Download the PDF of Anita’s News – Issue 1. 

I Have the Right to a Private Life in an Affordable Home

by Xylah

I am a proud Canadian who is not very proud of the government. Indigenous people have suffered great loss due my ancestors uncompassionate invasion of the land and that is nothing to be proud of. Similarly, our government now creates homeless people by allowing landlords to charge ridiculously high rent and refusing to pay the amount needed to rent to them.

In Canada, socialized medical care offers sick people free care, yet they are not given the safety of guaranteed affordable housing to keep them from the elements that would be a threat to wellness.

Canadian rights dictate the right to be free from discrimination.  Homelessness makes you feel unwanted anywhere, just by looking different, which is clearly a rights violation.

Canadian rights give the right to life, liberty, and security of self. Security means having the ability to keep ourselves safe from that which may threaten wellness. This security is only possible by living inside buildings that have heat, water, and electricity.

The province expects me to sign away tenancy rights to privacy in exchange for shelter.  Supportive modular housing violates my right to liberty (which is my freedom) by expecting me to live under the supervision of social workers and cops, who could enter my home at any time, unannounced.

I won’t sign away my rights, Canada! I demand secure housing I can afford on my own that lets me keep my liberty. The deed to a home of my own would definitely solve this problem.

 

Bipolar~disorder

by Mike Galley

why me?

why must this be?

this instant need to express myself

so angrily.

an uncontrollable sudden rush

to lose all control,

holding nothing back but

backing me back into a dark

hole.

destruction marks another

burn~mark on my outer~emotions,

falling quickly into such despair

feeling like nobody gives a care.

my body is looking a lot like old

scratched silverware.

from plenty of scars upon my

arms dam right from self~harm

leaving me more to the understanding,

that i believe i will always be

alone in this battle

that’s been battling me from day one

to my being.

seeing only that this medication i’m taking

is not a permanent relief,

from this disease that’s been taking

a direct affect on my

mental~minded health.

thinking that this disorder is for

me to take on all by myself,

so now i need to be open for

more discussion about this

bipolar

that’s go me in a tight circular~hold,

which is circling me back to the

beginning of not me being

in~control…