Search results for “site/human rights”

  • Protesting the G20: A Waste of Time?

    During the G20 ministerial meetings in Toronto, the sensational images of burning police cruiser cars and broken shop windows dominated the newspaper headlines. This is what the world saw. What I saw in Toronto was radically different. On June 21st, I travelled to Toronto in a van filled with activists…

  • The unintended consequences of massive hydro rate increases

    The Province newspaper recently published an op-ed of mine that looked at one of the unintended consequences of our provincial government’s fixation on building the exceedingly expensive Site C hydroelectric dam. Even though actual construction of the dam has yet to begin, BC Hydro customers are already paying far more for electricity…

  • Resource Economics Project (BC)

    Rising hydro bills pushing mills to burn fossil fuel

    Premier Christy Clark’s vow to push work at the $9-billion Site C dam “past the point of no return” may be music to the ears of some construction contractors, but not to all pulp and paper firms. In a great irony, as the costs soar into the billions to build…

  • Oliver Mudslide, Photo: Darren Kirby - Flickr

    Damming the information flow: BC government officials button lipped on potentially dangerous dams

    Early last spring, provincial civil servants cut off virtually all communication about what the government knew about a sprawling network of potentially dangerous and unregulated dams in northeast BC on the pretext they could not comment because of the impending election. The coordinated effort meant there was virtually no comment…

  • The sound of silence

    Weeks stretch to months, months to years as BC government clamps down on information  When debate on the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Amendment Act began last fall Stephanie Cadieux, then Liberal MLA for Surrey-Cloverdale, was among many to note how British Columbians are waiting longer and longer…

  • Corporate Child Abuse

    Profit-driven system exploits, mistreats vulnerable youth “There can be no keener revelation of a society’s soul,” Nelson Mandela says, “than the way in which it treats its children.” Who would disagree? Yet today children may be assaulted, diseased, or killed by pervasive corporate drugs, junk foods and beverages, perverted by…

  • Water Politics

    Underdevelopment and overconsumption drive water crisis Water crises are often ranked second only to climate change in environmental challenges that we face in the 21st century. But, unlike climate change, “water crisis” is a slippery term. There is little agreement on what exactly the “water crisis” even is, much less…

  • Education Project

    Our Schools/Our Selves: Summer 2001

    Ontario Students as a Means to the Government’s Ends In high-risk sites like Ontario, traditional forms of liberal education are being replaced by policies mandating teaching and learning activities that are aimed at serving the utilitarian needs of a corporate and globalised marketplace. In effect, educational policy making in the…

  • Taxes and human purpose

    I like paying taxes. Taxes allow us to pursue our aspirations collectively and thus they greatly enrich the quality of life for the average Canadian family. Taxes have brought us high quality public schools that remain our democratic treasure, low tuition at world class universities, freedom from fear of crippling…

  • Paul Leduc Browne

    D.Phil

  • Trade and Investment Research Project

    Canada completes the 1st round of negotiations with Indonesia, the largest palm oil producer

    This week, Canada and Indonesia, the largest palm oil producer and exporter in the world, are completing the first round of negotiations on a proposed Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA). Only last year, research published in Nature Ecology and Evolution described how wealthy countries contribute to deforestation in poorer nations through international trade deals. According to…

  • Boondoggles in the Boreal

    Abandoned mines, oil and gas wells pollute our boreal forest A mid-March report — A Forest of Blue: Canada’s Boreal Forest, the World’s Waterkeeper — focuses on the health of our vast northern forest ecosystem, which covers 60% of Canada’s land mass. Issued by the Pew Environment Group (a U.S.…