After 11 years of bringing you local reporting, the team behind the Vancouver Observer has moved on to Canada's National Observer. You can follow Vancouver culture reporting over there from now on. Thank you for all your support over the years!

Ryan Elias

Ryan Elias is as Masters of Journalism student at the University of British Columbia.  He likes corporate responsibility, American politics, striped socks and long walks through the city. He has lived in Vancouver for many years.


Diana Matheson to travel to Poland for experimental MS treatment

When a storm destroyed the lattice in Diana Matheson's East Vancouver garden, the art therapist went to a home renovation box store to buy a replacement As she walked down the aisle, a ladder fell...
Linda Solomon Wood and Ryan EliasJun 11th, 2010

Vancouver School Board budget review news round-up

After a tumultuous week of strained relations between the Vancouver School Board and the province, Education Minister Margaret MacDiarmid got tough today, demanding that the VSB provide a draft...
Ryan EliasJun 10th, 2010

Update: Ministry to present budget review results to Van School Board today

The Vancouver School Board will receive the results of a provincially-mandated budget review today, the Georgia Straight reports. Trustees will then meet to discuss the results. BC Minister of...
Ryan EliasJun 3rd, 2010

Vancouver School Board "in limbo" as Ministry delays on budget review

A provincially-ordered review of the Vancouver School Board's budget due Monday is missing in action and the Ministry of Education does not return calls, VSB Chair Patti Bacchus said at a rally...
Ryan EliasJun 2nd, 2010

Author lives for a year without car and finds a world of beauty on foot and bike

Kurt Hoelting, a fisherman, wilderness guide and meditation teacher from Puget Sound, abandoned his car and foreswore jet travel for a year. Concerned about his carbon footprint, he confined his...
Ryan EliasMay 25th, 2010

How the internet is saving the news

The most puzzling aspect of the long-predicted death of conventional journalism is the preponderance of evidence that no such thing is occurring.
Ryan EliasMay 21st, 2010

Evelyn Evelyn's Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley bring unparalled weirdness to Venue

Swathed in an enormous orange dress, parapagus conjoined-twin folk duo Evelyn Evelyn played to a packed house at the Venue on Granville street Monday night. The sisters mostly performed their own...
Ryan EliasMay 18th, 2010

City of Vancouver and Squamish Nation sign Memorandum of Understanding

Dignitaries from the City of Vancouver and the Squamish Nation gathered Monday to witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the two governments. The document outlines the...
Ryan EliasMay 17th, 2010

Protesting education cuts

Lord Byng student Abdeslam Boubia  wants to send a message to the provincial government that cutting money for schools isn't acceptable.  "I don't want to go through a school system that's...
Ryan EliasMay 7th, 2010

Bif Naked at Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation fundraiser tells audience of 500 that surviving cancer was brutally difficult

Bif Naked won't lie to you about breast cancer. The 38-year-old Vancouver pop-punk musician and poet was the keynote speaker at the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation's Awareness Day banquet on...
Ryan EliasMay 6th, 2010