May 1, 1998, carnegie newsletter by Carnegie Newsletter

NEWSLETTER 401 Main Street, Vancouver V6A 2T7 (604) 685-2220

"The drug situation is being fueled by the following factors: a) cheap and available cocaine and heroin b) lack of accessible treatment programs for users c) proliferation of "2nd hand stores" and pawn shops where stolen goods are being sold to give addicts money to buy drugs, and d) continued proliferation of 24-hour grocery stores where the drug sales occur around the clock

"Tnere is ampie scientific evidence that [needle change] programs do prevent new HiV infections without increasing substance abuse."

"The only good junkie

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eedie exchange programs reduce the spread of and do not encourage drug use."

is a dead junkie."

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bodr.,",1. c ~v ruaw= . . : ~ J-. ~dggests ~ ~ , . - powerffscts of needk exchz~geprograms... here is nger doubt that t h e p r q p i i s work. 11N~tlnna!!nsljtu!e of F1ealth +..... IllpVJJ;

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"We must take draconian

There's a concentration of undesirables in the Downtown Eastside." Councillor Don Bellarny

Vancouver the situation is complicated by the fact we have some but not all the elements of a comprehensive strategy on HIVIAIDS and on drug addiction. We lack the necessary treatment programs which would be significant,inreducing drug use and crime.

Following are excerpts from a presentation given by Bud Osborn, the neighbourhood representative on the Vancouver/Richrnond Health Board: 1. Last summer the HIVIAIDS epidemic among injection drug users in the Downtown Eastside was labelled "the worst in the western world." 2. Additionally, Vancouver has been described as having the highest property crime rate in Canada, and the number of overdose deaths in the Downtown Eastside alone has climbed to over 1500 since 1993. 3. Last year, the Vancouver/Richmond Health Board acted on a resolution I brought forward and declared this epidemic to be a health emergency. 4. The provincial government allotted $3 million to impact this epidemic. 5. Beginning last September, I and others began , holding weekly meetings with drug users in the epicentre of the epidemic - the 100-block of East Hastings Street - to get input. Over and over at , every meeting they said they needed a safe place of their own, with showers, laundry, a phone, craft programs, educational opportunities, where their nutritional needs and medical aid would be available, where they wouldn't be stigmatized, as they are acutely aware of the hostility towards them, having been banned from most public and community space in the Downtown Eastside. 6. A drug users' organization has developed and been especially successful in attracting HIV+ users from Aboriginal and black populations. The model has been helpful, globally, in reducing the harms associated with injection drug use. 7. Reps fiom federal, provincial and municipal governments have attended and recognize the need for a complete resource centre. There is a working group to include public consultation, education, site selection and the centre's governance in the process. 8. Since substandard housing is a central factor in this epidemic, the Health Board and the Provincial government are working together to purchase local hotels, upgrade them, have a non-profit housing society manage them, and make direct health services available to residents. This initiative is impor-

a report of numbers and the dailies screamed that "Needle Exchanges don't work! People are still getting infected with HIV, Hep ABC, (the Black Plague) and it should be shut down cold. "' Politicians like Gordon Price make it worse by demanding an audit of the Needle Exchange and stating that it's the cause of poverty, prostitution, crime and increased drug use. He also said he'd been completely misrepresented in "the infamous Carnegie Newsfelter" and spent 20 minutes not answering the question. The meeting had all the figures and findings of several reports - not just one bit - and talked about how to gatherlpresent information, in an ethical way, and not have it warped by reactionary forces. There was a conference about 10 days later at which people from all over the world shared their findings on needle exchanges and drug use, and the programs they'd developed. Of special interest were reports fiom Switzerland, Denmark England, and from the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.

tant in that it signals those who would, through upscale development, drive the low income residents from the area; that a community of poor and afflicted human beings will remain. 9. It's assumed that everyone desires to reach the same goals - reduced infection, reduced addiction, reduced property crime, reduced numbers of overdose victims. The epidemic has been described as a "time b o m b by health experts, and harm reduction is visibly the best response. The emergency nature of this threat is poised to erupt in cities across Canada; these apprehensions underscore the need for an overall national and provincial strategy. 10. As a former drug addict I know that fear of HIV is not a deterrent to drug use. It was the care of a friend - a place to stay, a shower, a few meals , and a belief that my life was worth saving - that changed my life. A resource centre is necessary to begin to facilitate this vital caring. , I I . Perhaps the biggest single obstacle against achieving a more enlightened environment is the stigmatization and marginalization of drug addicts, especially those who are impoverished or ill or of a racial minority. A prolonged and serious public education campaign is absolutely critical in dispelling stereotypes and advancing harm reduction measures. Conferences and meetings are significant but it is the addicts themselves who have the most vital role to play in this educational process. 12. A recent meeting where the topic was expansion of needle exchange services heard users referred to as "scum"; "the only good junkie is a dead junkie"; a police officer writing for a daily paper referred to users as "vampires"; a caller to a radio talkshow said "the downtown eastside should be surrounded with barbed wire. The addicts could infect each other until they're all dead; and, most disturbing, an elected member of City Council stated at a recent televised meeting, "tolerance for

drugs is giving comfort io the enemy... nothing 3. short of draconian action wiil change anything... and yes, there will be a risk factor of disease... but there is a concentration of undesirables in the 1)owntown Eastside." 13. A man named Kafeal Lemkin, during the 2nd World War, defined a word that he'd just coined as meaning "...the destruction of personal security, liberty, health, dignity, and even the lives of individuals beionging to targeted groups." 'I'he word Lemkln coined is genocide. 14. i have a friend in the Downtown Eastside, named James. He is a 25 year-old native man who has full-blown AIDS. Not long ago I saw him walking down East Hastings beside an old white man using a walker. I asked James what he was doing and he said that the m& had been robbed a few days before, so he was going with him to do errands, to protect him. James is often homeless himself, sleeping beneath viaducts in the cold rain because he is a cocaine addict, not because he causes trouble in hotels but because he's identified as a user. James, knowing how little time he has left, still uses precious hours to help this old man, freely gives for the sake of someone else; this is not an uncommon experience in the Downtown Eastside. It is what holds the Downtown Eastside together, despite the forces trying to tear it apart and destroy and displace the inhabitants - amicted, vulnerable, troubled human beings helping each other for nothing except the cost to themselves. 15. Truly, our hope in this global and local debacle of addiction and disease and crime lies with the undesirables like my friend James. Amid the most hostile and adverse circumstances they live harm reduction techniques and, given half a chance, given the opportunity, they'll dispel the darkness that has blinded us to what we have done, and they will lead us to that enlightened place we all desire.

STEUS'I'HCONA Strathcona! The haven of the living dead, but mostly zombies. Strathcona! The morbid area of the whole city. Strathcona! The death-smelling neighbourhood with its smiling undertaker. Strathcona! is where yesterday's yuppies are now spare-changing for their daily needs, just like the professional dealers. Strathcona is where the HIV 1 AIDS victims catch tuberculosis. Strathcona is where the schizophrenic and manic depressive people cure themselves by becoming alcoholics and junkies. Strathcona is where the non-conformist sleeps outside and the extremely poor are exploited by the slum lords. Strathcona is where well-to-do citizens of the town or residents of other neighbourhoods come to eat in the fanciest restaurants while throwing a snobbish look of hatred and disgust toward a ma1 nutritiously ill population. Strathcona is the hunting ground for fundamentalists to prey on. Strathcona is where the finer class comes to use the hustlers and buy their drugs, all in a very hypocritical gesture. Strathcona is where I live, walk my walk, like the Goddesses of Hastings and, funny, I see nothing but beautiful people here. Real people. Barbara Love

Attention All Carnegie Volunteers especially longtimers

...

We're putting together a list of all the wonderful people who have been selected as Carnegie's Volunteer of the Year, starting from 1980, the year we opened our doors. If you remember any of the names and dates, especially those from 1990 and before, please pass the information on to Sandy or Anthea. Thanks!

* Owen, still acting as the mayor, has been meeting with the chief of police about the funding of various Neighbowhood Safety Ofices in Van. Seems they want the entire thing to be run by volunteers. This is ridiculous. Our NSO is staffed and

has more support from the local community than all the rest of the fronts combined. Deb Mearns is the co-ordinator and she does continuous work on real issues - child prostitution, drug enterprises operating behind phony storefronts, safety and security of residents, the exploitation of immigrants for prostitution and drug mules - and on and on. there's always something * The City approved a bit of money for lane cleaning, trees, graff~tiremoval, power-washing sidewalks, trashcans and murals (cleaning boarding) and for some kind of street lighting. SOLE, Save Our Living Environment, is involved in this. One wit said that Gastown Heritage 'scholars' put council to sleep by droning on and on about how awful these lights were going to be to the 'character' of something. One bright light said that the City should just declare or impose a curfew throughout the Downtown Eastside and all our problems would be solved (everyone lives happily ever after?)

...

PRT

2nd Mile Sees 40!

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Vancouver's longest serving senior's organization The Vancouver Second Mile Society, is celebrating it's 40th anniversary. Established in 1958 by Dr. Wallace Wilson, the Society was created after the old City Library (Carnegie) was closed . The centre was formed to provide a warm, safe, dropin centre for seniors living in the Main & Hastings area of the downtown eastside. As Simma Holt said on May 2, 1958 in the Vancouver Sun, "The old men who lost their retreat fiom cold and loneliness when the old library at Ch the news I keep hearing about entrepreneurs Main and Hastings closed down, have a club of in Vancouver p m up and mving thenselves their own." t o Calgary or Edmonton. From this modest beginning the Society's I s n i l e t o myself when I hear such stories, Downtown Eastside Seniors Centre has grown to and recall the five years I lived i n Edmonton over 600 members. It has two outreach projects, bebeen 1975 and 1980. known as Neighbourhood Helpers, operating in It was in the middle of my f i f t h Alberta the downtown eastside and the downtown south winter when I finally c a m t o my senses and area, which reach out to senior's in the hotels. Our evaluated the prairie l i f e s t y l e offerings: mission statement states "The Vancouver Second a ) nrinus 20-3 degree temperature f o r Mile Society is dedicated to improving the quality days on end of life of seniors through its drop-in-centre and b) a perrrranent blanket of snar f m November outreach programs in the urban core." Through 40 to k c h years it has remained focused on meeting the c) etc. needs of the low income seniors in the inner city. Anyway, I ripped off my parka and hightailed it back t o the good old wet and mnn Lmer b- In 1998 the society won a Community Service Award fiom Volunteer Vancouver for its outstandland where I haven't budged from since. ing contributions to volunteerism. As well, the So why are entrepreneurs heading f o r the society received the United Way's Gold Award land of two seasons? Because Alberta's rightfor Excellence in each of the last thirteen years. wing czar Ralph Klein is offering better tax Long term members tell incredible stories about breaks than B.C. does, and the houses are cheaper the original meaning of "Skid Row' and how they than in Greater Vancouver. The taxes are l o w and the houses are cheaper helped build this province. While we often read not because of goverrnnent generosity, but because about the negative side of life in the downtown Alberta winters a r e a pain in the ass. eastside, there is a strong sense of community Taxes should be higher in B.C. than they withinthis neighbourhood. The Vancouver Second are in Alberta, j u s t as a hotel roan in honolulu Mile Society is proud of the warm, safe muliticultshould be m r e expensive than a hotel roan in ural facility (seniors of Chinese, Japanese, Siberia. European, and Aboriginal heritage) in a living But good luck t o the Alberta bound entreproom atmosphere that it provides to the seniors reneur; a valued lesson a m i t s you. living in and visiting the community.

TIME IS COMING

I I

As most of you know the Carnegie Annual I General Meeting is coming soon. Make sure you i have your membership in order to vote. Carnegie is a centre with many volunteers - if it weren't for the volunteers Carnegie would be just I another place run by a bunch of stuffed suits. Carnegie has changed over the past few years, some for the good and some bad. We've lost many great members but not lost programs for thc community. Rumour has it that Margaret is running for Mayor in the upcoming election but SHSH - don't tell anyone. Wouldn't want the others to get wind of it. We lost communication for awhile, but this is being restored - a new phone will be in place soot This phone will be equipped with direct lines to a number of organizations in the community, as we' as Ministry offices, PO'S and so on. On a sad note, following are the names of peoplt who've passed away since December: - Gany Wiebe - Jeny Dudaworth - Bill Hennessey - James Prevost - Jim Giroux

TbamkYou to the community and &ends of James David Arthur Prevost - Jimmy - who died on April 7th. He was buried on April 14 in his home town of Alert Bay. Here in Vancouver a memorial was held at the First United Church. The family heard many great stories about James Prevost. Jimmy leaves with us his common law partner Dorothy Bob. Since his death the family has met his eldest son, David, plus there are 10 other children of Jimmy's. This is a little note of thanks to everyone for their support and kindness. In particular First Church, Ruth who did his service, WAND Society for sandwiches and cookies and Bev for the salad. Uncle Jimmy will be missed but not forgotten. He will always be with you in your heart and the memories you hold of him in your minds. Each time you turn a comer you will see his special, smiling face. In Friendship, Margaret Prevost & Family

Camallam I l t m t i aml ~ Class War What does it mean to be a Canadian? What kind of a society do we want to live in? Canadians have been asking these questions ever since we built a nation north of the 49th parallel that would reflect characteristics different fiom the extreme, sometimes violent individualism of the United States. In his book ''Lament For A Nation" the Canadian philosopher George Grant wrote, "Our hope lay in the belief that on the northern half of this continent we could build a community which had a stronger sense of the common good and of public order than was possible under the individualism of the American capitalist dream." On July 23,1995, Joan Fraser of the Edmonton Journal wrote about a study involving 2400 ordinary Canadians and 1000 members of the Canadian Establishment (the wealthiest and most p o w d Canadians). She found a huge gap between the attitudes of the two groups. Among the concerns of or* people were personal and economic security (including steady employment), a healthy population, a clean environment, human rights and equality. The elite group was more concerned with competition, deficit cutting, and minimal government. From a list of 22 possibilities, orCanadians ranked the elite's first choice competitiveness - 20th and the elite's 3rd choice minimal government - last. Obviously ordinary Canadians have a much stronger sense of community responsibility that the elite of Canada. An Angus Reid poll of December 1995 pointed out that the deficit, although recognized as irnportant by everyone, was an elite-driven issue. "It's as if a fog settled over Canada in the past few years and the only voice governments hear crying out for help is the voice of the wealthy," Reid said. "But the voices of the poor and much of the middle-class are also crying out for jobs, for security, fbr fairness - and they don't sense they're being heard." A Globe&Mail/Environics poll (Jan/97) found that a majority of Canadians supported increased public spending for employment creation and the protection of social programs, and they were not

Readhag R o o m News Joyce Gee worked at the Carnegie Reading Room for five years. On April 2 1st she began an exciting new job at the Dunbar Branch of the Vancouver Public Library. Over the years Joyce provided support and good service to staff and patrons alike in the Reading Room. She will be sorely missed by us all. Good luck, Joyce! Don't be a stranger.

hfavour of across-the-board tax cuts. An Angus

Reid poll of Febl97 reinforced this by finding that Canadians, by a great majority, preferred that the federal government spend deficit reduction savings on health, education and job creation rather than implement tax cuts. This poll found, as had other polls, that job creation was the top public concern of ordinary Canadians. What are we to make of these polls? In a general way, they show that we have two classes in Canada - an owner elite with its trained professionals who run the system, and the rest of us. Noam Chomsky, in his book "Class Warfare," that the elite bunch might include approximately 25% of the population. Ordinary citizens would make up the other 75 percent. Clearly, the interests of the elite are not the same as the interests of ordinary Canadians, and these interests can best be understood in terms of class. By SANDY CAMERON

Listen up people - it's tourist season. That means we're gonna see more GAP-smothered, sensible shoe-wearing, portable camera-holding couples & families on the streets of our Downtown Eastside community. Obviously members of the Gastown Business Improvement Society have kindly put their time into counselling tourists through their white

middle-class guilt after they've visited our neighbourhood, and they're damned tired of it. The gastown business community (or those claiming to speak for everybody) have a new name for the condition plaguing visitors travelling from exotic Chinatown to Gastown along Carrall Street - Tourist Trauma. Symptoms include panic, irrational fear of disease, increased heartbeat, unnecessary perspiration and a strong sense of guilt - all induced by the sight of people with shaggy beards and unkempt clothing sleeping on the benches of Pigeon Park. In one case, a young American woman claimed to have lost one hour of sleep after seeing the sights of Hastings Street. In another case, a visitor convinced himself that he'd caught HIV from seeing a needle wrapper. Symptoms, however, are short-lived and do disappear once tourists enter the consumption zone of Gastown. The Gastown Business Improvement Society's sympathy for traumatized tourists has led them on a crusade of compassion. In conjunction with the Vancouver City Police, they plan to clean up Carrall St. by adding some vegetation, increasing police presence and creating a Zero Tolerance Zone for drugs. Since the root of the problem is obviously poor people, the only way to fix it will be through our dispersal. This has already happened in New York, a

slightly larger city, where police are cracking 9. down hard on grafiti, public drunkenness and other small signs of the human condition. The result has been a reduction in crimes by poor people through an increase in police brutality. We must remember that gentrification does not happen by accident, but through the deliberate efforts of capitalistic crusaders who only see good, safe, clean community in rows of nice shops for people to buy, Buy, BUY nice things in. Gentrification only occurs with state backing the dispersal of the poor through police policy, bylaws and zoning. The Police seem to have no memory that, just a short time ago, they pushed the drug scene out of Downtown South and guaranteed it in the Downtown Eastside. All this so Downtown South could be a safer condorninium community. The result of this Carrall Street Corridor is going to be state-sanctioned police brutality. We are setting ourselves up to be a little New York, where the identical efforts have led to such assaults on the marginalized that it's caught the attention of Amnesty International. Okay Gastown, Chinatown and Police Chief Bruce Chambers - 1'11 cut you a deal: We won't start ow 'Mug a Yuppie' campaign if you let us be in charge of tourist protection. I see this as a self-sustaining, for-profit venture, where our employees will charge tourists a small fee for safe passage past Pigeon Park. It's job creation. It's capitalism. Everyone approves. or You could leave us alone. You could throw some money at creating a covered, plexiglas, temperature-controlled walkway leading tourists above Hastings Street. A mural of rich white folks frolicking in the wildemess of downtown Vancouver could be painted on both sides of the wallcway so you and they couldn't see the poverty below. Tourists would arrive safe & sound in their consumption mecca and us poor folks would be left to take care of ourselves... a win-win scenario. Ga Ching

It's OK. Stop your worrying. The missionaries are here. Whew! Talk about relief. All this time, I thought that yuppies were moving here because living in the inner city is hip and trendy or because they could get a good deal on a condo in a transitional real estate market. But, get this. We've been wrong all along. But, you might ask, if the yuppoids are not here for that gritty inner city mystique or to firm up their equity, why the hell do they move down here? Here's the inside info. In a recent issue of the Westender, Doug Bhorrall, President of the Gastown Homeowners Association (don't ever forget the owners part -- that means most of us can't belong) revealed what brings people like him into the Downtown Eastside. "We're here," he says, uto let people know how to exist as a community. There you have it. All those squeaky clean white people who purchase the condos sprouting up around the district are here for a quite selfless task. They're middle class missionaries, moving here to teach us the morally correct ways of behaving in public. Let's take a look at what a great community these yuppies have built so far. Doug himself has been a very neighbourly guy. A few years ago, he operated the short-lived Gastown Tribune. This was a promotional vehicle financed mainly, it seems, by ads for Bad Homes 'condos and the Fama Holdings purchase of

.."

Woodwar&. Its main stock in trade was calling the g own town Eastside a ghetto and attacking the people who live here. ~t the time, a few people decided to leaflet Bad's new sales office(where he was just starting to flog condos in the then-unbuilt Van Home) to let prospective buyers know about Bad's record as a developer. On the very first day, a guy with a camera showed up and started bothering the two people handing out leaflets, When the leafletters used the paper they were handing out to block their faces from the camera, the guy started yelling at them and otherwise insulting them. At one point, one of the leafletters had to threaten to call the police when this guy attempted to grab her and move the paper away fiom her face. Who was this fellow? You guessed it, the current president of the Gastown Homeowners' Association and man-ona-mission to teach us all about how to make a community. Some of the other Gastown homeowners have been just as neighbourly as Doug. For instance, NPA activist Lynn Bryson asked the mayor to stop funding the Carnqie Newsleftm. (Of course, the mayor doesn't fund the newsletter, so Lynn was out of luck.) Recently, she faxed City Hall a copy of a BC Business column by Denny Boyd. In the column, Boyd argued that we should tell drug addicts to "Quit or Die." And if they don't quit, we should just let them die. In the fax copy, Lynn had written that many of "us" agree with this viewpoint. The planners and politicians keep telling us that the condos, owned by people like Doug and Lynn, will only improve the area Yet, since the onset of condo construction in 1990, the situation has deteriorated. At the same time as the middle class property owners started moving in, we began experiencing an avalanche of cheap coke and heroin and an explosion of drug use. Businesses have moved out, storefronts remain empty; hotels are evicting their long term tenants so they can renovate for tourists. h4eanwhile, the incoming property-owners

talk about the community that was here long before them as if it doesn't exist. After people worked for 7 years to get wheelchair access to CRAB Park, the yuppies banded together with the Gastown business establishment to scuttle it. They call the Downtown Eastside a ghetto and they call the people who live here "undesirables" and "social service clients who frequent the area." They proclaim they don't "intend" to displace anyone, but they campaign against a bylaw to control the hotel conversions that are a direct effect of gentrification. They talk about safety and security, but they hire private cops to harass local people. And now, they say they're going to teach us about community. . . . E.A. Boyd -

who doesn't do his laundry. "There was no way I had time to pass on a few quarters," he said. "As far as I'm concerned the only quarters those scum should receive is in a jail cell. lf they are lucky," he continued, "we can get them a piece of gyprock so they can float away to some unkempt hippie paradise in hell." It was said &at ~ e o r & ewas so outraged by the incident that he demanded all his neighburs listen to his sad plight even though they were, at the same time, trying judiciously to suck the dried olives out of their New Age drinks. Moreover, with his anger unabated and watching one of his favorite three piece suites being thrown into the garbage, he told his secretary to fax his boss, weak-kneed King Bully, immediately. Georgie complained that he and the other bouncers working at City Fall were being embarrassed and harassed by the poor! Having heard the details of the incident fkom King Bully the wealthy right wing women in the Party were completely aghast. Along with the men they loaded their brief cases with a natural fkesh deodorants, anti-poor repellents and an extra pair of dark glasses. It was said that after several secret meetings behind closed doors at the taxpayers public hall the city bouncers decided that it was their sworn duty to protect the rich upper class consumers and other merchants fkom the pesky poor. They decided to telephone their worried financial backers and inform them that the City would say that new antipanhandler policies were needed to protect the tourists. The financial backers were vety happy that no one would suspect their plan to remove the

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THE SKY IS FALLING The sky is being sucked through the ozone but the tourists are coming. It seems that Property isn't theft unless you are a beggar. Everyone knows that panhandlers and squeegee kids aren't part of the cute buskers' system that the Fraser Blazer Institute's economic plan to save their friends will allow. Meet our free-spending City Bouncer George Thrash-them-all Malcontent. It seems that a few weeks ago while arriving to consume another tax free dinner that our stingy George was approached by TWO, THAT'S RIGHT TWO panhandlers actually seeking some spare change. Georgie was outraged! The very audacity of some people - to think that a city bouncer like George Malcontent would actually care about the plight of anyone

poor from public view in their new and everexpanding Gastown. "It's an old trick we've been using for years," explained Georgie. "It works a lot better than most of the people down there," he laughed, gulping down a fiesh drink. Needing at least the appearance of being public servants, the bouncers decided to call a public meeting to shit on the public again. They wanted to get their weak-kneed Bully Boss to lay down the law. "I don't want any of my gang going near the eastside again," said King Bully. "There are too many poor people and all they want is help. Just because we don't give them money, close down their detox, are trying to move or shut the needle exchange, force the Crosswalk to move, question. their right to live on valuable land and won't accept a decent anti-conversion by law that will actually serve theu community in a positive way, they aren't even polite! They actually expect us to work with them." "Work - now that's something they never learned

OPEN LETTER April 22,1998 Bruce Chambers, Chief of Police

Dear Chief, I read with alarm that Constable Gil Puder was not allowed to present his views at the drug policy reform conference held April 2 1st, and may face disciplinary charges for doing so. Constable Puder's views and experience have helped bring about an honest assessment and public debate about drug policies and law enforce-

to do," King Bully went on, tryrng to mimic Georgie while having his secretary shine his shoes. "They think they have the right," he continued," to be smart asses and tell us we should be polite to panhandlers. We are supposed to help people that never vote and are always wearing smelly clothes and if they're lucky live in a rat hole."Weak-kneed King Bully then slammed his fist onto the table to accentuate his point. However he hit his hand so forcefully that he ended up spraining it. "Oh look now," he said to Georgie, wiping a tear from his eye, "I won't be able to play tennis or get a good grip on my golf club." "I hate the poor. Why don't they just go away and let us do our job," he continued. "Why don't they like us Georgie? Why??" "It's too much," yawned Georgie Malcontent, slipping M e r into another nap. "The nerve of these bastards to expect me to be polite. This is unbelievable. Who the hell do they think I am, their Civil servant??" Leigh Sparechange Donohue ment. Why is he being censored? Constable Puder's views are shared by a growing number of community leaders as we seek to find socially responsible solutions to the epidemic of HIV infection and the problems facing intravenous drug users. Indeed retired Deputy Police Chief Ken Higgins has done outstanding work in educating the public about the issue. It is ironic that the views of Constable Mark Tonner, which have been extremely destructive and harmll and negatively stereotype the people of the Downtown Eastside, have been unchallenged by you and the Police Department. I respecfilly ask that you review your position on this and not press disciplinary charges against Constable Puder, and further make it clear that he should be allowed to express his views. Sincerely, Libby Davies, MP Vancouver East

cowards

It seems that everyone in positions of power says, to their friends, to their peers, every day and in every situation, "1 really feel this way, but my job, or my position, requires that 1 act another way, and say other things than what I feel or think about anything and everything." A picture of a whole chain of falseness and mendacity, ending at - what else - the corporate, educated, criminal elite, who say and do what they bloody please, and mean every word. It is the most cowardly thing in the world to keep saying, again and again, that one feels or thinks one way, but that one's position or job requires saying something else, requires saying one feels or thinks something other than what one feels or thinks, requires one to act in ways one doesn't believe in, ways, by the way, that are detrimental to everyone. And these people want to teach others the language of falseness and mendacity, the cowardly language they are so adept at, they want to force others to use the same false language, partly because they would be offended deeply by someone else saying what they really think and feel, in situations in which they themselves cannot speak their minds, or whatever the term is, but must say what they think is required of them to say, about which, the more cowardly they are, the more correct they will be, but also because they have become so used to doing and saying and thinking and feeling what is required of them, or what they think is required of them, what they have spent their lives learning to think and feel, that they no longer acknowledge anything that is not done out of the cowardly, empty bootlicking, which is their expertise. Dan Feeney

In The Dumpster I heard and read about these leaky condo tenants. I felt for them ti1 I heard their concerns were heard at the Hydrant Recently Hotel. If it was me, I'd meet in a leaky condo..save money.. show&tell... Poloticians don't meet the homeless in their tents or on their food bank rounds. They meet by themselves behind big thick walls so no one hears what is said. Don't forget - Phil Owen isn't running for Mayor in the next election. I, however, may be a candidate for the Middle Finger Party. The point is that all these condos are for people rich enough to buy them and they got pissed on. If the tmth comes out, Gordon Campbell was mayor when this building scam was going full blast. The only dif here between rich and us getting screwed is their concerns are met and dealt with way before ours are even heard. Most folks in the DE don't even have decent lodging, let alone food or a fridge to keep it in. Shitty Hall sends inexperienced reformers to make woopy while taxpayers wonder why they have to pay for sex when massage parlours are paid for with tax dollars. The Mayor accepts the pimp coin - "Take one home!" he said. You Don't Know What It's Like You sit on your high throne bitchin' Come to my world for 49 hours, then play games. Not all of us are idiots, Some people just have nowhere to go!. If I say any more I'll be campaigning... Mr. McBINNER

When First Nations Women Speak Together Then Justice Will Be Done

Did you know. . every woman in Canada has a right to share in the matrimonial home if her marriage breaks up EXCEPT First Nations women who get married and live on reserve? a every woman in Canada has the right to ask for a court order to let her and her children live in thefamily home till the children are grown EXCEPT First Nations women on reserve? a when their marriage ends, many First Nations women who live on their husband's reserve, have to leave with nothing because it is not possible for them to stay? a.many First Nations women, who might otherwise leave, stay in abusive situations because there are few, if any, supports? Why is that? The problem is caused by a conflict between the Indian Act which governs reserve land, and provincial family laws which provide protection to married women. How can we fix the problem? The B.C. Native Women's Society is suing the federal government We asked the court to rule that the federal govt. is guilty of discrimination against married First Nations women on reserves. We are asking the courts to refuse to let the federal govt. download land management responsibilities to the band level until they fix the inequality! How can I Help? To win this case, BC Native Women's Society needs to be able to tell the court the stories of many women whose marriages broke up while they were living on reserve. What happened? Who held the certificate of possession during the marriage? Who moved out of the home? Where did the children go? What happened to the woman after the marriage broke down? Call us and we will call you back and talk to you about what your situation was like. ~ e rare i some of the things that we need to know from the story of your life. o when did you decide to get married and what reasons helped you come to that decision; did you need to join a new Band when you got married; a when you got married, who's home became the Family Home; did you and your husband have any discussions before or after you got married or after it ended about what would happen to the Family Home if7when your marriage ended;

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did you or your husband sell or transfer the Family Home, or any other land (with or without a house) while you were married or after the marriage ended; if anyone in your family (perhaps a parent, brother, sister, grandparent, cousin, common law spouse) passed away, then what happened to the land (with a house or without); I when your marriage ended what happened to the Family Home (did you stay there, did he stay there, if you had children did they stay there); w when your marriage ended where did you and your children live. (Some women do not get married because they are concerned that if the marriage ended then they would be left with no home. We are also interested in those type of stories. ) Look over these questions and call us. Your name will not be used unless you give your pennission. What has happened so far? B.C. Native Women's Society has started the lawsuit. Several bands were angry because they want the federal govt to give them the right to manage reserve lands right away, without fixing the inequality. They asked the court to be added to the lawsuit but the court said that the fight was between BCNWS and the govt, not between BCNWS and the bands. Help us weave a Story Basket BC Native Women's Society needs your help. Your stories and support will be reeds that will weave a strong story basket and will help win this case for all First Nations women. We have the right to have a share in the family home when our marriages end and in how decisions are made regarding possession of land. =, We have the right to stay and take care of our children where we have built up support. We have the right to have control over our lives. ;> We have a right to be respected as Aboriginal women and to be treated with honour as the Lifegivers of our Nations. For More Information Contact: BC Native Women's Society: 604-687-8752; or BC-wide toll-free 1-888-442-9529 I

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Help Us Weave a

Wz want to hear ydur stories oflmarriages and divorces on reserve. B.C. Native Women's Society is taking the Federal (iovt to court to end discrimination against Contact barbnrafindlay, Law,ver, Aboriginal women who are married. B C Name Women's Socret?. 604/687-8752 or Your story will be a reed that will help weave hlonrkn Chqupell, Researcher, 604 29-1-9958. a strong Story Basket for Justice. RC 11 rde toll-fife I-SS8-442-9529

A total of $6 10,000 is set aside in I998l99 provincial funds to support prevention of violence against women initiatives. The Women's Equality Minister, Sue Hammell, announced this at the Downtown Eastside Senior's Centre, where she presented the Women's Issues Group of the Downtown Eastside with the first payment on a grant of $14,500 for a violence prevention project Women Breaking the Silence bv Speaking Out. The group is composed of several women's organizations, and the project involves developing a community-wide strategy to prevent violence against women. A series of five workshops will be held on the interrelated issues of racism, poverty, and violence against prostitutes, senior women and lesbians. For more information, contact the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre at 68 1-8480 or the Senior's Centre at 254-6207.

ODE TO A BEAUTIFUL FAT WOMAN Full lips, large, sparkling eyes, framed with full dark lashes. Everything in fact is large and luscious on this woman. Her body flesh dimples at a touch Soft sensuous flesh covers her frame. Ample strong thighs gently hide private places. Her bum so round, so perfect it gently sways as she walks. Laughing, smiling, or talking she lights up a room with her awesome presence. Children love to hug her, she's so warm, friendly. Media diet ads try to trash her but they don't succeed.

She walks with grace. Her sprit shines fiom within. This fat woman so large so beautiful is a gift to the world. Love her, cherish her, enjoy her in return, perhaps she will tell you . her secrets and her desires Painters of old would have desired to paint her. She is like a luscious fruit round, plump, just full of goodness. A symbol of a fine harvest, on this Planet Earth.

Shelia Baxter

I sadly announce the sudden passing of Clayton Markel - 28110137-2514198 - at St.Paul's on Saturday morning. Clayton was a lifelong resident of Vancouver's East Side, raised in the Strathcona area where his family lived on Union St. He will be missed and fondly remembered by all who knew him. Clayton was a longtime volunteer at the Dugout on Powell Street, held in highest regard by other volunteers, Board members and staff. He was known for his dedication to duty, attentiveness, kindness, joviality, friendliness, unselfishness and honesty - all attributes difficult to emulate but fondly remembered and honored. Clayton was an asset to our community. I know that in knowing and remembering Clayton I am a better person for it. Memorial service will be at 3:30 on Friday, May I st, at the Glenhaven Chapel, 1235 E.Hastings Daryl Webb

CZ1urch~s amd F a s c Z s n Even though the Catholic Church has, for centuries, been one of the most totalitarian, backwards, abusive and destructive organization in the world, one of the most anti-human and anti-thought institution that has ever existed, and even though, throughout this century, it has been a major player in every fascistic, Nazi or Nazi-like organization or movement, in every country in the world where it exists, there are some who still claim that the Catholic Church is not a fascistic, racist or Nazi-like organization, who claim it has changed in the last few years, as if a centuries-old brutal and racist institution could become something else, has become something else, overnight, as it were, when, in fact, the Catholic Church is as brutal and racist now as it ever was, and can only remain brutal and racist in the future. The true prophet of Nazism and fascism was not Nietzsche, but the Catholic Church and its immense, overfed, wasteful, hateful, torture-loving propaganda goons and their so-called education (but really just torture) machine, and the part the Catholic Church has played in the horrors of t h ~ scentury, in Europe, in Asia, in South America, in Canada, are so well know as to be a truism.

The Catholic Church shelters and protects war criminals from numerous conflicts around the world, in particular in Canada, where people like Simon Wiesenthal are belitlled and culled cranks, when in fact the work lie and people like him are doing is significant and important. The work the scoffers belittle people like Simon Wiesenthal. Not only the Catholic Church, but the Anglican Church and the Methodist Church and the Lutheran Church and the United Church et al., are participating in, today, the most backward, destructive, people-hating activities imaginable, supporting and promoting, as much as any corporation or political party, the destructive, life-hating fascist values that pervade every aspect of the world right now. These churches play the most important role in sustaining and maintaining the corporate, professional, academic, criminal class, yet they puss ~hemsehwo f a s friend.^ qf'the poor and powerless, though they are not and never have been fiiends of the poor and powerless, but have been exploiters and abusers, murderers of the poor and powerless. In Canada these churches, for instance, scrambled nladly for the opportunity to abduct native children from their parents, put them in child labour prisons, and claim they were educating them, when in fact they were raping and torturing them, beating them into submission, beating and torturing them and then tuming them out into the street, with absolutely no education but the beating and torturing, to be beaten and tortured on the street. There are some in the native community who say thk past in the past and we should get on with the present, but 1, though not raised in a torture school, probably because I was not raised in a torture school, say that the government that paid for and institnted these beating and torture child labour prisons, and the criminal churches that participated in, gave vision to, as it were, these beating and tomrre child labour prisons, should make immediate and exhauslive reparations, and should

cease and desist from any and all propagandizing aimed at the poor and powerless. The churches have consistently opposed anything humane or progressive or useful, yet they continue to spew their lies and destructive ideas, all for the sake of their own jobs, their boot-licking of the corporate, criminal class, etc. The churches, however, will not cease and desist from their lies and their boot-licking, a piece of - and in the future, just as now, they will scramble over themselves to get whatever abusive action is offered them, by the criminal government or by whomever, as they always

By DAN FEENEY

Centre

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Come and visit us today for MAY 4 program Tel: 685-1288 lob Club May 4

You are invited to add your testimony about native residential schools to the voice of many, at an International Human Rights Tribunal, June 12-14,1998, in Vancouver BC.

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IHRAAM: International Human Rights Association Of American Minorities

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no rcrmctionr opcn to my unemploycdpcnaa

ANHEDONIA G. Gust It's me against myself Ever-pushing to the outer perimeter, Seeing all, touching nothing. Elusive joy, repelled by my seeking, Frolics through the halls of society Tagging the real ones in play While I drift through the ruins of Craftwork imperfectly polished With the exquisite pain of solitude. Can I destroy you with the herb of Science, or will the dark powers of Art keep us chained in this Wallless tower.

The International Human Rights Association of American Minorities, an affiliate of the United Nations with consultative status, is conducting an inquiry into allegations of murder and other atrocities at native residential schools in British Columbia. This inquiry will include a panel of international human rights experts, who will receive testimony and examine all evidence. The panel will come to a verdict about the guilt or innocence of the church, government and police oMicials in the reported deaths and torture of native childrer, d the residential schools Their findings and verdict will be forwarded to the Secretary-General of the United Nations, the Human Rights Commission and to international media. If you have personal, family or any knowledge of the abuse, torture and murder of native people at the residential schools, and the intergenerational legacy of the residential school system, please attend this tribunal so that the full truth of the schools can be made known and healing can begin. Testimonies can be made either in full confidence at the public tribunal or in private. The Tribunal will be held at the Maritime Labour Centre, 1880 Triumph St., in Vancouver, comrnencing at 9am each day. For more information contact the International Human Rights Association of American Minorities, c/o Rudy James at 425-483-925 1 or, in Vancouver, contact The Circle of Justice, c/o Kevin at 462-1086 or Harriett at 985-5817.

I , '

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that money is a lousy way of keeping score. that my best fiiend and I can do anything or nothing and have the best time that sometimes the people you expect to kick you when you're down will be the ones to help you get back up.

I HAVE LEARNED that you cannot make someone love you. All you can do is be someone who can be loved. It's up to them. that no matter how much I care, some people just don't care back. that it takes years to build up trust and only seconds to destroy it that it's not what you have in your life but who you have in your life that counts. that you can get by on charm for about 15 minutes. AAer that, you'd better know something. that you shouldn't compare yourself to the best others can do, but to the best you can do.

that sometimes when I'm angry I have the right to be angry, but that doesn't give me the right to be cruel. that true fiiendship continues to grow, even over the longest distance. Same goes for true love. that maturity has more to do with what types of experiences you've had and what you've learned from them and less with how many birthdays you've celebrated. that you should never tell a child their dreams are unlikely or outlandish. Few things are more humiliating, and what a tragedy it'd be if they believed it. that your family won't always be there for you. It may seem funny, but people you aren't related to can take care of you and love you and teach you to trust people

that it's not what happens to people that's important It's what they do about it. that you can do something in an instant that will give you heartache for life. that no matter how thin you slice it, there are always two sides that it's taking me a long time to become the person 1 want to be.

that no matter how good a friend is, they're going to hurt you once in a while and you must forgive them.

that it's a lot easier to react than it is to think

that it ~sn'talways enough to be forgiven by others Sometimes you have to learn to forgive yourself.

that you should always leave loved ones with loving words. It may be the last time you see them

that no matter how bad your heart is broken, the world doesn't stop for your grief.

that you can keep going long after you think you can't

that our background and circumstances may have influenced who we are, but we are responsible for who we become.

that we are responsible for what we do, no matter how we feel. that either you control your attitude or it controls you. that heroes are the people who do what has to be done when it needs to be done, regardless of consequences.

again. Families aren't biological.

that sometimes when my friends fight, I'm forced to choose sides even when I don't want to.

that learning to forgive takes practice

that just because two people argue, it doesn't mean that they don't love each other. And just because they don't argue, it doesn't mean they do.

that there are people who love you dearly, but just don't know how to show it.

that sometimes you have to put the individual ahead of their actions.

Ihal u e don't have to change friends if we understand that friends change. that you shouldn't be so eager to find out a secret. It could change your life forever. that two people can look at the exact same thing and see something totally different. that no matter how hard you try to protect your child ren, they will get hurt and you will hurt in the process.

Editor, I think the article "The Empty Church" by Sam Roddan (Feb. 15) should have been highlighted and Please see Page 9 should have been on the cover of that Newsletter. A copy of that issue should be sent out to every church. Wondehl suggestion, Sam! D McP.

that no matter the consequences, those who are honest with themselves get farther in life. that your life can be changed in a matter of hours by people who don't even know you. that credentials on the wall do not make you a decent human being. that writing, as well as talking, can ease emotional pain that the paradigm we live in isn't all that's offered to us thal the people you care most about in life are taken from you too soon. that although the word love [& "commtinity"]can have many different meanings, it loses value when over-used that it's hard to determine where to draw the line between being nice and not hurting people's feelings and standing up for what you believe.

Author unknown.

Homes BC Funds Housing Conditional funding of $3.4 million is comi~lg through Homes BC, the provincial government, to assist in the building of 27 rental housing units for seniors in the Downtown Eastside. BC is one of only two provinces that supports the develovment of new affordable housing. In our community there are a disproportionate number of seniors being threatened with homelessness, due to the pressures of gentrification and condo projects. The housing - 17 one-bedroom, 10 two-bedroom will be at 340 E.Cordova and will be administered by the St. Luke's Home Society at 606-0303.

$/lm~mlQ It damages internal organs.

Let's STOP this K I L L E R - ~ O ~ S O ~ . If a member of your family or a friend has been affected: Let's hear about in a short story & if you have a picture of your loved one Please leave ATTENTION: Margaret Prevost Q Carnegie Centre 401 Main Street

Let's STOP talking about

IT'S time for ACTION: -Responsibility IS on all PERSONS

WALLS OF CHARGE

auntle unity has a walker and when there'sfood lrneups the younger women In thew rnrd 40:s M ~ stand I In line and get food for mary and the other older ones' they all share everything "I've never witnessed so many people doing stuff for each other. All the time helping each other. That connectiveness of a small town, you don't experience - I certainly haven't ...not in the abundance I have here. " Sharon Kravitz is coordintator of the "Wallsof Change "a project taking place in the Downtown Eastside. "Wallsof Change" is a series of murals being created to portray a different picture of the Downtown Eastside than the media present. Sharon and Richard Tetrault, the coordinating artist and lead muralist, agree. "It is a community in pain, one that is in dire need of help, but it is also an incredible community." These canvases are an attempt to show that other side. The murals will show a neighbourhood that is rich in history, chaotic in its present and uncertain of its future. I asked Sharon and Richard Tetrault about the logistics of the project. Sharon said it consists of working with community groups, artists and locals to create 12 portable canvases of 12 ft by 24 ft. These canvases, celebrating the diveristy of the Downtown East Side, will be hung on the outside walls of buildings in the vicinity of Main, Ilastings and Canall Street. She has been doing the background work of making contacts with various organizations, getting permission to hang them off the walls of buildings, and getting donations since October of 1998. Richard Tetrault, a 20-year east side artist, is directing the mechanics of the artisitic end of the project. He has done projects both locally and internationally using portable murals for over 10 years. He explained the reasoning behind the concept of portable murals. "It saves on the prob -lems of getting up 5 or 6 stories to paint," he grinned. "No one falls off and breaks their leg" "the canvas is flat on the ground" and it can be "Outside on a nice day. Inside on a rainy day." When the group is not working on them - they can be put away. "Logistically it is easier. Quite a bit easier." The actual construction of the murals consists of "a month of Saturday afternoons to design and a month to paint" in facilities of the various organizations that are involved. There are two artists per venue to work with the individuals and organizations. The organizations involved range across the wide spectrum of people who live in the Downtown Eastside. They include Carnegie Centre, Tonari Gumi (Japanese Seniors)Oppenheimer Park, Four Sisters's Housing Co-operative, The Portland Ilotel, Y.A.C., The Downtown Eastside Woman's Centre, WatariJYouth Detox, S.O.S. and the Downtown Eastside Seniors Centre. The And if you can't glve But if I don't fight , Then offer a prayer. Living in Poverty To take away strife Give thanks that we live From poor people's plight I'm hiding in shame "Robin Hood was right" My life's been in vain I've become a recluse Keep that thought in mind So I'll do my part I must be to blame Turn darkness to light To lessen the pain. I'm sick of abuse. Bee loving . . . Be kind. Please, open your heart I could end my life To show that you cme D.E.M.

nlural pa~ntedat the Downtown Eastside Seniors Centre will be going up on May 3, that being the 10th ami\ ersary of their opening. "It ~ 1 1 be 1 the first tnural to go up," says Sharon. The bulk of the murals will be hung between the end of May and the end of August, 1998. The opening celebrations will take place on Saturday May 30th. Sharon says Saturday the celebration will take place in Oppenheimer Park, and the mainstage will be at Pigeon Park The "lane will be closed between Camegie and Roosevelt and we are going to do a mural on the s d x e of the lane in either chalk or paint - we are not sure yet. Pigeon Park will be for speeches and performance with the official launching ceremony. There will be a procession from Pigeon Park along flastings Street with lanterns and costumes leading back to Oppenheimer at the end of the day. She is planning to contact the Blue Eagle and the Roosevelt hoping to "have them involved", perhaps with some performances taking place there. She mentioned many of the performers that will be celebrating on that weekend. Performers like shakuhachi player Takeo Yamashiro, the Lonesome Monsters, Terra incognita, Cascade - Native Drummers, and more. When the murals come down, I ashed her what will happen to them. Sharon said that she would be workir~gtowards having them displayed elsewhere. She wants them to continue "to have a life beyond the end of August, when they come down." "There is amazing spirit here. This comnwnity is so abundant in hope and creativity. The intention of this project and the celebration is to pay tribute to this incredible community." Sharon wants this rich visual statement of a wonderful community to continue to be seen.

By Debbie Blair

ku,yhrc and rnrchael met years ago In the downtown ea.cfsrdt~ they were frrend for 15 t o 20 j9ear\ htighre ~ a r he d canw here to find work hughre barely ale anythrng hughre ~ a r dhrc morhrr sard all you need 1s a donut and a cup of coffee u day hugh~ealways wore a do11 nfilled slee~~eless pcket and a red hat htqhre uorrkl p r t lalk aniralk hughle!~farnrly'd come /;om n o w scotra n) lake hen hack home and help hrm hut hughre'd .\ard: "thrc.I\ my home rnjl.frrends arc here" (quotes from: "tracy tobin and the ginseng drinkers in oppenheimer park ", Oppenhermer /'ark published by poet Bud Osborn and artist ~ i c h a r dTetrault)

* On Thursday, April 23rd, city council approved of the extensionof the Walls of Change project to create murals for all the boarded-up storefronts from Cambie to Main on Hastings. For more details and to get involved, call Sharon at 665-2220.

to remember us in our best molnents our strongest moments our self-sacrificing moments linda we need you to care for us as we struggle to defend each and every hard-pressed human being in our hard-hit but holy community a poem of remembrance to linda gains for liz evans

j I I

I heard her tear the air with rage that let everyone know rage that let the streets of displacement know rage that let the buildings of exclusion know rage that let the passersby of indifference know that an insult and an indignity and an injustice has been done to a human being I heard her voice on behalf of those who are marginalized on behalf of those who are stigmatized on behalf of those of us who make careful and accommodating protests and on behalf of those who suffer silently fi-om the general cover-up 1 hear linda tear the air with rage

I hear her pierce the air with stature like a noble and magnificent tree that made me think of emily can's painting "scorned as timber, beloved of the sky" and during a demonstration at carrall and cordova against a condo invasion of our community a demonstration at which several children were carrying placards I saw linda smile at those children and bend towards them to embrace them as though a noble and magnificent tree full of birds singing the birth of love and care was bestowing gentleness and kindness upon those children who were glowing because of that smile and drawn close to her who made that smile I saw linda pierce the air with stature

linda we need you

linda we need you to bear with us when we are impatient and unsure of what to do or how to help linda we need you to help us rage against conspiracies of displacement and destruction and we need you to strengthen us when fatigue and fear grips our courage and our voice and imn~obilizesus linda we need you to stand tall for us when we are bowed and bent beneath the blows of contemporary brutality linda we need you to look upon us in our sadness and loss as you looked upon those children at the comer of carrall and cordova because our lives so ofter. so dark so despzrately need the light you bestowed upon those childre11 bestowt d as a noble and magnificent human being smiling like birds singing the birth of love and care linda we miss you in our need for you

Bud Ostwrn

For many people there is no Happy Hour and never will be. Often, "The Happy Hour" is a guiltridden expression to tie one on. Frequently, it's also a 'come-on' for a political meeting. Years ago 1 remember it as a sing-song of old and familiar hymns to a gathering of the saints, but in popular parlance it's become a cliche for respite from a hard day 's work at the office. Often, in my experience, sanity and goodwill hang by a thread... and often, in my experience, it is children on the outside, looking in, who are surprised, confused and hurt the most.

Art & words of Sam Roddan

'hvitch and M c

sometimes life is a bitch when all you can do is twitch

Twitch and me fight in the dark careful to stay quite far apart careful the way we stalk the parks looking for rack and ruin

Twitchman don't scare easy but he's terrified scared of what he can never own what has been denied he eyes your daughter, thinks she's a witch, wants her so badly but all he can do is twitch

Oh, Twitct~man,as you kick oh Twitchman, as you punch the air funny little Inan with a wicked itch and all you do is twitch Twitch sees the young busker envy his woman, his looks and his money there, on the sidewalk on Granville, ain't fimny

So stab the air, punch the sky kick out all the demons in there sometimes when 1 see him I get all mystified I run my car straight into the ditch 'cause when I see him all 1 can do is twitch R. Loewerz

GOLDEN PIGS FIND NICW HOMES WITH CORPORATE HOGS

. ,

Corporate and political elite's who live "high on the hog" were honored for their excessive greed at the 2nd annual Corporate Golden Piggy Awards held in Victoria last month. A snout-wearing audience of 300 snorted their approval for winners in each of eight categories. Local talent, like the Flying McNuggets, Raging Grannies and Gender Equity Spice Piglets (kicking off their world tour) provided entertainment between awards. Organizers had a difficult time picking winners for this year's event, due to the seemingly unchecked outbreak of Mad Pig Disease affecting so many corporate heads and political heels. "Diane Francis" and Bank of Montreal head Matthew Boarit exhibited serious symptoms of the disease when they dueled on-stage over one of the large gold pig trophies for which they both had been nominated. The World Health Organization has yet to respond to this epidemic. Some of the big winners were McDonald's for their McLibel trjal against two UK activists; Kellogg's, in partnership with the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, for their bank coupons in cereal boxes promotion; and Bombardier Inc., who recently received an $87 nlillion grant from the federal government. Brian Mulroney, former Senator Andrew Thompson and The Helicopter Deal went pig toe to pig toe for the Both-Feet-in-the-Trough Award with the Helicopter Deal emerging as the winner. "Jean Chretien" was on hand to accept the award and explain the importance of the new search and rescue helicopters: 'When de people comes to search for me, I will need da helicopter to rescue me.' He left the stage after saluting his fellow

APECers with a blast of pepper spray. Even Barbie made an appearance at the gala event The world's favorite bimbo role model was ecstatic at being one of the presenters for the ShirtOff-My-Back award. Her maker, Mattel Inc., was nominated in this category for their use of Chinese prison labour in tnanufacturing their products. However they were beaten out by David Cheung, corporate head of AMW Holdings, and his plan to create a maquiladora-type zone (for exportprocessing) in New Brunswick. "First New Brunswick! Next, turn Canada into A4exico-of-theNorth!!" screamed "Mr. Cheung" who sported a poncho and sombrero. Vladimir Lenin rose from the grave looking remarkably fresh and spunky to present the Snake Oil award to the Canadian Bankers Association. Although they faced tough competition from the free-market pundit Diane Francis, the Direct Marketers' Association and the tobacco companies, the bankers prevailed. Their triumphal deed was to spend $22 million on public relations in order to get the people of Canada to like them. Appzrently, with all the recent bank-bashing that's been going on, bankers have developed a gargantuan inferiority complex. According to CBA chair Gordon Feeney, "Bankers have been robbed of their pride." When acceptor Matthew Boarit wasn't looking, Lenin stole his briefcase full of moneb and quickly began redistributing the wcalth

amongst the audience before making a deposit at his local food bank. Wal Mart, Tim Horton's Donuts and Maple Leaf Foods fought it out for the Burls-before-Swin: awards. 'Corporate rats rule; paupers drool' stated Fraser Institute spokesman Mr. Lettem E.A.T. Cake before awarding Maple Leaf Foods, w h ~ recently cut their workers' pay by 40%. Nominations for next year's awards may be sent to the Corporate Golden Pig Committee, #4 1 5620 View St., Victoria, V8W 156, before March 1, 1999. Want to have your own local Piggy Awards9 Video tape and organizing kit will be available later in the year from the above address. Please iilchlde $25 to cover costs and postage. By CYNTHIA L'HIRONDELLE

A 100% STABLE CANADIAN CHALKED UP THE HIGHEST

Gum chewing, cock-pulsing pushing cafeteria lines full of thin soups and crusty rolls that escort bursting breasts back from the El Cid where pimps entice professional masturbators to swing their shoulders at old men with wrinkled tattoos Elbow-marked tables betray emotions to the milk fed paid police retarded priests who interrogate - any who hesitate or looks too long at the food the umbrella families cook with hands stained deep from the red ink of new flags in this country of hope and the refugees who don't like fights that bare the rotting teeth that come sliding out of the festering gums of fighters who don't control their hearts but dream of meeting virgins at the Balmoral while they are combing their hair like a reputation that speaks to itself

WHITE LlJNCH 1969 in here

away from the rain Criminals who live half a mile from shopping malls full of consumers who steal quick glances at those who bum cigarettes on their way to the parlors of beer and big screen sports

They all try to trade roles of emptiness for the white lunch dinners three blocks away from the Gastown merchants selling disco disco disco dance full of Styrofoam sexuality to the retarded priests who off duty tell tales of power to the cashiers from the shopping malls for consumers like you and me. Leigh Donohue

I)OWN'I'()WN S T 0 CLINIC 219 Main; Monday-Friday, 10a.m. 6p.111. EAS'I'SII)IS NEEDLE EXCHANGE - 221 Main; 8:30a.m. 8p.m. every YOII'~II NEEDLE EXCHANGE VAN 3 Routes day City 5:45p.m. 11:45 p.m. Overnight 12:30a.m. 8:30a.rn. Downtown Eastside 5:30p.m 1:30a 5 2 1998 DONATIONS Helene S.-$18

2 Paula

R.-$10 Wm. B.-$12 rn p. 1 J o y T.-$18 =r * ,-Charley B.-$15 t;' ~ i b D.-$50 b ~ Sam R.-$40 .n Rick Y.-$45 Sharon 5.-$30 I-' BCCW -$25 Ln Ray-Cam - $ l o . Harold D.-$20 D I Sonya S.-$80 '" l a n c y H.-$35 J e n n i f e r M.-$15 Brenda P. $10 0 I-'

3 m

J e n n y K.-$18 Tim S.-$18 Thomas B.-$14 Beth L.-$18 B i l l G.-$9 Rolf A.-$25 Bruce 5.-$14 BCTF - $12 S a b i t r a -$I5 Susan S.-$7 Margaret D.-$20 DEYAS -$50 PRIDE -$50 Pam B.- 20 CEEDS - f 5 0

( I

Arlicles repfesenl the views of individual conlribulors and not of UIC Associalio~~

Submission Deadline for the next issue: Tuesday, May 12.

Housing problems; * Unsafe living conditions; Come to the Dera office at 425 Carrall Street or *

Small Suites 7 Micro-Suites On April 2 1 the 'Tenants' Rights Action Coalition ( T M C ) held a forum on SRO replacement aid

housing in the downtown core. Over a hundrc.d came to hear the four people at the front and to share opinions about the most contentious issue: suite size. DERA, represented by Frank Gilbert, had a mock < cross suite of 208 sq.ft. built in the old bank space1 from Pigeon Park. Responses were varied, sure, but the majority of people seeing it were positive. Other community groups and housing activis's responded that it undennjnes the principles o ' fairness, dignity and the factors of decent hot-sing - affordable livability and permanency. Jim Green is known in the Downtown Eastside for a lot of good housing, and now works for the provincial government. Tom Laviolette co-ordinates Camegie's Community Action Project, dealing with stuf F like housing, gentrification and development pressure. Karen O'Shannacey is director of the Lookwt Emergency services. which operates shelters :md some long-tenn housing. TRAC asked each person to talk for 7 minutes about basic questions - what to do about SRO hotels, what's needed for decent housing, wh3t kind of initiatives could this community get together on - and then it opened up for respome. Every point of what constitutes decent housing was agreed on - i.t's just common sense - and. as stated at the beginning, the size of new place! was the major difference. Studies on replacement lowincome housing, made in the States, clearly s i d that below a certain size (255 sq.ft.) it becomcs just more temporary housing with most people always looking for something bigger and better. Projects on the way right now - the Portland Hotel and Bridge, the recently completed Jim Green Residence and the newest Bruce Eriksen Place have self-contained suites that are larger than 208 sa.A. At the same time, the money to build suites over, say, 320 sqft. is pretty scarce, and a lot of

i people now living in the.area have despaired of ever getting accepted at one of the social housing sites. The pressures of development are mounting on all sides of the Downtown Eastside, and the stated desires of condo owners and business people are to clean up [out] the undesirable locals. Frank Gilbert said that if we stick to principles of a minimum size that no private developer will look at, much less build, then we get less or no housing at all and people will just stay in "shitty little rooms". On the flip side, Tom has drafted a proposal for standards that include size, density and social services that many groups in the area support in principle. What it keeps coming to is how much of this is us talking to ourselves and how much will be influential to a city council whose members talk publicly about "taking draconian measures" to clean up our community and why should we have a right to live on real estate that other, richer, voting people want. There was no final resolution or abandoning of viewpoints but activists as well as residents know that time is short and the wolf is at the door. More on this will come. That is for sure. By PAULR TAYLOR