Health Canada has announced that a company, Garnoff Botanicals, is voluntarily recalling unauthorized kratom products as they may pose serious health risks. Haven't heard of kratom?  Don't feel bad -- you're not alone.  Kratom is the plant pictured above, or products derived from it.  What health risks does it pose?  Health...

Selkirk College now has a Sexual Violence Policy in place making a clear commitment to creating and maintaining a safe and respectful learning, working and living environment. “The safety and well-being of our students and staff is of vital importance,” says Selkirk College President Angus Graeme. “This is an important step...

By Ben Parfitt.  This article is from DeSmog  Canada. A subsidiary of Petronas, the Malaysian state-owned petro giant courted by the B.C. government, has built at least 16 unauthorized dams in northern B.C. to trap hundreds of millions of gallons of water used in its controversial fracking operations. The 16 dams are among ...

What poses the greatest hazard to BC's endangered Southern Mountain Caribou -- habitat loss, wolves, or corporate donors?  Or are all three of those factors linked, and if so, how? This opinion piece is from DeSmog Canada.  Read and contemplate. The B.C. government is granting logging permits in critical caribou...

Over the past month I have visited most of the RCMP detachments in South Okanagan-West Kootenay.  While the conversations covered some of the obvious law and order issues such as marijuana legalization, rising levels of property crime and staffing levels for highway patrol, I was surprised that one issue dominated most of my...

 A recent documentary film, " A New Economy," explores what might happen if working together for the common good were to become the most common business model. Can the world be saved?  Can co-operation save us? Or can global capitalism, with its dependence on the infinite exponential economic growth demanded by return on...

It's income tax time. And the Canda Revenue Agency (CRA) wants to ensure that everyone knows that tax evasion schemes are illegal -- and can result in jail time.  One such scheme, called "Paradigm," has resulted in convictions and sentences for 32 people so far -- self-styled "educators" who promoted a fraudulent tax-evasion...

Bats are an essential part of the global ecosystem. They save agriculture a great deal of money by eating vast numbers of crop-destroying insects such as Colorado Potato Beetles, and they save humans a lot of itching by eating vast numbers of flying, biting insects such as mosquitoes. For years, bats had an undeserved bad...

Lacking any permanent connection to his family and culture and without the mental health supports that might have made a difference, an 18-year-old Métis youth in care took his own life in an act of desperation, says an investigative report issued today by British Columbia’s Acting Representative for Children and Youth....

There you are, flat on the floor with crushing chest pain.  "Heart attack!" you think, while the world goes a bit grey and fuzzy.  But you're able to reach your phone and dial 911.  Is this an emergency?  Are the paramedics who come to tend  you essential, or just nice to have, like a clean floor to lie on while you wait for...