karen ward
@kwardvancouver.bsky.social
2.9K followers 870 following 8.6K posts
once called « Canada's only public intellectual » drug policy researcher & advisor ⁕ historian ⁕ artist ⁕ schemer ⁕ disorganizer institute for the history of possible futures https://free-futures-society.org/
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kwardvancouver.bsky.social
we should keep the park board, because it could do a lot to improve people's everyday lives and to prove that, I'll run for park board next year

(could someone please remind me next year)
jmcelroy.bsky.social
BREAKING: B.C. Municipalities Minister Christine Boyle has put forward an amendment to the Vancouver Charter that will only allow the city to eliminate the Vancouver Park Board through a referendum.

Buckle your seatbelts, folks.
Reposted by karen ward
defundvicpd.bsky.social
It’s Sunday in Victoria and that means…libraries are closed! Sure would be nice to visit the library on this rainy day, but there seems to be no money to open the library all weekend.

Unless… #DefundVicPD #yyj
Reposted by karen ward
abortionrightscan.bsky.social
Kelowna City Council has rubber-stamped another five years of permissive tax exemptions for church-owned lands and properties. The City pretends the exemptions boost social and cultural good when they're funding groups that publicly rally against reproductive rights and bodily autonomy.
The Turner Files: Is the City of Kelowna funding the anti-choice movement?
The Turner Files by Wilbur Turner
www.summerlandreview.com
kwardvancouver.bsky.social
the National Police Federation (the RCMP 'union') spends a LOT on advertising how important and necessary the police are

this is for the past week. check out the dashboard.
app.polidashboard.org/meta_ads?cou...
ad spending stats for National Police Federation 

233 total advertisement 
$123.3K - $164.2k total spend 
15.29M impressions
kwardvancouver.bsky.social
that is an accurate description of any report commissioned by the UCP government of Alberta
kwardvancouver.bsky.social
and we should increase the property tax rate too.
bsky.app/profile/kwar...
kwardvancouver.bsky.social
the residential property tax rate in Vancouver is 0.296818%

lowest in Canada
bcheadlines.bsky.social
#VancouverBC - Vancouver council votes for 0 per cent property tax increase in 2026 www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...
kwardvancouver.bsky.social
“the part of the constitution that allows provinces to ignore the constitution is THE GLUE THAT HOLDS OUR CONSTITUTION TOGETHER“
journodale.bsky.social
The emails from the former Manning Centre are getting increasingly unhinged.
CANADA STRONG & FREE NETWORK

Dale,

The Liberals are playing a DANGEROUS game with our country! They’re pushing the Supreme Court to SLASH the Notwithstanding Clause.

THIS IS THE GLUE THAT HOLDS OUR CONSTITUTION TOGETHER.

We’re really worried, Dale. This could spark a crisis and tear our nation apart!

Even the experts are warning this is a “SHOCKING” move that could lead to a full-blown CONSTITUTIONAL MELTDOWN!

Tell Us Where You Stand!
Should the Radicals mess with our Constitution?
No way! Protect Provincial Rights!
Yes, Let Ottawa Rule
I’m Concerned – Need More Info
Reposted by karen ward
andwalsh.bsky.social
Now is not the time for austerity!
kwardvancouver.bsky.social
world cup of garbage strikes is gonna be awesome
sponsored youtu.be thing from ABC Vancouver 

Zero means zero: 0% property tax increase in Vancouver for 2026

then all their silly clown in a row
Reposted by karen ward
equalityalec.bsky.social
First the basics: The vast bulk of physical and sexual violence in our society is *not* perpetrated by strangers, but by people who know each other. Obscuring this fact is a critical feature of copaganda in the news. People are shocked to hear it. Why?
Reposted by karen ward
kevinhfoster.bsky.social
Massive escalation at the Portland ICE facility. Worst I’ve ever seen. More pepper balls than I can count. Teargas in the middle of crowd. Violent arrests. Some type of either noise or rubber bullet shotgun fired into the air then later aimed at protesters chests/heads at near point blank range.
kwardvancouver.bsky.social
"we thought of the people we've been ignoring, and decided to do EVEN LESS for everyone, so it will be fair. EQUITY!"
Reposted by karen ward
penalosag.bsky.social
We need to be honest on climate movement. We are failing.

- The temperature keeps rising.
- True problem is structural, NOT individual behavior!
- Industry has masterfully marketed individual's fault.
- Collective civic action to change policy
- Say pollution, not emissions
Prof. Katharine Hayhoe
kwardvancouver.bsky.social
kwardvancouver.bsky.social
this went on for years in plain sight and nobody did anything because DRUUUUUUUG USERS
He also objected to the amount of unpaid labour the program allegedly required from its residents. While work experience is a common part of residential drug and alcohol treatment programs, Hayward wrote that all residents, regardless of their health or fitness, were required to do unpaid work for JVA businesses a minimum of six days a week, eight hours a day, with additional hours sometimes bringing their weekly total to 56 hours a week.

"Registry staff were informed that if a resident does not fulfill additional periods of work requirements imposed by JVA, they will not receive a completion certificate from JVA stating that they have completed the required years of work," Hayward wrote. That would leave them with no proof of their work experience after two years.

The work was also strenuous and physical, either for John Volken Academy Moving, a moving company based in Surrey, at the now-closed Volken Market and Furniture Store, or at the Volken Academy Farm, which raises bison and water buffalo in Langley. 

"One resident interviewed in October 2023 stated, 'there is no recovery going on here, and all we do is work,'" Hayward wrote.
kwardvancouver.bsky.social
"People who talk about revolution and class struggle without referring explicitly to everyday life, without understanding what is subversive about love and what is positive in the refusal of constraints, such people have a corpse in their mouth."

– Raoul Vaneigem
Reposted by karen ward
jenraso.bsky.social
I often urge law students to be precise when and where they use passive language, and to notice the work it does when used by others (judges, politicians, reporters, and anyone describing actions being done without actors). This is a great, but awful, example.
nolore.bsky.social
Classic CBC. "Bill could lead to law enforcement acting more freely in Canada"

How does a US bill lead to this, without Canada actively allowing this? Can we use the active voice? Can we actually use words the way that journalists are supposedly able to?

www.cbc.ca/news/politic...
U.S. bill calls for more integration between Canadian, American border agents | CBC News
The U.S. Congress is being asked to adopt legislation that could lead to Canada and the United States further integrating their enforcement of the border — including allowing U.S. officers to more fre...
www.cbc.ca
kwardvancouver.bsky.social
and, the democrats are *really* bad at politics
Reposted by karen ward
harmscommitted.com
"Some people regard [the War on Drugs] as a success because it's doing what it's designed to do, which is destroy communities and [..] lives in order to have political control."

"[E]very harm we associate with drugs is either caused by or exacerbated by prohibition."
#Maryland #USA #Drugs #Policing
Baltimore is watching the consequences of prohibition unfold before its eyes
The Baltimore Police Department's enforcement of prohibitionist policies continues to get drug users killed. Yet city officials have mostly sat on their hands as the drug supply wreaks havoc on…
mobtownredux.news