• About
  • Issue 8, Spring 2017
  • Past issues
  • Downtown East
  • Contact
  • Support Us
  • Events
  • Newsletter

Menu
  • About
  • Issue 8, Spring 2017
  • Past issues
  • Downtown East
  • Contact
  • Support Us
  • Events
  • Newsletter

Bud Osborn, DTES poet, prophet, and activist (1947-2014)

volc8no May 19, 2014     Downtown East Newspaper, Memorials

As the DT East goes to press, we received word that DTES poet and activist Bud Osborn has died. Bud was a founding member of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and was appointed to the Vancouver Richmond Health Board in the 1990s. Bud was the driving force that pushed the Health Board to declare a public health emergency in the DTES because of the raging epidemic of drug overdose deaths. Bud’s work was also instrumental in getting Insite open, North America’s only safe injection site. Bud was passionate and tireless in humanizing people who use drugs, fighting back against the rampant social stigma caused by the war on drugs.

Bud Osborn reads at Insite's 10 year celebration (pic. Murray Bush - FLUX Photo)

Bud Osborn reads at Insite’s 10 year celebration (pic. Murray Bush – FLUX Photo)

He wrote:

we have become a community of prophets in
the downtown eastside
rebuking the system
and speaking hope and possibility into situations
of apparent impossibility

To raise shit is to actively resist
and we resist with our presence
with our words
with our love
with our courage.

Rest in Peace, Bud
Thanks for saving so many lives

 

 

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Google+ (Opens in new window)

 Previous Post

What do resource pipelines and building cranes have in common?: By Seb Bonet

― May 19, 2014

Next Post 

No new social housing from the Province – 3 community views: By Harold Lavender, Jean Swanson and Andrea Craddock

― May 19, 2014

Related Articles

Women supporting Women in the Downtown Eastside: By Dave Diewert
In Memoriam: Mary Dawn Vickers
Remembering Art Manuel, leader of an intergenerational struggle to unsettle Canada: Mike Krebs, Blackfoot
In Memory of Wolverine: By Karla Lottini
Rest in Power Brother Richard!: By Aiyanas Ormond
A memorial poem for Sam Snobelen
Special online-only articles
Honouring Bea Starr: By Cecily Nicholson
Honouring the Life of Phuong Na (Tony) Du
We Demand Answers – Family Statement read at a Public Vigil for Naverone Woods on February 28, 2015
Voices from the Oppenheimer Tent City: By Herb Varley
Voices from the Abbotsford Dignity Village: By Ivan Drury
Homelessness is Still a Huge Problem: By Jean Swanson
Asserting Our Rights – Oppenheimer tent city challenges the limits of government talk on First Nations legal rights: By Natalie Knight
“Displace and Disperse” – Abbotsford’s Solution to the Homeless Problem: By Dave Diewert
Lippmanopoly! (anti-gentrification art poster): By Kathy Shimizu
昭倫大廈的勝利!
Victory at Chau Leun Tower!: By King-Mong Chan
Sun Tzu (The Art of War) & the DTES Local Area Plan: By Herb Varley
DTES Local Area Plan – What did we get? What did we lose?: By Jean Swanson and Harold Lavender
Aboriginal Healing Centre – we’re a person, not an addiction: An interview with Tracey Morrison
SROs emptied for hip housing, DTES residents left in the cold: By DJ Larkin
We are poor because they are rich: By Bill Hopwood
A perfect storm: why the homeless count is no surprise: By Tamara Herman
The funding cut & displacement agenda behind the PHS scandal: By Ivan Drury
No new social housing from the Province – 3 community views: By Harold Lavender, Jean Swanson and Andrea Craddock
What do resource pipelines and building cranes have in common?: By Seb Bonet
The social housing we fight for, the crappy housing we have (Downtown East poster series): By Kathy Shimizu
華人社群在市中心東端與昂貴化的關連
Responding to the government apology for historic wrongs against Chinese British Columbians: Speech by Sid Chow Tan
How a definition can displace a community – defining ‘social housing’ in the DTES planning process: By Jean Swanson
DTES Low-Income Caucus demands versus the City’s Local Area Plan (a quick view)
Consultation is not consent – reflecting on community participation in a city planning process: By Harold Lavender
Gentrification and the DTES Chinese Community: By King-mong Chan
We want an Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Centre…. Now!: By Jean Swanson
Plans and Profiteers: The scoop on the draft DTES Local Area Plan: By Tamara Herman
The Rebel Queen: By Diane Wood
In memory of Lucia Varga Jimenez: By Dave Diewert
Year After Year – marching for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women: By Cecily Nicholson
The Abbotsford Shuffle – Homeless people pushed from park to railway tracks: By Dave Diewert
Women’s Action Group – Women supporting Women in the DTES: By Dave Diewert
Mental Health Crisis?: By Karen Ward
Home Sweet Home… but for how long? (Downtown East poster series): By Diane Wood
Displacement – Past, Present, Future: By Dave Diewert and Mercedes Eng
Japanese Canadian elder Grace Eiko Thomson speaks to Mayor and Council
“My activism goes beyond the personal” – an Interview with Japanese Canadian activist Lily Shinde: By Mercedes Eng
7th Annual Women’s Housing march
City Hall gives developers $71 Million, they cry for more: By Ivan Drury
Condos flood into Oppenheimer area while City stalls on planning process: By Jean Swanson
Storm Brewing – Local Area Plan and the Future of the DTES: By Jean Swanson and Harold Lavender
Homelessness and the Drug War in Abbotsford – Interview with Barry Shantz by Dave Diewert
After the Olympics homelessness in Vancouver is back on the rise: By the Editors
Homeless in the DTES: By Wendy Pedersen
Pushed out – Pressure is building against low-income residents in the DTES: By DJ Larkin
Park-a-palooza and artists at Oppenheimer Park: By Diane Wood
My Thoughts on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission: By Robert Bonner
Mayor’s Meeting on Mental Health and Addictions: By Phoenix
Hungry for a Welfare Raise – The 2nd Annual Welfare Food Challenge: By Bill Hopwood
The Stanza Project: By Phoenix
“Save the Waldorf”? A letter to Change.org: By Gena Thompson
Taking a Stand for Social Housing: By Dave Diewert
Power Hour – Shelter Hopping with My Son: By Pearly May
The Myth of the Wealthy Asian Invader: By Sozan Savehilaghi
New DNC Board Elected: By Shannon Bundock
Vancity is Supporting Gentrification Not DTES Low Income Community: By Dave Diewert
Collective Habitat, art show at Gallery Gachet: By Diane Wood
Cops must be accountable for all police violence: By Jennifer Allan
Letter to the editors, unprinted by the Vancouver Sun: By Christiane Bordier
A Very Chilling & Alarming Contrast!: By Therese Lulf
Idle No More! Voices from Indigenous people in the DTES
Accountability and law enforcement – First Nations Perspectives from Northern BC: By Preston Guno
Do we want a Social Justice Zone in the Downtown Eastside?: By Jean Swanson
NO PIPELINES! NO DISPLACEMENT! NO DTES CONDOS!: By Harold Lavender
Idle? Know More! Learning about Indigenous Sovereignty and Land-based Resurgence: By Jean Swanson
Making B.C.’s Housing Crisis an Issue: By Harold Lavender
Oppenheimer Park is the people’s park! (Poster series)
Will Transit changes hurt low-income peoples’ right to move?: By Tamara Herman
Health care services near, but still too far: By Byron Cruz
Life in the Downtown Eastside: By Joan Morelli
“The Hotel Study” – bad scholarship that could further institutionalize low-income people: By Ivan Drury
Sex workers challenge the law – Interview with Kerry Porth about the Bedford supreme court challenge: By Shannon Bundock
BORDERLINES – An interview with Pierre Leichner: By Diane Wood
Emerging (Mis)Directions – Proposals for DTES Plan fails low-income residents: By Jean Swanson and Tamara Herman
Housing in the neighbourhood – a view from the street: By Robert Manning
QUEST – Putting your money where your mouth is: By Diane Wood
Unist’ot’en Action Camp – Connecting the struggles: By Herb Varley
WAHRS at work on the Farm: An interview with Martin Johnson
Downtown Eastside residents vow to picket second gentrifying restaurant daily: By Nicholas Ellan
Who are the real bullies?: By the Editors
Cuchillo Restaurant – Robbin’ the ‘hood: By Richard Marquez
Only low-income community organizing will make the DTES a Social Justice Zone: By Ivan Drury
How it is (Hastings Street November 2007-September 2012): A poem by Mercedes Eng
“Now, more than ever, we need unity and solidarity.” DTES hunger strike campaign wraps up and looks ahead: By Jean Swanson
The struggle continues after the BC election: By Harold Lavender
Home Turf – A sex worker speaks out against gentrification: By Lu Lu Bordeaux and Shannon Bundock
A 5-point plan to make the DTES a Social Justice Zone: By the Editors
Film review – My Brooklyn: By Harold Lavender
Homes or an art palace? Which would you choose?: By Jean Swanson
Why I Love the Downtown Eastside (poem): By Stephen Lytton
Good news for Asia hotel residents: By Jean Swanson

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

   
Support our work by making a donation.
 
   
Subscription options
 
 

Subscribe to our Newsletter

Search

Authors

Browse by author

Categories

Archives

Letters to the Editor

1
Sad Siren Song: By Tracey Morrison

― February 12, 2017

Community Spotlight: Jean Swanson

For our issue on the BC Liberal legacy, Volcano editors turned to our Community Spotlight on a legacy of our own to highlight her over 40 years of anti-poverty work. Jean Swanson is an editor with The Volcano alongside her work with the Carnegie Community Action Project. She previously worked with the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association (DERA) and is the author of a book titled Poorbashing: The Politics of Exclusion.

You’ve been active in anti-poverty work for a long time. What has been the biggest realization that you have had with regards to poverty in this province? Has your understanding or approach to government changed over time and through experience?

My approach to government has definitely changed. Back in 1979, I actually ran as an NDP MLA candidate because I thought being involved in electoral politics was a way of implementing the things you’ve been fighting for in the community. I ran with COPE for city council too, along with my co-workers Bruce Eriksen and Libby Davies, who were elected. In those days it seemed possible to get city council to do some good things for the Downtown Eastside if we worked hard at it: fund the Carnegie Centre, pass a Standards of Maintenance bylaw, put sprinklers in the hotels.

In the early 90s, after the NDP cut welfare and brought in a whole poorbashing framework to justify it, I couldn’t bring myself to vote at all, let alone run for office.

Read more about Jean Swanson's commitment to anti-poverty organizing here.

The Volcano is published on traditional, ancestral, and unceded Coast Salish Territories.

Alliance Against Displacement: The Volcano is affiliated with the Alliance Against Displacement, a pan-regional anti-displacement network of local communities, organizations, and activists fighting displacement on the ground.

  • Housing struggles
  • Gentrification & displacement
  • Racism & Migrant Justice
  • Indigenous & Colonialism
  • Police & Criminalization
  • Income inequality
  • Sex workers
  • Social Movement strategies
  • Climate & Ecology
  • DTES organizations
  • Women & Gender
  • International struggles
  • Health & Harm reduction
  • Culture, art & poetry
  • City & community planning
Copyright © The Volcano