save fish lake!

please send this sample letter to your mp and mla - the decision is currently before a federal review panel.

Blue Gold: The Tsilhqot'in Fight for Teztan Biny (Fish Lake) from Susan Smitten on Vimeo.

What on Earth!

thanks to angela bischoff for sending this:

April 9th - The Party's Over, but the Poverty continues ...

click here for photos.

The $6 billion Olympic party is over, but poverty in British Columbia is not. The Campbell government's legacy of severe cutbacks to vital healthcare and social services for vulnerable British Columbians continues. Join the Victoria Coalition Against Poverty (VCAP) on April 9th for a rally and street party and demand a stop to the cutbacks before there's nothing left to cut!

British Columbia has had the highest child poverty rates in the country for 6 years running, and this budget saw more cuts to services for young children and their families. From reducing dental care and birth control access for people with disabilities to ending funding for legal and tenancy advocacy programs, cuts tabled in the 2010 provincial budget worsen already unacceptable standards of social welfare in British Columbia and highlight the need for community solidarity and resistance.

We'll meet at the Ministry of Health at Blanshard and Pandora at 12pm and march to the Ministry of Housing and Social Development at Pandora and Quadra at 12:30 for a street party, live music, speakers, food, interactive art and more!

Come join us in demanding affordable housing, livable incomes, and accessible, quality healthcare! Stand up for dignity and justice!

The Victoria Coalition Against Poverty (VCAP) is a coalition of  grassroots organizations that together are demanding an immediate end to poverty. Reach us at viccoalitionagainstpoverty@gmail.com

this notice was included with the april assistance cheques ...

EFFECTIVE JUNE 1, 2010

IF YOU HAVE AN OUTSTANDING WARRANT YOU MAY NOT BE ELIGIBLE FOR INCOME ASSISTANCE, HARDSHIP ASSISTANCE, OR SUPPLEMENTS UNTIL THE WARRANT IS RESOLVED.

THIS APPLIES TO ARREST WARRANTS FOR INDICTABLE OFFENCES FROM ANY JURISDICTION IN CANADA AS WELL AS ARREST WARRANTS UNDER THE IMMIGRATION AND REFUGEE PROTECTION ACT (CANADA).

IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS OR REQUIRE MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL EMPLOYMENT ASSISTANCE WORKER OR CALL THE MINISTRY TOLL-FREE AT 1-866-866-0800. AN INFORMATION SHEET IS ALSO AVAILABLE FOR YOUR INFORMATION.

the wonderful dr. helen caldicott speaking (still) against nuclear energy

an afternoon with forest defenders

Yesterday morning I got a phone call from a friend asking if I’d like to go find the recently named “Avatar Grove,” slated for demolition, somewhere near Port Renfrew. Of course! I dropped my afternoon plans, resigned myself to missing my beloved yoga class, and ventured off.

(can you see the face in the rocks?)

We got a late start, because we dilly-dallied at the University admiring the newly planted student gardens while waiting for an email with directions to the grove. Along the way I learned much about the natural history of the region, and the current plans to destroy or preserve what little remains. The old Toyota had some bad gas (I knew Shell wasn’t a good choice) so we decided, about 30k from Port Renfrew, to check out the Sooke Potholes instead. We turned the car around, drove past Yuen’s Folly, parked, and hiked a rather treacherous path along the rocks on the side of the very high flowing river. Then we walked the galloping goose trail to the old building structure, Yuen’s Folly (Albert Yuen was a land developer with a rather grandiose vision that didn’t quite pan out), and back to the car parked near Bonsai Bob’s most incredible homestead.

On the way back to Victoria we talked about activism, and the Nanaimo jail where attempting to stop ancient forest destruction, and refusing to apologize for it, can land you in a cell with no mattress, a toilet with no seat, and a blanket that’s not quite big enough so if you try to put it over your head your feet are exposed and if you cover your feet for warmth the perpetual artificial lights refuse to allow you sleep.

We stopped at the abandoned Bridge to Nowhere – the death zone that is part of the court hearings concerning Bear Mountain and the Municipality of Langford currently being ruminated by BC judges. Ingmar showed us the approximate area, under the pile of rubble, where the actual tree sit was constructed and occupied for a full year before many RCMP and local police with tasers and dogs surrounded and infiltrated the area and chased out the devoted tree climbers. (Their charges were later dropped.) Walking through the area, with heavy heart, I remembered the diversity of life that abounded there, the happy forest defenders and the community they had created before the bulldozers and their agents turned it into just another piece of infrastructure. Progress, eh.

We found one remaining entry to what was once a vast system of underground, or karst, caves, and climbed to the camas meadows resplendent with trillium and lilies, awaiting the purple flowers of the camas that was so integrally important to the indigenous people who, Ingmar is certain, designed the hill top gardens. We contemplated their pre-contact existence, certain that this was, likely for many centuries, a special sacred place visited for rest and relaxation in the mineral pools.

Check the photos.

here are photos, before and after, the langford tree sit vs. the bridge to nowhere. which do you prefer?

Lodge on 4th lays off health care workers to make way for contracting out

More than 150 health care workers, members of the Hospital Employees’ Union, employed at Lodge on 4th have received lay-off notices despite presenting a proposal to the Lodge’s owner that is cost-efficient, would maintain quality of care and support services for residents, and would retain the in-house staff.

HEU assistant secretary-business manager Bonnie Pearson says that contracting out is the wrong way to go and will impact quality and continuity of care for the seniors who live at the Ladysmith residential care facility.

“Contracting out has negative consequences for the workers and for the residents they care for,” says Pearson. “The disruption and upheaval caused by contracting out creates unnecessary anxiety for seniors and is distressing to families who depend on staff to look after their loved ones.”


Research within Canada and from abroad shows that privatization and contracting out leads to reduced staffing levels in care facilities, lower wages with fewer benefits and heavier workloads for employees.

Workers affected include licensed practical nurses, care aides, cooks and food services workers, laundry workers, and activities, rehabilitation and clerical staff.