All posts by Guest Post

Indigenous Nations, Justice

Incarceration Rates For Canadians Drop While Indigenous Incarceration Rates Rise

Over-representation of Indigenous people in correctional settings remains one of Canada’s most pressing human rights issues, and is evidence of public policy failures over successive decades as no government has been able to stop or reverse this trend,” said the Correctional Investigator.

By Jake Cardinal, Alberta Native News, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

(ANNews) – On December 17, 2021, the Office of the Correctional Investigator released a report detailing Canada’s incarceration rates for Indigenous and non-indigenous people.

It found that First Nation, Metis, and Inuit women are grossly over-represented in the Canadian prison system and will soon comprise 50% of all federally-sentenced women in the country.

Continue reading Incarceration Rates For Canadians Drop While Indigenous Incarceration Rates Rise →
Health

BC Should Be Doing More Rapid Testing, Experts Say

By Moira Wyton, The Tyee, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

As the highly transmissible Omicron variant takes hold, British Columbia is one of the only provinces not making rapid antigen tests  widely available to the public.

Rapid tests can be  administered at home and measure whether someone has COVID-19 and is  likely to infect others. They return results in as little as 15 minutes.

B.C. has received three kinds of tests from  the federal government: Abbott ID Now, Abbott PanBio and BD Veritor.  None are packaged for use at home.

Continue reading BC Should Be Doing More Rapid Testing, Experts Say →
Environment

Feds press on climate in mandate letters, but environmentalists will wait and see

By John Woodside,  National Observer, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The cabinet ministers’ mandate letters published last week hint at a whole-of-government approach to tackling the climate crisis, but the devil will be in the details, many environmentalists say. 

Continue reading Feds press on climate in mandate letters, but environmentalists will wait and see →
Justice, Tourism

Eco-tour operator nets $75,000 in penalties

By Norman Galimski,  Prince Rupert Northern View, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

The Provincial Court in Prince Rupert has fined the general manager of Sandspit Adventures $75,000 for five offences in 2019 against the federal Fisheries Act and provincial Fish and Seafood Act.

On Dec. 7, Judge David Patterson ordered that Chad James Whiteside must pay a $45,000 fine by Dec. 31, 2024, for ‘buying, selling, trading, bartering or offering to buy, sell, trade or barter fish not caught and retained under the authority of a licence issued for the purpose of commercial fishing.’ As well, for other counts, he was ordered to pay $20,000 by Dec. 7, 2022, and a further $10,000 by Dec. 7, 2023.

Continue reading Eco-tour operator nets $75,000 in penalties →
Waste

Coastal communities ‘raise the alarm’ around marine debris

By Melissa Renwick, Ha-Shilth-Sa, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Tofino, BC – Around two weeks ago, Nicole Gervais said chunks of Styrofoam started washing ashore on the northern end of Long Beach, near the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nation community of Esowista on Vancouver Island.

Continue reading Coastal communities ‘raise the alarm’ around marine debris →