Wow, has it ever been hot! Past temperature records throughout the province are being surpassed. The town of ‘Q’əmcín (also known as Lytton, BC) has broken temperature records three days in a row, reaching an all-time high of 49.6°C on June 30, which was the highest ever recorded anywhere in Canada since record keeping began. In…
On ethnic cleansing and East Jerusalem
The world breathed a collective sigh of relief on May 21, 2021, when the Middle East’s only nation with nuclear weapons capability, the apartheid state of Israel, reached a ceasefire with Gaza’s Hamas government. This 11-day conflict left unacceptable civilian casualties on both sides: 13 Israelis, 2 of them children, and 256 Palestinians mostly in…
The fight for human rights and the Green party’s soul
What do the recent developments in the federal Green party tell us? It would appear as though their leader, Annamie Paul, is holding on to her position, at least for the time being. On the evening of June 15, the party’s federal council met for almost four hours. It did so in the wake of…
The legacy of residential schools is not history
Content warning: This story has disturbing details about Indian residential schools. Survivors and their families can call the toll-free National Indian Residential School Crisis Hotline at 1-866-925-4419. On Thursday, May 27, Chief Rosanne Casimir of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc Nation announced that they had located the unmarked burial sites of 215 children on the site…
Call me a climate change optimist
In the last week I have become cautiously optimistic that the world may have turned the corner on global warming. On May 18, 2021 the International Energy Agency (IEA), long considered close to the fossil fuel industry, made an announcement that would have been unheard of until recently. They called on all energy companies and…
Bring back Carter’s brilliant proposal for Israel/Palestine
Israel is not the Middle East’s only theocracy. It is arguably also not the Middle East’s only apartheid state. It is, however, the Middle East’s only nuclear-armed country. Not only is it the only nuclear-armed nation in the Middle East, but its military is by far larger and more powerful than that of all other…
Just the other day
I do not normally talk about my disability but today I’m going to make an exception. When asked “What is your disability?” I always tell the truth – on September 10th 1984 I was called to the bar. I am a lawyer! What prompted my full disclosure now? I recently had a telephone conversation with…