Nobody won at Tuesday night’s Vancouver Park Board meeting addressing the city’s latest and biggest homeless encampment in Strathcona Park. After two onerous nights of debate — in which nearly 100 speakers outlined their sympathy for the homeless park dwellers; for the board itself, having to deal with such a thorny issue; and for Strathcona…
Category: civil disobedience
Svend Robinson’s SFU appointment is a breath of fresh air
On Tuesday, I learned that my hero, Svend Robinson, has been appointed as the new J. S. Woodsworth Resident Scholar for the 2020–21 academic year at Simon Fraser University. It’s such a fitting appointment: James S. Woodsworth was a pioneer of Canada’s progressive social movement. A Member of Parliament and a founder of the social-democratic…
No justice; no peace; no racist police
From Beverly Hills to Brooklyn, America is burning. The gruesome police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis has understandably reignited the fear, anger and concern about centuries of systemic racism — not just in the U.S. but also here at home in Canada, where racism has been embedded in society all the way back to…
Keep the climate ball rolling!
On Friday, I, along with 100,000 other people, took part in the strike for climate action here in Vancouver. I closed my office at noon, and I’m so glad to say that all of my office staff, along with my partner Penny, took part. The turnout was beyond my wildest expectations! The crowd stretched from…
Human change NOT climate change!
On Friday, September 27, I’ll be closing my law office. All of us working there will be taking part in the General Strike for Climate Action, which culminates a week of climate action not just in Vancouver, but around the world. Even the UN Secretary General is holding a climate summit on Monday, September 23…
March 15 student strikes for climate action — join the rally as an ally!
I am very inspired by Greta Thunberg. She’s the 16-year-old Swedish environmental activist who sat, alone, on the cobblestones of the Swedish parliament one Friday last August, demanding action on climate change. She’s sat there almost every Friday since — in rain, sun, ice and snow — inspiring a worldwide movement of student action. Last…
Don’t shoot the messengers
Edward Snowden is a household name — he’s a whistleblower who so profoundly upset the very powerful that he was forced to flee his home country. What we tend to forget is that in almost all bureaucracies and governments, big and small, there’s the need for anyone who sees wrongdoing in her or his workplace…