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This page provides an Index to my columns for 2013 published in the Kamloops Daily News
EYE VIEW 
2013
Qualities that Canadians value in themselves originate from our aboriginal heritage. Maybe 2013 will be the year that Canadians realize how much our national character has been shaped by our aboriginal legacy. Until that realization dawns on us, we will continue to think Canada's success in multiculturalism is something we just stumbled into and that our internationally-recognized skill in solving disputes through negotiation comes from something in the water we drink. January 2, 2013
Leave Gas in the Ground The question of whether we should leave our natural gas in the ground for future generations or dump it on world markets has already been decided. Dig it up and ship it out says B.C. Premier Christy Clark. Her government has approved numerous Liquefied Natural Gas projects that will send gas to energy-starved Asia. The sooner the better says Rich Coleman, BC's Minister of Energy and Mines, who warns that we are in a "foot race" with Australia to get into these lucrative markets. January 16, 2013
The dangers of smart meter radiation are greatly exaggerated The threshold of danger from electromagnetic radiation can be explained by one word: frequency. If you want to know the risk of any source, such as smart meters, find out where it is on the electromagnetic spectrum. Let’s start at the low end. Low frequencies aren't dangerous because they don't radiate easily. Power utilities use 60 hertz on transmission lines, for example. At that frequency, little power is radiated. It's a good thing; otherwise power would be lost along the way and never get to its destination. However, power lines can radiate a small amount of noise at higher frequencies which you can detect on a car radio as you drive under them. February 13, 2013
We should worry about the health of the American liberal class. We should worry about the health of the American liberal class. We were the beneficiaries U.S. liberalism when idealistic war-resisters came to Canada in the 1960s. They were young, educated, and well-suited to our progressive culture. Some took up professional positions and others started up businesses. As is often the case with immigrants, they saw in Canada the qualities that Canadians take for granted: a country based on fairness, the rule of law, universal health care; a peaceful people who wanted nothing to do with the Vietnam War. February 27, 2013
Science is not a belief. It is a method of discovery We depend on scientific advances in our daily lives; in health care, communication, transportation, and yet support for science is capricious. Canadians choose the scientific findings that agree with their beliefs rather than choosing beliefs that correspond with scientific findings. March 13, 2013
High Hopes for return of psychedelics I didn't know it back in the 1970s when I was experimenting with psychedelics but others were looking at applications other than an altered state of consciousness. My "experiments" weren't as meticulous, nefarious, or luxurious as some. March 27, 2013
Aid shapes the way others see us, and the way we see ourselves Canadian development overseas not only shapes the way others see us; it also forms the way we see ourselves. We prefer the image of Canada the good: like the impression that the citizens of the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan must have had after the Montreal Jesuit William Mackay helped establish their modern education system in 1963. Not many of us like to think about the ugly side of Canadian development. April 10, 2013
Hospitals should not fear comparisons Sunlight is a great disinfectant. Canada's record of hospital infection and surgical errors is dismal. Rating of hospitals should not be seen as a threat to administrators but as encouragement to establish best practices and better communication. Rating of hospitals should not be seen as a threat to administrators but as encouragement to establish best practices and better communication. April 24, 2013
Moral hazard is useless when applied to politics Concepts borrowed from economics and applied to politics can be useless. Take the concept of "moral hazard," for example. The name suggests a pitfall that lurks in the course of our daily lives. It's nothing like that. May 8, 2013
Hospital janitors deserve more respect, and greater wages If we want a fighting chance against hospital infection, we're going to have to pay our janitors more. That's the finding of one U.S. hospital. In B.C., underpaid hospital janitors are a relatively recent occurrence. In 2002, the Campbell government tore up collective agreements in a spasm of ideology. Thousands of were laid off and replaced with lower-paid workers. The justification provided by the government, and strongly echoed by our local MLA, was that many of these workers were overpaid for what they did. May 22, 2013
The latest DSM is wide on lists and thin on the root causes of mental illness The latest DSM is wide on lists and thin on the root causes of mental illness. It took 14 years to produce but the newest Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, DSM-5, was published last month. The first DSM was published in 1952. It was a spiral-bound pamphlet that listed 95 mental disorders. By 1986, the number of disorders in the DSM-II had climbed to 130. Controversially, it made homosexuality a mental disorder which was later revoked in 1973. June 5, 2013
The roots of our Métis nation. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission is a good start in recalling our collective memories. We need to dig deeper. Let's work our way back, past the veil of tears and into the roots of our Métis nation. June 19, 2013
The future of marijuana decriminalization should be guided by the past The clock starts ticking in September. If ten per cent of B.C. voters sign a petition requesting a referendum on the decriminalization of marijuana, then a vote on the referendum will take place next year. Federal opinions were more progressive in the 1970s when I helped establish the Alberta Legalization of Cannabis Committee in Calgary. July 3, 2013
Without denial, self-awareness would be intolerable Children acquire it at about age three. We are the only animals to do so. There are names for it - - theory of mind and intentionality - - but I'll just call it self-awareness. We are usually unaware of self-awareness until it's implicated in our survival. July 17, 2013
Reasonable people disagree about GM foods Marc van Montagu couldn't have imagined the furore his discovery would have caused. He and Jeff Schell discovered a bacterium that genetically modified plants in 1983. To his astonishment, bacteria were transferring genes to plants - - what we now recognize as genetic modification between dissimilar species (transgenesis). If nature could do it, van Montagu reasoned, so could he. And he did. July 31, 2013
Science is easier to believe when it coincides with our opinions. Since I would like to eat whatever I want without worrying about my weight, I was pleased with recent news. CTV reported: “Study finds moderately overweight people might live longer.” It seemed like the real thing. In January, the reputable Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) published an analysis that showed that fatter people live longer. August 14, 2013
Free people require paid news If you are reading this from a paid print or online subscription, you already understand the obvious: there is no free news. The maxim isn't always obvious. Wherever you look on the internet the opposite seems true. News flows as freely as the air we breath. But that's an illusion; advertisers pay for it and in the case of the CBC we pay for news through taxes. August 28, 2013
A superb pension plan exists - - the Canada Pension Plan What do you call Canadians who save for retirement? Destitute in their old age. Despite good intentions, Canadians are not saving enough for retirement according to a survey conducted last month by the Bank of Montreal. Almost one-half of baby boomers said they didn't have enough to retire on: only one-third of the $650,000 nest egg they aimed for. September 11, 2013
High hopes for LNG plan may crash hard I hope against hope that Premier Clark's plan to export liquefied natural gas succeeds because she's gambling so heavily on a dubious scheme. I hope I am wrong and that, unlike land-locked Alberta's dream to export oil by controversial pipelines, this LNG plan is more than a pipedream. There is no plan B. September 25, 2013
Taxpayers parked at losing end of bridge News item: Golden Ears Bridge loses up to $45 million annually. Huh? How can a bridge lose money when it is part of B.C.'s infrastructure? I would have thought that any toll bridge makes money. After all, the Golden Ears bridge collects $30 million in tolls annually. If that isn't making money, I don't know what is; especially compared to a bridge that collects nothing. October 9, 2013
Climate behind rise of Lyme disease Lyme disease is ancient yet its bacterial origins have only been recently discovered; curable but the treatment is controversial; spreading through oak trees as a result of climate change. The connection between Lyme disease and ticks has been known for centuries yet the bacteria causing it was only identified in 1981. A visitor to New England wrote in 1638: "there be infinite numbers of tikes hanging upon the bushes in summer time that will cleave to man's garments and creep into his breeches eating themselves in a short time into the very flesh of a man." Ouch. October 23, 2013
A state of living death unethical Terminally-ill Canadians have given a lot of thought to the kind of treatment they want at the end of their lives. I wonder what Hassan Rasouli thinks? More to the point, does Mr. Rasouli think? Even after three years of being hooked up to life support and in a nearly vegetative state, Rasouli's daughter and wife are convinced that he does think. November 6, 2013
Canada's foreign policy off the mark Conservatives would like us to believe that Canada is defined by war. The Harper government uses any occasion to promote the idea of a warrior nation. Emphasis on war is not only misguided but ignores Canada's traditional strengths in preventing war says Joe Clark, the longest-serving Tory foreign minister in Canadian history. November 20, 2013
Something rotten in the state of ‘savage capitalism’ It's beyond ripe and starting to smell. This recent form of capitalism is past its due date. Not all versions have been so bad. The preceding "Golden Age of Capitalism" started after World War II brought general prosperity to all. Its guru was John Maynard Keynes who made stimulus spending an engine of growth. That cycle saw the formation of unions, growth of wages, construction of public infrastructure, improvements to social security and - - a novelty today - - reliable governments. It ended with the stock market crash of 1973-74, followed by a decade-long recession. December 3, 2013
Spy agency violates law, civil liberties Canada's spy agency used to be so secret that Canadians didn't even know that it existed until a TV newsmagazine uncovered it in the 1970s. Even then, CSEC was hardly a household name. And they liked it that way. Now they are hard to avoid. The Communications Security Establishment Canada has become conspicuous as it moves into its hulking new billion-dollar building in Ottawa, the most expensive in Canadian history. December 18, 2013