Washington Governor Jay Inslee meets with BC Premier John Horgan in Victoria (Flickr/Province of BC) By Joyce Nelson In a widely published June 3 op-ed for Postmedia newspapers, Thomas Gunton – a former B.C. Deputy Minister of Environment – decimated the Trudeau Liberals’ decision to buy Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain
Continue readingTag: Featured
The Common Sense Canadian: Aboriginal title claim threatens renewal of BC salmon farm tenures
Members of the Dzawada’enuxw First Nation filing a claim of Aboriginal title at the BC Supreme Court (submitted) A First Nation’s claim of Aboriginal title, filed today at the BC Supreme Court in Vancouver, threatens the future of some open net pen Atlantic salmon farms. Lawyer Jack Woodward, who filed
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Why I got arrested for blocking Kinder Morgan
Citizens preparing to get arrested outside Kinder Morgan’s Burnaby tank farm (Photo: Alex Harris) By Kyle Farquharson This year, nearly 200 people — including federal parliamentarians Elizabeth May and Kennedy Stewart — have been arrested on Burnaby Mountain for civil disobedience actions against the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain pipeline expansion. Never
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Canada backs foreign investor rights to shield mining industry: Book
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau with OECD Secretary-General Angel Gurria during a bi-lateral meeting in Paris (OECD/Flickr CC Licence) Canada’s controversial mining sector may be the driving force behind the country’s insistence on protecting foreign investors’ rights over laws that guard its own citizens and environmental values. Prime Minister Justin
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Film explores rare primeval forest and plan to save it from logging
From Common Sense Canadian publisher and award-winning documentary filmmaker Damien Gillis (Fractured Land) and Valhalla Wilderness Society comes Primeval: Enter the Incomappleux, now available online following a theatrical tour and film festival screenings. Filmed on location deep in the heart of BC’s Selkirk Mountains, this 19-minute documentary is the story of the majesty,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: What is John Horgan thinking on LNG?!
John Horgan announcing a new framework for LNG (Province of BC / Flickr) In his desperate bid to keep Christy Clark’s LNG pipe dream alive, John Horgan has become completely untethered from reality. Today, he announced further tax incentives for the industry – as if the sweetheart deal the Liberals
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: On Energy & First Nations, politicians want to have their cake and eat it too
Jonathan Ramos cartoon Canada can fight climate change and build more climate-ravaging pipelines. First Nations’ rights should be respected – just not at the expense of these pipelines, dams and other major projects they oppose. Got it? It’s hard to fathom, but these are the positions of our provincial and federal leaders.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Horgan’s right on Kinder Morgan, even if he got Site C wrong
On Kinder Morgan, John Horgan is standing up for British Columbians — as he should (BCNDP/Flickr) Dear Premier Horgan, I’m still mad at you for carrying on with Site C Dam, based on the utterly bogus reasons you offered the public. But when it comes to Kinder Morgan, I’ve got
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Swain: Building Site C would harm BC’s credit rating; cancelling it would not
The head of the Joint Review Panel on the controversial Site C Dam, Harry Swain, is dispelling the notion that cancelling Site C would somehow harm BC’s credit rating. In fact, it’s quite the opposite, he warns: Terminating Site C means paying back the money that’s already spent in order
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Caught on camera: More blood water from Tofino farmed salmon processing plant
A live camera this morning captured more blood water spilling from the outfall pipe of a farmed salmon processing plant in downtown Tofino. The footage, obtained by investigative diver and filmmaker Tavish Campbell, was posted to facebook with realtime commentary from Campbell and independent biologist and salmon farm critic Alexandra Morton.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: No rate shock from cancelling Site C: Head of review panel
Harry Swain leading the Joint Review Panel into Site C (Photo: JRP) At a press conference earlier today, Harry Swain, the head of the Joint Review Panel into Site C Dam, disputed recent claims that the costs of cancelling Site C Dam would have to be borne by ratepayers in
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Why approving Site C could sink NDP
Illustration by Jonathan Ramos It’s getting down to the wire for the NDP-led government to announce its decision on Site C Dam. The corporate media and Big Labour’s big guns have been making a sales push to keep the beleaguered project alive, and many fear they could succeed. That would
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: David Suzuki: It’s time to nix neonics
David Suzuki on why it’s time for Canada to ban neonics, a class of widely used neuro-active insecticides that harm not only the pests they’re designed to kill, but also bees and other pollinators we rely on for about one-third of food crops. The post David Suzuki: It’s time to
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Riding with Rafe: 10 years of stories from a BC icon
Rafe Mair in Campbell River in 2009, speaking out against GE’s $5 Billion proposed Bute Inlet private power project (Image: Damien Gillis) Few people are lucky enough to work with, let alone become close friends with one of their heroes. Over the past decade, I got to ride shotgun with
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe Mair says goodbye
As we mourn the passing of a legend and dear friend, Rafe Mair’s own word’s in 2011 at his 80th Birthday Roast serve as a fitting goodbye from a man who was ahead of his time and never stopped fighting for the people and environment he loved so dearly. In the
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Christy’s oily legacy is the stain that can’t be cleaned, as climate plan revelation reminds us
Photo: Province of BC/Flickr CC Licence In 1988, a year before the Iron Curtain fell, I was in Budapest and after a stroll I went back to my group in the hotel and said this: “Folks, this regime is in trouble…when I was in the main square, the money changers
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Can emissions shrink while the Canadian economy grows?
David Suzuki asks: Is the Pan-Canadian Framework on Clean Growth and Climate Change framework correct in assuming Canada can reduce greenhouse gas emissions while growing its economy? The post Can emissions shrink while the Canadian economy grows? appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Why coal can’t make America great again
Donald Trump gets fired up about coal in West Virginia Among the ways Donald Trump vows to “make America great again” is reviving the US coal industry. That’s a stretch considering the plight coal faces today in the US. The combined value of the top four US coal companies fell from
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Forget Paris: Justin takes LNG, Kinder Morgan over climate, democracy
Justin Trudeau joined by Canadian premiers at Paris climate talks in 2015 (Province of BC/Flickr) Justin Trudeau is not as young as he looks – obviously. If he was, he would have noticed a sea change in public attitudes that this old man, more of his father’s generation, has not
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Rafe: Christy, Libs let off hook for ruining Hydro, ICBC, failing on LNG
Christy Clark and Rich Coleman (center) meeting with Malaysian LNG officials in 2014 (BC Govt photo) I have a bit of a knack for remembering doggerel as part of my brain’s principal function as a storehouse of useless information. Ergo this: You cannot hope to bribe or twist Thank God, the
Continue reading