For thousands of years Pacific salmon, in their bounty, provided plentiful food for the people of the coast. Many described themselves as “Salmon People.” After living in the ocean for several years, the salmon return to their rivers of birth to swim upstream to the gravel beds to spawn and die. Along the way, overcoming…
Category: Canada
Surrey’s No-Solutions Election
Municipalities in British Columbia will elect new governments on October 15. The city of Surrey, BC’s second largest, is set to elect a mayor, eight city councillors and six school trustees, and the options are virtually zero for working-class Surreyites who want pressing needs such as housing, accessibility, and environmental sustainability addressed. There is no…
Affordable Homes Needed
The economic downturn triggered by COVID-19 has not spared any industry, and Vancouver’s housing market is no different, immediately hitting sales and in the future construction. Over 40,000 homes were built across the greater Vancouver region in May 2020, a mere two months after BC announced its state of emergency. Over two thirds of these…
Why Vancouver Scares Me
The first time I landed at Vancouver International Airport was June 2013. My earliest memory of that Air Canada flight landing was the view from the window seat – pristine water, lush green islands and somewhere in the middle of all that , the city of Vancouver. A few months later, and I would call…
Homeless In Vancouver
Having grown up in Pakistan before moving to Canada, homelessness and panhandling were not alien concepts to me. Like any developing country, the number of people who roam the streets without food and shelter were, and still remain astronomical over there. This didn’t make the revelation of a homelessness crisis in Vancouver easy to digest…
No insight from B.C. NDP as they approve Site C Dam
There are times when the winds of change blow. Times when darkness appears to be distant, and the bastion of light seems to be on the horizon. Much like a poet who has found its long lost muse. Much like a romantic who has found new love. There are also times when you think the NDP…
The Housing Crisis & Canada
After years of stagnate wages and rising costs for everything from housing to education, many Canadians are deep in debt, with very little money saved. The family debt-to-income ratio in 1993 was 90 per cent. In 2017, it had soared to over 174 per cent. A recent Ipsos survey found that over 50 per cent…
Jean Swanson Has Achieved Victory In Defeat
On Saturday night, the first by-election in Vancouver since 1992 came to a conclusion. In one way, it was history repeating itself. In most other ways, it wasn’t. In terms of similarities, a Non-Partisan Association’s (NPA) candidate emerged victorious, as was the case in 1992. Back then it was Lynne Kennedy, now it is Hector Bremner. Unlike…
Supporting BDS is a moral responsibility
SPHR’s BDS campaign against the state of Israel is in full swing. The reaction to that has been strong, which is expected at a university that has students from across the globe. While there have been calls to not allow this referendum to pass, the arguments used to defend that line of action have been…
Justin Trudeau’s Cabinet And Feminism
Justin Trudeau’s appointment as Canada’s new prime minister has generated an incredible response from the global community. Whether it’s his photogenic good looks, or his demeanour as the down-to-earth friend of the people, Trudeau has not only given the Canadian society a whiff of optimism, he has made headlines the world over. As someone who apparently can…
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