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Search results for: “site/human rights”

  • Site C

    I recall talking to a senior BC Hydro planner a number of years ago who mapped out a very sensible way to develop the BC Hydro system. Retain the Burrard gas-fired thermal power plant as a back-up for extreme drought, when electricity supply at the hydro facilities on the Peace…

  • Canada’s Afghanistan “mission” cripples democracy at home

    Stephen Harper’s Conservative government shut down Parliament until March, mainly to avoid answering politically embarrassing questions about the torture of Canadian military detainees in Afghanistan. Especially disturbing are the allegations – and mounting evidence — that our military was complicit in this torture of captives by Afghan government “interrogators.” The…

  • Time for a forest reserve

    Almost inevitably, when someone suggests that logging of privately-owned lands should be subject to tougher regulations, there is an outcry from landowners. It is “their” land after all. But this ignores important historical realities in British Columbia—realities that are hopefully being considered in a current review by the provincial government. …

  • Trade and Investment Research Project

    Canada at risk of lawsuits if U.K. accession to pacific trade deal not amended

    Civil society organizations and academics are warning about investor-state dispute settlement

    Civil society organizations and academics are warning about investor-state dispute settlement

  • BC's Environmental Assessment Office has ordered Progress Energy to drain almost all of the water from this unauthorized dam. Photo: Ben Parfitt

    Drain it: Petronas subsidiary ordered to take action at two controversial fracking dams

    The provincial government has ordered Progress Energy to drain virtually all of the water trapped behind two massive dams that the company built in violation of key provincial regulations. The company was told on October 31 to drain all but 10% of the water stored behind its Town and Lily…

  • Time to end profit-making in seniors’ care

    The coronavirus pandemic has shone a light on serious problems in Canada’s seniors’ care system, as nursing homes quickly became the epicenters of the outbreak. These problems are not only due to the greater vulnerability of seniors to the disease, but also to how care is organized and staffed.  In…

  • Revisiting the Economic Case for Site C

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  • Economic Security Project (BC)

    Farmworkers relegated to second-class status: study

    Proposed changes would end exploitation of BC’s immigrant and migrant farmworkers CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT (Vancouver) A new study of farm work in BC reveals systematic violations of employment standards and health and safety regulations, poor and often dangerous working conditions, and dismal enforcement by government agencies.…

  • Whatever happened to gender identity and expression?

    A year ago this week, Bill C-389, An Act to amend the Canadian Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code (gender identity and gender expression), passed third reading in the House of Commons, receiving support from MPs from all political parties. So whatever happened to it? The private member’s bill,…

  • Corporate Mapping Project
    Resource Economics Project (BC)

    The urgent need for a full Public Inquiry into fracking in BC

    Group letter to John Horgan and Michelle Mungall Honourable John Horgan, BC Premier, and Honourable Michelle Mungall, BC Minister for Energy, Mines and Petroleum Resources cc Andrew Weaver, BC Green Party Leader Dear Premier Horgan and Minister Mungall, We write to you today as directors of numerous civil society organizations that recently…

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    Distinguishing consent from veto in an era of reconciliation

    An unfortunate legacy of the Harper era in Canada is that public officials and the media often conflate the right to consent for projects or policies that could affect Indigenous peoples with veto power. That error is not supported by Canadian or international law, and is at odds with the…

  • December 2000: Profiting From Repression

    Canadian firms in Colombia protected by military death squads Since 1990, 35,000 Colombians have been killed in a horrific escalation of political violence. An average of ten political assassinations are reported every day. Colombia’s state security forces and their paramilitary allies have been responsible for the vast majority of these…