From Forbes, by Dr. Peter H. Gleick, co-founder and President of the Pacific Institute in Oakland, California. He is an internationally recognized climate and water expert with M.S. and Ph.D. from the Energy and Resources Group of the University of California, Berkeley. He is the recipient of numerous awards for
Continue readingAuthor: Norman Farrell
Northern Insights / Perceptivity: The press and the pipeline
Have you noticed a lack of fairness and balance in reporting on Northern Gateway by corporate media? It is not accidental. A similar project in the USA has been examined in detail. Media Matters’ environmental team analyzed news coverage of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline between August 1 and December
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Eminent veterans of journalism on CBC dilemma
With the CBC’s stubborn refusal to deal with or disclose the conflict of interest faced by its BC Legislative Bureau Chief, Alex Tsakumis and I took the issue to our readers. We did the task that should have been handled long before by Stephen Smart’s press gallery colleagues or, failing
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Economic development whatever the cost!
Whatever is good or bad in Stephen Harper’s speech is degraded for me by his choice of location for delivering it. The Prime Minister of Canada flew to Switzerland to join the world’s rich and powerful to articulate his vision for our country, a vision that, instead of being an
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Links regarding oily pipeline politics
One of our readers supplied links to articles published by DesmogBlog and I moved the links into this separate item. These articles complement and expand on the message I intended in Regulators throwing loaded dice. DeSmogBlog covers the Northern Gateway pipeline proposal and how NEB hearings are designed to block
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Amazing
Yosemite Time-Lapse Video, from Earthjustice.org Yosemite HD from Project Yosemite on Vimeo. “Everyone knows that Yosemite National Park is one of America’s most beautiful places. Half Dome, El Capitan, Yosemite Falls, and a host of other natural wonders make Yosemite an iconic symbol of the American West. And while many
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Reconsidering Harper’s vision for Canada
THE CAGING OF AMERICA, Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, January 2012 “…In the past two decades, the money that states spend on prisons has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education. Ours is, bottom to top, a “carceral state,” in the flat verdict of Conrad Black,
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: On CBC from outside the local milieu
National Post, January 25, 2012 “… For everyone’s sake, the CBC should offer Mr. Smart a better assignment.”
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Sun buries reader critics
Craig McInnes is a member of the Editorial Board of The Vancouver Sun so I assume his column speaks with authority of the newspaper’s editors. Tuesday, he applauded the CBC’s refusal to correct the conflict of interest involved in Legislative Bureau Chief Stephen Smart reporting on the Premier while his
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Drowsy Canadians take note
Federal government has no business micromanaging RCMP commissioner, Toronto Star, January 22 2012 “Where does Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government get off trying to micromanage the Royal Canadian Mounted Police commissioner’s day-timer? “Newly-installed Commissioner Bob Paulson has just been told that he can’t meet with Members of Parliament or senators
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Proud to be "Enemy of the Government of Canada"
Whistleblower’s Open Letter to Canadians
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Still Waiting
Accountable to no one, part 1, from February 20, 2011 Before today, I sent out a few messages asking questions related to alleged journalists being paid to attend events sponsored by those associated with groups the journalist, or their colleagues, may cover. For example, on February 17, I sent this
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Bob Mackin poses a good question
B.C. Place’s field of fire, 2010 Gold Rush, NEWS AND VIEWS ON VANCOUVER 2010 (AND BEYOND) FROM BOB MACKIN. “What is the final cost of the stadium for taxpayers? How much is it over the $563 million figure that PavCo has mysteriously stopped quoting? Will it require the auditor general
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: No foreign interests allowed
H/T Creekside Enbridge’s pipeline of distortions, by Harsha Walia, a Vancouver-based activist and writer trained in law, Vancouver Sun, January 2012. “…Delightful commentaries over the past few days have taken Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Natural Resource Minister Joe Oliver to task for their desperate theories about radical foreign environmentalists
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Bill Moyers returns
Moyers & Company Show 102: On Crony Capitalism from BillMoyers.com on Vimeo. David Stockman, former Reagan Budget Director, “If they’re too big too fail, they’re too big to exist.” Stockman, quoted by Tim Dickinson in How the GOP Became the Party of the Rich, Rolling Stone, November 9, 2011: “The
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Notable case regarding aboriginal rights
From Lexology.com The Wahgoshig First Nation (“WFN”) in Northern Ontario has obtained an injunction to temporarily stop Solid Gold Resources Corp. (“Solid Gold”), a junior mining company, from drilling on their First Nation Treaty lands. In a decision released last week (2011 ONSC 7708 (CanLII)), Justice Brown of the Ontario
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: Self-interested blather from Edge of the Ledge
Wonderful demonstration today of how BC’s tight little circle of political reporters is wilfully blind to the real issue at stake in the CBC conflict of interest matter. Of course, I did not expect anything else from this trio on CKNW because I question their own journalistic ethics because of
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: CBC conflict of interest complaints upheld
The CBC Ombudsman has agreed with me and others who raised the issue of Stephen Smart’s conflict of interest. Now, we await the corporation’s resolution of this matter. You can read the entire Ombudsman report here but the important section is this: “…Whether a real or perceived conflict of interest,
Continue readingNorthern Insights / Perceptivity: NEB serves industry, not the public
I’ve long been aware of the National Energy Board but never paid much attention to it. However, for my article Regulators throwing loaded dice, I had a look at backgrounds of the people involved in the NEB. I was immediately reminded of a quote from police psychologist Mike Webster used
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