First Nations & Indigenous

Mount Polley Mine dam collapse compels us to review resource development regulations

Aug 20, 2014

At this point, we don’t know exactly what caused the collapse in the large dam holding mining wastewater and contaminated sediment – also known as tailings – at the Mount Polley Mine. This is why we need the inquiry which the BC government announced earlier this week. It remains to be seen if it was… View Article

CCPA submission to BC consultation on forest tenures

May 26, 2014

By Seth Klein

Earlier today, I submitted the following on behalf of the CCPA to Mr Jim Snetsinger, who is leading a consultation on area-based forest tenures on behalf of the BC government (FYI, the deadline for input into this consultation is Friday May 30, and submissions can be made via email to: [email protected]): CCPA Submission to Consultation… View Article

What the UBC rape chant scandal says about women in the Canadian economy

Sep 10, 2013

By Iglika Ivanova

The news of UBC Sauder Business School students chanting about rape of underage girls during a FROSH week event has generated much outrage. As it should. While the chant might seem like an isolated incident, it is not. The recent rape chant scandals in UBC and in St Mary’s University in Halifax are evidence of… View Article

Does Premier Clark, the great petro pretender, have a Plan B?

Jun 24, 2013

By Ben Parfitt

In January, one of the world’s most sophisticated deep-sea drilling vessels, the $540-million Chikyu, left the Japanese Port of Shimizu destined for a distant point in the Phillippine Sea. The voyage marked a milestone in what by then was an 18-year, $700-million research and development effort aimed at one day weaning Japan off of its… View Article

Enbridge testimony from Josh Paterson

Jan 16, 2013

By Marc Lee

A guest post follows from Josh Paterson, who is formerly a lawyer with West Coast Environmental Law, and recently appointed Executive Director of the BC Civil Liberties Association. Josh’s remarks are his own personal opinions. ********** Good evening. I’m happy to be here in unceded Coast Salish territories to address you this evening, to express my unreserved… View Article

Services for at-risk youth in BC: moving from dysfunction to effective support

Sep 12, 2012

By Diana Guenther

Guest blogger Diana Guenther drew on extensive work experience in social services to develop her Masters of Urban Studies thesis on improving services for at-risk youth in BC. She shares some of her key recommendations here: Having worked with at risk youth for 15 years and in three different countries, I have always been quite… View Article

Sliammon votes: what opportunities might come by sharing more than two sides of the story?

Jul 4, 2012

By Janet Newbury

Sliammon (Tla’Amin) Nation, located on the northern segment of British Columbia’s Sunshine Coast, is making history. But not in the way that may have been expected. After over ten years of negotiations, the vote for a final treaty agreement was to take place on June 16th, 2012. The intention, according to both the Sliammon Treaty… View Article

And they all fall down: The day of reckoning in B.C.’s over-cut interior forests looms

Apr 18, 2012

By Ben Parfitt

For more than a quarter century, logging companies at the government’s blessing have been on a tear through British Columbia’s expansive interior forests. In the name of “salvaging” economic value from forests attacked by mountain pine beetles, beginning with a smaller outbreak centered in the Williams Lake area in the 1980s and followed by the… View Article

Just who should be putting who under trusteeship?

Dec 15, 2011

By Keith Reynolds

I am the first to admit that, lamentably, I know very little about the problems that face First Nations people. That did not stop me from having an opinion about the federal takeover at Attawapiskat. My first reaction was that the Chief and Council should have thrown the keys to the federal government and said,… View Article

Inequality and Climate Injustice: A Durban Post-Mortem

Dec 13, 2011