March 15, 2013, carnegie newsletter

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MARCH15.2013

N E \N S LETTER

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carnnews!alshaw.ca ca rn news@vcn. bc.ca www.carnnews.ore

STAND UP FOR COMMUNITY CoME o~ fllaw,

"ft-4ESE PRoTESTS ARE

REALLY QUITE USELESS. WHY DON'T You JUST GIVE UP AND

GO HOMEP

~ ABOUT

850 t)OWNTOWN

~~~ ; EASTSIDE RESit>EN'fS ARE ~IN / //-"•

SH£LT£RS oR OUTSIDE. '

''""'" "'"' '""""" ,

HOMELESS NESS There are as many experiences and ways of coping with not having a roof over you r head as there are people in the s ituation. The causes are usually similar, th ough: not enough money to pay hig h rents, no friend who can spare the room fo r a while, and all the socia l housing places have waiting lists a mi le long.

Getting lucky, if there is such a thing as luck, almost a lways means being in the right place at the right time -like read ing a story with a happy ending. But these stories are rare exceptions; the ru le for thousands is stark reality - no room at the Inn. Desperation can lead to excuses for extraordinary behaviour- actio ns that are blatantly crim in a l to psyc hotic. This sounds like a plot for a movie. It's like back in 1929 with the stock market crash: the formerly rich kille d themselves .. the poor j ust starved.

In th e present day, the well-to-do bump the peop le who are a little less well-to-do who bump .. and so on until the poorest are ev icted or fo rced out with rents just too high for them to have a bed and eat.

At this poi nt, the people who can do so mething react w ith an a ll too .human trait- out of s ig ht..out of mind. All across the country, espec ially in large c ities where a ll the essential services are, home lessness becomes equated with poverty- something that is recog ni sed on the surface as an embarrassment to the vaunted "system", petty bureaucrats and hold-yournose do-gooders become the media's favourite (or at least read ily accessible) mouthpieces for getting the latest word on 'What ls Being Done," Their Answer: "We have identified th is a de finite Problem." ... assurances are gushered that uns pecified repairs are to be made in the near future by unnamed saints who have a palatable Solution (to the P rob lem, of

r

course).

Time tlies when you're having fun.

When you're without a roof, w hen your security of tenure is, or could be, up within any given hour, time moves like every minute is dragged into this uni verse, arri ving with the greatest re lu cta nce. On ly when you have to "Be Out" - that day/ week/month - does time beco me an unru ly monster, picking you up & tossing you to the end of the limit set at impossible s peeds.

Melodramatic? Sure, when you see it o n TV or it happens to someone else; when you can't even comprehend th e rea lity of a family of four in a s ing le hotel room or s leeping in an abandoned car.. or putting up a tent or a cardboard lean-to in a city park. This is a lready happening in some American cities; Toronto & Vancouver are next. And then the rich, the bosses, the well-to-do, wi ll call up their (ownership is definitely impl ied here) political hacks and g ive new orders: "Get those goddam squatters/mis fits/bums •. OFF MY LAND, OUT OF MY SIGHT, OUT OF MY CITY!" ---Isn't it funn y what animals we really a re when it comes to territory.

It's hard not to generalise when it comes to pointing fingers. There are hundreds and thou sand s of inte lligent people in positions up and down society's hierarchy who w ill do whatever they can to treat people as they themselve~ would demand to be treated. What seems to hit from the blind side is that a very sm a ll number of people will cold-heartedly &consc ious ly stop any such social actions.

Wealth and power are two sides of the same co in and having o ne means, invariably, wanting the other.

Hence we get the most prevalent mental disease of the huma n race -turning money into power & power into money & money into power ad nauseum. And the poorer people struggle, flounder and get squashed under the weight of their burden- trying to live as if

life had meaning and purpose.

Hornelessncss is the subject of this diatribe (good word if it fits), but going over what's been put down so far, we haven't left it for so much as a comma.

Homelessness, poverty ... these don't just happen with nothing behind them causing more and mo¡re people to feel their grip . It's not jargon or rhetoric to use phrases like "the Corporate Agenda" or "the rich get richer, the poor get poorer." It's a symptom of a human failing called greed. What will happen next is not anybody's guess; what comes next is obvious. As more intelligent and strong people are forced into poverty by rapacious weaklings there will be a grass roots revolution which will not be cowed. It will show itself in small victories leading to networks of people leading to having issues resolved with the interests of humanity as a whole satisfied.

---In another place on this planet, it's just understood as a fact of life that if a child starves or dies from want it's the fault and responsibility of the entire society for not foreseeing the difficulty and changing everything necessary to give that child a life worth li ving.

Spirituality is nuclear to meaning and purpose.

Homelessness must be as temporary as it's humanly possible to make it. .always.

PRT

Our Member of Parliament Gets Halt to Blood for Profit Scheme OTTAWA - NDP Health critic Libby Davies (Vancouver East) is pleased that the Conservatives are reconsidering their irresponsible plan to approve a privately-owned plasma clinic in Toronto without any consultation.

"We're asking the Minister of Health to do a full and meaningful consultation with her provincial counterpart as well as other stakeholders to ensure that the repercussions of opening up a for-profit blood clinic are thoroughly evaluated," said Davies. "I'm hoping that this won't si mpl y be a way for the Conservatives to justify a foregone decis ion."

The recent announcement of the federal govern• ment's plans to approve a privately-owned plasma clinic in Toronto, where people will receive financial compensation for their blood, raised se rious questions about public health and the ethics of paying for blood. A thorough study of these issues must include an assessment of the social impacts of opening the clinic beside a homeless she lter and how it would affect voluntary blood donation. "ln the 1980s, blood from for-profit brokers was a s ignificant contributor to the tainted blood scandal where 20,000 Canadians were infected with HIV and hepatitis C," said Davies. "It is our res ponsibility to ensure that that sad chapter in Canadian history is never repeated."

[Vultures- this kind of thing occurs in the US (and likely elsewhere) and the plasma is forced upon hospitals that serve indigent people. Nightmare movie scripts play with ki lling homeless & poor individuals for organs, maybe to put the thought out there for when some more capitalist vultures try to get buying organs and selling them for profit accepted. Ed.]

Vancouver Moving Theatre and Jumblies Theatre in partnership with Dr. Sun Vat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden present

The Art of Hospitality:

3rd

Downtown Eastside Artfare Institute

A volunteer work-learn opportunity and mini-practicum in art that engages with and celebrates community

April 7-9, 11-13 and 15

Photo: MABELLEarts M idwinter Parade 2013, by Katherine Fleitas

This institute will explore artful hospitality and develop skills in art making that is welcoming, inclusive and able to bring people together across differences, facilitated by some of Canada's leading community artists, including Ruth Howard (Jumblies Theatre, Toronto), Savannah Walling (Vancouver Moving Theatre) and Leah Houston (MABELLEarts, Toronto). The institute includes: Introductory sessions, a mini-practicum with an active community arts project, hands-

on activities, discussions, take-home resources and a culminating event that weaves together feasting, conversation, storytelling, music and cultural sharing from Coast Salish, Chinese, and Ukrainian traditions.

WHO'S IT FOR? • People interested in and/or with experience in art that engages community; • • People with flexibility and reliability who enjoy working creatively with diverse people; • People with arts-related background (experience &/or training) to contribute to the creation of our performative feast (e.g. visual arts, design, music, performance, calligraphy, culinary arts) People who can apply what they learn and share it with others through their work.

YOUR RESPONSIBILITIES: Participate fully from April 7-15 {days off April10 & 14), including core group sessions, individually-tailored work plans ond schedules, final rehearsals, culminating performative feast and closing gathering; contribute in a spirit of collaboration, cooperation, and respect for community needs; notify project coordinator in advance of any scheduling conflicts and changes and to work out a solution.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS? • Deepen your community arts skills and experience; • Meet and network with like-minded creative people locally and from across the country; • Be part of an ambitious and innovative multi-year Vancouver project with Toronto partners; • Jumblies' training workshops are recognized nationally as credentials by arts employers and academic institutions; and ...it will be lots of fun!

LOCATIONS: Dr. Sun Vat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden (578 Carra II) and Ukrainian Hall (805 E. Pender).

FEE: There is no cost involved. This is a work-learn volunteer experience and exchange.

APPLICATION PROCESS: Applications are available by emailing Terry Hunter at vancouvermovingtheatre@shaw.ca or from the Carnegie front desk (ask for 'Vancouver Moving Theatre application form') . If you have questions please contact Terry Hunter at 604-628-5672. Limited to eight participants selected partly based on experience and potential to benefit, with a view to creating a compatible and diverse group. Application Deadline March 20, 2013.

Annual Community March Against Raci~m

Saturday March 23

\5

Starts at 2 pm at Clark Park (Commerc ial Dri ve and 14th) Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territories

Hello From the librarY! This time, instead of writing about our new books, I want to take the opportunity to thank everyone in the Carnegie Centre for helping me to fit in as a new librarian here. I don't feel totally new anymore; let's say " nearly new" at this point. And I really mean this thank you for *everyone* at Carnegie- staff, volunteers, community members, library patrons and library staff.

I know that our construction and renovations have been disruptive, but this will be finished pretty soon.

There is more drilling right now as I'm writing! If you haven't been in the library lately, please drop in and see the new location of our Book Return bin and Checkout desk.

Attention all crossword puzzle aficionados: the crossword puzzle rack has been moved! It's now further inside the library. Just ask if you don ' t see them. Actually, that advice goes for anybody, for things that you can't find in the library, while we' re moving things around. Hope to see you there!

Stephanie (Librarian)

DTES Small Arts Grant's

Visual Art Show Treat your eyes to new visual artwork by some of the most active artists in the DTES:

Carnegie Community Centre Gallery (3rd floor), Opening Reception: Friday, April 5, 6:30 • 8:00

van co uver foundation

Van city

*Family-friendly festivities! Bring your neighbours, banners and drums!* The International Day for the Elim ination of Racism marks the anniversary of the 1960 Sharpevi lie Massacre in South Africa when police opened fire on hundreds of South Africans protesting against Apartheid's passbook laws, kill ing 67 and wounding 186.

Every year we join friends & allies around the world to mark this day and to speak the truth about racism.

We stand in solidarity with the courageous leadership demonstrated by the Indigenous communities of Turtle Island, most recently evident in the Idle No More movement. We also recognize Idle No More is one mobilization amongst centuries of ongoing Indigenous resistance against colonialism.

We encourage our friends and allies to be pro-active in countering racism.

Join us in solidarity and resistance on March 23rd to celebrate the dignity, strength, and resil ience of our communities.

For more information email noii-van@ resist.ca or call 778 885 0040 See the full event announcement here: http://www.nooneisillegal.org/.

Romance Revoked

Vegging lifelong on tv's or cell phones Vegging on cold-metal laps o' laptops being buried twixt covers o' books sublimating sex via running etc. alone lifelong los t in perpetual diapers etc.

The ancient art of flirting strangers In any strange land or gland healthy fun of2some in warm bed co-writing amorous poetry and such Well-respected craft called "courting" Don't read about it, screen it, Think it, or even joke about it, Just simply do it! john alan douglas

VANDU and Pivot Allege Discrimination by VPD in By-Law Ticketing Complaint calls for implementation of Missing Women Inquiry recommendations Pivot and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) have filed a complaint against the Vancouver Police Dept after it was discovered that 95% of some By-Law offences have been enforced exclusively in the Downtown Eastside. The statistics obtained through a Freedom of Information request show that 1448 tickets were given out in the Downtown Eastside under s. 66 of the Street and Traffic Bylaw over the last four years, with the next closest neighbourhood, the Downtown Core, receiving only 28. Residents continue to report widespread use of the Street and Traffic By-Law provisions by VPD, as well as the Street Vending and Health By-Laws.

"There was general acceptance that the VPD ticketing blitz of 2008/2009 was an abuse of power and totally ineffective, but the VPD is intransigent and continues to target and criminalize peop le in our neighbourhood with By-Law tickets for vending, jaywalking, public urination/defecation, and expectorating." said Aiyanas Ormond, community worker at VANDU. "These tickets have many negative consequences for people in our community; increasing stress and anxiety among a lready marginalized people because of a ticket they cannot hope to pay".

Residents have long said that the fines and warrants which result from By-Law tickets have created a barrier between the VPD and the city's most vulnerable, and Wally Oppal, head ofthe Missing Women Commission of Inquiry, recently agreed in his final report. Addressing the relationship between Vancouver's poorest neighbourhood and the VPD he made the follow ing recommendation: "I recommend that the City of Vancouver and the Vancouver Police Department take proactive measures to reduce the number of court warrants issued for minor offences by: -Reducing the number of tickets issued and charges laid for minor offences; -Developing guidelines to facil itate greater & more consistent use of police discretion not to lay charges; - Increasing the ways in which failures to appear can be quashed early in the judicial process."

Pivot and V ANDU filed a Service & Policy Complaint to the Vancouver Police Board asking them to

turn Commissioner Oppal's recommendation into policy, and to stop the disproportionate ticketing of poor. homeless, and under-housed individuals in the DTES. "In 2009 our Mayor and Councillors sent a strong message to the Vancouver Police Board that our ByLaws need to be enforced the same way in Kerrisdale as they are in the Downtown Eastside" said Douglas King, staff lawyer at Pivot Legal Society & head of its policing campaign. ''Handing out tickets to people who obviously can't pay fines is just a waste of everyone's time and resources and does nothing to address the underlying social causes".

Ticketing has continued in the neighbourhood despite community initiatives in pru1nership with the Citv of Vancouver to establish a legal street market every Sunday on Carrall and Hastings Street, measures to increase pedestrian safety, and efforts to increase access to public washrooms. Dave Hamm, a DTES resident who has received multiple tickets for street vending, explains why he vends: "We don't have front yards because we live in SROs so in order for us to have a yard sale we need to set up on the s idewalk. We can't survive on the current welfare and disability rates, but we are allowed to make at least $200 under the new rules- we shouldn't be criminalizeCJ for just trying to survive." < http://www.pivotlegal.org/> If you've ever taken a look through the numerous By-Laws which have been created by the City of Vancouver you're probably aware that something you have done within the last few hours is illegal.

Stepping off the curb too soon, rid ing your bike to work without a bell, walking your dog without a leash, playing your Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazelwood record too loudly. Most of us go about our day knowing that corners can be cut, By-Laws can be breached, and only once in a blue moon will you be caught, warned, or fined. When it does happen the effect is stinging, but short, and more often than not we look back and realize it was deserved.

The same rules don't apply to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

If you reside in the Downtown Eastside and live in one of its many SRO hotels it's just a matter of time before that ticket enters your hand, and it will come sooner rather than later. This morning we teamed up with members of V ANDU for a press conference to

make sure members of the media knew that the "purpose" of our City's By-Laws is different down here. It's not about nuisance, or order, or protection, but what the VPD refers to in their 2013 Strategic Plan as ··Proactive Policing".

Proactive Policing isn't new, in fact it's been around for decades. Basically what Proactive Policingmeans is that instead of waiting for a criminal call to respond to, or a complaint about a nuisance, you go out there and you try to find it. While that may sound positive at first, experiments in Proactive Policing have often ended in racial profiling and discrimination. Proactive Policing has most recently reared its controversial head in the southwest United States, where immigration laws were drafted to allow police officers and government officials the ability to ask for identification and proof of citizenship in order to fulfill menial tasks. It is often intrusive, always speculative, and in Vancouver it has found a great friend in the C ity's By-Laws.

One of the hardest parts of my job is to take the multitude of stories we receive about police officers giving out tickets arbitrarily, or malic iously, and form them into a legal entity we can take action on. We often need statistics to visualize and contextualize personal accounts, which is why we began making Freedom of Information requests for details on how many tickets are given out by the YPD. Some of the results have been shocking. For example, section 66 of the Street and Traffic By-Law, which regulates obstructions to sidewalks, has accounted for 1529 tickets in the last four years. 1448 have been in the Downtown Eastside. The Street Vending By-Law has seen over 70% enforcement confined to the Downtown Eastside, and we suspect that other ByLaws re lating to jaywalking and panhandling wi ll show the same thing.

Tickets by locati~n

Grandvtcw· Fa:rview. 5 Woodl.lnd, 9 ~ I r Mount Pl~d'ilUll,

, If

kensington-

111

Cedor Cottoge, 7 West End , 24., ~~

Dl>•·l{'town '"''

2 Hosnngs· Sunnsc. 2

28\~;;. Sunset, 1 Dunb.tr Southlo~ds,

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Frascrv1cw, 1

Do wntown L.. stsidc, 1448 ____ --?

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R.e~1;~!~· 0

Arbutus Ridge, 0

Kernsdolc, 0 Rill!y Park. 0

/ o llin.gwood, 0

K•ts•l~no, 0

OakndCt>, 0

South C<~mbic. 0

Shau~lmc~':ioy, 0 Strathcon.l, 0

What VANDU and Pivot have been seeing over th~ last few years is an increased effort by VPD members to give tickets for By-Law offences to marginalized people in the DTES. When an officer gives a ticket for an offence they are then lawfu lly allowed to ask for identification, and can use that identi fication to run the person's name for warrants that may have been given for outstanding immigration, criminal, or By-Law matters. In many cases the warrants come before a guilty verdict does, and are the result of the ticketing itself.

The effects of this policy are striking. Residents of the DTES live in constant fear of enforcement, and outstanding fines and warrants were recently cited by the final report of the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry as one of the prominent reasons why marginalized people, especially women, do not feel comfortable providing information or seeking assistance from police.

Sadly over the last four years we've been given very little evidence to suggest that the VPD intends on putting a stop to their ' Proactive Policing' in the neighbourhood, which is why we went ahead and filed a complaint to the Vancouver Police Board asking Mayor Robertson and his Vision Council to step up and put an end to these discriminatory practices.

We at Pivot and VANDU believe that equality under the law means that justice should be blind and the laws applied equally to every individual, regard less of their social condition. It's why our logo reads 'Equality lifts Everyone'. If we really want to change the relationship between residents of the DTES and the VPD equality under the law is a great place to start.

Through Douglas King The degree to which you resist is the degree to which you are free.

Rising up & marching against systemic police violence in Vancouver International Anti-police Brutality Day is here, come join D.T.E.S. Cop Watch as we march the streets to District 1 police station & speak out against systemic police violence in Vancouver & the rest of Canada.

March 15th, 2013 on Main

& Hastings St @ 6:00pm

Topics of discussion: -RCMP violence against First Nations women & girls -Police keep the rape/abuse culture alive and going -Police target & criminalize the poor, addicted & mentally ill

We Demand: -The Police Act be abolished & cops be punished under the Canadian criminal code -An end to police investigating themselves.

-Police stop practicing their racist & discriminatory policies

- ------------ --"The momentum or attraction of the psychic realm is much more powerful than that of the physical world, and the momentum or attraction of the spiritual world is still more powerful.

When people hesitate and doubt whether they can accomplish something, and if they start to work in that hesitant frame of mind, they can never accomplish that task. But if they plunge into action thinking of their goal with courage, imbued with spiritual inspiration, they are sure to be crowned with success. No action is greater than the human capacity to perform it.

Of all the manifold entities in this expressed world , human beings are the most powerful."

Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) Newsletter ://ccapvancouver. word press. com

March 15, 2013

Learning our lesson at City Hall A smaller-than-usual group of Downtown Eastside residents trekked up to city hall in February to speak out against two major condo rezoning proposals. One week it was a 17 -storey tower at the comer of Keefer and Main, where the 90%-off everything store is.

The next week it was a 16-storey tower right next door to where the insurance place and the Vietnamese sandwich shop are. We went up there to speak out because the two buildings will not bring anything but gentrification and displacement to the low-income community in Chinatown. There were not many of us because this is becoming an old story and a predictable one at that.

The 17-storey tower includes 11 units of social housing that will rent at welfare shelter rate at least for a few years. The councillors unanimously voted in support of the project while fawning over the great accomplishment of housing 11 people at welfare rate.

We objected that these 11 units will not begin to make up for the rent increases in the 388 nearby privately owned lowincome-affordable rooms that will

likely follow in the wake of the great tower of market rate condos and boutique shops.

â&#x20AC;˘

Some councillors did ask about gentrification and displacement threats.

Mayor Robertson asked the city planning staff whether the DTES LAPP Committee had discussed any ways to stop displacement. The LAPP Committee had discussed some easy ways to stop gentrification and displacement, including: put in development controls to hold down land prices; use rent controls to stop rents from going up between tenants; and don't grant development permits without zero-evictions policies in surrounding low-income hotels. But staff didn't say any of that. Instead they said the LAPP Committee wants higher levels of government to fund social housing, which is true but does not have anything

to do with combating the effects of the l 7storey tower that was under application.

Council unanimously passed the application for the 17-storey tower.

One week later an even smaller group of us went back to city hall for the public hearing to rezone the next-door lots for a 16-storey condo tower.

The 16-storey tower does not include any social housing at all so council could not wax on and on about what a great accomplishment has been done with some miniscule amount of social housing.

With the 16-storey tower city staff recommended that the Community Benefits from the development (about $1.2million paid to some public use) not be decided until after the DTES local area plan was done. Staff explained that some people on the LAPP Committee thought the benefits should be discussed along with a broader plan and not just used as a single project. CCAP did not want the condos at all but some others on the committee thought "deferring the benefits" would be a compromise.

City council flipped out. Raymond Louie publicly chastised the staff for daring to bring the recommendation forward at all.

He challenged them to say when council had ever instructed them to defer any part of any Chinatown development. Louie said he wanted the $1.2million to go to

benevolent society heritage building revitalization in Chinatown and explained, ''it's not just about housing, there are others who are in need in the Chinatown area as well."

Clr Carr asked if staff has any tools to stop low-income housing losses through rent increases and one staff person responded that the LAPP is looking at an1ending the SRA bylaw.

No one from staff or council brought up the main issue raised by low-income people on the LAPP Committee, that giving money to heritage revitalization without rent protections would be directly funding renovictions.

Finally the 16~storey tower was also approved by FOuncil, unanimously, and with the public benefits going entirely to heritage building revitalization.

There was no motion to protect the hundreds of low-income housing units in those buildings - which could be directly displaced by renoviction - nor the hundreds of units in other buildings which will be indirectly affected by gentrification.

City Hall is continuing their determined plan to displace the poor from Chinatown and they're deaf to any research, argument, or truth that might get in their way. ~ ID

Need higher welfare rates? Get ready to march!

Raise the Rates is organizing a March for Welfare Justice to take place on Wed. March 27. The idea is to march from Premier Christy Clark's office on W. 4th Ave. to NDP leader Adrian Dix's office near the Joyce St. Skytrain station. It's only 14.5 km!! But you can cheat. Raise the Rates will provide van rides or bus tickets for people who can't walk the whole route.

At both offices, a news conference will be held and people will speak out about why a welfare increase is needed. The last welfare rate increase, which was only about $100 for single people, was in 2007.

breakfast muffins, hard boiled eggs, fruit and drinks. Then we'll drive and/or bus to Clark's office where we 'IL have a news conference at 10: 15 am. Then it's off to Adrian Dix's office. walking and vanning for another news conference at about 4 pm.

You can join the March at Carnegie at 9; at Clark's office at 10: 15; at Broadway and Granville at noon: at Broadway and Main at I: 10, at Broadway and Commercial at 2: I 0, or at Dix 's office, 5022 Joyce St. at 4 pm. Hope you can join us.

Call Jean at 604 729 2380 if you have any questions. ~JS

Spread the word to your frieods-we need

~ots of people to have a big tmpact. We plan to haveagiantsafery net with holes in it and fake people falling through the holes. Raise the Rates will provide food.

What happened to â&#x20AC;˘ he Social Safety Net

If you want to join us, come to Carnegie at 9 am on Wed., March 27.

Raise the Rates will provide some J

United we STAND for housing On March 2 . about 100 people braved a downpour to STAND for social housing at the Vancouver Art Gallery.

A STAND is where several people wear red scarves and hold a banner and hand out leaflets at a busy intersection in their community. After STANDing at the art gallery the group marched with their red and blue "Social Housing Now" banners to the public library.

They were people from around the Lower Mainland who do weekly STANDs for housing in their communities.

AT 1 ru:. •"

or THE ICEBERG ARE

11 ooo PEOPLE, THE VISIBLY HOMELESS WHO HAVE NO HOMES AT ALL. JOIST HLOII THE SURf'ACE Of 11!(

WATE~ J.l£ 40,UO 11:ti0D1 IIC!fiUSS ~NIUU IIIT'ri 1-Y'M, 1H CARS, OR caJGI!

cey-signing her place on the "homelessness iceburg"

If you would like to help fight for social housing and rent controls, call Jean at 605 729 2380.

In the Downtown Eastside there is a weekly STAND at Abbot and Hastings every Saturday from noon to 1 pm.

United We Stand march through DT Vancouver, March 2nd.

4

6 Demands to end homelessness in BC Get your group to endorse the following six demands of the Social Housing Coaliti on BC and get on board the campaign to make social housing an issue in the BC election. Email info@socialhousingbc.com with the name of your groups that support these 6 points: l. Build 10,000 units of good quality social housing per year.

2. Prioritize social housing units for Indigenous Peoples, migrants, women, seniors, people with mental health and physical disabilities including HIV/AIDs, and vulnerable low-income people who are disproportionately at risk of homelessness and hidden homelessness.

3. Save existing low rent housing by enforcing maintenance standards; maintain nonmarket projects whose operating agreements are expiring; freeze rents & don't allow increased rents when tenants move; and close loopholes in the Residential Tenancy Act to stop renovictions.

At least 116,000 people in BC are in housing crisis.

(

4. Protect tenants. Recognize tenant unions and their power to negotiate with landlords; Make all supportive & student housing fully covered by the Residential Tenancy Act.

At the tip of the iceberg are

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eo'' ,.

~

\ fo~

who have no homes at all.

lust below the surlate of the wa ter ar~

5. Include everyone who needs housing. End eligibility discrimination and make all BC residents eligible for BC Housing.

Extend housing rights to temporary migrant workers by granting them pennanent legal status.

6. Fund social housing through taxation as a social responsibility of the government, and support residents of communities to develop and manage their social housing themselves.

40 000

hiJo

t

~..,

who sl eep with family, m car.. or couch surf

Deeper under water a•e

I

11ho sp•:·•ld more th<l'l 50% of their income on rent.

Many or them live in substandard hous ng <ond,tions.

5

Downtown Eastside housing crisis worsens in 2012 While the city brags about its housing accomplishments, the housing crisis in the DTES got worse in 2012. Not only were there about 850 homeless people, up from 700 last year, thousands of people are still living in crummy SRO hotel rooms with no bathroom or kitchen, and often cockroaches, bedbugs and poor conditions.

While the city's DTES Housing Plan calls for the rate of new condos and new social housing to be about even, the CCAP report points out that condos are overwhelming soc ial housing in the DTES with a real rate of change, including hotel rooms lost to low income people because of rent increases. of 27 to one in 20 12. The rate of change not including hotel rooms lost to To make matters worse, at least 426 hotel rent increases is about three condos to one rooms that were accessible to low income social housing unit between 2005 and 2014 tenants in 2011 were lost to rent increases but no new government funded welfare in 2012. That's one finding of the Carnegie Community Action Project's (CCAP) latest rate social housing is planned after that annual hotel report, called "We're trying to The report calls on the city to: get rid of the welfare people."

• Buy 10 lots a year for social housing; • Stop condo development until current "For decades , residential hotel rooms in residents have decent social housing; the Downtown Eastside have been the last • Declare the Oppenheimer and Hastings reso1t before homelessness for low income Corridor areas of the DTES a Social people ," said Fraser Stuart, a DTES hotel Justice ZQne where the unique low room resident. "This year we lost at income community can survive and least 426 rooms to rent increases above thrive. $425. People on welfare and disability and seniors with a basic pension have only about $375 a month for rent."

The CCAP repmt also provides evidence that the "social mix experiment" at Woodwards is a failure for low income people. We lost 404 units of SRO housing near Woodwards to closure or rents at $500 or over," said report co-author Ivan Drury, pointing to the Metropole hotel across the street from Woodwards. Rents at the Metropole are in the $700 range. "We only gained 125 units for low income si ngles, so there is a net loss of 279 units because of gentrification pressures."

6

The province should: • Fund social housing for 850 homeless residents and SRO replacement units; • Amend the Residential Tenancy Act to prohibit discrimination based on social condition • Amend the RTA to enact effective rent control based on the unit, not the tenant The federal government should enact a national housing program to replace at least lOOO SRO units per year for the next 5 years.

Read the full report online: ccapvancouver. word press .com/ccap-reports

Downtown Eastside through the eyes of Chinese residents Over the past weeks, I've been talking with Chinese people in the community at food line-ups, different organizations, and recently at a community meeting last Thursday (March 7th) where almost 35 people, mostly seniors, gathered inside the Oppenheimer Park House. Most of the people I've talked to don't speak or understand English. The community meeting also revealed that many of them have a low education level; they were not able to read Chinese or even write their own Chinese name. Given this, what are their experiences living in the DTES? Similar to what was identified in CCAP's Community Vision for Change, the participants of the community meeting said that the DTES is an important place for them.

Some of the main reasons were that "shopping is very convenient" and that "there are a lot of Chinese people" here. Their social life is central to them: many of them talked about how great it was to "socialize" with others and to "take part in social

activities" with such as Bingo and MahJong.

Again, it was also echoed in the meeting that there was a need for more "public housing" and the people at the meeting noted that 路'everything is getting more and more expensive." However, they also spoke specifically about the discrimination they face. One of them had an experience where she was told to "Go back to China" and "Go to Chinatown" by others. This discrimination was also sadly present in the food lines/services where they see nonChinese people getting large amounts of food while their portions are much smaller.

The language barrier is also very severe as people felt out of the loop with regards to events and programs and that there were only limited places where they could communicate their stories and opinions to other people and be understood.

CCAP will be organizing more such meetings and dialogue so Chinese speaking residents can add their voices and needs to a social justice plan for the future of the whole low-income community. With greater nonChinese resident understanding of the lived experiences of Chinese people, CCAP hopes we can help them become more accepted as patt of the DTES community.

Jessica taking notes at the March Oppenheimer meeting

7

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Vancouver Police and Sex Workers Know Your Rights educed by Pivot Legal Society

)4 255 9700 www.prvotlegal.org

swuav DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE

SEX WORKERS UHIT'£0 AQAJHBT VIOLENCE

Canada, sex workers can be arrested and charged with a number of rosbtu11on-related offences For example, rt rs agamst the law to

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have a conversation rn public wrth a potential date. "Public" mcludes on the outsrde of a car and inside a car. be found in an indoor place where prostrtution repeatedly occurs.

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he Vancouver Pollee have used these laws to harass. target and arrest sex ; orkers. Recently, the VPD acknowledged that targenng sex workers makes 1em unsafe, and makes it drfficult for sex workers to turn to polrce for help. 'he VPD has a new polrcy about how they can use these laws. Thrs card wrll ell you about that policy and what you can do rf the police are harassing you. rhe polrcy says that:

In all situations involving sex workers, the VPD's priority is to ensure the safety and security of sex workers.

What does this mean?

The policy says that police must treat all reports of violence against sex workers as serious criminal matters. If you go to the police to report berng a victim of a crime, an officer should be Immediately ass1gned to investigate. They should not tell you to come back another day. The police are required to offer to connect you w1th support services.

The policy says that POLICE SHOULD NOT harass, target, arrest or intimidate you for doing sex work.

•

If you are a sex worker and you are harassed. targeted. rnbrmdated followed told to move along or arrested by the pollee, you can take the followrng steps.

0 Tell WISH, PACE Pivot. SWUAV, MAP Van Atira. the Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, VANDU, lnsrte Abongrnal Front Door, or any other organizatron that you trust. You can ask them to let Prvot know what has happened to you. Prvot rs committed to holding the pol1ce accountable and so we need to hear from sex workers about whether the polrce are hvrng up the polrcy t) Come to a Prvot cllnrc to talk to one of our lawyers 'Ne have two clrnics per week, and !herr limes and locabons are l1sted at wwv1 orvotlegaJ oro or you can call 604 255 9700 for the clrnrc hours.

0 File a complarnt agarnst the pollee wr th the Office of the Pol1ce Complarnts Commrss.oner at www opec be ca

(found on top of the piano at my shelter)

Morning Of Love

PACIFIC BLUEGRASS &

HERITAGE SOCIETY

A variety of bands playing Bluegrass, Folk and Country Music!

Wednesday, AprU 10th 7·9pm Carnegie Theatre

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My love, it's a beautiful morning.

You can hear the birds s ingi ng, and it's going to be a beauti fu l day.

And our earth is so beautiful My love thank you

[submitted respectfully by Wilhelmina Miles]

IS COMING TO THE CARNEGIE CENTRE WEDNESDAY. MARCH 27TH, FROM lOAM- 3:30P;\,1

So, if you want to: • Learn a Rock Instrument

• Sing • tVrite Lyrics • Compose Songs

or • Become part of a Band

WmnenRock! has something for you

Tltis is (t chance to: Get Creative Develop New Skills Express Yourself and just Have Fun

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A hero is not a sandwich The man pictured here is Jose Bove. He just began serving a 60-day sentence in France for dismantling a McDonald's restaurant in 1999. Seems that he and 9 co-defendants went to this place, which was under construction at the time, and took it apart bolt-bybolt and carted it away in the full glare (and to the delight of) television cameras and audiences.

A bit of history - it was done to protest the highhandedness ofUS trade practices, US imperialism and the food/production practices of this (and other) megacorporate food chains- hormones, growth stimulants, pesticide-laden and genetically modified organisms that are part and parceL The trade thing is that the US slapped crippling import duties on certain French items, like Roquefort cheese, when the French government refused to permit US beef into their country due to it being hormone injected.

The French term is Ia malbouffe (lousy grub).

Bove is a small farmer who, like hundreds of other small farmers in his own area and thousands across France (and millions across the world) want fair trade practices that don't permit corporate giants to steamroll amd crush such small, independent producers by use of market and monetary weight, . instead of quality and diversity.

The French people have loudly cheered and applauded Bove all through the lengthy appeals process, and the case has won international recognition. McDonald's was not and is not amused, just as

it wasn't in England a couple of years ago when it pent over $1 0 million to drag two guys through court for handing out pamphlets stating that McD's food was lousy and people shouldn't waste their money.

Bove again got international cheers when, at his last appeal, one judge asked "What exactly is 'dismantling'? Was the restaurant broken?" Bove responded saying "What did it mean when they 'dismantled' the Bastille (the infamous French prison that was tom down by the people during the French Revolution)?" The people in court guffawed The latest scene in this (almost) comedy was Bove riding to prison on his tractor, going 15 kph and with a huge procession of farmers and people supporting him. He and his co-defendants chained themselves together and made a hilarious show of the ludicrous scenario- the might of the just-elected French government being concentrated on them as its first act after taking office. While free during the appeal process, Bove had attended demonstrations in the US, Europe and spoken at events in the US and India all to do with the corporate theft and sleaze of socalled "free" trade and the WTO. We recognize ourselves and our friends as being truly global. Pain and sorrow can only be matched and overcome with laughter and joy. â&#x20AC;˘ PRT

I Saw Jesus Again Today l saw Jesus again today He's still begging at the Library Living under a bridge Has no I.D. so Welfare cannot see him.

He showed me his wounds Said he would be going to jail I pressed a coin into his dirty, hardened palm Along with my regrets He asked my name; where I could be found Ifi lent him money he would repay Teusday Maybe he's a junkie Maybe he's a con-artist who believes his own stories For sure, he is desperate; for sure he is Jesus.

Wilhelmina

The 2013 Neighbourhood Small Grants T he Vancouver Foundation 2013 Neighbourhood Small Grants and the Greenest City Grants applicat ions are now online: neighbourhoodsmallgrants.ca The deadline for both applications is March 31, 2 I 03! Printed copies of these a pplication are availab le at Carnegie, Strathcona and RayCam Commu' nity Centres.

a frJ1nt Shame In ~espair with her brush c lung tightly in hand Domg the Hastings shuffle for all she can God damn yuppies just don't understand She conti~ues ?ne step behind always movi ng In every directiOn shaking hands and feet Belly empty her entire body is weak God's go nna help her but only if he can and I'm not going to ignore her s ilent plea for me to understand.

She's _be_gg ing f~r an anchor or a guiding hand What IS 1t that will make her live on the outside again And then there's he and he's as lost as she But it's much harder fo r us to see Must have been a bad road to get here I wouldn't want to say And oh her punches her lashes and screams Bec~us~ he c~n't ignore all the demons he sees Remrndrng him always what he's lost And what he's never been

Leadership Skills: Proposal Writing A 4-week course at tbe Carnegie Learning Centre Mondays 10:30 -12:30; February 18- March 11 Do you have an idea for a project that can help yo ur neighbourhood? · · Do you want to learn how to write a grant proposal?

T he Neighbourhood Small Grants (NSG) program g ives out grants of up to $500 for a project. In this course, you will learn about NSG and then research and write your own small grant proposal. #'HAT'S YOtl~ JJ.REAAI rO.R THE NEI(jHBOU~HOOP? LET'S MAKE IT HAPPEN! S ig n-up at the Learning Centre, 3rd Floor, Carnegie Community Centre 40 I Main St, Vancouver

Bring a partner - you need 2 people to submit a proposal!!

Celeste Laroque

Firehall Arts Centre theatre for living (headlines)

- 280 E. Cordova St Varco"ve· T"ckets $12 ~service charges Buy o~. ne. firehallartscentre.ca Or ca.. 604-689·0926 March 8to 24, 2013 Tue·Sun@ 8pm 2x1 ~review: 1.1ar 7@ Spfll 2 x 1rratnees:Mar 13 & 17@ 2pm

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UNDER THE IMPRESSIONISTS ' Man stands atop the gallows asking half-heartedly, " Is this thing safe?" Agoraphobic, standing ill at ease, aski ng everyone who is not there if he is late, basket of basket cases squalor power again erases the solar powers that be Ms. Atmosphere sorry you lose again. Now does Hell have executive suites the odds are stacked against the door the floor is your seat.

Like a writer starting his story with the end, before laying any blame we must adj ust to the new games but first we must tuck in the covers so nice and so unrealistically in place, like the power ofj ust one fist to destroy lives I'm getting fucking sick of this let's all go to the States and buy mass guns and all lose face. No one knows pity more than us so-called eyesores (the ones with neither nothing nor none and absolutely no one on which to depend).

These years leap back then forth with fresh wrists pricked south to north these slivers of time only when convenient shall bned, drowning about to go up as people begin sinking to the bottom of a treacherously deep and heartless sea, loitering out in that sea give it 2 to 3 weeks before a tragedy begins to take shape but it's all good now ... Stop taking pictures or you' ll be dealing with the understaffed over amped R.C.M.P. Too much despair in this "future is friendly" pack of lies. I watch my Richmond and my Vancouver being destroyed. It brings so many tears to my eyes -silent screams can only say so much- As the rich begin their offensive moves I counter by ripping every second and hour hand from every timepiece I would rather it be me than these other selfishist goons .. if there is to be a mass redecoration let' s just say we're under the impression we could give ourselves the right to add our own impressionistic touch, li ke a paranoid add icted to polaroids of everyone he's ever met please remember to always keep your distance, always thinking violence wil l solve every problem but to they ever mention let alone have anger management conventions - no one should ever lose even after death their existence, like sunglasses & a smoke for the blind-folded folks, throw in the new lives whether they be abandoned or abused this again is no joke yet the same story again and again, where Unconcerned Street and No one Cares A venue meet you have equal amounts of blood and urine under your feet even if possible I doubt there'd be a conscience

to lend, like the Boston Marathon no longer runs it crawls 26.2 miles yes that sounds like a lot of fun but slowly yoOur mentality begins to break, like screaming out your name in a canyon you definitely were one of the abandoned as, like the rest of these lives, are truly unimportant. I honestly wish I knew how evil their taking over would take, as kids rip open that new Rice Krispies box for that prize: this month it's a real gun but you have to wait for the next box to get bullets; Moms all down the street cry in unison not just one, as the disruptive audience dispersal choir turns up to shut things down trace amounts of humanity are found the fabric of life again becomes undone. As we age parties become funerals Mt. Everest must have thousands of unfinished journals.

I remember these lives that pass, another year in full swing how many bells will have to ring this life thing a little brutal very real but much much too fast.

Enjoy for it could be your last.

Dedicated to the memory of Mike Gregory.

By ROBERT McGILLIVRAY " How happy is he born and thought, that serveth not another's will, whose armour is his honest thought, and simple liuth his utmost skill. - Sir Henry Wotton

â&#x20AC;˘

If Wishes Were Horses ...

Wish I had 3 wishes one we stop living like rats guarding our scraps cigarette butts snarling at anyone steps too close two we ' d figure out how to g ive away more 'n . we take in every day have enough o give away each and every day

three I wish for blindness so I can't see all the ugliness and deafness so I don't hear the screams leave me a heart strong and sure and the love that comes from within ia always pure AI

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The most common addiction treatment method is the twelve step program. Millions of individuals a round the world have enjoyed relief from problematic s ubstance use employing twelve step techniques, a nd widespread participation in groups have led it to be called the largest growing spiritual movement in North America. Despite it's overwhelming popularity, however, having little but twelve step principles to turn to has possibly harmed many more assistance seeking addicts than it has helped.

That the Minnesota Method twelve step philosophy is the only option for everyone addicted to drugs is fundamental to its doctrine, and responsibility for its failure is placed solely on the relapser. There is a lot of feeling now that much blame instead should be on one-size-fits-all rhetoric and the glaring underrepresentation of other approaches to drug addiction.

Although revolutionary in its day, our understanding and experiences have grown and changed beyond the fundamentals charmingly laid out in the big book of 1939, with it's somewhat supernatural C hristian-rooted faith-based ideology. We are realizing factors to addiction beyond the disease model that include (but aren't limited to) sociopolitical, economic and nutritional onsiderations.

Options should be available for twelve step 'failures' and others for whom it is inappropriate.

Young people, for exampl.e, are very adversely affected by the lifelong stigma of labeling oneself once and always an addict. Many women experience associated trauma that demands relevant attention.

Persons experiencing significant benefit from drugs might appropriately lower their use to non-problematic levels. In short, many people's treatment needs a re neglected with what is typically offered.

Basic elements of physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, and social health should be at the foundation of lifestyle change, and provisions should discriminate along a broad spectrum of addiction involvement. Addicts who're deeply submerged in the subculture of the street in the Downtown Eastside need a thoroughly comprehensive system in place that not only inspires the high level of motivation vital to the tasks of life conversion, but provides opportunity for a stake in society that enables the

realization of a healthy, happy, new identity. Getting clean and sober to stand in the breadlines is an absurd scenario that is sadly the current reality.

If the three levels of government are conscientious in their commitment to ameliorate the crisis in the D.E. with a pragmatic and civil plan, they will have to make gestures as Herculean and challenging to the human spirit as those being demanded of the addicts themselves.

By SHAWN MILLAR

Local Government Bars Corporate Involvement in Governing!

Pennsylvania Township's Rejection of Corporate "Rights" a First in U.S. A few days ago, I forwarded to you the exciting news about Porter Township, PA's extraordinary step forward in barring corporate involvement in governing - a corporate "right" that corporations have been claiming for more than a century now.

In the section below, you will find a link to more info about it, including the full text of the ordinance!

This comes from JeffMilchen who is a director of Reclaim Democracy! in Colorado. They have one of the most impressive websites in the country of groups focusingâ&#x20AC;˘on challenging corporate authority and building democracy. They've even developed a special section about the controversial pos ition taken by the ACLU in its endless defense of corporate free speech (a "right" of corporate personhood): http://www. reclaimdemocracy.org/kasky/. Check them out!

Paul Cienfuegos Democracy Unlimited cienfuegos@igc.org www.monitor.net/duhc

~tvttAltOtvS Perception is Nine-tenths of a convicti?n It seems that regardless of what's actually gomg on, those who appear to get their way have some knack at getting their illusions accepted as fact.

This comes home with a lot of news stories and staged events. This morning Stephen Harper was given free airtime as he delivered a progress report on the so-called stimulus package the Conservatives put together. No reporters were allowed in, the entire audience was made up of Tory supporters (as stated by the "Political correspondent") and only pre-approved questions were allowed after Harper's gung-ho diatribe. He hammered any opposition to what he and his cronies are doing as ''politically motivated". Yet look at it from an unbiased point of view: He doesn't make this r~port in the House of Commons where only the umted power of all the opposition forced him to have such reports, where he would have to answer nonapproved questions and where the undelineated results of his policies are also made public. But ho hum, what else is new?

Here in Vancouver the dominant theme is that '' revital ization, improvement, quality-of-life and opportunities for the future" are all catch phrases ,' to hide gentrification, equating wealthy speculators 1 with "good, honest people" and all the reasons why bulldozing the DTES is in everybody's best interests. The reality underlying this is the results of financial inequality, classism and the not-astakeho lder label wrapped around most lowincome people - wrapped so tight that the blatant hope is that we strangle in it.

It seems to be more of what you can get someone to believe that hides the stuff going on. Witness the export of the " American dream" worldwide that somehow convinces everyone how wonderful things are in North America - but the poverty,

homelessness, disease, want and oppression ,are as tangible as anywhere e lse. But if a ll you get is John Wayne and Bruce Willis and Tom Crui se and George Bush, streets must still be paved with gold. , the media and all on board are go(ng to great lengths to ignore homelessness, poverty, land c laims, the promises about housing made to get the bid and then systematically broken, the continual cover-up on using as the blanket excuse to get massive redevelopment, billions on highway and venue projects rolling like a juggernaut over all manner of community consultation, common sense and basic decency to make as much for as few as possible. A guy named Kurt Vonnegut wrote a bit in one of his books about this: " I have never seen a more sublime demonstration of the totalitarian mind, a mind which might be likened unto a system of gears whose teeth have been filed off at random. Such a snaggle-toothed thought machine, driven by a standard or even a substandard libido, whirls with the jerky, noisy, gaudy pointlessness of a cuckoo clock in Hell.

[We] wrongly think that there are no gears in the mind [of the monopoly, corporate capitalist], and say "You' re completely crazy."

[The narrow-minded boobs bent on accumulating "unlimited weaith and power"] aren' t completely crazy. The dismaying thing about the classic totalitarian mind is that any given gear, though mutilated, will have at its circumference unbroken sequences of teeth that are immaculately maintained, that are exquisitely machined.

Hence the cuckoo clock in Hell -keeping perfect time for eight minutes and thirty-three seconds, jumping ahead fourteen minutes, keeping perfect time for six seconds, jumping ahead two seconds, keeping perfect time for two hours and one second, then jumping ahead a year.

The missing teeth, of course, are simple, obvious truths, truths avai lable and comprehensible even to ten year-olds, in most cases."

The one point of this is to ask that you take nothing at face value. Always ask "what is being said and what is not being said/" Why does someone want me to believe what they are saying?!" The answers to these simple questions open a whole new world. The future is up to us.

PRT

Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world.

Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.

car,negie ~ NEWSLETTER

-A1argaret A1eade

··" ·. ,, -

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

Next Issue: SUBMISSION DEADLINE

Small illustrations to accompany articles and poetry Cover art - Max. Size 17cm(6.7')wide x 15cm(6")h 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 largt it will be reduced and/or cropped to fit.)

All artists will receive credit for their work.

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

Remuneration: Carnegie Volunteer Tickets

THURSDAY, MARCH 28TH

Jenny WaiChing Kwan MLA Working for You 1070 - 1641 Commercial Dr VSL 3Y3 Pbo.ne: 6()4..J75-0790 1

Please .._... make ______submissions ,-.- -· ·--- to Paul Taylor, Editor.

\VEAPONS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

www.carnnews.org http: //chodarr.org/taxonomy/terml3

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AIDS POVERTY HOMELESSNESS VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN TOTALITARIAN CAPITALISM IGNORANCE and SUSTAINED FEAR

DONATIONS 2013: (Money is always needed & welcome.)

Sheila B.-$100, Jenny K.-$25