Fictitious capital, debt deflation and the global crisis by Michael Hudson • This summary of my economic theory traces how industrial capitalism has turned into finance capitalism. The finance, insurance and real estate (FIRE) sector has emerged to create “balance sheet wealth” not by new tangible investment and employment, but financially in the form of...

First Nations to enforce ban on trophy bear hunt First Nations on BC’s North and Central Coast have declared a ban on the trophy bear hunt in their traditional territories. “We will protect bears from cruel and unsustainable trophy hunts by any and all means,” says Kitasoo/Xaixais First Nation Chief Doug Neasloss. “The trophy bear hunt is an issue that...

Aug 1, 2012

The best editorial cartoonists in Canada gather in Québec by Geoff Olson • Dave Rosen knows a thing or two about humour. In 2011, the Montreal-based satirist released The Stephen Harper Colouring & Activity Book. For five years, he wrote and produced a weekly comedy spot for CBC Radio called What Happened? For nine years, he was the regular editorial...

Aug 1, 2012

by Nick Mancuso • Since 2010, over 20,000 herbs, vitamins and food supplements have been removed from shelves in natural health stores across Canada. In some cases, SWAT teams raided the premises of Canadian naturopaths and healers and removed safe and effective healing products. Some practitioners have even been indicted and face criminal charges. As a...

Aug 1, 2012

- UN documents by Polly Higgins • Imagine my surprise when a journalist called me a year ago to ask for my comment on the news that a law of Ecocide had been considered an international crime over 15 years ago. All we had was one document that referred to three countries that had objected to it being included as Crime Against Peace. Today, we have a paper...

Aug 1, 2012

The Walk for Peace was a huge success! Photo and article by Alastair Gregor • On Saturday, June 30, approximately 2,000 Walkers for Peace met at Kitsilano Beach (Arbutus and Cornwall) and joined together in unity to celebrate peace, on the 30th anniversary of Vancouver’s very first Walk for Peace in 1982. We were welcomed to the land by Elder Henry Charles...

Aug 1, 2012

SCIENCE MATTERS by David Suzuki • We can’t live without clean water. Canada is blessed with an abundance of lakes and rivers and has a global responsibility to manage them well. But if we really want to protect freshwater supplies and the ecosystems they support, we must understand how human activity and natural disturbances affect them. The world-renowned...

Aug 1, 2012

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead • It’s easy to forget that many Chinese teenagers know nothing about the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989; just ask any young Chinese immigrant to Vancouver. Given China’s huge and fast-growing economic and military power, there’s ongoing pressure for it to open up, but as documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry...

Jun 25, 2012

Saturday June 30th join the thousands who will celebrate the 30th anniversary of Vancouver’s famous Walk for Peace. The day kick off at Kits Beach at 12 noon for a 1:00 pm walk across the Burrard Street Bridge to the Sunset Beach entertainment stage in the West End. In 1982, against the escalating nuclear arms race, many diverse groups came together to...

Jun 1, 2012

2012 Walk for Peace: June 30th • A short history by Joseph Roberts • The year was 1982. Against the backdrop of the escalating nuclear arms race, 168 different groups cooperated to create Vancouver’s first Walk For Peace; 35,000 people gathered that first year, followed by 65,000 in 1983 and by 1984 we were 100,000 strong. We came together at...