Welcome to Eye on the Valley with Surjit and Aly. This is the very first week of our show here on CIVL, and we are excited to present to you a bi-weekly program on local news here in the Fraser Valley funded by the Local Journalism Initiative. 

I’m Aly Laube, a multimedia journalist with six years of experience. I was the editor in chief of Kwantlen Polytechnic University’s newspaper, The Runner, for four years. Now, I’m an intern at The Tyee, the communications coordinator for a DTES resource distribution network called Everybody Is In, and the host of this show with support from the Local Journalism Initiative. I’m also a mixed race, pansexual woman who focused primarily on covering criminal and social justice, which I’ll be bringing to this show. 

Surjit Atwal is my co-host. He worked in Liberal MLA Daryl Plecas’s constituency office as a community outreach coordinator out of a desire to bring as many people as possible in the riding of Abbotsford South closer to their government, until deciding to distance himself from politics and pursue journalism last year. He has lived in Surrey for much of his life and is part of the vibrant Sikh community that exists both there and here in Abbotsford, where he now resides.

Using Surjit’s connections within local government and my experience as a journalist, we invite high-profile guests to speak about local issues, and at the end of each episode discuss our interview with an analyst from the Valley. 

This week, we’re talking to former cabinet minister of the Legislative Assembly of British Columbia Mike de Jong, followed by a critical discussion between myself, Surjit, and UFV Political Science professor Ron Dart. We'll also be including three headlines from Canada-info.ca in each episode.