This is an article I wrote a few years ago for a publication issued by the National Union of Public and General Employees. I don’t think they’ll mind if I re-issue it several Labour Days later. FIGHTING THE NEW FEUDALISM by Silver Donald Cameron We are the wealthiest people in the history of the world. So how can it be that at the feet of the cold glass...
Read MoreInterview: Tzeporah Berman You may remember the “Victoria's Dirty Secret” campaign from 2005 – a full-page ad in the New York Times showing a beautiful model in underwear, holding a chainsaw. One version of the ad (seen here) set the model against the background of a clearcut. The message: the erotic lingerie giant was printing millions of...
Read MoreOur film Salmon Wars is in the global film festival Green Unplugged, opening today! To see it, click here: http://www.cultureunplugged.com/documentary/watch-online/play/11758 Green Unplugged is one of a series of Culture Unplugged festivals that since 2008 have been visited by more than 60 million people from 39,000-odd cities across...
Read MoreA friend writes me to say he's discouraged about the net-pen aquaculture contretemps. I reply: I actually think we're winning. When I wrote my original column in early 2011, it was to comment on the odd fact that this industry, which is so controversial elsewhere, seemed to be sliding along below the radar in NS. Well, that's certainly not true any more....
Read MoreTwo new interviews and an upcoming documentary! I haven't written a blog post or a Newsletter about The Green Interview for weeks and weeks. There's a reason, and I'll get to that – but in the meantime I want to assure you that production has been rolling right along. We've released new interviews with two inspiring figures: David...
Read MoreThe trailer for our upcoming documentary, Salmon Wars, has just been released! See it here: http://youtu.be/EimPqpMlInY Background: in recent months, the international salmon-farming industry has been applying for new sites and new leases — on a truly massive scale. A pair of farms in St. Mary's Bay is licensed to produce 1.4 million salmon, and wll...
Read MoreThis brief quotation by David Korten — whose interview we'll post later this week — provides the most succinct summary I've seen of the giant struggle that we're all now engaged in, whether or not we like it or even know about it. If you want to understand the disconnect between what you want and what your governments are providing to...
Read MoreWe're proud to present our latest interview, with ecological philosopher David Orton. David was a highly-regarded proponent of "deep ecology," a perspective that sees all life forms – man, moose or microbe – as having an equal right to survive and flourish. But he was not only a bold thinker; he was also a deeply...
Read MoreAs the Harper government moves to (illegally) dismantle the Canadian Wheat Board, I want to share again a column I wrote in 2006, when they were first trying these shenanigans. Sunday Herald – October 1, 2006 FEAR AND LOATHING IN THE WHEAT FIELDS Among the worries which keep Maritimers awake at night, the Harper government’s drive to dismantle the...
Read MoreHistory just tossed Halifax Mayor Peter Kelly the political opportunity of a lifetime. Kelly blew it spectacularly. And everyone in the city is diminished by his failure. For decades, the chattering classes have been deploring the apathy of the young. The young don’t care about public affairs, they don’t vote, they have no interest in...
Read MoreStephen Best’s Bright Green Interviews Stephen Best is a film-maker, environmental consultant and animal rights activist who has produced several lovely green interviews himself. Details below – but first a bit about Stephen Best. I met Stephen Best in 1975, on the ice north of Newfoundland, where we were both covering the seal hunt. I was a contributing...
Read MorePeter Waite, of Dalhousie University, was the best history teacher I ever had. He was sharply critical of politicians, and one day a student asked him to describe his own political philosophy. Waite pursed his lips and looked out the window for a moment. Then he turned back to the class. “Throw the rascals out,” he said. That’s the way my column...
Read MoreIn this Canadian federal election, the major parties have connived with the national broadcasters to prevent the inclusion of Green Party leader Elizabeth May in the televised “debates” that have become such an important feature of modern elections. The official fiction is that because the Greens have no seats in Parliament, they are not a national party...
Read MoreWe already have plenty of reasons to send the Harper government packing. Its policies on crime, war, energy and the environment would make a brontosaurus blush. While preaching austerity to its citizens, it blows billions on planes, prisons and corporate handouts. It is the only government in the Commonwealth ever to be held in contempt of Parliament. It prefers...
Read More“Canada,” said the US journalist, “is heading toward becoming an authoritarian state to an extent that surprises observers even in China.” Another comment on Bev Oda and the garrotting of Kairos? Nope. A reflection on the Harperites’ infatuation with harsh sentences and larger prisons? No. Kyoto, Afghan detainees, the G20 repression,...
Read MoreNova Scotia is a very small province. Several Canadian cities have populations larger than ours. How can a population so small include so many huge talents? Celtic musicians by the score, including some of the world’s greatest. A fine symphony orchestra. Canada’s first repertory theatre, and innumerable little theatres and dance troupes. A...
Read More[NB: This column was written on Wednesday, February 16, 2011] When the policewoman slapped the young fruit-seller on the street in Sidi Bouzid a week before Christmas, she was not thinking of Hosni Mubarak, the Pharaoh of Egypt. Nevertheless her action set off an tsunami of grief and fury that is quickly transforming the Middle East, and will probably wash...
Read MoreAndrew Nikiforuk is one of Canada’s leading journalists, a man who can write memorably and incisively about education, public health, energy and the environment, among other subjects. He’s won seven National Magazine Awards as well as the Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction, Canada’s top literary prize. In 2009, he became the first...
Read MoreI’ve just posted my lecture, Energy, Environment and the Left, in the Green Pieces section of this website. This lecture is my most extensive and detailed examination of the ideas and issues we’re now pursuing through The Green Interview. It was delivered at the University of British Columbia on March 25, 2000. Although it’s ten years old,...
Read MoreThis lecture is my most extensive and detailed examination of the ideas and issues I’m now pursuing through The Green Interview. Although it’s ten years old, most of what it says is still valid and important. It was delivered at the University of British Columbia on March 25, 2000. You can stream or download an audio recording of the lecture...
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