Redeye

On March 22, Independent Jewish Voices Vancouver hosted two Israeli war resisters as part of a nationwide Refuseniks tour. , Einat Gerlitz and Tal Mitnick  have been sharing their stories across Canada, shedding light on their public decision to refuse military service in protest of the occupation and the genocide in Gaza. They were joined by physician and author Dr. Gabor Maté. In this episode, we bring you excerpts from last Saturday night’s event at the Peretz Centre in Vancouver.

Advance voting has already begun in the by-election to replace One City councillor Christine Boyle, now an NDP MLA and retiring Green Party councillor Adrienne Carr. The full by-election is scheduled for April 5. Redeye collective member Ian Mass joins us today with his City Beat report. On the agenda, a couple of all-candidate meetings, emerging election issues, the Aquatic Centre rebuild,  and lots more.

B.C. is in the midst of an ongoing public health emergency, declared in 2016 in response to significant levels of overdoses and drug poisonings. In response, BC implemented a decriminalization framework in 2023, removing criminal sanctions for possession of small amounts of certain unregulated drugs.  Less than 18 months later, B.C. amended the framework, effectively re-criminalizing public drug consumption and possession in public spaces across B.C.  A commentary published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health assesses this amendment through a public health lens. We speak with Kelsey Speed, one of the co-authors of the commentary.

Danielle Smith’s government in Alberta brought in legislation that restricts healthcare access for trans and gender diverse young people. Bill 26 prohibits medically-necessary care from being provided to gender diverse people under 16 years old in the province. Egale Canada, Skipping Stone, and five individual gender diverse youth, supported by their parents, have gone to court seeking an injunction against the legislation. We speak with Bennett Jensen, Director of Legal for Egale Canada.

As Canada responds to the economic uncertainty caused by U.S. tariffs, there are grave concerns that relief measures could lead to the increased destruction of Canada’s primary and old-growth forests. Fourteen leading conservation organizations have issued an open letter urging all federal parties to commit to policies that safeguard both forests and workers in the industry. We speak with Jens Wieting, senior policy and science advisor with Sierra Club BC, one of the signatories to the letter.

The Vancouver Public Library has banned staff from wearing symbols of solidarity with Palestine. Many patrons of the library see this as an assault on the VPL's core values of freedom of expression and intellectual freedom. Last week, Concerned Patrons of VPL held an event to protest the ban, and to draw attention to its  hypocritical and discriminatory nature.  One of the speakers at their event was Omar El Akkad, a guest VPL author who famously tweeted “One Day, Everyone Will Have Always Been Against This”. We speak with Tamer Aburamadan, a Palestinian community member and part of Concerned Patrons of VPL.

Canada’s special representative on combating Islamophobia, Amira Elghawaby, just brought out a new guide to address anti-Muslim racism in our country.  Among the key strategies it identifies is the need to share resources, support networks and advocacy tools. The Maru Society of BC is launching stopislamophobia.ca, an education and outreach campaign in Greater Vancouver and across British Columbia. We speak with Zool Suleman, lawyer and executive director of the Maru Society.

The oil pipeline company Energy Transfer has brought a SLAPP suit against Greenpeace over the 2016-17 protests at Standing Rock.  The $300 million lawsuit threatens Greenpeace’s financial existence and has major implications for Indigenous rights and the right to free speech and protest. Thirteen environmental groups have signed a solidarity letter raising concerns. Lorraine Chisholm speaks with Paul Paz y Miño of Amazon Watch, a signatory to the solidarity letter.

A group that advocates for better transit in Greater Vancouver says that if new funding isn’t found to sustain TransLink’s operations by April, we could be facing a 30% cut in rail service and a 50% cut in bus service and leaving some neighbourhoods without a single bus route. Denis Agar is the executive director of Movement: Metro Vancouver Transit Riders. He joins Lorraine Chisholm to talk about their campaign to Save The Bus.

Both Ontario and Germany just had elections. In Germany, more than 80% of the electorate turned out to vote.  In Ontario, it was less than 50%. In Germany, the number of seats in the German parliament reflected what voters said with their ballots. In the Ontario election, just 20% of the voters were able to hand Doug Ford a sizeable majority. Fair Vote Canada says the two elections pose a sharp contrast in what democracy can be. We’re joined by Ted Cragg, a long-time volunteer with Fair Vote Canada.

The oil and gas industry has a long history of attempting to shape public perceptions of fossil fuel use and sow doubt about the science of climate change. A new report by the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment and For Our Kids finds that oil and gas companies have funded and supplied misleading climate education to children across Canada.  We’re joined by Anne Keary, one of the co-authors of the report.

Most liars care enough about the truth to try to conceal it. But simply not caring either way is a different vice, one that American philosopher Harry Frankfurt defined as bullshitting. An example would be President Trump claiming the U.S. has a trade deficit with Canada without having any idea whether that’s true or false. Tim Kenyon examines the motivations behind Trump’s relentless bullshitting in an article published Feb 25. Tim Kenyon is a professor in the humanities department at Brock University and he joins us today on the podcast.

BC Minister of Finance Brenda Bailey tabled the province's 2025 budget on Tuesday this week, the same day that Trump brought in a 25% tariff on all Canadian imports. The tariff situation has since changed and will inevitably change again, but the fact remains that the NDP budget was tabled in a world that is dramatically different from when the government was elected just 4 months ago. Finance minister Bailey defended the projected 10.9 billion dollar operating deficit saying it is necessary to respond to U.S. tariffs and not cut essential public services. We speak with Marc Lee, senior economist with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Next week, Vancouver City Council will get its first look at the full plan for the massive redevelopment of the Jericho lands, the Park Board will try to make biking in Stanley Park safer and more accessible, the Vancouver School Trustees will consider restoring democracy at their meetings and lots more. Redeye’s Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report.

On a misty morning in the fall of 1985, a small group of Haida people blockaded a muddy dirt road on Lyell Island, demanding that the government work with Indigenous people to find a way to protect the land and the future. The Stand is a riveting feature documentary drawn from more than a hundred hours of archival footage from that first blockade and the months that followed. Christopher Auchter, director of the award-winning documentary Now Is The Time, recreates the critical moment when the Haida Nation took a stand to protect their land. The Stand is showing this month in Vancouver and at other locations around BC. We spoke with Christopher Auchter in September last year.

It was a busy week in Vancouver civic politics. Lots of people spoke at City Hall as Ken Sim’s motion to ban on supportive housing came before council, plus the candidates for the April 5 by-election became clear, the design of the rebuild of the Aquatic centre was up for discussion, and lots more. Lorraine Chisholm speaks with Ian Mass in this week’s City Beat report.

This week, the BC Conservative MLA for Vancouver Quilchena reposted a National Post article about the former residential school site in Kamloops, adding a comment that the number of confirmed child burials at the site is zero. The article is about James Heller who pushed the Law Society of B.C. to change its training material to say there were "potentially" burial sites at the former residential school in Kamloops —  instead of more definitive language. Brodie is only one of a number of BC Conservative candidates who has questioned the history of residential school abuse. To discuss these comments and their impact on truth and reconciliation, we speak with Sean Carleton, professor of history and Indigenous studies at the University of Manitoba.

As Donald Trump threatens Canada with an economic war, the country’s political and business class agree that we have to tear down the barriers to trade across provinces. They claim removing these barriers would reduce prices by 15 percent and add 200 billion dollars to Canada’s GDP. Stuart Trew says business lobbyists and right-wing think tanks are exploiting Trump’s threats to push their deregulation agenda. Stuart Trew is a senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives where he directs the Trade and Investment Research Project.

A new report by The Samara Centre for Democracy evaluates abusive content on Twitter during the last Alberta provincial election. The platform, owned by Elon Musk, is now known as X. The study was part of a multi-year initiative that measures abusive content received by Canadian political candidates on social media. It raises big questions about the democratic threats that Canadians face in digital environments. Lorraine Chisholm speaks with Beatrice Wayne, research director at The Samara Centre for Democracy.

Donald Trump’s tariff threats and insistence that Canada become the 51st state have put the issue of national sovereignty firmly on the agenda. It seems obvious that one of the clearest routes to protect Canada now and in the future is to reduce our economic dependence on the United States. One idea that’s been floated is a plan to build an oil pipeline from Alberta to Atlantic Canada. We speak with Hadrian Mertins-Kirkwood, senior researcher at the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, who says what Canada needs is an east-west electricity grid.