Today is International Women's Day -- a day that aims to make women's issues front and center around the world. It's an important day to mark, although the use of the term "women's issues" has often irked me because so many of these concerns aren't solely women's issues; they're society's...

It's a fact of life that there's a finite amount of charitable dollars to go around in this country. Canadian families can set aside only so much for donations, and a dollar allocated to the Diabetes Foundation is a dollar that doesn't go to the Heart and Stroke Foundation or...

It used to be people accused Alberta of being narrow-minded and suspicious of other provinces. There was never any truth to that stereotype, of course, but now it's Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty who's making his province sound, well, downright provincial.

Alberta's premier Alison Redford has been trying to drum up...

Europeans are learning the hard way the real cost of relying on conflict oil. Appalled, as we all are, at Iran's determination to threaten the world with war and nuclear weapons, they want to stop importing Iranian oil -- but they can't. Not for quite a while. An EU ban...

The name Rockefeller has a special place in cultural lore. Over the years its been linked to everything from American ingenuity and industriousness to unbridled greed; from unimaginable wealth to unrivaled philanthropic work. But one thing the Rockefeller name's never really been associated with is anti-business activism. How could it?...

When Barack Obama was running for president of the United States, he made a bold promise. "If I'm president, I'm immediately going to direct the full resources of the federal government, and the full energy of the private sector, to a single overarching goal," he said. "In 10...

As Canadians have learned more in recent days about the meddling of foreign money in our national policy decisions, they've been speaking out. They've written letters to the government demanding that Ottawa stop a swarm of activist groups backed by foreign billionaires from hijacking -- as the Prime...

On January 10, the federal government opens public hearings to determine whether to approve a new pipeline to deliver oil from Alberta's oil sands to the B.C. coast, where it can be shipped to new markets overseas. More than 200 groups have registered as interveners in the hearings...

Not everyone cares about the conflict footprint that comes with oil from Iran's loathsome regime. Plenty of countries are content to patronize a government that not only brutally tramples basic human rights, degrades women, and persecutes gays, but also uses the currency it collects from oil sales to

After spending the week facing a heated and huge backlash over its ill-considered decision to boycott Canadian oil, Chiquita Brands, the company behind the famous banana, is trying to climb out of the public relations pit it fell into. Not surprisingly, it's not doing a very good job.

It's no...

Whether or not you're an NDP supporter, the party can be pretty proud of its history of standing up for progressive ideas. It's been a powerful voice for unionized workers across Canada, and around the world. The NDP has stood strong for gender equality and Aboriginal rights; a commitment to...

The anti-oil sands lobby wants you to think that there's no greater carbon emissions problem than the oil sands. They march in the streets, break into buildings, get themselves arrested, and then compare themselves to the heroes of civil rights movement -- all the while protecting market share for the...

Anyone who's been closely following the organized lobby against Canada's ethical oil sands knows that many of the ENGOs (Environmental Non-Governmental Organizations) here in Canada that have been attacking oil sands development are really front groups for big American trusts.

Vancouver researcher Vivian Krause has done excellent work at...

While the anti-oil sands lobby promises that the zero-carbon economy is just around the corner, the people who the government actually employs as educated, realistic experts in matters of energy aren't so sure.

The National Energy Board, the government's watchdog agency, issued a report this week projecting the...

The activists who rally constantly against the oil sands may think they've helped make the world a better place, now that U.S. President Barack Obama has turtled, in the face of their pressure, on the Keystone XL pipeline. They haven't. They've made it worse.

They made up claims, lacking scientific...

Julia Louis-Dreyfus is a very funny actress. Like the other enviro-trendy actors and actresses that have been leading the charge against the Keystone XL Pipeline plan, she's clearly better at reading scripts than writing her own material. In a video she's made for the anti-oil sands Tar Sands...

Jody Williams did the world's citizens a great favour when she championed, and ultimately succeeded in bringing about, the Ottawa Treaty banning antipersonnel landmines in the late '90s. Williams also led a human rights mission to the killing fields of Darfur. She is cognizant, as much as anyone,...

A few weeks ago a company with a not particularly ethical reputation, controlled by a very unethical government, purchased a major stake in Canada's oil and gas industry. Sinopec, whose largest shareholder is the Chinese communist government, has faced allegations of illegal activities and flagrant polluting overseas.

Now, it's...

In an article a few weeks ago, so-called "social justice organizer" Maryam Drangi is bothered by the fact that EthicalOil.org is doing something that women's rights organizations in Canada are failing to do: stand up for the rights of oppressed women in conflict oil regimes Saudi Arabia and...

Canada's Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver is holding out hope after the European Commission ruled this month that it would officially discriminate against oil from Canada's oil sands, labeling it as too high in carbon emissions to be imported by EU countries. Oliver thinks there's still a chance...