Cascadia today: BC will have snap election + Seattle mayor's budget balancing act + a Seattle cinema finds a new home
Good afternoon to everyone except ICE and their masked goons. I've been doing some observing of ICE lately to help my community and I can tell you they're the most unprofessional, provocative, and childish group of armed individuals I've ever encountered. Abolish ICE.
BC premier calls snap election for Oct 24
British Columbia premier David Eby and his BC National Democratic Party (NDP), sensing that their main rivals, the BC Conservatives, are in disarray, have called a special election on Oct 24 the Tyee reports. After a number of MLAs left the conservatives in response to the party shifting to become a MAGA-style right wing group, the NDP seized the moment and called the election just a week after municipal elections are scheduled on Oct 17 – including those for mayor and city council in Vancouver.
A new opposition party, Centre BC is being led by MLA Elenore Sturko, a fierce critic of BC's harm reduction efforts (which have saved thousands of lives) CBC reports. Most opposition parties say the NDP didn't need to call this election, and BC Greens leader Emily Lowan took to Bluesky to denounces the NDP's terrible record on the environment and Eby's tentative support for the Liberals' plan to privatize Canada's major airports, including YVR (Vancouver).
Vote BC Greens.
Seattle mayor announces $9.1 billion city budget
The Urbanist reports on Seattle mayor Katie Wilson's proposed $9.1 billion city budget, which closes a $175 million budget cap with spending cuts, and offers no new tax revenue. The Seattle Police Department, thanks mostly to a crap contract the former mayor gave the police union (SPOG), will see an increase of $68 million, putting the cops well over the half billion dollar mark in annual spending. Wilson and her staff were somehow able to tackle a huge deficit cooked into the last budget by former mayor Bruce Harrell and the previous center-right city council. The biggest hit will come to the city's department of transportation, which will face a $110 million, 3-year deficit if not further addressed with spending cuts or new taxes.
It's disappointing that Wilson, a democratic socialist, didn't try to find additional tax revenue in this extremely wealthy city, and it sucks she's hamstrung from cutting SPD because of SPOG's bloated contract. But we got a functioning Line 8 bus route and free school lunches, so two cheers, yay.
Seattle bans surveillance pricing
The Seattle city council voted yesterday 7-2 to ban surveillance pricing, making it the first city in the US to stop grocery stores from using AI and consumer data to charge certain customers more for items, the Stranger reports. That's a good thing. Now ban SPD from using surveillance cameras on its residents.
Court to rule on warrantless arrests by ICE agents in OR
OPB reports that federal judge Mustafa Kasubhai heard arguments in a lawsuit against ICE for failing to obtain warrants before arresting people in Oregon. A lawsuit filed by Portland's Innovation Law Lab claims that ICE's warrantless arrests are illegal, and ICE is currently under a preliminary injunction forbidding from making warrantless arrests in Oregon (though court documents suggest ICE is ignoring the order as well as lying about details of some arrests).
In related news, Oregon Capital Chronicle interviews Oregon US attorney Scott Bradford, who has ratcheted up anti-immigrant wording in its press materials, and has been pushed by the feds to step up prosecutions of protesters. Some 40 Oregon staff of the US dept of justice have resigned since 2025. Good for them.
One thing you can be certain of. An independent Cascadia will abolish ICE, deport all of its goons, and shut down its concentration camps.
Andrew Engelson
Bill would give forest service land back to Grand Ronde tribes
Columbia Insight reports on an intriguing bill introduced by US senator Jeff Merkely that would transfer ownership of 18,000 acres of the Siuslaw national forest to the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde. The tribe has faced numerous cuts to its reservations lands (including a loss of half of all its lands in 1887) as well as revoking of federal status, which was only reinstated in 1983.
This is a great start on what should be a major effort at land back for Indigenous nations whose lands were stolen through dishonest treaties and outright theft. I wrote recently at Cascadia Journal about how land back must be a key platform of Indigenous policy for any Cascadia independence movement.
Andrew Engelson
Longtime cinema to take over Seattle's Varsity theater
The Seattle Times reports that the Grand Illusion, a cinema in Seattle's U-District for more than 50 years, will be moving into the shuttered Varsity Theater, also near the University of Washington. It's a great deal that preserves the Varsity while allowing the Grand Illusion, a nonprofit, to continue its mission showing classic, foreign, and obscure films. Three cheers for Cascadia's movie houses!
Thanks for reading. Keep loving and keep fighting ICE.
