If Canadians knew the full extent of the Harper government’s war on science, they would be clamouring for the reinstatement and full funding of dozens of federal scientific programs and hundreds of scientists axed over the past year. Since the passage of omnibus budget Bill C-38, the Harper Cabinet has moved at blitzkrieg
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The Common Sense Canadian home page: Spinning out of control?
It can hardly come as a surprise to anyone that governments – like corporations – employ spin to portray their actions in the best possible light (and to cast their opponents in the worst possible light). Nor is it news that many corporations – and the PR companies they employ
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Bean Leaves, Bedbugs and Biomimicry
Scientists often come up with new discoveries, technologies or theories. But sometimes they rediscover what our ancestors already knew. A couple of recent findings show we have a lot to learn from our forebears – and nature – about bugs.Modern methods of controlling pests have consisted mainly of poisoning them
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Polls Apart: Making Sense of Surprise BC Election Outcome
Premier Christy Clark was right when she told the Canadian Press it’s, “the people of British Columbia that choose the government.”…Politicians have known for a long time that the news media makes a lot of money during political campaigns and elections, and they make even more when elections are close.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Can Political Polls be Trusted?
Following a polling debacle in last year’s Alberta election and troubling signs in BC as voters prepare to cast their ballots, John King questions the motives and methods of pollsters and the corporate media who publish them. “Suddenly, obscure pollsters, often funded by unknown sources, are constructing the narrative that
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Damien Gillis Talks BC Election on SFU Radio
Listen to this half-hour interview by CJSF 90.1 FM’s Sylvia Richardson of The Common Sense Canadian’s Damien Gillis on the eve of the provincial election. The two compare the Liberals’ and NDP’s true economic records and their positions on pipelines and tankers, private river power projects, forestry policy, Site C
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Piscine Reovirus Pt.1: New Salmon Disease Sweeping the Coast?
Piscine reovirus (PRV), known to cause heart and skeletal muscle inflammation (HSMI), is a disease that so weakens wild salmon that they may be unable swim the oceans or migrate to their spawning grounds. The presence of PRV-HSMI in BC’s wild salmon was not revealed by the provincial government or
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: New Report: Canada-EU Trade Agreement Threatens Fracking Bans
The Council of Canadians, along with the Transnational Institute and Corporate Europe Observatory, released a report this week examining the threat that a proposed Canada-EU free trade deal would have on a community’s ability to implement fracking regulations and fracking bans on both sides of the Atlantic. Canada began negotiations
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: To Tiny Bhutan, “Progress” Means Happiness, Not GDP
At a 1972 international conference in India, a reporter asked Bhutan’s king about his country’s gross national product – a measure of economic activity. His response was semi-facetious: He said Bhutan’s priority was not the GNP but GNH – gross national happiness. Bhutan’s government has since taken the concept of
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Bait and Switch: Red Chris Mine, ‘Green’ Funding and the Northwest Transmission Line
The Northwest Transmission line is a 344 km, $600 million taxpayer-subsidized hydroelectric corridor. Despite receiving $130 million in federal “green infrastructure” funding and over $300 million from BC Hydro so far – much of that covering $200 million in ballooning cost overruns – it is designed to power mining operations
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Stressed at Work? Add a Daily Dose of Green
The modern workday pose – fingers on keyboard, slight slouch, glassy eyes fixed on glowing screen, bathed in unnatural light – can drain vitality, happiness and creativity. Designed to maximize efficiency, this sterile setup actually reduces productivity and job satisfaction. The good news is that researchers have built an increasingly
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Audio: Rafe Mair talks WATER + POWER Tour on CBC Kamloops
Common Sense Canadian co-founder Rafe Mair appeared on CBC Kamloops Tuesday morning to discuss his upcoming tour, titled “WATER + POWER: The Future of BC’s Energy, Environment and Democracy.” A former Socred MLA and Environment Minister from Kamloops, Mair returns to his old community this evening to kick of a
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: BC Liberal Legacy: A Huge Debt Burden
As we head into a provincial election on May 14, in which economic policy and fiscal acumen will be a central focus, independent economist Erik Andersen and Dr. Sandra Hoffman offer this financial report card on the reigning BC Liberal Party’s record. After promising “responsible, accountable management of your public
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: WATER + POWER: Upcoming Presentations by Rafe Mair and Damien Gillis
In the lead-up to the BC election, Common Sense Canadian co-founders Rafe Mair and Damien Gillis are travelling to four BC communities – Kamloops, Merritt, Williams Lake and Prince George – to discuss key issues shaping the future of our province. The multi-media presentations, titled “WATER + POWER: The Future
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Big-picture Thinking Needed to Protect Nature
Few places on Earth have been untouched by humans, according to a study in the journal Science. Satellite images taken from hundreds of kilometres above the planet reveal a world that we have irrevocably changed within a remarkably short time. Although industrial projects like the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Big-picture Thinking Needed to Protect Nature
Few places on Earth have been untouched by humans, according to a study in the journal Science. Satellite images taken from hundreds of kilometres above the planet reveal a world that we have irrevocably changed within a remarkably short time…For example, in British Columbia’s booming Peace Region, forestry, energy and
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Fractured Land Subject Caleb Behn in Vancouver to Discuss Indigenous Law, Resources
Caleb Behn, a young, Indigenous law student from northeast BC and the subject of the forthcoming documentary film Fractured Land, will be at the Vancouver Public Library this Thursday evening to give a talk sponsored by Lawyers’ Rights Watch. Behn’s traditional territories in the Peace Valley and Fort Nelson area
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Audio: Damien Gillis Talks Private River Power, Fracking, LNG, BC Election
The Common Sense Canadian’s Damien Gillis and Vancouver Co-op Radio’s Imtiaz Popat discuss a range of topics relating to water and energy in advance of BC’s provincial election, scheduled for May 14. From the economic and environmental consequences of the Liberals’ private river power scheme to new plans to turn
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: MP John Weston, Rafe Mair Debate Pipeline Risks, Environmental ‘Process’
MP John Weston’s office responds to Rafe Mair’s recent column on the Harper Government’s sham environmental “process”. “Regrettably, [Rafe] has adopted an extremist position, rejecting a Northern Pipeline in principle, no matter what the cost to the community, to jobs, to our country, or to our economy. When asked at
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Are ‘Frankenfish’ Swimming Your Way? FDA Debates GM Salmon
The seemingly straightforward question, “What are we having for dinner?” may get trickier to answer, due to a revolution in science. Many people call it “frankenfood” when the answer to the dinner question could be, “Salmon with a dash of eel genes”! This genetic manipulation isn’t some pie-in-the-sky notion. In
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