Category: news

Want to read a clever bit of pro-business, anti-environmental propaganda? This article was published today on Canada.com: B.C. salmon farms spawn passionate debate about future of wild fish.

Here’s some background: the debate about fish farms is a heated one here in BC. Evidence clearly shows that pollution, escaped Atlantic salmon, disease, and parasites from fish farms threaten the existence of wild salmon. Regardless, the provincial government gives its full support to these industries.

This article marginalizes opposition as being over-emotional and ignorant of the facts. Reading this article, you’d think that fish farm companies are not only clean, but also vital to the economy. Notice that all quotes seem to favour the industry and negate environmental arguments. Should I ask who paid this guy to write the article?

I’m not surprised. Fish farmers would love it if wild salmon disappeared from the earth forever — then they’d have a monopoly on the salmon market.

In the House of Commons, Prime Minister Jean Chretien attempted to clarify the difference between new money promised for health care and “new money” previously promised, but not delivered:

Dey say dat da money dat we ‘ad promised tree years ago to be new money dis year is no more new money. We ‘ave not paid it yet and it’s old new money versus new new monies. For me, new money is new money if paying in $5 or $10, it’s da same money. *

Ah. Crystal clear. Thanks again, Jean.

Admittedly, that might be an alarmist headline, but that was my first impression when I read this article on Canada.com: B.C.’s forests open for business: minister. Stan Hagan, who holds the Orwellian title of “Minister of Sustainable Resources Management”, announced today that almost half of British Columbia’s remaining forests are now designated for commercial interests. This means logging and mining, primarily — two of the most destructive of industries.

With this decision, the provincial government is launching a massive attack on the environment. Conservation no longer fits into government plans, as Hagan stated that “to create parks it will have to come out of the working forest and there will have to be justification for it”. Well I’m thrilled that we now have safeguards to prevent people from protecting an irreplacable part of the earth’s ecosystem. Now we have to come up with bloody good reason why the forests shouldn’t be destroyed.

If you care at all about the world’s rainforests, even if you don’t live in BC, send an e-mail to Stan Hagan, BC Minister of Sustainable Resources Management, and tell him what you think of his anti-environmentalist legislation.

Here are some facts and figures about BC rainforest.

If you like penguins, or if you’re just bored, have a look at this news article from Yahoo: Calif. Zookeepers Perplexed by Penguins.

Thanks, Emese, for the link!

Warning: ranting ahead. Please use caution.

The sad media feeding frenzy continues to shred Gordon Campbell’s career. You know it’s out of control when a front page story on the Vancouver Sun is about the wave of anti-Campbell merchandise featuring the very mugshots that the media itself distributed. You can buy coffee mugs, lunch boxes, t-shirts, aprons, and beer steins all featuring Premier Campbell’s now-infamous DUI mugshot.

So tell me… why is this a front-page story? Anyone who’s heard of Cafe Press knows that you can pretty much buy a coffee mug with anything you like on it. Any minor event in pop culture or politics usually leads to a whole slough of Cafe Press merchandise (like a frisbee with Ellen Feiss on it, for example). It’s a non-story, inflated to front-page material. Kind of like Campbell’s arrest.

Don’t get me wrong — since Campbell got into office, his policies have been kind of loony. For the most part I vehemently oppose what he and his party stand for. Outside of his job, however, he appears to be an upstanding guy. And now he made a really dumb mistake.

Fine. Let the judge sentence him and after that, he’ll have learned his lesson, paid his debt to society, and it will be done. That’s what the courts are supposed to be for, aren’t they? So enough already.

If you want to remove the guy from office, do it legitimately. Vote him out in the next provincial election. Or better, catch him doing something really underhanded, like selling BC Hydro.