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NEWSLETTER 401 Main Street, Vancouver V6A 217 4

(8041 665-2220

JUNE 15,2002

KODDAN - Sam. Born January 29, 1915 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, he came to live in the Vancouver area in 1929. Afier a brief illness, Sam lefi quietly on June 8,2002 at 87 years young. Sadly missed by his loving family: wife, Hulda; children: George (Susan and Liam), Janet (Reto and Krigi) and Maggie (Lou); brother David (Gail); sister Esther and many other nieces, nephews and fiends. He was pre-deceased by his lather, the Rev. Andrew Roddan and mother, Mrs. Jennie Roddan, his brothers Stuart and Andrew and sisters, Margaret and Ruth. Sam was well known and loved in the Crescent Beach community and the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver. A Writer, Artist, Soldier, Teacher and Master Story-teller, Sam was a friend to one and all. A Memorial Service and celebration of his life will be held on Saturday, June 15,2:00 p.m. at Crescent United Church 2756-- 127th St., Surrey, B.C. A service will also be held at Vancouver First United Church on Friday, June 14th at 3:00 p.m., 320 East Hasting. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to First United Church Mission, Vancouver, B.C.

1882 - 1362 # A Photograph Of My Mother

A shutter tripped fifty years ago, on a summer afternoon; and because of that, you gaze back at me today. You're posed before the fairgrounds; behind you a Ferris wheel looms. You're in the full bloom of your youth and beauty; and although other figures populate, you dominate the frame. You smile back at me, shy and satisfied -your mouth still savoring the indulgences of licorice and ice cream. Your eyes reflect the keen excitements of your adventures upon the midway: the jugglers, the acrobats, the bright banners and the distorting mirrors. You're radiant in the afterglow ofjoy and abandonment -you so freely and recklessly spent the hard-earned and horded bills

Sam Roddan was so much a man of the world that he considered himself part of the Downtown Eastside. Since 1996 he has contributed his artwork and a brief thought to exemplifL compassion and trust in the human spirit, and the Carnegie Newsletter has been graced with both. l

on the thrilling rides and games of chance. And you stare back at me now through all these years, with one hand in your pocket clutching your last remaining coins for the trolley ride home. Ken Morrison

The G-8 Summit At Kananaskis The Bears Fight Back Although there has been a lot of protest against corporate, global imperialism, Prime Minister Jean Chretien has chosen the tiny mountain community of Kananaskis, Alberta, about 50 miles west of Calgary to be the site of the Group of Eight ((3-8) Summit on June 26 & 27,2002. The Group of Eight is made up of some of the world's most powerfbl industrial nations with some of the world's most powerfd corporations. The purpose of the conference is to move forward the corporate domination of the world. "We think it's pretty exciting," said Dale Dyck, general manager of Delta Lodge, one of the two hotels in the remote community. Dale Dyck has no idea just how exciting it's going to be. To enforce totalitarian security, Chretien will bring in enough tear gas and pepper spray to poison western Canada. There'll be tens of thousands of police and military personnel, tanks, water guns, flame throwers, helicopters, rubber bullets, real bullets, electric prods, baseball bats, stun guns, barbed wire fences, attack dogs, and specially built gulags. In a world as despairing as this one, it's easy to find people who will beat up (and sometimes kill) other human beings for money.

But wait a minute. The G-8 Summit at Kananaskis is going to be in the wilderness, and the creatures of this fragile mountain environment aren't happy about this invasion by the most destructive animal the world has ever seen - corporate man who would turn every part of our beautifid earth into a commodity for sale. Already the animals, birds, insects, snakes, fish, mountains, trees, lakes, rivers, earth and sky have met together to discuss this threat to their being. Everyone looked to the grizzly bears to lead the resistance, but the bears were wary ofthe enormous firepower of the enemy. "We can't match their violence," the bears said. "We have to think of a strategy they can't deal with." There was a long silence after this statement, for all the creatures knew of the murderous power of profitdriven men and women. Then the mosquitoes spoke. "We are not strong like the bears," they said, "but along with our cousins the black flies, we have the power to drive men crazy. Also, we can carry diseases like yellow fever and malaria, and because we move our wings one thousand times a second, we can create a humming sound that will obliterate their entire communication system. Maybe we can use their high tech equipment against them. We can swarm under their visors, into their helmets, and find the crevices in their Halloween outfits. We can jam their gas masks, attack their eyes, block their ears, fly up their noses, and charge into their mouths. Many of us will be killed, but we're like the phoenix in the fire. Our awareness of living includes the past and the future, and the continuity of life is more powerfir1 for us than the finality of death. There are billions and billions of us, and we have lived on this earth for four hundred million years. We share with you a vision of community that lifts being-in-theworld from the predatory stage of development to ecological balance. We do not want our success to depend on another's failure, nor our prosperity on another's poverty. We want to be in control of our lives, to belong to our land, and to live with our traditions. We are not for sale." All the creatures of the wilderness cheered after this speech, and the grizzly bears said, "Come, friends. let us work togeikler, and we will prevail." lation on resistance to the G-8 ww.Ci8activist.ca

Sandy Can

>From the desk of the Chief Librarian: Q: Has the province's audiobook program been reinstated? A: I have been hearing a lot of confision about the provincial audiobook program and would like to clarifL the issue. As many of you know, the province, through its Public Library Services Branch, has been in the business of producing books on tape for the visually impaired. These audiobooks are then circulated as a traveling collection between the public libraries in B.C. The program ensured that new titles arrived in our library on a regular basis without additional cost to the user or to the library and it filled the needs of many of our audiobook users. In particular, this program filled a significant gap in the commercial audiobook market by ensuring that Canadian and B.C. books were available in audio format. The provincial government announced recently that the program would be cut - and then rumours came out that they had decided to reinstate it.. Staffat the Public Library Services Branch were kind enough to fax me a press release fiom George Abbott, Minister of Community, Aboriginal and Women's Services, in which he states that "our government came to the conclusion that it was neither necessary nor appropriate to continue producing a commercial product." He notes that, in 1974, when the audio-book program began, "commercially prod-

uced audiobooks were unavailable." Now there are "thousands of titles produced by the private sector" and "hundreds of commercially produced audiobooks titles are added annually to public library collections in British Columbia." The Province is, however, "currently in negotiations with InterLINK, a federation of 17 library boards", for this group to "continue maintaining, duplicating, and distributing the existing audiobook stock" of 106,750 volumes. There is a possibility that Interlink will produce about 50 new titles a year as well - about 25% of the program's former output. The province's equipment would be given to Interlink and funding to assist them in setting up the necessary structure for the maintenance and distribution of the audiobooks could be forthcoming when an agreement is reached. It is worth noting that audiobooks were previously circulated to public libraries at no charge for the use

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our own funds will require us to significantly increase our audiobook budgets. Quality unabridged audiobooks from commercial producers cost between $50 and $ I00 per title. In a time when maintaining current levels of funding for public libraries fiom local governments is uncertain, this may be difficult. The losers will be the visually impaired users.

June 2002 >From the desk of the Chief Librarian (Nelson): Q: When the Legal Services ofice in Nelson will be closed (as of August 2002), where will I go for legal information? A: The Library can't provide legal advice or assistance but we can help you with information. * We can direct you to Canadian statutes online and offer you the Statutes of British Columbia in print. * We have over 250 Self-Counsel Press books, 29 of them in Reference and the rcst in the circulating collection.

* We carry other reference books such as Martin's Annual Criminal Code, Black's Law Dictionary and Copyright Law in Canada. * The Library has just received a box of pamphlets and booklets from the Legal Services that cover a broad range of topics such as family violence, work permits, human rights, and living common law. These will be interfiled in file boxes with books on the same topic to make them easy to find.

StafTwill be retained at the Legal Services Society office in Vancouver to maintain and update this website even after the Legal Resource Centre is gone. Only one or two staff and a small collection of print resources for the use of these s t a i n maintaining the Electronic Law Library will be retained after the LRC is closed. The loss of many knowledgeable s t a the bulk of the print resources, the audio-visual resources, and the annual public library grants will be keenly felt by librarians - and those who look for legal information through their libraries - across the province. Deborah Thomas, Chief Librarian Nelson Municipal Library

Phone: ns-0790 Fax: 775-0881 OMce hours: Tuesday-Frlday gam-qpm

THE 6 8 JUNE MEETING IN KANANASKIS: A STRATEGIC MOMENT By Starhawk The G8, the heads of the eight most industrialized countries in the world, are preparing to meet in late June in the isolated wilderness area of Kananaskis, near Calgary, in Alberta, one of the most prosperous and conservative provinces of Canada. Last July, their Genoa summit was met by hundreds of thousands of demonstrators, and protests that at moments became pitched battles. Carlo Giuliani was shot and killed, and many other activists were brutally beaten, imprisoned, and tortured. But the global justice movement has not been silenced. As we near the time for the June summit, major demonstrations and counter-summits are being planned in Calgary and the Kananaskis area. Is it worth making the trek to Western Canada to engage in yet another summit contest? Would we not better devote our resources to the thousands of local battles that are also the front lines of the global justice struggle? Both the local and the global struggles are important. But right now, a strong protest in Alberta is vitally necessary. We fight on a thousand local fronts because we are challenging a larger system that ultimately needs to be dismantled as a whole. The large summits are still the best place to confront the overall system of global corporate capitalism. And this is a strategic moment in that battle. Local struggles are important. The system of global corporate capitalism has thousands of local impacts. It's Exxon polluting the Nigerian delta, Chevron spewing forth air pollution in a low income community in California. It's an inner city hospital closing, a CocaCola logo on the high school gym, a factory in Canada moving to the Mexican border, a young woman displaced from a village in Chiapas forced to work in that factory for less than a living wage. Addressing the local face of globalization brings the issues home, roots us back in community, gives activism integrity, and also teaches us some deep lessons. For local issues always face us with complexities. Global issues become human, personal. The opposition is the guy down the block who works at Chevron, the mother at your kids' school who welcomes the windfall from Coke. We have more need and incentive to hear their point of view, to see

we go hack home.

the issues in their fillness, not in simplistic, black and white terms. Working locally, we can also see the results of our actions in our daily reality. Every day, we walk by the school, the medical clinic, the worker-owned cooperative. On a local level we can implement solutions, try out programs, make immediate changes that affect real people's lives. And local actions are accessible to everyone, to working people with limited means and time for travel, to parents who have kids to take care of. Nevertheless, local action is not enough. Some of us have been working locally, often for decades and we understand quite well that no local gains will be sustained in the face of the major policies set by the WTO, the IMFiWorld Bank, the G8 and all their alphabet-soup brethren. Our hardest won victories can be erased in a moment by a press conference, a new regulation or a stroke of a pen. A local victory, no matter how important, is like nibbling away at the toes ofthe beast. The places where we can challenge that system as a whole, where we can strike at its heart, are the summits, those big meetings ofthe elite that function as rites of entitlement and reinforcers of legitimacy. The strategy of contesting them has served us well since Seattle. Disrupting the meetings has focused a spotlight of public scrutiny on institutions that were functioning in near-secrecy. It has raised debate, called into question their legitimacy, and begun to undermine their power. The protests highlight internal conflicts and support dissenting factions within the institutions. Moreover, the summit protests bring us together, building alliances that can strengthen our work when

Educators speak of the teachable moment, that instant in which an urgency cracks the shell of apathy and a previously resistant student opens to learning. Most people respond to the news somewhat like bored kids in school, knowing there is an overwhelming amount of information being directed at them, but not quite knowing why they should care or what action they should take. The big summit actions create mass teachable moments. They generate a drama, an excitement, an urgency that draws attention and wakes people up. The public suddenly has a reason to pay attention to institutions it has long ignored, to crave information it has long neglected. Without a central drama going on somewhere in the world, decentralized protests draw only the faithhl and have minimal impact. They still serve an important educational role. But their impact is magnified a thousand times when a large action is taking place at the site of a world summit meeting where media and global attention are concentrating. A critique has also been raised within the movement that summit protests are not accessible to the very people who are most impacted by global policies-the poor, people of color, immigrants, families--that attending the protests is for the privileged. It's true that travel is hard for those with limited means and pressing life responsibilities. But our response should not be to stay home, but to increase our efforts to raise hnds and share resources so that a wider spectrum of people can attend. Because in opposing the G8, we join a struggle led by the people ofthe global south, by indigenous people fighting for their lands and cultures, by the poor and dispossessed around the world, who have asked for our solidarity. The privilege we might have confers a responsibility to use our resources to carry the struggle into the beasts' lair. When those who benefit from the system openly reject it, the beast truly begins to tremble. The G8 summit is also a strategic moment. The beast is gnashing its teeth, spoiling for a new fight, and this is a crucially important opportunity to halt its advance. The government, media and corporate

interests have used the attacks of 9- I 1 to hrther their agenda that makes corporate profit the prime value by which every human activity is ordered and every potential resource exploited. These systems represent the everyday terrorism of policies that breed poverty and despair. They kill millions every day, from the children who die of diarrhea because the IMF has forced a government to abandon a program to provide clean water, to the civilians who die in the bombings that clear the way for policies favorable to corporate desires. The success of the corporate agenda depends on the cooperation of masses of people whose own true interests are not being served. To assure their compliance the violence inherent in the system must be kept from the public eye. Capitalism is equated with democracy. Those who dissent are labeled terrorists' and criminalized. And when the guns and bombs and missiles that back up corporate policy are unleashed, the interests they serve are disguised by noble rhetoric. A strong summit protest rips the benevolent

mask from the face of corporate'globalization, makes the violence visible, and exposes the lie. The authorities are put in a dilemma. They cannot convincingly claim to represent democracy and suppress dissent. Either they allow us to gather and express the enormous public opposition to their policies, or they are forced to openly repress us. So far, their strategy in Alberta has been one of active discouragement and criminalization. While giving lip service to democracy, they have undermined and blocked efforts of the organizers to secure safe and legal places for marches, gatherings, and encampments. They hope people will be intimidated, and stay home. The drama in Alberta may well become a contest for public space and freedom of expression,

1 '

played out on the streets ofCalgary as well as the road to the mountains. But the struggle for global justice is a struggle for space: for life-space, for learning spaces free of corporate advertising and influence, for the traditional territories of an indigenous community, for a commons that cannot be sold to the highest bidder. And it is, ultimately, a struggle for freedom: for the freedom of people to cross borders as capital does, for the freedom of communities to control their own resources and destinies, for the fieedom to participate in decisions that affect us. The G8 summit is the moment for the global justice movement in North America to return from the setbacks of 9-1 1 with renewed vigor and creativity. With strong support from the Canadian labour movement and thousands of union members coming to take action, it's an opportunity to reforge and strengthen alliances among broad sectors of the , movement, and make the impact of global policies on working people a central focus. And with new wars on the horizon every day, ongoing violence in the Middle East and the far East, an invasion of Iraq on the Bush agenda, it's a vitally important moment to draw attention to the links between militarism and global corporate capitalism, to pry Canada away from backing the U.S. drive for hegemony, to unite the movement for global justice with the movement for peace. To mount strong actions in conservative Alberta, we need numbers. Calgary, Edmonton, Canmore and surrounding communities have been organizing for months, but Kananaskis was cleverly chosen to be far away from major centers of activism. The moment is crucial enough, and the stakes high enough, that it is a worthwhile use of our resources to go there if we possibly can. Of course, not everyone can go to Alberta. Direct actions are also being planned

in Ottawa, and a call has gone out for protests in capital cities across the world. The sister actions that will take place around the globe will help spread the impact of the actions. We need to work both locally and globally. But western Canada is where the beast has gone to ground, and where the central drama needs to take place. Come to Calgary and even Kananaskis country if you can, and then bring the struggle back home with renewed energy and new alliances. The G6B Countersummit will take place in Calgary from June 21-25. The Labourlfamily march will be June 23rd. Direct actions will be ongoing through the G8 meetings taking place in Kananaskis June 2628. For information on the actions, G6B summit, and ongoing, organizing, go to www.G8activist.ca

Queen's Golden Jubilee Medals CALL FOR NOMINATIONS - Libby Davies, Member of Parliament for Vancouver East, is awarding 20 medals to outstanding residents of East Vancouver to commemorate the Queen's Golden Jubilee. The medals will be awarded to those who have contributed a significant achievement or distinguished service to their fellow citizens, their community, or to Canada. For details or to nominate someone, please call (604) 775-5800.

Yogafor body & mind yoga exercises and meditation to improve and tone up the muscles and the nervous system to give a peacefd inner harmony.

2-3pm Teacher Dada

Tams

TAI CHIfor inner health With smooth motions of tai chi the body remains in a state of relaxed efficiency to make the mind fiee.

3-4pm Teacher

Yogatma

:Glen valley Farm Trip;

Free of charge! Everyone welcome!

2002 - All on Sundays

Every Saturday in the gym Camegie Community Centre, 40 1 Main Street

Summer Solstice June 16 9 am-5 pm July 21 9am-5 pm: no meeting! Summer Lunch August I8 9 a m - 5 p m September 15 9-5 3rd Annual Harvest Festival October 20 9-5

Potluck lunch provided 12 pm Meeting 1 - 3 pm (for those who attend)

Stroll, lounge or help with farm chores Sign up in the Program floor Carnegie Community Centre

Special General Meeting Common Concerns Association Calling all members and residents: to discuss issues related to the management and governance ofthe Common Concerns Association and the Clothes Encounters LaundryICafe. It is imperative that members and Downtown Eastside / Strathcona residents attend.

Tuesdav June lath7:30 p.m. 3rd floor Study Room Canegie Centre,

["The following was spoken at the peopba' festival in victoris, b.c.1

take back mace I was t&~g last week with libby davies, member of parliament for the downtown eastside of vmcouver, and Libby told of a star trek episode she'd seen a futuristic situation uu s m h c i s c o - an enonnous wan ltad been con..tmcted dividing ~ wpeople r h m everyone else.. and outside this wall insuper consumerist upscale society there was almost no aware~lessof who was stmggbrg to survive on the other side ~ E t h ewaU nor how wretched their living conditionswere and libby said "that's not our W e it's happenittg right now" north america's anti-panhandling bylaws and other prohibitions against the presence of certain people $ what was formerly public space is a central objective in the global awl local war against the pow

Ir %

to put t& &ution "1 perspective [I'd like to q l d e frm an excellent book "'geographies ofexcl~sion" by david sibley; he says "power is expressed in the monopolizatioa of space and the relegation of weakergnn~pin society to less desirable envkoruuents.. the boundaries between the consuming and nonconsuming ptlblic are stren&mhg with nonconsuunption being constmed w r as a form of deviance at the same time as spaces of consumption elirniu~ate public spacesin city centres, procegses of control are manifested in the exclusion of those who are judged to be deviant imperfect or marginal -who is felt to belore and not below contrhtes in an i m ~ o * ~ t w W ' to the shqutg of social space it is often the case that this hostility to others is iuticulated as a concern about property values the urge to make separationsbetween clean and dirty ordered and disordered us and them Ulat is to expel the abject is encowaged ul westen1 cuhues aeating anxieties because such separations can never fu~allybe achieved this anxiety is reinforced by the culture of consumption in western societies the success of capitalism depends on it

and a necessary &hue-gtaphies of exolusim the hteral mappings of power relahons and w j e c h is the cobpse of cntemries&e knbh and txivate and to be &eased orisnbled k a mark of imperfection the fear ofinfection leads to a c t i o n of the b d e s to resist the spread of diseased polluted others t there is a history of imaginary geographies W I ~ ] ,cast ,.imPerfoct people ,. fdlws wlmareseen toyoseaUueat to the dominant group in society as polluting bodies vils who are U m located elsewhere where might be nowhere genocide or moral hm~sfonnation of a minority like prostitutes are advocnted lhe uttragrry of deWemellt which locates people on the margins or in residttal spaces is now more likely to be applied to tlw mentally disabled the hotneless prostihltes ""d S M w r d c ~ l n ~ ~ r i t i e s " the downtown eastside of vancouver, where 1 live, is by sly statistical mea.unment of poverty and disease a third world area besieged by upscale developmental greed of t d y genocidal proportions Ibe highest rates and numbers of hiv/aids..swici&,. hepatitis c.,syph& and tuberculosis in the western wok3 ruldclose to ,he lowest life exphlcy

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and the sk@ question I iun asked more tlran any otlw by media and concerned oilizrr~s 'where they go?" where will the people go when they are driven from tlus area by ggehificatio~IIdispIauema~l? refelring to sibley, I must collclu& that the municipsl yrovincial and federal govmnents must have some imaginary geography in mind because there is nowhere for the people to go in the downtown eastside the p u b b space that has been availaWe Tor mentdy disab14 horn&sS, Prostitutes is being seized from them

W-I'SH YOU WERE HERE ...

where IIIIIIWI hei~ypswho l w e ~umhereelse to go rc l t ~ ~cuuM s t sv;u~dfor awluk awnings arc re~novedlion1 blriklurgs SO t l ~co t puius clown on very ill pople large private security forces a gatown iuui chinatown business ctislricts enlbrce to the limits of their caphilily anti-panhading bytaws and harass paor :u~dvulnerable people out of their iu'easaway ti0111 toiuisls and bminesses there is scrim lak of e s t a b l i s h what is be the canoU street corridor - a kind of demilitarizedzone bemeen gaslowrl and chimatown so that to b v e to walk through the defiled dow

and in tlw n~icbtof the downtown eastside the police have established a red zone for ~lisollecs=leased fromjail, lW and vmouver city council has and money in an attempt to ~ircunlvent the charter of rights and freedoms naming t b downtown eastside ofthis action to loosen even wore Ule search and s e w re&hons there are no-80 wnes in new weshniister several block a!-ws wlwe if you nre (leemed a1 I U I ~ iu~dIlwt is basically UI respor lio111the downlown castside to new w s t by police

througli the puor - and this is Ute rc;ll retlsoll for tbc a n t s h ~ gproblem tlclt in nu swictios tl~e1ic11

have tletestetl lh< poor alal why wllcn precisely the rich are the powerlid the supcriur the strollg do they set tl~cmselveaagainst ihe wc cut hrd ufcu~u.seaU 111epsycl~ologic;~l ;III~I swiological reasons we could want but now of these rwsons is tk~i~~itive none really e q h i n s hut they all wlntc h) thc hct Lhal thleI,oor are a oelnpopJlizUwl ofgo'l" to resist today is to ktke hc1; s p w blct wllell we are tkw in i~t~rnberj at111have rul lnolley or political power, what do we do:' the question I fulnlly askcd myself is not wluch causc, which new ,w;?ult on the poor should I take on?

lsing.?the legal systeIn.) racism,) unelnplo), IheR of children from 1)oor women? welfare? but who are the defiled? the ones who don't belong'?

,I dolled deskoyet[ t & tile i l n l l o v ~ r ~ s dnlg ~ r ~ ~addict on wlloln the elltire system bears tlown cvery instih~tioaof

but therz is ~ ~ I S ~ I I I LI ~Y I. O Wthere is here in victoria t ago and in vancouver n ~ long activists pwteslinp the all invialerl cily 1 1 d imtl ow the sol)l~istieiulionof tltu

clu~itlgmy activism ill the dow~~town eastside

ol'vu~~couvcr 1~1s ixeu great policl: Ilavin?: to charge II singk person yet h ~ the s ystcm is abk to avoid a pu~hliclegal clufflenge i111r1 p111)licspice conlitu~es to bz seized

to yield resouws it luzvzr would have othe~wise

I believe that in the downtown eastside to defend the eniue community ofpoor pcopl clefend stRIldWi

put this UI il tl~wlogicidp limn ;I I r w k ont~tl~ul moll wnltc~~ by lacqwwllnl. who I'ought in the res~sta~~cz 111 I ~ ~ I I I C ~ CI I I I ~ 1111: I I ~ SCWII~I w 4 l \VM 1 ~ i.~~gitgcd ~ ~ I~I I I I1I ~ L I IsY~ ~ t iJ1I I1S ~ ~ FA~~pgles \: ~nvolvetlwith the tln~gs~tu~ation t l ~ ~ t r u g l1111: ~ o ~ t~:tr ~ ~ : ~ r ~ s llire ~ ' r oellul i t ~says ~s -. -.heM - .-e pix)tedt I<)

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fotoa24hcM.rrm.wtrra:mnbe tiidiug cazci w a* U ~ t k d e m gI e t r e a m t (hs W m l s colnhlg M t t wit11 alu&an dellars to deal the pt&kh C h emflmmy

and i@sbeer~ d&&d t l w t t h e k ~ l ~ m m willt

and tae &PWl boardin cmpafim{of wifl~other-a~d$Fb-

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m W m m h ~ & h 6 @ ~~tunertd~2Woin*hed&.kesdsfthe

nnd on committees where they had nwer been seen

or heard before

r b n t tlus soMwty ISthe only hope I see for actual conerete c h a w

~toccurs to me regardmg activ~smin the downtown eastside that out ofall advocacy efforts and aU the I t h e downtown eastside e being crushed meetings and d e m d * ~ ~ u hwsing, M J w u there are a m a o n battles to w t important as aots of resistatw they have notylelded Ihave iever before r e h d the wi& and breadth lind one square inch of space taken back power ofthe system a.I have m t h advocacy ~ ~ but the drug emergency has been Wily hopeful because here is a real threat to the system, trying to save the hves of thoqe others woiild rather see d ~ e was beg,,,l by wdllInetnbenr a p&hon far safe injection room m the downtown eastside more spaoe for the lowest the least and the hst and because of the honendm10 number of overdose deaths, tlw 11a.sbeconle a posslbiity , the 24-hour resoiuce centre committee imanimously suppaned Uus pehtim and safe injection sites wid this committee includes a gastown business leader and an uupector of the Vancouver yohce deand the chief medical oE6cer of be johnmiUar, in a repost on the public health emergency, urges the government to yreld remitces with ho~ujlngmenhoned prornbre~itty 1I'll cbse wtth atwtlier cpotahon to help save lives of dnlg 1 6 . . n from the best book I know 011 tlus whole debacle out of t\u%s ~ f f e m agf d n ~ add~cts g end their famike.% iys Cdu& -the Munrn.out of this exclusion, out of this genocde, the comer beurg the dnig comer, Lhe dnlg scene out of the enonnous health oate costs now and later the authors &wd sunon end edward bum1 say out of the monstrous market of mtemabo1li(l drug trade "the comer LS everywhere and we have swallowed agau~~t first nations people out of the wild fire some dzsastroiw pretensions allowing ourselves a naive consequences of the prohbition of dhcrt drugs Su'cr"fy 'la* even now assun'es the ont ofthe dmease, out of the lives of the most execrated can be restricted to herom and cocame most written-off and hated hummi beings nl our soctety h i t e d to a self contamed cadre oflawbreakers Iras come iui openma a possrbdity for sontethitg new when all along the confbct was npe to become a war for change for takmg back space ageinst the, underclass ~tself and the emergency is not going to go awny we mcornrmt to the peopk ot'the comer,to the notcon problems assocrated with drug nse WIN only increase that they are our own, that theu tkture IS our fi~ture and worsen if real changes are not made or we can throw the problem back on them for social acbv~sts empathy demnnds Ulst we recogtuze owsdrlves this 1s an opporhuuty that may not ever come again m their faces, that we acknowledge the addmttve unpulse ts someflung more than simple lawlessness you can take on U l e witole system that we begin to see the corner &om the side ofa drug addot as tl~e last refuge of the tndy &owned thts cnsis is in victoria, it ISut the comox vaUey and connectedness admits it b on m e m thro~lghoiitthe province that between theu world and oms it IS aoross the world the distance and so I urge polihcal achvists to organize with drug in htunan tenns at least addicts - they are ~nthe tuggest mess there IS never as watas we 'lake it seem" their lives we the b w s t messes axd the doser you are to them the more of a mess you get uito

MEMORIES Close your eyes and go back in time.... Before the Internet or the MAC... Before semi automatics and crack..Before SEGA or Super Nintendo...Way back.. I'm talking about hide and seek at dusk. The Good Humor man, Red light, green light. The comer store. Hopscotch, doubledutch, jacks, kickball, dodgeball. Mother May I? Hula Hoops. Running through the sprinkler. Wax l i ~ and n s mustaches. An ice 'cream cone on a warm summer night, chocolate, vanilla or strawberry. Wait ..... Watching Saturday morning cartoons ... Short commercials, Fat Albert, Road Runner, The Three Stooges and Bugs. VIW A million mosquito bites. Sticky fingers. Cops and Robbers, Cowboys and Indians, Zorro. Climbing trees. Building igloos out of snow banks. Walking to school, no matter what the weather. Running till you were out of breath. Laughing so hard that your stomach hurt. Jumping on the bed. Pillow fights. Spinning around, getting dizzy and falling down was cause for giggles. Being tired from playing.... Remember that? The worst embarrassment was being picked last for a team. War was a card game.

Baseball cards in the spokes transformed any bike into a motorcycle. Eating Kool-Aid powder. Remember when... There were two types of sneakers for girls and boys: the only time you wore them at school, was at "gym" It wasn't odd to have two or three "best" fiiends. When nobody owned a purebred dog. When a quarter was a decent allowance and another quarter a miracle. When milk went up one cent and everyone talked about it for weeks? When you'd reach into a muddy gutter for a penny. When nearly everyone's Mom was at home when the kids got there. It was magic when dad would "remove" his thumb. When it was considered a great privilege to be taken out to dinner at a restaurant with your parents. When any parent could discipline any kid or feed him or use him to carry groceries and nobody, not even the kid, thought a thing of it. When they threatened to keep kids back a grade if they failed and did! When being sent to the principal's ofice was nothing compared to the fate that awaited a misbehaving student at home. Basically, we were in fear for our lives but it wasn't because of drive-by shootings, drugs, gangs, etc. Our parents and grandparents were a much bigger threat and some of us are still afraid of them!!! Didn't that feel good? Just to go back and say, "Yeah, I remember that!" Remember when.... Decisions were made by going "eeny-meenyminey-mo." Mistakes were corrected by simply exclaiming, "do over!" "Race issue" meant arguing about who ran the fastest. Money issues were handled by whoever was the banker in "Monopoly." Worst thing you could catch from the opposite sex was cooties. Having a weapon in school, meant being caught with a slingshot. Nobody was prettier than Mom. Scrapes and bruises were kissed and made better.

Cutting into the bone... Shelter cuts of $50 to $75 per month starting in July could impact more than 78,000 people, or almost one-third of those on welfare in BC, according to Lesley Moore from End Legislated Poverty. About 26,000 families will likely be affected by shelter cuts, many of whom are parents, children and people wioth disabilities. An estimated 70% of those affected will come from single parent families. Although families of two or less will not face a shelter allowance cut in July, single parents on welfare are still reeling from the $51 cut to their support allowance that took effect in April. Shelter amounts for families on welfare are already insufficient to meet housing needs. According to CMHC, the average 2-bedroom suite in Vancouver costs $75 1, but a family of three currently receives only $610 per month for shelter. That shelter rate will be reduced to $555 per month in July. "It is clear that families on welfare will be forced to choose between eating and paying the rent. Those

rent and could tace eviction," says Moore. Only 7% of welfare recipients in Canada are living in subsidized housing, according to a 1997 National Council of Welfare study. Most - about 68% - are , living in rental accommodations. When the shelter cuts take effect late this summer, many families could end up on the street or in temporary shelters as of September. End Legislated Poverty calls on the BC eovernment to rescind the cuts to welfare before

Olympics' Impact TNSIDE THE OLIiZrlPIC INDUSTRY presents a critical analysis of the politics of Olympic bids and preparations from the perspective of all those adversely affected by the social, economic, political, and environmental impacts of hosting the Olympics. The resistance efforts of international anti-Olympic and watchdog organizations. whose activities have long been underreported and underresearched, are the center of the analysis. Events in 1998-1 999, when allegations of bribery in the Olympic industry were finally investigated, marked the beginning of the end of a long era in Olympic history characterized by secrecy and corruption. At the end of the twentieth century, the voices of Olympic whistle blowers and critics are finally being heard.

Dr. Helen Lenskyj came to Vancouver at the end of May to meet with people having concerns over the Olympic Bid for the 20 10 Winter Games. The IOC (Impact of the Olympics on Community) is a citizen group that has heard of and investigated the impact of the Games on cities and people all over the world. Dr. Lenskyj is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Toronto and is a recognized authority on the International Sports industry. It was through her work and other watchdogs of the other 10C (International Olympic Committee) that the scandal of bribery and elite treatment of its members came to light around the Salt Lake City Games. It was not just an academic discussion. The local IOC coalition has looked at the impact on the poor and vulnerable people at the last six events and every one is found rifled with corruption at the highest levels - people on the Bid Committees and especially in the business of getting millions of dollars for the construction of state-of-the-art facilities make huge profits and huge amounts of public money flow in private hands. People are evicted, homeless and poor perop[le are routinely arrested are kept out of sight, prices skyrocket and what's left is nothing like what is 'promised' by the organizers. This sounds like a rhetorical rant, but Lenskyj documents the sleaze stepby-step in her book Inside the Olympic Industry. The people of the local 10C are not opposed to the Games, although Lenskyj

warns that getting honest concessions fiom the Games' business elite is going to be a public relations affair and nothing more. This was proven in both Salt Lake and in Toronto during its bid for the 2008 Summer Games. A people's organization called Bread Not Circuses went to public meetings. held demonstrations and rallies, and tried to get the ear ofthe IOC members when they came to Toronto. They were ignored by the press and got an arrogant and icy reception fiom the IOC. It was to be business and only business, with requests for housing and services for the sick, poor and vulnerable just boring social shit that no one wanted to hear about. It was only after Toronto lost to Beijing (China) that the press and disgruntled corporate execs tried to blame Bread Not Circuses for ruining the whole thing. They spent something like $26 million of mostly public money (while Harris's government closed hospitals and slashed services). In BC the expected price on just the Bid is $32 ml, with an additional $500,000 fee just added by the IOC. But get this - the provincial government has already guaranteed $3 10 million of public money if the Bid is successfi~l ...while closing hospitals and slashing services and saying that there's just no money for tens of thousands of social needs - like medicine. housing. children, seniors and on and on. The impact of the Olympics on communities will be felt for years to come. Toronto was fortunate.

By PAULR TAYLOR a

I U U l \ U \ ~ lL ~ r X l T l l

VANCOUVER ART GALLERY JUNE 14. ARTISTS, ACTIVISTS AND GUERRILLA GIRLS TO PROTEST.

On FRIDAY JUNE 14 (6pm). at the VANCOUVER ART GALLERY (Howe St entrance, corner Howe & Georgia) a group of artists. activists and women dressed as gorillas will gather to let art patrons know what they think of the Liberal government's procorporate, anti-artist, undemocratic shenanigans. "WE'VE BEEN FRAMED!" says onc artist (we'll call her "Georgia"). "Campbell is using the opening of these three women artists to promote himself as a hero to the corporate elite of the art community! Georgia O'Keefe, a committed social democrat (and one of the artists whose work is featured in this show) would have been outraged!" A Guerrilla Girl named Frida (Guerrilla Girls take the names of dead women artists) says, "Frida Kahlo, a longtime socialist, would be horrified at Campbell's gutting of social services in this country!" And the Guerrilla Girl posing as Emily Carr adds: "And how about that insulting Native Rights referendum!" Carr, known for her paintings of aboriginal totem poles and her support of First Nations' struggles, would also, says this Guerrilla, have stem things to say to Gordon Campbell. "Emily Carr taught art in Vancouver for many years. She would not have been amused at the rise in college and university art tuitions, let alone the new $6/hour training wage, which makes art school inaccessible to many aspiring artists". Georgia concludes, "Campbell's stated intent is to make BC 'open for business'. From municipal art galleries to the Olympic bid, culture is now on the Liberal agenda. What kinds of disastrous changes to our art institutions and art practices will we see in such an avowedly corporate climate? What does this say about the VAG's current community awareness and future direction?"

Taking drugs meant orange-flavored chewable aspirin. Ice cream was considered a basic food group. Getting a foot of snow was a dream come true. Abilities were discovered because of a "doubledog-dare." Older siblings were the worst tormentors, but also the fiercest protectors. If you can remember most or all of these, then you have LIVED!!!! Pass this on to anyone who may need a break from their "grown up" life... 1 DOUBLE DOG DARE YA!!!

Resumes must be mailed and postmarked before 4:30 p.m. June 28,2002: Legislation and Inter-Agency Branch Ministry of Human Resources PO Box 9932 Stn Prov Govt Victoria BC V8W 9R2 So should we all put in the same resume?

Would you like to be a member of the new Employment and Assistance Appeal Tribunal?

* Qualified people are needed to serve on regional Employment and Assistance appeal panels across the province. These appeal panels will conduct hearings on disputed decisions involving the denial, discontinuance or reduction of assistance. * The regional appeal panels are part of a new independent Employment and Assistance Appeal Tribunal that will be under the direction of the Appeal Tribunal Chairperson. For each appeal, panel members will be remunerated according to Treasury Board guidelines. Who may apply To be considered for appointment to the Appeal Tribunal, an individual must:

* Not be an employee, or have been an employee within the past six months, of the Ministry of Human Resources; and *Not be a recipient of income assistance or disability assistance fiom the Ministry of Human Resources. How to apply Please enclose a letter, detailed resume and three references that include addresses and daytime phone numbers. Clearly identify in your letter that you are applying for an appointment as a regional appeal panel member.

HepHIVE in conjunction with the Carnegie Community Centre, will again this year be offering a series on Hepatitis C information seminars in the theatre at the Carnegie Centre. The first session is the day before this paper comes out. The second in our series in July will be on co-infection. This will feature BC PWA and HepHIVE. BC PWA will give an information session on HIV, HepHlVE will do a short presentation on Hep C. Together we will discuss ceinfection, and the directions in treatment. The third in the series in August will look at nutrition and alternative therapies. In a province where getting treatment is increasingly difficult people want to know what they can do to keep themselves healthy. Food is often the greatest way to improve your heal!h. With the nutritionist fiom the Aboriginal Diabetes Awareness Programme we will explore nutrition as medicine.

In September we will again have our Hepatitis c

Tall Tight Angel

Awlareness Fair. After last years successful event we ha\ re decided to bring in a group of knowledgeable

exrerts to discuss the different aspects of living with He1patitis C. We hope to have experts fiom BC "el ati it is Services, doctors that are treating hepatitis andI alternative medical practitioners. Also we will hawIe information tables of various information Providers for those infected and affected by hepatitis Cand co-infection. Last years event was a great source of information with some ofthe best hepatitis , C Plrofessionals in the province speaking. CIieck notices for dates and times each month. \; -,, '\ \

IFE

...as I understand it ,,,

7 ,

for Nelly McClung, hecause you wanted me to write a poem about Boadicea)

J?h

I am not unlike Boadicea Who, rather than acquiesce to her captors, would kill herself you see, a golden necklace, a yoke around my neck Would indicate much the same A bird in a gilded cage soon learns to forget to sing.

Mighty warrior, who led her people in a chariot, with handmaidens at her side, ~ There is a sculpture of you in London and Leonard Cohen would sing, "And first We take Manhattan and then we take Berlin."

LA-

There is no "right" or "wrong" way to live. There e only "painfid" and "comfortable" ways to live. You and those around you deserve a life as fiee om pain as possible. Every living being deserves care and respect, no atter how insignificant that being may seem to you ,Try to focus on what is positive in life. This does not mean insulate yourself fiom reality but rather always remember that reality is often more complex than human understanding. 5.Nietzsche said there are no evil acts because all socalled acts are motivated by the individual trying to procure pleasure and avoid pain at some level. 6.We almost always underestimate the potential of xs. he concept of "wasting time" is fallacious. Time nfinite. Reality, as we perceive it in this life, is te. )ur bodies are only vehicles for our minds. Keep m running well but do not obsess over aesthetics. )O not compete to beat others, as there will always someone stronger, faster, smarter than you. Beat m e l t explore, enhance your perceptions. Life may or may not be meaningless. Do not ifuse "meaningless" with "valueless". If everyone took as little as possible and returned much as possible, the suffering in this world uld automatically invert. You can accomplish anything, within natural its, if you are willing to be tenacious. The best teachers I have ever known are children i animals. Lex Kinest

I'm just foolin' around, being the clo\n, ~ f i e rmany long days with nothin' rehashing I've gotta let off some steam and smoke a few dreams because the world as we know it is crashing as in falling through a crack, a crevice, a chasm sucked into a time warp to past days we thought dead political bosses, their masters and lackeys, run roughshod, without feeling, over hard won gains, until the cupboards are bare.. until nothing remains. So tip a glass while you can, sands of time sifting You can walk fieely for awhile, it's not yet a crime. As the seconds tick by, as your money runs low, Hitch a ride to the Food Bank with your children in tow Storm clouds rollin' in with no change a-tinglin' You may starve, you will suffer, no bite, not a thing, Maybe pan a few pennies by squatting on corners but it won't feed your fhmily.. just make you feel poorer. Sliding down the class ladder is serious business It ain't pretty or h n -this cold-hearted darkness. So what can be done before the whip comes down? What can be done to put the brakes to this turnaround, an end to this stomping, this heartless oppression? Open everyone's eyes to these destructive deductions, Turn off the burners decanting this simmering scent "It" is a back alley concoction of fear, nothing more, nothing less.

Robyn L.

If we accept the postulate given to me by Ms. Teresa Banyan during my Freshman year, '...that it will be a cold day in Hell before I sleep with you.' and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then, #2 cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic and will not freeze." The student received the only "A" given. (Submitted by Daniel Hayes)

REVENGE of the fittest. The clock explodes. Let me witness 'eyes' recognition / resignation; time's tidal wave submerging their titanic struggle, drowning in awareness, life jackets of compassion disdained. I sink or swim, save me not, for a hospital red patient or inmate - ward of the State. The living dead, boardroom desperadoes, corrupted by conservative perks, buttressed by family naivetC, destroyed by gutless, crotchless shame; finally, revenge of the fittest. A.Kostynuik

Secret Sounds It's the secret sobbing that gets me the whores ranting from too much dope or too little dope or the madness ofthe work don't bother me, not much anvwav It's the middle ofthe night sobbing as deep as a hole straight to hell When they cry part of me dies I'm reminded life is tough and only gets rougher You listen sometimes go ahead to the depth of sadness the working girls hide Secret sobs in a trapmd world a slow death interr"pted only by what the money can buy Next time you look down your nose listen for the secret sobs of all the lost souls just surviving as best they can Al

p%alzi&~{] old

Ground

"I can get behind anything" - The Tragically Hip "Learn toforget" - The Doors

As I wait for my anti-psychotics to kick in I wonder about the woman I was told I begged sex from on the way back to the Midtown Hotel after blacking from three-sharing a half-gallon jug of blackberry wine at the foot of Granville where (all but) last memory stayed Back at the hotel, my will disembodied, I 'traded' sexual favours with an ex-minesweeper sailor (WW 11) afier blacking out - which 1 feel the need to repeat still my only 'shared' orgasm not recovered by memory until late the next morning when 1 woke up to the stench of my vomit Proof that I'd begged bowing down to the sidewalk was there to surprise me as I returned from shower we all take in vain still feeling grit under our skin The scrape on the bridge of my nose begins there.. and was explained by a friend of my assaulter whom I passed on the street on my way to another afternoon called 'Basic Job Readiness Training" She probably thought -just a drunk loser a short creepy weirdo pathetic and jeerable.. . Yet really I have no right to make assumptions about the kind of woman she was or is become So maybe, I think, an unlikely wisthlness lingers in her mind to this day.. . at least until my anti-psychotics kick in Stephen Belkin

DOWNTOWN EASTSIDE YOUTH ACTIVITIES SOCIETY

STD CLINIC - 219 Main; Monday to Friday, loam 6pm NEEDLE EXCHANGE 221 Main; 8:JOam - Opm every day NEEDLE EXCHANGE VAN - 3 Routes:

- 5:45pm 11:45pm Overnipht - I2:30am - 8:30am Downtown Eastside - 5:30pm ]:30am

NATIONS Libby D.481 Sam R.420 Eve E . 4 18 Nancv H.SSO . Margaret D.-$22 ~ a b i t r~.:$22 i Pam C.49 Val A.$ 18 W m B-$27 Harold D.-$9 Mary C-$18 Paula R-$35 Rolf A.475 Bruce J . 4 18 Peggy 4 2 5 Kettle 4 1 8 Sonya S . 4100 BCTF-$ I 0 Bill G.-$100 Wes K.436 Charley B-$25 DEYASS I25 RayCam-$25 LSSS200 John S$36 Paddy 475 Sarah E.-$10 The Edge -$200 Celeste W.-$10 Jo's Mom 4 2 5 Charles F.-S 10 Mennonite CC 4 6 0 Rosemary 2.440 Joanna N.440 Jenny K-$18 Charlotte F.-$20 Nancy C.450 ---

'3 6a-i I

TIIE NEWSLETTER IS A PI)BLICATION OF THE CARNECIE COMMUNITY CENTRE ASSOCIATION.

Articles represent the views of individual contributors and not of tbe Association.

Submission Deadline for nexrt issue:

(

I..,, 1 % The Downtown Eastslde Residents Associatior, help you with: 17~ - r a r t l l

Welfare problems; Landlord disputes; Housing problems; Unsafe living conditions; Come to the Dera office at 425 Carrall Street or phone us at 682 0931

Hew Study highlights changes in storefront retail use on Hastings Street between Cambie and main St. Original maps and historical photos, including entire streetscapes, will be displayed as part of the booh release. The booh concludes CCflP's Community Banner Project funded by PEflC fllso, CCflP will be releasing a similar study of Chinatown, written by Andrew Yan,

The physics of Hell The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington engineering mid term. The answer was so "profound" that the Professor shared it with colleagues, which is why we now have the pleasure of enjoying it as well. Bonus Question: Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat) or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law, (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant. One student, however, wrote the following: "First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So we need to know the rate that souls are moving into Hell and the rate they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving.

As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since there are more than one of these religions and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all souls go to Hell. With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added. This gives two possibilities: 1. If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose. 2. Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over. So which Hit?