Search results for “site/human rights”

  • 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…

  • Revisiting the Economic Case for Site C

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  • 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,…

  • 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…

  • 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 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. …

  • 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…

  • CCPA Review: Critics of Hydro/Government plans for Bipole III lack credibility

    Last month the Winnipeg Free Press published a full page of criticism regarding the decision to run the Bipole III transmission line down the West Side of Lake Winnipeg. The critique consists of two parts, namely, an open letter by 18 retired engineers titled, “Engineers united on east side,” and…

  • December 2005: The Right to Privacy—A New Oxymoron?

    Our privacy shield is getting badly battered on every front Privacy is an extremely complex human value, but it boils down to the need and “right to be let alone”–to be free of unwarranted intrusions into our daily lives, 24/7. Think of privacy as a cultural and legal shield protecting…

  • 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…

  • Corporate Mapping Project

    Fracking ban warranted to protect some of British Columbia’s biggest dams, FOI documents reveal

    (Vancouver) Fracking should be immediately banned close to BC Hydro’s two existing Peace River dams as well as the Site C dam construction project until a full public inquiry determines whether a comprehensive ban is warranted, the BC office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says. The CCPA issued…