More than 200 community living workers in the Kootenays and Salmon Arm to go on strike starting on Thursday, January 31. by CUPE British Columbia | Jan. 30, 2013: VANCOUVER, B.C. – Community Living workers who support people with developmental disabilities at agencies in Trail, Castlegar, Creston, and Salmon Arm will be on
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Alberta Diary: The 10% Delusion: Fraser Institute gins up fake facts about Alberta public sector pay
Women clerical workers, as the Fraser Institute would like to see them. The Fraser Institute didn’t write the book “How to Lie With Statistics,” a guy named Darrell Huff did, but they might as well have! You’ve got to have a little respect for the tireless political lobbyists at the
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Adrian Dix NDP TV Ad: “Change for the Better”
Adrian Dix NDP TV Ad: “Change for the Better”, for British Columbia, Canadians, First Nations, the world, and the future: We recommend:Radicals for our coast: New Democrat MPs and community reps (VIDEO)President Barack Obama’s 2nd Inaugural Address: VIDEOB.C. Premier Condemns Enbridge Inc For Michigan Pipeline Spill Naomi Klein – Unacceptable risks in
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Supreme Court of Canada to hear landmark Tsilhqot’in Aboriginal title case
by Tsilhqot’in National Government | Jan 24, 2013 TŜILHQOT’IN TERRITORY, BC – The Supreme Court of Canada announced today that it will hear the Tsilhqot’in Nation’s landmark Aboriginal title claim, a decision welcomed by the Tsilhqot’in Nation and its members. “We are truly grateful for the many Tsilhqot’in Elders that showed the courage
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Forest Ethics Responds to New Kinder Morgan Pipeline Expansion Proposal
by Forest Ethics | Jan 11, 2013: Yesterday Houston based energy giant Kinder Morgan announced that they planned to further expand their proposed pipeline through the most densely populated areas of the province of British Columbia. The company’s Canadian representative held a telephone press conference yesterday announcing that they planned
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Alberta oil selling at 50% discount to world price…
…which explains why the Canadian government is Hell-and-High-Water-bent on building a pipeline, any pipeline, anywhere. First, the stats Over the past few months, new stories have noted that Canada’s oil sector isn’t getting full price for its heavy oil — in large part because American pipelines are well-supplied with newly-flowing
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: A Not-So-Public Hearing
Yesterday I gave my testimony to the Joint Review Panel for the Northern Gateway Pipeline Project. Protesters in Vancouver January 2013 Some might argue it was an exercise in futility because ultimately Bill C-38 gives decision-making power for these projects to Cabinet. Perhaps. Yet yesterday on the fourth floor of
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Who’s Running BC?
It has been a month of amateurish politics starting with the government posting the auditor-general’s job. Then this week the government backed down several steps to keep from ejecting the well-respected A-G John Doyle from his chair with an attempt at saving face by changing the legislation surrounding his appointment.
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Jack Knox It Straight Out of the Park
Victoria Times Colonist scribe Jack Knox has it right. It’s not eco-hippies who will stop Harper’s Northern Gateway pipeline, it’s the heart of middle-class Canada who will do that job. The panel reviewing Enbridge’s proposal to build a 1,150-kilometre pipeline from Alberta to a terminal at Kitimat will spend until
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Women’s earnings in BC lag national average: report
by Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives: A new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives compares the earnings of women in BC to those in the rest of Canada. The report was authored by Marjorie Griffin Cohen, an economist and SFU Professor of Political Science and Gender, Sexuality and
Continue readingBryan Crockett: How Christy Clark can get reelected
When Christy Clark became the Premier of British Columbia, I, along with many other people, had high hopes. During the campaign and her first few months as Premier, she made herself seem like a centrist who could be a catalyst for meaningful, and much-needed, reform. But, somewhere along the line,
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: At Chinese-owned B.C. mine, no Canadian hires for four years
by BC Federation of Labour “It’s clear HD Mining is in no hurry to hire Canadians and that the province of BC and Government of Canada have been complicit all along.” Documents released today show HD Mining planned to use exclusively underpaid Temporary Foreign Workers (TFW’s) underground for 4.5 years
Continue readingAlberta Diary: U.S. pot decriminalization: will B.C.’s economy go up in smoke?
Smugglers sneak B.C. bud ashore in Washington State. Below: Typical pot smugglers’ accoutrements. Actual Canadian marijuana smugglers may not appear exactly as illustrated. If we Albertans want a hint of what it may be like when the oil runs out – or is replaced by cold fusion or something – all we may have to …
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: One Alberta Government Too Many
One thing that grates on plenty of British Columbians is that Canada has two Alberta governments, one too many. We have a provincial Alberta government that sits in Edmonton and a federal Alberta government that sits in Ottawa. The Alberta government in Ottawa does things the provincial Alberta government can’t
Continue readingThe Equivocator: Joyce Murray Will Be A Formidable Liberal Leadership Candidate
The cutoff date for candidates to enter the Federal Liberal Leadership race is in mid-November. So far, only 2 candidates are officially in the race (Justin Trudeau and Deborah Coyne.) The media coverage has been almost completely about Trudeau since he announced on October 2nd. The Liberal Party needs a
Continue readingThe Disaffected Lib: Every Rapist First Subdues His Victim
Stephen Harper has gone to great lengths to subdue the province and people of British Columbia in preparation for having his way with us against our will. It’s been methodical and relentless and every aspect of it has been marked by three telltales – they’ve all been without consultation, without
Continue readingEclectic Lip: Muslims in America and other hidden ethnic histories
Yves at Naked Capitalism cross-posted a wonderful Alternet piece by Lynn Parramore, eviscerating the idea that Islam is new or alien to America. In truth, the Muslim faith has had a long (if lightly-populated) history in the United States. Islam arrived in America so early, the Puritans hadn’t even burnt
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: BC Court of Appeal strikes down the “Gordo/Christy Clark Wants you to Shut Up” Law, Again
Way back in Gordon Campbell’s reign, the BC government tried to ban third-party election advertising or communications with a law so broad that it would effectively prohibit anyone from publicly expressing a political opinion in the sixty days before an election. The BCTF and other public sector unions contested this
Continue readingCanadian ProgressiveCanadian Progressive: Major Canadian Unions Endorse Mass Sit-in Against Tar Sands Pipelines and Tankers
Today (September 26), the Communications Energy and Paperworkers Union (CEP), the Canadian Autoworkers Union (CAW), the BC Teachers’ Federation, the United Fishermen and Allied Workers’ Union-CAW, and the Canadian Union of Public Employees BC (CUPE BC) have all added their names to the growing list endorsing the October 22 Defend
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