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We Are All Persons and We Belong! Homes for All! Decolonization Not Criminalization!
This supplement to the Fall 2016 Volcano newspaper collects discussions and lessons from the “Together
Against Displacement and Dispossession” summit held by the Alliance Against Displacement on June…
Portraits of Regions in Struggle
Abbotsford—Dignity Village
Nick, one of the attendees from Abbotsford, explained how “Multi-family crime-free housing” prevented him from finding a safe place to live once his mother died.” I have…
Common Language, Common Struggle – Defining the Terms of Our Times
At a Downtown Eastside community meeting a few years ago, a woman stood up in the crowd assembled in the Carnegie Theatre and demanded that we stop using language she didn't understand. “Why say…
We are all persons and we all belong
Politicians, government officials, business owners, real estate developers, landlords, and media pundits shape a common perspective on low-income, homeless, drug user, and low-wage working class…
Homes for All – Our Homes Can’t Wait (OHCW) Campaign Works for DTES Housing
So here’s the situation: Almost 1,000 homeless people have been counted in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver. Bylaw officers and police harass homeless people daily, forcing them to move…
Liberation & Decolonization – Discussion groups change our hearts and minds
During our summit gathering communities across southern B.C., we decided that “liberation & decolonization” was a major point of unity among our many groups. As communities facing violence,…
Three Pledges of Struggle: By Together Against Displacement & Dispossession Summit
Our Together Against Displacement and Dispossession summit packed three major accomplishments into one weekend, which together will strengthen the struggles of homeless and evicted people.
First,…
Re: Guaranteed Annual Income -The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
Letter to the editor published in response to: Guaranteed Annual Income – the good, the bad, and the ugly: By Sarah Sheridan and Jean Swanson
I am so annoyed about the article in general and I felt…
Housing and sex work
Since the Sex Workers United Against Violence (SWUAV) Society formed, we have been working for better living and working conditions for sex workers, primarily through our participation in…
Fighting Capitalism & Colonialism to Heal in Community – Our View on Addiction: By the Editors
How do we soothe human pain? How can we best end the misery caused by isolation and alienation? For this editorial we wanted to focus on how our current environments—both social and…
Tenacious tenant undeterred by lack of enforcement action at Regent Hotel
The plot thickens at Vancouver's notorious Regent Hotel. The building has 153 single room occupancy (SRO) rooms renting at around $450-$550/month to mostly people on welfare and disability;…
Responses to the overdose crisis must include an end to prohibition
People across Canada are continuing to die at staggering rates from illicit drug overdoses. Advocates have recognized a lack of real action from the government in an overdose crisis that has killed at…
First Words from First Responders: On the Frontlines of Harm Reduction and the Overdose Crisis
While governments make pronouncements and dither during the overdose public health emergency, who would you think would actually be out saving lives of people who overdose? Police? Ambulance workers?…
S.O.S. at PHS
A report from inside Victoria’s first Portland Hotel Society-run “supportive” housing
In April after the government hired Portland Hotel Society (PHS) to manage Super InTent City, SIC Society…
Social work as social control
We can learn a great deal from the state responses to Super InTent City (SIC). In contracting the Portland Hotel Society (PHS) in April 2016 to “manage” the camp after losing their first injunction…
Inside the jail of supportive housing
Since Canada’s federal government cut regular social housing construction in 1993, homelessness has become the central issue of anti-poverty and housing justice movements. Our movements have fought…
Violence on the Surrey Strip is rooted in criminalization and dehumanization
Over the last month, Alliance Against Displacement (AAD) has been holding organizing meetings on 135A Street in Surrey (aka. the strip). Wanda and Ocean, two residents of the strip, had attended the…
Chinatown and the collective struggle against displacement: By Jannie Leung 梁泳詩, Chinatown Action Group 華埠行動小組
Chinese Translation here: Translated by Godfrey Tang
The gentrification of Chinatown is a continuation of its history. Colonization, racism and class oppression under capitalism created the…
唐人街和对被取代的集体斗争: By Jannie Leung 梁泳詩, Chinatown Action Group 華埠行動小組
English translation here: Translated by Godfrey Tang
承接两个世纪前的历史，当时在资本主义的殖民政策，种族主义及阶级压迫产生了这个地区，今天要把唐人街以中产化的手法拆除。这手法并不只在唐人街发生。…
Trudeau just gave the go-ahead to the next Oka – Frontline Salmon Warrior speaks out about Petronas LNG project…
The day after the Federal government approved the Pacific Northwest LNG project on Lelu Island, Chief Yahaan of the Gitwilgyots Tribe from Lax Kwa'laams says that we are in it for the long haul,…
Abolish private property – How to bridge the home-ownership and home-less housing crises
It is easy to say whether the home-ownership and home-less housing crises are the same. They are not. It is more difficult to say whether homeless and evicted people can (strategically)…
No One Grows Up Wanting
All should have to live the life
That we were forced to do
For just a little while at least
To understand our point of view
No one grows up wanting
To live on some dirty street…
from *prison industrial complex explodes*
A poem from Mercedes Eng's forthcoming and second book of poetry, prison industrial complex explodes.
Carole is a ghost mama
whispering into the ears
of the fertile red nation…
The ceremony of birth and Kanien’kehá:ka Mohawk ancestral wisdom
The role of motherhood in Kanien’kehá:ka Mohawk and Haudenosaunee societies
Imagining Turtle Island prior to Euro-colonial invasion, I am strengthened. Kanien’kehá:ka Mohawk ancestral…
The global crisis of displacement is intensifying
According to the United Nations there are more than 65 million forcibly displaced people in the world. While the majority are internally displaced within their nation, many millions have been forced…
Resisting Policies, Changing Politics – Lessons from Oaxaca’s Teacher Movement
B.C.’s Minister of Education Mike Bernier recently fired the Vancouver School Board arguing that it had “misplaced focus on political tactics rather than responsible stewardship.”…
The veil of whiteness – notes on the Black revolts in Charlotte and El Cajon from Vancouver
On September 20th in Charlotte, North Carolina Keith Lamont Scott was fatally shot by the police. Scott was a 43-year-old father to seven children. In the hours after the police murder, thousands of…
Looking beyond apology for the Komagata Maru tragedy
In May of this year Prime Minister Justin Trudeau created history by making an official apology in the House of Commons for the Komagata Maru episode. By doing so, he not only fulfilled his promise to…
Urban farming fight exposes gentrification, displacement, and colonization at core of Victoria City policy
This summer, the City of Victoria wanted to change the Official Community Plan (OCP) to undermine urban food production in favor of developers. The City wanted to prioritize condo…
Supporting the fight of Chinese seniors against gentrification – an interview with Beverly Denise Ho
Tell us a little about yourself
I'm Beverly Ho and I've been volunteering in Chinatown for a little over a year. I'm 22 and I grew up in Vancouver. Originally I started volunteering because I went…
Everyone Is An Addict!
Everyone has an addiction
of some kind
Not wanting to admit it
Only playing dear or blind
There’s drinking eating shopping
smoking and money too
There’s…
Black Lives Matter from Vancouver to Toronto
On April 17th, Black Lives Matter (BLM) Vancouver held their first rally with hundreds in attendance. The rally was called a visibility and solidarity event and was held at the south side of the…
La mission esta cumplida Lucia no era fantasma: Por Byron Cruz
No son fantasmas quienes contruyeron la villa olimpica y la linea del tren, tan poco son fantasmas los que muy tempranito por la manana se levantan preparan su sandwich, su uniforme de…
CCAP working on “Community Vision for Mental Health”
The Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) is working with Downtown Eastside residents to create a Community Vision for Mental Health.
Our approach is “nothing about us without us.” We want to…
Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside could become condo heaven with homeless on the streets
A new report from the Carnegie Community Action Project (CCAP) says Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES) could become an area full of condos and market rental apartments with homeless people…
New St. Paul’s hospital in the Downtown Eastside threatens to displace low-income residents
Last year the BC government announced that it will be going ahead with its $1.2 billion relocation of the St. Paul’s Hospital, only two years after promising to renovate the old location. The 700 bed…
Lessons about “community inclusion” from the DTES Local Area Planning Process
In 2014, the city of Vancouver approved a new Local Area Plan (LAPP) for the Downtown Eastside after four bitter years of consultation. Low-income community groups tend to view the LAPP as a…
Jack Gates wins Residential Tenancy Branch compensation
Jack Gates, a tenant leader at the Regent Hotel in Vancouver, and a member of the SRO Collaborative, won $1675 in a Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) decision in April. The money is compensation…
Invisible Heroes: Aboriginal Stories from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
A new book written by Victoria Rose Bull, Leslie Nelson, Sue Blue, Herb Varley, Stanley Paul, Emma Lucy Charleson, Tracey Morrison, Cassandra Eastman, Priscillia Tait, Gertie Pierre, Phoenix Winter,…
Homeless on the Stage
For a Muse of Fire is an original live performance piece set on the #20 bus that weaves personal stories from the DTES, quirky dialogue, wild humour, original text and a little Shakespeare. The…
In Memory of Wolverine
Love, respect, hope, strength, and a deep thirst for freedom and justice flowed through Wolverine’s Memorial held a few days after the 84-year-old warrior released his spirit on March 22nd, World…
Real Crisis, Fake Responses: Editorial
This issue of The Volcano circles around two main topics:
One: The ongoing, widespread Indigenous resistance and resurgence through land-based struggles against dispossession. From our cover art,…
Occupy INAC – Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories
On Monday April 18th, Indigenous families and allies occupied the Indigenous and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC) office in Vancouver, Coast Salish Territories. They demanded immediate actions to…
Caring Society vs Canada – foster care is modern day residential school for Indigenous people
On January 26th, the Human Rights Tribunal of Canada made a historic ruling for Indigenous peoples and children. In the decision called Caring Society vs Canada, it found that the Canadian…
When “rights” are not enough – Lessons from Tent City Resistance
It felt like a major victory when, this spring, the courts refused to grant an injunction to the Provincial government to remove Super InTent City (SIC) from the lawn of the Victoria court house.…
Revisiting the Tao of Deception in Canada’s colonial war on the poor
The Tao (way) of deception, Tabula Raza (empty slate or no history), Terrus Nullius (empty land): these are some of the ways that the country now known as Canada has naturalized or indigenized its…
Prime Minister Trudeau and Reconciliation – The New Tokenism Is Still The Same As The Old Tokenism: By Brandon…
I have been banging my head against the wall over and over again. I am speaking figuratively of course.
I keep telling people across a broad spectrum – politicians, educators, social justice…
“We Shall Not Be Moved” – Indigenous Land Defense on Lelu Island
Since August, 2015, members of the Gitwilgyoots tribe of the Lax Kw’alaams First Nation have been re-occupying their traditional territory of Lax U’u’lu or Lelu Island, at the mouth of the Skeena…
Fracking poisons water, destroys fish, and causes global warming and earthquakes
Huge fossil fuel corporations and their allies in government have tried to sell natural gas as a clean alternative energy source. Christy Clark promotes a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) boom but…
Volcano Community Spotlight
At the rally for the one-year anniversary of the beginning of the tent city on Maple Ridge’s Cliff Avenue, Tracy was upset because fewer former residents of the tent city had turned up than she…
Tent-in Protest Overcomes Barriers to Services in Campbell River
The tents set up on the lawn of the Campbell River City Hall looked like a tent city, and the space served as a tent city for about 20 homeless people, but it was more a tent-in protest for…
Solidarity between tent cities strengthens their political threat
To paraphrase Leo Tolstoy: all well-housed people are alike; each homeless person is homeless in their own way. Although homelessness is different in different towns and cities throughout British…
Rest in Power Brother Richard!
Richard David Cunningham 7 February 1961 - 23 December 2015
Richard was a member of Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) “from the start” as he always said. He was an activist and leader in…
Rent Supplements Subsidize Landlords
How can governments maintain the scarcity of housing, keep renters in crisis, and subsidize people who don’t need subsidies with one simple program?
The answer? Spend $750 million on rent…
Rental Housing Crisis in Victoria
With a vacancy rate approaching zero, a fast dwindling rental housing stock, and low interest rates encouraging the growth of luxury condominium developments catering to babyboomer retirees and…
Overdose deaths provoke a public health emergency declaration but no action: By Volcano editors
On April 14th 2016, after over a year and hundreds of overdose deaths, British Columbia’s provincial health officer Dr. Perry Kendall finally declared a public health emergency. The direct cause of…
No homelessness on stolen Native land? How demands for wealth redistribution can rely on colonial domination
These days, a lot of thinking about how we organize our social movements is focused on the connections between different struggles. In the early 20th century, many movements for social justice and…
So much at stake at Madii Lii: An Interview with Richard Wright
It seems everyday now Christy Clark’s LNG dream is slipping farther away. The price of natural gas has plummeted, companies have pulled out, and the jobs and money that she touted in 2013 have failed…
Learning from organizing against gentrification in San Francisco: Interview with Chanel Ly and Wendy Pedersen
At the end of March, four Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES) organizers went to San Francisco to learn about how people there are organizing to fight gentrification. The four are King-mong Chan,…
Homeless on the Strip in Surrey
My name is Wanda and I live in Surrey on the strip (135A Street). I’ve been on the strip for 2 years now. I lost my home over two years ago, and it’s been a struggle.
Everybody has their own…
Grassroots “Demovictions” Report Warns of Metrotown’s Collision Course with Mass Displacement
By the end of the decade, every old low-rise apartment building on the square block around Dunblane Ave in Burnaby will be destroyed and replaced by spires of concrete and glass. This process of mass…
Guaranteed Annual Income – the good, the bad, and the ugly
Imagine you’re a person with disabilities living on the BC welfare rate of $610 a month, paying $500 for rent. You get a part time job, earn $200, and declare it. This is completely legal, but…
Federal Budget Dashes Housing Hopes: By Jean Swanson
A lot of people had high hopes for housing in the federal budget that was delivered on March 22. The City of Vancouver asked for half a billion dollars to build housing on 20 city-owned lots. What…
Canada Has Blood On Its Hands – Justice in Honduras Requires a U-Turn in Canadian Foreign Policy: By Mining…
On April 21st First Nations women leaders and legal and human rights activists called on the Canadian government to take a lead in calling for an independent, international investigation into the…
Access Without Fear: By Byron Cruz
Recently members of Sanctuary Health and their allies attended a council meeting at Vancouver City Hall where the Access Without Fear policy was voted on.
We made sure that Lucía Vega Jimenez does…
The Reality of Displacement in the DTES comic: By Debra McNaught
Comic by Debra McNaught
On the Frontlines: A Map of Indigenous Resistance
This illustration was made for the center fold of the print version of The Volcano, Issue 4, Winter 2016.
Court victory over anti-homeless bylaws!: By Pivot Legal Society and DJ Larkin
In late 2015 the BC Supreme Court ruled against the City of Abbotsford’s anti-homeless bylaws. Homeless people in municipalities in all of British Columbia now have the right to sleep in parks…
Housing Insecurity and Uncertainty is the New Normal: An Interview with Sherry Chen
Sherry Chen, her husband David, and their two young children have lived in a one-bedroom apartment on Dunblane Avenue near Metrotown for four years. Like many immigrant families, Metrotown was the…
The Housing Crisis for Women Fleeing Violence in Surrey: By Corrine Arthur and Sarah Rehimi
Where do I live? How do I pay for it? How can I keep my kids safe?
The Surrey Women’s Centre has been around for over 20 years. Its priority is women and children who have experienced violence.…
A memorial poem for Sam Snobelen
Sam Snobelen passed away in late November. Sam was the heart and soul of the Carnegie Centre in the Downtown Eastside. He worked at DERA (Downtown Eastside Residents Association) for years and was…
People at Downtown Eastside Town Hall meeting strategize to stop homeless crisis: By Jean Swanson
A National Housing Crisis day, tent cities across the country, and identifying and working to get specific sites for social housing were all suggested as things we can do together to try to force…
“Our work is a warning to other landlords” – Tenants fight to improve living conditions in SROs: By Jean Swanson
Mohammad Valayati doesn’t want the same thing to happen to the residents of the Lion Hotel that happened at the Clifton. The Clifton Hotel, on Granville Street in Vancouver, has 74 rooms and used to…
Volcano Community Spotlight: Jack Gates
Interview by Sarah Sheridan
Beginning in this Winter issue, the Volcano will recognize a community member for their advocacy and organizing efforts in the Downtown Eastside community. For our…
Our generation’s fight for Chinatown: By the Chinatown Youth Coalition
Less than a year old, a coalition of youth organizations has made a noticeable impact in resisting rapid development and fighting for culturally-appropriate social housing and services in…
288 Hastings Wrong Model to End Homelessness: By Harold Lavender
The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is being swamped by high impact gentrifying projects including at 288 East Hastings, southwest corner of Gore Street, across from First United Church. This is…
Wolverine calls on PM Trudeau for an Inquiry into Gustafsen Lake
A MESSAGE FROM WOLVERINE, ELDER AND WARRIOR OF THE SECWEPEMC NATION, TO JUSTIN TRUDEAU, PRIME MINISTER OF CANADA
Dear Mr. Trudeau,
My name is Wolverine. I am also known as William Jones Ignace. I am…
How do we leap towards a better future? An Indigenous perspective on the Leap Manifesto: By Natalie Knight
The months leading up to the 2015 federal election stirred up demands for change so that all of us can live the lives we want. Other articles in this issue of The Volcano show how many of us are…
Prisons in Canada Still Racist After Forty Years of Reform: By Abby Rolston
In the late 1960s, Native resistance in Canadian prisons skyrocketed. Native prisoners fought to reclaim spiritual and social practices banned by prison authorities. They published papers,…
Indigenous Voices from Frontline Struggles against Dispossession: Kanahus Manuel and Dini Ze Toghestiy
The following are excerpts from INM Stream, a webinar held on December 17, 2015. Watch the full speeches here
Kanahus Manuel (Secwepemc)
So-called British Columbia is mostly unceded and unsurrendered…
A Re-occupation in Xwisten – Indigenous Struggle for Home on Sovereign Land: By Kaleb Morrison and Christine Jack
As the leaves started turning in St’at’imc territory it became apparent that the logging company was not going to let up and might try to come in during the winter. Christine Jack…
Protecting and Growing Unist’ot’en: An Interview with Freda Huson
Interview with Freda Huson by Annie Banks
Freda Huson: I’m the Unist’ot’en spokesperson appointed by our hereditary chiefs. Toghestiy and I have been living on our land in a cabin on the GPS route…
“Enlarged Citizenship” in Coleman Country – The failure of BC Housing creates tent cities where homeless people…
We acknowledge the unceded Lekwungen Territories on which Super InTent City stands and thank the people who shared their stories for this article.
Forty tents set up on the Victoria courthouse lawn…
Healthcare as Regulation and Social Control of the Poor: By Dan Oudshoorn and Dave Diewert
A few years back a friend went through a rough time. Eventually, he decided to go see his doctor. Hours later, the police escorted him out of the clinic in handcuffs. They took him into an ambulance…
How do we work together to stop displacement when it seems like everything is against us?: By Alliance Against…
Alliance Against Displacement (AAD) (originally Social Housing Coalition/Alliance) formed in the lead-up to the provincial election of 2013 to raise the issue of the need for social housing…
Justin Trudeau offers a new brand but no fundamental change: By Harold Lavender
Justin Trudeau has become popular by cultivating a drastically different image of Canada than the widely hated Harper government. This has generated widespread public expectations that the…
The Trans-Pacific-Partnership Agreement is a Deathstar*: By Formerly Homeless Dave
You have probably heard of the TPP by now. If you associate with progressive politics, you probably read and heard a lot of dire things about it. What’s worse is its all true. We have heard…
Understanding and Opposing the Trans-Pacific Partnership Free Trade Agreement: By Harold Lavender
Pic from Common Dreams
By Harold Lavender
Corporations continue to pursue their agenda to rule the world through ever expanding so-called free trade deals.
In October 2015, after seven years of…
Indigenous women want Federal Inquiry to consult with feminist groups as well as families
Indigenous women who have been organizing to end violence for decades want the federal inquiry into missing and murdered women to consult with feminist groups that work with Indigenous women…
The Federal Inquiry must address Canada’s colonial legacy and Harper’s sex work laws
By Sex Workers United Against Violence (SWUAV)
In December 2015, a huge sigh of relief went up across the country as it was finally announced that the federal government would begin the…
Solutions to the housing crisis may be found in alliance between homeless and refugees
In mid January, resettlement agencies in Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto and Halifax asked the federal government to slow down the arrival of government-assisted refugees. One of the key reasons…
DTES Street Sweeps are Social Cleansing
It’s eerie.
In November, as everyone in the community knows, the City of Vancouver acted on its decision to “clean up” Hastings Street. Our people have been removed from the sidewalks and…
National Conference to End Homelessness 2015 – Expensive lunches while people panhandled outside: By Phoenix…
In November I was a delegate from the Downtown Eastside to the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH) national conference in Montreal. It was a little bizarre, eating expensive lunches…
Social Mix is Exclusion
I’ve lived in Vancouver for thirteen years, in SROs for seven, I was homeless for about eight months, and now I live in supportive housing at Woodward’s. I’m an artist, and I live with a mental…
Beyond the Foreign Investment Debate
Overlook the billions of dollars freed up for capitalists through tax cuts and tax exemptions. Ignore the woefully inadequate state of rent control in BC. Forget that the federal government stopped…
Fentanyl – its deadly effects don’t discriminate, but they expose social discrimination
I was struck by the news coverage of the deaths from Fentanyl. When people in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) overdose, there is barely any coverage, and we don't know people's names. But when a…
Marching together for housing justice: Interview with Karen Ward
The Second Annual City-wide Housing March organized by VANDU will take place on Saturday, October 10, 2015. It will begin with a noon rally at 955 East Hastings Street (Campbell Ave and…
Vancouver homelessness forecast for 2016
Homelessness in Vancouver could increase by hundreds next year unless all levels of government act now. For the last two years Vancouver has had record high numbers of homeless people; in 2015 the…
Learning to Live on Shared Territory: By Savannah Walling with a story from Priscillia Tait
The Train of Thought was the culmination of ten years of planning, but it felt like a first step on a much longer journey.
Working Towards an Open, Tolerant Society – Closing Thoughts on Phase 1 of the Right to Remain Project
Canada likes to present itself to the world in a certain way. The image of Canada is often that of an open, tolerant, society; one that anyone can come to and thrive in, just as long as they work…
Sex work laws criminalize a necessary community of women
By Sex Workers United Against Violence (SWUAV)
In July of this year, early results of a new study that was focused on social cohesion among sex workers were released at the International AIDS…
Vancouver’s new hotel bylaw – salvation or smokescreen?
Did Vancouver City Council make changes to its SRO hotel room bylaw that will help stop renovictions? Or did the July changes actually take away powers that the city could have used to prevent…
Canada’s Refugee Crisis
Over the past month the plight of refugees has been gaining attention in mainstream and social media. When the bodies of the Kurdi family were found on Turkish shores as they tried to reach Greece…
A Tale of Two Art Galleries
One costs $20 to get in. The other is free. One is backed by the rich. The other is revered by low-income Downtown Eastside (DTES) residents. One got $50 million from the province, $23 million…
The Challenge Is Whether To Squat Or Deal
Micro Housing was brought to L’kwungen Territory as a result of Bobby Arbess approaching me with the idea as a member of the Committee To End Homelessness Victoria (CTEHV).
Tales from the Regent
I live in an SRO (single room occupancy) hotel in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) of Vancouver, in what I devoutly hope is a temporary living arrangement. The Regent is rated the second-worst hotel…
Maple Ridge homeless still need a tent city: By Ivan Drury with a poem by Tracy Scott
The Cliff Avenue tent city is only the visible tip of the iceberg of homelessness in Maple Ridge, where people live in temporary camps hidden from sight throughout and around the city.…
“Never Home” report reveals the truth about migration to Canada
The NeverHome multi-media website (http://www.neverhome.ca/) produced by No One is Illegal is an invaluable and timely resource. More than 50 people put in over 1000 hours to produce…
Wheel of Misfortune to spin at October’s SRO Tenant Convention
The second annual SRO Tenant Convention is coming up on Sunday October 18th, 10am-5pm at the Vancouver Japanese Language Hall at 487 Alexander Street. This year’s convention promises to…
Time to Flood the System
Another year and another climate conference. This December, 196 countries will meet in Paris to address the ongoing climate crisis, as they have done for the last 21 years. Twenty-one years of…
End the War on Drug Dealers
On July 16, 2015, the Victoria Police Department issued warrants for 16 suspected drug dealers accused of preying on people who use shelters in Victoria. The result of a 6-week undercover sting in Our…
You can’t vote against the free market – Lessons from the Greek struggle against austerity
In September the Alliance Against Displacement (formerly Social Housing Alliance) began a discussion group series about austerity; the first discussion in the series focused on “Lessons from Greece.”…
The “national” housing policy we need: By the Editors
Anti-homelessness housing advocates have been calling for a “national housing strategy” ever since the federal Liberals stopped regular funding for Canada’s national social housing program…
What happened to a National (Social) Housing Strategy?
People across Canada are facing hours of sifting through newspaper articles, watching interviews, and following tweets from MPs in hopes of gaining clarity about their federal party platforms and…
Cities alone cannot solve the housing crisis and it is misleading to say they can
While living in the Mission area in 2013 I regularly picked up hitchhikers travelling on Lougheed Highway in the first rural area beyond the suburbs of Vancouver. The men I met on the…
Demo-victions in Metrotown and a new anti-displacement movement
The housing crisis in BC has many faces. It is most starkly visible in the homeless camps that have caught media attention in Vancouver, Maple Ridge, Abbotsford, Victoria, and elsewhere, where…
Metrotown Demolitions Displace Communities
For the better half of my life, I’ve been living in Canada. My longest tenure as a Canadian has been my last 8 years living and working in Burnaby, BC.
Before settling down in Burnaby, I spent…
Who’s experiencing the real housing crisis? The homeless or young professionals?
Are young professionals who can’t afford to buy a single-family home in a similar “housing crisis” to people who sleep on the street? When I did a Google News search in the early Fall of…
Homeless Counts for What?
Every year since 2010 the City of Vancouver has counted its homeless residents. Around four hundred volunteers are recruited, trained, and sent out to lie in wait at Vancouver shelters…
The Truth about Rent Subsidies: from British Columbia to the Section 8 program in the U.S.
By Sarah Sheridan, with a primer on Section 8 housing in the U.S. by Ivan Drury
In 2013, Housing Minister Rich Coleman told The Globe and Mail that British Columbia has “the most…
Special online-only articles
September 15, 2015
A grassroots reply to the City of Victoria’s “Sheltering Solutions”: The Needs of the Homeless in the Interests of the Housed
By Ashley Mollison and Flora Pagan
On September 16,…
Landlords and developers continue to lobby for tax cuts
During this year’s federal elections we have been hearing again from BC’s pro-developer lobbyists. This time it’s the BC Rental Housing Coalition. The group is headed by the Urban Development…
Fight for Dignity – Abbotsford Homeless Await Court Decision
For 6 weeks this past summer, the Abbotsford chapter of the BC/Yukon Drug WaSurvivors and its team of lawyers have been in court. They are challenging the City of Abbotsford’s policies and…
Death by Cops on the Rise in BC
Despite new training programs, police are killing people at increasing rates in BC.
Over the past 12 months there have been 16 known police-involved deaths in BC. All of the victims…
A grassroots reply to the City of Victoria’s “Sheltering Solutions” – The Needs of the Homeless…
On September 16, the City of Victoria will host a “Sheltering Solutions” workshop for the general public to help identify temporary solutions to homelessness. We applaud the City for including…
From the inside out – what we free ourselves from when we get rid of prisons
It is much like a classroom in a school on the outside with concrete walls painted off-white, long, folding tables and chairs, windows, white boards and mockable teaching materials that we…
Honouring Bea Starr
We are sad to note the loss of Beatrice Lucy Starr, wolf clan of the Heiltsuk from Bella Bella, who passed away this June 14th in the company of family. As a community member, an organizer with…
The Plight of Migrant Workers
In recent years Citizenship and Immigration Canada has been shutting its doors on migrant workers. The Conservative government has made immigrating to Canada more and more difficult for working…
Hope Against Oblivion – The Ayotzinapa to Ottawa Caravan
On September 26, 2014, Mexican security forces killed 6 people and forcibly disappeared 43 students from the Raúl Isidro Burgos Teachers’ College from Ayotzinapa in Iguala,…
Community Policing – Better Relationships or Better Surveillance?
In an op-ed written for the Times Colonist in April, Police Chief Frank Elsner laid out his vision for a renewed community policing strategy for Victoria. He wrote, “The social problems we see on…
Micro-housing: the non-solution solution
No one is saying Micro Housing is a solution to homelessness: not city planners, not housing advocates and certainly not the homeless. But here in Victoria the Micro Housing initiative is starting to…
Gangs and Drugs – Probing the Root Causes of the Shootings in Surrey: An Interview with Jagdeep Singh Mangat
Jagdeep Mangat is a lawyer in Surrey who focuses on immigration, family and criminal law. His particular interest is on worker rights, especially low wage private sector workers. He is also an ex-gang…
Strathcona sexual assault reveals the safety of some women is worth more than others
On Thursday March 26th, a woman in Strathcona, Vancouver, was attacked and sexually assaulted by a stranger in her home. During the assault, a man walking by heard her screams and was able to…
Street Deaths are Preventable – Victoria groups organize a week of education and action
By Ashley Mollison, YES2SCS (Yes to Supervised Consumption Site)
In mid-June a coalition of groups in Victoria came together to host Street Deaths are Preventable Deaths: Week of Education…
The Ugly Reality of Anti-Poor Hatred
“People who sleep alone in the woods are in more danger than people in the camp. They’re always in danger,” Mum said. “Living here in a community like this is safer because you can’t be targeted just…
Bureaucratic language hides what’s really happening
Bureaucratic language hides what is really happening from ordinary people and often makes situations look way better than they are. Bureaucratic language also makes people’s lived experience…
SRO Collaborative launches in the Downtown Eastside
A Tenant Convention, SRO School, organizing “class action” suits to get repairs done, Youth for Chinese Seniors, and Video Voices of SRO tenants - these are some programs that the newly forming…
Kwantlen – Pipelines and Sovereignty
My name is Brandon Gabriel. My education was in Cultural Anthropology and Visual Arts. I studied at Kwantlen Polytechnic University and Emily Carr University of Art and Design (BFA 2006). I have…
Unist’ot’en Oppose Bill C-51
Deep in the forest, surrounded by the rapid on-going destruction of ancient lands, there grows a powerful place of healing and decolonization. Despite what can often seem like a concerted effort to…
Organizing Against Austerity
Austerity is not a lack of money. Austerity is a lack of democracy. When
government says we have to tighten our belts, they are hoping we won’t
find out how their tax system helps the rich and…
Devastated and Betrayed – Community in Surrey Faces Eviction
Photos from the June 16, 2015 rally against the displacement of Park Mobile manufactured home park
Residents at Park Mobile, a manufactured homes park in Surrey, are facing eviction.…
Statements from residents of Park Mobile facing displacement in Surrey
“With a yard and 1,100 sq ft living space...we will never, on our PWD cheque, find anything close or even be able to afford a new place! We feel betrayed as we bought with these years in mind.…
SRO renovictions break up communities
“I feel incredible. I’m very happy.” That’s what Mohammad Valayati told people at a news conference on June 19. Months ago he had been evicted illegally from the Clifton Hotel on…
The Struggle Together Brings Us Together – Lessons from a partial victory against mass eviction at SFU
The funny thing about eviction notices is that they are not just notices telling you that you have to move, they are messages that you are not good enough, that you do not have a right…
Maple Ridge homeless camp faces community hostility
There’s a grassy area and a forested ravine just next to the Cliff Ave cul-de-sac in Maple Ridge that has been the site of homeless camps for over a decade. It’s mostly out of sight but close to…
Metrotown – A developer’s Heaven
Metrotown is one of the fastest growing, densest areas in Canada. It includes the spectacular Central Park, Western Canada’s second largest shopping center, Metropolis, and one of the most…
Housing First or Housing Farce?
The federal government’s idea of Housing First is to subsidize landlords, not build housing for homeless people. That’s what an official of a non profit group that provides services to homeless…
Metrotown community – a sanctuary in an uncertain city
We are an immigrant family from Latin America and live very happy in Metrotown. My wife and I have two children of ages 15 and 12. Currently we rent an apartment in one of the buildings that are…
La comunidad de Metrotown – Un santuario en la ciudad de la inceritidumbre
Somos una familia inmigrante proveniente de Latinoamérica y vivimos muy felices en Metrotown. Mi esposa y yo, tenemos dos hijos de 15 y 12 años. Actualmente rentamos un departamento en uno de los…
“We are somebody” – Abbotsford Homeless take the City to Court
On June 4, 2015, members of the Abbotsford Chapter of the Drug War Survivors and their allies gathered at the Happy Tree for a march down Gladys Ave to mark the anniversary of the infamous chicken…
“We are human beings with heart and potential” – A message from Indigenous drug users to the medical profession
The Volcano interviewed Tracey Morrison, President of Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside neighbourhood. WAHRS is a group of current and former illicit drug…
Family of Humanity (Poem from the Maple Ridge Homeless Camp)
May 7, 2015
We walk the streets
day in and day out
We scrape to eat and survive
that’s what it’s all about
The city only wants to
throw us away,
But we are people and have
feelings too so…
Welfare Rates are Tough all Over
At a meeting in early May, some MLAs from the NDP told a group of Vancouver activists that low welfare rates are a problem only for those in the Downtown Eastside (DTES). Raise the Rates attended the…
Our long Summer of Evictions begins: By the Editors
When the Volcano editorial collective got together in April to plan this issue we had a different issue in mind than the one you’re holding in your hands. As the summer approached a theme imposed…
Families facing displacement from SFU housing
Lack of government regulation and austerity budgets cause student housing losses, may continue the displacement domino effect
When Teresa Dettling noticed that Simon Fraser…
Public Transit not a Border Checkpoint: Interview with Omar Chu of the Transportation Not Deportation Campaign
By Dave Diewert and Omar Chu
Volcano: What was the motivating issue that launched the Transportation not Deportation Campaign?
OC: Sanctuary Health and No One Is Illegal were…
Seeking Refuge
The following is the personal experience of Karla Lottini, a Mexican refugee and journalist who came to Canada as a refugee. Contrary to popular belief that “Canada accepts so many refugees,” it was…
Honouring the Life of Phuong Na (Tony) Du
On Nov 22, 2014 Phuong Na (Tony) Du was shot and killed by Vancouver Police officers at the corner of 41st Ave and Knight Street. Tony was 51 years old and lived with a mental health illness. At the…
We Demand Answers – Family Statement read at a Public Vigil for Naverone Woods on February 28, 2015
By the family of Naverone Woods
On December 28, 2014, 23-year-old Naverone Christian Woods was shot and killed by a female member of the Greater Vancouver Transit Police at the Safeway at 104…
The Chinatown Shockwave
Redeveloped in 2009, anti-poverty activists have described the Woodward’s project as creating a ripple effect of gentrification throughout the Downtown Eastside. This redevelopment…
Fiery Displacement from View Towers
At 7:00 am on the morning of May 15, 2014, a fire broke out in a suite of the infamous View Towers in Victoria, British Columbia. The fire was visible from the street with flames shooting out the…
New lawsuit challenges use of solitary confinement in Canadian prisons
In January 2015 the BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) and the John Howard Society filed a lawsuit against the Attorney General of Canada challenging the use of solitary confinement in Canadian…
Hogan’s Alley and Gentrification
Wayde Compton is a poet, writer, and advocate for histories and legacies of the Black community in Vancouver. In 2001 he edited Bluesprint, an anthology of Black British Columbian literature and…
“You’re still in prison” – Malcolm X and the US prison industrial complex
This article is a version of a talk given by Cecily Nicholson at a celebration of the life of Malcolm X, on the 50th Anniversary of his assassination. The event was held on February 21st at the…
“There is No camping here. It’s time to move on. Thanks.”
These words were on the note Cody O’Day and Mackenzie Skorepa found attached to their tent in Ravine Park in Abbotsford. Their tent was turned upside down, the poles were broken, their mattress was…
The Fiery File – A vision for organizing action against displacement in 2015: By Social Housing Alliance
Introducing Movement Questions: This section of The Volcano looks at the analysis and strategies for action taken up by social movement organizations. We hope by making space for organizations to…
Canada’s proposed anti-terror act is part of a government campaign to criminalize dissent
On January 30, 2015 the Conservative government introduced Bill C-51, an omnibus bill (a single Bill that will impact many laws and policies) that the media refers to as Canada’s “anti-terrorism”…
Will junking public ownership of BC Housing make things better for low income people?
The BC Government is selling about 350 parcels of land and 9 public housing buildings that it owns and operates. Two of the buildings are major social housing projects, Stamps Place and Nicholson…
Mining and Gentrification
The mining company Tahoe Resources is currently being sued in a Vancouver court by seven Guatemalan men who allege they were shot and injured by Tahoe’s security personnel during a protest against the…
Boom, Bust, and No-Go – Development on BC’s North Coast
Vancouver is blanketed in signs advertising new condominiums - new and better lifestyles! - and on city blocks where they have not yet been erected, placards proclaiming a site’s application for…
Brief reflections on community displacement and the strategy of “Touching the Corners”
Developers see the Downtown Eastside (DTES) as a gold mine of development potential. The city government wants to “revitalize” the area with this real estate development. People of the DTES have…
One last chance to save the SRO Hotels
Vancouver’s Single Room Accommodation (SRA) Bylaw has been in place for over 11 years and has proven ineffective at protecting affordable housing. The Bylaw was passed in 2003 to protect single…
1-866 YOU LOSE – Welfare puts people on hold
I’m imagining a discussion happening in the BC government between Premier Christy Clark and Social Development Minister Michelle Stilwell:
“How do we keep from spending so much money on welfare?”…
Mewa Singh’s legacy still relevant
On January 11, 2015, hundreds of Sikhs gathered to mark the centennial commemoration of Mewa Singh. For many in the South Asian community, Mewa Singh is respected as a political activist and a martyr…
New laws will not bring sex workers justice
By Sex Workers United Against Violence (SWUAV)
The Sex Workers United Against Violence Society, also known as SWUAV, is an organization of women who do sex work in the Downtown Eastside of…
Welcome to The Volcano!
By the Editors
The Volcano editorial collective gratefully acknowledges that we live, work, and struggle for justice and liberation on the unceded lands of the Squamish, Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh…
Voices from the Oppenheimer Tent City
It’s about 12:00 in the afternoon, on a sweltering day about 4 weeks into the encampment at Oppenheimer Park. The camp seems to grow and become more and more intricate as days turn into weeks.…
Voices from the Abbotsford Dignity Village
The Dignity Village homeless camp in Abbotsford, established in the spring of 2013, is the longest running protest tent city in postwar history of BC. A handful of the couple dozen people who live…
Homelessness is Still a Huge Problem
The homeless count for this year was the highest it’s ever been: 1803 homeless people in Vancouver, and 2,777 in the Metro Vancouver area. And even the counters say that is an undercount. The…
Asserting Our Rights – Oppenheimer tent city challenges the limits of government talk on First Nations legal…
On July 10 organizers of the tent city at Oppenheimer Park put the City of Vancouver’s empty words to the test. Native leaders of the camp have asserted their Aboriginal rights to the land. They…
“Displace and Disperse” – Abbotsford’s Solution to the Homeless Problem
If there is one thing to learn from the City of Abbotsford, it’s how NOT to deal with the homeless crisis. Abbotsford’s main strategy is to push homeless people from one place to another, hoping that…
Lippmanopoly! (anti-gentrification art poster)
By Kathy Shimizu, with articles by Blair Hewitt and Jean Swanson
昭倫大廈的勝利！
作者：陳敬望
勝利！因DJ Larkin (樞軸法律協會/ Pivot Legal Society) 和另一位倡權人士的支持
及工作，住宅租務處會 （Residential Tenancy Branch；RTB）撤銷業主(昭倫公所)向
RTB 申請向奇化街325 號的昭倫大廈加租，加租超過40%！
在二月尾一個晚上，我幫昭倫大廈一位租客翻譯RTB 的文件。在過去的五個月，這位租…
Victory at Chau Leun Tower!
Victory! With the support and work of DJ Larkin from Pivot Legal Society and MPA advocate Stephanie Smith, the
Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) dismissed the Chau Luen Society’s application for…
Sun Tzu (The Art of War) & the DTES Local Area Plan
How can an ancient Chinese text and the Local Area Plan (LAP) be connected? Well for starters, I read the book several times while I was co-chair of the LAP process. As I read the book, its teachings…
DTES Local Area Plan – What did we get? What did we lose?
Vancouver has approved the DTES Local Area Plan. What will be its positive and negative effects? Was it worth the three-year effort put in by low-income reps to work with the City?
What We Won…
Aboriginal Healing Centre – we’re a person, not an addiction: An interview with Tracey Morrison
During the Downtown Eastside Local Area Planning Process, LAP committee reps Tracey Morrison and Victoria Bull kept bringing up the idea of having an Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Centre in the…
SROs emptied for hip housing, DTES residents left in the cold
The numbers from the 2014 Metro Vancouver homeless count are in. In one 24-hour period, 538 people in Vancouver were found living on the streets without a home.
The City itself admits that this…
We are poor because they are rich
Finally, the proof we have been waiting for. Most of us have long suspected that the government of BC was in bed with the richest 1%. On April 1, 2014, this was confirmed.
During Raise the Rates’…
A perfect storm: why the homeless count is no surprise
Gregor Robertson and Vision Vancouver had to put their public relations experts to work in April when they announced that their biggest election promise was broken. Gregor vowed to end homelessness by…
The funding cut & displacement agenda behind the PHS scandal
The Portland Hotel Society (PHS) is at the centre of a shit storm. The spectacle of the storm has captured all the press: fat cat executives treating themselves to salon treatment, a luxury New York…
No new social housing from the Province – 3 community views
These three articles outline the housing crisis in BC as it is worsening through government policy and market forces. They deal with the crisis overall and in specific communities in BC.
The…
Bud Osborn, DTES poet, prophet, and activist (1947-2014)
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…
What do resource pipelines and building cranes have in common?
In colonial British Columbia, there is a lot riding on the answer to this question. The elites want us to think they represent the latest and most visible symbols of prosperity for all. But to…
The social housing we fight for, the crappy housing we have (Downtown East poster series)
Poster series: Design by Kathy Shimizu with text by Jean Swanson
Responding to the government apology for historic wrongs against Chinese British Columbians: Speech by Sid Chow Tan
From November 17, 2013 until January 31, 2014, the BC government held public consultation sessions so that people could express their opinions about the wording of the formal apology that the…
How a definition can displace a community – defining ‘social housing’ in the DTES planning process
In terms of affordability, the citywide target in new social housing is 50% at income assistance or Household Income Limits (HILs) and 50% at affordable market rents. To address housing need in the…
Consultation is not consent – reflecting on community participation in a city planning process
(*See a point-by-point quick summary of the differences between the Low-Income Caucus's plan and the City's DTES Local Area Plan here)
The DTES Local Area Planning Process is rapidly winding down…
Gentrification and the DTES Chinese Community
Read this article in Chinese here: 華人社群在市中心東端與昂貴化的關連
Not much is known about how gentrification is impacting the Downtown Eastside (DTES) Chinese community. There is still much that I have yet…
We want an Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Centre…. Now!
Many members of the Downtown Eastside Local Area Planning Committee are calling for the City and Vancouver Coastal Health to build an Aboriginal Healing and Wellness Centre in the Downtown…
Plans and Profiteers: The scoop on the draft DTES Local Area Plan
The City has finally released its draft Local Area Plan (LAP) for the DTES and the plan is under fire from all sides. Some people who want to see the DTES become a higher-income neighbourhood say…
The Rebel Queen
I'm asking why women's achievements are written out of history by making Feminist Zombie Dolls. I'm researching and creating notorious bad girls and freedom fighters. These strong, independent…
In memory of Lucia Varga Jimenez
News broke this past week of the tragic death of Lucia Varga Jimenez while in the custody of the Canada Border Services Agency.
Lucia was a 42 year old Mexican migrant and hotel worker in…
Year After Year – marching for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women
Increasing deaths of many vulnerable women from the DTES still leaves family, friends, loved ones, and community members with an overwhelming sense of grief and loss. Women continue to go missing or…
The Abbotsford Shuffle – Homeless people pushed from park to railway tracks
On Dec 20, 2013, after occupying Jubilee Park for two months, the people of Abbotsford’s Dignity Village homeless camp were forced to move. They set up a teepee and tents in the park on October…
Women’s Action Group – Women supporting Women in the DTES
Just over a year ago, Dianne Tobin was asked if she would consider forming a women’s peer support group at the Drug Users Resource Centre (formerly known as Lifeskills). She enthusiastically said…
Mental Health Crisis?
The Mayor’s problematic five-fold solution:
Increase Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams;
Increase supports at BC Housing;
Enhance urgent care at the hospital;
Pair the VPD…
Home Sweet Home… but for how long? (Downtown East poster series)
Poster series: By Diane Wood
Displacement – Past, Present, Future
The forces that drive people out of their homes and communities and off their land have a long history in the Downtown Eastside. Indigenous people have been pushed from their traditional territories…
Japanese Canadian elder Grace Eiko Thomson speaks to Mayor and Council
On September 25th, the City of Vancouver passed a motion to formally apologize for its role in the internment and forced removal of Japanese Canadians during and after the war. The Human Rights…
“My activism goes beyond the personal” – an Interview with Japanese Canadian activist Lily Shinde
In this era of official government apologies and ongoing systemic racism, we look to successful struggles for social justice such as the Japanese Canadian Redress movement and ask their leaders for…
7th Annual Women’s Housing march
Pictures from the 7th Annual Women's Housing March, organized September 28 2013 by the DTES Womens' Centre Power of Women Group
City Hall gives developers $71 Million, they cry for more
City Hall is making and proposing pro-development policy changes and neighbourhood plans. The first effect is a great leap in land values.
How does this work? A property’s value rises…
Condos flood into Oppenheimer area while City stalls on planning process
While the City stalls on the Local Area Planning Process (LAPP), the heart of the DTES community is being taken over by condo and market housing developments. The latest is a proposal for 24 condos…
Storm Brewing – Local Area Plan and the Future of the DTES
The fight over the future of the DTES is heating up. A DTES Local Area Plan that could last up to thirty years will be presented to City Council for a vote, probably in March.
The purpose of the…
Homelessness and the Drug War in Abbotsford – Interview with Barry Shantz
(This is a longer version of the interview that appeared in the Downtown East November 2013 print edition. It was edited down for the print version due to space constraints, we are glad to present the…
After the Olympics homelessness in Vancouver is back on the rise: By the Editors
Homelessness is increasing. In October, City Hall released a report that says the number of homeless people in the city is 1,600 and there are only enough shelter beds for 1,327. The mayor's office…
Homeless in the DTES
What happens to your tent and belongings when the cops take it away? It took a lawyer and a long-time advocate to figure it out and get the possessions back for Donny Miller, a local homeless man.…
Pushed out – Pressure is building against low-income residents in the DTES
When it comes to housing, members of the Downtown Eastside community are being squeezed on all sides, leaving many with few or no reasonable options.
On one side are the ‘slumlords’…
Park-a-palooza and artists at Oppenheimer Park
The Oppenheimer Park show, named “Park-a-Palooza! - Fun & Play” is running at the Gallery Gachet, 88 East Cordova, until December 1.
My first reaction to the theme of this year’s show…
My Thoughts on the Truth and Reconciliation Commission
In my lifetime, I have heard or read about historic events that have occurred in this world. The death of a British Prime Minister, assassination of two brothers, man on the moon, death of a man with…
Mayor’s Meeting on Mental Health and Addictions
On October 2nd, Vancouver's Mayor Gregor Robertson held a roundtable on mental health and addictions. This was done on short notice. The mayor announced a "public health crisis" saying that far too…
Hungry for a Welfare Raise – The 2nd Annual Welfare Food Challenge
A group of dieticians and nutritionists were among the people who took Raise the Rates’ 2nd Annual Welfare Food Challenge. In spite of all their training and skills, none of them could work out a…
The Stanza Project
The Stanza Project (Vancouver: Otter Press, 2013) is a DTES book of poems and writings, drawings and sketches. It is a collaboration of architecture and words. Edited by Elee Kraljii…
“Save the Waldorf”? A letter to Change.org
This letter was sent to change.org, an online website that hosts petitions and posted a petition to “Save the Waldorf.”
Hi Change.org,
I think some research might have been in order before…
Taking a Stand for Social Housing
“STANDs for Social Housing” is a campaign strategy currently used by the Social Housing Coalition BC to draw public attention to the housing crisis in the province and the need for social housing.…
Power Hour – Shelter Hopping with My Son
By Pearly May, DTES Power of Women Group
My son Ulrich and I were homeless a few years ago.
A worker at the Collingwood Neighbourhood House found us a space at the Powell Street Shelter. I…
The Myth of the Wealthy Asian Invader
As low income and working residents of Vancouver continue to face the devastating consequences of an affordable housing crisis, many of us grapple with how this happened and how we can change it.…
New DNC Board Elected
On December 8th 2012, the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council held elections for a new board for the upcoming year of organizing and actions. Board positions are divided according to housing type,…
Vancity is Supporting Gentrification Not DTES Low Income Community
**NOTE from editors: Since this article was published Vancity has clarified that they do not have a partnership with Sequel 138 condos, and their logo and name was used on the Sequel 138 website…
Collective Habitat, art show at Gallery Gachet
Collective Habitat is an Art show at the Gallery Gachet at 88 E. Cordova. Twenty seven past or present members of the Gachet collective are involved. The curator, Bernadine Fox, asked the artists…
Cops must be accountable for all police violence
By Jennifer Allan, DTES Copwatch
The mandate of the new police Independent Investigations Office (IIO), led by Richard Rosenthal, is to investigate deaths in police custody or police violence…
Letter to the editors, unprinted by the Vancouver Sun
(This was sent to the editor of the Vancouver Sun but wasn’t printed.)
Why is the builder of the condos, Marc Williams, at 138 E. Hastings, getting a private $23 million loan from BC Housing to…
A Very Chilling & Alarming Contrast!
I think we have now come full circle with the insanity and cruelty known as gentrification. There is no room for doubt about the message that is being sent to this neighborhood: “We do not care about…
Idle No More! Voices from Indigenous people in the DTES
Voices from Indigenous people in the Downtown Eastside on Idle No More:
Time for Aboriginal people to stand up and fight -- for the reserve to fight for us. My reserve is the same as when I grew…
Accountability and law enforcement – First Nations Perspectives from Northern BC
Preston Guno, Nisga'a Nation, Carrier Sekani Family Services gave the following speech on November 13 2012, at the Pivot Legal Society panel at SFU, entitled, "What is the state of police…
Do we want a Social Justice Zone in the Downtown Eastside?
All over the world, low income areas are being gentrified and low income and vulnerable people pushed out of their neighbourhoods. Could Vancouver be different? Could we get the city, other levels of…
NO PIPELINES! NO DISPLACEMENT! NO DTES CONDOS!
Well over 1,000 people took to the streets of Vancouver in a very spirited, creative and loud protest against Enbridge’s proposed Northern Gateway and other pipeline projects. The…
Idle? Know More! Learning about Indigenous Sovereignty and Land-based Resurgence
Three hundred people packed into a large room at the main Vancouver Public Library and another 1200 watched on Facebook. It was the Idle? Know More! event on Jan 22. “It’s for those of us who…
Making B.C.’s Housing Crisis an Issue
Vancouver and other parts of B.C. are experiencing a dire housing crisis. Huge numbers of people are affected when rents soar far beyond their incomes and ability to pay.
But the crisis hits…
Will Transit changes hurt low-income peoples’ right to move?
There are big changes in the works for Vancouver’s transit system this fall, and they could make it harder for low-income people to use the SkyTrain and city buses.
In late 2013, TransLink will…
Health care services near, but still too far
By Byron Cruz, Sanctuary Health
It was 2:00 am, the first week of the spring. The phone rang at home. We knew it was time to get up and go to provide support for a brave young Latin American girl…
Life in the Downtown Eastside
By Joan Morelli, DTES Power of Women group
Life in the Downtown Eastside is very often tinged with violence from strangers, service providers, and the police. We suffer particularly from the…
“The Hotel Study” – bad scholarship that could further institutionalize low-income people
A UBC psychiatry department report about SRO hotel residents was released in early August. This shocking report, penned by a battalion of doctors and professors, claims that their study applies to…
Sex workers challenge the law – Interview with Kerry Porth about the Bedford supreme court challenge
This is a special, longer, web-only version of the interview. A shorter version appeared in the print edition of the Downtown East, limited by space. The editors believe this is an important interview…
BORDERLINES – An interview with Pierre Leichner
Pierre Leichner curated the BORDERLINES art exhibition at the Gallery Gachet on Cordova St. from June 14 – July 28, 2013. He chose the name to represent lines being drawn, where you’re in or you’re…
Emerging (Mis)Directions – Proposals for DTES Plan fails low-income residents
850 homeless people. Four thousand living in crummy SROs. Over 400 rooms lost last year to rent increases at $425 or more. That’s the housing crisis in the DTES that low- income folks on the…
Housing in the neighbourhood – a view from the street
I’ve been in the DTES since 1995. I lived at Heritage House Hotel. It’s called the Lotus now. It was renting for $345 back then. Now it’s probably $550, if not more. I used to live in the Main…
QUEST – Putting your money where your mouth is
Quest isn’t a food bank; it sells food and household items at reduced prices. It’s specifically for the low-income community. Shoppers must have a referral from a social service organization, so no…
Unist’ot’en Action Camp – Connecting the struggles
The Unist’ot’en camp has been going on for 4 years and is located along the Morice River, which is in Wetsu’wet’en unceded territory. The camp stands in the path of a Pacific Trails…
WAHRS at work on the Farm: An interview with Martin Johnson
Since 2005 the Vancouver Native Health Society has been developing a Garden Project at the UBC Farm. The Garden Project consists of one acre of land on traditional Musqueam territory and provides…
Downtown Eastside residents vow to picket second gentrifying restaurant daily
“It’s a knife in the heart of our community,” said Wendy Pedersen, an independent organizer, about the newly opened Cuchillo (means “knife” in Spanish) restaurant at 261 Powell St. “Places like this…
Who are the real bullies?: By the Editors
Downtown East editorial
The very existence of the low-income communities of the DTES is threatened by rapid condo development and retail gentrification. The area is being invaded by high-end…
Cuchillo Restaurant – Robbin’ the ‘hood
Cuchillo is a crime scene. You won’t see yellow police tape or chalked outlines near street sewers, or any evidence of a bloody stabbing in front of Cuchillo -- it’s all missing from this sinister…
Only low-income community organizing will make the DTES a Social Justice Zone
For many years low-income community groups and residents in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) have fought for a place at the planning table, mobilizing around slogans like “nothing about us without us.”…
How it is (Hastings Street November 2007-September 2012): A poem
"How it is," A poem by Mercedes Eng. Download the pdf here
“Now, more than ever, we need unity and solidarity.” DTES hunger strike campaign wraps up and looks ahead
Over 125 Downtown Eastside residents packed into the Carnegie Theatre on May 26th for a celebration and feast in honour of (formerly) Homeless Dave’s hunger strike. Homeless Dave ended his 36-day…
The struggle continues after the BC election
The May 14 provincial election proved to be a disappointment to many in the DTES.
We are now saddled with four more years of a right-wing Christy Clark-led B.C. Liberal government dedicated to…
Home Turf – A sex worker speaks out against gentrification
The invasion of high end businesses and expensive condos into the Downtown Eastside has brought pressure against women working in street level sex work. The changes in the neighbourhood threaten …
A 5-point plan to make the DTES a Social Justice Zone: By the Editors
We acknowledge that the Downtown Eastside occupies the unceded territories of the Tsleil-Waututh, Musqueam and Squamish Coast Salish nations.
The future of the Downtown Eastside (DTES) is being…
Film review – My Brooklyn
“My Brooklyn” is a moving, informative but ultimately very sad documentary about how a vibrant diverse neighbourhood can be wiped out by the forces of gentrification.
It is a story about the…
Homes or an art palace? Which would you choose?
City council is happy with a new deal to give $22 million worth of land to a non-profit developer to build about 350 units of rental housing on four sites in South Vancouver. I probably would have…
Why I Love the Downtown Eastside: A poem
First of all, let me ask you some questions.
What is it that you wish to capture?
Is it the essence or the moment?
Or the character – heart and soul of the Downtown Eastside?
Or…
Good news for Asia hotel residents
ATIRA women’s resource society will be the new manager of the Asia Hotel on Pender St. owned by the Mah Society. This news comes after over a year of uncertainty. The building was scheduled for…
Good Neighbour, Bad Neighbour – Learning from experiences with ‘Good Neighbour’ agreements in…
“Good Neighbour Agreements” may sound like friendly and harmless arrangements for community living, but what’s behind their seemingly innocent names?
In Victoria, “Good Neighbour Agreements” (GNAs)…
A Chinese elder’s commitment to the DTES community
By Mercedes Eng with translation support from Deanna Wong
I recently met with Sheung Leung, a Chinese elder better know as Popo Su, and Deanna Wong, the Chinese Seniors Outreach coordinator at the…
DTES Community Plan challenges City Hall’s pro-developer planning process
As the main points of the City's coming DTES Local Area Plan (LAPP) begin to emerge from the highest offices of city hall, a caucus of low-income people who have been involved in the consultation…
Under pressure of gentrification: By the Editors
Throughout the history of the DTES, resident-based groups have arisen to build and strengthen the community through the struggle for social justice. Today, determined work continues to defend our…
The bottle depot block is home
On May 16 Vancouver City Council passed a motion to support the United We Can bottle depot to move from its long-time home at the 000 block of East Hastings to an industrial area south of Terminal…
Amalia lives on
Her name was Amalia, Amalia from Hastings, Amalia from Guatemala.
Amalia was one of the first Latin American women to live and work in the DTES. Amalia had a history of pain, a history of…
Borderlines – Mad Pride art show at Gallery Gachet
Adapted by Diane Wood from a statement by Gallery Gachet
June 14th - July 28th, 2013
Opening reception: Fri June 14th, 7 - 10pm
Mad Pride Cabaret: Sat July 13th, 7 – 10:30pm
At the Gallery…
Una crisis de vivienda en los campos de Canada: Por la Alianza de Trabajadores Agricolas
Por la Alianza de Trabajadores Agrícolas, Centro de Apoyo de Surrey
La proxima vez que usted visite Richmond, Surrey, Langley, el Valle del Okanagan, o cualquier lugar en BC, preste atención a los…
A housing crisis in Canadian fields
By the Agricultural Workers' Alliance - Surrey Support Centre
The next time you visit Richmond, Surrey, Langley, the Okanagan Valley, or other places in BC, pay attention to the fields where our…
Speculation Fever
Gentrification in the Downtown Eastside is fueled by real estate speculation, investment, development and the promise of the already super-rich buying-low and selling-high. These speculators are…
Power Hour – Housing and Homelessness in the Downtown Eastside
Until I moved to the DTES, I was unfamiliar with the crisis of homelessness and poverty. There are approximately 11,000 homeless across BC, with 2500 homeless in the Greater Vancouver Regional…
Head Tax Families Society releases their historic commemorative plaque: By the Editors
Oppenheimer Park, March 21 2013
A contingent of directors and members of the Head Tax Families Society of Canada proudly displaying their "Sites of Resistance" market commemorating their…
DTES Historic Plaque Gone Missing
A historical plaque that was supposed to have been put on a light pole near the Patricia Hotel at Dunlevy and Hastings is MISSING.
The plaque is about the death of Olaf Solheim in 1986. Solheim…
Oppenheimer Park Film Program
Every Tuesday at 2pm, in the field house of the Oppenheimer Park, documentary and experimental films are screened, followed by a group conversation. The intention is to create a space where everyone…
Idle No More – A radical two-spirited Indigenous view
By Tami Starlight – Cree (Pegius Nation)
Written on unceded and occupied Coast Salish territory.
The Idle No More movement was initiated by activists Nina Wilson, Sheelah Mclean, Sylvia…
Gentrification and Hipsters
You’ve seen them: the hipsters, walking down our streets and having expensive fancy coffees at the gentrifying shops along the west side of the DTES, like “Nelson the Seagull” and the shop below the…
For the Love of Our Community
I’m from Morson, Ontario, near Minnesota close to the Manitoba border. I’m from the Ojibway Nation from Big Grassy reserve. I’m adopted. My uncle and aunt adopted me and my siblings-- six of us…
Tenant Power and Rent Control
The Social Housing Coalition BC is demanding that the province outlaw renovictions and slumlording and begin enforcing maintenance standards that landlords now make a mockery of. …
Myths and Facts About the Downtown Eastside and Pidgin
Myth: Diners will learn more about the DTES by dining in fancy restaurants that the locals can’t afford.
Fact: Outsiders could learn more about the area by volunteering in one of the groups that…
Hunger Strike for Social Housing and Against Gentrification
By Tami Starlight (Cree-Peguis Nation) Written on unceded and occupied Coast Salish Territory
“I'm prepared to go as long as it takes. It’s a life and death struggle for our community, a unique…
Standing, Walking, and Flying for Social Justice
It is election time. Will the urgent needs of the low-income community in the DTES (and elsewhere in B.C.) to raise the rates and build social housing NOW be met? Nothing will change for the…
The Canadian prison system is racist and getting racist-er
On March 7th Canada’s corrections investigator announced that 1/4 of people in federal prisons are status Indians; Indigenous prisoners are likely to stay in prison longer than non-natives; they are…
Make Vancouver a Sanctuary City Today – Make No One Illegal Tomorrow!
Downtown Eastside residents without citizenship status can’t get welfare, don’t qualify for social housing or most homeless shelters, risk deportation if they go to health clinics or the hospital, and…
Fighting the Injustice of By-Law Tickets and “Proactive” Policing
My first ticket for vending happened at Denman and Robson. I had injured my back, and was staying with a friend in a hotel. I needed to get $10 each day to pay the hotel guest fee, so I would push a…
the past is not past: A poem
Spoken at VANDU’s memorial march, Dec 18, 2012
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…
Immigration officers are unwanted visitors in the Downtown Eastside
Beware, beware! Pay your ticket when using the Sky Train or the transit officers will ask you for your name and they will communicate with immigration officers. An undocumented worker was beaten in…
Proposed condos next door to Oppenheimer Park already hurting low-income residents
Special article to the Downtown East online edition, March 23, 2013
Daniel Boffo is a young developer born into a family real estate development company far from poverty and the streets.…
Responding to media attacks
Pidgin’s owner said he wanted to start a conversation - he got more than he bargained for! Low-income people are speaking out against forced relocation and economic exclusion/segregation in Vancouver.…
Why Picket the Pidgin Restaurant?
Determined picketers have been opposing the very pricey gentrifying Pidgin Restaurant since it opened in early February. Pidgin is located on Carrall Street right across from Pigeon Park which for…
We need homes
The City and Province are trying to create the impression that lots of housing for low-income people is being built in the Downtown Eastside. Councilor Kerry Jang says that hundreds of new units are…
Evicted and replaced with condos and Pidgin Restaurant: A speech by Ada Dennis
Many of you know Ada Dennis: Carnegie kitchen volunteer of 5 years, winner of the City of Vancouver's Volunteer of the Year award several years ago, familiar face on the 2nd floor and in other…
How do we know that gentrification is pushing up hotel rents?
How do we know that gentrification is pushing up hotel rents? In 2005, before Woodward’s was developed into 536 condo and 125 social housing units for singles, there were 8 hotels with 404 rooms…
Pigeon – a recent peoples’ history of a peoples’ park
The view of Pigeon Park that gets shown on the media is an outsider's: gawking from the window of a commuter's car or through the blue lens of a police reality TV show. The stories these narrators…
Sid Tan’s letter to the Editor of The Province about Pidgin Picket
This letter was written to the editors of The Province newspaper but not published. We are publishing it here as a record of community responses to mass-media. – Editors.
Dear Editor.
Your…
Questions and answers about the Pidgin Picket
Question: Why are you protecting drug users/ misery?
Answer: Drug users are human beings with dignity. They deserve to have their health issues addressed in effective ways. A fancy…
Displaced & then replaced
We, the displaced, and about to be displaced, are wondering what happened to some of our neighbours.
We feel totally disconnected from some of them, and for all we know, they could have been…