JANUARY 15, 2017
l:aRriiee:i'~~ . NEVVSLETTER 401 Main Street, Vancouver
email: carnnews@Shaw.ca
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BC V6A 2T7 604-665-2289
Website/catalogue: camegiEmewsletter.org
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We Can't Afford Poverty
We Can't Afford Poverty "Memorize this:" Bill Hopwood told a crowd in the Carnegie Theatre on Jan 11th: "The government gives $41,000 a year to the richest 1% in tax breaks." Hopwood was speaking at the launch of the We Can't Afford Poverty Campaign. The goal of the campaign is to give people tools to help make poverty an issue in the upcoming provincial election and to get people to vote for politicians who will commit to raising welfare rates and ending poverty. Fraser Stuart spoke about how welfare, at $61O/month, is so low that, "I became a criminal." He talked about having to collect bottles and having the value of the bottles, $14,75, deducted from his welfare cheque. At the event, Raise the Rates, the group sponsoring the We Can't Afford Poverty Campaign, distributed posters, and buttons and people signed cards to send to their MLA or local candidate, calling on them to commit to raising welfare rates and ending poverty if they are elected. Four hilarious skits, performed by Priscillia Tait, Phoenix Winter, Katelyn Sigglelow, and Hendrik Beune, mocked "Premier Crusty" who, in one skit, found out that she was defeated and couldn't get El because she was fired and had to go on welfare. Folks in the theatre were also treated to 4 short videos about poverty that will be posted on the nopovertybc .ca website for people to share on social medial. Two of the videos featured comedian Charlie Demers, who donated his time and skill to rant in front on a West side mansion, about how poverty is an expensive political choice and doesn't have to exist. Another short video featured Carnegie's own Carmen Paterson talking about the low welfare rates: "These are people's lives. We'd like people to vote for the right people to come in [in the May 9 prov. election]." Another of the videos features Camegie's own Fraser Stuart talking about all the hurdles you have to jump over to get on disability, and then you still don't get it. To get some of these posters to put up around town, come to the CCAP office in Camegie. To see the videos, go to nopovertybc.ca You can also sign a pledge' at nopovertybc.ca to vote for acandidate who will commit to ending poverty and raising welfare rates. Hopwood urged the crowd to save the date of March 4 for a rally against poverty. He also cautioned that we need to push the NDP as well as the Liberals to raise welfare rates. By Jean Swanson
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Needs 3 people, two actors Crispy Clark and a Flunky, and a Narrator, who also takes an offstage phone call from Rich Coleman. Narrator: "It's a May morning, the day after the provincial election, and we find Crispy Clark asleep in her palace in Kelowna." ( fades back from the "stage" to an Actor lying across three chairs so as to represent a bed) Flunky (rushing in): "Wake up Ms Clark! I'm afraid I've got bad news!" Crispy: (Indignant) "That's Ms. Premier to you!" Flunky: "Not anymore! You lost the election and since you got fired you can't get El, so it's off to the Welfare Office for you." Crispy. "What? Welfare!?" (Shocked and unbelieving). "How much is it? How much do you get on welfare anyway?" Flunky: "$610 a month." Crispy: "That's inhuman! I can't live on $610 a month!" Flunky: "Neither can the 186,000 people in BC you sentenced to live in misery." Crispy: "But that means 1can't afford to pay the mortgage on my castle! Flunky: "You'll have to move. I've reserved a room for you at the Balmoral Hotel. It's a really nice place." Crispy: "But I'll have to sell my car!" Flunky: "And you got rid of the bus passes so you'll be walking while you complete your mandatory 3 weeks Look-For- Work." Crispy: "But how will 1eat?" Flunky: "Foodbank is open on Wednesdays. Or you could line up at the UGM. Don't go to the Carnegie though, they don't like you there." Crispy: "Why this is terrible! $610 a month won't cover my Starbucks bill!" Narrator from offstage, pretending to hold a phone: '.'Rich Coleman is on the phone - he says you're a whiner!" Crispy: "This is a.aightmare! I'm so depressed! 1need a therapist!" Flunky: "There aren't any mental health resources left - you cut the funding for all of them." Crispy: "How will 1survive? We have to get the welfare rates doubled --- tripled!! - right away!"\ Flunky: "We tried to get you to raise the rates for 9 years and you never did! Guess you should have had some compassion when you could have made a difference. And oh --- " (digs in a pocket) "here's that wonderful toll free 1.866 number to call welfare. And you'll be on hold for a long long long time ... " Crispy: "But I can't afford a phone anymore!" Flunky: "Can't help you there. You're on your own! Good luck!" (fades off stage) Narrator: "And that's the difference between people like Crispy Clark and people like you and me: somebody would have helped her because we live in the DTES and it's a community. And that's what a Town Hall is all about: Community."
[This is the Summary of Long Overdue, a report from the BC office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. The entire 44-page report is available on their website: vvww.ccpa.ca] BRITISH COLUMBIA IS THE ONLY PROVINCE OR TERRITORY in Canada that stubbornly refuses to develop a poverty reduction plan. This is not because BC doesn't have a poverty problem. In fact, despite being one of Canada's wealthiest provinces, BC has among the highest poverty rates in the country-13.2 per cent according to the Market Basket Measure (MBM), which we believe most accurately estimates current poverty. This makes BC's poverty rate the second highest in Canada. This report examines the most recent statistics on poverty and its associated hardships in BC. In so doing, it makes clear that strong policies are urgently needed to dramatically reduce and ultimately eliminate poverty in our province. A comprehensive and ambitious poverty reduction plan for BC is long overdue. Since 2008, over 400 organizations representing hundreds of thousands of British Columbians-including community groups, faith, Indigenous, businesses and health organizations, trade unions and others-have signed on to the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition's call for a comprehensive plan with legislated targets and timelines. Similar calls have been issued multiple times by the Union of BC Municipalities and by the BC Legislature's own finance committee. Yet so far these calls have gone unheeded. In rejecting the call for a poverty reduction plan, the BC government points instead to its Jobs Plan. This report reveals the failure of their approach. First, while the government touts "jobs" as its answer to poverty, a large share of the poor have already taken such advice and are currently employed in the low-wage labour market. It is a common misconception that the poor are mostly on social assistance. Our research shows that about half ofthose living below the poverty line are either the working poor or children of the working poor. While over 13 per cent of British Columbians live in poverty, only about four per cent rely on social assistance at any given time (the balance of those not employed are mainly seniors or those who rely on other forms of income support). Second, a closer look at poverty trends over time reveals that the government's approach has failed to meaningfully reduce poverty. BC's poverty rates are now approximately the same as they were prior to the 2008 recession (when the call for a poverty reduction plan was first issued), and poverty. rates remain much higher than historic lows seen in the late 1970s and late 1980s. Our research shows that about half of those living below the poverty line are either the working poor or children of the working poor. Measures of severe hardship such as food bank use and homelessness have continued to climb. And the number of people working but who still live in poverty is also on the rise .. 2014 is the latest year for which data is available. This report uses two measures to calculate rates of poverty: â&#x20AC;˘ The LlM (Low Income Measure) calculates how many households live on less than half the median household income after-tax, adjusted for family size. The LlM is easily compared internationally-the same measure is used in most countries-and we have LIM data going back many decades . â&#x20AC;˘ The MBM (Market Basket Measure) is based on actual costs of a specific and modest basket of goods and services, including shelter, food, clothing and footwear, transportation, and basic household needs. It is produced for various family and community sizes in each province. Unlike the LIM this measure captures differences in local costs of living and reflects the higher cost of housing in BC and particularly in Metro Vancouver. However it has only been produced since 2002.
Poverty a serious problem in BC eople in every BC community experience poverty and are affected by the physical, emotional and social hardships of being poor. Particularly troubling is the high number of children living in poverty because of the long-term health and social impacts. One in five of BC's poor are under 18 years of age. Poverty rates are also disproportionately high for marginalized groups including Indigenous people, people with disabilities and mental illness, recent immigrants and refugees, single mothers, single senior women, and queer and transgender people. When these factors combine rates climb even higher. For example, the poverty rate for children in single motherled households is a shocking 49 per cent. The poverty rate for Indigenous children in Vancouver is 33 per cent,
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and 52 per cent of on-reserve Indigenous children live in poverty. Basic welfare for a single person is only $610 per month, meaning an annual income that reaches less than 40 per cent of the poverty line. Other indicators of BC's serious poverty problem include: • Food Banks Canada's annual Hunger Count reports that 103,464 people used BC food banks in 2016, up 3.4 per cent from the previous year, and 32;5 per cent higher than before the recession hit in 2008 . • Food bank use is widely viewed as under-representing the level offood insecurity, meaning households reduce food consumption or fail to eat a balanced diet because oflack of money. In 2012 (the last year for which we have data), 12.7 per cent of British Columbians reported food insecurity at some point in the year (up from 11 per cent in 2005). And notably, a majority of those who reported food insecurity (63 per cent) were employed and not on social assistance or other forms of income support . • Metro Vancouver's 2014 homeless count (which again is widely seen as under-reporting homelessness) found 2,777 homeless people, of which close to one-third identified as Aboriginal. Province-wide homelessness data is harder to find, but homelessness is reported in communities throughout BC. • Welfare rates are far too low. People on social assistance do not have an income only just below the poverty line, but rather thousands of dollars below the poverty line. Basic welfare for a single person is only $610 per month and has not increased since 2007. A person in this category of social assistance has an annual income that reaches less than 40 per cent of the poverty line. Consequently, for those on social assistance much of day-to-day life is about survival. • Nearly half a million British Columbians-a quarter of all paid employees-earn $15 per hour or less. Most of these people work full-time (59 per cent) and 58 per cent support a household . • BC's current minimum wage is $10.85 an hour, meaning a full-time minimum wage worker earns $19,747 annually or about $3,500 a year below the poverty line for a single person. • A 2011 study by CCPA-BC senior economist Iglika Ivanova found that poverty in BC costs society between ~ $8.1 and $9.2 billion a year-s-or between 4.1 and 4.7 per cent of the provincial economy (as measured by GDP) in costs to the health care and justice systems and in foregone economic activity. This report also finds that costs for core essentials like housing, child care.senergy/electricity and food have been increasing much faster than incomes. Essentials make up a higher share-of family budgets for British Columbians on fixed incomes (such as welfare or old-age pensions), and for those earning minimum wages. Therefore, recent price increases place additional stress on already-tight household budgets. Poverty and homelessness not inevitable in our wealthy society Too often we become resigned to the presence of poverty, hunger and homelessness, and we falsely believe that ending these social ills represents too great a challenge. The "poverty gap" in BC-meaning the total amount of money needed to bring every British Columbian living under the poverty line to that threshold-was $5.8 billion in 2014. That's how much it would take in increased wages and income supports to eliminate poverty in BC. This sounds like a lot of money, but it represented only about 2.4 per cent of BC's economy (as measured by GDP). Surely in a province with an annual income of$250 billion we can afford to close a poverty gap of less than $6 billion. Jurisdictions that set ambitious goals have seen substantial progress in reducing poverty. And federal policies, like Old Age Security and the new Canada Child Benefit, have and will continue to produce notable reductions in poverty rates for the demographic groups impacted.
Complex circumstances require a comprehensive policy response There is no single policy solution that can dramatically reduce the number of British Columbians living in poverty. Nor can we rely on charity as a solution. Just as we pool our resources to provide health care and education to all, we must work together to reduce poverty by enhancing public programs and supports, and ensuring more employers pay living wages. Addressing poverty is a societal responsibility. This report recommends a comprehensive provincial poverty reduction plan that includes measures to: 1. Significantly increase weifare and disability rates and index them to inflation; 2. Increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour and then index it.to inflation, and encourage employers to adopt the
living wage for families in their community; 3. Build 10,000 new social and co-op housing units annually; and 4. Adopt the $1Ova-Day child care plan, which includes free child care for those earning less than $40,000. Meaningful action to address poverty in our province is long overdue. As we approach a provincial election in the spring it is incumbent upon all political parties to finally join the rest of Canada and commit to adopting a poverty reduction plan. A POVERTY REDUCTION PLAN FOR BRITISH COLUMBIA British Columbia remains the only.province in Canada without a formal plan to reduce poverty. A comprehensive strategy must focus on the following seven overarching policy areas: . 1. Improve the adequacy and accessibility of welfare. Welfare and disability benefits are far too low at $610 for a single person and between $931 and $983 per month for a person with a disability (with and without a bus pass respectively). And the eligibility rules and procedures make income assistance far too inaccessible for many. Significantly increase welfare and disability rates, and index them to inflation. 2. Increase wages and protect the rights of vulnerable workers. Most adults living in poverty have ajob, and almost half the poor children in BC live in families with at least one parent working full-time. The employment standards protections for vulnerable workers, which cover such areas as overtime hours and vacation pay, are far too lax. Increase the minimum wage to $15 an hour and index it to inflation, encourage employers to adopt the living wage for families, and restore the coverage and enforcement of employment standards. 3. Invest in affordable housing. BC has the worst record of housing affordability in Canada, and the numbers of homeless and underhoused people are increasing. Recommit to building thousands of new social and co-op housing units per year. BC should be bringing on stream 10,000 such units per year. 4. Create a public child care system. The high cost of child care is a huge burden for many families and makes it completely inaccessible to others. Moreover, there is a shortage of child care spaces and the quality of care available is inconsistent across providers. Adopt the $10 a day child care plan, which will provide free child care for those earning less than $40,000 per year, increase the number of child care spaces, support high-quality programming and ensure early childhood educators are paid a living wage. 5. Promote population health. Poverty is a fundamental determinant of health, and the health care costs of poverty add up to $1.2 billion per year. Expand essential health services in the public system, such as dental and optical care and community mental health services, and enhance community health care for seniors and people with disabilities. 6. Support training and education. Without meaningful long-term training and education, people cannot access stable and well-paying jobs. Adequately fund public schools, and make post-secondary education and apprenticeship training mor accessible. Allow welfare recipients to pursue post-secondary education, and make adult basic education and English-language education free. 7. Focus on the most marginalized. Indigenous people, people with disabilities and mental illness, recent immigrants and refugees, single mothers, single senior women, and queer and transgender people (particularly youth) have higher rates of poverty and homelessness. The poverty reduction plan must focus its efforts on the structural barriers faced by these groups. '
401 Main Street, Vancouver V6A 2T7 604¡665¡2289
Poverty costs BC over $8 billion a year. -, Raise the Rates: http/zralsetherates.org/
Website carnegienewsletter.org Catalogue carnnews@vcn.bc.ca entail carnnews@shaw.ca 604-665-2289 phone
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Saturday January 21!12017 THE CARNEGIE THEATRE .lp •••- 2:15 Inn-Free ~oll1.e(ly wOl"ks)a0I)s-Join Followed by Stand-up Comedy Vancouver style
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Lots of Giveaways Thanks to The Downtown fasts/de Women's Centre, The Evelyne Sailer Centre, Cornegle Community Centre, and S.C. Gaming Policy & Enforcement Branch
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From "the Library As we approach our time to say "farewell" to Ethel, and acknowledge all the good work she has done here at the Camegie Centre, I had to pick her brain and find out some of her top reads! She complied with my curiosity and below is her list of the moment, as she noted that it could be a whole new batch on any given day ... the sign of a true reader!
NARCANTraining
All the Light We Cannot See - Anthony Doerr Do Not Say We Have Nothing - Madeleine Thien The Goldfinch - Donna Tart The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay - Mi-
Learn about overdose preventIon. NARCAN kit provIded.
chael Chabon
Americanah - Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Sacred Country - Rose Tremain Island - Alistair MacLeod Not Wanted on the Voyage - Timothy Findley Fall on Your Knees - Ann-Marie MacDonald The Neapolitan Novels by Elena Ferrante (This may
Every Tuesday @ 3 PM DCHC Multipurpose
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Downtown Community Hearth Cenb'e
count as four novels but not really) Between the World and Me - Ta Nehisi Coates
569 Powell Street, Vancouver b
On behalf of everyone at the Camegie Library ... Thank You, Ethel for being a keen supporter of our branch, and we wish you all the best in 2017 and be yond! It's been a real pleasure working with you. Sincerely,
Natalie
PACIFIC BLUEGRASS & HERITAGE
SOCIETY
A'variety of bands playing Bluegrass, Folk and Country Music! Wednesday, January 18 7-9pm Ca~egie Theatre
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What's Coming? (after William Butler Yeats) Turning and burnirig in the fast spreading fire The children cannot hear calls to reason; All hell breaks loose: rationality fails; ,Demagoguery again stalks our planet, : White power racism finds freedom, and all over I Th.~commitment to justice is lost; , Th~ b~st drown in information overload, while the worst Are media masters turning lies to truth. Surely some revolution is at hand; $urelya rude awakening is at hand. Wake up! A fifth extinction comes and a vision Of Spiritus Mortis stalking life and biosphere Invades my sight: everywhere ice on mountains Becomes water, rushes to salt, never to return. Drought feeds fires under a pitiless sun, Moves swiftly through continents, expedites extinctions While all consciousness loses to shadows. Darkness rises, penumbra circles Earth, and I know That twenty-one centuries ofmythic lies Were wed to a Tea Party by Reality TV. And for a rough beast, time's come to settle scores, As it stalks toward Washington to do harm. GiBes Cyrenne
him," Beveri~ confi~ed, listen!ng still to .what was C1 obviously a list of King-rnong s finer pomts: that he I got things done, that he could be trusted, that he has a lot of vision, and should he run for political office they would certainly vote for him. "If we would have this kind of leader we would not have to worry." Mrs Kong said they were very committed to doing whatever King-mong suggests. Apparently there is a very serious fan club happening here. RA6IN6 6RANNIES, CHINESE STYLf:: I wanted to know what they thought the most serious problem facing Chinatown today. They did not use the word "gentrification" (maybe it doesn't translate?) but By Debra McNaught they are very unhappy with the "too much change" They both came to Canada from China, they both going on around them. Mrs Ma said she has lived for married men who were third generation Chinese35 years in Chinatown. "It used to be very busy here, Canadian, both now seniors and widows active with bustling, couldn't walk down the sidewalks they were the Chinatown Concern Group, and one day in early so crowded with people. All the businesses left are not December I sat down to talk with the two of them. as good, closing down, can't afford to be in business After I'd heard about Mrs Kong brazening past an anymore. And the government used to be a lot richer, overly-zealous gatekeeper trying to stop her from more generous. They are not taking responsibility for "crashing" (she had an invite) a $370 a head citythe homeless. There used to be more jobs." She responsored conference on Vancouver's housing crisis members that so many jobs were going wanting that she had shouted, "Take it out of my head tax!" I asked cars would drive down Pender with a loudspeaker BeverIy Ho, of the Chinatown Concern Group, ifshe blaring out the window, advertising vacancies that could arrange a meeting: When Mrs Ma heard what needed to be filled. They complained that the governwas up she declared she was coming too, determined ment used to take care of the seniors. Mrs Ma spoke of not to miss out on any of the fun. Like many Chinese the need for a Seniors Centre and how one should be women of their generation they were not fluent in built in the complex still being argued over (and reEnglish so we all depended on Beverly (also active peatedly rejected) for 105 Keefer Street, and that the with CCAP, the Carnegie Community Action Project) memorial to the Chinese soldiers and CPR workers for translation services in both directions. should be respected. "And what used to attract people There were smiles and introductions all around, and to Chinatown is disappearing," Mrs Ma said. Said Mrs Mrs Ma promptly offered Beveriy and me each a small; Kong, "There is no more night market on Keefer pack of cookies. "She always offers you food," BeverStreet, there is not enough for young people to do. And Iy whispered, and ith that I kicked myself for not why don't they give the people on Hastings Street arranging tea. Would it be assumed I have bad manjobs? Yet they chase the vendors away, and that's very ners? I know a little bit about Chinese society and bad. Sometimes I get a good deal from them. There is wondered if I had earned any black marks. (I later a lot of theft now in the stores, very telling that people learned that pronouncing "Debra" had proven prob- . don't have enough. And it's hard to get on without the lematic - it usually does, morphing into three syllables benevolent associations stepping up, they are closing - and I had been dubbed "Ternpura." Close enough). doors, the old men want to keep the status quo." Mrs To get the conversation rolling I began with the obviMa recalls meeting a young Chinese woman with her ous: How long have you been involved with the Chikids at a bus stop on the other side of town and she natown Concern Group? Mrs Kong answered first, but had encouraged them to go to Chinatown and the kids with Mrs Ma chiming in it emerged they joined when had complained that "it was dirty and there are bad the group was first started, "about 2 or 3 years ago." people there." "You are Chinese why do you look Then they were both suddenly beaming, talking simul- .down at Chinatown? Why can't you look up?" she taneously and in sweet agreement about something. scolded the woman and tried to give her a flyer, "but "We met King-mong Chan there!" "They really like she had bad manners. How can th.eytalk to the older
Mrs Kong and Mrs Ma
generation like that?" I guess it's true of every culture that the older generation always looks back and sighs for what once was, convinced things were better in their day. But there is an a new element added to this age-old tradition, one where stupidity is framed as progress to an extent previously unimaginable in the DTES, where obscene profit fuels an out of control real estate market. Along with these elders and their commitment to preserving what is left of Chinatown in the face of gentrification and developer greed, the bigger and more horrible picture for all of the DTES is this determined effort to eradicate everything that currently exists. Get rid of the poorand the marginalized and the Chinese and the Indigenous peoples, and pave everything over with overpriced real estate and high end businesses no locals can afford to shop at. In the words of one Chinese senior, "How many damn coffee shops does Chinatown need?" It's up to those of us who live here to stand together, to understand that Mrs Kong and Mrs Ma's fight to preserve what's left of Chinatown is our fight, too.
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engaging
resistances to evil
A new 2017 year invites serious engagement - of current issues and how history is of helpful use, since alas it returns (cf. recent Massey lectures of Margaret Macmillan and Jennifer Walsh). To this end, A Community Aware (ACA) will host a ~uesday 7p.m. Jan. 17th evening engagement with how a figure from the 1930s and 1940s, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, may illumine aspects of our current struggles including its hopes and fears. Some of us have been overwhelmed by recent events and current concerns of/for our USA neighbours, and many other issues that intimate the prospect of evil deepening and spreading. How thus do we understand this and with whom? The evening will consist of viewing a well done documentary on Bonhoeffer's resistance to the Nazi regime (that led, not alone, to martyrdom) & invite comments on how this life and witness sheds light for us, here & now. We will also pursue how this may be continued in future ACA sessions or a sub-group study/action. Barry Morris and Lori The evening event will be in the First Nations Longhouse Church at 2595 Franklin Street in Vancouver.
Package from Home Used to be Mom sent me large cardboard cartons from Nova ScotiaMorses tea (live), bakeapple jam (yum), "Purity" biscuits from the Newfoundland store Maybe a wee bit of driedsalt cod (Bacalau they calls it here on the Drive) Greatgrandmother was of Portuguese descent.. A widow after ten children A saint she was, Mariah Jane Vallis Her granddaughter, a young widow after six children The bodies still somewhere down deep on the Grand Banks. Hand-lining cod from the Schooner - Ironmen, Wooden ships, the North Atlantic a harsh mistress-
So with those Christmas Boxes came memories Sleeping with Great Grandmother Mariah Jane In her Coombs' Cove house up on the hill Large framed prints of the I.O.O.L. over the fireplace Mystic symbols, flaming swords, etc I The house cold now Only one old bachelor uncle to welcome us Open a beer for my.Polish/German boyfriend: Northern Indian Affairs Planner & environmentalistHe was a hit with my Grandmother Alicia He pulled out her chair for her at table He was diving in those days, for 'alania' I think it was, a plant growing in Logy Bay, for the Department of Marine Science Research from Memorial U. Back to the present, after Dad retired The boxes got smaller & disappeared completely The memories persisted More real than my 'life' in Vancouver City of cold hearts and colder climate City of crippled, mindless opportunists and get-rich-quick ideas ... not far from Chilcoot Pass and the mad rush for gold in the Yukon . Now it's mostly uranium & such ... Preservation of what is still pure & remote & natural So conservative in idea but not in POLITICS Wilhelmina Miles
Ross House tenant, Aurora, speaks out at a news conference.
"The manager bullied me and said "sign or you leave;' Humberto Macias-Carracas told people at a news conference in front of the Ross House on Alexander St. on New year's day. "1 can't see, 1 don't even know what 1 am signing. 1have nowhere to go, 1 am going blind, 1 don't know what to do. They do whatever they want. 1 don't have any family, 1 don't have anybody"
Ross House tenants fight evictions Downtown Eastside landlords have discovered a new tool for evicting tenants and increasing rents that could result in many more homeless people. The landlord at the Ross House on Alexander St. is using Fixed Term Leases to evict tenants and raise rents by up to $210 a month. The landlord actually said in a statement to the media: "The method we use to try to control the tenants ... is the fixed term residential tenancy agreement which is provided for in the Residential Tenancy Act:' Right at a news conference on [an 1, the Ross House landlord deactivated the key fob of one of the tenants, Aurora Dunkley -Johnson, who was speaking out against the injustice. This meant Aurora couldn't get into the building where her room was unless another tenant let her in, which they did. Later the landlord evidently realized her action was illegal and reactivated the fob. Aurora and other tenants, trusting their landlord and not knowing their rights, had signed a fixed term lease that let the landlord evict them or raise their rents after 2 months. Rumours are that other DTES landlords are asking tenants to sign these leases, yp bel able to evict tenants at will, or raise their rent as much as they like. "I have lived here for a year and my rent was $500, Michael, another Ross House tenant, told the news conference. "My rent went from $500 to $660 and we were pretty much stuck paying it or moving out .There is a really bad homeless situation in Vancouver already and there really is nowhere to go. It is a tough time for this to happen, and it is really hard to find anywhere to move especially around Christmas time;'
explained MichaeL "I have filled out the paperwork for welfare and I still owe the landlord 50 dollars:' "I lived here for over 2 years" said Aurora at the news conference, sponsored by the SRO Collaborative and Carnegie Community Action Project. "I moved in August, 2014. They only brought a lease to my attention 4 months ago. I wouldn't have signed it if I knew my rights. I just got evicted now for speaking out, the landlord just locked the door on me;' said Aurora. "The landlord says she doesn't need an order of possession:' But the landlord does need an order of possession and didn't have one and eventually let Aurora back in. "We think we have a legal case for these tenants at the Residential Tenancy Branch;' said Wendy Pedersen of the SRO Collaborative. "This kind of intimidation is not unique for this building, tenants are feeling this across the neighbourhood:' In a statement to the media the landlord compared its SRO rooms with a gentrified SRO in Strathcona that charges $795 to $1095 a month. The statement also slagged people on welfare, suggesting that able bodied people "refuse to work and pay their way [and] feel entitled ..:' "We have 1000 homeless people in the neighbourhood with nowhere for them to live;' said Jean Swans on of the Carnegie Action Project. "We desperately need the province to implement real rent control and get rid of this fixed term loophole or we'll have even more homelessness:'
WATCH OUT FOR IIFIXED TERM LEASES"! Landlords are increasingly using fixed term tenancy agreements, because it makes it easier for them to evict tenants and raise the rents. If you are already a tenant in the building and you sign it, it means the landlord can raise your rent as much as he likes or evict you with no reason at the end of the "fixed term:' The fixed term lease has already been used by the landlord of the Ross House on Alexander St. to evict tenants and make them pay rents as much as $210 a month higher. Here is the section of the Residential Tenancy Agreement that you shouldn't sign if you want to keep your tenant rights (it's on the second page).
DON'T 516N HE1{E! 12. LENGTH
OF TENANCY
This tenancy starts on:
(please fill in the dates and times in the spaces provided)
01
11
1
day month year Length of tenancy: (please check a or b or c and provide additional
This tenancy is: L a) on a month-to-month
C
basis
b) for a fixed length of time:
information
as needed)
1-----···..-----.-...-]
0[-----1 ---
length of time
day
ending on
month
'----'-'
At the end of this fixed length of time: (for option b, you must check either i or ii below) il,rthe landlord and tenant may agree to enter into a new tenancy agreement • If the landlord and tenant do not enter into a new tenancy agreement, the tenancy continues on month-to-month basis on the same terms unless the tenant gives legal written n.~ot~ic;e:,;t~o;e~n~d~~~~~ ii) the tenancy ends and the tenant must move out of the residential unit Lon ord's • If you choose this option, both the landlord and tenant must initial in the boxes Inltlols
r
~b~~
)
The tenant must move out on or before the last day of the tenancy. [
c) other periodic tenancy as indicated below: ,-, weekly
[. bi-weekly
I
other:
1--·--
What are landlords prohibited from doing? Did you ever wonder what a landlord can and can't do ifhe/she wants to evict you? Here are some basic rules from a fact sheet for Police produced by the Residential Tenancy Branch, which says what landlord and police are prohibited from doing: • • •
• • •
Entering a rental unit without giving 24 hours notice in writing (unless there is an emergency); Seizing tenants property for any reason without a court order; Changing the locks of a rental unit without a Residential Tenancy Branch order (**Tenants are also prohibited from changing the locks without permission from the landlord or an order from the Residential Tenancy Branch); Physically removing a tenant or the tenant's property. Only a court bailiff may do this; Using the services of a bailiff firm (to evict a tenant) that does not have a contract with the Ministry of Attorney General to perform these services; A landlord cannot remove the tenant and their belongings nor seize and sell the tenant's possessions ...a court bailiff must be engaged to do these tasks.
City launches more temporary housing on the eve of Quality Inn mass evictions Vancouver's first modular housing building, a housing model borrowed from mining companies, is set to open in mid-February this year. The building which is located at Main and Terminal will provide 40 self-contained units for singles. Like the Quality Inn Hotel, which is set to close at the end of this month, the project is temporary and will only be open for five years or so, until the modular housing is dismantled so a condo tower can go up. The premise of the project is similar to the Quality Inn, which Vision opened to house
the residents of the Oppenheimer Tent city, and which is set to close soon. The modular housing will provide temporary housing for low-income tenants until they can move into permanent housing that does not exist. Because of its low-cost and rapid construction, the modular housing model has been celebrated by mainstream media as a new innovative approach to the housing crisis. The 40 units were built in less than 30 days and installation only took six days. Each unit costs $80,000 to $90,000 to build, which is considerably cheaper than
rents will be up to $800-$900 per month. These rents are only slightly below the market rents for similar sized units, and are far out of reach for low-income people on social assistance.
he $200,000 needed to build a permanent housing unit on city owned land. The building can also be dismantled, transported and re-assembled on another site that's not being used or awaiting development. The units are 250 square feet in size with a private bathroom and kitchen, and they have a lifespan of up to 30- to 40-years. This kind of readiness is good in a pinch, but do modular homes offer solutions to our homelessness crisis?
The City says it is working on providing subsidies to bring down the rents to the $400-600 range, but it is still unclear if any and how many of the units will be affordable to people on welfare and pensions.
Permanent crisis, temporary solutions
And then what
While the units will provide a small amount of desperately needed housing, we should be wary of what the project means for housing policy in future years. The building comes as the latest in a long string of temporary quick-fix solutions aimed at address the escalating housing crisis.
It is not either clear where the tenants will be relocated when the project is dismantled. While a handful of new social housing units are set to open in the coming years, they are far from enough and will only house a fractioh of the people who are currently homeless or at risk of homelessness. In 2016, only 11 social housing units at welfare opened in the Downtown Eastside which had almost 1,000 homeless people counted in 2016. We can expect similar numbers in the coming years.
The 157 unit Quality Inn hotel was opened in 2014 to house the homeless residents of the Oppenheimer Park tent city. Instead of moving into new and permanent housing, most of the Quality Inn tenants have been relocated to old SRO hotels. Others have nowhere to go. Unlike the Quality Inn Hotel, where all the rents were set at $375, it is not clear yet if people on social assistance will actually afford the rents in the new modular housing on Main Street. According to Vancouver's chief housing officer Mukhtar Latif, the
There is also a risk that more temporary quick fix solutions will take pressure off the government to build actual social housing. Vision Vancouver's focus on ending street homelessness by building shelters has overshadowed and detracted from permanent homes; modular homes may be a further elaboration of this trend rather than a new tool to end homelessness.
-
-=------==--
~icfti105~JXrm1R8 Chinatown Community Members Continue to Resist Market Development at 105 Keefer
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105~1t;~ij(Keefer St)~5§~~518l.*~t¥~ $/L,\~li'rmWiB'9#.c~~pfT#.c~B'9~1JD.*~ ~fr~~~~tthff!mf'FUIilli~m'~~IJ~~fa L&A~~m~'~~AW~~-ft~~~U ~*A~D~]Eg~A' ~~1JD.*U~~~* B'9Jft~~~0~iiB'9~$~3Z:1t;$/L,\' $ LlJ~ lilli~r8~' l-.x&~f$~1t;~ij~~*#'C~~~* ~;1.§.~~@~t¥5~~UIilli$/L,\9X~:¥j7g~ AolPJ~~*.na~~~~~~*m~H ilJo ~B'9~~~~o-fi~~~~.~A~*~ ~tth~liB'9 h n~IHij(E Pender ,~~~~5t ~~~m~$~.iP;&~r~B'9.iP;o ili~518l.m~B'9~msJ3mB'9~~~1t;a*,a ~~~m~a~'~faL&A~A~t:I:l.A~ij, - ga~1'ff!.R~m~ i§1illi~~Jft~-r;f.a. • A~ij~51#..§&~Beedie Living~m~B'9 W);, ffij1'~1m5~1ijfi**Iillij7gpfT~~mB'9~~JT' ±tthm~$~~o
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Vancouver's Chinatown is #3 on Heritage Vancouver Society's Top 10 Watch List of endangered sites in Vancouver and on the National Trust for Canada's Top 10 Endangered Places List, under threat due to intense market development pressure. The 105 Keefer site sits in the heart of Chinatown and is directly adjacent to the historically significant monument to Chinese-Canadian war veterans and railway workers, as well as being surrounded by the Chinese Cultural Centre, Dr. Sun Yat-sen Classical Chinese Garden; but within the area, there is no community centre or free indoor public space. The site shares an alley with the National Historic Site on E Pender St, where important heritage buildings are located, such as the Chinese Benevolent
1)tEm1~tth~ti, ~FfF.~lJ~mo No market
Association and the Chinese Freemasons. Chinatown Concern Group recognizes the existing commitments made to date in the municipal Chinese Society Legacy Program and the provincial apology to Chinese-Canadians, and the resulting Legacy Initiatives. It is absolutely insufficient for all three levels of governments to establish Chinatown as a heritage site without clear follow up plans or action to take responsibility for this designation. Because of the recent onslaught of gentrification and displacement in Chinatown and the government's colonial, undemocratic consultation processes, Chinatown Concern Group rejects the current rezoning application put forward by Beedie Living (vancouver.ca/105keefer).
development at this site.
~~* -
2) ~ii&R1#[PJ~~105~11::;~ijt-.t!i¥A~±ml¥-J~~'tiffij~L&~ttho( - ~ii&R1 iliJfJHf~'§'1ti1f~}§~#&*Hmm~o)For all 3 levels of government to acquire the 105 Keefer St. site (All three have recently pledged to build social and rental housing.)
3) :fI...t4ij-1~~11Ii~~~~IJ*:9X~~*:~!1tl:HHD100% social housing at this site, at shelter rate or 30% of the OAS(Old Age Security) income. 4) -rl3~~1-\:~m~±~$JI) (~~ti~~~~ij&~)
An intergenerational, community space, with an emphasis on seniors.
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on unceded Coast Salish Territories.
CCAP is hiring! The Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) is looking for an administrator and community organizer to work with their volunteers to help low-income Downtown Eastside residents implement their Community Vision for Change. This includes working for more and better housing, higher welfare rates and to stop gentrification. This is a 3 day per week position for at least 2 years. Below is a summary of the job posting. To read the whole job posting, visit the CCAP office on the 2nd floor of the Carnegie or go to the CCAP website: www.carnegieaction.org
Summary of job responsibilities: • • • • • • • • • • •
Organizing and planning campaigns and actions arising from CCAP Meetings. Develop stronger multi-racial alliances and solidarity with other grassroots groups in the community, especially between Chinatown Concern Group and CCAP members. Support CCAP Volunteers to participate in meetings and actions and support volunteers to act and speak out for their community Provide training and educational opportunities for CCAP member Manage and track budget with support from accountant Coordinate CCAP employees and volunteers Seek grants and write grant applications Assist in the maintaining the CCAP website and socia media Help write and assist in the layout of the monthly newsletter Speak and support others to speak at meetings, events, classes, city hall etc. Track actions of city hall, province and federal governments related to poverty, housing and homelessness and help with producing CCAP's annual hotel report
The job will start on February 1st, or when the candidate is available. There will be a 3 month job performance review. Please submit resumes by em ail with a half-page essay on the causes of homelessness and two references who are familiar with your work by January 20th, 2017. Please keep the entire application, including cover letter, in one file. Only people who are to be interviewed will be contacted.
Read full job description at: www.carnegieaction.org Deadline for applications: January 20th Email your application to: info@carnegieaction.org
Vancity
Thank you to Van city for supporting CCAP's work. Support for this project does not necessarily imply that funders endorse the findings or contents of this report.
[Dispatches from The Underclass]
So "Struggle & Survival Pussy" (1)
SURVIVAL INot for Some. -
One more day One more night Struggle and survival Twenty persons in two rooms Cheek by jowl One woman is moaning in pain around 4 pm It continues until nineish Final\y we cannot sand the moaning And she is persuaded to see paramedics They come and they ask her: What did you take? Sounds like Schrampk to me ? ? ? I have just learned about Flacka from China And Crockadeal from Russia From heroin jumped up with codeine Crystal was bad enough Flashbacks or vegetable gardens To live & learn Amanda freaks out Relatively young, she misses her suburban home & family Katcha coughs and coughs, just out of prison Allergic to everything but tobacco & salt On the upside The sheets & blankets are fresh every day The rooms aired & floors disinfected by Marjorie The obsessive compulsive custodian . We are all different but have similarities At 8am the shift changes: Pandemonium! Ancient Chinese ladies line up for free food or To use the washrooms To ask for extra sox, hats, gloves ???? Smartly dressed survivors of Mao They will inherit the Earth & the future At a great cost 80 million executed or Starved to death in the rice paddies My students survivors of Mao -Masters degrees in Economics -Business degrees from Dalhousie Kind & generous to a fault (Marxist Leninist)
"Plus ea change, plus le meme chose" Wilhelmia Miles l)The Dresser (in .the performance of King Lear)
'lfIitIwa ~, You convinced me I'd be nothing without you have no one without you and hate who I am without you. At first you became my escape from hurting but then became my reasoning for the day by day pain. I became unable to live without you; I became completely numb but yet dying inside due to you. You made it so that living life inside my body became unbearable, I couldn't eat or sleep, I couldn't feel or love & dreams I did have were constant nightmares. In a couple days I'll be at my 30 days and I'm doing it all without you. Every day is a battle but I rather fight this battle against-you rather then fighting the battle for my life with you. You had me once but have lost me for good. I've lost many of the battles against you in the past but this one's different. Because I've decided to start living and stop having to survive. I feel your claws leaving. And I'm no longer prisoner to all your pain. .I'm no longer numb, I'm no longer hurting but learning to love and feel all without you. I took your bruises. . Took your lumps, fell down every time, but this time I'm getting up for good. I don't know why how or when I let you put me in this position I'~ in. but it's time to let go. . I've been broken, lost and empty fortoo long andit's, time to fix what you've Cicitroyed and taken. This is my story and I'm the author, I'm ia1<.ingaway your power and now I'm in control. Turning the page and starting a new chapter, and it's all happening with you. Kaleigh Fontaine
Consortium Formed to Support Sex Workers to Transition, Exit or Retire from Sex Industry ~
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Consortium Formed to Support Sex Workers to Transition, Exit or Retire from Sex Industry Vancouver, B.C. - Vancouver has among North America's largest sex worker populations, yet there are currently no services explicitly and exclusively designed to assist sex workers in transitioning from sex work involvement to other forms of employment. A consortium of five agencies was formed and funded to respond to the existing gaps and effectively meet the needs of those who do sex work which are Aboriginal Front Door, Battered Women's Support Services (BWSS), HUSTLE at HIM - Health Initiative for Men, PACE Society, and WISH Drop-In Centre Society. The primary objectives of a five year funded project called Transitions are to develop and implement a transitioning, retiring, exiting program that is responsive to the needs of sex workers in this community. Transitions is currently hiring a Program Coordinator, and Service Coordinators who will be trained, supported by, and incorporated into their respective Consortium organization's staff/team. They will be immersed in the culture of each organization to provide fluid service delivery consistent with each organization's mandate, existing staff, population group, culture, and approach. "For almost 40 years, Battered Women's Support Services has worked towards ending violence against women and girls. Each year, BWSS works with over 220 women who identify as relying on the sex economies as part of their income and/or survival" says Angela Marie MacOougall, Executive Director at BWSS "Their primary reason for accessing BWSS services is due to an abusive/violent partner, boyfriend, husband, and/or pimp. Transitions will strengthen current services provided and deliver wrap around support for women." "The HUSTLE Program at Health Initiative for Men (HIM) has been offering outreach and support for men in the sex industry in Vancouver for a decade and is excited to be launching their version of Transitions in 2017" says Matthew Taylor, HUSTLE Program Manager. "HIM values a non-judgmental, sex positive and strengths based philosophy through capacity building, collaboration and a comprehensive approach to healthy living. Transitions will align well with HIM's mission by providing men with the necessary supports, life skills and options to assist them in reducing their reliance on sex work and/or transition, retire, and/or exit the sex industry." "Operating under a peer-driven and harm reduction approach, PACE Society has more than twenty years of experience in working with Sex Workers to address their self-identified needs," says Laura Dilley, PACE Society Executive Director. "Every year, we provide direct services to more than 500 Sex Workers annually and have a longstanding track record of helping Sex Workers who wish to transition into other forms of work. Transitions will allow us to scale-up these efforts to better address the needs of Sex Workers in our community." "For more than 30 years, WISH has provided a place of respite, safety and opportunity for women engaged in street-based sex work. WISH supports approximately 350 women, daily, through a non-judgemental approach that values acceptance, caring, dignity, and respect. We are excited to provide women who access WISH's programs and services and who seek to exit or transition out of the sex trade with dedicated, on-going support and programming to do so," says Mebrat Beyene, WISH Executive Director. "The Transitions project provides a much-anticipated opportunity to combine the Consortium's collective expertise and best-practices in order to focus solely on transitioning and exiting activities and programming."
What The Shadows Taught Us The New Year has arrived blessings to ali who want the world to change the answer to many problems if on the tip of your young who are sick & ti red of moving in & out all around this once proud city just too much has been disarranged even Third World countries do not want to be Vancouverites anym6re, like children's minds will change but for now so quiet so cute once grown will they protest for this planet's safety & full on protection no one at a Peace March is mute although we could hold the firs audio sign language festival this is what protests with entertainment are for, Like hitting the big time over & over again with my AM/FM digital quartz baseball bat god is my witness to the true moments my memory sometimes lacks Earth is my field as I am its groundskeeper, like leaving a trail of open doors as serial ki lIer Global Guy Smiley believes he is on a mission from Mr God Himself shadows lengthen as he reaches for a bible from his shelf. .. T think it's visionaries like yourself who will sink other's faith in anything so much deeper, Once we are able to turn or dim down the light years to soothe all your romantic times like being on the left side of history our down payment shall be written in your own children's blood that's pure agony that will last forever at least it rhymes bulletproof skin is still several years away, like Jesus Christ having to be put in the witness relocation program my disquietude is the absolute reverse ofthat now lying face-down in your yard is no way to greet relatives or guests when the voice in your head tells you to suck it up like the cat in the hat must we all continue to obey? Like bomb squads for birthday party kids seem to be impervious to pain but as for suffering things falling apart could begin to grow we have destroyed so much of this selfless planet not for answers just an inkling as to how & when we will go I am sure the ground above LIS is waiting to cash in on the few that survive the next world war, like a satanic Tupperware party cut short as I watch snow cover the ground is this an omen from above or beyond world peace only our shadows have learnt & found as another drunk father drags a sort of new asbestos Xmas tree through your already 'lit before the lights went up' front door, now drinking out loud makes one wonder on which day did god create fences chains connecting hands to waist to ankles you know mankind's neve-ending punishmen on one's self is it time we vanish like common sense or have we condemned innocent men for actual crimes god please
remove greed, vanity & lust from the bleakness of my eyes, Like Snow White with black'n red dreadlocks she is part of this Alt+Right whose own visions are to destroy anyone or thing that is not blue eyed & white god please let these people suffer what they had so completely planned out we are talking twenty-first century genocide, like how to plummet to your death in twelve easy floors I'd let me rot in some beautiful off-colour jail something rotting inside of us wants or needs to score any luxuries would be viewed as a bribe. To pretend to have answers only brings pain along with the truth I have a soul too if god were merciful I could die right here man that would be so cool the future only burns what I have inside. Shadows speak of the evil ones like Richard Spencer with his "anything not white" destroy all you can 1 am not a huge democracy lover but is mistress thinks she is the reincarnation of AdolfHitler where are you god when so many could create an ideal for living without hate segregation so many lies abuse & soon-to-be-dead suicide bombers mankind is a fraud once again do I cheer the survivors or wish them all a speedy death, please do not fret our right to die a dignified death is what this country is all about this country rocks the world granted the world thinking a beaver building a darn over NiagaraFalls is our version of mighty clout & half a year from now we shall be 150 years yound everyone is invited to consume this fine fresh air go ahead take more than eleven teen breaths. By ROBERT
McGILLlVRA
Y
"So many shadows of the dead who died because they did their drugs alone! People die from doing drugs because they're not with friends or even with dealers. Their shadows die begging for at least a ring from their telephone." Saint Minus
Constituency OffIce now op.en 2572 E. HastingsStreet Vancouver BC V5K 1Z3 Tel: 604-775-5800 Fax: 604-775-5811 Email:Jenny.Kwan@parl.gc.ca Jenny Kwan MP Vancouver East NDP Immigration,Refugee and CitizenshipCritic
Order of Canada to Ubby Davies Libby Davies has been named a Member of the Order of Canada in December 2016. This is ajoyous affirmation of her life's work and the impact her tenacious integrity has had on the world, Canada, British Columbia, Vancouver, and the Downtown Eastside. She moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1969 and, through association with her father's work, participated in many grass-roots political organizations in the Downtown Eastside. She dropped out of university to help Bruce Eriksen found the Downtown Eastside } Residents Association (DERA), an influentiallow-income housing advocacy group. She was instrumental in a campaign to save the Carnegie library building and convert it into the Carnegie Community Centre, serving low-income adults. Libby and Bruce became a couple and for 24 years lived in a common law relationship until Bruce died of cancer in 1997. They had a son, Lief. Davies was elected to Vancouver City Council as a member of the Committee of Progressive Electors (COPE) in 1982 and was re-elected in 1984, 1986, 1988, and 1990. She ran for Mayor of Vancouver with the backing of COPE in 1993, losing to Philip Owen. From 1994 to 1997 Libby worked with the Hospital Employees Union. When Libby was defeated in '93, NOP MP Margaret Mitchell also suffered defeat in the anti-Mulroney landslide for the Liberal party. We were stuck with Anna Terrana for 3 years. An example of her commitment or even ability to listen was exemplified when an emergency public meeting was held here
in Carnegie - women were being murdered and overdose deaths were at an all-time high. Terrana heard person after person speak, giving stark first-hand reports on the inadequacies of then-present services and responses. She then rose to speak and talked about low birth weights of babies in Vancouver - that was what she had just been briefed on in Ottawa by Liberal party handlers. Talk about outrage! When Libby started her campaign for election as Member of Parliament in 1997 virtually every low-income resident in th Downtown Eastside supported her. Libby was always someone to vote for and not the standard lesser-of-two-evils most political contests come to. *Davies was first elected to parliament in 1997 and re-elected in 2000, 2004, 2006 and 2008 and 2011. Previously the NOP House Leader and spokesperson for housing, homelessness and multiculturalism, she became Health Critic in the shadow cabinet of Jack Layton upon the NDP's ascent to Official Opposition status. In parliament she has been a strong supporter of drug policy reform, specifically to halt the criminalization of drug users. Libby was good friends with Bud Osborn and worked with him & the network of people on drug policy reform. In 2005, during the parliamentary debate on same-sex marriage in Canada, Conservative MP Jason Kenney cited Davies' prior relationship with Eriksen as proof that marriage law doesn't discriminate against LGBT individuals, since a gay person can marry a member of the opposite sex. Davies, who was never formally married to Eriksen, joined other commentators in criticizing Kenney for playing politics with other parliamentarians' personal lives. In December 2007, Davies received the Justice Gerald Le Dain Award for Achievement in the Field of Law. She was recognized for her "outstanding drug policy reform work" at the 2007 International Drug Policy Reform Conference, hosted by the Drug Policy Alliance and the Criminal Justice Policy Foundation. Davies faced accusations of anti-semitism stemming from a June 5, 2010, interview in which she suggested that Israel has been occupied territory since 1948. She was criticized for her comments the next day in an Ottawa Citizen editorial. She responded to these criticisms in a letter to the Citizen, which was also posted on Davies' constituency website. In 2011, it was announced that Davies would serve as health critic for the Official Opposition Shadow Cabi.net, while continuing to serve in her role as deputy
leader of the NDP. Davies declined to stand as a candidate for the leadership of the New Democratic Party in 2012, citing her' inability to speak French as a factor. On December 12,2014, Davies announced that she would retire from parliament at the 2015 general election after 18 years as a Member of Parliament. *{Partially taken from Wikipedia.]
,
It is especially fitting that Libby be so recognised as January 20 marks the 37th anniversary of the opening of this renovated site as a community centre. It took 7 years of almost constant organising and campaigns and rallies and demonstrations to get political dragons to realise the potential of acquiescing to the demands of local residents. The same ideation is inherent in the work of the Carnegie Community Action Project, whose volunteer coordinator - Jean Swanson - is her old cohort at DERA. I think Libby would approve, and the almost-constant "I've been here before!" on issues of housing, homelessness, poverty, slumlords' exploitation, the treatment of residents as less than human or 2nd_classcitizens, the predatory machinations of dealers & developers, drug/gender/racial discrimination leading to violence, and the constant pressure to uproot us, to make way for the pioneering of this land again, are in new clothes but show the persistence of ages-old dichotomies. Kudos for Libby and Jean aren't done yet. By PAULR TAYLOR
VANDU
Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users
OVERDOSE PREVENTION SITE' 1OAM-1 OPM -- every day 380 E. Hastings SAFE WARM SUPPORT
Getting Warmer Bad Press had a community centre closing its doors at night after someone finding a rig in one of its washrooms. What the article didn't say was that the Sharps container was at the Front Desk and they didn't have one in the washroom. The whole interview with that centre's director included the real story that the staff was overwhelmed and burnt out after 30 days of24hour openings. The cold weather has hit homeless people especially hard and people with the Homelessness Task Force have gotten a handful of community centres to have a contained space available for anyone needing warm shelter after 11pm. Here at Carnegie Community Centre the first floor is available from 11pm to 7am. People can sleep in the theatre and sit with hot beverages and learn about what resources are currently available. Great praise to the staff here for all the extra work involved in making this place welcoming and worth coming to. Food, programs, meeting needs and providing venues for aspirations is all in a day's work. The Outreach Team is located at 360 Jackson Street and deals with a lot of the real struggles involved with getting and keeping decent places to live. I can't say enough good things about the people who work here, whether paid or unpaid, but then again they . all know where to find me ... I
PRT i PS: As it says above the DONA nONS
list, publication is possible only with now-necessary donations. If you aren't entirely drained with xmas or other pleas for cash, send something to the Carnegie Community CentreAssociation for the Newsletter. Thanks.
complaint of an advocate sad. lord tired and WOI11 and sick so sick of power politics of turf wars of meetings and committees sick of everything that loses focus because every deception every agenda every meeting every resentment every control grab every move for the money slams down hardest
l1who has aids
and who came up to me recently agencies I after our dopefiend discussion meeting the bureaucracies where we discussed the manoeuvring for advantage fighting towards a life-saving all the greed and fear and enlightened place the loss of focus . he'd been very articulate during the meeting but Iremember he understands the situation (and this is why memory is such a li~bility in his flesh to self-interest) in his misery I remember her eyes in his anger glistening with tears he understands in the lobby ofthe pacific cinematheque theatre how other people hate him after the showing and wish he'd just of her documentary go away somewhere out of sight tu as crie / let me go and die a long beautiful love poem he said to me to her daughter you know how cynical I am
I the
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on the most wretched human beings in north america who are suffering and dying in the streets and alleys - and shit-hole hotels of the downtown eastside all the pettiness and ambition slams directly' down on those who are most afflicted by_ poverty_ and illness
a heroin addict and prostitute murdered in montreal
about anything good happening for us but this meeting today ,it gives me a ray of hope and Isee his face illuminated for a moment with that most alien and elusive expression
Iwant to say fuck it
her film also' a plea a challenge to transcend the senseless and bankrupt slaughte of the war on drugs â&#x20AC;˘ so yeah today when I feel like shit d tt it an wan 0 qUI . 1 1 see rer eyes I' , ,I g isternng Wit 1 tears after Iheld up for her
it's too fucking hard I am old and beat and hurt like a bastard I want to sit beneath a tree a dog beside me the' ocean in front of .me and write an occasional haiku about a passing cloud I feel like hell my. life is a mess 1 can't sleep worth a damn my health is shot Ikeep going by consuming caffeine and sugar and nicotine and aspirins Ihave no paid job and no resources to deal with all this shit
that day's vancouver sun newspaper with the headline western world's worst hiv/aids epidemic among drug users in the downtown eastside she said don't stop fighting . she looked directly into my eyes and said ? d on't stop fiIg hti tmg and today when the fight seems too fierce to deal with when it feels like it's killing me Iremember her eyes' I hear her words and I remember this junkie in the downtown eastside
addiction and discrimination homelessness and demonizing so, lord I want to quit I want to stop
propaganda
I
hope today when Ifeel hopeless when the odds are too long the deck stacked against the clock running out
and who the fuck am 1 anyway? ajunkie myself a fucking mental case surviving on social assistance straight just a few years and ripped again with dopeiiend cravings for pain relief , shit sitting in meetings with people paid to be there and I pass up the fucking sandwich lines to sit and listen to them and get frustrated and pissed-off and hungry and depressed shit arId then I see her eyes and hear her voice and see on his anguished face a ray of hope and then I walk past the walton and the patricia hotels within a block of each other in the downtown eastside and see the first names of my father and mothe both of whom died homeless and broke my father full of drugs and booze when he hanged hirnselfinjail and my mother wracked by drug addiction and mental illness whose friends at the end were crackheads and thieves walton and patricia and remember how my parents were jailed and scapegoated but I still want to say fuck it I don't have to do this I'm not strung-out now I've gotten a miracle pass to a new life why waste it down here in this mess of shit and trouble where I have spent nearly all of my fucking life I could hustle something better than stretching between the gutter with the scum
and meeting rooms with lying backstabbing sleight-of-hand . bureaucratic hustlers yeah I remember my father got rid of all our furniture except for the beds because he said furniture was too middleclass so no I'm not too happy with all this manipulating glad-ass convivial crap dehumanizing me even further but I remember reading about the first dirt-poor black man sprung from an alabama death row for a murder he didn't commit sprung largely through the intense and tenacious efforts of a young black lawyer with a graduate degree from harvard law who could've written his own ticket to corporation law firms coast to coast but chose to defend for almost nothing : the baddest and most undeserving of poor people â&#x20AC;˘ and this lawyer defines the role of an advocate by telling a bible story when jesus came upon some men fixing to stone to death a woman who violated their morality and jesus told them , to let the man who never fucked up throw the first stone and the men became ashamed of themselves dropped their stones and walked on home but this young black lawyer says that kind of thing wouldn't work today because people today, not only don't become ashamed of themselves .but are only too eager to decide who will live and who will die and so an advocate today says the lawyer
an advocate today must be a stone catcher catching stones with your nerves your heart your skin your life catching stones intended for those like the westem world's worst for those like my father and mother today when I don't feel 1can take another moment of it when] don't want to take anymore of it when I think I must be a complete fool to go through another day of it when today hits me so goddamned hard then the fight that is in my blood the ray of hope that is in my soul the high threshold for pain f .remembers despite myself . who I am and where I stand when the stones are being thrown who I am and where I stand when the stones are being thrown Bud Osborn
we SAy ENOUGH IS 1fN0IJ6H! f'topÂŁe ARC
5MOI<ER5 HAVf3. RIGHTS, too! MO ON& OF TH8M ISTHE RIGHT TO SM{)J(& re/,IV&RY SYSTeMS WITH CONTl?tJ/IfRS!A/, INf3R/3 f)feNTS THATMAY <, __ -_ ORMAYNOT B&REAT&11 TOWNG
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THIS NEWSLETTER 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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AIDS POVERTY HOMELESSNESS ViOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ABORIGINAL GENOCIDE TOTALITARIAN CAP ITALlSM IGNORANCE and SUSTAINED FEAR
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