Good evening, mayor and council, I would like to thank you for allowing me to speak tonight. I would also like to acknowledge that we stand on the unceded territories of the Musqueum, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh peoples and to honour their story and struggle. I am here in support of the Chinatown Concern Group and
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Culture is a collective product of people and relationships, not a commodity: By Yuly Chan
My name is Yuly Chan, and I’m here to oppose the rezoning application for 105 Keefer. I’m a community organizer with the Chinatown Action Group. We are a grassroots organization that formed in 2015 to organize and empower low-income residents in Chinatown. Our shared vision is to see Chinatown grow and develop as a community
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Don’t condemn Chinatown to the same fate suffered by Vancouver’s Pauerugai: By Angela Kruger
Good evening, Mayor and Council. First, I’d like to acknowledge that we are on the Unceded Coast Salish territories of the Musqueam (xʷməθkʷəy̓əm), Tsleil-Wauthuth (Səl̓ílwətaʔ/Selilwitulh), and Squamish (Skwxwú7mesh Úxwumixw) peoples. Let’s do our best to honour them. My name is Angela Kruger and I am speaking on behalf of the Japanese Canadian Young Leaders of
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Do not tell us the City cares about people more than profits – show us! By Lenée Son
Before going further, I wish to acknowledge the unceded, traditional, and ancestral Coast Salish territories of the Squamish, Musqueam, and Tsleil-wauth nations. Good evening Mayor and Council, My name is Lenée Son; I am a coordinator at the Carnegie Community Action Project. I oppose the 105 Keefer project and support the Chinatown Concern Group. Yesterday,
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More unaffordable housing and unaffordable retailers and unaffordable restaurants is going to save Chinatown? I’m not buying it: By Mark Lee | 陳德聰
Hello my name is Mark Lee. 我叫陳德聰 I am a community interpreter and translator who has been volunteering with Youth For Chinese Seniors since August 2015. I am here to support Chinatown seniors, low-income residents and the many other hardworking members of our community who have come here to be heard. I oppose this rezoning
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Ten Year and Anita Place Tent Cities: Security for the homeless, sites of struggle for us all: By the Editors
For those who are evicted and displaced, tent cities have become spaces of survival and also of resistance. By coming together and creating tent cities, homeless people are refusing to accept laws that make homelessness illegal. They are refusing a society that doesn’t recognize them as humans. Tent cities refuse the government’s attempt to make
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Ten Year Tent City beats Vancouver in Court! By Maria Wallstam
Supreme court decision affirms the value of homeless people lives over the City’s property rights On May 17th, a group of residents from the Ten Year Tent City trekked to the Supreme Court to defend their charter rights against the City’s application for emergency injunction, a court-order to displace the camp with police force. Homeless
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Saving lives, a sense of pride, and trans women’s safety at 10 Year Tent City: Affidavits from the defendants against the City of Vancouver’s failed injunction attempt
Judge Sharma’s decision to refuse Vancouver’s application for an injunction to break up Ten Year Tent City was based on the testimonials of homeless campers. These testimonies expose the conflict between private property rights and the lives and wellbeing of low-income, working-class, and Indigenous people, and that City depends on bylaws and policing to bolster
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Anita Place tent city forging a new anti-poverty politics in Maple Ridge: By Ivan Drury
Housed and homeless Maple Ridge residents marching together for housing and against hate On Thursday May 11th the City of Maple Ridge staged an extra-legal attack on Anita Place Tent City. Bylaw officers backed by the RCMP sacked the camp, stealing about 10 tents unoccupied at the time they arrived, ripping down tarps, destroying the
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Rally calls for Maple Ridge to lift eachother up and reject bullying, anti-homeless hate, and vigilante violence: Speeches from Anita Place defense rally
A call to reject anti-homeless hate and come together to end homelessness By Stephen Milner My friends I want to thank you for coming today. It is not easy to gather in support of the members of our community living without a home. We live in a time, in a city, and in a province
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.