May 17, 2013 - Vancouver Media Co-op

The Gitga’at First Nation has instructed Enbridge to leave its territory after the company and a team of oil spill response surveyors showed-up uninvited, during the nation’s annual food harvesting camp, a time of rich cultural activity and knowledge sharing...Enbridge representatives were instructed to leave Gitga’at council chambers and Gitga’at territory, Wednesday morning, after councilors voiced their displeasure at not being consulted on an Enbridge oil spill response survey.

By Nathan Crompton - May 15, 2013

In reality the [New Democratic Party] allowed itself no alternative platform from which to launch a criticism against the BC Liberal record. On each big issue the NDP chose instead to emulate the BC Liberal platform: rock-bottom corporate taxes, privatized affordable housing, health care austerity and ongoing neoliberal reforms. Instead of fighting on the basis of a progressive policy platform, the NDP message was simple: We can govern; we can oversee the status quo because we are as mature as the common-sense Liberals.

By Kaitlin McNabb - May 14, 2013

So there it is. Vancouver's charming ultimatum to existing [Downtown Eastside] businesses and communities: Pay the high rent or get out. For a city wanting to be the next big cultural "it" place, it sure seems to be alienating the existing community that got it on the map in the first place. If Vancouver is not careful, it will whitewash over every unique aspect of a fledgling city and end up with a cookie-cutter version of itself.

By Dylan Lubao - 13 May 2013

[BC New Democratic Party leader Adrian] Dix has emphasized the NDP’s support for the huge deterioration in the social position of the working class over the past three decades, by stressing that he will not make the purported mistake of previous NDP governments of “trying to do too much.” With the full support of the trade unions, Dix has been avidly courting big business, pledging that an NDP government will be “business-friendly” and will use its ties to the union bureaucracy to develop a right-wing “consensus.”

By Maryam Adrangi - May 9, 2013

When Trevor was 16, he won the Canadian Aboriginal Writing Challenge which Enbridge sponsors. At the time, he didn’t realize who Enbridge was. After a photo shoot with company representatives, his photo was used in an Enbridge print ad displayed across Canada. He came to the Enbridge AGM yesterday as part of a delegation which included his chief, Chief Na’Moks of the Tsayu Clan of the Wet'suwet'en.

By Derrick O'Keefe - April 22, 2013

B.C. is a province awash in wealth, much of it on ostentatious display. There is simply no excuse for anyone to be malnourished, homeless and otherwise severely indigent...The tepid promises of the B.C. [New Democratic Party] on welfare rates indicate that even with the B.C. Liberals out, neoliberalism will remain mostly in command – for now. Reversing this state of affairs is an ideological and political battle that must continue, one step at a time.

By Kim Hearty and Nicholas Ellan - April 26, 2013

Consecutive increases in police budgets have given the VPD more resources for a dual strategy of heightened ticketing in the DTES and the increased criminalization of protest. Under [Vancouver Mayor Gregor] Robertson’s direction, Vancouver’s police have been pressed into a campaign of harassment and intimidation against democratic protests perceived as anti-business.

By Maria Wallstam and Nathan Crompton - April 23, 2013

Recently, the relationship between Vancity and community groups...[has] been strained by increasing conflicts over gentrification. Vancity’s own financial interests in the neighbourhood, combined with pressure from business lobbyists and corporate media, have pressured the credit union to go to bat for the cause of gentrification...The unnamed source of the rift is the ongoing picket of the Pidgin restaurant...

April 18, 2013 - CBC News

Tanya Belleau, 26, says she was walking home alone when police stopped her at the corner of Hastings and Carrall streets for no apparent reason..."Two of them were talking to me at the same time, one asked me my name, one asked me where I'm going..."

By Nathan Crompton - April 18, 2013

After nine steady weeks of nightly protests by anti-poverty activists in front of the PiDGiN restaurant in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, police have stated that they plan to arrest picketers. In a press conference delivered yesterday, Vancouver Police Department spokesperson Brian Montague stated that his department is “anticipating an arrest soon.”

April 7, 2013 - Vancouver Media Co-op

On day 14 of a non-violent protest held at the Burns Lake Band office, approximately 50 or more riot police, many with shotguns drawn, evicted three adults and one 12 year old child. 92 percent of the eligible voters on-reserve had signed a petition in support of the protest despite claims to the contrary by the INAC chief councilor, Albert Gerow.

By Mathew Kagis - April 4, 2013

After an eight month process that was at times nonexistent and at other times exhausting, traumatic and triggering, I am left with two distinct impressions...The police still hold the thin blue line and will bend over backwards to protect their own...The criminalization of dissent continues unabated and remains the order of the day.

By Harsha Walia - Sunday, April 2, 2013

Canada’s immigration laws are increasingly geared towards keeping people out...Canada now receives more people on temporary work permits than as permanent residents, ensuring that migrants are cheap labour for big business. While the current government bails out corporations and forces austerity on the rest of us, scapegoating migrants as stealing jobs is a powerful tool to destroy solidarity between people.

CBC News - March 27, 2013

Police in Vancouver are investigating one of their own after a video was posted to Facebook that appears to show a plainclothes officer punching a cyclist in the head during an arrest Tuesday night.

Please watch and share a new video, courtesy of allies, featuring interviews with detainees and their family members...Tomorrow, Thursday March 28th, there will a lunch hour rally from noon to 1 pm at Force Four Entertainment to deliver the petition and to protest of this racist reality style TV show that profits from exploitation, suffering, and division of migrant people and their families.