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Erin Hanson

@erinhanson.bsky.social
556 followers 655 following 273 posts

Settler anthropologist thinking about Coast Salish law, the Canadian state, and dismantling the colonial machine. Expect some music geekery, geopolitics, and an undercurrent of optimism despite the cynical sheen. This is a personal account.

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Peter Louwe @peterlouwe.bsky.social · 5h
Hey Vancouverites. Time to chuck out the worst mayor of my lifetime and the entire rancid ABC team!
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COPE: The Coalition of Progressive Electors @copevancouver.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Our platform is out. Here's a sample. Read the whole thing here: www.votecope.ca/platform
COPE Platform 2026: Platform Highlights. 

Triple the Empty Homes Tax and close the loopholes that landlords and developers use to keep homes empty. 

A People's Audit to hold Ken Sim accountable, clean up his mess, and change direction for people. 

Tax mansions to end homelessness. 

Stop demovictions with a city-wide anti-displacement policy that protects tenants rights, converts rentals into coops, and prioritizes development without displacement. 

votecope.ca/platformCOPE Platform 2026: Platform Highlights. 

Increase access to 24/7 public washrooms across the city. 

Stop food waste with an edible food recovery law targeting big box stores and chain restaurants. 

A Climate Defence Strategy that invests in the circular economy, upgrades infrastructure, and prepares for future climate events. 

Build more public pools, and train and hire the lifeguards and swim instructors we need to keep pools open and staffed, and stop line-ups. 

votecope.ca/platformCOPE Platform 2026: Platform Highlights. 

Establish drop-in spaces at community centres and before-and-after school childcare at Vancouver Schools. 

Grow the urban forest canopy to 30% by 2050 with a priority for climate-resilient native species. 

Create a universal breakfast and lunch program for all VSB students. 

Fight for a fast and free public transit system in Vancouver and BC, and take steps on that path immediately, such as fare-free pilot routes, and a low-income transit pass. 

votecope.ca/platformCOPE Platform 2026: Platform Highlights. 

Make Vancouver a Restorative Justice City and fund the Restorative City Framework. 

Oppose the creation of urban data centers for AI in Vancouver, and fight for robust regulatory frameworks. 

Create a Vancouver Arts, Culture, and Creative City Navigator that supports arts organizations, festivals, and venues. 

Establish a "too hot to work" by-law that establishes safe temperatures in workplaces, including kitchens. 

votecope.ca/platform
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COPE: The Coalition of Progressive Electors @copevancouver.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
There is more to keeping people safe than skyrocketing police budgets. Ken Sim and ABC voted down safety measures for pedestrians, for vulnerable people, and for climate safety. COPE will fight for a Vancouver that is safe for everyone.
COPE Policy 2026
MAKE VANCOUVER SAFE FOR EVERYONE (everyone is underlined)
There is more to keeping people safe than skyrocketing police budgets.In 2022, Ken Sim and ABC ran on a platform of “public safety” using outdated and inflated crime rates. This time around, they are using outdated crime statistics to create a false narrative while pushing a costly & meaningless plebiscite to distract voters from their failures.

HEADLINE: Vancouver police union, mayor's party cite dated crime statistic in lead up to election

Instead of keeping our communities safe, they’ve thrown hundreds of millions into the overinflated police budget while voting down safety measures for pedestrians, for vulnerable people, and for climate safety.
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COPE: The Coalition of Progressive Electors @copevancouver.bsky.social · 3h
ADVANCE VOTING IS OPEN NOW Vote for the whole COPE slate today, its easy and fun. You can vote at any voting location. Find your polling location at the link below.
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 7h
Wrote a thing Monday. Got held back and is a weekend read at the Guardian today. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...
While the criminal justice system should address reports of rape, we know that rates of conviction are appallingly low for a number of reasons. Although, thanks to feminist interventions, the legal system is better equipped to understand this crime and less prejudiced against victims, we will not change the world through that means.

After rape allegations at Cornell University, why are women again being urged to talk to their sons? Why not men?
Gaby Hinsliff
Gaby Hinsliff
Read more
Sexual assault arises in part through both the entitlement and the desire to abuse and dehumanize women, which is in part about definitions of both masculinity and femininity: masculinity in that domination, violation and degradation are seen as status-enhancing, femininity in the perception that women’s bodies are for men to use, women’s voices and rights to be ignored.

The most compelling thing I’ve read in response to the Cornell case is in an essay by feminist writer Soraya Chemaly. She cites anthropologist Peggy Sanday, who told her that there are “rape-prone” and “rape-free” societies: “She found that in rape-free cultures, women have far more authority, status, safety and freedom.”

They’re societies in which women’s rights to bodily and social self-determination are respected, and a man who violates those rights would face severe consequences. “Rape-prone cultures, on the other hand, treat rape as an entitlement in a system that revolves around masculine contests and hierarchies.”

 rest at link
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Erin Hanson @erinhanson.bsky.social · 16h
Woke up to the sad news that the incredible Andrea Warner passed away. Then shortly thereafter I Iearned that Brooke Eby passed away... Two amazing women who were such bright lights. The world is a poorer place without their wit and wisdom.
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CHEK News @cheknews.ca · 01/10/2026
Indigenous communities along the newly-announced West Coast Oil Pipeline route were given just two months for consultations, and that was still more than the government initially planned. cheknews.ca/indigenous-communities-…
cheknews.ca
Indigenous communities given just two months to consult on West Coast Pipeline
Indigenous communities along the newly-announced West Coast Oil Pipeline route were given just two months for consultations, and that was still more than the government initially planned.
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The Grind @thegrindto.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
“Reconciliation prompted us to relinquish negative feelings over the past, but many, including myself, were not willing to do that. Because we have not severed from the past. The past endures,” says Billy-Ray Belcourt in an interview about his latest book.
thegrindmag.ca
Billy-Ray Belcourt’s Poems Insist on Indigenous Freedom
In his first poetry collection since 2019, the acclaimed author from Driftpile Cree Nation challenges readers to imagine new political possibilities…
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maura quint @mauraquint.bsky.social · 01/10/2026
Yes every woman has been harassed, many assaulted. But every woman has also experienced invisible loss from moments she avoided harassment. She felt a space becoming unsafe, so she left, while men stayed on. And in leaving, she lost: opportunities, experiences, learning, promotions, even simply fun.
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Niigaan Sinclair @niigaanwewidam.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
On this day I’m thinking of all residential school survivors - my aunties and uncles and grandparents and in particular but also Phyllis Webstad, the founder of the Orange Shirt Society whose memoir I wrote the foreword for - check it out!
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Anna Mehler Paperny @mehlerpaperny.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
If we're going to talk about truth and reconciliation we should talk about Canada fighting First Nations in court. ijb.utoronto.ca/news/liberal...
ijb.utoronto.ca
Liberals are playing legal hardball with First Nations over drinking water - Investigative Journalism Bureau
Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberal government is playing legal hardball with First Nations fighting for clean drinking water — and First Nations are fighting back. Interviews and hundreds of pages o...
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Connie Walker @conniewalker.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
It's taken a minute but I'm excited to tell you about a new project and a new podcast (eventually). In many ways, Stolen: Surviving St. Michael’s was just the beginning…. More here: contactingconnie.substack.com/p/who-is-pro...
contactingconnie.substack.com
Who is protected by the destruction of Indian Residential School records?
“There’s not a single Indigenous person in Canada, who has not been touched by the legacy of Residential Schools.” - Justice Murray Sinclair, Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC)
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Maybe time for those who don't experience this directly to return to this thread (which I posted when PTSD was being weaponized to relieve Graham Platner of responsibility for his actions).
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The Serfs (youtube.com/theserfstv) @theserfstv.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
The story behind Orange Shirt Day
Orange shirt day was created by Phillish Webstad of Stswecemʼc Xgetʼtem First Nation. "I went to Mission for one school year in 1973/74. I had just turned 6 years old. I lived with my grandmother on the Dog Creek reserve. We never had very much money, but somehow my granny managed to buy me a new outfit to go to Mission school. I remember going to Robinson's store and picking out a shiny orange shirt. It had string laced up in front, and was so bright and exiting - just like I felt to be going to school! When I got to the Mission, they stripped me, and took away my clothes, including the orange shirt! I never wore it again. I didn't understand why they wouldn't give it back to me, it was mine! The color orange has always reminded me of that and how my feelings didn't matter, how no one cared and how I felt like I was worth nothing. All of us little children were crying and no one cared"
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Kelly B @kellyblack.ca · 30/09/2026
Other parties: LNG BAYBEE! greens: we will restart the community housing fund and implement vacancy control
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Rebecca Solnit @rebeccasolnit.bsky.social · 30/09/2026
Time for this classic again.
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Julie S. Lalonde @julieslalonde.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
If you're angry about the Cornell 7 (and the million other cases just like it!) then may I suggest supporting evidence-based solutions? The Flip the Script with EAAA program is *the* most effective rape resistance program in the world & it's based here in Canada! Support their work:
sarecentre.org
Home Page
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Matt Lombardo @mattlombardo.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Women deserve so much better, and it’s on us as men to do the hard work, teach what should be the easy lessons, and prioritize making sure no one feels comfortable allowing this to ever happen.
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The Serfs (youtube.com/theserfstv) @theserfstv.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
This all sounds amazing
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Mihai Cirstea @mihai-cirstea.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Some seriously good and thoughtful stuff in the COPE @copevancouver.bsky.social platform released today. Definitely winning me over in a big way. static1.squarespace.com/static/662c7...
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Qasim Rashid, Esq. @qasimrashid.com · 28/09/2026
Men—we need to talk: •Timothy Hudson raped & killed his stepsister—he got pretrial release •7 men at Cornell drugged, trafficked, & raped a woman—they faced no consequences •An American man annihilates his entire family—every 5 days Women are not safe around men www.qasimrashid.com/p/women-are-...
qasimrashid.com
Women Are Not Safe Around Men
This is a fact. The data is unambiguous and the solutions exist. The only thing missing is the will to act.
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Andrew Schreck @andrewschreck.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
i don't think cis guys realize how much power they can shift in a conversation just by casually telling their friends
"that's fucked up, man" when someone says something
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Qasim Rashid, Esq. @qasimrashid.com · 28/09/2026
To the people complaining these sex abuse cases have created a world where men now have to think 10 times before they touch a woman. Yes, that's the point. It's called consent. Welcome to human decency.
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Blue Oleta @blue-oleta.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
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Mary Grace @emgeekay.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Good fact check. Yes, the Carney government is attacking the right to strike. www.cbc.ca/player/play/...
cbc.ca
Fact check: Is Carney changing the right to strike?
Prime Minister Mark Carney says his government’s proposed set of changes to the Labour Code “absolutely reinforces the right to strike.” Here are the facts.
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Kimberley Johnson @kimberleyjohnson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
But I need to smile more.
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Lindsay Brown @lidsville.bsky.social · 27/09/2026
There are some great people running for Vancouver city council but this is my #1 choice. Please save a vote for Stephanie Smith, @spkr118. Just watch the video. #vanpoli
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Hillary Monahan @hillarymonahan.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
With captions.
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Cage @ridiculouscage.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
"why would I deceive you?"
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Chantzy @chantzy.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
This should be the #1 issue in the BC election vancouversun.com/news/bc-cris...
vancouversun.com
B.C. in 'crisis': Number of patients waiting for surgery, dying on wait-lists increasing, new data show
Canadian think tank SecondStreet.org released data showing 96,238 patients are waiting for surgery, up 8.4 per cent since 2022
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Erin Hanson @erinhanson.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
Perfect headline.
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Joanne Hammond @joannehammond.bsky.social · 26/09/2026
1) that’s not a policy 2) journalists must ask him why (we know why), on record 3) how does this make anything better for anyone? Anti-Indigenous racism needs airing out this election cycle.
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Erin Hanson @erinhanson.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
This is hilarious because what tangible effect would this have? What substantive impact has DRIPA had on anyone who is not Indigenous? This is one giant phantom promise that will deliver absolutely nothing to British Columbians except probably a bunch of lawsuits. And insufferable racist drivel.
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Wear The Peace @wearthepeace.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Actress Susan Sarandon being arrested earlier today for protesting Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech at the United Nations. One is speaking out against genocide, one is committing it. One was arrested, one was not.
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Robert Jago @rjjago.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
In 2023, I was working with a charity & we did this market to serve food/provide clothes/haircuts for ppl on the DTES. Pete Fry and Ken Sim said they'd come. Pete Fry came, Ken Sim didn't. 2 weeks later, Ken Sim had the homeless people in the park rounded up, their possessions put in garbage cans.
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Derrick O'Keefe 🌹 @derrickokeefe.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
He closed renters' office, banned supportive housing, cut public services to give wealthy property owners $ they don't need, caused the eviction of countless renters ... ABC just voted for $18B asset manager Nicola Wealth's eviction of working families at Myron Manor. Now playing victim. Unreal.
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Heather McPherson MP @heathermcpherson.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
The Liberal government is attacking workers' rights and protecting employers when they break labour laws. Do you believe this answer? I don't! @psac-afpc.bsky.social
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"Online Rent-a-Sage" Bret Devereaux @bretdevereaux.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
But I cannot stress enough: we have spent decades de-prioritizing and defunding the humanities broadly in secondary and post-secondary education and then we're all surprised-Pikachu-face when we are suffering from systematic leadership failures in exactly those skills and knowledge domains.
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LaurenSJ @laurenshirleyj.bsky.social · 23/09/2026
This is scandalous. He is a Residential School survivor who negotiated the creation of Nunavut with the Government of Canada, yet he has been forcibly relocated four times. Have we no shame? Watch the video: "elder care facility negotiator nunavut" #cdnpoli #Nunavut #IndigenousRights
share.google
He helped found Nunavut, now he's fighting to age there
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John Vaillant @johnvaillant.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
Wake up, Canada. Just four companies control 80% of oilsands production. 60% of those companies' stock is owned by Americans. How is being an American petro colony in the "national interest", @mark-carney.bsky.social?
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David Graeber Institute @davidgraeberinst.bsky.social · 20/09/2026

Alt text describes images for blind and low-vision users, and helps give context to everyone.
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National Newswatch @nationalnewswatch.com · 20/09/2026
Transport minister won’t guarantee prices won’t go up after airport privatization, promises fees will be ‘partially regulated’ www.ctvnews.ca/canada/artic... Find out more at nationalnewswatch.com
ctvnews.ca
Transport minister won’t guarantee prices won’t go up after airport privatization, promises fees will be ‘partially regulated’
Transport Minister Steven MacKinnon won’t guarantee the cost to fly won’t go up for travellers if the federal government follows through on its plan to privatize Canada’s four largest airports but doe...
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Malevolent Maelstrom @chemicalchaos.bsky.social · 19/09/2026
Hey its fucking wierd more of the dems platform isnt "we will give you abortion rights back"
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Nathan K. Hensley @nathankhensley.bsky.social · 20/09/2026
never forget that our universities fired and expelled people for opposing this
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Julia Carrie Wong @joolia.bsky.social · 14/09/2026
“There’s no AI exemption for laws already on the books.” - Lina Khan, GOAT
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Vancouver Sun @vancouversun.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
Opinion: Why Canada's new pipeline proposal threatens the Salish Sea vancouversun.com/opinion/op-e...
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Ordinary Notes @hystericalblkns.bsky.social · 13/09/2026
www.theguardian.com/society/2026...
theguardian.com
Female asylum seekers report being sexually assaulted by British men
Women say they are too fearful to pursue criminal prosecution of rapes, for fear of having their claims refused
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David Ho @davidho.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
I wrote this quickly at a bus stop and didn't realize it would go viral, or else I would have worded it better. But the point is that the media is too credulous about AI killing everyone in 10 years (how?) when climate change is killing people now and will only get worse (we know exactly how).
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Rine Vieth @rinewithoutacat.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Someone I know offline is collecting money for cat surgery. It's someone who's given me some neat opportunities, so can absolutely vouch for person (and the importance of Zelda the cat!). www.gofundme.com/f/zelda-need...
gofundme.com
Donate to Zelda needs surgery!, organized by Shahroze Rauf
Hello all - I am asking for your help Zelda has been struggling to use the litter, and ha… Shahroze Rauf needs your support for Zelda needs surgery!
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COPE: The Coalition of Progressive Electors @copevancouver.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
"When I go door-knocking, when I go canvassing, when I have our AI petition, you’ll see people from all classes, all backgrounds, from all across the city who don’t want to see these data centres go up, who don’t want to see AI in schools." - Solomon Yi-Kieran
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