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Search results for: “site/human rights”

  • Site C in early October, shortly after the Peace River was diverted so that construction could begin of the massive earth-filled dam that will permanently block the river.

    Who’s minding the shop at Site C?

    Appointment of engineer with long-term ties to BC Hydro to be government’s “independent” advisor on dam’s construction raises vexing questions In 2011, his last year as a salaried employee at BC Hydro, Tim Little earned just under $210,000 as the Crown corporation’s chief engineer. The next year, after decades of…

  • Fighting on all fronts

    The pandemic has exacerbated the existing crisis that migrants live in as a result of being denied basic rights and protections.

    The pandemic has exacerbated the existing crisis that migrants live in as a result of being denied basic rights and protections.

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    A Big Fracking Mess: As Site C dam construction bogs down in geotechnical problems, thousands of earthquakes triggered by fracking operations occur nearby

    Earthquakes triggered by natural gas industry fracking operations near BC Hydro’s troubled Site C dam construction project are far greater in number than previously thought, raising troubling questions about whether they are adding to the already formidable geotechnical challenges at the site. Not only are more earthquakes occurring in proximity…

  • An island in the Peace River and in West Moberly First Nations territory that will be lost forever if the Site C dam is completed and its reservoir is filled. Photo: Garth Lenz.

    Reconciliation in action?

    Far from it, says chief of holdout First Nation over deal with province on Site C In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, which was tasked with informing all Canadians about what happened to Indigenous Peoples in residential schools, defined the word reconciliation as a process of “establishing and maintaining…

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    To break housing gridlock, we need to democratize unrepresentative public hearings

    Housing policy has a democracy problem. Amid a housing crisis, highly unrepresentative public hearing processes contribute to land-use decisions that fail to reflect the perspectives and interests of all affected residents. But the right reforms can help deepen democracy and break housing gridlock. At the municipal level, decisions about providing…

  • Trade and Investment Research Project

    Canada’s proposed supply chain law is weak on human and environmental rights

    The business community needs to get behind a stronger supply chain due diligence law

    The business community needs to get behind a stronger supply chain due diligence law

  • Hospital surgery corridor. Blurred figures of people with medical uniforms in hospital corridor

    Healthcare is a Human Right

    International Students Speak Out on Healthcare Inaccessibility in Manitoba Download 2.94 MB32 pages Five years after public health insurance was rescinded from international students in Manitoba, and in the aftermath of the most volatile years of the COVID-19 pandemic, this report brings together testimonials shared by international students across a…

  • Connect the dots: School boards, democracy, and human rights

    Democratic school boards could serve as a bulwark against far right attacks on education

    On a gray day last September, I attended a counter-protest at the Grand Parade in Halifax. I was there as part of “Education Saves Lives” – a response to the deceptively named “1 Million March4Kids”, a nationwide movement fueled by some parents’ opposition to what they call “gender ideology in…

  • BC Hydro

    Losing sight at Site C

    Court documents and FOI materials show BC Hydro knew shale would move at troubled construction project, yet Hydro proceeded with river diversion BC Hydro approved the pouring of massive amounts of concrete to build a buttress at its problem-plagued Site C dam project months before a critical drainage tunnel was…

  • Source: iStock

    The Parental Rights Trojan Horse

    Previously published in the Winnipeg Free Press August 21, 2023 On Thursday, the PC party promised to update the Public Schools Act and expand parental rights if elected. Premier Stefanson’s press conference began by outlining the changing technological landscape, but did not end with a discussion of how to increase…

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    Addressing the racism of the Temporary Foreign Worker Program

    There is renewed attention on Canada’s Temporary Foreign Worker Program (TFWP) in the wake of the recent damning report from the UN Special Rapporteur on Contemporary Forms of Slavery that calls the program “a breeding ground for contemporary forms of slavery.” Yet, the central critiques and recommendations made in the…

  • From discrimination against temporary foreign workers to sexual harassment, there’s no shortage of issues a human rights commission could tackle

    British Columbia is the only province in Canada that does not have a Human Rights Commission. That makes us the weakest province when it comes to fostering human rights awareness and preventing discrimination. Currently BC only has a Human Rights Tribunal, which mediates and adjudicates complaints about discrimination after it…