The hurt has begun: BC consumers are now being hit with a higher sales tax (HST) almost every where they turn.  And as a result some of those who can hardly afford it, like food servers, are already taking the hit.A friend of mine told me the following story: each morning he has coffee and toast at a neighbourhood restaurant;...

Many people in British Columbia feel both dismayed and betrayed by the HST. It is a $2 billion shift in hidden sales taxes from business to consumers done by a government who said sales tax harmonization was not on the radar screen during the most recent election. True, government reduced income taxes to soften the blow of ...

 A hateful and dangerous gang of vandals did their best to get a riot started in Toronto during the G20 summit and, even though they torched cars, smashed windows, insulted and attacked police and did their best to bully innocent spectators, no one was seriously hurt. This group of malcontents are casting a cowardly disrepute […]

 In times past, people could protect themselves from computer viruses by staying out of the “questionable” corners of the internet. While this hasn’t been true for years now, many people still believe that watching where they surf will keep their computers un-bugged. Antivirus company AVAST! just released an analysis of infected websites that should, once […]

Police states don’t appear full blown, over night. They are, like any other social phenomenon, part of a social and political process - the end result of a long term corruption of the political culture and the incremental diminishing of democracy. This is a process that has been taking place for at least twenty years in Canada...

 Several hundred people attended a Celebration of Life for Zach Larsen on Saturday at the Pentecostal New Life Assembly Church. I wouldn’t normally write a story like this in the first person – it’s not about me, after all – but I tried and tried to write it as an impartial observer and just couldn’t […]

 New Democrat Agriculture Critic, Alex Atamanenko (BC Southern Interior), says no matter how you choose to spin it, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that Monsanto’s genetically engineered Roundup Ready Alfalfa will remain illegal to sell or plant for quite some time. According to the ruling genetically modified alfalfa cannot...

During this time of economic recovery, many young Canadians are seeking to improve their chances at developing meaningful careers by opting to invest in higher education. But with federal funding of colleges and universities having been slashed almost continuously since the early 80s, students are expected to make up this shortfall by paying unreasonable tuition […]

There comes a time for all of us when we need help with our computers. When that happens, though, how do we find someone decent? One of the problems my profession suffers from is a lack of credentialing. All I need to do to become a “Computer Tech” is to start calling myself one. At the same time, the average user finds...

In his contribution to the debate on the rights and wrongs of violent resistance to oppression, David Bromwich tells us that non-violent action is supposed to be “visible and exemplary.” In the case of Palestine, this chimes with the dominant Western narrative that the Palestinians would have achieved liberation long ago if only they had avoided mindless […]