Issuu

That's a short-hand way of saying that unless we get some strong protection against the development frenzy sweeping through the Downtown Eastside, the very survival of our community is in doubt. One-for-one means that for every unit of affordable housing that is lost, another is created to take its place. Since Expo, at least 2000 units have been lost. Some were destroyed by fire, others were condemned as unsafe, many others were "converted" to other uses, like trendy offices and shops. In that time period, despite the major efforts of community groups, the number of new units of affordable social housing can be counted in the hundreds, not the thousands. If this trend continues, it's only a matter of time until we see large numbers of homeless in our streets. It's happened in every other city in North America where upscale development has invaded the inner city. In fact, the trend looks like it's going to get worse. The controversial condo project at 8 East Cordova is just the first. It's being built in a

parking lot, so it won't directly displace anyone, but it's part of a process, a ripple effect, that is driving up property values in the neighbourhood and threatening to price affordable housing right out of the market. Just look diagonally across the street, in the 300-block of Carrall. That strip of Gastown art galleries and condos, is located right where local low-income people used to live and shop. We have also learned that the Winters Hotel at Water and Abbott sold two months ago for $2.3 million, more than double the price it sold for a year earlier. The new owners of the Winters say they intend to keep operating it as a low-income hotel. But given that magnitude of increase in property value, how many other developers and speculators won't decide to evict their tenants, do some renovations and reopen for business at new, higher prices? Here's another example: a developer wants to build 100 "artists live-work" studios in an industrial site in the 200-block Alexander, between Main and Gore. The units will sell for $1 50,000-$200,000 - right in the middle of a low-income area. As a carrot to the community, the developer says he "might" be able to include 30 units of cheaper housing. How cheap? More than $650 a month for a studio - twice the rate that welfare allows, certainly not affordable to the I majority of people in the community. A This is why one-for-one is so important. As a community, we have to insist that we don't lose any more affordable housing, not direct

losses or indirect losses. One-for-one can be accomplished in a number of ways. We can look to some of the ways being tried in our sister neighbourhood, Downtown South (along Granville), as it braces for new development. * Any developer who wants to tear down affordable housing to build expensive units must be required to replace the affordable units, too. (Mega-projects like Concord Pacific and Marathon have to reserve land for social housing, but, at present, Gastown condo developers don't.) * The City of Vancouver buys up low-cost hotels and renovates them (like the Gresham and Old Continental on Granville). * Zoning can be changed to allow developers to build bigger on certain lots if they preserve the affordable housing. * More social housing must be built. Right now, more than 90 percent of the housing in the neighbourhood is market housing, mostly

3. hotels, operated for a profit. Yet, the provincial government failed to include even one unit of social housing for the Downtown Eastside in its last series of projects, while approving projects to benefit False Creek and Arbutus. Measures like these (and any others that people can think of) need to be incorporated in a community plan - something that we can use to hold the developers and the various levels of government accountable. In fact, this process has already started. As a result of the fight against the casino, residents have been saying what they would like to see on the central waterfront at a series of workshops sponsored by the Carnegie Community Action Project. Now it's time to expand this process to include the rest of the neighbourhood, to bring it home to where we live. Nothing less than the survival of our community is at stake.

By MUGGS SIGURGEIRSON

Starting Saturday Feb. 4 M e e t at Info Desk at 1:00 Every Saturday until March Sign up with Marina

Local MLA Hears Concerns On Friday, January 27th, Premier Mike Harcourt met with the boards of directors and staff of both DERA (Downtown Eastside Residents' Association) and the Carnegie Community Centre Association. Foremost on the agenda of both meetings was development. At the DERA meeting, the loss of housing and the increasing tactic of landowners to empty buildings through neglect or outright evictions, then keeping them vacant waiting for values to rise as mega-projects give a boiling pot effect to prices... It's become almost impossible to build more social housing with owners holding land for the highest bidder and private developers being able to move fast with expensive condos. Questions were raised on Woodward's, on the Waterfront, and on the relative desertion of Hastings Street. Harcourt responded that his government was one of the very few, if not the only one, that had not cut housing programs in the face of federal funding cuts of over $6 billion. Ian MacRae, vice-president of DERA, said that people with low incomes may not see much difference now from when the NDP took the government away from the socreds. "We didn't expect or promise miracles," said Harcourt, "but people can now keep twice as much money from earnings and still qualitjl for benefits. Asset ceilings were increased and we raised the minimum wage by 40%. The changes are sustainable over

time, so have been done on a smaller scale." The Premier was clear about the challenges faced in the last 3 years, especially with so many brutal cuts by the federal government. He responded to questions and comments on Video Lottery Terminals, on many concerns raised about the lives and difficulties of Aboriginal Peoples, on issues of safety on downtown streets and the current epidemic of heroin use and drugs in general. It was refreshing not to be "campaigned to" by the local politician. Harcourt seemed to be fairly aware. He's also aware of Gordon Campbell's bent, having been directly involved in the vicious fight with him and the NPA on City Council when the Four Sisters Co-op was still unborn Campbell was the main person trying to kill it; the NPA were the votes against making the old Carnegie Library into the Carnegie Community Centre. Campbell and the Liberals are the new home of masked socreds. Harcourt knows. By PAULR TAYLOR P.S.: A report on the Carnegie meeting follows, appearing as an article in the Sun.

STEVE BOSCHlVancouver Sun

VIEW: Premier Harcourt, John Shayler study drawinas of waterfront ~ l a envisaaed n bv downtown residents

ROBERT SARTl Vancouver Sun

i I I

, h e

They're not just a bunch of pretty pictures. They're a vivid message I from Canada's lowest-iicome neigh- ' , borhood that it wants a say in devel1 oping the valuable real estate on its I

ij d"F"~%?rom defeating the plan for a Las Vegasstyle casino, residents of

the Downtown Eastside are busy redesigningVancouver's largest.wda , veloped chunk of waterfront. Their vision for the central waterfront, as pictured in a series of elegant poster-like drawings, includes everything from a cruise ship dock designed to look like a native Indian long boat to a pocket-sized tidal pool and marsh to encourage wildlife in the working port. "If people are going to have to live with it in their communitv. thev should decide what is built and that it is built accordingto their needs," says Lorelei Hawkins, aboriginal representative on the new Vancouver Health Board. Hawkins said residents are determined to avoid a repeat of the casino

pro&sal, wh%h was droppedon the tr; has h e n pushing for a cruise ship community by the Port of Vancou- d o c k - . - * + ,. ver without notice or consultation. -Theresidents' ideas tend more . to , This time, the provincial governsmaller-scale markets and cultural ment is intervening to solicit resi- and recreational facilities, many with dents' views. native Indian themes, to attract visiPremier Mike Harcourt viewed tors as well as serve the local comon Friday the group of drawings devel. munity. oped in a series of workshops held The drawings were produced by in hotels and communityfacilities over artist Mariken Van Nimwegen, who the past few months. attended the workshops and put the Harcourt said later he will send for- residents' ideas on paper. , mer Vancouver city planner Ray SpaxJohn Shayler of the Carnegie Comman to Carnegie Centre Monday to munity Action Project, which orgaview the pictures and talk to residents. nized the workshops, said the comSpaxrnan has been h i e d by Victo- munity is feeling under attack from ria to advise on provincial policies for the increased pace of development. the waterfront lands. Echoing Harcourt, Shaylet: said a "There are some.very interesting plan is needed for'the whole neighideas here," Harcourt said, referring borhood to guard against evictions of to the pictures. W e want to work with low-income residents because of risthe residents, not just with the mega ing property values. .players." "The community planning for the Harcourt said he is conderned that waterfront shows the direction we development pressures in the down- should go, toward recognizing the town eastside will drive un property cultural heritage and-history of our values and force low-income residents area, creating a very active publk .. out of the hotels. place, not the same+oldtired corpoThe provincial government g n t e r - rate yision," Shayler said.: ,! , 1 ested in a new convention centre on the waterfront, while the tourist indus-

In 1856 John A. MacDonald wrote to the editor of the Montreal Gazette in words reminiscent of Bagot or Elgin: "If a Lower Canadian Britisher desires to conquer, he must 'stoop to conquer.' He must make friends with the French - without sacrificing the status of his house or lineage he must respect their nationality. Treat them as a nation and they will act as a free people generally do - generously... The only danger that threatens just now is the cry of "representation by population" ... The peninsula (the region from Toronto to Sarnia) must not get command of the ship. It is occupied with Yankees and Covenaries, in fact the most yeasty and unsafe of populations." The French-speaking population had risen from 65,000 in 1763 to 335,000 in 1814. The USA assumed that the British were behind the uprising and from the frontier areas an antiBritish party, the "War-Hawks", pressed for war. Both francophones (including my ancestor) and anglophones fought together to repel the Americans.

I've had it up to here with English Canada telling me and all francophones to "go back to Quebec." Why don't they look at Canadian history instead of just rubbing English complaints together. Don't they know of the four freedoms that the English Lord Durham gave all of us after the Battle of Kentville? The four freedoms are: Freedom of Speech Freedom of Worship Freedom of Civil Law Freedom of Travel

France has been friendly with the U.S. The history books say we gave them the Statue of Liberty and sold them about 1/8 of the country in the Louisiana Purchase (from New Orleans to Montana). If we do break away we can't stop the shipping lanes to Toronto, but we would have a say on everything going to and from Montreal and Quebec City. We are part of Canada throughout the Eastern provinces and are part of many First Nations peoples and areas also. Let's cut the crap and join hands. A Proud French-Canadian Leo Gobin

Something is Affrayed waiting needlessly to hear your sigh disappear, see your future retire into laughter, into generations of poise bred there, in other worlds where your body curves like a warm current of light finding its darkness a shore on which language exhalts itself in blue extremities of observance

we knew, given to our senses, ourselves like gifts, to hear those fluid harmonics of event and presence, the echo of which recall just beyond intention clarity, autumn, a piece of coloured string or the ball you threw, once, so hard it defenstrated heaven and what rained down upon the green yards and rusted fences

where whatever you called your world suddenly knew its time and place were calendars and agendas filled with pickiness and rage little persistences that grew to a crush of ordinance, sustainence, nomenclature where everything still holds to this day, this quotidian clutch of expectation and fear like boats tied up and forgotten in a closed marina while the ocean rolls and swells some distant, calamitous antique

last night I dreamed you and I were children again you were hiding behind the tree where the schoolyard ends but I did not find you Dan Feeney

Absolutely No Nournenon Words are like dead leaves carried near and far by a summer wind. Someone out there recently wrote me a fan letter. In the letter I was called a "prima donna." Well, I've been called a fashion plate and a poser and worse.. That is one of the occupational hazards of writing; these surreal letters from a zealous reader. Yet, that particular phrase 'prima donna' was caught in my mind for awhile, like some food particle wedged in between

two teeth that only a skillful maneuver of the tongue can unwrangle. I am a narcissist as far as taking care to bathe, and that wash the clothes that I have. Why can't I wear a different piece of clothing once in a while? Variety is the spice of life, not only in thought and apparel but mostly in nature. Wait until Spring and watch as the leaves of the trees explode into over a thousand distinct and different shades of green. You'll see! By DEAN KO

READING ROOM ROUNDUP 1 li everyone and Happy 1995! I've been out in the suburban library hinterland over Christmas and am now safely returned and enjoying seeing all of you again. 1994 promises to be an exciting year for us ... here are some of the details. On I-eb.21 at 7pm in the Learning Centre BRIDGET MORAN, former social worker and Native rights activist, will be talking about her new book JUSTA, which is the life story of a Native leader from his early struggles to his election as a tribal chief'. Bridget will also be happy to answer questions from Carnegie writers. A new budget year has begun and that means lots of new books. If you have suggestions for buying, please call me at 665-3015, drop by our workroom or attend the library committee meeting scheduled for March 14 at 4pm in the association office. Our staff, so far, is the same as 1994 with the exception of Joan, who is temporarily filling a vacant space. We are very pleased to

"Carnegie Theatre proudly presents

Peppercorne Pirates a Grant Hirst production."

have her and grateful that she is able to help. By Spring of this year, the Reading Room will be invisible in the dust of renovations. Our workroom will be moved to make space for more patron seating and books. We'll have a bright new circulation desk at our entrance. The antique tables will remain and we'll be adding more wooden chairs. We'll keep you posted as we move closer to the deadline. We can't thank our friends in the neighbourhood enough for all the books they returned to us from hotels, offices and bars in 1994. This helps us maintain our collection size and saves us money. Please keep it up in 19%! See you soon. Eleanor

Everyone is invited to participate in any and every capacity to ensure that this theatrical spectacular is a success. Meetings will be scheduled throughout February and all positions are expected to be filled. Positions open are for assistants and thespians (actresses and actors). January has seen production planning, which is ongoing. February, as stated, will be meetings and filling positions both on and off the stage. March will be meetings and rehearsals. April, the Grand Opening!! ! ! For further information, contact Grant Hirst on the second floor of Carnegie, between 10I 1am or 2-4pm any weekday.

AIRBORNE REGIMENTS & ALL THAT

The Airborne is disbanded - that's the good news. Its members are still paid personnel in the employ of the Government of Canada. Their sadistic tendencies are on record. Anytime in the future they could be called up for a-.too secret assignment. We, the citizens,

wo;ld know nothing about it - & that's the bad news. The good news is, both the V ~ ~ C O U V ~ ~ Coroner & the chief of the provincial health ministry recommend the decriminalization of heroin, cocaine & marijuana. The bad news is it may never happen. The head of the RCMP be an impostor... there are many wellsays "No way." According to him attempts at documented cases on record where people legalization in other countries have all failed without degrees weaseled their way into the miserably.. in fact, he looked kind of system & sometimes analyzed thousands of miserable when he was saying it. patients & "treated" them. Their "treatment" The government of course hasn't said anything yet about legalization, except "I tried was often some kind of tranquilizing drug. it in high school but didn't inhale" - or "I It might not be so bad if the "doctor" turned experimented a teenager with pot." These out to be an impostor. Some of them do as people are genuine hard-edge cubes. Their well as any official health quack. Just because souls just aren't spherical anymore. Of course you've got the required government docuall you have to do is knock the edges of a ments in your hand doesn't make you a good circle to create a cube. I guess that's what healer. happened to them. They got cut down by 20th But we have to keep track of things, so century thinking. paperwork is necessary except when you're The Board of Education can put you in a suit out on a limb with nothing to say... then & point you at some government committee experience is the most important thing. Throw any day of the week, but what if you just yourself into existence & all that is what they wanted to run free like a curious human say - & believe me, they know. Who are they? animal in a strange new world?... do they send ...well, if you're Us, you know who Them is, you to the psychiatrist for 90 day observation? & if you're one of Them, you're certainly not Of course if they do send you for "90 Day one of Us. Isn't that a real slice of 20th Observation" you get to observe the psychiacentury thinking somehow? trist or psychologist or ill-defined "careOf course it explains nothing - but it's not giver" or mental health worker - a cross bemeant to. It's better to throw together a bunch tween a doctor & a social worker, who could of hints & let people figure it out for them-

selves. Maybe then so many of us wouldn't turn out to be such cubic quantity. Imagine! Trying to run the world from a business suit...such arrogance! The Earth is very, very old. Not only that but perfectly designed in the first place. We should be glad we don't live on Mars, but then some people want to take us there - & the world must continue to have its Airborne Regiments, ay? You never know when you might need one. TOR4

Eriksen ran away from the orphanage at the The Fight for the Carnegie Community Centre age of twelve, and rode the freights to VanPart 5 11.

Bruce Eriksen - He Never, Ever, Gives Up

In late 1972, Bruce Eriksen, an ironworker who had hurt his back on the Knight Street Bridge Project, noticed a sign in a welfare office asking for applications for a People's Aid Program that would start in the Downtown Eastside in January, 1973. The pay was one hundred dollars a week. Eriksen knew little about social work but he had been a resident, on and off, of the Downtown Eastside since the age of fourteen. He knew that his community had been neglected 'I for years by City Hall, and its residents treated like Skid Road stereotypes in spite of the fact that the Downtown Eastside was one of the \ most stable communities in Vancouver. With the fervour of a prophet, Eriksen wanted his neighbours to know that they had rights as human beings to decent housing, a decent standard of living, and a decent community. He was born in Winnipeg in 1928, one of five children of an immigrant Danish couple. His mother died when he was five, and he t was sent with two brothers to an orphanage i called the Knowles School for Boys. He learned to fight there pretty damn fast, understanding that if he didn't fight back, / others would walk all over him.

i !

couver two years later. At sixteen he shipped to Shanghai on a freighter carrying grain. Later, he logged around Port Alberni and the Franklin River, and worked in a shipyard in Vancouver during the Second World War. Over the years Eriksen discovered he had talent as an artist, and he painted pictures and murals for hotels in the Downtown Eastside. By the age of thirty he was an alcoholic whose life was a series of blurred events and lost days. In 1958 a policeman told him bluntly that he was destroying himself and encouraged him to check into a sanitarium, where he stayed for three months. Eriksen said that this was the best thing that ever happened to him. It gave him a chance to see what he was doing to himself. When he left the sanitarium, a brother found him a job as an ironworker, and he remained at that trade until he hurt his back. Eriksen was an intense, angry man, obsessed with the injustice he saw in the Downtown Eastside. "It depends on the class you come from," he said in an article in the Vancouver Free Press (Jan.22-28/79). "If you come from a certain (rich) neighbourhood and you get into trouble, there's a hue and cry (on your behalf). If you're poor, it doesn't matter. Nobody cares." He was working class, part of that group of men and women in British Columbia who worked in resource and attendant industries. They had to contend with company towns and a company province, and they organized militant unions for self-protection. They were independent, feisty, adventurous people with a strong sense of fairness. They were the ones who built British Columbia, and many of them made their homes in the Downtown Eastside.

. I

In a Vuncouver Sun article (July 28/76), Randy Glover wrote, "Eriksen is dry and boring and tedious and long-winded, and he never, ever, gives up. The difference between that which should be and that which is, is the measure of the energy he will bring to an argument." Peter Davies hired Bruce Eriksen for the People's Aid Program. I expect the two mavericks recognised each other - the exmilitary man whose spirituality expressed itself in social action, and the ex-ironworker with the glittering eye. The side of Andrew Carnegie that designed a family coat of arms with the motto "Death to Privilege" would have been proud of both these men. By SANDY CAMERON (to be continued)

Here is the last "Mo" poem. I'm leaving town and as Feb. 1st is both my birthday and will be my first day outta town it would be nice to be 500 miles away and have 'em still reading a Mo poem. Thanks again for publishing my rants and raves.. taking a chance on an old fool. Best of luck.

So, I'm cruising East Hastings way up there where the ghetto gets slim and life begins check these hairy duds in the drugstore doorway Hey, I offer, who needs the bread more? One says, I'm just begging, gimme a break. One says, Workin' on my Karma. One says, For Drugs, you know, man. One says, Bottle of rice wine and a couple Homeby-ownjoints and Buddy could you mail this for me, eh, Parch? Flip a looney, he's grabbin' around Flip another, he's lookin' at me I walk away with my money's worth Some people will do anything for a laugh But the Marx Brothers they're not. Mo Dixon

TOO MANY SERVICES? TOO MUCH LOW RENT HOUSING?

THE BIG LIE IN THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE

Too many community services! Too much social housing! If you haven't heard these claims yet, you'll be hearing them soon. Gastown business groups'and their fi-iends are out there chanting these words over and over again, telling anyone who will listen that services and social housing are what's wrong the Downtown Eastside. They claim that there should be less services and subsidized housing for the people living here. They say that would make this a better neighbourhood. The real problem with that kind of claim is that it's just not true. Over 90% of the people living here have very low incomes and use the services. In fact, they get used to the breaking point. And there are thousands of people on the waiting lists for social housing. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to fi~wreout that the neighbourhood requires more community services and a lot more social housing. So how do people get away with claims that there are too many services and too much housing here? It's an example of what is called the "Big Lie technique." This is a theory of mis-information that goes like this: The easiest and best way to deceive people is to tell the most outrageous one lie possible as loudly and as often as you can.

The Big Lie is most often used to single out one group of people and scapegoat them. This group then gets blamed for whatever problems are at hand. Attacking community services and housing for people with low incomes is a way to attack the people who use them. The claim is that people with low incomes are the cause of whatever problems there may be in the Downtown Eastside (here, you can name your favourite problem). The claim is that if there were less community services and low rental housing located here, there would be less people with low incomes living here. The claim is that this would make the Downtown Eastside a better place. This is an attack on everyone who uses Carnegie Centre and any other community service in the Downtown Eastside. It is an attack on anyone who not only lives in but is on a waiting list for low rental housing. But it doesn't stand up to the facts. Let's take a look at those facts. One of the sources often used by those who claim there are too many services in the Downtown Eastside is a list of all the resources available to people who live in this part of town. It has 268 entries. The problem is that a lot of these

resources are also available to people in Point Grey Kerrisdale or even West Vancouver! It's true that Downtown Eastsiders can use the Dog Pound, the YMCA (if you have the money), or the Vancouver Volunteer Bureau. But so can people all over the city. Most of them aren't even located in the Downtown Eastside.

So if we eliminate all these kinds of services, we end up with a list of 52 (out of an original 268) which are aimed specifically at people in the Downtown Eastside. However, almost half of these are duplicates. For example, DEYAS has a number of different projects, as does the Sally Ann. Union Gospel has 3 entries, including 2 for Pilgrim's Market. If we eliminate all the duplicates, we end up with a list of 26 services for Downtown Eastside residents. Now, these 26 services include 2 elementary schools, 4 churches, 2 resident's associations, and 3 community centres.

In reality, there are only 15 servlcec. in and for the Downtown Eastside. That probably compares about equally with just about any other east side neighbourhood. The real problem is that this is not just any other neighbourhood. The Downtown Eastside has the lowest average household income of any urban neighbourhood in Canada. People need the services that are here already and could use a few more. It is clear that more services are required and they should be services controlled by and for the people who live here. People in the Downtown Eastside have worked wonders with what they have. It's never easy, but its something everyone here should be proud of and fight hard to support. It's important to make sure that property values don't smash community values. By JEFF SOMMERS

You are what you eat. As a rule of thumb,

the more you eat, the more you become. Joe Paul

A Veritable Collage of

p* What a smashing debut! There's something to be said when the first syllable of article is art ! Still more nugatory offerings from life's chest. Thoughts are thinner than a vapour..are neither still nor move..are neither silent nor noisy. What net of mind can contain a single one? Rather than view life as a fictional story, it can be seen as a scientific experiment. Better than mistaking a part for the whole. Too bad that all this reads pedantic. The OJ Simpson saga is surprisingly similar to Shakespeare's Otlzello. Finally, psychic osmosis: like how an open jar of milk will take on the flavours of the other spicy foods in the fridge, or how an air conditioner will absorb the smells of the surrounding highway - each of us affects one another archetypically. Yours in the Sangha, Dean KO And, Plants are Aware Animals are Aware that they're Aware People are Aware that they're Aware they're Aware. (Still, the Solipsism article was the best one thus far and every article since seems to be just a footnote to that.)

A fond farewell to a Camegie 3y BOB SARTl

or'l~lml

t's not too often you can laugh at a funeral, especially in a neighborhood that is in a constant state of mourning over the loss of so many friends and neighbors to drug overdoses and other kinds of navhem. ~ uwhen t Al Wilson died in his sleep hc&tly at the age of 76, he gave us a chance to laugh. And a reminder to appreciate people, even the pains ' in the butt, while they're still here. Al's turf was the rough patch of East Hastings Street in the Downtown Eastside. Even on crutches, even at the risk of being mugged, he wouldn't miss his daily visit to the raunchy old beer parlor of the Dodson IIotel near Pigeon Park. But his home was Carnegie Community Centre, and his family was the legion of the dispossessed that throng the crossroads of Main and Hastings. The heading on Al's death notice called him a . "A Carnegie Original." We laughed, telling Al-stories at his funeral, rehe*ber- * ing just how original he was. Irascible, self-centred, inha6 iting his own mental universe, one of the biggest pests in the neighborhood, but a contributing member of the 7arnegie family. A1 was the sign-maker of Carnegie. Somewhere he had earned calligraphy -that antique, hard-to-read lettering ~ O Usee on mastheads of newspapers. He started out making birthday cards and get-well cards 'or the other volunteers, sturdy affairs as big as a maga- . :he, sheets of cardboard, held together with masking tape. No matter what you were doing, you had to sign the card ~ n come d up with a cute greeting. A1 had no sense that you night be busy with your own life. Then he graduated to constrUcting banners for special bccasions, elaborate 3Gfoot long scrolls of paper, tape and tring. His spelling wasn't always that good, but what the leck, Meny Chrimstas or Wlecome to Carnegie got the nessage across well enough. A1 had his workstation in a corner of the third floor. You :ouldn't get into the washroom without passing him. As soon as he saw you, he would thrust one end of a banler in your hand and order you to start walking backward o unroll it. Shifting from foot to foot, you would complain you had to go to the washroom, but A1 was on his own wavelength. "Back up," he would insist, as he examined his on-going work, then add his favorite expression,"it's in the bag."

It was a nuisance at the time, but at his funeral we laughed about it. A1 started pestering people for letters of testimonial what a great calligrapher he was, what a dedicated volunteer. He started with the staff at Carnegie, the doctor at the health clinic, then graduated to public figures, Libby Davies, Jean Swanson, Margaret Mitchell. He created a new Gothic-stylesignature for Gordon Campbell, and got Davies to slip it on to the mayoral desk Campbell wrote back: "~e& Ib&, wilsbn, thank'jlou very h j c h foi the fine work' I wish that I had you by my side signing my letters because it certainly would be impressive to do the pen work ,.. - . - . ofA1 Wilson." A1 bound all the testimonials into a cardboard and maspng b p e book that accordioned out into a dozen panels, kept them under his motheaten sweater, and would whip them out and make you sit there and admire them. A1 called them his bullshit charts. He set up a . bullshitting contest tin his own mind) and had himself declared the biggest bullshitter in Carnegie. "Without bugging everybody at Cafnegie, life would be hell," he once said. " p.e bullshit charts are all I've got, those and ~arnegi$ He became sort of a celebrity s ker. When politi- ' cians came to Carnegie, he would call th meeting to a halt 7 even with 150 people looking on -- and manoeuvre the guests into position with his cards, then order one of the staff to take his picture with them. Like so many other Carnegie originals, there were large gaps in Al's bioaaphy. We never did find out if he was ever ,married or had any kids. We know he grew up in Knee Path, Sask.,started working at age eight, grooming cattle and horses and stooking hay. After war service, he got a job as a mucker, dangerous and dirty work shovelling rock in a mine in Flin Flon, Man. In 1986,by now a pensioner, he wound up'in a room at the Patricia Hotel, just in time to be evicted to make way for Ekpo 86 tourists. A1 was shunted to the grandly-misnamed Glory Rooms on -Camall Street. We pleaded with him to move to the shiny .new Vets Manor on Alexander, but for a long time he wouldn't hear of it. "Get mugged by the docks," he insisted. Not that he was exactly safe where he was. More than once, he was robbed on Hastings coming out of the Dodson, and knocked to the ground. He was always,coming into Carnegie with a new bruise or ache. A1 may have been an original, but in one sad way he was far from unique in the neighborhood. As a singleolder man trying to live an independent life,-hissocial safety net was thin to threadbare, and he was pretty vulnerable. '

IANLINDSAWamwver Sun

Finally, he hurt his hip so badly he was in hospital for six LOOKING OVER the artwork weeks and ended up on crutches. After that, he had no choice but to move to the Vets, where there was round-the- of Carnegie Centre regular clock staff. Al Wilson is Paddy Tsurumi During his last year, you could see Al going downhill. They took good care of him at the Vets, gave him a room right by the front deskso they could keep an eye on him, let him live his chosen lifestyle in dignity. But he was losing weight -the candy-striped shoelaces he used for a belt pulled tighter and tighter. His hearing was going, too. Every day,'he would get someone to dial my house, then just start talking, usually something incomprehensible about Gordie Howe. You couldn't have a conversation with him, just at appropriate pauses, yell out: "Is that right, Al?" Finally, he went from crutches to a wheelchair. The last time I saw him alive, he was coming out of the beer parlor, being pushed by his volunteer helper, Verna, veteran of Alcoholics Anonymous. It was 11in the m h i n g . "I was only supposed to be taking him for breakfast," wailed Verna. She didn't like to get anywhere near booze. "Push," A1 told her. "It's in the bag." One of the last banners A1 made was for a big free feed of spuds and chili, coincident with my 50th birthday. I was pleased to see A1 adopt the Dan Quaylespelling of the word potatoe. That banner is on display along with all his bullshit charts, testimonial letters and celebrity-stalker photos from Jan. 18to Feb. 8 in the Carnegie Art GaIlery, next to the washrooms where A1 used to lie in wait. Is it folk art or the just the crazy doodling of a crazy old man? Who knows and who really cares? Just laugh with Al, a Carnegie original.+ Ebb Sarfi is 8 Vamwer Sun reporter --

COMMUNE NATURE Quit smoking cigarettes Start buying lottery tickets for a retreat, Island-side across open water it was a rough crossing and all were sliding on in the decks below Disembarked on a dock a grasshopper flew to be destroyed by another Went on a hike and trailed over a mountain Saw a snake in the grass the rowboat was a gas Under the eaves of Jubilee Hall Four baby barnswallows Furry tufts on their heads Yellow bands around their eyes Like four Apaches they look surprised

With deer in the wood A Harbour Seal in the waster Black slugfest in the orchard Namu Namu a whole city cried for you when you passed away in the pen on the lam such stupid creatures the gong the triangle's call to summon we to feed in Jubilee Hall And it stops me from swimming again Taum

Daddy, do you know who you are to me? Do you know what I call you? I call you the asshole. 'Cause that's what you are to me. That's what you always were, a demanding son of a bitch Ordering nothing but complete submission, And taking everything that wasn't yours to take. And now you're stealing my dreams The only thing i've kept my own But your time to harass me is up You want my dreams? Fuck you, I won't let you in. It's judgment day, so listen up, 'Cause I'm talking back And this time there is nothing, nothing you can do But sit back and listen up. You hit me every day Every fbcking day, twice a day For two years you demonstrated your manhood Just waiting for the day you'd break me You hit me because I wouldn't cry Tell me, did it insult your blessed ego Then you hit me because I cried, What was I supposed to do? Thank you? You called out for my attention So you could show me just how much you were a man Told me all little girls wanted one.

But you were wrong, asshole1 And I knew it1 1 knew it all along1 But your good Christian morality made you lie Lie so I could never escape your possession You told me I was abnormal Because I wouldn't let you touch me You told me daughters needed their fathers affection So they would learn how to love men And then you left and peace set in Until all the things you said sunk in Even though I knew you were wrong, I lost myself Lost myself to the belief that I needed men So, I stood on a corner, waiting for any old man Ready and waiting for them to come fuck me With their wrinkly cocks that barely worked And I was just a child still Prepped for them by you You, who said you were my father No Daddy, you weren't my father You were an asshole who stole my life You were the son of a bitch who tried to kill me Everytime 1 picked up a razor blade But now, it's going to stop You cannot have my life, my dreams You cannot have my body And you cannot have what innocence I have left It's judgment day, asshole And I sentence you to die alone Without even the chance to confess Get raped in hell asshole YOU DESERVE IT1 Sara

(From The Slice, Vo1.3. No.6

REALITY CHECK: A

The technology of i m a p creation & manipulation has advanced to the point where everything within the image-frame Can be synthetically - produced. Watching what appears to be a large number of people located in a nation on the other side of the world, we may hear them make statements, observe their body language, clothing, ethnic mannerisms, facial expressions, interactions, etc... this detailed facsimile of 'reality' can be produced in a television studio. Every subtle nuance of the Six O'clock News can be created, deleted, altered & manipulated in an infinite variety of ways which the eye or even minute examination by a technical expert cannot detect. We will soon be living in the age of massive disinformation. False realitys are creeping into the image-bank of history, & because they are virtually undetectable, these carefully designed media packages will become the only "reality" available to those who rely on image transmission for information. When all the information pumped through

fibre optics & wavelengthed into our receptive cellular tissue has become questionable, if not seriously unbelievable, will we then not have to re-group our belief systems around those simple, eternally trustworthy signals known as "basic reality." When we feel the wind or rain or sunshine on our faces, will this constitute the only believable weather report? When we see & feel money passing through our hands, will we be able to believe an economic transaction has taken place & we won't have to pay the same bill over & over again? Will the recognizable voice & facial configuration of a friend be the only source of external information that is unprocessed by professional enhancement? Will we turn off the tube, unplug the unitel, shoot down the satellite? Already they can create unreal realitys - soon

they will be able to place us inside them. The hook will be, as always, thrills, chills & sexual stimulation. Can we turn around & touch home base? Will the trusted taste of an ordinary potato offer us sanity in a world dominated by synthetic leftovers?

TORA

SAVING CANADA from the AX! The statement is huge, the people are united, the message sounds across the country. CBC sidelined it, then gave a Reform outhouse shitfor-brains policy major coverage. Read on . .

On January 25th, the Canadian Federation of Students spearheaded a National Day of Strike. In every major city students from every college and university joined together to demand that the Liberal government stop its plan to load every non-rich student with crushing debt. The Liberals, picking up where the Conservatives before them left off, are marching blindly in lock-step with all the cut/slash/burn techniques dictated by transnational corporations. Everyone pays as they go (if you can't pay you don't go; to school, to a hospital, even to work when the jobslindustries in your area shut down for cheaper wagesllower taxes in the States of Mexico or ....) Capital gets to go where it wants without any restrictions (like laws & regulations that have required a certain amount of responsibility from corporations towards the people who work for them, the resources they use and the environments they both enter and impact). At the massive rally on the lawn of the Vancouver Art Gallery, the speakers were an abrupt reminder of the diversity of people's concerns. The media coverage tried to ignore this. The media is supposed to report and make comment on events. Consider the outcomes when thousands of people rally in

the centre of every major city, march en masse through the business district, block traffic, chant, amplify the facts that are carefully avoided by the perpetrators of the massive behind-the-scenes scam (like unpaid taxes, deferred taxes, high interest rates, borrowing from private banks) ... and get a couple of minutes on the news. This is the beginning of the spin put on such a national effort. Local and national news covered the rallies with about 2 minutes of airtime, and about half of that time was negative. There was virtually nothing of what individual speakers said, no in-depth analysis of specific issues, no recognition of the diversity of interests expressed or even represented at each place. The students had been crystal clear that they were not isolated from or isolating themselves from the attacks on all parts of social programs in Canada.

"Our opposition should not be restricted to the post-secondary proposals alone. Students are also workers, parents, people with disabilities and recipients of social assistance. We depend on all Canada's social programs, not just public education." ~t the Vancouver rally each student speaker lmlnediately expressed solidarity with seniors, with the unemployed, with social assistance programs and immigrants and women - all treated as "special interest groups" in the media coverage. It's really amazing how the spin doctors, the public relations experts and the corporate media have worked so hard to dissociate us from each other. When the Fraser Institute or the Business Council on National Issues says something, it's taken as the voice of the people. This is absurd. It's also disgusting that such an outcry and rallying of so many thousands of people is depicted as a minor irr~tantby the politicians in Ottawa. Make no mistake - each of us will be hit hard by the cuts and the budget coming out. The Liberal government has shown clearly that they are going to slash spending no matter what evidence is thrust in their faces that thelr Big Lie 'l'echnique has been seen for what it is. Their entire plan of action, to 'lower the deficit and the debt', is being directed to 2% of the cause of the nroblem. 50% of the debt is caused by high interest rates, 44% is caused by tax loopholes and giveaways to the wealthy and corporationa, 4% is general government spending, and 2 PERCENT is caused by social programs. The Canada Assistance Plan is the law that gives rights to low-income people. Rights to appeal decisions made by welfare, not to be

forced to do any job in any condition in any place in order to get assistance, not to be denied benefits without just cause and, perhaps most crucially, the basic right not to live in fear of being told there just isn't enough money because someone somewhere else (like Ottawa) has decided to cut or stop transfer payments to the province you live in and leave you to fend on your own or starve. As discerned by Jean Swanson, founder of End Legislated Poverty and current President of the National Anti-Poverty Organisation, the entire so-called Social Security Review is a thinly disguised cheap labour strateby. It is being done to every program, every service, every sector of society, in order to squeeze Canada into the New World Order of the wealthy few eliminating the middle class, of seven out of eight people on the planet living in poverty and being exploited. The technique of saying something so often that it becomes true by repetition is being used by the Liberals as mouthpieces for comorate interests. Witness the dismal

coverage given to the demonstration on the 25th; tuning in to CBC the next morning there was nothing at all - no interviews no coverage no story. The same thing was done when 25,000 people marched in Montreal over UI cuts, when 70,000 reached Ottawa at the end of a new On-To-Ottawa Trek. On the day itself there was 15 seconds of crowd shots, 30 seconds of a minister saying how committed the government was, cut to commercial. On the following morning there was a 2minute spot given to Preston Manning and some Reform meeting, with chants of No More Taxes to start your day. Coverage of the Prime Minister commenting, shots of Manning leaving a plane or getting on one, coverage of such a trivialpon-news event to enforce the bluff that 'millions of Canadians know that cutting & slashing is the only way, that There Is No Alternative (TINA).' One thing that can be done is to make the media regret ignoring the story in favour of the plan to praise the government for doing what the corporations demand come hell or high water. A similar result happened in the States over the Vietnam War protests, where the media got split after trying to dismiss the students and seniors and working people and farmers and the unemployed and the poor and teachers and women and children as 'spec~al interests' By PAULR TAYLOR

P.S.: Praise where praise is due - Harcourt and the NDP government killed the Kemano Completion Project. It was a backroom deal

to make a few rich people much wealthier, would have provided under 50 full-time jobs once done, and destroyed the Nechako River and the fishing and damaged the environment for hundreds of kilometers in every direction. Ottawa and the socreds under Vanderzam colluded to give this deal to Alcan with guarantees of no impact studies, no environmental testing and no public reports based on facts. Scientists who had investigated this for some government departments had been gagged from delivering their findings and

threatened with legal action, including being fired, if they did go public. Now that the proper decision has been made Ottawa is trying to distance itself from the whole thing, saying that BC now has to pay "compensation" to Alcan! Maybe I'm dense, but I fail to see how they can claim $500-$700 million for such an obvious scam when they tried to force it through for years with threats, scare tactics and illegal, immoral actions every step of the way. Kind of like the helicopter deal and the airport deal; we're getting ripped off blind.

Kiri

Tsunagi

Da-Me

THE 11 GO 11 GAME, This game originated in China around the 8th Century and later spread to Japan. Initially it was played by the aristocrats but through the years it became more and more widespread and presently includes several million "GO" fans around the world. Luckily it has been so popular, fbn and challenging that it has now arrived to Carnegie Centre!

"GO" lessons with instruction Friday, February 3 Friday, February 10 Friday, February 17 Friday, February 24 7:00 to 9:00, 3rd floor, classroom 2 Sign up with Marina

DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE YOUTH ACTIVITIES SOCIETY

STD CLINIC 219 Main; Monday Friday, loam 6pm. NEEDLE EXCHANGE 221 Main; 9am 8pm every day. Needie Exchange Van on the street every night, 6pm-2am (except Mondays, 6pm-midnight)

1994 DONATIONS .n p a u l a R.-$20 C h a r l e y B.-$32 B i l l 5.-$2 3 r u c e 5.-$20 S t u a r t M.-$50 S a n d y C.-$20 " ~ e t t l eFS-$16 Nancy H.-$20 C e c i l e C.-$10 H a z e l M.-$10 Law L i b r a r y -$20' s i l l B.-$16 ~ i l l i a nH.-$50 J o y T.-$10 L o r n e T.-$50 ~t i e n n e S .-$40 D i a n e M.-$16 Me1 L.-$14 ~ d ~ LCC l t -$12 Libby D.-$45 Peggy G.41.50I - -c a r n e g i e LC -$30 CEEDS -$50 A.Withers -$20 M a r g i S.-$5 S u e H.-$35 Anonymous -$87.35 S o n y a S.-$200 H e l p i n t h e Downtown E a s t s i d e ( f u n d i n g )

THE NEWSLETTER IS A PUBLICATION OF THE CARNEGIE COMMUNITY CENTRE ASSOCIATION Articles represent the views of individual contributors and not of the Association.

HSubrnission~ Deadline NEXT - - ISSUE

Legal Services Society 4 9 3 0 Ministrry of Social Services -$1,000

NEED HELP ?

10 February

The Downtown Eastslde Residents' Association can help you with:

a a #

any welfare problem Information on legal rights disputes with landlords unsafe living conditions Income tax U.IC problem finding housing opening a bank account

Come Into the DERA office at 9 East Hastings SI. or phone us at 682-093 1,

DERA HAS BEEN SERVING THE DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE FOR 20 YEARS.

The Apocalypse on St. Andrew The downstairs was rats, roaches, bottles and trash; after Rose and her elderly derelict crew moved, -evicted, rent-shy, trailing sizzlingcabbage-pig-fat smells, a shortage of tailormades, and too much cheap boot; -old Rose, tall as a fire hydrant, wide as an avalanche, hollering infamous haiku: "Harry! Come back here! Gimme five dollars you bastard! I don't fuck for nothing!" Upstairs, in a room the size of a stomach cramp, I burned holes in my knees on Rose's abandoned razor-backed mattress, exchanging venereal flames with Penny, a teenaged streetVenus risen foaming from the gutter, peddling psycilocybin and welfare fraud, chewing her toenails raw; and between the grey sky-walls and frenzied jackhammers of reality, we prayed a dopefiend pusher would move into Rose's old place, and it came to pass...Ronnie-in-the-basement, dismantling and reassembling an unbroken bicycle, day and night, just to keep his head wrapped with the thinnest of unravelling threads; and wearing a money-belt bulging with pearl-blue crystals and dolphin-white powder of pure methedrine Ronnie wired a front-door-intercomspeakeasy sound system to screen the early morning platoons of assembly-line workers come by for a boost, and the all-hours7 adolescent refugees from the suburbs: anorexic girl addicts and young boys trembling incoherently through dark hallways bleeding from the ears and nose. Upstairs, we pawned, panhandled, brokeand-entered, for money to make the run downstairs to Ronnie: Gary, living in the attic, an unemployed

actor and army deserter from Texas, was boiling with dirty needle infections; and Jill, who worked for the city library, bashed out windowpanes with her skull at home, dreaming of wealthy domesticity; and Schellens, who fled Manhattan Island like a rabid Mallartne, wrote self-proclaimed "neovisionary" poems like "Nirvana Temporale": -for Escapes! from thorns of-routine-norm's-dimension;] ...though certain!, the return to noon-struck nocturne." Schellens screamed about homicidal griffins from the deadly planet Mars coming at us right now. He hammered a "blaspheming" green radio into pieces like Ornette Coleman derailing a subway train. Schellens montaged the cracked apartment walls with an hallucination-shrine, spreading from a photograph of Baudelaire; disembodied body parts, Don Quixotes, and a white seal pup beaming before the sealer's club. Leon, the schizophrenic merchant marine, sold marijuana residue he called "opium" from the bed he shared with his vegetarian sister; and young Michael, who'd escaped from the nuthouse where he'd been locked up again for telling a police officer there were better ways to run the world, kicking in the nearest plateglass window to emphasize his point, was "

gripped in a seething psychedelic-utopian delirium, ranting from table tops, or from behind the empty refrigerator, or from between the twisted ventricles in our hearts; spinning miraculous solutions to pollution and world-wide food distribution, raving in a techno-occult shorthand, until a fuse blew and Michael cringed on the floor in another fetal shudder. Sometimes Claude, a draft-dodging black flautist, soothed the atmosphere, rainbowing the air with brilliant sounds, until arrested for running the streets with a rifle, trying to escape to a Tangiers7doorway. Dawn was a meth-express and noon a nerveexplosive; at midnight we were skiing the Milky Way and falling, at 4am, without a parachute through cellular gauntlets of bonegnawing auto-cannibalism. Hundreds of hours of dehydrated insomnia; and Brian, the sado-evangelist-with-whips, read from Revelations: "The moon has turned to blood!" and it had, blood-red; and he read of babies refusing to suck their mothers' breasts, and it was true!, -in California following the latest moon-plunder and astronaut-plummet into In Kensinaon Market.

through the streets, doors slammed shut and refused to open, black cats squawled in the alleys, garbage can lids clashed in mid-air like cymbals in a diabolical marching band, fishheads swam the sidewalks and headless chickens pirouetted on the cobblestones. Poor Selim, just out ofjail from Rio, collapsed in my room, coughing his lungs into a frying pan. Then Ronnie, weirded in some ego-scheme, permitted the CBC to make a film. Upstairs, downstairs, blinding lights like artificial trees with white-hot leaves, dripped ebony snakes cabling the stairway. Huge metal cicadas whirred to record entertainment: little girls shoving syringes deep into collapsing veins and giggling; Ronnie explaining his ascension from humble origins to this zenith of entrepreneurial celebrity; cameramen grinding away expressionlessly; a director encouraging us to reveal our cultural asphyxiations, trying to prevent us from disintegrating before the foota~e - ran out. an Broadcasting Company tary on major drug dealers..

both the RCMP and Metro Toronto Police raided our house, and the leaden bubble on Andrew Street burst, during the rush-hour spasms of the Love Generation, in 1971.

Home support workers deserve fair wages 1 HEWORKWE DO as home support workers helps thousands of Canadians to live with dignity in the comfort of their own homes. We are the most personal level of health care, providing individual, personal care to each of our clients. We have been without a contract since March, 1992. We earn from $8.35 to a maximum of $12.35 an hour. Home support workers are now reluctantly on strike - some of us for more than five months - to fight HEABC1sattempt to impose a two-tier wage structure that would mean redur xi pay for more than 70 percent of us. We do important work. We care for the sick, the elderly, the terminally ill, mothers with new babies, paraplegics, and the physically and mentally challenged. We perform tasks such as bathing (tub, bed, sponge), transfers and lifts, medications, catheter and ostomy care, prostheses, back braces and other supports, activation exercises (physiotherapy), plan special diets, assist with feeding, and all housekeeping tasks needed to maintain a healthy environment in the home. A major study released Jan. 17, 1995 by economistJudith Maxwell says Canadians could save a further $4 billion by increasing the use of home care services. Studies estimate that home care saves British Columbians $400 million, compared to the cost of putting people in institutions. We ask for your help to end this needless dispute. Please phone your MLAand Premier Mike Harcourt, and tell them you support a fair wage structure for home care workers. Mr. Harcourt can be reached at 660-2701 in Vancouver, or at 387-1715 in Victoria.

(Note: Home care workers are a real necessity for hundreds of people in the Downtown Eastside, but they are not permitted to come to this area after dark anymore. The hype on 'TV and the reality on the streets are taking their toll as caregivers fear for their lives. This seems irrational but a recent visit by a nurse's union rep had her asking if someone could meet her at her car in an underground, secured parking garage and escort her to a building fifty feet away through an enclosed courtyard. Now that's scary!

Dear People

I see you all Dressed in your white hoods and robes Waving Rebel flags and Swastikas For all to witness Shouting out angry cries of pride And twisted beliefs You scream that \% I THE NIGGERS and THE JEWS ?: and THE NIPS Are to blame For all the world's troubles that The only way

is to blame For the way the world is YOURSELF INCLUDED You wear arrogance as a shroud And ibmorance is your lover You're blinded By your own self-righteous creed

"t,

Tn r l r h i ~ x w11 T C T l P E

%,I

Take a moment To look past the end of yer fuckin' nosc And think. . If your kind get their own way Then what ??? Will you begin to fight

I' 9

Among yourselves Because there is no one else left I think SO You will point out

Is your way c that The only solution is 4 'WHITE REVOLUTION!' 3L f G You're sick of all this GOD DAMNED HIPPIE LOVE SHIT The only use you have for THEM LONG-HAIRED, RACE-TRAITING, COMMUNISTIC, FAGGOT LOVING FREAKS Is to let 'em rot And use 'em as fertilizer Right after you show them That the only 'PEACE' you need Is the .45 you've got holstered on yer hip well, FUCK YOU AND YOUR BIGOTED HATRED WE ALL DESERVE TO DIE

The weaknesses and faults In your, so-called, 'Fellow believers' And proceed to destroy each other Dontcha you get it YOU STUPID FlJCKS Your 'Aryan Way' Is only the start Of the end of it all We all bleed red Do you have to slice your own throats To see that CAIN '94

(From 7'he Slice, V01.3 No.6)

my mother brought home another bad actor from the bar but this guy was different he was dangerous 1 could sense it she just wanted some laughs and somebody to drink with he had one thing in mind he grabbed her tore open her blouse she scared angry he pressed against her gri nnmg 1 went after him tried to pull him off her he swore threw me across the room she was really scared begging him to stop I ran at him again he hit me hard threw me into the wall she screamed at me to stay there she stopped struggling he pushed her down on the couch spread her legs undid his pants I squeezed my eyes shut shoved my hands against my ears I wanted to tear myself to pieces I could still hear her sobbing I could still hear him panting and grunting I didn't want to feel what I was feeling it was too much and that was when evil entered me I vowed I would never again be vulnerable to another human being and comforted me Bud Osborn

Valentine's Day Healing March When: February 14th Place: Start at Carnegie 401 Main Street Where: Theatre (main floor) Time: 9:30am - 2pm

Women are the backbone of LIFE. The community is gathering to do a Healing March to remember our women who have died in the Downtown Eastside. February 14th, Valentine's Day - a day to remember your loved ones..especially those who have died violent deaths and from drug overdoses.

FIRST MOURN, THEN WORK FOR CHANGE

' 1

I I

This march was started after a sister, CherylAnn Joe, was brutally killed. For some reason this year has a whole new dimension for Valentine's Day, as so many of our sisters have died and some of their families don't know that they have died. The lady who fell off the fire escape at a local hotel on January 4th ...she died the next day at VGH She is listed as Ms. B because she had no ID. No one could or would say who she was, where relatives or family might be found, or where she lived. This is so sad; we see people on the streets and they are someone with no name.

I asked some questions of the Police, Victim's Services and the Coroner's Office 1. How many of the deceased were Nati~c, Hispanic, Caucasian, Chinese, other? 2. How many were not claimed? 3. What happens to the deceased when they are not claimed? 4. What's the process with community groupq - are they helpful..are they even asked? A man named Larry at the Coroner's O f k e responded saying no one is buried without every effort being made to identify them This includes photos, fingerprints and dental records. Names, if & when they are learned, are not released until any family has been informed. Social Services is responsible for contacting the family and, if the family cannot afford burial costs, the ministry will pay I have a saying - 'being alone is death in itself - and that is exactly how I feel about those who are on the streets. These women do have a story. they are someone's child..they are someone's sister. The march on the 14th is to commemorate the many women who have been murdered in the past 10 years. It's also necessary to honour our dead. Here at Carnegie we will gather and prepare signs for our walk - bring a picture of your Loved One to be placed on a banner. Margaret Prevost