My date with Willy Pickton. Robert Pickton that is, Canada's most prolific serial killer.
posted by GuyZero on Apr 13, 2009 - 30 comments

City Farmer is a Vancouver-based organization that's been promoting urban agriculture since 1978. If you dig around their sprawling website, you can find everything from this feel-good news story, to a series of links leading to a nice deep free book. Alternatively, their new blog has cool pictures.
posted by StrikeTheViol on Jan 20, 2008 - 4 comments

This morning in Vancouver, volunteers handed out hundreds of disposable cameras, available free to any low-income resident of the city's Downtown Eastside (DTES) neighbourhood. Pictures in the returned cameras will be entered in this year's "Hope in Shadows" competition, with winners getting prizes and one of 12 spots in next year's calendar. (It will be sold by specially-trained low-income folks, who keep half their profits.) Run by Pivot, a local legal activism group, "Hope in Shadows" is a succesful and "innovative empowerment through art" project and a chance for the residents of the DTES to define their community -- one most often defined by its poverty, addictions, violence and disease.
Previous winners: 2004, 2005 [1] [2], 2006
posted by docgonzo on Jun 9, 2007 - 13 comments

On one side: Jim Green, the Alabama-born, opera-loving Vietnam draft-dodger, a hard-nosed community activist and the choice of the local tabloid and the outgoing mayor (himself the inspiration for not one but two Canadian television series) who together fought to bring harm-reduction (i.e. sanity) to Vancouver's drug-plagued downtown eastside; on the other: Sam Sullivan, the surprising underdog, a paraplegic -- and former lead singer in the "Spinal Chords" -- who, he's proud to say, was flat on his back and on welfare 20 years ago, then taught himself Cantonese and is the longest-serving member of city council. Who will be the next mayor of Vancouver? (It'll be close.)
posted by docgonzo on Nov 18, 2005 - 41 comments

Despite our predominantly post-modern society in Canada, there are still pockets of ignorance and intolerance. The City of Surrey a very suburban suburb of Vancouver, British Columbia, is pretty much the capital of Canada when it comes to this. A high school (ages 13-18) was rehearsing to perform "The Laramie Project" - a play about the murder of an American student Matthew Shephard (who was gay) and tolerance when the Surrey School Board pulled the plug on it. The play had recently been performed in a high school in a smaller, but less rednecky suburb, Mission. This is the same school board that tried to ban two excellent books teaching children tolerance for their friends that may have two dads or two mums. The ban was overturned by the Supreme Court of Canada. Perhaps a play of this nature is appropriate for high school students? Whaddya think?
posted by SSinVan on Sep 22, 2005 - 65 comments

Dear Sex Addict, Is Osama Hot or Not? (Sunday Magazine, Vancouver) I think OBL is totally hot, but my friends think I’ve lost my sense of judgement. What do you think? Do you think Osama is hot or not? Some people find Osama sexy. He is tall and aristocratic looking. Personally, I could do without the beard. I imagine people find him sexy because he is an outlaw. Some people say they find Osama sexy just to be outrageous. I think he looked much sexier when he was younger (don’t we all?); lately he looks tired, old, not vibrant. One thing you can be certain of, though, is that Osama doesn’t find you sexy.
posted by hoder on Mar 22, 2005 - 24 comments

This metafilter thread about the Golden Bridge suicide documentary stayed in my mind for weeks after I read it. It was haunting. Yesterday the Langara Journalism review from Vancouver published a very interesting article about responsible coverage of suicide in the media, notably after a mediatic chaos ensuing the suicidal attempts of two persons wanting to jump off one of Vancouver's bridges last fall. An excellent read for anyone tired of sensationalist horror stories, the consequences they can trigger, and the lack of taste they are treated with.
posted by Sijeka on Mar 4, 2005 - 17 comments

"Vancouver has opened North America's first legal shooting gallery for drug addicts." -for all you poor saps where guns are a part of your everyday vocabulary, NO that's not a place where drug addicts shoot guns.- this is a pilot program supported by all levels of government in BC and in Canada, where addicts can inject drugs in a supervised, clean environment. The purpose of which ultimately I think is to bridge the huge gap between "them" and "us" and possibly shrink the distance addicts have to reach through for help. Does my heart bleed for "them"? Absolutely not. You choose your weapon, you suffer the consequences. But what this could lead to is less addicts and therefore less reason for addicts to commit crimes to support their addictions...
posted by giantkicks on Sep 16, 2003 - 71 comments

Life is Simple I'm not even going to pretend to understand this. On the other hand, I really like the styling, beyond the images.
posted by Su on Jul 3, 2002 - 12 comments