Redeye

The collapse of the Mount Polley tailings dam in 2014 was one of the worst mining disasters in Canada. The dam failure sent hundreds of tonnes of toxic materials, including arsenic, lead, copper and nickel, into Quesnel Lake. More than a decade later, Imperial Metals Corp has been charged in BC Supreme Court with 15 violations of the federal Fisheries Act. We speak with Jamie Kneen, Canada program...

Every year in Metro Vancouver, car crashes kill 100 people and injure many more. Vision Zero Vancouver wants to see the number of deaths and life-altering injuries reduced to zero. They say the problem is not bad drivers, careless pedestrians or reckless cyclists - it’s a system problem, and the designers of our transportation system bear the biggest responsibility for safety. One of their current...

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.

Hogan’s Alley was home to Vancouver’s largest Black and African diaspora community for many years. From 1931 to 1971, the City pressured residents to leave Hogan’s Alley. The final blow was the construction of the Georgia and Dunsmuir viaducts in 1972. The Hogan’s Alley Society is committed to daylighting the presence of Black history in Vancouver. We speak with Djaka Blais, executive director of...

Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have been on strike since November 15.  CUPW represents more than 60,000 Canada Post delivery workers in rural and urban areas across the country. At the heart of the strike is an effort to secure safe working conditions for all postal workers, and a wider struggle against precarious work, as companies drive workers to the gig economy. We speak...

Next week, Vancouver City Council will debate the more than $3 billion City budget, which includes yet another increase in police spending, and determine the tax increase to pay for it. They’ll also discuss the controversial Broadway plan as well as Mayor Ken Sim’s enthusiasm for cryptocurrency. Redeye collective member Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report.

Environmental and health organizations are calling on Canada’s Minister of Health to intervene after a regulatory flip-flop has left an insecticide on the market. A ban proposed in 2018 concerned imidacloprid and two related pesticides used on corn, soybeans, potatoes and other crops. This pesticide has been banned in the European Union since 2018. Neonicotinoids are linked to harms to human healt...

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...

In videos in both French and English, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke directly to viewers to explain his government’s new plan to reduce immigration by roughly 20 per cent. Lisa Brunner has analyzed Trudeau’s explanation for immigration cuts. She talks with us about how it aligns with the government’s own policies and the realities on the ground for would-be immigrants. Lisa Brunner is a Postd...

Between the 1870s and the late 1990s, over 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were forced to attend church-run, government-funded residential schools. As of three years ago, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation had documented more than 4,100 deaths of children at these institutions. In 2022, Kimberley Murray was appointed Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Childr...

Next week Vancouver City Council will debate the first three redevelopment applications under the Broadway plan, at least two of which are meeting with significant neighbourhood opposition.  Council will also debate the use of fracked gas in new building construction, police body cameras and more. Redeye collective member Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report.

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.

During the BC election campaign, both the Conservatives and NDP put significant tax cuts on the table in their policy platforms.  While they were framed as a way of easing pressures on the cost of living, economist Alex Hemingway points out that tax cuts will do little to address the structural inequality underlying those cost pressures.   Alex Hemingway is a Senior Economist and Pu...

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...

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 québéc...

Next week Vancouver City Council will talk about the VPD and traffic cameras, earthquake-proofing rental properties, fracked gas heating in new construction and lots more. Redeye collective member Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report.

On November 12 and 13, the Supreme Court of Canada will hear a case brought by two drivers of sex workers in Calgary who were charged with financially benefiting from sex work and procuring. The drivers claim the charges violate their Charter rights. We speak with Rosel Kim, a senior staff lawyer at LEAF, the Women's Legal Education and Action Fund, one of the intervenors in this case.

A local peace group Vancouver Peace Poppies, together with Vancouver Unitarians, is planning to host an alternative peace-focused ceremony marking November 11 called Let Peace be Their Memorial. This will be their ninth annual wreath ceremony to commemorate all victims of war. We speak with Teresa Gagné, co-founder of Vancouver Peace Poppies.

Sky-high rents, low vacancy rates and fierce competition for scarce homes have become the grim but familiar picture of housing in the Vancouver area. But this housing crisis does not affect us all equally. A new research project by the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives will dig deep into how the crisis impacts immigrants, and racialized and Indigenous people. We speak with researcher Véroniq...

A new book examines the experiences of the women who faced the worst effects of the pandemic and the inequities it exposed. Conscripted to Care reveals how structural inequality placed women on the frontlines of the pandemic response, yet did not provide them with enough resources or a voice in decision-making. We speak with author Dr Julia Smith, assistant professor in Health Sciences at Simon Fr...

Lawyers with Pivot Legal Society and the BC Civil Liberties Association have filed complaints against the Vancouver Police Department for excessive use of force, and for targeting and surveilling pro-Palestinian protestors. The complaints relate to a pro-Palestine protest on May 31 at CN Rails and the VPD use of drones and cell phone cameras at other protests. We speak with Meghan McDermott, staff...

Public health care was one of the issues that was top of mind for BC voters as they went to the polls over the past month. Election officials are conducting a final count this weekend. One thing we can be sure of is that the incoming provincial government will be tasked with resolving the issue of long wait times for surgeries like knee and hip replacements. Conservative Party leader John Rustad p...

In October, 800 senior leaders and industry experts from the aviation and energy industries met in Houston, Texas to discuss how to decarbonize the aviation industry. The current plan is to switch the fuel supplies of the global jet fleet to agricultural feedstocks. Darrin Qualman of the National Farmers Union was at the conference to speak about the grave dangers that will pose to the planet’s fa...

Cottonwood Community Garden is a volunteer-managed community garden in East Vancouver. A new self-guided audio tour of the gardens is being launched this month, bringing an intimate sense of place to a piece of urban nature brimming with life and social connection. With the tour, you can walk through the garden, and listen to stories that bring the history and use of the garden to life. We talk wi...

Green Party councillor Adrienne Carr asks Vancouver City Council to reconsider a snap decision they made last summer to allow natural gas to be used in new building construction. Council will also be looking at giving an international developer a sweetheart deal, and finally after 5 years of waiting, the City has launched a community engagement process addressing historical discrimination against...