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CETA Trade Deal and Jumbo Resort Proposal

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Photo by Lucas Jmieffby Joyce Nelson

Ever since the BC Liberal government surprised residents of BC’s Kootenays with its March 20, 2012 approval for the controversial Jumbo Glacier Resort, people have been asking: Why now? After all, the Jumbo Resort proposal has been around since 1989 and has been successfully opposed by local people for

BC Tribal Parks Protect Against Forest Ecosystem Destruction

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by Joe Foy

Wild nature and human cultures that spring from wild nature are under assault over the entire planet. Large scale urban expansion, logging, indus­trial agriculture, mining, and petro-chemical developments are disappear­ing nature’s landscapes and peoples from Guatamala to the Philippines.

Here amongst the wild mountains and inlets of the North Pacific coast we suffer the same kinds of destruction. But over the years a new form of land designation has given some hope.

Tribal parks in British Columbia were designated for the first time in the 1980s on Meares Island in Clayoquot Sound by the Tla-o-qui-aht Nation, and on Gwaii Hanaas off the northwest coast by the Haida Nation.

Although typically grounded in environmental concerns

Ontario Parks Threatened by Land Plan

The Harris government's Lands for Life program is more trick than treat.

by Mike Buckthought

The day before Halloween, the Harris government's Lands for Life program released its final report. More trick than treat, the report is a scary and often contradictory document that recommends opening up Ontario's forests to intensified logging, mining, and hunting. It rolls back environmental safeguards and does little to advance the cause of aboriginal rights.

Death Sentence for Greenwich Park on PEI

We all love to walk on the wild side, but boardwalks and parking are no way to save a fragment of wild beach dune for the creatures of PEI.

by Sharon Labchuk

When the dunes at Greenwich, PEI were declared a national park last year, most people figured this relatively unspoiled natural area would finally be safe from developers. They were forgetting one thing though - politicians. Lawrence MacAulay, Canada's solicitor general and Liberal MP for the Greenwich area, has re-election on his mind. He's not going to let rare plants or the endangered piping plover get in his way.

True Democracy Needed to Save BC's Park System and Forests

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by Anne Sherrod, Valhalla Wi ness iety

As BC conservationists scramble in the wake of a government which wants to lease or mothball the parks, a veteran parks campaigner argues that regional governments are no safe haven.

Franklin Roosevelt was President of the US during the Great Depression and most of World War II. He was generally loved by the poor, the underprivileged and working people, and hated by industry, bankers and business -- the very forces that are taking over our world today.

"The liberty of a democracy is not safe if the people tolerate growth of private power to a point where it becomes stronger than their democratic state itself. That,

Locals Brave New BC Parks Rules

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by Kathy Smail and Norberto Rodriguez dela Vega

Late last summer, Friends of Cortes Island focussed on the recent provincial government changes in park management. This has been, and continues to be, a difficult task, involving beaurocratic complexities, continually evolving mandates, and reams of written material as the BC government works through its process. The implications for Cortes Provincial Parks are uncertain and potentially detrimental considering the motivations behind the changes.

Saving BC's Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux Heritage Park

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Stein Valley was eventually saved in 1994 when the entire watershed was designated by the provincial government as the Stein Valley Nlaka’pamux Heritage Park, thanks to the combined efforts of thousands of Native and non-Native “voices for the wilderness.”

by Joe Foy

Many generations ago Nlaka’pamux youth would write

Heroes Who Fought For BC Forest Protection

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by Joe Foy

By the end of May, if everything goes to plan, the gov­ernment of BC will have enshrined the protection of 11 new provincial parks and 70 new conservancies, totaling almost a million hectares.

The new protected areas span landscapes that were the battlegrounds of the War in the Woods back in the late 1990s. Elaho Valley – Sims Valley – Great Bear Rainforest – Haida Gwaii. They are all represented in the new parks and conservancies. So too are more peaceful valleys in the Whistler area, the Okanagan and up the coast. Every valley, every mountain lake, every stream has a story of the people who laboured for its protection.

Glacier Resort Ltd Board of Directors - Jumbo Pass

Glacier Resorts Ltd. Board of Directors -
From Ceta Trade Deal and Jumbo Resort Proposal article by Joyce Nelson

Arnold Armstrong (Chair) – Vancouver, B.C.; President & CEO: International Cetec Investments Inc.

Kuni Yamamoto – Vancouver, B.C.; real estate consultant, developer and major shareholder in Tusar Properties Inc.

Park Protection in BC Weakened

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For a decade new park protection in BC has slowed to a crawl as the BC Liberal government has mounted a relentless attack on the province’s wild places and wild life.

by Joe Foy

It’s time to rise, coffee’s on and a new day is dawning – just look at those colours!” 

This summer my wife and I headed south to enjoy

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"This is it. It's done!" was the message in Alaska in 2008, 19 years after the Exxon Valdes oil spill.  Dave Janka, who runs Auklet Charters in Prince William Sound, ran his boat over to Smith Island to snap this photo.  Dave says, "It's far from done!"

W.L.M. (Bill) Wilson writes: 'Attached is my rewrite of Anne Feeney’s “Have You Been To Jail for Justice”. Anne granted permission to do non-profit performances of this Enbridge version.' Video by Ester Strijbos.