Redeye
930 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 22 hours ago - ★★★★★ - 6 ratingsA progressive take on current events. Produced by an independent media collective at Vancouver Cooperative Radio.
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Episodes
Ontario schools launch lawsuit against companies behind social media apps
April 28, 2024 13:10 - 20 minutes - 19.1 MBOn April 5, the Simcoe School Board joined four of the largest Ontario school boards in suing the companies behind Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and TikTok. The lawsuit claims time spent on these apps has led to “an attention, learning, and mental health crisis”. Sachin Maharaj joins us to speak about the case and the impacts of social media apps on students. Maharaj is Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership, Policy and Program Evaluation in the Faculty of Education at the University...
Groundbreaking new study reveals huge climate impact of plastics production
April 28, 2024 13:05 - 13 minutes - 12.5 MBUN negotiations took place in Ottawa last week, aimed at achieving an international plastics treaty. Leading up to these historic meetings, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has just released a groundbreaking study revealing the enormous climate impact of plastic production. We’re joined by Dr. Neil Tangri, Senior Fellow at University of California’s Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy, to talk about the study and what’s needed in the treaty.
Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people need safe, affordable transportation
April 28, 2024 13:00 - 16 minutes - 15.5 MBIt’s been four years since the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released 231 calls for justice. Call to Justice number 4.8 says there must be safe and affordable transportation services for Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people living in remote or rural communities. We speak with two co-authors of a report on improving the intercommunity mobility of First Nations people in Canada. Apooyak’ii / Dr. Tiffany Prete is a member of the Kainai (Blood Trib...
Parents and teachers launch campaign to add the Nakba to BC curriculum
April 21, 2024 18:00 - 17 minutes - 16.4 MBThe BC social studies curriculum includes historical atrocities such the colonization of North America, the Holocaust, and the Rwandan genocide, but there is no mention of the Nakba. The Nakba was the violent dispossession and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from historic Palestine that led to the creation of the state of Israel. Now, parents and teachers in BC have launched a campaign to include the Nakba in the BC curriculum. We speak with Tamara Herman, a Vancouver parent and member of In...
City Beat: Police Board funding cut, Crab Park decampment and more
April 21, 2024 17:30 - 16 minutes - 15.5 MBThis week on City Beat, Ian Mass talks about how Vancouver City Council is planning to take advantage of provincial and federal housing initiatives. Plus the Vancouver Police Board, the oversight body for the Vancouver Police, has had its budget slashed and seen key members resign. And a new city bylaw takes what has been described as an “iron fist approach” to people living in tents in Crab Park. All this and more in our bi-weekly City Beat report.
On to Ottawa Peace Caravan 2024
April 21, 2024 16:22 - 16 minutes - 15 MBOn Mother’s Day, May 12, a caravan of anti-war activists will leave Vancouver for Ottawa, with the message Demilitarize, decarbonize, decolonize. They will be met by a sister caravan leaving from Halifax and arriving in Ottawa May 28. We speak with Ellen Woodsworth, co-chair of Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom, who, together with Canadian Voice of Women for Peace, are organizing the caravan.
40,000 Palestinian flags planted in Vancouver park
April 08, 2024 03:25 - 18 minutes - 16.8 MBLast week, a large memorial was installed near the entrance to Stanley Park in Vancouver. The flags planted in a large grassy area are a visual representation of the number of lives lost due to Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza, and a reminder of Canada’s role in funding the slaughter. This Vancouver installation follows a number of displays across the country and internationally, including in Portland and London. Lorraine Chisholm speaks about the memorial with organizer and community advocat...
Lawsuit accuses FortisBC of misleading the public in its advertising
April 08, 2024 02:25 - 12 minutes - 11.4 MBIf a recent commercial is to be believed, then FortisBC is in the business of selling outdoor gear. Nothing in the 30-second ad of a parent and child walking through a forest suggests that connecting your home to gas could lead to catastrophic global warming. Two concerned B.C. residents and the organization Stand.Earth are taking FortisBC to court for using ads like this to greenwash its products. Lawyers from Ecojustice and Slater Vecchio LLP are bringing the case against FortisBC under th...
City Beat: Council debates motion to create safer, slower streets
April 08, 2024 02:18 - 15 minutes - 13.9 MBNext week, Vancouver City Council considers tenant protection for residents of single room occupancy hotels, a 30 kph speed limit on all Vancouver streets, e bikes and scooters on the seawall and lots more. Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report.
Urgent need for bear dens to be protected in provincial legislation
March 31, 2024 13:10 - 15 minutes - 13.8 MBOn March 6, Green Party MLA Adam Olsen retabled a bear den protection bill in the BC legislature for the third time. Olsen has been pushing for legal changes since October 2022 but has yet to have his private members bill heard. For decades, environmentalists and First Nations have been advocating for an amendment to the Wildlife Protection Act to include bear dens. We speak with Mark Worthing, Campaigns and Programs Director at the Awinakola Foundation.
Vancouver councillor wants magic mushroom sales regulated, not criminalized
March 31, 2024 13:05 - 16 minutes - 14.8 MBDrug activist Dana Larsen appealed the loss of the business licence for his Medicinal Mushroom Dispensary in Vancouver. In response, Green Party city councillors Adrienne Carr and Pete Fry voted to re-issue the licence. Now they are going a step further by introducing a motion to create a regulatory framework for psilocybin and other psychoactive mushrooms. We speak with Pete Fry.
Bill to ban fossil fuel advertising doesn’t go far enough
March 31, 2024 13:00 - 15 minutes - 13.7 MBNDP MP Charlie Angus has introduced a private member’s bill calling for a ban on what his party calls 'misleading, deceptive' fossil fuel ads. The NDP says the bill would take the same approach Ottawa took to tobacco ads in 1990s. While there is predictable opposition to the bill from the oil and gas industry, others see the bill as a very modest step towards what is needed.For an assessment of the bill, we speak with Peter Dietsch, a professor in the Department of Philosophy at the Universit...
Big Pharma should be made to disclose how much money it gives doctors
March 24, 2024 13:10 - 17 minutes - 15.9 MBDrug companies often give payments to doctors and other health-care workers for consulting fees, speaking at events or funding research, as well as meals and travel expenses. But, in Canada, it’s difficult to know how much was paid to whom. Our guest, Dr. Joel Lexchin, says this information needs to be readily available to Canadians.
Labour and policy analysts unite on plan for province-wide public transit
March 24, 2024 13:05 - 13 minutes - 12.7 MBA report released last month by the BC Fed and CCPA-BC says British Columbia’s local transit systems could be united into a province-wide public transit network within a decade, offering safe and affordable service throughout the province. We talk with Sussanne Skidmore, president of the BC Federation of Labour, about their vision.
Number of houseless people to rise dramatically without immediate action
March 24, 2024 13:00 - 13 minutes - 12.8 MBUnless governments act to build and save housing that low income people can afford, the number of houseless people in Vancouver is on track to increase by 50% by 2030. This is the stark prediction in the Carnegie Housing Project’s 2024 report, released last month. We speak with Devin O’Leary, one of the co-authors of the report.
Suing for Silence: Sexual Violence and Defamation
March 10, 2024 13:10 - 17 minutes - 15.6 MBA ground-breaking new book examines and exposes the use of defamation law to silence victims of sexual violence. Author Mandi Gray draws on media reports, courtroom observations, and interviews with silence breakers, activists, and lawyers from across Canada to examine the impact of so-called liar lawsuits on those who report or are thinking of reporting sexual violence.
City Beat: Major social housing project planned for East Vancouver
March 10, 2024 13:05 - 11 minutes - 10.9 MBNext week, Vancouver City Council is going to consider a massive social housing development in East Vancouver. Also, on the agenda, expanding free public Wi-Fi in the Downtown Eastside and an update on City plans to dissolve the Park Board. Redeye collective member Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report.
New report shows impact of air pollution on Aamjiwnaang First Nation
March 10, 2024 13:00 - 15 minutes - 14.6 MBLegislation brought in last year will require the government to examine the links between racialization, socio-economic status and environmental risk. That link is very clear in communities like the Aamjiwnaang First Nation just outside of Sarnia, Ontario, in an area known as Chemical Valley. Last year, the Ontario government released the findings of the Sarnia Area Environmental Health Project. Elaine MacDonald joins me to talk about project and the experiences of the Aamjiwnaang First Nati...
Pharmacare deal a big win for people power over corporate profit
March 03, 2024 14:10 - 16 minutes - 14.6 MBThis week Pharmacare legislation was introduced on Parliament Hill. The historic program was announced after months of negotiations with the NDP, who pressed the government to launch Pharmacare as a condition of their supply-and-confidence agreement. On Wednesday, Lorraine Chisholm spoke with Nikolas Barry Shaw, a key campaigner on this issue, in advance of the legislation being tabled the following day. Nikolas Barry-Shaw is the Trade and Privatization Campaigner for the Council of Canadia...
Family stuck in Rafah as father shut out of temporary residency program
March 03, 2024 14:05 - 14 minutes - 13.7 MBFollowing the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Canada introduced a program to allow Ukrainians to temporarily come to Canada. Two years later, the government has introduced a new temporary residency program for people in Gaza. However, Palestinians in Canada are discovering there are major barriers to getting their family members out of the war zone. We speak with Matthew Behrens of the Rural Refugee Rights Network.
Grassroots transit group takes on crisis in Metro Vancouver bus network
March 03, 2024 14:00 - 14 minutes - 13.6 MBIf you live in Metro Vancouver, and get around on transit, you know that the bus network has been seeing unprecedented levels of overcrowding. Even though buses move the majority of riders, there’s no committed funding to expand the system. Dennis Agar thinks that needs to change and he has plenty of ideas about how to do that. Agar is the executive director of Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders. We speak with him in this episode.
BC budget stands up to austerity pressures but falls short on big challenges
February 25, 2024 23:00 - 13 minutes - 12.8 MBOn Feb 22, the BC government brought in their 2024 budget, the last one before the October provincial election. While Kevin Falcon characterized the projected deficit as “reckless” and John Rustad says it was set to “bankrupt the people of the future”, Alex Hemingway says this budget rightfully prioritizes public investment over austerity, but it could go a lot further. Alex Hemingway is a Senior Economist and Public Finance Policy Analyst at the CCPA’s BC Office.
Analogue Revolution: How feminist media changed the world
February 25, 2024 22:57 - 21 minutes - 19.2 MBWe speak with Marusya Bociurkiw, director and writer behind a new documentary tracing the explosion of grassroots feminist media projects from Halifax to Vancouver. She explores how women took up cutting-edge media technology to document everything from violence towards women to how to insert a diaphragm. Analogue Revolution kicks of the GEM festival in Vancouver on March 5.
City Beat: Council hands lowest-paid contract staff a $4 an hour pay cut
February 25, 2024 22:54 - 14 minutes - 13.6 MBNext week, Vancouver City Council will debate paying a certified living wage to everyone who works for the City, both staff and employees of a contracted service. Redeye collective member Ian Mass also discusses the city’s climate emergency action plan and a revitalized vision for West End services in his regular City Beat report.
Colonial powers intact despite Indigenous child welfare court victory
February 18, 2024 14:10 - 15 minutes - 14.2 MBThis month, the Supreme Court dismissed a challenge by Quebec to the Canadian government’s Indigenous child welfare law, reversing a Quebec Court of Appeal decision to declare the 2019 federal law partly unconstitutional. The decision was widely celebrated by First Nations, Inuit and Métis leaders. Yet, according to lawyer Bruce McIvor, the decision has a troubling assumption at its core. Bruce McIvor is a member of the Manitoba Métis Federation and a founding partner at First People’s Law.
Israel's targeted attacks on education, knowledge and culture in Gaza
February 18, 2024 14:05 - 17 minutes - 15.8 MBSince the Israeli bombardment of Gaza began, nearly 400 schools have been damaged or destroyed. Last month, Israel destroyed Gaza’s last standing university. According to Chandni Desai, Israel has a long record of targeted attacks on Palestinian academics and institutions that produce knowledge and culture. Chandni Desai is Assistant Professor in the Critical Studies of Equity and Solidarity at the University of Toronto.
Hourly wage needed to live in Metro Vancouver tops $25 amid soaring costs
February 18, 2024 14:00 - 15 minutes - 14 MBA new report measures how much a family needed to earn to afford the necessities of life in Metro Vancouver in 2023. It found that the gap between the minimum wage and a living wage continues to widen, as housing and food costs spiral upwards. We speak with senior economist Iglika Ivanova, one of the co-authors of the Working for a Living Wage report.
Danielle Smith launches all-out attack on trans and gender-diverse kids
February 12, 2024 01:22 - 20 minutes - 18.3 MBOn February 1, Premier Danielle Smith announced that she plans to implement a slate of policies that target transgender and gender-diverse children and youth in Alberta. The proposed measures go far beyond what has already been brought in in Saskatchewan and New Brunswick. We speak with Corinne Mason, professor in the Women's and Gender Studies Program at Mount Royal University in Calgary.
Taking social media giants to court over platforms harmful by design
February 12, 2024 01:17 - 12 minutes - 11.4 MBIt seems that the more that comes out about the effects of social media on children and youth, the more concerned we should be. Now a law firm that represents victims of social media has filed cases against platforms including Meta, Snap, TikTok, and Discord, on the basis that they are harmful by design. Lorraine Chisholm speaks with Matthew Bergman, founding attorney of the Social Media Victims Law Center.
Federal court decision an important win in fight to protect migratory birds
February 12, 2024 01:16 - 12 minutes - 11.5 MBIn January, the Federal Court agreed with Wilderness Committee and others that the federal government had failed in its duty to protect bird habitat under the Species at Risk Act. The court said Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault needs to reconsider protection measures under the legislation. We speak with Charlotte Dawe of Wilderness Committee.
City Beat: Vancouver falls far short on goal to hire 100 mental health nurses
February 05, 2024 03:08 - 14 minutes - 13 MBVancouver City Council meets next week to talk about those 100 mental health nurses promised in the last election campaign. It’s also going to look at a people-focused Gastown and revisit the living wage debate. Ian Mass joins us with these stories and more in his regular City Beat report.
Canadian climate scientists continue to face political interference
February 05, 2024 03:03 - 18 minutes - 16.9 MBIn the early 2010s, the Harper government’s muzzling of scientists was an issue of urgent concern. Researchers at Dalhousie University have surveyed the current situation and found that, despite some improvement, environmental scientists are still reporting significant interference in their work. We speak with researchers Manjulika Robertson and Samantha Chu.
International students blamed for Canada's housing and health care woes
February 05, 2024 02:58 - 15 minutes - 14.3 MBA couple of weeks ago, the federal government announced a new cap on the numbers of international students coming to Canada. They’re aiming for a 35% reduction over last year. The government and current media coverage of the cap appears to blame international students for Canada’s housing and health care woes. We speak with Leah Hamilton of Mount Royal University.
Canada accused of hypocrisy in failing to support South Africa at ICJ
January 28, 2024 14:10 - 18 minutes - 16.6 MBOn Friday, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel has to take all measures within its power to prevent acts of genocide. In response, Foreign Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly only noted that the ICJ “ delivered its response” and didn’t express support for the ruling or calling on Israel to comply with its legally binding provisions to prevent genocide against Palestinians. Canada’s complicated relationship with the crime of genocide is the subject of a recent article by law prof He...
Vancouver City Council: Issues to watch in 2024
January 28, 2024 14:05 - 26 minutes - 23.9 MBThe 2022 Vancouver municipal election brought in new mayor Ken Sim and a majority of ABC councillors to push through Sim’s significant list of campaign promises. OneCity councillor Christine Boyle joins us to talk about what to expect from the ABC council in 2024.
Hotel workers left behind as hospitality industry rebounds
January 28, 2024 14:00 - 13 minutes - 12.5 MBBC’s hospitality industry got over a billion dollars in government subsidies during the pandemic. At the same time, the mostly female and racialized workforce either lost their employment or had their hours cut. A new report says fallout from the pandemic is still impacting workers’ health and livelihoods. We speak with the report’s author, Alice Mūrage.
Canada falls short in primary care compared to other OECD countries: Study
January 21, 2024 22:51 - 15 minutes - 14.4 MBMore and more Canadians are unable to access public primary healthcare, according to a study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal at the beginning of December. In fact, about 20% of Canadians have no family doctor at all, and many more have irregular access to clinicians. The CMAJ study compares the Canadian primary care system with New Zealand and eight countries in Europe including France, Germany, Italy and the UK. Dr Tara Kiran is the senior author of the study and a fami...
City Beat: Budget task force suggests radical redefinition of core services
January 21, 2024 22:47 - 13 minutes - 12.3 MBVancouver mayor Ken Sim’s specially appointed budget task force missed its deadline for the 2024 city budget but - better late than never - the report comes before council this coming week. The task force is calling for a radical rethink of what the city is prepared to fund as part of its core services. In City Beat, Ian Mass tells us all about the task force report, plus another major project in the offing – the redevelopment of the Jericho Lands.
Mining industry sets its sights on BC's critical minerals in new gold rush
January 21, 2024 22:34 - 12 minutes - 11.5 MBBritish Columbia is preparing a strategy to supply critical used in electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines. The Mining Association of BC is promoting the expansion of over a dozen mines to produce the minerals, and is pushing the province for regulatory and other changes to facilitate mine expansion. Nikki Skuce is co-chair of the BC Mining Law Reform Network and author of report called Critical Minerals: A Critical Look. We speak with Nikki Skuce in this episode.
Police department budgets rise sharply across Canada despite calls to defund
January 14, 2024 20:46 - 23 minutes - 21.6 MBIn 2020, there were widespread calls to defund the police following the police murder of George Floyd. In Canada, a poll from that year found over 50% of Canadians wanted to see police budgets reduced. Despite this, no major Canadian city police department has had its funding reduced and in fact, budgets have gone up. We speak with Ted Rutland is associate professor in geography, planning and environment at Concordia University in Montreal.
BC's new labour standards for gig workers don't go far enough
January 14, 2024 20:41 - 15 minutes - 13.9 MBThere are more than 40,000 ride-hail and food-delivery workers in BC. The province brought in new proposed labour standards in November but Véronique Sioufi says they don’t go far enough, leading to entrenched racism in the sector. Véronique Sioufi is the CCPA-BC’s researcher for racial and socio-economic equity.
Calls for inclusion of caste-based discrimination in BC human rights code
January 14, 2024 20:36 - 11 minutes - 10.3 MBMunicipalities and the labour movement are among those calling for British Columbia to include caste-based discrimination in its human rights legislation. Burnaby city councillor Sav Dhaliwal took up this challenge last year. He joins us to talk about caste system discrimination and what Burnaby has done about this issue.
Supreme Court suspends BC's drug decriminalization rollbacks
January 07, 2024 14:05 - 14 minutes - 13.1 MBOn December 29, the BC Supreme Court granted a temporary injunction to the Harm Reduction Nurses Association, putting BC’s Bill 34 on hold for 3 months. The Bill imposes sweeping restrictions on the province’s decriminalization pilot launched a year ago. We speak with Caitlin Shane of Pivot Legal, one of the lawyers representing the Harm Reduction Nurses Association.
What the COP 28 agreement means for BC and Canada
January 07, 2024 14:00 - 17 minutes - 16.4 MBOn December 12, COP 28 closed with an agreement that the UN heralded as the “beginning of the end” of the fossil fuel era. At the meeting in Dubai, world leaders agreed to quote “transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems”. I spoke with Jens Wieting shortly after the climate conference wrapped to get his assessment of what this means for BC and for Canada.
City Beat: Mayor Ken Sim moves to scrap Vancouver's Parks Board
December 17, 2023 21:28 - 18 minutes - 16.7 MBIn City Beat this week, Ian Mass tells us about the stunning move to abolish Vancouver’s Parks Board, Vancouver’s 2024 budget which includes a climate emergency budget for the first time, plans for new artist studios and much more.
British Columbians invited to share hopes and dreams for public education
December 17, 2023 21:20 - 11 minutes - 10.6 MBEducation and public schools are often a hot button issue. Parents, teachers and governments sometimes have criticisms about our schools. But most people agree that public education should be supported and preserved as an important part of a democratic society. BC's Institute for Public Education is asking British Columbians to share their hopes and dreams for public education. We speak with teacher and IPE board member Barbara Silva.
Brand-new independent media platform features 20 Canadian publishers
December 17, 2023 20:47 - 15 minutes - 14.5 MBIt’s gotten a lot harder to find solid, progressive journalism in the face of social media bans on Canadian news. But there is some good news! A brand-new independent media platform launched last month. Unrigged.ca is a non-profit journalistic collaboration featuring 20 publishers of online articles and op-eds, print magazines, community newspapers, and podcasts covering news and current events from across Canada. We speak with Andre Goulet, one of the people behind the project.
CTV distorts the truth about Israel's violence in Gaza, say journalists
December 03, 2023 14:10 - 14 minutes - 13.6 MBThe independent Canadian media outlet The Breach published a story last week about the suppression of critical coverage of Israel’s war on Gaza. They report that CTV directed journalists not to use the word Palestine and has cultivated a ‘culture of fear’ at the network. We speak with Emma Paling, who investigated the story for the Breach.
National Farmers Union calls for ban on investor ownership of farmland
December 03, 2023 14:05 - 15 minutes - 14.2 MBThe National Farmers Union’s held their annual conference in Ottawa last month. The day before the conference began, NFU members gathered on Parliament Hill to demand a ban on investor ownership of farmland. To find out more, I speak with Rav Singh, youth advisor with the National Farmers Union – Ontario and Hannah Kaya, the NFU’s farm worker organizer.
So many housing initiatives, so little progress on affordable housing
December 03, 2023 14:00 - 15 minutes - 14 MBRecently, there has been a raft of affordable housing initiatives coming from all levels of government. Alex Hemingway is a senior economist from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives of BC. He joins me today to talk about how effective these policies are likely to be and what else needs to be done.