After the deadly heat wave: Cancel Canada Day and capitalism too
The Thorn on Thursdays | July 1 2021
“The old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum, a great variety of morbid symptoms appear” -- Antonio Gramsci
Stories
Local
Record heatwave, record heat related deaths, Lytton on fire: this is climate disaster
Since Friday, B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, Northern Manitoba, Washington, and Oregon have been sweltering under a record-setting heatwave. Temperature records fell across B.C., the west, and the U.S. pacific northwest. Lytton, B.C. surpassed the Canadian heat record on three consecutive days this week, reaching 49.5 degrees on Tuesday.
Temperatures in Metro Vancouver and the Fraser Valley soared into the high 30s and low 40s during the worst of the heat. As of writing on Wednesday, some relief in the form of cooler temperatures has arrived on the south coast, as the heat dome that has been fuelling this heat wave shifts east. Relief for the rest of B.C. is forecast to come on the weekend.
The record breaking heat has fuelled an early start to B.C.’s wildfire season. As of last night, the town of Lytton was on fire and being evacuated, as the nearby George Road Wildfire reached the town late on Wednesday. As reported by Global News, there are six active wildfires of note in B.C. (including George Road), and a total of forty-one active fires.
As reported by the CBC, at least 486 people in BC have died of sudden death between Friday at 1pm and Wednesday afternoon, triple the usual number for that period. Most of the deaths are of persons over the age of 70, though the youngest person was 44. Emergency Services have been overwhelmed by the high volume of heat-related emergency calls, and this has contributed to the high death toll.
The heat wave has been especially punishing for homeless people living on the street in the DTES. It took enormous pressure from activists in the neighbourhood to get half of Oppenheimer Park re-opened to the public, so that residents would be able to access shade. (The park was fenced off after the residents of the former homeless camp at the park were moved into supportive housing in April 2020).
Asked about the heat related deaths at his press conference on Tuesday, John Horgan said that “fatalities are part of life ... The public was acutely aware that we had a heat problem.” He then said that people need to take some “personal responsibility. This is a callous response given that the capitalist system leaves many without the means to keep themselves from cooking during deadly heatwaves.
This record breaking heatwave and its deadly effects are the latest in an increasingly long list of morbid symptoms of climate change in what is increasingly becoming the “new normal” of the climate crisis. Climate action was needed yesterday. Climate inaction has led us to this point. Getting off of fossil fuels as soon as possible is imperative, and we must challenge the capitalist-driven profit motive that keeps us pumping fossil fuels into the atmosphere,
despite the obvious consequences.
We also must challenge governments like the allegedly social-democratic BC NDP one that Horgan leads, which mouths decent sounding rhetoric on the issue, and make a few good policy changes on the climate front with one hand, while presiding over a massive increase in subsidies to the oil and gas sector and fracking in the northeast of the province with the other.
Further reading: That Heat Dome? Yeah, It’s Climate Change.
B.C. enters stage 3 of a 4-stage restart plan despite the looming threat of COVID variants
After Covid-19 statistics fell to the lowest since August 2020, and with at least 70% of the 18+ population vaccinated with dose 1 amid declining hospitalizations, B.C. will be ending the Provincial State of Emergency, during which the Provincial Health Office can make orders as needed. B.C. anti-maskers will be happy to learn that as of July 1st the mask mandate order will be removed and no proof of vaccination will be needed.
The BC Restart website also details that organized gatherings are now allowed including gatherings of 50 people or 50% capacity (whichever is greater), religious gatherings and worship services with no capacity limits, and fairs, festivals and trade shows can return to normal. Casinos will also be allowed to open.
In his press conference on Tuesday, B.C. Premier John Horgan expressed excitement that B.C. would soon be able to turn COVID from a pandemic to a communicable disease. This ignores the fact that the pandemic is nowhere near over in most of the world where vaccines have not been made available; and that until the pandemic is over everywhere, it cannot truly be considered over anywhere. The emergence of COVID variants such as the Delta variant and other possible variants which have yet to emerge, could derail the progress made in containing the pandemic. Horgan’s comment also ignores the fact that it was possible -- as Vietnam and a number of other countries clearly showed -- to eradicate COVID. Most other governments chose not to due to the profit-driven imperatives of capitalism.
Vancouver City Council roundup
Three important items passed at Vancouver City Council this week:
The first is a motion from Jean Swanson Supporting Hotel Workers’ Right to Return to Their Jobs at Living Wages.
The second is a motion from Christine Boyle to endorse the campaign to lower the voting age to 16 in municipal elections.
The third is a rezoning of 480 Broughton Street in Coal Harbour for a school and social housing. Council voted unanimously in favour of the rezoning despite heavy opposition from Coal Harbour residents and owners of boats docked in Coal Harbour. It should be noted that this site has been set aside for a school for the past 30 years under the Coal Harbour development plan, and that both the school and the housing are badly needed.
Mt Pleasant mutual aid community coolers
During the heatwave, Mt. Pleasant Mutual Aid placed coolers at major intersections around the neighbourhood, to be filled with ice and cold beverages. What followed was described by organizers Michelle Gagnon-Creeley & Lindsay Jackson as “a learning experience”. The coolers were restocked and emptied over and over again. While some coolers did go missing, when a call went out over Instagram, other community members would step up and replace them. Someone discovered seafood restaurants often had spare coolers laying around that worked as easy replacements.
As Gagnon-Creeley pointed out in an Instagram Story that for people who don’t have access to a fridge, a cooler can be very helpful. Jackson followed up by saying “[Accept] that by putting a cooler out, you are surrendering it to the collective… it belongs to the community and if it moves, it moves. We also specifically said ‘take what you need’ and as Michelle said in her video, those coolers are being taken by someone who needs them.” The two also mentioned that community coolers are a very accessible & simple way for people to engage in mutual aid - “Community meal nights are daunting and time consuming, but risking an old cooler or sourcing a disposable one [is not.]”
How You Can Help
Mt. Pleasant Mutual Aid is just one of a larger number of Mutual Aid groups in the Lower Mainland that include the Vancouver Community Fridge Project and other similar groups around the Lower Mainland. They recently posted pamphlets listing many of the community coolers, fridges & cooling stations around the Lower Mainland. If you’re looking to get involved with Mutual Aid, these groups are a great way to start. Mt Pleasant Mutual Aid says that, beyond cold drinks you can stock the coolers with ice, tea cloths soaked in water, and wet wipes (since some using the coolers don’t have access to showers).
“Also,” says Jackson, “Just chatting with our neighbours… People like being seen, even if it’s for a moment. Often through these conversations we’re able to really learn about what they might need to feel safe and secure, and the answers can sometimes be such simple remedies that we can handle for them.”
National
Cancel Canada Day
You are invited to the Cancel Canada Day march taking place on July 1st @ 2 pm at the Vancouver Art Gallery.
This peaceful demonstration will take place on the stolen and continually occupied territories of the Sḵwx̱ wú7mesh (Squamish), Səl̓ ílwətaʔ/ Selilwitulh (Tsleil-waututh) and xwməθkwəy̓ əm (Musqueam) Nations. The action will include Black, Indigenous and people of colour musicians, artist performances and speakers.
Below is a message from Dakota Bear, describing the urgent call from Idle No More to cancel Canada Day.
“The recent discovery at Kamloops residential school has reminded us that Canada remains a country that has built its foundation on the erasure and genocide of Indigenous nations, including children. We refuse to sit idle while Canada’s violent history is celebrated.
We will not celebrate the ongoing genocide within Canada against Indigenous people.
Instead we will gather to honour all of the lives lost to the Canadian state, including the many lives lost to residential schools. We will use our voices to support MMIWG2S, and to end land extraction and devastation, child welfare, birth alerts, forced sterilization, Police/RCMP brutality and all of the injustices that the settler-state has normalized on these lands.
We are once again calling on Indigenous land, water and sky protectors and allies to come together and disrupt the celebration.”
Here is a Facebook link to the event:
https://www.facebook.com/events/213759960588847?active_tab=about
You can also follow @dakotabearofficial on Instagram for updates.
#CancelCanadaDay #NoPrideInGenocide #215 #JusticeForIndigenous
Hope to see you standing in solidarity!
So-called 'Canada' - nothing here.
In 1534 Jacques Cartier, a mariner from France, brought two ships and 61 men to North America in search of a passage to China and India. Meeting up with members of the Iroquois nation, they gifted them knives, glass beads, and other trinkets to gain their trust and glean information about the area. Then they kidnapped two sons of Chief Donnacona, and took them back to France to learn French so they could act as guides. Kidnapping and enslaving the indigenous inhabitants of the new lands was standard practice. Often the captives would perish on the voyage or die in Europe, unable to fight off illnesses that did not exist in the Americas. But Donnacona's two sons, Taignaogny and Domagaya, survived.
In 1535 Cartier and Donnacona's sons returned and as they sailed up the St. Lawrence towards the Iroquois village, the guides, seeing familiar landmarks, called out to Cartier that here was the "chemin de kanata," or the 'path to the village'
Cartier, hearing Canada, documented this in his journals, noting that the entrance to the river "is the way to and the beginning of...the route to Canada."
This is the most commonly held belief as to the origin of the name Canada, but there are some other possibilities.
One account tells us that before the French, Spaniards explored the area looking for treasure and riches and when they found nothing they reported 'aca nada' meaning 'nothing here' and apparently named the Baie des Chaleurs "Capa da Nada," Cape of Nothing. Later, when the French arrived, the indigenous peoples, wanting them to leave, shouted "aca nada" repeatedly and the French, not understanding, thought this might be the name of the countryside and called it Canada.
Wherever it began, by 1545, European books and maps were referring to the region along the Saint Lawrence River as "Canada." By 1547, maps were showing the name Canada as everything north of the St. Lawrence River.
Opinion/Editorial
Restoring people and planet
Guest commentary by Cheryl Wiens, former Green Party candidate in Langley, B.C.
As I write this piece, temperatures outside are above 40⁰C due to a climate change-fueled ‘heat dome’ that has settled over the Pacific Northwest. The word exhaustion is being used a lot. The heat is responsible for much of the exhaustion, but I believe it goes deeper than that as well.
A recent poll revealed that nearly half of Canadian employees are considering changing their job or career in the next year. Many of them report feeling like their employer only cares about revenue and profit, not the people like them who are responsible for generating that wealth. In other words, Canadian employees are exhausted.
Exhaustion doesn’t appear limited to the workplace though. The epidemic of drug poisoning deaths also points to a larger problem with exhaustion and despair.
Increasingly, people are feeling a lack of purpose, meaning and connection. The many contradictions and injustices that we are faced with every day are likely contributing factors. For example, a federal government that declares a climate emergency one day and buys a pipeline the next; a provincial government that passes UNDRIP legislation and then stands by as the RCMP holds Wet’suwet’en people hostage on their own land; an economy with low unemployment and high productivity but where a growing number of people can no longer afford a place to live; and, a Church that taught us the ‘Golden Rule’ but we come to learn has been complicit in genocide.
Given all this, despair is understandable.
At the same time, truth and reconciliation is long overdue and the deadline to prevent climate catastrophe is rapidly approaching. Those of us who are still able must hold governments and the Church accountable to ensure the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada’s 94 Calls to Action do not go unanswered. We must also continue pressing for the war-like response required to address climate change, including massive investments in both a just transition and a care economy. We may find that the work of restoring the planet and our relationships with Indigenous Peoples, also restores purpose, meaning, and connection in our lives.
How Many Wake-Up Calls Will It Take?
From The Thorn editors:
The Opioid Crisis. President Trump. The Niqab Ban. Wet’suwet’en Blockades. A 3-Year Global Pandemic. Black Lives Matter. Ethnic Cleansing in Palestine. Stop Asian Hate. Mass Graves Under Residential Schools. A Deadly Heat Wave and other Climate Catastrophes.
These ruptures - events that refuse to let people “just get back to brunch” - all seem to cascade into each other like a torrent of sewage. This isn’t an accident. As profits fall, the owners and elites squeeze every last dollar they can out of workers, consumers and citizens. They will continue to do so even if it tears the planet apart.
It seems the capitalist machine has cannibalized every response, turning uprisings and protests into hashtags and sponsored conferences. Those it can’t distract are brutalized by increasingly militarized and openly racist police forces. Everyone else is too busy working a day job and a side hustle just to pay rent. Meanwhile, colonial skeletons pour out of our closets. But don’t worry! We’re posting infographics every day! :)
People are growing tired, angry and fed up, yet we all seem barely able to put our energy into anything. Nobody likes capitalism, but few seem to want to do anything about it.
How many ruptures will it take to get us out in the streets? To organize our workplaces or neighbourhoods? To give the land back to its rightful caretakers?
A socialist future is not guaranteed. It will be hard work, it will be messy, and it will require those of us with the most privilege to make the biggest sacrifices. But the alternative is no future at all.
We at The Thorn ask ourselves more than anyone else: How many wake-up calls will it take?
Upcoming Events
Socialist Unity Assembly
Sunday July 4, 7:00 pm
Host: DSoV Theme: Housing for All
Join members of socialist action groups from across the Lower Mainland at the Socialist Unity Assembly. These monthly meetings are a place to share projects, events, and collaborations. On ZOOM
Democratic Socialists of Vancouver General Meeting - In Person!
Saturday July 10, 1:00 pm
Join the DSOV and guests for our first In-Person meeting since last summer. Bring your own chairs, a mask, and beverage. We’ll be sitting under the trees near the Farmer’s Market Parking Lot and there’ll be a lawn sign to direct you.
PARKING NOTE: This event is being held the same day as the Trout Lake Farmers Market - be prepared to park a ways off and walk in - or park over by the community centre.
Media Roundup
Threats and fear as loggers clash with blockaders at Fairy Creek - Ora Cogan and Angelo Scaia in Ricochet, documenting the war in the woods that has not stopped, despite what gov’t and msm seem to want us to believe.
Fighting for the future: The faces of Fairy Creek - from Yassie Pirani & Ora Cogan in Ricochet
Blueberry River First Nations Win precedent-setting Treaty Rights case - The Narwhal
Anamie Paul faces July 20 non-confidence vote as Green Party Lays off Staff - CBC
Provinces Are Hiding The Deadly Toll Of Hospital COVID-19 Outbreaks - from Nora Loreto in Passage
Will increasing heat waves pose a risk to the Burnaby Tank Farm - Burnaby Beacon
Fixing the housing crisis will mean treating housing as a right -- not a commodity -- David Moscrop in Canadian Dimension
India Walton Claims Buffalo Mayoral Victory in Latest Major Democratic Socialist Election Win -- Karma Samtani in Teen Vogue