U.S. war resister fights to remain in B.C.

THE WESTENDER
December 24, 2008

It’s been a tense two weeks since 28-year-old Iraq war resister Cliff Cornell received a deportation notice demanding that he leave Canada by December 24 or face “removal by force.” By the end of last week, however, Cornell’s notice was extended to January 22, allowing him some relief over the holidays, which he will spend at his adopted home on Gabriola Island.

Originally from Arkansas, Cornell joined the U.S. military when he was 22, banking on a promise from a military recruiter that he would receive $9,000 as a sign-up bonus, plus job training and better employment prospects after serving in the army. Cornell’s unit was to be deployed to Iraq just after Christmas 2004. In January 2005, Cornell escaped to Toronto and drove to Victoria with fellow war resister Ryan Johnson. “I did not want to kill innocent people,” says Cornell. “The hardest thing was leaving my friends; I felt like I betrayed them. But I know I did the right thing. I am not killing women or children. If that makes me a chicken, so be it.”

Upon arrival at Gabriola Island, Cornell did odd jobs until landing a position at a grocery store. “They were really supportive of my choice, and I’ve been there every day since — two and a half years,” Cornell says. “I love it here.”

It was at the grocery store that Cornell met Mickey McDonald, who was working in the meat department at the time and is now retired. “He was going from place to place; he just needed some roots,” McDonald recalls. He offered him a spare room in his house; Cornell has been renting a room there for the past seven months. “He’s been a great roommate. I’ve got nothing but good to say about him,” McDonald says. “When I was younger, I said, ‘War is war,’ but when you get older, you realize it’s just such a stupid thing.”

When and if Cornell is sent back to the U.S., he will be arrested and likely sent to military prison. For now, he will continue to work at the grocery store as well as work with a lawyer on fighting his deportation. “We grew up with the propaganda that the U.S. was great and it never did anything wrong,” says Cornell. “I joined the army to do what I could to help my country, but I did not join to kill innocent people. If I knew that, I would never have joined.”

Council makes plans for 2009

THE WESTENDER
December 24, 2008

In its final meeting of the year, which ran a lengthy five hours, Vancouver City Council passed three motions that will have City staff working hard in 2009. The motions include drafting a report on how to better enforce the Standards of Maintenance bylaw, which concerns landlords’ obligations for building upkeep; an implementation plan for the Burrard Bridge; and submitting a request to the province to amend the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) as part of efforts to boost tenants’ rights.

Lone NPA councillor Suzanne Anton was the only councillor who opposed the motions about the Burrard Bridge and Residential Tenancy Act, instead favouring the original NPA plans to build a sidewalk barrier on the Burrard Bridge and to carry out a more thorough examination of what the City can do to produce more rental stock. She supported the motion about the Standards of Maintenance bylaw.

Anton expressed particular concern for her colleagues’ interest in amending the RTA. “We need to focus on what we can do,” she said at the meeting. “Sending [the motion] away and asking the province to do something [only] looks like we’re doing something, but the important thing we can do is what we’re [already] doing..., which is to promote the building of new units.”

Anton said she believes the City needs to allow for more high-capacity rental buildings in Vancouver, in order to create more units for prospective tenants, who currently face a vacancy rate of 0.3 per cent. “We need to have enough housing in the city for people to live in,” she said. “We’ve got a moratorium on tearing the old buildings down and building new buildings. I’m hoping we can lift that moratorium.”

Meeting attendee Paul Sander, who identified himself as a landlord on the council speakers’ list, also opposed the RTA motion. When Councillor Tim Stevenson asked him if he was affiliated with controversial rental-property management firm Hollyburn Properties, Sander replied, “I could be.” A man of the same name is the CEO of Hollyburn Properties.

“There is already a system of checks and balances in place,” Sander said of the motion. He also criticized council’s use of the word “loophole” in the motion. “The word ‘loophole’ is used incorrectly in this motion. It is not accurate,” he said. “The word ‘loophole’ was derived from tenant-activist groups and the media. It refers to law.”

As for Sander’s argument that the word “loophole” was used incorrectly in the motion, another meeting attendee, Brian Broster, begged to differ. He is a resident of the Seafield, a 77-year-old apartment building whose tenants are facing imminent eviction by its new owners in order to clear the way for renovations. “The loophole is admitted by not only the Supreme Court, but also the government in power,” he said, referring to Supreme Court cases that stated there is a loophole in the RTA, as well as a meeting Broster and other Seafield residents had with BC Liberal housing minister Rich Coleman. “Only the bad landlords that want to essentially gouge rents and reno-vict the tenants are the ones who are complaining. Good landlords will continue to maintain their buildings [within] the rent increases allowed every year.”

Teachers' union to boycott standardized test

THE WESTENDER
December 24, 2008

The newly elected Vancouver School Board (VSB) will hold a public meeting in early January to attempt to resolve long-standing controversy surrounding the Foundation Skills Assessment (FSA), a mandatory standardized test of literacy, numeracy, and writing administered annually to students in Grade 4 and Grade 7. The FSA is the only standardized test taken by all public school students in B.C., and results are compiled by the Fraser Institute, a national research organization, to produce an annual report card that ranks schools academically.

The FSA — as well as its Fraser Institute affiliations — has been criticized by the BC Teachers’ Federation (BCTF). Members of the teachers’ union are planning to boycott the next round of tests, scheduled for February. “The FSAs drain much-needed time and resources away from teaching and learning,” says BCTF president Irene Lanzinger. “This particular standardized test is unfair, does not help students learn, and is not an accurate measure of student progress.”

The four-and-a-half-hour exam is administered over the course of approximately two weeks, from which the Fraser Institute has been compiling results since 1998 in a set of annual report cards. The BCTF says the reports “erode confidence in public schools.”

In light of the boycott threat, Education Minister Shirley Bond is calling on the BCTF to stop protesting what she sees as an “important tool” for educators and parents. “The FSA is responsible, effective, and supports student success,” Bond wrote in a public statement. “Every parent has a right to know how their child is doing in school.”

The BCTF wants the province to instate a random-sampling approach to administering the FSA, rather than having all students in the province take the test, but Fraser Institute researcher Peter Cowley maintains that the FSA’s strength lies in the fact that it is a mandatory test for all students. Cowley, who works as the Director of School Performance Studies, has co-authored the Fraser Institute’s annual report cards since their inception. “What [the FSAs] are is a source of objective information with regard to how schools are doing in academics, for parents,” he says. “It just doesn’t sound very evil. It is the only assessment that all the kids in the province take.”

Cowley says the report cards are extremely popular among parents who want to know how their children’s schools compare to others, and that they have the potential to provide healthy competition for educators. “Everyone should be interested in how everyone else is doing so they can improve themselves,” he says. “If you say it’s unfair to compare schools with different family characteristics among the students, then what you’re saying is that the families with relatively low income, or the families who may be aboriginal, or the families where kids have special needs — all those people should not expect that their kids can excel in school.”

In an effort to resolve the FSA controversy in time for the next projected round of testing in February, the VSB will hold its special public meeting Wednesday, January 7, at the Vancouver School Board Office (1580 West Broadway), starting at 5:30 p.m.

“The best-case [scenario] is that [the BCTF and Ministry of Education] get it worked out to a mutually satisfactory outcome, so schools can get on dealing with the teaching and learning process,” says VSB chair Patti Bacchus. “We want to gather as much information as possible.”

Mayor launches homeless task force

THE WESTENDER
December 18, 2008

On Monday (December 15), First United Church, at Hastings and Gore Streets, began extending its operating hours to serve as an overnight shelter, marking the beginning of an aggressive homelessness task force that was set in motion by Mayor Gregor Robertson the day after he was sworn into office. Robertson phoned First United Church Reverend Ric Matthews on the evening of December 7, and within 48 hours a plan — and funding — was in place to allow up to 150 people to sleep on the floor and in the pews of the First United sanctuary, which was already open for similar purposes during the day. The initiative is funded by a $30,000 grant shared equally between the City of Vancouver, the province, and St. Andrew’s-Wesley Church, a sister parish to First United.

The overnight-shelter plan is the first project out of the gates from Robertson’s 13-person HEAT (Homeless Emergency Action Team), whose members include Vancouver police chief Jim Chu; City of Vancouver housing outreach coordinator Judy Graves; and Patricia Daly, chief medical officer of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority. The rapid assembly of the task force is not without its growing pains (“I’ve been out of the country for the last three weeks, and just received a note when I was gone asking if I would participate,” says HEAT member and BC Housing CEO Shane Ramsay), but it is an unprecedented move that homeless advocates hope will deliver much-needed shelter to the city’s homeless during the coldest time of the year. The HEAT team is part of Robertson’s 90-day action plan to tackle homelessness. First United’s program will operate on a trial basis during that time.

“It’s a 48-hour period when, for us, the whole world changed,” Rev. Matthews says about the swift move to start overnight shelter. The deal was struck so quickly, however, that there was not enough time to notify all church staff and board members before Robertson and Matthews publicly announced their plan. “There’s going to be a surprise to many members of St. Andrew’s-Wesley who should have been in a position to know about this before, so that’s the risk of moving fast,” Rev. Matthews says. “I have no doubt we’ll have some teething problems in trying to put this together because we’ve moved so fast.”

Despite the challenges, First United has managed, in a one-week period, to hire additional overnight support staff to work during the new operating hours. Rev. Matthews contends they couldn’t have moved fast enough, considering the snowfall and freezing temperatures that saw extreme-weather shelters crowded over the weekend. “Can you start soon enough? No,” he says, “and whether the cynical among us see it as purely political posturing — I don’t think it matters to the person who’s going to be sleeping out in the cold whether it’s political posturing or not.”

In her 16 years working at Atira Women’s Resource Society, executive director and HEAT member Janice Abbott has never seen an initiative like the mayor’s task force on homelessness. “It’s unprecedented, and it’s great,” she says. “It’s not a solution, but people need to be inside. People die of pneumonia... most die quietly at St. Paul’s Hospital. There’s another problem and a longer-term solution that we need to address, but people outside now don’t have time to wait for us to come up with the perfect solution.”

BC Housing will open 455 new units of supportive housing throughout Vancouver next year, most of which are on City-owned land. “The ultimate goal is to... open up the next units next year, because those are better forms of supportive housing,” says BC Housing CEO Shane Ramsay. “It’s great to get people out of the cold and the wet [and into] the First United Church, but way better to have them have their own place to go home.”

For many, however, First United is the closest place that feels like home. “This is family; this is part of their community,” says Matthews of his church. At an October 22 debate between Robertson and Peter Ladner during the mayoral campaign, Rev. Matthews, who was serving as moderator, relayed the story of a young man who slit his wrists in the church bathroom the previous week. He was saved when a parishioner saw his blood flowing out from under the door. “I didn’t want to kill myself on the street where no one would know, no one would care,” the man told Rev. Matthews after he recovered and returned to apologize for the disturbance caused by the episode. “This church felt like home.”

Casting light into darkness

THE WESTENDER
December 18, 2008

In the midst of a holiday season that, for some, is marked by loneliness, dysfunctional families, strained bank accounts, or a combination of the three, the Secret Lantern Festival aims to inject beauty and peace into an otherwise stressful time of year. The 15th annual winter solstice celebration — featuring lantern processions which aim to light up the darkest day of the year — takes place this Sunday (December 21) in six neighbourhoods around the city, starting at 6 p.m. Festivities are based at community centres in Strathcona, East Vancouver, the West End, Coal Harbour, Yaletown, and Granville Island, each of which will include performers and artists unique to the neighbourhood.

Artistic director Naomi Singer started the festival in 1993 when the Vancouver Park Board launched an artist-in-residence program at local community centres. A recent Emily Carr grad at the time, Singer applied to the program with a proposal for a winter solstice celebration. “The mandate of it was to engage the community, bring community members into the community centre — people who might not otherwise be coming in, people who weren’t interested in tennis programs,” she recalls.

The first annual event was held, with remarkable success, at the False Creek Community Centre. “It was so moving; there were these 6’2” football guys, volleyball women and rec people, and they all had tears [of joy] in their eyes,” says Singer.

From the beginning, Singer has managed the artistic direction and logistical aspects of the festival, including its funding, which comes from a combination of community centre support and fundraising through grant-writing. This year, Singer has been able to hire six community artist facilitators with the help of a B.C. Arts Council grant, and momentum continues to grow.

“I get letters from people saying... we’re doing lantern-making workshop in our home, and we’re going to walk together in the procession; that’s going to be our seasonal family get-together,’” she says. “They thank me because it was really fun, they had no pressure, everybody had a beautiful time, and they saw their neighbours. That’s the essence of what I hope is happening for people. There’s a real desire to be sharing beauty with people.”

Brenda Racanelli, an arts programmer at Yaletown’s Roundhouse Community Centre, has been helping Singer plan this year’s festival. “As opposed to the Christmas season, where people are kind of burdened by the expectations and the commerce of it, here you can get involved in every aspect of the festival,” she says. “There’s lantern-making happening, you can get involved with the processional drumming... You’re engaged, rather than just handing over your credit card and doing what you’re supposed to do over the Christmas season. It’s a calming place to be.”

As for the secret aspect to the not-so Secret Lantern Festival, Singer named it for its play on words. “It’s an opportunity for play, and it’s an oxymoron. A lantern shining out in the dark is a beacon and it can’t be a secret,” she says, smiling.

More information on lantern-making workshops and winter solstice events can be found at the Secret Lantern Festival website, SecretLantern.org.

City councillor calls for increased protection for renters

THE WESTENDER
December 18, 2008

Vancouver’s rental vacancy rates will remain below one per cent in 2009, according to the latest rental-market report from the Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC). The report, released last week, shows that Vancouver has a rental-apartment vacancy rate of 0.3 per cent, one of the lowest rates in the Lower Mainland next to North Vancouver (0.2 per cent). As of October 2008, there were only 160 private apartment units vacant out of 54,442 total units in Vancouver. The report suggests that the low rates are the result of a combination of factors, including a tight job market, a decreasing number of first-time buyers entering the arena of home ownership, and more than 30,000 people having moved to Vancouver from other provinces and countries last year.

Despite the CMHC report making official what many have known for a long time, Vancouver city councillor Tim Stevenson says loopholes in the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) continue to be exploited by landlords, forcing tenants from their homes in order inflate rental rates far greater than the legislated four-per-cent annual increase. A number of apartment tenants claim such loopholes have led — or will lead — to mass evictions this year, including many West End buildings that have been profiled by WE in the past year because of turbulent landlord-tenant relationships.

Stevenson brought forward a motion to city council Tuesday (December 16) asking the province to amend the RTA, in the hope that changes will offer better protection to already vulnerable tenants. Proposed changes include requiring landlords to allow tenants that have been evicted for renovations to reclaim their units at the same rent they were paying prior to renovations; limiting annual rent increases beyond the standard four per cent; extending the notice period for evictions from 60 to 90 days; requiring the Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) to approve the termination of tenancies for the purpose of renovations before eviction notices can be issued; and requiring that landlords report rent rolls, rent increases, tenant turnover, and evictions to the RTB, from which it will compile an annual public report.

“It’s not hard to look at this situation we have now and realize that there need to be some changes made,” Stevenson says. “With the national rental rate being now what it is... they [the province] will be far more cognitive of the problems.”

Stevenson added that the Vision Vancouver-domninated council has struck a positive working relationship with BC Liberal housing minister Rich Coleman, despite Mayor Gregor Robertson’s role as a member of the opposition when he was an NDP MLA. “It’s a somewhat symbiotic relationship, in that we obviously need them to make some changes, and it’s in their interest to work with us, given that the election’s coming up in May as well,” Stevenson says. “I think that we now have a real opportunity here with the provincial government to find solutions. There are problems which haven’t been addressed previously.”

Before Stevenson’s motion was officially brought forward to council, however, he had already come under fire from critics who contend that his proposed changes to the RTA will not help create more affordable housing. One of those critics is Manny Riebeling, a realtor specializing in properties downtown and in Yaletown. “Investors won’t renovate or upgrade their buildings unless [the buildings are] useless and, thus, demolished,” he says. Instead of amending the RTA like Stevenson suggests, Riebeling recommends a tax incentive program for investors to motivate them to build rental properties. As for the best course of action in creating affordable housing, Riebeling suggests “innovative ideas that help people own a property and not just rent it,” such as life leases, equity co-ops, development funds, and charity donations.

As it stands, current market conditions are not, as the CMHC reports, making things better for renters. According to the report, less than 300 new rental-apartment units were completed in Vancouver by October 2008. Stevenson’s motion notes that more than half of all households in Vancouver are rentals.

Pet owners fight eviction threat

THE WESTENDER
December 11, 2008

If his apartment building’s management had its way, Andrew Simmons would have surrendered his three cats to an animal shelter by now. A seven-year tenant at the Hollyburn Properties-owned Emerald Terrace apartments at 2045 Nelson Street, Simmons received a “No Pets Policy” notice from the company, dated November 24, which gave him 14 days to find alternate, permanent shelter for his cats or face an eviction notice.

To date, Simmons is one of four Emerald Terrace tenants — another of whom is an elderly woman with Parkinson’s disease — who have received pet-eviction notices in what seems to have been an arbitrary process, given that dozens of other tenants in the building own cats. All pet owners in the building had verbal permission from the previous building manager to keep pets in their suites, but Hollyburn subsequently told tenants they need to have written permission — which one tenant, Pat Maher, has had for 17 years. Despite this, she too was among the first to receive the no-pets notice. “I had a total panic attack, and then anger, and now it’s kind of both,” says Maher. “Especially since I seem to be the only person in this situation who actually had written permission [for a pet] from the first manager when I moved in. It’s 17 years old... but that’s immaterial, according to all the advice we’ve gotten.”

Simmons and seven other tenants took immediate action, filing for a joint arbitration (which is scheduled for January 16) to dispute the no-pets policy at the Residential Tenancy Office (RTO). They are now safe to keep their pets in their suites until at least that date.

But the stress of dealing with the potential loss of animal companions has wreaked havoc on tenants’ lives, many of whom are now living in fear that they will receive an eviction notice or, if they speak out against it, face other forms of retribution from the building management.

“Prior to this, I’d spent seven years in the [Hollyburn-owned] building across the street, and I was looking [to move] because it was owned by Hollyburn and I wanted to get away,” says Simmons, who was aware of Hollyburn’s notorious treatment of tenants, some of which has resulted in Supreme Court cases, mass evictions, and the birth of West End tenants’ rights group Renters at Risk, of which Simmons is a member. “I had my cats there the entire time, and I had verbal permission from no less than five sets of Hollyburn managers in the building.”

When Simmons moved across the street to Emerald Terrace in 2001, the building was owned by Colliers International; it had been advertised as a pet-friendly building at a local pet food store, where Simmons first saw a vacancy ad. The building manager at the time had verbal agreements with tenants to allow pets. Hollyburn took ownership of the building on September 21, 2007.

When asked about the legitimacy of written agreements for pet owners in the building, Hollyburn property manager Allan Wasel told WE that he would honour them, contrary to what tenants claimed. “I am absolutely going to honour those,” he said of two written agreements to keep pets the building. As for people like Simmons who had verbal agreements for pets, Wasel declined further comment. “There is a pending arbitration on those. I don’t want to make too much of a comment on that.”

When word spread that Emerald Terrace tenants were speaking with WE about the new no-pets policy, 20 tenants came forward to speak about the poor quality of their living conditions. Many spoke on condition of anonymity because they say they’ve felt bullied or threatened by management. Each of those tenants claimed unhygienic conditions in the building’s common areas, such as the garbage room, laundry room, and hallways. Two tenants mentioned vomit and urine stains in the elevator that didn’t get cleaned for days.

“As you know, and I think I mentioned this to you before, [Hollyburn is] the premier provider of rental accommodations in British Columbia,” Wasel said when asked to describe the cleanliness of Emerald Terrace. “We have a... system in place. All our complaints or whatnot would be forwarded to the manager and are dealt with immediately.”

Wasel also credits Hollyburn for maintaining rental stock in an increasingly sparse rental market. “There is a good-news story, always, to Hollyburn taking over a building,” he said. “We like to keep the rental stock alive and well in Vancouver.”

As Simmons and his neighbours prepare for their arbitration date at the RTO, other tenants anxiously await eviction notices many of them believe are inevitable. “I was quite happy and content here until [Hollyburn] took over,” said an 86-year-old tenant who has lived at the Emerald Terrace for 17 years. “I thought I’d live the rest of my years out here as long as I was able. I don’t look too far in the future now.”

Vancouver documentary highlights homeless problem

THE WESTENDER
December 11, 2008

Gloria Wilson has been homeless in the Downtown Eastside for five years, and she says she’s had enough. The 26-year-old and her boyfriend are now seeking housing with the help of local filmmaker Les Merson, who featured Wilson in his recent documentary, Something to Eat, a Place to Sleep & Someone Who Gives a Damn. The documentary explores the human face of homelessness, and suggests practical ways for individuals to help find solutions.

When WE caught up with Wilson and Merson at Oppenheimer Park last week, Wilson had just finished a shift at the nearby LifeSkills Centre, where she volunteers almost every day. The educational drop-in centre offers shower and laundry facilities, a training kitchen to teach people how to cook meals, and addiction-treatment and mental-health services, among other services.

“It gets frustrating at times, because there are people down here [in the Downtown Eastside] that shouldn’t be on the streets,” says Wilson. “There’s a lot of people down here that need more help than others.”

When Wilson moved to Vancouver at age 20, from an aboriginal community in Bella Bella, B.C., she had already been on her own for nine years. (Her mother — an alcoholic — was rarely home to care for her.) Wilson landed a waitressing job in Vancouver, but when she refused her manager’s sexual advances, she was laid off for two weeks. “I was working every day there to keep a roof over my head, and he [laid me off] and I was on the street,” she recalls. She quit in the middle of a shift on her first day back because her manager continued to try to exploit her.

“On my 21st birthday, I tried crack for the first time. I knew nothing of the resources down here,” Wilson says. “Basically, I did it so I could stay awake, because I had nowhere to live. That’s how it started.”

Wilson’s appearance in Something to Eat, a Place to Sleep & Someone Who Gives a Damn was an extension of everyday efforts in her community to raise awareness of the issues that confront people living on the streets. “I do it because I like to try to help,” she says.

“I was part of the middle-class society that would drive through the Downtown Eastside and say, ‘We should clean this up, we should get rid of the homelessness,’ but I just didn’t want to do anything,” says Merson, who was inspired to make the documentary because of the negative attitudes toward the homeless that he saw developing in his children. “My children were afraid of the homeless,” he says. “My father, who I love, thinks what should happen is everybody who lives in the Downtown Eastside who’s drug-addicted or homeless should be shipped to an island. A lot of people think that.”

Merson’s work on Something to Eat opened his eyes, and resulted in a change of heart. In addition to helping Wilson and her boyfriend to find housing, he and Wilson are working on a second film about aboriginals and homelessness. Two per cent of Canada’s population is aboriginal, of which 32 per cent are homeless. “The hope is that maybe we can stop homelessness before it starts,” Merson says of the upcoming film.

As for Mayor Gregor Robertson’s pledge to end homelessness by 2015, Merson is optimistic the goal can be reached, but the mayor can’t do it alone. “I think Gregor Robertson is a good man... but with the current economy and a tax base that’s diminished, he’s going to need help,” Merson says. “We all have to end homelessness together. This is not something that can be ended by politicians.”

Copies of Something to Eat, a Place to Sleep & Someone Who Gives a Damn can be obtained by e-mailing Merson at seeingeye@telus.net.

Who says environmentalism can't be delicious?

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Who is KK Downey?

THE WESTENDER online December 16, 2008
3 stars (out of 5)

The debut feature from Montreal comedy crew Kidnapper Films, Who is KK Downey? chronicles the experiences of hipster doofus Terrence Permenstein (Darren Curtis) and his best friend, Theo Huxtable (Matt Silver), as they wade slowly and fraudulently into the world of artistic recognition and pop stardom.

Success of any sort eludes the duo until they hatch a plan for awkward punk guitarist Terrence to impersonate the central character of Theo’s failed novel about a fictitious truck-stop hustler, whose worldly troubles and sexual exploits far exceed those of their own privileged suburban upbringings. Soon, amidst a blur of cocaine, coffee, and champagne, “every scenester from every scene” is picking up the bestselling book, save for the Morrissey-haired, fur-coated Connor (Pat Kieley), a jealous local music critic who is the arch-enemy of Terrence’s KK Downey persona. Complications arise when Terrence realizes — through the power of love, no less — that the lie and the brilliance of KK Downey is simultaneously winning him his dreams and tearing him apart.

As much fun to watch as it must have been to produce, Who is KK Downey? is a smart, charming study of media hype and pop-culture contradictions, and an endearing first film crafted with joy.

COVER: Mr. Mayor goes to work

THE WESTENDER
December 4, 2008

"It’s been a little crazy,” said mayor-elect Gregor Robertson, hanging up his rain jacket and cycling pannier as he sat down last week in a downtown coffee shop. While he may seem to have become virtually invisible since the evening of November 15, when he wrapped up his victorious campaign for the top spot at City Hall — indeed, he did promptly duck out of the public spotlight — the 44-year-old has been busy, immersing himself in an intense transition period as he prepares for his new job, for which he’s sworn in on Monday (December 8). “It’s been good-crazy, though,” he added. “It’s working on the real substance instead of just talking about all the ideas. Now it’s implementation, which is my favourite thing.”

Robertson is the first elected mayor of the three-year-old Vision Vancouver party, now the largest civic party in Canada. Best known for his stint as an NDP MLA for Vancouver-Fairview and as the co-founder of Happy Planet Foods, he has said he was inspired to run for mayor following the death in February of Darrell Mickasko, a homeless man who, after being turned away from a shelter, perished in a fire while trying to keep warm just blocks away from City Hall. Robertson’s mayoral campaign made homelessness one of its key issues, which resonated strongly with voters but raised the ire of critics, who were concerned with the seemingly limited role the City could take on with housing issues.

So, now that the mayor’s office beckons, where to get started?

***

Homelessness continues to rank high on Robertson’s list of priorities, and after he and the new council are sworn in next week, he plans to strike a 90-day action plan that will aggressively tackle the issue. “We have to see results on that in the next few months,” he says. “There’s lots that’s in the works for the coming years in permanent housing with provincial commitments, but we need an urgent agenda to deal with street homelessness. That’s top priority in the first year [on council].”

Housing advocates have recently lamented the impending demolition of the condemned Little Mountain Housing Project, B.C.’s first publicly subsidized residential community. The windows of the 224-unit complex, near Main and 33rd, are currently boarded up. Ellen Woodsworth, a newly elected COPE councillor, joined activists in painting the boards bright colours last Sunday (November 30) to draw attention to the units’ potential as temporary housing solutions. “I’m hopeful that Little Mountain and other opportunities can provide housing in the very short term,” says Robertson. “I want to see every option on the table over these coming weeks. We’ll be looking at every potential space that might be used to house people or provide shelter.”

Robertson also plans to press forward with his commitment to hold a public council meeting that will address the highly controversial financing of the Olympic village on Southeast False Creek, details of which erupted amidst sensational headlines in the last week before the election. “We have to address the issue of process and in-camera meetings, and what belongs in-camera and what doesn’t,” he says. At the last NPA-dominated council meeting on November 25, councillor Peter Ladner passed a motion to hold an investigation of how the $100-million loan to the Olympic village was leaked to media. Robertson says he is concerned with the legal costs associated with appointing a city barrister to investigate, but he is eager to bring transparency to the case. “What’s important here is citizens’ confidence that these matters are being handled appropriately at City Hall. The Olympic village deal is going to be transparent, and taxpayers will understand what’s on the table.” The public council meeting on the Olympic village will take place within 30 days of the new council taking office.

The task of restoring public faith in City matters will be a momentous one, particularly with regard to negative public response to NPA-driven initiatives like Project Civil City and its most controversial byproduct, the Downtown Ambassador program, of which Robertson has been an outspoken critic. “Almost everyone realizes [the Downtown Ambassadors program] is filling a gap that should be filled by police,” he told WE in July. “The idea that they’re just friendly ambassadors in the neighbourhood or business district is out the window.”

The Pivot Legal Society released a report last Thursday (November 27) containing damning evidence against the effectiveness of private-security programs like the Downtown Ambassadors. The report, called “Security Before Justice,” suggests that people who are visibly poor or homeless are more likely to be interrogated, harassed, or treated violently by private security guards. The report draws information from surveys and focus groups involving more than 160 Downtown Eastside residents, as well as a sworn statement from a former security guard employed by Paladin. Pivot is calling for a private-security ban in Vancouver, but Robertson isn’t willing to move forward with that proposal. “A moratorium is perhaps too reactionary,” he says, “but I agree with the sentiment that public dollars shouldn’t be funding private security.”

Instead, Robertson is interested in pursuing more policing partnerships at the provincial and federal levels. He would like to eventually redirect private-security funding to homelessness and mental health, which he sees as a more targeted approach to dealing with crime and street disorder. “We need to make the changes, but be thoughtful about it,” he says.

Ultimately, Robertson is interested in keeping his council united and focused on the big picture, rather than falling prey to what he saw as bitter partisan politics that tore previous councils apart. “It was not a pretty end to a very lacklustre term, but I guess it was interesting in sort of a tragic way,” he says of the final council meeting under Mayor Sam Sullivan’s reign. “We need a shake-up and wake-up. The election was an exciting harbinger of that.”

Robertson is keen to draw on what he sees as the “remarkable talent” of Vancouver’s citizens — diverse skills that he believes should be allowed to become more involved with decision-making at the municipal level. With the Olympics on the horizon, there will be many pairs of eyes on City Hall, a place Robertson would like to open up to more of the people it serves. “Most governments, historically, are kind of buffered from the public. They allow a certain forum [for the public], and otherwise they try to shield their workings from people,” he says. “It would be nice to crack the concrete and let the light in.”

Photo courtesy the Vision Vancouver flickr pool.

Making room for the Olympics

THE WESTENDER
December 4, 2008

More than 250,000 visitors are expected to descend upon Vancouver during the 2010 Winter Olympics, not including the estimated 4,000 athletes, 10,000 media, and 25,000 volunteers who will be part of the two-week event in February of that year. The streets will undoubtedly feel more crowded than usual, but the City of Vancouver’s transportation planning staff seem optimistic that road congestion will be manageable.

“I think it’s going to be completely reasonable,” says Dale Bracewell, Olympic transportation director for the City of Vancouver. “Our objective is to make sure we’ve done all we can... to get people as much information as they need so they can start determining how they want to move around for 2010.”

Bracewell and his team of engineers are promoting car-free methods of transport during the Games, as driving to Olympic events will not be the best option. In addition to reduced vehicle access downtown, there will be security roadblocks and priority vehicle lanes on major routes set aside for Olympic athletes, officials, and media.

But given the pedestrian and motorist statistics Bracewell has used in his planning, he doesn’t think the Olympics will severely alter the way people already get around. “Fifty per cent of those who drive into our downtown live in Vancouver, and Vancouver’s already a walking city. For moderate-length distances, people will be able to cycle, and we’re already well served by transit,” he says. “So it’s only about 20 per cent of people who live in the far-reaching suburbs of Metro Vancouver that aren’t well-served by transit, and if they drive, it’s okay. We don’t need everybody not to drive.”

The City of Vancouver also conducted a pedestrian study this fall, collecting information on the quality of pedestrian facilities and the distances people would be willing to walk to Olympic events. “That pedestrian study is part of our long-term monitoring,” says Bracewell. “I think [it] will probably show a continuing trend in walking as a mode of choice, which is exactly part of our message.”

Bev Ballantyne, a longtime transportation critic and spokesperson for local advocacy group Putting Pedestrians First, begs to differ. “There are more pedestrians simply because there are more people in the downtown core, but that has nothing to do with what the City has done for them,” she says. “It’s a bit late to try to redefine the city around the Olympics.”

Ballantyne doubts the City will be able to optimize pedestrian facilities in time for the Games, an event she thinks will prove to be more of a public embarrassment than a civic achievement. “Most people who travel to other cities want to see the city on foot... but the people who come here from around the world are going to be really disgusted,” she says, adding that Vancouver lacks dedicated pedestrian-only space. “I will be very embarrassed during the Olympics.”

Even so, Bracewell is confident that Vancouver residents will make practical transportation choices during the Games. “People are smart,” she says. “They’re going to make smarter choices if they’re still wanting to drive, and if they have an opportunity to walk or take transit, they will.”

City staff are currently working with several Olympic organizing groups to develop the 2010 Winter Games transportation plan, which will be presented to the public in February or March of 2009.

New bill aims to protect B.C.'s long-term renters

THE WESTENDER
November 27, 2008

On the evening of December 28, 2007, tenants of an apartment building at 1234 Barclay Street received a package in the mail from their landlord that was distinctly bereft of the holiday generosity characteristic of the season. Indeed, they were quite the opposite. The packages contained notification of a rent increase, in amounts that seemed to vary suspiciously between tenants. “Our property managers had not increased our rent at all in two years,” recalls Lynne Lawrie, who has lived in the building for 17 years, “but they were asking for increases of anywhere from 1.4 per cent up to 24.03 per cent, based on information they had gathered comparing our rent with similar suites in the area.”

Rent hikes like the ones Lawrie and her neighbours faced are becoming more common in an increasingly competitive rental market, where landlords are able to justify significant rent increases with the belief that they are just keeping up with market demand. Section 23(1)(a) of B.C.’s current residential tenancy regulation (not to be confused with the Residential Tenancy Act) says landlords can apply for a rent increase above the standard annual increase if the unit’s rent is significantly lower than that of others in the same geographic area. The rent increases that result from landlords who exploit that section of tenancy regulation can hurt long-term tenants the most, forcing them from their homes or obligating them to be complicit in rental arrangements that endanger them financially.

Spencer Herbert, the newly elected MLA for Vancouver-Burrard, is bringing forward a private members’ bill to the provincial legislature today (November 27) that he hopes will stop landlords from abusing parts of residential tenancy regulation that hurt long-term tenants. The bill, called the Long-Term Renters Protection Act, aims to remove section 23(1)(a). “[Tenancy regulation] is supposed to be about balance, so that renters and landlords can have some security,” says Herbert. “It’s not designed so you can just say, ‘Hey, I feel like charging this amount of rent today and a huge amount the next day.’”

Herbert conducted a survey of other provincial tenancy regulations across the country, and found that B.C.’s is the only one containing a provision for geographic-area increases. “It’s quite often the people with the least who are hit the hardest,” he says. “Quite often it’s seniors who’ve lived there ever since the building was built. They pay their yearly increase, they pay their taxes, they follow the rules, yet one of the rules the government’s put in place is now being abused and forcing them out of the only community they know.”

Given her experience at 1234 Barclay, Lawrie supports Herbert’s bill. She was eventually able to rally her neighbours and negotiate lower rent increases at the Residential Tenancy Office, but it was a stressful experience that not everybody is capable of following through successfully. “I thought we were protected until it happened to us,” she says. “For long-term renters who have been paying rent for years to suddenly get an increase like this is upsetting and unsettling. Spencer Herbert’s [act] is needed.”

Martha Lewis, executive director of Vancouver’s Tenant Resource Advisory Centre (TRAC), can understand a landlord’s motivation for increasing rents to maximize profits, but she would also like to see section 23(1)(a) scrapped. “Nobody expects a landlord to be providing free housing or taking a financial loss on his business... [but] this is being misused, and I hope that the government can see that and just get rid of it,” she says. “Just because you’re a tenant doesn’t mean you don’t want security of tenure, the same as a homeowner. It’s a huge upheaval to leave your home, whether you’re renting or owning.”

PHOTO: Spencer Herbert, newly-elected MLA for Vancouver Burrard at 1234 Barclay Street. By Doug Shanks.

A history of violence

THE WESTENDER
November 27, 2008

Vicki Waters spoke publicly for the first time about her experiences with childhood sexual abuse, at a forum on South Asian women and violence at Langara College on November 19. “I didn’t start to do this to sensationalize anything,” she said, “but I decided that someone has to speak up, and the time was now.”

Waters, born Karmajeet Kaur Singh, endured 10 years of brutal sexual, physical, and emotional abuse by her uncle, with whom she was sent to live with at the age of eight after her mother died in an accident. Waters’s uncle raped and beat her until she moved out of the house at 18. Last year, more than four decades after she fled, she brought a high-profile victory case to the B.C. Supreme Court. Yet although she has found a modicum of justice through the court system, she still struggles to feel at peace with herself.

Waters’s emotional account of her experiences was part of a week-long event commemorating 100 years of South Asian presence in North America. It ended on the eve of the International Day to Eliminate Violence Against Women (November 25), which marks the beginning of 16 days of activism in Canada against gender violence.

Despite the gains toward equality that women have achieved through the years, Sunera Thobani, a professor in the women’s and gender-studies program at UBC, stresses that there is still much progress to be made. “Every year it becomes even more urgent,” she says. “We’re now in the 21st century and we’re still living with violence, not just in the South Asian community but in the larger mainstream society as well. Violence against women continues to remain a constant feature of our society.”

Statistics support Thobani’s call for continuing to empower women with information and support. According to the B.C. Association of Specialized Victim Assistance and Counselling Programs, spousal assault accounted for more requests for victim services during the last fiscal year in B.C. than any other offense. In 2004, it was revealed that 653,000 Canadian women had reported physical or sexual assault by a spouse over the preceding five years. In 2005, 10,273 incidents of spousal assault were reported to police in B.C., marking a nine per cent increase over 2004.

“One in three women are sexually abused,” said Waters to a crowded lecture hall during her November 19 lecture. “Take a look around. Take a look to your right and to your left, in front of you and behind you. You’ve probably seen just six people now. Think of them.”

PHOTO: Sitara Thobani performs Odissi, a form of classical Indian dance, at last week’s South Asian Women on Violence forum, held at Langara College. By Jackie Wong.

Is Olympic top 10 list an insult to you?

THE WESTENDER
November 27, 2008

When VANOC (Vancouver Organizing Committee) CEO John Furlong made his annual address to the Vancouver Board of Trade on November 13, he unveiled a list of 10 recommendations for businesses that he hopes will encourage the city’s workforce to embrace the 2010 Winter Olympics, one of which is a call to mandate or encourage time off during the Games. But some see Furlong’s recommendations as an affront to the day-to-day realities of working people, not an attempt to support them.

“He must be appealing to somebody who’s not normally a working person,” BC Federation of Labour president Jim Sinclair says of Furlong’s list. “The truth is, people can’t afford to shut down their businesses for two weeks. We’re already sacrificing for the Olympics, and I don’t think people should sacrifice more by giving up the holidays that they don’t have.”

Sinclair and his union colleagues are advocating for a new statutory holiday instead of a mandated Olympic vacation — something he sees as an appropriate Olympic legacy that everyone can enjoy for years after the Games. Sinclair would like to see the first Monday of the 2010 Games, February 12, declared a statutory holiday in honour of Terry Fox. “He epitomizes self-sacrifice and competition with oneself, and that’s what the Olympics are supposed to be about,” Sinclair says. “It’s not about making money and Coke sponsorships.”

As part of his efforts, Sinclair is trying to gain the support of local MLAs to help implement the holiday. Jenny Kwan, NDP MLA for Vancouver-Mount Pleasant, supports it. “It’s good for workers to have a stat day in February. We have a very long month, usually, after Christmas,” she says. Kwan adds that there is a fundamental flaw to VANOC’s mandated-vacation plan if part of its intention is to reduce traffic on the streets. “If the idea is to mandate a person to take time off, and yet the idea for them is to reduce congestion, what happens when the person takes their time off? That they should just stay home and not do anything? That really defeats the purpose of taking time off.”

UBC sociology professor Sylvia Fuller has focused a great deal of her academic work on studying employment. She disagrees with Furlong’s list as a feasible action plan that will inspire positive Olympic sentiments among most workers. “What a great way to make people resent the Games,” she says. “Can you imagine? ‘Sorry, kids, we can’t go camping this summer because I had to take my two weeks of vacation in February, when it rained for two weeks.’ Perhaps it would be nice if you can afford to fly to Hawaii or take a ski holiday, but for most folks it’s not going to be when they want time off.”

Fuller says Furlong’s list fails to recognize the requirements of most people’s jobs, save for the relative few who work in industries where they are equipped to work remotely. “[It] clearly doesn’t account for the realities of people who work directly with the public. You can’t work as a restaurant server at home, or provide essential services that cannot be temporarily suspended,” she says. “Assuming that workers can easily shift their daily hours of work ignores the fact that people typically adjust many aspects of their lives to their work schedules.”

Further to his list, Furlong suggested at the Board of Trade meeting that all Vancouverites should embrace a spirit of volunteerism if the Games are to be a complete success. “If these Games are to live up to their full promise, then a selfless spirit of contribution must prevail through the 2010 Games and beyond,” he said at the Board of Trade address. “These Games are not about a few of us but about all of us.”

PHOTO: Doug Shanks.

Supporters, opposition respond to Vision mayoral victory

THE WESTENDER
November 20, 2008

When it was announced last Saturday night (November 15) that Gregor Robertson would be Vancouver’s next mayor, a group of West End residents jumped for joy, joining hundreds of victorious supporters that packed a ballroom in the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, where Vision Vancouver held its election party. “I feel fantastic!” Melissa Mewdell said of the win. “Gregor Robertson is the only candidate that fought for renters’ rights in this election.”

Mewdell lives in the Seafield Apartments, a heritage building on Pendrell Street that was purchased this past summer by a pair of former internet gaming executives. As was previously reported in WE, Seafield residents were told in September that upcoming renovations to the building would render rents so high that current tenants likely would not be able to afford to stay. Since then, those tenants have been making efforts to raise public awareness of what they call unfair ‘reno-victions’ — renovations that are seen to justify mass evictions.

Gregor Robertson met with Seafield tenants during the last weekend before the municipal election to address their situation. “The City can use the tool of scrutinizing and withholding a permit, if necessary, to make sure tenants are protected,” he told them.

Inspired by the help that Robertson and his Vision Vancouver colleagues seemed to offer to their cause, Mewdell and her neighbours spent election day canvassing on behalf of the Vision/COPE team. “We were promoting Gregor Robertson, Aaron Jasper, Heather Deal, Andrea Reimer, Geoff Meggs, and David Cadman,” said Brian Broster, who also lives at the Seafield. “They’ve all helped us.”

To the Seafield residents’ excitement, Vision and its centre-left allies won majority seats on council, the park board, and the school board, leaving the centre-right NPA with one of its most crushing defeats in years. Unofficial election results showed that Robertson finished with 67,598 votes, beating out the NPA’s Peter Ladner by 18,804 votes. Ladner ended the night with 48,794 votes. “We worked very hard; we stayed on the high ground,” Ladner told supporters after the results were revealed. “We never resorted to lies or smears.”

Only a few NPA-ers scored elected seats. Ken Denike and Carol Gibson took the last remaining spots on school board, and Ian Robertson is the only NPA representative on park board. Suzanne Anton held her spot on city council as the NPA’s one remaining councillor.

“I guess it’s safe to say, I’d somewhat seen that coming,” Anton said of Robertson’s victory. “I do congratulate Gregor and his team, but it will be hard being the only NPA. I know Gregor has promised an end to non-partisanship, an end to bickering. By the way, most of the bickering came from his colleagues on council.”

Anton expressed disappointment at not seeing more of her colleagues gain elected seats. “We had people with integrity, principle, and accomplishment,” she said, adding that she would have liked to see councillors Kim Capri and Elizabeth Ball re-elected, with Daljit Sidhu and Michael Geller taking new council seats.

Anton’s priorities for the next three years include the environment, land use, and the Olympics, for which she pointedly noted that Vision has not shown its support. “The Vision councillors have shown no interest whatsoever in the Olympics up ’til now,” she said. “What’s very important to me is that every citizen in Vancouver feels that it’s their Olympics and that they have a part in it.”

Vision board member Am Johal counters that the idea of an Olympics for everyone went out the window during the NPA’s reign. “Over the last three years, that idea of an inclusive Olympics went off the table,” he said. “There’s not going to be a honeymoon period for the new mayor. He really is going to have to jump in and start implementing his agenda in a fairly quick way, because there isn’t really a chance to stop, given the fact that there are so many issues happening in the next 14 months.”

Johal pointed to civil-liberties clash points, the need for a social-housing legacy, and tenancy protection as only a few of the Olympic-related issues that Robertson will need to start dealing with immediately.

Despite the message of unity that marked Vision’s race to victory, one of Robertson’s biggest challenges as mayor will be keeping his council together. “The challenge of leadership is going to be, how do you implement your agenda, and how do you keep the house together over three years?” said Johal. “There’s going to be an incredible amount of scrutiny on the new council — unprecedented in the city’s history.”

PHOTO: Gregor Robertson and family. By Jackie Wong.

Event promotes sustainable sushi

THE WESTENDER
November 20, 2008

Sustainable sushi might seem a straightforward enough concept — especially in a city as sushi-centric as Vancouver — but it can be surprisingly hard to find. After all, products like farmed salmon are less expensive than the ocean-friendly wild variety, and the global economic crisis only makes it seem less desirable for small-business owners to spend extra money on sustainability efforts.

But Emily Jubenvill says it’s now more important than ever to invest in sustainable business models. She hopes today’s (November 20) event at Sushi World Bento Express, at 1258 Robson, will be a step in the right direction. The event, called Pod Mob, is inspired by the San Francisco-based Carrot Mob, a campaign that aims to help educate consumers on supporting businesses that make socially sustainable choices. Jubenvill helped coin Vancouver’s Pod Mob with Boyd Cohen, an SFU sustainability lecturer and the founder of 3rdWhale.com, a social networking site and mobile application company that aims to help consumers make their personal lives and communities greener.

Today’s Pod Mob will ‘swarm’ Sushi Bento Express, whose owners have promised to put 31 per cent of the day’s revenue toward greening initiatives for their restaurant. Vancouver’s Green Table Network has agreed to donate a one-year membership to Sushi Bento Express as a way to provide resources and education on making more sustainable choices in all aspects of its business, including menu items, take-out packaging, and the building’s ecological footprint.

“On the consumer side, it’s about education and knowing what the state of the ocean is and why it’s an issue,” says Jubenvill, who was voted Canada’s Greenest Person by a national 3rdWhale contest this past spring. “You really do have consumer power, and if you go to a restaurant and say, ‘We want sustainable sushi,’ you can make that happen. Pod Mob is a good way to organize that.”

Jubenvill recommends sushi enthusiasts download the Consumer’s Guide to Sustainable Sushi, which is easily accessible online. The guide, compiled by California’s Monterey Bay Aquarium, is a simple resource that can help consumers make sustainable seafood choices. On the business side, the Vancouver Aquarium’s Ocean Wise program helps restaurateurs and food distributors to learn about sustainable seafood and how to use it in their kitchens.

Andre LaRiviere, executive director of the Green Table Network, will be working with the owners of Sushi Bento Express to kickstart the restaurant’s greening initiatives. “The most important thing the Green Table Network offers is the understanding of how to build sustainability into every operational policy or purchasing decision, putting it ‘on the menu’ in every way,” he says. “That’s where real change happens, and what’s needed to foster sustainability across the entire supply chain and support system that every restaurant relies on.”

Current members of the Green Table Network include prestigious local restaurants like Vij’s, Aurora Bistro, and Bishop’s, but greening smaller restaurants like Sushi Bento Express, says LaRiviere, is just as important. “At this level, it’s a very tough business, with very little profit and rising costs,” he says. “It’s important to support efforts to build participation — especially those like the Pod Mob — that offer real support and incentives for small-scale, neighbourhood restaurants to make the change.”

Pod Mob takes place throughout Sushi Bento Express’ business hours, from 11:30 a.m.-11 p.m. Special events, including an iPhone giveaway, take place 6-9 p.m.

PHOTO: The lovely Emily Jubenvill in front of Sushi Bento Express. By Doug Shanks.

Theatre company anticipates arrival of homophobic church

THE WESTENDER
November 20, 2008

Fred Phelps turned 80 last week, but old age isn’t stopping the self-proclaimed pastor of Topeka, Kansas’ Westboro Baptist Church from continuing his anti-gay crusade across North America, for which he has organized thousands of demonstrations featuring placards bearing such slogans as “God Hates Fags” and “AIDS Cures Fags.”

A November 28 stop in Vancouver appears on Westboro’s picketing schedule. Phelps’s supporters plan to demonstrate outside Commercial Drive’s Havana Theatre, to coincide with the opening night of the play The Laramie Project, about the 1998 murder of gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard. Shepard died at the age of 21, after he was taken to the outskirts of Laramie by two men he met in a bar, who then robbed and beat him, and tied him to a cattle fence. He was beaten so severely that the only areas on his face not covered in blood were those where tears had washed the blood away. Eighteen hours passed before he was found by a cyclist, by which time he was in a coma. He died five days later.

The impending Vancouver arrival of the Westboro picketers became known early this month. Ryan Mooney, the play’s director and the founder of Fighting Chance Productions, was shocked to discover his low-profile staging of The Laramie Project even appeared on Westboro’s radar. “We’re a small company; this is our sixth show,” he says. Mooney has organized a peaceful counter-rally at the same time the Westboro picketers are scheduled to arrive. It takes place in Grandview Park, opposite the Havana Theatre, starting at 5 p.m.

Mooney hopes the counter-rally — which currently shows over 600 supporters on Facebook — won’t get out of hand. “We’ve heard people saying, ‘Let’s just egg these people; I want to punch them in the face.’ This is not what we want to have happen,” he says. “We’re going for a very peaceful demonstration to show that we don’t tolerate this practice in Vancouver.”

Mooney’s production marks the second Vancouver mounting of The Laramie Project in two years, as it was taken on by the drama department at Lord Byng Senior Secondary in 2006. More than 3,000 people saw the Lord Byng production, which drew acclaim from local media and international educators. “It’s the one thing that [fellow drama teacher Carol Mann] and I are most proud of, of all our teaching years. It’s the one project that I will always hold dear in my heart,” says drama teacher Tamara McKay.

McKay and the drama department worked closely with Darlene Braeder, the school principal at the time, to ensure a thorough and lengthy community consultation process that Braeder says strengthened the play’s success. “Any negative reaction was dispelled by the sincerity and the work students did ahead of time,” says Braeder of her students’ work with spreading word of the play to church and seniors’ groups. “They saw, as students, how something that they did could make a difference in so many lives.”

The Laramie Project runs Nov. 26-Dec. 6. Info: HavanaRestaurant.ca.

City must get involved in housing issues, expert says

THE WESTENDER
November 13, 2008

Vision Vancouver mayoral candidate Gregor Robertson has had to contend with plenty of criticism since he left his seat as NDP MLA for Vancouver-Fairview to run in the civic election. His critics — including, among the most vocal of them, the NPA — have said his interests in protecting housing and ending homelessness would be better realized through work with the provincial, not municipal, government (“Gregor, go back to Victoria!” was one such barb).

Claire Mahon, however, says city government plays a crucial role in the protection of housing rights, particularly when mega-events such as the 2010 Winter Olympics loom on Vancouver’s horizon.

“If it’s not the municipal government’s responsibility, then whose is it?” Mahon says. “It’s everybody’s responsibility, of course — it’s federal government, it’s provincial government — but it’s definitely city government’s responsibility, because city government is the first port of call.”

Mahon is coordinator of a project on economic, social, and cultural rights at the Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, as well as the principal author of a groundbreaking report, Multi-Stakeholder Guildelines on Mega-Events and the Protection and Promotion of Housing Rights, published by the internationally acclaimed Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions (COHRE) in 2007.

Mahon arrived in Vancouver from Switzerland last week to check in on a city which she sees as capable of staging a socially sustainable Olympic Games — as long as resources are allocated wisely.

“The key thing is political commitment,” Mahon says. “It’s a real opportunity for the mayoral candidates and for the City of Vancouver to make sure it’s putting appropriate resources and commitment into making sure that affordable housing and social housing become a reality here.”

While the historical relationship between Olympic Games and social sustainability has been less than perfect (“We’ve seen some of the worst examples of that in Beijing,” she quips), Mahon points to Athens and Sydney as remarkable innovators in terms of leaving a social legacy for its citizens. In Athens, the athletes’ village was built with the intention that it would be used as social and subsidized housing after the Games, and Sydney’s municipal government partnered with the police and the city’s Olympic organizing committee to protect the civil liberties of homeless people during its summer Olympics.

As for Vancouver, Mahon recommends the City work closely with community organizations. Their voices, she says, are crucial. “VANOC and the city council, the provincial government and Canadian government have nothing to lose by working closely with the community organizations and helping to make this Olympics not one that divides communities about how to approach it, but one that unites communities in making Vancouver a truly better place to live,” she says.

The Impact on Communities Coalition (IOCC) is one community group that has not had much success in getting its message heard at City Hall. Founding member Am Johal helped arrange Mahon’s visit to Vancouver, and attempted to get Mahon’s reports adopted as principles by city council in May 2008. “I think it would be really great for Vancouver, and would get multi-party support and take some of the tension out of the Olympic/housing debate,” he said at the time.

NPA councillor Peter Ladner told Johal that he could not put it forward as a motion.

PHOTO: Claire Mahon in English Bay. By Doug Shanks.

Politicians rush to comment on Olympic Village firestorm

THE WESTENDER
November 13, 2008

The Vancouver mayoral race heated up last week — or burst into flames, depending on how you look at it — when mainstream media leaked the City’s controversial $100-million loan to the developer of the Olympic Village at southeast False Creek in an effort to speed up its completion. The loan, which comes from the City’s Property Endowment Fund, was decided upon by Mayor Sam Sullivan and city council at an in-camera meeting held October 14.

Secrecy surrounding the decision sparked debate between mayoral candidates Gregor Robertson and Peter Ladner, who held several dueling press conferences on Friday, November 7. By the end of the day, any theories as to similarities between the two candidates were out the window, with Robertson calling for a public meeting to discuss the loan, and Ladner sensationally claiming that he was prepared to lose the election if it meant saving the project and protecting taxpayers.

“I have a background in journalism. I have spent my whole life trying to get information out to the public,” Ladner told reporters at a press conference late Friday afternoon. “I would love to discuss this with the public, and when I’m mayor, we will release every bit of information about this as soon as the negotiations are completed. Now is not the time to be calling for public meetings. Now is not the time to call for a reconsideration in the middle of negotiations, in a highly-sensitive, multi-million-dollar project with some of the toughest negotiators in the world.”

Ladner called Robertson’s stance on the issue “simple politicking,” adding that his opponent’s treatment of the Olympic Village controversy showed he was not equipped to run the city.

Former NPA mayor Philip Owen sent a letter to NPA supporters on November 10, criticizing Robertson’s handling of the issue and praising Ladner’s courage. (Former COPE mayor Larry Campbell later made a public announcement supporting Owen’s stance, and Mayor Sam Sullivan issued a letter via e-mail.) “Gregor Robertson is not being honest and truthful with Vancouver citizens. All his left-leaning political colleagues for over 35 years, going back to Harry Rankin, have supported the Property Endowment Fund policies,” Owen wrote. “Confidentiality in all real-estate transactions is essential until the completion date, which is after all the lawyers sign off on the transaction. When and if this is done, all the details about the Olympic Village will be made public.”

Owen had a public falling-out with the NPA in 2002, and was defeated from seeking re-election by then-councillor Jennifer Clarke.

“The way it is right now, we are undermining [the development] by having rumours and all sorts of unsubstantiated facts... We don’t know what’s true and what’s not,” Robertson told reporters at a press conference Sunday, November 9. “It’s a simple call for a public meeting to put the financial situation and the loan on the table to discuss what the implications are for taxpayers. If we can get clarity on that, I think we’ll be back on track.”

Robertson was careful to acknowledge the confidentiality clauses surrounding the loan, particularly since the decision to draw from the Property Endowment Fund was determined at an in-camera meeting that was closed to the public. “We can obviously be mindful of what is legal and strategic obligation,” he said. “The fact that it’s a billion-dollar project, with a lot of rumours flying around, warrants having a more open and transparent meeting.”

Meanwhile, COPE council candidate Ellen Woodsworth is calling for clearer guidelines for use of the Property Endowment Fund. Woodsworth and the COPE team recommend city council start a public process that could use an independent panel to develop guidelines for use of the Fund. “The lack of transparency is seriously eroding public confidence in how council functions,” Woodsworth said in a prepared statement.

Whether or not the controversy will inspire more voters to hit the polls on November 15 remains to be seen, but whomever wins the election will be left with the momentous task of repairing fractured relationships of trust between council, city staff, and the general public.

Budget cuts reopen debate on Burrard Bridge, cyclists

THE WESTENDER
November 13, 2008

What used to be a $63-million proposal to repair the Burrard Bridge has been cut to nearly half by the NPA, whose members announced a $33-million plan to improve seismic safety and cyclist infrastructure on the 78-year-old heritage bridge last week.

“We are very concerned about our city’s financial situation in these troubled times, and we want to protect the taxpayer and not leap into a lot of uneccessary spending that we should be careful about avoiding,” said NPA mayoral candidate Peter Ladner at a press conference on November 3. “We’ve heard that the cost of widening the sidewalk, which is our preferred option, has gone up to $63 million. We don’t think that is financially sustainable.”

Instead of widening the sidewalk or participating in a lane-closure trial favoured by Vision Vancouver opponents, the NPA proposed the construction of a barrier between the bridge’s sidewalk and roadway. “It’s good for cyclists,” said councillor Suzanne Anton, who is seeking re-election this year. “I’m a cyclist, and what you don’t like as a cyclist coming across the bridge is there’s always that fear that you might come over the edge. What we need to do is protect cyclists from that happening.”

Other city cyclists are not happy with the NPA plan. In a Remembrance Day demonstration, members of the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition and Friends of Burrard Bridge argued against what they saw as an ineffective barrier plan. Richard Campbell of Friends of Burrard Bridge says it would do more to jeopardize cyclists and pedestrians than it would to increase their safety. “With a narrow [sidewalk] space, it’s going to mean people will hit each other more often,” he says. “This is [the NPA’s] typical lose-lose compromise. Nobody really wins on this one.”

Campbell favours Vision Vancouver’s proposal to remove one lane of vehicle traffic to create two bike lanes — one in each direction — on the bridge’s roadway. “Between more space on the bridge, more people using transit because of the Canada Line, and more people walking and cycling, I don’t think we really need the six lanes on Burrard Bridge,” he says. “It makes sense to give [lane closure] a trial.”

Campbell doesn’t think transit or emergency vehicle traffic will be negatively affected by a lane closure. “As far as transit and emergency vehicles, there certainly could be queue-jumper lanes on Cornwall and Burrard. And emergency vehicles operate fine on [one to four]-lane bridges.”

Kari Hewett, an avid cyclist who is active in the city’s bike scene, agrees. “Vision Vancouver’s position could encourage considerably more cycling usage on the bridge and potentially attract votes to make it happen. I would likely cycle it more frequently,” she says. “For those who cycle, or would like to, I hope they weigh the voting track record of existing councillors against their rhetoric on cycling initiatives and infrastructure.”

Campbell predicts the civic vote from the bike community will not bode well for the NPA. “They’re expecting cyclists to vote for them, but they’re not willing to do anything for cyclists,” he says.

A brew for all seasons

THE WESTENDER
November 13, 2008

Beer isn’t a hug, but sometimes it’s pretty damn close. Luckily for Vancouverites, our local microbreweries know how to craft a truly fantastic winter beer, offering our droopy selves a welcome reprieve from the season’s ambient greyness.

“In the winter, you need something that’s the drink equivalent of comfort food,” says Rick Dellow, who owns the eponymous R & B Brewing Co. with Berry Benson. Combining their experience in the Vancouver brewing industry, the duo built the traditional English R & B brewery near False Creek 11 years ago. Now, their handcrafted brews can be found on tap at restaurants and bars across the city, including Bin 941, the Alibi Room, and the Brickhouse. When WE caught up with Benson and Dellow last week, they had just finished bottling their annual batch of Auld Nick Winter Ale, a dark, heady concoction whose popularity contributes to its short shelf life: it tends to sell out by the end of December. “There are no spices or flavours added, but it has a nice roasty, malty flavour to it; the body of the malt balances the higher alcohol content,” says Benson. “It’s the beer equivalent to Christmas cake,” adds Dellow, who named the beer after an influential Scottish brewer.

For winter beer across the board, boldness and decadence are key. James Walton runs Storm Brewing out of a small space on Commercial Drive, delivering draft to restaurants in his neighbourhood and as far west as Koerner’s Pub at UBC. His previous career in the pharmaceutical industry makes for a mad scientist’s approach to brewing. He recently formulated a batch of pumpkin ale using ginger, mace, cinnamon, cloves, and pumpkins left over from a pie-making blitz. That batch was enthusiastically imbibed at a Storm cask party last month at Dix Barbecue, but Walton’s plan for winter lies in amplifying the richness of Storm’s popular Black Plague Stout. “Usually, what I do is bump the alcohol up a little bit. That makes it chocolatier, rounder, and a little bit thicker and sweeter,” he says. “It adds extra calories for surviving the winter, and extra alcohol to keep you warm at night.”

Over at Granville Island Brewing, the four-year-old Lions Winter Ale is already in liquor stores, and going fast. The brewery has been steadily increasing its batches of winter ale each year in an effort to keep up with demand. “Last year, we had enough that stayed through until late January. Hopefully, this year we’ll have enough to last us until mid-February,” says marketing director Walter Cosman. The beer’s vanilla finish draws from the presence of white chocolate in the recipe. “In the winter season, I think everybody looks to have something that warms their insides, whether it does it mentally or physically,” says Cosman. “Beer plays a role in that.”

The biggest mistake winter drinkers can make? Abandoning beer for red wine, says Colin Jack, who teaches beer-tasting classes with Just Here for the Beer Ltd. “During the winter, a lot of people switch to red wine and think that it’s ‘more appropriate’ for the dinner table. This is the biggest beer faux pas,” he says. “Beer is a great cold-weather drink. Seasonal beers come in larger bottles, perfect for sharing, and the moderate amount of alcohol can help people remain, or become, more festive.”

Jack’s personal predilections lean toward winter beers that use different malt varieties to achieve new flavours, instead of non-traditional additives or sweeteners. As for local bottled beers to take home, he recommends the Nut Brown Ale from Aldergrove’s Dead Frog Brewery, the Amber Ale from North Vancouver’s Red Truck, the seasonal beer varieties from Surrey’s Central City Brewing, the Sasquatch Stout from Chilliwack’s Old Yale Brewing, and Mission Springs Brewing Company’s Fat Guy Oatmeal Stout.

For Jack, the best part about beer — at any time of year — is sharing one with a friend. “Beer is the most social beverage in the world,” he says. “Try not to smile when you’re sharing one.”

West End renters face eviction... again

THE WESTENDER
November 6, 2008

A brother-in-law duo of former internet gaming executives have been making waves in the West End, most notably with the acquisition of four apartment buildings over the last 15 months. Tenants of the Seafield Apartments at 1436 Pendrell St., bought by Jason Gordon and Chris Nelson of Gordon Nelson Investments in July 2008, are now waiting for the eviction notices their new property owners outrightly said they'd receive. "This is my fourth [building] owner in 31 years and I have never felt threatened before," says Wendy Stephenson, who has lived at the Seafield since 1977. "The minute [Gordon Nelson] bought, it was just, 'oh my God.'"

The 14-suite building is 77 years old, and the oldest current resident is 92 years old. The youngest resident will be born in February 2009, the month Seafield residents predict they will be forced to move out if they receive their anticipated eviction notices December 1.

"Renovations are now being used as a way to get people out. That's what's wrong," says Stephenson. "I've lived through a lot of renos. And they were never done as a way to get you out."

Chris Nelson met with a group of Seafield tenants for the first time on September 9, 2008 to tell them his plans for the building. During the meeting, Nelson indicated that Gordon Nelson Investments intended to carry out a litany of renovations including rewiring the allegedly outdated electrical system, adding a dividing wall to living rooms to create extra bedrooms in one and two-bedroom suites, updating the kitchens, and converting the laundry room into a bachelor suite.

According to Seafield residents in attendance, Nelson said the renovations would result in rent increases that would be too high for current tenants to pay.

Since that meeting, Seafield residents have been anxiously waiting for the eviction notices that will effectively force them to leave homes, friendships, and a community that have prospered for decades.

"Effectively, we have become economic liabilities," says Mark Moore, a Seafield tenant who works as a senior lecturer in economics and strategy at SFU. He says Gordon Nelson can technically justify their mass evictions with Section 49(6)(b) of the Residential Tenancy Act (RTA), which states "A landlord may end a tenancy in respect of a rental unit if the landlord has all the necessary permits and approvals required by law, and intends in good faith, to do any of the following... renovate or repair the rental unit in a manner that requires the rental unit to be vacant."

Of the RTA, Moore says it contains loopholes that can work against tenants. "Landlords with no moral compunction will find a way to get around it," he says.

When WE contacted Gordon Nelson for details of the proposed Seafield renovations and associated tenant concerns with possible evictions, Chris Nelson was uncomfortable talking about plans. "What I can say is yes, we do own the building," he said. "But out of respect for the 14 individuals and/or families who live there, we're not comfortable talking to the media about any potential plans for the building that may or may not effect them. We have to respect their privacy."

B.C. Housing Minister Rich Coleman was made aware of the issue through a meeting with tenant advocacy group Renters at Risk and Seafield residents during the last weekend before the provincial by-election. Arthur Griffiths, who ran unsuccessfully with the BC Liberals, was in attendance. Renters at Risk had been trying to secure a meeting with Coleman for 18 months.

Coleman did not return WE's phone call by press time.

Spencer Herbert, the new NDP MLA-elect for Vancouver-Burrard, has spoken with Seafield residents and is now trying to reach Coleman to discuss the Seafield eviction. "I don't believe [the renters] got anywhere with him," he said of the Oct. 26 meeting. Herbert is pushing to implement the Right of First Refusal clause in B.C.'s tenancy legislation, which has already been adopted by Ontario's Liberal government. The Right of First Refusal would allow tenants to return to their apartments after renovations without paying significantly higher rent.

But could implementing of the Right of First Refusal save the Seafield tenants? Herbert says it's only a matter of political will. "If Minister Coleman wanted to do it, if Gordon Campbell wanted to, they could. But in terms of respect for renters, we haven't seen it from this government so far," he says. "The Liberal government could pass legislation this November if they wanted to."

PHOTO: The Seafield apartments on Pendrell Street. By Jackie Wong.