Category Archives: Uncategorized

The Quadra Project – Deep Water

By Ray Grigg

When we think about environmentalism, we tend not to consider the oceans because we don’t live on or in them, and they are just there as they have always been, defining the edge of the land that we occupy. Of course, oceans provide us with most of our fish, but in the popular understanding, they are mostly experienced as vast spaces of waves and wet that separate the faraway continents that we visit. So we tend to give much more importance to landscapes that we occupy. And because we live within the thin layer of air that girdles the globe, weather is also a concern to us. But we generally don’t consider that much of our climate and weather is determined by what happens in the oceans.

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Industry Journal: No Future For Net Pen Salmon CAFO?

There was some bad news this month for the Norwegian fish feedlot industry in Canada:  their own trade magazine featured the following headline:

The Critics Are Right: It’s Time To Close Down Salmon Farms
(link to text only version)

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The Quadra Project – Pure Consciousness

What is pure consciousness? In simplistic terms, it seems to be awareness of awareness. That is, it is not an awareness of the content of awareness such as being conscious of fish or trees or ideas, but an awareness of the awareness itself. As such, it would seem to be a distancing from the content of awareness—of the things that we think about—to the awareness itself. This detached awareness from experiences and ideas would give us the perspective to assess the substance of our thinking, to give us special insights into how we think, and perhaps more appropriately, to allow us to assess how we behave.

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Before and After: Impacts of the “Hall Tax” on Gorge Hall

Originally published April 17, 2024

It has now been four and a half years since the 2019 referendum in which a solid majority of Cortes Islanders voted in favour of bylaw 341. This bylaw established a property tax service that would provide basic operational support for the islands two community halls.

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Reflections on the eradication of Canada’s middle class 

A recent article in the Capital Daily outlines how the housing crisis is eradicating Victoria’s middle class. 

Throughout British Columbia, the average rent and mortgage payments exceed what many people can pay. 

“What’s been happening over the last 10 years is that the share of homes bought by first-time buyers has been declining, and their market share has largely been taken over by investors,” said John Pasalis, president of Toronto-based Realosophy Realty, told CBC News.

He added that, contrary to what many believe, the lion’s share of the investors were domestic owners who purchased a second home as an investment. 

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