Thanks to Visionary Denis Lang (profiled in August), champion of electric cars, the vehicles can now drive on the streets of Port Coquitlam and Burnaby. Vancouver amended its traffic bylaws in October to allow cars on roads with posted speed limits of 50km/hr, with PoCo and Burnaby quickly following suit. langmotors.ca
Dr. Pushpa Chandra (profiled in March), the naturopath who ran the Everest
Marathon last year to raise money to send girls in Nepal to school, will be the first woman to race the Antarctic 100K. On Dec. 15 Pushpa will run 18–20 hours straight across the interior of Antarctica. drpushpa.com
Romi Chandra (profiled in February; pictured below left), no relation to Pushpa, has received a City of Vancouver 2008 Cultural Harmony Award. Romi was honoured for his work around anti-discrimination, homophobia, racism, social justice, and equality issues. vancouver.ca/multiculturalism/culturalharmony
Romi’s fiancé, Spencer Herber (profiled in February), has become the youngest MLA in the B.C. legislature. Spencer, 27, a Vancouver Parks Board commissioner, took the Vancouver-Burrard seat for the NDP in the provincial by-elections in October. bcndp.ca
Klaus Ferlow (profiled in November ’07) has been awarded an Honorary Master Herbalist Diploma by Burnaby’s Dominion Herbal College. Klaus is being recognized for his lifetime dedication to the cause of herbal medicine. ferlowbotanicals.com, dominionherbal.com
Nelson, B.C. has become Canada’s third GE- (genetically engineered-) free zone. That means farmers in the Nelson area can continue to grow crops and save seed without fear of GE cross-contamination. Powell River went GE-free in 2004, followed by Salt Spring Island in 2005 Take that, Monsanto! gefreebc.org
Green web companies happyfrog and 3rd Whale have joined eco-forces. Going forward as 3rd Whale, the company will combine happyfrog’s directory of values-aligned businesses with 3rd Whale’s mobile phone application, Luna. By using the company’s next generation mobile and web tools, users can add business reviews, blog posts, etc. to help others reduce their eco-footprint. 3rdwhale.com
Emily Jubenvill, a finalist in 3rd Whale’s Greenest Person on the Planet contest, has led a “PodMob” at sushi restaurants in the West End. The PodMob (an initiative to encourage businesses to be sustainable) pledged to bring customers to the eatery that committed the highest percentage of one day’s sales to going green. Sushi Bento Express, 1258 Robson St., took the top spot at 31 per cent. 3rdwhale.com
We Take Issue
Bill C-51 is back. Health Minister Tony Clement plans to reintroduce the controversial legislation tightening labelling and licensing requirements for makers of natural health products, and giving Health Canada the power to seize the property of professionals in the industry without permission from the courts. Lawyer Shawn Buckley’s Natural Health Products Protection Association is fighting against said legislation and seeks three million signatures in support of its Charter of Health Freedom. At press time, 5,889 had been collected. To read the charter or download a petition, visit charterofhealthfreedom.org.
Got some dirt? Give it up. E-mail
editor@shared-vision.com
