Letter to the BC Salmon Farmers Association A few weeks ago [early May], I saw you respond negatively to a letter asking for independent testing of your farmed salmon. Now, two of your farms have tested positive for the highly contagious IHN virus, resulting in the ordered killing of your stocks. Without any proof, you place the blame of your outbreaks entirely...
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Feature Articles
Algorithms from wartime to Wall Street
Jul 1, 2012
article and photo by Geoff Olson • The Hungarian-born émigré and mathematician John von Neumann is remembered as an urbane and witty man. His colleagues admired his finely tailored clothes and superhuman capacity to handle liquor, to say nothing of his important contributions to a wide range of fields, from game theory to quantum physics. The man’s bald...
Ta’Kaiya Blaney
Jul 1, 2012
A powerful voice for change by Stephanie Goodwin • In my work for Greenpeace, I meet special people pretty regularly. And by special I mean people who do the most unexpected things in the most wonderful ways. In my work for Greenpeace, I meet special people pretty regularly. And by special I mean people who do the most unexpected things in the most wonderful...
Environmental laws gutted
Jul 1, 2012
SCIENCE MATTERS by David Suzuki • Canada’s environmental laws are under attack by both the federal and Ontario governments. In Ottawa, the government introduced Bill C-38 to implement far-reaching measures announced in its budget. Ontario’s government introduced a similar omnibus bill with profound implications for the environment. The 420-page Bill C-38...
Taking the bite out of GM apples
Jul 1, 2012
by Lucy Sharratt • A small BC company called Okanagan Specialty Fruits (OSF) has developed a genetically modified apple that will not turn brown when it is cut, even though 10 years ago, the genetically engineered (or genetically modified, GM) “non-browning” apple was actually driven out of Canada when BC apple growers successfully stopped planned field...
Cholesterol drugs
Jul 1, 2012
What you don’t know can hurt you DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs • I’ve been following the cholesterol saga – both the marketing and the science of the dreaded “high cholesterol” – for more than 15 years and I have come to a single conclusion: people, and I mean all of us, including specialists,...
Walk for Peace presentation
Jul 1, 2012
Presentation at Walk for Peace June 30 by Woody Coward • I’m Woody Coward. I’m 94. In 1939, I joined the Canadian Army as a stretcher bearer. I became a professional soldier and one of Canada’s atomic program veterans. Thirty years later, I resigned my commission as a Lt-Col. About 30 years after that, I became a peace activist. I changed. I am...
Birth of the peace
Jul 1, 2012
Nuclear Disarmament • The peace symbol is one of the most widely known symbols in the world. In Britain, it is recognized as standing for nuclear disarmament and, in particular, as the logo of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND). In the US and throughout much of the rest of the world, it is known more broadly as the peace symbol. It was designed in...
Northern Gateway pipeline economics
Jul 1, 2012
by Robyn Allan • I grew up at Jericho Beach. My brother and I played war games with our friends based on a TV show called The Rat Patrol. We’d sneak along the beach, under the army base wharf, past imaginary enemy lines and make our way to Spanish Banks and up into a field we called the Plains of Abraham. I never imagined then that I would be fighting now to...
Dr. Rosalie Bertell – in memorium
Jul 1, 2012
World loses renowned environmental researcher by Dr. Gordon Edwards • On June 14, 2012, we lost a giant with the passing of Sister Rosalie Bertell, Ph.D., an internationally recognized environmental epidemiologist, cancer researcher and public health advocate. She was 83. I knew of Rosalie Bertell’s work at the Roswell Park Memorial Institute where she...
Something old, something new
Jul 1, 2012
FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead Love, sex, fidelity and relationships – this is the stuff of Toronto-set Take This Waltz, a bittersweet, sensuous romance from actress-director Sarah Polley. The story is a dance of desire and will, as sweet, 28-year-old copyrighter Margot (versatile performance by Michelle Williams) is torn between her love for...
When life hurts
Jul 1, 2012
UNIVERSE WITHIN by Gwen Randall-Young There are times when the pain of life can feel unbearable. The loss of a loved one, the break-up of a relationship, losing a job or having a serious illness can cause one to feel overwhelmed. The emotional pain is intense and sometimes the problem cannot be fixed. At times like this, the future can look bleak. It seems...
Good and bad
Jul 1, 2012
Everything is connected Eckhart Tolle: A NEW EARTH To read Eckhart Tolle’s latest column, please see the current print edition of Common Ground. For copyright reasons, we are authorized to publish this column in our print version only. More than 1/4 million people read Common Ground every month! Pick up your copy today. This article appeared in the JULY...