The Tyee is your independent daily online magazine reaching every corner of BC and beyond.
from The Tyee
Peter W Klein, writing for The Tyee, contrasts the view of Jonas Salk, famous developer of the polio vaccine, with that of today's huge pharmacy conglomerates. Salk thought the people owned his vaccine. Big Pharma, however, not content with their current megamillions, wants to patent naturally-occurring genes that predispose women to breast cancer.
from The Tyee
"BC has acquired the dubious 'distinction' of being home to Canada's largest income gap, highest poverty rate, and second highest child poverty rate. It also has greater employment insecurity and lower hourly wages than the national average, even though BC is the province with the highest cost of living in Canada.
"How has this occurred in such a rich province, where many are clearly doing very well?
"BC's poor record on income polarization and poverty is closely related to the low-wage policies the BC government has implemented in the 21st century. Many of these policies were put in place through a huge number of changes to the one major protection workers have — employment standards legislation. These changes, beginning in 2001, represented a dramatic roll-back of worker rights. …"
from The Tyee
"The federal Fisheries Act — first enacted in 1868 — has been one of Canada's strongest environmental protection laws. The act has been effective because it's done more than simply protect individual fish — it was one of the first laws to recognize larger ecological processes and protect the habitat that species depend upon. However, Ottawa recently weakened Fisheries Act's habitat protection.
"It is critically important that the province now step in to attempt to fill the regulatory gap and protect fish habitat. …"
from The Tyee
"Is there a skilled labour shortage in Canada? Many employers say there is, but even some business surveys and the government's own research suggests the evidence is at best slim and sporadic.
"Amid the brouhaha triggered by a contractor of the Royal Bank's decision to bring in temporary foreign workers to replace the bank's Canadian ones, opposition parties are itching for Parliament's return Monday to hammer the Harper government over the decision last spring to relax rules making it easier to import workers. …"
from The Tyee
"The current crisis in our forests challenges each of us to consider what type of future we want for BC
"What is the right direction, in a province where our identity is so closely linked to our vast forests, salmon rivers and diverse species; where some of our forests may hold their greatest future value as storehouses of living carbon and the source of critical ecosystem services like flood control and clean water; where First Nations are increasingly retaking their rightful role in decision-making about their ancestral lands; and where communities are tired of important decisions affecting their lives being made in corporate boardrooms far from home?"
from The Tyee
Industry and government claims that Canada is losing as much as $70 million a day on bitumen exports due to "double discounts" in oil markets and a lack of pipeline capacity are untrue, says a new financial analysis.
In a 35-page report BC economist and former business executive Robyn Allan tried to track down sources for the discount story, but says she ran into a dead end.
from The Tyee
"On Feb 28 Dave Core gave an impassioned presentation about "pipeline company bullies" before the Standing Senate Committee on Energy, the Environment and Natural Resources.
"The media were not there.
"But the 58-year-old farmer and landowner, an expert on pipeline regulation, directly contradicted the testimony of National Energy Board (NEB) chairman Gaétan Caron as well as that of Mark Cory, Assistant Deputy Minister of Natural Resources Canada. …"
from The Tyee
Twenty years after NAFTA, the Trans-Pacific Partnership talks are among "next generation" trade deals posing serious threats to North American communities, according to an article in The Tyee by Raul Burbano, Kristen Beifus and Manuel Perez-Rocha. A coalition of civil society protestors are calling for more equitable and sustainable trade regimes.
from The Tyee
Upon study, the language of the ethnic outreach memo tells us much about the party's inner mind.
