First Nations & Indigenous

Just who should be putting who under trusteeship?

Dec 15, 2011
I am the first to admit that, lamentably, I know very little about the problems that face First Nations people. That did not stop me from having an opinion about the federal takeover at Attawapiskat.  My first reaction was that the Chief and Council should have thrown the keys to the federal government and said,… View Article

Inequality and Climate Injustice: A Durban Post-Mortem

Dec 13, 2011
The United Nations climate change talks in Durban, South Africa, ended 2011 with a whimper. After a year in which climate disasters rolled across the globe, major polluting nations like Canada chose to ignore them, seeking instead to disrupt the Durban negotiations, then blew the world a raspberry, by officially pulling out of the Kyoto… View Article

Time to give shale gas industry a closer look before we’re totally fracked

Nov 9, 2011
Despite the recent release by Canada’s natural gas industry of a set of guiding principles governing the controversial gas well “stimulation” method known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking”, and despite the almost immediate endorsement of those principles by BC Premier and industry cheerleader Christy Clark, more and more British Columbians are justifiably worried about what… View Article

Fossil fuel expansion as a crime against humanity

Jun 23, 2011
After at 2010 that was one of the warmest years on record, 2011 has shown us astonishing patterns of extreme weather worldwide. It would take a long time to make the full list, but you know what I mean: tornadoes, floods, drought, record cold in some parts, record heat in others, hailstorms (Al Gore does… View Article

The Wild West? Come on! Put your emotions in check

Jun 17, 2011
The on-line newsmagazine, The Tyee, recently ran an opinion piece of mine under the headline “The Wild West and Dysfunctional BC Politics: Fracking and sour gas deserve debate, but get cartoon treatment from the Clark government.” My special thanks to Tyee editor David Beers or whoever it was who chose to run the image of… View Article

The Wild West and dysfunctional B.C. politics

Jun 14, 2011
Anyone wanting to see just how dysfunctional politics in B.C. has become should check out Bob Simpson’s recent Private Members’ statement in the provincial legislature. For seven minutes Simpson, Member of the Legislative Assembly for Cariboo North and one of two Independent MLAs, spoke about why he and fellow Independent Vicki Huntington (Delta South), had… View Article

About Fracking Time: BC’s Independent MLAs Call on Premier to Investigate Hydraulic Fracturing

May 27, 2011
As British Columbia Premier Christy Clark makes her debut in the provincial legislature this coming week, the media spotlight will likely be on the predictable verbal sparring between her and Adrian Dix, the NDP’s recently minted leader, over Clark’s alleged “fix” of the Harmonized Sales Tax. Meaning that Independent MLAs Bob Simpson and Vicki Huntington… View Article