments. Orwell held out the hope that “someday we may have a genuinely democratic government, a government which will want to tell people what is happening, and what must […]