There has been a lot of misinformation and hyperbole lately about how the House of Commons will be conducting business over the next few weeks.   Regular sittings of Parliament were suspended in mid-March because of the COVID-19 crisis.  Since then, the House of Commons has been working, and in many ways working harder and ...

COVID-19 has obviously changed our lives in the short term, and now there is a growing consensus that the pandemic will also bring more long-lasting changes to our society—how we value workers, how we treat our seniors, how we house the homeless, how we protect the environment, and more. One topic that is surfacing more and...

Hello friends and neighbours, These are unusual and uncertain times. Every one of us is experiencing a lot of upheaval, change, and stress. Our government is working hard to address the many challenges facing British Columbians, even as they change and develop by the day.  I understand the deep impacts these changes can have-...

Open letter to the people of B.C.: When an outbreak hits a community, one of the most urgent things people want is information. This is human nature, as information allows us to protect ourselves, our families and our loved ones. Information is at the heart of public health: knowing what our risks are, where they are coming...

Dear Editor, My name is Amy and I am a recent Selkirk College graduate. When I say recent, I mean recent. I graduated February 28, 2020 and, within days of said graduation, COVID-19 started its climb to the pandemic that it is currently. I am writing to you because recently-graduated students have been forgotten in the emergency...

OPEN LETTER: UBCIC demands immediate release of all non-violent offenders as part of COVID-19 pandemic response and emergency state of Indigenous incarceration Dear Ministers, Dr. Ivan Zinger, Canada’s Chief Correctional Officer, has called the current rates of Indigenous incarceration in Canada a national travesty, with...

The District Recreation Officer for Trails and Recreation Sites BC  has ordered that all day use shelters, overnight-use cabins, and other facilities that would make it difficult for users to observe the two-metre social distancing measures, be closed until further notice. That means that everyone out exercising in the...

I am writing this from my small Ottawa apartment.  It’s Sunday and the spring sun is shining, beckoning me to walk down to the river.  But I’ll obey my doctor’s orders and stay inside—although I received the good news yesterday that my COVID-19 test results came back negative, I was told to stay in self-isolation one more...

Spring??? Hopefully. I know the last two months have been unpredictable from a weather perspective. We have had moments of incredible volumes of snow in short periods of time only to see it disappear just as quickly and then a couple of weeks later repeat the process. Once again flooding in some areas is a possibility and I...

Dear Editor, As I write this, patients are travelling long distances for consultations with specialists. Many of these journeys, for simple face to face meetings are made even though the required workup has been completed and the results forwarded. BUT - What if you could visit a GP, have the referral and information forwarded...