Redeye

Mel Watkins died in 2020 at age 87. Mel Watkins was a political economist at the University of Toronto, as well as an activist and writer. In the late 1960s, he was founder and co-leader, with James Laxer, of The Waffle, a left-wing political formation within the NDP that advocated for an “independent, socialist Canada.” Jim Stanford is author of a collection of essays on Mel Watkins’ Staple Theory of Economic Growth. Jim Stanford was formerly an economist with Unifor, and is currently director of the Centre for Future Work. He joined us in April 2020 to pay tribute to his friend and mentor.

In 1884, the Canadian government banned the Haida potlatch. But Haida elders kept the knowledge of the ceremony alive until the ban was lifted. In 1969, a potlatch was held to honour the raising of the first totem pole in 80 years, carved by Robert Davidson. Sara Florence Davidson co-wrote Potlatch as Pedagogy with her father to show how Haida traditions can be brought into present-day classrooms. She joins us in our studio to talk about the process of writing the book – and tells the story of how her father came to carve that first pole at the age of 22.

Precarious work was a major risk factor during the pandemic, and was implicated in the catastrophe that took place in long-term care. A report released last month in Ontario says that government inaction on workplace protections is undermining pandemic recovery. It documents how lack of workplace protections like decent wages and paid sick days has widened existing health inequities. We speak with Dr. Danyaal Raza, a family physician in Toronto and a member of the Decent Work and Health Network.

Northern BC is a territory roughly the size of France, but there is no public transportation system for the 200,000 people who live there. This means each family is obliged to buy and maintain at least one car or truck if they want to be able to get around. We speak with Peter Ewart, a writer and community activist based in Prince George, about the urgent need for a public bus system in rural BC.

Cycling for transportation and recreation is a climate-friendly way to move around your city. It’s affordable and healthy as well as an efficient use of urban space. But in British Columbia, cyclists are endangered every day by out-dated laws that fail to regulate and educate drivers to take care around vulnerable road users. HUB Cycling is advocating for better laws to protect people cycling and walking. We speak with Jeff Leigh, Chair of the Regional Advisory Committee for HUB Cycling.

Flawed ideas about heroin and people who use it have shaped drug law and policy in Canada for decades. A new 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 joins me today to talk about her new book Heroin: An Illustrated History.

What if BC could massively increase public investment in below-market rental housing and that investment could pay for itself? Alex Hemingway is senior economist and public finance policy analyst at the CCPA BC Office. We talk about how this idea would create thousands of low-cost rental homes with no increase in public debt.

The US Supreme Court judge is poised to overturn Roe vs. Wade. In Canada, the landmark abortion rights case is the 1988 Morgentaler ruling, which struck down the country’s abortion law as unconstitutional. But legal protection is not the same as equal access and in many parts of the country, surgical abortion is still practically unavailable. I speak with Meghan Doherty of Action Canada for Sexual Health and Rights.

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.