July 1, 2017 carnegie newsletter

CaRriiOegi NEWS LETTE R

carnnews@vcn,bc,ca

401 Main Street, Vancouver BC V6A 2T7 604-665-2289 email: carnnews@shaw.ca Website/catalogue: carnegienewsletter.org

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JU?S2017

KANATA IS 150 YEARS My wish List is as follows: -National Aboriginal Day (a statutory holiday).

-National Health Care.

-Sweden Recycles 98% of used materials.

-By law, companies in Sweden must take back the products they make when the consumer has finished with them.

-A friend visited Norway several years ago and was surprised to see that there were no addicts on the city streets when he asked where all the drug addicts are he was told: "They are at home" -Indigenous representative in parliament at all times -equality -socialist government -charge American for our water -change Canada to Kanata Thank you. PrisciIIia Housing: With speculation elevated to a 'sacred right' the almost uniform development of ever-higher-priced housing is contributing directly to the ever-growing housing crisis. Housing for the majority is sub-standard, with poor, low-income people having little choice between a roof and all other essentials. It seems that a loss of life or mass evictions garner media but only as an emergency; little is served with continual exhortations about how bad things are as those not affected routinely delegate coverage to the fringes rather than act on the recommendations of those whose experience opens eyes to the best solutions. Hearing of con-

increasingly evident is detrimental to the educational advancement of whole segments of our society.

Health Care: Think of the nightmare of health care American-style, where millions are losing access because the lawmakers are mostly millionaires & billionaires. There everything is pay-as-you-go, with no minimum guaranteed. Here, we don't have a system that forestalls this as various efforts by those wanting to return to for-profit health services continuously push to get their businesses exempt from the government-pays model and slam back into the American 'everyone pays through the nose' system. There is discrimination based on racial profiling, especially in rural & Indigenous communities, and there are cases before the courts where the federal government is fighting orders to deal with this monetary injustice.

In each of these areas it can be discerned that the 1% is intent on making the best & most desirable result be sequestered for the wealthiest 10-20% while the other 80-95% struggle to get whatever remains. It is this lopsidedness that must and is changing. We resist, we advocate fundamental, revolutionary change in ac •. cordance with human cardinal principles. We'll win!

By PAULR

TAYLOR

+---------------------

Oppenbeu..er Park Now open 7 days per week 9:15 am - 5:00 pm Join us for summer

favourites

including bocce,

di tions bei ng "d isgusting, abomi nab Ie, 3 rd W orl d ... " is ~=========b""a""s""e""b""a""II,;", ~g""a""rd""e""n""i""n,;;;g~, ""a n""d===m""o~r~e;";!===== less impactful than aving evidence of such exposed at every turn.

Education: There is little said about the student-loan industry. The move with institutions of higher learn;;. , ing is to increase costs directly proportional to the inJennvKwan, MP comes of students, said schools putting more money Vancouver East NDP into advertising abroad to capitalise on the foreign stuImmigration, Refugee and dent phenomenon. Of less or little concern seems to Citizenship Critic be how this impacts people who live here. Experience gets tales of debt, often in the tens' to hundreds of 2752 E Hastings 5t thousands, upon graduation. With this to look forward Vancouver, BCV5K 1Z3 to the desire to get the best education possible is takT: 604-775-5800 ing a back seat to the reality of having such a debt F: 604-775-5811 load for years, ifnot decades. The cutting, even gutJenny.Kwan@parl.gc.ca ting of adult education and the monetary restrictions

The Canadian Press VANCOUVER - Leonard George remembers the first time he heard his father. Chief Dan George, deliver his moving and prophetic speech on Indigenous rights, "A Lament for Confederation." It was 1967 and the acclaimed actor and former Tsleil- Waututh chief was set to speak at Canada's centennial celebration in Vancouver. His wife had urged him to write something about what the day means to First Nations, says Leonard.

When his soliloquy was ready, he stood in the family's living room and read it aloud.

"We all applauded because it was so beautiful and so powerful," says Leonard, 70. They weren't sure, however, that the crowd of 32,000 at Empire Stadium would do the same. The speech forcefully critiques colonization and calls on Indigenous people to "grab the white man's instruments of success" to rise again.

"Dad and the whole family were very nervous," says Leonard. "To stand up and tell the truth in such a profound way, he had no idea how the public would take that." George rehearsed every night for two weeks, along with his adult children, who were set to join him on stage. When the day finally came, Leonard could not have predicted how the audience would react.

After his father finished speaking, there were a few seconds of stunned silence. Then the audience rose to their feet and filled the stadium with about 10 minutes of deafening applause. "He began to cry because he was so touched," Leonard recalls. "We were crying as well, and we held on to each other."

The speech came at a time when George was a powerful figure in an emerging Aboriginal rights movement. He helped bring shameful parts of Canada's history out of the shadows and inspired young Indigenous leaders, says one researcher.

"I think he spoke both to their oppression and their rights and to their resiliency and their future," said Hugh Shewell, a professor with expertise in Indigenous-state relations at Carleton University in Ottawa.

As Canada celebrates its 150th birthday, George's family and friends are urging Canadians to reflect on his words.

The text of ChiefDan George's speech "A Lament for Confederation:" How long have I known you, Oh Canada? A hundred years? Yes, a hundred years. And many, many seelanum

more. And today, when you celebrate your hundred years, Oh Canada, I am sad for all the Indian people throughout the land.

For I have known you when your forests were mine; when they gave me my meat and my clothing. I have known you in your streams and rivers where your fish flashed and danced in the sun, where the waters said 'come, come and eat of my abundance.' I have known you in the freedom of the winds. And my spirit, like the winds, once roamed your good lands.

But in the long hundred years since the white man came, I have seen my freedom disappear like the salmon going mysteriously out to sea. The white man's strange customs, which I could not understand, pressed down upon me until I could no longer breathe.

When I fought to protect my land and my home, I was called a savage. When I neither understood nor welcomed his way of life, I was calIed lazy. When I tried to rule my people, I was stripped of my authority.

My nation was ignored in your history textbooks -they were little more important in the history of Canada than the buffalo that ranged the plains. I was ridiculed in your plays and motion pictures, and when I drank your firewater, I got drunk - very, very drunk. And I forgot.

Oh Canada, how can I celebrate with you this centenary, this hundred years? Shall I thank you for the reserves that are left to me of my beautiful forests? For the calmed fish of my rivers? For the loss of my pride and authority, even among my own people? For the lack of my will to fight back? No! I must forget what's past and gone.

Oh God in heaven! Give me back the courage of the olden chiefs. Let me wrestle with my surroundings. Let me again, as in the days of old, dominate my environment. Let me humbly accept this new culture and through it rise up and go on.

Oh God! Like the thunderbird of old I shall rise again out ofthe sea; I shall grab the instruments of the white man's success - his education, his skilIs, and with these new tools I shall build my race into the proud est segment of your society. Before I follow the great chiefs who have gone before us, Oh Canada, I shall see these things come to pass.

1shall see our young braves and our chiefs sitting in the houses of law and government, ruling and being ruled-by the knowledge and freedoms of our great land. So sha11we shatter the barriers of our isolation. So shall the next hundred years be the greatest in the proud history of our tribes and nations, George'saddress was so revolutionary, his daughter Amy George recalIs, she feared he would be kilIed for delivering it. She was in her 20s and the assassination ofU.S. president John F. Kennedy was fresh in her mind.

"Some people did get very angry, too. When we were walking off the field at the stadium, some people were saying 'You're nuts!' and they were throwing bottles and empty cups at us," she says.

There hasn't been much improvement in how Canada treats First Nations since George's speech, says his grandson Rueben George. He points to disproportionately high numbers of Indigenous kids in government care and inadequate funding for housing, education and clean water on reserves.

But just as his grandfather envisioned, Indigenous people are sitting in the House of Commons and the courts, and have a say in resource projects on their lands, says Rueben.

"We took back what is ours. That's our identity, our culture, our spirituality ... our law," he says. Later in 1967, singer-songwriter Ann Mortifee performed with George in a groundbreaking play, "The Ecstasy of Rita Joe," about a young Aboriginal woman. Mortifee, says George opened her eyes to the brutality of colonialism.

"I feel profoundly privileged to have lived through that moment in history," she says. "He was like a portal into a richer world for me and he changed my life."

Secret Tactics and Strategy The Canadian residential school system was nothing but a continuation of what began in 1492 when Christopher Columbus set foot on the island of San Salvador. In less than a decade the gift-giving, friendly & honourable Tainos indigenous people were wiped out as were hundreds of thousands of other peoples.

Those that were not killed -rnen, women & childrenwere sold as slaves in Europe. And this was only the beginning of a 523 year-old horror story of what Justice Murray SincIair, head of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, termed "cultural genocide."

It has been recently and honestly established that, at the time of first contact with Europeans, somewhere between 9 & 18 million indigenous people lived north of Mexico. Four hundred or so years later, in 1890, there were 250,000 indigenous people in the United States & an unrecorded number in Canada. In other words 1 in 35 indigenous people survived 400 years of massacre, war & broken treaties. Nowadays there are 2.9 million indigenous people in the U.S. and a million or more in Canada.

Why was the Residential School system established in 1831 and functioning until 1998?

Essentially the residential system was used by the Federal government, United + Catholic + Anglican + Presbyterian churches to "get the Indian out" of the 416 year-old children; forcibly taking them from their parents and placing them in a foreign world of fear, ! loneliness & lack of affection; forbidding them from speaking their own language. Physical and sexual abuse was meted out by teachers & supervisors. Hunger was a constant threat which resulted in thousands dying of malnutrition, disease, suicide or exposure to the elements as they tried to escape. [The spectre of children being murdered & being buried in unmarked graves ran throughout the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission.] Why were Aboriginal children in Canada exposed to these hardships?

It would appear that the Canadian government and Churches were more tolerant & less aggressive than the US gov't & Army, which reduced the indigenous population from 8.7 million to 250,000 in 400 years.

In truth, what became the Canadian government & its churches in 1867 were not-too-distant witnesses to the ongoing slaughter occurring in the south. Indeed, instead of eradicating (killing) every Aboriginal' man, woman & child as the U.S. did, the so-called Canadi-

S

ans chose a more civilised approach to take the land & resources - they simply took the children to assimilate them through 'education', an act which would gradually 'civilize' the Indian.

Since there were only 300,000 or so natives in Canada at first contact and a relatively small number of French & English people, it was much more practical to slowly take the children rather than have an all-out war to conquer the indigenous people. In fact, taking the 150,000 children over 100 years removed the possibility of future resistance. And because the children were taken piece-meal and not en masse, parental or community resistance was kept to a minimum. This tactic & strategy were just as good as the foreign pur. chasing of huge tracts ofland - conquering a territory without firing a shot. The dollar value of natural resources such as energy, timber & minerals not owner. operated & controlled by Canadian Aboriginals in 2007 was $1300 billion. As compensation the indigenous people received alcohol, drugs, venereal disease & free housing in the form of prisons in which inmates are 16% native while being only 3% of the population of Canada. This has become just another way to prevent natives defending land which was once theirs and which is now considered stolen.

By Harry Schorneck

City of Vancouver's

(Squamish

Ntn)

"Them & Us"

For them, the City builds bicycle lanes and such For us, they think potable water too much • For them, two bathrooms, bidet, ensuite For us, they condemn to toilet in street ._ For them, city bi-law enforcement a right For us, even to ask, eviction's our plight For them, fancy dogs, fancy cats, fancy vets For us, rats, roaches, vermin our pets What city do you wish to see?

Is it one where only they have rights?

Are "them and us" pitted to perpetually fight?

We demand a city where Where everyone's dwelling is safe, is clean, Where concern for them AND us, more than a dream. vikki [Rev. Dr. Victoria (vikki) Marie]

Well-managed Downtown Eastside tent city faces uncertain future after residents receive trespass notice

By Charlie Smith, posted on the Georgie Straight website on June 16th

Today I stopped by a tent city at 950 Main Street after the hubbub had died down from a morning news conference. I was curious to see the camp near Thornton Park devoid of media and housing activists.

The residents invited me in and 1 walked to the back to speak to the cook, a woman named Joyce. She and tl~e others weren't much interested in being interviewed, so I left them alone to live their lives. But I must say I was impressed by the general cleanliness of the area and how residents appeared to enjoy one another's company.

This camp was set up on April 28 to coincide with the provincial-election campaign. The Alliance Against Displacement has been in contact with the residents & played a key role at today's news conference.

The alliance's Maria Wallstam introduced one of the residents, Crystal Cardinal, to the media. She offered a few remarks about why a tent city is preferable to single-room-occupancy hotels like the Balmoral. "We have a tight-knit community here, everybody gets along, everyone watches out for everybody, and it's.

safe," Cardinal told the reporters.

She added if they're kicked out, they're going to have to keep moving around. And Cardinal has previously told the media that she's been on a B.C. Housing waiting list for two years after being evicted from the Cobalt Hotel.

Wallstam pointed out that the Lu'ma Native Housing Society has issued a notice of trespass against the tent city dwellers. The letter states that "all structures tents shelters, objects and things must be removed fro'm the' Property by no later than 7:00 am on Friday, June 16".

This came after society filed a development permit application to build 26 units of affordable housing. The city leased the site to the society effective June 15.

Lu'ma Native Housing Society plans to build 26 units on the site of the tent city.

According to the city, "the continuation of the encamp -ment at 950 Main Street is threatening the future of a vital affordable housing project which will serve aboriginal adults who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness which has been planned for that site".[This was the prime argument in the City's application for an injunction that was denied by ajudge.] Wallstam told reporters that the society's next step would be to obtain a court injunction. And that could lead to the residents being charged under the Trespass Act. "This tent city is providing what the government is not," Wallstam said. "It's providing shelter, stability and security."

Herb Varley highlights ongoing colonialism One of the more memorable speeches at today's event came ~rom indigenous housing activist Herb Varley.

He pointed out that First Nations in the region have not ceded the territory upon which the tent-city residents are living.

Varley even considers himself a guest on the land because his heritage is not Squamish, Tsleil- Waututh, or Musqueam.

"Even though I born and raised in what we now call Vancouver city-even though I plan on living out the remainder of my life, however long that may be, in Vancouver city-it is important for me to say I am a guest in this territory," Varley declared. Then he held his hands up in the traditional indigenous form of respect for the tent city people who've banded together to help themselves.

Varley pointed out that the site was vacant for upward of20 years before the native housing society signed a lease agreement with the city.He claimed that this was

a way for the city to avoid responsibility by turning the issue over to a 3rd party so it could "take the heat".

Varley alleged that this was designed to construct a narrative that the city is trying to build social housing, which he insisted is "false". It's worth noting that several residents of the tent city are indigenous Varley also pointed out that city councillors acknowledge that Vancouver is on unceded indigenous territory before their public meetings. Yet he said that the same politicians are relying on legal apparatuses from this illegal occupation to "colonize" the land occupied by residents of the tent city.

"As Canada celebrates its 150th birthday, it's really celebrating genocide, displacement, and the cultural diminishment-the cultural repression--of indigenous peoples that continues today," Varley added.

"I'm here to challenge that national narrative that Can-7 ada, Vancouver, has progressed past its racist history," he said. "I think one of the most dangerous myths in Canada is this myth of progress. Infinite, unrestricted, benevolent progress. You know, when we asked for housing, when we asked for 100 percent social housing on sites like this, we're told to be realistic. We're told to be realistic. But then ifI was to ask 100 developers-I ,000 developers=-what they want, every single one of them will say I want unlimited, unmitigated unrestricted, infinite potential for growth.

"That's not possible for one person, never mind 1,000" Varley added. "So like I said, there is a politics to what's real istic."

Carnegie to me Years of quiet curiosity, passing by on bicycle or bus before at last getting off at the corner of Hastings and Main to climb the cracked stairs and push open the heavy door to find a vast room leading to other rooms notice boards and tables ~nd ch~irs and peopl~Ll eo drifting up and down a spiral staircase jC'c%Q OC2Oc'<v . . h 7(;j QC> 'i)CJ'3 and In the centre a reception area were D@ ()~ a tiny beaming woman smiled l)'I{3Da "hi! My name is Kim. How can I help you?"aB (J\2(JQ ~ ,

He noted that as the country and the city commemorate Canada's 150th birthday this year, the Coast Salish have been in this region for at least 10,000 years.

"As Canada ramps up its celebrations, there is going to be a national narrative of yes, Canada used to be colonial, it used to be racist, it used to be classist," he continued. "But if you look right here-if you look at who they're displacing yet again, if you look at who is filling up the prison systems, if you look at who is filling up the foster-care system, if you look at who is dying in the opioid crisis-it disproportionately affects indigenous people."

According to Varley, colonization is not something that ended 150 years ago-it's something that happens to this very day, this very moment, this very second.

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Years of dedicated adjustments r;;;}J\J <7& on both sides learning to trust %Q Egg and feel safe there and part of the team each day negotiating the commotion on the corner to climb the crowded stairs and push open the heavy door to find the mood and rhythm of the day and what we might offer each other in exchange sometimes a smile could be just enough to confirm encouragement and it was easy to find conversations that covered all bases Years of active Volunteering on hand to gladly serve meals chop veg take tickets decorate demonstrate and dance with the diverse community that expanded over the years to include those who once were feared and shunned now finding inclusion in this place of heart and soul where there just may be a place for you only have to climb those stairs the door is wide open to find Magdelanye

War at Balmoral expected if Tenants do not get settlement cheques

lose a single room to the City and landlord's neglect.

Our goal is to preserve deep affordability and heritage, while guaranteeing habitability and safety in these homes. TheBalmoral Hotel crisis has made it clear to governments that the public is sick and tired of governments not holding slumlords accountable. The Downtown Eastside Community wants the Sahotas & other slumlords driven out of their neighbourhood once and for all.

The Balmoral Hotel crisis demonstrates how the City of Vancouver's inspections and legal practices has led to loss of these rooms. For decades the City of Vancouver has refused to use their legal powers under section 23.8 to make repairs & send the landlords the bill or put it on their tax rolls. Instead they choose to baby sit slumlords & cajole them into making the bare minimum of repairs. Until the city uses its powers and decides to take slumlords to court to retrieve those funds hundreds of SROs could easily be shut down & more tenants will become homeless.

Eliot Z Galan, Vane Tenants Union: 604-724-5690 Wendy Pedersen: SRO Collaborative 604-839-0379

â&#x20AC;˘

Women~sFair

& ~ Flea Market June 10 to September 30, 2017 Every Saturday, 11am-4pm, the 200-block of Columbia Street (Cordova to Powell).

25+ vendors! Family friendly!

Music, Food and candy floss!

Our 2nd annual Women's Fair is happening this summer, promising a vibrant atmosphere, lively entertainment and fun for all. Come by on a Saturday and find yourself a treasure, enjoy a treat, & support the women of the Downtown Eastside. Hosted by the DTES Women's Centre and the City of Vancouver.

The REVOLUTION of POTENTIAL As children we were taught the alphabet one to ten that was as they thought we gotta know, I grew up with multiculturalism I remember my teachers' names they were for the most part caring this was the seventies I was a kid full of music words & numbers this was truly an awesome country inwhich to grow ...

I write about the evils of people who keep houses empty (hey I've been homeless & hopeless) then I started writing the wrongs god why so many on the street starving has become a sport, people the world over see Canadians as heroes a small amount of people making a huge difference I love this country & every country that even not knowing we've been there to support, pardon my train of thinking but if the Duke & Duchess of Balmoral had spent one weekend there in a bathtub they would have fallen to their demise ...

Maybe just maybe the world let alone this country would shake off the confetti & actually care, yes the drug I used to shoot in my veins has now become a serial killer one more fall for mankind I see pretend-tobe-soldiers with FruitLoops on their anti-bullshite uniforms how evil (truly, how do you dare?) My Grandpa moved from Scotland to make a new life in a country that proved if you want a piece can you do a favour & go to war Alexander John McGillivray & wife said it's worth it so he fought the first world war for us praying to god we would not have to destroy our moon oh god how I love that one moon we were given Not all is left let alone right people "Canadians" sleeping on walkways & park benches I have been there self-murder crossed my mind many a time even the beautiful people sense a revolution is coming & they have truly been smitten, As a kid me & my friends got drunk in the alleys of Richmond very good times so many rights were wronged but when young you expect all to work itself out so dandy & fine I shall sooner than later surrender my mortal remains to its soil, like being too paranoid to take anti-paranoia pills [true story] this magnificent creation democracy s much too vague let alone abused your bimonthly narrator has watched previous revolutions swallow people's ideas & ideals but more than that they make a habit of clouding one's judgement simply put they feel at home when their consultants are confused as am I you may have noticed my pen has started leaking oil, so many dreams so much potential yet so little time random acts of evil will hit these shores it truly & sadly is just a matter of w~en-

q

where&how horrible but if we can fight back world wars we can do anything we aren't blind get to it this is Canada rock on, There was a time when no one used their housekeys unfortunately they now come in the shape of screwdrivers (l bet you thought I'd say magnetic cards) also gone is another thing we took for granted that would be front yards I will never ever see this in my lifetime but maybe in ten or eleventeen million years we will if not perish shall get along .. not meant to be a fairy story or song

"Good work never dies, it just goes to sleep for a while until somebody wakes it up." David (The Edge) Evans _

By ROBERT McGILLlVRA

Y

Raise the Rates expects immediate, retroactive welfare increase from BC government VANCOUVER, COAST SALlSH TERRITORIES-The Raise the Rates coalition is calling on whoever is in government to stop playing games with poor people's live and raise welfare rates immediately and retroactively.

This morning the BC Liberals said they plan to announce a $100 a month welfare increase in the Thursday Throne Speech. $100 a month just happens to be the amount the NI?P said they would raise welfare.

But $100 won't be enough for the poorest people in the province to be able to afford to pay rent. As it stands now people on welfare have only $375 a month for rent. If all of the increase were to go to rent they would still only have $475.

Welfare rates have been frozen for 10 years and it's now virtually impossible for someone to eat and pay for rent and other necessities on the $610 which is the maximum welfare rate for a single person. "For ten years the Liberal government refused to increase welfare rates for people living in poverty, but when they are at risk of losing power, they decide to raise welfare rates to save their government," said Jean Swanson, organizer in the Downtown Eastside. One result is that homelessness is growing all over the province because people without jobs can't afford rent.

"We need an immediate increase to $1500 a month so people will be able to get back on their feet," added Gerlings. "If the parties don't get their act together and enact an immediate increase then any future increase should be retroactive."

Contact: Kell Gerlings 778 871 0141 Jean Swanson 6047292380

• tll PIRKf(snVll·

2017

MUSIC LINE-UP

Vancity NAnVE

OPENING CEREMONY PLUS SPEAKERS VANCOUVER PARKS BOARD COMMI5SIONER & DON lARSON

CARNEGIE COMMUNITY

ACTION PROJECT

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NEWSLETTER

On June 27th about 20 people from 4 different Downtown Eastside struggles trekked to City Hall, interrupted a City Council meeting and then, when the councilors all left, took over the councillors' and mayor's chairs and passed the resolutions they would like to see council pass to address the housing crisis. The message was: No more business as usual while people die. Take action now! Our homes can't wait!

lIlY 2011 I 2011 iiJft

DOWNTOWN

EASTSIDERS

TAKE OVER CITY COUNCIL

TO DEMAND ACTION ON HOMELESSNESS Should Vancouver City Council be sitting around, getting staff reports, blaming other levels of government, evicting tent city and Balmoral Hotel residents, harassing homeless people on the streets when there is no place for them to go?

The Our Homes Can't Wait coalition thinks council should be acting like homelessness is the life-threatening emergency it is. On June 27 about 20 people from 4 different Downtown Eastside struggles trekked to City Hall, interrupted a City Council meeting and then, when the councilors all left, took over the councillors' and mayor's chairs and passed the resolutions they would like to see council pass.

The crew of about 20 walked into council chambers and began shouting "Our homes can't wait," over and over, interrupting council business. Then Aiyanas Ormand of VANDU said that we wanted to speak to council about homeless: "There is nothing more important than homeless people dying on the.street."

Then each offour speakers proceeded to tell council members what the situation was for 105 Keefer, 58 W Hastings, the tent city and SROhotels. Each speaker made a motion for council to adopt. When the speakers finished, Councillor Raymond Louie who was acting as Mayor, said, "We'll consider it at a later time." This is "business as usual while people die," replied Aiyanas.

"We've heard your positions and will

consider them," repeated Louie.

After that, the councillors left and the Our Homes Can't Wait crew took over council chambers, sitting in councillors chairs and the Mayor's chair and passing the motions that they wanted passed to reduce homeless: that Council take $30 million out of its housing fund to ensure that all the housing units at 58 W. Hastings can rent at welfare/pension rate; â&#x20AC;˘ that council ask staff to meet with the Beedie Group to work out a plan to acquire the land from them for more social, not market, housing, and a large community social space; that council instruct staff to provide necessary land and facilities for health and safety for tent cities, and that staff be instructed to stop harassing and forcing homeless people who live on the street to move and pack up their belongings; that council instruct staff to buy the Balmoral hotel and refurbish it at welfare/pension rate, and make orders under section 28.3 of the Standards of Maintenance bylaws to upgrade all of the Sahota owned hotels and all other hotels with poor maintenance, and if the upgrades aren't made, that the city will do the work and bill the owners; that council instruct staff to ensure that homeless people and SRO residents are the top priority for city expenditures on housing.

FORMER UN RAPPORTEUR

MAKES VANCOUVER

SAYS HOUSING

AN "APARTHEID

CRISIS

CITY"

a decade, the city-owned vacant lot remained empty until the campers moved in. The city says a 26-unit social housing building is planned for the site, however only 8 units will be at low-income rates.

"Vancouver is very quickly becoming an apartheid city;' says former United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Adequate Housing, Miloon Kothari. Kothari, who visited Vancouver a decade ago as part of a cross country study tour for the UN, spent Monday afternoon meeting with DTESresidents, touring the neighbourhood and the Balmoral Hotel with CCAP.Standing at the same site on 950 Main Street where he once visited a tent city ten years ago, Kothari says Vancouver's housing crisis has only worsened.

"My initial impressions are one of disbelief and shock," said Kothari. "The number of homeless people has grown 30 percent over three years. The welfare rates are shockingly exactly the same as when I was here in 2007."

A new tent city was erected on 950 Main Street since Kothari's last visit. Campers at Ten Year Tent City say the tent city provides what the government is not providing: shelter, food, safety, and stability. For

Kothari called Vancouver's escalating housing crisis, "sheer neglect." At a stop at the Balmoral Hotel, a decaying SROwhere the City has served tenants with an eviction notice to leave within 10 days, Kothari listened to distressed residents, many with nowhere to go. "One big question that I had while I was walking through the Balmoral was 'why has the City allowed a situation to get bad as the balmoral is.

What always strikes me is that Canada is one of the wealthiest countries in the world and the city'of Vancouver is the third most expensive city in the world," explained Kothari. "Yet, you have these levels of poverty, which are worsening. Yet, you have these levels of discrimination and segregation."

Kothari called on all three levels of government to take action to build social housing that low-income people can afford. Although the City says they are working on building social housing, the definition of "social housing" has changed What has changed since Kothari's last visit, is the number of luxury condos in Vancouver. ""Hyper gentrification is unique to Vancouver;' said Kothari, who was distressed by the "sheer neglect of people," and blamed all three levels of government but especially the City.

VICTORY: CHINATOWN'S LOW-INCOME RESIDENTS AND COMMUNITY GROUPS CELEBRATE HISTORIC VICTORY AS VANCOUVER CITY COUNCIL REJECTS CONDO PROJECT AT 105 K,EEFER The Chinatown Concern Group (CCG)and Chinatown Action Group (CAG)applaud the Vancouver City Council's 7-3 decision to reject Beedie Living's rezoning application at the 105 Keefer site in Chinatown. This decision is an important victory for the Chinatown community, but CAGand CCG vow to continue the fight until 100% welfare-pension rate social housing and a public intergenerational community space are secured for this site.

Council echoes the needs of the community to look for deeper solutions to the housing crisis in Chinatown instead of another condo project that would provide

a measly 25 units of social housing.

"We commend Vancouver City Council for choosing the side of Chinatown's lowincome residents over corporate profit, but the fight is not over. There is a housing crisis for Chinese seniors and other lowincome people in the neighbourhood, and we are unwavering in our demand that this site can only be used to meet the pressing needs of our community," Beverly Ho, CCG Organizer, says.

Together, they vow to continue their efforts to bring together low-income residents to implement the People's Vision

for Chinatown, a collaborative effort between youth and elders that has been several years in the making. The People's Vision is a strategy for social and economic development in Chinatown that centers on the needs and aspirations of working class residents. The report outlines the top issues as defined by community members, which are lack of affordability and housing, increasing social isolation, lack of safety, racism and lack of democratic decisionmaking.

"The People's Vision is a community response to the crisis in Chinatown that

HORGAN DOESN'T

105 Keefer has revealed, which is the crisis of affordability and housing for poor people and seniors. It is a call to action for the Chinatown community and people all over Vancouver to take our future into our own hands," says Sophie Fung, CAG organizer.

CAGand CCGwill be organizing a series of actions in the upcorning months to call on all three levels of government to implement the solutions in the People's Vision. We invite community members and residents to join us in our efforts.

MAKE ANY COMMITMENTS

AT MEETING WITH DTES RESIDENTS What would you do if you just happened to notice that the NOPwas having a $350 a plate fundraising dinner? Especially if you were mad that they didn't mention homelessness much during the election campaign and that all three parties are dithering away in Victoria and doing nothing about the homelessness and fentanyl crises while people-are dying?

we need government to: â&#x20AC;˘ Build housing at welfare/pension rate on 10 city-owned sites in the OTES; Preserve and improve all SROhotels until social housing is built for SRO residents and homeless people; Implement rent control based on the unit, not the tenant, with a rent freeze until the housing crisis is over; and Build 100% welfare/pension rate, community controlled housing at 58 W. Hastings.

The Our Homes Can't Wait coalition decided to try to take some homeless people and SROresidents to their fancy dinner on the 15th floor of the Fairmont Hotel and asked We also said we want welfare to be at to speak to the assembled rich. But the $1500 a month, not $610, and that the NOParranged to meet with a delegation in a government should build 10,000 units of separate room. Some folks from VANOU,the social housing a year. Horgan was polite but made no commitments except to go on a Carnegie Action Project, and the Tent City gentrification tour of the OTESlater on. went and told NOP leader John Horgan that

On Monday, June 26th, the Supreme Court of BC granted Lu'ma Native Housing Society an injunction against the Ten Year Tent City on 950 Main Street. Unlike the previous notice in May which was issued by the City of Vancouver, the owner of the empty lot at 950 Main St., the new injunction notice was filed by the new landlord, Lu'ma Native BC Housing Society. The injunction was filed one day after the Lu'ma signed a lease for the lot at 950 Main Street for a term of 60 years.

The leasing of this property to Lu'ma follows a court ruling on May 17th which turned down the City's request for an injunction to remove the camp from the publicly owned lot. The meaning of Judge Sharma's historic decision in May is that the BC Supreme Court has found that homeless people's lives and well being are part of the R,ublic good, and that harm done to their lives must be weighed against the City's private property rights.

Sharma's decision does not change homeless people's rights under Canadian law, but it is is part of a trend of Court decisions that are recognizing homeless people as human beings. Sharma's decision will also make it harder for governments to displace tent cities on the grounds of their private property right to use the site for other uses, and makes it harder for

governments to secure injunctions without providing actual housing alternatives for the homeless residents on site.

The City's sudden move to lease it out to a non-profit organization and the subsequent injunction dodges responsibility for the dire housing needs of camp residents as well as the 2,200 people counted as homeless people in Vancouver. It demonstrates the City's determination to circumvent the court ruling, recruiting a non-profit organization who can present as a property owner less beholden to the public good.

In response to the injunction, 10 Year Tent City residents decided to move to a new site and continue the struggle. On the evening of Tuesday, June 26th, tent city residents and supporters marched from 950 Main Street to a city owned and vacant lot at the intersection of Glen and Franklin.

Across from the Rogers Sugar Factory, the new tent city has already been named Sugar Mountain Tent City.

Tent City resident Crystal Cardinal said it's better than being at a shelter, which she says she'd feel unsafe in. But she said the camp is no long term solution either. "No it's not. What we're really wanting is for us to get social housing for everybody, that's what we're really focusing on right now."

LAMA MUGABO:

CITY SHOULD PROVE IT LEARNED FROM THE BALMORAL DISASTER On Sunday June 11th, SROCollaborative and Vancouver Tenants Union organized a block party along Hastings, between Main and Carrall Streets. The event attracted a lot of people who were curious to learn about the impact of the closure of the Balmoral Hotel, the homelessness crisis in the Downtown Eastside and follow up actions to fight the system that treats low income residents as second class citizens.

It was remarkable to witness the solidarity with Balmoral tenants. People came out and donated their time, food and support.

It was wonderful to see the outpouring of love and support characteristic of the Downtown Eastside.

Prior to this celebration, organisers worked around the clock to collect stories from the tenants, help those who wanted to speak with the media to do so and most importantly help them fight back against the ~ictions. They gave interviews to reporters and occupied City Hall to call on the Mayor to: a) enforce the city's Standards of Maintenance Section 23.8, which allows the city to fix the repairs and bill the landlords. 2) buy the hotel and hire a more responsible non-profit to manage the building.

Massive efforts were spent to ensure that all tenants found homes before the City of Vancouver eviction deadline the

following day on Monday. Organizers from SROCollaborative worked around the clock to have everyone relocated into adequate, safe, secure and "permanent" housing, not shelters. They also called on the City and the province to purchase the hotel and prevent it from falling victim to developers to preserve the dwindling stock of affordable housing units for low income residents.

While the City did acquire 60 more rooms for homeless people because of the Balmoral evictions, 173 rooms have been lost for a net loss of 113 rooms at a time when we have 2138 counted homeless people in Vancouver. The city needs to stop talking about 'a range of housing options' and a 'continuum of housing' and start prioritizing homeless people and SRO residents for all new social housing.

The Balmoral is not the first hotel to be closed because of negligence. City has allowed several rental properties to deteriorate to the extent that tenants have to be evicted. These include the Burns Block on Hastings, an apartment on Pandora St. and the Clifton Hotel on Granville. The time is now for the city to learn from its negligence and stop rewarding slumlords by closing their buildings for them.

SPEECH BY BALMORAL

TENANT

NICKY:

FAILING TO MAINTAIN THE BALMORAL IS A HATE CRIME Editor's note: Nicky, a Balmoral Hotel resident, gave this speech to the media and supporters during the occupation of Vancouver city hall on May 31. The speech was shortened to fit in the newsletter.

Criminal law deals with public safety and well being. When criminal laws are violated fines and prison sentences are the most likely negative sanctions. Why, when the Sahotas failed to keep our homes safe, did the City not inflict harsher punishment on the Sahotas .

I stand here to address the City of Vancouver and plead with you. Please fix our homes so we can flourish as residents of this so-called democracy that we're supposed to live in. We deserve dignity and to be respected like the other citizens that inhabit this city. We won't be herded like cattle out to the slaughterhouse. We are human beings and we all bleed the same way when we get cut. We want to be treated with equality and be respected as people not thrown on the corner like garbage and forgotten about.

The things I've seen and I'm sure many others in the Balmoral will face, are going to be hard to forget. Some of us in the Balmoral had to succumb to death, literally and figuratively in a lot of ways while waiting for the City to agree to step in and help us in the fight for our lives. Those who aren't here anymore to share their stories or horror from living in the Balmoral, may peace be in their souls. Will their fate be the lesson theCcity needs to learn to come stand with the residents of the Balmoral, not over with the Sahotas plotting the discretion of our lives?

We're just humans trying to survive the degradation, humiliation and personal hell we have been forced to survive within because of the Sahota's abuse to us residents. So I ask the City of Vancouver, whose side are you really on? I guess we at the Balmoral were confused about the role of the city. We thought we were going to get your help on our side. Sorry about that.

We must have been mistaken. Please do whats right for the people in the Balmoral.

Office: 2nd floor of the Carnegie, 401 Main Street, Vancouver Phone: 604-665-21 05 Email: info@carnegieaction.org Website: www.carnegieaction.org

Vancity

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

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A hybrid happens when you crossbreed a sativa with an indica. Nowadays hybrids are often bred with other hybrids. This has led to some outrageously strong man-made marijuana varieties (like the 51.2% THC Kurupts Moonrock strain) but has also led to the introduction ofhigh-CBD cannabis options, which has expanded the medical potential of cannabis by a great margin. Because hybrids can be so different, it's best to ask someone at your local dispensary about the specific psychoactive effects of each individual hybrid strain.

Stay tuned until next time where we take a closer look at the popular Timewarp strain and explore where it

For the summer months (now through to August 24th), we've launched a new alternative book club called a "Short Story Workshop" during the same timeslot as the Thursdays Writing Collective ... Thursdays 2pm - 4pm in the Classroom. The team leader, Joseph provides a short story each week (often from New Yorker magazine), which are available in the library. The story takes about 25 minutes to read, there is discussion, followed up by a writing project. All levels of readers and writers are welcomed! And, for those interested in publication, please drop-in to the "Resources for Writers" workshop on Wed. July 5th at 4:30pm in the Classroom, to learn about publishing, editing services, promotion, and opportunities for Incame from!

Cait & Darrvl die Authors. Here are some short story collections to inspire ...

A Close Call The Accusation (2017) by Bandi. This collection is by an anonymous NOl1h Korean writer - the first of its This happened many years ago. I was living in an kind. It reveals a painful reality oflife in this mysteri- " apartment on the East End. My boyfriend was w~rkous country, but is a powerful reminder of how we can ing on the waterfront. He was a longshoreman With sustain hope in face of oppression. his own apartment. We were invited to a party by a Always Happy Hour (2017) by Mary Miller. Most of friend, which we went to. There was one woman there the stories are set in the deep South, featuring women who I didn't know was or had been going with my rarely featured in "literature" ... ie. women who love to boyfriend. â&#x20AC;˘ drink, party, serial date, & have some serious bad habWe were drinking and everything was okay. I was its. There's humour, sadness, confusion & friendship. wearing a nice leather jacket. The woman was jealous Chasing Shadows: visions of our coming transparent . of me because suddenly she grabbed a sharp knife and world (2017) edited by David Brin. Science fiction stabbed me, penetrating the jacket. I went into shock lovers will appreciate these stories and essays by leadand there was blood all over me! ing writers on topics like internet privacy, the NSA, Somebody called the ambulance and paramedics Edward Snowden, "Big Brother," etc. stopped the bleeding. The doctor at the hospital told Cli-Fi: Canadian tales of climate change (2017). me the knife was 1/16" beside my heart. It was atCanadian writers of short fiction address this global tempted murder. I survived. I threw away the jacket. I crisis with creativity. They address pressures on our didn't want to be reminded of what happened. earth such as animal extinction, food shortage, ocean When I got back home I called the police and one conditions & genetic modifications with the intention policeman came. I told him what had happened and to inspire change. offered to go to show him where she lived. I wanted Yo r librarian Natalie him to arrest her. He said he'd go by himself so I gave him the address. ~~~~ÂĽ~ I don't believe that he did go because nothing ever happened. I wasn't contacted; there was no court case.

It was awful.

I saw her one day at Oppenheimer Park and a few Hybrids '1";,,! years later I found out she had passed away.

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Five principles for fighting the toxic President Rolf Auer, Tuesday 20 ] une 2017 US President Donald J. Trump is toxic because: â&#x20AC;˘ He is anti-democratic. He claims massive voter fraud in the election which made him President, while there is no evidence of this. He incited his followers at his rallies with chants of "Lock her up!" implying that jail with no trial is perfectly acceptable. â&#x20AC;˘ He is anti-environmentalist.

He refused to sign onto the Paris Accord, a plan designed for Western countries to save Earth. â&#x20AC;˘ He is anti-social. His misogynist comments about women, his xenophobic policies towards potential immigrants, and his racist comments during his rallies all highlight this observation.

We cannot let Trump's continuous attacks on everything we perceive as good and decent go unanswered. Trump cannot be allowed to continue to set a moral example for the young as President, because he represents a deterioration of long established and proven moral values, and the end result can only be that a person worse than him becomes President.

Here are five principles for fighting the toxic President: 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

Refute his lies immediately and repeatedly. Trump makes good use of the maxim of Adolph Hitler's propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels, that "if you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it." A variation of this is the desensitization of repugnant phrases or descriptions of acts by repetition ("I moved on her like a bitch, grabbed her by the pussy" etc.) until they no longer evoke outrage and are accepted as normal. This is a variant of buying "the big lie." By repeatedly shocking peoples' sense of proper morals, this in turn leads to the acceptance of other equally despicable events.

Place his anti-democraticisms in an historical context. Trump tried to incite violence against dissenters at his rallies. This is the exact same tactic used by Hitler to provoke harm to the Jews and others he called "undesirables." Don't be afraid to draw such comparisons; think of what happens next if you don't.

Highlight his anti-social behaviour. Trump is setting a bad example for those seeking to emulate him.

By playing up the benefits of being rich (Trump cut taxes on the rich) and putting down the poor (Trump ended the Meals On Wheels federal government funding), Trump sets back social progress already painfully made. Fight his attempts to take the world backwards in time to the bad old days.

Try to use social media as effectively as Trump does. Twitter is Trump's chosen vehicle of social media. Take his tweets apart and put them back together to show how idiotic these are.

What if everyone did as Trump did? A good refutation might start, "If everyone did as Trump did ..."

It's going to be a long fight. The power-grabbing plutocracy under Trump won't relinquish power easily. Instead of reinvigorating America and making it great again, it is as a blight upon the great dream envisioned by America's founding fathers. It can only fail and take all America down with it. Fight the good fight!-at the least, you'll be able to sleep easier in your senior years, knowing that you did everything you could to combat the primordial predatory evil that is Trump.

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They Called her" Granny Yip"

By Debra MeN aught Born in St John, New Brunswick in 1882, Nellie Towers was 18 years old when she fell in love with Charles Yip Quong, ajeweller from Vancouver. She had been educated in the States and was teaching English in New York City where they met and married in 1900. After spending time in New York, they visited Vancouver and then travelled to China, returning here in 1904. Mixed marriages still make the ignorant froth at the mouth -- can you imagine the circle of hell created just for them here in the racist Vancouver of 1904? They made history by being the first interracial couple in this city, probably creating much indignation and outrage on all sides. I hope after the initial shock his family accepted her without reservation, but her family never recovered: they disowned Nellie, and she was even excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Converting the heathens might buy you a place in heaven but marrying one was a ticket to hell.

Canada likes to consider itself a multicultural society, or at least that's what the expensive government brochures now proclaim. Let's get serious: racism is alive and well in Canada, it's just not officially sanctioned anymore. Businesses are no longer allowed to put NO DOGS OR CHINESE signs in their windows. But . back in Nellie's day it was blatant and anybody not of, British extraction was routinely treated like crap by those who were. In 1907 there were race riots in Vancouver and Chinatown suffered violence at the hands of the rabidly paranoid white population. Chinese businesses were not allowed to employ white women because those who ran the city were convinced the women were all targets for the sex slave trade. If you were non-white and got sick enough to require hospitalization, St Paul's or Vancouver General would grudgingly allow you a bed -- not in the general wards but in the basement with the rest of the trash. Nellie

had a problem with the way the Chinese were treated here, by all three levels of government, and decided to do what she could.

When the couple relocated to Vancouver in 1904 they initially lived with Charles's uncle Yip Sang in the Wing Sang Building at 51 East Pender. (Former Liberal bag man and all-around scumbag Bob Rennie now owns the property and runs his real estate empire from that very building, sorry to say). Yip Sang arrived in Vancouver during the 1880s, trying on a variety of occupations until he was hired as an agent for the CPR, in turn hiring Chinese labourers for the railway. He became something of a community leader, helping with immigration paperwork, offering services such as banking and sending money home to relatives in China, even feeding and housing new immigrants in his basement until they could become selfsupporting. He formed the Chinese Benevolent Association, built the first Chinese school and eventually a hospital, owned a hotel and three canneries. As his interests expanded so did the Wing Sang building, and it came to house several generations of the Yip family.

Living in such a Chinatown hub put Nellie in the centre of things, and she began offering health care and what social services she could, advocating for the rights of Chinese workers, working with the official Chinese court interpreter by advocating in immigration matters, interpreting and acting as intermediary between the Chinese and those who would deliberately roadblock them, shaming the legal system into extending justice to the Chinese, organizing care for the elderly, arranging adoptions, and arguing for the rights of all Chinese, especially women. Access to maternity or medical care was generally unavailable for non-whites; racial intolerance and severe restrictions on immigration (and the head tax yet to come) meant there were disproportionately fewer Chinese women, resulting in a social imbalance and many lonely bachelors. After the railway was completed the surviving Chinese labourers had been strenuously uninvited and strongly urged to go back to where they came from. To the consternation of those on the posher side of town, many of them stayed, some because Canada offered more opportunity, more scope, but others because they simply could not afford the fare home. Immigration law was stupidly racist and increasingly tightened as the time went by so circumventing the "Immigration Demons" became a matter of survival. It forced many Chinese to forge official

paperwork, lie about birth dates and entry dates, invent "paper uncles" (or other fictional relatives). Terrified parents schooled their childreri in the art of keeping family secrets hidden. Any legal entanglements were further entangled by language barriers which were of course ruthlessly exploited. Nellie fixed a lot of wagons by interpreting and demystifying a great deal of the deliberately constructed minefield. She put the medical training she had acquired in China to good use, serving as a midwife for the greater DTES community. The wives of the more successful Chinese merchants fared far better in Vancouver than those women employed as servants in white households, as waitresses, or as sex workers. The suffragette movement in England was at that time gathering momentum and feminism and the rights of women everywhere in the British Empire was undergoing a longoverdue shift in social attitudes. Nellie went to bat for everybody down here, volunteered her services at local missions and societies, and tried to improve the overall lives of the people in this community. As a midwife she delivered over 500 babies, and was eventually hired by her uncle-in-Iaw's Chinese Benevolent Association to serve as their first Public Health Nurse.

And she leaned on the hospitals to get them to stop confining non-whites to the basement alongside the morgue and harangued businesses to get them to take down their racist signage.

Nellie didn't put up with crap from anybody. She was not a small woman and probably towered over much of the Chinese population, and doubtless intimidated many of the self-important white functionaries, deflating them and their borrowed authority. Racism, of course, runs both ways. In his 1995 novel The Jade Peony, Wayso Choy has interwoven real events, real places, and contemporary people, and mined his own memories of growing up in Chinatown, in a house at 630 Keefer. Choy authored my first introduction to Nellie Yip: "She fluently spoke five Chinese dialects, spoke them better than those born into the language.

With her perfect unerring district accents, Mrs Nellie Yip would berate anyChinaman who dare to cross her path or dared to match wits with her. Like Poh-Poh [Grandmother], she could criss-cross into a variety of dialects -- pidgin, formal or informal and snap out a hundred sayings, enough to slaughter any peasant or mandarin attempt at a comeback. She was a legend ... " Nothing like being bitch-slapped by a white woman who was a lot bigger than you; worse, she did

it in your own language and flavoured it up with peppery humour and witty insults, doubly shocking because they came from a woman. Nellie used to read a Chinese newspaper while riding the bus. Personally, I would have loved to have seen that.

I re-made my acquaintance with Nellie during a tour of the new library in Strathcona (name of which I'm still having difficulties with) where a plaque hangs on the wall in her memory. "Poh-Poh said that Nellie Yip knew both white and Old China medicine ways, but she was mainly Chinese in her heart, which was all that mattered." The Jade Peony is an amazing work I read not in English Lit but in a Sociology class, for the novel examines the heavily patriarchal family structure of our Chinatown in the 1930s and 40s as the immigrant Chinese and their second generation children struggled to work out where they were Canadian -where they were allowed to be Canadian -- and where they held to Old China ways. It's a fascinating trip through our neighbourhood's history: Asahi baseball at Oppenheimer Park, eating at the Blue Eagle cafe, shopping on East Hastings and in the many diverse stores of Chinatown, attendingStrathcona school, boxing at the Astoria, worrying about relatives back home as the Japanese bombed, invaded, and brutalized China in the lead up to the greater atrocities of World War 2, struggling to find a place in Canadian society.

In his novel, Choy wrote, 'Mix blood,' many of the Chinese ladies told their children, quoting an old saying, 'mix trouble'," but by all accounts Nellie and Charles had a happy and successful marriage, and it was Charles who did most of the cooking and gardening when they moved into a house of their own at 783 East Pender. The house still stands and has a further interesting history: at one point was occupied by Nora Hendrix and her famous grandson, was rumoured to have been both a brothel and a booze can (there were lots of those in our part of town). Do yourself a favour and get your hands on a copy of The Jade Peony, don't hesitate to ask Natalie or one of our other fabulous librarians to help, and go have a look at the plaque. Tell them I sent you.

Nellie died in 1949, most definitely a DTES hero of the finest calibre.

Sources for this article include At Home with History:

The Untold Secrets of Greater Vancouver's Heritage Homes by Eve Lazarus, the Parks Canada website, and of course Wayson ~y's

excellent novel.

Change and Continuity The Downtown Eastside's Gift to Vancouver Ever since I began working and volunteering in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside 11 years ago I have been trying to understand the full implications of what I experience and learn each day] am in the community.

What follows are my current reflections gleaned from conversations with many friends and colleagues who live and work in the DTES. In speaking of the Downtown Eastside during Carnegie Centre's iooÂť birthday in 2003, Rick Lam, then chair of the Chinatown Revitalization Committee, quoted local poet Anthony Dunne: Look past the look

and see what you see.

Seven years later the DTES "looks" to have even more stark contrasts of affluence and of povertypoverty of the spirit, ofthe body and of life's material essentials. The tragedy would be if encroaching gentrification smothers what so many who are not of the community cannot see, the spirit of resilience amongst so many of those who do live here. For herein are lessons for the rest of Vancouver.

The future of the DTES is also a challenge and unique opportunity for Vancouver. This Olympic city has pioneered residential, work space and public space renewal in its downtown business districts and industrial areas. Now it can demonstrate that the renewal of its oldest inner city area is possible in ways that respect those who currently live here, their values and the integrity of their community and neighbourhoods.

To do so we need to look past the look. Herein is the gift of the Downtown Eastside to Vancouver.

There is a part of all of us in the DTES - our failures and tragedies, our successes, our in-humanity to one another, our love and support for one another, our giving up and our sheer determination to survive life's journey. In the DTES they are writ large. Circumstance and choice have concentrated the intensity of life into this small area of Vancouver. But this is our humanity regardless of where we live.

It is from the intensity of life in the DTES that we all can learn. Vancouverites should take pride that our city is better today because residents of the neighbourhoods making up the DTES over the past 40 years took the leadership to halt the east-west freeway, to save and rehabilitate Strathcona housing, to improve safety in private hotels, to secure essential non-market housing, to create Strathcona Community Gardens and

CRAB Park, to open the Carnegie Community Centre, to launch Canada's first supervised injection site, to undertake a myriad of community business enterprises including United We Can, the only binner-created recycling enterprise in the country. As contentious as it remains for some in the DTES, the new Woodwards development would not have happened at all if there had not been community leadership to secure some affordable non-market housing and amenities that are of local benefit.

This same area is home to the largest resident-artist population in the city. More arts festivals and cultural events are held here than anywhere else. These arts activities are predominately indigenous; they emanate from within the community (and are one of the best hedges against gentrification). The annual Heart of the City Festivat is an outstanding example of a truly inclusive community arts event - everyone who lives in the DTES is welcome to participate in art forms of personal interest. These community arts activities build on people's strengths, they give voice to people's life experience and to their dreams for themselves and their community. Most importantly, they build bridges among groups - across income and circumstance - within the community and without.

The point is that the residents of the DTES had to fight for these achievements on their own initiative.

They were not handed to them. These accomplishments and the spirit behind them are true gifts to Vancouver.

There is nothing romantic about poverty and lack of choice. No favour is done to those who are poor and marginalized by romanticizing their condition. The opportunity for change in the Downtown Eastside is an opportunity to make larger systemic changes and to create the material conditions in which the spirits of people can flourish, where people are freed from survival to build on their hard won accomplishments.

This is change with continuity for the better.

This means building sufficient affordable housing. It means creating paid and volunteer employment consistent with people's physical and mental health through community and traditional business enterprises. It means commensurate education and training and the provision of sufficient health and social supports. It means changes to public policies and laws to provide adequate incomes to those unable to work Dear Editor, while removing disincentives to work for those who Last week the BC Liberal government delivered a can. It means ending the war on drugs and pursuing . Throne Speech chock full of progressive policies-a and prosecuting vigorously those who profit from ban on corporate and union donations, a poverty recriminal activities in drugs. duction plan, and action on childcare, housing, transit, Taking these actions benefits everyone, not just peoand more. ple living with low incomes in the Downtown The Throne Speech represents a major departure from Eastside. People with low incomes everywhere will be the austerity British Columbians have experienced better off. And so will the rest of the population (a reover the past 16 years. It is disturbing that the provincent study from the United Kingdom cites internacial government would introduce these important politional comparative data to confirm that indicators of cies only as a last ditch effort to avoid losing power. well-being for everyone are better when there is less But equally disturbing is the narrative we're hearing systemic social and economic disadvantage). from many mainstream media commenters-namely, This is a prescription for change and continuity that that the BC Liberals have embarked on a "reckless" will see the Downtown Eastside evolve as the healthy, and "massive spending spree." sustainable historic heart of Vancouver. It will be a . community composed predominately of people living In other words, we're back to the stale old argument " that we can't afford the British Columbia we want. As with low and moderate incomes engaged in commumy colleague Alex Hemingway notes in his latest artinity life with all who live and work in the area regardcle on Policy Note, alarmist claims about public less of income or personal circumstances. It assures spending and taxes are likely to get even louder if the that those who live in the area now will feel "at home" NDP and Greens form government. in the future.

The DTES will continue to be a community of neigh- I We got a taste of what's to come when the Fraser Institute published a report arguing that the NDP-Green bourhoods linked by geography and history. People's agreement will mean major tax increases for "averindividual futures will be the stronger for working toage" families. CCPA-BC economist Iglika Ivanova gether to shape the identity of the DTES as a whole. thoroughly debunked those ridiculous claims.

And openness to new ideas and to V ancouverites who And as fellow economist Marc Lee shows in his latest do not live in th DTES but who respect the area and Policy Note piece, BC has plenty of fiscal room to its peoples can contribute to this future. The well-bemake substantial new investments in government proing of the city is influenced by the well-being of the grams and services. In fact, as Alex Hemingway docuDTES and the converse is also true. ments, there's been a steep drop in public spending The Downtown Eastside will evolve in its demogracompared to the size of BC' s economy since 200 I. phy and physical form. But what will be stronger than So let's not echo the narrative that the BC government ever will be the continuity in values for how people is on a "spending spree." Doing so reinforces larger can live together in community regardless of income false ideas about the viability of progressive policies. or circumstance or ability or gender or race or culture.

More of these arguments are coming, and we need to

By Michael Clague be ready to push back. An important part of our role at the CCPA-BC is to debunk myths like these, but we can't be effective without you.

Shannon Daub Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives

THE SANDY CAMERON MEMORIAL WRITING CONTEST ENTRY FORM Please print as neatly as you are able to.

Name of author Contact information:

Today's date Phone

_

Email

_ _

Leave Message at:

_

Guidelines for Writing Contest 1. Writing must be original & not fiction (if plagiarism is recognised the work will be returned).

2. Entry forms, for contact information, are available both at the Community Centre's front desk (Main floor) and from the Newsletter office (2nd floor) .

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3. Essays are the focus ofthe event. This means writing in sentences, with grammar and structure attempted. Not inthe "free-form" of poetry.

4. Subject matter is open to the individual author. It can be about most anything relevant to readers. The only caveat is in this example: writing about having a pet while having a lowincome or living in a hotel/rooming house is fine; writing about nothing but what kind of food it eat or its colour(s) is mostly just boring. Good examples of essay-writing are most anything by Sandy Cameron, reprints of which are in April & May editions.

5. The length of the essay can be 250-700 words, basically what can be printed on 1 page in the Newsletter.

6. Help with form, sentence structure or grammar, length, flow, etc. can be obtained in various writing venues. There are the Carnegie Firewriters (meeting on Wednesday mornings on the 3rd floor), the Thursday Writing Collective (meeting in Oppenheimer Park) and from tutors & staff in the Carnegie Learning Centre.

7. Deadline for submissions is September 15,2017. Results will be announced at a special event during the Heart of the City Festival in October.

Carn~egiet:.

NEW S L E TT'E R

cRrnnew,@vcn.bc.ca

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 'Y.")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 rnessage.

Website carnegienews\etter.org Catalogue carnnews@vcn.bc.ca email carnnews@shaw.ca 604-665-2289 phone 401 Main Street, Vancouver V6A 2T7 Next issue:

SUBMISSION DEADLINE

WEDNESDAY, JULY 12TH

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

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