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Slavery still with us in modern form
Most of us would like to believe that 19th-century abolitionists banished slavery from the world for good. But as science fiction author Philip K. Dick once observed, "reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." There are an estimated 27 million slaves worldwide to this day, most of them women and children working under the threat of violence and unable to walk away from their bondage.
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It's time the Vancouver went to the birds
Last week - About 150 kilometres north of Vancouver on one of the Gulf islands, I was standing on the deck at our cabin and observing what appeared to be the tail end of this year's warbler migration. Within a few minutes on that drizzly Friday, first a few Wilson warblers, then a pair of yellow warblers and finally a lone yellow-rumped warbler came by. These tiny creatures, none more than 12-centimetres long, stopped briefly to fuel up on insects before continuing north on the Pacific coast flyway on an annual journey that may have begun as far south as Central America and could well end up as far north as Alaska.
Former doubters revel in Christy Clark’s win
I talked to a few people post-election who had been utterly dismissive of Premier Christy Clark for the last two years. A lightweight, they felt. Not up to the job and never will be.
Why it’s good the B.C. election polls failed
The poll that came closest to calling the result right in Tuesday’s provincial election was still wildly wrong.
This Week's Question
What really happened in the B.C. election? -- ? Your View Last week's question, results.
Committing sociology a dangerous activity
“I think, though, this is not a time to commit sociology, if I can use an expression.”
B.C. Liberals debt plan may impact social housing
I was as surprised as you were. When I turned on the tube shortly after 8 p.m. Tuesday night I saw the numbers, then listened to the pundits and the party hacks say it was still “too early” to tell.
Going to church at a community centre
It’s hard not to admire a church and its pastor for holding their fundamentalist Christian services at a community centre in a neighbourhood with a growing gay population.
Choose only the best exotic pet
People often ask me, “Matthew, what is the best exotic pet, and where can I get one?”
Adrian Dix’s Kinder Morgan call written in Green ink
Nobody was happier than Vancouver-Point Grey NDP candidate David Eby when his leader Adrian Dix abandoned his “principled” position to wait and see on the Kinder Morgan pipeline on Earth Day and firmly came out against the project.
Twenty reasons why I’m not voting Liberal
The 24-hour news cycle doesn’t favour long-term memory. The continuing fallout from the December 2012 school shooting in Newtown, Connecticut, barely registered a blip in the mainstream media by the time the U.S. Senate snuffed a tepid gun control bill in April.
Give consent to your teen to see play on date rape
About five years into performing her hit play Dissolve, playwright and actor Meghan Gardiner recalls a young man approaching her after the show to ask her questions about consent. It was an atypical moment.
In B.C. elections, issues change but not much else
Glanced at a campaign brochure this week from Oak Bay-Gordon Head. The candidate’s main pitch was the “lack of wholesome government, irresponsible promises and inaccurate and distasteful TV advertising which generates fear and mistrust.”
