As many readers of this blog will know, back in February the CCPA (with the assistance of a number of our partners in the Climate Justice Project) published an open letter to the B.C. political parties calling on them to recommit to B.C.'s legislated greenhouse gas reduction targets, and to table plans for how to achieve them. The GHG reduction law was passed in 2007, and obliged the government to reduce B.C.'s emissions by 33 per cent below 2007 levels by 2020, and 80 per cent below by 2050.

You can find the open letter here.

Over 65 organizations signed that open letter, representing thousands of British Columbians.

In the fight against global climate change, we are currently approaching the endgame.

The time for compromise has come and gone. A certain temperature increase is inevitable -- already "locked in" -- but if we are to have any chance of preventing runaway global warming and the destruction this would entail, then we need to start saying no right now to the expansion of fossil fuel infrastructure. Either we stay below the two-degree warming threshold or we don't. Politicians who only get us partway there are no better than those who don't even try.

It's a conundrum!

What should Alberta's Tories do? A study by the University of Alberta’s Parkland Institute released yesterday demonstrates something almost everyone already knew anyway -- that most Albertans strongly support limits on election spending.

So not setting limits on donations from corporations and unions, or enforcing the rules about how donations are made -- Hey, Daryl Katz, c'mon down! -- potentially spells big trouble for the Progressive Conservative Party of Premier Alison Redford.

This is exactly what we at OpenMedia.ca were afraid would happen. It looks like we’re about to see new texting charges imposed on our telecom bills for no reason. Telus has already sent a message to customers announcing an arbitrary new fee on text messages that cross the Canada-U.S. border. It’s a cash grab and everyone knows it, but we can stop Big Telecom’s new fees if you raise your voice now.

“The biggest global threat to the Internet”: That’s how legal experts describe the controversial international agreement known as the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). The TPP agreement threatens to criminalize the use of your favorite websites—including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and your favourite blog—and even your online comments.

A lot happens in Parliament, aside from the theatre of Question Period and the now ritualized scrums that follow in the lobby of the House.

Some of it is sublime; some, ridiculous.

Some of it is enlightening; some, mind-numbing.

And most of it happens far from the gaze of the media or the public.

On April 25, for instance, the House Finance Committee heard from a number of expert witnesses on -- believe it or not -- the subject of inequality.

How and why -- in this time, and with the current Conservative Party in power -- a House of Commons committee decided to even talk about such a subject is a bit of a mystery.

It happened, however, and it was an exercise that might have merited a bit more attention.

In a perceptive article entitled New research council mandate shows Conservative's hostility to free market, National Post columnist Andrew Coyne takes aim at the government's recent announcement of plans to shift the focus of the National Research Council from fundamental scientific research to an industry-orientated one.

This is what Trevor Jang, a Wet'suwet'en youth said to Enbridge CEO Al Monaco yesterday at the Enbridge AGM in Calgary.

When Trevor was 16, he won the Canadian Aboriginal Writing Challenge which Enbridge sponsors. At the time, he didn’t realize who Enbridge was. After a photo shoot with company representatives, his photo was used in an Enbridge print ad displayed across Canada. He came to the Enbridge AGM yesterday as part of a delegation which included his chief, Chief Na’Moks of the Tsayu Clan of the Wet'suwet'en.

The CCPA is a founding member of the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition (PRC), which for over four years now has been advancing the call for a comprehensive BC poverty reduction plan. Its Open Letter calling on the B.C. government to adopt a legislated plan has been signed by hundreds of organizations.

The PRC has now published its analysis of where the parties have landed. You can find a summary table here.

And below is an opinion piece on the subject co-authored by PRC organizer Trish Garner, Ted Bruce and myself.

A Poverty Reduction Plan for B.C.: Government spending saves money in the long-term

Join me for a public discussion on "CETA, FIPA, TPP: The New Face of Corporate Power." These events will be part of an eight-city speaking tour in B.C. to build opposition to Canada's corporate trade agenda (see details below).

The Government of Canada has signed, is negotiating and is hoping to ratify a variety of new corporate rights treaties that promote and lock in the rights of corporations to make a profit while undermining communities' abilities to make decisions in their own interest. Like NAFTA before them, these deals are not about trade. Every new agreement further entrenches a corporate vision of deregulation, resource exploitation and privatization.