Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group

16.08.2005 On a misty day in January 2001, TimberWest Forest Corp. permanently closed its Youbou Sawmill on Cowichan Lake leaving over 200 workers without jobs. This act of industrial “restructuring” stunned the displaced workers, their families, and their forest dependent community. Two years later, the Youbou TimberLess Society (YTS) collaborated with the Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group (VIPIRG) to investigate the true human impacts that the mill closure had on the lives of the former millworkers.

06.06.2005 Imagine a slight pretty young woman pointing a machine gun at terrified women and children, lying on their stomachs on the floor. This is the real world of Iraq. The young woman looks into the eyes of her captives and sees their fear and hatred. She begins to realize that these are the people she was told she came to help. When the Colorado National Guard recruiters came to her school, they persuaded Kelly Dougherty that she could serve her country in domestic disasters like floods and earthquakes.

22.04.2005 Jennifer Moore is a bland English name. So why, when I am looking at women's clothes in a department store and see that name on labels, do I think of Guatemalan women and children bent over sewing machines? Rosita Escobar came to Canada to tell us about these thousands of women and girls who work in sweatshops called maquilas that produce the garments that end up in our fancy shops with inflated prices. Jennifer Moore is just one of hundreds of labels used to produce clothing for our consumption–crazy society.