February 1, 2016 carnegie newsletter

CaEEi1nSe ie 6 g. .

A

016

NEWSLETTER

website camegienewsletter.org

401 Main Street, Vancouver V6A 2T7 604-665-2289

February

catalogue

carnnews@shaw.ca carnnews@vcn.bc.ca

3, If, 5 . l1arn to qprn

At Oppenheirner Park

.'

I'

Food

Activities·

1. ,>

£ntert(lihment

/

;f."~:\

, ,

\..l~~-'"

HOlMELE(5)S CONNEC'T VC\(\couve.r

COllve"s

Tue,

.,..

."••.

..

reb 2 . loarn +0 Zprn

'tt

••

1I'

~ .•. r.

~

~

-.... ~ .•• ;.i

\S.

I.

•

~--¥* ~c'*'*~"-

GiveawClYs . Food . Services ~

~q

Oppenheimer Park-DTES Communities' Back Yard

~."

'

."--"'- ...-- "--rArtworks made through Express Yourself workshop led by Geri Guemos at Oppenheimer Park

JAN 2.7 - WNeGiE.1HEA~E •ALL CANDiDATES MEETiNG • I

-

<, /

"-

ffi~ER.ill

VOLUNTEERS! Volunteers ofthe month- January 2016 Oebra McNaught; Board Member, and Second Floor Reception

Ada Oennis; Special Events Congratulations! !

Volunteer Committee Meeting Wednesday, February 3rd @ 3:30pm, Classroom 2 February

j Let's make every day Valentine's : nity.

Volunteer Dinner Wednesday,

. some kindness. There are countless people in need in our community and I encourage you to show your love in a unique manner. a simple 'Have a nice day" can go a long way. Giving time and thought into improving our relationship with our community is a true measure of compassion.

Here at Carnegie our volunteers show their love for their community daily.

l Oth @ 4:30pm,

The Carnegie Valentine's Day Challenge Usually when we think like chocolates, flowers, this year why not extend for others, perhaps total

of Valentine's Day, things and cards come to mind, but Valentine's Day to caring strangers, who are in need of

Day in our cornmu-

tlNCm.'YU

~

Oppenheimer Park NEWS FROM OPPENHEIMER

PARK

WINTER HOURS Tues to Saturday, 9:15-5pm VOLUNTEERat Homeground Park Sign up on Feb 2, lOam-12 Bamboo sticks, Kay & Mr. Okada from VJGA (left),

a kite made by Marko

THANK YOU VERY MUCH TO THE VANCOUVER JAPANESEGARDENERSASSOCIATION! In January at Oppen Arts Studio Workshops, we held kite making workshops. Vancouver Japanese Gardeners Association generously made and donated thin bamboo sticks to use in our kites! We really appreciate their support of our program! Arigatou gozaimasu!

OTHER PROGRAMS

RUN-WALK PROGRAM:

WEDNESDAYS, lOPM -12PM

We're getting ready for the Sun Run! Join us for a run or walk with a friendly team. Learn some tips and tricks, and enjoy the outdoors. Everyone is welcome!

BOARD GAMES: TUESDAYS, 2PM - 4PM Chess, monopoly, crib ... Join us to play different of hot chocolate. [[]

â&#x20AC;˘

kinds of board games in our cozy activity room with a cup

OPPENHEIMER PARK - DTESCOMMUNITIES' BACK YARD

604-253-8830

I 488

POWELL ST.

The Taste of a Man Inspired by AI Pacino's The Scent of a Woman 4 Will The thought of his kiss brings blood to my lips! Then his breath, then the taste ofa man!.

As my skin warms to his and my guard gently slips, I long to please and I sense that I can!

His will becomes mine as he moves for a win; my scent and his taste surely mingling.

Then his soul sings to mine as I crave sacred sin, leaving me with my mind purely tingling!

I pray for the rush! Is he a man or boy? No new life does he have to be making.

Women need not be ehtered for our men to know joy. Our love is outside for the taking.

The thought of no touch takes the gleam from our eyes. No more taste to instill love and passion!

If any man can help I ask him to arise and join my game in his true loving fashion!

Love and awe, Lora B

En Passant The Carnegie Chess Club.

o

I have been taking lessons in Chess Trash Talking from a Filipino player who is one of the top players that frequent the Carnegie Community Centre. The lessons have been for naught. I am still the worst player. I have only won one game since starting my lessons. That person has since given up the game. I will call him John and he always falls for letting me chase his queen all over the board. I guess that is why they had a John list in the papers in the past. Actually it was called a Shame the John list. The Lion as he is known looks like a Michael Angelo model. He has short arms that give him greater speed for hitting the clock. The Lion has two styles of play. He plays best when there is a wager on the game. He usually plays these money games off premises. "You must back your trash talking up with good moves!" were his first words of wisdom in my chess course from the Lion. His second lesson was, "Only play openings that you know!"

Yes the real secret to being good at chess is short arms and a short memory. Jerry has these qualities. I was able to beat him for a while before Oscar took him under his wing and trained him in the Hungarian way. Oscar is also "Oneof the top players at the Carnegie. He took Jerry and turned into a chess wizard.

Jerry doesn't ask anymore if it is his move. Those days are long gone.

Andre is also from Hungary and once was Canada's top soccer player. He is in his eighties and is the most humorous of all the trash talkers. When you find yourself listening to his talking you are a goner in the game.

And there is the Croatian player in his eighties who dresses like a cowboy. He is also one of the top trash talkers. You must be careful that he doesn't insert pawns into the game. His black cowboy hat is where he keeps the pawns.

Perhaps the most colourful of players goes by the

name of Super M. He too looks like a Michael Angelo model. He's played millions of games with the Lion.

He says bad things about the Lion when he's not there He says the Lion takes performance enhancing drugs to play chess. Maybe, maybe not. The Lion always makes his checkmates while erect. He stands up from his chair, takes his checkmating queen and polishes it before moving it into a checkmate position. He is like a great conquer waving the country flag over the defeated enemy in a grand battle. It is very humiliating for the person being checkmated. When the Lion wins on time his shouts." Carumba" This is a Spanish word. Super M is not this type of player: he refuses to trade trash talk with the Lion. His favourite trash talking expression is. "He has more moves than a toilet seat." Super M chooses his battles and plays mostly with the Funny Guy. Funny Guy has the record for most games played by anyone in the chess world. On a given day Funny Guy plays hundreds of games. He only takes time off for Bingo games. He is probably one of the world's greatest Bingo players. The Funny Guy likes to scream at people who are watching his games. "Don't say any-

I

thing!" This is strange because the other player then knows there is something wrong. The Funny Guy play~ for chess t~uth. The Funny Guy wears his heart on his sleeve., He talks about the game as he plays.

When he wins he laughs a loud guffaw. And then says at the top of his voice, "You're no good." it is very humiliating for his opponent even though it is in jest.

The President of the Chess club is Chris. Chris is a student of the game and knows all the openings from arduous studies. Chris also organizes tournaments and goes out into different communities to teach the game Chris is the gentleman at the club. Unlike myself noone bad mouths him. Chris is always available for a game with anyone.

My one victory over the Funny Guy was because Robert from Montreal gave me the answer. I was playing Funny Guy with a handicap. Funny Guy spotted me a queen. Robert has probably watched more live games of chess than anyone at the Carnegie. He got his start in Canada's Chess hotbed, Montreal. Rob -ert plays mostly with a guy from Ethiopia. He trash talks the Ethiopian to try and get him out of the zone.

And the Max, who could be called the Grey Fox of chess. He is an expert at using Carnegie rules. Carnegi~ speed chess rules allow you to take moves pack

providing you haven't hit the clock. Max does this to find out what piece his opponent will reach for. It is kind of like fishermen dangling the bait in front of a fish.

And there is Tom from Switzerland. He on any given day can play with anyone and hold his own. Tom gets his inspiration from the stars. He stays at the 1000 Star Hotel.

Steve is easy to spot at the club. He wears baseball caps to hide his eyes. He is unusual in the chess world because he smiles and laughs when he plays. He does not have a game face that you see with sports stars.

He enjoys playing.

There is only one other player who I can play with and that is Susan. She is the cornerstone of Carnegie chess. I have never beaten her because she makes me take my moves back. Susan comes from Shanghai and has very good English. There are many Chinese chess players who are also playing at high level. Anyone of them can defeat anyone in Vancouver on a good day.

They play both the Chinese chess and Western chess.

The difference is that the Chinese game is never played with a clock. They know that the clock slows the game down. It turns a game into a job. Punch into work, punch out of work. They enjoy sharing time by playing and talking with each other.

Some Native players who are also capable of defeating anyone on any given day are Joey and Tim. Joey prepares for play by playing endlessly on the computer. Big Tim has a photo memory and can recreate positions on the board after the game. He has burned in chess strength.

The Filipinos are the most active players at the Carnegie. To be anyone in their country, you must know how to play two games, Chess and Pool. Ninety percent of the men in their county play chess. They always accommodate me with a game even though I am the worst player in the place. I don't ask to play with them anymore. I don't like to bring them down with my sub standard play.

Another player you can see practically seven days a week at the Carnegie playing is Jay. Jay too is a great analyst of the game. He is easy to spot with his beige fedora. He is probably the classiest person at the center. He is by far the most gentlemanly person in the Camegie chess circle. Jay likes to smoke expensive cigars in the smoking area between games.

An new star has risen by the name of Kormar. His

5

style defies all the theory found in books. He never opens the same way. He understands cadence though.

His style makes it hard to make a strategy and make tactics against his play. Komar has a game face. He comes to play and play hard.

There are many disputes that need adjudication.

Screams of "YOU TOUCHED IT" are heard on the third floor. This results in the intervention of the Grand Arbitrator Mr. Egor telling the angry players to Shut the F up. His words restore order and calm. Egor doesn't play chess but he understands gamesmanship.

Chess is an evolving game where rules have changed over the years. I would like to make a rule change.

The Lancy Bloom Rule. This rule would not allow two kings to face each other on the same file. It is a rule in Chinese chess. It would be similar to the rule where players must say checkmate when the king can be captured by their piece.

In the Carnegie rules when a king is exposed the King can be taken and the game is over. The Lancy Bloom Rule would be the same. If you move a piece that was between the two kings on the same file the other player can capture the exposed king.

By LANCY BLOOM

tAetropoll~n Concert Band

Repertoire will include a wide variety of music: Broadway, the classics, marches, ballads, jazz & movie themes. Come & enjoy the big band sound!

Wednesday, February 10th 7:30 - 8:30 PM

in Carnegie Theatre

Silver Clouds Cloud Taxi to Paris for Free After Midnight the way i see it > the game is rigged it's all spin and platitudes> a trick of the light the shadows gather> rearranging on the periphery of vision> clouds are massing to obscure clear sight >muddling logic flattening hope and care >freezing hearts mistaking high principles> for good the cloud of unreason descends often abruptly> generally insidiously wherever there is an opening until we come to dwell> in a fog of confusion where we can no longer> see our way free of the lies> upholding our foundation of truth for some of these clouds may be chemtrails and some are clusters of smog the oceans are being poisoned there's nowhere to escape >toxic contamination the effects of pollution>the products of greed for we are all interconnected>just like the weather we are blown>by circumstances we can't fight

Not having Cable TV can be good in terms of not being bombarded with the incessant advertising, the portrayal of athletes &/or politicians as heroes giving us the benefit of their other-than-pithy comments on whatever is being packaged as news or spiritual insights most profound. On the other hand the portraya of current events in whatever fashion can make you _feel out-of-the-loop.

Syrian refugees is a case in point. Almost by osmosis the running story seems to be how great Canada is in generously welcoming 7 then 10 & (the 'goal') 25000 people with the media and tears and anecdotal stories. This is almost always the success of a person &/or their family in a step-by-step journey. The logistics are dismissed as details, but the silver - for poor, low-income people everywhere in Canada - is that

reality for us is seeping through the largely made-up portrayals seen in the media.

Most refugees are getting the same amount of monefrom the government that a person or family gets on welfare. Finding housing is not just 'go look' when a language barrier is almost certain to accompany having maybe $700 a month for getting a home for a family offour just like us; clothing & school supplies and its miles and miles of parking lots have to come out offood money just like us; without for every beleaguered tree a church-daddy any & all medical supplies not coverand simplicity is a luxury >in our complicated lives ed have to be paid for with food money just like us & trying not to further compromise> what integrity we retain the bureaucratic runarounds set in stone on purpose to seize the moment as it passes> and its passing by vindictive & harshly judgemental government poltoo quickly> the glamour is peeling I icies are there is spades for them, just like us.

On the bus, hearing "I cried when that poor kid had while clouds of unknowing >allow us bedbug bites all over!" or "Cold 8{.snow [rain] must to act as if nothing were happening> to trouble our ease be awful for them!" And now the really rich are havclinging to our bankgipt notions> losing the thread ing the way they price homes, maintain rental houslosing our balance >our convictions> our joy ing, gouge for every dime in terms of energy, heat, discovering new ways to say the same old things> much faster food and more brought up in light of the newly 'deseduced by images> wobbling in clouds of uncertainty serving' poor meeting the hypocrisy of those enbewildered and disenchanted >stuck in limitation trenched in keeping this irrational & unhealthy system we have misplaced> the blueprint of happiness Here's hoping the questions come hot & heavy ... because these silver linings don't make the clouds Is it too late to change our trajectory disappear. If SRO conditions aren't acceptable for are w,eready now~ to play nice? refugees, they aren't acceptable period. If slumlords to cult ~ur war against th~ natural world and ea?h other perpetuate insect & vermin infestations & it's just as so that Instead o~destroyinq the world> for profit ~n.dpleasure , despicable for refugees & economic refugees, then instead of trampling each other down> we are uplifting each other enforcement of by-laws can now (?) happen. and by these loving actions >we pierce the illusions of clouds The clouds are gathering but they only diffuse the so that our world can be transformed> for the good of us all light. The beauty andrighteousness of our struggles is

Delanye

always pure.

By PAULR TAYLOR

From "the Library February can be an odd month. There are some who embrace the Valentines hype, while others shun the scene, and perhaps have a loved one to grieve. No matter your situation coming together as a community seems to be the best way to get through the month, and the Carnegie Centre and the DTES has a variety of opportunities to make that happen, in particular Black History month and the Women's Memorial March. The women (and men) who take to the streets inspire me, and to follow that theme here are some books on people who have empowered their communities: Alone and Invisible No More (2011) by Allan Tee!' The subtitle on this book is, "How grassroots community action and 21 st Century technologies can empower elders to stay in their homes and lead healthier, happier lives." Teel bases his work on a successful community campaign in Maine, where the seniors were able to take better control of their path.

I am Malala (2013) by Malala Yousafzai - Just the name "Malala" gives me goose bumps! This is the story of the young woman from Pakistan who defended her right, and the rights of girls, to education and was shot point blank by the Taliban, only to survive and continue fighting.

Indigenous Nationhood: Empowering Grassroots Citizens (2015) by amela Palmater - Palmater is a lawyer and activist, and she has collected the best blog posts that comment on Aboriginal rights, politics and social issues including the missing and murdered First Nations women. She offers extensive knowledge of grassroots advocacy.

The Rebellious Life of Mrs. Rosa Parks (2013) by Jeanne Theoharis - This book is described as "richly informative" because it goes into depth about the true political identity of Rosa Parks as an activist rather than simply being an accidental participant in the civil rights movement. This is also a great book to read in honour of Black History month!

Your librarian, Natalie

Patrick Michaud and Michael McIntyre are 2 techie type guys from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside who say, they have seen the future, and it is GOOD. Free high speed WiFi shall set u free. Free of telephone bills forever for calls almost anywhere in Canada.

With the zeal of missionaries, they plan to spread the blessings of affordable phone & communication services; not by cell towers but by free WiFi ..

As long term residents of the DTES Patrick & Mike say that they have seen how affordable phone service brings a necessary stability into people's lives. "We believe everyone should have affordable phone service", say's Patrick Michaud, the founder of a radical new approach to the communication needs of the cities neediest. "How can anyone gain employment if they can't be reached", added McIntyre, "We believe that communications with friends and family is an important ingredient in the communities social stability". Patrick and Mike are thankful to be invol-ved in helping to open a whole new world for people on fixed incomes. â&#x20AC;˘ The City of Vancouver's commitment to expand free WiFi throughout the city, means a free and wonderful resource is becoming more wide spread every day.

WiFi is a wireless method of connecting to the Internet. Patrick and Mike take new Smart phones & modify them so that they use the internet to make & receive calls. You can call to all major cities in Canada Free. No more phone bills!

Customers receive a new improved Smart phone with their own, new local phone number. Many free extras such as, call leaving a message,forwarding, 3 way calling, etc. The new smartphone will accessFacebook or any sites on the internet. Play movies, play music, take pictures and video, U Tube, Email and on & on.

We take the confusion out of operating this wondrous phone by personally training all customers in getting the most out of their new smart phone.

All of this for a one time cost of only $150 to $200.

You never have to pay monthly phone bills again.

With free WiFi it's free. U gotta love that!

Formore info call us at 604-259-3678 or 604-401-8055

An example of a song from the first Zipper Song workshop: (Tune: "Take Me Out to the Ball Game")

, ZIPPER SONGS WORKSHOP Got something to say & know a song that says it?

Learn how to change lyrics to well known songs to speak your mind!

This workshop is led by Earle Pe & Solidary Notes Labour Choir

SATURDAY, February 13

3 - Spm, Carnegie Theatre

It takes too long to get welfare In the meantime you're broke, Trying to get a job interview While picking up bottles & waiting for soup.

CHORUS We will fight, fight, fight for an increase, We haven't had one for years, And it's one, two, three strikes you're out In the welfare game.

Take me out of the line-ups Put me in a real home Give me a raise on my welfare cheque So can get all the food that! lack.

CHORUS

Everyone welcome!

I

When is enough too much: Something like that

or Social Housing Slums The CitY of Vancouver,

known in South Africa as a

"One Skunk Town," is the owner/operator of a # of buildings known as 'low-barrier.'

Rents are high $700 - for a cockroach, bedbug, spider-infested room with a communal kitchen (cooking done on the main floor) . A notice asks that each 'man' clean up after use. They try but are too tired or stoned to actually clean. In the laundry room the 'janitors' do not clean the lint traps but bang on them to allow some of the loint to fall out on the surface of the dryers. All this is done with the swaggering attitude that says "I am beyond correction or reproach." I suppose they live in fear of losing their easy, unsupervised positions...

Anyway, the scores of men & a handful of women do not complain. They have no issues in their tissues and do not want to go back to under the Georgia Viaduct or other various places where the junkies and/or just unfortunates take refuge.

I am almost mad as hell. We need a REVOLUTION somewhat.

Wilhelmina

M Harriman

The Free Market celebrates life without money. We do it to build community & share ideas & things with each other. Join us every other Sunday from noon 'til 4PM at the Sacred Circle 33 W Cordova, our next Free Market is Feb 7th 2016. People come from all over to share clothing, books, kitchenware, art, gadgets, plants and food.

There is no need to barter, everything is free! The Free Market is also a great way to share skills. You are encouraged to make this your own, and participate in whatever ways you see fit. Offer a massage, scribble a poem, teach a dance, fix a bike ... Everybody has something to give and the more we share the richer we all are.

EVERYBODY MA TIERS and sharing is caring. It's potluck so please bring your favourite food to share if you can .. or just bring yourself.

Drum Circle @ 2PM

L-

..::...:...:..:.:. __ ---.:~

~

Carnegie Community Action Project February, 2016, Newsletter Drastic action needed to prevent new st. Paul's Hospital development from increasing homelessness DOWNTOWN EAl AREA PLA~ Comoleted 2(

FAl

Unless th city takes drastic action now, the new St. Paul's Hospital on Station Street, just behind the Ivanhoe, could gentrify the entire south end of the Downtown Eastside and Chinatown, making nearly 500 people homeless.

This is what the Carnegie Community Action Project, which has accurately

forecast the impact of DTES gentrification on homelessness for years, predicts will happen as new residences and businesses crop up to accornmodate'the new hospital, expected in 5 years. When Woodwards condos opened up the impact on adjacent SROs was increasing property values, taxes and rents. About 404 affordable SROs were lost to low-income residents there as rents escalated.

Nearly 500 SRO rooms are in the vicinity of the new hospital on E Georgia, Keefer, Prior, Union and Main Streets. The biggest are the Cobalt (98 rooms) and the Ivanhoe (104 rooms) which both rent for less than the average DTES SRO hotel (about $450 a month).

Owners of these hotels and others could find excuses to evict current residents and upgrade their buildings slightly to rent at high rents to hospital workers and workers in businesses that will serve the new hospital. Thousands of DTES residents who can only afford $375 a month could be made homeless.

This gentrification process, already going full steam in Chinatown with new condo towers, could ramp up now and not wait for the city to build any social housing, says CCAP. Besides, when the city claims to be building

social housing, none of it has to be affordable by the very low income on welfare, disability and basic seniors pension, the people who need it most.

Unless the city acts fast to prevent more homelessness, more and more people will be sleeping on Vancouver streets with nowhere to go. CCAP is calling on the city to buy or lease existing SROs in the vicinity of the new hospital immediately. In the longer term the city must ensure that people on very low incomes can afford at least half of the new housing in the Viaduct removal area.

Tenants CAN win!!

Tenancy Branch complaints, door knocking, taking the temperature in rooms with thermometers, media stories, a heater donation and landlord embarrassment campaign, calling on city inspectors, city fines, etc., etc. the tenants finally have what they are legally entitled to: a warm room on a cold night.

Mohammad valayati collects donated heaters to keep tenants at the lion hotel warm and embarrass the landlord

Tenants at the Lion Hotel have heat! After months of tenant complaints, filing of Residential

And it's all because the SRO Collaborative went into the hotel and organized residents to fight for their rights. The collaborative is now working in the West, Regent, and Balmoral Hotels. If you live in an SRO hotel and want to work for your rights you can join SRO Collaborative meetings every second Saturday at 11:30 in Classroom 2 on the third floor of Carnegie. The next meeting is Feb. 13th.

OUR COMMUNITY VISION FOR MENT AL HEALTH A COMMUNITY PLANNING MEETING

In 2013, the City of Vancouver declared a mental health crisis.

Since then, there has been over 3000 apprehensions under the Mental Health Act each year and the police budget continues to increase. But policing doesn't improve our community's mental health.

We urgently need to build an alternative vision for mental health in the Downtown Eastside that takes into account the impact of SRO hotels, low welfare rates, lack of supports and ~ousing on our mental health.

JOIN A COMMUNTY LED RESEARCH AND VISIONlNG PROJECT ABOUT MENT AL HEALTH IN THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE!

6-8PM, TUESDAY, FEBURARY 2ND GALLERY GACHET (88 E CORDOVA ST) CARNEGIE COMMUNITY ACTION PROJECT UNCEDED COAST SAUSH TERRITORIES

Our Homes Can't Wait

"What belongs to the people is homes, not tents," said Stella August at the Carnegie Community Action Project's (CCAP) second Town Hall meeting on the housing crisis and what to do about it. "It's really important to fight and to continue to fight. We really need justice here," added August.

Downtown Eastside residents are working on a campaign to get more social housing at welfare rate, keep and improve SRO hotels, and get real rent control. The actions are coming out of two meetings, a packed town hall meeting in the Carnegie Theatre on Jan. 9 and another strategy meeting on Jan. 23.

As a result of the meetings the group is working on a strategy to get the city to put 100% welfare rate housing on 10 sites, 6 of which it already owns

and 4 that it can buy. The group decided to focus first on the site at 58 W. Hastings that is owned by the city.

According to City plans, only 15% of the housing for that site will be for people who can 'only afford the welfare shelter rent of $375 a month. The rest of the units will be for higher income people.

Q

0 11

.V ~

C

fa

.:>

...t

.s E

~ ~ 0

1:i

o 0 0

::l

The city's theory of mixing incomes in housing is based on the "social mix" theory described by Karen Ward at the Jan. 23 meeting like this: Social mix is supposed to be "a magical process where poor people start to think that they are middle class and dress better and buy these little dogs .... " Instead, said Ward, they get "chased around by security guards" when they try to "buy a beer for $8,.a haircut for $80 or shoes for $800."

Cl!

At the meeting on Jan. 23 the group talked about developing a community vision for 58 W. Hastings that would include a housing mix that could be one third Chinese seniors, one third Indigenous and one third other DTES residents who are homeless or live in SROs. All rents would be at the welfare shelter rate or 30% of income and no one would be turned away because their income was too low.

The residents themselves could run the housing. The ground floor would be for community uses, maybe an art

_--,

space for real low-income artists. The building would also have cultural spaces for the Chinese and Indigenous people who live there.

People at the meeting formed an organizing committee to work out the details of the campaign to get 58 W. Hastings for 100% social housing. If you would like to be part of this committee, call CCAP at 604 729 2380 or drop by the CCAP office.

Only 30% social housing at welfare rate in City's new Aboriginal Social Housing developments The City of Vancouver is trying to get two new housing developments happening in the Downtown Eastside (DTES), according to a report adopted at City Council on Jan 19th. The two proposed developments have been packaged as part of the city's commitment to being a City of Reconciliation with Indigenous people.

The need for aboriginal social social housing is dire and about one-third of homeless people in Metro Vancouver, or about 70 people, are Indigenous.

The city plans to build one building on city-owned land at 946/950 Main St. This building could be done in 3 years and would have 30 units, but only 10 of the units would be at the shelter rate ($375) for low-income and homeless Indigenous people.

The other development is similar and would be on city-owned land 1015 E. Hastings near and across the street from Raycam. It would include health services providep by Vancouver Coastal Health, the Central shelter (moved over from the current one on National Ave.) and 175-220 units of housing. However, only one third or 58-73 units would be at welfare rate for homeless people. This project will take 5 years to build.

So, over 5 years, the city's contribution to Aboriginal Housing would be a maximum of 83 units, or about 20 units a year, to deal with an Aboriginal Homelessness Crisis of about 700 a year, going by last years homeless count. This doesn't include the many Indigenous people who live in SRO's with rising rents or people who will be pushed out of SROs by gentrification.

Say "No!" to the 288 E. Hastings development application and rally for 1000/0 social housing

Dozens of seniors and community activists from Vancouver's Chinatown and Downtown Eastside poured into city hall on Monday, January afternoon to speak out against a proposed 12-storey mixed-use development in the centre of the historic neighbourhood.

Below is a speech delivered by King Mong Chan, organizer with Chinatown Concern Group.

zs",

Good afternoon everyone, thank you for gathering here today in support of the Chinatown Concern Group. I want to begin by acknowledging that we are standing here on the unceded Coast Salish territory of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh nations.

Today we"are gathered to voice our opposition to the 288 E. Hastings St. application being considered by the Development Permit Board. We are gathering to voice our opposition to how Chinatown is, as Joe Wai says, "being treated as commodity," continually being transformed to a community that serves the richer residents moving in while neglecting

and breaking apart the low-income and Chinese community through gentrification and rnarqinalizaticn. We are here today to defend our beloved Chinatown, which is the home of many, especially Chinese seniors, who are the heart of the Concern group; Chinatown is also our root as Chinese people, tracing back to the historical journeys our ancestors have walked in and contributed to for B.C. and Vancouver to be the place that it is.

Approving the 288 E. Hastings St. will continue to drive the development pressures and gentrification in our Chinatown. While the Mayor talks

about protecting Chinatown, it is much more than simply the buildings. Yes it is important to make sure the heritage society buildings are kept in good shape but the Mayor cannot with one hand, establish a fund to rehabilitate these buildings while with his other, create and approve policies that break apart the community that socialize in this space, in this neighbourhood because that is what is going on. It is not one or the other - it is both that must happen and all levels of government have a responsibility to make that happen.

The Revitalization plan for Chinatown has expired for half a year and there has been no revision, reflection, or consultation with at least our group on the impact that the policies have had on Chinatown. Without such an assessment, the City should not be approving any further projects that affect Chinatown such as this 288 E. Hastings.

While we are seeing over 1000 units of unaffordable housing in the Chinatown area, we are only seeing about 50 units of genuinely affordable social housing units. When I mean affordable I mean $300-400/year - not the BC HILS of $912 or affordable market rental, which will only continue to rise as gentrification continues.

We are also losing affordable retail with this transformation of Chinatown.

We are losing places that residents can safely and conveniently buy their daily goods. So we say "no!" to Wall Corporation's application at 288 E. Hastings! No! We say no to more displacement of low-income serving retail and of low-income people.

Instead we say "yes" to 100% genuine social housing because that is what our community needs! Yes! We say "yes" to homes 1i0W!Yes!

Downtown Eastside Groups Unite Against Street Sweep: Displacement doesn't make the street safer for low-income people "The only reason people are being harassed and pushed off the sidewalks is because discrimination against the poor has become official City policy," said Karen Ward on Monday, November 30th. Ward, from Gallery Gachet, was speaking to a crowd that gathered together for a news conference on organized in

opposition to the City's displacement of survival street vendors from East Hastings street.

The City's latest displacement of street vendors is part of a longer history of criminalizing survival street vending and poverty in Vancouver. AI Fowler explained, "I was street

vending before, but I can't anymore because last year I got a six month conditional sentence for street vending and I was thrown into jail twice. I was made into a criminal because I was a street vendor. But we are not criminal, we are just poor people trying to survive." Fowler added, "This is not just about the war on drugs, it is the war on the poor."

"When I came here from out East, I was homeless," said Phoenix Winter of Carnegie Community Action Project. "One of the things I loved about the Downtown Eastside was that, unlike other areas of the city, I could come here, sit and talk to people, hang around and not get pushed out by security or police. It is so sad for me to see how it has changed now. The City said that people who are homeless or just hanging around would not be kicked

out or displaced but if you look down the street, it's empty."

In November CCAP conducted a survey with over 60 survival street vendors. According to Winter, "the survey found the vast majority of street vendors are vending because welfare rates are not high enough, because they don't have housing or are on disability. They are doing street vending to survive. However, because of the crackdown, the vast majority of street vendors surveyed said they can't make as much money anymore.

One street vendor CCAP talked to even said they had to now sell their body as a way of surviving. Instead of feeling safer, the majority of vendors surveyed are worried that crime and violence will increase in the neighbourhood as people are pushed to more and more desperate actions to survive." â&#x20AC;˘

Do you want to see homes and better incomes for all?

The Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) is a project of the board of the Carnegie Community Centre Association. CCAP works mostly on housing, income, and land use issues in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver so that the area can remain a low-income friendly community.

The Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) meets every Friday at 11:15 on the 3rd floor of the Carnegie Centre. Join us! The CCAP office is located on the 2nd floor of the Carnegie https :lIcc~pvancouver. ~ordQress.cQm/ UNCEDED COAST SALlSH TERRITORIES

CPR Long ago I lived in this house on Broadway with my mother. There was a knock on the door. My friend June came in a taxi, she gave me half a gallon of wine and then started to cry. Iasked her what was wrong.

She told me the taxi driver sexually assaulted her.

I told her to lie downon my bed. While I was talking to her she quit breathing! Immediately I gave her CPR and it brought her back to life, which was very good.

June had to take dialysis, plus she was always drinking Ginseng which is really strong alcohol. Later on in June's life she passed away because of drinking that stuff.

You have one life to live so look after yourself and what you eat and drink.

By Marlene Wuttunee Father & Mother: A Longtime Love Story I never doubted they were forces of nature, My parents Two brilliant suns in my small sky They brooked no argument or contradiction!

When I was fifteen or so Learning from my excellent teachers & ministers Daddy was not always correct in his statements

â&#x20AC;˘

Bloody noses ensued & threats of worse I ran to my room - he never pursued.

Written for Bruce Springsteen A Man Making a Mazing Music When man discovered fire, did he dance all night?

Why are we so sad now? Too many want to fight!

How can we let our children live with such fright?

WE, THE PEOP E must voice what we think is right.

Our leaders should listen to any who will speak.

Encourage all to step up. Please don't be meek!

Our planet is in peril! Has mankind hit a peak?

Can we still survive or are we all up the creek?!

Let's think about things like who needs to shop?

Our consumer society at all costs should stop.

Some civilized methods are proving a flop.

Can man resist his drive to be always on top?

All blood is sacred; none should be spilled.

Nor beings abused; nor senselessly killed.

All are worth saving. All peoples are skilled.

When all blood is sacred, MAN is fulfilled!

Love and Awe, Lora B

Mother kept the peace .. and the secret My brothers' indiscretions, nay, juvenile offenses Never reached Daddy's ears, wherever he was: Siberia, North Africa, the China Sea, The Royal Navy WWII The Royal Canadian Navy after the War. Destroyer escorts - Murmansk run Newcastle to Siberia with food for the starving Russians.

Hitler advanced toward Petrograd late that year winter did not come too early Once more Winter saved Russia from invasion And maybe will again.

The Aerograms came. Censored of course.

One said, "You keep the HOME FIRES BURNING. We'll keep the old flag flying."

So romantic, until I grew up & learned the cost -the cost to keep a flag flying!

Wilhelmina

COLOSSUS of EMPTYFUL Like an ordinary person growing fear & hatred in the privacy of their very own room, there was a time when neighbours helped you out when the walls began closing in on you, out in the air of mournful honesty we have informed the pusharound people that the poor & mentally ill are here to stay, as another structure of a billion nails has begun to spoil what had bee.n a bitter day, We are being put down by a society which says we have incurred a sense of inferiority a load of r~bbish ~imple as that, rebellion & redemption ar~ als? I~ the ar as the DTES are ready to die fighting this evil city full of empty promises the rich & the selfish have thrown away plans for peaceful co-existence now why is that?

Now Officer Down & cohorts begin drawing new ~hal~ outlines the moment anyone under the poverty lme IS born as Chinatown begs to be left alone stop these condo-people with sinister plans, are the poor the ones destroying this city as viaducts come down for $200,000,000 we are not part of this gain of purchase of the resulting mega-expensive lands, like a retardation of the uses or mandatory chemical addiction with empty pockets for your defence nothing worth fighting for is won overnight, slumlords paying people to move out into the cold ingenious yet disturbingly wrong your god might not be here right now so it's up to you to fight, they interrogate you for . hours for giving someone down on their luck something to eat that last straw of colossus of emptyful has fallen so many times but they'll continue to bitch & whine you know that bullshit now puts me to sleep, Like a military academy drilling regulations that would bore Hitler or ,talin you might as well join a satanic cultivation group that uses scissors to cut acres of weeds & underbrush that fun will last a second or two or a week, like U.S. cops using guns that will only shoot at specific skin colours be sure not to blush if the road runner from cartoonland were here would he even have time to beep-beep? Like travelling at the speed of light on training wheels we shall never fall off the map the peace race may take a step backwards every day but you will have to kill each & every oen of us do not for a moment think that you & yours alone shall at least in our children's lifetimes will ever own every inch of land or every sidewalk on every street, if you think of building new residential houses take your head out of the sand Commanders Gregor & '

Christy look at the polar bear fur-trading this country does with China sick twisted minds only read profit signs how many poor can we kill this year?

Like the addictionist losing faith in his dealer does he foresee death while waiting for the man there's always another go peddle your river oftears, no one knows what the right thing is let alone doing it as the Silence Age engulfs people's opinions is that how to waste productive time; whoever balances the poor people's books must have the centrefold in the next issue of Elephant Man Quarterly jobs leave him after one look he must have viciously defamed a new build -ing & its builder this is the utmost of evil crimes the dignity of a once great city wades through the urinatd & stagnated waters stop looking at us like we'ew the mess that can be wiped away with human life blotters You thought your only enemy was time! The perimeter of this revolution tries to convey true messages of ~ope.like inflatable conscience-repellant as our provmce IS the only one with absolutely no poverty plan other than starve to kill, like an anorexic bellydancer trying to stay on her toes as the mighty press with their "Who needs peop;e who can't help themselves!?" propaganda & other sinister facts that stack one upon the other until a hoarder's house has been filled, why even remember the past or future when the present means notl1ing whatsoever to people who work for companies like Early Graves - Will Travel When you are not able to hears things aloud things that can only be whispered we are not children we have the backbone to take being slagged off & we always will, if they cared they'd raise welfare & disability but I don't think I will hold my breath, we are an unwanted crisis they deem worthless the best thing we could possibly do for them is for all poor & mentally ill people to revolutionize a hasty but not too messy death, when the Big One hits & the entire west coast slides into the Pacific hey I can live & die without that as long as every selfishist is amongst us evening it out 'cool' hold onto your hat!

By ROBERT McGILLIVRA Y

"You see everything when the world doesn't see you."

PS: Please donate every dollar so small is large. Read, learn, contribute. Thank you.

PPS: This City has bought a 29-storey building for $205 million. For what? We will never know!

(Dedicated to David Robert Jones (Bowie))

HOMELESSNESS Homeless, lost, cold, out of sorts, all alone, where to go with no positive or certain direction as of yet.What direction as darkness falls upon me; despair envelopes me. Creeping about seems to be a void, an absolute, nothingness. The little shelters that I rely on sometimes are, not surprisingly, full to capacity. That's all right with me, meaning that someone has more want of a place to lie down than me; maybe I'll get lucky & find a dry doorway to curl up at, hopefully nearby, maybe in an alley or better yet on a busy street that's a bit safer - over a grated duct or steam vent where a rapid blow of heat warms me up, surrounds me with a feeling of joy; maybe luckier still goodhearted people will leave left-over scraps of food for me or maybe toss me some spare change .. small as it may be into a wilting, dirty, used-up coffee cup dug from a battered over-flowing trash can, semi-sturdy until the rain ...

The few possessions I have left these days, sure not much to brag about, include a small knapsack, a tattered threadbare blanket, old clothes I've scavenged & a constantly leaking pair of extremely used handme-down sneakers - which is funny in a weird sort of way as I don't have an urgent need to run from anything (except maybe my past I guess) - woe is me?!

How ironic this may sound to you but it never fails: when I finally lay my head down for an exhausted sleep I dream of a better world where no one wants, with caring, love, peace & happiness. A sharing & caring society - what a concept! - might catch on!!

These thoughts & notions seem to make long days speed by much faster, smoothly - I could get used to this deal! So much down time doesn't seem to drag me down ..into a bottomless pit of deep depression, an abyss of unreal doom. No. Not me. I will my spirit to stay riding high. What keeps me going is my constant infinite vision, this wondrous utopian dream of a safe secure place that I'll exist in eventually - could be in the blink of an eye. I just know it's going to happen: Point of fact is that I am not really, totally alone after all, not if I keep my belief in kindness, hope & faith. I have value. I am unique, just like anybody else round here. I have many different gifts to contribute to make Planet Earth a better place to live than when I arrived, if I'm so inclined, determined & persistent to do so & I will be, lknow. It doesn't matter ifI'm filthy rich or dirt poor; I realise this now, more than ever before.

By ROBYN LlVINGSTONE.

TEAM CARNEGIE prepares for the annuallOkm Vancouver Sun Run- Training clinics are being held every Sunday lOam in the Carnegie Theatre. A com mitment to the program is a must to be registered for TEAM CARNEGIE. Thanks to Lions Gate Road Runner for their support again.

LGRR ROARS AGAIN: Trust Margaret Buttner and her pay it forward Lions Gate Road Runners to do something kind to start the new year.

Lions Gate Road Runners once again helped Team Carnegie prepare for the annual Sun Run with cloth'ing and money.

Buttner, the colourful vice-president of the club celebrating its 45tl1 year with the smiling Road Runner logo, along with president Frank Stebner, treasurer GeoffButtner and marketing adviser Marty Wanless, met with Team Carnegie's running and walking group this week.

As part of their 30 Days of Kindness Project, they presented the group - led by Sandy MacKeigan with loads of running gear and a cheque for $500 to help with registration fees for April's Sun Run. LGRR also helped this group last year and continues to do good things in the community year round.

GET TESTED for HIV & HEP C Get a GIFT CARDjust by getting tested!!

1:30路3:30, Friday, Feb 12, Carnegie Theatre Info: Vancouver Infectious Disease Centre 604-642-6429

COPSHOP DEATHST AR* GENTRIFICA TlON TECH HUB: A STORY OF BETRAYAL

By Formerly Homeless Dave .On Jan-23-20 16., Laddressed our community (Town Hall on Housing) at length on the Venture Capital Tech Hub at the old Copshop building 312 Main St. to be opened this November.

The previous day Tom Lavioette the rep for Vancity Foundation, an arm of Van city Bank came to Carnegie to sell the Tech Hub as a done deal. He said 'Iknow you have wanted Social Housing at that site but that is not going to happen.' During my hunger strike in '13 I demanded that site be social housing and we had a great community paint-in at VPD building. During the Oppenheimer Park Occupation (' 14) we called for that site to be Social and Emergency Housing and an AboriginalHealing and Wellness Centre.

So as a good gentrification model would be, artists & musicians would be in the basement at a membership rate of $1-$5-that should get community Buy-In the bank bigwigs plot.

On the Upper floors the Tenants are PIVOT LEGAL, BC CIVIL LIBER'fIES ASSOC,ECOJUSTICE. THE VANCOUVER LABOUR DISTRICT COUNCIL. VanEast Roasters will serve them all feel good Coffee and Tea. I questioned the rep on how the Vancouver Economic Commission is involved. As they are the Original plotters for the Venture Capital Tech Hub(Note- VEC is Mayor Gregors pet project to build the Tech Industry in Vancouver(Read DTES).

He said the VEC made then form a Community Advisory Board-that is concerned about the Development of the Tech hub. Problem is we're not on it. It's made up of bigwigs from industry and government, such as Nathan Edelson who was the Chief Planner for the DTES. He was a key player in the ReDevelop-

ment of the massive gentrification project Woodwards He was also key player in gentrification & displacement of Chinatown in his influential role at the Chinatown Heights Hearings. He has come to finish the gentrification displacement of DTES with the Tech hub.

I questioned the Vancity rep if the lease with the Tech corp Spring Activator has been signed--he said NO. So I am asking our Famalia-PIVOT LEGAL, BC CIVIL LIBERTIES ASSOC, ECOJUSTICE. THE VANCOUVER LABOUR DISTRICT COUNCIL. to use their clout financial. moral and ethical to Demand that NO Tech Hub be allowed in the VPD building. If that happens there will be NO end to the Tech people moving into the DTES. Lastly, when I was on Hunger Strike against Gentrification and Displacement. I met with Vancity Bank senior Executive Andy Broderick who is in charge of the Project. He promised me he would not do the project., especially a gentrification project without the approval of our community. I asked him to define community approval--he said '98% 'My witnesses to this at that meeting are Fraser Stewart & Wendy Pederson. Catherine Ludgate of Vancity was also there. (*Note: The top two floors will still be under construction at Nov opening. Vancity says there are no plans yet for those f.lo~rs.I told him I guarantee you those two floors win be for used for expanding the Tech Hub, he did not try to deny. That is the original goal of the VEC and Mayor Gregor) The Advisory Committee/Board related to 312 Main.

It is made up of eight members jointly chosen by the Vancouver Community Foundation & the City of Van They are: Denise Williams - First Nation Technology Council, also President of the Vancouver Aboriginal Policing Society and board member of the Urban Native Youth Association Elizabeth Sheehan - CEO of Climate Smart Nathan Edelson - Former City planner and senior partner 42nd Street Consulting.

Peter Wrinch - Former ED of Pivot Legal Society, currently lead organizer of Nation Builder JiII Earthy - Futurepreneur Canada Shawn Smith - Radius - SFU's social innovation lab and venture incubator Jim Fletcher - Vision Critical and member of Social Venture Partners Alien Menser - Business consultant

DON'T DON'T DON'T DON'T DON'T DON'T DON'T DON'T DON'T DON'T DON'T DON'T DON'T

WAIT FORTIME. MAKE IT. WAIT FOR LOVE. FEEL IT. WAIT FOR MONEY. PROVIDE VALUE & EARN IT. WAIT FOR THE PAIN. FIND IT. WAIT FOR OPPORTUNITY. CREATE IT. WAIT FOR LESS. GET THE BEST. COMPARE. BE UNIQUE. FIGHT YOUR MISFORTUNE. TRANSFORM IT. AVOID FAILURE. USE IT. DWELL ON A MISTAKE. LEARN FROM IT. BACK DOWN. GO AROUND. CLOSE YOUR EYES. OPEN YOUR MIND. RUN FOR LIFE. EMBRACE IT.

NOBODY IS HIGHER. NOBODY IS LOWER. NOBODY IS EQUAL EITHER. PEOPLE ARE JUST UNIQUE & INCOMPARIBLE. Videha

~~ \ "

1ikifL

CI:y ,..,

V"

This Chall8es EverlJthill8

"

With Special Guest Speaker: Christine Boyle -Inspired by Naomi Klein's international non-fiction bestseIler, the film presents seven powerful portraits of communities on the front lines of climate change.

Filmed on several-continents over a period of three years, This Changes Everything argues that the greatest crisis we have ever faced also offers us the opportunity to address and correct the inhumane systems that have created it.

Christine Boyle accompanied Naomi Klein to the Vatican Climate Conference in July 2015.

February 26, 2016 6-9 pm Vancouver Community College Clarke-Broadway Campus Auditorium Room A'2010 (Building A)

By Donation: No one will be turned away

J~gdeeSh::: ~@j::d~e~h~ann) Special to The Post Against the backdrop of the historic Paris Agreement for climate change, a modern tale of two cities was playing out. Officials fro~ Va~couver, ~edby Mayor Gregor Robertson, were In Pans to receive the C40 Cities Award in the catejory of carbon measurement and for city's Greenest ~ity Action Plan to make the metropolis the greenest city in the world by 2020.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world in Beijing, city officials issued a red alert and were excoriated by international press as the Chinese capital became a toxic snow-globe of coal emissions and diesel fumes.

While verdant Vancouver was lavished with praise, filthy Beijing & the Chinese government was humiliated as the city came to a standstill.

Smog in Beijing, smug in Vancouver: for every bit of carbon-laced soup inhaled by Chinese residents, someone in Vancouver strolled out of their multimillion dollar house to gulp down their equivalent of the pure mountain-filtered variety. On the surface, these pair of respiratorial experiences would seem unrelated. However, given billions of dollars flowing. out of China and landing in Vancouver real estate, it

seems that the dirtier a butterfly gets when flapping its wings in China, the 'greener' Vancouver becomes.

According to the UBS Group, an estimated US$324 billion was moved out of China & into foreign destinations in 2014. In the month of September 2015, after China devalued the yuan, Goldman Sachs estimated another $200 billion flowed into cities like Vancouver, Sydney & New York. Add to these capital outflows, the migration of 45,000 millionaire migrants to Vancouver between the years 2005-2012 through the now-defunct Immigrant Investor Programme and the currently active Quebec Immigrant Investor Programme.

It is not surprising that this mass exodus of wealth from China has led to buyers from there accounting for over 70% of sales in 2014 of single-family homes, condos and townhomes over $3 million in Vancouver -these findings according to Vancouver's McDonald Realty that were also independently corroborated by the UBC Professor Andy Yan in his recent study.

It was 2008 when Gregor Robertson launched Vancouver's version of its own green revolution - the same year as the global financial crisis. Since then prices of detached houses in the city have nearly doubled to 1.5 million.

While the mayor and his team credit their policy shift as one of the drivers behind Vancouver's 'booming' economy, as attested by skyrocketing real estate costs, in reality it has been the other way around. The city's transition into an urban hedge fund for outflows of Chinese capital has fueled the city's LEED certified city towers, bike lanes, and well-trimmed parks.

The financial gains of China's economic revolution have come at the e~pense of severe environmental degradation - these 'negative externalities' have benefited the few at the considerable expense of the many Fearing retribution & possible persecution, these beneficiaries, or China's 1%, have resorted to burying some of their stash in cities like Vancouver, where now the many homeowners here have instead gained from the actions of these few.

But with so much money to be made, it only makes sense that Vancouver's dominant employment sector is by far construction related industries. By some estimates, one quarter of all economic activity in the city is related to housing thus explaining the city's disproportionate number of 12,000+real estate agents.

Vancouver's booming real estate market has provided

the city a cushion of time and resources to implement its Greenest City Action Plan & grow green collar jobs. Eight years into office, Robertson & his team have little to show in terms of a booming green industry and its corresponding job growth.

This was evident in the 2014 Vancouver Economic Council's Green Jobs Report which the mayor's office lauded as a proof of victory. Of the 20,000 'green jobs' inventoried in the report, nearly 5,000 were in (green) construction. Another 6,000 were in what is called the 'local foods' sector composed of the city's myriad number of craft breweries, restaurants, and food trucks, Jobs as dishwashers or servers in local vegan restaurants are neither 'green revolutionary' nor positions that will yield a six figure salary to allow one to buy a home in the most expensive city in North America.

Yet while high-paying green collar jobs sputter short of expectations, Robertson has not yielded on his ideological position and continued to snub heavy industry which could fill some of this slack. In 2014, the mayor railed against the twinning of the TransMountain Pipeline and against the corresponding in_crease in oil tanker traffic in Burrard Inlet.

I It is fair to say our politicians are not responsible for 'China's carbon policies and lack of policing, But the â&#x20AC;˘ city's reliance on wealth that is stained with a thick coal-black carbon ribbon certainly doesn't make Van-: couver a Green Silicon Valley. It also merits calling into question Vancouver's Volkswagen-like claims of being The G.O.A.T. (Greenest of all time), no matter how many of us bike to work, compost our organic waste, or shorten our showers.

If cities like Edmonton are tainted by their economic link to Alberta's oil sands, Vancouver is equally so in its addiction to toxic Chinese wealth, In Paris, Mayor Robertson proclaimed it is now outdated for governments to have to choose between the economy & the environment. "There's no way you can credibly say that anymore," he said to local media on the heels of the summit. "Vancouver is a great example of acity where we've taken strong environment action fighting climate change & we have the strongest economy of any city in Canada."

Perhaps that may be so, but that statement deserves a big fat asterisk given the money is coming from a place the mayor himself would be left gasping for air.

This piece was first published in The Globe & Mail.

Carnegie6 NEWS LETTE R

We acknowledge that Carnegie Community Centre, and this Newsletter, are occurring on Coast Salish Territory.

I....;,.~~,,;~~''''''".D'''W-.,.

Cn.llC'I'hU.ta..".a

-. :r .": <..

...:-.... ~ .....

cm:iI

"Never doubt that a small group ofthoughtfu! committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." -Margaret Meade

. THIS NEWSLETIER IS A PUBLICATION OF THE CARNEGIE COMMUNITYCENTRE ASSOCIATION Articles represent the views of individual contributors and not of the Association ..

WANTED Artwork for the Carnegie Newsletter

• • • • • • •

Small illustrations to accompany articles and poetry.

Cover art - Max size: 17ctn(6 '(.")wide x 15cm(6')high.

Subject matter pertaining to issues relevant to the Downtown Eastside, but all work considered.

Black & White printing only.

Size restrictions apply (i.e. if your piece is too large, it will be reduced and/or cropped 10 fil).

All artists will receive credit for their work.

Originals will be relumed to Ihe artist after being copied for publication.

Remuneration: Carnegie Volunteer Tickets

Please make submissions

to Paul Taylor, Editor.

Officer Digna Y. de Castro ADMINISTRATOR

dignadecastro36@gmail.com 778.710.2489

'WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTIO~

• • •

AIDS POVERTY HOMELESSNESS , VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ABORIGINAL GENOCIDE • 'TOTALITARIAN CAPITALISM IGNORANCE and SUSTAINED FEAR.

The editor can edit for clarity, format & brevity, but not at the expense of the writer's message.

Next issue:

Philippines Immigration Canada and Agency

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

THURSDAY,FEBRUARY11~

2016 DONATIONS: iln memory of Sam Snobelen: Anonymous -$100 In memory of Harold David: Susan S.-$200 Shcila B.-$150 Robert .,G.-$50 Elsie Mcll.-$100

Barb & M,' L·$100 SI.

er -$50

Laurie 0.·$50

I/ /

J

Vancouver's non-commercial, listener supported community station.