Search results for “site/human rights”

  • July 2006: Privacy in the Workplace

    Our right to privacy as employees is being increasingly violated Recent CCPA Monitor articles described how our privacy as citizens and consumers is under world-wide siege by governments and transnational corporations. Employee privacy isn’t faring very well, either. Understand the forces at work. Know the stakes and what to look…

  • Out of the Closet on Site C

    For years, successive BC governments have forbidden any new large-scale hydro dams. When I was on the BC Hydro Board of Directors in the mid-1990s, the Board passed a motion that all government land-holdings associated with Site C should be sold. The BC Hydro Board was against building Site C,…

  • Why is Milk So Expensive in First Nations Communities?

    Access to and Affordability of Milk in Northern Manitoba Download 1.48 MB20 pages This study finds milk is significantly costlier in First Nations communities than in Winnipeg and Northern Manitoba. The cost was higher in First Nations with and without access to an all-weather road. The study is based on…

  • 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…

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    Workplace rights in BC should reflect the realities of the 21st century economy

    For the first time in 25 years, BC’s workplace rights are being reviewed. Disappointingly, however, the fulsome consultation needed to develop policies for the realities of 21st century workers is not happening. BC’s workplace laws were written in the 20th century when there were no smartphones and most workers spent…

  • Photo: David A. Litman / Shutterstock.com

    Protecting the health and rights of migrant agricultural workers during the COVID-19 outbreak should be a priority

    Manually skilled migrant workers contribute vitally to the Canadian food chain, including to agricultural and seafood industries. But food security cannot be achieved on the backs of workers who are denied equal access to social protections and benefits, and made uniquely vulnerable to coronavirus transmission. With news about this week’s community…

  • 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. …

  • Revisiting the Economic Case for Site C

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  • 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…

  • 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.…

  • 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…