P.O.W.E.R.

🚨 NEW study: ​​Reports of drug seizures by police rose during first year of decriminalization in Vancouver via @sfu-fhs.bsky.social: www.sfu.ca/sfunews/stor... @drugdatadecoded.ca @readthemaple.com

Or the police confiscate the drugs but don't record it.

Manitoba’s police watchdog has been without a permanent civilian director for almost two years but the government is in no rush to hire a replacement, suggest documents obtained by the IJF. zurl.co/E1uR3

A conviction rate of just 1.43%: tracing BC's IIO investigations into police-involved deaths, killings and serious harm 78% percent of those convictions were for driving offences. ...And in BC, sexual assault by police is not considered "serious harm" www.policeoversight.ca/p/iio-and-th...

NEW: Check out the latest from our report 'Policing Legitimacy' featuring FIFA reflections from our friends at SWIFA www.policeoversight.ca/p/sex-worker...

NEW: Naloxone kits, medications, memorials, board games all end up in the trash, unhoused people and advocates say. Read Part 2 of our series on bylaw enforcement and unhoused residents' possessions in Victoria. www.defactomedia.ca/unhoused-peo...

city said no to the politicians—ken sim & kareem allam–behind the 100 cops, 100 nurses lie. no to peter meiszner, who helped kill Yaletown OPS on Seymour and wanted to cut funding to groups critical of gov't. no to VPD staff arezo zarrabian, and VPD advocate/police board member lorraine lowe

Holy crap vancouver. I guess cop politicians don’t have the same appeal they had in 2022.

NEW: We got consent from 7 unhoused people sheltering along Pandora Ave to hide Apple AirTags in their possessions. This is after years of City of Victoria denying allegations from unhoused ppl & witnesses who said bylaw don't follow their own policies. Now we have proof. Part 1 of 2 stories ⬇️

NEW: Check out the latest from our report 'Policing Legitimacy' featuring FIFA reflections from our friends at SWIFA www.policeoversight.ca/p/sex-worker...

"I see people that get pushed around and picked on and stuff like that and have no voice for themselves, and I don't mind sticking up for them. That's my want right there." Read Jason Rondeau's final interview with @sharonnadeem.bsky.social We <3 you Jay www.policeoversight.ca/p/jays-final...

A police department changing its press release AFTER THE FACT is a very, very, very serious matter - not least when it publicly attacked the journalist who reported its original contents. There are questions to answer here.

NEW: Behind the Vancouver Police distortion of hate crime statistics The VPD "altered their posted press release after the publication of my story, and added a new, more accurate graphic that aligned closer to the data obtained via FOI" @brishti.bsky.social www.policeoversight.ca/p/behind-the...

New: Here’s what went down behind the scenes 2 years ago when Vancouver Police changed their press release to make it look like my reporting in @thetyee.ca was false, and then launched an attack on X. Thanks to @policeoversight.ca for asking me to write about this bizarre series of events!

Lies, damned lies and VPD statistics.

Just as well there aren't any candidates in the upcoming Vancouver election that recently used to work for the VPD....

A conviction rate of just 1.43%: tracing BC's IIO investigations into police-involved deaths, killings and serious harm 78% percent of those convictions were for driving offences. ...And in BC, sexual assault by police is not considered "serious harm" www.policeoversight.ca/p/iio-and-th...

Statement from Connor Bildfell, president of the Canadian Bar Association's B.C. branch, on personal attacks on judges following last week's ruling re: the Drug User Liberation Front

NEW: Behind the Vancouver Police distortion of hate crime statistics The VPD "altered their posted press release after the publication of my story, and added a new, more accurate graphic that aligned closer to the data obtained via FOI" @brishti.bsky.social www.policeoversight.ca/p/behind-the...

Another election, another police candidate running with Mayor Ken Sim's ABC party. The latest is a crime analyst who detected the pandemic-era spike in stranger assaults that became a major campaign issue in 2022. www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...

For the second election in a row, a senior crime analyst with the Vancouver Police Department is running for city council in a partisan campaign—raising new questions about politicization within one of B.C.’s most powerful institutions. www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...

A Vancouver cop told DULF’s founders he would personally advocate for them. 2 years later, he approved the investigation that led to raids on their homes. www.defactomedia.ca/how-vancouve...

About 50 people crammed into the court room to hear the decision, which took Murray 10 minutes to deliver. Applause broke out as she stood, with people openly crying from relief, from happiness, from feeling like someone in power understood the urgency of the crisis.

Justice Murray declared part of the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act unconstitutional, and trafficking convictions for Drug User Liberation Front co-founders Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum have been stayed. thetyee.ca/News/2026/09...

we have lost so many people while police & politicians created a spectacle, raided DULF, stopped the expansion of an alt to the toxic supply, and put its co-founders through the needless consequences of this process that took years. DULF saves lives bsky.app/profile/godf...

Thank goodness we have the judicial branch to provide sober second thought on these matters because, as detailed in the linked piece, the ‘serve and protect’ bunch were not interested in doing either. How much taxpayer money was wasted on this boondoggle? #BCpoli www.defactomedia.ca/how-vancouve...

🔥VICTORY FOR DULF & HARM REDUCTION!🔥 BC’s Supreme Court threw out the convictions of DULF’s co-founders, finding their community-led safer supply model saved lives and did not undermine public safety. Parliament has 6 months to create a viable legal pathway. https://ow.ly/p6Ph50ZSZxv

pressprogress.ca/key-parts-of... “Recent reporting has uncovered that the VPD inspector who at one time enthusiastically worked with DULF was the same person to approve an investigation into the group once political tides had turned.”

“The Vancouver Police Department, having been briefed by #DULF all along about what they were doing and why, should have gone to DULF and advised them to shut down, if they thought the public concern was getting too hot,” Dickson argued. www.defactomedia.ca/how-vancouve...

VPD misinformation campaign on drug seizures reflect efforts to have it both ways on decriminalization www.policeoversight.ca/p/vpd-misinf...

VPD misinformation campaign on drug seizures reflect efforts to have it both ways on decriminalization www.policeoversight.ca/p/vpd-misinf...

“I’m happy to take you for a coffee,” Heard told Kalicum [DULF's co-founder] on May 23. Just four months later, Heard would notify sergeant Mike Cheah, the lead investigator on the DULF file, that he was recommending Wilson approve the investigation plan: www.defactomedia.ca/how-vancouve...

Public hearing into Myles Gray’s death at hands of VPD officers set to resume after lengthy delay

There have been four drug alerts issued in northwestern Ontario in less than a week, one of which is linked to a surge of more than 60 drug poisonings in the Kenora area over two days www.cbc.ca/news/canada/...

Sharing this again, on the anniversary of my dad's death from an accidental drug overdose. thetyee.ca/Culture/2024... @thetyee.ca

In an adapted excerpt, Riley Yesno writes that Indigenous communities, through housing projects and community land trusts, challenge the colonial system by returning to models that incorporate indigenous values and which are rooted in collective responsibility and community. www.briarpatchmagazi...

Care Not Cops hosts grassroots networks in the colonial city of glass NEW in @briarpatchmag.bsky.social: www.briarpatchmagazine.com/care-not-cops

This weekend, Care Not Cops will be hosting its 4th annual convergence, Speculative Abolition: Art, Documentation and Medico-Legal Disruption, dedicated to anti-carcerality in health care.

🧵 Short timeline of political endorsements by police 1. 2022: Vancouver police drive moral panic on stranger attacks, though their data showed steep decline. 2. Oct 2022: Ken Sim gets first-ever endorsement from head of Vancouver police association, Ralph Kaisers. www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...

Vancouver police sabotaging BC’s drug decriminalization pilot is also infuriating because people’s odds of experiencing an overdose TRIPLED after having their drugs confiscated. People likely died because of this shady political manoeuvring by VPD. link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The Vancouver Police Union says it won’t be endorsing a mayoral candidate in this year’s municipal election. www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/ar...

In 2024, the VPD publicly obscured their own data by releasing a narrow & new definition of seizures, claiming so-called "possession seizures" had declined to "zero" during the initial stage of decriminalization: www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/briti... @andreawoo.bsky.social @theglobeandmail.com

vancouver.citynews.ca/2026/09/09/s...

The study shows drug seizures by police officers are associated with experiencing an overdose, AT AN INDIVIDUAL-LEVEL | cc: @guyfelicella.bsky.social @dsdp.ca @crackdownpod.bsky.social Link to the study, which includes 4 x P.O.W.E.R. members: link.springer.com/article/10.1...

The study aligns with findings from other researchers who looked at seizures province-wide @sfu-fhs.bsky.social @sfucriminology.bsky.social @princeton.edu: www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1...