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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.

Words come back to bite

Cole Bennett correctly wrote that Kirk’s murder will not advance any of the causes he opposed. Violence against leaders is most often a consequence of damaged trust in political and social systems. It is perpetrated by isolated and disenfranchised people who live outside the rules of society. Kirk’s organization had plenty of those, so the immediate future is a dangerous time for moderate American political figures.

Jackassery in Alberta

Alberta Conservatives recently declared that publications their supporters consider inappropriate should be removed from schools. A government order specified that students should not be exposed to sexual content. Among other things, there was to be no written mention of masturbation. Danielle Smith’s government fears that teenagers might discover and engage in the practice if it is mentioned in reading material…

Labour Day – Canadian heritage moment – Rerun

In modern times, the Canadian union movement has lost influence but not relevance. It is easy to forget that unions enabled a broad middle class. Workers in unionized company towns in BC’s 20th century resource economy set the bar for others. They showed how positive full employment with good wages enables high quality life for the entire community.

Old and uncollectible

Our magazine collection is rather large. Beyond hundreds of Scientific American, Archaeology, craft, cooking and gardening publications, we have about 500 National Geographic, including editions from the middle of the last century to the beginning of the current one. If you want some free reading material, contact me in the next few days. Rescue these old publications from destruction.

Global Peace Index

The 19th edition of the Global Peace Index (GPI) ranks 163 independent states and territories according to their level of peacefulness. It covers 99.7 per cent of the world’s population. Produced by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), the GPI is the world’s leading measure of global peacefulness…

Bear with me

Our family has lived for decades at the edge of the forest in North Vancouver’s Seymour River valley. Bear encounters are not rare. We’ve had these animals in our yard countless times, […]

Note to readers

Renovation work underway in and around our home explains why this site has been quiet recently. That and the July trip Gwen and I took across the ocean, which allowed us to spend a short time in Amsterdam. This historic city offers wonderful places to visit, including museums and galleries that feature important collections by Rembrandt, Vermeer, van Gogh, Verspronck, and other masters.

A plea for help – UPDATED July 17 and July 23

Carol Linnitt, co-founder of The Narwhal sent an email to people on the organization’s mailing list. I hope everyone reading this will respond to her plea for financial assistance for their lawsuit against the RCMP about the egregious treatment of Amber Bracken. She was arrested and kept in jail for days for doing nothing more than her job as a journalist…

Moral numbness

Writing for The Atlantic magazine, journalist David Brooks comments: There’s a question that’s been bugging me for nearly a decade. How is it that half of America looks at Donald Trump and […]

Terawatts of clean energy

American company Quaise Energy is developing a new way to access the largest untapped energy source available. It will use established production methods of the fossil fuel industry, but the technology employed is new. Quaise intends to use beams of energy to vaporize bore holes through rocks and access deep geothermal heat.

Economic power = political power

The video embedded here is not the least bit critical of its subjects. There is no discussion of wealth building through tax benefits, strategies that eliminate competition, or the use of political influence to advance economic interests. The following families are mentioned…

A Reader asks…

Regarding Hydro boss Mr Clark’s odd and unsubstantiated assertions that geothermal is just “too expensive”? Says who? Where? In what scientific context? Enhanced geothermal systems: An underground tech surfaces as a serious […]

Fact versus Fiction

People of this world have many problems. Not least among them is climate change. Environmental activist David Suzuki discussed his pessimism about the future. Dr. Suzuki thinks we have now lost the fight against climate change. An image here explains the loss.

Lew Edwardson on BC Hydro

Always articulate and thoughtful reader Lew Edwardson left a comment on the IN-SIGHTS article THE HEAT BENEATH OUR FEET. I think it needs to be amplified. Drought in northeast BC continues to be a problem. If the situation of FY 2024 continues, Site C will produce about 3,350 GWh, not the promised 5,100. These numbers suggest the dam’s capital cost for each MWh of electricity produced would fall between $142 and $215. Of course, the utility incurs operating and overhead costs as well. Those would be around $30 per MWh. At the midpoint between those numbers, BC Hydro would be paying over 20 cents per KWh for Site C electricity, far more than the utility is willing to admit.

The heat beneath our feet

After writing about geothermal energy, I made a remark on Facebook regarding a Western Canadian company having to go to Bavaria to launch its first commercial clean energy project. I said that was because European policies are not dictated by oil and hydropower interests. That led to a response by Glen Clark, Chair of BC Hydro…