Redeye

Shortly after President Donald Trump sent federal agents to Portland, a federal judge in Portland issued a restraining order against the agents barring them from attacking journalists and legal observers. Black Lives Matter Chicago and other organizations have filed lawsuits to prevent a similar occupation of their cities. We speak with Marjorie Cohn, former president of the National Lawyers Guild...

On July 22, the Federal Court of Canada ruled that a pact that turns refugees back at the Canada-US border is unconstitutional. The Safe Third Country Agreement was brought in 16 years ago and designated the United States as a safe country for refugees. The court challenge was brought by the Canadian Council for Refugees, Amnesty International and the Canadian Council of Churches, as well as sever...

Six years ago, Vancouver declared itself a City of Reconciliation. But one of city council’s advisory committees says it hasn’t seen meaningful action on anti-racism or reconciliation. Michelle Cyca is a spokesperson for the Urban Indigenous Peoples' Advisory Committee. We speak with her about why the committee isn’t satisfied with what council has done to advance its stated goals.

Last month Canada was rejected for the second consecutive time in its bid for a temporary seat on the United Nations Security Council, losing to Norway and Ireland. Now many organizations and activists are pushing for a formal and democratic review of Canadian foreign policy. James Mainguy speaks with Tamara Lorincz, who is a member of the Canadian Foreign Policy Institute. (Audio re-uploaded Aug...

In June, the Ontario Court of Appeal ruled that a decades-old section of the Criminal Code was unconstitutional. The law was brought in following the acquittal of a man who sexually assaulted an elderly woman while intoxicated. The federal government enacted Section 33.1 amid reports that extreme drunkenness was being used to defend against a sexual assault charge. We speak with Isabel Grant, prof...

Born in 1931, Tla’amin elder Elsie Paul was raised by her grandparents on their ancestral territory just north of Powell River on the Sunshine Coast of BC. As her adult life unfolded against a backdrop of colonialism, she drew strength from the teachings she had learned. She now passes on those teachings to all who visit a new interactive book published by Ravenspace. We talk with one of the co-cr...

Since the Depression years, the Bank of Canada has played a critical role in recovery from financial crises. The Bank’s current bond-buying program has allowed the federal government to shore up incomes and keep our economy functioning during the pandemic. But we are facing a new age of austerity if governments take their cues from conservative voices already calling for cuts to program spending....

In March, every Canadian province and territory declared some kind of state of emergency in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Public spaces across the country were closed and gatherings were restricted. In some provinces, public health recommendations became legally-enforceable with significant fines attached. A new report looks at some of the results of that enforcement effort. We speak with Abb...

Salt marshes in the Fraser River delta are a vital ecosystem for birds and other wildlife. But they are being squeezed between the dykes that protect farmland on one side, and sea level rise on the other. An innovative pilot project aims to protect the salt marsh so that it can, in turn, protect the low-lying land along the coast. We talk about the project with Sḵwx̱wú7mesh journalist Stephanie Wo...

Close to 4 million Canadians can’t afford to eat well or get enough food to keep hunger at bay. Food insecurity is about more than just access to food - it’s also about poverty, and BIPOC people are disproportionately impacted. We talk with Leslie Campbell, who oversees FoodShare Toronto's school and community based programs.

On July 21, over 200 people are signed up to speak to a motion brought by councillor Jean Swanson calling for the police board to itemize the work officers do related to mental health, homelessness, drug use and sex work. The motion is the first step in an attempt to move funding from the VPD and into community-led harm reduction and safety initiatives. We speak with Taz Khandwani about what the m...

When sociologist Ingrid Waldron started teaching in the School of Nursing at Dalhousie, she says she got a lot of pushback from White student nurses who didn’t understand what race had to do with health. In this wide-ranging conversation, Waldron examines the connections between the social determinants of health, environmental racism and police violence.

Canada has committed millions to research and development of some of the world’s most promising candidate vaccines and therapeutics to treat Covid-19. However there is no guarantee that this expenditure of public money will result in a vaccine or treatment that is affordable. Jason Nickerson is the Humanitarian Affairs Advisor for Doctors Without Borders in Ottawa. He argues that public investment...

Fortis BC is proposing a major $3 billion expansion to its LNG storage facility on the Fraser River. Local residents are concerned 300-metre LNG tankers negotiating the river will pose a serious threat to public safety in Delta. We speak with Eoin Finn of the Friends of Tilbury Coalition about why they think this expansion poses a threat to public safety in Delta. If you would like to comment on t...

Over the past few weeks, Donald Trump has threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act and send military troops into cities and states if they fail to quell the recent protests against racism and police brutality happening throughout the U.S. Chris Savage is a lawyer in Washington, D.C. who is leading an attempt to have the Insurrection Act replaced. We talk with him about the dangers of the current...

In 2018, the Alberta Energy Regulator approved an application for a 10,000-barrel-a-day tar sands project adjacent to Moose Lake. The Fort McKay nation went to court to challenge the approval and, in May, the Alberta Court of Appeal ruled in their favour. Ben Parfitt is a long-time analyst with the BC Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He explains the grounds for the decision a...

Vancouver’s tight rental housing market has eased significantly since coronavirus-related travel restrictions brought many short-rental units back into the rental housing market. Economist Marc Lee of the BC office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says now is the time to make sure that short-term rentals are properly regulated so that renters in Vancouver aren’t squeezed out of the c...

Street checks are when police stop someone in public to question them and record their information in a police database, outside the context of an investigation. Statistics show that Black and Indigenous people are by far the most common target of this kind of police attention. The BC Civil Liberties Association, the Union of BC Indian Chiefs and the Hogan’s Alley Society are calling for a stop to...

Vancouver police evicted homeless campers from a tent city near Crab Park in the early morning of June 16. Organizers and observers say the police moved in without due notice and did not work with local agencies to provide other housing options for the campers. We talk with organizer Chrissy Brett and lawyer Anna Cooper about their concerns about the way the VPD enforced the court injunction to re...

The police killing of George Floyd ignited a global uprising against police violence and created a space for anti-racist voices to be heard. One idea that has gained traction as a result is that of defunding the police and investing in other programs to deliver safety and security. Sandy Hudson co-founded Black Lives Matter Toronto and is vice-chair of the Black Legal Action Centre. She’s currentl...

In 2016, 200,000 Haitians and Dominicans of Haitian descent were rendered stateless overnight in an attempt to expel Black people from the Dominican Republic. Documentary filmmaker Michèle Stephenson returned to her country of birth the following year and tells their story in her new film Stateless. The film is available online all week until Friday June 26 as part of the DOXA film festival. We sp...

The new invasive species the Asian giant hornet has been characterized in the media as the Asian murder hornet. Christianne Wilhelmson and Gillian Der of the Georgia Strait Alliance say terms like this are deeply unscientific and serve to promote racist stereotypes about Asians. We spoke with them on June 1.

In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a marked rise in harassment of people who are Asian and Asian Canadian. These attacks range from verbal assaults to physical assaults. Often we’ve seen bystanders intervene to show solidarity and defend the people being targeted. Asian Americans Advocating Justice and Hollaback have partnered to offer online training in how to safely and effect...

The UN Security Council currently has five temporary seats available. Canada, Ireland, and Norway are vying for two of those seats with the final vote to be held on June 17th. On May 19th, an open letter was published, calling for a “no” vote for Canada to join the Security Council. We talk with Yves Engler, one of the signatories of the letter.

Early signs suggest that race matters, when it comes to COVID-19. In Chicago, black residents are 30 per cent of the population, but make up more than 70 per cent of COVID-19-related deaths. And yet Canada doesn't collect race-based data. In a recent article on Policy Options, physician Aimée-Angélique Bouka and academic Yolande Bouka argue that Canada should be collecting better health data that...