ABORT Magazine™

Copyright © 2004-2011 ABORT Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this publication, in whole or in part, in any form or medium without express written permission from Abort Media Publishing Corporation (AMP Corp.) is prohibited. All use is subject to our Terms of Use.

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Top court rules Insite drug injection clinic can stay open

September 30th, 2011 Filed under: News/Calendar/Industry, Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(CBC.ca) – Vancouver’s controversial Insite clinic can stay open, the Supreme Court said Friday in a landmark ruling.

In a unanimous decision, the court ruled that not allowing the clinic to operate under an exemption from drug laws would be a violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. The court ordered the federal minister of health to grant an immediate exemption to allow Insite to operate. “Insite saves lives. Its benefits have been proven. There has been no discernable negative impact on the public safety and health objectives of Canada during its eight years of operation,” the ruling said, written by chief justice Beverly McLachlin.

The court ruled that withdrawing the exemption undermines the purpose of federal drug laws, which include public health and safety. The long-running court battle between the federal government and Insite supporters was based on the clinic’s claim — supported by two lower court rulings — that it should be allowed to operate exempt from federal drug laws.

supervisedinjection.vch.ca

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City plan does little to support those put at risk by prostitution

September 26th, 2011 Filed under: News/Calendar/Industry, Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(Vancouver Sun | Photo – Chris Webber) – f nine out of 10 fishermen got hurt at work, policymakers would likely question whether the job isn’t so inherently dangerous that even regulating the industry might never keep them safe. If four of every 10 nurses were violently attacked every year, regulation alone might not be the solution either.Yet those are the statistics for street and indoor prostitution respectively, and still most policy-makers simply shrug.

In 2005, 90 per cent of street prostitutes in Vancouver had been physically assaulted, 78 per cent had been raped and 72 per cent met the criteria for post-traumatic stress disorder, according to a report in the peer-reviewed journal Transcultural Psychiatry. Those working from home, in massage parlours or escort agencies fare better. Still, 37 per cent of them experienced some sort of violence, according to research done in 2007 by a graduate student at Simon Fraser University.

Citing municipalities’ limited powers over the Criminal Code, education, health and social services, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson and all of the city’s councillors are the latest to shrug.

ObsidianFoxPhotography.com

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Tales From The Eastside: Scott Alexander – Issue 17 Preview

September 23rd, 2011 Filed under: Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(CLICK TO ENLARGE | All Photos - Scott Alexander)

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Woman Falls To Her Death From Downtown Eastside Hotel

September 19th, 2011 Filed under: News/Calendar/Industry, Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(Photo – Bryan Scott | winnipeglovehate.com

(The Province) – Darren Zinkevich hasn’t stopped shaking.

The 50-year-old resident of Vancouver’s gritty Downtown Eastside was walking along the sidewalk in the 100-block of East Hastings Street Friday evening when a woman’s body fell from the sixth floor of the Regent Hotel and crashed to the ground just a few feet in front of him.

Still in shock on Saturday, Zinkevich said the moment the body fell at his feet he called 911, but right away he knew there was nothing doctors could do. “I said to them ‘this person is dead, just get over here now.’
“Another few steps and she would have hit me,” he added.

“I couldn’t sleep all night after that. “There was brain matter everywhere and that was going through my mind all night. It was a very traumatic thing, the sound of the body hitting the ground.” As Zinkevich described the horror, a rally was taking place a half block away to protest the lack of safe housing for women in the crime-plagued neighbourhood.

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City takes owner of two rooming houses to court

August 13th, 2011 Filed under: News/Calendar/Industry, Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(Vancouver Sun/Photo – Gerry Kahrmann, PNG)

The owners of two dilapidated Downtown Eastside rooming houses that have long been the target of city efforts to clean them up are being taken to court.

City officials this week followed through on threats to seek court injunctions against George Wolsey and other owners of the Wonder Rooms on East Cordova Street and the Palace Hotel on East Hastings Street. After a yearslong battle, in July city council took the rare action of approving a plan to seek injunctive relief – that is, asking the court to order the owners to clean up the properties.

Councillors called Wolsey a “slum landlord” and heard claims from residents that he used threats and intimidation to keep them in line. City staff laid out a plethora of problems with the buildings, from rat infestations to unsafe wiring to holes in walls and doors. Now, the city is asking B.C. Supreme Court to approve its claims that the owners have ignored or contravened a large number of city bylaws, including those governing standards of maintenance, fire, building and electrical, and even the Untidy Premises Bylaw. It is asking for a mandatory order that Wolsey and his partners must comply with the city or else be found in contempt of court and fined.

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Tales From The Eastside: Tyler Simpson – Issue 16 Preview Pt. II

July 14th, 2011 Filed under: Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(All Photos – Tyler Simpson | observeone.com)

Purchase/Commission:

tyler@abortmag.com

observeone@gmail.com

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WTF?: Legendary Save-On-Meats to be featured on The Oprah Winfrey Network

June 22nd, 2011 Filed under: News/Calendar/Industry, Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(TheTyee.ca) – Following a tough restoration, Vancouver’s historic Save-on-Meats re-opens today — and soon, everyone will have behind-the-scenes access.
The revamped four-floor, 22,000 square-foot food hub is the subject of a national documentary series, currently in production with the Oprah Winfrey Network.

The series will chronicle the “trials and tribulations” of re-opening the shop, as well as the challenges of meeting both a business and social mandate, said city restauranteur Mark Brand, who took on the project after the original Save-on-Meats closed in 2009.

“What we’re trying to do is provide the community with healthy, affordable food. A place that they remember, but also bringing it up a notch (in terms of) nutrition and stable employment for a ton of residents,” said Brand. Of the 70 employees Brand recently hired, over 40 are Downtown Eastside residents.

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Women Respond to Sexual Assaults in Downtown Eastside Church Shelter

February 25th, 2011 Filed under: News/Calendar/Industry, Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(Photo – ubc.ca)
While Shelter and City of Vancouver Ignore Reports

(Vancouver, BC) A coalition of women and women’s organization is acting quickly to address reports of sexual assaults of women in a Downtown Eastside shelter. In January 2011 it was identified that women were being sexually assaulted by men at First United Church co-ed shelter located at Gore and Hastings. In 2010, Vancouver Police Department confirmed six sexual assaults had been reported at the shelter. Frontline workers had been receiving reports directly from women as well over the past several months, many of whom have relayed that the lack of concern about their well-being in the church shelter is similar to the colonial and paternalistic attitude experienced in residential schools.

In the wake of staggering levels of violence against women in the Downtown Eastside including cases where women have been murdered, First United Church staff ignored the reports until confronted by women and women’s organizations in 2011. It has come to light that some City of Vancouver staff have been trying to have this situation addressed by City departments for more than a year and a half.

“The First United Church Shelter is too crowded, understaffed, and inappropriate for housing people. It is an unethical way to deal with homelessness in this city and BC Housing and the City of Vancouver play a direct role in permitting this situation to continue. It is negligent to have women accessing this space knowing that they are at risk of sexual violence and harassment”, the coalition wrote in a letter to BC Housing.

The coalition wrote further, “Now that the Health Contact Centre is closed, First United Church is the place of last resort to go in the night when there are no services available. It isn’t a safe environment for the users of the shelter, especially women, and should not be considered a so-called solution to the homeless crisis in this neighbourhood.”

Beatrice Starr, a member of Downtown Eastside Power of Women group, stayed at the First United Church Shelter for over 8 months. She directly witnessed the high levels of harassment and violence against women and asserts that “The First United Church Shelter must ensure that there are more women-only beds and a larger women-only section. They should have also had more female staff and ensured safety for women who use the shelter as a high priority.”

For many years, women, anti-violence and women’s organizations have been demanding a 24 hours space for women in the Downtown Eastside. Funders and City of Vancouver are responsible to ensure that safe services are equally available to women. No longer should women be choosing between the violence on the street and the violence within publicly funded institutions.

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Man jailed for trafficking crack out of Downtown Eastside minimart

January 1st, 2011 Filed under: News/Calendar/Industry, Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(Vancouver Sun) – A man has been sent to jail for six months for possessing crack cocaine for trafficking at a convenience store located in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

Saviz Rezaie, 29, was found with a Ziplock baggie containing 60 rocks of crack cocaine, each worth $20, in the back room of a small convenience store, Sopranos MiniMart, located at 410 Columbia Street in Vancouver on April 25, 2008.

Found on a stool next to the chair where Rezaie had been sitting was $1,100 in cash, consisting of three $50 bills, 27 $20 bills, 15 $10 bills, and 35 $5 bills.

READ MORE HEREWhen Rezaie was searched following his arrest, he was found with $2,020 in a wallet that contained no bank cards or identification, $135 in a rear pocket of his pants and $10 in a front pocket.

Police had made observations for three days previous to the bust of people leaving the store holding something in their hands and handing it off to people at Pigeon Park, located at the corner of Hastings and Carrall.

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It’s Official! – Vancouver officer charged with assault

December 8th, 2010 Filed under: Made In Canada, Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(National Post) – A Vancouver police officer has been charged with assault after a disabled woman was shoved to the ground in June.

Sandy Davidsen — who weaves when she walks. as a result of cerebral palsy and multiple sclerosis–was walking in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside on June 9. When Ms. Davidsen tried to pass between three police officers, she was knocked over by one of them.
Constable Taylor Robinson was charged Tuesday after a three-month investigation by the New Westminster Police Department. Crown counsel reviewed the investigation and approved the charge.

The June 9 encounter was caught on a security videotape. It shows the three officers walking side-by-side and Ms. Davidsen, wearing a bright orange jacket, weaving toward them; after she is pushed to the ground, witnesses bend down to help her, while the officers pause for about a dozen seconds before walking away.

Copyright © 2004-2010 ABORT Magazine. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this publication, in whole or in part, in any form or medium without express written permission from Abort Media Publishing Corporation (AMP Corp.) is prohibited. All use is subject to our Terms of Use.

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Mayor aims to make Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside safer for women

December 7th, 2010 Filed under: News/Calendar/Industry, Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(CLICK TO ENLARGE | Photo- Chris Webber)
(NationalPost) – Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson, pictured, and Police Chief Jim Chu announced Monday a program designed to make the poverty-plagued Downtown Eastside safer for women. The “Sister Watch” program will see 18 bus shelters in the area dressed with large signs highlighting a phone number that women can call if they are in trouble, afraid or in danger. A large, portable electronic sign that can be moved to various locations around the Downtown Eastside will also be deployed.

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Tales From The Eastside: Tyler Simpson – Issue 16 Preview

November 10th, 2010 Filed under: Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(All Photos – Tyler Simpson | observeone.com)

Purchase/Commission:

observeone@gmail.com

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Tales From The Eastside: Scott Alexander – Issue 16 Preview

November 5th, 2010 Filed under: Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(All Photos – Scott Alexander | Obsidianfoxphotography.com)

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Find more photos like this on ABORT Magazine/ABORT TV’s Official Online Street Team

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A walk on the drug side: the Globe & Mail gets grimey after (finally) discovering the ‘Streets of Plenty’

March 16th, 2010 Filed under: Made In Canada, News/Calendar/Industry, Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(Globe & Mail) – Vancouver’s notorious Downtown Eastside is perhaps the most drug-ridden neighbourhood in North America. Misha Kleider is a young Vancouverite with curiosity. He decided to spend a month on the streets and make a film about it.

The result is a compelling documentary called Streets of Plenty, now available in seven parts on YouTube. The scenes of addled, self-destructive addicts are depressingly familiar. The scenes of social agencies eager to supply a homeless person’s every need suggest that more social workers are not the answer to Vancouver’s homeless problem. The most fascinating scene unfolds at Insite, the controversial supervised-injection facility that has become a flashpoint in the ideological drug wars.

WATCH THE ENTIRE FILM AT:

streetsofplenty.com

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SHOOTING GALLERY: Downtown Eastside Women’s Memorial March 2010

February 15th, 2010 Filed under: Shooting Gallery, Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

All Photos by Chris McKibbin | cmckibbinphotos.com

WANT MORE SHOOTING GALLERIES? CLICK HERE

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EXCLUSIVE: 21 & Under With…Angela Marie MacDougall of BWSS

February 14th, 2010 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive!, Made In Canada, Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(Photo - Scott Alexander | ObsidianFoxPhotography.com)

The annual Downtown Eastside Memorial Women’s March commemorates the many women lost to the streets of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside. In a neighborhood marred by rampant drug use and dangerous sex trade, but also held together by a strong sense of community and identity, the March has allowed the families and friends of the lost to grieve, mourn, and get the message out to the larger masses that all is not well here in “the best place on earth”, and that these women are neither faceless nor forgotten. ABORT Magazine’s Dave”Corvid”McCallum sat with planning committee member Angela Marie MacDougall to speak on the march, the conditions, and the solutions to the problems of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

David McCallum: I’m here with Angela MacDougall of Battered Women Support Services talking about the Women’s Memorial March. Can you introduce yourself and talk about your role in BWSS?

Angela: My name is Angela Marie MacDougall and I’m in the role of Executive Director at Battered Women Support Services and sit on the planning committee for the 19th Annual Feb.14th Memorial March. The memorial march planning committee consists of women from the Downtown Eastside as well as women from other community organizations and individuals and we don’t represent any particular organization on that planning committee. Rather, we do the work of organizing the march for the community.

D: Can you talk about the march itself and how long it’s been around and what it represents etc.?

A: This is the 19th year. In 1991 a woman was found murdered and dismembered in the Downtown Eastside and her family at that time conducted a ceremony at each location where her body parts were found. And the ceremony- I wasn’t at the ceremony- but it was to honor and memorialize and it was to grieve her loss. At the request of the family we no longer say her name but the Women’s Memorial March started on that day. And what I understand is that Feb.14th was chosen as the day because as Valentine’s Day, it was a day of love, and it’s a day of particular significance for women in that it’s a way to show love to women primarily. So that’s my understanding. So for the last 19 years the march has been held and I have been on the planning committee since 1995. Each year we come together between 10 and 30 women to plan the march.

D: In the 19 years since the march started, a lot has gone on in the Downtown Eastside and this issue isn’t something- it’s really difficult to talk about honestly- but this issue hasn’t gone away. The Pickton trial, that’s wrapped up now but that’s just last year. Since the march has began, how has it grown to deal with this issue as an ongoing problem in the community where women are disappearing all the time in the Downtown Eastside? It seems the majority of missing women are of First Nations. So can you talk about what is going on and how it affects the march, the Pickton trial etc.?

A: Good question. The march after the original ceremony continued as a way to honor and to memorialize women. There was critical component early on and that was that part of the march- the procession- takes us to the Police Station at 222 Main Street. And at that time in early 90’s the police were not investigating disappearances and murders at all. So each year we would go to 222 Main Street and people would speak there and would essentially ask the police to do their job and to recognize that women were being murdered and were going missing.

Now fast-forward, what we have now is a situation where in general, some missing women are being investigated, in general there have been some investigations of murders. And we’ve had as you noted, a very high-profile arrest and conviction. And that arrest and conviction was important. We’ve had other issues as well, but they were important because they were acknowledged and it was some measure of justice for the murders and disappearances. In lots of ways it took away attention and resources and it continues to take away resources. It took away attention from women who had been found murdered prior and now post.

So why we see that women go missing, why are women getting murdered, why is there a disproportionate number of indigenous women represented among the missing and murdered? I think we can look very much at the making of this Nation for us to understand that violence against indigenous women was at the heart of the making of this Nation. And the dismantling of indigenous cultures and the dismantling of indigenous ways through that process was also a relegation of indigenous women from leadership and from where indigenous women had public roles and were a central part of the communities. Prior to colonization the very process and ideology and practice of colonization dismantled that and relegated indigenous women to the very bottom of our social structure where the process of colonization relegated women less than men in general.

So that affects everything. The police were established in a lot of ways to move indigenous peoples off their land, so the lack of investigations that we saw of indigenous women being murdered and disappearing very much goes back to the making of the nation and with law enforcement here in Canada. The factors of urbanization of people and subsequent poverty and residential schools and the effects of residential schools – all that speaks to why we see indigenous women represented. Violence against women is one of most pressing issues of our time. Right now the statistics that we see through our work at BWSS that we’ve assessed, and this is confirmed by the Provincial Government, that 1 in 3 women experiences abuse as affected by violence. And women represent 52 percent of our population and so a third of us are dealing with violence. And that grinds down in a big way and becomes very… concentrated when we’re talking about women in the Downtown Eastside where women are incredibly vulnerable to violence and that violence is rampant. And murders and disappearances are then the consequences.

D: So it takes place Feb.14 and the Olympics start on Feb.12. Concurrent with the Olympics people have organized and postered for a large anti-Olympic convergence which has gone beyond that to an anti-Colonial anti-Capitalist convergence with the focus on indigenous sovereignty with the slogan ‘No Olympics on stolen Native land.’ With 95 percent of BC being ceded land being on sovereign Native territory, do you feel like with the march taking place at the beginning of the Olympics this year and concurrent with this anti-Colonialist rally, does this give you a chance to express this sentiment to a larger audience that is coming here unaware that this is going on? The memorial normally draws so many people usually and yet you have the chance to make your statement to the larger population.

A: You know, this is very difficult and complex because V.A.N.O.C. started very early on and spoke with the elected leaders of the Four Host Nations- Squamish, Musqueam, Tsleil-Waututh and Mount Currie, and from V.A.N.O.C.’s perspective it was the very first time that they had ever involved indigenous populations in organizing, agreeing or operating the Olympics on indigenous territory. So that has been controversial because the elected officials and to some extent the hereditary chiefs and officials within the four host nations are in support of the Olympics, and who am I as the descendant of settlers to disagree with them when you know, I’m here- quite frankly- as a visitor, and the Indian Act has given them authority and the Indian Act is the Law of the day. And the Indian Act- you know, I didn’t create it and neither did they and we’re dealing with the legacy of it. So that’s one layer is that I can’t disagree with them and their decision to do that. And the second part is that there are a number of urban- and there’s a lot of dissent within those four host nations of the indigenous populations who don’t agree and are very concerned about the legacy. They don’t agree with their leadership and there’s a large concern about what the legacy of that decision is going to be over the long haul and where those resources are going to and how it will shake down, not only to the people of those Four Nations but also to all the urban indigenous people that are in Vancouver that are without representation, without obvious representation.

So the anti-Olympic organizing, the anti-Colonial organizing – yes, it is going to happen and for me- and I recognize clearly and speak all the time about the fact that you can’t talk about violence against women in this nation now known as Canada without talking about Colonialism.

We’ve been very much focused on the committee in supporting all the sides of this and wanting to support obviously anybody that is against the Olympics. But we’ve been focused very much on the march being about mobilizing women and a place for women to honor women’s lives and grieve for missing and murdered women.

We’ve spoken with the anti-Olympic organizers, and certainly asked them to join us and to respect the intention of the march and we’ve received assurances from them that they would do that.

READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 15 OF ABORT MAGAZINE- COMING SOON

Educate yourself at BWSS.org

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The NY Times Discovers our Dirty Little Secret

February 5th, 2010 Filed under: Made In Canada, News/Calendar/Industry, Tales From The Eastside™ by Editor in Chief

(Photo- Jordana Hovis)

(NY Times) – In this urban oasis widely considered one of the most livable places in the world, the Downtown Eastside is about 15 square blocks of something else.

Unlike some Olympic host cities, Vancouver has not moved out its poor. Some find refuge at a church.

At the corner of Main and Hastings, residents of the poorest postal code in Canada passed a recent Tuesday afternoon. One man lighted a crack pipe, inhaling deeply. Another urinated on a wall. Another burned a book of matches, muttering at the flame. Two men started fighting. One brandished a bicycle seat, the other a salad that spilled onto the sidewalk.

“All that over drugs,” a passer-by said. “Welcome to the Downtown Eastside.”

That scene unfolded five blocks from the site of the opening ceremony for the Winter Olympics, scheduled for next Friday, and a five-minute drive from the athletes’ village.

By bidding for the Olympics, Vancouver invited the world to visit. Now city officials are trying to redirect the international news media spotlight from this blighted neighborhood in the shadows of the picturesque North Shore Mountains.

News accounts throughout the world have zeroed in on the striking juxtaposition of the Downtown Eastside with the Winter Games.

“North America’s festering sore of what do with its homeless and disenfranchised is crystallized in a few short blocks,” The Sunday Times of Australia wrote. The Daily News of Egypt wrote, “Just be careful not to stray too far south of Gastown into the city’s notoriously squalid and poverty-stricken notorious Downtown Eastside, where drugs and prostitution are rampant.”