In ten years, seven different cabinet ministers have led Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO). The department has been a dumping ground or holding area for out-of-favour or inept politicians. Little wonder the […]
Canada’s derelict branch of government
Norm Farrell
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.
The common good is becoming less common
A book by Professor Robert Reich, one of the most prominent voices among progressives, examines the ongoing decline of the common good, which he defines as being about “what we owe one another as citizens who are bound together in the same society.” Reich believes those values include respect for the rule of law and democratic institutions, toleration of our differences and belief in equal political rights and equal opportunity. These have been undermined by unrestrained pursuit of money, power, and hyperpartisanship…
Transparency promised, something else delivered
This Special Committee to Review the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act proves that what happens in the BC Legislature today is theatre. Expensive theatre. We are not governed by elected representatives; we are ruled by the individual chosen as Premier and the people surrounding the first minister.
Industry-friendly regulation and laughably ineffective penalties
Through quiet collaboration, wealthy predators in Canada have used economic and political power to sustain unconscionable wireless profits. This will not change because those same vultures control much of Canada’s mainstream media. That means high prices and defective competition are not considered newsworthy.
Disheartening news
Down To Earth, a weekly newsletter from The Guardian, provided information that should distress every person hoping the climate crisis can be improved, or even moderated…
Canada fails, climate crisis worsens
With it now costing more than $100 to fill the gas tank of a small car, it is worth remembering a report on fossil fuel subsidies issued in February 2022 by International Institute for Sustainable Development.
Status quo danger
Greed of the fossil fuel industry in 2022 will drive conversion to alternatives faster than anyone imagined was possible…
Democracy is fragile
Government by the people for the people is more myth than reality in Canada and in the politically troubled country south of here. We cannot talk about our governments being representative democracies when a majority of the proxies we elect rank interests of their parties and their sponsors above interests of their electors.
Dollars in paradise
There was also something bigger, and even more disturbing: a domain of libertarian fantasy made real, in which professional intervention made it possible for the world’s wealthiest people to be free not only of tax obligations but of any laws they found inconvenient.
Hidden billions, missing millions
In 2016, an unnamed whistleblower provided Munich daily newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung with encrypted internal documents from Mossack Fonseca, a Panamanian law firm that sold anonymous offshore companies. These entities enabled owners to hide wealth, engage in illegal financial transactions and evade income taxes…
Hydrogen – clean or dirty energy
Hydrogen made from electrolysis of water powered by solar or wind could help humans survive beyond the 21st century. The elemental gas could store surplus renewables power and help decarbonize sectors such as long-distance air and road transport and manufacturing processes for steel, concrete and other carbon-intensive products. Hydrogen should have an important role but a revised policy framework is needed to free decarbonization options from the imperatives of private profit…
REPLAY: Liberal plan of action
Reader Lorne Finlayson provided this to us in 2011, but didn’t indicate when the changes he predicted would occur. With Kevin Falcon and his right-wing friends now in control of the BC Non-Liberal Party, the time may be close….
The Faux-Feathered Falcon
Led by the accomplished but politically naïve Andrew Wilkinson, BC Liberals were crushed in 2020 by John Horgan, a man who was an opposite of the Opposition leader. That led to BC Liberal influencers deciding an old reliable was needed to regain days when the region’s government was of business, by business, and for business. Democracy is targeted by rich and powerful groups determined to win at all costs. They are served by loyal agents moving in the halls of power. Guest writer Lew Edwardson remembers an issue that involved Kevin Falcon…
Status quo bias and climate destruction
Tenacious adherence to old methods of energy creation ensures substantial economic and environmental damage and a path to human extinction.
Guys’ rules for girls
I have been working to bring order to the electronic congestion and confusion on my computer. That is a slow process since I keep finding old material to read. One is repeated here. Original source unknown.
BC Hydro: a financial disaster that needs fixing
As managed since 2001 under Premiers Campbell, Clark and Horgan, BC Hydro has been an unqualified disaster. The company has used falsehoods to justify capital spending of about $40 billion during a decade and a half of flat demand. Instead of managing BC Hydro for the benefit of citizens, political officials in BC have directed or assented to disastrous utility policies. This is another case of supervision by policy regulators who do not believe in regulation. To them, private interests are foremost, public interests subordinate.
The way forward is privatization of BC Hydro and creation of a strong, independent, and unassailable regulator that ensures citizens are protected from capitalist profiteering and self-interested financial fraud orchestrated by corporate insiders and politicians.
Energy innovation
Hindered by the political power exercised by fossil fuel companies and financial institutions supporting those industries, Canada’s federal government has been little involved in development of non-destructive renewable energy sources. For the same reason, western provincial governments have been even less engaged. Values worth hundreds of billions of dollars flow from the public to private oil, gas and coal operators. Meanwhile, a pittance goes to energy technologies not firmly rooted in the 20th century…
Early forests in southwest BC
While clearing files from an old computer, I rediscovered one involving my maternal grandfather, long-time Chilliwack resident Jim Mahood (1885-1976). He recalled his career in the forests of southwest British Columbia in words published by the Forest History Association of British Columbia in 2006. When this was first written is unclear but I suspect it was done with assistance of his eldest son Ian Mahood (1915-2002). Like his three brothers, Ian spent his life working in the forest industry…
Behave like our house is on fire… because it is
A 2021 study published online by Cambridge University Press aimed to learn about “experts” promoting the claim that human impact on Earth’s climate is either non-existent or insignificant. Researchers examined multi-signatory documents opposed to the scientific consensus and judged the climate change contrarians…
Indisputable peril
Perhaps this year’s most important publication is by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Almost one hundred scientists from thirty-eight nations report that risks to long-term human survival are accelerating. Almost every legitimate climate scientist is alarmed. However, the developed world’s political and business leaders largely disclaim need for extensive action until vague points in the future. They remain detached from scientific reality and dedicated to the pursuit of endless economic growth.
in-sights.ca 
Given his track record with promises to end homelessness, it would be understandable if Canada's current Minister of Housing and…