I am white, middle class, educated and, by all accounts, an extremely fortunate woman. I live in Canada where my parents’ (sometimes life-threatening) health issues are covered by a provincial medical plan. My water and air are clean, and food is plentiful. My husband and I are employed. I am not desperate, but I am […]
Continue readingTag: Vancouver
Terahertz: It’s the thought that counts
While I’m not generally an NPA-supporter, I support good ideas regardless of where they originate. And Jason Lamarche, an NPA candidate for Vancouver City Council, has a good idea. The only problem is that his proposal addresses an issue that doesn’t actually exist in the city. A dog-loving West End renter and first-time city-council candidate […]
Continue readingTerahertz: Troofer is no Gandhi
I subscribe to a lot of blogs and news feeds and read a lot in a day. Out of all of these words that cross my eyes, some are worth sharing, and appear on my Google+ or Facebook streams. Some annoy me a bit more and I feel like writing about them. Sometimes I have […]
Continue readingOutasite! Supreme Court bludgeons Con ideology with reality.
One of the few benefits of not having any political power is that you get to sit back and watch the majority power fall all over its own ideology and arrogance.Less than 40% of Canada voted for these guys. That’s not a mandate for anything other t…
Continue readingTerahertz: Can we focus on saving lives now?
InSite works. Despite Conservative tough dumb-on-crime rhetoric, allowing people a clean and safe place to use the drugs they would anyway grants them respect, dignity, and a way out of dangerous cycles. It’s about acting grown-up about our public health issues and taking responsibility for the issue. Now, the Supreme Court of Canada unanimously agrees […]
Continue readingThings Are Good: Insite Can Continue to Operate: Supreme Court
Insite is a safe injection site for drug users which has had proven health benefits for individuals and the community. Through their work Insite has been able to help many addicts stay safe and secure while consuming drugs, this is in stark contrast to doing drugs on the streets which is way more dangerous.
In […]
Art Threat: Vancouver seeks Viaduct variations – re:Connect competition looks to obtain citizen input
It’s the site of what is arguably Vancouver’s most notable event, a bitter battle between the Non-Partisan Association and an alliance of Strathcona activists and Chinatown business people – the Georgia Street Viaduct. Built as a first phase of a planned interurban freeway system, this minute stretch of freeway reaches like a tree root from […]
Continue readingdickhead Comes to Vancouver . . . .
dickhead cheney came to The Vancouver Club tonight to promote his book.Of course I participated to see Vancouverites welcome him in style.To the best of my knowledge, he signed no autographs for the crowd outside the facility . . . .Recommend this Post…
Continue readingTerahertz: A Streetcar Named Anton
Streetcars are just cool to me. I love the idea of an integrated, community-based, electric-powered public transportation system. It just pushes us toward sustainability and makes us actually appreciate the neighbourhood we live in. It doesn’t cut a city in half like a highway or SkyTrain and its more environmentally friendly and typically a little […]
Continue readingArt Threat: Althea Thauberger’s photo mural speaks of Vancouver’s darkness
Thauberger in Afghanistan (Photo: Sharon MacKay) It would be nearly impossible to accuse Vancouver artist Althea Thauberger of being weak or fearful; in fact she is quite the opposite. Not only does she happily invite controversy and criticism, but she willingly flew to Kandahar, Afghanistan as a part of the Canadian War Artist program while […]
Continue readingIncredible time lapse video of earth, featuring Vancouver and Vancouver Island
Click video for a larger versionThis stunning video in HD taken from the International Space Station is breathtaking. For left coaster…
Continue readingTerahertz: The NPA on accountability
Suzanne Anton has released some of her Non-Partisan Association ideas for how to bring an “accountability accord” to Vancouver’s city hall. Accountability’s a good thing, right? So there’s little to disagree with here: Support for a (provincially-funded) municipal auditor Freezing the mayor’s office budget for three years Cutting the budget for councillors attending international meetings […]
Continue readingArt Threat: Whistle while you wait
Skattered throughout Vancouver, bus stop shelters have been turned from ad space to sheet music. Adorno and Nose, as the piece is called, is a collection of ten songs composed and illustrated by Barry Doupe and James Whitman. Each poster contains a different song, notated as standard sheet music, the verse, and a drawn graphic. […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: The Economics of Open Data – Mini-Case, Transit Data & Translink
Translink, the company that runs public transit in the region where I live (Vancouver/Lower Mainland) is getting ready to launch a real time bus tracking app that will use GPS data to figure out how far away the next the bus you are waiting for really is. This is great news for everyone. Of course […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Politics, Re-Spun on Coop Radio, September 5, 2011
Spending Labour Day with Imtiaz Popat on “The Rational” on Vancouver’s COOP Radio, talking about Christy Clark’s revocation of a pre-2013 election date [coup, not really a premier, perhaps a “notional premier”], the end of the HST, the BCTF negotiations and how the courts noted how the government yanked almost $3 billion from BC’s K-12 […]
Continue readingPolitics, Re-Spun: Christy Clark Dabbles in Tea Party Rhetoric
It’s one thing to lose a referendum on a regressive tax that came in on a lie, that was a tax shift from businesses to real human beings, and that removed PST exemptions on real necessities or awesome products like cloth diapers, kids shoes, food, smoke alarms, child car seats, bikes and fire extinguishers. But it’s […]
Continue readingSlap Upside The Head: Vancouver’s Gay Housing Discrimination Problem
Housing discrimination has always been a little difficult to measure. Yet, even in a city as diverse and vibrant as Vancouver, it’s reported to happen. While it’s illegal to deny a gay couple housing simply because of their sexual orientation anywhere in Canada, proving this kind of discrimination is not easy; landlords don’t normally admit […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: Smarter Ways to Have School Boards Update Parents
Earlier this month the Vancouver School Board (VSB) released an iPhone app that – helpfully – will use push notifications to inform parents about school holidays, parent interviews, and scheduling disruptions such as snow days. The app is okay, it’s a little clunky to use, and a lot of the data – such as professional […]
Continue readingeaves.ca: DataBC Hackathon this Saturday – inviting the public.
This Saturday, August 27, 2011 the Province of British Columbia is partnering with the Mozilla Foundation and OpenDataBC to host a open data hackathon. The hackathon will be taking place at Mozilla Labs Vancouver. Their address is: 163 West Hastings Street, suite-200 Vancouver, BC V6B 1H5 (in the very beautiful Flack Building) So three things: […]
Continue readingTerahertz: Did I mention I’m running for School Board?
If you’re not following me on Facebook or my personal blog, you may have missed my initial announcement that I’m running for one of the Coalition of Progressive Electors (COPE) nominations for Vancouver School Board. You can follow all my campaign updates at my other site: http://ian.bushfield.ca The nomination meeting’s on September 18th, and until […]
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