Search results for: “site/human rights”

  • The Oil Industry’s Dilbit Cover-Up

    Tar sands bitumen spills harder and costlier to clean up It’s amazing to watch the lengths to which Enbridge and the oil industry will go in pretending that tar sands diluted bitumen (dilbit) is no different from conventional oil. On Aug. 26, the Canadian Press reported that the Northern Gateway…

  • The Middle East Revolution (Part 1)

    Uprisings a stunning blow to U.S. control of the Middle East “Fight like an Egyptian!” was the cry echoed by supporters of the Egyptian Revolution around the world when in 17 days the people of that country overthrew its 30-year-old dictatorship on February 11. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak was forced…

  • Time for a Serious Conversation about Natural Gas

    It is pretty clear that the government’s ill-conceived Energy Plan is falling apart. The near religious call for self-sufficiency has been moderated (though not sensibly changed) and the legislated requirement for insurance eliminated. The plan to develop run-of-river and wind IPPs for export has been abandoned. The problem of charging…

  • February 2008: Our War Against Mother Earth is Unwinnable

    Pursuit of power and profit threatens the biosphere Over the years, the pursuit of power by politicians and of profit by industrialists has led to a state of warfare against mankind’s principal enemy, which for them, strangely enough, is Planet Earth. The plan “to conquer the Earth” has been freely…

  • Climate justice and BC’s political moment

    The following is based on a talk at the Bring Your Boomers election forum on April 3 at the Rio Theatre in Vancouver, the fourth in a series of intergenerational dialogues from Gen Why Media, and was co-sponsored by the CCPA, Get Your Vote On, LeadNow and Vancity credit union. I was asked to set the stage for a…

  • Work Life: MB Liquor Between Rock and Hard Place

    The issuance of mandate letters to provincial crown corporations has put management and staff on notice, warning that “the old way of doing things” is over. The preamble for all the letters is the same, with claims that this government is committed to “prudent fiscal management, creating jobs, improving health…

  • September 2005: International Loan Sharks

    G-8 relief of poor nations’ debt comes with strings attached When the G-8 finance ministers met in London in June, and agreed to write off $40 billion of the debt owed by the world’s poorest nations to the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and the African Development Bank, the…

  • New Shoes and a Haircut: Budget 2013 not so pretty for women in Canada

    The Finance Minister got a new pair of shoes. Canadians got a new federal budget. And women in Canada got another haircut. Budget 2013 is all about Jobs! Jobs! Jobs! And who wouldn’t like a job. Maybe some training. Maybe even a full-time job. With benefits. And a pension plan.…

  • Public Money–Without Public Accountability

    Equity in Education Tax Credit In a long line of market-based reforms to education, the Ontario government is now offering tax incentives for citizens who wish to explore private educational options. This decision is alarming on a variety of levels. It reinforces the mistaken notion that education is an individual…

  • Log exports: waving the white flag of economic defeat

    As more and more raw, unprocessed logs leave British Columbia’s coast in ocean freighters bound for the far side of the world, a common refrain from some in our forest industry is that we have no choice. Because workers in mills in China are paid so little, log buyers there…

  • Failing Grade: Manitoba Poverty Reduction Strategy and Budget 2019

    Download 326.39 KB 12 pages “I grew up poor. I appreciate the reality that many Manitobans face. It’s very difficult for many Manitobans right now. The month runs out a lot of times after the money has run out…. I want to work with anyone who wants to address the…

  • Québec Students Strike Over Tuition-Fee Hikes

    This morning, there are more than 65 000 students on strike in Québec. University students, but also college-level students, are walking out of classrooms to reverse the 75% raise in tuition fees over five years announced in the last provincial budget. In the space of a single week, the number…