Tag: Common Sense Journalism

Get MP3 (18 MB) Listen to this short Nov. 19 interview of Damien Gillis on SFU radio’s Latin Waves program, hosted by Sylvia Richardson. The two discuss this week’s Rafe Mair 80th birthday roast, Rafe’s career in politics, media and the environmental movement – plus other key issues in BC

This, dear friends, is a plea for help. Let me illustrate that with an anecdote. The great American attorney, Clarence Darrow once had a client praise him asking, “How can I help?” to which he replied, “Madam, since the Phoenicians invented money there’s only been one answer to that question.” The Common

Perspective is an illuminating rarity that can take years to occur. Disparate pieces drift in an incoherent jumble until they begin to coalesce into a understandable pattern. Then clarity reveals connections and relationships. Insight comes out of confusion. Order replaces chaos. The pieces cohere into a meaningful whole. The design

Picture this: It’s 2012 and you live half way around the world – let’s say, Sydney, Australia. You open up your Facebook page to find a new viral youtube video out of BC, shared on your wall just moments ago by a friend in Canada. With a click of the

A version of this article first appeared on the website of Strategic Culture Foundation, a Russian online paper. Let me explain the title to this article. Canada’s overriding mission, according to its constitution. is “Peace, Order and Good Government”, yet I see violence ahead and It’s all about the Tar

Editor’s Note: We are pleased to welcome Ottawa-based environmental journalist and educator Mark Brooks to our team of Common Sense contributors. A former analyst for the Government of Canada and an author whose work has appeared in The Globe and Mail …

The Common Sense Canadian has been going well over the past year-plus and this seems to be a good moment to reflect on what we’ve done, not done, and will do. First please understand that we are just two people. Our funding is very limited and, …

Check out this new video from the Natural Resources Defense Council – narrated by Hollywood actor Kevin Bacon – on the battle to protect BC’s iconic Spirit Bear and its habitat in the Great Bear Rainforest from the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pi…

Editor’s Note: In the wake of two major developments
regarding the highly controversial proposed Prosperity Mine – the Harper
Government’s decision to provide Taseko Mines a new environmental
review for an alternate version of the project and the…

The recent news that the European strain of Infectious Salmon Anemia virus had been found in two Rivers Inlet sockeye smolts sent a shiver of fear throughout the North Pacific region. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) dutifully notified Japan,…

The Tsilhqot’in Nation is firing back at the BC Government with legal action following the confirmation this past Friday that the Province has issued permits to Taseko Mines for work related to its proposed Prosperity Mine at Fish Lake, West of Willi…

At a recent Nature Vancouver event, Damien Gillis discussed the proposed
doubling of Deltaport and conversion of prime farmland, fish and
wildlife habitat into an industrialized Foreign Trade Zone – disputing the myth advanced by the Port Authority…

At a recent Nature Vancouver event, Damien Gillis discussed the proposed
doubling of Deltaport and conversion of prime farmland, fish and
wildlife habitat into an industrialized Foreign Trade Zone – disputing the myth advanced by the Port Authority…

Did BC Energy Minister Rich Coleman outright lie in the Legislature when he promised public consultation for a massive new pipeline to draw billions of litres of water from BC’s biggest hydroelectric dam, the Williston Reservoir, to supply the natur…

Check out this new cartoon from Gerry Hummel. In recent weeks British Columbians and concerned media and citizens around the world have been rocked by the revelation that multiple species of wild Pacific salmon are showing signs of being infected by a …

Ciudad Juarez, a city on Mexico’s border with the US state of Texas, is described by Ed Vulliamy as “the most murderous city in the world” (Guardian Weekly , July 1/11). The 40,000 homicides claimed so far by Mexico’s recent drug war didn’t all occur i…

Get MP3 (57 MB)
Listen to Rafe and Damien’s recent appearance on CHLY’s “A Sense of Justice”. The two discuss a wide variety of topics with host Rae Kornberger – including Rafe’s upcoming Roast and some reflections on his long and storied career in …

The high-profile sponsorship of a BC cancer research charity event by the world’s biggest oil pipeline builder raises serious questions about the ethics of fundraising – and threatens to backfire for both organizations involved.Unless you never open a …

There are two mining stories out of last week in Lotusland.For openers, let’s deal with “Prosperity” lake which, before the corporate flacks got involved, was called Fish Lake. The short story is that this is a mine prospect held by Taseko M…

PEI’s Atlantic Veterinary College – cited as the reference lab for Infectious Salmon Anemia – has confirmed that the virus has officially arrived in BC’s West Coast waters. Critics of open net-pen salmon farms have warned that this arrival was inevitab…