ou probably don’t know his name, but for decades Bob Gallagher has worked tirelessly as an activist and organizer behind the scenes in the fight for LGBTQ rights in Toronto and Canada. Libby Davies, Canada’s first out lesbian MP, was a member of Parliament for 18 years, many of them working with Gallagher, who was chief of staff to Jack Layton. Davies pays tribute to a man she calls a friend and colleague, talking to Gallagher recently about the moment 40 years ago when everything changed for Toronto’s LGBTQ community and his years of “getting things done.”

NDP deputy leader Libby Davies has ruled out running in the party’s helm race. “It was a decision made after a lot of thought about what my role should be,” the Vancouver East MP said Thursday. Her minimal ability to speak French was one of her main reasons, she said in a phone interview from New Orleans where she’s speaking at a conference about HIV and housing.

Former Vancouver East member of parliament Libby Davies is asking the B.C. Coroners Service and the Vancouver Police Department to see if anything can be done to more swiftly confirm the identities of Downtown Eastside residents killed by drug overdoses. The request comes in the form of a letter addressed to Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe and Chief Constable Adam Palmer. It was written in conjunction with a similar request from the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU).

The B.C. Court of Appeal has dismissed a federal government appeal of an exemption granted InSite, Vancouver's supervised-injection site, which means the facility — the first of its kind in Canada — will remain open. The federal government is expected to appeal Friday's ruling, a split 2-1 decision that carries an automatic right of appeal, to the Supreme Court of Canada. Dr. Julio Montaner, president of the International AIDS Society, called Friday's court ruling "a tremendous victory for [those of] us involved in the Downtown Eastside. It sends a very clear message to [Prime Minister] Stephen Harper and his draconian policies." New Democrat MP for Vancouver East Libby Davies told the rally that the federal government should not waste further time and money on an appeal.

While serving drinks at the Patricia Hotel in the early ’70s, she, by chance, met social-justice activists Libby Davies and Bruce Eriksen, which led indirectly to a job at the fledgling DTES residents association. The rest, as they say, is history, although Swanson is always loath to talk about her part. “It can’t be personal, it can’t be about Jean,” she said.

Libby Davies, a Canadian politician and social activist will discuss How To Make Change during a live, online fundraising event on January 24, 2021