Redeye

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.

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 pr...

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 organiza...

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 mu...

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...

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...

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.

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. &nbsp...

Vancouver currently bans apartment buildings on 75% of its residential land. The city says that its current infrastructure wouldn’t be able to accommodate high-density housing — and that upgrading the infrastructure to allow for apartment buildings would be way too expensive. But this is just another rationale for NIMBYism, according to Danny Oleksiuk of The Sightline Institute and Alex Hemingway...

The Vancouver Police Department spent the last year exploring the use of body-worn cameras. In November, the VPD asked Council to approve expanding the program to all frontline members. Meanwhile, the RCMP is spending millions of dollars to bring in the use of body-worn cameras across the country. Chris Schneider says body-worn cameras are unlikely to increase public trust and police accountabilit...

A new interpretive letter on the Canada Health Act says primary health care services provided by qualified non-physican practitioners must be covered by provincial and territorial plans. However, the letter left the whole area of virtual care unresolved. Dr. Danyaal Raza is a family physician with Unity Health Toronto’s St. Michael’s Hospital, and an Assistant Professor with the University of Toro...

Next week, Vancouver City Council will debate whether to spend $4M for yet another plan for South False Creek, $3M to continue cutting diseased Hemlock trees in Stanley Park, a motion to install water meters on all Vancouver buildings, Green Party Councillor Adrienne Carr’s resignation and lots more. Redeye collective member, Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report.

The new accord developed between the NDP and the Greens includes a special committee that will look at a proportional representation voting system for BC. The cooperation deal opens up a new opportunity for a fairer voting system in the province, according to Gisela Ruckert of Fair Vote Canada.

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...

After Holborn Properties bought the Dunsmuir Hotel in downtown Vancouver, it allowed the property to deteriorate for nearly 20 years, and evicted all the tenants in 2013. Since then, it has sat empty. Now water damage has caused irreversible interior and structural decay such that Vancouver City Council was called into a special meeting a week before Christmas to deal with a potential imminent col...

Ending Jan 11, Writers Talking - a series of eight conversations from our archives. In 2017,  El Salvador became the first country in the world to pass a comprehensive law banning metal mining nationwide. The vote was the result of a 12-year struggle by small farmers and their allies to protect the waters of the Lempa River from the impact of gold mining. Robin Broad and John Cavanagh tell th...

From now until January 11, Writers Talking - a series of eight conversations from our archives. Travers spent five years talking with trans kids and their parents. Their 2018 book, The Trans Generation, offers a rare look into what it is like to grow up as a transgender child. Travers is a Professor of Sociology at Simon Fraser University.

From now until January 11, Writers Talking - a series of eight conversations from our archives. We Interrupt This Program tells the story of how Indigenous people are using media tactics to rewrite Canada’s national narratives from an Indigenous perspective.  Authors Miranda Brady and John Kelly talked with Lorraine Chisholm in 2018.

From now until January 11, Writers Talking - a series of eight conversations from our archives. Carmen Rodriguez is an internationally acclaimed Chilean-Canadian author, educator and journalist. Her 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 pers...

From now until January 11, Writers Talking - a series of eight conversations from our archives. 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.  In Standoff, lawyer and historian Bruce McIvor examines why reconciliation is failing and what needs to be done to fix it. McIvor is a member o...

From now until January 11, Writers Talking - a series of eight conversations from our archives. Diet for a Small Planet was the first major cookbook to address the environmental impact of meat production. Author Frances Moore Lappé advocated for a vegetarian lifestyle out of concerns over animal-based industries and products. She also argued that world hunger is not caused by a lack of food but by...

From now until January 11, Writers Talking - a series of eight conversations from our archives. In one of our most popular podcasts recorded in August 2021, Earle Peach talks with us about writing songs and shares some of his music. Peach is the director of three Vancouver-based choral groups including the High and Lows Choir and Solidarity Notes Labour Choir. He also plays a bunch of instruments...

From now until January 11, Writers Talking - a series of eight conversations from our archives. In his first book, The Skin We’re In, journalist and activist Desmond Cole challenged the complacency of people who believe Canada is a post-racial nation. He chronicled one year in the struggle against racism in this country. In March 2020, Desmond Cole joined Lorraine Chisholm in the Coop Radio studio...

Bottled water is the world’s most-consumed packaged beverage, but movements to protect water quality and to ensure the right to water are fighting back hard against its commercial exploitation. Now, the water bottling giant BlueTriton has announced it will close Canada’s largest water bottling plant and its entire operations in Ontario after sustained opposition by Water Watch and its allies. We s...

Environmental racism is a systemic issue in Canada. There's a long history of marginalized communities suffering at the hands of industry, all authorized by the Crown. In June this year, the Environmental Justice Act received Royal Assent and became law in Canada. But there are doubts that the meaningful consultation committed to in the Act will result in anything substantial. A new report explore...