Stories You Can Trust

Last month, another B.C. nurse risked career ruin to reveal disturbing truths about what’s going on in our healthcare system – this time at a Vancouver Island nursing home.  Just as reports of rampant drug smoking and dealing in hospitals rocked the public and sent the B.C. government scrambling for cover, so too did nurse Lana Lekopoy’s […]

After an eventful week in B.C. politics, I’m ready to sit back and reflect on what’s been lost, and what has potentially been gained – or, more significantly, who has been lost – over the last months. Number one is the many excellent MLA’s and candidates across the province caught in the wake of Kevin […]

One of Northern B.C.’s most well-known MLAs says he won’t go down without a fight in the upcoming election, even after the spectacular implosion of his party. Peace River South MLA Mike Bernier said he was caught off guard by BC United leader Kevin Falcon’s abrupt decision Wednesday to suspend the party’s provincial election campaign, […]

The provincial and federal governments, along with affected First Nations, are assessing how to move salmon runs above the massive July 31 landslide that blocked the Chilcotin River a few kilometers upstream from where it meets the Fraser River, near Williams Lake, B.C.  Authorities are worried debris blockage may impede the ability of salmon and […]

Not a week went by this summer when there wasn’t at least one Emergency Room closure in Northern Health, despite assurances the health authority was working to solve the issue. A closed ER in northeastern B.C. means residents not only don’t have reasonable access to emergency care, they often have to travel unreasonably long distances […]

If the BC NDP’s new aid package for apple farmers was an actual apple, it’d be a bruised, shrivelled-up, tiny red Spartan, full of holes and hanging limply off the tree, just waiting to fall to the ground withan ignominious little plop. In fact, just calling it a government aid package is probably overselling it. […]

Street-entrenched patients are endangering elderly residents and nursing staff, say sources. “The language, sexual assault, the physical aggression, the weapons, I mean, it finally breaks us. The whole system is breaking us.” –Lana Lekopoy Patients with severe mental illness and addictions are being channelled into B.C. long term care homes, endangering elderly residents and creating […]

“Without immediate assistance, there will be no tree fruit industry to save.” –BC Tree Fruits Association It wasn’t even six months ago that the BC Tree Fruits cooperative ushered local politicians and the media into its newly updated and expanded sorting and packing facility in Oliver. At a cost of $60 million, it was an […]

“Every grower is going to be impacted by this. The market is going to completely change.” ––Deep Brar When BC United leader Kevin Falcon sat down with tree fruit farmers in the Okanagan this week, the veteran politician found himself surprised at the outpouring of anger and sadness. “I had a meeting with 21 growers […]

Earl Brown owns a dollar bill that is worth far more than one dollar. As a bit of British Columbia history it is, in fact, priceless. On the back, crowded into 15 tiny square inches, are the signatures of every British Columbia premier for more than half a century. That alone is pretty remarkable. But […]

The doctor shortage, emergency room closures and healthcare crisis is so bad in B.C.’s Peace Region that the City of Dawson Creek is using money from the province, earmarked for things like road and sewer upgrades, to instead purchase a doctor’s office. The municipality stepped up to buy the Eljen Medical Clinic, across the street […]

The BC NDP told British Columbians to trust Dr. Henry’s judgement during the pandemic. Now it’s saying the opposite on the drug crisis.  There are 89 pages in Provincial Health Officer Dr. Bonnie Henry’s new report recommending ways to relax drug B.C.’s laws. But you don’t have to read any of them. Because virtually nothing […]

For decades, logging and commercial fishing have sustained Port Renfrew, a small community along a major adult salmon migration route in the Juan de Fuca Strait. As commercial fishing declined, the community pivoted to recreational fisheries and is now locked in a David and Goliath struggle with the federal government, according to local business leaders. […]

“Reconciliation should not leave people behind.” ––Scott Ellis While B.C. cabinet ministers and the Prime Minister celebrated the 10-year anniversary of the landmark Tsilhqot’in First Nation court case in Nemaiah Valley on Wednesday, Doug McMann was 50 kilometres away watching his guide outfitting business, and his family’s livelihood, slip away. McMann had just received devastating […]

For years, B.C.’s drug policy agenda enabled the activities of two activists now facing charges for drug trafficking. Stakeholders and officials turned a blind eye. After three years of operating with impunity in a city, a province and a justice system that turned a blind eye to their illicit drug-buying and distribution activities, Jeremy Kalicum […]