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Search results for: “site/human rights”

  • Moratorium Needed on Punishment Legislation

    More crowded and costly prisons wrong way to deter crime Prior to the 2006 federal election campaign, where the Conservatives, Liberals and New Democrats touted their “tough on crime” credentials in the shadow of the “summer of the gun,” prison systems across Canada were already facing significant challenges. In our…

  • April 2006: Americanizing the Restriction of Canadians’ Rights

    Security overtaking trade as driver of “deep integration” At the time the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) and later the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) were negotiated, Canadians were told that they could enjoy the benefits of free trade with the United States without losing the benefits of sovereignty. Neither…

  • November 2008: Dark Days

    How four Canadians were tortured in the “fight on terror” Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror, by Kerry Pither, Viking Canada, 460 pages, hard cover, $35.00. * * * Much has been written about four Muslim Canadians who were falsely accused of…

  • Good Economy Project

    Unjust treatment of farm workers should end

    On September 15, the BC government will increase the general minimum wage by a measly 20 cents, from $10.25 to $10.45, and apply a 2% increase to the minimum piece rates for hand-harvested crops. Under the Employment Standards Act, farm workers who harvest fruits, berries and certain vegetables (peas, beans…

  • The roots of our housing crisis: Austerity, debt and extreme speculation

    We’re now 10 years on from the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Or, as our national mythology puts it, 10 years since Canada breathed a deep sigh of relief as the crisis mostly grazed our economy and financial system. Since 2008, we’ve had 10 years of congratulatory back-patting…

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    The extra-long logging haul

    As forests shrink, drivers work 16-hour days to deliver single loads of logs to BC sawmills When Eugene Wilson started driving a logging truck 24 years ago, he worked out of the Bulkley valley community of Houston three hours west of Prince George. He recalls the trips as if they…

  • Fuelling Wars, Supplying the Warmongers

    Canadian gov’t heavily subsidizing our military companies Between 2003 and 2006, Canada’s war industries profited from at least $7.4 billion in exports to 88 foreign governments.  Of these Canadian military exports, 93% ($6.8 billion) went to 62 nations with troops fighting in major armed conflicts.  Of these 62 warring nations…

  • The wrong question in the wrong forum

    It didn’t take very much time at the joint federal-provincial environmental hearing into Site C, which started this week in Fort St. John, to realize that it is not the best forum to address the central issue underlying BC Hydro’s proposal to develop the $8 to $9 billion hydro project.…

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    Housing crisis worse: Former UN special rapporteur Miloon Kothari revisits Vancouver

    As the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing from 2000 to 2008, Miloon Kothari observed the failure of market-based approaches to addressing housing crises. His 2007 report on Canada called for “a national strategy [for the] large scale building of social housing, and much better tenant…

  • UN singles out BC Government on women’s rights

    BC is not meeting its obligations to women under international human rights law. That was the clear message of the United Nations Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women in comments issued last week in New York City-just in time for International Women’s Day (March 8). The UN Committee…

  • Wood wasted at BC logging sites would fill a cross-country truck convoy — twice

    Costs include thousands of potential jobs, sharply higher CO2 emissions: report CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE FULL REPORT (Vancouver) A new report on BC’s forest industry finds that startling numbers of usable logs are being left to rot or burn at logging sites, at a potential cost of thousands of…

  • Canada at a Crime Crossroads

    National Conversation on “crime” and prevention urgently needed At a time when the economic, political, and social costs of increasing our reliance on incarceration are widely known, the federal, provincial, and territorial governments are in the process of creating 10,600 new prison spaces with an infrastructure cost of $3.6 billion…