In The News

London Drugs says they’re seeing more shoplifting and violence at their stores, and the province is clamping down on short-term rentals. These are just some of the topics we covered with our Soapbox Social panel today.

“There’s not a lot you can do. Unless you actually witness somebody commit the offence, you don’t have a lot of rights to stop somebody. The laws in Canada related to citizen’s arrest make it so have to be effectively very, very sure that what you’re doing is lawful before you take any steps to physically apprehend a person.”

…

“There’s a lot of development applications for hotels in this city and there’s a lot of abandoned development in the city that could be turned into more hotel stock. So I think there is a long term strategy in relation to building more hotels but I do have a concern about tourism…”

Listen here.

“It feels a lot like blaming the victim considering the pedestrian was the only one who was following the law.”

“Although the video has generated a lot of controversy online… it’s generating a lot of buzz surrounding pedestrian safety. Even though the execution (of the video) was terrible.”

“As a driver, put your phone away… It’s not worth it for one text message.”

Listen to the segment here.

Richmond RCMP releases a video to help inform pedestrians and drivers about how everyone has roles to play to make our roadways safer.

“How many laws does the driver break in this video?”

“…the driver picks up the phone, clearly something you’re not supposed to do when you’re behind the wheel, picks up the phone , is looking at the phone and at that point almost hits the pedestrian in the crosswalk”

“Wow, this feels a lot like blaming the victim, like here’s this woman, fair enough she’s wearing all black and she’s got her headphones in, so she can’t hear what’s around her. But she’s in a marked crosswalk, and somebody who is using her cellphone while driving almost mows her down and they’re sort of pointing the finger at her for not protecting her own safety? That’s really bad.”

“…not a situation where, as a pedestrian, you’re expecting you’re going to be seen regardless of what you’re wearing in that situation”

“Oh absolutely, as a pedestrian you should take actions to make sure you keep yourself safe because I don’t think it’s reasonable to expect every driver is going to be driving perfectly”

Listen to the full episode here.

“…the idea that somebody would be pretending to be a nurse and potentially putting a patient at risk is a terrifying thought… Impersonating a healthcare professional can lead to a number of charges, most significantly fraud. But if somebody was to get grossly injured or die as a result, then they could also face consequences and charges for criminal negligence.”

Kyla Lee, a Vancouver criminal lawyer for Acumen Law Corporation, and Mo Amir, host of the podcast This is VANCOLOUR, weigh in on the rollout of Vancouver’s housing plan, the NHL’s ban on Pride stick tape, and guess what each other likes to watch when they’re sick.

“I don’t see anything bold, or new. I don’t see anything that I’m excited about. I just see the same old stuff and a bunch of promises to promise… On one hand we absolutely want density around transportation hubs… But I also wonder what happens around those sky train stations to the small businesses? Their rents are going to go up significantly from where they are, and we’re going to push a lot of the character out of the city. I wish that the plan had a mechanism to protect all that character while still creating density where density needs to be created.”

Listen here.

“I’m not surprised at the decision. It is disappointing in particular in this case because of who the victims involved were – vulnerable Indigenous youths… When Indigenous people are the victims of crime, the sentences tend to be a lot lower than they would be and the amount of time somebody spends in incarceration tends to be a lot shorter than it would be if the victim were not Indigenous.”

Mo Amir and Kyla Lee speak with Gloria Macarenko about Bruce Banman’s comments around some children’s literature.

“…the whole purpose of school is to prepare students for the real world and to help people understand and encounter and learn how to deal with real world scenarios like bullying. That doesn’t take place in the legislature because we have expectations on adults that we don’t have on children…”

Listen to the segment here.

“Police can pull you over at any point for the purposes of checking that your vehicle complies with the provisions of the MVA and the MVA regulations… The fine isn’t huge but it’s money you don’t want to be spending with the holidays coming up.”