Opinion

I thought it was bad enough that for three years, the highly regarded Macleans magazine ranked Prince George as the number one most dangerous cities in Canada or, alternately, crime capital of Canada. Take your title pick. Either way, it’s not good. So imagine my horror Wednesday night when I found out on King 5 News that the number one worst job is none other than that of a newspaper reporter. Yes, there it was, in a slick colourful graphic, nicely presented, the results ...

  Sometimes, it’s the simple things people say that stay with you. When I got my first newspaper job (mumblety-mumble years ago) in High Prairie, Alberta, I went to a couple of meetings my first week. At one of the meetings, I talked to a couple of different people, but since it was just a social event kind of thing, I didn’t bother taking notes. A few days later, I was at the second meeting, and one of the same people from the first meeting came over to chat. I, of course, was drawing...

Editor: Former Conservative Senator Mike Duffy began his trial yesterday with 31 charges laid against him. Bribery, fraud and accepting a $90,000 cheque to pay back falsified expenses will be a major part of the case, however, what the prime minister knew and did not know will be paramount to finally getting answers on what happened. Did PM Stephen Harper know of the $90,000 cheque that Nigel Wright had given to Mike Duffy and if so, when did he know it? The cheque was given to Duffy in...

Editor: My wife and I spent the night of Thursday, April 8, in a room on the 24th floor of a Vancouver hotel with a clear view of English Bay. Early the next morning we heard a report on CBC radio that there had been an oil spill on the bay. We examined the area with binoculars but could see nothing out of the ordinary, just a number of ships at anchor. Later that morning we walked Sunset Beach to the foot of Davie Street. The only activity we witnessed was a gaggle of television crews on...

Editor: Upon hearing about the decision to close the dental assisting and dental hygienist programs at CNC, I felt you should be aware of the impact such programs have had on our northern communities. I grew up in Prince George and still remember the excitement in the dental community when there was now a dental hygiene program available in the north. Twenty five years ago, I moved from Prince George to Fort St. John. At that time, I was the only private-practice dental hygienist in the...

Dr. Ronald Chapman Vice-President of Medicine, Northern Health Northern Health places a high importance on providing high quality services to residents of northern B.C., and that includes ophthalmology services. Recognizing that there is an aging population, and that the demand for ophthalmology services continues to increase, we’re working on solutions to improve services across the region. There have been a number of recent media reports about ophthalmology services and I’d like to...

The world of marketing is a weird and wacky place at times. Manufacturers and distributors live in a highly competitive world and look for any little aspect or product trait that will give them an advantage and boost sales. At times the rush to associate their product or service to the latest fashion or fad becomes a little silly. Strolling through the shampoo selections I was surprised to read on the front of the Kirkland brand shampoo that it was gluten free. When was the last time you...

Editor: The bill, tagged for “anti-terrorism”, would potentially allow for a secret police to be formed with CSIS. You know who else had a secret police and absolute power? Hitler. Should we let Mr. Harper become the next Hitler, in this day and age? Canada already has laws to prosecute and prevent terrorism, and they worked in all but one isolated instance. Some of the wording allows for collection of everyone’s private information, and having it shared between no fewer than 17 government...

Paul Strickland Special to the Free Press The globalized economy wants and requires a large, growing pool of part-time and temporary workers with few career prospects, says Guy Standing, professor of development studies at the University of London. “Labour instability is central to global capitalism,” he says in his latest book, A Precariat Charter: From Denizens to Citizens (London, 2014). “Multinational capital not only wants flexible insecure labour but can also obtain it from any part...

Editor: Please continue to speak out against this egregious pseudo-Patriot Act. I don’t personally read the local newspapers, but your audience is just as important to reach with this news as any other. Dick Harris needs to know how we feel about this, if he doesn’t already. Please cover, or enhance coverage, of C-51, explaining its legal oversteps in layman terms. I encourage Canadians to learn more about how we can work together to stop secret police Bill C-51 at: StopC51.ca Ben...