January 15, 2019 Carnegie Newsletter

401 Main Street Vancouver Canada V6A 2T7 (604) 665-2289 Email:carnnews@shaw.ca

Website/Catalogue:carnegienewsletter.org

lE HT5[ MNE[TIN EAT FOOD "TEel STORIES· SHAAEAESEAACH ~

OPEN HOUSE 1-5PM 5AIOADAY. i1AIIUAAYIg. ZOlg IZO)- 2&8 REEFER

Dear Neighbour, This event Is for SRO tenants to gather, eat food, tell our stories and for Right to Remain research to share what we've found out. There will be door prizes & free SRO Care Kits (including bedbug powder).

SRO Collaborative

Two binds of Eviction THE LAW IS NOT CAST IN STONE A man faces eviction from his apartment in Vancouver's West End. He has lived in the building with his family since childhood in the early seventies. He continued living there in a two-bedroom apartment for the past thirty years with his mother whom he loved and cared for during her failing health. Recently, his mother died. Her death thrust him into depression. It was compounded by the thought of the cost of the apartment. His girlfriend allowed he could move into her condo. He agreed and gave notice to vacate.

In his grief, reality struck! He could not relinquish all the mementoes and memories that he and his mother shared! The following day, he asked the owner of the apartment for a reversal of his notice. He would continue to pay rent. His request was refused.

The man is devastated. His girlfriend is sorry she offered him a place. There is strife at her persuasion.

One wonders ifthere is no compassion in law. Can one have the rug pulled from under one's feet in a moment of duress? I would recommend that the owner of the apartment reconsider and give this man back his apartment.

By Velma Demerson

Eviction of Paul Nosotti Ostracized, coerced Drew you know We laugh and lie to him.

Even deny his rights as a citizen.

Mean time clock is ticking Hand feeds, authorities all over me physically forcing me handcuffed behind my back then strapped to a stretcher left there circulation cut off until I'm taken to R.c.H. Stripped ripped cut off my clothes ] 2 people in a semi-circle around me watch They tell me it's time to fill my bloodstream with a saline solution drew

The Silver People Unlike the Brunettes, Blondes, and Redheads most silver people have little care on what one's color of hair is; for most have gained wisdom while they watch us screwing things up out there.

The elderly are as like Gold and Silver not only retaining their value over the years but have more than tripled their worth on this turf but how many of us realize this? - about them.

They know enough now 'to take time to listen' something few of our mates do and most are open to learning still respecting free will more than ever. ... before.

A reflection .... from Inga g

A Vivisection of Hope

3

I take a step towards them and say, "Your friend is caught in a lie, and the cab driver will tell her to get It was after a wonderful yet simple dinner and new out, no matter what she can pay. And she will lose year's on the rez. Had to take a seabus, the other route face in front of all the people here now, for trying to couldn't get me home as the buses didn't run after midsteal an old man's cab in front of a few hundred of night there. I knew it would be swarming on the other us all waiting." side because of the cities' fireworks display next to the They all retreat and pull out smart phones. Makes seabus terminal on "that" side of the inlet. Indeed the them bold .. they take the curb in an attempt to intercity was overflowing with revelers and the expected cept cabs before others. I walk away, towards the curmudgeons as well. The sky train was like a flowing route of oncoming buses, giving up hopes of a cab.

They follow now emboldened by my apparent reriver of bliss and chaos being channeled by overpaid immovable objects with grimacing faces. I chose not to treat? Two run ahead of me, trying to spot and hail become a part of it and turned for the street. Walking taxis before I get a chance (I'm thinking). All of a out it was Christmas again; hundreds of flashing blue sudden, a taxi pulls around the corner and I'm and red lights with seemingly hordes of discord and blessed! It stops right in front of me, two people get out and the driver rolls down the passenger winglee all at once.

What came next was a scene from a gladiator school dow. Both of the girl's friends are running towards and high school prom gone terribly wrong. Girls being the cab, but, out of nowhere, a young couple appear mauled in alleys, elders lost and crying, boys and old behind me and ask gently "Would you like to share men ending their hopes of respect and dignity in pudthat cab?" I said, "Sure. I'm going all the way to the dles of blood, traumatized children and families added PN.E." I look back to the driver and ask, "Can I hire as witnesses, police so busy that all they could do was you please?" "Please get in," is the reply and he ignore the carnage by applying street justice so as to smiles. I turn to the couple and give them a thumbs move on to the next. While blingy affluent others up and a smile. "Yay" they both smile at each other. laughed and howled from the posh bars, ridiculing and As we drive towards safety and peace, I offer to provoking more disaster. "Happy New Year!!!" besplit the fare, but the couple decline and say they comes a cruel sarcastic cherry for the pain of tears and will pay for the fare; it was my good luck and sharlost dreams of the multitudes offamilies waiting for the ing that saved us all. We shared some feelings about the mix of joy and despair we had witnessed, and all buses that keep going by saying, "sorry bus FULL" lit happily on their canopies. I notice I am holding my agreed a simpler version would be next year's folly, breath, taking sips of air as my feelings shift from mild best one with family and friends away from the shock and faint muse to depression to anger. I catch shiny colorful bursts of money exploding now still in myself posing with war, I walk away, towards the corour memories. ner scanning for taxis, maybe I'll see someone I know?

A vivisection of hope found its way though, Silly thoughts try to hide my hurt/anger. Then, I see it, a through all mayhem and joy, swaying balance of taxi! Wah? It stops right in front of me and two people loathing and pity, hope and fear. A New year is good get out, and he rolls down the passenger window, enough for me, the happy part is personal. Glad I "where you go?" he say's. "PNE," I reply. "No good," was able to share a bit of it.

K.D.A.W.2019 he says. "My cab can only go to Richmond. This is Richmond cab." Before I can reply a young blingy Korean girl lightly pushes me out of the way. She's with 4 Thank you All at Carnegie, have a good year/life. boys. "Out of the way, this my cab, I call it." I let her Kim Washburn push me, I move away. I know she's lying, and she doesn't know or care that I know she is. Her friends look at me with complete fear poorly masked with belligerent stares. They see my size, my age, my smile. I laugh so loud while staring at them that a few hundred people look, most move away. I can't help it. The expressions on the faces of the girl's friends ... it makes me laugh harder. One child raises an eyebrow as a question mark.

froM

the LibrarY

Welcome to 2019! I hope the year ahead is a good one for everyone reading this. I wanted to start the year by highlighting two displays we'll be having in the branch this month.

As I write this, the theme of our display is "Trans Rights are Human Rights," highlighting our library's commitment to supporting the rights of all Trans and Two-Spirit community members. The display will no longer be up by the time this is published, but these highlighted books will still be available in the library.

First Year Out by Sabrina Symington is a graphic novel about Lily, a transgender woman experiencing her first year of being openly female. Based on the experiences of the author and her friends, it's lovingly told, and provides a realistic glimpse of what the experience of transitioning can be like.

Two-Spirit People is an anthology of writings on, as the title says, Two-Spirit People. It gives both a historical view of this aspect ofIndigenous gender-identity, sexuality and spirituality, and looks at Two-Spirit people in the contemporary context.

January 20th will the 39th Anniversary of the Carnegie Centre. Come by and have a look at our display! And check out some of the Carnegie specific items we have in our special collection. These items can't be borrowed from the library, but you're more than welcome to come and have a look at them in the branch - just ask the librarian.

Carnegie Centre: The Establishment of a Community Resource by Sohan Singh tells the story of how the Carnegie Centre came to be - from the formation of DERA, through the fight to get it approved by city council, to the first 9 months of its opening (this paper was published in November of 1980) The Heart of the Community: The Best of the Carnegie Newsletter is probably a familiar title to readers of this publication, being an anthology of the best writings of said publication up to 2001. As such it's an essential document of the Centre's history.

On January 21st, at 6PM, we'll be hosting a screening of The Road Forward in the Theatre - in partnership with Cultural Sharing. It looks like an amazing film: a 'Musical Documentary' about the history of 'Indian Nationalism' in the 1930s and First Nations activism today.

Cheers!

Randy

The Past, It Is Not There My Dear, this past you speak about, it is not there!

A dream, a hallucination perhaps, but nothing more.

A passing cloud that caught your fascination awhile.

And obscured the sun that lies within.

My Dear, let us not speak of stories anymore.

In the absence of a story, no past, no guilt remains.

This precious past of yours is a choice, not a reality You are the decision maker.

Guilt or innocence is all you ever choose between.

My Dear, it pains me, this determination to suffer.

How hopelessly you strive To maintain an individuality that does not exist A hallucination, a sleight of mind you hide behind My Dear, the past, place into My Arms.

No past means no future to worry about.

In their absence lies the freedom you seek.

Eternal pristine innocence.

My Dear, try once again, no past, no future Innocence revealed Look once again and you tell me A smile without a face, perhaps you see?

•

Peter Turton

LIVING IN 'INTERESTING TIMES' as ogre trump threatens to shut down government cause not getting his sway as our non-esteemed primed minister still endeavours to ram thru pipeline here as people fleeing hell in central america are detained and postponed at mexican/us border as slum lords and other ogres continue to have their way with the poor of the dtes as this holiday season is upon us all with extreme materialism and money values galore i yet somehow preserve an optimism in the goodness inside many if not all human beings, for spirit is malleable, and maybe just maybe tin or worse can become gold or love ..... john alan douglas

.";~.~" Living on the street

How easy for mean-spirited, thick-skinned insensitives to turn away from misery on the street.

Easy to shut the eyes, walk away, turn up the music. In my own life 1 often duck and dodge, skim and skip, turn away. But I know I'll pay ... remorse, guilt and shame ...at the shallowness of my beliefs, education, convictions. No easy task to hold fast with an open and generous'heart in an unforgiving world.

Sam Roddan

The Downtown Eastside of Vancouver has the lowest per capita income of any urban area in Canada. It is under tremendous pressure by . :upscale development interests. Homelessness is increasing dramatically and last year this area was . identified as having the westem world's highest H[V/AlDS rate among injection drug users.

A friend of mine who is 25 years old, a First Nations man, gay, and a cocaine addict, was [recently diagnosed as having "full-blown AlDS." He is often homeless himself. It's not because he causes trouble in the shabby hotel rooms he rents, but once he was identified as a drug addict in the Downtown Eastside he became "undesirable" and his tenancy is terminated. Then my friend has to sleep in an abandoned car or under a viaduct in the cold rain.

Another injection drug user who is HIV+ told me he heard his landlord telling several people that "addicts and prostitutes and people with HIV and AIDS should be treated like Himmler treated Jews in Germany. They. should all be killed." The man who recountedthis to me had to go to the Rental Review Board to remain lodged in this landlord's building. But why fight for a room in a place where you are unwanted and the landlord harasses you? Because there is an ever-shrinking supply of even the most wretched housing situations in the Downtown Eastside, and there's nowhere else to go Unfortunately, this landlord's hateful attitude owards HIV /AIDS drug users cannot be written off as the lone ravings ofa single individual. To one degree or another, his horrific bias towards poor people who are HIV positive is shared by enough people to make trying to survive in such a hostile atmosphere extremely troublesome. Negative attitudes towards HIV/AIDS injection drug users have been identified to me by them as the most formidable obstacles to accessing services vital to their needs.

Your time and your strength can be consumed by simply trying to get enough food inside you to stay

alive one more day. You must stand in long lines, often in cold rain, beginning first thing in the morning to late at night, for coffee, donuts, soup, sandwiches, crisscrossing the Downtown Eastside on foot; and this routine for people with already vulnerable and compromised immune systems can be deadly.

And if you find yourself homeless for any number of reasons - landlord prej udice, conversion of your hotel to a backpacker's hostel or housing for students, or you do not qualify for welfare because of falling into their increasing number of categories for exclusion - you will discover why it is that people who are infected with HIV in the Downtown Eastside deteriorate faster than those living elsewhere.

For addicts who are positive, the hostility and destabilized lifestyle you are forced to live increases stress terribly, creates illnesses and makes the strict regimen and disciplined lifestyle necessary for successfully taking AIDS medications impossible.

Addicts Ihave talked to say that, in such circumstances, "having HIVl AIDS is the furthest thing from your mind."

Further instability results from police pressure and their "clean-up campaign" in the Downtown Eastside, paving the way for gentrification. Beatings from police are commonly experienced by HIV positive addicts, though some addicts say that if you are in jail at least you have some place to stay andere fed. H~wever, if you tell a police officer on the street that you are positive, they may not lay their hands on you; instead, as one addict told me, "The officer took his knife out and shredded my pockets with it, looking for sharps (needles)."

You begin to feel backed into a corner. You take risks, You steal. You become angry at the system.

You hate yourself. You have to deal with continual insults and indignities, such as social service cutbacks on needed medications, vitamins and other essentials like Ensure .. and, again, if you are from the Downtown Eastside, you will be denied these and other services and products because it is

believed you will sell them for money for drugs; or, ifnot outright denied, you will face a nearimpenetrable maze of paperwork or lengthy delays before you can have what you are entitled to.

You will experience other frustrations, such as the agency whose service you desperately need being closed on a holiday,leaving you convinced the agency workers have no idea what it's like to be

you - poor, positive, addicted and, if you have landed in the Downtown Eastside, likely to come from a place of severe childhood abuse and trauma.

Considering that you are also either barred, banned or blocked from most public and community space in the Downtown Eastside, it only makes sense for you to do whatever is necessary for you to obtain the next fix .. not so much to get high but just to kill the pain for a little while.

Most of your real help will come from other HIV positive drug users on the street. They will tell you, "Don't give up," They will tell you to fight hard to survive, and try to turn all the negatives into positives because you cannot afford to be antisocial. You have to be able to reach out to someone else, more for spiritual sustenance than anything else. You have to learn to keep strong your love for life and for your fellow human beings.

By BUD OSBORN (*First appeared in BCPWA New.,)

•

HAPPY 39TH ANNIVERSARY

Carnegie!

January 20, 2019

Often referred to as the living room of the Downtown Eastside, Camegie Centre is considered an oasis to many community members and residents.

The Camegie Community Centre is owned and operated by the City of Vancouver and is funded by the Arts, Culture and Community Services Division. The centre is open 9 am to 11 pm, 7 days/week, 365 days/year. The Centre's services are tailored to the unique and diverse community it serves.

The Camegie Community Centre Association, celebrating its 39th anniversary on January 20th, supports programs and services through leadership, advocacy, and planning.

Membership at Carnegie is only $1 per year. Membership provides access to programs and services such as free phones; pool room; weight room; computer lab; arts, culture and education programming; and much, much more!

The Carnegie Newsletter relies on donations to continue. At this time of year, please consider helping. You can use the form below or go online carnegienewsletter.org

Address to mail tax·deductible receipt

&,----

Make cheque payable to: Carnegie Community Centre Association (memo 'Newsletter') 401 Main Street, Vancouver BC V6A 2T7

604·665·2289

CARNEGIE COMMUNITY

ACTION PROJECT J

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JANUARY 2019

Welcome to Battleground British Columbia: Wet'suwet',en land under threat from Coastal GasLink

"It's about the 1% that's what it's about. Blinded by their greed, they can't see, can't make choices for the future generations. Never stop fighting, never stop fighting. Love and spirituality. .. that's how we should be becoming ourselves. " - Land Defender On Tuesday and Wednesday January 8th and 9th, members and supporters of the Wetsu'wet'en nation rallied in Vancouver to oppose threats to their traditional territory. The RCMP is enforcing an injunction by BC government-supported Coast GasLink to cross the Gidmt'en checkpoint to start clearing their fracked gas pipeline route.

The checkpoint was established to protect unceded traditional lands from pipeline construction and environmental devastation. The Wet'suwet'en nation have a precedent-setting level of courtsanctioned protection of their land. Through story-telling and oral tradition, the Wetsu'wet'en achieved the landmark 1997 Delgamuukw decision of the Supreme Court of Canada which, "forced the Canadian courts to affirm the legitimacy of their oral histories, traditional laws and continuing governance of their lands" (Dogwood).

Speaking at the January 9th rally, Land Defender Patricia said, "the Court decision of Delgamukkw was a hard court judgement, with a sleeping judge at his throne, sleeping during those stories."

"This land has already been through a court process and they understand the land could not being taken away, so why are they showing up in buses with windows blacked out so as not to traumatize the local indigenous population? We were traumatized at contact, so we've already got hard shells likes turtles."

This is a big "fuck you" from Trudeau and he's telling the AFN he wants to reconcile with us. They are children of the earth like every one of us .• By destroying that land and water it all filters down here. Anything they do to poison that land won't go away. You can't revive water from fracking. It's dead once it's fracked.

You have the power to learn this story this whole court process and what is happening with these thugs, the RCMP. Part of the work is writing the letters, calling and going to the legislature. Keep the pressure going. This is a moment of intensity, anger, rage and love. Go and do the research, it's in your hands."

•• Make a phone call to support Gidimt'en and Unist'ot'en: John Horgan (Premier)

(250) 387-1715

Scott Fraser (Minister of Indigenous Relations and Reconciliation) David Eby (Attorney General)

(250) 953-4844

(250) 387-1866

Doug Donaldson (Minister of Forests,Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development and MLA for Stikine (Wet'suwet'en territory)) (250) 387-6240 Michelle Mungall (Minister of Energy, Mines & Petroleum Resources) (250) 953-0900 • (604) 660-0707 Melanie Mark, MLA, Vancouver-Mount Pleasant

There are a record-breaking 40 tents in Oppenheimer Park this winter. Occupants are at risk of pneumonia, exposure to cold, fires, violence, theft and poor health. CCAP is urging BC Housing, in conjunction with the City of Vancouver, to lease or buy existing hotels or motels to be used as interim housing until appropriate permanent housing in the area is built.

"Window dressing, useless" - CCAP members react to recommendations from the BC Rental Housing Task Force In December 201.8, the BC Rental Housing Task Force completed an eight-month consultation and review process. Led by MLA Spencer Chandra Herbert, who represents the renter-and-renoviction-dense West End of Vancouver, the Task Force was supposed to respond to the massively unaffordable, scarce rental stock and under-resourced renter population in BC. Early recommendations were released in September 2018 and a final report was released in December.

CCAP members pointed out that the task force claims to be "balanced" by equally involving landlords and renters in the consultation process, even though it was aimed at fixing a broken rental environment.

"If you're writing laws for murder, why include the point of view of the murderer?" says CCAP member Fraser Stewart. One recommendation quotes a landlord as saying that a proposed solution shouldn't "interfere with the market". But CCAP member Bill Weir says, "We need to take housing out of the market system!"

Here is CCAP 's brief response to some of the report's recommendations, and our own suggestions.

Recommendation 1: End Renovictions Renters facing eviction trauma need to have a sense of safety and security. The cycle of renter stress and threat of eviction needs to end; but without vacancy control tied to the unit, there is little incentive

for landlords to sop evicting. Members also talked about the need for education and the importance of recognizing warning signs before papers are even served, such as carpets being replaced or other minor improvements.

Recommendation 2: Work with local governments to develop tenant compensation and relocation guidelines in the case of demolition of purpose-built rental to reduce dislocation and homelessness of affected tenants.

It only aims to "reduce", not prevent, dislocation and homelessness. If "Displacement" is the word for 2019, why is dislocation happening at all? It also only speaks to demolitions as opposed to renovations, so the whole recommendation needs to be strengthened. Again, there is a need for pro-active information and education - not just a website, but flyers door-to-door in affected buildings.

Recommendation 3: Set a clear timeline for a tenant's decision on the use of a right of first refusal.

Without vacancy control, a timeline is useless. How can tenant plan around a timeline if they don't know terms, cost or conditions, and why come back if the rent increases by $700 per month? The landlord may exaggerate or underestimate the timeline and there's nothing to bind them to it. For example, residents at Little Mountain had first right of return, but it's been 7-8 years and they're still out.

It also openly states that it is designed to help landlords, not tenants. The vacancy rate is 0.9%, so why are landlords anxious to fill the suites?

Recommendation 4: Implement a B.C.-wide rent bank system for low-income people.

A rent bank could be a positive solution - but it needs to be a grant not loan. This recommendation puts poor people in debt rather than tackling the affordability issues that make it impossible to pay rent in the first place. It quotes a landlord as saying it helps poor renters measure "without interfering with market".

We need rental controls, and we need to take housing out of the market system.

In addition, landlords have insurance and lots of protections in case of a short-term loss, like private insurance, tax write-offs as a business, other properties and assets. Renters don't have insurance if they lose their job, if they are sick and miss work and can't pay their rent or have a family crisis and are short one month.

Recommendation 5: Strengthen enforcement of the law, including ifnplementing a clear process for making, investigating and reporting administrative penalty complaints.

Currently the recommendation suggests that individual renters could be held to the same standards as a landlord or large corporate company. If a renter fails to pay a small penalty, they may be unable to appeal to the RTB for future grievances, but a deep-pocketed landlord may continue to use the system.

Who is this recommendation supposed to help? Slumlords like the Sahotas? Maybe we just need bettereducated members of the Residential Tenancy Branch, who don't just side with the landlords.

Recommendation 7: Investigate ways to provide affordable access to bailiff services in smaller and more remote communities.

This is for the exclusive benefit of landlords. We don't need more bailiffs to evict tenants! Why don't we evict the problematic landlords instead?

Recommendation 8: Investigate other options to increase the repayment rate for damages, nonpayment of rent and other storage costs if ordered by the Residential Tenancy Branch.

Landlords and renters are not equal participants in the RTB system. In a climate of extreme low vacancy (0.9% to 1.3% in BC), renters are at a crucial disadvantage that isn't going to be improved by enforcing damage payment Orders and threatening them with the Supreme Court. A real estate company has lawyers, resources, staff and an entire team to navigate the system. Renters need advocates to assist them with the system, and even then, it is complex and onerous. Renters need easier access to a local Residential Tenancy Branch, instead of setting aside hours to go to the office in Burnaby. There is currently a storefront t RTB in the Access Building at Main and Hastings, but it has limited hours and functionality.

Supply This odd section in middle of the report states: The lack of available housing in B.C. is a barrier to enabling positive landlord-tenant relationships.

For example, if a conflict arises between a renter and a rental housing provider, there may be little opportunity for renters to end a tenancy and find another unit for fear of homelessness.

Threats of eviction and fear of homelessness are part of daily life for many renters. Real vacancy control, tied to the unit not the renter, is desperately needed. Last year alone, a dozen SRO's have been lost to renovictions. Kennedy Steward stated that his word for 2019 is "displacement", but that has been the lived reality for residents of the DTESfor over a decade.

Housing supply and investment is commonly confusingly-reported and presented in budgets. Stewart has promised to build 85,000 new housing units over the next 10 years with 25,000 being "affordable"meaning over two thirds would for people who really don't need more housing options.

Recommendation 10: Maintain rent tied to the renter, not the unit.

The BC Government and Employees Union calls this "the misguided policy of allowing rents to be tied to individuals rather than units, a practice allowing landlords to increase rents by any amount between tenants and contributing to sky-high rental prices around BC." In a paper called Rent Control and Rent DeControl in British Columbia: A Case Study of the Vancouver Rental Market 1974-1989, author Celia C. Lazzarin states, "Rent control [tied to the unit] was terminated in British Columbia in 1983 because the provincial government viewed it as a damaging policy that only exacerbated rental market problems. This position was based on neo-classical economic theories which claim that rent control inevitably produces a host of detrimental effects." The paper concludes that these theories were unfounded.

Establishing rent control tied to the unit is the only truly effective way to untangle housing from an investment-first, market-driven model that promotes renoviction, speculation and eviction.

Recommendation 19: Work with the insurance industry to see if rent guarantee insurance, and other improvements to insurance coverage, might be provided for landlords in B.C. ICBC-style, government guaranteed insurance for landlords?! Why are we even talking about this?!

Recommendation 22: Address the specific needs of non-profit housing and supportive ers in the Residential Tenancy Act. Again, this section seems biased towards housing providers rather than renters.

housing provid-

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Recommendations Re-implement Real Rent Control, tied to the unit not the renter Create an easy-access local RTB and increase visibility of its services Make half the city a "rental zone" Build more co-op housing Provide pro-active, door-to-door education and information about early warning signs of renovictions and renters' rights Make it a priority to prevent, not "reduce" dislocation and homelessness Publish accurate information about housing supply, especially affordable housing supply Provide support for a penalty-free "rent strike" or withholding rents for units that have poor maintenance, and landlords not doing anything to improve it Take housing out of the market system. Housing is a human right Have a real Renters' Taskforce, from the point of view of renters, not landlords.

Resisting the drug war from BC to the Philippines

On Wednesday January 9th, Vandu hosted a conversation featuring Bayan Secretary General Renato Reyes. Bayan is an alliance of left-wing Philippine organizations.

Renato Reyes talked about the murderous climate for drug-users in the Philippines, and impunity of police who execute them. Reyes said the government in the Philippines is perpetuating the war on drugs by, "trying to fight demand, not supply. But nothing happens when so many people are killed, except the demand goes up. The thinking of our president is that once you use drugs, your brain is fried and there's no going back you're probably going to end up dead anyway.

"If drug addict fights back you're within your rights to shoot them. But who's to say they all fought back, who's to say they were armed? They were executed. Police become judge, jury and executioner all in one. There's impunity, it has become indiscriminate.

A 16- or 17-year old minor was killed, although it was caught on TV that he was not resisting arrest or fighting. Police can shoot you and plant drugs on you and pass it off as a valid police operation."

Reyes described the human rights abuses in the Philippines and harsh reprisals against activists and union members. He urged people to watch what is happening, and take action to oppose it.

"Everything you're speaking is coming out of your heart and love of your people. Vandu is here to support you," said a Vandu member in the audience.

Vandu president Hugh Lampkin spoke next, stating that former US President Richard Nixon declared a "war on drugs" in 1971 and spent $5 trillion fighting it and yet, "nothing has happened except demand has gone up. Poor people and people of colour are disproportionately affected. The biggest baddest gang in every city is the cops. 'Organized gangsters' is what has happened. I hope it doesn't happen here."

MP Jenny Kwan agreed with the previous speakers that the "war on drugs" kills. "We're all connected as one and we need to stand up against human rights violations. The criminal justice approach will not save lives, it will cost lives. The poorest of the poor often get targeted." , She added that the federal government should declare the opiod crisis a national health emergency. "The government is refusing to do that but did so during avian flu, when a fraction of the people died."

Vandu founder Ann Livingston spoke at the conclusion of the discussion. She said that governments often believe that, "drug users are people that want free drugs and the right to party, and they are not listening to the voices of drug-users." She suggested bringing attention to the wider social issues and adding the voices of parents, colleagues and families of people being murdered who are harder to marginalize.

Thank you to Vandu and the speakers for organizing and participating in this discussion.

The Carnegie Community Action Project 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. CCAP works with english speaking and Chinese speaking DTES residents in speaking out on their own behalf for the changes they would like to see in their neighbourhood.

Join the

Carnegie Community Action Project

Join us on Fridays 11:15 am for our weekly volunteer meetings! Downtown Eastside residents

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CONTACT US: Office: 2nd floor of the Carnegie.

401 Main Street. Vancouver Phone: 604-665-2105 Email: info@carnegieaction.org Website: www.carnegieaction.org

Thank you to Vancity for supporting CCAP's work. Support for this project does not necessarily imply that funders endorse the findings or contents of this report.

MY APPLICATION FORM

Mass Extinction Manners

I'm placing my application form On top of the others.

My life is on that form It's confidential My name is there All the places I've worked.

Too many? Why did I leave?

Family responsibilities.

Yes, I have a family But my children are now grown.

I promise I'll be stable Through monotonous routine Without advancement.

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My life is on that form Every year, every place I've lived No I have never been ill I have only been in hospital twice To give birth.

My leaving has been voluntary.

Here are my references I have never been dismissed Even my personality is there.

Yes, I can take responsibility And I always maintain my skills.

My life is on that form.

Please treat it with respect It is my confession to your employer I never question a potential benefactor.

How many persons will see my submission As it is passed along?

Velma Demerson

can you tell me about appropriate behaviour for the middle of mass extinction? what about flying down the freeway in a fossil-fueled car? certainly the time is now to be active seeking out that distinction what about chasing down your dreams and becoming a star? can you tell me how to feel about living in the middle of everything dying? how to feel about the free fall of the planets plummeting out of the sky? how is it people don't run around screaming and crying seems to me undoubtedly the time to change is passing by

,

Stories-that Could be True 6 Week Storytelling Course

can you tell me what time it is here in the middle of all this trouble is it time to go to work, to buckle down and get the job done? well, a man can go to work and work a mountain to a little mound of rubble is it time to go'to work or maybe now it's time to be a bum? can yu tell me about appropriate behaviour in the middle of mass extinction? say it ain't so and drive it to the bitter end? everybody's head in the sand ain't nothin' but an escalation certainly the time is now to be active turning the trend.

Fuckhead Jones

This six-week course is for everybody interested in developing their storytelling skills. Bring personal stories about things that happened in your life, or traditional stories that you would like to share with others. The group will meet every Monday at 12:30 pm from January 21 - February 25, in Carnegie Centre's 3rd Floor Classroom Jim Sands is an East Vancouver based storyteller, actor, songwriter, musician and occasional clown who has performed both as a solo artist and with a variety of musical groups. He has appeared in plays and special events organized by Vancouver Moving Theatre, Community Arts Workshop, Hollywood Kidz, and has performed in over 15 Fringe festivals across Canada.

This course is offered in partnership with the Carnegie Learning Centre.

For more information contact:

Lucy or Betsy in the Learning Centre

Muriel Williams aka Muriel Marjorie, aka beloved DTESartist and poet extraordinaire

CELEBRATION OF LIFE

SATURDAY, JANUARY 26, 2PM CARNEGIE THEATRE "t need this community. Because it gives ME strength and sees MY worth.

I love this community because of its beauty and its strength and its insistence upon justice. 'And its refusal to SHUT UP." Muriel Williams

Psychiatric Inpatient Unit! Fish Do Cry for Janet Frame Rate your mood from one to ten, the nurse says.

And I want to give her a poem, so the nurse writes non-compliant and I say pi.

And that makes me even less compliant.

It was the closest I could get to saying a poem.

A patient asks if I'm writing memoirs, poems, a to do list. All of the above? None, I say.

I hope that one day he reads this.

Though that would be against hospital policyto write this to begin with.

A chess game plays, the patient and the guard.

I try hard to resist saying that Nabokov explained that Lewis Carroll based Alice on a pedophile chess riddle where the pawn is queened by sacrificing her protector.

And which I think is the pawn in this game and which the pedophile.

The patients pace around in blue and green pajamas.

A painting from someone I know hangs on the wall.

A patient says she has voices rather than hears them.

I hear friends rather than have them.

A worker asks if I will read this poem. I laugh.

I tell him I will find something-if I can find something that won't get a note on my chart.

I never get back to him.

Outside the hummingbird feeder hangs for birds that will never come to feed.

Rain falls-tell us your favourite thing about rain, they ask us. I want to say how it foams at the mouth but then it will b another year until discharge.

I grab onto the leg that wants to run but can't and grab the other that wants to get comfortable.

Every institution is a playground for reliving childhood trauma.

I used to have a roommate who said ruck off to no one. Now I am that roommate in a room with no one in it.

They still haven't fucked off.

And they probably never will.

The volunteer comes at three with the therapy dog that's afraid of people.

This poem won't fuck off.

They come to my room frequently with pens and lists, doing the rounds,

Santa says you've been good, Simon says swallow this.

Now go play in the sandbox.

My little gods, monopoly top hats, I should be playing bingo, I should be being social.

The bell tolls: One fish, two fish, fuck fish, blue, I type, You know you're in a psych ward when, the nurse says; privacy is a privilege level so high, no one has yet seen it.

Away from the nurse's glare a patient tries to molest me then cries. And I tell him I'm sorry because I really am.

I try to colour in the lines but I can't so I go back and forth with a crayon over a drawing of an owlI call it Owls Do Cry For Janet Frame, saved from a lobotomy because her book won a prize.

Fish do cry too.

Which is the front door and which is the back?

One patient keeps asking and I keep sayingThere's no difference-but she just keeps on asking.

I should just point and say, this one.

The patients flock to the windows and meal trays like crows They know that it isn't actually their last but one of many, too many-bleached white pamphlets of listings of ingredients. • Turnips and chili-one packet of tea, one packet of pepper.

I can't help it, I explain.

That's what we're here for, they respond.

To beat you down like a puppy. Fatten you up, dissect you. Look, a brain and a heart, we'll fix that.

You must tell us your secrets or we'll pry them open from you. Where your tonsils are, we'll take those, a gown for you. Restraints and a rocking chair.

We'll be mommy, daddy, physician, nurse, spiritual aid.

Open up. There's still plenty left inside you.

Simon says-we'll beat the poet out of you.

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RUN/WALK CLINIC 2019 12 week training dinic for the Vancouver Sun Run April 14 EVERY SUNDAY storting January 20th to April 7 from lOam¡ 12pm At Oppenheimer Park 488 Powell Street No experience necessary, come out for some

My dad smokes ()

cigarettes! He's a chain smoker!

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Clyde did you know that some 4000 ingredients are used in cigarettes.

I cant remember the complete list of chemicals, but here are a few.

Fungicides and pesticides, cadmium, benzene, formaldehyde and nickel.

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By Rick Nordal

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I'm worried about your pomeranian

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The Divine Energy Grid Divine energy cannot be overloaded nor short-circuited as like we can from too much demand on our energy.

Lynn Peak Dark was the dawn when 1 slipped away. the house quiet as a tomb.

To the forest I went sick with longing to the forest yearning for home.

Darkness concealed my going.

Silence called my name.

The city slept as I made my way to Lynn Peak.

Dense was the mist in the valley.

Steep was the path through the mist-shrouded trees.

"Mybreath sang a song in the morning, 'dew dampened my face.

We need to plug into the Divine's limitless supply independently for restoration and ongoing strength for siphoning energy from others is temporal and can sometimes initiate the loss of a dear friend through burnout.

We must tap into the Divine Love received in silent meditation focusing on all that is heavenly and earthly good healing our emotional body once it is understood that we are so precious to the Divine given unconditional love. something humans are rarely capable of. within our earthly limits.

Then, high on a ridge, the sun shone for an instant, and out of the sun appeared a great eagle, head white as snow jin the grey of the dawn.

It hovered above me wings moving slowly, eight feet across from one tip to the other.

"Friend," I said gently watching the fierce eyes, feeling the wind from the wings on my face.

The eagle turned slightly and soared down the valley into the mist that hid it from view.

Come learn about: Programs & activities at Carnegie Services and programs in the community Each other!

Dark was the dawn when I slipped away, the house quiet as a tomb.

To the forest I went sick with longing to the forest yearning for home.

Thanks to the following Donors: Banyan Books & Sound, Lisa David, Safeway, Santa Barbara, UBC First Nations House of Learning, Nativenorthwest.

Sandy Cameron

•

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HONOURING

OUR LIFE GIVERS

FRIDAY JANUARY 18TH, 2 - 4PM CARNEGIE CENTRE THEATRE

Organizers: Priscillia Tait, Veronica Butler

And for that I am grateful I had to humble myself when I came into recovery and it has taken me fifteen years of being in the AA program to be willing to see where I have unreasonable expectations of myself. I am a student of writing, a sister, a daughter, an aunt, a songwriter and a weekend restaurant worker, and I probably will never win the Nobel Peace Prize or become rich and famous. I can't live my life thinking these false goals will come to fruition. I am just now becoming content with my life the way it is. I don't have to organize my life around activities that I believe Ihave to accomplish in order to have a chance at pomp and power. Just getting up in the morning, and humbly going about my life, doing everyday things that all ordinary people do and not expecting to be the best at everything, or to be the most accomplished artist, is so very refreshing and gives me relief. Finally, I can take off a huge load and lay it down. I am average and that is ok today. I did drugs because I enjoyed the fantasy it allowed me.

So the question becomes, who am I and what am I in the eyes of my Higher Power and what does my Higher Power want me to do. I know he doesn't want me doing drugs and alcohol. And he doesn't want me to be miserable living in a fantasy world. He wants me to be humble. Humility means living life knowing exactly who and what I am. Today, I wake up and I greet life with a shout because I don't have unreasonable expectations.

Because Ican live with myself, by joining the human race and become part of the billions of people out there who are also average everyday folk. They work, they laugh, they play. By taking the blinders off that caught me in an unquenchable drive of ambition which I now see as being spiritually sick, I have some idea of what it means to be happy, joyous and free. And for that I am grateful.

The belief that drug taking is the tortured brilliant artist's gateway to tortured brilliant work is a myth. In all my years of drug taking, I did little writing, music and art because I had no clarity, or work habits. It takes diligent pursuit and action to write, do music and art and my substance abuse never ever allowed me to live in that moment. I was too homeless, defeated, lonely angry and tired. But today, I have a wonderful life. I am a productive member of society, I work, go to school doing something I love and I don't end up in the psych ward every other month. I don't plan to be a career psychiatric patient. I wake up in the morning feeling like my life has meaning because like the old saying is "to thine selfbe true", I am living an awesome life and the Holy Spirit is working in my life. And I am not ashamed of that. ~y RUBY DIAMOND

I walked upon the sea strand this morning and spied a gleaming Orb lying in a tidal pool. Momentarily the earth stood still as i picked up the pure white conch and held it to my ear.

There was a brief hush and then i heard my voice calling my name ... It beckoned to me to come swimming out to sea and see beyond the reaches of this mortal coil... I was entranced and found myself talking back to this seashell and asking if it knew about God. The conch spoke back in a whisper that sent shivers down my spine. "Seek inside and you will find it" .. I dropped the shell and began stumbling down the beach like a drunk. The ocean sent forth a giant wave and engulfed both myself and the conch out to Sea and we were no more.

Holger Mueller

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

THIS NEWSLETTER IS A PUBLICATION OF THE CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE 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: 17cm(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 to fit).

-All artists will receive credit for their work.

-Originals will be returned to the artist after being copied for publication.

-Remuneration: Carnegie Volunteer Tickets Please make submissions to Paul Taylor, Editor.

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

401 Main Street, Vancouver V6A 2T7 604·665·2289 Website carnegienewsletter.org Catalogue carnnews@vcn.bc.ca email

LSLAP (Law Students Legal Advice Program) DROP-IN Call 604-665-2220

Next issue:

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SUBMISSION DEADLINE

TUESDA Y, JANUARY

29

WEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION •

AIDS

•

POVERTY

•

HOMELESSNESS

•

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

•

TOTALITARIAN CAPITALISM

•

IGNORANCE and SUSTAINED FEAR

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carnnews@shaw.ca

DONATIONS 2019 Craig H.-$500 Barry M.-$250 Laurie R.-$100 In memory of those who passed in 2018 -$10

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