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What a grand day for the BC Liberals! What a great relief to former Minister Gary Collins! I can’t wait to hear Gordon Campbell praise the Crown, Crown Counsel Berardino, and the Justice system! The Crown bails out of the Basi-Virk trial! How does that grab you?

Damien discusses his recent trip to the Great Bear Rainforest to film spirit bears, and his new documentary on the proposed Enbridge Pipeline with Gorilla Radio host Chris Cook.

Damien Gillis documented the "set" of a lifetime for Captain Mitch Ponak and his crew: over 35,000 sockeye in one seine. It's all covered here in vivid detail in this entertaining 6 min video.
Published in Video

Damien Gillis documented the "set" of a lifetime for Captain Mitch Ponak and his crew: over 35,000 sockeye in one seine. It's all covered here in vivid detail in this entertaining 6 min video.

The fast ferries cost $460 million and more than any other issue brought the NDP down in 2001. What wastrels! cried the Campbell opposition. “A disgrace!” “Think of all the social programs that suffered!” Can you imagine what the business community would have said if it had been 10x that, say, $4.6 Billion?

On October 1, three prominent BC leaders - salmon biologist Alexandra Morton, acclaimed author and Greenpeace International co-founder Rex Weyler, and Chief Marilyn Baptiste of the Xeni Gwet'in First Nation - declared their mutual support for the important issues they are each championing.

On October 1, three prominent BC leaders - salmon biologist Alexandra Morton, acclaimed author and Greenpeace International co-founder Rex Weyler, and Chief Marilyn Baptiste of the Xeni Gwet'in First Nation - declared their mutual support for the important issues they are each championing.
Published in Video

I believe that the NDP must put together criteria for examining these river privatization deals which would include seeing if the province of BC will benefit.

With fish farms, what the hell is in it for us? Over 90% of the farms are foreign-owned. Our wild salmon are destroyed, the environment desecrated, and the loot all goes to big companies and their shareholders, mostly in Norway...We’re chumps! Marks! Rubes playing Three Card Monte at the fair! We’re being robbed blind then we beg for more!

Cut Freeway Spending to Create More Jobs

Written by - Tuesday, 28 September 2010
A study by the Transportation Equity Network emphasizes that public transit investment creates more jobs per dollar than urban freeways and other roads. But they also propose focusing more on immediate improvements to transit service rather than resource intensive capital investments such as subway construction as a way of boosting job creation.

A 16 minute documentary on the battle to stop the proposed Enbridge Northern Gateway Pipeline from the Alberta Tar Sands, and the associated oil supertankers that would gravely threaten BC's spectacular coast.
Published in Video

She's been called a hero, a troublemaker, and the grandmother of BC's environmental movement - but now a new label is being applied to 82-year old Betty Krawczyk by Provincial Crown Counsel: dangerous criminal.
Published in Video

The document in this article - obtained recently by The Common Sense Canadian - is a slap in the face to the many British Columbians who are all to familiar with this ruling government's secretive ways.

What Betty Krawczyk has done is show this government for what it is – arrogant and utterly dishonest. Her courage is a prism through which ordinary citizens can see the reality of the Campbell crowd.

  • Eco-Footprint Founder Dr. Bill Rees on Resources, the 7 Billion and You

    Eco-Footprint Founder Dr. Bill Rees on Resources, the 7 Billion and You With human population exploding and demand for resources fast outstripping supply, Dr. Bill Rees, founder of the "eco-footprint" concept, calls for "a new cultural narrative that shifts the values of society from growth (getting bigger) to development (getting better) - from competitive individualism, greed and narrow self-interest toward community, cooperation and our collective interests in repairing the earth for survival."

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  • Five Oil Spills in One Week: 'Accidents' or Business as Usual?

    Five Oil Spills in One Week: 'Accidents' or Business as Usual? What do ExxonMobil, Enbridge, Suncor, CP Rail and a Michigan Utility have in common? They've all spilled oil within the past week. This latest round of disasters should give Canadian and US lawmakers pause as they contemplate new pipelines.

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  • All Candidates Dialogue Wednesday Promises "Real Talk on Climate Change"

    All Candidates Dialogue Wednesday Promises \'Real Talk on Climate Change\' An all candidates dialogue on April 3 at the Rio Theatre in Vancouver - featuring representatives from four different political parties and one independent candidate vying for office in the May 14 provincial election - will focus on solutions to climate change.

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  • Salmon Confidential

    Salmon Confidential Anyone who has been following the sorry saga of inexplicable diseases and unusual mortality in BC's wild salmon will not be surprised that the information in Twyla Roscovich's documentary, Salmon Confidential, links the source of this trouble to the salmon farming industry. The surprise, however, is the impact of such information when its complexity is condensed to an intense 70 minutes.

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  • Mother Nature, US Govt Chase Shell Out of Arctic

    Mother Nature, US Govt Chase Shell Out of Arctic Shell Oil, the first energy company granted coveted Arctic drilling permits by the US Government, is shutting down operations for all of 2013, nearly as quickly as they began. Shell's hand is being forced by the Interior Department, following a scathing report which castigated the company for a series of misadventures in 2012 and early 2013.

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  • Paul Simon Lends Song to Coastal First Nations' Anti-Tanker Video

    Paul Simon Lends Song to Coastal First Nations' Anti-Tanker Video A 2-minute video produced by Coastal First Nations - a group representing nine different aboriginal communities on BC's north and central coast - is underscored by the famous Simon and Garfunkel song, "The Sound of Silence." The video, which harkens back to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in nearby Alaskan waters, was released around the 24th anniversary of that disaster, in order to voice opposition to the new threat from proposed tanker traffic on BC's coast.

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  • 'Heartwood' Explores Clash Between Different Visions for Future of Forestry

    'Heartwood' Explores Clash Between Different Visions for Future of Forestry "Cortes is not just a bunch of crazy tree-huggers...We want to log our lands. We want a community forest," one of the subjects of the forthcoming documentary film Heartwood tells Vancouver-based director Daniel Pierce. The film explores the conflict over logging practices on a remote island on BC's south coast, which encapsulates a larger debate currently shaping the future of forestry in the province.

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  • Why the NDP Can and Should Say No to Site C Dam

    Why the NDP Can and Should Say No to Site C Dam The BC NDP may finally coming to their senses on Site C Dam. On the heels of the release of new documents from BC Hydro in recent weeks, the Official Opposition is calling into question the crown corporation's proposed 1,100 Megawatt hydropower project. And so it should...With BC Hydro in virtual bankruptcy, skyrocketing hydro bills for consumers and businesses, a massive and escalating provincial debt and $80 Billion in additional contractual obligations for which taxpayers are on the hook, pushing ahead with Site C would be the height of fiscal recklessness for BC.

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  • Working Together Through Idle No More - Ben West, Mandy Nahanee, Damien Gillis Web Chat

    Working Together Through Idle No More - Ben West, Mandy Nahanee, Damien Gillis Web Chat Damien Gillis hosts a google web video chat discussing how indigenous and non-indigenous peoples can work together through the growing Idle No More movement to address historical injustices and build a sustainable energy future. Featuring Squamish and Nisga'a First Nations member and protocol specialist Amanda Nahanee and Ben West, Tar Sands campaigner for ForestEthics.

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  • The Different Faces of Idle No More - Web Chat

    The Different Faces of Idle No More - Web Chat Watch this 10 min web chat, in which two young, indigenous men discuss their different experiences across the country with the growing Idle No More Movement.

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  • Idle No More - Scenes from a Vancouver Train Station

    Idle No More - Scenes from a Vancouver Train Station On January 2, 2013, hundreds of First Nations and non-indigenous people converged on Vancouver's Waterfront Station for the latest Idle No More rally. The beating of drums and singing of traditional songs signaled this crowd's solidarity with the movement that is building across the country and beyond its borders.

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  • Travelling Canada's Carbon Corridor - the Making of Fractured Land

    Travelling Canada's Carbon Corridor - the Making of Fractured Land Watch this presentation by Damien Gillis, co-director of Fractured Land - a documentary in production which examines the industrialization of northern Canada through the eyes of a young indigenous man named Caleb Behn - at the Vancouver International Mountain Film Festival.

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  • Kinder Morgan Vancouver Pipeline, Tanker Debate

    Kinder Morgan Vancouver Pipeline, Tanker Debate On Oct 30, the Board of Change hosted a debate in Vancouver on American energy pipeline giant Kinder Morgan's plans to turn Vancouver into a shipping port to access new foreign markets with Alberta Tar Sands bitumen. Hear both sides of the story as representatives of Kinder Morgan and the shipping industry square off against an environmental activist, lawyer and filmmaker over the future of the world's "Greenest City", the province of BC and the planet.

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  • Justice Cohen Gets Tough on Fish Farms - Inquiry Report Released

    Justice Cohen Gets Tough on Fish Farms - Inquiry Report Released Video from the press conference on the release of the final report from the Cohen Commission into disappearing sockeye. Justice Bruce Cohen highlighted several key recommendations to protect wild salmon from open net pen aquaculture operations, including: removing the promotion of aquaculture from DFO's mandate, prioritizing the health of wild salmon over suitability for aquaculture when siting farms, and even removing some farms if more research into diseases shows they cannot safely coexist with wild fish.

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  • Video: Pipelines "Job Killers" - Energy Workers Union Leader @ Defend Our Coast

    Video: Pipelines \'Job Killers\' - Energy Workers Union Leader @ Defend Our Coast Watch this powerhouse speech from Dave Coles, president of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union at the Defend Our Coast rally in Victoria explaining why his members are "diametrically opposed" to Tar Sands pipelines to BC's coast.

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  • Video: Rafe Mair Honoured with Wilderness Committee's Eugene Rogers Award

    Video: Rafe Mair Honoured with Wilderness Committee's Eugene Rogers Award The Wilderness Committee, Canada's largest member-based environmental organization, honoured hall of fame broadcaster and co-founder of The Common Sense Canadian Rafe Mair with its annual Eugene Rogers Award for outstanding contribution to environmental protection in BC at its AGM this past weekend.

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  • Video: Rafe Mair and Economist Erik Andersen, Pt. 2 - LNG, Site C Dam and the Global Economy

    Video: Rafe Mair and Economist Erik Andersen, Pt. 2 - LNG, Site C Dam and the Global Economy In Part 2 of Rafe Mair's July 2012 interview of economist Erik Andersen, the two cover the plan to build Liquefied Natural Gas plants on BC's west coast - to sell natural gas to Asia - and the proposed Site C Dam. Andersen raises real concerns about investing in new dams and electrical infrastructure to supply industries like mines and LNG.

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  • Video: Rafe Mair and Economist Erik Andersen, Pt. 1 - The 'Enronization' of BC Hydro

    Video: Rafe Mair and Economist Erik Andersen, Pt. 1 - The 'Enronization' of BC Hydro Part 1 of Rafe Mair's July 2012 interview with economist Andersen, delving deep into BC's troubled energy situation, including Hydro's broken forecasting model, rip-off private power projects, and massive debt and Enron-style accounting practices at our public utility - all driven by the shadowy private American corporation to which we've unwittingly handed over our energy sovereignty.

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