Redeye

On March 22, Independent Jewish Voices Vancouver hosted two Israeli war resisters as part of a nationwide Refuseniks tour. , Einat Gerlitz and Tal Mitnick  have been sharing their stories across Canada, shedding light on their public decision to refuse military service in protest of the occupation and the genocide in Gaza. They were joined by physician and author Dr. Gabor Maté. In this episo...

Advance voting has already begun in the by-election to replace One City councillor Christine Boyle, now an NDP MLA and retiring Green Party councillor Adrienne Carr. The full by-election is scheduled for April 5. Redeye collective member Ian Mass joins us today with his City Beat report. On the agenda, a couple of all-candidate meetings, emerging election issues, the Aquatic Centre rebuild,  ...

B.C. is in the midst of an ongoing public health emergency, declared in 2016 in response to significant levels of overdoses and drug poisonings. In response, BC implemented a decriminalization framework in 2023, removing criminal sanctions for possession of small amounts of certain unregulated drugs.  Less than 18 months later, B.C. amended the framework, effectively re-criminalizing public d...

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 injuncti...

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 Wie...

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 th...

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 Col...

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 w...

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...

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 sha...

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...

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...

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 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.

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,...

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.

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 s...

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 deregula...

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 digita...

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 wi...

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 t...

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 Nationa...

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 progres...

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.

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...