By Gregory Jaczko

The danger from climate change no longer outweighs the risks of nuclear accidents. Gregory Jaczko served on the Nuclear Regulatory Commission from 2005 to 2009, and as its chairman from 2009 to 2012. The author of "Confessions of a Rogue Nuclear Regulator," he is the founder of Wind Future LLC and teaches at Georgetown University and Princeton University.

Nuclear power was supposed to save the planet. The plants that used this technology could produce enormous amounts of electricity without the pollution caused by burning coal, oil or natural gas, which would help slow the catastrophic changes humans have forced on the Earth’s climate. As a physicist who studied esoteric properties of subatomic particles, I admired the science and the technological innovation behind the industry. And by the time I started working on nuclear issues on Capitol Hill in 1999 as an aide to Democratic lawmakers, the risks from human-caused global warming seemed to outweigh the dangers of nuclear power, which hadn’t had an accident since Chernobyl, 13 years earlier.

By 2005, my views had begun to shift.

OPEN LETTER: Call for the Halting of Site C Construction Due to the COVID-19 Outbreak

Premier of Executive Council Honourable Adrian Dix Minster of Health

OPEN LETTER: Call for the Halting of Site C Construction Due to the COVID-19 Outbreak

Dear Premier Horgan and Minister Dix:

We are writing to request that immediate action be taken to compel BC Hydro to halt all construction at Site C Dam due to the risk COVID-19 now poses to vulnerable workers and nearby Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in northeast B.C.

Through UBCIC Resolution 2011-25, UBCIC highlighted the environmental dangers of the Site C Dam and pointed to the devastating effects it will have on the Treaty and Aboriginal Rights of Treaty 8 First Nations. UBCIC now calls upon the Province to recognize that the transmission of COVID-19 amongst workers is an urgent and pressing concern. BC Hydro has confirmed that 16 of its construction workers at the Site C Dam site are under self-isolation with flu like symptoms. Given the close quarters and inevitable contact points at the 1,600-worker camp, an outbreak of COVID-19 would be disastrous and with dire implications for nearby communities, including First Nation communities. We are informed that there is an extreme shortage of health services in northeast British Columbia, with virtually no hospital beds available to handle an outbreak in Fort St. John or nearby Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities.

The cases span all B.C. health regions: Vancouver Coastal (330), Fraser Health (194), Island Health (44), Interior Health (41) and Northern Health (8).

• 13 people have died, 59 are in hospital (23 of which are in intensive care), and 173 have recovered.

• Of the 13 deaths, 10 have been linked to the outbreak at North Vancouver’s Lynn Valley Care Centre, one to Vancouver’s Haro Park Centre and two are residents in the Fraser Health region.

Reported from Vanncouver Sun

Stuck with things to do? These creative people took to dancing on the top of Mount Doug in Victoria BC. All across the mountain top were people who came to sit where they could see each other and be safe. The sun was out and it was a warm spring day 20200319_172620 COVID-19

See Video Here on Youtube

When your stuck with things to do. These creative people took to the top of Mount Doug in Victoria BC.

All across the mountain top were people who came to sit where they could see each other and be safe. The sun was out and it was a warm spring day.  I counted over 20 scattered along the hill side  There were many morescattered along the trails.

Wet’suwet’e

post by Shiri Pasternak 2020-02-07

In Treaties, Rights and Title

AN UNSIGNED AGREEMENT

between a Wet’suwet’en First Nation and Coastal GasLink along with financial documents obtained by Yellowhead Institute provide reinforcement to Yellowhead’s assessment of the ways these private contracts can dramatically undermine First Nation rights and jurisdiction.

The Impact and Benefit Agreement (IBA) and other documents were drafted in 2016, two years before the first payments were made to the First Nation. Because official agreements are not available to the public due to confidentiality clauses, these documents provide a valuable record of Coastal GasLink’s negotiating objectives.

The mega-billionaire should be running against Trump in the Republican primaries, not as a Democrat. If he actually cared about this country more than stroking his massive ego that is exactly what he would be doing.

by Robert McChesney, Common Dreams 

For anyone who is not a billionaire, it is almost impossible to grasp just how much money this is for a single human being. It would be like calculating the distance of our planet to a distant galaxy in centimeters. Bloomberg could spend $100 million every single day on his presidential campaign between now and election day in November—basically more than any candidate except Bloomberg and fellow billionaire Tom Steyer have spent so far in the entire 2019-20 election cycle—and he would still have a net worth greater than $30 billion. He would remain one of the 30 richest people in the world.

The Court erred in granting an injunction 

1.    AN INJUNCTION IS AN EQUITABLE REMEDY

AN INJUNCTION IS AN EQUITABLE REMEDY. THE EXERCISE OF THE EQUITABLE JURISDICTION IS NOT TO BE RESTRICTED BY THE STRAITJACKET OF RIGID RULES BUT IS TO BE BASED ON BROAD PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE AND CONVENIENCE, EQUITY REGARDING THE SUBSTANCE AND NOT MERELY THE FACADE OR THE SHADOW. IT MOVES WITH TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCES. (1991 BC JUSTICE J.A. NORRIS)

A. TIME AND CIRCUMSTANCES HAVE CHANGED SINCE 1991 AFTER UN CONFERENCE ON ENVIRONMENT AND THE DEVELOPMENT (UNCED)

(i) in 1992, Canada signed and in 1993, ratified  the legally binding UN Framework Convention on Climate Change 

whose objective is 

article 2, the ultimate objective the UNFCCC convention and any related legal instruments that the conference of the parties may adopt is to achieve stabilization of greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere at a level that would prevent dangerous anthropogenic interference with the climate system;

RCMP RAID IN PROGRESS - Wet'suwet'en Solidarity Action TOMORROW. 8 AM,
Friday, Feb 7th @ Centennial Square 

Early today the RCMP began militarized raids against Wet'suwet'en land defenders in defiance of Wet'suwet'en law, the Province's commitment to UNDRIP, and  the Wiggus negotiation process.

We cannot stand idly by while governments enact colonial violence in our names. Tomorrow, we take to the streets. Rally, march and disruption. Friday, 8 AM, Centennial Square (City Hall), Victoria – Bring Noise Makers. Bring banners. Bring friends.
Together, we fight back..