Last week, the federal government and First Nations leaders announced a $40 billion agreement-in-principle to compensate young people harmed by Canada’s discriminatory child welfare system. The agreement also sets aside half the money to reform the welfare system. This comes after a 15-year long fight begun by Cindy Blackstock and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society. Sarah Clarke is a lawyer with Clarke Child and Family Law. She has represented the First Nations Child and Family Ca...
Jan 19, 2022•17 min
Archbishop Desmond Tutu passed away on December 26 at the age of 90. For much of the 1970s and 80s, Tutu was one of the foremost critics of apartheid, the South African government’s official policy of racial segregation. After apartheid ended in the early '90s, Tutu was named chair of South Africa's Truth and Reconciliation Commission. This part of Tutu’s legacy is generally known. However his activism encompassed a great deal more. Bill Fletcher is the former president of TransAfrica Forum and ...
Jan 17, 2022•16 min
City councils across the Lower Mainland are waking up from the holidays and gearing up for municipal elections scheduled for this upcoming October. In today’s episode of City Beat with Ian Mass: more money for police, a housing plan for potential homeowners priced out of the market, plus hopes that the three levels of government will cooperate to buy and operate SRO hotels as social housing.
Jan 17, 2022•18 min
Fossil fuel divestment campaigns started a decade ago on U.S. campuses. By 2015, fossil fuel divestment was reportedly the fastest growing divestment movement in history, and campaigns are starting to show results. Emily Lowan is currently studying at the University of Victoria and led Divest UVic’s campaign for 2 years. She joins us to discuss the successes of and barriers to student-led organizing against fossil fuel investment.
Jan 14, 2022•15 min
After almost two years of the pandemic and in the midst of a massive wave of Omicron infections, we are now also seeing rising inflation rates across the country. Some critics say the only answer is to cut government spending, raise interest rates and slow down the economy. Sheila Block disagrees. She’s a senior economist at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. We speak with her about her suggestions for a made-in-Canada solution to high inflation.
Jan 11, 2022•12 min
In July 2017, residents of a suburban development in Markham, Ontario awoke to find a giant chrome replica of a cow called Charity facing their homes. The residents had never been consulted about the installation and quickly rose in opposition to the sculpture. The interactive documentary, Charity, looks at the controversy and the bureaucratic processes involved. It raises questions about the role of public art. We speak with Ryan Ferko, one of the documentary’s creators.
Jan 06, 2022•17 min
The Yellowhead Institute is a First Nation-led research centre based at Ryerson University. They produced a Red Paper in 2019 about land back, the project of reclaiming Indigenous jurisdiction and breathing life into rights and responsibilities. Executive director Hayden King and Matthew Norris of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives discuss the concept of land back in a conversation recorded on December 2.
Jan 03, 2022•37 min
The pandemic has brought into focus the urgent need for a public health that serves everyone in the community, including those who have traditionally been marginalized. A new book by Zena Sharman asks what health care could look like if queer folks had access safe, appropriate and compassionate medical care. Zena Sharman is a writer, speaker, strategist and LGBTQ+ health advocate. Her new book is called The Care We Dream Of.
Dec 30, 2021•16 min
In 2017, the Elephant Hill wildfire in British Columbia burned close to 200,000 hectares throughout Secwepemcu’lecw territory. An Indigenous-led review has found there was a disregard of Indigenous fire management practices and local knowledge leading up to and during the Elephant Hill fire. We speak with Sarah Dickson-Hoyle, co-author of the report and a doctoral candidate in the faculty of forestry at the University of British Columbia.
Dec 27, 2021•15 min
The City of Vancouver 2022 budget complete with a 6.35% tax increase and rezoning for rentals dominated the mainstream civic media these last two weeks. Slipping under the radar were two other important policy and funding initiatives addressing climate change and social infrastructure. Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report.
Dec 21, 2021•15 min
In 2017, the New Westminster school board approved a sanctuary schools policy which aims to give every school-aged child in the district access to education without fear of their personal information being shared with immigration authorities. Yet, on November 30, a mother was handcuffed and detained by Canadian Border Services agents after she dropped her child off at kindergarten at a New Westminster school. We speak with Omar Chu of Sanctuary Health.
Dec 20, 2021•9 min
A U.S. federal jury has said that three major retailers helped flood two Ohio counties with addictive opioids in a first-of-its-kind verdict. The two counties argued that pharmacies at CVS, Walgreens and Walmart did not stop mass quantities of opioid drugs from reaching the black market. We speak about the verdict with Gerald Posner, an investigative reporter and author of Pharma: Greed, Lies, and the Poisoning of America.
Dec 17, 2021•20 min
The River Forecast Centre operates a provincial system that issues flood warnings yet this fall’s abundant rain and intense storms did not appear to trigger critical responses that could have better protected British Columbians. A decade ago an expert report called for changes and increased staffing at the River Forecast Centre, but those recommendations have not been acted on for more than 10 years. We speak with resource policy analyst Ben Parfitt.
Dec 14, 2021•21 min
Judging by the constant stream of news reports of standoffs and confrontations, it’s apparent that Canada’s reconciliation project has gone off the rails. Standoff is the title of a new book of essays by lawyer and historian Bruce McIvor. In it, he examines why reconciliation is failing and what needs to be done to fix it. Bruce McIvor is a member of the Manitoba Metis Federation and a partner at First People’s Law. He represents First Nations across Canada from Wet’suwet’en opposing the Coastal...
Dec 10, 2021•17 min
It is estimated over half of B.C. workers don’t have sick benefits from their employers. That gap moved into sharp relief at beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, when many workers felt forced to go to work while they were sick. And while gaining any paid sick days is an improvement for many workers, advocates say five days falls short of what is needed for a healthy community and a healthy economy. Alex Hemingway is a senior economist for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.
Dec 08, 2021•15 min
Vancouver City Council has worked hard this past year to establish priorities to address climate change, Indigenous reconciliation, and tenant protection for people living in single-room occupancy hotels. The problem is, without money these changes won’t happen. Redeye collective member Ian Mass joins us to talk about the upcoming debate on the 2022 city budget in his regular City Beat report.
Dec 06, 2021•15 min
BC has crown corporations for housing, hydro, transit and a number of other key sectors. Now a new report from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Zero Waste BC is calling for a crown corporation to take on the challenge of recycling. This is just one of a number of key proposals in “A Zero Waste Agenda for BC”. We speak with Sue Maxwell, a sustainability consultant with Ecoinspire Planning Services and one of the authors of the report.
Dec 02, 2021•14 min
The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives has just released its 26th alternative federal budget aptly named Mission Critical: A just and equitable recovery. The goal of the budget is to ensure that the legacy of the pandemic is a publicly-led recovery that leaves no one behind. We speak with David Macdonald, senior economist with the CCPA.
Nov 30, 2021•18 min
As long as Covid-19 exists anywhere in the world, it is a threat everywhere. But, in spite of our shared risk, the world’s richest countries have exercised a “me first” approach to the Covid-19 vaccine, buying up more than half the total. The People’s Vaccine Alliance says our best chance of all staying safe is to ensure a Covid-19 vaccine is available for all as a global common good. We talk with Brittany Lambert of Oxfam Canada.
Nov 29, 2021•13 min
Finance has an oversized presence in contemporary mature nations. It has grown enormously in terms of size, relative to the rest of the economy. And, financialization has crept into all aspects of our lives. Housing, education, and healthcare are all targets for investors. More recently, new investment vehicles are being marketed that would even financialize natural ecosystems. We speak with Randall Wray, senior scholar at the Levy Economics Institute and professor of economics at Bard College....
Nov 26, 2021•14 min
Plastic is everywhere—it’s in our food containers, keyboards, glasses, even our toothbrushes. It’s lightweight, versatile, and so cheap that we often forget how much it permeates our lives. A new book dives into the plastic crisis—answering the questions of who is being harmed, who is to blame and what we must do now to create a more just and livable world for everyone. We speak with author Erica Cirino.
Nov 23, 2021•21 min
In October, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users conducted a survey asking homeless people about the impact of street sweeps by city workers and police. The stress of having to defend personal possessions against seizure or theft is something that homeless people around the world face on a daily basis. A research project is looking at attempts to govern the belongings of the precariously housed. We speak with Nick Blomley, Professor of Geography at Simon Fraser University and one of the rese...
Nov 20, 2021•13 min
Over the past two weeks, Vancouver City Council has heard from close to 1000 people about a policy proposal designed to limit new rental apartment buildings to busy arterials and the streets nearby. Some people argue against any new rentals, others say renters should be able to live in quiet neighbourhoods too. We speak with Danny Oleksiuk, a past member of Vancouver’s Renter’s Advisory Committee and co-founder of Abundant Housing Vancouver.
Nov 18, 2021•12 min
Back in the early 1970s, children from the Raymur housing project in Strathcona were forced to cross train tracks on their way to their elementary school. After months of petitioning for a safe crossing, a group of mothers made their voices heard by blockading the tracks. Carmen Pollard’s short film, Militant Mother, tells the story. We speak with Carolyn Jerome, one of the mothers who stood in front of the trains.
Nov 16, 2021•17 min
Yves Engler is a Montreal-based activist, author and critic of Canadian politics. He just came out with his eleventh book “We Stand on Guard for Whom? A People’s History of the Canadian Military. In the book, he presents a history of the Canadian military from the perspective of its victims. The Canadian Voice of Women for Peace and the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute sponsored an online launch for the book last month. In this podcast, Yves Engler’s presentation from that event.
Nov 14, 2021•34 min
In Guatemala, a trial is underway in the case of 183 civilians who were disappeared or murdered in Guatemala City in the 1980s. A military intelligence document known as the Diario Militar, or Military Diary, is being used as evidence of the systematic terrorism carried out by high-ranking military officials and others. Twelve men are now accused of crimes against humanity. We speak with Wendy Mendez, whose mother was disappeared in 1984.
Nov 12, 2021•26 min
Canada’s extradition act is under scrutiny. The Meng Wanzhou case raised questions about extradition proceedings that have foreign policy implications. Concerns have also been raised about the wrongful extradition of Dr. Hassan Diab to France in 2014. Two years ago, a group of academics, defence counsel and human rights organizations met at Dalhousie University to discuss Canada’s extradition law. Professor Robert Currie joins us to talk about the law reform proposals that came out of that meeti...
Nov 09, 2021•16 min
Carmen Rodriguez is an internationally acclaimed Chilean-Canadian author, educator and journalist. Her new novel, Atacama, is set against the backdrop of Chile in the first half of the twentieth century and Europe during the Spanish Civil War. It is both a sweeping historical novel and gripping tale of personal drama. Carmen Rodriguez joins us to talk about the book.
Nov 07, 2021•21 min
A school district on Vancouver Island has responded to one of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action with a unique resource called Learning with Syeyutsus. Developed in collaboration with UBC Press and their authors, it’s a free, curated speaker series featuring respected authors at the forefront of Indigenous topics. We speak with Scott Saywell, District Superintendent for Nanaimo Ladysmith Public Schools, and Ricki Bartlett, Director of Instruction for Indigenous Education.
Nov 05, 2021•23 min
British Columbians will look back at the summer of 2021 as the one where the climate emergency really hit home. First, there was the heat dome, then months of evacuation orders and wildfire smoke across the province. If it hadn’t been for the cooler wetter weather in August, this year would have set a new record for the number of hectares burned. Now that the rains have set in, it’s a good time to look back at the wildfire season. We speak with Marc Lee, senior economist at the Canadian Centre f...
Nov 03, 2021•15 min
