The BC Fruit Growers’ Association says approval of a GM apple could cause consumer backlash and harm the industry for conventional growers as well as potentially contaminate organic orchards. (Cat Rooney/The Epoch Times)

A biotech company’s bid to market a genetically modified apple that doesn’t brown when sliced is prompting concern among conventional and organic fruit growers in B.C.’s Okanagan.

Last month, Okanagan Specialty Fruits (OSF) submitted a request to Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for approval of its Arctic Apple, which has been genetically engineered to keep its colour when cut.

There are certain foods that are considered to be pure and one of them is apples. We don’t want to put that at risk. Glen Lucas, BC Fruit Growers’ Association

Glen Lucas, general manager of the BC Fruit Growers’ Association, says if approved, the GM fruit could be devastating for both conventional and organic apple growers.

“There are certain foods that are considered to be pure and one of them is apples,” he says. “We don’t want to put that at risk.”

He notes that consumer backlash to the apple could damage market share for conventional growers. Organic farmers are particularly concerned because if their apples are contaminated by the GM variety, such as through pollen transferred by bees, they could lose their organic certification.

“We would like the government to provide assurance and indemnity or a guarantee that there would not be a market impact from introducing this new technology,” Lucas says.

“We have not, in our view, received adequate assurances that organic producers would not be impacted, or if they are impacted, be compensated by government.”

The Arctic Apple is primarily designed for fast food restaurants and other food service companies that use pre-cut apples.

A biotech company’s bid to market a genetically modified apple that doesn’t brown when sliced is prompting concern among conventional and organic fruit growers in B.C.’s Okanagan. (Cat Rooney/The Epoch Times)

The technology was first developed in Australia and later licensed by Okanagan Specialty Fruits, which says the non-browning fruit can be beneficial to producers, retailers, and consumers due to its longevity.

Although resistance among consumers to GM foods remains high, OSF says each Arctic Apple will be labelled so that consumers can distinguish it as a GM product.

OSF also maintains the likelihood of other apple orchards becoming contaminated is “inherently very low,” according to its website.

“Apples aren’t like row crops. First, apple trees aren’t “weedy”—that is, they don’t tend to escape farms and grow in the wild like some other crops. Second, apple blossoms are pollinated by bees, not by the wind. So the risk of “gene flow” by traveling pollen is inherently very low for apples compared to other crops,” the website reads.

“On the outside chance that cross-pollination with Arctic Apples does occur, genes from the Arctic Apple parent will be present only in some of the resulting apples’ seeds—not in the fruits’ skin or flesh.”

Rigorous Testing

OSF president Neal Carter, a fruit grower with a background in bioresource engineering, has said the fruit is among “the most tested apples on the planet.”

But Lucas says this does little to comfort apple growers who are worried about seed contamination and losing their organic certification.

“What happens if their seed is contaminated? And what level of contamination puts the [organic] certification at risk? That’s the open question,” he says, adding that organic farmers may have to bear extra costs to test their seeds for GM contamination.

Last week, the New Democrats called on the provincial government to defend the B.C. fruit industry by working with the federal government to keep the province free of genetically modified fruit.

“The B.C. tree fruit industry produces healthy products that are world famous for flavour and purity. Growers are concerned that this marketing advantage will be undermined if the introduction of genetically modified fruit is allowed to go forward,” said Lana Popham, New Democrat critic for agriculture.

Last year, the BC Fruit Growers’ Association passed a resolution against the introduction of all GM fruit, stating concerns about consumer backlash and the difficulty of protecting organic growers from contamination.

OSF applied for approval of the new apple from the U.S. Department of Agriculture in 2010. The apple has not yet been approved anywhere in the world.

He said that in Canada, there will be a public comment period on the company’s request for approval to the CFIA through mid-June.

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

B.C. plans to set aside a day for Family Day—a holiday in February that aims to give families a break in the long stretch between New Year’s Day and Easter. A recent survey suggests Canada has the fewest public holidays of any nation in the world. (Photos.com)

As B.C. ruminates on which day would be best to set aside for Family Day, a recent survey reveals that Canada has the fewest public holidays of any developed nation in the world.

The BC Liberals are holding online consultations from now until May 22 asking British Columbians to choose which day in February they prefer for Family Day—an annual holiday already celebrated in Alberta, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.

Manitoba and P.E.I. also have statutory holidays on the third Monday in February, but they are not officially referred to as Family Day.

The new B.C. holiday, set to come into effect in February 2013, aims to provide a break for families during the long 94-day stretch between New Year’s Day and Easter.

As part of the consultation process, the government will hear from the tourism industry and the broader business sector as well as the general public on whether to have the holiday either on the second or third Monday in February.

Having Family Day on the second Monday would mean that British Columbians wouldn’t have to compete for vacation spots with neighbouring provinces and U.S. states that already have a long weekend on the third Monday. It would also mean B.C. businesses could capitalize on increased traffic over two holiday weekends.

Alternatively, the third Monday aligns the Family Day long weekend with other provinces and neighbouring U.S. states, making it easier for families in different jurisdictions to get together and for B.C. businesses that operate across Canada to plan.

Fewer Holidays in Canada

An extra holiday may be a welcome relief for many, as a recent survey suggests Canada has fewer government-mandated holidays than any developed country in the world.

Released in December by U.K.-based Mercer Consulting, the survey found that Canada has a total of 19 potential days off, including calendar holidays and minimum vacation requirements for full-time staff.

The United States, on the other hand, has 25 days, Australia has 30, and Western European countries come out on top with 34-38 days per year.

Of all the 62 nations surveyed, Canada ranked at the bottom, alongside countries such as the Philippines (20 days), China (21), and Thailand (22).

Wolfgang Seidl, head of health care consulting at Mercer, says more time off does not necessarily mean less revenue for businesses in the long run, and can actually translate into more balanced, productive staff.

“Companies recognize that a healthy, happy workforce is a productive one and this feeds directly into the bottom line.”

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

A protestor stands in front of the condominium development project that the Musqueam Nation says will destroy an ancient village and burial site. (Courtesy Musqueam Band)

A B.C. First Nation is trying to preserve an ancient village and burial site that were part of what was once one of the largest pre-contact middens on Canada’s Pacific coast.

The Musqueam Nation and supporters have been protesting around the clock at the site of a large condominium development underway at the Marpole Midden, an ancient village site located at the southern tip of Vancouver.

The Musqueam say the 4,000-year-old midden represents a profound and rare link to their history, and is a sacred place of rest for their ancestors that should not be disturbed.

“It’s one of the last—if not the last—connection the Musqueam people have to their ancestors,” says Wade Grant, a council member with the Musqueam band.

“It’s important to the Musqueam now because the city of Vancouver has grown up so rapidly around us, there are no other real sites that actually connect us to who we are.”

The remains of an adult and two infants were unearthed at the site earlier this year, and the Musqueam say this provides further proof that the area is a rich historical treasure trove that needs to be protected.

Many tools, artifacts, and weapons were found in the area when it was first developed, which led to its designation as a Canadian Heritage site in 1933. It is recognized as one of the largest ancient village sites in North America.

Work is currently on hold at the site, located on the 1300 block of S.W. Marine Drive. Grant says band members will continue to protest at the site until a resolution is reached that protects the area from further development.

“Community members have said they’re planning to stay here until a resolution is found that ensures the archeological remains remain intact and are not removed,” he says.

“They are taking a stand and they are very upset right now.”

Alternative Offer

The Musqueam have offered to swap the condo development land, which belongs to a private owner, for a parcel of their own land, while covering some of the costs.

Grant says both the City of Vancouver and the developer, Century Holdings Ltd., have been willing to negotiate with the band and seem open to the land-swap, but provincial approval is needed.

“The Provincial Government hasn’t had much communication with the Musqueam people,” he says.

“We’ve never heard directly from the premier. We have heard from the minister in charge, who says that the province has no role in this issue, which we disagree with.”

Brennan Clarke, public affairs officer for the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, says the government is working with the city and the Musqueam to find a solution.

“The site where the remains were found will not be disturbed until an archaeologist has completed intensive testing the vicinity to determine if there are additional remains in the area,” he wrote in an email, adding the province recently hired a consultant to work with the parties in finding a resolution.

Clarke also said the area has already been “heavily disturbed” and developed over the years, and that the province had issued permits to develop only a portion of the site.

He noted that by 1955, urban expansion had significantly altered the landscape of the Marpole Midden. The site was settled in the 1880s and has been redeveloped several times.

However, the portion slated for the proposed condo development remained undisturbed, according to an open letter from the Musqueam to Premier Christy Clark and Mayor Gregor Robertson.

City Supports Protection

City of Vancouver spokesperson Mairi Welman says that while burial sites and archeological sites fall under the jurisdiction of the provincial government, the city supports protecting the site.

“We support the rights of the Musqueam Nation to protect and respect a historical site,” she says. “It is our hope that the province takes a more assertive role in resolving this issue.”

The Musqueam are proposing building a park and memorial in the area of the site, in partnership with the province and city.

“Instead of a jumbled collection of rundown buildings and car lots, visitors would be greeted by a vision of an interpretative park … that would celebrate the Musqueam/Coast Salish heritage on whose land all of Metro Vancouver and surrounding cities are built,” the open letter says.

“The province has really made strides in the last decade to create a new relationship with First Nations based on mutual respect and recognition,” he says.

“However, we felt that respect should also be passed on not only to us living today but to those who have come before us. … This is Canadian history and B.C. history that needs to be preserved and protected as we move forward.”

The Epoch Times publishes in 35 countries and in 19 languages. Subscribe to our e-newsletter.

The battered body of three-year-old L112, also known as both Sooke and Victoria, having been first sighted in Victoria Harbour, washed ashore near Long Beach, Washington, on Feb. 11. The cause of death has yet to be determined. (Cascadia Research Collective)

VICTORIA—A group of eight B.C. conservation groups is urging the Royal Canadian Navy to stop conducting military training exercises in the critical habitat of the highly endangered southern resident killer whales.

The call comes in relation to the death of L112, a young southern resident whose bloodied body washed ashore near Long Beach, Washington, on Feb. 11, days after the naval frigate HMSC Ottawa had conducted training exercises in waters south of Victoria, B.C.

While the cause of death has yet to be determined, an initial necropsy showed that L112, also known both as Victoria and Sooke, died of “significant trauma.”

However, the biologists involved said the wounds were inconsistent with the three-year-old whale having been struck by a ship or attacked by a predatory whale.

Ken Balcomb, a senior scientist with the Center for Whale Research in Friday Harbor, Washington, says it is also unlikely that L112 was killed by sonar, which at close range can have much the same effect as a bomb.

“L112 has injuries that are more consistent with an explosion—they were instantaneous and massive and lethal right away. So I believe in this case it’s a bomb blast rather than sonar.”

A letter from the conservation groups to Defence Minister Peter McKay requested that the navy disclose all information on activities in the area, including the use of sonar and explosives, which might have contributed to the whales’ death.

Navy public affairs said in a statement that training exercises in the Strait of Juan de Fuca on Feb. 6 did include “a period of sonar use and two small underwater charges.”

But mitigation rules were followed, and a required visual surveillance of the area prior to the blasts showed no marine mammals, the statement said. “There were no reports, nor indications of marine mammals in the area.”

However, the groups, which include the David Suzuki Foundation and Living Oceans, believe some southern residents were in the area but may have gone undetected.

“Within 18 hours of sonar use, southern resident calls were heard in the area; within 36 hours, an unusually mixed group of members of two southern resident pods were sighted deep within the sheltered waters of Discovery Bay, west of Port Townsend, Washington,” the letter said.

“There are no prior records of southern residents sighted in Discovery Bay in 22 years of observation. The unprecedented appearance of these whales in these waters, combined with their recorded vocalizations not long after the Ottawa’s training concluded, suggests that southern residents were present in the area—and may have been significantly affected by the exercise—but went completely undetected by the ship.”

The groups note that southern residents are known to fall completely silent when resting, sometimes for up to six hours, and can be difficult to sight even during the day beyond a few kilometers.

U.S. Navy Bombings

Military exercises are also routinely carried out in the area by the U.S. navy, notes Balcomb.

He says he recently discovered that that the U.S. navy “is authorized to drop about 100 bombs a year out there in the area where these whales feed, and they’ve been doing this for about 15 years.”

“There’s been a number of whales over the past years that have washed ashore with what’s usually described as blunt-force trauma. Many of them—and I’ve seen four myself—are consistent with a blast-type trauma of this nature,” he says.

Only about 87 southern resident killer whales, which inhabit B.C. and Washington state waters, remain in the wild, and the loss of a young female represents a major productive impact on the population.

The conservation groups want the Canadian navy to establish an exclusion zone that includes the Salish Sea where training with sonar, other high-intensity active acoustics, and explosives is prohibited.

The groups are also urging the Canadian navy to work with the U.S. navy to strengthen their mutual stewardship of the region’s marine wildlife.

The protection of killer whales’ critical habitat is mandated in both Canada and the U.S. The southern resident population is listed as endangered under Canada’s Species at Risk Act, and is also on the U.S. Endangered Species list.

Balcomb, who served in the U.S. navy, says he understands that military training is important, but doesn’t see why it has to take place in the whales’ critical habitat.

The examination to determine what killed L112 could take several months.

A high-rise under construction in Coquitlam, Metro Vancouver. Around 80,000 workers will be needed in B.C.’s construction industry in the next five years. (Ryan Moffatt/The Epoch Times)

With British Columbia’s construction industry about to take off and some 35,000 employees retiring in the coming years, the province is facing a massive skilled labour shortage.

To that end, an 11-member delegation from B.C. and Alberta travelled to Ireland recently to recruit workers to help fill thousands of vacancies in the construction trade as well as in the mining and oil and gas industries.

“It was really a very productive week,” says Manley MacLachlan, a member of the delegation and president of the British Columbia Construction Association, which represents over 2,000 companies.

The delegation met with various Irish government officials and had a booth at the Working Abroad Expo at the RDS in Dublin.

“Just the turnout at the job expo was stunning,” says MacLoughlan.

“We had 40,000 people in two days that were trying to get into the building. And for nine hours a day we had, I’m going to guess, between 200 and 300 people lined up in front of our booth every day.”

MacLoughlan estimates that along with the approximately 35,000 foremen and senior managers scheduled to retire in the next four to seven years, an additional 45,000 people will be needed to complete the major projects that are either planned or already in the works—many of them in Northern B.C.

“So you combine those two and we are in the neighbourhood of 80,000 people that we’re going to require over the next four to five years,” he says.

He says Ireland was chosen for the push to recruit workers because its training and apprenticeship systems are similar to that of B.C., while the country’s struggling economy would likely mean people would be willing to relocate.

“The Irish economy has taken quite a bruising and we knew that there would probably be more folks with an interest in coming to work in Canada. … And so, recognizing a common culture that is also part of the Irish experience here in Canada, we just thought it would be a good mix.”

He says representatives from the Provincial Nominee Program who were part of the delegation indicated that visa applications can be processed in about 90 days.

“We just had lunch with a contractor out of British Columbia and they’re desperate for workers on the Lower Mainland. They’ve also got major projects that are about to start up in Northern B.C., and they’re pretty excited by some of the prospects. So we need workers right now.”

It’s not just B.C. that’s facing a looming shortage of skilled labour. According to the Canadian Construction Association (CCA), current projections indicate that the construction industry will experience a shortfall of 325,000 workers across the country by 2019.

At the same time, demand for construction services in Canada is expected to continue increasing for the rest of the decade, elevating the construction market to fifth-largest in the world.

The CCA notes that Canada’s domestic population growth alone will not be enough to address industry needs.

“We’re working with young people in British Columbia every day to encourage them to engage in the industry, but it’s a very competitive marketplace right now—it’s not just construction that’s looking for people,” MacLoughlan says.

“To be honest with you we’ve got our hands full right now with the sheer volume of people that have come forward from our trip in Ireland—it’s actually much larger than we anticipated.”

Six decades after the fact, Rio Tinto Alcan has returned 11,000 acres of land expropriated from the Cheslatta Carrier Nation in northern B.C. in the early 1950s.

The mining company announced on Monday that it has officially completed the transfer of 63 district lots totalling just over 11,000 acres of land to the Cheslatta.

“Today we get back what we lost 60 years ago,” Cheslatta Chief Richard Peters said in a press release.

“Land is the backbone of any community and this land is truly the foundation for our future. We are most grateful for the hard work and dedication of former Cheslatta leaders and we also thank Rio Tinto Alcan for being a modern and progressive corporation that understands the significance of the land to the Cheslatta people.”

The Department of Indian Affairs expropriated the land in 1952 and the Cheslatta Carrier people were relocated. Alcan used the Netchako River to create the Kenney Dam as part of a huge hydroelectric project to power the Kitimat Aluminum Smelter.

The properties that were undeveloped or not flooded are being returned to the Cheslatta, who have fought for years to get their land back.

“This important event is the culmination of over 10 years of discussions between us and the community to return these traditional lands to the Cheslatta Carrier Nation,” said Jean Simon, Rio Tinto Alcan primary metal CEO.

“Today is an important milestone and represents how we can move forward cooperatively. I am honoured to be the one, on behalf of our company, to bring this longstanding issue to conclusion for the benefit of the Cheslatta Carrier Nation people.”

U.K.-based Rio Tinto purchased Alcan in 2009, and continued ongoing negotiations with the Cheslatta regarding the lands, according to the Prince George Citizen.

“Alcan has agreed to return the property with no strings attached. I don’t know if there is any example of that in North America,” he said.

“The Cheslatta have been refugees for 60 years. Now they have their land again.”

Dogs from the Whistler Sled Dog Co. take tourists for a ride in the Soo Valley north of Whistler. (Courtesy Sled Dog Foundation)

It was a year ago this month that news of the now-infamous sled dog slaughter in Whistler, B.C, made headlines around the world.

After it emerged that a tour operator with Outdoor Adventures Whistler had shot and stabbed approximately 100 healthy sled dogs the previous April, there was an outpouring of condemnation, and a month later the company suspended its sledding operations.

But the story may have a happy ending after all.

Despite an abundance of negative publicity after news broke of the shocking cull, Outdoor Adventures has now been transformed into the Whistler Sled Dog Co., owned by the Sled Dog Foundation, a newly created not-for-profit that aims to become a model for sledding operations worldwide.

The new company began operations just before Christmas in the Soo Valley north of Whistler and business has been brisk, says Sue Eckersley, one of the foundation’s three committee members.

Although the massacre gave the sled dog industry and Whistler a black eye, she says the industry has rebounded and people have put the ordeal behind them.

“I think that people—both the public and the media—have embraced this new situation, and I think what everybody wants is to know that going forward things are going to be different.”

Eckersley says the operation will be a basis for research on sled dog behaviour and care, and everything learned will be made available to sled dog operators around the world to improve their operations and the well-being of their animals.

“Plus, there’s all these companies that have been operating really well with great knowledge, and what we would like to do is be a home for all that knowledge,” she says.

“The best thing about this whole scenario is that the potential is huge. We have an opportunity to influence thousands of dog’s lives.”

A young boy and a sled dog make friends at the Whistler Sled Dog Co. (Courtesy Sled Dog Foundation)

In mid-December, Outdoor Adventures owner Joey Hussain donated the business to the foundation, including 151 dogs, land leases, kennels, and equipment.

“[A]fter significant research and consultation with animal welfare experts, academics, and others, my team concluded that we would try to influence positive change for the industry and for the welfare of sled dogs. We believe the creation of this foundation is the best way to achieve this,” Hussain said in a press release at the time.

The foundation has a no-kill policy unless an animal has to be put down for health reasons, and an area has been set aside where retired dogs can live out their old age. Profits will go toward establishing best practices and educating sled dog operators.

‘Drastic Action’

It was initially believed that around 100 sled dogs had been slaughtered by Bob Fawcett, who ran Outdoor Adventures’ sled dog division. But an investigation by the BC SPCA found only 56 dogs in the grave where they had been buried.

A worker’s compensation claim for post-traumatic stress filed by Fawcett detailed how he had killed the dogs by shooting them or slitting their throats, then buried them in a mass grave.

In an online forum for soldiers suffering from post traumatic stress disorder, Fawcett said he was told that the sled dog division of the company would go out of business unless “drastic action – immediate disposal of half the herd” was taken.

“I reluctantly agreed to do the job – I was told we had two days to get the job done due to a large tour group we had coming,” he wrote.

Fawcett, who went into hiding at one stage because of death threats, said he had been diagnosed with PTSD and was “in a bit of a mess” since the cull. “I have had to execute and watch most of my best friends die,” the father of two wrote in the posting.

Continued: Hussain told the media he took “moral responsibility” for the cull …

MLA Jagrup Brar (R) embarks on his experiment to live on welfare for a month. (Jagrup Brar's Constituency Office)

A B.C. MLA is finding that surviving on welfare is just that—surviving, with every waking minute devoted to scrounging enough money for his next meal.

“Living in poverty or welfare is hard and demoralizing,” says New Democrat Jagrup Brar, who began a challenge on Jan. 1 to live on welfare for a month.

“It’s a tough life. You spend your whole day basically looking for food and shelter. It takes away your self esteem. It basically makes you a completely different person.”

The Surrey-Fleetwood MLA embarked on the experiment in response to a challenge issued to all 85 B.C. MLAs by Raise the Rates, a coalition of poverty advocacy groups.

Brar, 52, the only MLA to accept the challenge to live on welfare for a month, says he did so “to tell the story of a half a million people in B.C. living in poverty.

“As a father of two young children, it’s hard for me to imagine that we have 137,000 children living in poverty in a rich province. It is hard for me to believe that 70,000 people use a food bank every month and one-third of them are children,” he says.

Out of the $610 a single person receives on welfare in B.C., Brar spent $420 on rent, $42 on bus tickets, and $25 on a phone. Phone and transportation are necessary for welfare recipients who are required to look for work. After these expenses, he was left with $108 for food and any additional needs.

“I went out the day before yesterday to buy my groceries with a budget of $30 per week. I ended up spending $33 dollars, and I am right now left with $67 for the rest of the month,” he says.

“With a $30 weekly budget, when you go to buy groceries the first thing you look at is the price, not at the quality of the food. So that’s a huge challenge—not only that you can’t eat healthy food, but you can’t actually eat enough to survive.

“You feel hungry all the time. Hunger becomes your biggest challenge during the day.”

As organized by Raise the Rates, Brar is allowed to spend one night a week at his home—but must pay for any food he may eat there—and he will work one day a week in his office.

“During this month I will listen,” he says. “I will meet with the people living in poverty and on welfare, listen to their stories and share those stories with the people of B.C. to raise awareness about poverty, and hopefully initiate a debate based on the on-the-ground reality.”

Less Purchasing Power

In the 1980s, NDP MLA Emery Barnes lived on welfare for seven weeks, when the rates were just $375 a month. Barnes, a former pro football player, lost 30 pounds during his stint on income assistance.

Back then, Barnes said welfare rates needed to be raised to $700 a month. But rates today have even less purchasing power, notes community organizer Jean Swanson, who initiated the challenge Barnes accepted 25 years ago and the current one with Brar.

MLA Jagrup Brar shows reporters a breakdown of his expenses on welfare for one month. (Jagrup Brar's Constituency Office)

Swanson, whose organization paid the $610 for Brar because as an employed person he wouldn’t qualify for welfare, says Raise the Rates issued the challenge in hopes of bringing about change.

“We want to raise public awareness about how low welfare rates are, how punitive the rules are, and how inaccurate the stereotypes about people on welfare are,” she says.

“I think the combination of the low rates and the rules actually push people into crisis and make it more difficult for them to get back on their feet,” she adds.

“If you’re ‘employable’ you’re not allowed to keep a penny of what you earn, and this includes so-called employable single parents. You’re not even allowed to keep a penny of child support.”

The B.C. government says income assistance is intended as a temporary measure.

“Employable applicants are expected to look for work before they receive assistance and, where able, people receiving income assistance are expected to complete an Employment Plan, seek work, and participate in employment programs, so they may reach their goal of self-reliance,” the Ministry of Social Development’s website says.

According to December 2009 data from the ministry, the number of those receiving income assistance in the Expected to Work category increased by 45.4 percent between 2008 and 2009.

Finding accommodation that fit his budget was one of Brar’s biggest challenges. During his search he looked at several places, one of which reduced him to tears, he says, because the conditions were so bad, with tiny rooms costing as much as $400 a month.

“I’ve been told there are many others—there are hundreds of other houses like that.”

He finally found a room in a decent house in a nice neighbourhood, which he shares with eight others.

“My room is like a seven-star hotel compared to the things I saw,” he says.

Brar says that although he’s finding the going tough, he’s in good shape and believes he “can last one month.”

“It’s only one month for me, but [there are] close to 200,000 people who live this life for too long.”

He is blogging about his experience at mlaonwelfare.com.

British Columbia’s congested courtrooms face crippling shortages after half the province’s courthouses lost trial lawyers serving as duty counsels in a fight over legal aid.

The B.C. Branch of the Canadian Bar Association says the province’s legal aid system is in crisis and that is why trial lawyers walked off the job.

After decades of cuts and underfunding it has become impossible for legal aid to meet demand, and courtrooms are now clogged to the point that people accused of serious crimes walk free because their cases can’t be heard in time.

“Meanwhile, women, children, and seniors in critical situations are unable to access legal representation when they need it, exposing them to more danger. Our most vulnerable citizens are the ones who need legal aid the most—and we can’t adequately provide it,” notes a website set up by the group to campaign for legal aid.

A report earlier this year by the Public Commission on Legal Aid concluded legal aid was underfunded in B.C. and needed to be recognized as an essential public service. The Legal Services Society (LSS), which provides legal aid through funding from the Ministry of the Attorney General, endorsed that recommendation.

For its part, the Ministry of the Attorney General has responded to ongoing criticism of underfunding by pointing to recent legislative improvements and increasing legal aid funding for the first time since 2005 by $2.1 million, from $66.5 million to $68.6 million at the end of December.

“This additional funding for the Legal Services Society will assist families with emergency family matters related to custody or access, as well as to provide for representation for parents with children in the custody of the Ministry of Children and Family Development,” said a statement from the ministry.

Attorney General Sheila Bond issued a statement late Wednesday saying the fight is about how much lawyers are paid.

“I think it’s important that the people of B.C. understand that this job action is primarily to seek an increase in the tariff rate paid to the lawyers who provide legal aid services.”

She said lawyers get a tariff rate of between $84 and $93 an hour depending on experience, and increasing that rate will eat into the budget for legal aid funding and result in fewer people receiving support.

But Bentley Doyle, a spokesperson for the Trial Lawyers Association of B.C., said that description of the conflict is grossly inaccurate.

“Not only is that not fair, it is completely off the mark. This is about the services that are not covered, for the citizens that need it most.”

“We’re in the spurt of an escalating series of service withdrawals and we hope we won’t have to continue this beyond the spring, but we are prepared to.”

Bond said LLS will arrange duty counsel services to fill the void as trial lawyers walk off the job. She said the job action will not affect charges before the courts stemming from the Stanley Cup riots in Vancouver in June.

A VertiCrop system will be installed on the top level of a parkade in the heart of Vancouver’s downtown. Named one of TIME Magazine’s 50 Best Inventions, VertiCrop uses only a fraction of the resources needed for field agriculture, while generating substantially higher yields. (Verticrop)

Vancouver is about to get North America’s first VertiCrop rooftop veggie garden as part of the city’s goal to become the world’s greenest city by 2020.

Developed by Vancouver-based Valcent Products Inc., VertiCrop is a high-tech vertical farming system that enables leafy green vegetables to be grown using a fraction of the land, energy, and water conventionally required to grow produce.

Valcent has entered into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with EasyPark, a corporation that manages parkades and properties owned by the City of Vancouver, to install a VertiCrop system on the top level of a parkade on Richards Street in the heart of the city’s downtown.

Named in 2009 as one of TIME Magazine’s 50 Best Inventions, VertiCrop enables leafy greens and flowers to be grown year round in a controlled environment without the use of herbicides or pesticides.

“We’re very excited about the possibility of having North America’s first VertiCrop operation installed in the progressive city of Vancouver,” said Stephen Fane, CEO of Valcent.

“Urban farming systems like VertiCrop provide a secure and profitable growing solution by offering more efficient crop production, reduced food miles, and lower distribution costs than traditional field farming.”

Utilizing a series of suspended trays that rotate on motorized conveyors, the hydroponic system provides optimal exposure to either natural or artificial light with each plant receiving precisely measured nutrients.

The system produces around 20 times the yield of normal field crops while using only 8 percent of the water typically required for field agriculture, according to the company.

The Vancouver project, which will include a 550-square-metre (6,000-square-foot) greenhouse built on underutilized space on the top level of the parkade, will yield the equivalent of 6.4 hectares (16 acres) of produce grown in California fields, Valcent said.

“The proposed VertiCrop installation in the City of Vancouver showcases our ability to adapt our urban assets to meet changing market demands and promote environmental leadership,” Mel McKinney, general manager for EasyPark, said in a press release.

“This long-term lease generates direct financial benefit to Vancouverites while showcasing Vancouver’s sustainability innovation.”

Construction of the project is scheduled to begin in January, with the first crops expected as soon as April. Local food supplier PSWJ Holdings Ltd., which entered into the MOU with Valcent and EasyPark, will market and distribute the produce.

“The ability to grow high-volume produce in local environments where weather and natural disasters aren’t a threat has never been more attractive,” said Fane.

Paignton Zoo in the United Kingdom, an educational and scientific charity dedicated to conserving wildlife, uses VertiCrop to grow herbs like parsley and oregano, leafy greens, and fruits such as cherry tomatoes and strawberries. The produce is used to feed the animals.

A statue of “Gassy” Jack Deighton in Vancouver’s Gastown. The story of Gassy Jack’s arrival on the Burrard Shore in 1867 is just one of several now available through a new iPhone application. (Wikimedia Commons)

Some of Vancouver’s most interesting but lesser-known historic events and the location in which they took place are now available through a new iPhone application.

The app gives the user tidbits of the city’s history by sharing tales such as Howard Hughes’ legendary stay at the Bayshore Hotel in the early 1970s, the Babes in the Woods murders, the Bloody Sunday clash during the Great Depression, and the resident ghost at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

Called Vancouver In Time, the app was designed in part by Simon Fraser University’s 7th Floor Media, the Canadian Encyclopedia, and the Historica-Dominion Institute.

“We wanted stories that pulled the public in and were a fast read—the most intriguing stories that weren’t necessarily going to be in a guide book or on a walking tour,” says Noni Maté, director of 7th Floor Media.

“Our team did the research on the stories and conducted the design and programming. This is the first real mobile app they’ve created and it has received a fantastic response.”

The app has a “then and now” feature which, when tapped, allows the user to watch the present-day photograph dissolve into what the site looked like at the time the story happened.

Vancouver In Time is the first in a series of applications. Toronto is the next city to be covered, with Ottawa and Montreal soon to follow. There are also plans to expand the project to include an iPad version of the app, as well as to adapt it to the Android platform.

“We have started to rethink how we approach projects for our clients,” explains Maté. “While in the past we mostly have designed websites, now we ask the question ‘will this work as an app?’”

It was determined that the bodies had been there since the fall of 1947, and that the hatchet was the murder weapon. The case remains unsolved.

Other stories shared through the new app include the squatters who settled in Stanley Park in 1860, “Gassy” Jack Deighton’s arrival on the Burrard Shore in 1867, and the fire that razed Gastown in 1886.

Chinatown's Sam Kee Building, named the shallowest commercial building in the world by the Guinness Book of Records and Ripley's Believe it or Not. The ground floor depth (from storefront to rear) measures just 1.5 metres (4'11'), while the second-floor depth (from bay window to rear) is 183 centimetres (6'). (Wikimedia Commons)

On Oct. 13 the federal government designated Vancouver’s Chinatown—one of the oldest and largest Chinatowns in the country—a national historic site on the recommendation of the Historic Sites and Monuments Board of Canada.

“Today’s designation of Vancouver’s Chinatown recognizes the significant contribution the Chinese community in Vancouver has made to the history of Canada,” said Immigration Minister Jason Kenney.

“It is important that we sustain and recognize the culture and traditions that make Canada such a rich and diverse place.”

A worker with Corix Utilities installs a smart meter on a B.C. home. BC Hydro began rolling out its digital 'smart' meter program in the province on July 1, but opponents are still hoping they can stop it. (BC Hydro)

BC Hydro began rolling out its wireless “smart” meter program in British Columbia on July 1, but opponents are still hoping they can stop it.

Anti-smart meter campaigns are gaining momentum, and at least five municipalities have applied for a moratorium after concerns were raised by residents. The B.C. Green Party has also called for the program to be cancelled.

The $930-million program will replace electric meters at every B.C. home and business with wireless smart meters by 2012—1.8 million in all.

BC Hydro says the meters, which relay information about energy use several times a day, improve safety and reliability, are more accurate and cost effective, will conserve energy, and will greatly reduce electricity theft by marijuana “grow ops.”

But with concerns around possible billing changes, adverse health effects from radiofrequency radiation, potential privacy violations, and the fact that BC Hydro does not allow anyone to opt out, the smart meter plan has many British Columbians apprehensive.

Sharon Noble, who co-founded Citizens Against Unsafe Emissions specifically to fight the installations, is urging people to lobby their municipalities to apply for a moratorium on smart meters.

“My major concern is how these meters are little cell [phone] transmitters that are put on the side of every home, every apartment—which means in apartment buildings people are going to have dozens of them—and every business,” says Noble, noting that the World Health Organization recently deemed radiofrequency electromagnetic fields from cellphones a Class 2B carcinogen.

“It’s the same as in cellphones, it’s the same as in cell transmitters, and [smart meters] are going to be sending this through your house 24 hours every day, and you don’t have a choice. There are people who have an environmental sensitivity where they’re exposed to this stuff all the time and their bodies just can’t take it any more, and they can’t opt out.”

Noble says the radiation from spikes that occur every time a smart meter sends signals is “extremely dangerous,” especially for children and people who are sick or elderly who already have impaired immune systems.

However, BC Hydro says the cumulative exposure to radiofrequency from a smart meter over its entire 20-year life span is equal to the exposure of a single 30-minute cellphone call.

Dr. Patricia Daly and Dr. John Blatherwick, the current and previous Chief Medical Health Officers for Vancouver Coastal Health, have said there is no known health risk and no reason for concern over radiofrequency from normal cell phone usage.

No Risk to Privacy

A BC Hydro spokesperson was not available for comment by deadline, but a July 29 letter from Greg Reimer, Executive Vice-president, Transmission and Distribution posted on the Crown corporation’s website, seeks to address privacy concerns.

Reimer says BC Hydro welcomes the review of the smart meter program recently announced by B.C. Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham.

Denham launched an investigation on July 28 after her office received numerous complaints that the information collected by smart meters amounts to a breach of personal privacy.

Reimer says smart meters cannot detect how someone uses electricity or which appliances are being used, but instead measure how much energy is used or generated in total.

“This is the same electricity consumption data we always have collected, just more frequently—up to three or four times per day rather than once every two months,” he writes.

Information collected, which will be encrypted, will be handled in accordance with the B.C. Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act and will not be sold or disclosed to third parties, Reimer says.

“In-depth security has been designed into every element of the program and we have hired online experts to test our systems and develop the strongest possible protections.”

With the new system, BC Hydro expects a net benefit of up to $520 million over the next 20 years, which will keep rates lower than they otherwise would have been. The company says it will maintain the current rate structure throughout the implementation period of the smart meters.

California Controversy

Noble questions the wisdom of BC Hydro going ahead with the program given the problems associated with them in some other jurisdictions. In Ontario, which initiated a time-of-use smart meter plan over a year ago, some people’s hydro bills have increased by up to 70 percent, she says.

According to a survey by Toronto Hydro, 84 percent of those using smart meters are seeing increases in their bills, while no reduction occurred in energy use.
South of the border, soaring electricity bills have led to smart meter lawsuits in Texas and California.

In California, where the issue has become highly controversial, residents with smart meters have complained of mistakes on their bills; interference with cordless phones, baby monitors, and home security systems; the hacking of personal information; and the selling of personal information by utilities companies.

According to the group Stop Smart Meters, more than 2,000 health complaints related to the meters have been submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission.

Forty six cities and counties in California, including San Francisco, have rejected the smart meter program, as have Maryland and Westerville, Ohio. Maine is allowing people to opt out, while Colorado is allowing people to opt in.

Wired Smart Meters

Idaho’s utilities provider, Idaho Power, is replacing traditional meters with wired smart meters throughout its service area in Idaho and eastern Oregon.

David Saunders, Mayor of Colwood on Vancouver Island, the first municipality to apply for a moratorium, says he has been talking with BC Hydro about doing something similar in Colwood.

“BC Hydro has been very proactive in dealing with the City of Colwood—it’s been refreshing,” says Saunders.

“They’re looking at addressing the citizen’s concerns in an expedient fashion, and I don’t see why there wouldn’t be any reason that in the future these systems could be hardwired, such as other areas, and that would negate both the privacy and the radiation concerns of our citizens.”

BC Hydro said last month that it would modify the program to allow those with concerns about exposure to radiofrequency radiation to relocate their smart meter elsewhere on their property at their own expense—which, according to Noble, could cost up to $10,000.

Noble urges those who don’t want a smart meter to put a sign on their existing meter saying so. She says people can have their smart meter installation delayed by calling 1 800 224 9376 and getting on a “do-not-install” list.

“If people get on this do-not-install list at least it gives them a chance that hopefully we can get a lawsuit going and we can continue fighting this. It will give some option for a delay, and it also gives Hydro an indication of how many people do not want this thing.”

The Wonder Rooms, a single-resident occupancy hotel in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Vancouver City Council is creating two task forces to explore SRO hotel conditions and methadone program abuses. (Brad Bussche/The Epoch Times)

They may have fancy names like Palace Hotel and Wonder Rooms, but these single-resident-occupancy hotels in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside are so beset by problems that their owners are facing legal action on two fronts.

Tenants at the two SROs allege that not only do they have to contend with mice and rats, cockroaches, bedbugs, and mould, but also a tyrannical landlord who has power to control their homes, their work, and even their health.

After hearing from tenants about the deplorable conditions at the hotels, the City of Vancouver voted on July 14 to establish two task forces: one to look into methadone kickback allegations and the other to come up with a strategy to improve conditions in SRO hotels.

In the case of the Palace and Wonder Rooms, council unanimously approved taking legal action against the landlords and their partners if they fail to bring the buildings up to minimum standards.

“Given the way these landlords have treated their tenants and refused to maintain their buildings, approving the use of legal injunctions is absolutely critical to helping the people who live there,” Mayor Gregor Robertson said at the meeting.

Tenants who are on methadone to treat their heroin addictions told a council meeting on June 30 that in addition to having to live in filthy and unsafe conditions, Palace owner George Wolsey, a former pharmacist, threatens to evict them if they get their methadone prescriptions filled through anyone other than him.

After allegations surfaced in 2008 that some pharmacists were pressuring or offering money to methadone patients to use their particular pharmacy, several pharmacies were closed and Wolsey lost his licence to practise as a pharmacist. But the kickbacks have continued.

Doug King, a lawyer with Pivot Legal Society, told The Epoch Times that Wolsey still owns a pharmacy and although it is operated by others, he continues to benefit when the tenants get their prescriptions filled there. Almost all the tenants in the SROs are in the methadone program, he said.

“They try to bring in tenants that are on methadone. Pretty much everybody in the Wonder Rooms and in the Palace is on methadone.”

Pharmacists collect dispensing fees and an additional fee for witnessing ingestion of the drug, as well as a provincial reimbursement, all of which can make it a lucrative business since patients must have their methadone prescriptions filled daily.

Pivot is representing several tenants who on June 29 launched a class-action suit against Wolsey and Douglas Robinson, owner of the Wonder Rooms. They are seeking damages for being evicted illegally or for the harm they’ve suffered as a result of conditions in the hotels. Wolsey is also involved with the Wonder Rooms.

Many of the tenants who spoke at the June 30 council meeting told of being threatened by Wolsey—in particular regarding speaking at the meeting. In an unprecedented move, they were allowed to speak from the upper gallery to protect their anonymity, and members of the media were asked not to photograph them.

Mayor Robertson and several city councillors thanked the tenants for their courage in coming forward considering their situation.

Hundreds of Violations

Council heard that between the two hotels there are 265 violations, with about 20 rooms uninhabitable.

In addition to rodent, bedbug, and cockroach infestations, fire alarms are either not working or have been disconnected, the fire escapes are blocked, there are broken windows throughout, and toilets don’t flush. Several units have holes in the walls, damaged flooring, leaky taps, and water damage.

Many tenants work for Wolsey for $3 an hour, doing jobs such as tending the front desk which can include intimidating residents and inspectors with a baseball bat or a stick with a pair of scissors taped on the end. Monthly rent costs between $375 and $600 for a basic room.

City building inspectors, who are often refused access, were not allowed to document violations on their most recent visit.

A resident of the Wonder Rooms told council that his methadone treatments are sometimes diluted and that he was once given someone else’s dose.

Ivan Drury of the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council said that earlier that day, Wolsey had refused to fill a tenant’s methadone prescription in an attempt to prevent him from coming to speak at the meeting.

Drury said there’s “a crisis of living conditions” in the hotels and residents’ health is being compromised.

Councillor David Cadman said conditions in the two SROs “can only be described as a Dickensian type of lifestyle.”

“It is simply intolerable in this, the 21st century, that people in this city that is so wealthy have to live under these conditions,” he said. “It’s time for us and the province to get together and really begin to address these problems.”

The task force will work with the province, stakeholders such as the College of Pharmacists, non-profit groups, and the Downtown Eastside community to improve conditions at all SROs, some of which are not in much better shape than the Palace and Wonder Rooms.

“A combination of all of these things involved is really what’s needed,” said King, adding that he has hope that with this approach, SRO landlords will be forced to do better so that tenants can live in some semblance of dignity.

“In the past it’s just been community groups trying to enforce the legal situation—trying to get change—and I think the fact that the city is now kind of actively working with the province and community groups to find a solution could be what needs to be done to make a difference.”

George Wolsey could not be reached for comment for this article.

What has been described as “the toughest animal cruelty laws in all of Canada” by provincial Minister of Agriculture Don McRae are now law in British Columbia.

Amendments to the province’s Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act came about as a result of recommendations made by the Sled Dog Task Force in April.

The task force was appointed to review the circumstances in which 100 sled dogs were slaughtered in April 2010, and to make recommendations to prevent any such occurrence in the future.

“In public consultation British Columbians told us they wanted animals in our province to be safeguarded by a level of punishment that would deter individuals from committing acts of cruelty,” said McRae.

“I’m proud to say animals in B.C. are now protected by the toughest animal cruelty penalties in all of Canada.”

The amendments include increased penalties for animal cruelty to fines up to $75,000 and jail terms of up to two years; extending the current six-month limitation period for prosecuting offences to three years; and providing new ability for the government to set standards pertaining to the use, care and protection of animals, including sled dogs.

The sled dog slaughter sparked outrage and several petition campaigns in Canada and other countries. Robert Fawcett, manager of Howling Dog Tours, which provided sled dog tours during the 2010 Vancouver Olympics, shot or stabbed the dogs and buried them in a mass grave after business had slowed and the company was downsizing.

The incident came to light in January this year after Fawcett made the confession in a worker’s compensation application in which he said he was suffering from post traumatic stress disorder.

On Jan. 6, a clearly distraught Fawcett wrote a posting on a soldiers’ support group forum called CombatPTSD in which he told of the trauma of trying to round up and kill the dogs, which the 38-year-old father of two said he had raised himself, describing them as family.

He said he was given two days by the corporation to put down the 100 dogs as a tour group was due to arrive.

The bodies of over 50 of the sled dogs have been exhumed, and forensic evidence from the investigation is being presented to the Crown to determine if criminal charges will be brought against Fawcett.

Led by the B.C. SPCA, the investigation is looking into evidence that the animals were killed in an undue and inhumane way. The society has hired a team of international forensic investigators with experience investigating the notorious case of Robert Pickton and mass graves in Rwanda, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The team is looking to provide evidence of the way in which the dogs were killed.

The new legislation will also make it a provincial offence to harm a law enforcement animal. In B.C. police currently use both horses and dogs to assist in such law enforcement purposes as crowd control, offender apprehension, search and rescue, and drug/explosive detection.

“Up until now law enforcement animals have often been taken for granted. I applaud the government’s stance to make B.C. the province with the toughest animal cruelty laws in Canada. Enacting these laws finally protects the animals that protect us.”

Blockbuster Canada announced it was going into receivership on May 6. Both small independent video stores and the large chains face widespread closures as customers increasingly look to online sources for their entertainment. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

A wave of video store closures across Canada has recently swept up Videomatica, a beloved institution in Vancouver for nearly 30 years.

A legendary source of hard-to-find foreign, classic, and independent films, Videomatica was known not only in Vancouver but across the country, with renters as far away as Newfoundland. Some say the store is among the best in the world.

Co-owner Brian Bosworth says he had seen a decrease in video rentals since 2008, which he blames on technological and societal shifts.

“People think it’s Netflix that did us in, and did in video stores, but there was a decline in the video rental business in Canada way before that, and a steeper decline in the U.S,” he says.

The narrowing of what’s available is definitely going to have an impact on culture.

—Brian Bosworth

A combination of online streaming, video-on-demand, satellite delivery, and even regular television were all “straws on the camel’s back” that eroded video rental profits irreversibly, Bosworth says.

But smaller independent stores are not the only ones to take the hit. Mega chains such as Blockbuster, Movie Gallery, and Rogers have seen profits plummet in recent years. Rogers has already closed 74 stores across the country, and reported a retail-related loss of $38 million in its most recent annual statement.

Rogers spokesperson Marina Guy says the company still plans to continue selling traditional home entertainment offerings “as long as it makes sense.”

U.S.-based Blockbuster filed for bankruptcy and closed 3,000 stores before being bought by satellite TV company Dish Network in April, 2011. Blockbuster Canada, which operates independently of the U.S. stores, announced it was going into receivership on May 6, 2011.

By August 2010 Movie Gallery, the second biggest movie and game rental company in the U.S. after Blockbuster, had closed and liquidated all its stores on both sides of the border.

Bosworth believes Internet culture is also to blame for the way society views renting movies. He says people now expect everything to be free or very cheap, and instantaneous. And the accessibility of Internet entertainment is taking up the time people used to make for watching movies.

But this may be leaving large gaps in entertainment choice—one that cannot be filled by the current online offerings.

“Every time there’s a shift in the technology there’s less actual product, and it becomes more new-release mainstream oriented. So there’s a ton of stuff out on DVD that I don’t think people will ever be able to get online, but the fact is they won’t know that they’re not getting it,” he says.

“Really the story here is not a video store closing. There’s cultural, political, social, and economic issues that are really, really big.”

Owners of Blackdog Video, a local Vancouver independent rental chain that is also facing a potential closure at one of its two locations, posted this blog entry:

“Where will one be able to find obscure films, classic films, foreign flicks and documentaries? There will be an entire generation that will know nothing of film history. All they will know is big Hollywood fare. And that makes me sad and scared.”

Bosworth says the ubiquitous world of streaming video means companies ultimately have the power to choose which titles can exist online, and only the movies that have enough market demand will get chosen, and then are only available temporarily. He predicts this will have a large impact on what types of movies are made in the first place, seriously limiting consumer choice.

Bosworth and his business partner, Graham Peat, hope to sell their collection to a cultural or educational institution accessible to the public in order to “keep some small part of Videomatica alive.”

With the W.A.C. Bennett Dam as his backdrop, Premier Gordon Campbell announced on April 19, 2010 the controversial Site C Dam, slated to be built on the Peace River. A speaking tour opposing the dam will travel throughout the province, ending in Whistler on June 2. (Courtesy of BC Hydro)

A controversial mega dam proposed for the Peace River in northeastern B.C. has spurred a coalition of groups on a province-wide speaking tour that kicked off last week.

Representatives from the BC Wilderness Committee, Treaty 8 First Nations, and other opponents of the project are worried about the environmental and social consequences of the proposed dam.

Campaign director Joe Foy says the tour hopes to build popular support for permanently ending the Site C dam development, announced by former premier Gordon Campbell in April 2010.

“The tour has the agenda of letting people hear for themselves how various communities in the Peace River Valley do not want the dam, see the dam as a big problem. Also to hear from all of the organizations involved in the tour how it is possible to stop this dam if we get organized community by community,” he said.

The $6.6 billion dam has been criticized by locals and environmental groups because of its proposal to flood over 5,340 hectares along 83 kilometres of the river valley—some of the best agricultural land in northern B.C.

BC Hydro claims the province’s energy needs will grow as much as 40 percent over the next 20 years, and Site C will help provide that energy.

“To meet B.C.’s future electricity needs, there is a need to conserve more electricity, to buy more electricity from renewable power projects—such as wind and run-of-river hydro—and to build more by reinvesting in existing assets and considering new resources, such as Site C,” says BC Hydro’s website.

The BC Wilderness Committee, however, accuses BC Hydro of pursuing unnecessary energy development as a front for energy exportation and private investment. It will be the third dam project in northeastern B.C., which has also attracted major oil development and other resource-intensive projects such as run-of-rivers projects.

“[Site C] is a $10 billion taxpayer subsidy to private power producers who threaten hundreds of BC rivers with destruction, and to a dirty fossil fuel industry that needs cheap energy to expand,” says a BCWC press release.

The proposed dam is currently under environmental and regulatory review, including independent assessments of the project’s impact. The review process is expected to take two years to complete, and if approved, the site would be operational by 2020.

When Campbell announced the project, he said it would create up to 35,000 direct and indirect jobs in the province, including 7,650 direct construction jobs. At 900 megawatts of capacity, it would generate 4,600 gigawatt hours of electricity each year—enough to power 410,000 homes for over 100 years.

A major supporter of the project, Campbell was presented with a historic declaration opposing the dam in September 2010, signed by 23 First Nations from across B.C., Alberta, and the Northwest Territories.

The speaking tour, which began in Kelowna on May 9, will travel to six BC communities before ending in Whistler on June 2.

Steve Golob, chef at UBC's Place Vanier, holds up a fair trade donut by Ethical Bean Coffee. UBC gained accreditation as Canada's first fair trade campus by meeting Fairtrade Canada's requirements for ethically sourced product availability, visibility, and promotion in the university. (Courtesy of UBC)

To top off its status as Canada’s first “fair trade town,” Vancouver is now home to the nation’s first “fair trade campus” as well.

The University of British Columbia has announced that it obtained the designation through national leadership in fair trade purchasing, and will be awarded its own blend of ethically sourced coffee as a result.

The designation is the result of a collaboration between UBC’s Engineers Without Borders (EWB) chapter and Fairtrade Canada, a global non-profit fair trade certification system that supports producers in developing countries and encourages the purchase of ethically sourced consumer goods.

Michael Zelmer, director of communications for Fairtrade Canada, says UBC student groups such as EWB took the initiative to gain the accreditation, and are already advising other universities on how to become more fair trade-friendly.

“They’ve just been such leaders in fair trade as far as universities go, and I think it was just a natural step for them,” he says.

With the accreditation, UBC joins more than 100 global universities that have committed to buying fair trade coffee, tea, chocolate, and tropical fruit from producers who guarantee higher social, environmental, and pay standards for farmers and workers.

“From fair trade coffee to this fair trade designation, students have helped to make UBC a leader on ethical purchasing,” says Kaan Williams, 25, director of fair trade for UBC’s EWB chapter. “EWB has chapters at every other major University in Canada and many of them are already working toward achieving the award for their schools too.”

In recognition of UBC’s fair trade commitments, local Vancouver coffee company Milano Coffee is creating its first fair trade-certified blend of coffee for the university, which will launch at campus food service outlets in September 2011.

“The recognition of UBC as Canada’s first fair trade campus sets an example for other campuses across the country and further demonstrates Canadians’ commitment to fairness and respect for the farmers and artisans who produce the products we enjoy,” says Zelmer.

Accreditation standards apply only to products purchased by the university and the students’ association, so independent franchises on campus such as Whitespot, Tim Horton’s, and Starbucks are excluded from the requirements.

“UBC’s commitment to fair trade benefits people in developing countries and provides our students and other large organizations with an important example of institutional global citizenship,” he says.

Former B.C. premier Bill Vander Zalm leaves the B.C. Supreme Court on Aug. 20, 2010. The court ruled Vander Zalm's 700,000-signature petition against the HST to be valid, leading to a June 24 referendum on the tax. The B.C. government is currently holding telephone town hall meetings to hear public opinion on the HST and address concerns. (Fany Qiu/The Epoch Times)

In preparation for the Harmonized Sales Tax referendum in June, the B.C. Liberals are doing something most would agree they should have done initially: inform the public and seek input.

Twelve telephone town hall meetings are currently being held across B.C., designed to engage the public and have open discussions about the HST before a June 24 referendum on the fate of the tax.

The meetings are hosted by Minister of Finance Kevin Falcon and Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Blair Lekstrom.

Nearly 33,000 British Columbians participated in the first two meetings in the Surrey and Peace River regions on April 27. The meetings will continue for the next three weeks, though some have been rescheduled because of the Vancouver Canucks playoffs games.

The introduction of the HST sparked a public backlash across the province when it was implemented last June with little public consultation. What added fuel to the fire was that the Liberals had said during the 2009 election campaign that they were not planning to introduce the tax.

The issue was forced to go to a referendum after former Premier Bill Vander Zalm spearheaded an effort to gather over 700,000 signatures—more than 10 percent of B.C. voters—against the HST.

“One thing that was difficult up to now was that it wasn’t a balanced menu of information out there,” says Kevin Milligan, a professor of economics at the University of British Columbia.

Milligan, who favours the HST, says it’s important for voters to thoroughly understand both sides of the debate before voting on the tax.

He says “the economic case is extremely strong” that a value added tax such as the HST is more efficient than the Provincial Sales Tax, which is most likely what B.C. would return to if the majority vote against the HST in the referendum.

“If the referendum were to fail, it puts us in a very difficult circumstance in that we will be implementing a tax that is known around the world as a poor way to raise revenue.”

If the HST remains, B.C. “will end up with a better, cleaner, more efficient, more transparent way to tax people,” he adds.

“I have a lot of faith in voters and citizens taking information they have and doing a good job of making a decision.”

Falcon said in a press release that he is pleased with the response so far.

“Given the thousands of people who participated in these calls, it’s clear that British Columbians want to be part of an informed discussion on the HST. What impressed me most were the questions people had about the HST and the various suggestions brought forward on how we might improve it.”

All B.C. residents who have a publicly listed telephone number will receive a call on the day a meeting is scheduled in their area. A recorded message asks if they are interested in attending the tele-town hall session and instructions to participate are provided.

Ballots for the HST referendum, which is to be completed by mail, will be sent out to registered voters on June 13, and must be returned by July 22. Results are expected by August 2011.

The upcoming meetings are listed by region at www.HSTinBC.ca.

Illicit drug overdose deaths declined dramatically after the establishment of Insite in Vancouver, North America’s first supervised injection facility, according to a new study published in The Lancet, a peer-reviewed medical journal.

According to the findings, overdose deaths decreased by 35 percent in the immediate vicinity of the pilot injection site following its opening in September 2003. No overdose deaths were recorded at Insite itself, located in Vancouver’s troubled Downtown Eastside.

In the rest of the city, overdose deaths declined only 9 percent over the same period.

“The results of the study clearly indicate that supervised injection facilities such as Insite are playing a key role in reducing mortality rates from illicit drug use,” said lead author Dr. Brandon Marshall in a press release.

Brandon is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Epidemiology at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health and a former graduate student at the Urban Health Research Initiative (UHRI), where the study was conducted.

The researchers examined almost 300 case reports from the British Columbia Coroners Service, which documented all illicit drug overdose deaths in Vancouver between Jan. 1, 2001 and Dec. 31, 2005. The deaths were geographically categorized into those occurring within about half a kilometre from the Insite facility and those taking place elsewhere in Vancouver.

Insite, which was established in response to an HIV epidemic and rising overdose death rates in the Downtown Eastside, allows injection drug users to consume pre-obtained drugs—primarily heroin, cocaine, and morphine—under the supervision of nurses. The facility also has onsite counsellors who provide support and make referrals to programs such as addiction treatment.

UHRI researchers had previously found that Insite played a positive role in reducing HIV risk behaviour, increasing access to primary health care services and additional treatment, and reducing health care costs in the long run.

Nevertheless, Insite has faced opposition from several groups and organizations. One of its most outspoken critics is Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who said during an election stop in B.C. that the government “will not use taxpayers’ money to fund drug use.”

In May 2008, the B.C. Supreme Court dismissed sections of the Canadian Criminal Code that prohibit drug trafficking and possession, ruling that they violated the Charter, thereby allowing Insite to continue its operation.

On the campaign trail Monday, Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff said he had visited Insite and that the Liberals support the expansion of such supervised injection sites.

Tourists watch the daily ceremony of the Changing of the Guard outside Buckingham Palace on April 22. Fountains have been cleaned, lawns trimmed, and giant Union Jack flags are flying as London puts on its best face for Prince William and Kate Middleton's wedding on April 29. Hundreds of thousands of well-wishers are expected in addition to the hundreds of VIPs invited to attend the ceremony at Westminster Abbey. (Carl De Souza/AFP/Getty Images)

Royal watchers who didn’t make the guest list for Prince William and Kate Middleton’s nuptials can take heart: the event will be celebrated in style in Victoria, that most English of Canadian cities.

The century-old Fairmont Empress Hotel, which has been visited by Queen Elizabeth six times throughout her reign, is hosting several events for the occasion, including a dinner served on fine bone china that until now was reserved exclusively for royal visits.

Taking place in the elegant Empress Room on April 29 and 30, the $150-per-person dinner will include a selection of dishes from royal menus that the Queen herself dined on during her visits.

But far more affordable is the hotel’s $39 “Rise and Shine with the Royals” beginning at 3 a.m. (PDT), just as, across the pond, guests start arriving at London’s Westminster Abbey for the wedding.

The event includes a live broadcast of the ceremony and a traditional English breakfast buffet served until 11 a.m. Hotel guests may attend in their pyjamas and bathrobes if they so desire.

Celebrations continue throughout the day with a “Picnic Afternoon Tea” on the front lawn of the hotel, which includes a dog show and a contest for best dressed dog. No doubt there will be some corgis in the running.

On April 30 and May 1 there will be a “Royal Celebration Tea” served on an upgraded tea service along with a glass of sparkling wine in The Library.
The town of Sidney, 20 minutes from Victoria, is also getting in on the celebrations.

Back in February, Sidney’s town crier announced a “Royal Wedding Week” from April 24-30 that includes a rebroadcast of the wedding ceremony along with both a breakfast and a noon brunch on April 30 at the local community centre.

Guests are encouraged to don their best finery, uniforms and medals are to be worn, and Union Jack flags will be flying. Preceding the brunch, couples are invited to renew their wedding vows in Beacon Park on the waterfront.

Meanwhile, with royal wedding fever peaking in the U.K., Irish bookmaker Paddy Power is reporting record levels of betting on the nuptials from people around the world.

So far almost 5,000 bets have been wagered with the bookmaker on a diverse range of royal wedding topics, including how late the bride-to-be will arrive at the church, the colour of Queen Elizabeth’s hat, and the big one—the designer of Middleton’s wedding gown.

Sarah Burton for the Alexander McQueen Fashion House has long been considered the hot favourite, but has drifted in the betting amid rumours she may instead be designing Middleton’s evening dress, according to a press release from Paddy Power.

Little known designer Sophie Cranston at Libelula is now the 5/4 joint favourite alongside Burton amidst reports that fashion-savvy Middleton designed her wedding dress with Cranston, whose creations have been worn by the likes of Emma Watson and Jerry Hall.

With the level of bets the biggest for a one-off event since the bookie took wagers on who would be the new Pope in 2005, Paddy Power anticipates close to one million British pounds being gambled on the royal wedding across the whole betting industry, according to the release.

About 1,900 guests are expected at the wedding, including 50 members of the British royal family and about 40 representatives of foreign royal families, as well as military personnel and charity workers.

He told The Telegraph that getting married in front of hundreds of guests—not to mention an estimated worldwide TV audience of a billion—was “quite a daunting prospect.”

Falun Gong practitioners stand by the blue hut at the protest site the group maintained outside the Chinese consulate on Granville St. from 2001 to 2009. (The Epoch Times)

Falun Gong practitioners say the “public expression” bylaw just passed by Vancouver City Council makes their protest vigil outside the Chinese consulate impossible and leaves the group no choice but to go back to court.

Councillors voted 6-4 to approve the revised bylaw covering protest structures after a marathon meeting on Tuesday that went until midnight.

“There is no other choice, we have to go back to the court to let the court judge the bylaw,” said Sue Zhang of the Vancouver Falun Dafa Association.

Falun Gong maintained a 24-hour protest vigil outside the consulate in Vancouver 365 days a year to protest torture and persecution in China. Though the city found the protest was not a disturbance, it was an embarrassment to the Chinese consulate, which pressured the city to have it removed.

The vigil depended on a small hut to shelter protesters, many of whom were elderly Chinese women, from the rain, snow and nightly chill. Falun Gong practitioners have said they are willing to submit to rules that would ensure the safety of passersby and a reasonable size of hut, but that requiring them to remove the hut every day between 8 p.m. And 8 a.m., and for a month at a time—as the new bylaw now does—would essentially end their vigil.

They argue the bylaw also runs counter to a ruling by the BC Court of Appeal telling the city to draft a bylaw that did not restrict Falun Gong practitioners’ right to expression. The court ordered the city to redraft the original bylaw saying that its previous restrictions were unconstitutional, and found that the group’s protest structures outside the Chinese consulate were fundamental to their freedom of expression.

Zhang said despite widespread criticism of the bylaw, it appeared city councillors had already made their decision to approve it before the public hearing had started on Tuesday.

“Very, very, disappointing. The city held that long public meeting, and public opinion was so clear. At the end the day—what’s the public opinion hearing for?”

Councillors stayed late in order to meet a court ordered deadline to come up with a new bylaw by April 19 and to hear public comments on the revisions.

COPE councillor David Cadman, who was strongly opposed to passing the bylaw, said if the city goes back to court he “guarantees” they will lose again. He criticized city staff for consulting the Chinese Consulate in the making of the bylaw, before giving it to council at the final hour, with less than 2 weeks to review it.

“I don’t think this is going to pass. … And it’s more money down the drain as we try and fight a charter provision, which is national and pervasive, through a street bylaw. It simply is not going to stand the test at court,” he warned council members.

Many at Tuesday’s meeting spoke against the bylaw, whose requirements include removing any protest structures between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m., removing structures every 30 days, and fines of $1000-$5000 for violations.

Mayor Gregor Robertson emphasized the precedent the new bylaw set in permitting protest structures, saying it is a first in Canada.

But legal representation for the Falun Gong, Clive Ansley, argues that the city is trying to frame the bylaw as a precedent for free expression while hiding the fact that it removes many previous freedoms for protestors.

“They’re entirely turning the situation on its head. Before this bylaw was passed, what we had in every jurisdiction in North America is constitutionally protected free speech—those freedoms all existed already. What we’ve got now is a bylaw that very severely restricts the only open ended freedom we’ve had before.”

An outcry erupted recently when the city revealed it had consulted the Chinese authorities as a “stakeholder” in the draft bylaw, which banned protest structures in front of the consulate. Under scrutiny, the city made revisions to the bylaw to allow such structures, but the restrictions would still put an end to the Falun Gong vigil, says the group.

Ansley said the refusal of the city to honour the court’s decision, which he sees as an attempt to satisfy the Chinese consulate, means the issue will again end up in court.

“Passage of this draft will guarantee another lawsuit and further squandering of taxpayer money on a cause which benefits only the Chinese Communist Party and the Consulate-General which represents the Chinese Communist Party in Canada. Although well disguised and designed to obscure the real effect of the new bylaw, this draft effectively amounts to a prohibition of the Falun Gong vigil,” he said.

Robertson said, however, that the city has found a “balance” and complied with the Court of Appeal’s instructions to regulate protest structures.

“Collectively we’ve done a very reasonable job of moving this forward,” he said.

“This situation smacks of the hasty passage of the controversial Olympics anti-free speech bylaws. Citizens should not have to file lawsuits in order to get the City of Vancouver to properly consider the constitutionality of its bylaws,” BCCLA president Rob Holmes said in a statement.

In this file photo, a Falun Gong practitioner stands by the blue hut the group used for shelter during their long-running 24/7 vigil outside the Chinese Consulate in Vancouver. (The Epoch Times)

After intense public criticism the City of Vancouver posted amendments to its "Public Expression" bylaw on Thursday, but some say it still has a long way to go.

At first glance, the bylaw appears to have improved: exceptions were made to allow structured protests in front of consulates, the mandatory traffic management plan was removed, and structures were allowed to remain unattended at times.

The city’s department of engineering says it is “precedent-setting” in North America and “is designed to specifically enable and facilitate the use of structures on City streets for the purpose of political expression.”

But Clive Ansley, legal counsel for the Falun Gong, said the amended bylaw is a way to distract the public from serious underlying flaws while continuing to appease the Chinese consulate.

“The fact is that the Vancouver City Council, at every stage since launching its petition against the Falun Gong protest, right up to the present moment, has spared no effort to safeguard the interests of the Consulate-General, and to frustrate the free expression of the Canadians maintaining the protest outside the Consulate-General,” he wrote in a statement.

Upon closer inspection, the amended bylaw retains similar restrictions that were heavily criticized from the beginning: structures must be taken down daily between 8 p.m. and 8 a.m. The structure size, which was previously considered safe, was ordered to be reduced to half of its original size when placed in front of a consulate.

The structure targeted by the bylaw are signs and a small hut the Falun Gong built in front of the Chinese consulate to allow a silent 24-hour, meditative vigil, protesting the murder of their fellow practitioners in China.

The amended bylaw leaves heavy restrictions on this hut, and therefore the Falun Gong’s ability to protest. Many of the protesters are elderly women who can only participate through the protection of the hut, which contains a small heater to ward off Vancouver’s damp chill. The new rules say the hut must be removed every 12 hours, making it virtually impossible for the Falun Gong to sustain their previous round-the-clock vigil.

“This requirement serves no purpose but to make it unlikely that the elderly protesters who maintain the vigil will be capable of continuing it,” said Ansley.

“In short the City still seeks to impose punitive, grossly restrictive, arbitrary, and totally illogical constraints designed for no purpose but to assure the Consulate-General that any attempted protest in its area will be completely ineffective.”

The structure would also only be allowed for a maximum of 30 consecutive days, with a following 30-day “reprieve.” The previous $200 application fee and $1,000 damage deposit have been removed, but replaced with a $1,000-$5,000 fine for any violations.

The Falun Gong started their protest in front of the consulate in 2001 to raise awareness of escalating state-sponsored genocide against practitioners in China. The city ordered an injunction to have the 24-hour protest removed in 2009 claiming a bylaw infraction, but in 2010 the BC Court of Appeal ordered the city’s forced removal unconstitutional.

The court also ruled that the billboards and the hut were an integral part of the Falun Gong’s political expression under the charter of Rights and Freedoms. It acknowledged that the crimes against humanity the Falun Gong were protesting were well documented by the United Nations, Amnesty International, and top Chinese communist officials charged with genocide against Falun Gong in an Argentinian court.

Controversy was fuelled last week regarding the city’s bowing to consulate pressure after city staff admitted to “confidential” meetings with the Chinese consulate, to get “some degree of feedback” on the proposed bylaw. The initial injunction by former Mayor Sam Sullivan to remove the protest was also suspected to be caused by pressure from the consulate after Sullivan was seduced by the Chinese Communist Party on a business trip to Beijing.

Micheal Vonn, policy director for the BC Civil Liberties Association, said the amended bylaw has some small improvements but is “not even close” to being acceptable.

“We have some good things to point to but we don’t want those improvements to essentially camouflage for what continues to be a deeply flawed piece of legislation,” she said. “We absolutely do not support it.”

Vonn said if the city does not bring the bylaw up to standard it will soon be facing another court challenge.

“If the bylaw as its currently proposed is not amended in ways that meet what we believe to be charter scrutiny, then we will undoubtedly be either initiating or joining another party in a court challenge.”

“If you have a feasible means to do this right in the first place and collect more input from important stakeholders, what’s the hurry?” she asked.

In this file photo, a Falun Gong practitioner meditates outside the Vancouver Chinese Consulate. (Patrick Dong/The Epoch Times)

In the ongoing uproar over Vancouver’s “Public Expression” bylaw, Mayor Gregor Robertson says the proposed bylaw needs to be improved, but also hinted at protecting the interests of the Chinese consulate.

He takes issue with “onerous” restrictions in the bylaw such as protest fees, a mandatory traffic management plan, and its potential impact on the homeless, but was quick to add the importance of respecting “international missions’ rights” in accordance with the Vienna Convention.

“We need a recommendation from staff that has been thoroughly researched with international standards to understand what structures can be erected immediately adjacent to the consulate, and what restrictions might be necessary for that based on the international standards and the Vienna Convention,” he told reporters Monday.

Article 31 of the Vienna Convention calls on host countries to protect the premises and dignity of foreign consulates on their soil.

Clive Ansley, a lawyer representing the Falun Gong, which held a 24/7 protest outside the Chinese consulate from 2001 to 2009, says that although he is happy the bylaw is being reconsidered, he sees the mayor’s citing of the Vienna Convention as an “escape route.”

“The remarks coming from Robertson indicate that while they are redrafting the bylaw to meet us in some way and prevent a lawsuit, they are still hoping they’ll find an escape route that will allow them constitutionally to block any kind of protest structures in front of the consulate,” he says.

It’s pretty clear that this amendment is focusing on the Falun Gong vigil … it’s targeted at the Falun Gong.

— Scott Bernstein

The statement also denied accusations that consulate officials had put pressure on the city to remove the Falun Gong protest from in front of the consulate.

Some city councillors and the Falun Gong community were aghast upon learning at a council meeting last Thursday that city engineer Peter Judd had held “confidential” meetings “to get some degree of feedback” from the consulate on the proposed bylaw.

City Councillor Ellen Woodsworth says she was “very surprised” to hear that city staff consulted the Chinese consulate, adding that there has been strong public criticism around it.

“I think a lot of the membership are really speaking out. The media is speaking out. We’re getting emails, very strong emails, against this,” she says.

The bylaw has come under fire for its restrictiveness—in particular because it would ban any kind of protest structures in residential areas. The consulate is located in Vancouver’s upscale Shaughnessy neighbourhood.

Protest a ‘Major embarrassment’

The controversy surrounding the relationship between the city of Vancouver and the Chinese regime began when former Mayor Sam Sullivan ordered the Falun Gong’s long-running protest—which included signs along the consulate fence and a small shelter hut on the grass between the fence and the sidewalk—removed after caving to pressure from the Chinese consulate.

Sullivan maintained the protest violated a city bylaw and went to court to have it dismantled. The BC Court of Appeal later ruled the removal unconstitutional and ordered the city draft to a new bylaw by April 19.

Nobody, but nobody, wants to see everybody back in court.

— Michael Vonn

“Every Chinese Embassy and Consulate, in all foreign countries, has at least one diplomat whose primary job it is to implement the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners who are Chinese nationals with temporary or permanent residency, and citizens of the host country,” he said in the affidavit.

Falun Dafa Association spokesperson Lucy Zhou fears the compelling reason behind the protest—the persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in China—is being forgotten.

“The persecution of Falun Gong, the torture, the killing, the crimes against humanity—this is a universal human rights issue, it’s not just a Falun Gong issue,” she says. “Dignity is not maintained by using the bylaw to restrict the protestors. Dignity is maintained by urging the Chinese officials to ask their government to stop all their atrocities.”

After the Chinese regime outlawed Falun Gong in 1999, it launched a campaign of persecution against adherents of the spiritual discipline that continues today.

Next: Bylaw ‘Targeted at Falun Gong’

VANCOUVER—B.C.’s privacy commissioner has announced that her office will examine the issue of employers using a police database to conduct criminal record checks on job applicants.

Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham confirmed that her office has for several months been investigating criminal record checks, and will now look into concerns raised by the BC Civil Liberties Association about the PRIMEBC police database.

The BCCLA says the database is being used for pre-employment checks that go beyond checking for criminal convictions, resulting in lost job or volunteer opportunities.

This issue is not unique to British Columbia.

— Information and Privacy Commissioner Elizabeth Denham

The association has found that as many as 86 percent of B.C. adults have their names recorded in the PRIME database, which holds a significant amount of sensitive information.

“This is a very complex issue involving multiple jurisdictions, multiple data linkages, competing interests and the overlap of at least five different laws. And at the end of the day, we need to be certain that the process is fair and justifiable, both ethically and legally,” Denham said in a statement.

The database is used by all BC police forces to collect, use, and disclose law enforcement information, such as who has called the police, been a victim or a suspect of a crime, or charged with an offense.

BCCLA president Robert Holmes said the problem is that some information is being recorded as “negative contact” which could result in lost job opportunities.

“Employers assume that if you have ‘negative contact’ you have done something wrong, but it’s just as likely that you insisted on your basic rights or that the information is incorrect. This is not some kind of philosophical objection, this misinformation is wrongfully keeping people from economic opportunities.”

RCMP Insp. Bruce Imrie of the Informatics Branch told the Vancouver Sun that he believes the BCCLA’s figures are too high because many residents’ names in the PRIME database are duplications, misspellings, or aliases. He said the association’s estimate of 25 percent misspellings and duplications may be too low.

The most recent annual report from PRIMECorp, the crown corporation that manages the database, showed that it has 4,452,165 master name records, more than the province’s population as of Oct. 1, 2010, which was 3,844,531.

The BCCLA says that even if a quarter of the names are duplicates as a result of misspellings, aliases, or out-of-province residence, 86 percent of the adults in B.C. would still be recorded in the database.

“With more than eight out of every ten B.C. adults in this database, we’re wondering if people know what the police are writing about them,” said Holmes. “These notes by police officers can prevent people from getting jobs, schooling and training, and it is difficult if not impossible to remove or alter incorrect information.”

PRIME, an acronym for Police Records Information Management Environment, was first introduced to the province to combat sex offenders, serial killers, and career criminals.

“In the past, the PRIME database has been considered a highly confidential tool for law enforcement in their daily activities,” Denham said. “If PRIME is going to be used increasingly for background checks, citizens will likely demand greater access to it to ensure any information contained therein is accurate.”

“This issue is not unique to British Columbia. It’s important to involve a broad set of stakeholders in our analysis,” she said.

A doctor takes a blood sample in order to perform an HIV test. New cases of HIV among injection drug users are declining in B.C., according to a report.

New cases of HIV among those who use drugs by injection continue to decline in B.C., according to a report by the provincial health officer.

A major factor in the decline has been the expansion of Highly Active Anti-retroviral Therapy (HAART) and harm reduction programs, says the report.

Introduced in 1997, HAART is a combination of three or more drugs from at least two classes of antiretroviral drugs. It’s designed to attack HIV in various stages of its life cycle.

The latest research from the BC Centre for Excellence shows that the number of people living with HIV in B.C. who were receiving HAART increased by 547 percent from 1996 to 2009. During that same time period, new HIV diagnoses fell by 52 percent.

“HAART has been tremendously successful, extending the lives of thousands of British Columbians,” said Dr. Julio Montaner, director, BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

“More recently, our research has shown that the expansion of the HAART program has been a major factor in reducing HIV incidence in the province, particularly among those who use drugs by injection.”

As a result of the program’s success in B.C., other regions such as San Francisco, New York, Washington DC, and China are moving towards similar methods of HIV treatment and prevention.

“The recent decline in new HIV cases is encouraging, especially since a significant decrease has been seen amongst vulnerable populations like those who use injectable drugs. This decrease is more proof that Highly Active Anti-retroviral Therapy and other harm reduction services are working and should be expanded,” said BC provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall.

The decrease of new positive HIV tests was found in all ethnic groups and in both males and females around the province in all health authorities. The most apparent increase was among those between the ages of 20-39.

Although estimates of the number of new HIV infections are uncertain, it appears that the number of new infections in 2009 (between approximately 2,300 and 4,300) was about the same as or slightly greater than the estimated range in 2005 (2,200 to 4,200).

The interior of UNBC's bio-energy plant. The plant uses innovative technology to convert locally sourced wood waste into biomass energy, used to heat campus buildings at the university. (University of Northern British Columbia )

An award-winning bio-energy plant at the University of Northern British Columbia is taking its place among the most celebrated sustainability projects in North America.

Officially opened on March 18, the plant uses bio-energy from waste wood products to heat campus buildings, the first of its kind to be implemented at a Canadian University.

B.C. Premier Christy Clark said at the opening that the project shows “leadership in innovation.”

“From local employment opportunities in manufacturing, construction, and ongoing fuel supply, these are the types of projects that will secure B.C.’s future for the long term.”

Bark, branches, sawdust and leftover wood products from nearby mills converted into an efficient heating source for campus buildings, which is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the university by 3,500-4,000 tonnes annually—the equivalent of taking 1,000 cars off the road every year.

The project has already received a number of awards, including tying for first place with Harvard University for the top North American campus sustainability project, an award given by the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education. It has also received the Northern BC Business and Technology Innovator of the Year and City of Prince George architectural design awards.

UNBC president George Iwama says the project is a collaboration between the university, community, and industry. It emerged in part as a way to help diversify the local forestry industry after the devastating mountain pine beetle infestation.

This facility is a showpiece that will serve as a unique platform for education and research.

— George Iwama

“This is an important development for UNBC, but it’s also very important for the local forest industry and the 621 communities across Canada that are reliant on forests,” Iwama says.

“This facility is a showpiece that will serve as a unique platform for education and research. Biomass is a sustainable, renewable energy source that is critical to the diversification of the forest industry and the communities that rely on it.”

The project is part of a two-year, $2-billion plan by the federal government to repair and expand research and educational facilities at Canadian post-secondary institutions.

The university, which partnered with Nexterra Energy on the project, received $15.7 million from the federal and provincial governments for its biomass gasification system, and $5 million for upgrades to campus heating equipment.

Biofuel is expected to replace 85 percent of the university’s natural gas use and save UNBC more than $500,000 a year in fuel costs.

The project is being acknowledged for working with governments, communities, the private sector, and educational partners to develop local energy solutions by integrating campus operations, education, and research on a single site.

The plant represents completion of the first of three phases in UNBC’s Northern Forest Product and Bio-energy Innovation Centre project. It was built to the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) gold standard.

Sister Watch posters such as this urge people in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside to seek support and protection from the program. (Vancouver Police Department)

Having faced intense criticism for its handling of the Robert Pickton murder investigation, Vancouver Police Department is seeing progress in its efforts to improve protection for aboriginal women in the Downtown Eastside.

Almost six months after its launch, the VPD’s Sister Watch program is beginning to see results by building relationships and protecting those most vulnerable in the troubled community.

“We’ve changed the way we are communicating and doing business to address issues in the Downtown Eastside,” says Sgt. Joanne Boyle, acting inspector for the VPD’s major crimes section.

Sister Watch was developed in response to growing frustration with the lack of police investigation into cases involving violence against aboriginal women in the area.

The most recent case that sparked outrage was the death of Ashley Machiskinic, who fell from a fifth floor window at the Regent Hotel in suspicious circumstances. Her death was dismissed as a suicide by the VPD.

Boyle says the success of the Sister Watch program lies in actively listening to the community, something long overdue.

“What we really needed to do in this case was to slow down and listen to the community and not to tell them what we thought needed to be fixed, but to actually hear it from them what their priorities were. … Then to start working together, and that’s the phase that we’re in now.”

We’ve changed the way we are communicating and doing business to address issues in the Downtown Eastside.

— Sgt. Joanne Boyle

The Sister Watch program includes an anonymous tip line, monthly town hall meetings, a website, and rewards for information related to the Machiskinic case. Boyle says the first open-mic meetings revealed a wave of resentment against the VPD, and called on the police to listen.

“There was a lot of ongoing anger and mistrust in the community. A lot of it is stemming from the missing women’s report and the fact that, by our own admission, we could have done more in investigating Pickton earlier.”

Mona Woodward, executive director of the Aboriginal Front Door Society, says the town hall meetings are quickly becoming collaboration sessions, with topical discussion and strategy implementation.

The latest meeting, held on March 4, “went excellent—really good strategies and outcomes,” she says.
One of the program’s most effective strategies has been to identify and pro-actively target violent drug dealers, who often use terror and torture in collecting drug debts.

“With the new take-downs and the way they do policing, they’re not looking at it as the amount of drugs and money that they confiscate, but in terms of harm done to the vulnerable people.”

The VPD’s website says 11 arrests have been made through the program so far, including that of convicted sex offender and drug trafficker Martin Tremblay.

Woodward says the change in policing perspective has been the biggest breakthrough, but more work needs to be done to address systemic oppression and discrimination in policies.

“There’s still policies that create oppression for vulnerable people, for women too.”

The VPD is planning to broaden the program to become more proactive in preventing assaults against women and reducing their vulnerability, rather than playing a reactionary role after the crime has already been committed.

Sgt. Boyle says the success of the program has been attracting attention nationwide, but notes however that it needs to be tailored to the unique needs of the community if implemented elsewhere.

“What’s important is that it’s not a cookie-cutter approach. We’ve gotten this far from having some fairly intensive and close-together meetings with the community. So although I think you could embrace the idea, I think it really needs to be personalized depending on what the issues are in any particular community.”

A recent measure, for example, was to install “9-1-1 only” pay phones in core areas of the DTES—phones that can’t be used by drug dealers, but only by those in need of help.

Activists Gladys Radek (L) and Bernie Williams (C) participate in the 2009 Memory March along Main Street, Vancouver. (Courtesy of Gwynne Hunt)

Women’s rights activist Mary Billy created her Femicide List—a catalogue of the names of murdered women across Canada—after the Montreal Massacre in 1989 when Marc Lepine killed 14 women.

That ever-growing list now has 4,000 names on it. Activist/writer Gwynne Hunt, who has looked after the list since 2005, says close to 200 women are murdered every year across the country, many as a result of domestic violence.

“We tend to look at the big news stories of sex-trade workers or large numbers of women going missing from certain areas or different communities, different ethnic communities, and we don’t really focus on the fact that domestic violence is a huge issue,” she says.

To honour Canada’s women who have died under violent circumstances, Hunt has organized the fifth annual Memory March, to be held in Abbotsford, B.C., on March 19 in conjunction with the International Celebration of Women.

Statistics Canada reports that one to two women are murdered by a current or former partner each week, and that 51 percent of Canadian women have experienced at least one incident of physical or sexual violence since the age of 16.

Author of “Rampage: The Pathology of an Epidemic,” Hunt says efforts to halt violence against women must include both sexes and can only be achieved by a societal shift in the way women are viewed.

“Society as a whole has to look at a healing process and coming together and working together, men and women—not women pointing fingers at men, but everybody working together—to try to heal the way we view women, to change the way we view women.”

In previous years the march was held in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, but Hunt decided to move it to Abbotsford to distinguish it from a similar event held annually that commemorates aboriginal women murdered and missing in the area.

She says the move will help more people relate to the issue, and realize the violence against women is not limited to any one region.

“I wanted to bring it out where people will recognize the fact that there are women [victims] all over the country. There’s grandmothers killed by their grandsons and mothers being killed by their sons and children being killed by their mothers and fathers in homes. And this isn’t something that we address very often.”

Of the 40,200 incidents of spousal violence reported to police in 2007, 83 percent of the victims were women, according to Stats Can.

The agency says that every year in Canada, up to 360,000 children are exposed to domestic violence. Consequences for such children can include emotional trauma and depression, as well as other physical, psychological, and behavioural problems that can extend into adolescence and adulthood.

The march on Saturday will be followed by entertainment at the Best Western Regency Conference Centre.

“We have singers, we have people doing monologues, we have poets, speakers, and we have some videos. It’s going to be a full day of reflection and discovery,” Hunt says.

For more information, visit ragmag.net/memory-march/.

A pair of bald eagles perch on a tree near English Bay, Vancouver, in March 2009. A weak chum salmon run has left B.C.'s eagles struggling for survival. (Doug Pensinger/Getty Images)

As a result of a weak late-season chum salmon run, thousands of bald eagles that normally feed on salmon in rivers from Alaska to B.C. are starving and forced to scavenge landfills to survive.

The birds depend on late fall runs of chum, the last salmon species to spawn each year, to carry them through the winter. But the 2010 chum run was much lower than usual, and not enough to sustain the eagles through periods of scarcity.

David Hancock, biologist, author, and founder of the Hancock Wildlife Foundation, says the eagles have few alternative food sources this time of year and are in the most desperate situation he’s seen in over 40 years of studying west coast wildlife.

“The alternatives, if the salmon aren’t there, are not very good for the eagles. There’s just nothing else, so they move into the local refuse and landfills. On one day, we had 1,387 eagles at the landfill—they were in desperation,” he says.

About 7,200 eagles that descended near Chehalis River in the southwest corner of B.C. quickly exhausted the salmon supply, Hancock says. Just 10 days later the eagle population was reduced to 348 as they dispersed to find other food sources.

He says many eagles have resorted to “stealing” food from gulls and other birds at landfills in greater Vancouver, affecting these species as well. Compounding the problem is an especially cold winter that puts additional stress on their fight to survive.

The hardest hit are young eagles that haven’t yet reached adulthood. Eagles don’t learn hunting skills until they are about three years old, so largely depend on food sources that are already deceased. Chum is an ideal food source because the salmon die naturally after spawning.

On one day, we had 1,387 eagles at the landfill—they were in desperation.
— Biologist David Hancock

When eagles don’t get enough food they become lethargic, and low energy levels makes it hard for them to fly or even generate enough body heat to survive.

According to Hancock, over-harvesting has led to the decrease in chum salmon, which triggered a chain reaction among eagles and throughout the ecosystem.

“The bottom line is eagles are not doing well, but it’s not just the eagles, it’s the environment that produces them. It didn’t produce the food supply—the fish—to feed the rivers, to feed the bears, the wolves, and the eagles. And that’s a long-term problem that we have to solve. We are over-utilizing the resources of the land, at great cost.”

“Right now the challenge is for all these young birds to move towards where the herring are, but there’s almost no herring left on the coast of B.C. We’ve just so over-harvested for 40-50 years that they’re decimated as well. [So] the next saving grace that would’ve tided the eagles over is not a rosy picture either.”

Bears have been negatively impacted as well. The North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre in Errington, B.C., has reported an increase of starving bear cubs. Lack of pink and chum salmon, as well as failed berry crops, have been named by conservationists as a factors in their unusually low weight.

Robin Campbell, the centre’s wildlife manager, says almost all cubs coming into the centre weigh between nine and 16 kilograms. Normally they should weigh between 27 and 36 kilos before going into hibernation.

“This is totally unusual. We’ve never had this happen before,” he told The Montreal Gazette.

In a plan to significantly reduce landfill trash, Metro Vancouver has set an ambitious goal to recycle 70 percent of waste by 2015 and 80 per cent by 2020.

Kitchen scraps from single-family homes will be banned from going into the garbage by the end of next year, and by 2015 that ban will include all residences and businesses, according to Metro’s proposed Zero Waste Challenge Strategy.

While the strategy will focus on recycling organic waste—estimated to comprise 40 percent of trash volumes—removing all wood waste and increasing the list of banned substances is also included in the plan.

Organic waste will be re-routed through compost bins picked up weekly, while regular garbage collection will be reduced to bi-weekly pickups.

Metro Vancouver’s current levels of 55 percent waste recycling are among the highest in the country, compared to the current national average of 22 percent.

As long as total waste generation climbs in parallel with recycling volumes, we will not make progress toward Zero Waste.

— Metro Vancouver’s Zero Waste report

However, due to the region’s growing population and increase in the amount of waste generated per person, Metro officials say more aggressive action is needed to avoid stagnating around the 50 percent recycling mark.

Violators of the new rules—residents, contractors, and city workers alike—caught dumping kitchen scraps in with garbage will face fines as disposal ban inspections are increased.

But Greg Moore, Mayor of Port Coquitlam and chair of Metro’s Waste Management Committee, says the focus will be on collaboration to reach common goals, not punishment.

“It is our goal to work in collaboration with all stake holders and provide a convenient service. It is my experience that when you bring forward change using these two pillars there is not a need for penalties,” he said in an email to the Epoch Times.

“Metro Vancouver, in cooperation with municipalities, will continually bring forward information and education. The key to our success will be to provide appropriate information to the residents, institutions, and business.”

Through an animated Metro Vancouver Facebook campaign, consumers are encouraged to buy less, donate unwanted items to thrift stores, and “re-gift.”—messages aimed at educating consumers and encouraging them to use their purchasing power to create environmentally responsible buying trends.

Moore recommends citizens also visit their local government web site or go to www.MetroVancouver.org for ideas on waste reduction and recycling, to get a head start on creating new recycling habits.

Manufacturers, distributors, and retailers also need to take responsibility for the lifecycle of their products, according to the Zero Waste report.

“As long as total waste generation climbs in parallel with recycling volumes, we will not make progress toward Zero Waste. … Experience has shown that despite decades of public information on the need to reduce and reuse before one takes the step of recycling, our society tends to produce more, consume more and dispose more,” says the report.

The guidelines for the new strategy will be introduced at a conference March 11 in Burnaby, at which a diverse group of government, private sector and non-profit organizations will discuss waste reduction and recycling initiatives.

Keynote speakers from New York’s sanitation department and members of the “Dragon’s Den” panel will be in attendance.

Several men form a human barrier to prevent the Falun Gong from marching a block behind the 2009 Chinatown parade. The group's application to join the parade has been denied every year since 2003 while other groups have been accepted. (The Epoch Times)

Direct ties between Vancouver’s Chinese associations and the Chinese regime likely play a role in the continuous rejection of the Falun Gong’s efforts to participate in the Vancouver Chinese New Year Parade, says Qikun Liu.

Liu, a Vancouver-based China commentator, says these organizations act as vehicles for the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to conduct United Front work outside China by infiltrating local communities.

The United Front Work Department uses overseas Chinese to infiltrate foreign politics and establish community associations, business groups, and media that promote the interests of the Party around the world.

The organizations plant or transform political and community leaders who act as agents of influence for the regime.

Liu says a common CCP strategy is to use human weaknesses for fame, position, and money in order to control influential Chinese leaders overseas.

“It is no secret that the Party has been applying these skills now and then to lure people,” he says.

The Vancouver Falun Gong community alleges that each year since 2003, their group’s application to participate in the Chinese New Year parade has been rejected.

Mike Jang, president of the Chinese Benevolent Association (CBA), a co-organizer of the parade, has claimed there was no room for new applicants in the parade, and denies any discrimination against the group.

On the issue of Falun Gong’s application for the Chinatown parade, Jang is aware how he should serve.

— Qikun Liu

But according to Ming Bao newspaper, the number of parade entries has been increasing every year, up from about 40 groups in 2008 to over 50 in 2010. Jang himself told Ming Bao that there were 68 groups in the 2011 parade.

Jang also claims that the City of Vancouver, not the CBA, stipulates the time and space the parade can occupy, thereby limiting the number of participants.

Jang did not respond to requests for comment, but told The Epoch Times in a previous interview that the Falun Gong were not accepted because of the city’s restrictions.

“If they give us more time we can have [more participants], but the city gives us very little time,” he said. Jang also denied any knowledge of a parade application from the Falun Gong, though the group has been applying for the past eight years.

Josie Ho, a representative with the Vancouver special events office, told The Epoch Times that the city only sets restrictions on where the road blocks are set up for the parade, not on the number of entries permitted.

Liu says Jang is playing a key role in perpetuating discrimination against the Falun Gong overseas by consenting to Party directives though his close relationship with the regime. He believes Jang belongs to those the CCP has seduced through exclusive invitations to events from high ranking members of the Party.

Jang is the perfect target for Beijing. Aside from his role at the CBA, he holds honorary positions at several Chinese official institutions with links to the Party. He is also chair of the Chinese Cultural Centre of Greater Vancouver and the Shon Yee Benevolent Association—organizations that are also on the preparatory committee for the Chinese New Year parade.

“On the issue of Falun Gong’s application for the Chinatown parade, Jang is aware how he should serve,” says Liu.

The regime launched a campaign of persecution against Falun Gong practitioners after it banned the spiritual discipline in 1999. Wearing traditional Chinese clothing, with a drum contingent and a marching band, the Vancouver group has participated in many parades and won several awards.

Michel Juneau-Katsuya, the former CSIS chief for Asia Pacific, has said there are at least two dozen front organizations controlled by the Chinese regime operating in Canada. He said ethnic communities often feel the brunt of foreign influence exercised in Canada, especially dissidents who are subject to coercion, threats, and intimidation by the regime.

Chen Yonglin, the former first secretary for the Chinese consulate in Sydney who defected from the Party in 2005, says Canada is beset with Chinese spies, informants, and front organizations that do the bidding of the Chinese regime on Canadian soil.

Opponents are concerned about a new casino complex proposed for Vancouver that would expand the Edgewater Casino to include 1,500 slot machines and up to 150 gaming tables. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

A huge casino complex planned for Vancouver that would include a gaming floor the size of two NFL football fields has drawn the ire of locals worried about the fallout from increased gambling.

The proposal would see the Edgewater Casino move from its present location to beside BC Place Stadium and expand to include a hotel-entertainment complex with 1,500 slot machines and up to 150 gaming tables.

A public hearing will be held on Feb.17 to discuss the plan, which has drawn criticism from high profile Vancouverites such as former city councillor Peter Ladner and architect Bing Thom.

Las Vegas-based Paragon Development Inc, which bought Edgewater in 2006, claims the $450-million casino will create up to 1,900 jobs and attract tourists, which will benefit Vancouver businesses.

About 200 people, many of them casino employees, attended a public forum on Feb. 9 in support of the Edgewater expansion.

But opponents are concerned that a casino of this size will create more social problems, addictions, and crime in the city.

Sandra Garossino of Vancouver Not Vegas, a coalition of anti-casino groups and concerned citizens, says the public needs to have a say in a decision that has the potential to affect the entire city.

“There has been no public consultation process here. Everything is going on behind closed doors and the public doesn’t know any of the information it needs. This is being slid by the public in the hopes no one will notice the scale of it,” she says.

The B.C. public has been sold a complete bill of goods on this thing.

— Sandra Garossino

“We don’t have an audit on expected impact on addiction, or on organized crime. There is a complete lack of information.”

As a former prosecutor specializing in gangs, Garossino says casinos attract organized crime.

“I know how gangs work. Money laundering is their octane fuel and they have to have it,” she says.

Early last month, CBC News reported a multimillion-dollar spike in suspicious transactions at two B.C. casinos over three months in 2010. The RCMP told CBC the 90 large transactions worth $8 million may have been a scheme to launder “dirty money” from the drug trade.

In response, Solicitor General Rich Coleman said the government will take steps to strengthen regulations preventing organized crime groups from laundering illicit money at B.C. casinos.

Over the last two years, Coleman has slashed tens of millions in gaming funds from the charitable sector.

If approved, the new casino complex would bring in an estimated $17 million in revenue to the city annually, up from a current $7 million in annually, according to Straight.com.

Gambling addiction experts estimate that 21,000 people suffer from problem gambling in Vancouver, many of whom keep their problem hidden.

The Canada Safety Council reports that addiction to gambling is linked to a range of serious personal and social harms such as depression and suicide, bankruptcy, family breakup, domestic abuse, assault, fraud, theft, and even homelessness.

Public support for aboriginal-focused, separate schools is growing in British Columbia, says the Vancouver School Board (VSB), which in recent weeks has hosted a series of forums with students, staff, and community members to discuss aboriginal education.

VSB chair Patti Bacchus says such strong support for the schools is encouraging.

“I am really inspired by what we’ve heard—there’s major interest. I think if we didn’t proceed now we’d be in real trouble. There’s certainly people who are reluctant, but there is certainly pretty strong support for moving forward from those who want to.”

We’re looking to members of the aboriginal community to provide leadership and tell us what we need to do to enable this school to happen.

— Patti Bacchus

The initial idea of developing an aboriginal mini-school for Grades 8-12 was raised during budget consultations last spring. It had been suggested that it be located at Britannia Secondary in East Vancouver, which already provides some unique programs designed specifically for First Nations students.

But Bacchus says there has been increasing support for a K-12 school that would admit aboriginal students only, in order to foster a safer, more comfortable, and culturally relevant environment for students.

“What we’ve heard … is that maybe we need a school that is its own school,” she said, “We’re looking to members of the aboriginal community to provide leadership and tell us what we need to do to enable this school to happen.”

The importance of a safe learning environment is crucial, as some reports show aboriginal students are twice as likely to be bullied in school than their non-aboriginal classmates.

The 2008/09 Ministry of Education’s annual “How Are We Doing?” report on aboriginal education showed that by grade 12, 15 percent of aboriginal students reported being bullied, teased, or picked on, versus 7 percent of non-aboriginal students.

Debbie Jeffrey, executive director of the First Nations Education Steering Committee (FNESC), says a separate school for First Nations students appears to be a solution that would promote a “sense of safety and belonging.”

“The graduation rates for aboriginal students in British Columbia have stagnated at close to 50 percent for the past five years. The Vancouver School Board’s proposal and community feedback for a separate school for aboriginal children is an example of one school district’s efforts to address the issue of aboriginal student achievement,” she said.

This would not be B.C.’s first aboriginal-only school.

School district 57 recently opened the Aboriginal Choice School in September 2010, which serves the community in Prince George. The school provides a focus on aboriginal language and culture and “indigenous ways of knowing in a framework of restorative practice,” says its 2010/11 District Plan for Student Success. It is also open to non-aboriginal students who wish to attend.

Although it is too early to judge the success of aboriginal-focused schools in B.C., other provinces in Canada have already explored the idea—with mixed success.

The First Nations Junior and Senior School of Toronto opened as an alternative education for aboriginal students in 1977, but students have consistently struggled to meet provincial standards, and report high suspension rates.

In 2008 Toronto also introduced Canada’s first “africentric” school, catering to black students who experienced some of the highest dropout rates in the city. The Toronto Star reported last year that the school outperformed other public schools in the area on standardized tests.

Winnipeg has two successful aboriginal schools: Children of the Earth High School and Niji Mahkwa Elementary, which teach from an aboriginal perspective, incorporating traditional culture, history, languages, and practices into daily lessons.

Falun Gong practitioners march in Roger's Santa Clause Parade in downtown Vancouver Dec. 5, 2010. The group says its application to participate in the Chinese New Year Parade has been rejected every year since 2003. (The Epoch Times)

The Vancouver Falun Gong community is up in arms over what they say is years-long discrimination against them in their efforts to participate in the annual Chinese New Year parade.

The group says that each year since 2003, the Celestial Marching Band’s application to participate in the parade has been rejected. The band’s application for the 2011 parade, scheduled to take place on February 6, was again rejected, according to spokesperson Susan Fang.

The Vancouver Chinese New Year Parade Preparatory Committee rejected the application on the grounds that they no longer accept any new groups, says Fang.

When two band members went to the Chinese Freemasons Vancouver Branch on Nov. 23 to try to apply again, a “senior Freemason” was rude to them, told them to get off the property, and threw their application in the rubbish bin, Fang says. The man refused to give his name.

“Our group simply wants to celebrate the Chinese Lunar New Year along with the community,” says Fang.

As well as the Chinese Freemasons Vancouver Branch, there are five other parade co-organizers including the Chinese Benevolent Association of Vancouver (CBA), which heads up the parade committee.

While the Falun Gong group has had its application rejected by the committee for eight years running, CBA president Mike Jang claims it’s not an issue of discrimination but that there is simply no space for new applicants.

“We’re not talking politics. This is a Chinese parade. I don’t know who they are, I don’t care who they are—as long as we can take them in there’s no problem.”

However, in 2007 a CBA councillor casually told the applicants that they were refused due to their protests in front of the Chinese consulate against the Chinese regime’s persecution of Falun Gong adherents in China, which were making things “difficult” for the Chinese Consul-General.

Clive Ansley, president of the Coalition to Investigate the Persecution of the Falun Gong, says the longstanding refusal boils down to the Chinese Communist Party’s influence overseas and on the parade committee headed by the CBA.

The group has participated in numerous parades in B.C. Last year, the Celestial Marching Band received the special recognition award in the marching band category in the Calgary Stampede parade.

MPs have been rallying in support of the Falun Gong, including Bill Siksay, MP for Burnaby-Douglas.

“I have supported the Falun Dafa Association’s participation in the Chinese New Year Parade in the past,” said Siksay. “This is a community celebration of an important event … and I would hope that all folks who have a connection to the community in Vancouver would be welcome to attend.”

Calgary West MP Rob Anders said in an email, “I think it is a shame that Falun Gong would be excluded from any event having to do with China. Falun Gong is more Chinese than the Communist Party that oppresses people in China.”

In a previous interview with The Epoch Times, Ottawa-based Lucy Zhou of the Falun Dafa Association of Canada said incidents of interference by the Chinese regime continue to occur in Canada “as a result of the extension of the systematic persecution of Falun Gong.”

“Falun Gong practitioners in Canada, in Ottawa, have been facing constant pressure from the Chinese Embassy, which tries to ostracize the group in the Chinese community and also in the society at large.”

Zhou said that over the last ten years a “hate campaign” against Falun Gong—directed by the Chinese Embassy and consulates—has been taking place in Chinese communities in Ottawa and other cities, resulting in many instances of discrimination.

Falun Gong is a traditional Chinese meditation practice praised by devotees for its health and spiritual benefits. The Chinese regime launched a persecution against its adherents in July 1999 that continues today.

B.C.'s controversial Foundation Skills Assessment has for years been a bone between the Ministry of Education and the B.C. Teachers' Federation. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

B.C.’s controversial Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA)—reading, writing, and math tests that take place annually in grade 4 and 7 classrooms—began this week, again amid heated debate as in the past.

For years, the assessment has been a bone of contention between the Ministry of Education and the B.C. Teachers’ Federation, which says the tests are expensive to conduct, take time and resources away from the classroom, and are misused to rank schools and promote privatization.

In a letter to parents last week, the BCTF encouraged parents to excuse their children from the test, which includes a form for parents to fill out informing the principal the child will not be attending.

In its letter to parents, however, the ministry says the FSA is not optional and helps the province and school districts evaluate how well students are achieving basic skills and make plans to improve student achievement.

The BCTF’s main concern is that the results of the test are published and used by organizations such as the Fraser Institute to rank schools by performance and undermine public education. This takes resources away from struggling schools, as parents rush to get their kids enrolled in the best schools, the union claims.

They also point out that the “one-size-fits-all” standardized test may ignore the unique strengths and special programs offered by some schools, and being designated as the “worst school in the province” damages the students’ self-esteem and humiliates schools and communities.

But Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid said the tests identify areas where students excel and where they struggle.

“It allows you to work together with your child’s teacher to identify problems and take action early on, so that your child will be successful later on in their schooling,” she said in the letter.

It seems the anti-FSA campaign may be having an effect, as parents are increasingly opting out. The Vancouver Sun reports that last year that 37 percent of Grade 4 students and 39 percent of Grade 7 students in Vancouver did not participate in the tests. Province-wide 19 percent of students did not participate in testing last year, up from 12 percent in 2009.

This significant absenteeism raises doubts about the basic accuracy of the FSA, and the polarized debate is frustrating for many parents caught in the middle.

The B.C. Federation of Parent Advisory Councils has developed an information kit in an effort to help parents sort out fact from fiction in the politicized debate.

Meanwhile, there has been some discussion that efforts will be made to bring all partner groups together to critically re-evaluate the test, but no mention of progress has been reported to date.

A lengthy Fisheries and Oceans Canada study finds that a mystery virus may be killing off large numbers of Fraser River sockeye salmon. (Photos.com)

A four-year study headed by Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has detailed a peculiar phenomenon in British Columbia’s waters: an unknown virus may be killing off large numbers of Fraser sockeye salmon.

In studying B.C.’s renowned Fraser River sockeye, DFO researchers tracked adult salmon in the ocean and river to determine if successful and unsuccessful spawners were physiologically distinguishable prior to reaching the Fraser River.

The results of the study, published in the journal Science, indicate that ocean-tagged salmon “showing a certain gene expression signature” were 13.5 percent more likely to die before spawning than healthy fish, with river-tagged salmon 50 percent more likely to die before spawning.

“This study indicates that disease present in the fish before they enter the river may be impacting spawning success,” said University of British Columbia’s Scott Hinch, a co-author of the study.

The researchers didn’t identify the virus, but suggest it may be related to leukemia or lymphoma.

Biologist and fish farm opponent Alexandra Morton believes it could be salmon leukemia originating from farmed salmon.

This study indicates that disease present in the fish before they enter the river may be impacting spawning success.

— Scott Hinch

“The evolution of new viral strains is often associated with abnormal concentrations of animals or birds, like avian flu. We need to know, if this is indeed a virus, if it is related to the farm salmon disease, salmon leukemia, and if there is something we can do about it,” Morton said.

Morton cites DFO studies from the 1990s that documented salmon leukemia in Chinook salmon farms and found it could infect Atlantic and sockeye salmon.

“Did this virus start in the wild, become amplified in the farm Chinook, and mutate to infect the millions of nearby introduced Atlantic salmon altering it to become unidentifiable?” Morton wonders.

Sockeye salmon have been in decline since the early 1990s, and in 2009 the Fraser River sockeye run reached an all-time low.

But in a stunning turn of events in 2010, 35 million salmon returned to the river—the healthiest run in almost 100 years and a stark contrast to the previous year’s meagre return of 1.5 million.

During the eruption, iron content in falling ash may have fertilized phytoplankton that live in the ocean, allowing it to reproduce rapidly. This abundance in the food chain helped the salmon grow in record numbers, producing the 2010 record run.

In November 2009 Prime Minister Stephen Harper ordered a judicial inquiry into the collapse of the Fraser sockeye run. The Cohen Commission in Vancouver is also conducting an investigation into the issue.

Morton’s lawyers have asked the Cohen Commission to hold a special portion of the hearing to look into whether this potential virus is impacting wild sockeye and whether it is a mutated form of salmon leukemia.

One stock of Fraser sockeye, the Harrison sockeye, has not been “on the rollercoaster of decline and boom,” according to Morton.

The Harrison sockeye have been steadily increasing over the past 18 years, and Morton believes it’s because they migrate to sea via southern Vancouver Island rather than through the salmon farms of eastern Vancouver Island.

Morton has long maintained that B.C.’s approximately 130 open net-cage salmon feedlots—particularly those in the Georgia Strait, between the mainland and Vancouver Island—are negatively impacting wild stocks, including through the spread of sea lice.

The BC Salmon Farmers Association, however, says that even when in full operation, fish farms are no threat to wild migrating salmon, and that sea lice numbers are managed and maintained below regulation levels.

(L-R) Ben Nemtin, Dave Lingwood, Duncan Penn, and Jonnie Penn from MTV's 'The Buried Life' pose for a photo at the University of British Columbia's Student Leadership Conference on Jan. 8. (Chris Borchert)

VANCOUVER—When a friend’s death crushed the life Duncan Penn had planned for himself, a process began that would lead to a hit television show that brings a message of hope and perseverance to people in unexpected ways.

After he graduated in 2006, Penn was feeling on top of the world. But then tragedy struck and his life changed from that point on, he told students at the 2011 University of British Columbia Student Leadership Conference.

“That was on a camping trip I was on the summer after graduating from university. I lost a close friend of mine. He died on the trip, and that kind of shattered all my plans. . . . I started to rethink everything. It was around that time that all of us came together.”

That “all of us” is Ben Nemtin, Dave Lingwood, Duncan Penn, and his younger brother Jonnie Penn, stars of the hit MTV show “The Buried Life.”

It just so happened that all four, who hail from Victoria, B.C., were simultaneously going through a confusing or difficult period, and had reached a point where they felt they had to do something about their lives, said Penn at the Dec. 8 conference at UBC’s Chan Centre.

They started talking on Skype and came up with a list of 100 things they would like to do before they die, things such as leading a parade, playing basketball with President Barack Obama, kissing the Stanley Cup, running eBay for a day, and riding a bull.

With bull riding in mind, the four headed for the Calgary Stampede, Lingwood told the crowd. But even in Cowtown, finding a bull to ride was easier said than done. Calls to 150 farms yielded no takers—owners were worried about injuries and lawsuits.

But persistence paid off, and finally they got their ride on a bull.

Although the four started off with fulfilling the wild, daring, and seemingly impossible items on their list for their own interest, their perseverance, faith, and passion began to influence others. Word started to spread about what they were up to through the media, Twitter, and Facebook.

Penn read a letter they received from a 16-year-old girl in Alabama.

“I’ve been in deep depression for three years,” she wrote. “I lost my two best friends in a car wreck. By watching your show, I learned that I can be a strong person, and I chose to look forward. . . . Thank you for doing what you do.”

As they began to realize their impact, they wanted to help others fulfill the items on their lists as well. Now, for every item they try to complete on their own list, they also help a stranger achieve one of their dreams.

“We started to re-imagine leadership, just the concept of leadership itself,” Penn said. “We’d never seen ourselves as amazing leaders, but amazing things have happened because of this project—only because we chose to do what we want to do.”

The four got a standing ovation when their talk was through.

Owen Rooney vanished from Grand Forks, B.C., on Aug. 14. Rooney is 175 centimetres tall with short brown hair and an 'Australian Made' tattoo on his right calf. (Sharron Rooney)

An Australian couple desperately trying to find their missing son are making Vancouver their base after an extensive search of the area where Owen Rooney was last seen came up empty.

Days after Rooney disappeared from Grand Forks, British Columbia, in August, his parents, Sharron and Steve Rooney, flew to Canada to take up the search—along with their two daughters who were already in the country.

“From Grand Forks he could have gone anywhere. It’s on Highway 3, and that goes from coast to coast, virtually,” says Sharron.

“So now what we’re trying to do is base ourselves in Vancouver where we’ve got access to the rest of the country.”

Sharron says the decision is based in part on the recovery of messages from 24-year-old Rooney’s broken cellphone—messages to his girlfriend who lives in Alberta.

“He could have gone that way, because his phone had lots of text messages on it to her. The day before his phone broke there were lots of text messages to her.”

The broken cellphone was part of a string of bad-luck events that led Rooney, who spent the summer working in Kelowna, B.C., to go missing.

After attending the Shambalah Music Festival in Salmo, B.C., Rooney missed his ride back to Kelowna. Although not one to use drugs, he had experimented with hallucinogenic mushrooms at the festival and was reportedly acting disoriented, says Sharron.

He made his way to Nelson and then Christina Lake, where he was badly beaten at a party. The police picked him up the next morning and offered to bring him to the hospital in Grand Forks, but he refused.

Owen Rooney has an 'Australian Made' tattoo on his right calf. (Sharron Rooney)

He boarded a Greyhound bus in Grand Forks bound for Kelowna, but then got off and asked for directions to the hospital.

“The hospital gave him a morphine-based drug for the pain in his head and that’s hallucinogenic—the phone call [from hospital staff] to the RCMP was that he was hallucinating—and he walked out without his backpack and all his belongings,” says Sharron.

That was on Aug. 14, and Rooney hasn’t been seen since. Sharron fears that because of the head trauma he suffered when he was assaulted he may not know who he is, otherwise he would have contacted his family or girlfriend by now.

Rooney is described as 175 centimetres tall with short brown hair and an “Australian Made” tattoo on his right calf.

She says that ordinarily, her son has “a beautiful nature. He’s very gentle and kind. We don’t know what he is now, really. But anyway, I would imagine that his gentle nature would still come through.”

In their efforts to find Rooney, the family has contacted the media in B.C. and Alberta, used the Internet, done ground searches, written letters to newspapers, set up a Facebook page called Help Find Owen Rooney, and distributed posters, which can be downloaded from www.find-owen.com.

Sharron says people have been “wonderful” in their willingness to help. “The Canadians are absolutely beautiful, I can’t thank them enough.”

Sharron and her husband, who have been staying in a hotel, are now looking for an apartment to rent in Vancouver as they continue their search.

Although there have been no solid leads so far, Sharron says she is not discouraged.

“I don’t know whether it’s a mother’s hope or not, but I don’t feel that he’s gone. So we’re still here looking and we’re all of the same mind. None of us are ready to go back [to Australia] yet.”

n a move that caught most by surprise, B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell announced his resignation Wednesday.

During a short news conference in Vancouver, Campbell said the time has come for “a new person” to lead the province.

“This decision is what I believe is in the best interest of British Columbia, our government, our party, and the people of our province,” Campbell said.

He said that despite his government’s efforts to move forward with a variety of initiatives, “it is clear to me that those initiatives are being overshadowed. When public debate becomes focused on one person, instead of what is in the best interest of British Columbians, we have lost sight about what is important. When that happens, it’s time for a change.”

Campbell’s personal approval rating in the polls had recently plunged to 9 percent, largely as a result of his government’s introduction of the harmonized sales tax in July. Most pundits expected Campbell to remain as premier at least until after the HST referendum next September.

In a statement, Prime Minister Stephen Harper thanked Campbell “for his steadfast support during the current global economic downturn and for his government’s tremendous cooperation in implementing Canada’s Economic Action Plan.”

He also thanked him for his “tireless efforts” in promoting the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.

“Canada and her athletes had no better champion, or more ardent supporter than Gordon Campbell. My enduring memory of Gordon will be with his arms raised cheering our athletes, his hands covered with those famous Canada mittens while passionately waving the Canadian flag.”

Campbell said he has asked the B.C. Liberals to hold a leadership race as soon as possible. Names floated for the job include Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts, Liberal cabinet ministers George Abbott and Kevin Falcon, and Attorney General Mike de Jong.

A Falun Gong practitioner stands outside the shelter that the City of Vancouver said violated a bylaw. A city bylaw prohibiting the protest signs and hut of the group in front of the Chinese consulate in Vancouver has been struck down as unconstitutional by the B.C. Court of Appeal. (Helena Zhu/The Epoch Times)

Canadian Falun Gong adherents have scored a victory for free speech after a section of a city bylaw prohibiting the group’s protest signs and small hut in front of the Chinese consulate in Vancouver was struck down as unconstitutional on Tuesday.

The City of Vancouver was granted an injunction requiring the removal of the structures outside the consulate on Granville St. in 2006 after a British Columbia Supreme Court judge ruled that they constituted an obstruction.

Falun Gong practitioners appealed, arguing that the signs and hut were an essential part of their protest and a form of political expression protected by the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

“I am very happy with the decision,” said Sue Zhang, one of the appellants.

“We were in court back and forth for four years and I think this shows the court has upheld the Canadian Charter of Rights by declaring the bylaw unconstitutional.”

The court struck down the bylaw, but suspended its action for six months to allow the city to “review its regulatory approach.”

“The court gave the city six months to enact a new bylaw that would comply with the constitution, and in the meantime said that the Falun Gong could now apply to the city to put its vigil back up,” says Vancouver lawyer Joe Arvay, who acted for Falun Gong.

“The city now has to exercise its discretion in a manner that is consistent with the charter.”
Arvay adds that most constitutional cases have “great significance” because they have a broader application than merely to the parties concerned.

“The Falun Gong have won a victory for freedom of expression for all people in British Columbia,” said Arvay.

City engineer Peter Judd told the Globe and Mail that the city intends to draw up a new bylaw that conforms to the appeal court’s decision.

“Falun Gong has been pretty good all along, and we support their right to free expression,” Judd said. “It’s just the method they used that gave us some concern.”

Vancouver Falun Gong practitioners started a round-the-clock vigil outside the consulate in August 2001 to appeal for their persecuted family and friends in China where their spiritual discipline, also called Falun Dafa, was banned in 1999.

The so-called “blue wall” along the consulate fence displayed posters calling for an end to the persecution in China, depictions of torture methods used in Chinese labour camps, and pictures of slain practitioners.

The Appeal Court ruling said that the chambers judge found that in modern China, persecution of practitioners is “widely documented” with reports of “police harassment, summary arrest and imprisonment without charge, physical violence, torture, and killing to harvest organs.”

Throughout the four-year case, the Falun Gong group’s lawyers consistently argued that the city’s efforts to get rid of the protest structures had more to do with pressure from the Chinese consulate and the authorities in Beijing than with a bylaw.

Arvay told the court in November 2008 that after former mayor Sam Sullivan took office the city began to pressure Falun Gong practitioners to remove their protest, primarily because of the messaging on the signs and banners affixed to the consulate fence.

Arvay told of the close relationship that existed between Sullivan, a fluent Cantonese speaker, and ex-Chinese Consular General Yang Qiang, including the fact that Sullivan and his parents were guests at a private dinner at Yang’s residence where the protest site was discussed.

In the Appeals Court decision, the chambers judge did not find evidence that the city’s motivation to enforce the bylaw was a result of pressure from the Chinese regime.

Zhang however is not convinced.

“We still believe the whole issue was because of the influence of the Chinese regime,” she said.

Many cities in Canada and around the world with similar displays outside consulates and embassies have encountered pressure from Chinese authorities, Falun Dafa Association of Canada says. The regime has pressured both Toronto and Ottawa to remove the protest sites in those cities.

Intolerant of the rapidly growing popularity of Falun Gong, the Chinese Communist Party has maintained an ongoing campaign of persecution against the group since 1999, which has led to the imprisonment, torture, and deaths of thousands of adherents.

he Ministry of Public Safety is looking into the case of a Vancouver man threatened by agents of China’s Ministry of State Security, according to South Surrey Conservative MP Russ Hiebert.

“I have spoken personally to both ministers [Public Safety and Foreign Affairs] and they are very concerned about this situation. The Minister of Public Safety [Vic Toews], who is responsible for national security, has directed his officials to investigate these threats and work to ensure Wang Tao’s personal safety,” wrote Hiebert in an emailed response to the Epoch Times.

Tao Wang had a successful business in China until his work as a television reporter in Vancouver attracted the attention of the Chinese Communist Party.

Wang works for New Tang Dynasty Television, a Chinese-language TV station that is among the few to broadcasts stories within China’s borders about topics the Chinese regime considers sensitive, such as government corruption and human rights abuses.

While most of the stories Wang has covered have been relatively uncontroversial, such as the Vancouver Olympics and the HST, he has also covered the work of Nobel Prize nominee David Matas, a Winnipeg-based lawyer and co-author of a report exposing the regime’s practice of organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience in China.

‘It is absolutely unacceptable for agents of a foreign government to be threatening a Canadian citizen.’ — MP Russ Hiebert

Now Wang says Chinese security agents have threatened his family in China and his medical equipment business there has been shut down by agents of the Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS).

Wang asked MSS agents over the telephone why they were targeting him, and was told it was because he was doing things that were harmful to public security.

Wang could not imagine anything he was doing that would be harmful to public security, but given the regime’s penchant for executing dissidents, suppressing benign religious groups, and imprisoning journalists, he thought it was likely his reporting work in Canada.

“The only thing I can think of is my work with NTDTV,” he told the Epoch Times.

But agents went beyond shutting down his business and vague threats against Wang and his family. Wang says they also threatened his life.

“They said, ‘If you ever go public on this, you are—in Chinese words—seeking death.’ I believe it was a very clear message.”

That is when Tao contacted Hiebert, his MP. Hiebert said he is deeply concerned about the threats made to Wang and takes them very seriously.

“It is absolutely unacceptable for agents of a foreign government to be threatening a Canadian citizen.”

While Wang started receiving threats a month ago, the situation escalated on Sept. 14 when an MSS agent sent Wang a message via one of his company managers in China demanding a written guarantee not to participate in any political activity in Canada.

Wang ignored the request and three days later MSS agents visited his company, sealed up the bank accounts and inventory, and threatened his employees with jail time.

The RCMP in Surrey have confirmed they are investigating the case but had no statement beyond that when asked for comment on Wednesday. Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada said they would not comment on the issue because it is under police investigation.

But Hiebert said Foreign Affairs is aware of the situation though it is uncertain whether anything can be done to save Wang’s business in China.

“It is unclear at this point whether anything can be done to change the Chinese Government’s actions,” he said.

The B.C. Teachers' Federation is worried about the implications of Walton Elementary School accepting funding from the Chinese regime for a bilingual Mandarin program. (Katherine Krampol)

The B.C. Teachers’ Federation is worried about the implications of a British Columbia school accepting funding from the Chinese regime for a bilingual Mandarin program.

The program is a pilot project at an elementary school offered at the kindergarten and grade 1 level in Coquitlam. It has received $10,000 in learning materials through an organization called Confucius Classroom, a subsidiary of Confucius Institute, an agency of the Chinese regime.

B.C.’s education minister Margaret MacDiarmid has endorsed the donation and said the funding means that the cash-strapped school district, which is struggling as a result of the economic downturn like other districts in the province, can afford to offer the language program.

“I think having some outside funding available for a program like this is very helpful,” MacDiarmid said in a media conference call last Friday. “I think that this is very positive to have this support and interest from the government of China.”

But Susan Lambert, president of the B.C. Teachers’ Federation (BCTF), says the province should think twice about accepting the donation, as any time an outside agency—be it a foreign government, corporation, or individual—wants to undertake a sponsorship, there is an underlying reason.

‘We have tried very, very hard to get corporate influence out of schools, so how is this different?’

— Susan Lambert

“It’s not altruistic, there is a motivation,” Lambert says.

“So how do we scrutinize that motivation? How do we ensure that a particular project or a particular program doesn’t allow for undue influence of very vulnerable children, and where do we draw the line?”

Cheryl Quinton, communications manager with the Coquitlam school district, says the program follows the B.C. curriculum just like any other language program. What the Confucius Institute has done is donate learning materials to supplement the program.

“It is material that is suitable for the program, and aligns with the provincial curriculum,” Quinton says.

She says curriculum coordinators ensure the donated materials are in line with the provincial curriculum, and bilingual teachers also check the materials to ensure they are appropriate.

Although Lambert says she believes the program will be well monitored and there won’t be any undue influence through the material, her concern is the precedent this sets while opening the door to allowing people with wealth to have access to children.

“We have tried very, very hard to get corporate influence out of schools, so how is this different? Just because it’s a government agency, is it different? I don’t think so. I think we have to be very worried about that.”

Wendy Russell of HGTV's 'She's Crafty'. (Vancouver Home + Interior Design Show)

Organizers of the Vancouver Home and Interior Design Show are so sure attendees will love their day out at the show that they’re offering an admission refund for those who are not entirely satisfied.

With 325 retailers, lots of guest presenters, and expert advice abounding on a wide range of innovative products and new ideas, there’s probably not much chance of that happening.

Construction, renovation, and remodelling experts, contractors, home stagers, holiday entertaining tips, and creative cooking by some of Vancouver’s hottest chefs are among the highlights of this year’s show, held at the new Vancouver Convention Centre from Sept. 9 -- 12.

Other highlights include budget-friendly home renovation ideas that will give the best value, as well as information on all the latest trends.

Celebrity guests include Bryan Baeumler of HGTV’s series “Disaster DIY;” David Adjey, an acclaimed chef and Food Network superstar; Janette Ewen, co-host of “Inside the Box” with Ty Pennington; and Wendy Russell of HGTV’s “She’s Crafty.”

For those who tend toward accumulating clutter, Russell, a member of the Professional Organizers in Canada, transforms messy, claustrophobic homes into pleasant, tidy spaces in no time flat.

Celebrity guest Janette Ewen. (Vancouver Home + Interior Design Show)

Show features include a “Cook like the Pros” cooking demonstration, where visitors can sample exciting recipes made onsite and win culinary prizes; “Making an Entrance”—decorating your front door to create a lasting impression; and “The Green Room,” presented by BC Hydro to educate visitors on fact versus fiction regarding energy conservation.

For those wanting to regroup, relax, have some refreshments and check out which workshops to take in next, there is the Western Living Lounge designed by Erik Lauzon of Konstruck Design. A face painting and balloon art artist will keep the children entertained.

Show organizers urge attendees to come prepared with design questions. Many resources are available and exhibitors will share their knowledge on everything from home decor, art, design and furnishings, kitchens and bathrooms, to heating and air conditioning.

About 38,000 people are expected to attend this year’s show. For a full list of exhibitors, features and contests visit www.vancouverhomeshow.com.

Tickets at the door are $12 for adults, $9 for seniors (60+), $5 for seniors (Fri before 5 pm). Admission is free for children 12 and under.

nder new rules coming into effect Sept. 20, drivers in British Columbia charged with excessive speeding will have their cars taken away for a minimum of seven days.

Drivers caught speeding more than 40 km/h over the speed limit for the first time will have their vehicle impounded for seven days. The penalty increases to 30 days for a second excessive speeding offence, and 60 days for subsequent offences within two years.

The new penalties are in addition to the existing penalties for excessive speeding, which include a fine of $368 to $483, three penalty points on the individual’s driver’s license, and an ICBC driver-risk premium of $320 per year for three years above the Autoplan insurance premiums.

“Excessive speed is often a death sentence for everyone involved—the driver, their passengers and other innocent road-users,” Solicitor General and Minister of Public Safety, Mike de Jong, said in a news release.

“We want to save lives by going after the kind of driver who drives significantly and dangerously over the posted speed limit, and then get them off the road. By doing so, we hope to make our streets and highways safer for everyone.”

Police in B.C. issue about 10,000 tickets for excessive speeding each year.

The new changes to the province’s Motor Vehicle Act also apply the minimum seven-day impoundment penalty to street racers, who previously only faced a minimum two-day impoundment.

Other violations subject to the new seven-day impoundment period include careless acts such as tailgating, and reckless driving.

“What we know is that speed is the number one contributing factor to fatalities in car accidents in the province,” said Cpl. Jamie Chung of Langley RCMP E Division Traffic Services.

“The faster you go, the less likely you’ll walk away from a crash. Anything we can do to reduce speed in turn reduces the number of needless tragedies on our roads and highways.”

Ontario imposed new rules in 2007 that allow police to suspend driver’s licenses and impound vehicles for seven days in traffic violation cases involving a speed of 50 km/h or more over the speed limit. The offending driver could also face fines of up to $10,000.

In response to recent highway accidents, Prince Edward Island transportation minister Ron MacKinley introduced legislation last April to toughen speeding penalties in the province. Under the new rules, drivers caught speeding in excess of 60 km/h could have their vehicles impounded for 24 hours.

In Quebec, drivers caught more than once for excessive speeding in a zone of 60 km/h or less will have their vehicle impounded for 30 days.

OPIUM POPPY SEIZURE: An opium poppy field in Afghanistan. Seven acres of opium poppies were discovered in Western Canada this week. (Mauricio Lima/AFP/Getty Images)

A field of opium poppies were discovered in Chilliwack in British Columbia, Canada, near Vancouver.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have arrested two men who were growing seven acres of the illegal cash crop—the largest discovered in Canadian history.

The names of the suspects have not been released, but one is a 24-year-old man from Mission and the other is a 31-year-old from Abbotsford, British Columbia. The men are scheduled to appear in court on Dec. 14, according to The Canadian Press.

The police estimated almost 60,000 mature poppies were growing in the field. They believe that the poppies were used to produce doda, a gray powder derived from the dried opium poppy seedpod.

"This is a significant seizure," said Kurt Bosnell, a corporal with the Chilliwack RCMP drug section. "There's very few instances where this has occurred in Canada before so it took some time in order to confirm exactly what it was."

The owner of the field had leased the land and was not involved in the crime.

EthicalDeal is a website that offers consumers discounts on green products and services through the power of group buying. (Ethico Solutions Inc.)

No stranger to the green commerce space, Annalea Krebs is the epitome of a social entrepreneur—someone who uses entrepreneurial principles to further social and environmental goals.

Vancouver-based Krebs is the founder of TheChange, an organization focused on advancing the sustainability movement locally.

She has just launched EthicalDeal, a website that offers ethical consumers discounts on green products and services through the power of group buying.

EthicalDeal features daily deals at 50 to 90 percent off in each market it serves. When enough people sign up to activate the group discount, the deal becomes available to all.

“We wanted to give consumers extra incentive to buy from local, sustainable companies and also raise the profile of companies offering green products and services,” said Krebs.

Some consumers resist buying ethical products because they think they’re too expensive, or the quality isn’t as good, or they don’t know where to find them or what to trust, she said.

“EthicalDeal makes it easy to go green by organizing exclusive deals on the best green stuff to do, see, and buy in your city.”

EthicalDeal follows a similar format to Groupon, a deal-of-the-day website that has gained a cult following on the Internet. The main difference is that ethicalDeal will only partner with companies that are involved in the green movement, Krebs said.

Groupon, a combination of the words group and coupon, offers daily deals at Vancouver restaurants, spas, sporting events, theatres, and others. Businesses are promised a minimum of customers and can therefore offer substantial discounts.

TheChange.com provides local organizations with profiles that engage people in their “sustainability journey.” Many of the companies featured on TheChange.com, such as Salt Spring Coffee, Semperviva Yoga, Rocky Mountain Soap Co, and Ecoeverything, have already signed on to ethicalDeal, said Krebs.

“EthicalDeal is for anyone who wants to help build the green economy. It provides newcomers with an easy way to get introduced to a green lifestyle. For the already converted, it’s a great excuse to try something fun and new.”

For more information or to sign up to win a $500 green shopping spree, visit www.ethicaldeal.com.

In the online survey representing 802 restaurants, 72 percent of respondents said the HST on restaurant meals has had a negative impact on business. (The Epoch Times)

The Harmonized Sales Tax is earning accolades from British Columbia’s film and TV industry, but it’s forcing restaurants—the fourth-largest private sector in the province—to go on a diet as register totals get slimmer.

Movie and TV productions are now saving the 7 percent PST they once paid for rentals and other items, making the province a more competitive destination. That will mean more projects and jobs says Peter Leitch, president of North Shore Studios and Mammoth Studios and chair of the Motion Picture Production Industry Association of British Columbia.

“Studios, producers, equipment rental shops, set-builders, and caterers will all see costs go down with harmonization, making them more competitive and helping to grow their businesses and jobs,” Leitch says.

Production companies were unable to recover PST on goods and services previously because they were not viewed as manufacturers, but the HST is recoverable, translating into an overall 7 percent production savings.

According to the Smart Tax Alliance, the HST savings is attracting multi-million-dollar movie and TV productions to B.C. and is expected to create over 100,000 new jobs in the industry, leading to over $10 billion in investment by 2020.

The alliance, which has teamed up with filmmakers, is a newly formed coalition of 30 B.C. business and industry groups organized to support the new tax, which took effect July 1.

The HST’s additional 7 percent tax saving for studios makes B.C. more competitive with film centres in Ontario and the United States, says Jock Finlayson, spokesman for the Smart Tax Alliance and Executive Vice President, Business Council of British Columbia.

“The PST was a barrier to the kind of investments that create employment and drive the economy. Harmonization takes down that barrier.”

Conversely however, the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association (CRFA) says a new province-wide survey they conducted shows that “the B.C. restaurant industry’s worst fears about the HST have been realized.”

In the online survey representing 802 restaurants, 72 percent of respondents said the HST on restaurant meals has had a negative impact on business. On average, respondents reported a 10 percent decline in sales compared to the same period last year.

“There’s no question the HST is hurting B.C. restaurants of all types, from fine dining to take-out,” says CRFA president and CEO Garth Whyte.

The survey also found that 53 percent of respondents said their customers are spending less, 56 percent have fewer customers, 47 percent have been forced to cut back on staff/staff hours to adjust to the HST, and 26 percent have had to offer more deals and promotions to offset the HST fallout.

Just 3 percent report the HST is having a positive impact on their business.

Since the 12 percent tax was first announced more than a year ago, the CRFA has warned that it would result in significantly lower sales for the restaurant industry, B.C.’s fourth-largest private-sector employer.

Mark von Schellwitz, the CRFA’s vice president in Western Canada, says would-be restaurant customers are “spending less or diverting their spending to tax-free alternatives in grocery stores.”

The tax, a combination of the 7 percent PST and the 5 percent GST, is charged on restaurant meals while most of the food sold in grocery stores is tax-free. Restaurant meals were previously exempt from the PST.

Despite receiving more than 200,000 signed petitions from restaurant industry owners, staff, and customers opposing the tax on restaurant meals, the B.C. government has not addressed their concerns, according to the CRFA.

“The HST has dramatically tipped the playing field against restaurant operators,” says von Schellwitz. “It’s time for government to step up and take action to help our members deal with a very tough transition to this new tax.”

Former B.C. premier and anti-HST crusader Bill Vander Zalm has launched a constitutional challenge of the controversial tax on the grounds that the provincial government violated core constitutional rights by enacting it without legislative authority.

In turn, several business groups, including the Mining Association of British Columbia and the B.C. Chamber of Commerce, have filed for a judicial review of the decision to approve an anti-HST petition led by Vander Zalm, and its draft bill.

Signed by more than 700,000 British Columbians opposed to the tax, the petition includes a draft bylaw to have it repealed.

The ever-popular Sumo competition (Noah Drew)

Origami cranes hang from trees in Vancouver’s Oppenheimer Park for the annual Powell Street Festival, the largest Japanese festival of its kind in Canada. Now in its 34th year, the festival is a cross-cultural mix of traditional and modern art and music.

The two-day event, held on July 31 and Aug 1, turns the district known as Japantown into an extravaganza of food, music, martial arts, and much more, where elegant kimonos and wooden shoes mix with shorts and sandals.

What was once a small festival with humble roots has become one of the most unique and long- running annual summer events in Vancouver. There is plenty of traditional Japanese fare but the festival has grown to integrate some of Vancouver’s diverse culture into its mix.

“I think one of our main successes is the fact that we’re very inclusive, and while we do celebrate Japanese-Canadian history, arts, and culture, we try to represent it in all its realms. We also open up our doors to everybody,” says festival general manager and programming director Kristen Lambertson.

“We also commission work where we have Japanese-Canadian artists, and often we try to have not only interdisciplinary performances but also cross-cultural exchanges,” she adds.

“For example, this year we commissioned Katari Taiko which is a Japanese Taiko drumming group to create a new body of work with Mario Zetina, who is a Latin percussionist.”

The main stage supports a variety of different acts throughout the two days. Some combine the traditional with the modern, a-la Rhythm Clash—the fusion of traditional Taiko drumming by Total Constructive Interference with the electronica of Chinese-Canadian hip hop group, No Luck Club.

Taiko, the traditional drummers of Japan. (Noah Drew)

Others acts include simple and elegant dance demonstrations from Japan’s past. It all works to make the festival an interesting and inclusive event.

This year organizers took the Powell Street Festival beyond the park borders and integrated local community and businesses into the event.

“We’ve invited different organizations and businesses that currently exist on the 300 and 400 block of Powell Street to open up their doors,” say Lambertson.

“So this is the open-door project that we, as well as the Japanese Canadian National Museum, have been working on. We invited these businesses and organizations to open their doors and invite people in to see what they’re actually doing currently, but also for people to see what has been in those buildings historically.”

Displayed are visual panels displaying photographs of the past as well as text explaining the history of some of the families or the businesses that were once there.

Aikido and Shorinji Kempo demonstrations showcase the long tradition of Japanese martial arts that continue to grow and thrive in Vancouver.

A big highlight of the festival is the annual Sumo competition where over 30 participants wrestle and try to throw their opponent out of the ring. The competition is also open to the inexperienced stout-of-heart who wish to take their first Sumo lesson in front of a crowd.

Both traditional and unconventional Japanese food is available, including the popular Spam sushi, a new take on sushi that was first developed in war-time Hawaii. Ikebana flower arranging and Bonsai tree making are just two of the ancient customs on display.

The festival is held in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, one of the most historical yet challenged neighbourhoods in the city—a district that is often dismissed as a less than desirable place to visit. Despite—or because of this—a strong sense of community pervades the area.

“It’s a site for people exploring a new way of envisioning the Downtown Eastside who might not be so aware of what it’s like down there, and it’s a great way for people who are not familiar with the area to come down and see that there’s a lot happening there,” says Lambertson.

New Westminster City Council voted unanimously to pay its employees $16.74 per hour, a figure based on what it takes to keep a family of two working adults and two children above the poverty line in New Westminster. (Photos.com)

A few weeks ago, a small city just east of Vancouver did something unprecedented in Canada—it enacted the country’s first living wage bylaw.

New Westminster city council voted unanimously to pay its employees, both full- and part-time, $16.74 per hour, and requires its contractors who work on city-owned property to do the same.

That figure is based on what it takes to keep a family of two working adults and two children above the poverty line in New Westminster.

Those working for the city will not be impacted by the new policy as their wages are already above that amount. Where it will make a difference is to the contractors, says Seth Klein, the B.C. director of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA).

“It’s all about the contractors. That’s where the rubber hits the road with the living wage. It’s about janitorial contracts and food service contracts and security guard contracts—this is where so many low-income and immigrant parents work,” he says.

The CCPA has been campaigning along with the Living Wage for Families Coalition for a living wage—as opposed to the minimum wage—paid by large employers in both the public and private sectors. The coalition is comprised of unions, church groups, and social agencies that advocate for the working poor.

At $8 an hour—and a $6-per-hour training wage—B.C. has the lowest minimum wage in Canada, one that has been frozen since 2001. Critics say this is directly linked to child poverty. For six years running, B.C. has had the highest level of child poverty in the country.

“Even a single individual at $8 an hour is below the poverty line,” says Klein.”If you have kids you’re dramatically below the poverty line.”

The living wage established by the CCPA for a family in Metro Vancouver—one of the most expensive cities in the country—is $18.17 per hour. Although much more than the minimum wage, given the cost of rent and child care it is still modest, says Klein.

“We define the living wage as something more than the poverty line, but it is still a budget where it’s tight making ends meet. There’s no savings for retirement, there’s no savings for your kid’s post-secondary education, there’s no interest payments on your credit cards or anything like that.”

He says he hopes other cities will follow New Westminster’s lead, which is what happened in the United States after Baltimore adopted that country’s first living wage policy in 1994. Today there are about 140 U.S. municipalities, including San Francisco, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., that have various kinds of living wage policies.

But the concept of a living wage has its critics, one being Niels Veldhuis, director of fiscal studies and a senior economist with the Fraser Institute. He says the experience in the U.S. has shown that the practice has a negative impact on employment.

“For every 10 percent increase in the wage rate—in the artificially set wage rate—you’re losing about 2 percent of employment. So there is quite a decrease in employment both in terms of the number of hours that are worked and then secondly the number of jobs available.”

Veldhuis says a living wage can also have the effect of driving up property taxes and result in cuts to services. He alleges that in the U.S., unions are largely behind the push for a living wage because, by increasing the cost for contractors, it decreases the incentive for municipalities to contract out services.

Living wage policies have had “a very minimal impact” on reducing poverty in the U.S., he adds.

“If we get back to policies that create a robust labour market, a robust investment climate—that’s what’s really going to help us get people out of poverty.”

Advocates of a living wage argue that it is not only an effective way to fight poverty but reduces staff turnover, increases productivity, boosts morale, and improves customer service. It also boosts local economies because the extra money is spent locally.

Klein says that for the living wage to reduce poverty it has to be implemented on a broad scale. He points to London as a “living wage city” where a number of corporate and public companies have become living wage employers.

These include HSBC Bank, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, the Greater London Authority, London’s
underground subway system, four East London Health Trusts, and the London School of Economics. The 2012 London Olympics will be the first living wage Olympics.

“The citizens’ campaign that has led this in London can point to tens of thousands of families with children who have seen an increase in their income as a result of these policies,” he says.

In Canada, the issue is just beginning to find its legs. A campaign for a living wage in Ottawa is ongoing, while Waterloo’s city council has delayed a decision on its motion until next year. Calgary, however, decided not to proceed with a living wage policy.

Klein says New Westminster’s decision is “the beginning of the domino.”

“People are talking about it in Vancouver and Burnaby and Surrey and Richmond and Victoria, and people are taking note of the New Westminster decision across the country. I see it on e-mail traffic where people who have been doing living wage and minimum wage work across the country are quite excited about what’s happened here.”