Column: U.S. crisis shows need to speak truth to power
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. […]
A glimmer of hope for dwindling Kootenay caribou and biodiversity
After significant public pressure, the B.C. government and its logging agency BC Timber Sales (BCTS) have committed to pause logging and road-building in a remote old growth valley north of Revelstoke, which is critical habitat for the North Columbia caribou herd. A total of 276 hectares of proposed logging and more than 10...
What does wearing a tie have to do with human trafficking?
By Vivienne Hurley Will Rossland’s student-led initiative for Dressember be part of the fabric of change? High school students attending Seven Summits Centre for Learning (7S) in Rossland have created a community of advocates to fight against human trafficking and have donned their uniforms in support of Dressember. The dress...
BC committed to regional environmental assessments, but experts warn they might never happen
COVID-19 has delayed the Environmental Assessment Office’s work on establishing regulations for regional assessments, which will look at the cumulative effects of all past, present and future industrial projects By Matt Simmons, for The Narwhal At first glance, northwest B.C. is a vast wild landscape home to big forests, even...
Open letter to Dr. Bonnie Henry: speading COVID-19 in prisons
Dear Dr. Henry, Thank you profusely, Dr. Henry, for everything you and your ministry staff have done these past many months to safeguard British Columbians from the suffering of the global novel coronavirus (COVID 19) pandemic. I am a sixty-six year old Extinction Rebellion climate activist residing in Victoria, and am writing...
Column: COVID-19, school and climate change
The global pandemic has created a unique and challenging back-to-school season. Many parents, guardians and teachers are struggling to balance children’s safety with education, all while keeping their households running smoothly. It’s like nothing we’ve seen before. Many adults are rightfully focused on making sure the...
Fines for 'dooring' going up -- 'way up
Drivers will soon have a stronger incentive to take a good look around before opening their car doors. To better protect cyclists, the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is raising the fine for “dooring.” The new fine for anyone who opens a car door when it is not reasonably safe to do so (known as “dooring”) will...
OP/ED: Landmark decision by BC Supreme Court protects public health care
In today’s landmark ruling in the Cambie Surgery Centre case, Justice Steeves dealt a strong blow to the efforts of Dr. Brian Day and others to undermine Canada’s publicly-funded health care system. The decade-long legal attack launched by one of the largest for-profit surgical centres in Canada sought to invalidate key...
Trail Commemorates Kootenay Pride Week
City of Trail Mayor Lisa Pasin and Councillor Paul Butler join Addison Oberg from Pride Trail BC at Trail’s Rainbow Crosswalk to commemorate Kootenay Pride Week 2020. The crosswalk, installed in 2019, is located on the Esplanade by the Trail Riverfront Centre and is dedicated to the LGBTQ+ community of the Trail area. The...
Editorial: A conversation with RCMP Sergeant Mike Wicentowich
Recent ongoing media revelations of abusive, discriminatory and deadly police practices across Canada, coupled with reports of numerous racist killings and hyper-militarized police actions from south of the border, have led some to demand “defund the police!” Others have begun using the acronym “acab” – meaning, “all cops...
