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!

democracy

Online spying, "foreign radicals" and faux patriotism: Conservatives bare draconian teeth

Jailing refugees and pot growers wasn't enough to whet the Tory appetite for change. They've now labelled critics child pornographers, foreign radicals, anti-Canada – even Nazis. What can we do?

On Occupy Vancouver

I attended the Occupy Vancouver protest on Saturday. These are my thoughts from that day.

Rewilding the World author Tim Flannery optimistic that humans will meet climate challenge

Evolutionary legacy of cooperation suggests that selfish upright apes may become Superorganism and Will Rewild the World

The deep democracy of a Canadian Town Meeting with Michael Ignatieff

Nothing in me is smug about the safety of Canada. I'm an American on the brink of becoming a Canadian citizen and I’m here tonight to see how we conduct our political discourse.

2011 predictions

As we round out another decade, thoughts turn to the future. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives’ Hugh Mackenzie, Shauna Mackinnon, Bruce Campbell, Trish Hennessy, Jim Stanford and Armine...

In 2011, let's fix our screwed up democracy

Billionaire Warren Buffet was once quoted as saying that his receptionist paid more in income tax as a percentage of her income than he did. This is not surprising. We live in screwed up democracy...

Re-invent Canadian media at Media Democracy Day

"Now is the time to re-imagine and re-invent what we want Canada’s media to look like.The current media system in Canada is going through major transformations with both the fall of traditional...

Some democracies fear their own people. Is Canada one of them?

Democracies don't fear their own people, Hilary Clinton said on Saturday. "They recognize that citizens must be free to come together, to advocate and agitate." After the heavy-handed treatment of ac