Forest protection, a vital climate action

By on • ( 2 Comments )

The Province can unleash a squad of public relations staff and announce BC is on track to meet its climate targets. Like other provinces, BC has no independent method for accountability. Claims made about greenhouse gas reductions, clean energy, and forest protection are not fully supported by trustworthy science.

Geothermal energy now!

By on • ( 3 Comments )

The International Energy Agency involves 32 member nations and 17 other associates. Together, these countries are responsible for about three-quarters of global energy consumption and almost 90 percent of clean energy investments. IEA recently published The Future of Geothermal Energy. The report notes that modern technologies enable the world to produce clean, attractively-priced geothermal energy.

Billionaires pay millions to hide trillions

By on • ( 1 Comment )

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.

In Praise of Idleness

By on • ( 1 Comment )

“…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…”

Big Pharma maximizes profits even if patients are harmed

By on • ( 1 Comment )

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. 

Don’t be afraid to look at the sky and say that it’s blue

By on • ( 6 Comments )

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.

The BC Conservative divide, UPDATED

By on • ( 2 Comments )

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:

Inexcusable delay in BC courts

By on • ( 2 Comments )

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.,,

Murder most foul

By on • ( 1 Comment )

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.

Price-gouging, policy-corrupting ripoff machines

By on • ( 1 Comment )

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.

Invitation declined

By on • ( 5 Comments )

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?

Language may change, but…

By on • ( 3 Comments )

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.

Healthcare in BC

By on • ( 8 Comments )

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…