Last week I advised that we must be prepared to lie down in front of machinery aimed at creating the pipelines from the Tar Sands to Kitimat and, as I fully expected, got some heat. We have to face this question before we get into morality and legality…
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The Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: The World’s Changing Energy Equation
The world’s energy equation is rapidly changing. Three recent developments have altered energy options, re-calibrated the calculation of supply and transformed the implications for the planet’s environment. Unfortunately, renewable, pollution-free ener…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Audio: Damien Gillis Talks Cohen Commission, BC Hydro on CHLY
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Damien Gillis joins Rae Kornberger – host of CHLY Nanaimo’s A Sense of Justice – to discuss recent developments at the Cohen Commission into disappearing Fraser sockeye, as well as the future of private river power and BC Hydro. Dami…
The Common Sense Canadian home page: Title Fight at Cohen Commission: Morton vs. Industry-Government Juggernaut
On the penultimate day of the Cohen Commission’s hearings on aquaculture and diseases, Alexandra Morton finally took the stand. To say the day lived up to its billing is an understatement, as the Inquiry often characterized by technocratic tedium was j…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Tar Sands Pipelines: Our Moment of Truth
I’m writing this in Bergen, Norway, after a cruise from Leith (Edinburgh) Scotland that took us past many oil rigs – giving pause to remember that we’re as dependent on oil as we ever were – in fact, perhaps more so. A day or two ago I read in …
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: The Financial Pain Produced by Campbell/Clark’s Energy Policies
The Government of British Columbia, has for the past 8 years, directed BC Hydro to increase provincial power generation (contracting with IPPs) and transmission capacity to serve a yet-to-materialize provincial demand. The official forecast by BC Hydro…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: The Financial Pain Produced by BC’s Energy Policies
The Government of British Columbia, has for the past 8 years, directed BC Hydro to increase provincial power generation (contracting with IPPs) and transmission capacity to serve a yet-to-materialize provincial demand. The official forecast by BC Hydro…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Precautionary Principle Missing in Protecting Wild Salmon
Alexandra Morton and her small team have had the daunting task of searching through 500,000 documents for the Cohen Commission into disappearing Fraser sockeye – most of which had only been released after the Provincial Government and salmon farmers di…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: A $50 Million Message to Coal
As heat records broke by the hundreds across the United States this summer, Michael Bloomberg braved the sweltering temperatures on a hot July morning, mounted a platform in front of the coal-fired GenOn power station in Alexandria, Virginia, and annou…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Video: Rally Against Tar Sands Tankers in Vancouver
Several hundred concerned citizens, First Nations and conservationists gathered recently in Burnaby to speak out against KinderMorgan’s plans to pipe 700,000 barrels a day of Tar Sands bitumen to supertankers in Vancouver’s harbour. The rally was held …
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Morton Sees Answer to Fraser Sockeye Collapse…And She’s Finally Free to Share It
In a blog posting yesterday, following a series of major developments at the Cohen Commission, biologist Alexandra Morton suggests she now has enough pieces of the puzzle to pin much of the blame for collapsing Fraser sockeye stocks on salmon farms.Mor…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Avatar Grove – the Extraordinary and the Ordinary
A scant 10 minute walk off a logging road near the BC’s West Coast town of Port Renfrew is Avatar Grove, a stand of old cedars so majestic, powerful and gnarled that T. F. Watt said he and his colleagues from the Ancient Forest Alliance “were running a…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Audio: Damien Gillis Talks Private Power, Hydro Report on CFUV’s "Hidden News"
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Listen to this 20 min radio interview from CFUV’s Hidden News. Damien Gillis and host Mehdi Najari talk private river power, smart meters and the fallout from the recent panel report on BC Hydro and leaked comments of the crown corpo…
The Common Sense Canadian home page: Gerry Hummel Cartoon: Private Power Thieves
In the wake of the panel report on BC Hydro and the media firestorm over costly private power projects we plainly don’t need, our cartoonist Gerry Hummel gives us his take on the robbery of taxpayers and ratepayers this program represents.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Cobb Fallout: Coleman, Clark Say No New IPPs but Refuse to Kill Policy
The admission by Dave Cobb, President of BC Hydro, that Hydro is spending 100s of millions for energy they don’t need came as a shock, for Damien Gillis and me and others, notably the Wilderness Committee, have been saying this for three years withou…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Miller Takes Stand at Cohen: More Clues and Questions in Salmon Virus "Detective Story"
Dr. Kristi Miller spent all day on the stand at the Cohen Commission yesterday in front of a packed gallery – but it wasn’t until the end of the day, when Alexandra Morton’s lawyer, Greg McDade, got his first crack at her that things got really interes…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Cohen Commission: Was Kristi Miller’s Virus Research Obstructed by DFO Colleagues?
A new twist in the case Dr. Kristi Miller – the DFO scientist infamously muzzled by the Harper Government from discussing her groundbreaking salmon research publicly – came forth yesterday at the Cohen Commission into collapsing Fraser sockeye. Ecojust…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Video: Rafe & Damien on EVOTV (Part 2)
Watch part 2 of Rafe and Damien’s discussion on Shaw’s EVOTV, with host Irma Arkus. In this episode, the pair talk wild salmon and aquaculture, private power and environmental politics in BC. Damien Gillis: “This isn’t free enterprise – it’s piracy. It…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: Pipelines and Tankers – the Building Pressure
Anyone who is concerned about the arrival of pipelines and tankers to BC’s West Coast should be worried. The forces are mounting to make this province a bridge to an energy-hungry Asia. And the inevitable result will be – sooner or later – a ruptured p…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Port Metro Vastly Exaggerating Need for More Container Capacity, Infrastructure
The way Port Metro President and CEO Robin Sylvester tells it, we’re facing a major shortage of port capacity in the coming years, justifying the plans of his organization and both senior levels of government to continue a massive build-out of Tsawwass…
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