Well, quite the day was Tuesday. While my wife Carolyn was in Kentucky for the famous Derby, my daughter Casey and I were in a bit of a track meet ourselves. As everyone knows by now, one of our llamas got out of her enclosure and went for a sight seeing tour of Ootischenia and Castlegar. While it has been written that Cocoa...

Anyone made uneasy by the temporary closure of Castlegar’s hospital in February and the lack of ambulance coverage in Castlegar over the holidays is going to be delighted with this latest bombshell from B.C. Ambulance Services (BCAS) – I was so horrified by what I learned here that I feel obligated to write about it […]

Ed Note: The following is a press release issued by the B.C. Teachers’ Federation A decisive 73 per cent of teachers have voted in favour of a resistance strategy to oppose Bill 22, the controversial Education Improvement Act.  In a province-wide vote conducted April 17–19, a total of 21,625 teachers voted yes and 7,846 voted […]

Despite strong opposition from conservation organizations, the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) has granted eco-certification to Nova Scotia’s swordfish longline fishery which is responsible for killing 35,000 sharks and 200-500 endangered sea turtles each year as ‘bycatch’. According to yesterday’s announcement by the MSC,...

Dear Rick Hansen: I hope that during your next 25 years of raising money for spinal cord research (SCR) we will see the end of inhumane, scientifically fallacious spinal cord experiments on animals. It was 25 years ago when Lifeforce, a Vancouver based ecology and animal rights organization, gave you extensive data about the failure […]

Southern Interior MP Alex Atamanenko says he was dismayed to hear the news that the Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) office in Kelowna is slated for closure earlier today. “The Conservatives are dismantling Canada piece by piece,” he said. “This will result in a critical reduction in services related to citizenship and immigration matters for […]

First you shut down an industry then you build it back up with subsidies. Sound like Pierre Trudeau? Think again. This is Conservative MP Dan Albas we’re talking about. Albas is taking the credit for a whopping $240,000 handout from the federal government to a community group who’re setting up a mobile abattoir in the Grand Forks area. […]

“Our airport is better.” “No, OUR airport is better.” “You’re not closing OUR school.” “Well, you’re sure not closing OURS. So there.” Every time I try to imagine how dialogue between Castlegar and Trail must sound to ministry officials at both the provincial and federal levels, I can almost hear the banjos playing in the […]

Did you know that being a tradesperson may make you eligible for certain deductions? Some of these include Deduction for tools. You may be able to deduct the cost of eligible tools you bought in 2011 to earn employment income as a tradesperson (including apprentice mechanics). This cost includes any GST and provincial sales...

Bob Dylan wrote the lyrics; Peter, Paul and Mary recorded it in the early 1960s and I, coming of age as a young civil rights supporter and believer,  always found the song "Blowin' In The Wind" as evocative, emotional and energizing as the fight for equality and social justice took hold in the U.S. and Canada, including the...