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On The Other Hand

Award-winning author and journalist Penney Kome has published six non-fiction books and hundreds of periodical articles, as well as writing a national column for 12 years and a local column in Calgary for four years. She was editor of Straightgoods.com between 2004-2013.

Blog - On The Other Hand May 30
A supermarket checker works behind a plastic shield (Image: Russ Allison Loar​/Flickr).
Pivoting from a service economy to a sustainable, equitable economy
Penney Kome | The pandemic is showing us all our weaknesses. We have time to correct them, before we destroy the planet in the endless pursuit of profit.
Blog - On The Other Hand May 1
A shuttered shop in Vancouver, British Columbia. Image: Rod Raglin/Flickr
Bailing out on the old normal
Penney Kome | With grim economic prospects forecast as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, campaigns have launched to rebuild the economy differently.
Blog - On The Other Hand April 21
Secretary-General António Guterres during inaugural meeting of the High-Level Panel on Internal Displacement in Hôtel Royal in Geneva, February 25, 2020. Image: UN Geneva/Flickr
Pandemic prompts United Nations call for global ceasefire
Penney Kome | Seventy countries have heeded the UN secretary-general's call to come together to fight COVID-19. If we can give up war during a pandemic, why can't we give it up permanently?
Blog - On The Other Hand April 9
Shoppers in the U.K. maintain social distance amid the COVID-19 pandemic. (Image: Tim Dennell/Flickr)
COVID-19 kicks over the economy
Penney Kome | The economy will have to change to accommodate contagion concerns that are likely to continue for two or three years due to uneven isolation rules.
Blog - On The Other Hand March 30
Image: Mark locchelli/Flickr
Now is a good time to begin a managed decline of Canadian fossil fuel production
Penney Kome | A managed decline would offer security and ease transition to a zero-carbon economy.
Blog - On The Other Hand March 20
Image: The White House/Flickr
Canada closes U.S. border amid coronavirus pandemic
Penney Kome | So many other motives blur U.S. policies on COVID-19 that the U.S. has fallen dangerously far behind other nations in trying to flatten the curve.
Blog - On The Other Hand March 10
Image: Nelson de Witt/Flickr
Halt to Teck Frontier mine signals new fossil fuel exploration just not worth it
Penney Kome | Activists call for "fossil fuel non-proliferation treaty" to control remaining fuels' carbon emissions.
Blog - On The Other Hand September 8
Image: Peter Blanchard/Flickr
Confusion on the horizon in election advertising
Penney Kome | Two jarring incidents occurred at the end of August that could indicate more complications than usual in the upcoming federal election.
Blog - On The Other Hand August 22
Elections Canada poll sign. Image: Dennis Sylvester Hurd/Flickr
Ethics and truth in election advertising
Penney Kome | Ready or not, we are embarking on an experiment to see whether Harper's legacy of election laws can support an actual election.
Blog - On The Other Hand July 23
Bee collecting pollen
Don't swat that bee!
Penney Kome | Insect-free summer may be a worrisome sign that extinction is in progress.
Blog - On The Other Hand July 7
Image: PaulVanDerWerf/Flickr
Interfaith and community groups stand up against Quebec's Bill 21
Penney Kome | The recently passed legislation prohibits civil servants from wearing religious symbols, such as a headscarf or a turban.
Blog - On The Other Hand June 18
Image: Women Deliver CEO and President Katja Iversen, from Women Deliver 2019 Mobilization Canada Facebook page
Behind Vancouver's massive and mysterious Women Deliver conference
Penney Kome | Canada leads the way with a new monster international fund to promote gender equality, women's empowerment, and reproductive health.
Blog - On The Other Hand June 4
Woman at microphone for Women Deliver conference. Image: Women Deliver/Facebook​
Vancouver hosts world's biggest women's conference
Penney Kome | Women Deliver's main pitch is to make sure that women's specific concerns are included as developing nations strive to expand their economies.
Blog - On The Other Hand May 5
The Aga Khan addresses the 2014 London Conference
Throwing shade on the Aga Khan
Penney Kome | If the Pope invited the prime minister's family to visit for the holidays, and sent a private jet to pick them up, would the Opposition be hinting at a breach of ethics?
Blog - On The Other Hand April 23
Andrew Scheer. Photo: Andrew Scheer/Flickr
Canadian politics need a civility pledge
Penney Kome | Alberta election rancour just a sample of what federal election could bring.
Blog - On The Other Hand April 15
NDP candidate Anne McGrath (right) poses with Premier Rachel Notley. Photo: Anne McGrath/Facebook
Alberta politics meets the federal NDP's 'island of calm'
Penney Kome | Calgary-Varsity candidate Anne McGrath has looked at Alberta from both sides now.
Blog - On The Other Hand April 9
Photo: Rachel Notley/Facebook
Rachel's problem
Penney Kome | Alberta Premier Rachel Notley doesn't back down from a fight. And her urge to stand up to bullies leads her to battle with Jason Kenney rather than promote all her own achievements.
Blog - On The Other Hand March 20
U.K. industrial hemp farm, 2007. Photo: Nabokov/Wikimedia Commons
Welcome to the hemp economy
Penney Kome | A reclaimed industry produces renewable food, shelter, clothing, and medicine, from one crop -- and we have hardly begun to explore the potential of the hemp plant's 25,000 marketable products.
Blog - On The Other Hand March 12
Making the energy transition in a decade
Penney Kome | We have 12 years to curb climate breakdown. Experts supplied the science. Now youth and the increasingly militant climate justice movement are keeping up the pressure.
Blog - On The Other Hand February 6
Beer glass with orchid
Daffodil Day's dark secret
Penney Kome | Cancer-prevention month whispers, not shouts, that liquor causes cancer.
Blog - On The Other Hand January 22
General Jay Janzen and MRU Professor Kari Roberts. Image credit: Penney Kome
All NATO members at risk for Russian hacking: Canadian Brigadier General
Penney Kome | In advance of provincial and federal elections, Canada's director of general military strategic communications is warning that Canadians should be alert for attempts to influence the electorate.
Blog - On The Other Hand January 11
Derek Cook, Director, Canadian Poverty Institute. Image courtesy of Derek Cook.
Defining poverty in Canada as a social disease first step to healing it
Penney Kome | Members of the new federal Advisory Committee on Canada's Poverty Reduction Strategy all have personal experience of poverty, and they are working to build resilient communities across the country.
Blog - On The Other Hand January 3
Jackie Shan publicity photo
Toronto soul musician Jackie Shane returns to spotlight with Grammy nomination
Penney Kome | Collectors revere Jackie Shane's soul recordings from the 1960s. Now the musician is being recognized with a nomination for a Grammy.
Blog - On The Other Hand December 18
Abandoned oil well
Alberta's abandoned gas wells could be used to heat homes, power businesses
Penney Kome | Geothermal engineers point to the potential to channel gas wells' heat to local homes and businesses.
Blog - On The Other Hand November 19
Image: Dennis van der Heijden/Flickr
European Union regulations make privacy a human right
Penney Kome | Six months after its proclamation, how is the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) holding up in its intent to reclaim personal privacy as a human right?
Blog - On The Other Hand November 16
Carolyn Bennett, federal Minister of Crown-Indigenous Relations, Rachel Notley, Premier of Alberta joined Chief Billy Joe Laboucan, of the Lubicon Lake Band, at a special ceremony held in Little Buffalo on Tuesday, November 13, 2018, to celebrate the historic land claim settlement of the Lubicon Lake Band which was signed in late October. Photo: Premier of Alberta/Flickr
Lubicon Lake Cree sign historic land claim settlement
Penney Kome | Premier Rachel Notley and her NDP government have resolved an 1880s oversight that left a small Alberta First Nation stranded on unceded land, without treaty protection.
Blog - On The Other Hand November 8
Voting line-up in Ohio. Photo: Tim Evanson/Flickr
What progressives won in U.S. midterm elections
Penney Kome | There's reason to celebrate the new faces, new voices and new perspectives arriving in the U.S. House of Representatives. Finally, the U.S. government begins to resemble the people it governs.
Blog - On The Other Hand October 26
Michelle Thrush's Inner Elder leads the dancing. Image: Penney Kome
Indigenous theatre productions celebrate grandmothers
Penney Kome | Calgarians had a chance to see two pieces of Indigenous theatre on consecutive nights recently, in which artists addressed painful subjects with humour and respect.
Blog - On The Other Hand October 12
Cindy Sheehan, Director of The Women's March on the Pentagon. Photo by Jacob Appelbaum/Wikimedia Commons
Peace movement is on the march again
Penney Kome | Peace organizations haven't been in the news much for a decade or so. But after a year with Trump in the Oval Office, peace is a high political priority again.
Blog - On The Other Hand October 4
Sir Tim Berners-Lee at Open Data Awards 2015. Photo: Open Data Institute Knowledge for Everyone/Flickr
Digital activists are fighting to reclaim the web
Penney Kome | World Wide Web inventor Tim Berners-Lee is set to unveil a new commercial-free platform. He's part of a growing movement to decentralize the web and break down online inequality.

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