Burrard Bridge lane trial to begin July 13

WestEnder
July 9, 2009

After months of waiting and years of advocating for increased pedestrian and cyclist safety on the Burrard Bridge, supporters will celebrate the start of the anticipated lane-re-allocation trial Monday morning (July 13) with breakfast at the Sylvia Hotel and a group ride across the 77-year-old Art Deco bridge. The event, which is open to the public, starts at the Sylvia (1154 Gilford) at 7:00 a.m, with the ride beginning at 8 a.m. That evening, beginning at 6:00 p.m. at Yaletown’s David Lam Park, the Vancouver Area Cycling Coalition and Momentum magazine will join up for a public group ride over the bridge, a picnic at Vanier Park, and a ‘bike-in’ movie at the Museum of Vancouver.

“I want to make it into a huge celebration,” says Brent Granby, president of the West End Residents Association (WERA) and organizer of Burrard Bridge breakfast and ride. “I think it’s going to be a celebration of public space.”

Despite considerable controversy surrounding the viability of the lane trial, particularly from drivers concerned about gridlock on the bridge and the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association, Granby is optimistic that the lane re-allocation will be a success.

“It’s like car-free day. You block the streets off and somehow [people] think that the sky’s going to fall in,” he says. “I think the lane re-allocation is going to be like that, too. At the end of the day, after a period of a number of weeks, people will adjust to it. And people will see that it’s possible and it’s going to be something that we’re all proud of.”

Granby has been a vocal advocate for increased pedestrian and cyclist safety on the bridge. He and his nine- and 10-year-old daughters were among many cyclists speaking out in favour of a two-lane re-allocation trial at city council meetings in early May. But, while most cyclists favoured a two-lane trial option that would see one vehicle lane re-allocated to cyclists on either side of the bridge, council voted on and approved only the one-lane re-allocation.

Lone NPA councillor Suzanne Anton, critical of many projects initiated by the current Vision Vancouver-dominated council, considers the one-lane trial a compromise that pleases no one. “It makes the pedestrians mad. It doesn’t really give cyclists the capacity they were looking for. It takes away vehicle capacity,” she told WE last week. “By far, the most cost-effective solution, the one that increases capacity for cyclists and pedestrians, and the one which doesn’t take away from all of the other bridge users, is the sidewalk-widening option.”

The idea of widening the bridge’s sidewalks to increase space for pedestrians and bikers was floated by former NPA mayor Sam Sullivan. That option came with a $63 million price tag when it was examined last spring. As an alternative at the time, Vision Vancouver councillor George Chow revisited the idea of building a pedestrian bridge under the existing Burrard Bridge, an option which, as of the 2002 False Creek Pedestrian and Cyclist Crossings Study, was estimated to cost $11.9 million.

Last week, architect Gregory Henriquez unveiled yet another proposal for a pedestrian bridge — this time, connecting Vanier Park in Kitsilano with Sunset Beach in the West End, at an estimated cost of $45 million. While Chow lauded Henriquez’s proposal as a successful potential city legacy project, Anton interpreted it as a mere distraction from the lane-re-allocation issue at hand.

“[Mayor Robertson] is getting cold feet about his trial. There’s quite a lot of opposition to it, so instead of having the strength of purpose to carry on, he’s floating an old [pedestrian bridge] idea and presenting it as a new idea, and presenting a price tag attached to it which is very unrealistic,” she says. “He’s just showing he can’t take the heat. He’s showing a lot of carelessness with tax money.”

Chow points out, however, that the pedestrian bridge wouldn’t become a reality overnight and would require a capital referendum at the 2011 municipal election to approve its funding. “It’s a good time to put it out there, and get people’s imagination going and see how they like the idea,” Chow says. “Looking forward, we need to consider the options, because even if we don’t do anything, we need to upgrade the safety aspects of the bridge in terms of crash barriers, the sidewalk falling apart, the handrail on the outside falling apart.”

For now, the lane-re-allocation trial marks a positive step in the direction of re-evaluating how we think about transportation in Vancouver,” says Granby. “It can’t be about single-occupancy vehicles forever,” he says. “If we’re going to take effective measures on climate change, it’s going to mean huge, significant changes to the way we’re organizing our society. And that means everyone.”

PHOTO: Crowded conditions and attendant safety concerns have spurred the City to re-allocate a vehicle lane for bicycle traffic. By Jackie Wong.

City housing woes to worsen with impending Little Mountain closure

WestEnder
July 9, 2009

Susan Wagner is one of the last tenants still living at Little Mountain, Vancouver’s oldest social housing development. The complex at Main and 37th has been slated for demolition and eventual redevelopment by the City of Vancouver and BC Housing as a mixture of subsidized and market housing. Despite BC Housing’s efforts to help Wagner and fellow tenants find alternative accommodation outside the 224-unit complex, Wagner, 53, says she hasn’t been able to find anything comparable to the subsidized three-bedroom row house she now shares with her two youngest children, aged 15 and 17.

“Last summer, we were given the addresses of two other BC Housing places. Me and the kids went and saw them, and neither of these places were we ever to go back to. They were unsuitable,” she recalls. Wagner says she was given a third lead for another possible place to live, but after an hour and a half on the bus in search of the address, she and her family couldn’t locate it.

She currently pays under $450 per month in rent for her home at Little Mountain, where she has been living since 2005. Without rental assistance, she says, she’d be out of luck. “I’m on disability with the provincial government. Sadly, my life took a turn that I wasn’t expecting. And really, BC Housing kind of saved my bacon,” she says. “My kids’ father, he’s suffering from cancer. So I want continuity for my kids. It’s very important that the kids have stable homes at the moment. That’s one of the reasons why I have been wanting us to stay.”

Despite a large group of community advocates calling for a stop to Little Mountain’s demolition (and, by extension, supporting Wagner and the tenants of the last 12 occupied units on the site), Dale McMann, regional director of BC Housing, says his plan is still to help relocate remaining residents.

“We’re going to re-double efforts to ensure that those residents find alternative locations that work for them, and hopefully, we are in a position to be able to move all of them in the next few months as we move forward towards preparing the site for eventual demolition,” he told WE in an interview. “I understand that this has been a site that’s been homes to these people for a long period of time. And I think BC Housing recognizes that and certainly empathizes with the people that are there. So that’s why we’re trying to do our best in terms of providing them with alternatives and making this relocation as smooth as possible for them.”

Even so, Wagner says she’s received little in the way of relocation options from BC Housing since receiving the first few leads last summer. She’s also afraid of being relocated outside the city. “One of the first people that moved away from here — one of my neighbours — she wound up in Richmond,” she says.

In the meantime, Wagner has already seen onsite security pulled from Little Mountain, as well as ongoing preparations for the eventual demolition of the complex. McMann says a building permit from the City allows BC Housing to “go ahead” and start removing hazardous materials such as asbestos and underground oil tanks from the site.

As for the activism and public outrage that continues to surround the Little Mountain situation (marked most recently by a rally staged last Saturday, July 4), McMann says advocates are acting within their rights, but may not be considering the whole picture. “Perhaps they’re not fully aware of all the pieces that BC Housing and the provincial government have put in place to try to ensure that the residents of Little Mountain are looked after, but quite frankly, it’s well within their rights to express their viewpoints,” he says. “They’re doing that in the way that I guess they feel is best.”

At a press conference June 29, provincial housing minister Rich Coleman told reporters that workers have been removing items like kitchen appliances from vacant units to prepare them for demolition. Wagner, meanwhile, has been aware of this latest move by BC Housing for some time, as she has found plywood and construction materials strewn about her doorstep.

“The project is a legacy project for the City, because it will actually fund about seven more buildings off that site for mental health and addictions and supportive housing in the City of Vancouver,” Coleman said. “The money is going to be re-invested into social housing in the City. It’s a very important project, looking how you can take something and make a whole lot more out of it and still take care of the people living there.”

But city councillor Ellen Woodsworth says the impending Little Mountain demolition is an outrage, considering what she sees as a housing crisis in the city. “This makes no sense to tear it down, given that nothing will happen on that site for years. Even if all the permit processes were expedited, it would take several years to even begin the construction of anything there,” she says. “One of the firms that went to apply to get the permit discovered what was happening, and just walked away from the table, and said: ‘We’re not going to be any part of this.’”

Little Mountain neighbour and housing advocate Kia Salomons shares Woodsworth’s sentiments. “The whole project is so wrong. First of all, they should never be sold because we need affordable housing in this city. And also, the tenants shouldn’t have to be moved,” she says. “Every development there, every densification, could have happened in stages. But it’s a moot point now. The tenants are mostly all gone. You have to ask yourself the question, who is the government governing for? Aren’t they supposed to govern for all people?”
PHOTO: Vancouver’s oldest social housing development, Little Mountain, is currently being demolished to make way for a proposed development that’s still years away from breaking ground. By Doug Shanks.

Province says no to renter protections during Games

WestEnder
July 1, 2009

The City of Vancouver’s requests to increase legislative protection for tenants of rental apartments during the 2010 Winter Olympics have been denied. In a June 10 letter to Mayor Gregor Robertson, BC Housing Minister Rich Coleman wrote that he deemed it unnecessary to amend the Residential Tenancy Act during the Games. Coleman also wrote that expanding Residential Tenancy Branch (RTB) services in Vancouver during Games time would be unnecessary, despite the City’s requests that came before council in an April 9 motion.

Mayor Robertson sent a letter on behalf of council to Minister Coleman on April 28, which outlined the City’s requests that the Province temporarily amend Residential Tenancy legislation and increase tenant outreach service, in the interest of protecting renters and preventing evictions during the months leading up to and following the Games.

“Affecting the rights of property owners in the manner suggested may also be seen as unfair to those property owners,” Minister Coleman wrote in the letter justifying his refusal to amend the Residential Tenancy Act to prohibit Olympic evictions, as per council’s suggestion. “In a time where housing is scarce and private landlords are providing a valuable housing alternative, it is important to encourage them rather than to discourage them.”

Whether “housing alternative” is an accurate choice of words is a moot point, however, given that, according to 2001 Statistics Canada census data, more than half of households in central areas of Vancouver are rentals. (Minister Coleman did not return WE’s phone calls by press time.)

“[Coleman] is reflecting a kind of amnesia related to the impacts of these large mega-events that have been documented for decades,” says Am Johal, chair of Olympic Watchdog Group Impact on Communities Coalition, who considers the preliminary efforts by the City to protect renters to be minimal requests. “The City of Vancouver, by putting forward a weak public policy framework without consultation, is putting at least 1,000 renters at risk leading up to 2010.”

While the City has enacted a temporary accommodation bylaw for homeowners interested in renting out a part of their home during the Games — thus, ideally, protecting the interests of both landlords and tenants — Vancouver-West End MLA Spencer Herbert does not expect it to have much of an impact. “The homeowners I’ve talked to have laughed about the City’s registry,” he says. “A few good-hearted citizens will follow through on that, but the City really has no enforcement mechanisms... They’re trying to ensure people are not made homeless by the Games, but without the Province or the federal government having that same commitment, it’s pretty tough.”

City councillor Ellen Woodsworth sees Coleman’s letter as a betrayal to the people who voted in the recent provincial election. “All of these things are coming down from the Province just after a provincial election, when it looked like the Province wanted to work with the City to address the homeless and housing crisis,” she says. “West End residents have really let the rest of the city know the dangers that exist with not having a strong Residential Tenancy body in the city, and not having strong legislation that protects renters at a time of major events like the Olympics.”

The City has yet to hire a tenant assistance worker, which was expected to be done this spring, with the position remaining active through the Olympic period. The City put aside $40,000 in funding for the position.

At a press conference on June 29, Mayor Robertson told reporters that the City has been working to try to mitigate evictions. “We’re taking a number of steps, proactively, with the City, and we’re working with the Province to focus on whether there are problems with the Residential Tenancy Act that will manifest during the Olympics,” he said.

Canadian Muslim speaks of government mistreatment

WestEnder
July 1, 2009

Adil Charkaoui, a Morocco-born Muslim who was arrested and detained without charge in 2003 under Canada’s security certificate program, completed his first cross-Canada speaking tour in Vancouver last week (June 26). The tour provided a platform from which Charkaoui could tell his story and publicly ask the federal government for an apology for its treatment of him. As part of the program, he continues to wear an electronic monitoring device, is not allowed to speak to or be associated with individuals with a criminal record, cannot use the internet outside his home, and must advise the Canadian Border Agency 48 hours before travelling outside the island of Montreal, where he lives.

Nevertheless, Charkaoui says his current restrictions feel like freedom compared to what he has experienced during the six years since he was arrested. At that time, the security certificate program allowed for the preventative arrest and detention of non-Canadian citizens. Charkaoui had been living in Montreal with his family since 1995. He is currently working on a PhD at the University of Montreal and is employed as a French teacher.

After years of public condemnation of the security certificate program, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2007 that the program violated three sections of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In February 2008, a new security certificate legislation, Bill C-3, was established, but it was criticized by national and international human-rights organizations.

“Until now, I could not defend myself in fair trial,” Charkaoui told reporters at a press conference on June 25. “For all those years, I was asking for fair trials. But after six years of suffering, of jail, of house arrests, I’m not asking anymore about fair trial — it’s too late. I’m asking for this government to make a public apology to me.”

Charkaoui and four other Muslim men living in Canada have been held in this way under the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act. “I think [the government] has to change their policy. Give minorities like immigrants — Arabs and Muslims — fair treatment to have the same rights like any Canadians,” he said.

Fernand Deschamps, who has been working on Charkaoui’s campaign for years, accompanied him on his trip to Vancouver. “You cannot have, in Canada, a two-tiered justice system, where on one you can be innocent until proven guilty, and on the other you are under constant allegations of being a threat to national security based on secret evidence, heresy, information gathered under torture, et cetera,” he says. “Security certificates, once and for all, should be finally abolished, because secret trials are unacceptable for all Canadians who value the rule of law. Our security lies in the defense of the rights of all.”

PHOTO: Adil Charkaoui speaks in Vancouver, at the Civil Liberties Association Office, as part of a cross-Canada tour. By Doug Shanks.

Olympic critics allege police harassment

WestEnder
July 1, 2009

A group of people who have been publicly critical of the 2010 Winter Olympics have retained legal representation in order to strengthen their demands that police and intelligence officers working for the Vancouver 2010 Integrated Security Unit (VISU) leave them alone. Over the last 10 months, they allege, VISU members have visited them at their homes, their workplaces, and in public spaces to question their activities related to the 2010 Games.

“There were two officers waiting for me outside of my workplace downtown. As I came out, they just jumped out, within inches of my face, and scared the shit of out me,” recalls Garth Mullins, a local writer, researcher, and Olympic critic. Mullins was also involved in activism surrounding the 1997 APEC summit at UBC. Despite his requests that the VISU convene a consultation forum to address anti-Olympic activists in public, not in private, he says officers have ambushed him at work, at City Hall, and at home. “They came to my apartment and they were banging on my door and banging on other people’s doors and scaring the neighbours. I don’t know how they know where I live, either.”

Mullins is a member of anti-Olympics group Olympic Resistance Network, 12 members of which have retained the legal representation of Vancouver lawyer and BC Civil Liberties Association vice president Jason Gratl, who wrote a June 11 letter on their behalf to Bud Mercer, Chief Operating Officer of the VISU. The letter demands an immediate cessation to what Gratl says are abusive and unlawful tactics being carried out by the VISU.

Cpl. Bert Paquet, VISU spokesperson, confirmed with WE that the VISU had received the letter, but says he is not at liberty to discuss its contents as it is a legal document. “We’re not just trying to chase a bad guy here,” he says. “What we do, as being in charge of the safety and security of the Olympics, is we’re examining all risks and continually reassessing the plans as we go. What we do, as far as gathering intelligence, is we want to talk to potential threats to the security of the Games.”

In terms of talking to known activists or protest-group members, Paquet says it’s a measure the VISU takes to “either confirm or disregard them as a potential threat to the safety and security of Canadians, and visitors that will come to Canada.”

Paquet maintains that people the VISU approaches do not have to talk to officers or answer questions. “We also respect the right that Canadians have, guaranteed by the Charter of Rights, to protest legally and lawfully,” he says.

Outspoken Olympic critic and Vancouver ophthalmologist Chris Shaw says he has been approached by VISU officers three times in Metro Vancouver: once while walking from a West Broadway coffee shop to his laboratory near 10th and Willow; once near his Deep Cove home, where police allegedly questioned Shaw’s neighbours about his views; and once while leaving the June 24 press conference where the Olympic Resistance Network’s letter was discussed.

“I don’t blame individual police officers,” Shaw says. “I want to know what the politicians told them to do. That’s really where I think we need to go in understanding what instructions they’ve been given, what the rules of engagement are, what they’re afraid of.”

Shaw hopes the police are not doing the job of politicians in working to intimidate Olympic critics as a means of image management for the city, adding that if they’re concerned with violence during the Games, they’re talking to the wrong people. “If this is what their billion-dollar security budget is buying us, then I suspect they’re missing the boat,” he says.

PHOTO: Garth Mullins, a member of the Olympic Resistance Network, is one of many Olympic critics who say they have been harassed by officers working for the event’s security unit. By Doug Shanks.