'children a t Risk The National Crime Prevention Centre and the National Strategy on Community Safety and Crime Prevention are federal government initiatives, using $32 million a year to "assist communities throughout Canada to develop programs and partnerships that will help prevent crime in the first place." The Strategy has objectives of government and non-government partnerships, solutions that deal with crime and victimization of children, youth, women and Aboriginal persons and the increasing of public awareness. The Strategy's priorities are children and youth, investing in Aboriginal People and Communities, and investing in women's personal security. The Strategy is split into three areas, but this article and questions concernjust one - the Community Mobilization Program. The problem: the Community Mobilization Program doesn't b d community mobilization. (?)Listen: There is a Downtown Eastside Child~YouthProtection Strategy that's been developing for several years. There's an advisory committee with people from the Downtown Eastside Youth Activities Society (DEYAS), Watari, Native Health, Tradeworks, Street Orientation Services, the Youth Action Coalition, a lawyer and people from Carnegie, RayCam and Britannia community centres. The Neighbourhood Safety Office is the forum for networking and Deb Mearns and Kate Hodgson work to keep all aspects alive and vital. Guests at meetings have brought great support and whatever expertise and suggestions they can muster to get through or around the barriers to helping the children and youth in our neighbourhood and, by conscious extension, around the Lower Mainland and across the country. This is Not a gathering of academics who engage in polite debate. Each person is directly involved in working with kids as young as 11, but mostly teenagers - drugs, runaways, sexual abuse situations, money and housing and the Law. What permeates every person's work and interaction is the spectre of kids being preyed on and either recruited or forced into the sex trade. No one, from prostitutes on the street to professors in ivory towers, wants to see young kids peddling their asses to survive or to get addictive drugs.
The DE strategy involves 1) continuous criticism of the police record (and by extension the Attorney General) in enforcement of Sec. 212(4), which is the law on having sex with minors; 2) creating a database on sexual predators who prey on kids; 3) engaging the entire community in helping kids access existing services and, seeing what is needed, fill the gaps. About 2 years ago the frustration and anger at inaction by the criminal justice system was harnessed and the development of what came to be called the Community Alert Team proposal began. The basic idea is to hold training sessions in communities throughout the city on identifying sexual predators, to engage people in all walks of life to correctly compile and record information that can be presented in court. The most dd3cult aspect of deterring sexual predation is charging and convicting the predators. As said above, adult sex trade workers help where they can to pass on info abut men asking for 12-14 year-olds; agency and service workers try to persuade kids to talk to them and the police 'scoop' kids found engaging in the sex trade or being used as drug mules. On this last point alone, the Police Board was given a report by Sgt. Ken Frail on police involvement with children in the Downtown Eastside. There are up to three dedicated cars that can be dispatched or called to deal with kids under 16. The operations covered in the report spanned just 6 weeks and entailed 'scooping' children when seen or apprehended in the area for working the street in a sexual or druginvolved capacity. Police rarely arrest kids, instead getting name, age, and contacting the Ministry of Children and Families to see if a track record exists.. kids are then turned over to the ministry or taken home or back to their workers. The numbers are llke ice-water. The police, in 6 weeks, scooped 293 children under 16 fkom the streets of the Downtown Eastside. 75% were female; 41% were Aboriginal; 56% admitted to be addicted to either cocaine or heroin. Most were apprehended once and didn't return. One person was picked up 1' times in 6 weeks. Frail gave the report to the Police Board and shared findings with several media sources as well as Elders and agencies in the Aboriginal community. The following day he of course checked the media to see how the repod aired or written about - nothing. 1
-
The biggest obstacle has repeatedly been the ostrich - "if I don't see the sexual exploitation of children, it doesn't exist." The advisory committee members working on the CAT approach have ongoing interaction with the police, the Provincial Prostitution Unit, and have been enthusiastically welcomed in places like RayCam, Britannia, Kiwassa, and Watari - places who actually have large numbers of children A d teenagers vulnerable to this predation. People in all these communities always ask "What can I do?" Back to Community Mobilization. The Vancouver Foundation applauded the initiative as good sense and provided h d i n g . VanCity Community Partnerships, the Hamber Foundation, Wataari, RayCam, DEYAS and the Law Foundation were accessed for money to develop training materials, to see what the legal requirements are for evidence and to put what can be shared and recorded on predators into a simple format, to have terminals at different locations on which basic info could be entered. All this was painstalclngly developed and tested. The Provincial Prostitution Unit was impressed and one government department was so enthralled that, after attending an Advisory Committee meeting, suddenly announced the Community Action Team approach to involve getting people in all walks of community life trained in recognizing and reporting sexual predators trying to get at kids. (Just out of the blue..) The Advisory Committee saw it as a blatant attempt by the govemnent dept. to come up with something of its existence (and their to justifL the contin~~ation fimding and their jobs). since the blank of any real progressive work was soon to be realized when the Attorney General demanded a report. The Advisory Committee just renamed their proposal, replacing "Action7' with "Alert" and pressed on. The government and PPU had paraded a paper trail but had no substance. The community Alert Team went ahead. It was all submitted to the National Crime Prevention Centre and the co-chair of the Joint Management Committee of BC, Vera Lagasse, met with the principle people to discuss it in detail. She responded enthusiastically, saying that it met all the criteria, that it did involve communities, that it brought people together and gave a foundation for action in crime prevention. The involvement of children, their parents, aboriginal interests, and the de facto enhancement of (young) women's safety and security was
particularly strong She noted the involvement of the police in their efforts to deal with a flawed law (the infamous Sec. 2 l2(4) agam) 'l'he hdmng appllcatlon only had to be shared with the other co-chair. Wendy Taylor. A letter came to the Advisory Committee through Suzanne Jean, who had been working continuously on the pro~osalfor its entire existence. (By the way, the ambuit asked for was just $50,000.) Following is the part where they get squirmy: "The project that you have proposed does not support a crime prevention through social development approach. Rather, there appears to be a focus on prosecution of offenders instead of preventing the problem of sexual exploitation of youth. [! !] Furthermore, considering the ellforcement perspective, there is not evidence of partnerships with police, Crown Counsel, or the Provincial Prostitution Unit. For this reason, [we] cannot recommend funding at this time." Crime Prevention is accomplished through comrnunity awareness. If the perps know they will be seen, relevant information recorded and competently handled, that the most difficult prospect of charges and conviction can and will happen, then the crime of sexually exploiting children in our and other neighbourhoods can be seriously reduced. What happened? This kind of thinking is fairly straightforward. Wendy Taylor. When this letter came back, many people colmected with the project said, 'we should have known.' She was a Crown attorney, got sacked. She made presentations to the Supreme court and got creamed. She was indirectly involved in the 'liberation' of the Community Action Team idea. I asked one person what her problem was. He said, "You got 3 hours'?!" The Community Alert Team (CAT) proposal will go ahead. Funding will be found, the Attorney General will continue to feel the heat for the lackadaisical approach of his ministry, and the police will have their arrest record paraded in the media on prevention of sexual exploitation of kids. It's sad when a national program gets skewed by individuals. It's sad when people, dealing with an issue that no one wants to admit exists, get middleclass flack for seeing an approach that is too personal for those with decision-making power to admit is necessary. More on Wendy Taylor? By PAULR TAYLOR
4 I Bought Her Ice Cream How can I watch a woman I knew In the past long ago When she bounced on my knee When I took her to the park When I bought her ice cream When I pushed her on the swing In the past, long ago Now, when I see her on the comer, after dark She is selling herself, her spirit, her soul.. How can I watch This woman I knew
(1
DERA General Meeting Guest(s): JOHN TURVEY of DEYAS to speak on the Needle Exchange, Youth Detox and other work of the Downtown Eastside Youth Activities Society. COUNCILLOR JENNIFER CLARKE to speak on what she learned in Europe about Harm Reduction and drug policy.
11
October f h , 10 a.m. All welcome!
111
[If Carnegie is still closed the location will be posted throughout the community.]
(11
Paul Wright
The Aching Hunger Little to give thanks when hunger takes over and nothing on your plate, It was bad back in the Dirty Thirties. Chaps 1 knew well ofien too tired, washed up or sick to make it to a Mission for a refreshing hymn sing, prayers Or "thanks giving".. testimonials..and then (when they had you down on your knees) the bowl of soup. Thank God those l~rimitiverituals, but not the hunger, have all but vanished. Sam Roddan
Cannibalism In The Downtown Eastside
5
Notes on the Gastown. Chinatown and Strathcona Community Alliance of some Business and Property Owners. The Spanish painter, Goya, painted a picture of a monster eating h~unanbeings. That's what is happening in our community now. The monster of gentrification is devouring the Downtown Eastside, Vancouver's oldest and most inclusive community. This same monster has already devoured most of the downtown peninsula of Vancouver, with Burrard lnlet on one side and English Bay and False Creek on the other. It is insatiable in its hunger for accumulation. It is market-driven, which me& that it is profit-driven, and a city controlled by this monster "is not so much a place for people to live and call their own, as it is a machme rationally and effectively designed for making money." (1) The monster of gentrification thrives on the war of all against all, to use the words of Thomas Hobbes, and, as Shakespeare said even before Hobbes: "It will come Humanity must perforce prey on itself, Like monsters of the deep." (King Lear, Act 4, Scene 2)
Businessmen today talk about acting like cannibals when they devour each other or each other's companics. Gentrification - the pushing of low income residents out of their community so that developers can reap inaxinlum profit from high land values and high rents - is a form of cannibalism. It is war, and as the term gentrification implies, it is class war. This dynamic of imperial accumulation, without regard to the suffering of dispossessed people, is behind the recent, brutal attack on drug users in the Downtown Eastside by a Gastown, Chinatown, Strathcona Alliance of some business and property owners. First Nations people have suffered from the dynamic of imperial accumulation for a long time, and they have resisted and they will prevail. I fear this business Alliance. It has close connections to City Council. Powerhl real estate interests have always sought to control city government because City Council has the power to decide what will be built and where. Vancouver's first Mayor was in real estate. Gordon Campbell, a former
Mayor and now head of the provincial Liberal party, was trained In the Marathon Realty stable. Grant Longhurst of the business Alliance ran an election campaign for the NPA. Referring to gentrif~cationin the Downtown Eastside. Lief Eriksen wrote, "The market cannot abide such expensive real estate being used by the poor." (2) The Downtown Eastside is a tiny David compared to the Goliath of development determined to build the corporate ciw, and the community is in
b crisis. One old-time resident said, "One day they're
gonna come in here with a bunch of army trucks, and ship us all out to the sticks like POW'S." It seems like that's what the business Alliance really wants. In my view, it doesn't want to help low income or ill people. It wants to ship us all out to the sticks like POWs so developers can build the corporate city in our neighbourhood. The business Alliance call for an escalation of the police war on drugs is absurd in the light of the failure of that war. (3) Its call to abolish the Needle Exchange, which was set up to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS, threatens the heath of the entire Vancouver community. Its opposition to a multi-service resource centre in the Downtown Eastside that will act as a sanctuary and referral centre for drug users means more overdose deaths. B.C.'s chief coroner, Larry Campbell, has said that such a centre could save lives, and that the area nee& more facilities such as methadone programs, counselling, heroin maintenance trials, treatment beds and detox centres. (4) By SANDY CAMERON (1)The Develouers, by James Lorimer, pub. by James Lorimer & Co., 1978, p.79. (2) "Vying for Space: Neo-liberalism and the Criminalization of Poverty,' an unpublished essay by Lief Eriksen, 1999. (3) See the long series in The Vancouver Sun on the failure of the war on drugs, starting with the article "Eminent Advice: End The Drug War," by Dan Gardiner, Van Sun, Sept.6,2000. (4) "Rehab Centre could save lives: Coroner.' by Lori Culbert, The Vancouver Sun. August 15,2000.
jog? "Run for your life" is a free running and fitness program open to anyone in the downtown eastside, regardless of age, ability or financial situation. The program is based on the "Sun Run" training book, which is a 13 week program. We start out by wallung 3 or 4 days a week, and then gradually build up to running, staying within each person's limits. We meet 7 days a week at 8am at the Andy Livingston Field at the corner of Keefer and Carrall Streets. If you'd like to join the club, or if you'd like more 1foomation, come out to any session or phone "The Portland Running C l u b at 724-8492
Feel me and know me for awhile. Do you know me? I would love to know about you. Do you feel what I feel? How about you? I don't have anything? Do you know. I don't have anyone. I have lots of pain around me. You put your feet on the pedal of the car You go fast and faster But 1have to put my heart under my feet And walk slow and steady When I have a pain my heart is there Do you realize what I am talking about I don't think so and I'm lost and lonely. Make me to be a person who feels What do you think or feel Still do you feel what 1 feel and share your happiness with me and let me for awhile feel what you feel Nahid A. Nasirabdi
RISK - CRIME - DEATH REDUCTION For almost twenty years, I've lived in the Downtown Eastside and I've loved it here. I know many of my neighbours and enjoy seeing most of them daily. There have always been drug-related problems and it's always been necessmy to guard the kids closely. People watch out for one another. It is a community. The last few years, however, have been increasingly less fun.The Downtown Eastside Slowpitch League, which I've always played in, has almost disintegrated because players are &aid of falling on needles in our parks. The gym programs at the Carnegie are dwindling because people don't want to go through the drug dealers to get in. I witnessed a drug deal on the steps of my son's school the other day. Friends outside the area and even outside the province have seen the media coverage and are horrified that we continue to live here. These are petty inconveniences compared to the misery we see; people going throuj& in our streets and alleys. One of his teachers told me my son said -"Us Four Sisters Co-op kids would never take drugs -we see how unhappy those people are". It's obvious that Zero Tolerance isn't working in the United States and the "blind eye" with occasional "sweeps" isn't working here. Xf you "sweep" people into rat and disease-infested alleys like garbage, there's bound to be more crime and deaths. If you treat people like shit they'll act like shit. These drugs are so powerfd and take such control. How can the pain be lessened? I decided to find out what the European "experts" had to say. At the drug symposium at UBC, the Dutch delegation explained their drug strategy in a town about the same size as Vancouver. The project is called Typhoon. They have one large clinic where, after the initial intake, addicts can go through one door to get methadone, another door for live-in detox, another
for day treatment, another for HIV treatment, another for counseling, another for after-care, another for addicted mothers and so on. Hard drugs are not legal but they have about twenty safe injection sites throughout the city where addicts can shoot up in the presence of health workers. They are provided with drug treatment information each time. Dealers are not allowed. If the users don't respect the premise rules, the site is closed down for up to three months. The project has a mascot-like cartoon character called "Little Typhoon" who educates users and nonusers about dangerous drugs. On the VANDU organized wallung tour through the Downtown Eastside, the Dutch "experts" were appalled at the alley scene. They said the Dutch police also do "sweeps" when dealers and users are congergating in public but they call the health officials to tell them when. A medical team goes with the police to administer prescription drugs to the addicts when their heroin is taken and to urge them to go to the clinic. Takmg addicts' drugs away just insures more crime and misery. When the walking tour reached the Carnegie comer crowds, one of the Dutch men said, "There should be a safe injection site in this center." At the Japanese Hall, the Europeans answered the questions of a large group of addicts, residents and even a few politicians. Libby Davies asked them how they countered opposition which claimed harm reduction "enables" drug use. The German "expert" said addicts obviously don't need any enabling to use drugs. They need enabling to live until they can get treatment. VANDU also helped organize a Positive Solutions rally on the steps of the Carnegie. The German
% '
"expert9' told a story about how police enforcement had changed over the last ten years. ... One clinic client felt snakes all over him when he couldn't get a fix.He was known to disrobe publicly and try to slap the snakes off his body. One day he was seen in the middle of an intersectionclad only in his underwear. There was a police officer with him and he was banging his club on either side and all around the addict. When he was asked why he was banging his stick around the almost naked man, the policeman replied, "I'm helping him get the snakes nfl. Ten years ago, he would have been hitting the addict with his stick. The Europeans also mentioned that their "Parents of Addicts" groups were well organized and strong. A woman from Kenisdale made a very moving speech about her son's continuing sad struggle with drug
addiction and our system's inadequacy. Ten years ago, the European cities were apparently in much the same state as Vancouver is in now. But they haven't had the huge influx of crack cocaine yet. And they haven't had Canada's history of racism and colonialism. Their cities have managed to drastically reduce crime, heroin overdoses and the street scene. They treat addicts as human beings, not lepers. They said it has taken a lot of talking with all concerned and pressuring for "political will". They suggested that if6'harm reduction" has become such a volatile, controversial term that another phrase be coined like "risk reduction" or "death reduction". The bottom line is - A humane drug strategy for Vancouver must be designed now and our own Downtown Eastside experts can tell us that. By LEITH HARRIS
pssst - this is the truth! Don't tell anyone! There is a place in the fires of the front in the Downtown Eastside where one can go and learn something for Free. No preaching, no church. All you need is a yen to learn or try to learn anythmg you want to learn in the academic area. Gee did I forget yours truly and Mike McCormick, and all the unsung others who are there to help you in our own unique ways. Let us not forget Margaret Shea, Vidhea, Tim, Lucy, Bev and all the many others - without their presence this would not be a human experience. A lot of the folks come here to get 2nd hand education on issues of some importance to themselves, while others seek the companionship of knowing knowledge is here if needed. 1myself am very grateful that at 50 years young I can grow and teach as well as learn on a day by day entrance into my new world of learning. Mr. Mcbinner* email * binner@vcn.bc.ca
P
In the Learning Centre - 3"' floor The Harry Potter Saga continues.. ,
"There is no alternative"(T1NA) "There are thousands of alternatives: "(TATA) The current methods of dealing with drugs and their effects on people and communities are too little, misdirected, hit-and-miss, and the deaths continue. This fiom users, health officials, fiont line workers, community activists and even police The four pillars of effective response are prevention, treatment, enforcement and h a m reduction. On the weekend of September 22-23 there was a conference at the University of British Columbia on Harm Reduction To bring it to the street.. specifically to bring it to the community surrounding the Carnegie Centre and the Downtown Eastside in general.. the Carnegie Street program and the Conununity Action Project held an event on the steps of Carnegie starting about noon on Monday, the 25&.It was advertised as "Positive Solutions", to give the general public a chance to be on our infamous comer, to see what the Street Program offers, and to both hear fiom and question the exponents of harm reduction. There was a video playing outside near the side entrance, giving the current state of affairs and the seeming indifference that drug users and the disease of addiction is afforded. Hard numbers show that the prohibition of drugs mirrors the consequences that prohibition of alcohol had in the 1920's. Criminal activity generates enormous profits, police are corrupted, the legal system seems powerless to stop or even curtail the substance and the erosion of societal mores is blamed on users. One example is that if it cost $1 to make a pen and this pen could then be sold for up to $17,000, the penalties for doing so would not be a deterrent but just the price of doing business. (This 1:17000 ratio is the potential in producing and selling cocaine and heroin.) The video also contained the perspective of addicts and
their fight with the disease. The first speaker was to have been Larry Campbell, the Chief Coroner of BC. He has been a most vocal critic of the current emphasis on enforcement and foot-dragging on treatment. It was his predecessor, Vince Caine, who slammed the politicians and reactionary mindset that refuses to consider any approach other than enforced treatment and enforced incarceration of drug users. In 1993 there were 353 deaths h m drug overdoses, and the time between then and now has seen over 2000 people die from drug overdoses. Campbell couldn't attend but the harsh reality he deals with can't be denied. Present for both the UBC conference and this event was Werner Schneider, former Drug Policy Coordinator in FrankfUrt, Germany. He's been in Vancouver and the Downtown Eastside on many occasions, speaking at harm reduction events over the last several years. Werner spoke of some experiences in FrankfUrt where safe injection sites and heroin trials are part of an enviable cross-section of treatment options and low-level access alternatives. It has been a gradual change over the last 10 years to get politicians, service providers, health officials, community groups, police and users to work on positive solutions to the drug epidemic, but results are incredibly encouraging. Werner's stats have been mirrored in Switzerland and England, where 70% of voters agreed to h a m reduction and prescription heroin, where property crime fell by over 80%, where drug use did not go through the roof once these measures were in place. The next speaker was Sheree Hudson, a clinical educator with the Vancouver/Richmond Health Board. Sheree demystified "harm reduction" with examples of seat belts, wearing helmets and pads on bikes and skateboards.. . of reducing the harm inherent in certain behaviour. The aim of harm
..reductionin the context of drug use is to keep individuals as healthy as possible while they deal .with both uersonal and addiction issues at a pace that . is at least possible for them. MOTownsley supported this approach and expanded on it while speaking of her perspective and experience as the coordinator of Youth Detox with the Downtown Eastside Youth Activities Society (DEYAS), which also operates North America's highest volume needle exchange. The whole idea of detoxification is to reduce the harm that drug use is having on a person, while not simply tying their hands behind their back to stop it. Drug use is often a way of coping with deeper issues, and nlay even be beneficial if it keeps that person from violence towards self or others. There is no magic bullet in treatment, but the spectre of arrest and jail only serves to increase the risk and keeps use in alleys or isolated places. Overdoses can be treated but the time window is very narrow; preventable deaths are occurring every day. Randolf Puder is the brother of the late Gil Puder and spoke of Gil's awakening to the reality of the drug problem because of three incidents he went through as a constable with the Vancouver Police Department. The first was when he had to shoot a drug addict robbing a bank; the second was when his partner was killed in a drug raid gone bad; the third was when he had to inform a parent that their child had died of an overdose. Gil became an outspoken advocate of harm reduction and decried the corruption that fighting the drug war brought to his profession and to police in general. Gil was ostracized by his fellow officers and investigated by superiors. He was warned not to promote his views on the legalisation of drugs, better treatment options and the insidious effect that US drug policy has on policing and people. Randolph spoke movingly of Gil's convictions and efforts to bring honour back to policing in drug matters. He assured one questioner that Gil's book, unpublished at the time of his death, would see the light of day. [Gtl died, coincidentally, of "cancer" at the age of 40. He was a martial arts expert and trained oEcers in the use of force.] Bringing "harm reduction" to the question of 'why?' was Suzy Ruttan. She introduced herself as "not an expert" and "[I] don't work on the front lines with addicts or health." Suzy is the mother of an 18
is
-
In the city we walk amongst The tall buildings rising above Threatening to fall down on us With those thousands of eyes Peering out of windows every day On the mountains we bathe In the colours of the sky at sunset A sea of tangerine and turquoise We travel to those distant shores As far as the mindwill take us. In the city we take some stand We see the moon reflected on The plate glass of the hi-rises There is always that dark spot In our lives we think is hidden Doesn't escape us on the mountain Sunlight hits a spot on a tree and There find my hand in my pocket It is the human part that fails us The flip side of the coin, freedom.
year-old heroin addict and has formed a group of parents called From Grief to Action. She spoke of the human face of addiction, of how people get this disease, of the struggles that parents and caregivers alike face when seeing for the first time how appalling the lack of treatment options is. Many of the parents she knows have had a child die; many more have nowhere to get answers or even who to ask - about treatment, the law, health policy and harm reduction. Ham reduction includes safe-use practices to avoid contracting HNJAIDS, Hep C and other bad effects of needle use. It includes loolung at housing, counselling, and enabling addicts to stabilize their lives and function. It puts ignored or missing human factors back into the complexity and contradictions
1 1
of substance abuse. Factors of poverty, crime, street safety, dignity, disease and hope are all part of the mix. Invitations to this event went to many people in the surrounding neighbourhoods, and to many groups and organisations aligned (consciously or not) with the so-called Community Alliance. The pushers in this bunch want increases in police enforcement, with all money now going to hanu reduction and preventive measures and even education on same to be withdrawn unilaterally - the closure of the needle exchange, the shutting down of the Carnegie Street Program and the incarceration of users.. or people . or who look like users.. or people who look s.anyone who looks so poor that they affect the property or business values of non-userslnon-sc& Inon-poor. The idea seems to be Not-In-My-BackYard, but includes "addicts choose to be addicts so they should quit or die." (..and not on my property) This is the context for any and all efforts to educate and hold open discussions with residents and, on a larger scale, the government. The issues of money, power and class are not separate. Drug users are being used as the most universally condemnable segment of the population, while the criminal activity which profits off them and the prohibition of various approaches to dealing with the ever-present dissatisfactionwith life soars. There were some local people who attended. There was also a conspicuous absence of the most vocal detractors of harm reduction. Hopehlly overwhelming evidence and experience of thousands of people and hundreds of organisations around the world will help bring about necessary changes.
PAULR TAYLOR
Hungr'Y Woke up hungry, I have no money I've written 400+ songs And I can't buy a pop. PM been MP for 30+ years How much money has he spent? And I sing at Main & Hastings without one toke of coke to be fucked Then barred for wanAnd you know how it feels Somewhere you fucking well know And so I wait. Until you recognize We're all the same With small divergences But what I like you like And I've done there been that And unless you want to get hungry or starve You better realize it.
A. Kostynuik
Tiger and Christian My fiiend Tiger Was hungry and lean My fiiend Christian Was flabby and obscene (If obscene was right word Isr &sregar&ng his mie* He prayed while tiger crept up on the sly He looked up to GOD Got dust in his eye Tiger leapt and took down his prey And I not hungry walked away A. Kostynuik
Attention: Mayor Philip Owen Re:
Downtown Eastside Resource Centre
Dear Mr. Owen,
I am writing to you to express my concern over the moratorium that you have placed on the process of establishing a Dawntown Eastside Resource Centte for drug users. I am an architect who has a business in the Gastown area and often observe intravenous and other drug use near my office. As a compassionate human being I am personally distressed by the pain and suffering which I encounter daily. 1 completely understand why many of the business community like me in this neighbourhood call for more police action to solve the problem. I believe that this request, while well intentioned, will not help. ARer considering the alternatives I am convinced that the solution is to be fomd in the realm of public health, not in the criminal justice department We only have to look at our southern neighbows to see the ineffectiveness of the "war on drugs." The United States now has the most number of people per capita in jail in the world and they are awash with illegal drugs.A clear indicator of the failure of the war on drugs is the correlation of increased drug war spedmg (police, courts, and jails) and increased availability of ever-purer heroin and cocaine. The more money the U.S has dedicated to police enforcement, the worse the drug problem has become.
The Canadian model of dealing with addictions is predominantly punitive. We are just beginning to realize the consequences of this prohibitionist approach The global illegal drug industry has empowered organized criminals, corrupted governments at all levels, trampled on human rights, stimulated violence and distorted both economic markets and moral values. These are the consequences not of drug use per se, but of decades of failed and futile drug war policies. The recent series of articles in the Vancouver Sun has accurately laid out the horrendous costs of this failed policy. Instead, I support the policy of harm reduction, and see the resource centre as a step in the right direction. The research coming h m European and Australian explorations in ham reduction looks very encouraging. They have been able to reduce street consumption, crime and infectious diseases. They are ahead of us in finding workable, cost effective solutions to the problem of rampant addiction. We need more than just a resource centre and safe injection sites. We need drugs of abuse to be available on prescription to registered addicts. We need to attack the problem in a positive, productive manner by pravid'i drugs to these desperate people.
I know that many of my Gastown corporate and residential neighbours will see this as aiding and encouraging drug use, and would want to see more disincentives (e.g. heavier policing) in place. However, I am struck by the fact that the built-in disincesltives to street drug use are so extreme already. Addicts already face homelessness, violence, hunger and a very high risk ofdeath h m overdoses and AIDS. The idea that the risk of arrest will deter drug users seems strange. For many of this troubled sector of our population, jail would be a huge improvement in their standard of living. 1 am also aware of the argument that a resource centre will add to the concentration of addicts in the downtown eastside, placing an unfair burden on this troubled area. The simple truth is that this is the location for a resource centre that will be the most affective.The implementation of the public health model wilt take time, but would eventually lead to a disbursement of facilities around the city, as addicts have the opportunity to improve their fives and relocate. In particular, it is obvious that a model of drugs being made available on prescription to addicts would cut the legs out from under the illegal drug trade now concentrated in the Downtown Eastside, quickly reducing the incentive of troubled people to group in one area of the city.
P
1
Finally, the logic of the economics of the public health solution is compelhg. Both the RAND and Fraser 13 institutes, which are right wing economic think tanks, support the harm reduction approach. They have clearly d~~umented wkty the war on dhvgs is not cost effective and harm reduction simply makes financial sense. Both these o r g ~ a t i support o ~ d~riminalization,legalization, or prescription of currently illegal drugs. This approach, when guided and controlled by a public health vision, could actually lead to a signtficant reduction of the problems of tbe Downtown Eastside. More police is not the answer. The war on drugs is a problem masquerading as a solution. The only chance our society has of actually impacting the massive problem of addiction in out streets, nsighbourhoods and families is to start to understand that this is a public health problem, not a criminal justice problem. Yours sincerely,
Bruce Haden, MAIBC cc
Don MacPherson, Vancouver City Hall drug co-ordinator Jack Altman, Vancouver/Richmond Health Board Jim MacDonald, Addiction Services The Vancouver Sun, The Courier Tom Laviolette, Carnegie Centre; The Carnegie Newsletter Rona Minguay, Downtown Vancouver Association Stockwell Day, Leader of the Opposition Jean Chretien, Prime Minister
The Ghost of DyIan Thomas
Other Neighbburhood News *The small park at the foot of Main Street has been named the Wendy Poole Park. This is the result of months of effort by Don Larson, one of the people who fought for CRAB Park. Ciasbags and related yups wanted to call it Ciastown Heritage Park or, as normally done, after some rich dead white guy. Wendy was a young Aboriginal woman who was murdered near by, and the memorial is for women who have died by violence in this community. (In the last 10 years there have been over 130.)
THE FUTURE OF HohGLFS'*EcS
A day of reconciliation met the ghost of Dylan Thomas While walking through the open corridor of tall trees With grey fog climbing up the mountain &omthe bay Something that had been lost in time could be found It is trying listening to lovers talk of their perfect lovers Like the picture of the Queen stamped on the full moon Mine with a chip off it, tried not to walk away in envy Thursday nigHt Dylan Thomas poem, "This bread I break" Sitting outside a coffee shop just down fiom the Ramada Rumors are filling city streets as the tourists walk by It is a river of life findug home in soft pillows and dreams In a company of strangers it is best the cup be overflowing When living in a world where great writers are seldom Appreciated by man I paint daisies evgvvhere on my body Put on trench coat with dead yellow flowers pinned to it And I run out to greet death like a most welcome fiend For it is life on e&h I will not be satisfied with for long My body breaks daily with all your words coming to me For in this world where we suffer from a lack of sleep And when running a race it sharpens the pain of muscles When I have given all I got to this life and am left empty The task master continues to crack the whip daily while There is escape found in the intricate design of everythug Left us there was much more you wanted to put on paper. Daniel Rajala
Vancouver Agreement - the name given to three levels saying that each has to be involved in changing the Downtown Eastside. About a year ago this happened and the meetings began. The federal government channels a million dollars a year for the next 5 years through the City of Vancouver, with the monej coming from the National Crime Prevention Centre. (It makes you wonder if the CAT project was seen as casting too much light on the dark underbelly of what really goes on here, but that's between Wendy Taylor and the wall.) Community Directions also accessed this money, but afier it got to Vancouver. Vancouver Agreement - with three different political parties, widely divergent agendas and powerful interests on all sides vying for and crying for the "right thing." General wisdom and common sense has the Four Pillar approach to drugs and despair - Prevention, Treatment, Harm Reduction and Enforcement. Players in the Vancouver Agreement are the feds, represented by Hedy Fry (Liberal MP), Jenny Kwan (NDP MLA) and Philip Owen (NPA Mayor). They made an official announcement on Friday,September 29' of initiatives in five areas: -Economic Develogment: PEACH is a program of loans, loan guarantees, leases and grants for people, non-profits, co-ops and aboriginal groups. There is the provincial Community Development Fund, the federal Entrepreneurial nd Small Business Incentive Progrd~mand the municipal Lease-Subsidy / Tenant Improvement Program. Local decision making is through the Vancouver Economic Development Commission nd Four Corners Support Fund Society. Local experience with the initial stages of some of these monikored means seem to have gotten a lot of 'maybe's' but stuff is there. A storefront is supposed to open to give street access to information and applications. -&!&%g: new housing has been coming in various places. and each level of government has had something to do with most of it. Philip Owen cited Four Sisters as beginning the trend over a decade ago, but in order not to miss anything glaringly obvious by its absence the recent list would include DERA's build-
ings and the recent renovationlopening of the Metropole; Main&Hastings' Bruce Ericksen Place and its new building at 40 E.Hastings; Native Health's development on E.Pender, St.Jarnes' has at least two developments, one reno and one new; the Lore Krill Co-op is coming soon and the Katherine Sanford Housing Society is getting a facility for seniors with mental health issues. The Portland Hotel Society has its new building and is managing the Sunrise, Washington and Regal hotels. -a treatment centre with new and expanded -Health: services; detox, sobering, stabilisation, methadone. An "indoor health connection program to provide frontline health and substance misuse [that's a novel way to put it] referral services, life skills training and social support programs for street-involved drug and alcohol users."
-Street Imorovements: the redesign of the corner in front of Carnegie at Hastings & Main has been under discussion for about a year. The initiative here is to reduce the illegal drug activity. (As another superior fart, a writer named Scott Simpson had an article in the Sun calling for the closure of washrooms at the corner as the obvious solution to driving everybody back into the alleys. He consciously ignored the proposals worked out over several months and wrote his tripe, based on similar shit presented at the Police Board. Funny that it gets featured while a report on children in the sex trade is buried.) -Enforcement: Police and targetting of dealers continues to be relatively high profile. Constables will be redeployed, there is money for coordination between police and various health services for users, and maps and graphics were on hand to reassure the right-wingers that there are lots of cops. Comments came from Tom Oleman about the apparent lack of Aboriginal consultation. He got an answer about how many places there were in all this for Native presence, but a woman standing close by just choked, saying that there hadn't been even 5 seconds when Native issues were front and centre.
Another comment went to the apparent misplace- , merit of harm reduction in this. Maybe it's contained in the health initiatives; maybe everyone is waiting for the outcome of the Resource Centre for drug users melodrama and the 90-day moratorium. All in all, it is promising when everyone involved can't stop saying how glad they are to be part of something. Keep your eyes open, expect a miracle! By PAULR TAYLOR
We who are liberal and progressive know that the poor are our equals in every sense except that of being equal to us. Lionel Trilling
Women constitute half the world's population, perform nearly two-thirds of its work hours, receive one-tenth of the world's income and own less than one-hundredth of the world 's proper& United Nations Report
More Random Acts of Kindness..
* As a child I understood how to give. I've forgotten this grace since I became civilized. - Ohiyesa * Just do what must be done. This may not be happiness, but it is greatness. - Shaw * When you are kind to someone in trouble, you hope they'll remember and be kind to someone else. &d it'll become like a wildfire. - Whoopi Goldberg * Let a good person do good deeds with the same zeal that an evil person does bad ones. - Rokeach "Life's most persistent and urgent question is "What are you doing for others?" Martin Luther King * With every deed you are sowing a seed, though the harvest you may not see. - Ella Wilcox * When a blind man carries a lame man, both go forward. - Swedish proverb * The best and most beautifid things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart. -Helen Keller * Live as if everything you do will eventually be known. -Hugh Prarher * Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time. - Marim Edelman * Concern should drive us into action, not into depression. -Karen Hormy *The white man knows how to make everything, but he does not know how to distribute it. - Sitting Bull * We realize that what we are doing is a drop in the ocean. But if this drop were not in the ocean, it woud be missed. -Mother Teresa * It is our special duty that if anyone needs our help, we should give such help to the utmost of our power. - Cicero Copied out by Beth Buchanan
The wrong sort ofpeople are always in power, because they would not be in power if they were not the wrong sort ofpeople. Jon Wynne- Tyson
-
4 -
CAMP FIRCOM
Skipper and clipper ad Early Jones Out to sea Ocean canoeing Skippy at the bow looking for hidden shoals Clipper humming happily music for the soul they ain't nothmg swifter doing double time to the tide scattering of light cloud provides some shade for we three Nothing doing out canoeing suddenly spied a wave three feet high Raise yer Paddles I sound the alarm The decks were swamped we feared come to harm Challenge the elements battle the swells surge up and down up and down Man the bilges, hard astern Juice cans emptied and none upturned Put ashore, we spied a cave, let's hide out in there "I'm stuck," she said, "Can't get off this rock!" "Is everybody here? Let's all take stock." Dry off and kick back we can try again later.. Taum Danberger
-
-
-
( 6 DOWNTOWN STD CLINIC 219 Main; Monday Frlday, 10 a.m. 6 p.m. EASTSIDE NEEDLE EXCHANGE 221 Main; 8 3 0 a.m. 8 p.m. every day YOUTH NEEDLE EXCHANGE VAN 3 Routes City 5:45 p.m. 11:45 p.m. ACTIVITIES Overnight 12:30 a.m. 8 3 0 a.m. SOCIETY
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
Downtown Eastslde 5 3 0 p.m. 1:30 a.m,
20011 DONATIONS Libby D.455 Sam R.-$40 Nancy W.420 Eve E.420 Murgaret D.-$30 Shgamala (3.418 Joy T.-$30 Val A.S36 Wm B-$20 huma as B.-$41 Harold D.47Pam422 Rolf A.445 Bruce J.-$50 Paula -$I0 Kettle -$I8 Sonya S.-$ 140 BCTF-$25 Nancy H.435 Bill G.-$15OWes K.430 DEYAS-$200 RayCamS2S LSS-$25 Wisconsin Historical Society 410 Heather s.418 John S-$50 Yukiko -$lo VEDC $25 Paddy - ~ 6 0 Rockingguys 430 Anonymous 413
a-m II.,
,u t r g ,-I u arm
THE NEWSLETTER IS A PUBLICATION OF IHE CARNECIE COMMUNITY CENTRE ASSOCIA~ION M ~ c l r rse p r e r e l L e v i r m o l conbbuorr md not o l Ihr Associabon.
Submission Deadline for next issue
Welfrrre problems Landlord disputes
I!-
The number of affordable housing units in the Downtown Eastside is shrinking at an alarming rate. I n the three years that Vancouver City Council has had the power to regulate residential hotel stock, nearly 1,000 homes have been lost. Council has yet to enact a Conversion & Demolition Control BY-Lawto control the rate of change in the residential hotel stock. SO many affordable housing units have been lost to conversions to tourist use that new housing has not kept pace. Any stability built up during the 1990s has been lost due to the number of residential hotel units converted or demolished.
I f City Council can pass a by-law to protect trees, surely it can protect Vancouver's affordable housing stock.There is less low-income housing in the downtown core now than there was 10 years ago. Downtown residential hotels have never been considered adequate housing, but they do perform a crucial role in helping to reduce homelessness. The City has played a positive role in partnering with the province and non-profits to build new affordable housing, but must act now to stabilize the existing residential hotel stock.
Vancouver's Residential Hotel Stock 1991-99
Time is running out! We must act now to stop further losses of affordable housing! Year
Call to Action for Affordable Housing Week Guiding Principles The health and stability of our communities depends on the availability of affordable housing. Safe, secure, and dordable housing is bdamental to every person's health and mental and social well-being, and critical to the prevention of homelessness. providing dordable housing in all types of neighbourhoods is central to creatmg inclusive communities that reflect the diversity of our society. Strategies to provide affordable housing should be built on partnerships between communities, non-profit organizations, local, provincial, and federal governments, and the private sector. Projects and initiatives addressing housing needs of low income singles, families, seniors, and youth must: be affordable (costs should not exceed 30% of the persons net income); be accessible to all of those in need; provide for a range of housing options; protect and maintain existing rental housing stock; increase the supply of appropriate and affordable housing.
Call to Action We, the Tenants Rights Action Coalition and the Lower Mainland Network for Affordable Housing, representing over 30 community service organizations, non-profit societies, housing providers, social housing developers, and residents associations, call on the federal, provincial, and local governments, as well as communities, to work together to increase the availability of affordable housing.
Specifically, we call on the federal government to restore finding for the construction of new social housing; repair and preserve existing affordable housing stock; develop incentive-based policies to support affordable housing initiatives fiom the private sector; expand residential rehabilitation fimding to preserve affordable housing; increase the federal budget for housing by 1%, effectively doubling it, to address affordability problen~sand end homelessness.
we call on the provincial government to provide more community supports for people with mental illness; increase shelter allowances through the BC Benefits program to reflect local rents; increase the provincial budget for housing by 1% to address affordability problems and homelessness.
we call on local governments to provide or lease land at reduced costs to facilitate the construction of affordable housing; permit secondary suites in all single fmily houses; adopt a no net loss strategy to preserve existing affordable houslng by placing controls on demolition and conversion; adopt Standards of Maintenance bylaws to repair and prevent further physical deterioration of SROs and other rental housing; acquire SROs in partnership with non-profit management; . encourage the creation of inclusive communities through planning and zoning and address NIMBY (Not-InMy-Backyard) barriers through community education; increase the municipal budget for housing by 1% to address affordability problems and homelessness.
20
we call on individuals, communities, and the private sector to
partner with govmments to build and manage new affordable housing; support the construction of social housing in our neighbourhoods; raise our neighbours' and friends' awareness of the need for affordable housing and its benefits to the overall health of our-conmunities.
across north america hand held pieces of cardboard crudely lettered or painstakingly printed express the lived poetry of poverty no home no job no money no food and name preventable diseases untreated because of inability to pay for relief or healing signs reaching from the atlantic to the pacific oceans please help god bless you have a good day god bless please help signs call to us beg plead Pray for a meagre but heroic response give to all who ask but they want my money for alcohol they want my money for drugs
give to all who ask but there's too many of these signs that disclose and subvert by their very understatement the social extermination of human beings their sheer physical presence their faces their eyes their likeness pierce our entertainments pierce our wastefulness our priorities our conscience
a blind man homeless holds a sign and sees through us so deeply and clearly we can't stand it and demand public space be made private and these living signs driven elsewhere anywhere nowhere by more bylaws by more police these living signs anger they terrify because they reflect our own possibilities in this anti-human economic system no food no job no money no home so we need more zones of exclusion more censorship of human beings who hold these signs of the times because they hold them for us a1l Bud Osborn [published in Briarpatch, 1/00]
Join women all over the world in against violence and poverty. In Vancouver, we are meeting at Oppenheimer Park at 4PM on October 17 to hear speakers, drummers, and performers speak out on the International Day for the Ending of Poverty. We are marching to the Aboriginal Friendshp Centre at Commercial and Hastings. Bring empty pots and pans and other noise makers to show what policies of globalization and legislation mean for poor people. To get more information call 215-1 103, 87282 12, or 879-1209. ~ v e k o n is e welcome! The groups that are organizing the event are: Breaking the Silence, Crabtree Corner, Downtown Eastside Women's Centre, End Legislated Poverty, Grassroots Women's Discussion Group, Philippine Women Centre, and Rape Relief
~KlGtiflOtr(2HOOb&US *Carnegie is closed. The City employees are on strike for a number of issues, and the CUPE union local is being forced to disrupt all city-run services through job action. The Carnegie Association is on record as supporting the 4-day work week, as this works exceptionally well here. Other issues include benefits and job security, and virtually none will cost the City any money. Unfortunately, as this action commences, Carnegie has not yet been declared an essential service, even though it was previously. The Association is not being struck so we will continue our work, meaning the Newsletter, the Community Action Project and outreach. The reality of no Street Program or Oppenheimer Park staff or, most crucial, no open centre, will almost immediately impact
severely on the lives of the almost 2000 people who use it daily. *Evelyne Saller is an essential service from the outset, so low cost meals, showers and laundry and some other stuff will be available but with reduced staff and hours. *The Neighbourhood Safety Office will be open 5 days a week at 12 E.Hastings. 687-1772 Call for info on what they can help with. *Community Directions held an Open House on September 29th2right after the Vancouver Agreement announcement and, coincidentally, right across the street. I will make a much fuller, in-depth report on the work in five areas of housing, drug & alcohol, economic development, children & youth, and women's issues. There is now a healthy Aboriginal involvement. Marg and Edna guesstimated 200 came through to see and talk and it looks good. *By the time you read this the so-called Community Alliance will have held its paradelrally to condemn all programs and services that work with or service anyone even remotely connected with drugs and the street. It's gotten almost childish as their heavy breathing permeates the recent media stuff. It sure shows when you've got money, although what it shows is another story. What 1 wanted to leave you with is this bit of ice-water down your spine: - when this alliance thing was made public a few weeks ago a CKNW reporter tried to interview Brice Rositch, the architect at 120 Powell and wannabee NPA politico, on hisltheir demand that the Needle Exchange be closed. Following is a text rendering ... CKNW: "So you'd rather AIDS spreads?" Rositch: [Silence] CKNW: "So you'd rather AIDS spreads and people die, sir?" Rositch: [Silence] CKNW: "I am asking you a question, sir." Rositch: [Silence] CKNW: "I am asking you a question." Rositch: Grinned and walked away.
PRT
No postage required
I do not support corporate greed. For example, 58 billion in tax cuts which mostly benefit the wealthy. Corporate tax reduced from 28% to 21 %. Corporations with a combined profit of $18,566 billion paying no income tax whatsoever.
I do want children on welfare to get the National Child Benefit Supplement of $955 per year - and not to have it deducted from their families' welfare payments. These are benefits they need and deserve. This money would assist parents in providing food, clothing, housing, transportation, school supplies, etc. to their children. Name .................................................................................................
Right Hon. Jean Chretien Prime Minister Room 309-S Centre Block House of Commons Ottawa, Ontario K1A 0A6
Address ........................... . . ............................................................. Signature ......................................................................................
Source of income should not be grounds for discrimination * Newfoundland and New Brunsw~ckopted to let f a m ~ l ~ ekeep s the NCBS **based upon U n f a l r Shares, 1996/1998
Printedon recycledpaper
~z.rayerfo~CMdren We pray for children who put chocolate fingers everywhere, who like to be tickled, who stomp in puddles and ruin their new pants, who sneak Popsicles before supper, Who erase holes in math workbooks, Who never can find their shoes.
I
And we pray for those Who stare at photographers from behind barb-wire Who can't bounce down the street in a pair of new sneakers, Who never "counted potatoes," Who are born in places we wouldn't be caught dead, Who never go to the circus, Who live in an X-rated world. We pray for children Who bring us sticky kisses and fistfuls of dandelions Who sleep with the dog and bury goldfish, Who hug us in a huny and forget their lunch money, Who cover themselves with Band-Aids and sing off-key, Who squeeze toothpaste all over the sink. Who slurp their soup. And we pray for those Who never get dessert, Who have no safe blanket to drag behind them, Who watch their parents watch them die, Who can't find any bread to steal, Who don't have rooms to clean up, Whose pictures aren't on anybody's dresser, Whose monsters are real. We pray for children Who spend all their allowance before Tuesday, Who throw tantnuns in the grocery store and pick at their food, Who like ghost stories, Who shove dirty clothes under the bed, Who never rinse out the tub,
Who get visits •’?om the tooth fairy, Who don't like to be kissed in front of the carpool, Who squirm in church and scream in the phone, Whose tears we sometimes laugh at, And whose smiles can make us cry. And we pray for those Whose nightmares come in the daytime, Who will eat anything, Who have never seen a dentist, Who aren't spoiled by anybody, Who go to bed hungry and cry themselves to sleep Who live and move, but have no being. We pray for children Who want to be carried And for those who must. For those we never give up on And for those who don't have a second chance. For those we smother... And for those who will grab the hand of anybody kind enough to offer it. Ina Hughs