Danielle Smith’s government in Alberta brought in legislation that restricts healthcare access for trans and gender diverse young people. Bill 26 prohibits medically-necessary care from being provided to gender diverse people under 16 years old in the province. Egale Canada, Skipping Stone, and five individual gender diverse youth, supported by their parents, have gone to court seeking an injunction against the legislation. We speak with Bennett Jensen, Director of Legal for Egale Canada.
Mar 26, 2025•14 min
As Canada responds to the economic uncertainty caused by U.S. tariffs, there are grave concerns that relief measures could lead to the increased destruction of Canada’s primary and old-growth forests. Fourteen leading conservation organizations have issued an open letter urging all federal parties to commit to policies that safeguard both forests and workers in the industry. We speak with Jens Wieting, senior policy and science advisor with Sierra Club BC, one of the signatories to the letter....
Mar 24, 2025•17 min
The Vancouver Public Library has banned staff from wearing symbols of solidarity with Palestine. Many patrons of the library see this as an assault on the VPL's core values of freedom of expression and intellectual freedom. Last week, Concerned Patrons of VPL held an event to protest the ban, and to draw attention to its hypocritical and discriminatory nature. One of the speakers at their event was Omar El Akkad, a guest VPL author who famously tweeted “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Ag...
Mar 23, 2025•13 min
Canada’s special representative on combating Islamophobia, Amira Elghawaby, just brought out a new guide to address anti-Muslim racism in our country. Among the key strategies it identifies is the need to share resources, support networks and advocacy tools. The Maru Society of BC is launching stopislamophobia.ca, an education and outreach campaign in Greater Vancouver and across British Columbia. We speak with Zool Suleman, lawyer and executive director of the Maru Society.
Mar 21, 2025•14 min
The oil pipeline company Energy Transfer has brought a SLAPP suit against Greenpeace over the 2016-17 protests at Standing Rock. The $300 million lawsuit threatens Greenpeace’s financial existence and has major implications for Indigenous rights and the right to free speech and protest. Thirteen environmental groups have signed a solidarity letter raising concerns. Lorraine Chisholm speaks with Paul Paz y Miño of Amazon Watch, a signatory to the solidarity letter.
Mar 19, 2025•17 min
A group that advocates for better transit in Greater Vancouver says that if new funding isn’t found to sustain TransLink’s operations by April, we could be facing a 30% cut in rail service and a 50% cut in bus service and leaving some neighbourhoods without a single bus route. Denis Agar is the executive director of Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders. He joins Lorraine Chisholm to talk about their campaign to Save The Bus.
Mar 17, 2025•17 min
Both Ontario and Germany just had elections. In Germany, more than 80% of the electorate turned out to vote. In Ontario, it was less than 50%. In Germany, the number of seats in the German parliament reflected what voters said with their ballots. In the Ontario election, just 20% of the voters were able to hand Doug Ford a sizeable majority. Fair Vote Canada says the two elections pose a sharp contrast in what democracy can be. We’re joined by Ted Cragg, a long-time volunteer with Fair Vote Cana...
Mar 16, 2025•15 min
The oil and gas industry has a long history of attempting to shape public perceptions of fossil fuel use and sow doubt about the science of climate change. A new report by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and For Our Kids finds that oil and gas companies have funded and supplied misleading climate education to children across Canada. We’re joined by Anne Keary, one of the co-authors of the report.
Mar 13, 2025•16 min
Most liars care enough about the truth to try to conceal it. But simply not caring either way is a different vice, one that American philosopher Harry Frankfurt defined as bullshitting. An example would be President Trump claiming the U.S. has a trade deficit with Canada without having any idea whether that’s true or false. Tim Kenyon examines the motivations behind Trump’s relentless bullshitting in an article published Feb 25. Tim Kenyon is a professor in the humanities department at Brock Uni...
Mar 11, 2025•16 min
BC Minister of Finance Brenda Bailey tabled the province's 2025 budget on Tuesday this week, the same day that Trump brought in a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports. The tariff situation has since changed and will inevitably change again, but the fact remains that the NDP budget was tabled in a world that is dramatically different from when the government was elected just 4 months ago. Finance minister Bailey defended the projected 10.9 billion dollar operating deficit saying it is necessary to ...
Mar 09, 2025•15 min
Next week, Vancouver City Council will get its first look at the full plan for the massive redevelopment of the Jericho lands, the Park Board will try to make biking in Stanley Park safer and more accessible, the Vancouver School Trustees will consider restoring democracy at their meetings and lots more. Redeye’s Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report.
Mar 08, 2025•13 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 feature documentary drawn from more than a hundred hours of archival footage from that first blockade and the months that followed. Christopher Auchter, director of the award-winning documentary Now Is The Time, recreates the critical moment when the Ha...
Mar 05, 2025•25 min
It was a busy week in Vancouver civic politics. Lots of people spoke at City Hall as Ken Sim’s motion to ban on supportive housing came before council, plus the candidates for the April 5 by-election became clear, the design of the rebuild of the Aquatic centre was up for discussion, and lots more. Lorraine Chisholm speaks with Ian Mass in this week’s City Beat report.
Mar 03, 2025•17 min
This week, the BC Conservative MLA for Vancouver Quilchena reposted a National Post article about the former residential school site in Kamloops, adding a comment that the number of confirmed child burials at the site is zero. The article is about James Heller who pushed the Law Society of B.C. to change its training material to say there were "potentially" burial sites at the former residential school in Kamloops — instead of more definitive language. Brodie is only one of a number of BC Conser...
Mar 02, 2025•14 min
As Donald Trump threatens Canada with an economic war, the country’s political and business class agree that we have to tear down the barriers to trade across provinces. They claim removing these barriers would reduce prices by 15 percent and add 200 billion dollars to Canada’s GDP. Stuart Trew says business lobbyists and right-wing think tanks are exploiting Trump’s threats to push their deregulation agenda. Stuart Trew is a senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives whe...
Mar 02, 2025•15 min
A new report by The Samara Centre for Democracy evaluates abusive content on Twitter during the last Alberta provincial election. The platform, owned by Elon Musk, is now known as X. The study was part of a multi-year initiative that measures abusive content received by Canadian political candidates on social media. It raises big questions about the democratic threats that Canadians face in digital environments. Lorraine Chisholm speaks with Beatrice Wayne, research director at The Samara Centre...
Feb 27, 2025•17 min
Donald Trump’s tariff threats and insistence that Canada become the 51st state have put the issue of national sovereignty firmly on the agenda. It seems obvious that one of the clearest routes to protect Canada now and in the future is to reduce our economic dependence on the United States. One idea that’s been floated is a plan to build an oil pipeline from Alberta to Atlantic Canada. We speak with Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, who s...
Feb 25, 2025•14 min
In January, the Supreme Court of Canada announced that it would hear a challenge to Quebec’s secularism law that prohibits certain public sector workers from wearing religious symbols while performing their duties. Those challenging the law argue that the law imposes discriminatory treatment, mainly on Muslim women. They hope this case will give the Court the opportunity to set parameters around the use of the notwithstanding clause. We speak with Natasha Bakht, professor in the Faculty of Law a...
Feb 23, 2025•16 min
The National Farmers Union says the government should use the 30-day pause on tariffs to protect Canadian farmers from the effects of U.S. tariffs on exports and retaliatory tariffs by Canada on imports. They say farmers are vulnerable because they produce for international and domestic markets - and they use imported equipment and inputs. We speak with Matthew Wiens, board member with the National Farmers Union. He farms with his family, and two other families, at Ploughshares Community Farm, n...
Feb 20, 2025•13 min
A series of anti-trans measures and unscientific definitions of gender are amongst the flurry of executive orders issued by the U.S. president. In addition, Trump signed an executive order intended to bar transgender athletes from girls’ and women’s sports. Here in Canada, trans people and especially trans youth are facing mounting efforts by conservatives to dismantle the rights and progress they have achieved, and putting them at risk of harm. Travers is a professor of sociology at SFU, and th...
Feb 18, 2025•20 min
Metro Vancouver has a climate goal of being carbon neutral by 2050. Now that goal is under attack from some members of the Metro Vancouver board. The Dogwood Institute says right-wing populists are trying to scrap climate action from the budget at an upcoming special meeting on February 21. We speak with Ashley Zarbatany, Fossil Gas Campaigner with the Dogwood Institute in Victoria.
Feb 16, 2025•14 min
The trade war between the U.S. and Canada began with steep tariffs on Canadian goods, followed by retaliatory measures from Canada, and then Trump’s decision to delay the tariffs by 30 days. The delay came after Trudeau promised a so-called Fentanyl Czar and stepped up border security. Canadian political scientists Daniel Drache and Marc Froese say Trump’s tariff threats show the brute power of an imperial presidency. We speak with Marc Froese, professor of political science, and founding direct...
Feb 14, 2025•15 min
The BC Civil Liberties Association along with three individual plaintiffs have filed a lawsuit against the City of Vancouver to challenge the city’s daytime ban on outdoor sheltering. They say this ban is cruel, dehumanizing, and deadly. They will be arguing that it violates the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Lorraine Chisholm speaks about the case with BCCLA Executive Director Liza Hughes.
Feb 13, 2025•10 min
In the last election campaign, the NDP said they would ensure affordable before and after school care across BC and create a long-term capital plan to add thousands of affordable child care spaces. They didn’t commit to raising the wages of workers, or transitioning existing child care to $10 a day. We speak with Sharon Gregson of the $10aDay Child Care Campaign about why it’s essential for the provincial government to adopt these two priorities, and their campaign to raise these issues.
Feb 11, 2025•13 min
Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim chose a day-long summit last month organized by the pro-business coalition Save Our Streets to make a major announcement about housing. He said that he intends to reject any new supportive housing projects proposed in the city of Vancouver and pledged to address what he called the hyper concentration of services in the Downtown Eastside. Peter Waldkirch is with the organization Abundant Housing Vancouver. He joins me today to talk about Ken Sim’s recent pronouncements and...
Feb 09, 2025•14 min
A new book published this month provides an in-depth look into the devastating policies of the Ford government across a wide range of public policy issues: from health care to labour and Indigenous lands. Against the People was co-authored by Brian Evans and Carlo Fanelli. Ryan Kelpin is one of more than 20 contributors to the book. He joins us to talk about Doug Ford’s radical restructuring of municipal governments.
Feb 08, 2025•21 min
Solidarity Is the Political Version of Love: Lessons from Jewish Anti-Zionist Organizing was published last year by Haymarket Books. The two authors, Rebecca Vilkomerson and Rabbi Alissa Wise, were both staff leaders of Jewish Voice for Peace from 2010 to 2020. In the book, they ask what the politics of solidarity look like in practice, and how left-wing organizations can grow—in numbers and power—while remaining accountable to the broader movements of which they are a part. Rebecca and Alissa w...
Feb 06, 2025•1 hr 1 min
Last week, Amazon announced that it will lay off all its workers at seven warehouses, fulfillment centres and sorting stations in Quebec. Almost 2000 workers will lose their jobs, 1,700 of which are permanent positions. After a two-year effort, workers at an Amazon warehouse in Laval had unionized with the Confédération des Syndicats Nationaux last May. Amazon claims that its decision to close the Quebec operations was not because of the worker’s successful unionization. The union disagrees. We ...
Feb 04, 2025•19 min
Next week Vancouver City Council will get updates on childcare, seniors’ services and a healthy water plan as well as some interesting potential new developments. But the big story is Mayor Ken Sim’s stunning announcements about the Downtown Eastside and they don't appear on any agenda. Redeye collective member Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report for February 1.
Feb 02, 2025•19 min
In a recent project based in Scarborough, Ontario, Black youth are teaching their communities about their rights, justice and the law using hip hop. The organization RISE offered a Legal Art-ivism program where participants learned about the law, and then developed musical and artistic performances that shared that knowledge using forms that were accessible and engaging to their peers. Sociologist and PhD Candidate Anna Lippman from York University spent time researching the program and its outc...
Jan 29, 2025•18 min
