Several stories broke big in BC this year, and PressProgress’ reporters published many of the headlines that occupied the discourse in the province.
Here were some of 2025’s top stories in BC:
The end of Canada’s longest strike
Canada’s longest strike came to an end with a victory for the Vancouver hotel workers who’d been on strike fighting for better working conditions for more than four years.
Workers at the Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport Hotel voted yes on a contract in March, concluding the historic strike that included room attendants, front-desk …
Several stories broke big in BC this year, and PressProgress’ reporters published many of the headlines that occupied the discourse in the province.
Here were some of 2025’s top stories in BC:
The end of Canada’s longest strike
Canada’s longest strike came to an end with a victory for the Vancouver hotel workers who’d been on strike fighting for better working conditions for more than four years.
Workers at the Radisson Blu Vancouver Airport Hotel voted yes on a contract in March, concluding the historic strike that included room attendants, front-desk agents, cooks, dishwashers, servers, baristas, housemen and maintenance workers.
In addition to working conditions, staff were also fighting for the recall rights of 143 workers who had been terminated during the pandemic, despite the fact that the hotel was being used by the federal government as a quarantine site for international travellers.
According to the union, the fight was worth it, setting “a new standard for Metro Vancouver hotel workers.”
“The message this sends is that workers who stick together, and are willing to fight side by side and for as long as it takes, can win,” a spokesperson for UNITE HERE Local 40 told us.
Public sector workers push back against rising cost of living
Photo from the picket organized by BC General Employees’ Union outside the BC government’s Howe Street offices in Vancouver on Sept. 2 (via the BCGEU on Flickr)
While 2025 was a year with a lot of federal intervention in collective bargaining, that didn’t stop BC’s workers in provincially-regulated sectors from putting up a fight.
Earlier this year, two of BC’s public sector unions went on strike to push back against stagnant wages and a rise of outsourcing and contract work.
The BC General Employees’ Union (BCGEU) and the Professional Employees Association (PEA) issued simultaneous strike notices on Aug. 29, with both unions launching strikes against the provincial government on Sept. 2.
At the centre of the strikes was the fact that the government’s proposed wage increases were below inflation and didn’t take into account the increased cost of living in BC.
According to workers, BC’s provincial government had lagged behind others in terms of public-service bargaining, even compared to some that aren’t generally regarded as labour-friendly.
The strike ended after eight weeks, with the government reaching tentative agreements with both unions.
Rise of residential-school denialism in politics
An actual pic that OneBC leader Dallas Brodie posted to X in October
With a Vancouver MLA leading the charge, BC’s far right began to mobilize in a more organized way around denialism and the delegitimization of the experiences and testimony of residential-school survivors.
In March, MLA Dallas Brodie was dropped by the BC Conservatives for her statements on residential schools.
Brodie went on to start her own far-right party with another ex-Conservative MLA, with denialism a central tenet of the new OneBC platform.
The pair went on to bring forth a number of controversial private members’ bills, including one from Brodie to “remove Truth and Reconciliation Day as a holiday in British Columbia.”
Ultimately, the party imploded right before the holidays, losing official status in the legislature following internal turmoil.
However, even though the two MLAs are no longer in one party, their anti-Indigenous viewpoints will live on, as they sit in the legislature as independents moving forward into 2026.
Canadian Sikhs targeted in violent extortions in BC and other parts of Canada
A major story that largely flew under the radar outside of BC involved the extortions and violent crimes targeting members of Canada’s Punjabi Sikh community.
In 2025 alone, there were over 100 instances of extortions or violent crimes targeting prominent businesspeople, musicians or public figures, with the Indian transnational criminal organization the Bishnoi gang claiming responsibility for much of it.
The Bishnoi gang was recently designated a terrorist entity by the government of Canada, and has been tied to much of the violence, including a number of shootings across the province.
In November, the Canada Border Services Agency said it had removed three individuals from Canada in relation to extortion-related investigations.
However, Sikh community members say law enforcement and government agencies aren’t doing enough to stop the violence, leaving them to feel like second-tier Canadians.
Meanwhile, the federal government has taken steps to reestablish ties with the government of India, despite accusations regarding India’s role in the violence (which it denies).
Canada’s drug laws face constitutional challenge
Jeremy Kalicum outside the Vancouver courthouse following his guilty verdict on Nov. 7 (Photo by Brishti Basu / PressProgress)
Canada’s drug laws are facing a constitutional challenge at the BC Supreme Court by the founders of a Vancouver compassion club, who were recently found guilty of drug trafficking for providing safe supply to members at risk of overdose.
Drug User Liberation Front (DULF) founders Eris Nyx and Jeremy Kalicum are challenging the very laws that led to their charges.
At the centre of the case are the impossible regulatory conditions which made them turn to the black market to procure drugs in the first place: Nyx and Kalicum were denied an exemption from the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act to buy drugs legally from pharmaceutical companies, unless they first had a company lined up to sell the drugs to them.
Nyx and Kalicum started DULF in 2020 to address the growing toxic-drug crisis, a public health emergency in BC that has claimed over 18,600 lives in the last decade.
Their conviction has been temporarily suspended until a decision is reached on the constitutional challenge, which will continue in the new year.
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