Evening with John McKnight

As a Social Justice Centre representative, I attended a evening with John McKnight, who is well known as a mentor of Barack Obama, at that Newton Public Libary today. Lots of passionate activists and service providers were in attendance, and also Surrey Councillor Vera LeFranc --who supports harm reduction! And also our old colleague, Steve Dooley, who is now the executive director of the Surrey SFU campus. There were even two kids who love participating in the Surrey community gardens and who excitedly told us about how "when you plant something you get to see it grow!"  --Mike Ma

$10 a day daycare event - May 6, 2017

I attended this event last week. Affordable daycare is really something that this country should have introduced and implemented years ago. I have a distinct memory being an undergrad student and walking through the library stacks researching the Canadian Task-Force on Childcare Report from 1985! And it basically said the same thing people are saying today: We need affordable childcare and it needs to be a national program. It is sad that it takes the death of a toddler in an unlicensed facility for the issue to become news again. It is a national crime. Check out their website:

http://www.10aday.ca

Tamara, one of the parents, gave a great speech. See below.  --Mike Ma

In Solidarity with Palestinian Prisoners: The Battle of Empty Stomachs

I attended this event today in solidarity with the Palestinian struggle for freedom and recognition. It was an interesting event. Nice to see a fairly large crowd slowly build up in  front of the Vancouver Art Gallery on a sunny afternoon --lots of shoppers and tourists walking by. It was a bit bizarre and disturbing to see the pro-Israeli and Zionist supporters setting up directly across from the solidarity event. I forget how disruptive heckling from Israel supporters can be. And some of their supporters really were filled with malice and testosterone as  they verbally challenged the solidarity supporters of Palestine. --Mike Ma

Harm Reduction and Detox are linked and intertwined

On May 11th, Mike Ma, SJC member, and Ann Livingston, VANDU co-founder, were invited to speak the the Richmond Community Services Committee. It was a interesting meeting. They spoke about how harm reduction guides people towards detox, and that you can only get to treatment if you pass through detox first. It is both a continuum and a chicken&egg issue. As a complete wrap-around solution you must have all three working in concert together. They reminded the audience that Provincial Minister of Health, Terry Lake, and Federanl Minister of Health Jane Philpott get this, and that they are (indirectly) telling communities to go forth and do what is necessary to help people deal with their unresolved pain, trauma, and addictions. They are not standing in the way of Opioid Replacement Theraphy (ORT), Heroin Assisted Therapy (HAT), or Safe Injection Facilities (SIF).

Harm Reduction

Harm Reduction

Local youth on the impacts a thermal coal port on the Fraser would have on their health & neighbourhoods and the climate.

We support the work that activists are doing to oppose and stop the thermal coal port on the Fraser. Check out the video below, and check out Greg Simmons' project to support this work!

Environmental and Ecological Justice

Environmental and Ecological Justice

Alliance Against Displacement

Lisa Freeman: On May 1, 2017, several members of the Social Justice Centre participated in a press conference with Alliance Against Displacement (a grassroots organization that organizes with communities facing displacement in B.C) and residents of 'The Strip' (135A St) in Surrey. A few people who live in tents on The Strip discussed the daily challenges they face: bylaw officers taking their belongings, constantly trying to stay dry in this rainy climate, and harassment from specific police officers (who some residents refer to as 'The Terminator'). I met several residents of The Strip, and chatted with a young woman who told me that she never imagined that at 21-years old she would be homeless and searching for extra layers of cardboard to keep her tent dry and warm. It has been clear for awhile now that the living conditions (including constant police surveillance) on 135 A St need to change. In supporting the residents and in raising some of the key issues at play here, Michael Ma and I (Social Justice Centre at Kwantlen Polytechnic University) discussed how changes to the current situation of harm reduction, safe injection sites, and affordable housing could support the people living on the Strip. Not a bad way to spend May Day...despite the dismal living conditions and cold rain. --Lisa

Mike Ma: We attended the Press Conference organized by Alliance Against Displacement on 135a, Surrey today. It was pouring rain but we pressed on. It is sad to see all the resources that have gone into the public safety trailer-building, and so little going towards alleviating the misery of living in tents on the sidewalk. Surrey could be doing so much more, and yet it is not. Why perpetuate this misery? 

Alexandra Sayers stands by her tent and talks about living on 135A Street, also known as the Surrey Strip. The 21-year-old, who has an addiction, has been living on the Strip for about a year. JENNIFER SALTMAN/PNG / PNG

Surrey drug users frustrated - Vancouver Sun Story

Here is the press release from AAD:

News conference about health funding and policing poverty in Surrey: Monday May 1st, 11am at the Surrey Strip on 135A

For Immediate Release
Monday May 1, 2017

“They’re making it a crime to be poor”: News conference to expose misappropriation of overdose funding on the police occupation of the Surrey Strip

SURREY, UNCEDED COAST SALISH TERRITORY: On Monday May 1st, anti-displacement activists will hold a news conference about the misappropriation of Provincial health money to fund a total police occupation of the two-block-long tent city.

What:                    News conference about policing poverty
When:                   Monday May 1st, 11am
Where:                 135A Street, at 106th Ave

In December, the BC Health Authority announced plans to open an overdose prevention site on the Surrey Strip, and eventually a supervised injection site. Instead of nurses and health workers, an RCMP and Bylaw officer “Surrey Outreach Team” is carrying out a campaign of harassment and intimidation against homeless people. Instead of a supervised injection site or social housing, there is a new permanent police station built on City land. And this policing is worsening the effects of the homelessness crisis on the health and wellbeing of homeless people.

Come hear homeless Surrey Strip residents say, “we’re sick of them just bossing us around.” Residents will speak out against arbitrary police harassment, surveillance, and Surrey bylaw’s daily “takedown” policy that forces homeless people to disassemble their tents every morning. Researchers will speak about the misappropriation of Provincial health funds to the police occupation of the Strip. And activists will speak about the implications of this policing-focused “health outreach” model for the housing and poverty crisis overall.

The redirection of Provincial health resources into policing is taking place during the 2017 BC election, yet none of the parties have made ending poverty and homelessness a focus of their campaigns. This event is part of Alliance Against Displacement’s anti-election week of action to end homelessness that began Friday with the 10 Year Tent City in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver.

For information, contact: Alliance Against Displacement 

https://www.facebook.com/AgainstDisplacement/

http://www.stopdisplacement.ca/

Housing

Housing