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Bud Osborn

Remembering Bud Osborn and his poetry

Bud Osborn reads at Insite's 10 year celebration (pic. Murray Bush - FLUX Photo)Bud Osborn, DTES poet, prophet, and activist (1947-2014)

by the Editors

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. (…)

bud1the past is not past

a poem

the past is not past/ the dead are not dead/ the past is experiences/ of suffering and loss and joy and achievement/ the many lives/ in each of us/ in the generations inside us in the world inside us/ in the histories within us (…)

 

   
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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.

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