Letter: The promise parties keep making -- and breaking
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,...
COLUMN: From the Hill -- BC apple farmers and food security
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...
MLA speaks to one-year anniversary of Covid-19 in Canada
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 ...
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. […]
Letter: We must be vigilant
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 ...
Column: What we need
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...
OP/ED: You can always find happiness - living here
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...
Letter: 'After you' won't work for climate change
To the Editor: It used to be, and largely still is, considered an act of politeness to let others go first. In the context of climate change and emissions reductions, this might be described as a rationale for inertia. China and India are currently used to support that rationale. Although China tops the emitters list,...
Out of Left Field: Why the pandemic stopped me from writing rants
Anyone who knows me well will tell you that the quarantine isn’t such of a much for me – I am, at heart, an introvert who rarely leaves her house, and now, instead of my friends being annoyed with me for it, they’re applauding me for it. It’s finally okay for me to prefer reading […]
Book Review: ‘In Search of a Happy Ending’ by Rosa Jordan
Rossland author Rosa Jordan’s latest novel is a rich, varied and gripping read. Its characters deal with life’s profound issues, including ambition, love, loyalty, illness and death – and Jordan handles them deftly, with generous compassion and a touch of humour. A list of suggestions from Kurt Vonnegut to writers included one advising authors to […]
