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Posts Tagged ‘Homeless’

John Robertson of PIVOT Legal Society (photo from The Tyee)

While it will be easy enough to find red (and white) in Vancouver this February, PIVOT Legal Society is hoping that you notice the colour for a different reason, as they kick off a new campaign aimed at highlighting homelessness in the city. I have frequently said that there is much more value in co-opting the Olympic platform to attempt to shine a spotlight on any given issue than directly protesting against the Games. PIVOT’s latest strategy seems be following in that line of thought exactly.

In 2008, a BC Court ruling struck down a Victoria city bylaw that prevented the homeless from erecting tents in city parks for shelter. The court ruling found that if adequate shelter from the elements could not be found (ie. in shelter spaces) then homeless citizens have the right to provide themselves some shelter with tents. In December of 2009 the BC Court of Appeals upheld this ruling. With that right affirmed, PIVOT will be distributing up to 500 red tents amongst members of Vancouver’s homeless population. Not only will they afford some basic protection, erecting the tents will be a very visible case of exercising the rights affirmed by last December’s appeal court ruling. It is no mistake that PIVOT’s latest endeavour coincides with the Olympic games. The city will be flooded with media from around the world. As Canadians we should be ashamed at the idea of removing these people from sight during a big international celebration. Vancouver is an amazing place that I feel is most deserving of all the attention it garners as a livable city. That should not obscure the fact that the city has a significant homeless population. In fact, it calls for a reaction that is completely opposite; one that says not only do we recognize there is a problem, but we are going to work to improve the situation. At the very least, this latest campaign forces the city (and world) to be cognizant of the problem.

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US Speed Skating - Powered by The Colbert Nation

Stephen Colbert and the Colbert Nation’s  sponsorship of the US speed skating team was a story I wrote about when it first came about, but I foolishly haven’t been posting on any of the latest developments. Back in November, City of Richmond spokesperson Ted Townsend wrote to Stephen inviting him to come to the games as an official ombudsman to ensure no funny business would happen (at the time Colbert was hammering Canada about not letting the US get enough practice time at the Richmond Olympic Oval.) Stephen stated he would be coming to the games, but only if it were as a member of the US Olympic Team (I guess he couldn’t stand to wear a pink toque the whole time.) So began Stephen Colbert’s Skate Expectations: Kicking Ice and Taking Donations On The Slippery Slope Down The Icy Path To The Frozen Road Up To Vancouver ’010 and his bid to join the US Olympic Team.

First came his attempts to join the skeleton and bobsleigh teams. These efforts failed despite Cobert’s “God given talent for lying down and surrendering to the effects of gravity”. He was further hindered by the fact that most members of the bobsleigh squad do not enjoy “a little vomit on their Lycra.” Next, Colbert tried to “HURRY HARD!” his way into the Olympics as part of the curling team. Once again his efforts were to no avail. Not giving up though, Colbert dug deep, remembered that his first love is speed skating and orchestrated a hilarious race with World Champion Shani Davis. All of Stephens well developed cheating instincts failed him, as Shani went on to decimate him, despite a head start of over 10 minutes. However, Colbert’s wily ways did catch the notice of the coaching staff, and he will be joining the team as an assistant sports psychologist. This is a fantastic development and I look forward to some great pieces of journalism from Stephen during the games. I’ve often wrote that I strongly believe in using the Olympic platform to shine a light on the fair city of Vancouver, both the good and the bad. The Colbert Report has and continues to be an excellent force for peering into some of the darker cracks in society and I fully expect to him to highlight some of the social issues that are present in this city. Previously I suggested that Colbert and Rick Mercer pair up for some international comedy dueling, but after thinking on the viability of this, I remembered that CTV is this years host broadcaster in Canada, and as Mercer is a CBC employee this would not work. Perhaps John Dore is up for challenging Colbert.

Apologies to those with Canadian IP addresses; you will need to click here to view the above clip, as the Comedy Network does not allow for embedded video clips.

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I’ve never been a fan of tasers. Way too many people have already died directly from these devices or were killed in an event that involved their use. They have been adopted very quickly by law enforcement (both in the US and Canada) with very weak and lackadaisical guidelines, and it seems these guidelines are breached quite frequently with little to no disciplinary action. I would even be so bold as to say that they’ve been a force that is responsible for elevating lazy police work. Digby, writing at her fabulous blog Hullabaloo is always on top of these terrible accidents as they happen and if this is an issue that concerns you and you want to follow it I’d suggest adding her site to your daily blogroll. Here she is writing about one of the stories I linked to above:

[...]the man had done absolutely nothing wrong, presented no danger, had made no threats. The officers merely thought he might be mentally ill. And he screamed in agony when they shot him full of electricity five times in two minutes before he finally complied. (Of course, by “complying” I mean dying.) Therefore, they said they shouldn’t be held liable for killing him.

This is the logic that pervades the taser argument: The taser isn’t harmful so we shouldn’t be held responsible for killing people with them.

Recently the Abbotsford Police Department released the findings of an investigation into the conduct of the Vancouver Police Department during an incident this past summer that resulted in the death of Michael Vann Hubbard, a 54 year old homeless resident of Vancouver. The investigation concluded, amongst other things that:

The two police officers had reasonable grounds to believe that they were in immediate peril of grievous bodily harm or death, [...]After considering the totality of the circumstances facing the two police officers, notwithstanding that there was a tragic outcome, the officers were justified in using force that was intended or likely to cause grievous bodily harm or death.

Vann Hubbard was killed after being confronted by the two police officers in relation to a search for a purse snatcher. Video footage captured at the scene clearly showed Vann Hubbard brandishing an X-Acto knife and continuing to advance towards officers who had their weapons raised at him. Something that I have argued on this blog about other issues that is also relevant to the taser issue is that when enacting and enforcing any policy a cost/benefit analysis needs to be conducted and adhered too. As you may be able to tell from my opening comments, I feel the costs do outweigh the benefits that tasers present. Even with that being the case, why are law enforcement officers not doing a better job of demonstrating those benefits? My understanding of the deployment of tasers is that they are to be used to replace guns in situations they may have been used in before the development of the taser. This seems like it was one the more appropriate scenarios where deploying a taser would have been reasonable. Why was that not the case here? Isn’t this exactly the type of scenario that tasers were designed for?

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A short while back on the CBC Radio3 blog, host Tariq Hussein linked to a blog post by Carey Mercer, the lead singer of the band Frog Eyes. In this post he was lamenting the fact that artists performing at events organized by VANOC during the Olympics have been required to sign a contract with the following clause contained within:

The artist shall at all times refrain from making any negative or derogatory remarks respecting VANOC (the organizing committee), the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games, the Olympic movement generally, Bell and/or other sponsors associated with VANOC.”

Putting on my contrarian hat, (not for arguments sake, but because I truly had a differing opinion) I commented that I did not see anything controversial with this contract, as it seems like a very standard business transaction to require that someone you are hiring in a promotional context actually does promotional work. If keeping an anti-Olympic platform is more important to any artist then they do not have to sign the contract. If you’ve read any of my other posts you might already know that I am not oblivious to problems and issues that the Olympics bring/heighten/highlight (extra emphasis on highlight…our cities problems would be extant even if we were not hosting the Olympics.) My reading of the clause in question still leaves plenty of room open for artists to advocate for whatever cause they would like. One can refrain from making “negative or derogatory” comments about the games and their organizers and still promote organizations that work on a given cause ie. homelessness. Something I have argued for previously is for concerned citizens to co-opt the platform the games provide, rather than just maligning them. This is a perfect example of this. If any one has any ideas on how to get in touch with any of the artists slated to perform during Olympic events I would be very interested in seeing if any would want to champion one cause or another that is pertinent to Vancouver/BC (Canadian Indie artists seem to be a pretty caring and compassionate group on the whole.)

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"I love this man!" ~Damian Abrahams. We all do Pink Eyes..

Who are these two beautiful men celebrating with a kiss and just what are they celebrating? On the right is CBC Radio3 host and Canadian music maven Grant Lawrence. On the left, Damian ‘Pink Eyes’ Abraham, lead singer of the Toronto based punk band Fucked Up. Damian (with Grant along for the ride whether he likes it or not) is reacting to the just announced news moments before that his band’s album The Chemistry of Common Life had won the 2009 Polaris Music Prize. The Polaris Prize is an annual prize awarded to an album of Canadian content based solely on the artistic merit of the work; sales figures or mass appeal do not hold sway over the prize. Aside from being one of the most prestigious musical prizes in Canada, the Polaris Prize also comes with $20,000.

Those with an eye and ear on the Canadian music scene may be questioning why I am writing about Fucked Up’s win now; they won the award back on September 21st. If you had the pleasure of watching the Polaris Prize Awards Gala (still available for viewing here) you know that after Fucked Up was named as the winner, Damian (post smooch with Mr. Lawrence) announced that his band would be using the prize money to produce a single in time for Christmas with all proceeds going to some very deserving charities. Just over two months later and Fucked Up have shown to be true to their word; the band, along with some friends have released their version of “Do They Know It’s Chirstmas?” which is available through iTunes here. Proceeds from the sales will be spread across three charities. From Fucked Up’s blog:

Justice for Missing and Murdered Ingigenous Women
Missing Justice is a grassroots solidarity collective based in Montreal that works to eliminate violence and discrimination against Indigenous women living in Quebec. The collective seeks to consult and collaborate with Indigenous communities and organizations to foster understanding and dispel harmful stereotypes commonly held in regards to Indigenous women who are targets of violence. As a collective, our overall strategy for achieving these goals includes popular education initiatives, media outreach, coalition-building, case work, poster awareness campaigns, research projects, information sharing, publishing and broadcasting, political demonstrations, and direct action.

DTES Power of Women Group
A grassroots group of DTES women who work to empower, educate and
mobilize around issues affecting their neighbourhood such as poverty,
housing, and violence against women.

Sisters in Spirit
The main objective of the Native Women’s Association of Canada – Sisters In Spirit initiative is to address violence against Aboriginal (First Nations, Inuit and Métis) women, particularly racialized and/or sexualized violence, that is, violence perpetrated against Aboriginal women because of their gender and Aboriginal identity. Specifically, to increase public understanding and knowledge at a national level of the impact of racialized, sexualized violence against Aboriginal women often leading to their disappearance and death.

In February the band will release their latest 7″ single with this Christmas track serving as the B-Side. All proceeds from the sale of this record will also go to the above charities.

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I strongly believe that judgement on the success of the upcoming Winter Games should be on based upon the actual execution of them, not based upon issues that have arisen at past games. Prior incidents, ie. the removal of homeless people to the suburbs that took place during the ’96 Atlanta Summer Games, should inform and educate the approaches to making the Vancouver games a success, but not be the basis for applying any number of labels to these games.

Two areas of concern (including those who are for, against or on the fence about the games) are how housing bylaws are enforced and the treatment of the homeless. The front page of today’s Metro Vancouver featured two articles side by side about this very issue.

In potential good news, Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu announced on Monday how the department plans to move forward with enforcement of the Assitance to Shelter Act. Chu indicated that the farthest officers will go to bring a homeless citizen to a shelter would be to use “minimal non-forceful touching.”  This would only come if an office believed someone on the streets was at risk of imminent serious injury or death. Should one refuse assitance to a shelter, Chu says “we will withdraw the contact immediately [and] explore other tactics to ensure the person survives the extreme weather.” Should this enforcement scenario actually hold out I believe it may be sufficient until the Assistance to Shelter Act can be challenged in court. If this truly is all that the police will enforce it seems that there is no need for the additional legislation whatsoever. At the risk of appearing very naive, I will take the VPD at their word, for now. I can only hope that we don’t soon hear of  ”circumstances changing” and the need to “re-evaluate” their enforcement strategy.

Contrasting this is a story that is unambiguously disappointing.

The eight tenants of the home on East 11th Ave. and St. Catherines St. received notices two weeks ago that their tenancy was being terminated so the landlord’s family could use the house.

But Sue Brown, a Simon Fraser University student who rents a room for $580 a month, said the house is being advertised for rent during the Games at sporteventsrentmyhouse.com.

In the summer, the provincial minister of housing argued that no new legislation was needed to protect renters as the province did not want to impede on opportunities for owners to charge obscene rent to tourists during the games. I am someone who makes pro-Olympic arguments about the economic benefits that the city will experience, but I did not find the minister’s reasoning very compelling. To often renters are overlooked; despite not owning their residency, it is their home. After the province opted to not provide any protection to renters, the City stepped in with a bylaw that “forbids landlords from renting properties during the Games if they’ve had tenants living there since June 1, 2009.” When presented with the scenario that Ms. Brown is faced with, Celine Mauboules, a housing policy planner with the City had this to say:  ”Technically, (this landlord) wouldn’t be allowed a licence [...] If the tenants came to us and said, ‘Here’s the ad (online),’ we could seek an injunction or potentially fine the owner.” That ‘technically’ that she opened with does not engender much confidence. More importantly, the City is now aware of this, even it was not brought to their attention by the tenant. Is the city seeking an injunction? Will this landlord be denied a permit to rent their home during the games? Will there be follow up to see that they are not renting without a permit? These are questions that must be asked. One hopes the answers will be more encouraging than I fear they will be.

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