Contents
- Mayor Sam Sullivan and City Councilors
- Harriett Nahanee - Tsebeoilt : 1935-2007
- House of Commons, Federal Parliament, Ottawa
- KWAN DEMANDS ACCOUNT OF OLYMPIC HOUSING DEFICIT
- First Nations Activist Dies
- Lawsuit Against BC’s Welfare Ministry
- Metallic Embrace
- Of Mountains And Mice
- A Child
- Community Dental Day
- Dear Republic:
- Countdown to Oblivion
- Truth is not a passive value
- A True Story of Street Help and Right Action
- Distant Drums
- The Editor, Carnegie Newsletter,
- Open Both of Your Eyes to See
- Re: PaulR Taylor's "What can ya' say?"
Mayor Sam Sullivan and City Councilors, I am pleased to hear that you have made it law that you will renovate any hotel that a landlord refuses to and bill them. And I think the Piccadilly Hotel should be the first to be renovated by the City. There are [still and only] twelve people living there and they will be evicted because the hotel is not a proper living space and the landlord refuses to renovate. My question is: where will these people go – on the street in the cold rain? Why should these people suffer because one person refuses to do their job? These people are my neighbours and I would be very delighted to hear that they have a home and a place to sleep at night. I don’t want you to think I am just a little girl who should not worry about these things. But I do, not to be rude but because I care. I care a lot. Yours sincerely, Elisha-May Walker / age: 12 Harriett Nahanee - Tsebeoilt : 1935-2007
Harriett Nahanee - Tsebeoilt : 1935-2007 Harriett once said to a group of fellow survivors of church terrorism, "I used to be a victim. Now I'm a threat!" That threat was finally stilled, or so it seems, on Saturday evening, February 25, when Harriett died at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver, where so many of her people have been killed. Harriett was murdered by Judge Brenda Brown, who condemned her, a seventy two year old woman with severe asthma, to imprisonment for two weeks in a cold, unhealthy prison cell for the "crime" of defending her land. Harriett was legally killed by the same colonial system that jailed and tortured her at age ten in the United Church's Alberni Indian Residential School. That system has finally closed her mouth; but as Harriett reminded us so often, it was never able to claim her spirit. The same cannot be said of so-called chiefs of the Squamish Nation whom Harriett was trying to sue when she died so suddenly, in an attempt to stop their illegal surrendering of Squamish ancestral land to the 2010 Olympics machine: the same chiefs who tried for years to force Harriett off their reserve for being a constant threat to their whorish crimes, and who announced just after her death that they would not offer a penny of support to Harriett's surviving family. "There are only two kinds of Indians left: the slaves and the sellouts" Harriett told me soon after we first met, at a picket line protest in December of 1995. "That's what residential school did to us." Harriett was neither a slave nor a sellout, which is why she was murdered. Harriett's life began in the village of Clo-ose on the west coast of what her murderers call Vancouver Island: a village nearly wiped out by germ warfare brought by Christian missionaries during the 1870's. "Our population fell from 3,400 people down to 44 in just under twenty years" Harriett told me at our first meeting. "Then they took the surviving kids and tried finishing them off in the residential school." Harriett vividly remembered the day her head was shaved, the choking DDT, the beatings and gang rapes and maggot-filled porridge that was daily life at the United Church residential school in Port Alberni. She was transported there in 1945 when she was barely ten years old, in an RCMP gunboat crammed with screaming, vomiting kids stolen from their villages. Some of them died, and were thrown overboard by the Mounties. Not even half of them survived the horror that awaited them at the Alberni residential school. One of the children who died there was fourteen year old Maisie Shaw from Port Renfrew. Harriett witnessed her murder, and until the week Harriett herself died, she never stopped talking about what she saw that night. "She was standing at the top of the stairs, crying for her mother. Then the Principal kicked her. She went rolling down the stairs. She just lay there. She wasn't breathing; she wasn't moving. We never saw her again." Harriett told this story to reporters on December 18, 1995, when she joined me at a protest outside the United Church's head office in Vancouver. The story was printed, only once, in local newspapers. But Harriett, and me, and a few others, kept talking about Maisie Shaw, and thousands like her. Not many people want to hear these stories. But telling what we know is true is part of what keeps us who we are, and doing so keeps us free. Harriett Nahanee was a free soul, and so she never stopped telling what she knew - unlike most of her people, and mine. When I was being publicly stoned - some liked to call it a "defrocking" - for telling what I knew about the crimes of the United Church of Canada against native people, Harriett was there, picketing the building where nervous church lawyers and bureaucrats plotted my demise, and hers, and carrying a hand made sign that proclaimed "504 Years of Genocide: Where is Justice in the United Church?". Whenever any of us held vigils in memory of the disappeared residential school children, Harriett was always there: rain or shine, braving the shouts and smirks of church people, everything in her aging except her great devotion and courage. And Harriett was there, too, when we organized the world's first and only independent Tribunal into Canadian residential schools, as she tried, and failed, to bring the criminals to justice. I saw Harriett for the last time on April 15, 2006, at our annual Aboriginal Holocaust Remembrance Day Rally outside Christ Church Cathedral in downtown Vancouver. She told me that the Squamish chiefs had threatened to kill her again. "Why this time?" I asked. "They're planning to sell off more of our land to the Olympics people. Some highway they're going to cut through our land. I told them I'd be out there trying to stop it." "Who threatened you?" I said. "Who doesn't matter" she replied, matter of factly. "They're all the same, those sellouts. They're whiter than the whites. They've been trying to get me for years. But I'm going to get them first." Harriett tried to do so, too, with a recent Supreme Court lawsuit that sought to stop the Squamish chiefs from being able to sign away the land of their own people: an action akin to telling the fox that chickens are off the menu. Suddenly, Harriett was doing more than just telling what she knew: she was directly challenging the very foundation of the systematic land theft and ruination we like to call Canada. Harriett was threatening to cut the strings of the Emperor's loyal Indian puppets. And for that, she had to die. In a few weeks, Harriett was arrested, tried, jailed, made sick, and died. The convenient swiftness of her death has not been questioned by the authorities, nor will it be, for medical murder is the standard Canadian way of dealing with those few aboriginals who are neither slaves nor sellouts, and who refuse to do the bidding of the state. In the past six months, I have counted nine such native activists who have suddenly "died of cancer" in a few weeks, like the state is claiming Harriett did, after they challenged drug dealing or other crimes by their state-funded chiefs. Who will be next? I will miss my friend, more than I can know; for how rare and few are the souls like Harriett, who remain clear and unbroken, undeterred from their simple task. I mourn not for her, for Harriett remained herself and fought to the very end, and that is her final victory. Rather, I mourn that the "Sea to Sky" Olympic Highway will now go ahead, over Harriett's dead body. I mourn that 100,000 other bodies of little kids from the residential schools will stay forever buried and forgotten, their mass murder excused, the killers protected and hidden, waiting to strike again. And I mourn that those who read or hear these words will be sad or inspired for only a moment, and will then return to the numbing machine that holds most of us prisoner in order to devour and destroy our mother, this green and perfect world. Harriett Nahanee showed us how to remain human, and how to resist the machinery of death. For her honour, and your own, share her spirit and do as she did - while you still can. Kevin Annett / Eagle Strong Voice Occupied Coast Salish Territory, Turtle Island ("Vancouver, Canada") www.hiddenfromhistory.org Read and Hear the truth of Genocide in Canada, past and present, at this website: www.hiddenfromhistory.org ... ... and on this radio program: "Hidden from History", every Monday, 1-2 pm (PST) CFRO 102.7 FM (www.coopradio.org) "When the desire for Truth and Virtue becomes the only bias in our mind, only then can we know in ourselves what is right." Peter Annett, Humanist and dissident, 1769 (jailed and persecuted by the Church of England for his questioning of the Bible and the church) House of Commons, Federal Parliament, Ottawa
Wednesday, February 14, 2007 House of Commons, Federal Parliament, Ottawa Mr. Speaker, every Valentines Day for the last 16 years, hundreds of people gather in the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, to join in the annual Women’s Memorial March. Women from the community, and especially Aboriginal women, sisters and brothers, mothers, daughters and sons, march in memory of the hundreds of women who die each year from violence. This year is particularly sad and difficult for the families and friends of the women whose murders are before the courts and who, daily, are re-living those tragic events. The Highway of tears, in Northern BC, is further evidence of the appalling situation facing Aboriginal women. Members of the federal NDP caucus stand in solidarity with the family, friends and activists who are speaking out on this issue. We demand that all levels of government commit to end the cycle of violence against women, to improve the safety of women in the sex trade, and to provide desperately needed housing and income support. Too many women have suffered, and gone missing, across Canada. It is time to act. Libby Davies MP Vancouver East KWAN DEMANDS ACCOUNT OF OLYMPIC HOUSING DEFICIT
KWAN DEMANDS ACCOUNT OF OLYMPIC HOUSING DEFICIT Auditor General Must Assess 2010 Impact on Homelessness Jenny Kwan, New Democrat MLA for Vancouver Mt. Pleasant, has brought a motion before the Legislative Assembly to have B.C.’s Auditor General monitor the loss of low-income housing as Vancouver prepares to host the 2010 Winter Olympics. “British Columbia can make the most of our opportunity to host the Winter Olympics by leaving a legacy of affordable housing beyond 2010,” said Kwan. “We cannot allow a repeat of 1986, where Expo was tarnished by the eviction of thousands of low income residents.” Kwan wants the Auditor General to make certain BC is using due diligence in ensuring VANOC lives up to their Olympic commitments. A number of Single Room Accommodation hotels in the Downtown Eastside have already closed, with more buildings anticipated to be converted into higher cost housing. “Almost every property in the Downtown Eastside has changed ownership in the last year,” said Kwan. “As Vancouver’s real-estate market continues to heat up, the government must make sure people living in these hotels are not left in the cold.” The City of Vancouver estimates at least 1400 people sleep nightly without a home. Vancouver’s homeless number is expected to triple before the Olympic opening ceremonies introduce B.C. to the world. “More then 700 units in Single Resident Accommodation hotels have been lost from conversions since the Olympic Games were awarded,” said Kwan. “The Auditor General must monitor this activity or by 2010 we will be watching more than just hockey - we will be witnessing a humanitarian crisis.” The full motion reads: Be it resolved that this House calls on the new Auditor General to monitor the rate of Single Room Accommodation loss as a part of the Auditor General's Office's evaluation of the Olympics. First Nations Activist Dies
First Nations Activist Dies after Release from Jail by Zoe Blunt A community is in mourning following news of the death of a great-grandmother who fought to defend aboriginal rights and the environment. Activist Harriet Nahanee died at St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver on Saturday, February 24, one month after she was sentenced to fourteen days in jail for protesting the destruction of a wetlands for a highway bypass. The woman who once said that natives need an "aboriginal Malcolm X" to estore their pride will be sorely missed by many, including her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Nahanee, age 71, was weak from the flu and asthma when BC Supreme Court Justice Brenda Brown ordered her to the Surrey Women's Pre-Trial Centre in January. Nahanee was hospitalized with pneumonia a week after her release from jail. Then doctors discovered she had lung cancer. A news release on Sunday, February 25 briefly announced Nahanee's death from pneumonia and complications. Fellow activist and great-grandmother Betty Krawczyk, age 78, was among those who attended a prayer vigil for Nahanee Friday night. "Me and Harriet really bonded" at the Eagleridge Bluffs blockade, she told me. "We were the only great-grandmothers there. It was up to us to bring it forward." In January. Krawczyk urged Justice Brown to refrain from sending Mrs. Nahanee to jail. "I am very worried about Mrs. Harriet Nahanee," Krawczyk wrote. "Mrs. Nahanee is not well. She has asthma and is suffering the after effects of a recent bout of flu that has left her very weak." On March 5, Justice Brown will sentence Krawczyk for her own part in the Eagleridge Bluffs protest. Krawczyk expects to be sent to the same Surrey jail as Nahanee. "Harriet believed Eagleridge Bluffs belonged to the Squamish Nation, and she felt her band - the elected chiefs - were trading the land away for development," Krawczyk told me by phone from Vancouver. "She wants the land preserved for her great-grandchildren. She put her life on the line for that." Krawczyk reports that Nahanee was "challenging the right of the elected chiefs of the Squamish Nation to negotiate away traditional Squamish Lands off the Squamish Reserve, lands that include Eagleridge Bluffs. This action potentially has serious ramifications for the entire band concerning who has the right to negotiate away traditional Squamish Indian lands," she wrote in her blog. Nahanee was born on the Pacheenaht Indian Reserve on Vancouver Island in 1937. Along with the other children on the reserve, she was taken from her parents at age 5 to live at the Ahousaht Residential School. Five years later she and 300 others were transferred to Alberni Residential School. In 1998 she testified about the horrific abuse she and other native children suffered, including beatings, rape, and murder. According to Lloyd Dolha, Nahanee reported that children were punished for singing their traditional songs and speaking their own language. They were so poorly fed that they were beaten for stealing vegetables from the root cellar. She disclosed that she was sexually abused for four years in the school. "I didn't bring it to mind until 1984, when my daughter committed suicide. Then I began to look at myself. Why I was addicted to alcohol? Why I wasn't a good parent?" When Nahanee visited a psychiatrist she told him, "I think the church and the government did this to us deliberately in order to take the land and resources. It was all about keeping us dysfunctional, to keep us dependent." On December 24, 1946, Nahanee witnessed an altercation between Rev. A.E. Caldwell, and a female supervisor at the top of a staircase at the school. They were arguing about a little girl who was running up and down the stairs. "Mr. Caldwell was always drunk. You could smell the liquor on his breath all the time," Nahanee recalled. "He kicked the little girl and she fell down the stairs and died. That's murder. There were other kids in the infirmary who had their appendix burst. That's murder. Other children were beaten so badly they died. That's murder. No one bothered to take them to the hospital." "The worst part of it was the loneliness. When you're a little kid and you can't reach out to your mom for a hug - it really hurts. It's a wound for a lifetime," said Nahanee. On February 23, the day befoe Nahanee's death, the Indigenous Action Movement held a rally and prayer vigil for Harriet. Almost 100 people gathered outside the Supreme Court for a ceremonial walk to St. Paul's Hospital. The group prayed with drums and sang the Women Warrior's Song outside Nahanee's hospital room to give her support and strength. They brought flowers, cards and a picture of the Larsen Creek Wetlands at Eagleridge Bluffs before they were demolished. Details about Nahanee's memorial have not yet been confirmed by her family. For those wanting to send Condolences, Donations or Flowers please contact::: Kat Norris 406-1725 East Pender Street Vancouver, B.C., V5L 1W5 Lawsuit Against BC’s Welfare Ministry
Lawsuit Against BC’s Welfare Ministry for Turning Client Out Onto the Streets The BC Public Interest Advocacy Centre (BCPIAC) recently filed a court case against BC’s welfare Ministry for effectively turning their client, a diabetic man, out onto the streets. “When a welfare applicant has an immediate need for food or shelter, the Ministry is supposed to immediately assess the client’s eligibility for welfare,” explains Emily Mayne, an advocate at the Kettle Friendship Society. The first time her client went to the welfare office in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, the Ministry turned him away saying they couldn’t help him. The second time he went, armed with a letter from Mayne, he was given an appointment one week away even though he indicated that he had no place to sleep. He was also told he first needed to perform a series of tasks on the computer which he could not do because he can’t read. The client, who is diabetic, ended up sleeping in the rain with inadequate food and unable to refrigerate his insulin, placing him at great health risk. Now he has a chest infection. Susan Henry, who works at First United Church in the Downtown Eastside, said “Our Church is full of homeless people who can’t get on welfare due to the barriers in accessing the system.” When BCPIAC complained to the Ombudsman in 2005, the Ministry assured the Ombudsman that “the actual time between an applicant being found to have an emergency need and that person being given an interview was within 24 hours.” However, Ros Salvador, a lawyer at BCPIAC, said “We are still receiving consistent reports from welfare advocates around the province that clients with no shelter or food are often not given emergency assessments unless they have an advocate and know the Ministry buzzwords. Even then, assessments are often scheduled up to a week or more away.” Mayne stated “Providing emergency services also means providing adequate staffing levels to administer those services.” As soon as he filed his court case, the Ministry found the time to give an immediate assessment, determined he was eligible for income assistance, and cut a cheque right away. However, most people living in poverty don’t have access to legal services. Salvador explained “We will be arguing in Court that the law, including the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, requires that emergency needs assessments be given within 24 hours. Turning people out onto the streets is a violation of their right to equality, life, liberty, and security of the person.” For more information, contact Emily Mayne at 604-253-0669 or Ros Salvador at 604-687-3063 Metallic Embrace
Metallic Embrace You can’t own everyone’s problems – do you understand? Permission denied, fiction or otherwise. I read between the lines & we do not need shining stars Hesitation equals pedestrian pylons; is that what we are to you? Your metallic embrace will never replace the “pylon” you’ve piled into, Time to count the mounting cost of past lives Seems like I’m always in someone’s way Self-doubt sets in like colour in your hair – What’ll it be: short, black and straight today? One of those things.. you wish you’d had time but, just like a bird sees its own reflection and bing bang boom dead, my friend Is the bird really dead or just trying my patience? the last words are the faintest We have been joined in progress a thousand too many times You know where I live but I know your crimes. Let’s look up to the sky, share our universal disgust Here we are shredding the past for a very angry future Be sure you always know your allies let alone alibis; Things you’ll never understand let alone undermine … you know where to remind me … We all know violence is the first answer Don’t we open your eyes? My silent companion and I may be at the deep end of shallow for it is as clear as the sun. Always is the moment I try my very best I try you try we all try …neat, Ground begins to open crowded in more than ever Who says the end of the world won’t be fun?! Robert McGillivary Of Mountains And Mice
Of Mountains And Mice In 1989 Jean and I went for a hike on the Singing Pass Trail at Whistler, British Columbia. I knew Whistler Mountain well because I had done some prospecting there in 1965. In those days I used to slide down the glacier on Whistler Mountain on a piece of cardboard because no ski resort existed at that time. In 1965 the village was called Alta Lake, and logging was the main occupation for most residents. “See how gracefully the light falls on the trees,” Jean said, as we walked up the Singing Pass Trail towards Singing Pass itself. “The light sings to us, and I feel like singing.” “The wind also sings to us,” I said. “This trail has a singing name, and so does the pass up ahead. Melody Creek is below us and Piccolo Summit, Flute Summit and Oboe Summit are above us. The mountain is called “Whistler” after the marmots who whistle to warn of danger. The person who gave these places their English names heard the wind’s music.” “Yes,” Jean replied, and she hummed to herself until we reached the open space of Singing Pass with its symphony of wild flowers in purple, red, blue, white, orange and yellow, and its fine views of Blackcomb Mountain on one side and Cheakamus Lake and Cheakamus glacier on the other. From Singing Pass we took a steep trail that led to Russet Lake, and I ran out of gas on this trail. “I don’t think I can go any further,” I said as I lay on my back and looked at the pale blue sky. “Russet Lake must be up in the clouds somewhere.” “We’ll make it,” Jean said. “We’ve come too far to turn back now.” And we did reach the lake, and the small red cabin for hikers. The cabin was empty, so we picked out a couple of beds and made ourselves to home. Then we walked close to a huge glacier, and gazed apprehensively at fierce mountains with names like “Macbeth” and “Overlord”. When we returned to the cabin we found that a group of six people had moved in. They were a friendly, respectful group, and it would have been easy to share the cabin with them. However, Jean and I decided to put up our small, red pup tent. This move would make the cabin more comfortable for the other hikers, and it would bring us closer to the earth and the sky. “The weather is good. We really don’t need the cabin,” Jean said. “Let’s go,” I agreed. “We’ll sleep in our pup tent under the stars, and we’ll share with the other hikers the doorless outhouse which overlooks Fitzsimmons Valley and the surrounding mountains.” “It has the most beautiful view in British Columbia,” Jean said. “That outhouse is more majestic than the throne of England,” I added. We set up our tent, cooked supper on our gas stove, watched the stars appear in the clear, night sky, and crawled into bed. In the darkness Jean said, “Something is trying to get into our tent.” Sure enough, I could hear a rustling on the sides of the tent. “It’s not a bear,” I said quickly. “The noise is on the roof of the tent,” Jean said. “Something is sliding down the roof.” “Let’s wait. Our eyes will adjust to the night,” I said. “There’s more than one of them,” Jean said. “They’re sliding down the roof of the tent,” I said. “It’s as though they were doing it deliberately.” “They’re trying to get into the tent, or they’re just having fun,” Jean said. “They slide, and then they climb back up and slide again.” “I’m having trouble believing this. Are we awake?” I asked. “We’re awake, and mice are sliding down the roof of our tent as though they were at the P.N.E.,” Jean said. So we waited in the night as mice played on the roof of our tent. They never got into the tent, and eventually they stopped. In the morning we visited our neighbours in the red cabin. “How did you sleep?” we asked them. “Terrible,” they replied. “Mice kept us awake all night. They were everywhere, and they were eating everything. We didn’t get any sleep at all.” I had left my leather camera case hanging on the wall in the cabin. “Here’s your camera case,” one of the hikers said. Half of it had been chewed away. Jean and I packed up our gear, and prepared to descend to Singing Pass. “Good-bye Russet Lake, and good-bye mountain mice,” we said. “It can’t be an easy world for mice up here. The winters are long and the summers are short. You have given us a story that people will have trouble believing. We thank you for that.” Sandy Cameron A Child
A Child Sand castles the shore Runs " . laughs 1942 Broken hearted Push shove Void less sad sand Paper Rubs my skin harshly As I tear Humanity away At twenty five cents Per hour Bitterness holds Go away fly. © Montana King And where's The can\can Outside The front door That says Garbage In the can\can/ Someone Doesn't listen It must be That gender Does the DTES Need light bulbs. Practices makes perfect And when I'm perfect I'll let me know I've got 2 brains and They both function? Community Dental Day
Community Dental Day is an annual program where dentists and staff volunteer provide-wide to provide free urgent treatment to low-income working adults, seniors and students without a private dental plan. This program is for urgent dental treatment (tooth aches, broken teeth) not cleanings, orthodontics or cosmetic surgery. Seniors, low-income working adults with no plans will take precedence over those with partial plans. Others, including Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance clients participating in employment programs, unemployed individuals and students may be considered. Anyone interested in participating in this program must complete a Patient Identification Form [call them or go there] and return it by March 15 to Beverley Arduini, Community Dental Day Coordinator, at: British Columbia Dental Association 400 - 1765 West 8th Ave, Vancouver, BC, V6J 5C6 Phone: 604-736-7202 or 7-888-396-9888 Fax: 604-736-7588 Dear Republic:
Dear Republic: When I was a young reporter, I was told to always get both sides of the story. That’s what was called balance. Like many other reporters, I ignored the rule from time to time; never let the facts stand in the way of a good story. Now retired, I can’t say I’m necessarily proud of it. But that’s the way it was/is in the mainstream media. Imagine my surprise, then, to find an alternate media, and especially a respected journal like The Republic, can practice the same kind of journalism when dealing with a community organization. I refer to your front-page story on Carnegie Centre (Feb. 1-14 issue). You cite five incidents that you say made you think about the meaning of community. You don’t mention that those incidents occurred over a five year span. Nor that every day of the year, about 2,000 people come through the doors of Carnegie to take part in one program or another. In 5 years, that would amount to 2,190,000 people. You also neglect to mention that there is an admission policy put in place with the involvement of the Carnegie community for the safety, comfort and peace-of-mind of all those thousands of people. I’ll leave aside whether your five incidents were even reported accurately – a dubious proposition since you ignore the both-sides rule. Those incidents represent some microscopically small proportion of all the interactions at Carnegie, something like one in four hundred thousand. The meaning of community? A little balance please. Bob Sarti Hornby Island, B.C. (Formerly of the Carnegie Community Centre Assoc Board.) Countdown to Oblivion
Countdown to Oblivion Olympic Clock of wood and steel From scattered money tossed left and right A ticking time bomb – How do you feel? About to protest.. are you wound up tight for what’s about to happen… does it seem unreal? Eyeing rows of conceited corporate parasites I feel your pain; we’re one, all together Ticktock – we hear a terrible, ominous sound Where are we to turn.. what are we to do? When it concerns the homeless, the hurting who are losing ground, hold your picket signs high, above the rhetoric, and shout above the shrill hue & cry. Encroaching, grasping ‘real estate’ developers and deaf-eared politicos give us the royal runaround. You’ve heard their spiel, the promises broken, truth that’s shrouded and untold, putdowns and just lies, Downtown Eastside SROs that do remain, They think them trash – the squats, the flops, It’s all some got left you know… of course, you’ve seen the news. You’ve heard their stories of riches to rags, lost loves and bittersweet glories. It’s all they’ve got to hold on to with no options, like being painted into a decrepit desperate corner. Don’t give us dehumanizing, governmental, police state shelters. I’d rather live on the cold, wet winter streets and under red hot summer swelter taking chances with nothing stolen and safe to live and call our home, for us and our friends – or just to be serene, all a personal choice –almost anything’s better than a shelter’s nightmare. Unpredictable street life, it ain’t for us no more, even though we may be tough and exceptionally poor. So we are telling you, the ‘powers-that-be’ or the “ruling class,” to cease being condescending, stop calling us names, and clean up your act. When homeless people continue to get many forms of sickness, on the fasttrack road to dying, you’ll be the ones largely responsible. Your heads will drop in shame. If you wonder why you don’t sleep at night and the chips start falling where they may, we’ll know where to point our fingers, where to cast the blame. Robyn Livingstone Truth is not a passive value
Truth is not a passive value nor can it be found in the mere default of lies. That one speaks in mellifluous words and says not a factual contradiction does not mean he speaks or writes the truth. Merely the absence of lies does not mean that the speach is true and not true -- is a lie. But the pretty smiles would have you not attend to this, but instead to their tone of voice, their pleasant smile, and gentle mannerism. They feign the meaning their words do not convey. They are their own designs self-purposes enrapt and as to the other their Christian sibling sister-- brother -- Why? are they too not God endowed to mind-read the base intent self-purpose; self-design; self-all. We are are all souls a-drowning in the sea of necessity and commercial purposes. The new-thing; the advertisement; the picture in the brain of this moment's desire. We are not who we are but instead -- the lucky few those glossy pictures in the expensive magazines; or the lost ones on the last of the late night news. ken strang A True Story of Street Help and Right Action
A True Story of Street Help and Right Action It was late at night and the rain was coming down like a cold northern monsoon. I was just leaving the warmth and good cheer of the Carnegie's Tuesday Night Cabaret. Walking down the front steps, I felt the bag on my back lighten and I knew right away that someone had just taken my folder of 7 harmonicas out of it. I turned and confronted the man that was behind me, "Hey! Give me back my harmonicas!". He ducked his head and mumbled that he had nothing, and started to walk very fast toward the alley. His actions told me the truth that his words denied, so, without thinking, I started after him, insisting that he give them back. He started running into the alley, with me right behind him, now I was screaming as loud as I could for help from the many people milling around in the rain, "Stop him! He's got my F***in' harmonicas!" My guitar was on my back and I couldn't run very fast, but then a man looked up and stuck out his leg in the thief's path My spirits soared as I saw this, and then they instantly plummeted as the thief sprang nimbly over my helper’s leg. I thought that was it, my last chance. I was lucky enough that someone had tried to help, but it didn't work, and I started to rethink my actions as I continued to run after the thief down the alley. I mean, what in the world would I do if I caught him anyway? To my amazement, I see another person stick out their leg in front of the man; cleverly, they placed their leg so high that he couldn't leap over it. The thief tried again to go over, but the leg was too high, (and so was he! ) and he fell hard onto the wet pavement, a stack of his porno mags and my harmonicas spread out in the sad puddles. I picked up my harmonicas and informed the man that he is an anus, and then I turned to thank my hero. There were many people there, but surreally, they have all gone back to their business in that split second as if nothing has happened, and I couldn't identify who had helped me. I knew I must give my thanks anyway, so I spread my arms wide and said very loudly "THANK YOU EVERYONE!" and then I went to catch my bus in the rain. Next Issue: What happens when they are stolen again! Rachel Rosetta Davis Stone Distant Drums
Distant Drums Band and pound your deep drums, ladies, and toll your dark bells. Oh yes, so much went awry and wrong; so many women fell. And it hurts so much to remember at night, uncertain times; the thing’s so hard to describe: how you feel, just because, and what we once thought was forever is to begin now, once upon never. In reflective retrospect very little – no – nothing, next to zero was done. When Dark’s spirits attack, then collide, where to run who to scream to - not to be sought as you desperately tried to inconspicuously hide We know where to cast blame, who to abuse, who to shout to and who to shame… oh what a hellish mess that this was, and this is, of precious women ignored - shut out in an extreme state of stress Over distant hills I’m sure there lies a safe place, undisturbed, where a rainbow meets with a glowing of love and a cozy feeling of grace. Surrealistic faces shine on in exquisite, crystallized, star-filled nights as a misty moon descends and then climbs An aura of a shaman shadow overlooks, many bright eyes floating on and on, endlessly, in a solemn space This I believe to be true; I will not and refuse to suppose. Have you ever wondered about things that you cherished, loved, and yet cannot –though you desperately wish to see them again- know that down the road you will? You pray, you wish.. this is the way it’s meant to be. Robyn Livingstone The Editor, Carnegie Newsletter,
The Editor, Carnegie Newsletter, Congratulations on an informative issue with many good letters and poems. The one thing that struck a sour note was the verging-on-hysterical article, signed by you, trashing the APC. It’s unfortunate that the press focused on the fracas, but as you well know, that’s what the press love to do. So in fact, creating a stir was a good strategy for that day and that in no way undermined Carnegie’s excellent presentation on the spot. Your nasty comments smacked of yellow journalism and gave weight to the media claims that APC had projectiles and used them. The APC may be more flamboyant than you are comfortable with, but violence is not their style. They are devoted to challenging the status quo, and it is good and necessary that there are many groups and many ways to express our common outrage. That your position of privilege and power be used for this spurious attack is a real low and arrogant move. If we stoop to calling each other names instead of working to co-ordinate strategies, then we all lose. Watch what you accuse folks of doing, then look in the mirror. I don’t suppose that you will recant or apologize, but if you publish this, it could undo some of the damage done with that article. I want people to know that everyone in Carnegie is not a flaming reactionary. Delanye “If we stoop to calling each other names instead of working to co-ordinate strategies, then we all lose.” My point exactly, and one that the anti-poverty committee seems to rely on to elbow their way in front of whatever else community collaborators have agreed to, if anything. The calling of names didn’t originate with the apc but the most verbose of those speaking/ yelling immediately trash anyone not 100% in agreement with anything apc-sponsored or initiated. Virtually any community activist or organizational rep knows this for a fact, seeing and hearing it at public venues again and again. The vitriol against me personally – one of the few people I have great respect for once told me that I’m an idiot.. that I have no brain. It’s always helpful to have criticism.. with one’s own degree of psycho-spiritual parallelism helping intuit veracity. PRT Open Both of Your Eyes to See
Open Both of Your Eyes to See As a recent intern for the Carnegie Newsletter I was somewhat dismayed by the week-long feature on the Downtown Eastside (DTES) as reported by Global's Mike McCardell. Anyone with only one eye open can only see half the picture or half the truth. In this case, McCardell chose to only see the struggles that some residents choose (meaning every action is ultimately a choice) to journey through on a regular basis. The people who live in Canada's poorest urban postal code are not all drug addicts and/or mentally disturbed beings. The DTES is a Vancouver neigh bourhood where individuals and families live and try to survive. Although McCardell chose to report only on the uglier side of the DTES, there are many organizations that are working to change the ugliness of the community and help those in need. Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU), has been helping the addicts and people in need and educating addicts with alternatives since 1998. The Supervised Injection Site (SIS) located at 139 East Hastings is in the heart of the DTES, providing assistance and counselling to addicts. According to research from the B.C. Centre for Excellence, over a one year period the SIS made 2000 referrals, with close to 40 per cent of those to addiction counselling. During my two-week education at Carnegie Centre I witnessed true acts of kindness and compassion from many local residents. I carried my camera with me at all times and I was amazed at some of the remarkable moments I captured. I witnessed a man who was homeless with just the clothes on his back still have enough compassion to buy bread to feed the birds. I met a man named Daniel inside the Carnegie who couldn't afford socks but still had enough spirit within himself to sit in a quiet corner, play a guitar and sing a truly moving piece about freedom. One Saturday night I joined a group of DTES residents to listen to a poetry slam. Although none of the poets wore Gucci shoes or the most recent trends in clothing, the words they spoke were truly worthy of Quill awards. My weekends were mainly spent wandering around the area. One Saturday I was in Oppenheimer Park, a couple of blocks from Main & Hastings. A spectacular Totem greeted me as I walked through one of Vancouver's oldest parks, opened in 1902. I watched a young carver chiseling away at a sandstone sculpture. His piece seemed like any other you might see in a gallery window. Just a few blocks East of Main and Hastings I came across a community garden that was in the process of being worked on by local residents. I did take some pictures of a local mural that blanketed the building’s walls on Hastings and Columbia. Beautiful work, even though it isn't on canvass hanging on a living room wall. During my internship I noticed that when I looked at the people from the Downtown Eastside, most of them were more like me than different. We just have different circumstances. I am aware that McCardell recently was awarded Commentator of the Year at the Webster Awards. I do think he is very deserving of such an honor; I know because I was also at the awards receiving a Webster. I just think McCardell should have opened both his eyes while he was reporting on the DTES. Since my internship has now ended I will continue gathering people’s stories from this dynamic community and capturing moments with both eyes open. Jackie Humber jackiehumber@hotmail.com Re: PaulR Taylor's "What can ya' say?"
Re: PaulR Taylor's "What can ya' say?" in Feb. 15, 2007 edition of Carnegie Newsletter What's the matter PaulR, did someone steal your 'thunder'? Or maybe you didn't really bring any to start with. The 'Doomsday Clock' was a great idea, don't get me wrong. And, contrary to your assertion, it actually did get quite a bit of mention in the corporate media, as did the issue of homelessness. In fact, the only slogan mentioned was "Homes Not Games!" The entire rally was described as anti-homeless protesters, or members of the Anti-Poverty Committee. The APC have done tremendous work in raising the profile of homelessness in Vancouver. They have done this through a variety of means, including leaflets, posters, public forums, meetings, protests, and direct actions (inc. squatting and disrupting city council meetings). They work hard and face police harassment, surveillance, and arrests. They have the respect of a lot of poor people because of their commitment. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Gord Hill. I was one of those arrested at the Feb. 12 Anti-Olympic Countdown Clock protest. In fact, it was me who is alleged to have stormed the stage and grabbed the microphone to scream 'profanities' into live TV. I am not now, nor have I ever been, a member of the APC. I am a Native warrior from the Kwakwaka'wakw nation. For many years I was active in the Native Youth Movement and continue to be involved in the struggle of my peoples. I helped organize the Feb. 12 rally, specifically to get Native people out and mobilized into opposing 2010. It's hard work, since so many of our groups & organizations are funded by the government, which makes people complacent and controlled. Many have been bought off by VANOC and are participating in 2010-related events & Public Relations work. But there are also Natives who opposed the Olympics, including the Sutikalh camp near Mt. Currie, the Skwelkwelk'welt defenders at Sun Peaks, and the Native Youth Movement. Our elder, Harriet Nahanee, was recently sent to jail for 14 days for participating in the May 2006 blockade of highway construction in N. Vancouver (and is now in the hospital with pneumonia as a result). At the rally there were probably about 20 Natives (out of 60). We had NYM speakers, Native banners, Warrior flags, drummers & singers. but you know what? There wasn't one word in the corporate media about Native participation in the rally, or any Native opposition to 2010. The entire protest was portrayed as anti-homelessness, disregarding Indigenous concerns over sovereignty, ecological destruction, and displacement as a result of corporate invasion & resource exploitation. So please, give it a break. Your message got out there, "Homes not Games" got out there (thanks to the APC), and even your clock-prop got mentioned. As for an entire race of people? They were somehow invisible (which your one-sided rant against APC only perpetuates). Am I angry at APC for 'stealing the show'? No, because it's a clear attempt by corporations to silence & marginalize Native resistance to the Olympics. As for the effect of the direct action taken on Feb.12, I know many people (Native & non-Native) who feel empowered as a result of the rally. Strangers & friends alike have thanked me and congratulated me for what was done. Let me close with a quote from the Globe & Mail: "Until yesterday's protest, the 2010 Games had attracted little public hostility, with opinion polls showing a large majority of public supportive" ("Olympic clock ticks off protesters," Globe & Mail, Feb.13, ) This was an effective direct action. Your personal bias against APC appears to have impaired your ability to think logically. I suggest you review the corporate media coverage again. Virtually every article mentions anti-homelessness, and most also mention your crude 'doomsday clock'. Try to find anything about all the Natives that were there. Gilakas'la! Gord Hill, Kwakwak'awakw Said well. Actions of the APC also include their co-optation of the Women's Centre and a representative group of elders with drums, singing and set on presenting their demands to the civic body at the Vancouver Public Library. The extreme necessity was to get money for a women-only shelter in the very cold days after the new year. APC, after sidelining any leadership of these women (“your cause is only a small part of our larger, more noble cause”(?)) says and demonstrates that their sole purpose was to disrupt that meeting, which they did screaming obscenities, throwing chairs and overturning tables, and washing police people's faces with their spittle as they screamed, from six inches away, "You fucking Nazi pig asswipe!!" then whined as loudly as possible when the most belligerent were arrested. Following their playbook/script?! apc people turned with vindictive denunciations and further obscenities focused on any ‘civilian’ who didn’t support such behaviour. Ditto at City Hall, ditto at a public meeting at Carnegie, ditto… it’s sadly expected now. There was not one word about the Women's Centre and, again - to use your words - the Native presence (elders with drums, singing and chanting) with crucial demands, issues, was invisible. I may have watched the wrong TV news after the Doomsday Clock event (CBC was reportedly fairer) but CTV is the official media for 2010 and it and all affiliate newspapers and radio made no mention of the legitimacy of Natives or the fact that all issues focused on were even worth giving coverage to. It was all spun down to 'violent protestors and security' with no native aspect whatsoever. They did make a non-verbal statement: 'This is the exact kind of coverage that will be given to protests and dissent from now on until after 2010.' Control of media will play a major role in how the "world" will see us. Months, even a few years passed before the tactics used in Atlanta and Salt Lake City got international coverage. In Atlanta, with all kinds of promises about social responsibility in place, the homeless and street people were put on buses and taken out of town for the duration of the Games. Ditto in Salt Lake, with arrests of those refusing to become 'invisible'. The US media long ago disowned being held accountable for covering Native concern over land and sacred places. Guess who owns Canadian media? If I were on the side of corporate hegemony, the tactics and strategy of APC is close to what I'd try to provoke in 'those' people (all wanting social justice and fair treatment). "Get headlines and coverage so all involved are seen as violent, unsane and crude, with 'reasoning' an impossibility. Get TV coverage with screaming obscenities (like, heard over the mike from someone storming the stage "... fucking cunt!") As long as the 'anti-poverty committee' gets their 15 seconds, the majority of people will disavow affiliation, leaving us fragmented and easily picked off or just rolled in and under the anti-apc tactics categorization. It's funny that your/their strategy added greatly to keeping the Native aspect of all this invisible. The entire issue of housing, as opposed to just stopping the Games entirely for whatever reasons, was virtually lost - again, with APC efforts contributing greatly. Respectfully submitted, PaulR Taylor Thanks for the response Paul. As for the DEWC protest at the library, I was there and to be honest, the DEWC lost their leadership when they stopped to pose for the cameras while cops & security guards were attacking people. I saw the news on that too and there they were in a nice semi-circle singing and drumming away. Ya it also showed people getting rowdy but that's what it's gonna take. Again, it's because of APC's militancy that the issue of homelessness is a major concern in the city. Not just them, but their actions are contributing to raising the profile of the group. As for Feb. 12, again the issue of homelessness was front and center, even as police denounced us for our actions. Denunciations from our common enemy we expect. Any act of resistance is used to justify their repression, if not they'll fabricate it... this does not invalidate the necessity to resist. Gord It's not the denunciations from our common enemy that concern me. It's the groans and frustration and anger that boil up towards these people (apc) when, despite any considerations agreed to or just voiced before, the public venue is claimed by apc and all other concerns / voices are elbowed out of the way as apc people launch into their schtick. I hear maybe one response that "everyone has a right" but that's what Campbell and Sullivan said for their soundbyte. And that's an average of one vague support for every twenty (from people on our side) who get really pissed, who now have to make plans on what to do at the next event where apc will insist, again, that their voices/tactics/strategy are the only valid way. It just sucks. Paul
