After 11 years of bringing you local reporting, the team behind the Vancouver Observer has moved on to Canada's National Observer. You can follow Vancouver culture reporting over there from now on. Thank you for all your support over the years!

Peter Nix

Peter is a retired consultant and environmental scientist.  His former clients included many of Alberta's tar sands corporations.  Recognizing the threat from burning fossil fuels, he retired early to Vancouver Island where he pursues an alternative life journey as Cowichan Carbon Buster and community activist.

Views from a refugee camp: Who gets into heaven?

I have just returned to Vancouver Island from Greek refugee camps where I met a Yazidi man named Jason who told me about his escape from ISIS in Iraq.   His story begins on a desert road where a...

An Afghan story from a Greek refugee camp

While visiting an Afghan refugee family in their tent in Greece, my wife and  I came to understand the particular plight of families fleeing the chaos and violence in Afghanistan.   Canada...
Syrian refugees, refugee crisis,

Facing the refugee and climate crisis at a train station in Austria

Instead of acting like a reluctant government official, I become more engaged, more aware. Too much caution in the face of this crisis could hurt innocent families.