UC News Canada
About UC News
The takeover of your local paper by media giants means you have no voice. The issues you care about are not discussed. The events you create are not covered. A small three-line ad costs a fortune. This is not just about a few people making millions. It’s about making sure you have no say about anything that impacts your life and future. It’s about keeping you quiet. It’s about stopping communication. UC News is biased: 1) we regard the World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity as the most important document in world history, for it outlines the fate of this generation of Canadian children; 2) we regard the Canadian Constitution and our Charter of Rights and Freedoms as critical to defending your life, for it describes what you are free to do in defense of your life; 3) we regard the Speech From the Throne as one of few remaining ways that Canadians can say what needs doing; 4) we regard your personal experience of life in Canada as critical to reporting what is happening. We have additional biases: 5) we hold the defense of vulnerable people including children and grandparents in highest regard; 6) we want everything said to have a defensible basis in fact, reality and the foundations of law; 7) we prioritize essential human needs over wants; 8) we defend care for people and the ecosystems that sustain our lives as the sole basis of our economy. In general, we aim to overcome a long list of cognitive biases including prejudice. We will fail. Some people want you to keep quiet about the most important issues of the day. When we cannot talk about the major issues, we nitpick the minor details. We encourage you to say what you need to say. Our lives are in trouble. We need to talk.
UC News is a democratic social enterprise. It is focused on doing what is needed to tackle the most urgent crisis ever to face humanity. It’s not just climate change. It’s farms, forests, fisheries and lives worn thin. It’s about an unfair, unaffordable life, permanent lifetime debt for essential needs, having no way out. It’s about the grim future our kids face. What is worth living for? What is worth dying for? For many of us, we already know the answer. Our children. As caring parents, this is not the world we want for our kids. There is no force on the planet greater than caring parents acting in strength and wisdom to defend the future for their children. Here, we call on all people with strength and spirit, brains and backbone, to know yourselves not as weak and helpless, but as defenders of life. Now is the time for you to use all you know in care for others and the ecosystems that sustain our lives as the sole basis of our economy. You have the right to life, and all that entails. It’s in our Constitution. Canada has a long history of preferring pen over sword. We saw a bloody civil war south of the border and chose to confederate peacefully over time. As other countries fell into ethnic or religious conflict, we chose to create a respectful multicultural society. But we are in grave danger. The situation is like knowing we have not planted enough wheat to make it through the winter. In Canada and around the globe, we have pushed the ecosystems that support our lives to the limit. Many of us already struggle to meet essential human needs. We need to go green quickly, finding the best ways to relate to others and the ecosystems that support our lives. I created UC News to do just that. Dr. David Teertstra
What we are not. UC News addresses social needs of connection frugally in a do-it-yourself manner and does not aim to compete with other papers for advertising. We reject gas-engine car ads, chain store flyers, real estate ads. You get enough of that elsewhere. We support small and personal. We don’t do weather, horoscopes or crossword puzzles. We don’t cover events, except if critical to meeting essential human needs. We direct you to events listings on other papers and websites that do it better. We want to save the planet, not waste time and resources on fluff. Don’t make it about you or your group. Make it about us, what we share in common and where we are going as a community, a planet, a species. We are guided by the World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity, the drive away from war-like attitudes as summarized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, and what Canadians say they need done as summarized in the Speech From The Throne. We are guided by the fundamentals of care and love expressed in families struggling to make ends meet. We are guided by law based firmly in fact and reality, and by our spirit to transcend the circumstances. An introduction to our core beliefs in a fair, free and sustainable future is given in the Declaration of Canadian Rights. You are of course free to improve this open living document or take the time to declare what you believe in. We thank Epson for developing the eco-tank printers that make this economically possible.