Opinion

The crew of Artemis II are (from l) Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Hammock Koch. (Photo credit: NASA/James Blair)

The Editor’s Desk: Ripped from the headlines

It’s been a busy week when it comes to what’s making news

The crew of Artemis II are (from l) Jeremy Hansen, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman, and Christina Hammock Koch. (Photo credit: NASA/James Blair)
Jogging our memory, at one point in time during the pandemic, we had travelling vaccination centres – like this bus that stopped in neighbouring Pitt Meadows – so everyone who wanted to, could receive their shot. (Black Press Media files)

PAINFUL TRUTH: Do COVID’s origins matter?

In this week’s column, Matthew Claxton says it doesn’t really matter much where this virus came from

Jogging our memory, at one point in time during the pandemic, we had travelling vaccination centres – like this bus that stopped in neighbouring Pitt Meadows – so everyone who wanted to, could receive their shot. (Black Press Media files)
April 22, 2023 is Earth Day, but a reader writes to ask if we can’t give more time to celebrate our planet. (Photo credit: Public Domain Pictures)

Letters to the Editor

A reader writes about turning Earth Day into Earth Month to celebrate our planet

  • Mar 22, 2023
April 22, 2023 is Earth Day, but a reader writes to ask if we can’t give more time to celebrate our planet. (Photo credit: Public Domain Pictures)
Paintings do furnish a room, and brighten up otherwise empty wall space at the <em>Journal</em> office, as with this accidental series of landscapes. (Photo credit: Barbara Roden)

The Editor’s Desk: Oops, I did it again

I just might have purchased another half-dozen paintings by local artists. Where to put them?

Paintings do furnish a room, and brighten up otherwise empty wall space at the <em>Journal</em> office, as with this accidental series of landscapes. (Photo credit: Barbara Roden)
Drivers who don’t leave the phone alone while behind the wheel face hefty fines. (Photo credit: Black Press file photo)

EDITORIAL: Leave the phone alone

Distracted driving can have fatal consequences

  • Mar 15, 2023
Drivers who don’t leave the phone alone while behind the wheel face hefty fines. (Photo credit: Black Press file photo)
The provincial government has made B.C. the first province in Canada to offer free prescription contraceptives to all women. (Photo credit: Pixabay)

The Editor’s Desk: The province and the pill

A long overdue decision to make prescription contraceptives free is a step forward for B.C. women

The provincial government has made B.C. the first province in Canada to offer free prescription contraceptives to all women. (Photo credit: Pixabay)
Log yard at Canfor’s Houston sawmill which is closing in April 2023, idling more than 300 employees and many more in the trucking and logging sectors. (Angelique Houlihan photo/Houston Today)

Houston’s mayor makes pitch for economic assistance

The forestry-dependent community in northwestern B.C. is about to lose its major employer

  • Mar 15, 2023
Log yard at Canfor’s Houston sawmill which is closing in April 2023, idling more than 300 employees and many more in the trucking and logging sectors. (Angelique Houlihan photo/Houston Today)
Log yard at Canfor’s Houston sawmill which is closing in April 2023, idling more than 300 employees and many more in the trucking and logging sectors. (Angelique Houlihan photo/Houston Today)

Houston’s mayor makes pitch for economic assistance

The forestry-dependent community in northwestern B.C. is about to lose its major employer

Log yard at Canfor’s Houston sawmill which is closing in April 2023, idling more than 300 employees and many more in the trucking and logging sectors. (Angelique Houlihan photo/Houston Today)
Fraser-Nicola MLA Jackie Tegart (c) with Ashcroft and District Lions Club members Gordon and Darlene Daly at the 2022 Smile Cookies fundraiser. Tegart will be holding ‘Coffee and Conversation’ sessions throughout the riding in the coming weeks. (Photo credit: Facebook)

Victoria Report: Reconnecting over coffee and conversation

Fraser-Nicola MLA Jackie Tegart will be holding ‘Coffee with Jackie’ sessions

  • Mar 8, 2023
Fraser-Nicola MLA Jackie Tegart (c) with Ashcroft and District Lions Club members Gordon and Darlene Daly at the 2022 Smile Cookies fundraiser. Tegart will be holding ‘Coffee and Conversation’ sessions throughout the riding in the coming weeks. (Photo credit: Facebook)
<em>Westminster Abbey with a Procession of the Knights of Bath</em> by Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal), painted in 1749 and showing the famous West Front of the Abbey, which is of course not Gothic but in the Gothic Revival style. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The Editor’s Desk: Bringing history to life

Despite how it’s often taught in school, history doesn’t have to be boring

<em>Westminster Abbey with a Procession of the Knights of Bath</em> by Canaletto (Giovanni Antonio Canal), painted in 1749 and showing the famous West Front of the Abbey, which is of course not Gothic but in the Gothic Revival style. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
FILE – The Ocean Cleanup project’s latest iteration of plastic-collecting technology, the System 002, will leave Victoria and heads to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. (Photo courtesy of the Ocean Cleanup/ Twitter)

OPINION: Court case could kill progress on plastic pollution in Canada

‘The world is beginning to act to reduce the plastic crisis’

  • Mar 6, 2023
FILE – The Ocean Cleanup project’s latest iteration of plastic-collecting technology, the System 002, will leave Victoria and heads to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. (Photo courtesy of the Ocean Cleanup/ Twitter)
FILE – Gisele Pageal (left), Human Rights Director of Communications Energy Paperworkers Union of Canada, and Barbara Byers, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress, announce their chocalate lip campaign at a news conference in Ottawa Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009 to Members of Parliament regarding pay equity for women. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tom Hanson

LETTER: Coalition of 125+ B.C. groups call for pay equity legislation

‘We have paid a staggering price for government inaction,’ open letter says

  • Mar 2, 2023
FILE – Gisele Pageal (left), Human Rights Director of Communications Energy Paperworkers Union of Canada, and Barbara Byers, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress, announce their chocalate lip campaign at a news conference in Ottawa Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2009 to Members of Parliament regarding pay equity for women. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Tom Hanson
Author Roald Dahl signing books for some eager fans in Amsterdam. Dahl, who died in 1990, was opposed to his words being tampered with, which is precisely what has happened. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The Editor’s Desk: Leave those books alone

When is censorship not censorship? When it’s done by ‘sensitivity readers’, apparently

Author Roald Dahl signing books for some eager fans in Amsterdam. Dahl, who died in 1990, was opposed to his words being tampered with, which is precisely what has happened. (Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons)
As the cost of food continues to rise, grocery chains in Canada are reportedly making record profits. It’s time for the CEOs of these companies to explain themselves, says the federal New Democratic Party. (Unsplash photo)

OFF TOPIC: Bread or cake, the rising cost of food is giving me indigestion

How do grocery chain CEOs square skyrocketing prices with massive profits?

As the cost of food continues to rise, grocery chains in Canada are reportedly making record profits. It’s time for the CEOs of these companies to explain themselves, says the federal New Democratic Party. (Unsplash photo)
B.C. Premier David Eby speaks in Vancouver, on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. A B.C. First Nation and the provincial government have signed what’s being called a historic agreement towards jointly managing land, water and resource development. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck

OPINION: Eby government faces clear choice in first budget

From 1999 to 2016, British Columbia was one of the most fiscally responsible provinces in Canada

  • Feb 24, 2023
B.C. Premier David Eby speaks in Vancouver, on Wednesday, Dec. 14, 2022. A B.C. First Nation and the provincial government have signed what’s being called a historic agreement towards jointly managing land, water and resource development. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Darryl Dyck
The goal of the 15-minute city is to allow people to walk or cycle to access the services the need and use regularly, but some are convinced it’s part of a sinister plot. Pictured: The Hague (not sinister). (Photo credit: João Pimentel Ferreira/Wikimedia Commons)

The Editor’s Desk: Your chinchilla is safe

How conspiracy theorists have hijacked and twisted a perfectly reasonable proposal

The goal of the 15-minute city is to allow people to walk or cycle to access the services the need and use regularly, but some are convinced it’s part of a sinister plot. Pictured: The Hague (not sinister). (Photo credit: João Pimentel Ferreira/Wikimedia Commons)
Hundreds of people march along Yale Road near Hodgins Avenue during a so-called Fraser Valley Freedom Rally on Saturday, April 3, 2021. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress file)

OPINION: The staggering socioeconomic costs of COVID anti-vaxxer behaviour

COVID-is-a-hoax crowd caused thousands more deaths, hundreds of millions in hospital costs: report

Hundreds of people march along Yale Road near Hodgins Avenue during a so-called Fraser Valley Freedom Rally on Saturday, April 3, 2021. (Jenna Hauck/ Chilliwack Progress file)
Balloons. They look so harmless, don’t they. Don’t be fooled. (Photo credit: Marilee Macilroy/Pexels)

The Editor’s Desk: My beautiful balloon

Right now might not be the best time to take to the skies in a homemade balloon

Balloons. They look so harmless, don’t they. Don’t be fooled. (Photo credit: Marilee Macilroy/Pexels)
Orange Shirt Day founder Phyllis Webstad from the Stswecem΄c Xgat΄tem First Nation lives in Williams Lake, B.C. (Monica Lamb-Yorski photo - Williams Lake Tribune)

Editorial: A step in the right direction

B.C. will formally recognize National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

  • Feb 12, 2023
Orange Shirt Day founder Phyllis Webstad from the Stswecem΄c Xgat΄tem First Nation lives in Williams Lake, B.C. (Monica Lamb-Yorski photo - Williams Lake Tribune)
Fraser-Nicola MLA Jackie Tegart. (Photo credit: Lori Pilon)

Victoria Report: People need relief, not rhetoric

Fraser-Nicola MLA Jackie Tegart says reports show many people facing financial pressure

  • Feb 8, 2023
Fraser-Nicola MLA Jackie Tegart. (Photo credit: Lori Pilon)