Feature Articles

Drawing the line

Drawing the line

Aug 1, 2012

The best editorial cartoonists in Canada gather in Québec by Geoff Olson • Dave Rosen knows a thing or two about humour. In 2011, the Montreal-based satirist released The Stephen Harper Colouring & Activity Book. For five years, he wrote and produced a weekly comedy spot for CBC Radio called What Happened? For nine years, he was the regular editorial...

What is Health Canada up to?

What is Health Canada up to?

Aug 1, 2012

by Nick Mancuso • Since 2010, over 20,000 herbs, vitamins and food supplements have been removed from shelves in natural health stores across Canada. In some cases, SWAT teams raided the premises of Canadian naturopaths and healers and removed safe and effective healing products. Some practitioners have even been indicted and face criminal charges. As a...

Shingles vaccine stats misleading

Shingles vaccine stats misleading

Aug 1, 2012

Watch out for the marketing spin DRUG BUST by Alan Cassels The people’s briefing note on prescription drugs • Judy M., who lives in Victoria, sent me an email asking what I knew about a vaccine to prevent a truly nasty condition called shingles. Being the third such request I’d received in as many weeks, I figured it was time to take a closer look at...

Ecocide was to be the 5th Crime Against Peace

Ecocide was to be the 5th Crime Against Peace

Aug 1, 2012

- UN documents by Polly Higgins • Imagine my surprise when a journalist called me a year ago to ask for my comment on the news that a law of Ecocide had been considered an international crime over 15 years ago. All we had was one document that referred to three countries that had objected to it being included as Crime Against Peace. Today, we have a paper...

Thank you all!

Thank you all!

Aug 1, 2012

The Walk for Peace was a huge success! Photo and article by Alastair Gregor • On Saturday, June 30, approximately 2,000 Walkers for Peace met at Kitsilano Beach (Arbutus and Cornwall) and joined together in unity to celebrate peace, on the 30th anniversary of Vancouver’s very first Walk for Peace in 1982. We were welcomed to the land by Elder Henry Charles...

Teens travel to India to study with the Dalai Lama

Teens travel to India to study with the Dalai Lama

Aug 1, 2012

by Michele Hall • Vancouver’s Teen Journey is heading to India to study with the Dalai Lama. After four years of life-changing programs where young people discover their unique power and gifts, Teen Journey now welcomes the invitation to connect with some of the planet’s wisest people. Teen Journey founder Ela Rezmer created Teen Journey in response to the...

Join Kirtan Vancouver on August 18

Join Kirtan Vancouver on August 18

Aug 1, 2012

• Kirtan is one of the oldest yoga traditions of the world. It is a call-and-response chanting genre that helps us connect with ourselves, focus our attention and achieve harmony between mind, body and spirit. Being a part of the Yoga of Sound, Kirtan produces sound waves, which you follow with your awareness. Think Omm! Kirtan Vancouver Events Society (Kirtan...

Lakes research next to be nixed

Lakes research next to be nixed

Aug 1, 2012

SCIENCE MATTERS by David Suzuki • We can’t live without clean water. Canada is blessed with an abundance of lakes and rivers and has a global responsibility to manage them well. But if we really want to protect freshwater supplies and the ecosystems they support, we must understand how human activity and natural disturbances affect them. The world-renowned...

China’s one-fingered artist

China’s one-fingered artist

Aug 1, 2012

FILMS WORTH WATCHING by Robert Alstead • It’s easy to forget that many Chinese teenagers know nothing about the Tiananmen Square massacre in 1989; just ask any young Chinese immigrant to Vancouver. Given China’s huge and fast-growing economic and military power, there’s ongoing pressure for it to open up, but as documentary Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry...

Quiet your busy mind

Quiet your busy mind

Aug 1, 2012

UNIVERSE WITHIN by Gwen Randall-Young Have you ever been listening to a song and it suddenly became so irritating you had to flip to the next song? If you had continued listening, you would have become annoyed and irritable. Sometimes your thoughts are like that when you are worrying, replaying an incident or reliving past hurts. With a listening device like...

Managing garden pests

Managing garden pests

Aug 1, 2012

ON THE GARDEN PATH by Carolyn Herriot • Nobody said growing your own food was easy and the way this year started out proved to be no exception. It was another long, cool spring, which we may as well get used to here on the West Coast, as this was the fourth year in a row of long, cool springs. It started out with bean weevils on the favas, one of the earliest...

Veggie kabobs

Veggie kabobs

Aug 1, 2012

NUTRISPEAK by Vesanto Melina MS, RD • Summer days often include gatherings with friends and family by the *barbecue, but if you are not a big fan of hot dogs and burgers, grilled veggies add colour, variety and nutrition. Combine any of the following: carrots, squash, sweet potatoes, corn, peppers, okra, eggplant, onions, potatoes, mushrooms, beets, peppers...

Star Wise: August 2012

Star Wise: August 2012

Aug 1, 2012

by Mac McLaughlin • Aries | Taurus | Gemini | Cancer | Leo | Virgo | Libra Scorpio | Sagitarius | Capricorn | Aquarius | Pisces It’s hot out there and I’m not talking about the weather. The Dog Days have arrived. Good old Mercury retrograde is in play and although Mercury goes direct motion on August 8, it will take several more days to get up to normal...