Assorted content for your weekend reading.- Danny Dorling writes about the importance of empathy and kindness in establishing the basis for a more equal society:When you cannot empathise with another group, it is very hard to think kindly towards them…
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Accidental Deliberations: Monday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material to start your week.- Carolyn Ferns writes that a long-awaited child care program would represent the best possible Mother’s Day gift for Canadian families.- Danyaal Raza and Ritika Goel remind us how housing affects a wide range …
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Thursday Morning Links
This and that for your Thursday reading.- Owen Jones argues that public policy and social activism are needed to rein in the excesses of a corporate class which sees it as its job to extract every possible dollar from the society around it:A financial …
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: David Suzuki: B.C. must heed Mount Polley disaster’s lessons
“We need stronger environmental assessments,” says award-winning Canadian environmentalist David Suzuki, reflecting on last year’s Mount Polley disaster in British Columbia. The post David Suzuki: B.C. must heed Mount Polley disaster’s lessons appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: “Captured” environmental regulator thinks of Kitimat smelter owner Rio Tinto as “client”
Rio Tinto Alcan’s Kitimat smelter (Rio Tinto Alcan/Canada Newswire) Rweprinted with permission from DeSmog Canada. Move over Duffy diaries. There’s a new black book in town. That’s the detailed work journal of B.C. Ministry of Environment senior official Frazer McKenzie, which recounts conversations between ministry officials and Rio Tinto Alcan while
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Film tells real story behind Tahltan victory over Sacred Headwaters mines
As the BC Liberal government toots its own horn following its buy-back of highly contentious coal mine licences throughout the Sacred Headwaters, Beyond Boarding excerpts portions of its documentary film Northern Grease to tell the real story of what happened. From Beyond Boarding’s Tamo Campos: In the summer of 2013, we spent
Continue readingAccidental Deliberations: Wednesday Morning Links
Miscellaneous material for your mid-week reading. – Edward Keenan is the latest to point out that any reasonable political decision-making process needs to include an adult conversation about taxes and why we need them: This week, when asked about the prospect of raising taxes beyond the rate of inflation in
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Imperial Metals’ offices raided in Mount Polley investigation
Tailings from Mount Polley Mine pouring into Quesnel Lake (Photo: Farhan Umedaly, Vovo Productions) Read this Feb. 4 Vancouver Sun story by Gordon Hoekstra on the surprise raid of Mount Polley Mine owner Imperial Metals’ offices. The company and its Engineer of Record may have gotten off lightly with a government-appointed panel’s recent report, but this
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Mount Polley investigation: Whitewash follows tailings flood – culprits let off the hook
Aerial image after Mount Polley mine tailings spill (Cariboo Regional District) The recently concluded “independent” investigation into the Mount Polley tailings pond rupture essentially exonerates the various culprits in what was likely the worst environmental catastrophe in BC history. The report can only be seen as a whitewashing of the world record 25 million cubic metres of
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: David Suzuki: Digging out of Canada’s mining dilemma
World-renowned environmentalist David Suzuki wonders whether Canadian mining and fossil fuel profiteers and their government promoters believe in the future. The post David Suzuki: Digging out of Canada’s mining dilemma appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Digging out of Canada’s mining dilemma
A Toronto March in solidarity with Guatemalan Goldcorp protestors (Photo: Allan Lissner) It sometimes seems people in the mining and fossil fuel industries — along with their government promoters — don’t believe in the future. What else could explain the mad rush to extract and use up the Earth’s resources
Continue readingThe Canadian Progressive: Canadian mining interests in Guatemala challenged by indigenous direct democracy
In Guatemala, indigenous Mayan communities’ participation in community consulta, or consultation, helps to engage the government, and push back against Canadian and multinational mining companies accused of human rights abuses. The post Canadian mining interests in Guatemala challenged by indigenous direct democracy appeared first on The Canadian Progressive.
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Red Chris Mine: First Nations win round 1 with Imperial Metals in court
Tahltan and Secwepemc First Nations and supporters celebrate at the BC Supreme Court (contributed) BC First Nations added a small but potentially significant notch to their legal winning streak yesterday, with a temporary victory over Imperial Metals in BC Supreme Court. The company was seeking an interlocutory injunction and enforcement order enabling it
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Imperial Metals asks court to remove Red Chris Mine blockade
First Nations have been protesting several Imperial Metals mines since Mount Polley (Photo: Facebook) Imperial Metals, the company behind the Mount Polley tailing pond disaster, is seeking an injunction today at the BC Supreme Court to forcibly remove Tahltan First Nations protestors from a blockade of the company’s newest project,
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Audio: From Site C’s economic folly to update on Mount Polley
The Common Sense Canadian’s Damien Gillis and CFAX 1070′s Ian Jessop discuss the economic disaster that the proposed Site C Dam represents from British Columbians. At a projected cost of over $100 per megawatt hour – and likely more than $8 billion for construction – the project stands to lose BC taxpayers
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Mount Polley disaster: More misinformation than facts
Likely resident Lawna Bourassa displays cloudy water taken from the shore of Quesnel Lake (Damien Gillis) Since day one the claim has been that the tailings flowing from Mount Polley mine’s breached dam were “stopped”, yet one month after the BC Day Disaster occurred, the Ministry of Environment found Mount Polley to be “out of compliance”, and on
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Mount Polley whistleblower lost job, then home
Larry Chambers warned Imperial Metals that its tailings pond was bound to fail – and he was fired for it, the Likely, BC resident told media in Vancouver earlier today. He and his wife, Lawna Bourassa-Keuster, have now lost their home on once-beautiful Quensnel Lake – too afraid to drink
Continue readingPolitical Eh-conomy: Political Eh-conomy Radio: BC teachers and First Nations on the frontlines
My guests today help take a fresh look at two issues where British Columbia is on the front lines of bigger social conflicts: that over the future of public education and that over resource development on First Nations lands. https://politicalehconomy.files.wordpress.com/2014/09/podcast-140905-bc-frontlines1.mp3 My first guest is Helesia Luke, life-long public education advocate and member of the board
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Mount Polley spill may be far bigger than initially revealed
Aerial image after Mount Polley mine tailings spill (Cariboo Regional District) Volumes of water, tailings and other debris released into the environment by the August 4 breach of Imperial Metals’ tailings pond at Mount Polley Mine were at least 70% higher than initial estimates, the company revealed on its website yesterday. Now, a report from
Continue readingThe Common Sense Canadian: Imperial boosts Mount Polley spill estimate by 10 million cubic metres
The silty mud remaining in Hazeltine Creek after Mount Polley tailings dam breach (Carol Linnitt / Desmog.ca) In an update on the Mount Polley mine disaster, owner Imperial Metals has boosted its estimates on tailings, water and debris released into the environment by the failure of its tailings dam on August 4.
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