sarcozona's blurblog

I Want You to Understand Chicago
Sunday November 9^th, 2025 at 9:02 AM

I want you to understand what it is like to live in Chicago during this time.

Every day my phone buzzes. It is a neighborhood group: four people were kidnapped at the corner drugstore. A friend a mile away sends a Slack message: she was at the scene when masked men assaulted and abducted two people on the street. A plumber working on my pipes is distraught, and I find out that two of his employees were kidnapped that morning. A week later it happens again.

An email arrives. Agents with guns have chased a teacher into the school where she works. They did not have a warrant. They dragged her away, ignoring her and her colleagues’ pleas to show proof of her documentation. That evening I stand a few feet from the parents of Rayito de Sol and listen to them describe, with anguish, how good Ms. Diana was to their children. What it is like to have strangers with guns traumatize your kids. For a teacher to hide a three-year-old child for fear they might be killed. How their relatives will no longer leave the house. I hear the pain and fury in their voices, and I wonder who will be next.

Understand what it is to pray in Chicago. On September 19th, Reverend David Black, lead pastor at First Presbyterian Church of Chicago, was praying outside the ICE detention center in Broadview when a DHS agent shot him in the head with pepper balls. Pepper balls are never supposed to be fired at the head because they can seriously injure, or even kill. “We could hear them laughing as they were shooting us from the roof,” Black recalled. He is not the only member of the clergy ICE has assaulted. Methodist pastor Hannah Kardon was violently arrested on October 17th, and Baptist pastor Michael Woolf was shot with pepper balls on November 1st.

Understand what it is to sleep in Chicago. On the night of September 30th, federal agents rappelled from a Black Hawk helicopter to execute a raid on an apartment building on the South Shore. Roughly three hundred agents deployed flashbangs, busted down doors, and took people indiscriminately. US citizens, including women and children, were grabbed from their beds, marched outside without even a chance to dress, zip-tied, and loaded into vans. Residents returned to find their windows and doors broken and their belongings stolen.

Understand what it is to lead Chicago. On October 3rd, Alderperson Jesse Fuentes asked federal agents to produce a judicial warrant and allow an injured man at the hospital access to an attorney. The plainclothes agents grabbed Fuentes, handcuffed her, and took her outside the building. Her lawsuit is ongoing. On October 21st, Representative Hoan Huynh was going door-to-door to inform businesses of their immigration rights when he was attacked by six armed CBP agents, who boxed in his vehicle and pointed a gun at his face. Huynh says the agents tried to bash open his car window.

Understand what it is to live in Chicago. On October 9th, Judge Ellis issued a temporary restraining order requiring that federal agents refrain from deploying tear gas or shooting civilians without an imminent threat, and requiring two audible warnings. ICE and CBP have flaunted these court orders. On October 12th, federal agents shoved an attorney to the ground who tried to help a man being detained in Albany Park. Agents refused to identify themselves or produce a warrant, then deployed tear gas without warning. On October 14th, agents rammed a car on the East Side, then tear-gassed neighbors and police.

On October 23rd, federal agents detained seven people, including two U.S. citizens and an asylum seeker, in Little Village. Two worked for Alderperson Michael Rodriguez: his chief of staff Elianne Bahena, and police district council member Jacqueline Lopez. Again in Little Village, agents tear-gassed and pepper-sprayed protestors, seizing two high school students and a security guard, among others. Alderperson Byron Sigcho-Lopez reported that agents assaulted one of the students, who had blood on his face. On October 24th, agents in Lakeview emerged from unmarked cars, climbed a locked fence to enter a private yard, and kidnapped a construction worker. As neighbors gathered, they deployed four tear gas canisters. That same day, a few blocks away, men with rifles jumped out of SUVs and assaulted a man standing at a bus stop.

“They were beating him,” said neighbor Hannah Safter. “His face was bleeding”.

They returned minutes later and attacked again. A man from the Laugh Factory, a local comedy club, had come outside with his mother and sister. “His mom put her body in between them, and one of the agents kicked her in the face”.

Understand what it is to be a family in Chicago. The next day, October 25th, federal agents tear-gassed children in Old Irving Park. Again, no warnings were heard. On October 26th, agents arrested a 70-year-old man and threw a 67-year old woman to the ground in Old Irving Park, then tear-gassed neighbors in Avondale. That same day, federal agents deployed tear gas at a children’s Halloween parade in Old Irving Park.

“Kids dressed in Halloween costumes walking to a parade do not pose an immediate threat to the safety of a law enforcement officer. They just don’t. And you can’t use riot control weapons against them,” Judge Ellis said to Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino.

Understand how the government speaks about Chicago. On November 3rd, paralegal Dayanne Figueroa, a US citizen, was driving to work when federal agents crashed into her car, drew their guns, and dragged her from the vehicle. Her car was left behind, coffee still in the cup holder, keys still in the car. The Department of Homeland Security blamed her, claiming she “violently resisted arrest, injuring two officers.” You can watch the video for yourself.

“All uses of force have been more than exemplary,” Bovino stated in a recent deposition. He is, as Judge Ellis put it, lying. Bovino personally threw a tear gas canister in Little Village. He claimed in a sworn deposition that he was struck in the head by a rock before throwing the canister, and when videos showed no rock, admitted that he lied about the event. When shown video of himself tackling peaceful protestor Scott Blackburn, Bovino refused to acknowledge that he tackled the man. Instead, he claimed, “That’s not a reportable use of force. The use of force was against me.”

“I find the government’s evidence to be simply not credible,” said Judge Ellis in her November 6th ruling. “The use of force shocks the conscience.”

Understand what it is to be Chicago. To carry a whistle and have the ICIRR hotline in your phone. To wake up from nightmares of shouting militiamen and guns in your face. To rehearse every day how to calmly refuse entry, how to identify a judicial warrant, how to film and narrate an assault. To wake to helicopters buzzing your home, to feel your heart rate spike at the car horns your neighbors use to alert each other to ICE and CBP enforcement. To know that perhaps three thousand of your fellow Chicagoans have been disappeared by the government, but no one really knows for sure. To know that many of those seized were imprisoned a few miles away, as many as a hundred and fifty people in a cell, denied access to food, water, sanitation, and legal representation. To know that many of these agents—masked, without badge numbers or body cams, and refusing to identify themselves—will never face justice. To wonder what they tell their children.

The masked thugs who attack my neighbors, who point guns at elected officials and shoot pastors with pepper balls, who tear-gas neighborhoods, terrify children, and drag teachers and alderpeople away in handcuffs are not unprecedented. We knew this was coming a year ago, when Trump promised mass deportations. We knew it was coming, and seventy-seven million of us voted for it anyway.

This weight presses on me every day. I am flooded with stories. There are so many I cannot remember them all; cannot keep straight who was gassed, beaten, abducted, or shot. I write to leave a record, to stare at the track of the tornado. I write to leave a warning. I write to call for help.

I want you to understand, regardless of your politics, the historical danger of a secret police. What happens when a militia is deployed in our neighborhoods and against our own people. Left unchecked their mandate will grow; the boundaries of acceptable identity and speech will shrink. I want you to think about elections in this future. I want you to understand that every issue you care about—any hope of participatory democracy—is downstream of this.

I want you to understand what it is to love Chicago. To see your neighbors make the heartbreaking choice between showing up for work or staying safe. To march two miles long, calling out: “This is what Chicago sounds like!” To see your representatives put their bodies on the line and their voices in the fight. To form patrols to walk kids safely to school. To join rapid-response networks to document and alert your neighbors to immigration attacks. For mutual aid networks to deliver groceries and buy out street vendors so they can go home safe. To see your local journalists take the federal government to court. To talk to neighbor after neighbor, friend after friend, and hear yes, yes, it’s all hands on deck.

I want you to understand Chicago.

You can read more from my fellow Chicagoans.

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sarcozona

3 hours ago

Epiphyte City

acdha

17 hours ago

Washington, DC

FAA should cancel all private jets during shutdown, say millionaires - Fast Company
Saturday November 8^th, 2025 at 10:47 PM

Fast Company - news

As the longest government shutdown in U.S. history continues, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has ordered flight reductions at 40 major airports, including Atlanta, New York, Boston, and Los Angeles.

The move begins with affecting 4% of flights, with plans to ramp up to impact 1 in 10 flights at those airports, disrupting travel plans for thousands of Americans every day.

But Patriotic Millionaires, a group of high-net-worth individuals who advocate for more progressive taxes in order to close the wealth gap, is suggesting an alternative that it says would spare commercial airline passengers and still offer relief for air traffic controllers: Just cancel all private flights.

Private jets specifically—which are more expensive and hold more passengers than small private planes—make up one out of every six flights handled by the FAA, according to the Institute for Policy Studies.

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Private jet use has also been soaring in recent years, and the U.S. is responsible for the most private flights.

“If you need a 10% reduction [in flights], you can get 100% of your reduction from the private planes. You do not need to affect commercial flights, period,” says Erica Payne, president and founder of Patriotic Millionaires.

To Payne, the FAA is “choosing to have everyone suffer rather than grounding planes that are destroying the planet and flying one or two people at a time in the lap of luxury.”

Some private flights may well end up being part of those 4% to 10% reductions happening at major hubs. But Patriotic Millionaires is suggesting that the FAA target private flights specifically, sparing commercial passengers.

Private jets and public resources

Everyone who flies pays toward the taxes that help fund the FAA, which then pays the salaries of its employees, including air traffic controllers. During the government shutdown, air traffic controllers are considered essential workers, and required to keep doing their jobs without pay.

That reality is now straining air traffic controllers, many of whom work mandatory overtime six days a week, and so aren’t able to take on other jobs. They’ve been increasingly taking sick days.

Already, at least 3.4 million travelers have been affected by staffing shortages, according to the industry group Airlines for America.

For the average airline passenger, a 7.5% tax on their ticket price, plus a charge that can go up to $4.50, goes toward the FAA’s Airport and Airway Trust Fund. Private jet flyers contribute just 2% of the taxes that make up that fund.

While some private flights take off from major airport hubs, there are also airports that only serve private air travel, like Van Nuys Airport in Los Angeles, one of the country’s busiest aviation hubs.

That airport is not on the FAA’s list of affected high traffic airports.

In some cases, airports that mainly serve private jets have also collected taxpayer dollars, like the Napa Valley Airport in California, which collected $6.3 million over two years.

“Private jet travelers have already gotten away with having the American taxpayers pick up their jet setting,” Payne says. “We are funding the jet-setting pollution-causing air travel of the richest people in the country.”

“Now we’re being asked to suffer cancellations and delays, when we’ve already been picking up their transportation costs for decades,” she continues. “And there’s an easy way out of this. Patriotic Millionaires are saying: shut down private air travel during the government shutdown, and use that extra capacity.”

Fast Company reached out to the FAA for comment. An automatic reply said the agency is not responding to routine press requests during the shutdown.

A highlight on wealth inequality

To Payne, this move to affect commercial flights while seemingly ignoring private jet travel is another example of the way issues around wealth inequality are being highlighted across the country.

“The transportation secretary stands up there and says 1 out of every 10 people in America flying somewhere are going to suffer a delay or cancellation, while wealthy people are not even asked to park their planes and fly first class for a few days,” Payne says.

President Trump’s recently passed One Big Beautiful Bill Act also gives more than $1 trillion in tax cuts to the country’s top 1%.

Patriotic Millionaires’s suggestion to the FAA also comes the same week that Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani won the New York City mayoral race. Mamdani ran on taxing the wealthy in order to fund programs like free childcare and buses. Billionaires spent millions of dollars opposing his campaign.

Patriotic Millionaires says it is reaching out to all members of the House and Senate committees to suggest they ground private planes rather than affect commercial flights. The group is also creating a series of social media posts to highlight the idea, including ones that feature Patriotic Millionaires member Abigail Disney.

“This needs to become an issue,” Payne says. “We plan to do everything in our power to make it an issue.”

The early-rate deadline for Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas Awards is Friday, November 14, at 11:59 p.m. PT. Apply today.

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sarcozona

14 hours ago

Epiphyte City

Royal West Student Suspended for Posting “F*ck Israel” on Instagram by Christopher Curtis
Saturday November 8^th, 2025 at 10:37 PM

The Rover

Like a lot of teenagers, Dawn*’s exposure to the Israel-Palestine conflict began with the horrific images of Oct. 7.

Unsure how to make sense of the violence, she poured herself into history books, studying the creation of the state of Israel, the origins of Zionism and the emergence of illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Almost immediately, she saw parallels between the plight of the Palestinians and her own identity as a Kanien’kehá:ka (Mohawk) — a People whose land base, language and existence in North America continues to be threatened by colonialism.

“I think about it all the time,” said Dawn, 17, who did not want her real name published for fear of jeopardizing college applications. “The version of history we’re taught in school, even when it’s sugarcoated, is pretty consistent on these points: the Europeans came, forced us off our land, killed us and put us in residential schools. All because they claim this land is rightfully theirs. That’s exactly what’s going on in Israel.

“Yes, Israel has a historic claim to the land, but if you’re not in that land for 2,000 years, you can’t just come back and start brutalizing the people who have called this place home. So, to me, it feels incredibly personal.”

In mid-October of this year, after days of repeated ceasefire violations left over 100 Palestinian civilians dead, Dawn snapped. The high school senior posted a story on her private Instagram account with the caption “Fuck Israel. Holy shit.”

Two weeks later, she was hauled into the vice principal’s office at Royal West Academy and suspended.

“I was told that another student saw my post and that it made them feel uncomfortable,” Dawn said, in a telephone interview with The Rover. “(The vice principal) said it wasn’t my criticism of Israel that bothered them. It was the language I used.”

Dawn’s punishment was to serve a one-day in-school suspension on Friday, while the other students enjoyed a day off. After her parents reassured her of their support, Dawn decided she wouldn’t serve the suspension.

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“When we told the school, they said that if (Dawn) refuses, she won’t be allowed into class Monday,” her mother said. “This is an honour student who is active in extracurricular activities being punished for taking a stand. It’s unacceptable that she should be reprimanded for something that happened off-campus, that wasn’t directed at any other student, and that’s a response to genocide.”

When reached for comment, a spokesperson for the English Montreal School Board said the punishment is mild and meant to discourage students from making their classmates feel unsafe.

“When there is any type of situation like this, whether it’s someone verbally harassing someone in the hallway, or someone posting something on social media, and a student goes to the principal and makes a complaint, the principal is going to react,” said Mike Cohen, spokesperson for the EMSB.

Cohen spoke about provincial guidelines that allowed the principal to intervene in cases where a “demonstration of verbal, written, physical, psychological or sexual force which causes distress” to another student.

“This was something that the other students felt very uncomfortable about,” said Cohen. “The person used an expletive. A very bad word. So the principal decided, with the policy right in front of him, that the student would be suspended.”

One legal expert said the EMSB’s actions in this case are a clear violation of Dawn’s civil rights.

“It is a complete affront to our right of freedom of expression. You’re punishing someone for swearing about a country that’s, according to the United Nations, committing genocide,” said Geneviève Grey, a human rights lawyer based in Montreal. “This isn’t directed at any other students. It’s swearing, yes, but swearing is her right under the Charter.

“We’ve seen cases like this spring up across Canada, where someone uses strong language to condemn the state of Israel, and then there’s a campaign to have them reprimanded for their free speech.”

Speaking against Israel’s actions in Gaza has come with a steep price since Oct. 7. People have lost jobs, while medical and law students have been flagged by hiring committees simply for expressing Palestinian solidarity or attending a protest. Meanwhile, journalists reporting critically on Israel have been the victims of harassment campaigns organized by lobby groups like HonestReporting Canada. After being singled out by the group, some reporters received a deluge of death and rape threats online.

Grey, who is Jewish, says she’s alarmed by the rise of anti-semitism in Canada and abroad, but doesn’t think this crackdown against Palestinian activists is helpful.

“When we take seriously claims that are clearly not rooted in anti-semitism, but in pettiness, this fuels the anti-semitic lobby and fuels their rage,” she said. “You have to take this seriously. You can’t just say everything that criticizes the government of Israel is anti-semitic. It’s not true, repeating it doesn’t make it true, and it hurts Jewish people.”

Dawn says the student body at Royal West is almost evenly split between those who support Israel and those against the country’s actions. She showed The Rover a series of posts by her classmates equating criticism of Israel with support for terrorism, one from US President Donald Trump writing there will be “HELL TO PAY” in the Middle East after he assumes office, and other aggressively anti-Palestinian content.

None of these students were punished by Royal West. But Cohen notes that the school cannot intervene unless it’s notified about a post. The Rover emailed the school’s vice principal to ask if these situations had arisen, but we were redirected to Cohen.

Since news of her suspension, Dawn’s friends have rallied behind her, circulating a petition to lift her punishment and highlighting her contributions to academic and social life at Royal West. Dawn volunteers with special needs students, she’s part of the school’s band, and she’s an honour roll student.

So far, over 600 people have signed. Dawn’s mother hasn’t ruled out legal action and will be filing a formal complaint with the EMSB.

“We are proud of our daughter,” Dawn’s mom said. “We raised her to be curious, to be helpful to others and to stand up for her beliefs. We’re not going to take this lying down.”

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sarcozona

14 hours ago

Epiphyte City

MSc and PhD programs in statistics at the University of British Columbia by Charles Margossian
Saturday November 8^th, 2025 at 10:34 PM

Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science

(this post is by Charles)

Applications for the MSc and PhD programs in statistics at the University of British Columbia are now open. The application deadline is December 1st for PhDs and January 5th for MSc.

Of interest to the readership of this blog is that we have a lot of momentum in the department for research in Bayesian modeling, computational statistics, and probabilistic machine learning. Amongst the new faculty hires, Saif Syed and myself are both starting research groups to work on algorithms for probabilistic modeling. And we have an established guard working on Bayesian computation, that includes Alexandre Bouchard-Côté, Trevor Campbell, and Geoff Pleiss.

Furthermore, the department stands out through its commitment to implementing novel methods in high-performance probabilistic software. In the department, you will find the creators and maintainers of Pigeon.jl and GPyTorch. And, as some of you may know, I’m myself a seasoned Stan developer. I’m also happy to report that we have some veteran Stan users on campus, notably in the Ecology department :)

We’re a quite large and growing department with interests that span all areas of statistics (not just Bayesian methods!). PhD students entering the program do not need to be matched up with an advisor upon admission—rather, you have one year to interact with faculty and explore a number of topics. The program does a really good job allowing and helping students do that!

Vancouver is a really beautiful and bustling city. The campus is right by the ocean and you’re a one hour drive away from hiking in the mountains. I’m new and still figuring out the place, but so far, I’ve found the quality of life here to be very good. By the way, it doesn’t get that cold, because of the ocean currents and we rarely get snow in the city (but we still have skiing nearby). We do get rain and somewhat British weather…

One final point: Unlike in the U.S., application to the PhD program requires a masters degree. However, if you only have a bachelor’s degree and are committed to pursuing a PhD, exceptional candidates can apply to the PhD track program within the MSc program.

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sarcozona

14 hours ago

Epiphyte City

How the flu, COVID-19, and common viruses could raise your risk of heart attack and stroke | Euronews
Saturday November 8^th, 2025 at 10:32 PM

Health | Euronews RSS

Published on

Getting sick with the flu or COVID-19 raises the risk of heart attack or stroke in the following weeks, according to a new analysis that maps how viruses can affect heart health.

Researchers have long known that viruses such as human papillomavirus (HPV) and hepatitis B can cause cancer, but links to other health problems, such as heart disease, are more of a mystery.

The latest analysis drew data from 155 studies. It indicates there are heart health risks tied to infections as wide-ranging as influenza, coronavirus, HIV, hepatitis C, and varicella zoster virus, which causes shingles and chickenpox.

“Our study found acute and chronic viral infections are linked to both short- and long-term risks of cardiovascular disease, including strokes and heart attacks,” Kosuke Kawai, the study’s lead author and an epidemiologist at the University of California, Los Angeles, said in a statement.

In the month after a flu diagnosis, people are four times as likely to have a heart attack and five times as likely to have a stroke, according to the study, which was published in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

They are three times as likely to have a heart attack or stroke in the 3.5 months after getting COVID-19, with risks remaining higher for a year after infection, the study found.

Meanwhile, the elevated risks were lower but persistent for people with chronic infections.

Heart attack risks were 60 per cent higher for people with HIV, 27 per cent higher for those with hepatitis C, and 12 per cent higher for those with shingles at least five years later.

Kawai said the findings are “clinically relevant” given the number of people affected by these chronic viral infections.

Globally, there were about 1.3 million new HIV infections in 2024 and about one million new hepatitis C infections are reported annually.

Meanwhile, estimates published in 2021 found that across Europe, there are approximately six to 10 new shingles cases per year for every 1,000 people.

That means “the elevated risk associated with that virus translates into a large number of excess cases of cardiovascular disease at the population level,” Kawai said.

Viral infections trigger the immune system, prompting it to release molecules that increase blood flow to fight off the virus. That causes inflammation – visible as redness, swelling, and warmth – and blood clotting.

However, inflammation and blood clotting can also hinder the heart’s functioning, which could help explain why heart attack and stroke risks remain higher after infections, the researchers said.

They noted that the evidence is still unclear on whether other viruses, including dengue, HPV, cytomegalovirus, which can cause birth defects, and herpes simplex 1, which causes cold sores, raise heart health risks.

There are ways to lower these risks, with vaccination against the flu, COVID-19, and shingles offering promise, the study found. Managing inflammation overall could also be key.

In a 2022 review, for example, people who got a flu shot had a 34 per cent lower risk of dying or being hospitalised for a cardiovascular problem compared with people who got a placebo, or dummy shot.

In general, vaccinations could be especially beneficial for people who already have heart disease or other risk factors, Kawai said.

“Preventive measures against viral infections, including vaccination, may play an important role in decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease,” Kawai said.

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sarcozona

14 hours ago

Epiphyte City

Founders of groundbreaking Vancouver compassion club found guilty of drug trafficking by Rumneek Johal
Saturday November 8^th, 2025 at 10:21 PM

PressProgress

Gasps were heard across a Vancouver courtroom on Friday as BC Supreme Court Justice Catherine Murray lowered her voice to deliver the verdict: that Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum, founders of Vancouver’s Drug User Liberation Front (DULF), were each guilty of three counts of drug trafficking — one for each substance they sold to members of their compassion club.

Murray’s tone was sympathetic to the defendants, repeatedly referencing evidence presented during trial, which — as reported by The Tyee and Drug Data Decoded — established that the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority and police had been well aware, and often supportive, of DULF’s activities long before the pair was arrested on October 25, 2023.

The maximum sentence Nyx and Kalicum could get for this criminal conviction is life in prison, but the judge ruled there will be no sentencing decision until after the defence’s next move: launching a constitutional challenge against the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA), which will begin on November 24.

“There is no issue that the Crown has proven the essential elements of the offence of [possession for the purpose of trafficking],” Murray said. “However, this case is not that straightforward.”

Nyx, Kalicum and their lawyers declined to be interviewed Friday, but Kalicum said they will speak to journalists after the Nov. 24 constitutional challenge has been launched.

Nyx and Kalicum started DULF in 2020 to address the growing toxic drug crisis, a public health emergency in B.C. that has claimed over 18,600 lives in the last decade.

Their plan — of which they regularly informed both police and Health Canada, and sought legal exemptions — was to procure heroin, meth and cocaine on the dark web, get them tested at UBC and UVic’s drug-checking facilities to ensure no toxicity, package and label them, and sell them at cost in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside to adult compassion club members who were already using drugs and therefore at risk of dying.

That’s exactly what they did. For one year, between August 2022 and October 2023, DULF’s 47 members obtained their labelled drugs from DULF, and no one overdosed.

In that time, Nyx and Kalicum sought a Health Canada exemption under Section 56.1 of the CDSA in an attempt to carry out their plans legally. This was denied and that decision is currently under judicial review.

But in December 2022, the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority (VCH) entered into an agreement with DULF, giving the compassion club $200,000 to run drug-checking and harm-reduction services.

“Vancouver Coastal Health considers DULF’s community Compassion Club to be an overdose prevention service as we believe that it has the potential to decrease the risk of overdose without significantly increasing risks to the broader community,” wrote Dr. Mark Lysyshyn, Deputy Chief Medical Health Officer at Vancouver Coastal Health, in a letter of support to Health Canada at the time.

VCH did have a Health Canada exemption for checking, packaging and storing illicit drugs, which they extended to DULF through this partnership.

But, as the judge ruled, that exemption ultimately did not cover procurement and distribution of these substances.

‘Backbench politicians’ and a ‘maelstrom of activity’

In her ruling, Murray made several references to the circumstances that led to Nyx and Kalicum’s arrest, particularly a 2023 article in The Economist titled ‘The drug dealers leading a public-health revolution.’

“The article ignited a maelstrom of activity,” Murray said.

“The drug section of [the Vancouver Police Department], which was previously aware of DULF and the Compassion Club but claims to not have been aware of the DULF site, commenced an investigation. Backbench politicians voiced concern about the government funding an organization that was sourcing drugs on the dark web.”

In her ruling, Murray clarified that government funding was not used for procuring drugs, as the politicians contend — Nyx and Kalicum have specified they bought the drugs using public donations — but said government money was used for DULF’s drug-checking and overdose-prevention site services.

Nevertheless, the outcry against DULF from politicians like Conservative Party leader Pierre Poilievre led to the BC health ministry forcing VCH to end their contract with DULF. Six days before the contract was terminated, Vancouver Police raided the DULF site and arrested Nyx and Kalicum.

One of the politicians who led the public outcry against DULF, former BC United and current Independent MLA Elenore Sturko, was in court to hear the verdict on Friday.

When asked by PressProgress for comment about Murray’s allusion to “backbench politicians” and conclusion that public money was not used to buy drugs, contrary to what she has claimed in the past, Sturko stood her ground.

“All I heard was a judgment that I think raises questions about funding that was provided by the government,” she said. “It’s disappointing that if the government was going to give money, that they weren’t more clear with these two individuals exactly what was exempt in their activity and what was not.”

DULF is the latest in a series of life-saving harm-reduction movements that were spearheaded by people who use drugs and were, at least for a time, deemed illegal.

Canada’s first supervised consumption site opened in 1995 as an illegal and unsanctioned facility in Vancouver. Like DULF, it was a grassroots effort by peers to save lives amid a public health emergency.

The post Founders of groundbreaking Vancouver compassion club found guilty of drug trafficking appeared first on PressProgress.

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sarcozona

14 hours ago

Epiphyte City

I Want You to Understand Chicago Sunday November 9th, 2025 at 9:02 AM

FAA should cancel all private jets during shutdown, say millionaires - Fast Company Saturday November 8th, 2025 at 10:47 PM

Private jets and public resources

A highlight on wealth inequality

Royal West Student Suspended for Posting “F*ck Israel” on Instagram by Christopher Curtis Saturday November 8th, 2025 at 10:37 PM

MSc and PhD programs in statistics at the University of British Columbia by Charles Margossian Saturday November 8th, 2025 at 10:34 PM

How the flu, COVID-19, and common viruses could raise your risk of heart attack and stroke | Euronews Saturday November 8th, 2025 at 10:32 PM

Founders of groundbreaking Vancouver compassion club found guilty of drug trafficking by Rumneek Johal Saturday November 8th, 2025 at 10:21 PM

‘Backbench politicians’ and a ‘maelstrom of activity’

I Want You to Understand Chicago
Sunday November 9^th, 2025 at 9:02 AM

FAA should cancel all private jets during shutdown, say millionaires - Fast Company
Saturday November 8^th, 2025 at 10:47 PM

Royal West Student Suspended for Posting “F*ck Israel” on Instagram by Christopher Curtis
Saturday November 8^th, 2025 at 10:37 PM

MSc and PhD programs in statistics at the University of British Columbia by Charles Margossian
Saturday November 8^th, 2025 at 10:34 PM

How the flu, COVID-19, and common viruses could raise your risk of heart attack and stroke | Euronews
Saturday November 8^th, 2025 at 10:32 PM

Founders of groundbreaking Vancouver compassion club found guilty of drug trafficking by Rumneek Johal
Saturday November 8^th, 2025 at 10:21 PM