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The Inconvenient Truth about Welfare This writing is happening the day before Jagrup Brar, MLA, ends his month of existing on welfare the rate for a single employable is $610. Housing was in a shelter (I think) for a day or two and in an SRO hotel for the last couple of weeks. The cost was over $400 for a roof and warmth, and how he spent the rest on everything else from food to busfare to phone necessities... clothes, shoes, over-the-counter meds, toiletries, entertainment etc (non?essentials) weren't considered over just one month.

T he details can be fuel for the inadequacy of rates frozen for years or for those who are adamant that just learning to budget better, to 'shop around' or to reduce your expectations so as not to exceed real economic limitations.

T his won't be a chronological synopsis of his dayto-day activities or generalised experience. He met with all manner of resident recipients of assistance in venues and facilities we/they felt comfortable. Suffice it to say that he got an earful on the realities of being kept poor, mostly by the inherent disi ncentives imposed by the Liberal government.

For those ready to vil ify the NDP government before Gordon Campbe ll rode in on the massive media bli tz - for almost I 0 years there had been at least one obligatory anti-NDP article, newsbite, internet distort every day- they didn't meet or carry the hopes & dreams of people living in poverty to fruition. Grant that Campbell & criminal cohorts in the private sector made things exponentially worse.

The inconvenient truths can be listed: I) it costs taxpayers (if only the tax system & its direction wasn't so fucked up) more to not build decent low-cost safe ho using in medical emergency services and all aspects of the justice & education systems; 2) corporate and executive decision-makers know all the costs of keeping people in poverty and choose to contin ue enabling legislated poverty. This d irectly affects many private and personal bottom lines, in that one obvious consequence is the millions unspent on making things better for the vast majority can now be given to the wealthy in terms of tax cuts and to the transnationals in terms of corporate welfare.

3)the outright bias of the "rugged indi vidualist" (read billionaires, millionaires down to the anti-union and seek-cheap persons (human and corporate)) towards the losers moronic weird queer lazy crazy drug addict

pile "on welfare" makes justification for such punitive social policies easy.

4) the effort put into denial of the above, or at least acceptance of the free market elite capitalist mainframe with throwaways like 'poverty wi ll always be with us' or even' I'm not paying fo r those blanks to keep free-loading" is so obviously based on intentional ignorance and intentionally lying through the think-tanks' teeth that it's only by continuously flooding everything with such that it continues.

5) one particularly obnoxious & fasc ist example of this lack of conscience is both the enforced sterility model practiced by eugenically-deluded medical personnel and giving desperate individuals money to "volunteer" to end their reproductive potential. In several states it can be as little as $300 in your pocket to get your tubes tied or a vasectomy.

OK?! Raise the Rates.

By PAULR TAYLOR

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Between: BRODY ABEL WILLIAMS (tenant) And : PORTLAND HOTEL SOCIETY (landlord) This hearing was convened in response to an application filed by the tenant asking that the landlord be ordered to comply with the Residential Tenancy Act. The tenant says that the landlord is unreasonably restricting access to his guests, that they do not use the intercom to inform him he has a guest and they are turned away.

The specific section on Tenant's right of access: I) A landlord must not unreasonably restrict access to residential property by a)the tenant of a rental unit that is part of the property or b) a person permitted on the residential property by the tenant.

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The Decision was made in the tenant's favour and an ORDER was issued requiring the landlord to comply.

"This decision is made on authority delegated to me by the Director of the Residential Tenancy Branch under Section 9 I ( I) of the Residential Tenancy Act." Dated March 1, 2011

D. SIMPSON

This ignoring of the law and further ignoring of Orders to comply can and does happen a lot. In this case the landlord first refused, saying it didn't fall under the RTA because of being "special needs" housing. Excuses can be made up on the fly. For information or aid in standing up for your rights, contact Brody.

Do you have trouble bringing

GUESTS INTO PORTLAND BUILDINGS? On March Ist 20 II Brody Williams took the Portland Hotel Society (PHS) to Residential Tenancy arbitration because the management at the Station Street building would not allow staff from Union Gospel Mission to visit him. PHS management insisted that a ll visits be arranged in advance with Portland staff.

The Residential Tenancy arbitrator ruled that tenants have the right to bring guests into their rooms as they wish because their rooms are their rented property.

Their guests are not legally required to produce identification to visit their friend s.

The ruli ng a lso said that if PHS does not allow tenants to bring guests freely into their rooms then "the tenant may seek compensation" for damage or loss of enjoyment of their rented' room.

It is now nearly one year since this ruling was made: PHS is still refusing many tenants' visitor-rights in Station Street and other PHS projects. The same problem exists in other buildings run by Atira, and some landlords in private hotels who are still charging guest-fees, setting guest-hours, or forbidding guests altogether.

If you live in a PHS building and have a hard time bringing guests into your room, join th is fight for your basic tenant rights.

C ontact Brody: 778-706-2070 I brody70x7@gmail.com

No-one special Got the Saturday morning bullshit blues people see me as a willing listener, a mark and it's true l would try to be polite to even Hitler, even to the Bush boys out of a crowd l get picked every time .. it's high time I tell 'em This cracker I know has got more stories than the Carnegie Library system doesn't see that ifl wanted a story I'd go to a library, or a theatre first his bro was in jail for life for murder then it was how he was "connected" being Sicilian makes you an automatic monster super killa drug deala badass yesterday it was the half a million he was going to pick up this very morning and I'm too weak or stupid to tell 'im to blow it all out his ass but I don't; manners were bred into me before I realised all these !yin' nobodies lay in wait for the fool who'll stop and listen to the endless line of BS the desperate effort to convince anyone they exist, or matter to anyone sad thing when some people don't see the beauty and safety of being a nobody when they scratch at the coffin lid forever insisting on a level of importance they' 11 never feel Po Sin

a fuller circle the gyre turning fuller circle eire] ing into the spiral ancient and present forever circling and hovering landing sent by our family family of man geography a grid, a cell, a infinitesimal space nanotech all over again name changed for protection a cure to ills that come unbidden unforeseen unfelt uncalled calling ground control calling are you there frustration, disappointment & Anger ever present beneath the smile the twinkle the invitation the imitatiorl pretense

the marriage feast doth furnish forth the snacks and duck a !'orang - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - . ! j . butter tarts, carrot muffins Earl Grey tea

Coffee from that wr'ld cat' sass Costa Rica?

Now the aftershocks Stability gone Continuity gone the old man is Mercurial poisoning the porridge Mould growing on the shingles of the white house I pass, you pass, he passes no keeper I no kahuna no shaman bringing you back from that bad trip that post trauma trauma long gone but seared into the cortex stili sizzling

smell of burnt flesh the iron taste of blood the repulsion the white heat of fear and forward movement I may love you; I may be deluded Maybe it's the ' tudes talking certainly my reality is altered because of your existence and essence perceptions sweep me as a mote of radioactive dust before the broom of daybreak harsh, nasty and shortime Wilhelmina

Alien What?

So who's running this dog and pony show the lunatics have commandeered the asylum the only people you for sure can't trust wear nametags and wear uniforms pretending they give a good goddamn and people, girls and boys alike, are still disappearing right from under our noses

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and nobody knows squat a ll the cops do is apologise but people still vanish ... everyday I've asked all the aliens but they all swear it's our own problem and to fix it ourselves for Chrissakes

Humanities 101 Steering Committee Saturday February 4, from 12-2p.m. in the thi rd floor classroom of the Carnegie Centre This is open to all Humanities 101,201 and Writing students and alumni. The Steering Committee is to coordinate the activities of theHumanities 101 programme. As students and alumni of the programme your views and opinions are crucial to help guide the course. Please come along and offer your support.

We need your bottle tops!!

HomeGround Creative Art Workshop We will need 1000 colourful bottle tops (from milk containers, frozen and bottled juice, pop ... ) to make signs for the Park. Please help us collect these! Get fam friends & co-workers invo lved too!

Study groups If you would like to start a study group of your own please come to us with your ideas.

' Film Lovers' Group' When: Sunday January 29, from 2-4 .30p.m in the third floor classroom of the Carnegie Centre Facilitated by: Steven Frey Film: "Chinatown" by Roman Polanski "You may think you know what you're dealing with, but believe me, you don't," warns water baron Noah

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You can drop off your bottle caps at:

Carnegie Centre 401 Main Street

Oppenheimer Park 488 Powell St

New Game Old Game Same Game

Our babies sometimes get cholic It certainly is a s hame That the parents get the blame But you know what takes the cake?

When they far too much do bake T hey get blamed for sugar diabetes Parents have the hardest job in the world .

So times change but not the game years past was residential schools imposing the rules of the fools now they admit they have never quit the same old game, same o ld bullshit

And when the Canadian banner is unfurled We find patriotically that Canada is the best It towers above the rest because it accepts all peoples its churches, give out to all in the spirit, their tall stee ples so tall that people believe that God is alive and well on Planet Earth.

there are more native children " in care" than there were ever in the prison schools generation after generation ruled by the same o ld dictatorship, never quits they wonder how these children graduate from foster home to prison gate with nothing inside but burning hate a need for revenge that will not wait

Our Carnegie s pirit of merriment and mirth that exceeds o ther places of endeavour and in all kinds of weather we stick together for the benefit of everyone.

Here's to our staff, our community & the volunteers in particular and, in my vernacular, the best bunch in the world.

Thanx Carnegie for a beautiful Christmas and New Year'sWith loveJoyce Morgan

the government is worse than no parent at a ll they still claim the white way's the only way but the crap is the same: as it was it is today and thru o ur blood our tears that never go away so it's a new game today so they say but the result is still the same, same old game. you call it what you want, redistribute the blame but genocide is sti II the name of the game AI

Skid row Love

PACIFIC BLUEGRASS HERITAGE SOCIETY

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A variety of bands playing Bluegrass, Folk and Country Music!

Wednesday February 15, 2012 7¡9pm Carnegie Theatre

JOE'S COFFEE CLUB- 59 Powell Street Buy ten large coffees and get two for free!

10 reasons to buy a coffee card: You get great coffee â&#x20AC;˘

You get free coffee You will become a better person The police will stop investigating you Aliens will give you back your brain Your old girlfriend will come back Joe will not follow you home Your drug tests will come back negative We will be your friend You may win a cute puppy Price for a card- $7.50

DUGOUT HOURS: Moo-Saturday - 7:15 soup line Sun & holidays- Sam soup line Mon-Sat: 8:45-5:00 Sun & holidays: 9:45-5:00 Every day there is free bread, snacks; Coffee's for sale

Tattooed and drugged cruising g hetto graveyards lined with suicidal girls, happy hours never end.

Crazy old Sugar in a daze, smi ling into a raindrop of planes overhead, who heard you die?

History of black cats, Powerless pushovers, Woo-ed pussies.

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Jugs rolled over generous ly uncensored, he came of age to Moo he hungered for sleaze, and capitalized on acute victims of belittled Bug motion pictures.

Unintended Meetings of Entertainment in a bed of Problems.

Fake hair, fake handbags Fake Sex,

Pregnant in a fireplace of uncovered parking walked away on delicate teardrops of reality----- a dream hugging tequila.

H. Kumm

The J. C. of Drunkenness

By Neil Benson One drink is too many A thousand is not enough, No problemo for the Booze can be an Unregulated after hours Drinking place to Celebrate at, A drinking place to Get sloshed, A drinking place to Attain euphoria, A sensation Familiar to all us Addicts and drunken-aholics.

Here is An offer A tribute to Drunkenness; Therefore, word with

Always Propose to Mark health with A salute, Raise up Your beer spirit lodge pole pine On me, Enjoy the ebb and flow of Rapture from Your pale-ale brew from The brewery.

Always Propose to Mark success with ·A salute, Raise up Your beer spirit lodge pole pine On me, Enjoy the ebb and flow from Your berry Strong extract drink from The winery.

Always Propose to Mark success with A salute, Raise up Your liquor spirit lodge pole pine On me, Enjoy the ebb and flow of Rapture from My root, my grain Very strong extract drink from The distillery Out of respect For one and each other A lways Propose to Mark friendshipping and handling With a salute and Acknowledgement Thanks, Jaques Cousteau (J.C.)

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Get a Wonderful Job The human race builds the world out of thought.

The collective subconscious of the whole human race - & how do you control that? You can't!

It goes on by itself. Building stupid steel & glass skyscrapers .. not to house people who live here, got born here, grew up here & dyed here ... no, not for the people of Vancouver ...

They build them for the highest bidders who move in from New York, Los Angeles, Hong Kong, the Middle East & everywhere else. They who have millions & millions invested in stocks all over the world a lso have 9 or 10 or ll places to live. They never worry about money .. just use plastic. They talk to the machine in its own voice.

They say build this, build that, & expect (demand?!) worship for creating wonderful jobs! The whole system and contrived mystique is reiterated over & over despite or right in the face of any rationale criticism.

Anyone not right is wrong, not left. Right is right is right ad infinitum.(Forever & ever amen.)

Tora - R. Pooley

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lt's li ke a bridge over troubled waters.

There is a complacency and subm issiveness submited Impossible heritage. [t's all okay, no worries here because we're socially secure in a contemporary culture of new trad itions.

Commercial Drive me crazy with a locomotive. Here we go again, window- shopping looking and reading tabloids off the news racks that capitalize on other people's misery. .

Popular culture is paradigmatic: role models settmg the bar. DTES is centralized, been there done that. It is walking distance to proximate locales, districts by stand with zones of town and villages.

Neil Benson.

Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) Newsletter

IRead CCAP reports: http://ccapvancouver.wordpress.com February 1, 2012 I "Everything you do is a struggle" MLA Jagrup Brar's 31 days on $610 welfare, and the continuing struggle to raise welfare and disability rates Special issue of CCAP Newsletter about the Welfare Challenge:

Interview with Jagrup Brar by Jean Swanson, Raise the Rates

MLA Jagrup Brar was the only politician to accept the Raise the Rates coalition challenge to live on the welfare-rate of $610 for the month of January. He spent the first half of the month in Surrey and came to the Downtown Eastside midmonth with few dollars left in his pocket and the stewardship of low-income DTES resident volunteers to get him through.

This issue of the CCAP Newsletter has a lot of space dedicated to Jagrup's visit and the cause of raising the rates because we think this is the perfect place to memorialize Jagrup's journey as we have gotten to know eachother over the past month, and to challenge him to join us in the ongoing fight to raise welfare and disability rates and end the clawbacks so that everyone can live with greater health and dignity

Jean: How much money do you have left?

Jagrup: Around $8 but 1need to buy eggs and bread and, if I can, find brown sugar.

Jean: How is your weight?

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Jagrup: I weighed on Jan 16 and I had lost around 8-9 pounds.

Jean: Have you been hungry much?

Jagrup: I have been hungry all the time because I don't eat properly. I eat just to keep going.

Jean: How much free food have you eaten?

Jagrup: 1 have lined up for 2 lunches in front of carnegie that were Indian food , and 1lined up for one dinner at Harbour Light. 1worked at the Carnegie kitchen and as a result 1got a free breakfast, and I got a cookie and cup of tea at the Surrey food bank when 1 did volunteer work. VANDU bought lunch for me yesterday and gave

me $3.

Jean: How did you feel eating free food?

Jagrup: It's difficult. It's hard to stand in a line where you're surrounded by people who are really hungry. It's hard to watch

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them. And also when I went to Harbour Light the line was very long. I was very hungry and had to wait about an hour and a half to just have a meal. It wasn't raining but I had to stand basically for about an hour outside, so if you're really hungry and don't have a lot of physical strength, it's really hard. I don't know how people do it every day. The only reason they're probably doing it is because they have no other choice.

Jean: Does standing in a line give you a new perspective on charity?

Jagrup: I think they are playing a positive role given the circumstances. I don't know where people will go and how people will survive if there are no charities in Downtown Eastside (DTES) to serve the most vulnerable.

Jean: What about Surrey?

Jagrup: It also applies to Surrey. But the crisis is way bigger in the DTES. In other places in BC they probably don't have many charities. It would be even harder for low income people to survive in smaller communities. Where there are fewer charities and food banks.

Jean: Are the charities enough?

Jagrup: They are playing their role

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providing food to hungry people but when we think about addressing the issue of poverty there are a lot more things that could be done like affordable housing, childcare, public transit, earnings exemptions for people on welfare so they can get part time jobs and supplement their incomes.

Jean: Did living on $610 have any impact re: depression and self esteem?

Jagrup: It gave me a real perspective, understanding about the hardship one has to go through living on $610. It made me understand the difficulty of finding an affordable, decent room ; the difficulty to manage the budget with food, transportation, phone and clothing ...lack of nutritious food did impact my ability to think clearly and stay energetic to live my days successfully and happily. There were times I really felt the need for a nap in the middle of the day. I did lose about an hour and a half of sleep every day. Everything you do is a struggle.

Jean: Have you been in many line ups?

Can you imagine what it's like to have to be in them a lot to get your basic needs?

Jagrup: It would be really, really hard for anybody to manage ... to line up for 4-5 hours to access free food and be a productive and positive citizen of the society. It is harder to keep a priority on

finding a job for people in that situation .

Finding a job becomes a really, really difficult thing to manage in those circumstances. And that is troubling to me.

Jean: Describe the housing you are living in.

Jagrup: I live in an SRO (Single Room

shared by 11 other people . Sometimes you have to really be fully prepared to go in which means all the things you need must be in your bag. You can't make a mistake; you can't drop anything on the floor because it is dirty. If you forget something and come back to your room to get it, when you go back, it may be taken by somebody else. So living in that room with that condition is really a very hard, frustrating experience.

Jagrup speaking at his "Welcome to the DTES" event at Carnegie

Occupancy hotel room), 11 feet by 11 feet, at Jackson and Cordova St. It has a small table and 1 chair, a sink, and a fridge that doesn't work. It has no access to TV, internet and no microwave. I share my washroom with 11 other individuals living on the same floor. So every day is a huge struggle. How to manage the day is a huge struggle. It's really hard to continue cooking in the room as you can't store things in your fridge . Going to the grocery shop is an every day necessity which is hard to manage. It is also very hard to go to the washroom and take a shower

I never knew before what it was like living in a shelter and being homeless. I never knew what it was like living in an SRO. Housing, housing, housing.

Now I can say forcefully that this is what has to be

done.

Jean: Would you be able to stay in that place for the next year and survive on $610? Would you have to get a fridge, for example?

Jagrup: It would be hard, extremely hard to live in that room with that amount of money. I don't know what I'd do for a fridge. I don't know if I could find a friend who could give me a small fridge that would make my life a little easier but I have to compensate by finding places for free food, or doing some volunteer work. Or I'd

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have to borrow money.

$108 I had left was food only. I brought from home utensils, a pan, a plate, a bowl, Jean: Are you frightened in the DTES? a spoon, fork and knife and cup and glass.

Jagrup: I was when I came here. I had I also brought salt and pepper and things fears as to how people would react to for personal hygiene like soap, shaving me because I didn't know them. I also cream, shampoo and clothing. In my day had limited knowledge about the people to day life I would eat out at restaurants which I didn't do at all with exception of the first day when I had no room and no place to eat. I would end up buying things when I would go to a store-clothing, shampoo, soap. ldon1have dish soap . I use the same soap to wash my hands and dishes. Today I have to wash my clothes too. I was thinking I would go do some laundry but I don't have money so I'll have to wash them by hand in my room .

Jagrop meet Fraser Stuart at the launch-press conference with mental health illnesses and drug addictions.

After my first town hall meeting at Carnegie my perspective changed when people told me their stories.

The stories tell me that they are people like any of us, although the people here are boiling in anger against the system.

The meeting was conducted in a respectful manner and that impressed me. In my day to day life people have been very friendly and supportive and appreciate what I do and that is surprising to me because I thought it may not be the case.

Jean: What thing have you done without, not counting your family?

Jagrup: The only thing I bought with the

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Jean: You haven't actually been looking for a job like people on welfare have to, but what do you think that experience would be like, living on $61 0?

Jagrup: If you are living on $610 it would be a really difficult and frustrating exercise to focus on job finding.

Jean: Would it be easier to look for work if the rates were higher?

Jagrup: If you had decent housing with washroom and kitchen that may make it easier cause you could cook your own meals and bring your costs down and you'd have a place to shower to keep you healthy.

And you could manage your day better because you would be more independent that way. But if you have to share your

washroom with 11 people and not have fridge and microwave it makes job finding very hard. Transit is another piece. It's really hard to manage the budget. You can't spend a lot on transit so your job search has to be limited to a smaller area cause you can't go very far without the bus.

And that will cost you money.

Jean: Has this experience blown up any myths?

Jagrup: Quite a few. First the myths about the people who are homeless, that they are lazy and don't want to work. That myth is wrong . My experience shows that people are homeless because of a reason: some have lost jobs in bad economy and couldn't find one again . Some have been hit by a life changing tragedy like the loss of a family member. Some have faced abuse at a young age or even later.

People with these issues sometimes get into addictions to control their pain.

Another myth is that getting welfare is very easy. That is wrong. My experience going through the application process shows that the application process is complex, difficult, time consuming and frustrating.

couldn't support them yourself, would you want them to live on $906 a month, maybe for their rest of their life?

Jagrup: Nobody would want their disabled relative to live a life of fear , humiliation and struggle.

Nobody would want that. I think affordable housing, affordable and accessible is very important to people who are disabled.

Jean: What do you think of the 100% claw back of child support from people on welfare?

Jagrup: I think we need to have a hard look at the rules affecting all the people on welfare including single parents.

Jean: What about the 100% claw back of earnings exemptions?

Jagrup: I think that we need to find a way to encourage people to find employment including part time.

That will give people the confidence and opportunity to supplement their income.

Therefore earnings exemptions are something we need to really really have a hard look at.

Jean: What's the most surprisi ng th ing you

Jean: And you have 2 Masters degrees?

Jagrup: One needs to have a good academic background including accounting skills.

Jean: If you had a disabled relative and

Jagrup at a meeting with parents on welfare at Strathcona School

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have encountered?

Jagrup: The most surprising thing for me is that we have so many people homeless people in our rich province. In my dusty poor village in India we don't have a homeless person. I fail to understand why we have thousands of people who are homeless in this very beautiful and rich province.

Jean: The saddest?

people to give them a better life full of hope and opportunity. So poverty reduction must be part of our policies. I don't think we have a choice not to do that.

Jean: What's next?

Jagrup: I took this challenge, it's a personal decision of mine. I have the support of my caucus. I wanted to tell the story of half a million people living in poverty and initiate a debate about the issue of poverty.

Jagrup: To see people not having any place to sleep, Jagrup marching up Main Street struggling just to I will take all of this pass a night without experience to my having any place to sleep; also to see caucus and work with them to build a poverty reduction plan. people living very difficult lives in SROs, even people who are working, that they Jagrup Brar was interviewed on Jan 24 can't find a place where they can live with 2012 by Jean Swanson, from the Raise respect and dignity. the Rates Coalition and CCAP Jean: The most hopeful?

Jagrup: I think we as a society have to take the issue of poverty seriously and find ways to provide real help to the vulnerable

MLA on Welfare field notes Diane W, a CCAP volunteer, spent time alongside Jagrup as he navigated the twists, turns, and demands of living on $610 a month (minus rent) in the DTES. These are some of her observations...

Good, the Bad and the Gentrifying. We gather on a busy Chinatown sidewalk to see the "Good" - Gena's apartment in the Lore Krill Housing Co-op. "Better Homes and Gardens comes visiting," I joke.

Day 21 DTES housing tour: The good, the bad and the gentrifying Today we look at housing. Our guide is Ivan, a community organizer with CCAP. He introduces the housing tour as the

At least 5000 DTES residents live in a state of constant anxiety, with the threat of eviction or that the rent could go up beyond their means. Gena's place is an example of what is possible for low-income renters. "I'm not being ware-housed" she

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says. Co-ops and social housing offer rent subsidies, indexed to 30% of what a person makes. Gena said there's a 3-year wait list to get one in her building. Market rent for her apartment is $850, but for her it's $320, which is less than what Jagrup pays for his much smaller SRO, with no kitchen, and a bathroom he shares with 11 people.(... ) Jagrup calls it a palace compared to his room, which is how most people in the DTES feel when they get a place like this of their own . Gena explains it was originally intended to be condos, but the initial developer "lost his shirt". Is anybody besides me wishing, as she says this, that the site of the old Pantages theatre on Hastings St. could experience the same fate?

Our second stop is to see a "Bad" Regent Hotel room, right next door to the construction site for the new condos where the Pantages used to be. Some of us waited outside while the tour went in, because the room was too small, and we didn't want to be refused entry with so many of us. A lot of SRO tenants have to deal with illegal repercussions if they speak out; many hotels charge illegal guest fees when someone has their partner stay for the night. ( ... ) Our third stop is the York Rooms, on Powell St., just north of the courthouse. 1 realize, climbing the stairs, that I worked as a homemaker in this place 30 years ago, when I first moved here. I distinctly remember the room I cleaned, with its one window facing the airshaft. My client was a chronic alcoholic and because of his vulnerable situation and inability to do

anything about it, the landlord didn't provide a mattress, just a wire spring and half a blanket!

The tour crowds into the room, while 1 talk to Sherman who lives in the adjacent room, and has popped his head out the

Johanne in the 路Good, Bad and Gentrifying" "''"' ~路~路~

door, to see what's going on . He opens the door wider to give me a look at his home - "No fridge, that's a luxury! No toilet, I haven't had a toilet in 25 years!"

This rooming house is undergoing slow gentrification: when someone "is sick of it and moves out" he says, or is evicted, their room gets a coat of paint and the rent goes from $425 to $525! He shakes Jagrup's hand and suggests he go to the Salvation Army Harbour Light for supper at 4:30 , a 45-minute line-up, which stretches to the end of the block and into the alley.

Jean Swanson told me today that of the 100 people asked why welfare should be raised at Wednesday's Meet & Greet, the number one answer was, "So we don't have to stand in food lines"! - Diane W.

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Upcoming events BEYOND PROHIBITION History, harms & alternatives to the war on drugs Organized by End Prohibition Project

Free public forum I Panel discussion

Wednesday February 8th 7:00 - 9:00pm Carnegie Theatre (401 Main St) with: Lorna Bird (WAHRS), Patti Ellertson (VANDU) Bud Osborn (DTES Poet), Susan Boyd (End Prohibition Project), Mark Haden (VCH drug educator)

Urgent Development News: GENTRIFICATION STORM WARNING! The first monthly campaign meeting of the DTES Not for Developers coalition (formerly Stop Pantages Condos Coalition)

THURSDAY FEBRUARY 2 2:30PM CARNEGIE THEATRE Come for a showing and critical discussion abou the new Oprah TV Network Reality show "Gastown Gamble" (about Save On Meats!) & stay for a discussion about ALL the condo projects and restaurants that are invading the Downtown Eastside and plan how we can stop them!

Come speak out against the three 12-story condo towers proposed for across the street from Raycam!

Development proposal

information session Wednesday February 1 4:00 - 7:00pm Raycam Centre (Hastings & Campbell)

Meet at Carnegie Centre, 5pm for dinner and go over together

Some websites to look at http://ccapvancouver.wordpress.com/ Virtually everything we're up to at CCAP gets posted on this blog. Click on the reports tab to read CCAP's reports, including the new 2011 report on SRO hotels http://mlaonwelfare.coml Website for the Raise the Rates welfare challenge. Check out diary entries from Jagrup and volunteers who supported him, including more from Diane W. http://dnchome.wordpress.coml See the DNC website for updates on condo developments proposed for the DTES, and on the fight against gentrification and for housing and social justice

Van city Support for this project does not necessarily imply Van city's endorsement of the 8 findings or contents of this newsletter

PROSTITUTION AND DRUGS: WEAPONS of MASS DESTRUCTION

by Mi la Klimova As a person brought up on best traditions of Russian and world literature. I have always fell a strong desire to share my experiences about this portion of Canadian soil that generates such insatiable interest in wider public. Since then. I discovered there are several wonderful books wri tten on the subject o f the controversial neighbourhood of downtown eastside (DTES) of Vancouver.

These days everyone is busy surfing the net. therefore, due to constra ints of time I will limit myse lfto challenges that sisters face, to describe women's issues and their struggles. T his is a documentary essay, not a piece of fiction. At the turn of the 19th and 20th century, Russian authors Alexander Kouprin and Maxim Gorki shed light into dim corners plagued by syphilis. and inhabited by women of sex trade. I am referring to the nove l "The Pi1" created by Alexander Kouprin before the October revolution of 1917 in Russia. Just like any good soldier that aspires to become a general, I accept the challenge of writi ng in a learned language even if it signifies having less means of expression than writers normally have at their di sposal, 路when working in mother tongue.

Like many immigrants and Canadians from Eastern Canada, I moved he re pri or to the Vancouver O lympic Games in search of e mployment. Reality check: I was evicted not once, but twice in my first two years as a resident in British Co lu mbia: We were 'renovictcd' in 2006 from a shared rental space near city hall located at Columbia and 13th street. 'Rcnov iction' is a new term coined in the modern ti mes .. eviction based on renovations. The second eviction followed after my job was taken abroad. The ugly reality of work outsourcing was some kind of s ick joke of my employer, in lieu of a Christmas bonus. While my former employer was toasting the prospects of higher profits on foreign shores, I was frantically scrambling to get a new source of income in Vancouver. My landlord took me to housing court. I was evicted due to lack of rental payments.

The body of a prostitute Sheryl Korol was found in a trench in woods. shortly after I moved into a dilapidated subsidized apartment in DTES. I decided to use my presence in this 'hood' to uncover the root causes o f this phenomenon o f sex for money. This death impacted me for two reasons: I seem to remember her from the area and prostitution is not seen in sociali st counties because II OUSfNG is much more affordable there. LACK of affordable housing con tributes a great deal to sex trade. Re member how Julia Roberts' character escapes the landlord, and then hits the streets to sell her body for the sake of rental payments. Although, the reality of their lives differ greatly from the Hollywood

dream-factory created Prelty Woman plot. and clients bear no resemblance with handsome Richard Gere.

Usc of alcohol and mind-altering substances comes in to place - they have to do their drugs to remedy mental unease and low self-esteem that prostitution generates.

The vicious circle c loses, when drug habit is created because these women have no other alternative but to resort to the business of sex to finance their next dose.

"Even for casual users the drug (methamphetamincs, crystal meth) can increase the libido (scientific term for 'sexual desire' remark of essay's author) and lead them to engage in ri sky, unprotected sex. Long-term users have been known to develop symptoms or psychosis. including paranoia." (Source booklet: Crystal Mcth.

Reference Guide. Website: www.nccabc.ca.)

Their existence becomes too similar to a hamster's run on the spi nning whee l, the apparent activity is noth ing more than a moving around the same space without progress or advancement. Money gained in sex-trade neither brings prosperity nor societal recognition. s ince it's bei ng spent on drugs destined to light mental anguish or taken away by pimps. Abusive partners take ad~antage of them b) raping, beating or robbing, \\hen they arc too high or passed out or sick with withdrawal.

Thomas Kerr. co-d irector of Addiction and Urban llealth Research Initiative at the B.C. Centre for Excellence in III V/A IDS: "Many addicts literally risk their li ves by doing sex-work or drug trafficking to obtain drugs." ('Most sextrade workers would quit if they got off drugs, addiction expert says' by Neal Hall Vancouver Sun October 20, 20 I I.) We know what is happening in DTES, beatings. tortures. head-shavings, al most a direct quote by the Mayor of Vancouver, Gregor Robertson. Police is al so aware that prostitutes are often taken to confined places, kept there for prolonged periods of time and tortured to make them pay drug debts. They experience violence by the hands of clients. pimps. drug-dealers.

Many are robbed by men, who assume they have money and drugs. I frequently see them around this neighbourhood with visible marks from beating: bruised faces, broken lips, even broken wrists in cast.

In July 2009. the body of Lisa Francis was spotted floating in the waters of the Fraser River. Literall y next day, after the news about such gruesome discovery was splashed all-over the media outlets, "the girls" were awaiting consumers of sexual services - addiction can not wait even for one day. I wish I was a painter to convey the feeling that so clearly emanated from the figure of a tall prostitute. She was sitting on the steps of a notorious bui Iding of the area in fetal position. grasping the ank les with her hands. She was sitting there wai ting for the next cl ient, knowing an assassin was on the loose ... because a drug habit knows no

days-off.

In my opinion, sex-trade legalization is a hoax orchcstr:ated by some high-silting john. \.vho wants to excuse ~~mself from legal implications if caught hiring a prostilute. One of the local "users of such services" told me he anticipated with great pleasure prostitution to be ~~~alized. His aim \.vas avoiding any personal responsibih.ty regarding women. Let us not forget social implicauons of such novelty: In Canada more and more children a re being born out of wedlock. In UK this figure is as high as almost 50%. Index of childhood poverty in Canada, is staggering and increasing year after year. . Example: a lcohol is a legal drug but you are arrested If caught wh il e driving. Similarly, it will NOT STOP government agencies from taking prostitutes' chi ldren away on the g rounds of the ir life style. In the area 1am aware of a woman, whose four children were removed from her. Kathy Walker, the Great Dame of DTES knows her and gives her whole-hearted support be~ause the sex-trader in question refuses to accept abortions as a procreation alternative.

Countless mothers' hearts were broken for this same reason! Engraved is my mind the speech of a Native participant during Women's Housing March about her sleepless nights and inconsolable tears shed over the fact her kids were apprehended. Addiction to methadone or other drugs dispensed from pharmacies does not exempt from chi ldren being taken away. Aboriginal women give birth to four o r five chi ldren but Natives are dying out. Recently three grown up children of drug-addicts took BC child protective services to court ~nd won $ 1 million in damages for the bad ch ildhood m their fa mily home. In the near future. is expected this agency w i II escalate chi ld apprehensions to avoid further monetary losses.

Governments' draconian measure to take away livi ng spaces left behind removed ch ildren is worth of mentioning ('Critics blast housing policy'â&#x20AC;˘ by Carli to Pablo The .c~orgia Straight May 13-20, 201 0).

T.h1s IS an opportune moment to remind the disting.Uish publi c that women are being taken off social as~lstance, and thus being sent directly to pimps and Johns arms! Thousands of females in British Columbia were cut off wei fare after new social service legislation was. approved in 2002. Need will send them effectively to dtmmest, dirtiest streets and the notorious massage parlours because the NEED and TilE POVERTY are the root causes of prostitution and addictions . . I can not he lp b ut take it personally- after the eviction Irom my apartment a male friend offered to house me temporaril y in his living room , then suddenly pressured me ~o become his girl friend . He alleged I was the cause of hts personal misfortune and his girlfrie nd broke up

with him out of jealousy- he was willing to compensate himself by taking a new girlfriend, me. After 1 refused, he requested the apartment key returned to him and me moving out amid legal actions. So I did.

Nevertheless. the story doesn't end there. Next step, he offered himself to store my belongings. Then cancelled his promise, and threw them into the garbage (or took them to the pawn shop). Bv the way, he is a salaried man, not unemployed. ~ever bothered to get in touch with me to inform about his plans to dispose of my stuff, although I provided him with the ways to contact me.

I take it personally now because drug- and sex trade are happening ncar my w indows 24/7. I am bei ng awaken in the middle of the night by screams of prostitutes raped in the anus, while everybody else sleeps peacefully in Kcrrisdale or Shaugnessy. I have also seen a drug-addict beaten with the piece of a steel wire due to drug debt.

I take it personally because I saw a former co-worker, who lost the employment the same day when I lost mine, dealing drugs at a notorious drug-dealing corner.

It is how the lowest men and the svstem plav women.

I do not see the good will of the government to solve problems. They rather engaged in devising ways to use the weakest of this society. women and chi ldren to absorb societal shocks of every kind. There are even plans to bring problem youth from downtown Covenant I louse to a special shelter for young women Dun levy street in DTES, after they outgrow the age brackets of Covenant I louse. My take: problem youth will come to problem neighbourhood. What kind of result?- Fresh meat for shameful prostitution industry!

Social workers, government employees, twelve steps program fac ilitators manipulate poor women's mind by trying to convince our population and sex traders themselves that "sex trade" ( no, they never use terrn 'prostitution' but a lways the politically correct terms), is a smart choice to make a living, thus accepting sexual exploitation of women and children (yes, children) as an inescapable reality. Girls enter into this denigrating field at the age 13. as an average. Susan Davies, the prostitute, who pronounced the speech at the Japanese Language School at the start of Missing Women's inquiry, acknowledged she has been in the trade for 25 years. I calculate that starting point of her career must been precisely around that age. Shame on Canada!

A neig hbour formulated a simple but yet important question to a woman of the 'ancient profession': Why do you do this?

I !er answer: "Oh, I am here for the money." But at what cost?

UNTOUC HABLE The cops have captured just a nother drug addict mule Her skinny rugged body shivers fearfully in the high afternoon sun The handcuffs on her w ri sts me lting off A black lace purse is on the hood on the cop car v.路ith its content scattered out A crack pipe, syringe and a fresh baggy of rock cocaine Like a wild animal in a hunter's trap, shivers fearfu ll y for her ragged life Not because she is go ing to jail She will be released in the morning with a court date She shivers fearfull y Looking across the street at the untouchable drug dealers That gave her the fresh baggy of drugs to hold on to They in turn look back at her like hungry wolves She'll be lucky if they just beat on her in that dirty third world hotel room of hers Praying that they won't stri p her naked and throw her backwards out the window with her running shoes tossed out twenty seconds later.

by Henry Doyle, Carnegie Newsletter January 15, 20 II j More recently, two women lost their li ves due to fal ls from he ights: the 22 year old Ashley Machiskinic and Verna Simard fell to their deaths from Regent Hotel.

Moreover, VAND U's struggle (Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users) mostly for their rights to get free pharmaceutical grade drugs (including for recreational use), is being lead by c lean, drug-free people, whose salari es come from UNKNOWN DONATORS (at least partially). The poster displayed in VANDU's windo"v read: "1 am a princess warrior". Once, 1 saw such a warrior sitting on the sidewalk near Pender lodge, in handcuffs at the back, and cryi ng her eyes out- she was going to spend the night in jail. Another recounted, a client stripped her from waist down and pushed her outside, to the street. Police' reaction was: "Uh, never mind, she is J UST a prostitute".

Harm reduction booklets are packed with false positive affirmations like "sharp shooters", reassuring statements like "shoot clean", "fuck safe" , "Staying Healthy as an injection drug user", politically correct expressions and pictures of smi ling li vers of people affected with hepatitis.

The majority of the public is painfully unaware of what is happening in the background, and how the monetary elite is influencing government pol icies: By 2007, the Gates Foundation donated a lmost $30 billion to population control groups. Their record was surpassed by Warren Buffet, who designated $37 bi llion to world population reduction causes.

"A total world population of 250-300 million people.

A 95% decline from present levels, wou ld be ideal" Ted Turner's interview to Audubon magazine.

"A drug addict has become the first person in Britain to be sterilized in exchange for cash under a new project ... Project Prevention, the charity running the scheme, has made simi lar payments to thousands of men and women in the United States, in a crusade to

prevent them from having chi ldren who may inherit the ir addictions." ('Addict Paid S320 to get vasectomy' The Vancouver Province October 18, 2010). l foresee the imple mentation of this practice in Canada as a pre-condition of getting access to government ' sponsored pharmaceutical grade substances because U.S. pol ic ies tend to flow north to Canada. In short, we are talking here about spurring of our country into the era of social engineering.

Politicians and c ity administration request from the public a change of attitude towards women of the 'ancien t profession'. I do agree on that - Know that all women hate getting PAP smears and going to gynecologist because even introduction of fingers into the vagina of non-sexuall y aroused woman. is painful (I am willin g to share it w ith you because men and female virgins commonly are not aware of this fact).

Substance abuse, low self-esteem and the self-destructive behavior stem from stress and trauma created by sex work. Tt takes away my sisters' dignity, and is an ultimate expression of exploitation. Sex drive is an ultimate basic instinct that we as humans share w ith animals. In animal world, even male cats and rabbits will not copulate with a ny given female- human beings are far more complex than animals, and human females are much more selective than males. It is as basic as can get. Human beings are also social c reatures - other women hate prostitutes for they dislike sharing men with other females. men use and despise public women as providers of sex for lucrative means.

Finally. my suspicions were con firmed true du ring the December 20 I 0 commemoration of Montreal Massacre. Voiced of sex workers were trembli ng with emotion. some were crying. when telling the stories of the bad times they had, disdain they face from police, public and their own families. All of them hated what they were doing for income. They did it solely

out of a powerful economical need. None of them wanted their daughters or granddaughters to make a living based on such a shame-fil~ed profession ..o.ive them and all Canadians the fightmg chance of hvmg with dignity by distributing remain ing meaningful work more evenly among all Canadians by implementing full benefits for part-time jobs!

To attack the maladies of prostitution and substance addiction on its root, it is an imperative that governments stopped taking women off social assistance, raised welfare rates, and enacted federal legislation to prevent jobs from going abroad. Enough o_f using the weakest of this society, women and the chtldren. and the poor as a bumper to absorb shocks of uncertain economics!

"I live in the jungle.

There are no trees, or vines, or Tarzans. no roaring li ons, or fleet-footed zebras; only cement, and corners, and sidewalks. and beer, and bars, and drugs, and asphalt ...

And so I begin life anew.

Pulling the jungle behind and a future ahead, Tomorrow is alive and the past is dead. while today I am doing more than just survive.

Habits of years have to go- it won't be easy, but then I've been made tough no more drugs in my body, my temple to Him has been defiled enough.

Thinking of others, not just only myself, I' II work to be human ...

I can become a person - a woman again joyful and free, peaceful and strong, because todav I changed an old habit and chose God over the ways of the jungle." (by Lorraine Full version published in Carnegie Newsletter

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Like a hand-built, wooden Arson Hall of Fame, you are just in time to watch it go up in flames enjoyable to some who are addicted to fire yet you still feel incomplete, the SELFISHIST MARCH will consume all other months now if I've remembered Torture 101 try to stay down in front..this reminds me of concentration camps P.O.W. boxing if you box and win maybe just maybe your family will get a treat, like being able to fit all the good days in the diary you keep it's good for a year but I only fill up one week how we all know TIME is KING CRUEL but you are crueller thems our hours you pocket you selfishist bastard creeps; Syria make it horrifyingly good your audience is waiting, now you are not the star but you get to take out their trash like historic landmarks which are quickly becoming obsolete.. Now anyone caught minding their own business will be visited by the Police yes Officer Down is back and pissed off how many people die on their knees (don't think I want to know ya know?) So many people disappear each day did they deserve that I think not but memories must be kept even if it's in an abandoned parking lot every second that missing list grows, speaking of lists I could name so many cool places back when smiles were free and peace rained on happy faces even your very existence emitted a glow ... fast forward to this day where Officer Down and company legally get to destroy lives, then call it play once they have you that expiry date finds you I think the word SUCK would apply when there's nowhere to go, candles burning at both ends NO WAITING unless it's a bus or your faith equally deflating shut up world as I grab my Bass guitar wishing I was still in a band, from No Exit to Bad Attitude (the last gasp was Drawback) . AIDS killed one and Heroin killed two then Constable Davie Bruce Thomas killed Jeffrey Berg how much Hell can one human being withstand? in between cop corruption and a judicial system that kills off brain cell reproduction the next batch of bad seeds are this timetable's future cops & thug-wannabees where everything is either theirs or in their way Do you ever get the feeling down deep inside you're the INTRUDER while those that are chosen get a free ride 1 hereby warn you to expect very severe de-lays like an unlicensed centre for daycare with toddlers toddling off to who knows where, these new ones are the only unselfish ones around; why can't simplicity itself be so simple ... The Mayor of Simpleton has her doubts, well screw every pig who points out the next one to go missing between swigs It

is time for the silent ones to Scream & Shout! The lightbulb , at the end of the tunnel seems to be set on fading even my tunnel Division says there's no time for waiting too many lives shoved over MASCARA FALLS; what we used to call Co-Ed is now these people's Code RED add to it no sharing jus too many agendas (pardon me while I vomit)- you may pause, families are torn apart while 0. Down & his cohorts take advantage of our fragilities and if it becomes a fatality JUDGE (DE)MENT finds technicalities and slaps those pig like wrists, so many victims of his kind will grab that WILKINSON SOLUTION and slit their bloody minds they really like their power!! Now if this were another country I would most definitely not exist, so many sat by and let MASCARA FALLS happen I'm talkin' RCMPigs keeping their own info how many could have been saved & cuz they could have trapped 'em once again selfishness puts us in harm's way or worse a new kind of AWARD. I've seen people kicked in the face a club to brush your teeth and a blast of cop deodorant call-ed MACE or if they really like you an elevator ride trust me if it doesn't kill you it's killed sometime they do get bored, children are taught that people like us must not be seen let alone heard once again no cause for concern or no concern for the cause just give us the word we already know it but the next 7 BILLION must learn to take orders and learn it they will,. The battle cry of the missing and poor gets muffled by another body bag being zipped up want more(?) this entire world is a graveyard go ask Fred and Wilma Tombstone even back then blood was made to spill, like The Sound of Music coming from a leaking tap drip Drip DROP Officer Down has set us up we're trapped well I'm not going to be the next "Incident" thrown into the river in a coffin ish sack I see through horror-rimmed glasses the inherent risks of separating the classes- if Anarchy or Democracy aren't the answer I say BEGONE and fight back! Now some of you just may think you have it all you're in the pink wish away all those fears but bear in mind Mother Nature eventually calls; to the missing may you be found to the poor may you find solid ground as for me maybe in someone else's lifetime may there be an end to MASCARA FALLS ... that's all.

By ROBERT McGILLIVRAY "You have the right not to be killed, unless it was done by a policeman." -Joe Strummer (Speaking of Falls, skier Sarah Burke died 9 days after her skiing mishap in Utah. In Canada we have Universal Health care, but 9 days in a Utah hospital cost $200,000. It was first estimated at $500,000 but the outpouring of concern made someone lower it by over half That's America for ya)

"Never doubt th at a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world.

Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has."

carnegie~ NEWSLETTER ·

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THIS NEWSLETIER IS A PUBLICATION OF THE CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE ASSOCIATION Articles represent the views of individual contributors and not of the Association;

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WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTON • • • • • •

AIDS POVERTY HOMELESSNESS VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN TOTALITARIAN CAPITALISM IGNORANCE and SUSTAINED FEAR

WAR OF THE WORLDS Life on the dole: welfare stubs, high rent receipts, food banks, hand-outs, hand-me-downs, not vintage but 2"d or 3rd-rate, destitute debtor's prison, next (maybe) the Rack, the treadmill. .. Bring it on; seen worse, i can take it (taken worse) been there done a ll that already- to the scrapheap, the end of the line, 路 the slammer? Then kaput?? no, not me, not this time Just gotta soldier on for my own sake as well as for others in the struggle, as 'they' dismantle the constitution putting us on a deplorable destructive path with slave wages, downsizing, downturns, payoffs, layoffs, busting unions, breaking contracts, bailouts for big banksters, no interest no payback no nothing as again and again we're beaten down, put upon pushed off collective bargaining... until no more.

Who cares? We do that's who & we ain't going away anytime soon- we're coming back for more critical mass state of mind, determined, relentless, unbending - back off else we'll walk all over you! We want our world back and we want it now and we're not taking No for an answer.

Dissent, unrest, protest, civil disobedience .. Patriot Act(s)- ain't buying; Defence .. National Security..

Acts of Patriots .. War on Drugs .. Terrorism (scam) ..

Military-Industrial Complex .. lMF World Bank in the tank .. Free Trade= foreign-made; bullets, bombs, predator drones, AC/DC oh yeah cluster smuck on desert trucks, landscapes pulverized back to the Stone Age, collateral damage makes no difference to them it's Business as USUAL: chaos & destruction are never-ending - wrong, it will, because hope is a good thing, maybe the best thing.

Money machines spit endless reams of false bank notes, funny paper soon to be worthless, over priced gold, stock market lotteries worldwide all counterfeit all part of one giant ponzi scheme & banner headlines declaring innocence while phoney pyramid schemes give destitution & bankruptcy a good name High rents gives homelessness high rents mounting every day despite static stagnant welfare & wages while corporate profits skyrocket... Again & again up go the trial balloons to test patterns with crossed wires short circuiting & misplaced priorities lead to

globalisation, ge ntrification w hile g lobal warming is too big_to mess up so keep it concentrated on the scatterbrained mess of disenfranchisement and conclude that it and us are all out of sorts, out of place, yet we all can and are getting it together to reverse the push of power, to eventually put a bittersweet end to this atrocious madness once and for all.

ROBYN LIVINGSTONE

"You know, in one year al one, 2010, more than 600 thousand people were stopped and frisked in the city of New York. And in less than 15 percent of those cases was there any kind of suspect description involved. The overwhelming majority of those stops and frisks were po lice stopping, frisking people on the ir way to school, on their way to work, on their way to church. And inevitably, people are fed into the criminal justice system in that fashion and labeled criminals or felons for engaging in extremely minor, nonviolent offenses. Drug use and sales is about as common in middle-class white communities and college campuses as it is in the hood, but it's poor folks of color who are doing time for these kinds of offenses."

"Nothing less than a major social movement has any hope of ending mass incarceration in Ameri ca or inspiring a recommitment to Ki ng's dream. You know, if we were to return to the rates of incarceration we had in the 1970s, before the war on d rugs and the "get tough" movement kicked off, we would have to release four out of five people who are in prison today. You know, a million people employed by the criminal justice system would lose their jobs. So this system isn' t going to just fade away without a major social upheaval, a fairly radical shift in our public consciousness.

So, my view is that this has got to be a human rights movement. It' s got to be a movement for education, not incarceration; for j obs, not jails; a movement that acknowledges the basic humanity and dignity of all people, no matter who you are or what you've done, so that we don't view it as normal and natural to strip people of basic civil and human rights following thei r release from prison."

Michelle Alexander

PANEL OISCIISSIOI\

Prohibition alternatives to the

FACILITATORS:

Hugh Lampkin (VANDU), Ann Livingston (ONC)

~ 00 stNG DRUG Q(JALITY "'''"""'"