A report released last week reveals that millions of dollars in Canadian charitable donations have been funneled to organizations implicated in supporting illegal Israeli settlements, violent settler groups, and military activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. Under the Guise of Charity was produced by Just Peace Advocates, Independent Jewish Voices Canada and Miles Howe. We speak with author Miles Howe.
Nov 16, 2024•22 min
For years, the Mitchikanibikok Inik First Nation community has fought to keep mining off of their territory. In an important ruling, the Superior Court of Québec has recognized that the Québec government failed for decades in its constitutional duty to consult the Mitchikanibikok Inik First Nation when mining claims were granted on its territory. Lawyers from Ecojustice and the Centre québécois du droit de l’environnement argued that the Quebec mining act violated the constitution, and they won....
Nov 10, 2024•14 min
Next week Vancouver City Council will talk about the VPD and traffic cameras, earthquake-proofing rental properties, fracked gas heating in new construction and lots more. Redeye collective member Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report.
Nov 10, 2024•14 min
On November 12 and 13, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear a case brought by two drivers of sex workers in Calgary who were charged with financially benefiting from sex work and procuring. The drivers claim the charges violate their Charter rights. We speak with Rosel Kim, a senior staff lawyer at LEAF, the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, one of the intervenors in this case.
Nov 10, 2024•16 min
A local peace group Vancouver Peace Poppies, together with Vancouver Unitarians, is planning to host an alternative peace-focused ceremony marking November 11 called Let Peace be Their Memorial. This will be their ninth annual wreath ceremony to commemorate all victims of war. We speak with Teresa Gagné, co-founder of Vancouver Peace Poppies.
Nov 09, 2024•14 min
Sky-high rents, low vacancy rates and fierce competition for scarce homes have become the grim but familiar picture of housing in the Vancouver area. But this housing crisis does not affect us all equally. A new research project by the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives will dig deep into how the crisis impacts immigrants, and racialized and Indigenous people. We speak with researcher Véronique Sioufi.
Nov 02, 2024•11 min
A new book examines the experiences of the women who faced the worst effects of the pandemic and the inequities it exposed. Conscripted to Care reveals how structural inequality placed women on the frontlines of the pandemic response, yet did not provide them with enough resources or a voice in decision-making. We speak with author Dr Julia Smith, assistant professor in Health Sciences at Simon Fraser University.
Nov 02, 2024•23 min
Lawyers with Pivot Legal Society and the BC Civil Liberties Association have filed complaints against the Vancouver Police Department for excessive use of force, and for targeting and surveilling pro-Palestinian protestors. The complaints relate to a pro-Palestine protest on May 31 at CN Rails and the VPD use of drones and cell phone cameras at other protests. We speak with Meghan McDermott, staff counsel with the BC Civil Liberties Association.
Oct 27, 2024•16 min
Public health care was one of the issues that was top of mind for BC voters as they went to the polls over the past month. Election officials are conducting a final count this weekend. One thing we can be sure of is that the incoming provincial government will be tasked with resolving the issue of long wait times for surgeries like knee and hip replacements. Conservative Party leader John Rustad plans to outsource many more surgeries are likely to increase wait times dramatically, according to S...
Oct 27, 2024•18 min
In October, 800 senior leaders and industry experts from the aviation and energy industries met in Houston, Texas to discuss how to decarbonize the aviation industry. The current plan is to switch the fuel supplies of the global jet fleet to agricultural feedstocks. Darrin Qualman of the National Farmers Union was at the conference to speak about the grave dangers that will pose to the planet’s farmland base. Darrin Qualman is NFU Director of Climate Crisis Policy and Action.
Oct 20, 2024•15 min
Cottonwood Community Garden is a volunteer-managed community garden in East Vancouver. A new self-guided audio tour of the gardens is being launched this month, bringing an intimate sense of place to a piece of urban nature brimming with life and social connection. With the tour, you can walk through the garden, and listen to stories that bring the history and use of the garden to life. We talk with film and video artist Lorna Boschman, creator of the sound walk.
Oct 20, 2024•18 min
Green Party councillor Adrienne Carr asks Vancouver City Council to reconsider a snap decision they made last summer to allow natural gas to be used in new building construction. Council will also be looking at giving an international developer a sweetheart deal, and finally after 5 years of waiting, the City has launched a community engagement process addressing historical discrimination against people of South Asian Canadian descent. Mass joins us with his City Beat report.
Oct 20, 2024•17 min
Both the BC NDP and the Conservative Party of BC have pledged to expand involuntary care under the Mental Health Act for people who use drugs. More than 17 organizations have condemned forced detention plans, including the BC Civil Liberties Association and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users. Meenakshi Mannoe is connected to anti-prison and anti-policing movements and has previously engaged in advocacy related to the expansion of involuntary care. We speak with her about this issue....
Oct 13, 2024•13 min
The First Call Child and Youth Advocacy Society has been producing election-focused materials for decades. With the BC provincial election just days away, First Call has created a toolkit focused on effective election advocacy for children and youth. Adrienne Montani joins us to talk about some of the issues facing children, youth and families in the province.
Oct 13, 2024•15 min
If you live in British Columbia, and you care about equality and social justice, you probably have many conversations in week about how unaffordable housing is becoming. Economists at the BC office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives have examined this issue and have come forward with a multi-pronged approach to tackle the problem. We speak with senior economist Marc Lee.
Oct 07, 2024•18 min
A recent review of forest trends shows clearcut logging of old growth forests is continuing at unsustainable levels. This is despite the rapid increase of forest area burned - and the fact that there’s a limited area of intact forests left. The review was produced by the Sierra Club BC. I speak with Senior Policy and Science Advisor Jens Wieting.
Oct 07, 2024•16 min
Today, Ian Mass tells us about a 10-year retrospective on reconciliation work at the municipal level in Vancouver. Plus two major non-market housing developments in the Downtown Eastside. All this and more on City Beat.
Oct 07, 2024•13 min
A new handbook has been launched to assist BC school trustees who are being targeted with transphobic and homophobic abuse. It outlines some of the ways that school boards are currently under attack and ways to prevent and address this violence. The handbook was written collaboratively by a committee of the group, Lawyers Against Transphobia. We speak with one of the authors, James Chamberlain.
Sep 29, 2024•16 min
On a misty morning in the fall of 1985, a small group of Haida people blockaded a muddy dirt road on Lyell Island, demanding that the government work with Indigenous people to find a way to protect the land and the future. The Stand is a riveting new feature documentary drawn from more than a hundred hours of archival footage from that first blockade and the months that followed. We speak with director Christopher Auchter.
Sep 29, 2024•24 min
The climate crisis has already unleashed disastrous consequences from forest fires to catastrophic flooding and drought. In the face of these alarming trends, it’s crucial for us to remain hopeful and continue to seek solutions. In his book, Climate Hope, David Geselbracht recounts stories of action from around the world and reveals remarkable efforts to address them. David Geselbracht is an environmental journalist and lawyer. His writing has appeared in Canadian Geographic, The Globe and Mail ...
Sep 23, 2024•17 min
Today, almost one in 4 of all species are at risk of extinction, from caribou and spotted owls to sea stars and slime mould. In her new book, Sarah Cox visits the habitats where species are threatened, and the people who are trying to save them. She documents heroic efforts to prevent animal species from disappearing while, at the same time, challenging us to question the approaches we’re taking. Sarah Cox is an award-winning reporter and B.C. bureau chief for The Narwhal.
Sep 23, 2024•20 min
Municipal politicians across Metro Vancouver are back at work after an August break. Redeye collective member, Ian Mass is also back withhis City Beat report talking about Vancouver’s plan to fast-track social and co-operative housing development, review the Integrity Commissioner’s role and lots more.
Sep 23, 2024•16 min
In 2021, Vancouver City Council formally apologized for historical discrimination toward passengers travelling on board the Komagata Maru steamship from British India in 1914. Last month, the City unveiled special commemorative signs near the harbour honoring those impacted by the Komagata Maru tragedy. The street signs were designed by Jagandeep Nagra, a queer Punjabi visual artist and community advocate.
Sep 15, 2024•17 min
In 2004, the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel called on international scholars to break ties with Israeli academic institutions. In response, Israeli academics claimed to be simply bystanders to the apartheid policies of the Israeli state. A new book reveals just how deeply Israeli universities are entangled with the Israeli state’s systems of oppression. Maya Wind is the author of Towers of Ivory and Steel. She is a scholar of military expertise and a Killam ...
Sep 08, 2024•21 min
A ground-breaking new book examines and exposes the use of defamation law to silence victims of sexual violence. Author Mandi Gray draws on media reports, courtroom observations, and interviews with silence breakers, activists, and lawyers from across Canada to examine the impact of so-called liar lawsuits on those who report or are thinking of reporting sexual violence.
Sep 01, 2024•18 min
Jérémie Harris is a former physicist, an AI safety expert and a startup founder. He’s the author of “Quantum Physics Made Me Do It: A Simple Guide to the Fundamental Nature of Everything” and he was be a featured speaker at the 2024 Vancouver Writers Fest. We spoke with him about his new book and about the threats posed by the unregulated growth of AI.
Aug 24, 2024•19 min
In February, the Supreme Court dismissed a challenge by Quebec to the Canadian government’s Indigenous child welfare law, reversing a Quebec Court of Appeal decision to declare the 2019 federal law partly unconstitutional. The decision was widely celebrated by First Nations, Inuit and Métis leaders. Yet, according to lawyer Bruce McIvor, the decision has a troubling assumption at its core. Bruce McIvor is a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation and a founding partner at First People’s Law.
Aug 18, 2024•16 min
It seems that the more that comes out about the effects of social media on children and youth, the more concerned we should be. Now a law firm that represents victims of social media has filed cases against platforms including Meta, Snap, TikTok, and Discord, on the basis that they are harmful by design. Lorraine Chisholm speaks with Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center.
Aug 11, 2024•13 min
On February 1, Premier Danielle Smith announced that she plans to implement a slate of policies that target transgender and gender-diverse children and youth in Alberta. The proposed measures go far beyond what has already been brought in in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick. We speak with Corinne Mason, professor in the Women's and Gender Studies Program at Mount Royal University in Calgary.
Aug 04, 2024•21 min
More and more Canadians are unable to access public primary healthcare, according to a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal at the beginning of December, 2023. In fact, about 20% of Canadians have no family doctor at all, and many more have irregular access to clinicians. The CMAJ study compares the Canadian primary care system with New Zealand and eight countries in Europe including France, Germany, Italy and the UK. Dr Tara Kiran is the senior author of the study and a f...
Jul 28, 2024•16 min
