Search results for “site/Pat Armstrong”

  • November 2001: Exporting Destruction

    Report says EDC is putting people and the environment at risk The Canadian government’s Export Development Corporation (EDC) is assisting eight environmentally and socially disastrous projects in the Third World, says a recent report. These are the Antamina mine in Peru, the Chamera I and II dams in India, the…

  • Education Project

    Our Schools/Our Selves: Fall 2001

    DIRT(1) Cheap: Students for sale and the tilting of a scale Abstract This paper illustrates how parents, teachers and school administrators have been quietly and unknowingly enlisted as accomplices in the sale of children to commercial interests. This facet of the economic imperative is obscured by the siren call of…

  • How many will vote in the November 2014 local government elections?

    In BC’s last local government elections in 2011 less than 30% of people bothered to vote.  CivicInfoBC has a handy list of turnout information for all of our local governments here. I was curious about how this compared to local election turnout in other provinces. I don’t have turnout information…

  • LNG’s threat to water sustainability

    By Ben Parfitt and David Hughes One glaring problem with the provincial government’s strategy to turn British Columbia into a liquefied natural gas exporting juggernaut is that it scuttles any chance B.C. has to be a climate change leader. But equally problematic is how our government’s economically dubious fixation with…

  • Climate Justice Project

    LNG’s threat to water sustainability

    One glaring problem with the provincial government’s strategy to turn British Columbia into a liquefied natural gas exporting juggernaut is that it scuttles any chance B.C. has to be a climate change leader. But equally problematic is how our government’s economically dubious fixation with gas exports jeopardizes our irreplaceable water…

  • About that LNG Prosperity Fund

    Budget 2014 contains some new information about how the province intends to pay for all of the ponies BC children have been promised from LNG riches. Alas, there is not much there – a three page text box that mostly restates the hype on LNG – and from what has…

  • Looking Back on the Vancouver-Whistler Winter Games

    British Columbians no doubt feel thankful that the costs, security and other challenges facing the Sochi Winter Olympic Games far surpass what B.C. and Canada faced with the Vancouver-Whistler 2010 Games. But the 2010 Games were not without controversy and still raise the question of whether it was all worthwhile.…

  • Fast Facts: Community Development Manitoba – style

    For fashion trends the world looks to Milan; Copenhagen has become synonymous with urban planning; but for community development, Manitoba is increasingly the source for inspiration and cutting edge policy. Manitoba’s home-grown approach to community development is being studied by other cities looking for ways to deal with the complex…

  • Cui Bono?

    Who benefits from government actions? Our corporate rulers Lucius Cassius, a consul whom the people of ancient Rome revered as a wise and honest judge, was often required to adjudicate disputes involving the laws or policies of the Senate. Time and again, his first question was “Cui bono?” which can…

  • Education Project

    Our Schools/Our Selves: Spring 2001

    Class size in Alberta–an ongoing debate! The debate over class size in Alberta’s schools has sharpened significantly in the last few months. It has set parents and teachers against government. However, neither research nor polls seem likely to move the provincial government to enforce class sizes in kindergarten through grade…

  • March 2001: “Toxic Bob” Wastes Burma

    Forced labour and pollution rampant at Canadian-owned mine According to a recent report, Ivanhoe Mines Ltd., a Canadian company owned by Robert Friedland, is “raping the environment” and using forced labour in Burma. Ivanhoe operates the US$90 million Monywa copper mine, Burma’s largest mining investment, in a 50-50 partnership with…

  • April 2006: The Topic of Cancer

    It’s sick to make sickness essential for making profits If we view the health care delivery system as a social system, it becomes amenable to sociological analysis. In analyzing social systems, it is very important to understand the world view or belief system that guides their behaviour and tends to…