What kind of year in politics is 2011 going to be? Very likely another year (or at least ten months) of gridlock at the federal level, with no sign of any so-called game changer on the horizon.   A spring election is looking less likely as the Conservatives try to make a deal with the […]

 A year ago I wrote a column reflecting on the activities of the Canadian Parliamentary Coalition to Combat Anti-Semitism (CPCCA), the Canadian branch of the Inter-Parliamentary Coalition for Combating Anti-Semitism. The latter is an international pro-Zionist group whose sole task is to redefine anti-Semitism to mean virtually any criticism of Israel. It developed at the behest of […]

One of the hallmarks of a democratic state is its commitment to free, public and political expression. Indeed, no society can call itself truly democratic if it does not guarantee its citizens the inalienable rights to gather, communicate their opinion and demonstrate their support for or against any political position they wish. If these assertions […]

PART I:  The past year has been an eventful one.   In January the Haiti earthquake hit. My staff and I worked for days with Foreign Affairs, a School District and Mt. Sentinel School of South Slocan to safely locate, press for transportation assistance, and rescue a class of high school students caught in Haiti.   […]

Christy Clark’s suggestion that the next BC Liberal leader will need to get a “mandate” from BC voters through an early election shows she doesn’t understand our parliamentary system. And former attorney general and author of the fixed election date legislation Geoff Plant’s statement that the legislation did not anticipate the current situation is absurd. […]

 After hearing the perspectives of many of the key players in the latest round of nastiness inspired by School District 20’s (SD 20’s) Planning for the Future document, I can only conclude that the well-being of the entire region is at stake, and in more far-reaching issues than education alone. The angry rhetoric being wantonly […]

Food Banks Canada released its HungerCount 2010 survey in November. The report paints a grim picture of poverty in Canada and the continued growth in the need for services like food banks and other charitable food providers in our communities.  This snapshot from thousands of hungry Canadians and from hundreds of food banks across the […]

It seems like such a simple right: I’m sitting here writing my blog, or you’re sitting there reading it …neither of us fearing that the state Police will break down our doors, throw handcuffs on us, scare the hell out of our families, seize our computers and cart us away to be imprisoned … maybe even beaten. […]

By Timothy Schafer, The Nelson Daily From one side of the West Kootenay to the other, the regional district has a new chair. Texas-born John Kettle and Area B director was acclaimed as chair of the Regional District of Central Kootenay board of directors on Thursday at their inaugural meeting in Nelson. He replaced Montana-born […]

Next Monday will see a special open board meeting of School District 20 (SD 20), in which trustees will vote on a motion that may well see the district heading back to the drawing board regarding future cuts and district configuration. The meeting, to be held in the Trail Middle School gymnasium at 7 p.m., […]