Author: Rafe Mair

It’s past time that we began to examine the word “process” as it relates to the environment. It has become, you see, a federal buzz word for sacrificing the environment while making it look all nice and legal. “Process” is a weasel word to disguise the fact that there will

There is, evidently, a strong aversion in the mainstream media to talk about the environment and I can only guess why. Was the Kalamazoo spill by Enbridge too complicated to deal with? And the 800+ other spills by this wretched despoiler of the outdoors? The NDP have approved of LNG

While I have no insight into all the considerations of BC First Nations, I do pretend to know something about politics. Let me tell you what I would feel if I was in Grand Chief Phillip’s mind or that of any BC chief’s position. I would refuse any part of

How much is our wild salmon worth? What price on our rivers and the ecologies they sustain? Is there any financial arrangement that will compensate for the loss of our coastal fauna and flora as well as the people who, for centuries, have been sustained by those resources? Incidentally, a

Mike Smyth had an interesting column in Sunday’s Province, dealing with the proposed second and much larger Kinder Morgan Pipeline to Vancouver, which would see a five-fold increase in tanker traffic through Vancouver’s harbour. In it he told us that the company was being very laid back compared with Enbridge,

Private power producer AXOR, under subsidiary Purcell Green Power, planned to dam and divert Glacier and Howser Creeks in the Purcell Wilderness in the Kootenays, along with two other nearby rivers. Well, to the surprise of many, the Environmental Assessment Office has terminated the Environmental Assessment of the project, noting

Private power producer AXOR, under subsidiary Purcell Green Power, planned to dam and divert Glacier and Howser Creeks in the Purcell Wilderness in the Kootenays, along with two other nearby rivers. Well, to the surprise of many, the Environmental Assessment Office has terminated the Environmental Assessment of the project, noting

The Campbell/Clark government is corrupt and there are a number of the reasons I say this – from BC Rail and the HST to private power contracts, deceitful budgets and, recently, Minister Rich Coleman’s conflict of interest scandal…When Minister Jack Davis in my day was being investigated for fraud, the

The Jumbo Ski Resort planned for the Purcell Mountains has been approved by the provincial government, which has put in place legislation for the area to become a municipality. The setting up of a municipality is so the government will have someone to …

No sooner had the news been out that the US was looking to be self-sufficient in energy than the bottom feeders rose as one to tell us this means we must update our mining of the tar sands and the piping of it though BC to the coast then shipping by ta…

When a clock strikes 13, you can never trust it again. So it must be for anyone who lies about information he is using to back up a serious scientific statement upon which a great deal is at stake. Mark Hume had an article in Sunday’s Globe and Mail …

CKNW’s collapse since 2003 has been catastrophic. Whereas they had a 15%+ of radio listeners in those days (I was about 20%) they now have a 9% share running third behind CBC’s Early Edition, where Shiral now plies her trade. This is a crying shame. CKNW used to be the

There are several things that jumped out at me with the Cohen Commission Final Report, released yesterday. The first is that my faith in Bruce Cohen as expressed on CBC’s Early Edition right after his name was announced has been fully justified. I said then that I knew the man,

Rafe on BC Premier Christy Clark’s support for controversial Canada-China Investment Treaty (FIPA). In letter from Clark welcoming delegates to the 2012 Canada-China Investment Summit, Clark wrote, “I very much look forward to the ratification and implementation of the Canada-China FIPA so that two-way investment between our countries can be

In a breathtaking turnaround, Premier Clark has decided that when natural gas power is used to concentrate natural gas into a liquefied form it is no longer a nasty old fossil fuel. Now, as if a magic wand had been waved, gas from fracking – extracting it from shale rock

Our position in the 2013 election will be to ask our readers and supporters to please vote for the candidate who is for the environment and has a reasonable prospect of victory. It would be nice to think that we could simply vote for the man/woman but to do that

You should read Environment Minister Terry Lake’s op-ed piece in Friday’s Vancouver Sun. If ever you needed proof on the utter incompetence of the Campbell/Clark government this will do it. He gives the government position re the proposed Enbridge pipeline. Lake calls for the the Joint Review Panel to “successfully

British Columbia is under merciless and massive corporate/political attack which, if not stopped, will change this province much for the worse. To now think that a Prime Minister Justin Trudeau will change that may be wishful thinking but we’re really like the man falling from a great height, flapping his

Since Premier Redford supports the pipelines and tanker traffic and is content to have the federal government cram them past BC opposition – and bearing in mind that Premier Redford has made it clear that Alberta won’t give BC a nickel – the only purpose for Ms. Clark to crash

The joke used to be, “How can you tell when a lawyer isn’t t telling the truth? The answer is when you see his lips move”. Now substitute politician and you’ve got it right. Premier Clark will just happen to be in Edmonton next week and hopes that the Alberta