Tag: Common Sense Journalism

Premier Christy Clark’s complacency and Energy Minister Rich Coleman’s failure to address glaring new realities has resulted in increasingly desperate collusion by government and corporate influences to justify obsolete policy. The ongoing explosive growth of wind power capacity in the Pacific Northwest Power Pool, the collapse of natural gas prices,

Dr. Gordon Hartman is a retired senior biologist and manager for the Department of Fisheries and Oceans with a deep knowledge of the region affected by the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline. Here he provides an essential summary of the threats from the pipeline to fish populations as well as

In a Vancouver Sun op-ed this week, former BC deputy minister Bob Plecas offers some advice to Premier Christy Clark on how to win the next election. Here is one of his suggestions, indeed his first choice: “The Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline. Demand Alberta share in the revenue from the

Science denied or science muzzled is a threat to entire political and economic systems, even to the viability of whole societies. Policies that don’t respect scientific processes and the weight of its information revert to a primitivism that is guided by the forces of impulse, power, personality and superstition. They

Enrbidge Inc.’s controversial proposed Northern Gateway pipeline will be in the spotlight at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival this Wednesday evening, beginning at 7:30 pm (doors open 6:30) at North Vancouver’s Centennial Theatre (2300 Lonsdale Ave). The evening will feature four compelling documentary films from the past year –

I wasn’t surprised and what Alberta Premier Alison Redford recently said, namely: “The Alberta government is looking to clear a path for the oil sands through British Columbia by upping the economic benefits for its western neighbour – including the option of paying to modernize and expand West Coast ports.”…We

Enbridge and the two governments are convinced that these First Nations can and will be bought off. And this point must be considered. Damien Gillis and I were at the huge First Nations rally in Prince Rupert this past weekend and we can both say with confidence that this will

Both Rafe Mair and Damien Gillis of The Common Sense Canadian were on hand in Prince Rupert this past weekend to witness and take part in a historic gathering to protest Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway Pipeline and associated Tar Sands supertankers on BC’s rugged coast. Mair was the evening’s key-note

Everything that science can tell us about the environmental challenges unfolding around us must pass through layers of attitudes and values before we can identify or remedy them – “If I hadn’t believed it, I wouldn’t have seen it,” was Marshall McLuhan’s noted comment on this subject. Evidence alone will

The latest opinion poll from Angus Reid Public Opinion shows that a new paradigm in BC politics has held and even increased in the last three months, most notably with a widening gap between the NDP, now up 2 to 42%, and the Liberals, down 3 to only 28%, which

The Norwegian salmon farming industry got a lesson in the old adage, “be careful what you wish for” this week when it learned of industry critic Don Staniford’s next job. The British-born, globe-trotting salmon activist announced on his blog yesterday that following his scheduled deportation from Canada later this month

Back in 1992, when the Mulroney government was shoving the Charlottetown Accord at us, I was one of a very few people in the media that was opposed and said so with a passion. One day my “mole” in the Conservative caucus – and at the same time a national

The mystery of the disappearing wild salmon may be closer to being solved due to the reconvened Cohen Commission and the extraordinary three days of hearings held in December, 2011. As earlier testimony revealed, many environmental factors affect the survival of wild salmon but imported diseases from the aquaculture industry

A little-known proposed gravel mine at McNab Creek in Howe Sound could soon be digging tens of millions of tonnes of gravel out of sensitive salmon and wildlife habitat, which has regional politicians and citizens of the Sunshine Coast sounding alarms. Several regional directors and councilors have recently stepped forward

This is an open letter to NDP leader Adrian Dix and his Energy Critic, John Horgan. It’s time, gentlemen, to pee or get off the pot. The issues of the proposed Enbridge Pipelines and tanker traffic on our coasts demand your immediate statement of policy…There are many who think that

This raving maniac Joe Oliver, Harper’s Resources minister, is a dangerous man. Indeed so is Harper. They have flung down the gauntlet, essentially saying that violence is the inevitable consequence of BC not taking the Enbridge Pipeline, the consequent tanker traffic, increased capacity and tankers for the Kinder Morgan line

The source of the infectious salmon anemia virus (ISAv) now being found in BC’s wild salmon is almost certainly from imported Atlantic salmon eggs, the international trade that has provided coastal salmon farms with most of their stock. The salmon farming industry, of course, is still denying that ISAv is

If there’s one thing above all politicians hate it’s democracy. For God’s sake, we can’t have the rabble have a say in decisions! Let them do this once and we’ll never get to run the province again! They believe that we live in a parliamentary, representative “democracy” which means that

This week’s humiliating budget defeat for Toronto mayor Rob Ford, which reversed $20 million in proposed spending cuts, has put new wind in the sails of those fighting to see improved transit services in Canada’s largest city. On his first day in office, Mayor Ford fulfilled a campaign promise by

The BC Cancer Foundation is ready for your concerns over accepting sponsorship from Enbridge for this year’s annual “Ride to Conquer Cancer”. They even have have a handy instruction sheet preparing their staff to deflect your tough questions and subdue your outrage. I should know – I helped draft it