Episode 55: The Man in the High Castle
With fascism on the rise around the world, we explore the relationship between Canada’s housing and policing policies and the risk of far right authoritarianism at home.
Transcript
A complete transcript of this episode will be uploaded here when ready.
Works Cited
Ben Miljure, “Smacks of Deportation,” CTV News, February 26, 2025, https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/smacks-of-deportation-mayors-office-pitch-on-helping-dtes-indigenous-residents-relocate-gets-pushback/.
Charles Brockman, “Vancouver Police Give Second Update on Task Force ‘Barraging’ Downtown Eastside,” City News, https://vancouver.citynews.ca/2025/05/22/vpd-task-force-barrage-update/.
Christopher Cheung, “Vancouver’s Poorest Area Braces for Mayor’s Policing ‘Barrage,’” The Tyee, February 27, 2025, https://thetyee.ca/News/2025/02/27/Vancouver-Poorest-Area-Policing-Barrage/
Dan Fumano, “Vancouver's Downtown Eastside Could Be Opened Up To More Market Development, 32-Storey Towers,” The Vancouver Sun, April 23, 2025, https://vancouversun.com/opinion/columnists/vancouver-downtown-eastside-could-be-opened-up-to-more-market-development.
Daniel Manson and Danya Fast, “They Are Always Focusing on the Person Who is Doing the Worst,” Social Science and Medicine, July 11, 2023. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37473541/
Jen St. Denis, “Vancouver Spent $550,000 to Evict Hastings Campers,” The Tyee, November 7, 2023, https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/11/07/Vancouver-Spent-550000-Evict-Hastings-Campers/.
Jen St. Denis, “Atira Overhauls Board, Acknowledges Oversight Failures,” The Tyee, December 22, 2023, https://thetyee.ca/News/2023/12/22/Atira-Overhauls-Board-Acknowledges-Oversight-Failures/
Jen St. Denis, “Youth and Tenants with Mental Illness Lived in a Filthy, Violent Government SRO,” The Tyee, March 18, 2024, https://thetyee.ca/News/2024/03/18/Tenants-Lived-Filthy-Violent-Government-SRO/
Lisa Steacy and Isabella Zavarise, “Unclear what 'lawful authority' Vancouver police had to restrict access to public, media during decampment: OPCC,” CTV News, November 22, 2023, https://www.ctvnews.ca/vancouver/article/unclear-what-lawful-authority-vancouver-police-had-to-restrict-access-to-public-media-during-decampment-opcc/.
Michael Rozworski, “Canada’s Harsh ‘Austerity’ Policies Started with Liberals,” The Tyee, August 25, 2015, https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/08/25/Canadas-Harsh-Austerity/.
Nathan Crompton, “Hard Truths About Ken Sim’s DTES Plan,” The Mainlander, March 18, 2025, https://themainlander.com/2025/03/18/hard-truths-about-ken-sims-dtes-plan/.
Nathan Griffiths, “What Internal City of Vancouver Records Reveal About Removing the DTES Camp,” The Vancouver Sun, June 4, 2023, https://vancouversun.com/news/local-news/what-internal-vancouver-records-reveal-about-removing-downtown-eastside-camps.
Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor, “The Rise of End Times Fascism,” The Guardian, April 13, 2025, https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-interactive/2025/apr/13/end-times-fascism-far-right-trump-musk.
Vancouver Police Department, “Vancouver Police Release New Task Force Barrage Data,” May 22, 2025, https://vpd.ca/news/2025/05/22/vancouver-police-release-new-task-force-barrage-data/.
Yasmine Ghania and Chad Pawson, “Vancouver Council Votes to Freeze Construction of New Supportive Housing,” CBC News, February 26, 2025, https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/ken-sim-supportive-housing-motion-1.7468970.
Credits
Crackdown is produced on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations.
Our editorial board is Dean Wilson, Jeff Louden, Laura Shaver, Samona Marsh, Elli Taylor, Delilah Gregg, and Martin Steward. Rest in peace Shelda Kastor, Dave Murray, Greg Fresz and Chereece Keewatin.
This episode was conceptualized, written, and produced by Sam Fenn, Alex de Boer, Danya Fast, Lisa Hale and Garth Mullins.
Mix by Alex Kim.
Thanks to Mazal for sharing her story. Thanks as well to Jen St. Denis from The Tyee.
Crackdown’s theme song was written and produced by Garth Mullins and Sam Fenn. “The Man in the High Castle,” also features two beats produced by Mazal. All other music by Blue Dot Sessions.
If you like what we do here at Crackdown, please support us at patreon.com/crackdownpod.
