You decide: Does social media make us lonely?
According to a recent IPSOS poll “nearly one-half of online Canadians (45%) are now visiting a social networking site at least once a week, and 30% visit daily”; source: http://www.ipsos-na.com/news-polls/pressrelease.aspx?id=5286. But what is regular use of social media doing for us? Are we more connected and thus happier? ...
The eye of the needle
In Mark's gospel we hear the story of a rich man catching up with Jesus. “I’ve lived faithfully and followed the commandments,” he says. “What more must I do to inherit eternal life?” On hearing Jesus' prescription (give away everything to the poor and follow me) he leaves in despair. He cannot untangle himself from the...
Canadian Bar Assn says Bill S-7 duplicates existing laws to combat terrorism
While committed to a safe and secure Canada, the Canadian Bar Association (CBA) says that Bill S-7, Criminal Code, Canada Evidence Act and Security of Information Act amendments (Combating Terrorism Act) would not provide any new tools to combat terrorist offences. “Instead,” says Paul Calarco, member of the CBA’s National ...
Yes, Companies Are Harvesting – and Selling – Your Facebook Profile
by Lois Beckett: Yesterday, we got a rare look at how information on your public social media profiles—including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn—is being harvested and resold by large consumer data companies. Responding to a congressional query, nine data companies provided answers to a detailed set of questions about what kinds of information they collect about […]
Lockdown drills apart of the modern school experience
During a normal school day at Christina Lake Elementary, the quiet chatter of children reciting their multiplication tables, working on group projects and reading out loud filters out of the classrooms and into the halls. Then a secret signal sounds. Not the usual fierce fire alarm, but something new. And within seconds the school falls […]
Dead animals and other delights being dumped illegally down Boundary roads
Some might say it is laziness, others may want to blame it on the tipping fees at the dump or transfer station, but the reality is people like to dump their compostable lawn waste, old appliances and even animal carcasses down the roads less travelled in the Boundary. Karen Mehmal, who operates a ranch and […]
Rick Mercer: “My Canada includes weird scientists who are devoted to keeping our water clean”
Last night on ‘The Rick Mercer Report,’ Canadian icon Rick Mercer put the Harper Government, “previously known as the Government of Canada,” to task over the termination of the Experimental Lakes Area (ELA). In one of his classic rants, Mercer tried to make sense of the senseless closure of the ELA, which will only save the...
COMMENT: Conservative ominous omnibus bills – The art of stealing power from democracy
Alex Atamanenko, MP (BC Southern Interior) is slamming the Conservative government’s second mammoth Omnibus Budget Bill this year which amends over 40 separate Acts, guts a series of commissions that protect the public interest and concentrates even more power in Ministers’ hands. The BC MP denounced the government’s measures...
Time to chill-out in Lillooet municipal politics?
The political climate in Lillooet is beginning to resemble a Quentin Tarantino movie and if it continues down the same path it’s not – from a cinematic perspective – going to end much differently than most of his films. In May, IntegrityBC called on the provincial government to appoint a conciliator in Lillooet, since then ...
Major celebrities add their support to Defend Our Coast mass sit-in
Well known entertainers from Canada and the United States, including Mark Ruffalo, Daryl Hannah, Michael Moore, Ellen Page, Pamela Anderson, Peter Keleghan and Tantoo Cardinal have added their names to the growing number of supporters of the Defend Our Coast mass sit-in on October 22nd in Victoria, B.C. to oppose tar sands ...
