Announcing: The Thorn's Patreon Account
The Thorn on Thursdays | July 15 2021
The Thorn is currently a bi-weekly newsletter produced entirely by volunteer labour. In order to move beyond this and be able to hire one or more paid writers/editors, The Thorn is proud to announce the launch of our Patreon account.
The Thorn newsletter will continue to be available free of charge. Subscribers to our Patreon will be able to receive bonus features at three monthly subscription levels.
Tier 1 - 2$/month
For the price of a Double Double, you'll get a shout-out by name (or pseudonym) in our fortnightly newsletter.
Tier 2 - 5$/month
Everything from the previous tier, plus BONUS PATREON CONTENT - additional photos, opinion, humor & audio/video pieces.
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Stories
Local
Post-COVID: Where did our health support network go?
Autistic child waits in Children’s ER 6 hours before a doctor could look at her hand.
When her daughter’s hand became swollen and red after a suspicious insect bite, Jewel found herself in ER at Children’s just after dinner Monday night. “Her hand didn’t respond to Benadryl so I started to panic,” Jewel said. “We’re supposed to go to Urgent Care but it's waiting room was full and there was a line up around the block, so I decided to take her to Children’s ER.” They were checked into Children’s at 7:05 but a doctor wasn’t able to attend to the little girl until 12:20 am. “Six hours wait time was brutal,” Jewel told The Thorn in an interview.
There was a time when a person could drop into a clinic to see a doctor about a suspicious tick bite. Or they could make an appointment with a family doctor. “I’ve tried making appointments, but the doctors are backlogged by weeks,” Jewel explained. “And they aren’t doing in-person visits at all yet. It’s really hard when you have two young, and special needs, kids. Accidents happen. Kids get sick.”
Elsewhere in the city a woman waited five hours for an ambulance. Mathieu Leclerc’s mother was out for a ride on her bicycle near Ambleside in West Vancouver when she fell about 7:30 pm Friday.
“She fell on her leg and from that point, she wasn’t able to move anymore,” Leclerc told North Shore News.
An ambulance was called immediately but the woman was left unattended for an hour and a half before West Vancouver Fire and Rescue arrived on the scene. Apparently they had just been called. Unable to legally transport anyone to a hospital they stayed with the woman attempting to make her comfortable. An ambulance did arrive eventually but not until 12:45 am.
These are just two of many shocking stories in BC over the past month. “We really are in a perfect storm right now with the EHS system,” admits North Vancouver-Seymour MLA Susie Chant (also a Registered Nurse) in an interview with NS News. “We’re dealing with the aftermath of COVID. We have the opioid crisis. We’re dealing with the heat issues and we’re dealing with a whole bunch of front-line clinicians who are tired.”
One source explained to Global News that a major problem first responders have faced for years in BC is the requirement to stay at hospitals with the patients they are transporting until beds or nurses are available. He said this often results in delays of 30 minutes to several hours, during which they are unavailable to take any other urgent calls.
According to the source, there are often paramedics lined up in hospital ERs and back hallways waiting for hospital staff who are overwhelmed. Hospital management is starting to rely on paramedics as ‘hospital relief’ - meanwhile Mathieu Leclerc’s mother is left lying on the tarmac for an ambulance crew that is stuck in a hospital ER.
These and many other concerns regarding the management of BC Emergency Health Services have led to an online petition started by a B.C. paramedic calling for the resignation of BCEHS COO Darlene MacKinnon, which has attracted more than 12,000 signatures, many from paramedics, nurses and family members.
UPDATE: According to an article just published in the Squamish Reporter - BC says it’s acting immediately to reinforce ambulance operations by providing funding for 22 new ambulances. As many as 85 new full-time paramedics, 30 full-time dispatchers will also be hired, and 22 rural ambulance stations will be converted to 24/7 ALPHA stations to enhance ambulance coverage by October 2021.
Vancouver City Council approves plan to protect and expand co-op housing
On July 7, Vancouver City Council passed an amended version of the Co-Op lease methodology, with amendments suggested by co-op housing members and the CFH BC. This will see Vancouver move forwards in a way that:
Protects and supports co-op members at affordable rates, not tied to the market.
Expands co-op housing so that even more people can call co-ops home in the coming years.
The original version of the C-Op lease methodology developed by city staff sought to marketize the roughly half of all co-ops in Vancouver that sit on land leased from the City of Vancouver, so that the city could maximize revenue from these properties. This would have compromised the ability of co-ops to continue to provide subsidized housing for low-income individuals and families.
On the day before the vote, over 50 people spoke to council in support of co-ops and against the proposed marketization of this housing stock.
Vancouver City Council approves 17 story non-profit LGBTQ+ housing tower and resource centre
On July 6, Vancouver City Council approved a rezoning application for 1190 Burrard Street (Burrard and Davie), for a 17 story wood frame mixed-use development by non-profit developer New Commons Development. The Development includes:
New Space for Qmunity, a resource centre for queer, transgender and two-spirit people.
154 units of social housing for people living with HIV/AIDS
Homes for refugees seeking protection in Canada because of persecution based on sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, or HIV status, through Rainbow Refugee.
Some of the social housing units in the development will rent at the welfare/shelter rate of $375/month.
Remembering Mordecai Briemberg
Mordecai Briemberg, a longtime presence in left and social justice circles in Vancouver, died last week.
Mordecai (or Mort as he was affectionately known), was a lifelong opponent of capitalism and a lifelong advocate for social justice. Mort was the sort of person who always did what was right rather than what was popular, even at great personal cost to himself.
Mordecai was a political science instructor at Simon Fraser University when he took part in the 1969 PSA strike to democratize the university. For this, Mort and six others were fired from their teaching positions at the university. Mort wound up working as an ESL teacher at Douglas College for 25 years.
A lifelong supporter of the Palestinian people, Mort was a founding member of the Canada Palestine Support Network (CanPalNet) in 1987. In 2007, Mordecai was sued by CanWest Media for handing out a parody of the Vancouver Sun which satirized the paper’s anti-Palestinian bias, that was made by his friend Gordon Murray.
Rather than simply pointing out the true creator of the parody, Mordecai teamed up with Gordon to form the ‘Seriously Free Speech Committee’ (a take on the Vancouver Sun’s ‘Seriously West Coast’ byline), to campaign against and ultimately defeat the lawsuit.
Mordecai was a member of Vancouver’s Stopwar coalition, which was formed in October 2002 to oppose Bush’s war on Iraq; and the Boycott Israeli Apartheid Campaign, formed in 2007 to implement the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel.
Mordecai was also a member of the Redeye collective, and the host for many years of their weekly Redeye show on Vancouver Co-Op Radio. Vancouver Co-Op Radio wrote the following about Mort:
Last week, we said goodbye to one of our beloved long-time programmers, Mordecai Briemberg. Passionate about activist media and social justice, he contributed to Redeye every week for 30 years.
In the Redeye collective’s words: “Huge loss. Brilliant, principled, dedicated, kind.”
Mordecai was the 2008 recipient of the YMCA peace award, and the 2019 recipient of the first ever Hari Sharma memorial award.
Mordecai developed dementia a few years ago, so in a way his passing likely comes as a sort of relief for those closest to him. Due to COVID restrictions on indoor gatherings, a by invite only service will be held this Friday.
Provincial
Campbell River RCMP murder Wet’suwet’en man
On July 8, Campbell River RCMP murdered Jared, a Wet’suwet’en man, in order to execute an administrative warrant to secure a court-ordered DNA sample.
Jared was blocked in by 5 police cars at a Tim Horton’s when the RCMP sent in a police dog to attack, followed by rounds of deadly bullets. The RCMP has been steadily chattering that it was justified, spinning their justifications for extreme force to murder a surrounded and trapped man instead of tazoring him to comply.
Full Story: Suspect killed in shooting at Campbell River Tim Horton’s, police dog fatally stabbed
The big question is, can cops who are riled up and angry lead with de-escalation? The answer in this and many other similar situations appears to be no. Was Jared making mistakes? Arguably yes. Did he deserve bullets to the head because he defended himself and his own young dog from police dog attack? No.
Too often an understaffed media recirculates RCMP and other police press releases without questioning their motives. RCMP staff mourn the loss of their dog who was sent in to attack. On Sunday there will be a second police parade. The family’s memorial in Campbell was attacked and removed by pro-police racists, but has been put back up.
It’s unpopular amongst non-indigenous Canadians to challenge police monopoly on the use of force, let alone when someone has had a life’s lived experience of being afraid of the police, though attitudes do appear to be changing somewhat among younger Canadians. BC has the highest rates of police killings of citizens of any Canadian province or territory. The police don’t have the right to act in a way that will end in deadly violence if de-escalation was available. Was de-escalation tried?
Today the family mourns; tomorrow there will be step by step truths about what happened. Jared was finally on his healing journey from a life of dealing with ever-present state intervention in his life. 8 years sober, a father, son, brother. Wet’suwet’en free. RIP.
International
GLOBAL CLIMATE STRIKE
ON SEPTEMBER 24, WE WILL STRIKE TO DEMAND FOR INTERSECTIONAL CLIMATE JUSTICE! JOIN US!
#UPROOTTHESYSTEM
The climate crisis does not exist in a vacuum. Other socio-economic crises such as racism, sexism, ableism, class inequality, and more amplify the climate crisis and vice versa. It is not just a single issue, our different struggles and liberations are connected and tied to each other. We are united in our fight for climate justice, but we must also acknowledge that we do not experience the same problems; nor do we experience them to the same extent.
MAPA (Most Affected Peoples and Areas) are experiencing the worst impacts of the climate crisis and are unable to adapt to it. This is because of the elite of the Global North who have caused the destruction of the lands of MAPA through colonialism, imperialism, systemic injustices, and their wanton greed which ultimately caused the warming of the planet. With both the COVID, climate, and every crisis in history, overexploited countries and marginalized sectors of society are systematically left behind to fend for themselves.
The time to join the masses and follow the lead of the environmental defenders and workers has been long overdue. Reparations to MAPA must be paid for the historic injustices of the richest elite, drastic emission cuts in the Global North, vaccine equity, cancellation of debt, and climate finance are only the beginning of these. Together we will fight for a just future where no one is left behind. The historical victories of collective action have proven the need for the youth to stand united with the multisectoral, intergenerational struggle for a better future for all; a future where people and planet are prioritized.
OUR MESSAGE
OUR MESSAGE TO WORLD LEADERS
The Global North needs to cut emissions drastically by divesting from fossil fuels and ending its extraction, burning, and use. We need concrete plans and detailed annual carbon budgets with roadmaps and milestones to ensure we get to net-zero with justice and equity in the time needed to address climate change.
The colonizers of the north have a climate debt to pay for their disproportionate amount of historic emissions and that starts with the increase of climate finance to implement anti-racist climate reparations, the cancellation of debts especially for damage caused by extreme weather events, and providing adaptation funds that serve the communities.
Work towards a genuinely global recovery from COVID-19 by ensuring equitable vaccine distribution worldwide and suspending intellectual property restrictions on COVID-19 technologies. This is an essential step towards a global, green, and just recovery.
Recognize the tangibility of the climate crisis as a risk to human safety and secure the rights of climate refugees in international law.
Recognize the invaluable impact of biodiversity on indigenous communities’ lives and culture, and commit to make ecocide an international punishable crime.
Stop the violence and criminalization against indigenous peoples, small farmers, small fisherfolk, and other environmental and land defenders. Support the work they do. Respect and listen to our defenders.
OUR MESSAGE TO EVERYONE
MAPA (Most Affected Peoples and Areas) are unheard, not voiceless. They’ve been fighting for their present, not just their future. No one should be a prisoner of injustice. Don’t fight FOR MAPA, fight ALONGSIDE MAPA. MAPA are not just sad
experiences, we must highlight their rich stories of resistance.MAPA countries are not “poor,” they are rich with resources but have been historically and systematically oppressed and kept from developing. The Global North leaders have a climate debt to pay to humanity. Urgent climate action and assisting with adaptation is not an “honorable duty” or “solidarity” it’s reparations for the injustices high income nations and sectors have caused through their exploitation.
MAPA voices must be amplified and centered in our fight for climate justice, otherwise even if we succeeded in limiting global warming to safe levels for life on Earth, marginalized communities would still be sacrificed and left behind, thus only part of the problem would be solved.
Now more than ever, we have to join the masses and follow the lead of environmental defenders, workers, and those most ignored. Join in their struggle for decolonization, justice and autonomy. We must remember that our liberations are tied together.
Find a strike in your area or organize one, spread the share pics on social media and use the profile picture frame on social media to spread the word!
See the map [go to link]
Date:
Friday, September 24, 2021 - 12:00
Upcoming Events
From Sanders to Syriza - the Socialist Challenge of the 2010s
Thursday, July 15, 7-8pm
Everyone is welcome to join in on discussions.
Saturday, August 7, 1pm
Trout Lake, 1pm -- under the tree near the east parking lot/community centre
This is the DSoV’s August general meeting, which we are billing as a summer social.
Socialist Unity Assembly Monthly Gathering
Sunday, August 8, 7:00 pm
Monthly meeting of the SUA, Self-identifying Socialist, Anticapitalist, and Environmentalist Co-operative Assembly. Everyone welcome.
This month’s hosts: Socialist Action.
Media Roundup
New West Endorses Sanctuary City Policy -- Theresa McManus in the New Westminster Record
Killer Heat in B.C -- Gary Porter (Socialist Action)
Newfoundland: Resist the Furey-ous Cuts! -- Victor Morgan (Socialist Action)
The Assasination of Jovenel Moise -- Yves Engler
U.S. Points Fingers as Protests Erupt in Cuba - David Doel at the Rational National
“If you are hurtling towards a cliff you don’t just attempt to slow down a bit. You change direction.” -The Guardian
Lies on tape: Greenpeace U.K.’s investigations unit tricked Exxon executives into admitting, on video, that fossil fuel companies routinely lie about their dedication to solving climate change to placate the public while they continue to profit from pollution. -Heated
How politicians can read climate reports like this one, then do virtually nothing to address the root of the problem... is beyond comprehension. -CBC