Redeye

The Healthcare for All National Coalition is calling on all levels of government to ensure healthcare access for everyone in Canada. Their open letter to the federal government was endorsed by more than 200 organizations, including the Canadian Medical Association and the Canadian Labour Congress. Janet Cleveland is a researcher on the rights and health of refugees and non-status migrants at McGill University. She joins us again to talk about why this issue is so important.

The Covid-19 crisis has disproportionately impacted communities already vulnerable because of poverty, racism and other forms of inequality. The Vancouver Just Recovery Coalition formed to advocate for a progressive, equality-focused recovery when the pandemic is finally over. We speak with Kimberley Wong and Matthew Wong, co-chairs of the Coalition.

The Migrant Workers Centre in Vancouver has launched a campaign calling on the federal government to grant an amnesty to the thousands of undocumented workers in Canada. They say the Covid-19 crisis has exposed the extent to which the Canadian economy depends on migrant workers and it’s essential to regularize their status immediately. Natalie Drolet is staff lawyer and executive director of the Migrant Worker Centre. We spoke with her on May 5.

On April 2nd, Mel Watkins died 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 joins us to pay tribute to his friend and mentor.

It’s a familiar story these days. Land defenders and activists blockade a road to try to prevent a pipeline or an oil terminal being built. Resource corporations go to court to get an injunction, then the RCMP move in and make arrests. Solidarity actions erupt, resulting in more injunctions and more arrests. Irina Ceric and Shiri Pasternak say that the decision to grant injunctions has become a political one as much as a legal one. Irina Ceric is a lawyer and criminology instructor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University. She joins us in our studios.

Sharon McIvor’s grandmother was a member of the Lower Nicola Band who married a non-Indigenous man. Under Canada’s Indian Act, status was decided on the basis of male lineage and so their daughter was ineligible for registration as an Indian. Sharon McIvor launched a landmark case to gain equality and won a sweeping legal victory in 2007. The Canadian government continued to drag its feet. Sharon McIvor took the case to the United Nations in 2011. Canada finally ended sex-based discrimination in the Act on August 15.

Ian Mass joins us with our regular City Beat. In this episode, he talks about Vancouver’s big new culture plan, Kennedy Stewart’s about to take control of the tent city at Oppenheimer Park, and a cynical move by the Maple Ridge mayor to turn 200 layoffs at the Hammond lumber mill into a real estate opportunity.

The day after Yves Engler went to a press conference to ask Marc Garneau a question about arms sales to the Saudis, two RCMP officers showed up at his Montreal home to talk with him. We speak with Yves Engler about his recent attempts to raise foreign policy criticism at public events and the RCMP’s response to his actions.

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.

Salakshana, Jeeti, and Kira Pooni suffered years of sexual assault after their older cousin moved into their Williams Lake home almost four decades ago. Baljit Sangra’s new film Because We Are Girls accompanies the Pooni sisters in the final three years of their long fight to bring their abuser to justice. Because We Are Girls has its world premiere May 1 at the Hot Docs festival in Toronto. It opens the DOXA film festival in Vancouver on May 3. We talk with Baljit Sangra from Toronto.

Following the Christchurch massacre, many Canadians are questioning the commitment of some Canadian politicians to an inclusive, multicultural society. In particular, Jason Kenney of the Alberta United Conservative Party and Andrew Scheer of the federal Conservative Party have been called out for their weak response to the Christchurch killings and the far right in Canada. Bashir Mohamed is an independent journalist based in Edmonton who has been tracking the connections between Kenney, Scheer and the far right.