The Tyee

The Tyee


Did an RCMP Sting Op Make Sex Work More Dangerous?

The BC Counter Human Trafficking Unit and Richmond RCMP have made multiple arrests that they say will deter predators looking to purchase sex from potential trafficking victims. But a criminologist who specializes in sex work laws and an organization that supports sex workers — some of whom have been trafficked themselves — say police operations […]

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Tracking Hospital Overdoses Isn’t Easy as It Seems: Dr. Bonnie Henry

The Tyee has spent over half a year trying to figure out how many people are overdosing while they are patients at British Columbia’s hospitals. In February, we published a summary of what we’d managed to learn after filing seven freedom of information requests, or FOIs, and elevating two of those requests to complaints with […]

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SFU Contract Workers Sounded the Alarm on Abuse. Nothing Changed

Nouha Ishaq said when she first started her job preparing food at Simon Fraser University in 2005, coming into work didn’t feel like a fight. But about five years ago, Ishaq said, the relationship between the campus’s approximately 200 food service workers and their more senior colleagues started to sour. She said she and her […]

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How Many People Are Overdosing at BC’s Hospitals?

How many people are overdosing while they are patients at British Columbia’s hospitals? This data is essential to understanding the importance of opening hospital-based overdose prevention sites, addiction medicine doctors told The Tyee. In an atmosphere where the province’s drug policy is a hot-button topic, it’s also key to developing public understanding about why the […]

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Fighting Cancer, Facing Deportation and Denied Health Care

Francisco Barahona is recovering at home with a shattered arm after Surrey Memorial Hospital, he says, refused to treat him on the weekend because of unpaid past bills.  The 53-year-old’s health has been deteriorating over the past three years as a cancer hollowed out his bones and he couldn’t afford health care. Now the government […]

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How Canada’s Labour Traffickers Trap Workers

[Editor’s note: This story is a collaboration between the Investigative Journalism Foundation and The Tyee.] Choori Mohamed came to Canada with a dream of finding a job, getting permanent residency and eventually helping his wife and two children emigrate from his home in India. Instead, he said, he went into debt paying $10,000 to secure […]

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Can Legislation Solve Unpaid Airline Work?

On Tuesday morning, interim NDP leader Don Davies stood up in the House of Commons to deliver on a party promise — introducing legislation that would end unpaid work by flight attendants. According to the Canadian Union of Public Employees, or CUPE, North American flight attendants are usually paid only while in the air. The […]

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VPD Officers Weren’t Fully Prepared for Drug Decriminalization

About one-third of the Vancouver Police Department’s frontline officers hadn’t completed training on decriminalization when the pilot project came into force and small amounts of drugs became legal in January 2023. B.C.’s Ministry of Health and Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General had put together a webinar called “Decriminalization in B.C.: Shifting to a […]

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This US Snitch Line Reports Canadians Providing Gender-Affirming Care

The U.S. government is collecting data on health-care workers providing gender-affirming care in Canada. In mid-April the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched a “snitch line” website where anyone could report health-care workers in Canada or the United States performing “chemical and surgical mutilations of children,” which is how the current administration describes […]

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How Transport Canada’s Education on Residential Schools Went So Wrong

Less than an hour into Transport Canada’s online presentation for employees on the legacy of residential schools, things went wrong. The October event was the first in a series to provide the department’s staff across the country with information on the history and impact of residential schools. But it was quickly derailed as attendees made […]

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Some Physiotherapists Fear ICBC Changes Will Hurt Crash Victims

Some physiotherapy clinics are warning that recent updates to ICBC’s health-care services terms could reduce the recovery care for people hurt in car crashes. On Dec. 10, ICBC sent an email updating health-care providers it works with about a new way clients could search for eligible clinics. In the fifth paragraph ICBC said it was […]

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Inside Vancouver Library’s Ban on Pro-Palestinian Symbols

Vancouver Public Library policies that prevent staff from wearing Palestinian symbols have put the library in the spotlight. The library’s policies say it can’t become involved in partisan issues and bar employees from wearing political symbols at work. After a handful of complaints about pro-Palestinian symbols at library branches this summer, leadership enforced the policies […]

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