Alex Atamanenko, MP (BC Southern Interior), introduced a Private Members Bill in the House of Commons today that would give conscientious objectors an official sanction to spend their taxes on nonviolent alternatives to war. Bill C-363, would allow Canadians, who object to paying taxes for military purposes on conscientious or religious grounds, to divert an […]

This blog comes to you from the United States …where the Occupy movement is real and still relevant.Make no mistake about it there is a BIG difference between the majority of those keeping the Occupy movement alive down south and those Occupy pretenders in Vancouver/Victoria who have co-opted and stolen the original cause. ...

Canadians across the country are mobilizing to oppose the rushed passage of the Omnibus Crime Bill. If passed, Bill C-10 would shift Canada to a cruel, costly and failed fill-the-prisons approach to justice. The 150+ cross-country actions at MP’s constituency offices are focused on Thursday at 1PM, with some taking place throughout the day and Friday. […]

The amazingly resilient Occupy phenomenon is running up against the same ugly reality that so many social movements have encountered over the past 20 years: There is a world of difference between influence and power.  Governments and the corporations they serve have power — that is, the power of money (and the law) to make ...

We often hear stories in the press about mercenary armies in which soldiers-for-hire do the dirty work of various governments around the world. One such group is Xe Services,which was originally foundedby former US Special Forces SEAL Erik Prince, under the name of Blackwater. This private mercenary company was first contracted by the American government in […]

Catching a politician with their hand in the cookie jar is far more juicy than actually building a better cookie jar, so it's little surprise that proposing changes to BC's electoral finance laws is hardly seen as sexy. But if voters truly want accountability and transparency restored to BC politics, it starts with prying the...

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 […]

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...

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 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 ...