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Support for the police is grounded in a series of beliefs about our society – that Canadian laws are just, that the police treat everyone equally, and that without the police, communities would descend into chaos and disorder. The movement to defund the police says these beliefs are myths and imagines a world where police power is eroded and dissolved forever. Disarm, Defund, Dismantle is a new book about police abolition in Canada. I speak with editor Kevin Walby and contributor Jessica Evans.

Ian Mass joins us with his final City Beat till council ramps up for the civic election in the fall. On the agenda, densification and the Broadway plan, a 100-year-old heritage building that no-one wants and a motion to end the detention of applicants for refugee status in provincial jails.

San Francisco has passed a law that requires landlords to bargain with renters who want to organize. The Veritas Tenants Association, whose members live in housing owned by one of the biggest private residential landlords in the city, started a rent strike in Sept 2021. The law was passed after the landlord refused to meet and negotiate with the tenants association. Lenea Maibaum is an organizer at Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco and a member of the Veritas Tenants Association.

In 1956, the Canadian government declared the Arrow Lakes Indian Band, people of the Sinixt Nation, to be extinct. This was one in a long line of colonial attacks against an Indigenous nation whose territory encompasses a long valley that spans what is now the US-Canada border. The Sinixt were not extinct, and continue an active resistance to protect and regain their territories. A new film, Beyond Extinction: Sinixt Resurgence tells the “ongoing story of a people who reject their colonial ghost status.” The film is available online until May 15. We speak with filmmaker Ali Kazimi.

A provincial Special Committee on Reforming the Police Act in BC released its report last week with eleven recommendations that the committee says will lead to “transformational change in policing and community safety.” Meenakshi Mannoe wrote Pivot Legal’s submission to the committee, focusing on curtailing the role of police in complex social issues and eradicating systemic racism within police agencies. Meenakshi Mannoe shares her reaction to the report.

Hollaback! began as a blog to collect stories of street harassment. Now called Right To Be, it has evolved into an organization that fights harassment in all its forms. The first training they developed was on tools to combat street harassment. They have just completed a study that shows the effectiveness of the training for participants. We speak with director of training Kelly Erickson.

In December 2020, a group of Black federal employees filed a proposed class-action lawsuit in the Federal Court of Canada, seeking long-term solutions to address systemic racism and discrimination in the Public Service of Canada. We speak with Nicholas Marcus Thompson, organizer and lead plaintiff in the case.

The pandemic has killed an estimated 18 million people around the world, with many more dying in lower-income countries where vaccination rates remain low. Despite this, Canada continues to oppose an IP waiver at the WTO meaning that vaccines are only available in wealthier countries. We talk with Nikolas Barry-Shaw about how the Canadian government is working with the pharma industry to preserve patents on life-saving vaccines.

If it is built, the Midwest Carbon Express will be the world’s largest carbon capture and storage pipeline. It’s being developed by the Iowa-based company, Summit Carbon Solutions and faces strong opposition from a broad coalition of Indigenous communities, Iowa landowners and environmental groups. Andy Currier is the author of a new report on the Midwest Carbon Express for the Oakland Institute.

Public safety and violent crime have become hot topics as Vancouver City Council grapples with an ever-expanding police budget. On this week’s council agenda: public safety, CCTV cameras and the police budget; an apology to the Italian community, business taxes, affordable housing and much more. We’re joined by Ian Mass with City Beat.

Earlier this month, Israeli soldiers raided the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, a Muslim holy site in Jerusalem. Soldiers threw teargas and stun grenades as they entered the compound and mosque, assaulting hundreds of people. Arming Apartheid is a new report by Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East. It says that Canada’s arms exports to Israel have been accelerating in recent years and reached a 30-year high in 2020. We speak with lead author Michael Bueckert.

FortisBC, the largest natural gas distributor in BC, has developed learning resources for schools, marketed as a free K-12 online curriculum developed by teachers and based on BC’s current curriculum. The Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment is raising the alarm over this type of biased content in schools. We speak with Dr. Lori Adamson, an emergency room physician in Salmon Arm and parent of a child in elementary school.

While the April 7 budget did include some money for housing coops and non-profit housing, there is little to improve the situation for renters across Canada. We speak about housing and the federal budget with Ricardo Tranjan, political economist and senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Ontario office.

Brent Eichler has been on hunger strike since March 25, calling for a public meeting with Forests Minister Katrine Conroy about the protection of the province’s old-growth forests. Brent has since been joined in his hunger strike by a number of other members of Save Old Growth. In addition to hunger strikes, the group also resumed its blockades of the Trans-Canada Highway at various locations in the province on Monday. We spoke with Brent Eichler last week.

Hotel workers at the Hilton Metrotown in Burnaby are involved in the longest hotel lockout in British Columbia’s history. We speak with Stephanie Fung, Communications Organizer for UNITE HERE Local 40, the Union representing the workers. She’s also a member of Asian Canadian Labour Alliance.

It has been 100 years since Vancouver developed a city-wide plan. That plan reserved over 70% of the city for single family residences. A century later, Vancouver has a new draft city plan. Public comment is open until April 24th and then it goes to council in June for debate. Ian Mass is here with City Beat to discuss the Vancouver plan, the capital budget, the police budget, a mansion tax, 2030 Olympics and lots more.

The Alberta government’s recent public inquiry into “anti-Alberta energy campaigns” was set up to find out how much money was flowing from US foundations to Canadian environment groups. The inquiry was not tasked with finding out how much foreign money was flowing into the Alberta oil patch and influencing Albertan and Canadian politics along the way. Gordon Laxer has done his own investigation. We speak with him about the report Posing As Canadian.

Ukraine’s total external government debt amounts to $54B. The country is set to pay more than $7B in debt repayments this year alone. Lenders have responded to the war and the financial crisis in Ukraine by lending even more money. The Jubilee Debt Campaign in the UK says now is the time to cancel Ukraine’s debt and allow it to spend its money on urgent humanitarian needs.

At the end of February, the Social Media Lab at Ryerson University launched the Ukraine-Russia conflict misinformation dashboard. The dashboard is a website for monitoring online misinformation and disinformation about the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. It tracks debunked claims from fact-checkers from around the world. We speak about the dashboard with Professor Anatoliy Gruzd, Canada Research Chair in Privacy-Preserving Digital Technologies.

Although the municipal elections are not until October 15, Vancouver candidates are positioning themselves in advance of debates on public safety, the 2030 Winter Olympics, housing and cultural heritage, coming to City Council this upcoming week. Ian Mass joins us with his regular City Beat report.