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!

violence against women

The date rape test debate

This past week, Canadian pharmacies started stocking the Drink Detective, a portable kit the size of a credit card that women can use to detect the presence of date rape drugs in their drinks. My...

Vancouver First Nations DTES smudge ceremony

Vancouver’s First Nations peoples have always held ceremonies calling all people to come together to connect with themselves, each other, Mother Earth and the Great Spirit.

International Women’s Day: “We Hold up Half the Sky”

Kat Norris, Coast Salish, Lyackson First Nation and Nez Perce, founder of Indigenous Action Movement, and survivor of Kuper Island Residential School

On the Second Day of the 2010 Olympic Games, Hundreds Join the March for Missing and Murdered Women in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

It was Valentine’s Day and hundreds spent it in the Women’s Memorial March downtown to honour the memory of the women from the Downtown Eastside who die each year due to violent physical, mental,...

Human Trafficking Alive and Well for the 2010 Olympics

The Salvation Army is set to launch a huge campaign against human trafficking during the Olympics because, “God is bigger than VANOC.”

Why December 6th Still Matters

I don’t remember the Montreal Massacre so I can understand why some people my age tend to ignore December 6th. Even among people who remember the shootings there can be a feeling that we don’t need to