ARTS & LIFE
Scarce funds
BIPOC creatives comment on the reality of securing funding in Vancouver’s film industry. P7
PHOTOESSAY
Hope & Anxiety
Vancouver residents share their experiences of living and working in Vancouver. P6
PRODUCED BY LANGARA JOURNALISM STUDENTS | WWW.LANGARAVOICE.CA
ONLINE SPECIAL
SisterWatch
VPD community initiatives to protect Indigenous women in question. bit.ly/3Xggl7a
FEBRUARY 27, 2025 • VOL. 58 NO. 4 • VANCOUVER, B.C.
Langara faculty receive work reduction notices Langara Faculty Association says process is confusing and ‘chaotic’ By SAGE SMITH
A
Healing the divide Participants walk through the downtown core during the 34th annual Women’s Memorial March honouring missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside Feb. 14, 2025.
Aboriginal Policing Centre says ongoing collaboration with VPD is creating understanding By PHILOMENA OKOLO
I
n the wake of the 34th annual Women’s Memorial March advocates say that despite ongoing issues with discrimination, police in Vancouver are trying to mend their relationship with Indigenous people. Sandra DeLorme, a 56 year-old residential day school survivor, said she began going to the march to honour missing and murdered Indigenous women in her early twenties and has been going ever since. She said a friend told her, “There’s a whole bunch of ladies that are going missing. We’re going to stop at each site that they found their bodies. I said, OK, let’s go.” Delorme, who works at a shelter in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, said her community does not have a good relationship with the police because they are not offered meaningful support when they reach out to law enforcement. Lorelei Williams, founder of the Butterflies in Spirit dance group, said officers from the Vancouver Police Department told her there was nothing they could do when she reported a man threatening to kill her.
Williams told police she worked with the Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Centre and the SisterWatch Committee, adding “I know there’s something that can be done.” She said the officers came back “and they were like, ‘OK, we can do something about it.’ But I had to pull those cards out. I always have to.” Williams said the initial reaction from the police officers made her feel like she did not matter as an Indigenous person. Tabitha Frank, the women’s support coordinator at the Vancouver Aboriginal Community Policing Centre, said that despite her niece being killed by police during a wellness check in 2020, continuing her work at the policing centre is vital to mend the gap between Indigenous people and the police. “The community trusts us when we do the work and I decided to stay because if we don’t stand up for our women, who will?” Frank noted the Circles of Understanding, an initiative by the policing centre to bring awareness to the continued and historical oppression of the Indigenous population. She said this program has been beneficial to new police recruits. “I feel like
it’s changing the way that policing is happening,” she said. “They’re having a bit of understanding of why Indigenous people are the way they are now and why they’re so triggered by the uniform.” Frank said she hopes within the next five years Indigenous people will start trusting the system, noting the older generation of police officers do not have the same understanding because they did not receive training from the policing centre. Jacqueline Michell, the policing centre’s executive director, said she is seeing progress in their collaborations with the VPD. Although she still takes extra precautions as an Indigenous woman living in Canada, she said she applauds the efforts made by the police. “They’re really taking our feedback. I think that’s interesting that they’re hearing us and that they’re implementing the changes.” VPD media relations officer Steve Addison said the department investigates more than 5,000 missing person’s cases every year with a solve rate of 99.9 per cent. Addison said of the 5,400 cases investigated in 2024, only five cases remain unsolved.
fter two weeks of protest by the Langara Faculty Association in the face of expected layoffs, Langara employees received the news that 22 faculty members had received work reduction notices for the fall 2025 term. On Feb. 13, Langara president Paula Burns sent an email announcing these work reduction notices, adding that employment “may continue if there is temporary work for which they are eligible in their department.” According to LFA president Paulina Greaves said the work reductions will result in layoffs, but the number of people affected remains unclear. She said the process has been confusing for staff. “Now we have to go back and ask their HR partner, can you explain this to me?” she said. “It makes the thing really cumbersome and chaotic because they haven’t worked through all of those issues yet.” In her Feb. 13 email, Burns also wrote that many temporary faculty members received fewer hours or in some cases no work in the spring 2025 semester, and 12 Continuing Studies staff members received reduction notices in late January 2025. “This is no doubt difficult for the people affected. We are grateful for their contributions,” the email said. Burns added that due to federal international student policy changes, this spring semester saw 1,400 fewer students on campus compared to this time last year. The college was hit especially hard by a drop in enrolment due to international student caps brought on by a change in federal government policy.
Langara has a high proportion of international students compared to many other similar B.C. post-secondary institutions. Langara president Paula Burns told faculty in an email that the college was facing a dramatic drop of almost 79 per cent in international student applications for the 2025 spring semester. The LFA held two weeks of protests, from Feb. 4 to 14, in response to these expected layoffs. Niall Christie, an LFA board member and department chair of history, Latin and political science, said the college’s reliance on international students’ tuition for funding has made it vulnerable to the caps. International students pay approximately six times more for tuition than domestic students. He said faculty jobs could be saved if the administration is willing to reduce class sizes and promote the college to attract more students. He said that the administration is going for a “quick and not well thought through approach, which is simply to cut faculty jobs without actually considering the human impact.” Christie said the college has demonstrated “an extraordinary lack of leadership.” In a Feb. 26 email statement, college spokesperson Adam Brayford said that the college has done their best to share as much information as possible with instructors. Brayford said last summer and fall there were a series of town halls and messages to raise awareness of enrolment declines and possible impacts, deans met with impacted faculty, and mitigation strategies have been communicated. A faculty member, who asked to remain unnamed due to fear of job loss, said that staff and faculty have also received push-back from the administration, and some are afraid to speak out. “Department members have faced warnings,” they said. “Even just saying we don’t want to cut a class has faced reprisals.”
Pauline Greaves, president of the LFA, poses for a photo during a protest held on Monday, Feb. 10 in the A Building of Langara College. PHOTO SAGE SMITH