Redeye

In May last year, the Alberta government cancelled blanket environmental protections that had been in place since the 1970s, paving the way for foreign mining companies to operate open-pit coalmines in the eastern foothills of the Rocky Mountains. We talk with Toby Malloy of the National Farmers Union.

The 4,300 unionized employees who work at the publicly-owned Hastings Park at the Pacific National Exhibition have been left out of Canada's economic recovery plan and are subsequently out of work. Vancouver City Council finally paid some attention to this issue last week. Also, in this week’s City Beat report, Ian Mass talks about housing for renters, VSB property, the Port of Vancouver and a nasty fight at Surrey Council.

As the world struggles with the second wave of the pandemic and vaccines are being rolled out, we are starting to hear calls for an app that could store a record of a Covid-19 vaccination. Françoise Baylis is a philosopher with a special interest in medical ethics. She tells us some of her concerns with how a vaccination record for Covid-19 could be used.

In 2017 the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons started an international movement to develop a treaty on the prohibition of nuclear weapons. On January 22, the treaty was endorsed by 122 countries at the United Nations. Canada was not a signatory but there is a petition to Parliament to change that. Dr. Nancy Covington is with the Canadian affiliate of the International Physicians for Prevention of Nuclear War.Sign the petition: https://petitions.ourcommons.ca/en/Petition/Sign/e-3028

On Jan 18, Nunavut Independent Television made history when it launched Canada’s first all-Inuit Inuktut TV channel. Uvagut TV is the first Indigenous–language channel in Canada. Lucy Tulugarjuk is chair and executive director of Nunavut Independent Television. She’s also director of the Inuit-language children’s film, Tia and Piujuq. Lucy Tulugarjuk speaks with us two days after Uvagut TV goes on the air.

There are a complex web of laws and jurisdictional issues that affect our coasts and oceans. The question is how we can use these laws to better protect our water and marine life. West Coast Environmental Law has put together a guide to these marine protection laws. We speak with lawyer Stephanie Hewson about that guide.

The Vancouver School Boards owns billions of dollars worth of property around Vancouver, including the land that the Kingsgate Mall is located on. Some VSB trustees are considering selling off land to private developers to meet funding priorities. OneCity school board trustee Jennifer Reddy is opposed to what she calls the privatization of public land. She explains her concerns.

As the climate emergency advances, we need to push for a just transition for everyone. Workers in extractive industries, and the communities that depend on them, deserve solid plans to address the negative effects of the fossil fuel wind-down. Marc Lee and Seth Klein take a look at possible models in a recent post on the CCPA blog, policynote.ca. We talk with senior economist Marc Lee.

Six years ago, the BC Civil Liberties Association made a complaint against the RCMP after it discovered that it spied on the activities of people opposed to Enbridge’s Northern Gateway pipeline project. The final report of the Complaints Commission for the RCMP came out in mid-December. We talk with Jessica Magonet of the BCCLA about what the report said and why it took so long to come out.

The MST Corporation is a partnership between the Musqueam Indian Band and the Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nation and it’s the developer of a big parcel of land in the Cambie corridor. Ian Mass joins us in a new edition of City Beat to tell us more about MST and to discuss other civic issues from land acknowledgements in Surrey to inappropriate tweets in Vancouver.

The global pandemic has deepened the divide between the wealthy and those struggling to make ends meet. This crisis of inequality has fostered new calls for a wealth tax. Two Ontario doctors say that healing economic inequity will lead to better health for everyone. Drs. Danyaal Raza and Edward Xie published the recent commentary, Let’s turn wealth into health with a 1% tax on the rich on healthydebate.ca. We speak with Dr. Edward Xie.

The National Trust manages historic properties and areas of countryside in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In September, the Trust commissioned a report on connections between their properties and colonialism, including links with historic slavery. The report attracted the attention of a group of Conservative MPs who are attempting to discredit the work of the historians who produced it. We speak with Professor Corinne Fowler of the University of Leicester about the work and the attacks on it.

British Columbia's energy minister says he has received a report on the status of the Site C dam project and will present its findings to cabinet soon. Bruce Ralston says the report by former deputy finance minister Peter Milburn is "helpful," but he wouldn't discuss its findings until they are reviewed by the cabinet and Premier John Horgan. We talk with Rita Wong, long-time activist and opponent of the Site C dam.

The newly released book Great Anarchists aims to bring radical ideas to a wider, non-academic audience. The book presents a series of vignettes on ten individuals who helped to lay the foundations of the anarchist tradition. We speak with co-author Ruth Kinna of Loughborough University in the UK.

As B.C. expands the safe supply program for illicit drugs, researchers are calling on the province to do the same for people living with severe alcohol dependencies. BC currently has five of Canada’s managed alcohol programs – known as MAPs. We speak with Meaghan Brown is a PhD candidate at the UVic school of nursing and collaborator on the Canadian MAP Study at the University of Victoria.

The tragic deaths of thousands of seniors in care homes has highlighted the critical need for federal standards in the provision of long-term care. The pandemic has exposed a fragmented and under-resourced system that is heavily reliant on for-profit delivery. A new discussion paper released in November proposes foundational principles for continuing care services across the country. We speak with co-author Marcy Cohen.

The vaccine rollout in Canada has given us the sense that there is light at the end of the tunnel. But the pandemic continues to rage, and the picture for poorer countries that aren’t first up for vaccine distribution is much bleaker. Jason Nickerson is humanitarian affairs advisor for Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières in Ottawa. He says equitable access can only be guaranteed through fundamental change to the way that lifesaving medicines and vaccines are developed and distributed. We spoke with Jason Nickerson on Dec 15.

In September, the Canadian government signalled its intention to develop nuclear power as part of its investment in clean technology companies. One aspect of the plan could see small modular reactors placed in remote communities currently powered by diesel. We discuss this new strategy with Susan O’Donnell of the Coalition for Responsible Energy Development in New Brunswick.

A new report by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives takes a look at the economic performance of coal mines located in mountain caribou habitat in northeastern British Columbia, where mining has been identified as a key driver of caribou extirpation. Economist Robyn Allan is co-author of the report, Who Benefits From Caribou Decline?

City councils around the Lower Mainland are wrapping up a busy year, full of unprecedented challenges and crises. Redeye’s City Beat reporter Ian Mass joins us to look back on the six biggest issues municipalities faced in 2020.