Open Letter: Support for the Immediate Passing of Bill C-262
To The Editor: Dear Senators, The First Nations Leadership Council (FNLC) is calling on each Senator of Canada to support the passage of Bill C-262, An Act to ensure that the laws of Canada are in harmony with the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, without delay. The Truth and Reconciliation...
In-Depth: Sprawling clearcuts among reasons for B.C.’s monster spring floods
Wildfire, drought and a pine beetle epidemic are piling on top of a long history of logging, pushing the province’s forests to a dangerous tipping point that experts say will make bad flooding worse By Ben Parfitt for The Narwhal Every spring and typically in May the Kettle River hits peak flow. A gauge placed in the ...
Editorial: We aren't enlightened, we're just short of workers
Will the new Builders Code help women and other minorities survive in the trades? Time will tell. Race and gender still provoke ostracism, bullying, harassment, hazing … call it what you will, it is all too common, and it creates a toxic workplace, especially for those at whom it’s directed. In some cases,...
$50,000 to save forest above Cottonwood Lake may be too little, too late
Caught off guard by a plan to log more than 600 hectares of treasured local forest, residents near Cottonwood Lake discovered that privately owned lands can be clearcut without public notice, consultation with neighbours or the requirement to replant logged areas By Judith Lavoie, for The Narwhal Against a dramatic backdrop...
Canada obliged to protect future generations from climate change, test case on carbon tax hears
Young people ‘will live their entire lives under the mounting environmental, economic, and health stresses’ caused by growing greenhouse gas emissions, coalition argues By Larry Pynn, for The Narwhal When the governments of Canada and Saskatchewan publicly squared off in court in Regina this month over the constitutionality...
Op/Ed: How B.C. quietly found a way to permit natural gas plants without environmental reviews
Internal documents released via Freedom of Information laws show that, while the B.C. government was publicly apologizing to the Fort Nelson First Nation for exempting natural gas plants from environmental assessments without consultation, the province quietly used a loophole to allow the exemptions to continue — a...
‘Drastic and scary’: Salmon declines prompt First Nation to take Canada to court over fish farms
By Sarah Cox, from The Narwhal In an unprecedented move, the Dzawada’enuzw nation is claiming in court that farming Atlantic salmon — which often carry disease — in their traditional waters constitutes a violation of Aboriginal rights Willie Moon’s family used to catch hundreds of salmon a day ...
Column: Forestry issues
We’ve heard a lot in the news lately about the challenges facing the oil sector, but much less about the serious problems confronting another natural resource industry—forestry. Two years ago, the United States placed significant import tariffs on softwood lumber. Those illegal tariffs are still in place, yet we hear almost...
Column: From the Hill -- Homelessness
In this coldest time of the year, we often think of the people in our area who are homeless. Some have ended up on the streets and in rough camps because of mental health issues, addictions, or a combination of the two. Some are children fleeing abusive parents or women fleeing abusive spouses; others have become disabled. ...
Column: From the Hill -- the new Elections Modernization Act
This week the House of Commons passed Bill C-76, the Elections Modernization Act, the federal government’s answer to the so-called “Fair Elections Act” that the Conservatives enacted in 2014. And although I and the rest of the NDP caucus voted in favour of the bill, I would say this bill is “a day late and a dollar short.”...
