Redeye

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. &l...

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 previou...

Rights advocates in Canada are welcoming a new review and complaints body for the Canadian Border Services and the RCMP. A network of nine civil society organizations say the new commission is long overdue, but still falls short of what is needed. We talk with Tim McSorley, National Coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group. <from Nov 2024>

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...

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....

In 2016, Newfoundland filmmaker Justin Simms became the father of a son. Later that year, Donald Trump won his first term as president, fuelled by the rise of white supremacy and a particularly toxic form of masculinity. Simms was daunted by the prospect of being a father to a little white boy, born into middle-class privilege, and started to ask himself what he could do as a father to help him be...

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...

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the federal government introduced a special program to allow Ukrainians to temporarily work, study and stay in Canada until it was safe for them to return home. Nearly 300 thousand people have since arrived through that program. In late 2023, Canada announced a similar program to help Canadians get family members out of Gaza. 10 months later, it is unclea...

Non-disclosure agreements were originally a mechanism for protecting trade secrets. But they are now increasingly used as a matter of default in settlement agreements for all kinds of civil disputes, including those related to sexual misconduct, harassment and discrimination. We speak with Julie Macfarlane of Can't Buy My Silence, a campaign to end the misuse of NDAs. <from Dec 2024>

In the wake of George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, we saw a global reckoning on anti-Black racism. In response to this uprising and demand for action, universities across North America scrambled to make public commitments to racial justice.  But some Black scholars in Canada say these pledges now face a challenging landscape. We talk with Dr. Cornel Grey, assistant professor in the Department...

Think globally, act locally is an old adage, but one that might be relevant as Canada works to strengthen our national economy. With US economic aggression shaking the economy, everyone is searching for ways to bolster businesses and industries here. Dr. Heather Hachigian says Canada’s policy makers need a renewed approach to economic development  – one that focuses on the local. Hachigian is...

PACE Society is a peer-driven organization located in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver that provides support, advocacy, and education for current and former sex workers. In late February, they announced they were temporarily suspending services and programming and laying off most staff. PACE’s announcement followed a string of closures and service reductions at other organizations serving sex wo...

Canada Council director Michelle Chawla says Canadian decision-makers need to acknowledge that the arts have a vital role to play in these uncertain times. In response to the threats of annexation by the U.S. and the tariffs aimed at weakening the Canadian economy, there has been a major rise in nationalistic cultural expression.  Musicologist Rosheeka Parahoo says that when it comes to radio...

Patriotism has surged across Canada in response to Donald Trump’s attacks on our economic stability and sovereignty. In the midst of all this rallying behind the flag, Alpha Abebe says it’s a good time to consider who and what is being obscured in the current surge of Canadian patriotism. She is with the Faculty of Humanities and the Lead for Africa and Black Diaspora Studies at McMaster Universit...

The Nechako River was one of the main tributaries of the Fraser until the Kenney Dam was built in the 1950s. The dam diverted most of the river’s flow to power Rio Tinto Alcan’s aluminum smelter in Kitimat, severely impacting the lives of the local Stellat’en and Saik’uz Nations. Nechako is a new film that documents years of resistance by the two Nations, including a groundbreaking legal proceedin...

The English Language leader’s debate on April 17 ended with the abrupt cancellation of standard post-debate scrum.  At the centre of the incident was the accreditation of right-wing Rebel News and tensions between them and journalists at the event. We talk with the Tyee's Jen St. Denis about what happened that evening in Montreal.

Every December, students across Canada enjoy a two-week break to celebrate Christmas. In spring, Good Friday and Easter Monday bring further celebrations and a long weekend. But for Canadian students who want to mark celebrations in their own traditions, it often means being marked “absent” from school. A research professor who worked with high school students in Alberta says Canada should recogni...

Allegations of political interference involving Alberta Health Services have been swirling around the provincial government for weeks. The former CEO of Alberta Health Services. Athana Mentzelopoulos, is suing the province for wrongful dismissal, saying she was fired in January for looking into the overpays on contracts with private surgical providers. As the province continues to be hit by allega...

The ongoing genocide in Gaza has been widely covered in the Canadian media. Yet the coverage has been shown to be unfair, misleading, and biased in favour of Israel. A 2023 analysis by The Breach of thousands of sentences in Canada’s top newspapers found that the largest Canadian newspapers have given disproportionate attention to the deaths of Israelis, portrayed Israelis in more humanized ways a...

Big news at Vancouver City Hall this week with the election of Lucy Maloney from OneCity and Sean Orr from COPE as the new city councillors. They are jumping into a busy council agenda including public hearings about the massive proposed development on the Jericho lands in Point Grey and four more Broadway plan rezoning. Redeye collective member Ian Mass joins us to give us his thoughts on next we...

People living in highly unequal societies experience a broad range of health and social problems which affect everyone, no matter how much money they have. That’s why we should be paying attention to the latest Statistics Canada data on rising economic inequality in Canada. The latest numbers on household finances show a near-record gap in the share of disposable income held by the top 40% of Cana...

A healthy and robust news environment is central to any country’s democratic health. However the last sixteen years have not been kind to local news outlets in Canada. Many residents of communities, both big and small, now find themselves  living in “news deserts” or “areas of news poverty.” A new report aims to better understand the decline in local news outlets across Canada and to examine...

Mining critical minerals has been called the new gold rush. Nickel, copper and other critical minerals are highly sought after in the drive to manufacture new technologies. And some mining companies want to extract these minerals from the deep sea. The Metals Company, a Vancouver-based mining firm, has spent years promoting the idea that mining in the deep ocean has a relatively low environmental...

Filmmakers Nova Ami and Velcrow Ripper live in Gibsons, B.C. Like most of us here in B.C., they have experienced wildfire smoke in their community every summer for the last few years. This started them reflecting on what they could add to the conversation as documentary filmmakers who’ve covered crises throughout their work. Their new film Incandescence weaves together on-the-ground footage with f...

In recent years, the narrative of immigrants being a drain on the system has been repeated constantly in some Western countries. But we should question how that narrative stacks up against the evidence. A new data set from 22 countries sheds some light on the answer. We speak with Edward Koning, associate professor in political science at the University of Guelph.