Vancouver

B.C. heroin addict returns to street after province seizes her home

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Mon, 03/08/2010 - 10:35am

VANCOUVER -- On a crisp March morning, Marianne Christine Sullivan sits on a dock in East Vancouver and talks about being homeless and broke after the government of British Columbia took her $562,000 home under civil-forfeiture legislation.

She says it has been days since she had her last fix of heroin. With a clear head, she now faces the fact she has lost her home because of legislation being used by B.C. police departments to get rid of troublesome households, and she lives and works on the streets.

When the B.C. Civil Forfeiture Office went before a B.C. Supreme Court judge in November to take possession of Sullivan's East Vancouver home, it was like taking candy from a baby, she says.

Feared police crackdown absent during Games

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 2:41pm

By. Vancouver Sun

Anti-poverty activists and civil rights watchdogs in Vancouver say their worst fears about police crackdowns during the 2010 Winter Olympics have yet to materialize, more than halfway through the Games.

Sean Spear, a director with RainCity Housing, said their emergency shelters and housing projects are full and their clients are appreciating a place far from the crowds.

"We also have people staying in our projects who are going to the Games and enjoying that as well, or finding other things that they enjoy about the Games — just watching some of the stuff on TV," he said.

Spear said one thing he doesn't like are Games visitors shooting pictures of the poor, which he called an offence to their dignity.

Prostitutes peddle co-operative brothels to protect sex workers

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Thu, 02/25/2010 - 1:23pm
by Trevor Scott Howell, Fast Forward Weekly
 
At 42, Susan Davis has worked in the sex trade for more than half of her life. She’s been raped more than 15 times since she began selling her body 24 years ago — once allegedly at knifepoint by convicted serial killer Robert Pickton. As well, a fellow prostitute she knew was mutilated and murdered by a john.
 

Pot City: Vancouver gives games a distinctive odor

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Tue, 02/23/2010 - 11:17am

By JOSEPH WHITE, Associated Press

VANCOUVER, British Columbia -- Walk downtown around midnight and take a deep breath - but not too deep - and you'll experience the unofficial odor of the Vancouver Olympics.

And it's not maple syrup.

"I know the local street dealers have never been so busy in their life," said Marc Emery, the city's self-proclaimed "Prince of Pot" and leader of the British Columbia Marijuana Party.

Vancouver is in the marijuana-friendly corner of Canada, and it's hard to miss. Hastings Street alone has several stores that sell marijuana seeds, and the third floor of Emery's Cannabis Culture Headquarters is a veritable weed smoker's den.

Three studies examine street youth, drug use, in Vancouver

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Mon, 02/22/2010 - 1:42pm
By. Thomas Kerr and Evan Wood
Three recently published studies on street-involved youth who use drugs in Vancouver from the Urban Health Research Initiative at the BC Centre for Excellence in HIV/AIDS.

 

1) What brings youth to the streets of downtown Vancouver?

This qualitative study, involving 38 young drug users, sought to investigate the processes that bring youth to the streets in the first place, and then make it difficult for them to leave this environment. The interviews uncovered that a desire to leave difficult living situations, as well as the need to find affordable housing were some of the reasons youth move to downtown Vancouver, while subsequent heavy drug use, homelessness and involvement in illegal activities were some of the factors that create barriers to leaving street life.  This article is published in the journal ‘Social Science and Medicine’ and is entitled: ‘Coming ‘down here’: young people’s reflections on becoming entrenched in a local drug scene’.

A summary of this study is available on our website at: click here.

The abstract for this study is also available on PubMed at: click here.

 

Judge acquits accused drug user with harsh criticism for Vancouver police

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Fri, 02/19/2010 - 1:03pm

VANCOUVER — A British Columbia judge has thrown out the evidence against an accused drug user, admonishing Vancouver police officers for violating the rights of the Downtown Eastside resident.

"There are no special rules for the Downtown Eastside," Judge Gregory Rideout said in a ruling released Thursday, referring to the drug-and-violence-plagued Vancouver region.

Kenneth James Stuart, who was arrested in October and charged with drug possession, was acquitted late last month.

It's a Bird, It's a Plane, It's... Methadone Man? Harm Reduction at the Vancouver Olympics

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Mon, 02/15/2010 - 11:08am
By. Drug War Chronicle
The Vancouver Olympic Games are getting underway today, and along with thousands of athletes and an estimated half a million visitors from around the world, the harm reduction community will also be there. A consortium of local, national, and international harm reduction and advocacy groups have crafted a campaign called SafeGames 2010 to bring harm reduction theory and practice to the forefront during the Olympic games.
 
In addition to bringing harm reduction messages to the Olympic masses, the campaign may help serve as a corrective to the drop-in international media, who come to Vancouver for the Olympics, then look around for local stories to cover, and then discover the city's Downtown Eastside with shock and dismay. The Downtown Eastside is home to one of the largest and densest concentrations of hard drug users in the hemisphere and has the appearance of a Skid Row. But it is also home to the innovative harm reduction and other drug policies that have put Vancouver on the cutting edge of drug reform.

Led by Vancouver's Keeping the Door Open Society, SafeGames 2010 will provide an array of resources, including tips on safe sex and reducing the harm associated with drug and alcohol consumption, in a bid to keep the Olympic community safe and protected. The campaign has the added benefit of highlighted Vancouver's progressive stance on drug policy and harm reduction.

4,000 march for missing women

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Mon, 02/15/2010 - 9:26am
'The PM needs to step forward and initiate an inquiry'
 
By Sam Cooper, The Province
 
An annual demonstration for women murdered and missing in the Downtown Eastside grew by thousands as international media eyed marchers on Sunday afternoon.
 
Marchers, including relatives of missing women, pounded drums and chanted as they looped from the intersection of Main and Hastings streets through Gastown. They stopped in front of locations where women were last seen or found murdered, and laid roses and prayed.
 
Kim Washburn, a First Nations member, said he has attended all 19 annual marches, and this year's estimated turnout of about 4,000 dwarfed last year's turnout of around 1,000.

Vancouver's real world,' outside Olympic bubble

Submitted by Nicole Seguin on Fri, 02/12/2010 - 12:36pm
By LINDA ROBERTSON - McClatchy Newspapers
 
VANCOUVER, British Columbia - Kelly Flanagan has not attended any parties for fur-frocked Olympic VIPs. Nor does she have tickets for figure skating, snowboarding or hockey-although she would love to see a curling match. She never has been skiing at Whistler, a snow resort.
 
But she does have Olympic pins, which she wears proudly on her old brown sweatshirt: "Homes Not Games." "Broken Promises." "Meals Instead of Medals."
 

200 Volunteers to Pass Out Condoms During the Winter Olympics

Submitted by Jacob Hunter on Tue, 02/09/2010 - 10:57am

By. CNW, SafeGames2010

SafeGames 2010 (www.safegames2010.com), a consortium of local, national, and international harm-reduction and advocacy organizations under the leadership of Keeping The Door Open Society, is working to ensure that Vancouver residents and international visitors celebrate safely during the 2010 Winter Olympics.

SafeGames will provide a wide array of resources to help keep the Olympic community safe and protected, including tips on safe sex and practical information on reducing the harms connected with drug and alcohol use.

Gillian Maxwell, SafeGames Project Director, believes the project will highlight Vancouver's leadership role in public health and drug policy. "Vancouver is a community that respects its citizens for who they are. Over the last decade Vancouver has paved the way for the some of its most marginalised community members, including people who use drugs, are in the sex trade, are living with HIV/AIDS, and those with mental health issues and other concerns, to be treated with respect and dignity."

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