Redeye

Flawed ideas about heroin and people who use it have shaped drug law and policy in Canada for decades. An illustrated book by Susan Boyd traces the history of Canadian heroin regulation over two centuries. Susan Boyd is a scholar/activist and distinguished professor at the University of Victoria. She joined us in May 2022 to talk about her book Heroin: An Illustrated History.

A report by Independent Jewish Voices documents in detail the reprisals, harassment and intimidation faced by Canadians who engage in scholarship and activism in the area of Palestinian human rights. The report discusses how this chilling effect blunts and shapes the discourse around Palestinian rights and criticism of Israeli policy. We spoke last fall with report co-author, Sheryl Nestel.

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. Standoff is the title of a book of essays by lawyer and historian Bruce McIvor. In it, he examines why reconciliation is failing and what needs to be done to fix it. Bruce McIvor is a member of the Manitoba Metis Federation and a partner at First People’s Law. He represents First Nations across Canada from Wet’suwet’en opposing the Coastal Gas Link pipeline to Mi’kmaw exercising their fishing rights in Nova Scotia. We spoke with him in December 2021.

A new report published last month by the office of the Representative for Children and Youth seeks to understand why hundreds of children are disappearing from the child welfare system in BC. It was written in response to the hundreds of reports coming into the Office of children missing from care, many of whom go on to experience critical injury or die. We speak with Dr. Jennifer Charlesworth is Representative for Children and Youth.

A new research review examines how people with long Covid have struggled to get information about their condition. It says patients’ experiences seeking information about their symptoms can be described as frustrating, uncertain, and complex. We speak with the lead researcher of the study, Simran Purewal, who is at the Pacific Institute on Pathogens, Pandemics, and Society at Simon Fraser University and senior scientist Kaylee Byers, also from PIPPs.

The rise of the gig economy using platforms like Uber and Skip the Dishes has led to a steep rise in the prevalence of precarious work. Precarious work is not new but we don’t know just how widespread a problem it has become because Stats Canada does not collect data on it. The pilot BC Precarity survey conducted by Iglika Ivanova and Kendra Strauss aims to fill that gap. We speak with Iglika Ivanova to find out what the survey revealed.

360 Riot Walk is an immersive, self-guided 360 ° video walking tour of the 1907 Anti-Asian Riots in Vancouver. Now, a book based on the walk adds new dimensions to our understanding of those events. The book will be launched June 30 at the Sun Yat Sen Gardens in Chinatown. We’re joined by Henry Tsang, artistic director of the tour and author of the book.

Academics from universities across Canada have issued an open letter calling for an end to the eviction of encampments in Vancouver. The letter is in response to the wholesale removal of tents along Hastings Street that took place in the first week of April. It’s addressed to the mayor and council, union and health officials plus members of the provincial government. We talk with Jeff Masuda, Professor in the School of Public Health and Social Policy at the University of Victoria.

Hassan Diab has been entangled in a 15-year legal battle against claims he is a terrorist. Last week, the Assize Court in Paris found Dr. Diab guilty of perpetrating a 1980 bomb attack outside a synagogue in Paris. In a new trial, the French court sentenced the Ottawa academic to life in prison, despite the fact that both the Canadian and French justice systems have already found a lack of credible evidence. We speak with Alex Neve, senior fellow in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa.

The last Vancouver City Council approved a plan to make Vancouver the most accessible city in the world. The new ABC majority had “best in the world” as one of their campaign promises too and wanted a quick update on the planning early on in their term. That update report was before Council this week. Redeye collective member, Ian Mass joins Lorraine Chisholm with his City Beat report to talk about the accessibility plan, along with safety for pedestrians, ongoing conflict at the School Board and another setback for the Salish Sea.

Eight years ago multidisciplinary artist Mark Timmings and digital media artist Brady Marks joined forces to create the Wetland Project, a soundscape focusing on a marsh beside Mark Timmings’ home on Saturna Island. Since then, Brady and Mark have produced an award-winning book about the project, and, on Earth Day this year, the sounds of the ṮEḴTEḴSEN marsh will be heard as far away as Paris. Brady Marks and Mark Timmings join us today to talk about the project and its ongoing development.

C-IRG is a specially trained section of the RCMP, established in 2017, who are responsible for intervening in conflicts between local communities and industry in British Columbia. By 2022, the Civilian Review and Complaints Commission for the RCMP had received over 500 complaints in areas where C-IRG is active. Now the CRCC has announced a systemic review of the force, but a new group says C-IRG is not reformable and should be abolished. We speak with front-line activist Molly Murphy and law prof Irina Ceric of the Abolish C-IRG coalition.

The Canada-U.S. Safe Third Country Agreement came into effect in 2004. Under the agreement, those applying for refugee status in either country at an official border crossing are turned back. On March 24, Justin Trudeau announced that the Safe Third Country Agreement was being expanded to apply to the entire Canada-US border, including unofficial crossings. Immigration lawyer Zool Suleman joins us to talk about the impact of this expansion.

Vancouver City Council met this week to consider the recent clearing of the Downtown Eastside tent city on Hastings Street, the sale of wine in grocery stores, a new climate change initiative and the possible sale of an elementary school on the West Side. Redeye Collective member Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report.

Leading privacy, technology and civil liberties experts are urging Canadian Members of Parliament to vote against the federal government’s proposed Artificial Intelligence and Data Act which would regulate AI. Signatories to an open letter say the proposed legislation is flawed beyond repair. We speak with Tim McSorley, national coordinator of International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group.

Involuntary treatment is currently allowed under B.C.'s Mental Health if a doctor deems it necessary for a person’s health and safety, as well as the safety of others. However, Premier David Eby is proposing to expand the system to cover people who overdose. Last week, Pivot Legal Society released a position paper responding to this move and calling for the elimination of involuntary treatment. Tyson Singh Kelsall is a social worker in the Downtown Eastside and PhD Student at SFU's Faculty of Health Sciences.

Special rapporteur David Johnston has been tasked with assessing the extent and impact of foreign interference in Canada’s electoral processes. On March 21, academics and activists across Canada penned an open letter of caution to Johnson, warning that discussions of foreign interference and national security can quickly become toxic. We speak with John Price, professor emeritus of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria and member of the Canada-China Focus Advisory Group.

In the early days of the pandemic, feminist organizations around the world called for a recovery that would respond to immediate needs and advance structural reform, ensuring a gender-just recovery for everyone. A new report takes stock of Canada’s response to the pandemic using a gender lens. A new report compares the response of the federal government with similar governments internationally, and looks at how different provinces addressed the crisis. We speak with author Katherine Scott, senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report for March 25 to talk about bear spray, ornamental water fountains, parks and farm land becoming industrial lands, the 2022 Vancouver municipal election and the Broadway plan.

For most Canadians, information about the world events comes via the corporate media. And while reporters may strive to be objective, the corporations who employ them often have a different agenda. This fact has a huge impact on the news we get about Israel and Palestine. A new initiative by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East aims to hold the media accountable for bias and inaccuracies in reporting on the region. We speak with Thomas Woodley, president of CJPME.