Documentary film marks Fukushima 5th Anniversary • Five years after a massive earthquake brought catastrophe to the Tokyo Electric Fukushima No.1 nuclear power plant, the difficult and slow clean up of radio active contamination continues – on land and in the ocean – on Japan’s east coast. Nuclear Japan, a documentary film directed by Hiroyuki Kawai, a...

March 2016

Think global, drink local on March 22 You can make a difference   • To mark World Water Day, the Council of Canadians is encouraging everyone to take action for water in their community. There are few things more important than clean, safe water, but the lack of federal government legislation, damaging and polluting industries and water privatization...

March 2016

Rejuvenate and renew Put a spring in your step. Try a 5-day food-based cleanse by Helen Papaconstantinos   • Spring and summer are ideal times to let in light and let go of our old diet and self-defeating habits. Why not try detoxifying with real, living, nutrient dense foods? A real food cleanse can last anywhere from three to 21 days and uses juices,...

Green goes indoors by Bruce Mason • As you read this, take a look around you. The floor beneath your feet may be off-gassing formaldehyde. The carpet may be emitting other volatile organic compounds (VOC’s) that irritate the throat and cause headaches. You might have limited access to fresh air. Your chair (or couch) was probably treated with...

by Christina Sarich • There are many heavy metals that people are exposed to regularly without realizing it. Mercury, cadmium and aluminium, among others, are able to imbed themselves into our central nervous systems and bones, bio-accumulating for years until we start to suffer acute health problems from heavy metal poisoning. Fortunately, there is a...

March 2016

Collected information helps sway doctors to prescribe certain drugs DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels • People often ask me if, given my research on pharmaceuticals, I could tell them why every time they go to the doctor, they always end up with another prescription. It’s impossible to answer that in a sound bite because many factors drive prescribing, including...

March 2016

  Saudi Arabia Beheaded Twice as Many People as ISIS in 2015 Since mass media news is now entertainment, let’s use entertainment to tell the news and connect the dots. Yes, folks that’s the Saudi king and two US presidents. And golly shucks that is George Bush and the Saudi king laughing with swords over their shoulders, like the one on Saudi...

March 2016

Why We Do What We Do READ IT by Bruce Mason • Perhaps we have been made numb trying to make sense of our world with its endless wars, senseless violence, ongoing, human-caused climate change, the dream-like stupor of shopping, celebrity obsession, insatiable money/power lust, the millions of traumatized refugees, greed, corruption and heart-breaking...

March 2016

INDEPENDENT MEDIA by Laura Tribe • What the heck is a StingRay? And what does it have to do with cell phone privacy? You may not be aware that a device named after an unusual sea creature poses a serious threat to your cell phone – but I assure you, it does. A growing concern in the privacy world, the surveillance device nicknamed “StingRay,”...

March 2016

SCIENCE MATTERS by David Suzuki • The agreement between government, industry, First Nations and environmental groups to protect much of the Great Bear Rainforest should be celebrated. The deal makes almost 85 percent of the forested land base in this massive region on BC’s coast off limits to logging. Forestry in the remaining 15 percent will follow...

March 2016

NUTRISPEAK by Vesanto Melina MS, RD, and Claudia Lemay • I know a little girl who is obsessed with candy; it is ironic, given her mother is a dietitian. “What have I done to deserve such a fussy daughter?” she would lament, confiding that Amelie would ask for candy for snacks and for breakfast, lunch and supper. At 3-½, Amelie wrote a grocery list for...

March 2016

UNIVERSE WITHIN by Gwen Randall-Young • To know what you prefer, instead of humbly saying Amen to what the world tells you you ought to prefer, is to have kept your soul alive. – Robert Louis Stevenson Recently, a reader asked me how one finds a balance between being kind and nice and being assertive. It is an interesting question because it assumes one...

March 2016

by Mac McLaughlin • Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra Scorpio | Sagittarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces In western tropical astrology, the single most important date in which we can gage the prevailing energy of the year is the spring equinox. This year, it takes place on March 19, at 9:31 PM. The position and condition of the planets...