t.
DECEMBER 15, 2019
carnnews@vcn.bc.ca 401 Main Street Vancouver Canada V6A 2T7 Email: carnnews@shaw.ca
Website/Catalogue:
(604) 665~2289
carnegienewsletter.org
MY WISH FOR 2020 I wish you laughter & peace I trust that the 3 levels of government respect Aboriginal Rights I wish you joy & faith I trust the City will give Oppenheimer Park back to the community I wish that your dream comes true go for it I trust public $ is for public school I wish you love & happiness I trust there will be Housing for All Priscillia Gitxsan- Wetsuwet' en
We Are Stardust] You aresa unique star! just so shine your inner and it will reveal an immense beauty beyond any dark night.
Art by Michael Edward Nardachioni Michael's depictions of ANIMALS in the CINEMA will be on display in the art gallery on Carnegje's 3rd floor for the month of January 2020
"It's not magic" The Vancouver Courier used to be available throughout the Downtown Eastside twice a week but underwent changes in frequency & distribution a few years ago. Now my wife has to pick up a copy near Broadway & Cambie once a week. An article, written by Mike Howell, appeared in the November 21,2019 edition of the Courier. The story involved an email Howell had received from Michael Clague, a former director of the Carnegie Community Centre. It was apparently in response to a previous article about homeless people and life in Oppenheimer Park. There are, in Howell's words, "countless strategies, ideas, recommendations and plans from wellmeaning folks" with "doctors, health care workers, housing advocates, community residents, business owners, non-profit leaders, cops and politicians all weighing in" on ways to respond to the persisting conditions of homelessness, drug addiction, mental illness and public
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Photo: Dan Toulgoet
disorder in our community. Michael has some street and peer cred and states that improving life for residents and community members "is not magic." Seven priorities 1. Build shelter-rate housing in the DTES and throughout the city. 2. Raise the shelter rate allowance. 3. Give those currently living in the DTES the option of remaining in the community or relocating to elsewhere in the city 4. Provide social and health supports within a continuum of care 24/7 in those residences where they are required for the welfare of residents. • 5. Provide safe custodial residential care for residents whose condition is such that they are a risk to themselves and to others. This means that people at risk for self-harm and for harm to others are voluntarily and involuntarily living in supervised residences for designated periods oftime to ensure they have the best available health care. Advocacy and legal guarantees are designed so that their inherent rights and liberties are respected. 6. Remove restrictions on access to addictive drugs (decriminalize). 7. Design and provide culturally relevant programs and services, especially involving the large Aboriginal community. Six conditions 1. Work respectfully with and learn from those most affected in the planning and provision of these seven priorities. 2. Build on the strengths inherent in the community. 3. Create volunteer and employment opportunities in the DTES and in the city at large, geared to people's readiness, emphasizing opportunities to contribute to community life. 4. Recognize and support the community arts as one of the most accessible, proven means for personal and community development. 5. Recognize that the Downtown Eastside can be a healthy, predominately low-income community. 6: Build informed support throughout Vancouver for these measures. The first issue in December has the Downtown Eastside on the front page as the Courier's choice for Newsmaker of the Year. Real news would be action on decent, affordable housing.
CARNEGIJf: COMMlJNITY CENTRE ASSOCIATION 401 Main Street, Vancouver HCV6A 2T7
December 6, 2019 Dear Chair and Commissioners of the Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation; Recently a lot of political and media attention has focused on Oppenheimer Park. Much of what has been reported by the media and reported to Vancouver Mayor and Council and to the Board of Parks and Recreation has come-from activists associated with the Carnegie Community Action Project. CCAP is one project of the Carnegie Community Centre Association, Further, the Carnegie Community Centre Association partners with the City and the Park Board through the Carnegie Community Centre and Oppenheimer Park staff to operate over thirty programs and projects which provide social, cultural, recreational, educational and food programs for residents of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Because the field house had to be closed, due to the encampment, many services formerly provided to local residents by Carnegie Community Centre for the last 25 years are no longer available: Loss of green space and recreational space for over 10,000 low-income local residents, many of whom don't have access to living rooms, communal spaces, patios or green spaces. Loss of access to the only public outdoor children's play space in the Downtown Eastside Oppenheimer District. Though there are no tents in the children's area, parents are reluctant to use the playground. Loss of critical creative, social, cultural, recreational and educational programming for some of the most vulnerable residents in Vancouver, including hundreds of meals per week; access to free monthly pet care 10r 50+ local pets, and bicycle repair. voludf:eer opportunities for dozens of community members that promote community engagement, place-keeping, food security, and support park cleanliness. Loss of a sacred garden that was formerly fenced in, -and was planted by local First Nations people. After a locked gate was broken, tents were set up in the garden area, and the garden has been completely destroyed. This is upsetting for the people who have invested time, knowledge, and care into that space. Another tragedy caused by the IQSS of the field house and park to local residents is that we are moving backwards on many ofthe Healthy City Strategy goals, such as being and feeling safe and included; active living and getting outside; and cultivating connections that are so critical to the social and physical well-being of community members,
At a recent meeting I attended to listen to community members' concerns, an elder wrote me the following note: I live one block from Oppenheimer Park and I'm terrified to walk past thatpark: I hear on the news about gun fire and weapons seized fiom the campers at the park. I 'want to be able to use that park myself But I 'm.scared of even passing it 011 the other side of the street. I used to have sympathy for the people camping there. But enough is enough The entire community needs to be able to use the park and , feel safe. Though we don't want to displace vulnerable homeless people who are camping, their presence has displaced other people who have lost a park, family, and community connections. The Oppenheimer field house is more than just a recreational space. People rely on that space for basic needs including food, reminders to take their medicine; and help with keeping medical appointments. Personal connections between volunteers, area residents, and staff are a vital component for enhancing people's health. The field house serves our most vulnerable community members, some of whom have difficulty accessing other services due to the complex nature of their lives. If a park were occupied anywhere else in the city> where people actually have yards and more green space that anywhere in the Downtown Eastside, I am sure that solutions would have been found a long time ago. But we are the DTES, the poor cousins, so it feels to me like we've been hung us out to dry until the situation becomes intolerable and .politically dangerous, We call on Mayor and Council and on the Board of Parks and Recreation to show leadership in finding alternative housing and services for the campers, so that Oppenheimer Park returns to being a safe and welcoming gathering and recreation space for Downtown Eastside residents as soon as possible. The cry I hear most from residents is, "\Ve want our park back."
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Vancouver Mayor and City Councilors Malcolm Bromley, General Manager, Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation Sandra Singh, General Manager, Arts, Culture and Community Services Susie Saunders, Managing Director, 'Non-market Housing and Social Operations
5
We weren't old enough to be aware of our poverty, running down Heather Road to meet each other and play hopscotch after a sanctimonious English lesson at St. Benedict. Mrs. Bone's row house stood like a wonderful witch's abode, its rose garden, a delightful little sanctuary. A pretty English garden with its gnarly Red Climbing Rose, Yellow Banks Rose and Rosa Floribunda, offering sweet smells lifting into the warm spring air, resting like lions on my nostrils. I remember how I felt before everything changed. Before I knew that people could hurt you. Steal your princess crown, make you miserable, difficult, marred. My brother and I delighted in running up the garden steps and ringing Mrs. Bones doorbell only to run away like little squealing piglets with nuisance on our minds. I think of Saint Gertrude ofNeville, the Patron Saint of Cats and Gardens, and I wonder if she was something like Mrs. Bones. On Sunday, after church, she lets us into her musty front parlour to offer us cake tin muffms which wafted through the hallway. She let me sit at her traditional English upright piano made by Steck and Welmar, where I joyfully tinkered at the keys Now years later, I wonder what happened to her. Is she dead? Long ago I suspect. Did she meet Jesus in a far away heaven? Or did she reincarnate into a good witch. I have nothing to say sometimes and that scares me. I wasn't old and withering, a poltergeist smelling of cupcakes and iced dressing. I was just a little Punjabi girl, caught in a world of two languages, a private and a public world, a sacred and a profane world, a dangerous and sheltered world. Confused certainly. Safe. Never. Sometimes my mind is blank, and I feel my third eye, the frontal lobe warm and tender and alive! I am alive and yet sedated and with no drama. No drama at all. So, as I sat in Mrs. Bone's English rose garden where I could hear the black birds squawking and flitting about on the branches of some bizarre birch tree, I felt strangely protected, among the wild flowers where no one could get me. Mrs. Bones was kind to me. So different from our teachers at St. Benedict. I had already suffered sitting in the corner for fifteen minutes with a dunce cap. Once I even got called up in front of the entire class and made a spectacle of, as I was told to stretch out my tiny hand so that Mrs. Macdonald could viscously strike it with a switch. I remember how I buckled walking back to my seat, rubbing my palms, trying to soothe the pain, a grimace on my little Punjabi face. St. Benedict' had a turret where one of the nuns dressed from head to foot in black held her class. One time she pulled on my ear, twisting it until it turned red. That memory i~ linked to the two twin Jamaican girls, who were much older and much taller and much stronger than myself who started to bully me. Somehow, one day, they got me in the girl's washroom, a terrible lonely place that had a huge hole in the wall, which was boarded with large planks of wood. Forcing my head over the toilet, they splashed the dirty toilet water into my face and told me to lick the seat of the toilet. Luckily, through divine intervention, the school janitor walked into the washroom, and caught the Jamaican twins in the middle of their tirade. No-one got in trouble. Bullying whether from the kids or from the teachers was an everyday occurrence. So, I started to steal. I bent my little body down and around, fmding a box of various shiny material, perfect for making saris for my blond blue-eyed Barbie doll. I started to steal it on a Friday. I wasn't too good at stealing though because I got caught and I thought I had done such a good job at concealing my secret ritual of pilfering shiny squares of m'\terial. I think my punishment was writing sentences on the black board after class, but I can't be too sure. It could have been worse. If it hadn't' been for Mrs. Bones, I don't think I would have believed that anyone could be kind to me. We were surrounded by old ladies with little poodles in our neighborhood. And drunk men stumbling out of pubs, cussing as they weaved their way home. St. Benedict was stuck with its students, mostly from Punjabi, Muslim or Jamaican homes. We learned to hate each other. Called each other racist epithets, and all cried our way home from school everyday. So, as I think of Mrs. Bones, I think of her rose garden. The way the light was those days, gentle and soft, and the red brick wall, that enclosed the wild flowers; the red, white and yellow roses and flitting bumble bees and crawling ladybugs and fluttering Monarch butterflies. She taught me that nature never hurt anyone. By RUBY DIAMOND
•.:.H·.@1B)•.a.:.• Carnegie Theatre Workshop We're back for the Winter season! "Show thou Carnegie workshop Players"
We're putting ideas together for a '" holiday pageant '" Two more creative sessions/rehearsals 1:30pm-4pm 5) Fri Dee 20, Carnegie Theatre 6) Mon Dee 23, Carnegie 3rd fir classroom '" Naomi Vogt will join us to lead some festive performance
games
N
Performance 6pm Christmas Eve Tuesday Dec 24, Carnegie Theatre Free, everyone welcome, join in! For more into: Teresa 604-255-9401 thirteenofhearts@hotmail.com
Meals over the Xmas Season
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Dec. 24 11 am-2pm Tenth Street Church 11 W 10th Ave, Vancouver, BC - Free - Anyone Serving ham. 5-8pm BC Federation of Labour held at Maritime Labour Centre 1880 Triumph Street - Free - Anyone Children will receive gifts, attendees can also get a food hamper. 5-7pm Carnegie Centre 401 Main Street - Anyone Will have their regular low-cost dinner but will have some free food items in the evening. Dec. 25 12-7pm Potter's Place Mission 21 East Hastings Street - Free Qpens at 11 am for service before the meal. 3-5pm Evelyne Sailer Centre -320 Alexander St. $2 - Anyone 10:15am The Door is Open 255 Dunlevy Street - Free - Anyone Will have meals until food runs. out. Dec. 25 & 31 5-7pm Camegie Centre 401 Main Street - $1.50 - Anyone Dec. 26 • 2pm CarnegieCentre 401 Main Street - Free - Anyone Meal is held on the 2nd floor
Spare a dime ... They stand on busy streets, at intersections, in front ofliquor stores and in all kinds of places where people gather. They are the panhandlers. Before the new legislation came thru they were often chased away - asked to leave, threatened to have the police called or even the police threatening them. Now things have eased up considerably and now, for whatever reason, every 7-11 has at least one or two token panhandlers there 24 hours a day, every day. The commercials show delighted shoppers, happily paying exorbitant prices .. so they can drop a dollar or two to the panhandlers outside. Oh Thank Heaven for 7-11 ! By Roger Stewart
BAH HUMBUG! 10th & Final Year!! The Ghosts of Dickens' A Christmas Carol meet the Hearts & Souls of Today's Downtown Eastside SFU Woodwards,
Fei and Milton
Dec. 3-21,2019
/Tickets:
COMPLIMENTARY COMMUNITY
Wong Theatre,
149 E. Hastings Street
at door or www.sfuwoodwards.ca
TICKETS AVAILABLE AT CARNEGIE FRONT DESK
on first come first serve basis for Tuesday Dec 17, 7:30pm performance Directed by Mlchael Boucher, featuring Juno Award winner Jim Byrnes, Governor General Humanitarian Award recipient Stephen Lytton, Tom Pickett, Sam Bob, Margo Kane, Kevin McNulty, Vincent Keats, Olivia Lucas, Jerry LaFaery, Savannah Walling, St. James Music Academy Choir and the animated art work of Richard Tetrault. Music Direction by Bill Costin.
WHAT
PEOPLE ARE SAYING
Loved the choice of songs. The actors were amazing. Beautiful variation
on the original
scrooge and VERYappropriate for Vancouver. WELL DONE. Fabulous music and great humour while delivering a serious and important I have seen excellent performances
message.
in New York, Toranta and here in Vancouver, but I
have not been so emotionally touched as tonight. Thank you for an excellent performance. The singing was also extremely movinq! ' Absolutely fabulous! Wonderful entertainment.
So relevant to here and now in Vancouver.
Art was amazing. All of it was incredible. Surpassed my expectations! Heartwarming,
poignant and brilliant.
Loved the animated art of Richard Tetrault.
Awesome and heartwarming. BRAVO BAH! HUMBUG! ...powerfully
cathartic performance.
Richard Tetraults artwork
backdrops brought exquisite ambiance, impact and depth ... Love the Downtown
Eastside
relevant narratives ...sometimes witty and hilarious, others deeply moving with great warmth amidst strife ...queering up the script to a greater degree celebrating
great
diversity and brilliant flow ... Wow. Just wow. An annual fundraiser in support of the DTESHeart of the City Festival.Produced by SFUWoodwards Cultural Programs in partnership with Vancouver Moving Theatre and in association with Full Circle First Nations Performance.
CARNEGIE
COMMUNITY
ACTION
PROJECT
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NEWSLETT
DTES RESIDENTS RAllY FOR FUll RENT CONTROL ON SRO HOTELS
DECEM BER 2019
R
DTES RESIDENTS ALL F R DEFU DING POLl E AS COMMUNITY ALT RNATIVE TO CLASS WAR Downtown Eastside residents and advocates will be rallying and speaking at City Hall today to demand a change in policing that targets poor people and overlooks systemic social injustice, and for the conscious redirection of VPD funds into essential community services and supports.
"When do we ever see anything good come from them? Besides them wanting more. And they are always seemed to want to pick on us when we are at our weak states, or if we're alone, or if we're not healthy," said Anthony Bellegarde, a Downtown Eastside resident, at a recent town-hall meeting.
The Vancouver Police Budget has dramatically increased in recent years and is now planned to reach $340.4 million, more than one-fifth of the city's entire 2020 operating budget and up from $3l7.2 million last year. In 2008 the police budget was almost half that, at $l80 million per year.
"The function of police is policing poor people and social control. But the overwhelming function, overwhelming amount of energy is controlling and harassing and being a constant presence in people's lives. Millions and • millions of dollars constantly harassing and surveilling instead of using that money to improve people's lives in this city," says Aiyanas Ormond of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU).
Most of the funding goes into street cops and police salaries, with a constant increase in on-the-ground officers. It's this change that is being most intensely felt by the community, because when dozens of extra police have more resources and more time on their hands, the inevitable result is an increase in profiling, street checks, and negative police interaction. Low-income and Indigenous people, drug users, women, two-spirit, queer, trans, and sex workers are the first affected by the trend toward overpolicing and under-protection. 01
Recent budget breakdowns have listed items such as monitoring street vending, visiting safe injection sites, supporting homeless people moving into social housing, providing assistance to vulnerable women, inspecting SROs, and supporting homeless peopleall functions better left to community services that receive less than a quarter of the funding the VPD does. Police officers are now increasingly being positioned as social workers and
are a common feature of many mental health ACT teams. Valuable funding and resources are now being redirected to the police, such as the municipal fentanyl tax that was earmarked to help the community fight the overdose crisis but is being channeled to the VPD. Visits to safe injection sites in the DTES by the VPD have had a chilling effect in the community and in some cases have pushed drug users away from lifesaving harm-reduction facilities. Overall, as the police budget continues to expand, VPD officers in the DTES have more time and resources than ever, resulting in increased racial profiling, arbitrary police checks, property confiscations, and excessive bylaw ticketing. Only by highlighting these deep and systemic injustices can we begin to build a mass movement for change. As activist Herb Varley pointed out at the town-hall, policing in Vancouver is not just about excessive budgets but is rooted in deeper structures of colonial dispossession and everyday governance of the land. The policing of low-income and Indigenous areas of the city is today a historic extension of the original mounted police and other militias who paved the way for white settlement. "If you look at the way the Downtown Eastside is characterized, the same language that is used for colonization is used for gentrification. The Downtown Eastside is often characterized as lawless. And that is the same language as was used regarding Indian territory,
prior to westward expansion. And if you look at language, they also say that the land is under-developed. It's the same thing." Activists will speak today about the police budget and call for reduced street harassment and redirecting funds to community responses and housing. A 2012 report indicated that institutionalized responses to homelessness were three times as high per person as the cost of housing and community supports. "So, for obvious reasons ...we got to do the work and we got to be courageous. Let's do this, it's about time." Elli Taylor, Carnegie Community Action Project. By Nathan Crompton About Our Homes Can't Wait Coalition
•
The OHCW coalition recognizes that our work takes place on the stolen territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations. Our Homes Can't Wait is a coalition of groups that want more social housing in the Downtown Eastside. The Our Homes Can't Wait community vision for 58 W Hastings has so far been endorsed by Carnegie Community Action Project, Carnegie Community Centre Association, Gallery Gachet, Alliance Against Displacement, Carnegie African Descent Group, Vancouver IWW, COSCO Council of Senior Citizens' Organizations of B.C., Union Gospel Mission, Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users, WAHRS - Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society, First United - Vancouver Downtown Eastside, Pivot Legal Society, Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, Chinatown Concern Group .l!AiliIm5tm. Chinatown Action Group ÂĽ~1TJJJ'Nll..Aboriginal Front Door, and Downtown Eastside SRO Collaborative.
02
MOTION 2 SLOWING THE LOSS OF THE LAST LOW-INCOME SROS IN VANCOUVER We are at a critical point in Downtown Eastside history where approximately 3800 tenants are at risk of losing their homes, with many becoming homeless, because of weak rent control that incentivizes landlords to sell to investors and/or pressure tenants to leave so they can increase rents to new tenants moving in. We are going to council about this issue next vveekl Jean's motion (see below) for vacancy control in the hotels will be introduced at city hall on Tues, Dec 10th. If it passes, tenants will be protected from speculation and tenants can relax and not have to worry as much about becoming homeless. This is an important intervention considering the homeless count is at a record high this year. Many SROs in DTES are at risk of sale and gentrffication, which means very low-income tenants are at risk of homelessness. The motion put forward by Jean Swanson asks the City to tie rent control to the units not tenants to remove the incentive for renovictions. We feel this is likely to achieve but we need a big show of force in support, so it doesn't get rescinded under pressure from Landlord BC and developers.
03
Preparations: Please sign up to speak. Use this link to sign up to speak: https://vancouver.ca/your-government/ request-to-speak-at-meeting-form-l. aspx Please also come to city council on Wednesday, Dec 11as a speaker or supporter ...we don't know the time yet but will let you know. We need a HUGE crowd! Rally from 5-6 pm on December 11on the north side of City Hall. Rides and food: 268 Keefer Street 4:15-4:30 pm. (note even though this is on agenda for Dec lOth, speaking to it will happen on Wednesday Dec Ilth, or possibly on a later day if they run out oftime) If you're not able to speak on the motion, please write a letter to council
Police Budget Action: Flora Munroe speaks at the Budget motion against the cost of the VPD budget December3rd,2079.
and encourage them to support this motion. Email Mayor and Council: CLRboyle@vancouver.ca; CLRbligh@ va ncouver.ca; CLRca rr@vancouver.ca; CLRdegenova@vancouver.ca; CLRfry@ vancouver.ca; CLRwiebe@vancouver. ca; CLRdominato@vancouver. ca; CLRhardwick@vancouver. ca; CLRkirbyyung@vancouver. ca; CLRswanson@vancouver.ca; KStewart@vancouver.ca; This Colliers Real Estate sale brochure for the Arno Hotel in Chinatown, which is for sale, is an example of the economic pressure that low income tenants are facing in SROs: "Chinatown has witnessed a resurgence in popularity as new restaurants and retailers have revitalized the neighbourhood. Due to the immediate proximity to Downtown, Gastown and East Vancouver, Chinatown's central location has anchored the district as the new hub for entertainment and lifestyle. The subject property is strategically located to capitalize on the City's tremendous growth, as just two blocks south will be the new $1.9-billion St. Paul's Hospital in the False Creek Flats Plan - slated for construction on over 18 acres of land and will include commercial space, hotels, office, institutional and residential uses. Additionally, the planned removal of both the Georgia Street and Dunsmuir Street viaducts will generate an influx of development and, in turn, a
rapidly growing population, additional community amenities, and increased livability. ...Inevitable neighbourhood growth ensures this property is a secure and lucrative investment for both investors and developers alike." Jean provides other reasons about why "Vacancy Control" is needed in her motion below. Please let me know if you can do something to help SRO tenants at this time. 8yWendy Pederson
Read the housing and mental health report now at camegieaction.or~,
,,". 04
HOUSING IS ONE OF THE MOST ESSENTIAL HUMAN RI TS FALL: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CANADA VISITS OPPENHEIMER PARK On November 21,Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, visited Oppenheimer Park to speak with residents and supporters. During the one-hour conversation, he heard about living conditions in the park,jurisdictional issues, lack of access to electricity and sanctioned heat sources, and lack of access to safe dignified housing. He responded with these statements: ''I'm honoured to be here. Life here is many many things - but it's also about human rights. I want to say how much respect and admiration I have, and we have, for wh~t you are doing here. We need to make it clear to use a human rights approach: Right to housing, right to health, right to safe water, sanitation, right to life, right to be free from discrimination, Indigenous rights and Women's right to be protected." "There's a new federal law that passed a few months ago that recognizes a right to housing. This new law should make a difference, but it could take years.
05
That's why what you're doing here is so im porta nt." "Governments have let situations fester and be ignored for far too long, so we do have crisis situations. And so to hear from people here that they feel safer, they feel more supported, and they feel it's more dignified to live in tents that have been erected in a public park than • to turn to some of the substandard housing that has been offered to them, is a disgraceful thing to hear, but sadly at the end of the day it isn't a surprise. "Obviously I'm not an expert on fire safety and heating supplies, that's not what Amnesty's business is, but absolutely, the right to ask for housing is all about the kinds of conditions that make life safe and secure and healthy. And in Canada, any time of year but obviously particularly in the winter, heat is essential to that. And we know very often in many conditions across the country, it's issues around heat that become one of the central concerns around housing that is offered.
"So while I'm not in a position to say to the fire department or to the government here, what the solution has to be, what I ca n say is that from a human rights perspective, there must be a solution and it's not enough to say there can't be heat. If there are concerns about types of ways that heat is provided, then deal with that. We're a prosperous country, we have a whole host of different ways we of ensuring heat is available to people, and that needs to be part of the solution. "I think to hear, at its core, to hear from people that there is not housing available that would make it possible to move from here into conditions that are supported and safe and dignified, is a real indictment, not just an indictment here in Vancouver, but I think it is a profound indictment that the fact that we've got this longstanding, unacceptable failure to recognize that housing - safe adequate housing - is not just something nice, it's not just something for municipal governments to figure out when they're balancing budgets - it's one of the most precious and essential human rights of all, and we need to start taking it seriously. "Ironically,just a few weeks ago I was along the US-Mexico border, where I think we all know there is another human rights crisis playing out. And in one particular community Matamoros, Mexico, which is right across the border from Brownsville, Texas, a makeshift refugee camp has suddenly sprung up, in which people who are being obstructed from being able to pursue
the refugee claims that they have made in the United States, but are being forced to remain in Mexico while that's happening, are now living in something that looks almost exactly like this. It's camping tents that have largely been donated by concerned citizens in the area, because people have nowhere to go, there is no safe secure shelter being provided that they can stay in for the many many months they are going to be living there before they're finally perhaps being allowed into the United States. "And a lot of the same things that I just heard about here: issues around sanitation, issues around access to safe water, toilets, exactly the same kinds of concerns here, totally different situation, but both what of them come down to in the end, whether you're a refugee styck at the border between the US and Mexico, or whether you're someone facing a struggle around housing here in Vancouver, it's all about human rights." Backg rou nder There are well over 2,223 homeless people in the City of Vancouver. Most have no access to daytime shelter, and at least 600 people have zero overnight shelter options. Tent cities like Oppenheimer provide safety in community. Tent cities are often considered "harm reduction zones" during housing crises, as they reduce exposure to external violence and the elements and provide necessities and a community of peers. 06
CARNEGIE
COMMUNITY
ACTION
PROJECT
111:15 AM EVERY
FRIDAY
The Carnegie Community Action Project is a project of the board of the Carnegie Community Centre Association. CCAP works mostly on housing, income, and land use issues in the Downtown Eastside (DTES),so that the area can remain a low income friendly community. CCAP works with English-speaking and Chinese-speaking DTES residents in speaking out on their own behalf for the changes they would like to see in their neighbourhood. Join us on Fridays 11:15am in classroom 2 on the third floor of the Carnegie Centre for our weekly volunteer rneetinqs' Downtown Eastside residents who want to work on getting better housing and incomes and stop gentrification are welcome to attend. Lunch is provided.
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CHINATOWN
CONCERN
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Office: 2nd floor of the Carnegie, 401 Main Street, Vancouver Phone: 604-665-2105 Email: info@carnegieaction.org Website: www.carnegieaction.org
Vancity
Thank you to Vancity for supporting CCAP'swork. Support for this project does not necessarily imply that funders endorse the findings or contents of this newsletter.
)!er the past year, Amal and Erv of Cambium Arts has been the Artists in Community at Carnegie. Since lanuary, they have been holding workshops throughout the Centre and at Oppenheimer Park with broad Jartidpation. Using art, particularly with repurposed materials, Amal and Erv have done a wonderful job :onnecting different cultural groups and patrons at Camegie. Please come celebrate their year's work with nore art on Wlf1ter Solstice!
SAPERE AUDE (DARE TO KNOW) In democratic societies, which emerged from Europe, we are living with social structures created in the eighteenth century by movements known as The Enlightenment, also known as Renaissance humanism, and as the Age of Reason. During this time, which began with Isaac Newton's publication of Principia Mathematica in 1687 and lasted until the beginning ofthe 19th century, reason came to be seen as the primary source of knowledge, and the scientific method as the best tool for getting to a closest approximation of truth. Ideas such as liberty, progress, toleration, fraternity, equality, constitutional government, and the separation of church and state, that are the base of so many rights and freedorns which we now enjoy, were planted during this era. Today's Bill's of Rights and the United Nation's Universal Declaration of Human Rights (written by a Canadian), though yet often aspirational documents, are beacons that beckon us to create a better world. In the East, enlightenment emerged as a more personal pursuit that has its origins in the teachings of Gautama Buddha who lived about 2500 years ago. The closest the Buddha got to defining enlightenment was to say that it brought about the end of suffering. One achieves this end through an authentic awakening, which comes about with a realization of four noble truths: one needs to see that in life there is a lot of stress and suffering, that the cause of stress is greed or desire, that diligent practice can bring an end to craving, and that there is a path of exploration and practice, which includes meditation and living compassionately, that can lead to enlightenment, to the cessation of suffering. Though these teachings have, in many instances, degenerated into religion and enlightenment has been portrayed as some kind of mind-blowing metaphysical transcendence, the truth is far simpler. Practicing mindful meditation tempers desire and reduces stress. Though I long ago gave up on the 'God Theory', I have been working most of my life to bring about within myself a reconciliation between what I know to be scientific truth with spiritual values. Meditation, a spiritual practice with no religious or mythological trappings, is scientifically demonstrable to bring about life-enhancing experiences. But neither is all of Science nor the world created by it and The Enlightenment all wonderful. Though democratic societies are vastly superior to those dominated by divine rights of kings and those under the thumbs of religious or dictatorial authority, science and capitalism as they grew in parallel with each other, created massive exploitation of Earth's wealth along with belief that greed and acquisition are the way to a satisfactory life. This addiction to consumerism threatens our extinction, as a species, just as addiction to drugs threatens the life of the user. Desire and greed, in addition to being the cause of suffering, threaten all of our lives. So, as we continue to embrace and work to implement the ideals of The Enlightenment, minus the greed, we need to encourage a combination of the best practices of Western idealism with mindfulness emerging from Eastern philosophies, as a way of creating an enhanced rationality that has largely escaped attention from science and the consumerism it helped create. Creating symbiotic relationships between Western democratic practices which foster better societies with Eastern mindfulness which can remove the greed that afflicts the world is the way to go. Moving forward, reducing desire means less dependence on a carbon economy; it means saving forests; it could mean preventing our extinction in the next hundred years. By Gilles Cyrenne Sources Batchelor, Stephen. Buddhism Without Beliefs: A Contemporary Guide to Awakening Harris, Sam. Waking Up: A Guide to Spirituality Without Religion
The Carnegie Newsletter is created by volunteers who are part of the Downtown Eastside community. It has been going strong for 33 years. This issue marks my 33rd anniversary as editor, knowing that over 2300 individuals have contributed writing, poetry, art and energy (including financial energy) over these years. There are 23 issues per year (no January I edition) and it is available online. Please consider making a donation, taxdeductible, either online through the website link at carnegienewsletter.org or by a cheque payable to the Carnegie Community Centre Association, 40 I Main, Van 6A 2T7 with Newsletter on the memo line. This paper is a vital voice for the Downtown Eastside and needs to continue. PAULR TAYLOR
Pm living a life, like a castaway I'm living a life, like a castaway Too many storms have passed my days; and I'm feeling washed away. All it's done is rained on my parade -every minute, every day. Where my life began a distant memory of great tears and hopes descending A new year has begun; 2019 -rny life has reached six decades How will it start? My hopes are hungry, my health in despair, my wishes long to be recognized.
DRAIN MY BLOOD RICH OIL says planet earth and I'll be the skeleton tumbleweed you see blown about in the deserts the lifeless, hot, dry deserts. Fracking breaks at structural rocks and it feels like a sock to my spine. I misunderstood, for I thought this planet was yours and mine ... You, man, went thousands of years travelling my globe without draining my blood and now our health is sold out.
Will my heart be filled? Will my mind fmd peace? How do we react to adversity and setbacks? Do I lay my head down, or run around? Or do I walk another road, searching for that rainbow? I, Johanna, born in 1959, a woman that started on her own at 13 yrs old. Who loves the birds and all animals before humans I've travelled endlessly though 10 provinces and 55 states the landscapes, Gods best created I saw and lived the poverty, homelessness, the hate, and each nite I pray that my faith will not escape the destruction to the land, and climate, the journeys through every single place. So many religions abroad, the farmlands and the wild life that roam freely around; to the mines and caves that hide in the desert, so many windi~g and long roads and highways that join the cultures, and history of old wars that stood there. From East to West, the coastal coast that sing the tides, that lead to the bottom of the sea, with colours that make you smile; - to the lost cities that are learned within. So I ask this, Does my soul have a infectious passion. Johanna Staring
Can you not just drill for a bit to cover emergencies in our SOS kits? Fracking's causing earthquakes, climate change and now even the poles have taken a shift opening up to radiation, cancer and the whole nine yards of the death card - to all of us. We need to keep what worked like horse-driven carts, sailing ships and non-chernicalized soil so our veggies & fruits would taste sweeter than they do now ... for they were not grown on steroids and all that would make them look good yet tasting like wood. Healthy farmlands awaited the hand driven plow - for centuries up until now ..... The young people had little time for drugs nor ofthat which one would have to hide under the rug. We have to keep what worked and throw out the rest that has taken a toll on our health and will escalate and continue to do so till someone rings the bell of restoration courage and common sense
Indian Country's Missing El
Name:COlTEN
FLEURY
Missing from; PRINCE GEORGE,BC Dote Missing: MAY 4, 2018
Rcce. FIRST NATIONS Eyes: BROWN Height: 5' SU
Weight: 120 POUNDS Colren is from Prince George, BC, ond wos lost seen of
hls residence on May 3rd, 2018. He was wearing a red hoodie end jeans.
Investigators are asking for the public's help in finding
Colten. If you hove any infcrmcricn about Colten Fleury·s dis-
or his whereebours, please ask him to '(';011 his mom Phillis Fteurl' ot 2So..S61•.3300, Prince George RCMP of 250 ..561 ..3300t his uncle et 403..846-8004 or appearance,
wish to remain ononymous Crime stoppers: 1800 -222-8477 if
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Rockin' Around the Carnegie Christmas Tree Oh! It's that time again! Glad tidings - "Methadone" "Rock, powder, down." Decorations - bus passes on a lanyard 'round the neck Tales of joy "He ripped me off' And presence not presents We are here for each other a slap on the back A stolen knapsack Camaraderie and avarice Addiction and social justice Christmas has it all And Carnegie is the grand dame of it all the Sandstone Lady Phoenix Winter
Laughing tears Laughing tears fell from her face Masking times gentle trace Years unspent love forbidden Dying embers in the night Long ago bum'd ere' so bright Fleeting clouds fade away Sweet memories of yesterday. Laureen Alice Morrison
From the Library As the days get shorter it is a good time to read a newbook. Fortunately, the Carnegie Reading room has a diverse collection of new arrivals. Besom, Stang & Sword: A Guide to Traditional
Witchcraft, the Six-Fold Path & Hidden Landscape by Christopher Orapello and Tara-Love Maguire is a book on traditional witchcraft. The authors founded the Blacktree Coven and are experts in witchcraft and occultism. A primary focus of the book is spirituality but in a nonreligious sense. We have also recently received a book on a topic of great importance to the Downtown Eastside.
Obstruction of Justice: The Search for Truth on Canada's Highway of Tears, by Ray Michalko, is an investigation into the women (mostly Indigenous) who have gone missing from the remote British Columbia highway. Michalko's investigation leads him to the highway and to the remote, scattered, communities nearby. In addition, Michalko interviews the families of the missing with the hope that some light can be shed on these still unsolved murders. Finally, we have The Big Book of Reel Murders: Stories That Inspired Great Crime Films, by Otto Penzler. It is a collection of short stories that went on to inspire farnops crime movies. Clocking in at well over lOOO,pages, this book is highly recommended to fans of murder mysteries and true crime. Perfect for late night reading! Also, we have a modest little holiday display up. It contains many holiday themed books and magazines. If you are looking for any recipes for Christmas dinner, or if you want to learn how to play a few Christmas songs on guitar, please come to the library to take a look! It's located on the book truck near our self-checkout station. Happy Reading, Daniel
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We acknowledge that Carnegie Community Centre, and this Newsletter, are occurring on Coast Salish Territory.
Jenny Kwan MP
THIS NEWSLETTER IS A PUBLICATION OF THE CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE ASSOCIATION Articles represent the views of individual contributors and not of the Assoclatlon,
Vancouver East NDP Immigration, Refugee and Citizenship Critic 2572 E Hastings St Vancouver, BCV5KIZ3 T: 604-775-5800 F: 604-775-5811
WANTED Artwork for the Carnegie Newsletter -Small illustrations to accompany articles and poetry. -Cover art - Max size: 17cm(6 %")wide x 15cm(6")high. -Subject matter pertaining to issues relevant to the Downtown Eastside, but all work considered. -Black & White printing only. -Size restrictions apply (i.e. if your piece is.too large, it will be reduced and/or cropped to fit). -All artists will receive credit for their work. -Originals will be returned to the artist after being copied for publication. -Remuneration: Carnegie Volunteer Tickets Please make submissions to Paul Taylor, Editor. The editor can edit for clarity, format & brevity, but not at the expense of the writer's message.
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