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DECEMBER 1, 2015
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NEWSLETTER
. CRUNCH ~dtes
SEQUEL: o1J£ -(0 MAI4Y, 0"'£ "'0 I..A'-!,50Mf'1"'1~G-S W£. J051' DON',' APPREC.IATE Tit- THEY" RE .•• In Rwanda it was genocide. In Kosovo it was ethnic cleansing, In the USA it's ghettoes & gated castles. In BC it's assimilation. In the Downtown Eastside it's social cleansing.
[There are complaints: the Ministry of Social Development & Sociallnovation, Welfare, is set up to frustrate, , discourage, punish & deny almost anyone. The PIAC sought leave to launch a Class Action legal challenge but the Office of the Ombudsperon blocked it, saying that every complaint has to be investigated individually]
PUBLIC INTEREST ADVOCACY CENTRE Thank you for supporting the Ombudsperson Complaint about MSDSI campaign. We are still collecting " completed complaint forms and we hope you can continue to help us for a little while longer. 3 WAYS YOU CAN HELP US:
1- Share our campaign We invite you to share our web-page on Access to Welfare on social media: http:Ubcpiac.com/ourwork/welfare/ and/or posting our poster in your workplace or neighborhood. We can drop some posters off.
2- Help us table Get in touch with us if your organization can host us while we table to promote awareness of the issue and assist people who have had issues with welfare to make a complaint. Contact us at 604-387-3063
3 -Help people who want to fill out the complaint We have uploaded the complaint forms in English, Spanish and Chinese. Please send these to support@bcpiac.com or fax to 604-682-7896. If you prefer we pick it up, call us at 604-687-3063. For more information on this campaign and what we hope to achieve or have other questions please see our BackgrounderlFAQ. Don't hesitate to be in touch with me if you have any futher questions. Sozan Savehilaghi
-3 Wednesday December 9th * 9am to 1pm Carnegie Community Centr:e * 3rd Floor Gallery On hold for an hour or more when calling the 1-866 number?
Denied service at a Ministry office or told to call the 1-866 number?
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Have difficulties completing the online application form? •
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Thanks to Yasushi K, a generous and respected treasure of the park patrons
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Oppenheimer Park NEW S FROM OPPENHEIMER PARK, OUR BIG BOSS LADY SANDY MAKES HER LATERAL CAREER MOVE After 17 years of her service at Oppenheimer Park, our very own big boss lady Sandy is making a lateral move to Carnegie Centre. We will miss you, Sandy! [Sandy is now the Seniors & Aboriginal Coordinator.] NEW! WINTER HOURS: Tuesday to Saturday, 9:15am - 5:00pm PROGRAM UPDATES
OPPEN ARTS STUDIO WORKSHOP THURSDAYS, 10:30AM - IPM: In December, we are going to explore printmaking. some cards for this holiday season or gift bags.
Learn techniques and mak
COMMUNITY ART PROJECT WALL HANGING MONDA YS, 2PM - 4PM: Come out and be part of the Community Art Project and express yourself on a square BOARD GAMES TUESDA YS, 2PM - 4PM: Chess, monopoly, crib ... Join us to play different kinds of board games in our cozy activity room with a cup of hot chocolate~_ ••••
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ZIPPER SONGS WORKSHOP Got something to say & know a song that says it? Know an awful lot about a just cause & want others to get interested & help?? Find yourself marching, protesting or making a statement and want as many people with you as there are people on the street??? The magic can come through a Zipper Song, when you learn to change the lyrics to a popular song that most people know to say what needs saying. People will stop to listen when it's a tune
they know and may even join in on the chorus when others are doing the same. Protest can be a good time for all! This workshop is led by Earle Peach and the Solidarity Notes Labour Choir.
Saturday, December 12 from 3-5pm Carnegie Theatre. Everyone Welcome!
From the Library As I write, the days are getting shorter and the night skies have been clear with a brilliant full moon! Even though the orange glow from the city doesn't give us the clearest view, you can still make out some of the brighter stars. If you find astronomy and natural wonders inspiring please consider some of these library materials: Auroras: Fire in the Sky (2011) by Dan Bartolotti. There is nothing as spectacular as the northern lights, and throughout the ages humans have attempted to interpret and understand them. This book is a beautiful collection of images and stories. The Beginner's Observing Guide (2009) by Leo Enright. This publication comes to us from The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada and is intended for the novice stargazer. There are six star maps based upon the season and specific chapters on observing meteors, comets, eclipses, and more. The City Beneath the Snow (2012) by Marjorie Cole. This collection of stories is set in Alaska, which is a place that knows short days, long nights and true winter weather. Cole's characters are eclectic, they struggle with isolation, maintain hopes and dreams, while living in a harsh yet stunning environment. How to Read the Solar System (2013) by Chris North and Paul Abel. The summary begins, "We all learned the basics of our Solar System at school - but how much can you remember?" The authors go on to claim that their book will allow anyone to interpret the stars and revel in the epic stories of dwarf planets and icy moons. Picture of Light (2014) - DVD. For a more visual & dynamic way to experience the aurora borealis, this film documents an expedition to Churchill, Manitoba with the sole intention of filming the light spectacle. The filmmakers face their own challenges of capturing nature with technology & discuss science & myth. I hope you are all finding warmth & comfort on these cold nights, and you are all most welcome to pass the days whether rainy or sunny with us at the library! Your librarian, Natalie P.S. As a final update on the Bud Osborn collection, I wanted to share that (as suggested by someone who filled in a feedback form) the books on theology and
Bring your Voices! Bring your Instruments! Bring your Songs!
Friday, December 11 1 - 2:30 pm Classroom 11, 3rd Floor faith are now a mini-library at the "Jacob's Well" just a few blocks north - 239 Main street. It seemed like a really good fit as the books will be accessible and in the neighbourhood. That means that we have three Bud collections ... the Poetry library, the Social Activism library, & the Theology library! It would have been wonderful to keep them all together, but due to quantity and space limitations we had to chunk them apart based on subject. If anyone would like to look at the full inventory of the books, please visit me in the Carnegie Library and I would be happy to make you a copy. Natalie
Reminiscing about Change & Such It's nine o'clock on a Friday:Morning at Tim Hortons Chinese Air Force day Shades of Korea 'Livepool Lu' was the code salutation Reconnaissance Men returning to Jungle Base Difficulty in the pronunciation greeted by gunfire Fire first ask questions later The Americans & Canadians attached to U.S. regiments Called the enemy "gooks" Regarded them as less than human Plus fa change, plus le meme chose
Liqwids ( r's and L's) do not exist in Asian languages Death, destruction, atrocities are the price we pay for "our way of life" Whatever that means We are in War Mode again or maybe still Noise comes as an epiphenomenon of the destruction Silence or at least quiet broken only by the hum of bees or chirp of birds roar of a lion Considered desirable, golden, peaceful Maggots go about their work silently at least to human ears ... The true north or Antarctica is pretty quiet rriethinks Festivals are lit by light, adorned with fireworks all noisy even 21-gun salutes ETC The ideal situation is of course Healthy balance of Silence and noise Music to my ears May not be Your Choice Classical music can be a cacophony or a delightful symphony Depending Depending on the audience. Wilhelmina
RAGING ON ... Stop it's Red; Go it's Green; Yield it's Yellow. Do it again, over & over - Do What You're Told. Trafficflow - it's a crazy drill of to & fro. Red tape - bureaucracy - going overboard. Out of sight, out of touch, that's their plan to frustrate 'n control you; to bog you down 'n demoralise you even discredit 'n discard you. What's next up on their list of demands, to destroy reputations?! wouldn't put' it past them Spycameras, many hidden, film our daily lives; hidden microphones, traded & banked information with the latest high-tech milieu (smartphones+). Control is what it's all about as the Thought Police tally up & record your personal data with everything somehow 'relevant' to be warehoused and stored in databanks wherever they lie. I don't know about you but I'm fed up with all this surveillance - what is their . endgame? Right now this redacted, shredded & dIeted info about us is still somewhere being used by someone IT ALL NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED pronto! I am so sick & tired of being oppressed, starved by a never-ending gluttony of government agencies, both known & unknown. Ive been beat-up battered bruised I'm drugsick, lovesick, homesick, sore, suffering, suffocated 'n smothered. You starting to get the picture?! My state of mind: stalled doped-by-drops of denigration violence dispersed on me & many like me media free rag once known as newspapers, now dysfunction despotism 'n deceit from demigods on high in their out of touch, out of reach ivory towers telling us how to behave 'n how to behold them 'n be indebted to them - these paper-shuffling, bean-counting drones! ! Their dumb doggerel will not stand the test. No way. Not on my watch. They offer death by a thousand strokes of a poisonous pen. Lost application forms, deemed technically incorrect to ultimately be shredded & immediately thrown into the dustbin of death -stereotyped as a malcontent, a failure, a down-nout loser by these moronic fools. You complain to almost anyone & it's ,'he said/ she said/who said/say what?' I know this for a fact. I've been pushed, pulled, put upon, poked, prodded n spit out. I've been studied, dissected, deconstructed n betrayed. But I guarantee they will never get rid of the likes of me. I am a fighter and SO ARE YOu. Our truth will win out in the end. ROBYN LlVING&TONE.
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Heart of the City Festival, the OTES communityand my thesis work Neighborhoods all have a reality of their own and are often identified categorically as 'good' (middle-class, safe) ~r 'bad' (high poverty and crime rate, unsafe), sometimes by people who reside in these neighbourhoods but often by those who do not. In Vancouver, such a 'bad' neighborhood, called the Downtown Eastside (DTES), is the oldest neighbourhood and place where the city grows. Many people in Vancouver outside the DTES associate the neighbourhood with poverty and powerlessness. But there are rich powerful stories of local residents who have banded together, using many literacies & languages, to make
themselves visible within these engrained stereotypes. In 2013, a graduate course I enrolled in at Simon Fraser University led me to the Heart of the City Festival Tuesday, December 15'Noon in the Downtown Eastside. One of the events I atCarnegie 2nd floor Lounge tended was in the Learning Centre at Carnegie Community Centre where 'senior community residents used digital storytelling to share their life journeys & struggles. That experience gave me many insights into my study in the community, many community residents were being very friendly and accommodating a world that was previously hidden from my view, a by generously allowing me to enter their world and world populated by people who live on the edge of share their life stories and struggles. The more I get to survival, but yearn for opportunities to stand up and know about community residents during and away find their voices. from the Festival, the more I come to admire their I was intensely drawn to the Heart of the City Festitalent and passion fof, life and determination to fight val. Looking more closely at the Festival events I for a voice and a better life. I have also learned that saw that various artistic literacy representations 'exjust as I had expectations of the people that they pressed in many modes were used by community would share their experiences and life stories with me residents & artists to express voices and raise aware- : and honestly answer my questions, so they had expec. ness for change. The dynamics of the literacy situatations of me to be honest and forthcoming about my-tion at the Festival implied that there are many levels self and my motives. Over the course of interviewing and forms of literacy in which a person can be eduthem and befriending them, I have had a better undercated. As far as I am concerned, what I have seen at standing of the community. The correct name for the the Festival represented a kind of grassroots 'literacy neighbourhood is the Downtown Eastside and people story' I have not yet encountered in my limited readhere are not any different from the rest of us in many ing, nor in my previous educational experiences. I ways. Having attended the Festival over the past two , decided to research the Festival for my thesis work. years, I have been nurtured both at the intellectual and My doctoral research focuses on the educative funcpersonal levels. I would like to thank all those who tions the Festival serves for the community and its generously and kindly helped me with my thesis members and what we can learn from it about public work. I believe that my experiences and interpretapedagogies of local resistance. tions of their stories and experiences at the Festival Early when I came to the community, I naively and will continually be examined and reflected on as I I wrongly labeled the DTES as a skid row and people share these with them in an ongoing process. here as marginalized groups, without actually thinkJing Li ing that if they would be offended and insulted by the Faculty of Education, SFU .bigfreesia@gmail.com moniker. In contrast to what I first imagined, during
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City of Vancouver Information Bulletin:
November 25,2015
The City has referred to prosecution a Standards oft,,,. Maintenarice Bylaw Order against the owner of The Lion hotel, for failing to provide heat and hot water in certain parts of the building. The Lion hotel, located at 316 Powell (between Gore and Dunlevy), is a 70 room privately owned SingleRoom Occupancy (SRO) hotel. It has-been without heat in certain-parts of the building since November 11tb. The landlord has provided temporary electric heaters to those imEacted. On November 16 , City staff issued an Order to the owner to immediately deal with the heat issue and he has not complied. It has since been referred to prosecution. Today the City issued an additional Order to immediately supply hot water to the building. The Order notified the owner that he has 60 days to perform the work to supply heat and hot water to the building or the City will step in to do so and recoup the costs. In September 2014,pty Council amended the Standards of Maintenance Bylaw to help ensure an expedited process to protect the health and safety of SRO
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tenants. So far in 2015, over 150 compliance letters and 75 Orders have been issued under the City's Standards of Maintenance Bylaw. In 2014, according to thl City Prosecutor's Office, the total amount of penalties imposed on closed/resolved Standards of Maintenance cases was $6,800. The City of Vancouver's Rental Standards Database was launched in 2012 and the City has since seen a significant improvement in building safety with an 80 per cent drop in the number of by-law infractions between 2012 and 2015. The Rental Standards Database enables people to research rental buildings for fire safety, building safety, and general maintenance issues by visiting vancouver.ca/saferental
BAB BUMBUGRETURNS!! Fei and Milton Wong Theatre 149 East Hastings, SFU Woodwards Dec. 10-12 and 15-19
Featuring Jim Byrnes, Margo Kane, Stephen Lytton, Mike Richter, Savannah Walling andSt. James Academy Choir Plus over 25 seasonal, popular and commissioned song, including: HOTEL By Patrick Foley WE LIVE DOWN HERE ON HASTINGS STREET IN THIS SRO HOTEL YOU KNOW THAT IT AIN'T NO HEAVEN, 'CAUSE IT'S RIGHT NEXT DOOR TO HELL NOW, WHEN IT GETS CHILLY AND COLD, THE LANDLORD TURNS OFF THE HEAT AND IF YOU'RE EVER LATE WITH THE RENT, HE THROWS YOU OUT ON THE STREET AT NIGHT YOU CAN HEAR THE RATS, SCRATCHING IN THE WALL, BUT IT'S WHEN THE BEDBUGS BITE, THAT IS THE WORST OF ALL
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YEAH, YOU MIGHT BE DOWN AND OUT, OR SOMEHOW LOST YOUR WAY YOU COULD BE ONE OF THE LONELY ONES, AND FEEL YOU GOT NO SAY WE LIVE DOWN HERE ON HASTINGS STREET IN THIS SRO HOTEL YOU KNOW THAT IT AIN'T NO HEAVEN' CAUSE IT'S RIGHT NEXT DOORTO HELL NOW, WE KNOW HE'S GOT A STASH OF EMPTIES THAT THE OLD BASTARD STOLE FROM ALL THE OOR RESIDENTS HE EVICTED FROM THIS HOLE BUT TONIGHT WE'VE COME TOGETHER TO EVEN UP THE SCORE WE'RE GOING TO TAKE ALL THEM EMPTIES WHEN WE BREAK DOWN HIS DOOR I'LL MAKE IT BUDGE WITH MY SLEDGE I'LL GET IT AJAR WITH MY IRON BAR I'LL BREAK THE LOCK WITH MY BIG ROCK IF YOU PLEASE I'LL JUST USE THE KEYS "Bahl Humbug!" runs from Dec. 10-12 and Dec. 15-19, at 7:30 p.m., with 2:00 p.m. matinees on Saturday, Dec. 12 and Dec. 19, 149 West Hastings SI. Tickets can be purchased online at www.sfuwoodwards.ca
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Hello BC ND P, [curiously copied to the Newsletter] \
In its rally on September 30,2000, the business I Alliance protested new services for some of the
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Excluding and Vilifying People Makes Things Worse The Community Alliance of business interests in the Downtown Eastside and Gastown opposes more social housing in the Downtown Eastside. It also. opposes social programs aimed at reducing the street drug scene and the damage it does to. both povertystricken drug users and the community at large. These Alliance policies will only help to. phase out our low income community as gentrification advances, and they will increase homelessness and despair for low income residents. Also, the business Alliance refuses to. talk to. the low income residents who. make up the great majority of the people who. live in the Downtown Eastside. 'We will deal only with direct policy makers ... We will not be drawn into. trying to. solve the problems,' the Alhance said 'Our demands are no.t negotiable. ' ( I )
, poorest and sickest people in our community - those : addicted to. drugs with nowhere to. go. but the street. I People in the rally had been stirred up to. a pitch of ' fear and hate rarely seen in our community, They screamed at residents who. supported new services for the most alienated of our citizens, and they shouted insults at lonely, ill, drug users as though these desperate people could be discarded like trash. i 'They condemned people they had never tallied to, ' and their fears unwittingly supported the ambitions of calculating men and women who. have another agenda: complete gentrification of the Downtown Eastside. Surely the murderous history of the 20th century has taught us about the profound evil that . occurs when we treat others as less than human. ~ To. reject poor people, to. exclude ill people, and to. ask the po.lice to. throw sick people in jail are violent acts that can only result in more illness, more exclu- I sion, more hated and more violence. The violence of the street drug scene, the despair of homelessness, I the anguish of unemployment in a disappearing I labour market, the humiliation of food banks and the I brutality of a hostile welfare system all reflect the violence of C.anadian society and the violence of a global economy that pits workers in different countries against each other in a downward spiral of competitive impoverishment. Too many people are dying emotionally and physically because of their exclusion from a decent, stable . life. Often they feel desperately lonely. They see , themselves as lothing, as someone who. has died, as .,~sbmeo.ne who. has been murdered. Thoughts of death I as away but are never farfrom a person living in anguish. Alienated people on the street feel shame, humiliation, abandonment, rejection, and sometimes enermous rage. The corporate media and business profiteers reinforce these negative feelings with their constant vilification of the low income residents of the Downtown Eastside. Shame on them, and praise , to. those, like the people in the Camegie Street Program, who. try to. build a caring community in spite of every thing. . By SANDY CAMERON : I) "Lobby group doesn't get it -Community Alliance : refuses to. deal with Downtown Eastside's real prob: lems Robert Sarti. -Vancouver Sun: Dec 2,$;2000.
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I would love to. give a donation to. NDP if they agree to. speak in public and put it in their policy platform to. raise welfare for single employables from $610/mo.nth to. $1 OOO/mo.nth. Plus to. build thousands of 100% low-income social housing projects in the Downtown : Eastside and across British Columbia, including on I reserves, every year. The NDP is my party and I want to. support a wonderful Indigenous woman from the neighbourhood like Melanie Mark to. represent us, but I can't support BC NDP unless these commitments are in place. Not only would I be willing to. give money, but I would be willing to. canvass and pull out the lOO's or 1000's in my neighbourhood who. I have been organizing with in the last 20 years. But no.t unless these ! strong commitments are in place. . There are rulhblings in the Downtown Eastside about, the lack of support from the NDP for mo.re housing and higher welfare rates. . Sincerely, W endy P.e.~~rsen
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Carnegie Community Action Project December, 2015, Newsletter Displacing Hastings Street Vendors is Social Cleansing
On November 16th, 2015, the City of Vancouver launched a crackdown on street vendors and homeless people in the Downtown Eastside, effectively criminalizing and displacing all low-income survival street vendors along East Hastings.
The City is justifying the measure by referring to the City-designated vending sites on 62 E Hastings, 501 Powell, and Pigeon Park. However, these sites are inadequate in size, have restricted opening hours, and are ultimately a way for the city to 1
sanitize the streets and contain street vending in hidden-away sites.
Who else will look out for us but others who live in poverty?"
Clr. Reimer has referred to a rise in arrests as evidence of growing safety concerns on the 0 block to justify the displacement of the survival street market. However, in the DTES more arrests are evidence only of more policing, and banning street vending doesn't improve the safety of the low-income people who live in the community and who are losing their source of income. Clearing sidewalk vendors only deepens the insecurity of those who now have to turn to other more dangerous types of survival work as their community and support systems are dispersed and destroyed.
The streets of the Downtown Eastside are a place where people who have fled discrimination, harassment and abuse feel comfortable. On Hastings Street they have claimed public space, they have created safe spaces in a violent world, and belonging out of alienation. But now they are facing the threat of displacement yet again. The ongoing "street cleaning" is not helping street vendors, it is dispersing, displacing and separating families, friends and entire support systems.
. With condos opening up on the 100 block and new high-end businesses opening across the DTES, we are wondering, safety for whom? According to Margaret, a street vendor on the 0 block of East Hastings, "What space is safe for women nowadays? It's not safe on Granville for a native woman. It's not safe on the West Side. Surrey is really unsafe for women, I'm scared to go there. But here on the block I have family and they get my back.
Instead of addressing the underlying reasons for the expanding survival economy in Vancouver, the decision to outlaw survival street vending targets the people suffering the violent effects of colonialism, racism, poverty, structural unemployment and the war on drugs. As Karen Ward recently said in a speech to city staff, ''the criminalization of street vending turns poor people into people who are against the law, simply because they are poor."
Vancity Support for (hi~ project do~s, not necessarily ImplY..Va.ncltys endorsement of the findings or contents of this newsletter
CONDOS ARE SOON OPENING ON THE 100 BLOCK OF E HASTINGS
l 138 E HASTINGS (ACROSS FROM INSITE)
THI REGENT )RO, -
Increased ~
and more police presence
Criminalization and targeting of street vendors More ~
for low-income people
Stigmatizgtion and discrimingtion of drug users Rising rents and eyjctions in the SRO Hotels .closure of..s.hops that cater to poor people
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Community Speak-Out! When: 3-4.30pm, Thursday, Dec 3rd Where: Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main Street On November, 16th, 2015, the City of Vancouver launched an unprecedented crackdown on street vendors in the Downtown Eastside, many who are homeless. The City and VPD have banned all survival street vending and forcibly displaced all lowincome street vendors from the 0 to 300 blocks of East Hastings. The displacement of survival street vendors and homeless people coincides with the opening of the most resisted and fought against development in the Downtown Eastside, Sequel 138. The condo project is located directly across the street from InSite and comprises 79 condominium units (renting for $1550) and 10 highend retail spaces (selling for up to $1.3m).
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Come to the Community Speak Out on Thursday, December 3rd, and share your experience of the crackdown and thoughts about what needs to be done. We are hoping it will be an opportunity to unite community members and groups in resistance and action against the City's attack on low-income people in the DTES. *Coffee, tea and snacks will be provided
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How many people will become homeless due to rising rents, gentrification and evictions in 2016
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Housing Crisis Town Hall
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How many people have to become homeless before the government takes action?
NEW DATE! 2-4 pm, Saturday, Januarygth Carnegie Theatre 401 Main Street Next year we expect homelessness numbers to continue rising. Come to the Housing Crisis Town Hall to strategize about the housing crisis in the DTES and what to do about it.
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NEXT YEAR 5
Raise Welfare so People can Buy Their Own Food Food Banks, a 'Temporary' measure Still after 33 years Friday, Dec 4, is CBC's Food Bank Day. Join Raise the Rates for the 5th Annual Poor People's Radio show Friday, Dec 4: Meet@ Camegie, 11 am March to CBC for 12 (Noon) Poor People's Radio, 12-1,CBC, 700 Hamilton
St (& Georgia)
On Dec. 4,Raise the Rates will be protesting the refusal of the CBC to talk on air about why people need to use food banks. "Welfare rates are at less than half of what they should be," said Raise the Rates organizer Bill Hopwood. "Food banks were supposed to be temporary but they've been around for over 30 years now. This is not something to celebrate," added Hopwood. Pau Taylor of Gordon Neighbourhood House and Phoenix Winter of CCAP will chair an outdoor Poor People's radio on the CBC Plaze. Low income people who have to use food banks because welfare rates are so low will be asked to speak out about what its like having to use food banks and why welfare rates should go up. Snacks will be available.
Raise the Rates: http://raisetherates.org/
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CCAP went to the 288 E Hastings Open House on Nov 12th and this is what we learnt: The social housing units will be 40% smaller than the market rental units. There will be separate gardens and patios for the market rental tenants and the social housing tenants.
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QODDD 34 soew HOUSING UNIIS IT WELFIREUIE ($375) HIG~tND YUPPIE~ETAIL .
Despite being funded by BC Housing, only 20% of the units in the buildirfg will be affordable for people who live on welfare and disability.
The Development Permit Board will decide on the permit at a meeting on: Monday, January 25,2016 at 3:00 pm Vancouver City Hall, 453 West 12th Avenue Ground Floor, Town Hall Meeting Room
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CCAP did a survey with street vendors - here is what they said about the VPD crackdown: "I am worried it will create more crime for desperate" "My sales are down by 75% at least; hours of the day that I can sell have been reduced and my customers can't find me" "Street vending should be a right; people need to make money; shouldn't be shut down - that's why people commit suicide" "I am very very affected. This is my job, I have been doing this for 8 years. Now, I don't have $ for food. I am also an addict and it's not like I can quit. I get sick if I quit, so I need the money to not be sick" "I am too scared to vend during the week now, afraid of tickets. Scared about finances"
Do you want to see homes and better incomes for all? The Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) 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) of Vancouver so that the area can remain a low-income friendly community. The Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) meets every Friday at 11:15 on the 3rd floor of the Carnegie Centre. Join us! The CCAP office is located on the 2nd floor of the Carnegie https://ccapvancouver.wordpress.com/ UNCEDED COAST SALlSH TERRITORIES
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we Need a New Map The map we inherited isn't any good. The old roads mislead and the landscape keeps changing. People are confused and drift from place to place, clothes scorched by fire get red with smoke. The old map tells us to look for gold in the City, so we go to the City and find the garbage dump. We need a new map with new roads and a new destination. Some people fear a new map, and they cling to the old one like flies to fly paper. But the old map leads to pepper spray tear gas gulags death camps, and the end of the world.
1 don't have a new map, so 1 write stories. The stories draw lines dig holes and above all, remember. "Let people know who we are; , tell them what happened to us," an old Mayan woman in Guatemala said. (1)
"And in this harsh world draw your breath in pain to tell my story" Hamlet said to Horatio. "1 seem not to speak the official language." the poet Adrianne Rich said, so she created an unofficial language, the language of the heart. Drawing a new map is like singing. Voicehand1cr asked Loon why she talked so much and Loon replied, "Well, Sir, I'm not just talking to my own ears. The spirit-bein~s tell me that they have no place to live. That's the reason
i 'keep Uiiking:;' 'd)
Loon sings the sacred into the world and creates a new map. Sing your song, friend. Tell your story. The map we inherited isn't any good. The old roads mislead. We need a new map. Sandy Cameron ( 1) A Beauty That Hurts - 1,ife and Death in Guatemala. by George I.ovell, pub. by Between The lines, 2000. (2) A Storv As Sharp As A Knife - The Classical Haida
I love you, or maybe I don't ... It's true, I'm not any wiser than you, Because I've made some mistakes too. And nobody can live life through lies, The only way is being mature and wise. It's only wisdom that can make you see, Because only the truth can set you free. Innocence stolen in child-hood days, Must not affect us, and in our ways. A few more things you need to know, I might not always be around to show. Something that was meant to be, And if only I could make you see-
Power1ess - My Crummy Life Too Little Too Late Maybe it's like the "Second Coming" And the Rough Beast is lurching Lurching toward Bethlehem to be born again.
Perhaps now it might be top late, . To begin with you another date. And I could only wish that you and I, Could start a new chapter, by saying Hi.
Listening to Cher and Cat Stevens The Carpenters, Mamas & Papas -that hopeful time when we expected so much more from the future
. If only I could turn back the time, To not end this poem with a rhyme. But it was never meant to be, , And I cannot help the things I see.
We now speak of love - "Be Safe" "Take Care" But it just makes me Paranoid
To make you see the things I know; In the future, the things will show.
Help yourself but don't take too much Don't expect too much From "your friends" Time is Precious The next meeting, the workshop on the day you had planned some special visit ' And the ball games ad infinitum We are perennial spectators. Only the State preserves me from starvation The family has never forgiven me But I'm not sure what I did to merit their excommunication -except perhaps for being a loser A loser in the average everyday world of work, profit and blamelessness Or maybe my 'carefree' life on the West Coast is perceived to be a source of envy From the Edge of the KNOWN WORLD Wilhelmina
So many things I would like to tell, But it saddens me to say fare-well ... ŠD] Bruce
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OPENING SOON! .
Cloud Taxi to Paris for Free After Midnight _. ------.
the way i see it > the game is rigged it's all spin and platitudes> a trick of the light the shadows gather> rearranging on the periphery of vision> clouds are massing to obscure clear sight >muddling logic flattening hope and care >freezing hearts mistaking high principles> for good the cloud of unreason descends often abruptly> generally insidiously wherever there is an opening until we come to dwell> in a fog of confusion where we can no longer> see our way free of the lies> upholding our foundation of truth
Volunteers of the month - November 2015 Rcchel
Malence-Server
Marlene路J cck-
Special events
Congratulations! ! Volunteef Committee Wednesday, December 2 @ 4:00pm. Classroom 2 Volunteer Dinner Wednesday, December 9 @ 4:3,Opm. Theatre ,
for some of these clouds may be chemtrails and some are clusters of smog the oceans are being poisoned there's nowhere to escape >toxic contamination the effects of pollution>the products of greed for we are all interconnected>just like the weather we are blown>by circumstances we can't fight and its miles and miles of parking lots for every beleaguered tree and simplicity is a luxury >in our complicated lives trying not to further compromise> what integrity we retain to seize the moment as it passes> and its passing too quickly> the glamour is peeling
Volunteer- Christmas Party Friday, December fSth @ 4:00pm, Theatre Volunteer Outrips- December 2015 '"
'a: '
Grouse Mountain Monday, December 7th, 11-4pm, wl Nicole
Burnaby Village Museum ' Sunday, December
while clouds of unknowing >allow us to act as if nothing were happening> to trouble our ease clinging to our bankrupt notions> losing the thread losing our balance >our convictions> our joy discovering new ways to say the same old things> much faster seduced by images> wobbling in clouds of uncertainty bewildered and disenchanted >stuck in limitation we have misplaced> the blueprint of happiness Is it too late to change our trajectory are we ready now> to play nice? to quit our war against the natural world and each other so that instead of destroying the world> for profit and pleasure I instead of trampling each other down> we are uplifting each other and by these loving actions >we pierce the illusions of clouds so that our world can be transformed> for the good of us all Oelanye
,
13th, 3-7pm, w/Nicole
Hi EveryoneToday I am a merry widow 80路 Shacked up awhile but left him I I can't tolerate stealing for booze & junk My family is grown!! I had 7 children all educated I raised 5 brothers and 2 sisters Before I married!! I'm single now & very Happy! -to all who reside everywhere God bless 'em all! . Love (an elder SO) Christina Wall ace
We.re back for the Christmas season! Here's an opportunity to perform! We'll present a show for the Carnegie Christmas Eve Celebration; want to join in? We have an original play written by Jim Dewar and Adrienne Macallum "Who Stole the Spirit of the Carnegie with a Christmas Twist" Last year the show was a hit and this year we'll do it again! We'll cast the show on the first two days and then have a few rehearsals .
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Schedule Oec 4 Friday, 1pm-4pm *in the:r floor classroom Oec 5 Saturday, 1pm-4pm *in the theatre Oee 11 Friday, 12:30pm-3:30pm *in the theatre Oee 19 Saturday, 12:30pm-4:30pm *in the theatre Oec 23 Wednesday, 12:30pm-4:30pm *in the theatre Performance Oee 24 Thursday, evening *in the theatre Looking for actors, stagehand, props person, techie, and director's assistant. There are many characters in the play and everyone gets a chance to perform. Show thou Carnegie workshop players! in the Carnegie Theatre No experience necessary Many opportunities; everyone welcome! For more info: Teresa 604-255-9401 thirteenofhearts@hotmail.com
I AM THE ZEBRA I am the Zebra I read 'through everything that's hidden between the black&white, now that's a lot of inform ation they do not want known everything that you deserve they bury & at all costs keep it out of sight, a million abortions a year in the States yet the population grows like the scum along the bottom of an SRO toilet bowl but as long as they're rich that's all right! Like gettin the leading role in the Riot Act then fabric softener commercials soon you will be rubbing shoulders with the powerful & prestigious while forgetting to pay your taxes soon your glamourous days will become common knowledge in the prison where you feel out of place as you spend countless sleep-deprived nights, like a hospice girls' reunion concert the used-up begin selling their name for anything that brings in money that charitable status keeps you just above the poverty line, Eccentric fans who used to ask you for a dollar or two shun & avoid you like you've got typhoid mary's ebola & the black plague yet you feel totally fine, then you awake from an unconscious nightmare right into a conscious daydream not only your job but your entire life is hanging from an extremely loose & old extension line, like a Syrian game show host excitedly telling you that you'vejust won a brand-new car that's on fire & about to explode the envious audience are habitual liars who have nothing better to do than bitch & whine, where there is greed & underhanded pridethere are business people who deal in corruption, deceit, cover-ups & denial. Wherever mankind has left his bloody imprint there is no kindness except the disposal of human accomplish -ment & bodies in lakes & rivers that run for miles. Rehearsed remorse being shouted on a plywood platform near the soon-to-be-demolished viaducts wearing their "We really do care about you!" faces that will immediately be tossed in the bowels of some non-existent files. If they were to look themselves up on AncestryDotCompost they'd find themselves coming from a long line of liars then again maybe come from nowhere but this new wave of people whos past means nothing as their meaningless pictures of themselves & all of the utmost doublespeak nonsense that is kept in mausoleums in the cutest little piles. As the viaducts come down this city once again gets tom apart does .the Minister of Compassion rent or does he own a heart I guess we get to pay for that & everything else, that is all, like letting god light the
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next match human trafficking has brought a new level of suffering as teenage children runaways are lured to evil circumstances created by mankind's weak sense of justice I may hate a lot of them but we do need some kind of sensible laws. Like the Vatican City applying for buildings to house underprivileged boys & girls as the peace race tries to 'stem the tide of hate Saint Minus & the satangodiceceam family are forever & a day ready to react to any&every emergency life or death scream or call. Like never the more & all for the less or a fire-truck on fire bringing flammable living to your block oh god what a mess as an atheist with a god-complex phones satan himself who rarely pays collect what with so many selfishists ready to take any&every fall. I am the Zebra I remember the underwhelming truth if I consume all nuclear sunsets enjoy the end of our seasonal & emotional fall. PS: Over the last 6 days I have walked to my chemist th at 49 &Victoria. I've counted 3 poppies on 59 people What the ..... ? By ROBERT McGILLIVRA Y
"Hating people is like burning down your own house to get rid of a rat." -Harry Emerson Forsdick
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Dance Club
leisure Travel
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Camp Homewood
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Every Thursday, 2-4pm in Carnegie's Gym Learn Chinese fan dancing, line dancing & share your . love of dance.
Upon the golden autumn season The 35 of us camp together
No experience necessary.
The warm of Homewood
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Creative Movement
and admired the awesome view
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Workshop every Friday 1-3pm in Camegie Gym Dance & gentle exercise for older adults. Come & try something new! . Refreshments provided.
What's Really at Stake at the Paris Climate Conference Now that Marches Are Banned By banning protest at COP21, Hollande is silencing those facing the worst impacts of climate change and its monstrous violence by Naomi Klein
People hold placards at last year's climate march in Paris. (Photograph:
Tom Craig/DemotixlCorbis)
Whose security gets protected by any means necessary? Whose security is casually sacrificed, despite the means to do so much better? Those are the questions at the heart of the climate crisis, and the answers are the reason climate summits so often end in acrimony and tears. The French government's decision to ban protests, marches & other "outdoor activities"during the Paris climate summit is disturbing on many levels. The one that preoccupies me most has to do with the way it reflects the fundamental inequity of the climate crisis itself - and that core question of whose security is ultimately valued in our lopsided world. Here is the first thing to understand. The people facing the worst impacts of climate change have virtually no voice in western debates about whether to do anything serious to prevent catastrophic global warming. Huge climate summits like the one coming up in Paris are rare exceptions. For just two weeks every few years, the voices of the people who are getting hit first and worst get a little bit of space to be heard at the place where fateful decisions are made. That's why Pacific islanders and lnuit hunters and low-income people of color from places like New Orleans travel for thousands of miles to attend. The expense is enormous, in both dollars and carbon, but being at tfie summit is a precious chance to speak about climate change in moral terms and to put a human face to this unfolding catastrophe. The next thing to understand is that even in these rare moments, frontline voices do not have enough of a platform in the official climate meetings, in which the microphone is dominated by governments and large, well-funded green groups. The voices of ordinary people are primarily heard in grassroots gatherings parallel to the summit, as well as in marches and protests, which in turn attract media coverage. Now the French government has decided to take away the loudest of these megaphones, claiming that securing marches would compromise its ability to secu~e the official summit zone where politicians will meet. "Once again, the messagt is: our security is non-negotiable, yours is up for grabs." Some say this is all fair game against the backdrop of terror. But a UN climate summit is not like a meeting ofthe G8 or the World Trade Organization, where the powerful meet and the powerless try to crash their party. Parallel "civil society" events are not an addendum to, or distractions from, the main event. They are integral to the process. Which is why the French government should never have been allowed to decide which parts of the summit it would cancel and which it would still hold. Rather, after the horrific attacks of l3 November, it needed to determine whether it had the will and capacity to host the' whole summit - with full participation from civil society, including in the streets. If it could not, it should have delayed and asked another country to step in. Instead the Hollande government has made a series' of decisions that reflect a very particular set of values and priorities about who and what will get the full security protection of the state. Yes to world leaders, football matches and Christmas markets; no to climate marches and protests pointing out that the negotiations, with the current level of emission targets, endanger the lives and livelihoods of millions if not billions of people. And who knows where this will end? Should we expect the UN to arbitrarily revoke the credentials of half the civil society participants? Those most likely to make trouble inside the fortressed summit? I would not be at all surprised.
It is worth thinking about what the decision to cancel marches and protests means in real, as well as symbolic terms. Climate change is a moral crisis because every time governments of wealthy nations failto act, it sends a message that we in the global north are putting our immediate comfort and economic security ahead of the suffering and survival of some of the poorest and most vulnerable people on Earth. The decision to ban the most important spaces where the voices of climate-impacted people would have been heard is a dramatic expression of this profoundly unethical abuse of power: once again, a wealthy western country is putting security for elites ahead of the interests of those fighting for survival. Once again, the message is: our security is non-negotiable, yours is up for grabs. One further thought. I write these words from Stockholm, where I have been doing a series of climate-related public events. When I arrived, the press was having a field day with a tweet sent by Sweden's environment minister, Asa Romson. Shortly after news broke of the attacks in Paris, she tweeted her outrage and sadness at the loss of life. Then she tweeted that she thought it would be bad news for the climate summit, a thought that occurred to everyone I know who is in any way connected to this environmental moment. Yet she was pilloried for her supposed insensitivity - how could she be thinking about climate change at a time of such carnage? The reaction was revealing, since it took for granted the notion that climate change is a minor issue, a cause without real casualties, frivolous even. Especially when serious issues like war and terrorism are taking center stage. It made me think about something the writer Rebecca Solnit wrote not long ago: "climate change is violence." It is. Some of the violence is grindingly slow: rising seas that gradually erase whole nations, and droughts that kill many thousands. Some of the violence is terrifyingly fast: storms with names such as Katrina and Haiyan that steal thousands of lives in a single roiling event. When governments and corporations knowingly fail to act to prevent catastrophic warming, that is an act of violence. It is a violence so large, so global and inflicted against so many temporalities simultaneously (ancient cultures, present lives, future potential) that there is not yet a word capable of containing its monstrousness. And using acts of violence to silence the voices of those who are most vulnerable to climate violence is yet more violence. In explaining why forthcoming football matches would go on as scheduled, France's secretary of state for sport said: "Life must go on." Indeed it must. That's why I joined the climate justice movement. Because when governments and corporations fail to act in a way that reflects the value of all of life on Earth, they must be protested. a place of mind THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
The Learning Exchange, 612 Main Street
The UBC Learning Exchange works to inspire and engage people at l!BC·& people in the Downtown side to share, work, and learn together
About the Project: Each year the Learning Exchange provides orientations
to students,
faculty
members,
from UBC who want to learn more about the Downtown
Eastside. We are developing
support these orientations
understand
happening in the Downtown
East-
to create lasting change.
and help the UBC community
and other groups materials that will
some of the positive things
Eastside. We are looking for people who live in the neighbourhood
to help us
create these ij-ositive materials. •
We want to know what you love about the neighborhood.
•
What makes the Downtown
•
What do you want the ubc community
It is important
Eastside a creative caring place? to know about the Downtown
to us that people who live in the neighbourhood
stories and join us in designing and creating materials for this project. these positive stories into videos, web pages, or photographs
Eastside?
have the opportunity
to tell their own
We are hoping you will help us turn
that we can use in our orientations
also interested in hearing new ideas! If you are interested in helping us with this project contact us at the UBC Learning Exchange. Katie Forman Student Learning Coordinator Katie.forman@ubc.ca
604-408-5182
Kathleen Leahy Director Kathleen.leahy@ubc.ca
778-945-1028
- we are
Ca r'negie t:. -1CN:eWSLETTER 401 Main Street, Vancouver V6A'Ir7
604-665.2289
THIS NEWSLETIER IS A PUBLICATION OF THE CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE ASSOCIATION Articles represent the views of individual contributors and not of the Association. 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 oniy., Sizerestrictions apply (Le. 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: Camegie 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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We acknowledge that Carnegie Community Centre, and this Newsletter, are occurring on Coast Salish Territory.
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"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Meade
FRIDAY, DECEMBER Next issue:
1~TH
SUBMISSION DEADLINE
WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTIOrl
•
Alos
• •
POVERTY HOMELESSNESS
Vl.OLENCE AGAINST WOMEN • , ABORIGINAl GENOCIDE • ·TOT AUT ARIAN CAm AUSM IGNORANCE and SUSTAINED FEAR DONATIONS 2015 Terry & Savannah ·$150 lVIichele C.-$100 Or Kevin -$50 ---;:''---,F-:lI'K'i Teslie S.-$175 Bob & Muggs -$100 Leslie K -$50 '&!•... ~ Catherine C.-$100 Glenn B.-$200 Sh!!ila B.~$150 Vancouver Moving Theatre .$450 Pat 0.$50 Harold & Sharron '0.-$100 Michael C.-$100 Eleanor B.-$25 Elaine & Oavid -$40 Ruth McG -$50 Margaret M.-$50 Jacqueline L -$75 Christopher R.-$100 Jenny K -$100 Robert McG.-$110 ) Penny C.-$50 in memory of Miriam Stuart Vancouver's Skateboarders -$50 'Wilhelmina M.·$77 non-commercial, Jackie W.-$50 George H.$110 Ruth L.-$100 . listener supported Barry 1VI,·$250Anonymous -$130 community station. In Memory of Harold David - WilllSharon C.-$50 "Barbara M.·$200 Gina F.-$100 Lori IBorys -$100 "Catherine B.·$50 Yukiko T.-$50 taylor s.-$20 'Solidarity Notes Labour Choir -$25 [( "Kevin & Richard 0.-$100 CHIPS -$500,\ 'Radiation Therapy Clerks -$40 Jacki 5-$15 'Roger C.-$100 Oenise D.-$60 Lydia McK.-$100 Kelly F.-$50 in memory of Bud Osbom Catherine H.-$50 Linda 0.-$25 Laila B.-$50 Aideen McK.-$1O Aiden 5.-$25 Yasushi K.-$100+ Jay H.-$100 Mike J.-$1750 Linda 0.-$25 5 & J T.·$50
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