March 1, 2007, carnegie newsletter

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MARCH 1, 2007

camnews@vcn.bc.ca www.camnews.org

NEWSLETTER 401 Main Street . Vancouver V6A 2T7 (604) 665-2289

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and mobilized into opposing 2010.

It's hard work, since so many of our groups & organizations are funded by the government, which makes people complacent and controlled. Many have been bought off by V ANOC and are participating in 20 l 0-related events & Public Relations work.

But there are also Natives who opposed the Olympics, including the Sutikalh camp near Mt. Currie, the Skwelkwelk'welt defenders at Sun Peaks, and the Native Youth Movement.

Our elder, Harriet Nahanee, was recently sent to jail for 14 days for participating in the May 2006 blockade of highway construction inN. Vancouver (and is now in the hospital with pneumonia as a result).

Business is not a victimless crime.

At the rally there were probably about 20 Natives Homelessness is not an accident. (out of60). We had NYM speakers, Native banners, Re: PauiR Taylor's "What can ya' say?" in Feb. 15, Warrior flags, drummers & singers. but you know 2007 edition of Carnegie Newsletter what? There wasn't one word in the corporate media about Native participation in the rally, or any Native What's the matter PaulR, did someone steal your opposition to 2010. The entire protest was portrayed 'thunder'? Or maybe you didn't really bring any to as anti-homelessness, disregarding Indigenous constart with. The 'Doomsday Clock' was a great idea, cerns over sovereignty, ecological destruction and don't get me wrong. And, contrary to your assertion , displacement as a result of corporate invasion'& re. tt actually did get quite a bit of mention in the corposource exploitation. rate media, as did the issue of homelessness. In fact, So please, give it a break. Your message got out the only slogan mentioned was "Homes Not Games!" there, "Homes not Games" got out there (thanks to The entire rally was described as anti-homeless prothe APC), and even your clock-prop got mentioned. testers, or members of the Anti-Poverty Committee.

As for an entire race of people? They were somehow The APC have done tremendous work in raising the invisible (which your one-sided rant against APC profile of homelessness in Vancouver. They have only perpetuates). done this through a variety of means, including Am I angry at APC for 'stealing the show'? No, beleaflets, posters, public forums, meetings, protests, cause it's a clear attempt by corporations to silence & and direct actions (inc. sq uatting and disrupting city marginalize Native resistance to the Olympics. As for council meetings). They work hard and face police the effect of the direct action taken on Feb.l2, I know harassment, surveillance, and arrests. They have the many people (Native & non-Native) who feel emrespect of a lot of poor people because of their compowered as a result of the rally. Strangers & friends mitment. alike have thanked me and congratulated me for what Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Gord was done.

Hill. I was one of those arrested at the Feb. 12 AntiLet me close with a quote from the Globe & Mail: Olympic Countdown Clock protest. In fact, it was "Until yesterday's protest, the 2010 Games had atme who is alleged to have stormed the stage and ~racted little public hostility, with opinion polls showgrabbed the microphone to scream 'profanities' into mg a l~rge majority of public supportive" ("Olympic live TV. cloc~ ttcks off protesters," Globe & Mail, Feb. 13,) I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the Thts w~s an effective direct action. Your personal APC. I am a Native wanior from the Kwakwabtas agamst APC appears to have impaired your abilka'wakw nation. For many years I was active in the ity to think logically. I suggest you review the corpoNative Youth Movement and continue to be involved rate media coverage again. Virtually every article in the struggle of my peoples. I helped organize the mentions anti-homelessness, and most also mention Feb. 12 rally, specifically to get Native people out

your crude 'doomsday clock'. Try to find anything about all the Natives that were there.

Gilakas'la!

Gord Hill, Kwakwak'awakw

Said well.

Actions of the APC also include their co-optation of the Women's Centre and a representative group of elders with drums, singing and set on presenting their demands to the civic body at the Vancouver Public Library. The extreme necessity was to get money for a women-only shelter in the very cold days after the new year.

APC, after sidelining any leadership of these women ("your cause is only a small part of our larger, more noble cause"(?)) says and demonstrates that their s~le purpose was to disrupt that meeting, which they dzd screaming obscenities, throwing chairs and overturning tables, and washing police people's faces with their spittle as they screamed, from six inches away, "You fucking Nazi pig asswipe!!" then whined as loudly as possible when the most belligerent were arrested. Following their playbook/script?! ape people turned with vindictive denunciations and further obscenities focused on any 'civilian' who didn 't support such behaviour. Ditto at City Hall, ditto at a public meeting at Carnegie, ditto ... it's sadly expected now.

There was not one word about the Women's Centre and, again- to use your words- the Native presence (elders with drums, singing and chanting) with crucial demands, issues, was invisible.

I may have watched the wrong TV news after the Doomsda!" Clock event (CBC was reportedly fairer) but CTV zs the official media for 2010 and it and all affiliat~ ~ewspapers and radio made no mention of the legtttmacy of Natives or the fact that all issues focused on were even worth giving coverage to. It 路was all spun down to 'violent protestors and security' with no native aspect whatsoever. They did make a non-verbal statement: 'This is the exact kind ofcoverage that will be given to protests and dissent from now on until after 2010. ' 路 Control ofmedia will play a major role in how the "world" will see us. Months, even a few years passed before the tactics used in Atlanta and Salt Lake City got international coverage. In Atlanta, with all kinds ofpromises about social responsibility .in place, the homeless and street people were put on buses and taken out of town for the duration of the Games. Ditto

in Salt Lake, with arrests of those refusing to become 路-z 'invisible'. . .

The US medza long ago dzsowned being held ac- ~ countable for covering Native concern over land and setcred places. Guess who owns Canadian media?

If I were on the side of corporate hegemony, the tactics and strategy ofAPC is close to what I'd t1y to provoke in 'those' people (all wanting social justice and fair treatment) . "Get headlines and coverage so all involved are seen as violent, unsane and crude' with 'reasoning' an impossibility. Get TV coverage with screaming obscenities (like, heard over the mike from someone storming the stage "... jz-lcking cunt!'')

As long as the 'anti-poverty committee' gets their 15 seconds, the majority ofpeople vvill disavow af filiation, leaving us fragmented and easily picked off or just rolled in and under the anti-ape tactics categorization.

It's funny that y our/their strategy added greatly to keeping the Native aspect ofall this invisible. The entire issue ofhousing, as opposed to just stopping the Games entirely for whatever reasons, was virtually lost - again, with APC efforts contributing greatly.

P aulR Taylor Respectfully submitted, Thanks for the response Paul.

As for the DEWC protest at the library, I was there and to be honest, the DEWC lost their leadership when they stopped to pose for the cameras while cops & security guards were attacking people. I saw the news on that too and there they were in a nice semi-circle singing and drumming away. Ya it also showed people getting rowdy but that's what it's gonna take.

Again, it's because of APC's militancy that the issue of homelessness is a major concern in the city. Not just them, but their actions are contributing to raising the profile of the group.

As for Feb. 12, again the issue of homelessness was front and center, even as police denounced us for our actions. Denunciations from our common enemy we expect. Any act of resistance is used to justify their repression, if not they'll fabricate it... this does not invalidate the necessity to resist.

Gord

It's not the denunciations from our common enemy that concern me. It's the groans and frustration and

anger that boil up towards these people (ape) when, despite any considerations agreed to or just voiced before, the public venue is claimed by ape and all other concerns I voices are elbowed out of the 11/ay as ape people launch into their schtick.

I hear maybe one response that "everyone has a right" but that's what Campbell and Sullivan said for their soundbyte. And that's an average of one vague support for every twenty (from people on our side) who get really pissed, who now have to make plans on what to do at the next event where ape will insist, again, that their voices/tactics/strategy are the only valid way. It just sucks.

Paul The Editor, Carnegie Newsletter, Congratulations on an informative issue with many good letters and poems. The one thing that struck a sour note was the verging-on-hysterical article, signed by you, trashing the APC. It's unfortunate that the press focused on the fracas, but as you well know, that's what the press love to do. So in fact, creating a stir was a good strategy for that day and that in no way undermined Carnegie's excellent presentation on the spot. Your nasty comments smacked of yellow journalism and gave weight to the media claims that APC had projectiles and used them. The APC may be more flamboyant than you are comfortable with, but violence is not their style.

They are devoted to challenging the status quo, and it is good and necessary that there are many groups and many ways to express our common outrage.

That your position of privilege and power be used for th is spurious attack is a real low and arrogant move.

If we stoop to calling each other names instead of working to co-ordinate strategies, then we all lose.

Watch what you accuse folks of doing, then look in the mirror.

I don ' t suppose that you will recant or apologize, but if you publish this, it could undo some of the damage done with that article. I want people to know that everyone in Carnegie is not a flaming reactionary.

Delanye

"If we stoop to calling each other names instead of working to co-ordinate strategies, then we all lose."

My point exactly, and one that the anti-poverty committee seems to rely on to elbow their way in front of whatever else community collaborators have agreed

to, ((anything. The calling ofnames didn't originate with the ape but the most verbose of those speaking! yelling immediately trash anyone not 100% in agreement with anything ape-sponsored or initiated.

Virtually any community activist or organizational rep knows this for a fact, seeing and hearing it at public venues again and again.

The vitriol against me personally - one ofthe few people I have great respect for once told me that I'm an idiot.. that I have no brain. It's always helpful to have criticism. . with one's own degree ofpsychospiritual parallelism helping intuit veracity.

PRT

Where do they want the poor to go?

SHADOW THEATRE FILMS

By Larry Reed

Saturday March 3, 2 pm Carnegie Theatre, 401 Main St. ADMISSION IS FREE - ALL WELCOME! The Wild Party A demonstration of shadow theatre techniques featuring a risque 1920's Jazz Age poem about a couple of quarrelling vaudeville performers who fight, make up and throw a party where they flirt with danger.

Jazz music by band Bruce Forman.

The Seven Visions of Encarnacion The story of a young monk's forbidden love and hidden identity.The poems and images honor the Oia de los Muertos.

Written by Octavia Solis with music composed by Richard Marriot and performed Cascada de Flores trio and

New Daylight Saving Time Takes Effect in 2007 It begins 3 weeks earlier now, so set Clocks ahead Saturday night, tv1arch 10.

WHAT IS THE

VANCOUVER EAST GREEN AGENDA -AND WHAT COULD IT BE?

••• with Libby Davies and special guestsTracey Axelsson, Cooperative Auto Network; Herb Barbolet, Centre for Sustainable Development SFU; Morag Carter, David Suzuki Foundation; Jason O'Brien, My Own Back Yard (MOBY); and David Tracey, Strathcona Community Gardens to make action plans for our future.

Saturday, March 10,

2 to 4 pm

Carnegie Community Centre

Open 5oth of Your E_~es to See As a recent intern for the Carnegie Newsletter l was somewhat dismayed by the week-long feature on the Downtown Eastside (DTES) as reported by Global's Mike McCardell.

Anyone with only one eye open can only see half the picture or half the truth. In this case, McCardell chose to only see the struggles that some residents choose (meaning every action is ultimately a choice) to journey through on a regular basis.

The people who live in Canada's poorest urban postal code are not all drug addicts and/or mentally disturbed beings. The DTES is a Vancouver neigh bourhood where individuals and families live and try to survive. Although McCardell chose to report only on the uglier side of the DTES, there are many organizations that are working to change the ugliness of the comm unity and help those in need.

Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (V ANDU), has been helping the addicts and people in need and educating addicts with alternatives since 1998. The Supervised Injection Site (S IS) located at 139 East Hastings is in the heart of the DTES, providing assistance and counselling to addicts. According toresearch from the B.C. Centre for Excellence, over a

one year period the SIS made 2000 referrals, with S close to 40 per cent of those to addiction counselling.

During my two-week education at Carnegie Centre l witnessed true acts of kindness and compassion from many local residents. I carried my camera with me at all times and I was amazed at some of the remarkab le moments I captured. I witnessed a man ""ho vvas homeless with just the clothes on his back still have enough compassion to buy bread to feed the birds.

I met a man named Daniel inside the Carnegie who couldn't afford socks but still had enough spirit within himself to sit in a quiet corner, play a guitar and sing a truly moving piece about freedom.

One Saturday night I joined a group of DTES residents to listen to a poetry slam. Although none of the poets wore Gucci shoes or the most recent trends in clothing, the words they spoke were truly worthy of Quill awards.

My weekends were mainly spent wandering around the area. One Saturday I was in Oppenheimer Park, a couple of blocks from Main & Hastings. A spectacular Totem greeted me as I walked through one of Vancouver's oldest parks, opened in 1902. I watched a young carver chiseling away at a sandston~ sculpture. His piece seemed like any other you mtght see in a gallery window.

Just a few blocks East of Main and Hastings I came across a community garden that was in the process of being worked on by local residents. l did take some pictures of a local mural that blanketed the building's walls on Hastings and Columbia.

Beautiful work, even though it isn't on canvass hanging on a living room wall.

During my internship I noticed that when I look_cd at the people from the Dovvntown Eastside, most of them were more like me than diffe rent. We just have different circumstances.

I am aware that McCardell recently was awarded Commentator ofthe Year at the ·Webster Awards. I do think he is very deserving of such an honor; l know because I was also at the awards receiving a Webster. I just think McCardell should have o~ened both his eyes while he was reporting on t.he Dl ~S. Since my internship has now ended I wtll contmue gathering people's stories from this dynamic community and capturing moments with both eyes open.

Jackie l lumber j ack i~humperr(vhotmail .co m

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STITCH IN TIME' SEWING CIRCLE

for women and men In the Seniors Lounge Every Tuesday, lOam- Noon. iv1aterials pro\'ided for hand sewing, embroidery, applique, quilt making, and mending.

Distant Drums Band and pound your deep drums, ladies, and toll your dark bell s. Oh yes, so much went awry and wrong; so many women fell. /\nd it !nu-ts so much to remember at night, uncertain times: the thing's so hard to describe: how you feel, just because, and what we once thought was forever is to begin now, once upon never.

In reflective retrospect very little- no - nothing, next to zero was done. When Dark's spirits attack, then col lide, where to run \Vho to scream to- not to be sought as you desperately tried to inconspicuously hide We know where to cast blame, who to abuse, who to shout to and who to shame ... oh what a hellish mess that this was, and this is, of precious women ignored - shut out in an extreme state of stress Over distant hi lls I' m sure there lies a safe place, undisturbed, where a rainbow meets with a glowing of love and a cozy feeling of grace. Surrealistic faces shine on in exquisite, crystallized, star-filled nights as a misty moon descends and then climbs An aura of a shaman shadow overlooks, many bright eyes floating on and on, endlessly, in a solemn space

This I bel ieve to be true; I will not and refuse to suppose. !l ave you ever wondered about things that you cherished, loved, and yet cannot - though you desperately wish to see them again- know that dow·n the road you wi ll?

You pray, you wi sh .. this is the way it's meant to be.

Robyn Livingstone

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Truth is not a passive value nor can it be found in the mere default of lies.

That one speaks in mellifluous words and says not a factual contradiction does not mean he speaks or writes the truth.

Merely the absence of lies does not mean that the speach is true and not true-- is a lie.

But the pretty smiles would have you not attend to this, but instead to their tone of voice, their pleasant smile, and gentle mannerism.

They feign the meaning the ir words do not convey.

They are their own designs self-purposes enrapt and as to the other their Christian sibling sister-- brother -Why? are they too not God endowed to mi nd-read the base intent self-purpose; self-design; self-all.

We are are all souls a-drown ing in the sea of necessity and commercial purposes.

The new-thing; the advertisement; the picture in the brain of this moment's des ire.

We are not who we are but instead --the lucky few those glossy pictures in the expensive magazi nes; or the lost ones on the last of the late night news. ken strang

with Delanye Sunday, March n, 1""3prn, Carnegie gym.

Feel better, last longer. All w e l c ome.

A True

Story of Street Help and Right Action

:

Rachel Rosetta Davis Stone

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PacifiC Bluegrass 路 ~ Herit:age Music Concert : .

It was late at night and the rain was coming down like a cold northern monsoon. I was just leaving the warmth and good cheer of the Carnegie's Tuesday Night Cabaret. Walking down the front steps, I felt the bag on my back lighten and I knew right away that someone had just taken my folder of 7 harmonicas out of it. I turned and confronted the man that was behi nd me, "Hey! Give me back my harmonicas!".

He ducked his head and mumbled that he had nothing, and started to walk very fast toward the alley. His actions told me the truth that his words denied, so, without thinking, I started after him, insisting that he give them back. He started running into the alley, with me right behind him, now I was screaming as loud as I could for help fro m the many people milling around in the rain, "Stop him! He's got my F***in' harmonicas !"

My guitar was on my back and I couldn't run very fast, but then a man looked up and stuck out his leg in the thiefs path My spirits soared as I saw this, and then they instantly plummeted as the thief sprang nimbly over my helper's leg. I thought that was it, my last chance. I was lucky enough that someone had tried to help, but it didn't work, and I started to rethink my actions as I continued to run after the thief down the alley. I mean, what in the world would I do if I caught him anyway?

To my amazement, I see another person stick out their leg in front of the man; cleverly, they placed their leg so high that he couldn't leap over it. The thief tried again to go over, but the leg was too high, (and so was he! ) and he fell hard onto the wet pavement, a stack of his porno mags and my harmonicas spread out in the sad puddles.

I picked up my harmonicas and informed the man that he is an anus, and then I turned to thank my hero.

There were many people there, but surreally, they have all gone back to their business in that split second as if nothing has happened, and I couldn't identify who had helped me. I knew I must give my thanks anyway, so I spread my arms w ide and said very loudly "THANK YOU EVERYONE!" and then I went to catch my bus in the rain.

Next Issue: What happens when they are stolen again!

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Wed, March 1q., 7 Ptn Carnegie Theat:re

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Bluegrass and-count:rY music!

Dear Republic: When I was a young reporter, I was told to always get both sides of the story. That's what was called balance. Like many other reporters, I ignored the rul e from time to time; never let the facts stand in the way of a good story. Now retired, I can't say I' m necessarily proud of it. But that's the way it was/is in the mainstream media. Imagine my surprise, then, to find an alternate media, and especially a respected journal like The Republic, can practice the same kind of journalism when dealing with a community organization.

I refer to your front-page story on Carnegie Centre (Feb. 1-14 issue). You cite five incidents that you say made you think about the meaning of community.

You don't mention that those incidents occurred over a five year span. Nor that every day of the year, about 2,000 people come through the doors of Carnegie to take part in one program or another. In 5 years, that would amount to 2,190,000 people.

You also neglect to mention that there is an admission policy put in place with the involvement of the Carnegie community for the safety, comfort and peace-of-mind of all those thousands of people. I'll leave aside whether your five incidents were even reported accurately - a dubious proposition si nce you ignore the both-sides rule. Those incidents represent some microscopically small proportion of all the interactions at Carnegie, something like one in four hundred thousand.

The meaning of community? A little balance please.

Bob Sarti Hornby Island, B.C. (Formerly of the Carnegie Community Centre Assoc Board.)

COUNTDOWN TO OBUVION

Humanities 101 Friday March 2, 7:30pm, Classroom II, Carnegie.

Olympic Clock of wood and steel From scattered money tossed left and right A ticking time bomb- How do you feel?

About to protest. . are you wound up tight for what's about to happen. . . does it seem unreal?

Eyeing rows of conceited corporate parasites I feel your pain; we're one, all together Ticktock- we hear a terrible, ominous sound Where are we to tum .. what are we to do?

When it concerns the homeless, the hurting who are losing ground, hold your picket signs high, above the rh etoric, and shout above the shrill hue & cry.

Encroaching, grasping 'real estate' developers and deaf-eared politicos gi ve us the royal runaround.

You' ve heard their spiel, the promises broken, truth that 's shrouded and untold, putdowns and just lies, Downtown Eastside SROs that do remain, They think them trash - the squats, the flops, It's all some got left you know .. . of course, you ' ve seen the news. You've heard their stories of riches to rags, lost loves and bittersweet glories. It's all they've got to hold on to with no options, like being painted into a decrepit desperate corner. Don 't give us dehumanizing, governmental , police state shelters. I'd rather live on the cold, wet winter streets and under red hot summer swelter taking chances with nothing stolen and safe to live and call our home, for us and our friends - or just to be serene, all a personal choice - almost anything's better than a shelter's nightmare.

Unpredictable street life, it ain ' t for us no more, even though we may be tough and exceptionally poor.

So. we are telling you, the ' powers-that-be' or the "ruling class," to cease being condescending, stop calling us names, and clean up your act. When homeless people continue to get many forms of sickness, on the fasttrack road to dying, you'll be the ones largely responsible. Your heads will drop in shame. If you wonder why you don 't sleep at night and the chips start falling where they may, we' ll know where to point our fingers, where to cast the blame.

Robyn Livingstone

The Geography and History of the Term "skid row" Talk and discussion by Tom Kemple, who teaches social and cultural theory at the Department of Sociology at UBC, and has also pa1iicipated for several years in Humanities 101.

Saturday March 3, 12- 2pm, C lassroom II, Carnegie

Presentation Skills Workshop Margot Bell, UBC Student Development If you would like to learn some effective and fetching ways of giving presentations, please consider coming.

RSVP by Friday hum 101 @ interchange.ubc.ca

Humanities 101 Community Programme Dr. Margot Leigh Butler, Academic Director Michael Barnholden, Associate D irector Lisa Harris, Programme Coordinator Faculty of Arts, University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada V6T lZl tel. 604-822-0028 hum 10 1@ interchange.ubc.ca Programme Office: Jack Bell B uilding 234 Website: http://humanities 10 l .arts.ubc.ca/

And where's

The can\can Outside

The front door That says Garbage

In the can\can/

A Child

Sand castles the shore

Someone

Runs " . laughs

Doesn't listen

1942

It must be

Broken hearted

That gender

Push

shove .

Void

less sad sand

Does the DTES

Need light bulbs.

Paper

And when I'm perfect

Rubs my skin harshly As I tear Humanity away, .

I'll let me know

At twenty five

Practices makes perfect

I've got 2 brains and They both function?

•

ce~.ts

Perhour

Bitterness holds Go away fly.

© Montana King

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WE NEED BOB WILLIAMS BACK ON THE BOARD FOR COMMUNITY REASONS: • More support for Carnegie • Converting the former Salvation Army building at Gore & Hastings to a community arts hub for training, networking, rehearsals • More co-op .solutions Bob Williams • Former Chair, Vancity • Former MLA • Former Chair, ICBC

FOR BETTER BANKING: .

• Expand free chequing • Create Ombudsman for complaints

VANCITY & PIDGEON PARK SAVINGS - ELECTION j)

Community Dental Day is an annual prograr...s

where dentists and staff volunteer provide-wide to ~ /~-;======:: provide free urgent treatment to low-income workin!::::====adults, seniors and students without a private dental plan. This program is for urgent dental treatment (tooth aches, broken teeth) not cleanings, orthodontics or cosmetic surgery.

Seniors, low-income working adults with no plans will take precedence over those with partial plans.

Others, including Ministry of Employment and InMetallic Embrace come Assistance clients participating in employment programs, unemployed individuals and students may You can't own everyone's problems. . be considered.

- do you understand?

Anyone interested in participating in this program Permission denied, fiction or otherwise. must complete a Patient Identification Form [call I re~d ~etween the lines & we do not need shining stars them or go there} and return it by March 15 to Bever~es ttat1on equals pedestrian pylons; ley Arduini, Community Dental Day Coordinator, at: Is that what we are to you?

British Columbia Dental Association Your metallic embrace will never replace 400 - 1765 West 8th Ave, Vancouver, BC, V6J 5C6 the "pylon" you've piled into, Phone: 604-736-7202 or 7-888-396-9888 Time to count the mounting cost of past lives Fax:604-736-7588 Seems like I' m always in someone's way ') Self-doubt sets in like colour in your hair? ?

1 • • What' II it be: short, black and straight today?

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The British Columbia Persons With AIDS Society treatment information program is organizing a community forum in Vancouver's downtown eastside on the topic of street drugs and HIV. This event will take place on Thursday, March 22"d at 6:00pm at the Carnegie Centre.

Dr. Todd Sakakibara will be presenting an overview on street drugs such as crack, heroin, methadone, injection cocaine, and crystal meth. The presentation will include a general overview touching upon transmission risks, and relationship to HIV, possible drug interactions with HIV medications, and harm reduction. This is a free event and all are welcome.

Food will be provided. Please phone 604 893 2274 to let us know you will be there.

Zoran Stjepanovic, Treatment Information Coordinator, British Columbia Persons With AIDS Society.

One of those things .. you wish you'd had time but, just like a bird sees its own reflection and bing bang boom dead, my friend Is the bird really dead or just trying my patience? the last words are the faintest We have been joined in progress a thousand too many times You know where I live but I know your crimes.

Let' s look up to the sky, share our universal disgust Here we are shredding the past for a very angry future Be sure you always know your allies let alone alibis; Things you' ll never understand let alone undermine ••• you know where to remind me ...

We all know violence is the first answer Don't we open your eyes?

My silent companion and I may be at the deep end of shallow for it is as clear as the sun.

Always is the moment I try my very best I try you try we all try ... neat, Ground begins to open crowded in more than ever Who says the end of the world won't be fun?!

Robert McGillivary

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Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP)

Newsletter

I

March 1, 2007

You can volunteer with CCAP's housing and • • 1ncome campaigns As many of you know, CCAP has 2 Street. We took up a lot of good space in campaigns, one to raise Assistance rates the media with our analysis as a result of that hard work. CCAP volunteers wrote called Raise the Rates and the other to protect and secure more affordable articles in the newsletter wrote, collected and delivered letters to City Council, housing for low-income people. . J:4• . ....

--c-.- ..

- I· The Province and Federal . -· I ·• ' .• Governments stopped building new social housing in the 90's.

Assistance rates are frozen at '90's cost of living.

The direct result: more homelessness and poverty. CCAP . is one small effort to change this on the big scale of things, but like a mosquito in the night, we can ,. have an effect. .

A lot happened in the last two months. City Council made decisions about SRO hotels in the DTES, CCAP Volunteers at Olympic Clock the Golden Crown Hotel threatened to media interviews, talked about the need evict, the Piccadilly Hotel is evicting tenants this week and the Province of BC for housing on Co-op Radio and more. delivered their budget for 2007-2008.

We did our best to influence the In response to all this, CCAP volunteers outcomes but as one CCAP volunteer spent many hours preparing for events said at our last organizing meeting, we have a big task ahead of us if we are like the Countdown to Triple (continued on page 2) Homelessness Clock and 1005 Station ~

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i

_,_

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(Continued from page 1) going to "tum this river."

But don' t be daunted. There is a lot we can do together. Consider volunteering.

We have humble volunteer supports and

if you are someone who likes to get things done please come and visit us at the Association office. - By Wendy Pedersen, CCAP Community Organizer

What's missing from the housing budget? The housing. tax cuts. And tax cuts are the real centerpiece, which makes BC Budget 2007 perhaps the most cynical document in recent memory because it counts the tax cuts as a substantial part of its housing plan.

If the $1.5 billion in tax cuts over three years had instead been allocated to building new social housing, we could have almost eliminated homelessness. Instead, we have a budget that not only fails to deliver new social housing, but will be taking 750 existing social housing units and converting them to supportive housing for seniors. This is robbing Peter to pay Paul. And it is reminiscent of the game the provincial government played a few years ago, taking federal money for ~ow-income social housing and using It to build assisted living spaces for • seniors.

Even the 250 new social housing (continued on page 3) (continued from page 2) units over

By Marc Lee (edited for space) BC Budget 2007 is a "housing budget" that does not build much housing.

The budget commits to a mere 250 new social housing units over two years- a far cry from the 2,000 per year that was built back when the federal and provincial governments were in the game (before 1993). At this pace, it will take 17 years to house the homeless of Greater Vancouver, and that is not taking into account estimates from the Pivot Legal Society that homelessness could triple by the time of the 201 0 Olympics.

There are a number ofhousina . . . . . b Initiatives 1n the budget, most of which are fine as things go, such as more shelters year-round for the homeless, and an expansion of the rent supplements announced last fall.

For every dollar of housing expenditures in the three-year fiscal plan, there are four dollars in income

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was eligible for income assistance, and cut a cheque right away.

However, most people living in poverty don't have access to legal . servtces.

Salvador explained "We will be arguing in Court that the law, including the Canadian Charter of

Rights and Freedoms, requires that emergency needs assessments be given within 24 hours. Turning people out onto the streets is a violation of their right to equality, life, liberty, and security of the person."

Welfare rate increases not enough Thanks to everyone who put up a poster, wrote a letter, occupied an office, went on a march, signed a petition, organized an event, came to the Shoe-In, and helped get others to do those things, the province will now be spending about $58 million more on welfare. The Carnegie Action Project, Raise the Rates and lots of other groups have been fighting for an increase that would have cost $700 million. The increase we got is only 8% of what we wanted, but it's better than a cut, which is what we've been getting for the last 13 years.

Welfare rates will go up a titch for nearly everyone in the cheque that you get on March 28th.

135,000 people on welfare (everyone) will be eligible to get an increase of $50 for the shelter part of your welfare. But you won't be able to get this unless you prove that you pay this n1uch for shelter. Watch out for

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rent increases in the Downtown Eastside and landlords learn about the increase and try to claim it. See the article on rent increases to learn about your rights.

If you are single and welfare expects you to look for work, you'll get an increase of $50 a month in the support part of your cheque, $235 a month instead of $185.

Single parents (18,800 of them) will get increases ranging from $100 to $219 a month depending on the number of children in the family and whether the parent is expected to work, or on PPMB (persistent multiple barriers) or PWD (disability).

The diabetic diet supplement will increase from $15 to $3 5 a month, so be sure to watch for that and ask for it if you don't get it.

The struggle continues.

--Jean Swanson

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Watch out for rent increases

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With welfare shelter rates going up by $50, watch out for illegal rent increases.

Here are some rules your landlord must follow, according to the Tenant Survival Guide: Your landlord can only raise your rent once a year, starting 12 months from the day you moved in.

Your landlord must give your 3 months written notice before the increase starts.

The notice of increase has to be on an official form called the Notice of Rent Increase Fonn or include all the infonnation on that form. If the landlord doesn't use the right form, the increase is illegal.

The landlord is only allowed to increase your rent by inflation plus 2%, which was 4% last year unless you agree in writing or unless the landlord applies for arbitration for a higher Increase.

If your landlord just tells you verbally that the rent is increasing, it is not legal.

However, if you move out of your room, the landlord is allowed to charge whatever he or she wants to the new tenant. Beware of landlords evicting you so they can rent to new tenants at higher rates. The landlord has to have good reasons for evicting you and they have to be in writing on a special form.

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If you need help fighting evictions or rent increases you can go to First United Church at Gore and Hastings and ask to see an advocate.

If your landlord does ask you for an illegal rent increase, let CCAP know (second floor of Carnegie just to the left of the stairs) so we can keep track of it.

If you are on welfare and already • pay1ng more than $325 a month for rent, you may Billionaires For The Olympics need to point this out to a Ministry worker in order to get the extra $50 for shelter. '~Jean Swanson

Piccadilly Hotel evictions soon and other news about SRO's Bad news. The Piccadilly Hotel will evict its tenants this coming Wednesday, February 28th. City inspectors I say it's falling apart and I I it needs to shut down.

I Please email city I ' councilors and remind them they voted to do a test case for the Standards of Maintenance Bylaw in Feb '07 that lets them pay for hotel repairs and bill the owner. Sam Sullivan and Peter Ladner in a unanimous vote in 2005 supported the DTES Housing Plan that says the City should buy one hotel a year. So far, not one has been purchased. This would be a good time to do it. If you don't have access to a computer, see Wendy in the CCAP office. Google Vancouver City Council for addresses or contact wpedersen@look.ca for a list. Don' t forget to include a Vancouver address by your name.

If the City doesn' t take action, watch for news of an emergency action by

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community groups. In the words of Tammi from Neighbourhood Helpers: .., "We must stop closures, . stop Olympic created homelessness and stand together to demand that ' people's lives come before development." ~Wendy

Sample letter for Piccadilly: To Mayor and Council - Feb. 28 2007 City of Vancouver Mission Statement: "To create a great city of communities which cares about its people, its environment and the opportunities to live, work and prosper."

This is a direct quote.

As a citizen of Vancouver, Canada, the world, and beyond, it is incumbent upon me to demand that you utilize the "Standard of Maintenance By-Law". This is in accordance with your unanimous vote to identify a test hotel to enact this by-law.

Put your monies where your collective mouths are. The world is watching you, and history. We dare you to show us what kind of humyns you are.

Thank you, Karenza T. Wall

The Burns Block Hotel will be auctioned this coming Thursday, March

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construction company ICT asked their workers to not rent DTES SRO rooms.

The owner is not evicting for now. And activists can use the story of the first confinned Olympic evictions to pressure for a rent freeze.

2010 Winter Games Inner City Inclusive Commitment Statement

1, 2007. The BB evicted their tenants last year. Watch for news about possible community actions related to this sale.

There are 5 goals related to housing. One of them is to ensure residents are not involuntarily displaced, evicted or face unreasonable increases in rent due to the Winter Games.

First Olympic evictions Did you see the news on Global TV about the Golden Crown Hotel? The owner admitted that he was evicting tenants March 31, 2007 to make way for Olympic workers and Woodward's labourers who will pay up to $1 000 a month rent. He said rent was $325 a month when he bought it and as people move out, he increases the rent. A couple living in the Golden Crown told me they pay $650/month rent already and get only $520 from Welfare to pay for it. They asked the reporter for $5 to do the interview because they were hungry, but they didn't get it. The story got a lot of media coverage and made its way through Olympic and government circles. As a result, the Woodward' s

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SRO Sale Statistics 22 hotels sold in 2006 1178 rooms sold Total rooms purchased by identifiable developers 541 Total rooms purchased by Robert Wilson 385 Total # SRO rooms in all Vancouver 6079 Rooms bought/sold/for sale since Jan 2006 21% Total value of hotels currently for sale $14,876,000 Number of rooms for sale 247 Average Cost per room for sale $60,000 Total value of all hotels in DTES $ 234,316,300 Average Cost per room DTES hotels $4 5, 000 •

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The famous quote is about a hundred years old and can be traced to the work of Finley Peter Dunne, one of the great journalists of the day

NEWSLETTER

Editor: PauiR Taylor·

THIS NEWSLEriER IS A PUOLICATION OF TilE CARN EGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE ASSOCIATION Articles represent the views of individual contributors and not of the Association

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2007 DONATIONS Libby D.-$100 Rolf A.-$50 Barry for Dave McC-$125 Christopher R.-$30 Margaret D.-$40 Penny G.-$50 Janice P.-$30 Wes K.-$50 Gram-$400 John S.-$60 Leslie S.-$20 Michael C.-$80 Sheila B.-$20 Wilhelmina M.-$15 CEEDS -$50 Saman -$20 Phyllis L.-$20o" Paddy -$125 Bob S.-$100 Barry M.-$125 Winnie T.-$5,000

Submission dead:ine for next issue: Monday 12 March i

WANTED: Artwork for the Carnegie Newsletter

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Carne91e .

* Small illustrations to go with articles & poetry; : Cov~r art- maximum size 17cm(6. 75") wide, 15cm(6") high; Subject matter relevant to issues pertaining to the Downtown Eastside is preferred but all work is considered; * Black and :rvhite ~rinti~g only; *Size restrictions must be considered (i.e. ~f you p~ece r~ too l~rge it will be reduced and/or cropped to fit; All artrsts wrll recerve credit for their work;* Originals returned after being copied for publication; * Carnegie volunteer tickets.

Make submissions to Paul Taylor Editor '

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CHIUS Hearts @ Work Ever wondered what "blood pressure" and "choles tero l" really mean to the health of your heart?

.Jenny WaiChing Kwan MLA

Want to know what simple day to day things yo u can do to keep your heart pumping for many years? .

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Come out to the A nnual CHIUS hearts@work day!

Sunday , March 11th 10 am - 3pm Carnegie Community Centre, 3rd floor This health information day is brought to you by the CHIUS univers ity students who work at the Powell Princess clinic each weekend. '

Working for You

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1070-1641 Commercial Dr VSL JVJ Phone:775-0790 Fax:775-0881 !

Our History Is Still Being Written:

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Hear Armando Choy at the Vancouver Library March 11. Choy, Gustavo Chu i and Moises Sfo Wong- three young rebels of Chinese-Cuban ancestry - threw themselves into the 1956-58 Cuban revolution that brought down the Batista dictatorsh ip. They all became generals in Cuba's army, helped lead 375,000 Cuban volunteers in the fight to defeat South African apartheid's invasion of Angola, and play leadership roles in Cuba today. Our History is Still Being Written, published by Pathfinder Press, tells their story.

The three describe how Cuba's Spanish colonial rulers brought over 150,000 Chinese indentured labourers to work as virtual slaves in the sugar industry. They tell the stacy . . of the thousands of Chinese-Cubans who participated in the war of independence against Spain and in the 1956-58 revolution. They explain that it was only because of Cuba's socialist revolution that "discrimination- agai nst blacks, against Chinese, against women, against the poor-was ended." Along with millions of other Cubans the three have changed the course of history.

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Of Mountains And Mice

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In 1989 Jean and I went for a hike on the Singing Pass Trail at Whistler, British Columbia. I knew Whistler Mountain well because I had done some prospecting there in 1965. In those days I used to slide down the glacier on Whistler Mountain on a piece of cardboard because no ski resort existed at • that time. In 1965 the village was called Alta Lake, and logging was the main .occupation for most residents. " See how gracefully the light falls on the trees," Jean said, as we walked up the Singing Pass Trail towards Singing Pass itself. "The light sings to us, and I feel like singing."

"The wind also sings to us," I said. "This trail has a singing name, and so does the pass up ahead. Melody Creek is below us and Piccolo Summit, Flute Summit and Oboe Summit are above us. The mountain is called "Whistler" after the marmots who whistle to warn of danger. The person who gave these places their English names heard the wind's music."

"Yes," Jean replied, and she hummed to herselfuntil we reached the open space of Singing Pass with its symphony ofwild flowers in purple, red, blue, white, orange and yellow, and its fine views ofBlackcomb Mountain on one side and Cheakamus Lake and · Cheakamus glacier on the other.

From Singing Pass we took a steep trail that led to Russet Lake, and I ran out of gas on this trail. "I don't think I can go any further," I said as I lay on my back and looked at the pale blue sky. "Russet Lake must be up in the clouds somewhere."

"We'll make it," Jean said. "We've come too far to turn back now."

And we did reach the lake, and the small red cabin for hikers. The cabin was empty, so we picked out a couple of beds and made ourselves to home. Then we walked close to a huge glacier, and gazed apprehensively at fierce mountains with names like "Macbeth" and "Overlord".

When we returned to the cabin we found that a group of six people had moved in. They were a friendly, respectful group, and it would have been easy to share the cabin with them. However, Jean and I decided to put up our small, red pup tent. This move would make the cabin more comfortable for the other hikers, and it would bring us closer to the earth and the sky.

"The weather is good. We really don't need the cabin," Jean said.

"Let's go," I agreed. "We'll sleep in our pup tent under the stars, and we'll share with the other hikers the doorless outhouse which overlooks Fitzsimmons Valley and the surrounding mountains."

"It has the most beautiful view in British Columbia," Jean said. "That outhouse is more majestic than the throne of England," I added.

We set up our tent, cooked supper on our gas stove, watched the stars appear in the clear, night sky, and crawled into bed. In the darkness Jean said, "Something is trying to get into our tent." Sure enough, I could hear a rustling on the sides of the tent. " It's not a bear," I said quickly.

"The noise is on the roof of the tent," Jean said.

"Something is sliding down the roof."

"Let's wait. Our eyes will adjust to the night,'~ I said.

"There's more than one of them," Jean said.

"They're sliding down the roof of the tent,'' I said. ''It's as though they were doing it deliberately."

"They're trying to get into the tent, or they're just having fun," Jean said. "They slide, and then they climb back up and slide again."

"I'm having trouble believing this. Are we awake?" I asked. "We're awake, and mice are sliding down the roof of our tent as though they were at the P.N.E.," Jean said.

So we waited in the night as mice played on the roof of our tent. They never got into the tent, and eventually they stopped. In the morning we visited our neighbours in the red cabin. "How did you sleep?" we asked them.

"Terrible," they replied. "Mice kept us awake all night. They were everywhere, and they were eating everything. We didn't get any sleep at all."

I had left my leather camera case hanging on the wall in the cabin.

"Here's vour camera case,'' one of the hikers said .

Half of it had been chewed away.

Jean and I packed up our gear, and prepared to descend to Singing Pass. "Good-bye Russet Lake, and good-bye mountain mice," we said. "It can't be an easy world for mice up here. The winters are long and the summers are short. You have given us a story that people will have trouble believing. ..;

We thank you for that."

Sandy Cameron

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Lawsuit Against BC's Welfare Ministry for Turning Client Out Onto the Streets

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ter or food are often not given emergency assessments unless they have an advocate and know the Ministry buzzwords. Even then, assessments are often scheduled up to a week or more away."

Mayne stated "Providing emergency services also means providing adequate staffing levels to administer those services."

As soon as he filed his coUit case, the Ministry found the time to give an immediate assessment, determined he was eligible for income assistance, and cut a cheque right away. However, most people living in poverty don't have access to legal ser•

VICeS.

Salvador explained "We ·will be arguing in Court that the law, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, requires that emergency needs assessments be given within 24 hours. Turning people out onto the streets is a violation of their right to equality, life, liberty, ·and security of the person."

The BC Public Interest A vocacy PIA ) recently filed a court case against BC's welfare Minis· try for effectively turning their client, a diabetic man, out onto the streets.

"When a welfare applicant has an immediate need for food or shelter, the Ministry is supposed to imFor more information, contact Emily Mayne at 604-253-0669 mediately assess the client's eligibility for welfare," or Ros Salvador at 604-687-3063 explains Emily Mayne, an advocate at the Kettle Friendship Society. .. . .

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The first time her client went to the welfare office ••. . •. P.eter' s Tax Servi~e in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside, the Ministry : ·:>:> : Comes~e me before the taxman turned him away saying they couldn't help him. ': ··.-· .T .•.· comes to see you.

The second time he went, armed with a letter from :.· . :;'t~~Y i .. .. '.9. .;3·0. A.. .M- 4·00 PM . . .. . .

Mayne, he was given an appointment one week .. . .. . .. .. _· ·· :: ·; · 1\'JQit., Thurs. and Friday away even though he indicated that he had no place · · · .· · ·· .. : ·.: .•· •: -12>East Hastings to sleep. He was also told he first needed to per· l\-fsg~'604.~~82~3269 ~xr.7727 form a series of tasks on the computer which he could not do because he can't read. The client, who is diabetic, ended up sleeping in the rain with inadequate food and unable to refrigerate his insulin, Wednesday, February 14, 2007 placing him at great health risk. Now he has a chest . House of Commons, Federal Parliament, Ottawa infection.

Mr. Speaker, every Valentines Day for the last 16 Susan Henry, who works at First United Church in years, hundreds of people gather in the heart of Vanthe Downtown Eastside, said "Our Church is full of couver's Downtown Eastside, to join in the annual homeless people who can't get on welfare due to Women's Memorial March. the barriers in accessing the system."

Women from the community, and especially AboWhen BCPIAC complained to the Ombudsman in riginal women, sisters and brothers, mothers, daugh2005, the Ministry assured the Ombudsman that ters and sons, march in memory of the hundreds of "the actual time between an applicant being found . women who die each year from violence . to have an emergency need and that person being This year is particularly sad and difficult for the given an interview was within 24 hours." However, families and friends of the women whose murders are Ros Salvador, a lawyer at BCPIAC, said "We are before the courts and who, daily, are re-living those still receiving consistent reports from welfare advotragic events. The Highway of tears, in Northern BC, cates around the province that clients with no shel"{ •

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is further evidence of the appalling situation facing Aboriginal women.

Members of the federal NDP caucus stand in solidarity with the family, friends and activists who are speaking out on this issue. We demand that all levels of government commit to end the cycle of violence agai nst women, to improve the safety of women in the sex trade, and to provide desperatel y needed housing and income support. Too many women have suffered, and gone missing, across Canada. It is time to act.

Libby Davies MP Vancouver East February 141h, 2007

Worst fears of housing advocates come true three years before Olympics 1

e worst fear of Downtown Eastside housing advocates is now coming true. Yesterday, We ndy Pedersen, community organizer with the Carnegie Community Action Project, met Daniel Jun, owner of the Golden Crown Hotel, located across from the new Woodwards development on Hastings St. Jun told Pedersen that low income tenants of his 28 unit building had been given eviction notices for March 3 I, 2007, that the bui Iding is being renovated, and that he hoped to rent the units to labourers working on Woodwards or the Olympic venues for $1000 per month. Many Downtown Eastside residents get only $325 a month for shelter from welfare.

The eviction notices are illegal, according to Kim Kerr of the Downtown Eastside Residents' Association because they are not on the proper form and the owner does not have a permit to convert his units.

When the city, province, federal government and V ANOC agreed to host the Olympics they made five Olympic housing "commitments." One of them was "to ensure that residents are not involuntarily displaced, evicted or face unreasonable increases in rent as a result of the Games." " It' s three years from the Olympics and we're losing 28 units of housing already," said Pedersen. "All levels of government have to act fast to ensure that this is stopped now.'' But right now, the city needs to declare a moratorium on all conversions and demolitions of hotels and roomi ng houses that aren't for social housing.

KW AN DEMANDS ACCOUNT OF OLYMPIC HOUSING DEFICIT Auditor General Must Assess 2010 Impact on Homelessness

Jenny Kwan, New Democrat MLA for Vancouver Mt. Pleasant, has brought a motion before the Legislative Assembly to have B.C.'s Auditor General monitor the loss of low-income housing as Vancouver prepares to host the 201 0 Winter Olympics.

"British Columbia can make the most of our opportunity to host the Winter Olympics by leaving a legacy of affordable housing beyond 201 0,'' said Kwan. " We cannot allow a repeat of 1986. where Expo was tarnished by the eviction of thousands of low income residents.''

Kwan wants the Auditor General to make certain BC is using due diligence in ensuring VANOC lives up to their Olympic commitments. A number of Single Room Accommodation hotels in the Downtown Eastside have already closed, wi th more bui ldings anticipated to be converted into higher cost housing.

"Almost every property in the Downtown Eastside has changed ownership in the last year,'' said Kwan.

"As Vancouver's real-estate market continues to heat up, the government must make sure people living in these hotels are not left in the cold."

The City of Vancouver estimates at least 1400 people sleep nightly witho ut a home. Vancouver's homeless number is expected to triple before the Olympic opening ceremonies introduce B.C. to the world. ''More then 700 units in Single Resident Accommodation hotels have been lost fro m conversions since the Olympic Games were awarded," said Kwan. "The Auditor General must moni tor this activity or by 2010 we will be watching more than just hockey - we will be witnessing a humanitarian crisis."

The full motion reads: Be it resolved that this House calls on the new Auditor Genera/to monitor the rate vfSingle Room Accommodation loss as a part of the Auditor General's 0( flee's evaluation ofthe Oly mpics.

First Nations Activist Dies after Release from Jail

by Zoe Blunt A community is in mourning following news of the death of a great-grandmother who fought to defend aboriginal rights and the environment. Activist Harriet Nahanee died at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver on Saturday. February 24, one month after she was sentenced to fourteen days in jail for protesting the destruction of a wetlands for a highway bypass.

The woman who once said that natives need an "aboriginal Malcolm X" to estore their pride wi ll be sorely missed by many, including her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Nahanee, age 71, was weak from the flu and asthma when路BC Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown ordered her to the Surrey Women's Pre-Trial Centre in January.

Nahance was hospitalized with pneumonia a week after her release from jail. Then doctors discovered she had lung cancer. A news release on Sunday, February 25 briefly announced Nahanee's death from pneumonia and complications.

Fellow activist and great-grandmother Betty Krawczyk, age 78, was among those who attended a prayer vigil for Nahanee Friday night. "Me and Harriet really bon ded" at the Eagleridge Bluffs blockade, she told me. " We were the only great-grandmothers there. It was up to us to bring it forward."

In January. Krawczyk urged Justice Brown to refrain from sending Mrs. Nahanee to jail. "I am very worried about Mrs. Harriet Nahanee," Krawczyk wrote.

"Mrs. Nahanee is not well. She has asthma and is suffering the after effects of a recent bout of flu that has left her very \-veak."

On March 5, Justice Brown will sentence Krawczyk for her own p art in the Eagleridge Bluffs protest.

Krawczyk expects to be sent to the same Surrey jail as Nahanee.

"Harriet believed Eagleridge Bluffs belonged to the Squamish Nation, and she felt her band - the elected chiefs- were trading the land away for development," Krawczyk told me by phone from Vancouver. "She wants the lan d preserved for her great-grandchildren.

She put her I i fe on the line for that."

Krawczyk reports that Nahanee was "challenging the right of the elected chiefs of the Squamish Nation to negotiate away tradi tional Squamish Lands off the Squamish Reserve, lands that include Eagleridge Bluffs. This action potentially has serious ramifica-

tions for the entire band concerning who has the right to negotiate away traditional Squamish Indian lands," she wrote in her blog.

Nahanee was born on the Pacheenaht Indian Reserve on Vancouver Island in I937. Along with the other children on the reserve, she was taken from her parents at age 5 to live at the Ahousaht Residential School. Five years later she and 300 others were transferred to Alberni Residential School. In 1998 she testified about the horrific abuse she and other native children suffered including beatings, rape, and murder.

According to Lloyd Dolha, Nahanee reported that children were punished for singing their traditional songs and speaking their own language. They were so poorly fed that they were beaten for stealing vegetables from the root cellar. She disclosed that she was sexually abused for four years in the school.

"I didn't bring it to mind until 1984, when my daughter committed suicide. Then I began to look at myself. Why I was addicted to alcohol? Why I wasn't a good parent?'' When Nahanee visited a psychiatrist she told him, "I think the church and the government did this to us deliberately in order to take the land and resources. It was all about keeping us dysfunctional, to keep us dependent."

On December 24, 1946, Nahanee witnessed an altercation between Rev. A.E. Caldwell, and a female supervisor at the top of a staircase at the school. They were arguing about a little girl who was running up and down the stairs.

"Mr. Caldwell was always drunk. You could smell the liquor on his breath all the time," Nahanee recalled. "He kicked the little girl and she fell down the stairs and died. That's murder. There were other kids in the infirmary who had their appendix burst. That's murder. Other children were beaten so badly they died. That's murder. No one bothered to take them to the hospital."

"The worst part of it was the loneliness. When you're a little kid and you can't reach out to your mom for a hug- it really hurts. It's a wound for a lifetime," said Nahanee.

On February 23, the day befoe Nahanee's death, the Indigenous Action Movement held a rally and prayer vigil for Harriet. Almost I00 people gathered outside the Supreme Court for a ceremonial walk to St. Paul's Hospital.

The group prayed with drums and sang the Women

Harriett Nahanee • Tsebeoilt: 1935-2007

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Warrior's Song outside Nahanee's p room to give her support and strength. They brought flowers, . cards and a picture of the Larsen Creek Wetlands at Eagleridge Bluffs before they were demolished.

Details about Nahanee's memorial have not yet been confirmed by her family.

For those wanting to send Condolences, Donations or Flowers please contact::: Kat Norris

406-1725 East Pender Street Vancouver, B.C., VSL lWS ·

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Harriett once said to a group of fellow survivors of church terrorism, "I used to be a victim. Now I'm a threat!"

That threat was finally stilled, or so it seems, on Saturday evening, February 25, when Harriett died at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, where so many of her people have been killed.

Harriett was murdered by Judge Brenda Brown, who condemned her, a seventy two year old woman with severe asthma, to imprisonment for two weeks in a cold, unhealthy prison cell for the "crime" of defending her land. Harriett was legally killed by the same colonial system that jailed and tortured her at age ten in the United Church's Alberni Indian Residential School. That system has finally closed her mouth; but as Harriett reminded us so often, it was never able to claim her spirit.

The same cannot be said of so-called chiefs of the Squamish Nation whom Harriett was trying to sue when she died so suddenly, in an attempt to stop their illegal surrendering of Squamish ancestral land to the 2010 Olympics machine: the same chiefs who tried for years to force Harriett off their reserve for being a constant threat to their whorish crimes, and who announced just after her death that they would not offer a penny of support to Harriett's surviving family.

"There are only two kinds of Indians left: the slaves and the sellouts" Harriett told me soon after we first met, at a picket line protest in December of 1995. "That's what residential school did to us." Harriett was neither a slave nor a sellout, which is why she was murdered.

Harriett's life began in the village of Clo-ose on the west coast of what her murderers call Vancouver Island: a village ! nearly wiped out by germ warfare brought by Christian mis. sionaries during the 1870's. "Our population fell from 3,400 people down to 44 in just under twenty years" Harriett told me at our first meeting. "Then they took the surviving kids and tried finishing them off in the residential school."

Harriett vividly remembered the day her head was shaved, LLh~ choking DDT, the beatings and gang rapes and maggotfilled porridge that was daily life at the United Church residential school in Port Alberni. She was transported there in 1945 when she was barely ten years old, in an RCMP gunboat crammed with screaming, vomiting kids stolen from their villages. Some of them died, and were thrown overboard by the Mounties. Not even half of them survived the horror that awaited them at the Alberni residential school.

One of the children who died there was fourteen year old Maisie Shaw from Port Renfrew. Harriett witnessed her murder, and until the week Harriett herself died, she never stopped talking about what she saw that night. "She was ·· standing at the top of the stairs, crying for her mother. Then the Principal kicked her. She went rolling down the stairs. She

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just lay there. She wasn't breathing; she wasn't moving. We never saw her again."

Harriett told this story to reporters on December 18, 1995, when she joined me at a protest outside the United Church's head office in Vancouver. The story was printed, only once, in · local newspapers. But Harriett, and me, and a few others, kept talking about Maisie Shaw, and thousands like her.

Not many people want to hear these stories. But telling what we know is true is part of what keeps us who we are, and doing so keeps us free. Harriett Nahanee was a free soul, and so she never stopped telling what she knew- unlike most of her people, and mine.

When I was being publicly stoned - some liked to call it a "defrocking" - for telling what I knew about the crimes of the United Church of Canada against native people, Harriett was there, picketing the building where nervous church lawyers and bureaucrats plotted my demise, and hers, and carrying a hand made sign that proclaimed "504 Years of Genocide: Where is Justice in the United Church?".

Whenever any of us held vigils in memory of the disappeared residential school children, Harriett was always there: rain or shine, braving the shouts and smirks of church people, everything in her aging except her great devotion and courage. And Harriett was there, too, when we organized the world's first and only independent Tribunal into Canadian residential schools, as she tried, and failed, to bring the criminals to justice.

I saw Harriett for the last time on April 15, 2006, at our annual Aboriginal Holocaust Remembrance Day Rally outside Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Vancouver. She told me that the Squamish chiefs had threatened to kill her again.

"Why this time?" I asked.

"They're planning to sell off more of our land to the Olympics people. Some highway they're going to cut through our land. I told them I'd be out there trying to stop it."

"Who threatened you?" I said. "Who doesn't matter" she replied, matter of factly. "They're all the same, those sellouts.

They're whiter than the whites. They've been trying to get me for years. But I'm going to get them first."

Harriett tried to do so, too, with a recent Supreme Court lawsuit that sought to stop the Squamish chiefs from being able to sign away the land of their own people: an action akin to telling the fox that chickens are off the menu. Suddenly, Harriett was doing more than just telling what she knew: she was directly challenging the very foundation of the systematic land theft and ruination we like to call Canada. Harriett was threatening to cut the strings of the Emperor's loyal Indian puppets. And for that, she had to die.

In a few weeks, Harriett was arrested, tried, jailed, made sick, ~nrl ,.l;,...,.l Th,...

""'n"oniont cwiftnpc::c:: "f ht=>r rlt:>::~th h::~c: nnf hAPn

is the standard Canadian way of dealing with those few aboriginals who are neither slaves nor sellouts, and who refuse to do the bidding of the state. In the past six months, I have counted nine such native activists who have suddenly "died of cancer" in a few weeks, like the state is claiming Harriett did, after they challenged drug dealing or other crimes by their state-funded chiefs. Who will be next?

I will miss my friend, more than I can know; for how rare and few are the souls like Harriett, who remain clear and unbroken, undeterred from their simple task. I mourn not for her, for Harriett remained herself and fought to the very end, and that is her final victory. Rather, I mourn that the "Sea to Sky" Olympic Highway will now go ahead, over Harriett's dead body. I mourn that 100,000 other bodies of little kids from the residential schools will stay forever buried and forgotten, their mass murder excused, the killers protected and hidden, waiting to strike again. And I mourn that those who read or hear these words will be sad or inspired for only a moment, and will then return to the numbing machine that holds most of us prisoner in order to devour and destroy our mother, this green and perfect world.

Harriett Nahanee showed us how to remain human, and how to resist the machinery of death. For her honour, and your own, share her spirit and do as she did -while you still can.

Kevin Annett I Eagle Strong Voice Occupied Coast Salish Territory, Turtle Island ("Vancouver, Canada") www.hiddenfromhistory.org Read and Hear the truth of Genocide in Canada, past and present, at this website: www.hiddenfromhistory.org ... ... and on this radio program: "Hidden from History", every Monday, 1-2 pm (PST} CFRO 102.7 FM (www.coopradio.org) "When the desire for Truth and Virtue becomes the only bias in our mind, only then can we know in ourselves what is right."

Peter Annett, Humanist and dissident, 1769 Uailed and perse~"'••tPrl hv thP r.h,,rr.h of Fnaland for his questionin!.1 of the Bible

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Libretto Workshop Learn how to write for Opera with Camyar Chai Are yo u interested in learning about librettos and how to write one?

Are yo u open to public critiques and writing in a group environment?

Do you like reading your work in front ofan audi ence?

If you've answered YES to the above, join a Libretto Workshop given by Camyar Chai, the founder of the Artistic Producing Team of neworldtheatre.

The workshop will be offered on W ednesdays, March 14- April4, 5:00- 9:00 PM, in Classroom II at Carnegie Centre.

Please write a letter describing why you would like to participate in the workshop and submit it to Rika Uto by e-mail (rika.uto@va ncouv er.ca) or the 3rd Floor Program Office by W ednesd ay, Feb 28th. (asap) The workshop is limited to 12 participants. If there are more applicants than spaces available, the letter of interest will be used for selection purposes. Please also note that we wi ll only accept those who can attend all four sessions.

Thank you.

Dear F riends of C arnegie Opera, As you all know we had a very successful opera pi lot project here at Carnegie in the fall of2006. Condemned was seen by far too few people but there are conti nu ing efforts to remount the show.

I'm writing today to ask you to pass on the information attached regarding a libretto writing workshop that we are beginning in mid March. This is open to community members and is part of a series of workshops we will be offering as we begin the process of creating a new opera to be produced in June of2008.

This workshop is not linked to the creation of the new libretto but is open to all who have an interest in learning this for m of w riting. I'm also attaching a descri ption of the new theatre design workshop. Please have a look at them and spread the word.

R eplies can be made to rika.uto@vancouver.ca

To Vancouver ' s Mayor & City Council My name is Karenza Wall. I live at 65 Cordova street west, in a subsidized co-op unit. The fact that I am writing this letter should be a matter of shame to you and your council in the arena of ethics and world opinion. You are greedy, corrupt people.

There is abso lutely no need for me to tell you and your masters what needs to be done. Yo u are all in violation of United Nations human ri ghts.

Cover your faces in shame to be livi ng in one of the richest countries in the world and to have people living on the streets while millions of dollars are being spent on creating infrastructure fo r the O lympics. Again, shame on all ofyou.

You are unethi cal at best and sociopath at least. karenza t. wall

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Mayor Sam Sullivan and City Councilors, I am pleased to hear that you have made it law that you will renovate any hotel that a landlord refuses to and bill them. And I think the Piccadilly Hotel should be the first to be renovated by the City.

There are [still and only] twelve people living there and they will be evicted because the hotel is not a proper living space and the land lord refuses to renovate. My question is: where will these people go- on the street in the cold rain? Why should these people suffer because one person refuses to do their job?

These people are my neighbours and I would be very delighted to hear that they have a home and a place to sleep at night.

I don't want you to think I am just a little g irl who should not worry about these thin gs. But I do, not to be rude but because I care. I care a lot.

Yours sincerely, E lisha-May Walker I age: 12