After 11 years of bringing you local reporting, the team behind the Vancouver Observer has moved on to Canada's National Observer. You can follow Vancouver culture reporting over there from now on. Thank you for all your support over the years!

Alia Dharssi

Alia Dharssi is a freelance writer and a proud Vancouverite with an interest in current affairs, international development and environmental issues. Find her on Twitter @alia_d. 

Federal budget to deliver significant investments in housing, says minister

In a city where a one-bedroom apartment rents for an average of $1,900 per month, some Vancouverites in urgent need of a home have a new alternative: a room in a portable housing development...
Governor General David Johnston

Canada must deepen relationship with Asia, experts say

Canada lacks a national strategy for responding to the rise of Asia: experts say it's a problem.

National conversation launched for Canada’s 150th

From tackling climate change to cross-country trains, Canadians discuss ways to celebrate Canada's big birthday.

Building careers in the Downtown Eastside, one block of wood at a time

If you walk into a RONA store in the Lower Mainland, you can purchase planters, patio furniture, and wooden Christmas ornaments from an unexpected source: the Downtown Eastside.

Sayed Kashua uses humour to explore identity conflicts in Israel

Sayed Kashua, an award-winning Arab-Israeli writer who is speaking in Vancouver on Saturday (March 9),  uses humour to convince his readers to to take their nationalistic identities less...

Broadbent Institute director urges eco-progressives to dive into "nitty gritty" of policy making

Rick Smith on the future of the environment and the Canadian economy

Citizens demand justice for indigenous women at annual missing women's memorial march

A sombre memorial marks Valentine's Day in the Downtown Eastside.

Hundreds call for justice for Aboriginal women at missing women's memorial march

Supporters demand a national inquiry into missing and murdered indigenous women.

Journalist Robert Fisk criticizes shallow news coverage of Middle East

“There is, I think, among journalists today and particularly in the United States, an osmotic-parasitic relationship between journalism and power,” said Robert Fisk, a world-renowned Middle...

Legendary Middle East journalist Robert Fisk to speak at St. Andrew's-Wesley Church today

Reporter Robert Fisk has offered up blunt truths about the often war-torn region.