March 1, 2022 Carnegie Newsletter

401 Main Street Vancouver Canada V6A 2T7 (604) 665-2289

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When CSIS Comes Knocking My name is Dalannah Gail Bowen. I am 76 years old. I live in the downtown Eastside where I am regarded as an Elder, a community activist a.nd a retired executive director of the Downtown Eastside Centre for the Arts. I am also a bl es & jazz singer of fifty-six years.

Some background; .

In 2004 I was a drug addict and had a stroke. I was In a coma. After coming out of the coma, my left side was paralyzed and I could not speak. I made a commitment and never drank or did a drug again.

I have since that healing time, worked very hard on my spiritual practice guided by one of the first nation teachers from the Squamish nation. I am a sundancer of 16 years. .

Since 2004, I am so proud to say that I have not touched a drug or a drink or a cigarette for that matter.

I live in the Lore Krill Co-op on E. Georgia. There was a time when the alley, at night, was a place where

a lot of women were getting beaten up. I used to call the police & ambulance all the time and go down and check to make sure they were all right or waited until the ambulance came.

One night when I had come back upstairs, I heard the door (904) down the hall close. After that I started feeling very uncomfortable everywhere I went. I put it off thinking that it was my imagination. ..

At this point I will explain that I am very sensitive to energies and what is around me.

I was walking to the store when all of a sudden I felt a shudder in my body. I turned around and there was a man 4 feet away from me. When I turned around he ran away. When I returned home with my groceries and got off the elevator on my floor he was coming out of904.

Since then I have experienced phone tapping, hacking of my computer, constant following & harassment because someone thought that I was dealing drugs. ... . .

They have done everything In their power to mtumdate me!

The other part that is completely outrageous to me is the many people in my circle that they have contacted - from friends, working associates to collaborators & potential employers. Some who have strongly indicated that they received a call saying I was being investigated. I understan<:ithe~ s~ym~ aw~y as I believe he (the person leading this Investigation especially) is very intimidating.

It has been a year now since this 'investigation started. My question is who is responsible, who is in the leadership role where accountability is brought forward. Does it make sense that one man who has a personal agenda gets to try to destroy and wreak havoc on someone's life like this??

This exercise has at times, brought me to my knees (not a bad thing) ~d brought me deepe~ t? spirit.

The other thing that I want to express IS In regard to the mistake that has been made. It has always intrigued me how people find it so difficult to admit when they have made a mistake. How on earth can you move on? .

If I don't survive this, I have tried my best to be an example of possibilities for others & to walk in a good way.

In peace and humility, Dalannah

Community Death Care Project How do we talk about death and dying when the very topic can surface fear, sorrow, and grief? How do we ease our death anxiety while also accepting the knowledge that we will inevitably die? How do we hold space for unnecessary deaths that could have been prevented? These are the kinds of questions the Community Death Care Project wants to talk about and explore.

The Community Death Care Project is site specific, particularly for communities made vulnerable who are connected to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside (DTES) and Chinatown areas. The drug-poisoning crisis and COVID-19 have added much emotional and physical strain to DTES and Chinatown communities, amplifying ongoing systemic issues from the lack of independent and community-based housing to the disappearance of Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people. The conversation around death and dying takes on a whole new significance when we ask what it also takes to live where we ensure everyone is cared for with compassion, where everyone is given a chance to breathe again even after a . last breath in order to die better.

Despite the increased frequency of deaths there is little dignity, preparation, and support available around preparing for death. This project will provide increased meaningful interactions and social connections, information sharing and capacity building around choice, dignity, and autonomy for end oflife planning.

for your future health and personal care, also known as advance care planning.

To register for a space in the Carnegie Theatre or online, please contact the VPL Carnegie Library Branch in person, call 604-665-3010 ext. 0 or email: events@communityDeathCareProject.ca

2ND FLOOR GYMNASIUM WILL

IlEtJPEN IfAIlCHt5 FOR

SPORT LIMITED AND

AND

DROP-IN DAYS/TIMES

VARIETY OF ACTIVITY/.LTf-,f.LrhUI TO START

After many months of the Carnegie Gym being activated as a secondary dining room, it will be returned to it's use as a gym and programmable space on March 15th. This comes as one of the

The Commumty Death Care Project is eo-developed and facilitated by the Carnegie Community Centre and Vancouver Public Library. Stay up to date on all project activities and events at www.communitydeathcareprojectca

first modifications

Upcoming Event:

community

Thursday, March 24-

RECREATIONAL

PROGRAMMING

Centre operations.

and moves towards regular More details will follow re-

garding the move of tables & chairs to the primary dining area and line up management to follow.

This will be welcome news to so many of our members who have waited patiently

Advance Care Planning Is Part of Life Planning

for the return of the gym back to its intended pur-

Presented by the BC Centre for Palliative Care

pose.

More news to come later this week regarding

Description: Do you have a plan for your future health care and personal care? If you couldn't speak for yourself, do your family and friends know what your healthcare wishes are? Come learn how to plan

the gradual reopening of other centre spaces & the gradual increase of building capacity.

Sharon Belli, Acting Director

Images from the 31st annual Memorial March for Murdered and Missing women and girls. The cover image wa forwarded by Rudolf Penner and the image above is by Wendy Havens. Grief that leads to action is something that helps everyone.

Quahail-ya was Jack Deighton's second wife, born in 1855 or 1856, according to the 1921 Canadian Census, They were married in 1870, which would have made her 15 years of age, and he 40. Their age gap was 25 years.

When Deighton's first wife became sickly, her niece, Quahail-ya, came to tend to her. When his first wife died, Quahail-ya stayed on, and thereafter married Deighton.

How the shifting mores cling to a promise of ambition and loneliness in kind convenience ....

•

Garry Gust

by experiential knowledge and is situated at the intersections of Madness, disability, drug policy, and housing justice. Currently, she works in drug policy. She is figuring out what she likes.

To register visit a VPL branch or call 604-6653010 ext.O ~Izzy

Cop Stopping On A Wintry Road

From the Library Hello Camegie community!

We are excited to welcome writer Nicole Luongo in reading from her new book The Becoming on Tuesday, March 1st, from I :OOPM2:30PM. ~e event is in partnership with the Camegie Learning Centre and the FireWriters.

The Becoming is a brutal account of mental illness by a woman who doesn't believe in mental illness. As the author embarks on a PhD at the University of Oxford, a lifetime of addiction, eating disorders, and trauma culminates in an explosive hospital stay that ~ees her achieve liberation through psychosis. Her Journey from terror to acceptance is grueling, and she makes meaning of it by weaving reflexive narrative with classic and nascent scholarship. Part phenomen?logical ~ecounting, part social critique, the text disrup~s blO~edical a~proaches to altered states by exploring their emancipatory potential. It also illuminates how conventional mental health treatment • pathologizes human suffering. In doing so, The Beco.ming ~ontributes to anti-psychiatry and Mad Studies projects, each asking, "What does it mean to be normal?" and "Should we be sane in an insane world?"

Nicole Luongo is a writer and educator living on the unceded territories of the xwmg8kwgygm (M.'f~CJ,ueam),S~wU7mesh (Squarnish), and solililwctad (Tsleil-Waututh) Nations. She holds Bachelor's and Master's degrees in sociology from the University of British Columbia and approximately 1/60 of a PhD from the University of Oxford. Her paid and unpaid work has been informed

Cop, stopping on the wintry road adjust something on his yellowjacket fender says cop jacket says cop the road is not black but packed with snow between the skin of the blacktop I ride up behind him, and he's going slow I keep dropping my foot on the road but it is not slippery, it's meshed in the pores I that of commenting on it when I passed him but he kept looking straight ahead One lone cop pedalling away • on the cold cold road Rudolf Penner scene on Alexander Street 7-7:30 a.m.

CARNEGIE COMMUNITY ACTION PROJECT: Manger Job Description - January 2022 This position as Manager with the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP), a project of the Carnegie Community Centre Association (CCCA), reports to the board of the CCCA. The position works to support the mandate of the CCCA to help low-income Downtown Eastside residents ensure that decisions about the future of the community build on community assets. The CCCA mandate represented by CCAP and CCG (Chinatown Concern Group a part of CCAP) includes working for more and better housing, higher welfare rates and stopping gentrification of the Downtown Eastside neighbourhood.

Please submit your resume and a cover letter to: President, CCCA, 401 Main Street Vancouver BC, V6A 2T7 You can also drop off your application to the 3rd floor administration office at 401 Main Street.

Roles and Responsibilities: The following is a partial list of duties and responsibilities. A full description is available to applicants who are asked to attend an interview.

Engages low-income community members in campaigns and activities around land use, housing, gentrification, income support Facilitates weekly CCAP volunteer meetings With CCCA approval, implements actions arising from meetings Coordinates volunteer outreach activities at special events like Indigenous Peoples Day, Powell Street Festival, Women's Memorial March etc.

Attends meetings of community partners in support of the coalition building efforts of the CCCAJ CCAP.

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Participates in, and supports members' participation in, government initiatives and neighbourhood planning processes that provides opportunity to further CCCA /CCAP goals.

Organizes low-income residents to attend rezoning and development application hearings and to speak out through other venues like news conferences In all cases seeks to have the voice of community members prioritized in all public communications or engagement.

Manages CCAP and CCCA social media platforms, including web pages and Facebook.

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[The last line was cut off last issue.}

When they bury me, I am still BLACK When you go out in the sun you turn RED Then you go BROWN When you get sick you turn WHITE When you are dying, you go GREY When they bury you, you are PURPLE AND YOU'VE GOT THE FUCKING NERVE TO CALL ME COLOURED !

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"Challenges are what make life interesting and overcoming them is . what makes life meaningful." Quote from Joshua J. Marine