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UBCM targets altered species

Columnist Diana French talks about the signs of autumn and UBCM in her latest column.

First week of autumn.

The trees haven’t  noticed yet, not too many are changing colour, but the air is brisk and my furnace kicked in for the first time in months.

A wee murder of crows  is hanging out in the Mountain Ash tree.  When they aren’t pigging out on the berries they’re getting free rides on the wind.

While  picking my  tomato crop and the last of the beans in the garden I found ten ripe berries on a raspberry bush.

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Some interesting news last week from the Union of BC Municipalities convention in Vancouver. Delegates moved to ask the B.C. government to prohibit the importing, exporting and growing plants and seeds containing genetically engineered DNA, and raising genetically engineered animals within B.C.

They want B.C. to be a genetically-engineered free area in respect to all plant and animal species.

That’s a wow, as was the support of a resolution asking the government to work with First Nations, local governments,  industry and citizens to modernize B.C.’s free entry mining laws. This was triggered by a study by West Coast  Environmental Law and Fair Monitoring who researched the conflicts between the mining industry and other land users who are negatively impacted by the laws, which date back to gold rush days.

I don’t know how our local politicians voted but they certainly know first hand about conflicts.

Ironically, the province recently eased some of the permitting processes to cut the red tape for mining companies.

Diana French is a freelance columnist for the Tribune. She is a former Tribune editor, retired teacher, historian, and book author.