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Canada taught me a lot… about France. Two western countries, two opposite perceptions of their inhabitants. On one hand, a long list of negative clichés, with people known to be rude, arrogant, grouchy, and unwelcoming. On the other hand, people who are praised for their politeness and kindness. I imagine you’ve already guessed which is…
Considering this province was basically founded because of 19th century gold rushes, there’s remarkably little public discussion about the mining industry in British Columbia. Back in the 1850s and ’60s, the discovery of gold transformed local politics and economics, as an influx of settlers came to pan for mineral riches, first in the Fraser Canyon…
Commissioned by the Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG), Ovoidism is a 2016 work located at the former site of Vancouver’s old bus depot, west of the Canadian Forces Beatty Street Drill Hall and east of the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. This is the area where the VAG hopes to relocate. The Coast Salish Dancers in this photo…
I was four months old when I first came to Canada. As a baby I was curious and excited to be part of such a diverse community. By the time I was five years old, I experienced great difficulty with social interactions. My classmates did not understand my multiculturalism or the fact that I was…
This week’s much-hyped B.C. visit of British royals William and Kate was a reminder of just how thoroughly our province was, and is, a colonial project. Even with a name like British Columbia, and the union jack on our provincial flag, some of us seem to forget where this recent political entity came from, and…
Although the West End’s Sex Workers Memorial has broad implications, the Sept. 16, 2016 unveiling was still a prideful neighbourhood event. It was inspiring to listen to stories of people’s struggles for the rights of sex workers. All three local First Nations Bands were represented: Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam and Squamish, and their unceded territory recognized. They…
To go and live in Canada was a teenage dream. A quest for vast distant spaces. For a simple life by a lake at the edge of the forest. A natural environment where I could take root once again. To be far away from my native lands: Languedoc and Sonora. I am as much from…
On March 2, 1999, BCTV’s news hour featured a live RCMP door knock at the East Vancouver residence of then NDP Premier Glen Clark. The cops were at the home of the province’s top politician to execute a search warrant issued in connection with an investigation into breach of trust involving a casino license approved…
This 104-year-old steam engine pulls a vintage train along the remaining 10 km (6 miles) of the famed Kettle Valley Railway (KVR). It’s a 90-minute tourist ride and well worth it. Skirting through the beautiful Prairie Valley of Summerland, B.C., the train ride offers beautiful vistas of vineyards and fruit orchards, a hallmark of the…
Growing up in Vancouver I heard the term “multiculturalism” a lot. I was taught that Canada, as a whole, is a multicultural country, a “mosaic” of peoples from many different places. As a kid, that seemed pretty obvious. People are all different – some were born here, some were born across the country and some…
Eight months out from the next provincial vote, Christy Clark is acting like she’s already begun the long election campaign. And based on her government’s recently released B.C. Climate Plan, the premier is betting that British Columbians won’t vote based on their concerns about the global climate emergency. Clark chose a Friday during the dog…
This is the beautiful Pride sign, in rainbow colours at Bute & Davie in Vancouver’s West End. It stood in the new Jim Deva Plaza during Pride weekend. The sign was an initiative of Young Ideas, which works out of Gordon Neighbourhood House. Young Ideas proposes to connect young people who live in the West…
The journey preceding my arrival in Vancouver almost five months ago was nothing out of the ordinary. Nonetheless, I think it is central to understanding how I have been feeling since arriving in the distant patch of land that is Vancouver. I come from Catalonia, a small European nation in search of independence. I have…
