For Frack’s Sake
When Josh Fox received a letter offering him nearly $100,000 for the natural gas extraction rights on his Pennsylvania property, his first reaction was: nice chunk of change. Then he…
Common Sense Journalism
Video: Working Together Through Idle No More – Ben West, Mandy Nahanee, Damien Gillis Web Chat
Damien Gillis, editor of the Common Sense Canadian and co-director of the film in production Fractured Land, hosts a google web video chat discussing how indigenous and non-indigenous peoples can…
Shooting the Messenger: BC’s Stalwart Auditor General Pushed Out
Throughout his time serving the province, John Doyle has been a bloodhound hot on the trail of myriad multi-billion dollar scandals emanating from behind the closed doors of the Campbell-Clark…
Climate Change a Failure of Political Will
Politicians who almost universally claim to be so well-informed that they can run countries, cannot also claim to be so ill-informed that they do not appreciate the gravity of the…
Video: The Different Faces of Idle No More – Web Chat
Watch this 10 min web chat, in which two young, indigenous men discuss their different experiences across the country with the growing Idle No More Movement. Caleb Behn, an Eh-Cho…
Video: Idle No More – Scenes from a Vancouver Train Station
On January 2, 2013, hundreds of First Nations and non-indigenous people converged on Vancouver’s Waterfront Station for the latest Idle No More rally. The beating of drums and singing of…
Sinking Cities: A Future with Rising Oceans
New York may be the environmental story of the year, not because of the 80 fatalities and the $50 billion in damages caused by so-called Superstorm Sandy, but because the…
BC May Be Headed for its Own Fiscal Cliff
Is BC careening towards the edge of its own ‘fiscal cliff’? Independent economist Erik Andersen believes that may be the case. Here, he adds up a number of troubling financial…
The Spirit of Giving
The deeper meaning of giving is easily hidden in the hectic festive celebrations and frenzied gift buying that have become the habit of the Christmas season. Indeed, giving’s essential function…
Energy Politics the Top Canadian Story of 2012
CBC’s Power and Politics has chosen “energy politics” as the top Canadian news story for 2012 and we at the Common Sense Canadian couldn’t agree more. Energy is the current…
2012: The Year of Energy Politics
2012 was a year that began with Conservative Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver dismissing opponents of the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipelines as “radicals” and ends with the Idle No More…
Video: Travelling Canada’s Carbon Corridor – the Making of Fractured Land
Watch this presentation by Damien Gillis, co-director of Fractured Land – a documentary in production which examines the industrialization of northern Canada through the eyes of a young indigenous man…
The Fracking Mess
The relatively new technique of “hydraulic fracturing”, a process of drilling horizontally in shale beds and then breaking the rock by injecting a concoction of water, sand and toxic chemicals…
Despite PM’s Assurances, Floodgates Open to Chinese Govt as Encana, Petro China Partner
Canadians are seeing red this week after a series of announcements reinforce concerns about the loss of Canadian resources and sovereignty. The focus has been the Alberta Tar Sands, but…
How the Environment is Becoming the Top Issue for Canadians
How much is our wild salmon worth? What price on our rivers and the ecologies they sustain? Is there any financial arrangement that will compensate for the loss of our…
New Suzuki Foundation Report Shows Staggering Longterm Industrial Impacts on Peace Region
Roads, dams, logging, mines, fracking, seismic lines, pipelines, transmission lines. The Peace Valley region in northeast BC has seen its share of industrial development over the past half century. Now,…
In Praise of Science and Reason
I’ve never been a member of a political party, although I did consider joining the NDP earlier this year, just so I could vote for Nathan Cullen in the leadership…
Public Will Soon Turn on Kinder Morgan…Will the NDP?
Mike Smyth had an interesting column in Sunday’s Province, dealing with the proposed second and much larger Kinder Morgan Pipeline to Vancouver, which would see a five-fold increase in tanker…
The Surrender of an Ecowarrior
When does heroism become folly? When does struggle become futile? When does surrender become liberation? When is enough, enough? Then what? These are just some of the questions that come…
Cancellation of Private River Power Project in Kootenays a Victory for Citizens and the Environment
Private power producer AXOR, under subsidiary Purcell Green Power, planned to dam and divert Glacier and Howser Creeks in the Purcell Wilderness in the Kootenays, along with two other nearby…