The Tyee

🚮“Binners” are often low-income people who make regular trips to collect and return recyclables to pay bills. But the immigrant seniors who do this work in and around Chinatown are marginalized in additional ways. They face stigma from their own families, language barriers and racism on the streets, all of which shape the way they do their work. Yet they’re out collecting recyclables because it’s flexible work they can pick up to pay the bills. From Chinatown in Vancouver to the bottle depot up Main Street, Tyee reporter @bychrischeung follows one binner, Ms. Liang, through a day in her life and work. Read the full story at the link in bio.🔗 ✍️ by @bychrischeung 🖼️ by @bychrischeung

☕️🪧 Meet Frédérique, the 20-year-old organizer behind Vancouver’s only unionized Starbucks! Read all about her journey at the link in our bio.

🏫 “Peace.” That was one witness’s simple request when asked what she hoped to gain from the Canadian Human Rights Tribunal currently examining potential bias by the RCMP when it investigated allegations of historic abuse at two northern B.C. schools. Over the first two weeks of May, the tribunal heard from more than a dozen former First Nations students of Prince George College and Immaculata Elementary School in Burns Lake. They testified that they had endured or witnessed physical, emotional and sexual abuse as children attending the schools in the late 1960s and early 1970s. The complainants say their allegations were never properly investigated by police. When one survivor, Beverly Abraham, took her story to the Burns Lake RCMP detachment in July 2012, she said she felt disbelieved, disrespected and retraumatized by the experience. The RCMP concluded their investigation 18 months later without charges. Six complainants from Lake Babine Nation took their concerns about the RCMP’s investigation to the Canadian Human Rights Commission in 2016, and the commission referred the complaint for inquiry in 2020. In the years since, as they awaited their hearing, three of the complainants and one witness have died. As the remaining witnesses took the stand, they expressed relief at the opportunity to finally testify about their experiences. Many said they had participated in the hearings in order to be heard, to tell their truth and to share the impacts the abuse had on their community. Witnesses also expressed hope. Some believed the inquiry might result in better relations between the RCMP and Indigenous communities and suggested the force might reopen its decade-old investigation. Others called for an Indigenous justice system that might better serve First Nations communities. Some said they want a public apology from their alleged abuser. Read their words in the slides above. The hearings and The Tyee’s coverage is ongoing. Read more at 🔗 in bio. 📸+✍️ Amanda Follett Hosgood

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💩💻 Last week, Meta, parent company of Facebook, launched a new social media service called Threads that appears designed to compete directly with Twitter. Should we switch? Signed, Mimi. … Dear Mimi, First, let us pause to pay tribute to Elon Musk. He bought Twitter for more than the GNP of Zimbabwe and turned the little blue bird into a dodo. Twitter was a titan before Musk started his monkeying. He took a social media channel that had become almost an essential public service and transformed it into a $44-billion game of Jenga. But don’t worry friends. Our saviour has arrived! Riding over the hill, getting closer, it’s the hero we’ve prayed for, it’s... Mark Zuckerberg. Mark Zuckerberg. Swell. Zuckerberg’s new Twitter clone is called Threads. Nice of the Facebook mogul to take time out from trying to stab Canadian media to death to launch this venture. Unlike many SpaceX launches, this one did not explode on the pad. Threads added over 100 million users in five days. But then, Threads has the benefit of an established link to Meta’s Instagram, which gives IG users a running start on building a Threads following. It was like launching from orbit. So now Musk has Twitter, Zuckerberg has Threads, and Donald Trump has Truth Social. Early signs of psychopathy will henceforth include lack of empathy, cruelty to animals and owning a social messaging network. Those of you who cling to the idea that Musk is a genius mastermind might want to stop reading now. On Sunday Musk posted two tweets aimed at his rival. “Zuck is a cuck,” and, “I propose a literal dick measuring contest.” Dr. Steve would like to pause here to register a complaint. How can a satirist do his job when the satirical targets begin self-catering? 🔗 in bio. 🚨 Note: Meta is blocking The Tyee’s content. Do us a favour and share this post — since we no longer can — and help keep The Tyee visible to readers like you. #CdnMedia #BillC18

🪵 In just three years, much of the McLeod Lake Indian Band’s treaty lands were stripped of their bountiful and valuable trees. In a surge of logging that included one clearcut nearly eight times larger than Vancouver’s Stanley Park, the logging by the band of its own treaty lands has left two former band councillors questioning why so much forest vanished so quickly. Defenders of the logging say that beetle infestations made the speed and scale of the logging necessary. But it’s not clear how much of the timber removed was degraded. The logged areas are spread across a few large blocks of treaty land equalling roughly 20,000 hectares in size, about 140 kilometres north of Prince George. Much of that traditional territory has been turned into a giant corporate extraction zone after decades of industrial logging that radically altered the landscape while lining the pockets of British Columbia’s biggest forest companies. The treaty agreement stipulated that the newly designated treaty lands were to ensure sufficient forests were there for future generations. The agreement went on to say that the band would regularly submit forestry plans to the B.C. government and that whenever logging did occur it would be in a “gradual” manner for future generations. Instead, the band stripped its treaty lands of virtually all of their century-and-a-half and older trees in a matter of just a few years, in much the same way that logging companies did at an even larger scale across the band’s traditional territory. ✍️ Ben Parfitt’s special report is at the 🔗 in bio. 📸 1. Part of a 3,000-hectare clearcut on treaty lands held by the McLeod Lake Indian Band. Via Conservation North 2. A map compiled from satellite data showing when logging occurred in the Kerry Lake East area. The years indicated when logging occurred. Map via David Leversee

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🦺🗑️ Once a week, Vancouverites wake up to the clattering sounds of garbage trucks moving through their alleyways and streets. Residents may take for granted their arrival, but the rubbish would pile up fast if the crews missed their rounds. The city’s 70 sanitation collection workers collect 82,000 tonnes of garbage and green waste every year. Demand for their line of work is growing. “I’ll be honest with you. This job is not for everyone,” says Jose Machado, a sub-foreman for the city’s sanitation services. “We have to have fast and efficient people. With these trucks, the driver is driving on the right side. He’s watching the mirror. He’s using a joystick. He’s got to be aware of his surroundings. It’s a lot of work.” The job often involves repetitive motions, which can lull drivers into not paying attention — a lapse that can have serious consequences. On a bright and early Wednesday morning, our intern Solana Pasqual met Machado in a small white office building off the intersection of Manitoba and 70th Street. After donning bright yellow vests, the two made their way to a large lot where the trucks are parked. The compound contains repair garages, out-of-service gas pump stations, and warehouses for the stacks of the city’s black trash bins. This is Manitoba Yard Works, the operational hub for the city of Vancouver’s sanitation services. It’s where public garbage and green bin pickups are co-ordinated for the entire city, and where garbage and yard waste are contained in giant piles, waiting for trucks to transport them to the dump in Delta, B.C. And on 364 days of the year, collection workers line up every day at 7 a.m., ready to clean up the city. 🔗 in bio. ✍🏽+📸 Solana Pasqual

🚔 “The detectives say they know who killed these women, and he died in 2009.” It’s been over 20 years since Robert Pickton was arrested after years of preying on women in the Downtown Eastside. But Pickton was not the only serial killer to prey on sex workers in the city. In a recent episode of her Cold Case Canada podcast, historian and journalist Eve Lazarus reveals how VPD detectives worked to identify a man they believe killed six women between 1988 and 1990. But before he could be charged with those crimes, the man died in 2009. His name has never been made public. The VPD has never published a press release detailing the results of their own investigation. Remarkably, these details have never been reported before and the families of the six women have been left in the dark — until now. In the episode “The Alley Murders,” Lazarus delves into the lives of six women who lived in Mount Pleasant and the Downtown Eastside in the late 1980s. Rose Minnie Peters, Lisa Marie Gavin, Glenna Marie Sowan, Tracey Leigh Chartrand, Frances “Annie” Grant and Karen Lee Taylor were found dead in alleys in Mount Pleasant, in a shallow grave on the UBC Endowment lands and in an alley in Shaughnessy. Three of the women were close friends who lived together and looked out for one another; some were mothers; some had been involved in the foster care system since they were babies. Two of the women were Indigenous. “I wanted to talk about who these women were — that they were not just sex trade workers and drug addicts — that they had families and friends who loved them,” Lazarus told The Tyee. Lazarus, Ball and Clarke are urging the VPD to publicly confirm that these murders are not unsolved. “I am absolutely devastated that the VPD has known who murdered Lisa and didn’t tell us. All these years of talking to so many detectives, and no one said a thing,” said Sharon Tuerling, Gavin’s sister, after the episode aired. ✍️ Jen St. Denis 🔗 in bio.

🏫🇨🇳 One century after the Chinese Exclusion Act, the Chinese Canadian Museum opened on July 1, a permanent space to explore migration, resistance and belonging across generations. Their opening exhibit shows the Canadian government's paper trail to catalogue every Chinese body within its borders. Just the other day, a retiree told the museum team that she identified as “recovering Chinese.” “For much of her life, she didn’t think about talking about it,” said Grace Wong, chair of the board that oversaw the museum’s creation. “‘Am I Chinese or not Chinese?’ It was almost not relevant.” Now that’s changing, for her and many who are part of the Chinese diaspora. The intersecting forces of assimilation, discrimination and cultural shame can contribute to a confusing experience of heritage and belonging. Wong hopes the new museum will help more people understand themselves and each other. The museum couldn’t be housed in a more storied location: the Wing Sang building at 51 East Pender in Vancouver’s Chinatown, first established as the business and residence of the legendary merchant Yip Sang. He lived there with three of his four living wives and 23 children. “When people think about Chinese Canadians and when they first came, they think about the Gold Rush,” said museum CEO Melissa Karmen Lee. “But the timeline begins in 1788. And it’s Chinese [people] coming to Canada as carpenters and having that interface and relationship with Indigenous people.” Full piece at 🔗in bio. ✍️ Christopher Cheung 📸 1. The Wing Sang building today. (Koby Photography) 2. Yip Sang in front of the building in 1900. (City of Vancouver Archives) 3. CEO Lee in the preserved Yip family classroom. (Cheung) 4. ID cards for Canadian-born Chinese children that said they were not citizens. (Cheung) 5. Curator Catherine Clement in a section dedicated to bachelor men who died by suicide or old age. (Cheung)

🪵 Lytton’s Long Road Home: The community is poised to rebuild. But the cause of its devastation remains shrouded in secrecy as the RCMP’s investigation continues. Amanda Follett Hosgood reports: Olivia Hughes remembers waking up on the morning of June 30, 2021. She and her partner, Chad, had moved into their new home in Lytton the day before, in the midst of a deadly heat dome that shattered Canadian records at 49.6 C. Hughes, who grew up in the area and works for the B.C. Wildfire Service, was well aware that local terrain was prone to wildfires. “I don’t feel good about today,” she told her partner. That afternoon, Hughes spotted the wildfire that would tear through Lytton in under a half hour. Helpless, she watched the community she loved burn. Two years later, information about what caused the fire, which destroyed 90% of the community and killed two, continues to be mired in secrecy. B.C. Wildfire Service confirmed to The Tyee that its Lytton fire origin and cause report has now been forwarded to the RCMP. But the report remains under wraps as the RCMP’s criminal investigation continues. Knowing who’s responsible would be “closure on the worst nightmare of my life,” she says. Some residents aren’t waiting for official answers. It’s broadly believed within the community that the trains that lumber through Lytton are responsible for the fire. As the two-year window closes on the statute of limitations to seek legal action against those responsible, Canada’s two major railway companies face a flurry of lawsuits alleging more could have been done to prevent the fire, including travelling at slower speeds, removing brush from alongside the tracks, dousing the right-of-way with water and posting an employee to watch for smoke. But rebuilding could be on the horizon, Mayor Denise O’Connor says. After two years of false starts, O’Connor sounds cautiously optimistic that residents might finally have the gratification of seeing their community begin to re-emerge — with building getting underway as soon as late summer. “I would be pleasantly surprised to see it earlier.” 🔗 in bio. 📸 Darryl Dyck, the Canadian Press

✍️ David Climenhaga: In a better world, the conveniently timed post-election release of statistics showing Alberta had the deadliest month on record in April for fatal drug poisonings would have discredited the “Alberta Model” for treating addiction. Tragically, that is unlikely to happen. Alberta’s United Conservative Party is addicted to inflicting ideological solutions on real world problems, so the probability is high no one in Premier Danielle Smith’s government will be tempted to reassess an approach that is clearly shaping up as a deadly failure. Statistics released by Alberta’s Substance Use Surveillance System this week showed that 179 human beings died from drug overdoses in Alberta in April. News media reported that was a 46-per-cent increase from April 2022 and brought the total number of deaths so far this year to 613. This is dramatically higher than the rate of overdose deaths before the pandemic — 51 in April 2019. It was certainly no coincidence that Smith waited until after the May 29 provincial election to report the bad news. Whatever the statistics say, it is all but guaranteed the UCP will double down on its focus on drug abstinence, coerced treatment and blaming the victims of drug addiction. 🔗 in bio.