This is not a threat – just a warning to both senior governments. Something is happening in this province that I’ve warned about for a couple of years – let me explain. For years governments have brought in environmental policy, especially a…
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The Common Sense Canadian home page: Cartoon: Enbridge Showdown in Kitimat
Check out the latest from our cartoonist and Kitimat resident, Gerry Hummel. The town’s council recently hosted a public forum on the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline, which would end its 1,100 km journey from the Alberta Tar Sands at the Po…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Clark’s Answer to Deepening Debt: Pretend Shipping Tar Sands to China Means "Jobs" for BC
Christy Clark, aka Premier Photo-Op, has a big mess on her hands – but, fear not, she’ll let us all muck about in it. The government is in deepening debt and Ms. Clark can’t pretend that it’s a mystery how that came about. While there are ma…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: A Weather Report – the Local and the Global
The story of three blind men describing an elephant illustrates the shortcomings of trying to understand global climate change by regarding only local weather. One man wraps his arms around a leg and decides that an elephant is like a tree. Another is …
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Site C Dam: The Folly of Choosing Energy Over Food Security
I recently returned from a trip up to Peace River Country in Northeast BC, filming for a forthcoming short documentary on the Campbell/Clark Government’s proposed Site C Dam.While I wasn’t raised in the region, I have a personal connection to the land …
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Why Cohen Matters: Salmon Inquiry’s Many Benefits
I attended a fair amount of the recent aquaculture and diseases hearings at the Cohen Commission into disappearing Fraser River sockeye – and like most of the Inquiry’s observers and participants I spoke to, I had a mixed reaction to what I saw. I shar…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Shades of Green: The Sockeye Salmon Murder Mystery
The puzzle of British Columbia’s disappearing Fraser River sockeye is unfolding like a classical murder mystery. Suspects abound. Suspicion has fallen on such culprits as atypical ocean predators, unusual algae blooms, overfishing, inadequate food supp…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Public Can’t Rely on Government Processes to Stop Takers and Pipelines
This is the third part of a three part series from Rafe Mair on civil dissent. In the last article I discounted the possibility that any hearing into the Enbridge pipelines or tanker traffic, to and out of Kitimat and Vancouver would dare stop these pr…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Public Can’t Rely on Government Processes to Stop Tankers and Pipelines
This is the third part of a three part series from Rafe Mair on civil dissent. In the last article I discounted the possibility that any hearing into the Enbridge pipelines or tanker traffic, to and out of Kitimat and Vancouver would dare stop these pr…
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Site C Dam: A Bad Deal for British Columbians
EDITOR’S NOTE: This letter was originally published in the Prince George Citizen, in response to a previous article on Site C Dam.I live in the Peace Valley, upstream of the proposed Site C dam. That has led to a lifetime interest in electricity …
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: Site C: A Bad Deal for British Columbians
EDITOR’S NOTE: This letter was originally published in the Prince George Citizen, in response to a previous article on Site C Dam.I live in the Peace Valley, upstream of the proposed Site C dam. That has led to a lifetime interest in electricity …
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian home page: When Civil Disobedience is Justified
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…
Continue readingThe 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
Get MP3 (56 MB)
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 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: 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: 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…
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