Dear editor, Shelters are not going away anytime soon, in fact, you will probably hear more about them. How do we make sure they are successful? We inolve all the stakeholders - and the community is a huge stakeholder. Its time for a discussion. We all need to show compassion, respect and tolerance, but that's a two-way street....

An Open Letter to Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development, Katrine Conroy: Dear Minister Conroy, Congratulations on your appointment as Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. We hope you will usher in considerable change from the former destructive...

Dear Editor: Monday, February 1 marked the four year anniversary of Trudeau's broken promise on electoral reform.  “We are committed to ensuring that the 2015 election will be the last federal election using FPtP” It was a key campaign promise which Trudeau repeated over 1800 times. An all party parliamentary committee, ERRE,...

Many sectors have been hard hit by the pandemic, and agriculture is one of them.  Despite concerns about food security and pleas to buy local, orchardists and farmers in the region have had a number of serious headwinds facing them over the past year. B.C. apple growers have had to deal with huge production from just across...

Dear Community Member, It has been one year since B.C.’s first joint statement about the novel coronavirus (now termed COVID-19) from Health Minister Adrian Dix and Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry. Since that date, our world has changed dramatically. We have all felt the impacts of the pandemic on our lives, our ...

 As was demonstrated in the U.S. last week, many who are motivated by fear and ignorance are feeling emboldened — and desperate. It’s not just in the United States. Irrational, authoritarian, anti-science rhetoric and action has been heating up from Brazil to India to Hungary, and is fully entrenched in places like Russia and China.  […]

Ed. Note: the following is a statement Castlegar Councillor Florio Vassilakakis posted on his Facebook page, re=published with his permission: I have taken a few days to think about the surprising events that have transpired during the last week in Castlegar. Mayor Tassone appears to have been under extraordinary personal...

Dear Editor. We fought global wars, and millions of people died to defend and protect our human rights, including our right to have democratic governments. Last week’s invasion of the Capital Hill in DC was nothing but a stunning attack on democracy, perpetrated by none other than the President of the United States. It was ...

The following is adapted from The Sacred Balance: Rediscovering Our Place in Nature (Greystone Books), a book I wrote with Amanda McConnell in 1997 and updated in 2007. It seems as relevant today as when we wrote it, if not more so. I hope you enjoy it and that the year ahead brings new ways of seeing and thinking about the...

This has been a hard year. One might say, this has been one of the most difficult years we have ever had to face.  Collectively, we have experienced one of the most challenging times in modern history.   And yet, here we are.  For some of us, this year has not come without loss. There are many people who...