OP/ED: MP slams Tory closure of controversial crime bill
The Conservatives are hiding from opposition scrutiny by invoking closure to limit the Justice Committee’s debate on the government’s controversial omnibus crime bill, C-10, cccording to Alex Atamanenko, MP for BC Southern Interior. “This is just the latest of seven examples this session where Stephen Harper’s Conservatives have moved to bypass parliamentary work and prevent […]
Stephen Harper’s social engineering
The Harper government’s announcement that it will change the laws regarding capital gains taxes to encourage more charitable giving strikes an ominous note for the country’s political culture. Harper is mimicking the Conservatives in Britain who are trying to pull the same trick with what they call the Big Society initiative...
OP/ED: MP says trade agreements like NAFTA hurting B.C. economy
The B.C. economy is closely tied in with various trade agreements such as NAFTA, the Agreement on International Trade and the New West Partnership Trade Agreement (NWTA) between BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan which replaces the Trade Investment and Labour Mobility Agreement (TILMA). There is concern by those who represent workers that these agreements interfere with […]
Greenpeace returns ocean destruction to Canadian tuna giant Clover Leaf
Greenpeace activists visited Clover Leaf Seafoods’ Canadian headquarters this morning to return cases of the company’s canned tuna products and deliver a platter of simulated marine life remains, representing the wasteful fisheries the company sources from. “Canadian consumers deserve better than Clover Leaf’s canned ocean ...
Behind closed doors: CETA
Our federal government is negotiating a free trade agreement with the European Union (CETA). This is an all encompassing agreement that covers labour standards, the environment and the ability of provincial and local governments to conduct business. Unfortunately, the negotiations are taking place behind closed doors – so CETA is not on most people’s radar. […]
Exporting ourselves to death
“The unbroken violation of nature in Canada, the economy founded on the trapping and mutilating of animals, the destroying of trees, the drying up of rivers and the polluting of lakes, began inspiring guilt and uneasiness long before the contemporary ecology movement.” – Northrop Frye, National Consciousness in Canadian Culture Infinite growth on a […]
Kudos to Harper for shipbuilding methodology
It’s as much a tradition as Hockey Night in Canada: awarding federal contracts on the basis of political seats, powerful clout and, in essence, attempts to bribe voters. I saw that personally while covering Parliament Hill, when Conservative Prime Minister Brian Mulroney overruled all technical assessments and recommendations...
Occupy: What can it teach the left?
The occupy movement has been a like a powerful cleansing wind blowing over the political landscape – exposing not just the obscenely rich, and criminally irresponsible political elite, but almost every other political player too: cowardly liberals, cautious social democrats, the strangely silenced churches, social movements...
COMMENT: The costs of being aboriginal in BC
Being First Nations in BC comes at too high a price. We all know the statistics: dismal success at (white) school; endemic poverty on and off reserve; half the prison population despite being only three percent of the Canadian population; high incidence of sexual abuse; the too high a percentage of children in care; high...
ANALYSIS: What is the Keystone XL Pipeline — and why is it so controversial?
By Lois Beckett in ProPublica.By the end of this year, the State Department will decide whether to give a Canadian company permission to construct a 1,700-mile, $7 billion pipeline that would transport crude oil from Canada to refineries in Texas. The project has sparked major environmental concerns, particularly in Nebraska,...
