Redeye

Members of the Canadian Union of Postal Workers have been on strike since November 15.  CUPW represents more than 60,000 Canada Post delivery workers in rural and urban areas across the country. At the heart of the strike is an effort to secure safe working conditions for all postal workers, and a wider struggle against precarious work, as companies drive workers to the gig economy. We speak with Adam D.K. King of the Labour Studies Program at the University of Manitoba.

Next week, Vancouver City Council will debate the more than $3 billion City budget, which includes yet another increase in police spending, and determine the tax increase to pay for it. They’ll also discuss the controversial Broadway plan as well as Mayor Ken Sim’s enthusiasm for cryptocurrency. Redeye collective member Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report.

Environmental and health organizations are calling on Canada’s Minister of Health to intervene after a regulatory flip-flop has left an insecticide on the market. A ban proposed in 2018 concerned imidacloprid and two related pesticides used on corn, soybeans, potatoes and other crops. This pesticide has been banned in the European Union since 2018. Neonicotinoids are linked to harms to human health. They are also significant contributors to global declines in pollinator and bird populations. We speak with Dr Meg Sears, Chair of Prevent Cancer Now.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the federal government introduced a special program to allow Ukrainians to temporarily work, study and stay in Canada until it was safe for them to return home. Nearly 300 thousand people have since arrived through that program. In late 2023, Canada announced a similar program to help Canadians get family members out of Gaza. 10 months later, it is unclear whether the program has facilitated the exit of any Palestinians from Gaza. We speak with immigration and refugee lawyer Randall Cohn.

In videos in both French and English, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau spoke directly to viewers to explain his government’s new plan to reduce immigration by roughly 20 per cent. Lisa Brunner has analyzed Trudeau’s explanation for immigration cuts. She talks with us about how it aligns with the government’s own policies and the realities on the ground for would-be immigrants. Lisa Brunner is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Centre for Migration Studies, University of British Columbia.

Between the 1870s and the late 1990s, over 150,000 First Nations, Métis and Inuit children were forced to attend church-run, government-funded residential schools. As of three years ago, the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation had documented more than 4,100 deaths of children at these institutions. In 2022, Kimberley Murray was appointed Independent Special Interlocutor for Missing Children and Unmarked Graves and Burial Sites associated with Indian Residential Schools.  She released her final report, Sites of Truth, Sites of Conscience, last month.  We discuss the report with Professor Frank Deer of the Faculty of Education at the University of Manitoba.

Next week Vancouver City Council will debate the first three redevelopment applications under the Broadway plan, at least two of which are meeting with significant neighbourhood opposition.  Council will also debate the use of fracked gas in new building construction, police body cameras and more. Redeye collective member Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report.

Rights advocates in Canada are welcoming a new review and complaints body for the Canadian Border Services and the RCMP. A network of nine civil society organizations say the new commission is long overdue, but still falls short of what is needed. We talk with Tim McSorley, National Coordinator of the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group.

During the BC election campaign, both the Conservatives and NDP put significant tax cuts on the table in their policy platforms.  While they were framed as a way of easing pressures on the cost of living, economist Alex Hemingway points out that tax cuts will do little to address the structural inequality underlying those cost pressures.   Alex Hemingway is a Senior Economist and Public Finance Policy Analyst at the CCPA’s BC Office.

A report released last week reveals that millions of dollars in Canadian charitable donations have been funneled to organizations implicated in supporting illegal Israeli settlements, violent settler groups, and military activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. Under the Guise of Charity was produced by Just Peace Advocates, Independent Jewish Voices Canada and Miles Howe. We speak with author Miles Howe.