I confess. I have been binge-watching TV series. Lately I have narrowed my watching mostly to The West Wing an old favourite about a Democratic president, Jed Bartlet, portraying the manic, day-to-day crisis management of the White House. But in my defence I am doing so in part as an antidote to another series which I quit ...

B.C.'s economy – already facing what seems like the perfect economic storm of stagnant job growth, an acute skills shortage and the recent Supreme Court of Canada decision on First Nation land title claims – can now add one more low pressure system into that mix: the Mount Polley Mine disaster. In its wake to date: government...

Spell lots of words wrong! Use apostrophes when you have no earthly reason to do so! Confuse ‘C’, ‘see’, and ‘sea’! Me saying this may seem dissonant to many who know me. I am a well-recognized grammar Nazi. I once got a death threat beginning with, “To the heretic hoar and her bastard son … ”. I was less offended by the death...

Ed note: I sent this column to many of my people and asked if I was doing wrong in publishing it. They essentially said that, if I value telling the truth, I need to publish it. But it will likely hurt my business. I decided I want to be a better person than a better reporter. So here it is. I was so touched and moved by the...

If someone is being bullied, the last thing you want to do is walk away from them. They need support, and lots of it. I do not know of anyone that would walk away, or stop being friends with someone who is being bullied. That would be shameful. We need to start treating mental illness and depression as we do with bullying. ...

Dear Editor, I read with interest the article  Mount Polley Disaster published in the The Nelson Daily on August 6, 2014.  I have been following the news on the Fraser River Imperial Mines tailing pond contamination. I see that the government treated this toxic tailings pond with the same the extreme carelessness I have...

I’ve reached that truly crappy age when it seems like every day brings with it the death of another childhood icon – but that’s not so bad for me, as I’ve never been one to follow Hollywood buzz. Until recently, I thought a Kardashian was a fictional Star Trek species (and I remain unconvinced that I was far off base on that)....

“I am under no obligation to be the person I was five minutes ago.”--- Facebook poster ( no author ) Pessimism, the incidence of violence, and progress Is there evidence that humanity is on a historical course toward a progressive, better future? Every reader of this column by now understands I am a pessimist, I do not perceive...

This weekend, the Vancouver Sun reported that Alberta billionaire Murray Edwards helped organize a $1 million fundraiser for the B.C. Liberal party at the Calgary Petroleum Club last year. Rapidly becoming a household name in B.C., Edwards of course is the controlling shareholder of Imperial Metals, which operates the Mount...

I had an interaction with a reader in the past week or so, and I went back and read through it, and realized my whole argument boiled down to, “You hurt my feelings.” Are you KIDDING me?!?! How unprofessional. Way to have an appropriately thick skin. Although I maintain his response to me was unfair and dehumanized me, holy...