Nov 15

Something Good Occupy Vancouver stands for!

  • November 15, 2011

Beyond all of the silliness of the Tent Council, and people who like to dress-up like ninja’s, Occupy Vancouver has real meaning. It is a shame the above mentioned people have to destroy that…
Here’s a Media Release just out from OV, that I stand behind 110%!

———————————-
For Immediate Release
———————————-

MEDIA COMMUNICATION — Occupy Vancouver Issues Challenge to Municipal Elections Candidates Re: Campaign Contributions

Occupy Vancouver, Unceded Coast Salish Territory, November 14, 2011 –

Occupy Vancouver has send letters to all municipal candidates
challenging them to immediately reveal the sources and amounts of
all campaign donations greater than $100, including any money collected
outside the elections cycle by 11:59pm Thursday, November 17, or
face the music on Election Day.

Occupy Vancouver’s General Assembly condemns the influence of
corporate money on Vancouver’s elections and municipal
decision-making. “Corporations are effectively buying elections,” says
Eric Hamilton-Smith, a protester and organizer at Occupy Vancouver,
“As a result of this influence, elected officials tend to create
policies that benefit their financiers’ interests rather than the
interests of the people who elect them into office. This is
particularly problematic here in Vancouver, where big developers have
contributed to an affordable housing crisis.”

According to Tristan Markle, author for The Mainlander and Occupy
Vancouver organizer, “The big developers need prices to stay high in
order to ensure maximum profits. To protect these donors, the NPA and
Vision will go to great lengths to maintain the unaffordable status
quo.”

According to data from the Vancouver Sun, the lion’s share of campaign
contributions received by both the Non-Partisan Association (NPA) and
Vision Vancouver come from big developers. In 2008, approximately
two-thirds of campaign money raised by Vision Vancouver was from
corporations, including half a million from developers. The NPA also
raised half a million from developers that same year.

At the November 13th 2011 General Assembly, Occupiers agreed by
consensus to the following two proposals:

1. Removal of the influence of corporate contributions from municipal
elections so that citizens—not corporations—are put at the forefront
in municipal decision-making.

In order to achieve this, Occupiers suggest the following reforms:
• Establish limits on the amount of money candidates can spend while
campaigning
• Establish limits on the amount of money any one person can donate to
a candidate or political party
• Prohibit corporations and other entities from donating money to
election campaigns
• Prohibit donations from non-BC residents

2. Establishment of real transparency in municipal campaign finance by
requiring candidates and parties to reveal their donors and amounts
before, not long after an election is over as is current practice.

Occupy Vancouver is giving all candidates until 11:59pm Thursday,
November 17th to make their campaign contributions publicly available
online or be held to account by voters on Saturday.

###

If you would like more information or would like to schedule an
interview, please contact:

Communications Work-Group,
Occupy Vancouver Media Committee,
[email protected]

Occupy Vancouver is a non-violent political movement to transform the
unequal, unfair, and growing disparity in the distribution of power
and wealth in Vancouver and around the globe.

—————–END——————-

Permanent link to this article: http://www.genuinewitty.com/2011/11/15/something-good-occupy-vancouver-stands-for/

Nov 15

The Case of the 99% vs the 99%

  • November 15, 2011

One of the things that has astounded me about the Tent Council, among many, is their lack of cooperation with the Fire Department. Particularly, because most of them are working people, and most consider themselves to be members of the 99%.

Back in the first week, I heard the VFD talking amongst themselves in fear that the tents were a serious hazard. This is not something that anyone disagreed with- so, I suggested we contact the VFD and work together to build a fire plan. The idea was accepted and, at first, embraced by people living in the tents. We built fire lanes, adjusted the tarps, and made a safer place for them to live.

Each time the VFD come to do an inspection they find that changes from the day before had been once again reversed. At times, it looks like they are intentionally antagonizing the VFD- a case of the 99% vs. the 99%. The fire chief best explains in the quote below… (press for link to the original story)

“We’ve found that we’ve had to repeatedly say the same message over and over again to the point that we gave them detailed instructions a couple of days ago exactly what I’ve been instructing my all my staff to be stating and doing,”

The real question is, why are people doing such self-destructive behavior? Who is telling them this is a good idea, and why isn’t anyone trying to stop it?

Permanent link to this article: http://www.genuinewitty.com/2011/11/15/the-case-of-the-99-vs-the-99/

Nov 14

Hijacked! Occupy Vancouver 1.0 no longer belongs to the 99%…

  • November 14, 2011


One month ago today I was sitting at the same place writing Activists & Buggy Whips, a paper that came out of the frustration of how the many people organizing Occupy Vancouver had refused to use the word ‘denounce’ in reference to violence. I was confounded at the time, had no idea why this simple idea was such a struggle to get consensus on. Had I only known then what I know now…

This all began when someone posted a provocative video on the OV Facebook page on October 10th.  The video was of Harsha Walia, who was viciously defending the concept of ‘Diversity of Tactics’- an ambiguous mix of violent & non-violent methods of protest. D0T could include anything from holding a flash-mob dancing on the sidewalk, to smashing the windows of a bank. As a person who is 110% anti-violence (it never solves anything), I felt the imperative to get clarity on this issue.

So, as I mentioned in the linked  paper, I went through days of abuse and attacks as a result. It was ugly, people were telling me that I was a typical ‘white male’ and I should ‘check my privlege’ and shut-up. This went on for days- curiously, this is the same method of attack that Harsha used against the man she was debating against- and the audience actually clapped in her support!

Yes, you heard that correctly- she was defending violence, and used a man’s race & gender as a tool to squash his political opinion. A lot of you are probably realizing that this is not only wrong, but it is actually a crime to do so! Unbelievable she would take this tactic- but that’s the problem, DoT gives one carte blanche to do whatever it takes to get acceptance for one’s point-of-view. Rather unaceptable if you ask me…

The harassment continued until three days later- and my gender/race were used against me ad-nauseam.  This continued until I pointed-out it was illegal to use gender & race to discriminate against someone’s political opinion. Suddenly, the attacks ended. And, Harsha wrote a nice paper that softened her position. But, her paper was still somewhat ambiguous, saying:

” These gatherings have been explicitly nonviolent from the start and in hundreds of cities across the continent. Obviously this is the right tactic for this moment.”

By this point I was exhausted- the attacks had become so harsh, and so pointed towards me, that at one point they had sent me to tears. Having grown-up in a feminist-led household, I’m quite a sensitive guy, and it seriously hurt to be called a racist and sexist- it simply just isn’t who I am. So, I mistakenly accepted the ambiguity and decided to move on.

From there, I began to  introduce the idea that OV needed a code-of-conduct. Initially I recommended what we referred to as the Eight Rules– a precursor to what later became OWS8 in New York. This turned into another argument- this time, confirming the truth behind Godwin’s Law. The final argument was that had the Jews had not acted 100% non-violent, they would have perhaps not faced the Holocaust. This really was pushing things a bit too far…

Sunday, November 6th, was a tumultuous day for OV. The troubles began early in the afternoon when a number of people appeared wearing all-black, balaclavas, and some carrying large black flags (see the picture above). Curiously, it was this day that I first saw Harsha since the planning meeting…

Later that evening I watched the General Assembly over the Livestream- this was shortly after the incident with the #SacredProvocation.  It was bizarre- first, it was more efficient than any GA I’ve seen. They slammed-through a large number of amendments, including one to pay $300 per week for wood for the fire! And, I believe, they voted to give $50 p/day to the new First Nations people who joined us.  It was obvious to most that the movement had been hijacked!

The next day, I got into a conversation with one of the police officers who has been assigned to OV. I had got to know him due to an issue where an outsider was making threats to ‘de-occupy’ OV, and was identified trying to recruit others through Twitter. We spoke about the threat, and how it had seemed to disappear- then, the conversation turned to what happened that evening. He said that the VPD were aware that a “highly organised and potentially violent” group had hijacked OV. He said the police are watching them very carefully. I’d already suspected this, but the cop said this independently without my mentioning the problem.

I now have no doubt our concerns about being hijacked are true- but, the details of who and why are still foggy to most of us. But, it is not a big secret- the fact that the GA voted to pay for the #SacredProvocation says it all. The only thing worse than to start a fire would be to attack the police. And, the people in black costumes began doing that on that Sunday also- before they were asked to stop…

So, once I had confirmation from the police (from an officer who has told me straight-out he is a member of the 99%) , I took the next step and asked Harsha to confirm or deny if she had a connection to the ninjas.

I was told that she is a “good person” who works hard for the DTES, and doesn’t deserve to be questioned like this. But, all I asked was to confirm the ambiguity of her last statement- not a lot to ask really, considering she appeared on the same day as the people in costumes. Not much to ask because of her video, and not much to ask considering she was talking with a couple of them. But, was I ever wrong…

People who were friendly towards me told me to stop- that it was not allowable for me to ask her confirmation she is still against violence “at this moment”. I was publicly called insane, someone contacted a family member and repeated that message. It became obvious who was for and who was against my questions.

This issue was discussed on the Facebook page for about a day and a half. Then, just when it looked like she had no choice but to give an answer- zap, the thread had disappeared. Someone erased it.

Now, we are one month into the occupation, and we still don’t have a code-of-conduct, and the ethos behind our movement has been thrown to the side by a small group who seem hell-bent on ending the movement. There are a couple, faint, lights of hope- but, it looks likely that Occupy Vancouver 1.0 is just about over. We’ll see what happens in court tomorrow…

Permanent link to this article: http://www.genuinewitty.com/2011/11/14/occupy-1-0-is-hijacked/

Nov 14

Curtis Brick Fountain: So it never happens again… (or, does it?)

  • November 14, 2011

One of the First Nations participants of Occupy Vancouver came to me a couple weeks ago and asked a favor. He told me about the water fountain that was installed in Grandview park in memory of Curtis Brick- a First Nations man who died of dehydration on July 29th 2009.

It was the hottest day that summer, Mr. Brick was first noticed laying in the park at 9am and appeared to be sleeping. Then at 4pm, someone noticed he was “in obvious physical distress”. Emergency services were called, and were not friendly when they arrived, they yelled to wake him up, and forced an oxygen mask on his face causing him to bleed. Nearby where many people enjoying a day at the park, and nobody else bothered to check on him all day.

Vancouver was disgraced. I remember reading about this from Montreal- a truly horrible chapter in our city’s history.

On September 17, 2011, Mayor Gregor dedicated a water fountain in Mr Brick’s memory. I’ve been told his speech mentioned that the fountain was placed there “So this never happens again”. Sounds good, right?

Well, I went to the fountain a few days ago and was appauled to see that the fountain is not working! How can this be! According to the city, the fountain has been turned-off for the winter. Something just doesn’t seem right about this…

Then, a day later, I was walking down Robson Street and saw a unique kind of water fountain. The top had a fountain for people, and the bottom had a fountain for dogs. And, you’d never believe it- but, both of these fountains are working!

I’m not sure what the message is here- but, I must say, it seems a bit crazy that a fountain for dogs works while a fountain meant to stop homeless people from dehydrating doesn’t. I’m sure there is a technical excuse- that said, it seems rather disrespectful…

Permanent link to this article: http://www.genuinewitty.com/2011/11/14/curtis-brick-fountain-so-it-never-happens-again-or-does-it/

Nov 13

How the City of Vancouver Failed Occupy Vancouver

  • November 13, 2011

It was November 4th, the day after the first overdose at Occupy Vancouver– someone who luckily lived due to the heroic efforts of our volunteer medic, Mathew. The fire department had come to do an inspection on the camp- shake things up for us a bit, guessing the city was losing patience with OV…

When the fire department asked us to take down the tarps that lie over multiple tents, I had to make an objection. I told them that by doing this, addicts with drug problems would be forced to take drugs inside their tent-increasing the risk of someone dying. They paid little attention to what I said- most likely because they were being yelled at by many of the people who lived in the tents.

Strike 1!

I got home, and in my frustration, I decided to write a Tweet to @MayorGregor. The message said:

After a short while I decided I should call the mayor’s office. So I called and left a message.  After a couple of hours I still didn’t get a call back. I was a bit angry by that time- how could he not call me back, or at least send someone to call me! I said to the person taking the message that there is a life/death issue and it was urgent! Perhaps he was too busy campaigning…

Strike 2!

So, I posted another tweet asking if anyone could suggest an organization that could help. One person recommended Union Gospel Mission, but another said a better choice would be Insite, a supervised injection site in East Vancouver.

So, I called Insite.  On my first call the person I spoke with took my phone number, said they didn’t have a pen and were memorizing it. I called back after an hour- they had lost my number, took it down and said someone would call me back soon. A couple hours later I was contacted by a nurse, I explained that we needed someone to ‘outreach’ to people at OV with drug addictions. The nurse agreed to come to the Art Gallery on Saturday morning. Then, at around 8:30pm, I got another call from a supervisor- he didn’t know something was already setup with the nurse, I thanked him for calling and thanked Insite for committing to send someone to do outreach.

The next day I was at home, working on a paper I was writing when I saw a Tweet from @ScanBC  it said that emergency crews were on scene with a unresponsive overdose at the Art Gallery. My heart sunk, and my stomach began to hurt- how could this happen! I did everything I could to stop it!

Strike 3!

Once there was time for things to settle down, I called the medical tent to find out what happened. I was told that someone did come from Insite, but they came after the fatality, and only dropped-off medicines- they neglected to do any outreach. I was raging mad at this, felt they could have saved a life had they come earlier. Today, I am still disappointed, but learned that the victim had been deceased for about 12 hours before she was discovered- so, the tragedy still will have happened.

I’m incredibly disappointed with the VFD, Mayor Gregor’s office, and Insite. Despite being warned, all neglected to take responsibility and respond properly to my requests & warnings. I won’t speculate too much, but it seems like OV was just too politically ‘hot’ for them to handle.  Sad…

Permanent link to this article: http://www.genuinewitty.com/2011/11/13/how-the-city-of-vancouver-failed-occupy-vancouver/

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