Gwen and I raised three adult children in North Vancouver. Each lives in this community, as do our seven grandchildren. Before retirement, I worked in accounting and small business management. Since 2009, I have published commentary about public issues at IN-SIGHTS.CA.
In 1963, former JFK administration officials Marcus Raskin and Richard Barnet formed the Institute for Policy Studies. The American organization became involved in civil rights, feminism, economic reforms, peace movements, and military draft resistance. Uncomfortable with such radical ideas, the Nixon administration added Raskin and Barnet to their lengthy enemies list. Now in its seventh decade, IPS remains focused on social justice.
“…there is far too much work done in the world, that immense harm is caused by the belief that work is virtuous, and that what needs to be preached in modern industrial countries is quite different from what always has been preached…”
Words from two of Britain’s finest humourists.
Free-market individuals believe industries should be allowed to do whatever an unregulated market allows. Most would object to Therapeutics Initiative (TI). But many of us recognize its value. TI is part of the Department of Anesthesiology, Pharmacology & Therapeutics at UBC’s Faculty of Medicine. It aims to provide health professionals and the public with evidence-based information on healthcare interventions. TI is independent and separate from the government, the pharmaceutical industry, and other vested interest groups.
This is a follow-up to an earlier article that focused on political accountability and the need for journalists to demand it. The main objective of news people is to provide the public with useful information. Thorough reporting on government should involve facts that politicians want to promote and facts they wish to demote and keep out of the public eye. From political pundits, we need interpretive journalism that educates the public about failures in political and corporate accountability. Threats to democracy by authoritarians should be primary concerns.
Politicians no longer answer to voters, since virtually all votes are guaranteed by tribal loyalty; instead they answer to big donors… Shaming politicians has become next to impossible. Thanks to the internet, pols no longer need the traditional media to broadcast their views.
Ms. Comfort Sakoma-Fadugba is no longer a member of the Vancouver Police Board. Her departure resulted from public statements that did not align with the Board’s values. Sakoma’s words may not have been the only issue. She had charged taxpayers $11,300 for a trip to Halifax. (Return air tickets are available for less than $500 and we have more spendthrift functionaries than we need.) Ms. Sakoma’s rambling statements on social media are now deleted. They included:
More than ten years have passed since Canada’s worst environmental disaster. In August 2014, a mining company’s tailings dam failed, spilling toxic sludge into Polley Lake, Hazeltine Creek and Quesnel Lake, Experts commissioned by the BC government said the 40-metre dam was poorly designed. Unstable ground underneath the dam caused it to shift and shear, a result BC Hydro hopes will not occur at its precarious Site C.,,
The second amendment means I am my own chief executive and commander in chief of my own military. I authorize my own act of self-defense in response to a hostile entity making […]
A few days ago, fifty-year-old Brian Thompson was gunned down on a street in midtown Manhattan. Thompson was not an unimportant man. He was a senior executive of United Health Group, a company valued by the stock market at about three-quarters of a trillion Canadian dollars. The company expects profits of almost C$40 billion in 2024.
More and more of the Canadian economy is dominated by a handful of huge companies that control what we buy, how we work, and which other businesses can or can’t thrive. Beyond the obvious examples of airlines, telcos, grocery chains, and banks, The Big Fix: How Companies Capture Markets and Harm Canadians shows how corporate concentration is growing across many industries, leading to higher prices for consumers, lower worker’s wages, more inequality, fewer startups, less innovation, and lower growth and productivity.
A candidate for the People’s Party of Canada asked if I would join his podcast for a discussion of government functions. Having no interest in promoting or assisting that party, I declined. So, who are the people who support the People’s Party?
According to Oxfam International, the richest 1 percent have amassed $42 trillion in new wealth over the past decade, nearly 34 times more than the entire bottom 50 percent of the world’s population. Oxfam has calculated that for every $1 raised in tax in G20 countries, less than 8 cents comes from taxes on wealth.
A knowledgeable friend believes that we have passed a threshold, beyond which our world will suffer irreversible changes in the climate system. He says Planet Earth now needs palliative care…
After more than seven years of responsibility for the sector, Adrian Dix is blamed for healthcare inadequacies. Indeed, real challenges abound. Yet solutions to apparent problems can take much time and the four Liberal Health Ministers that served during Christy Clark’s six years are not blameless…
DeBriefed is a weekly newsletter from Carbon Brief, a UK based website that publishes the work of journalists and academics. The focus is on the effects of climate change and the science that ought to dictate energy policies. Each edition of DeBriefed provides information that ought to concern all of us, particularly since climate change deniers are soon to control the American and Canadian governments…
In the early days of IN-SIGHTS, I was influenced by the late Rafe Mair and his Common Sense Canadian partner Damien Gillis. November 16, a film directed by Mr. Gillis is featured at the Rio Theatre as part of Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival (VIMFF).
While BC voters moved to the right in October, the voting pattern was not substantially different than in earlier times. The same cannot be said for the USA. More than half of American voters supported a misogynist, racist, criminal for President. The simplest explanations for the November result are a disdain for democracy and a willingness to embrace totalitarianism. Canada is experiencing its own shift to the far-right…
About poetry and essays from the November 2024 issue of Scientific American, the oldest continuously published magazine in the United States. The publication is useful for people at all levels of learning. Occasionally, it can make us smile.
A decade ago, the Union of Concerned Scientists published a paper “How Geothermal Energy Works.” It reported that the heat within 10,000 meters of the Earth’s surface offers 50,000 times more energy than all the world’s oil and natural gas resources. The problem is making that energy available. There has been little commitment to geothermal energy but one Canadian company intends to change that…
Good luck in dealing with health issues. Don't worry about RossK's Pacific Gazetteer. He holds a demanding position in academia,…
That does say it. Don't think MAGA is going to get it though, even if they are drowning. Cartoon did…
Mr Edwardson, thanks for the link, https://ysaatio.fi/en/news/homelessness-on-the-rise-in-finland/ The number of homeless people has started to rise. According to the report…
"Inflicting harm or pain on someone incapable of doing the same to you might seem intolerably cruel, but it happens…
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Given his track record with promises to end homelessness, it would be understandable if Canada's current Minister of Housing and…