March 2014

Mar 18, 2014 Appearing by telepresence robot, Edward Snowden speaks at TED2014 about surveillance and Internet freedom. The right to data privacy, he suggests, is not a partisan issue, but requires a fundamental rethink of the role of the internet in our lives — and the laws that protect it. “Your rights matter,” he say, “because you never...

March 2014

“live” and living on by Bruce Mason • a hammer of justice a cry for freedom a song about love I had the great pleasure of experiencing many Pete Seeger concerts: lung-fully singing along with little crowds of folks or thousands of joyful, hand-clapping fans; sitting in plush QE and Orpheum theatre seats; sheltered under trees in Stanley Park; standing...

March 2014

by Joel Salatin • Joel Salatin is an American farmer, lecturer and author whose books include Folks, This Ain’t Normal, You Can Farm and Salad Bar Beef. Salatin raises livestock using holistic management methods of animal husbandry, free of potentially harmful chemicals, on his Polyface Farm in Swoope, Virginia. Salatin is also featured in the documentary...

March 2014

DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs Dr. Warren Bell is a physician in Salmon Arm, BC and one of the co-founders of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. He has never seen a pharmaceutical sales rep in nearly 40 years of practising medicine and has a depth of knowledge of complementary and...

March 2014

GMO Bites by Emily Atkinson • Applying the concept of “substantial equivalence” to GMOs is problematic. Not only does it fail to capture the complexities that genetic modification introduces into a living organism, but it also deflects criticisms of GMOs and promotes the interests of biotech companies. The idea of equivalence comes from...

March 2014

I’m already against the next war an interview by Joseph Roberts • Born in Kansas City, Missouri, on November 15, 1929, Ed Asner became hugely successful as an actor playing lead roles in the immensely popular series The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Lou Grant. He won Emmy Awards for both shows. In the later years of the Lou Grant series, Asner became known...

March 2014

Rats and squirrels and jellyfish, oh my! by Geoff Olson • My partner, who works from home, found it hard to focus on her job once she began to hear scratching sounds from the roof. “Listen,” she said, putting a finger to her lips and pulling me into her office. “Sounds like rats to me,” I said after a moment’s silence. Too big to be mice.” I...

March 2014

READ IT by Bruce Mason • “On March 11, 2011, the Tohoku earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown drew a line that divided time,” says writer, filmmaker, Zen Buddhist priest and Common Ground reader Ruth Ozeki, who divides her time between New York City and Cortes Island. “In BC, we look west across a big ocean in a post-Fukushima world,” she adds....

March 2014

SCIENCE MATTERS by David Suzuki • A man with a banjo can be a powerful force for good. Pete Seeger, who died January 27 at the age of 94, inspired generations of political and environmental activists with songs ranging from Where Have All the Flowers Gone? to Sailing Down My Golden River. From the late 1930s until his death, Seeger brought his music to union...

BC Hydro’s latest “electricity sale” announcement has become the last straw. Hydro has come full circle. It has arrived at the place it began, and apparently doesn’t quite recognize it : California. On January 23, 2014, Hydro officials told the Joint Panel Review for Site C here in Fort St John that it needs to sell its electricity to their brothers in...

A rapidly deteriorating situation The Harper government of Canada gave the Norwegian salmon feedlot industry the green light to expand in BC. Days later on January 28, 2014, the biggest Norwegian company using British Columbia to grow “salmon” was listed on the New York Stock Exchange. They are talking big expansion, looking for US investors. Each fish farm...

March 2014

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead • The annual Vancouver International Women in Film Festival (www.womeninfilm.ca) takes place at Vancity Theatre from March 6-9. The fest opens with BC director Karen Lam’s supernatural thriller Evangeline, a genre that organisers say is under-represented by women directors. It also includes the intriguing drama...

March 2014

UNIVERSE WITHIN by Gwen Randall-Young • Peace is not the absence of conflict but the presence of creative alternatives for responding to conflict – alternatives to passive or aggressive responses, alternatives to violence. – Dorothy Thompson When there is conflict, there is polarity. Two opposing beliefs or perspectives create this polarity when egos...