How affordable housing, climate action and Indigenous rights can fit together We were pleased to welcome language teacher, elected councillor and Squamish Nation spokesperson Khelsilem for an hour-long chat with Kai Nagata and Dogwood supporters. Topics included: Sen̓áḵw, the Squamish Nation’s ambitious new 6,000-unit rental housing project in Kitsilano How Indigenous values can inform the […]
With a weak federal government and hostile neighbours, B.C. needs to stand up for itself B.C. is the front line of the overdose crisis and the housing crisis. We have the most crushing ratio of household debt in Canada. Our primary industries are collapsing because of climate change, automation and corporate greed. And yet British […]
Calls to ‘focus on climate’ above justice or equity are misguided, even dangerous I know what Mike Le Couteur was thinking. When NDP leader Jagmeet Singh stood in Grassy Narrows and vowed to fix the drinking water in Indigenous communities, the Global reporter was following his news instincts. “Are you just writing a blank cheque,” […]
In politics, like on the river, local knowledge goes a long way Port Alberni, Parksville, Courtenay. The Puntledge. The Stamp. The Englishman. Autumn is a time of reckoning in towns along the banks of Vancouver Island’s legendary salmon rivers. As the icons of B.C. return home they bring news about the state of the world. […]
After years of groundwork, youth have pushed climate to the top of the national agenda. What comes next? Close to a million Canadians in the street. Groundbreaking resolutions passed at the Union of B.C. Municipalities conference. Politicians tripping over each other to appear as environmental champions. The climate movement has never seen a moment like […]
16-year-olds could boost turnout, revive democracy and keep climate top of the political agenda. A century ago, the people in power came up with some truly ridiculous reasons why women shouldn’t vote. Women’s brains were insufficiently developed, anti-suffragists argued. They lacked life experience outside the home. They would simply vote the way their husbands voted. […]
Alberta premier announces crackdown on climate groups In September 2019, oil evangelist Jason Kenney launched a witch hunt – complete with a snitch line, a bully pulpit and a taxpayer-funded public inquiry. Kenney isn’t targeting women suspected of using black magic, like the Puritans of the 1600s. Or supposed Cold War Communists like infamous U.S. […]
The spirit Canada needs to fight climate change is missing in action On September 10, 1939, Canada officially declared war on Germany. The vote to support that declaration occurred in Parliament two weeks earlier. It could not have been easy. The Canadian economy was only just recovering from the Great Depression. There had been no […]