Redeye

In March, public health care advocates across the country took part in rallies and news conferences in response to Alberta’s new two-tier health care law, which allows doctors to practice in both the public and the private system. In early February, we spoke with researcher Andrew Longhurst about the threat that Bill 11 poses to universal access to health care. In a follow-up to that conversation, he warns that Alberta’s new law opens the door to US companies selling private health insurance for basic care. Andrew Longhurst is a senior researcher with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives.

Oakridge looks like it is getting another massive development, there’s a new affordable mortgage model for the Heather Lands, more festivals are turning to the city as they struggle to survive and lots more. Redeye Collective member Ian Mass joins us with his City Beat report.

Every member of a former panel the BC government appointed to identify old-growth for potential protection in 2021 says they're concerned about continued logging in those same forests. The five panellists voiced their concerns in a document sent to Premier David Eby and other officials last week. To find out more about the progress - or lack of it - on protecting old-growth in the province, we speak with Jens Wieting, senior forest and climate campaigner at Sierra Club BC.

As Israel and the US carry out devastating attacks on Iran, the Canadian oil industry and some politicians are seeing it as an opportunity to expand fossil fuel production.  Nick Gottlieb argues the fossil fuel industry is replaying its 2022 playbook, when they used Russia’s war in Ukraine to effectively destroy the Western climate movement. Nick Gottlieb is a climate writer and author of the newsletter Sacred Headwaters. We speak with him from Terrace, BC.

On March 4, the provincial government announced that it was making amendments to the Residential Tenancy Act to provide new tools to address health and safety issues in supportive housing. Christine Boyle, Minister of Housing and Municipal Affairs, said that the changes to the Act came in response to calls from operators of supportive housing. However, tenant advocates say this is the latest iteration of a political campaign to erode the rights of low-income tenants in BC.   We speak with Danielle Sabelli, a lawyer at the Community Legal Assistance Society.

On February 28, the United States and Israel launched a war of aggression against Iran including attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure in Iran. Analysts say that the joint US-Israeli strikes on Iran are neither preemptive nor lawful and represent a further erosion of the international legal order. In the face of the US and Israeli attacks, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is being called upon to unequivocally condemn the aggression and take active measures to achieve a diplomatic solution. We speak with Rachel Small, Canada organizer for World Beyond War.

In 2021, Betty Baxter was inducted into the Volleyball BC Hall of Fame.   But as a lesbian athlete and coach, the journey to that recognition was far from smooth. Baxter competed in the 1976 Olympics in Montreal and helped found Canadian Women & Sport. She was the first woman coach of a national team, and was then fired from that job because of her sexual orientation. She went on to many new roles in advocacy, activism, education and politics, and was a key force in organizing the 1990 Vancouver Gay Games and cultural celebration. We speak with Betty Baxter.

More and more websites that position themselves as news outlets are serving up what observers call AI slop.  Last month, a Surrey-based site published false information about mayoral candidate William Azaroff, and an AI-generated picture of a real murder victim. Zak Vescera is a staff reporter for the Investigative Journalism Foundation. He tells us what he found out about the content and ownership of Surrey Speak.

An informal coalition of organizations in the Downtown Eastside and Chinatown are sounding the alarm about what they call the massive human rights implications of the upcoming FIFA World Cup 2026. The World Cup is set to come to Vancouver, first through the 2026 FIFA Congress in April, and then for seven matches at BC Place scheduled between June 11-July 7, 2026.  Laura Macintyre is a staff lawyer at Pivot Legal Society. She joins us to talk about the coalition’s concerns..

A coalition of health and environmental groups are celebrating a court victory that protects the federal government’s ability to regulate plastic pollution.  In its ruling, the Federal Court of Appeal affirmed that the government acted lawfully when it designated plastic manufactured items as ‘toxic’ under the Canadian Environmental Protection Act. We’re joined by Dr. Sharon Dodd, a family physician and a member of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.