Crashing the Glass City

The Thorn on Thursdays | Feb 25

Feb 25, 2021

30th annual February 14th Women’s Memorial March

Vancouver’s 30th annual Women’s Memorial March for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women was held on Valentines Day, February 14, in the Downtown Eastside (DTES).

There has been an ongoing epidemic of missing and murdered women in the DTES, many of them indigenous, since the 1970s. The first Women’s memorial march took place in 1992 to commemorate the life of a woman murdered on Powell Street, and has been held each year since to commemorate missing and murdered Indigenous women in the neighbourhood.

Video: Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside 30th Annual Women’s Memorial March

Video: Missing and Murdered Women in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside with Libby Davies (former Vancouver-East NDP MP)

Indigenous Braided Warriors protests in Vancouver met with police violence

On Wednesday February 17, a group of Indigenous youth called the Braided Warriors began occupying the lobbies of several buildings downtown. The buildings they occupied house companies that insure the Trans Mountain Pipeline (TMX). On Friday 19, the police moved in and arrested them with brutal force. Four people were arrested and upon release, two youth required medical treatment. What is clear is that for all the VPD’s talk of training and respect, they remain willing and able to bring down the iron fist of the state against Indigenous People however and whenever they choose.

The Nightwatchman State

Peter Wall, one of Vancouver’s wealthiest real estate moguls, made a $1-million donation to the Vancouver Police Foundation, the Vancouver Police Department’s charitable arm. Wall directed that his donation be used to increase “community policing” in and around the Downtown Eastside. In case anyone was confused, Wall provided the Globe and Mail with a (rather absurd) map highlighting the area he says “the city has failed with its misguided approach to drug use and homelessness.”

Given that Wall’s wealth arises from his real estate development around Vancouver, it is not hard to see why he has directed his wealth towards the DTES. Indeed, Wall’s comments in the Globe and Mail directly refer to real estate interests in the form of what he calls “dilapidated old hotels.” No doubt Wall would like to raze these hotels and put in something from which he could profit. Wall serves as perhaps the most obvious symbol of the deadly hypocrisy of real estate in Vancouver: an over-developed and hyper-inflated housing market renders more people homeless or living in precarious housing situations. Wall’s career has directly resulted in the situation on the DTES, and now he seeks to profit from it.

*Map provided to the Globe and Mail by Peter Wall*

Wall’s donation comes amidst increasing scrutiny of the VPD and the VPF. Last year in The Tyee, Martin Lukacs and Tim Groves exposed how police departments across Canada rely on corporate donations to fund some of the most nefarious and violent elements of policing. As Lukacs and Groves point out, the VPF has allowed the VPD to purchase drones, weaponry, and other military or quasi-military equipment. In other words, corporate and mega-rich donors like Wall - ranging from real estate developers, oil companies, logging companies, and many other representatives of the most despicable elements of modern capitalism - make charitable donations to reinforce the violent role of police in protecting entrenched property and class interests.

During a time when people in Vancouver are increasingly calling for defunding the police, the private flow of wealth to sustain police violence is directly anti-democratic. Such donations undermine the will of a democratically-elected City Council to freeze police funding. Charitable donations are tax-deductible, meaning Wall and friends continue to profit from their donations, while the rest of Canadian society suffers for it. Wall’s wealth, rather than go to philanthropic endeavours designed to protect him and his friends, should be progressively taxed and put towards the very institutions he thinks have failed: social workers, safe injection sites, and the implementation of harm reduction policies. The police, for their part, should be defunded.

Provincial

Work resumes on Trans Mountain Pipeline

Work has resumed on the Trans Mountain Pipeline after alarms were sounded about the culture of disregard for COVID-19 safety protocols.

Oil & Gas work camps have been some of the biggest COVID Transmission hotspots in Western Canada. Workers unable to cover their cost in self-quarantine have little choice but to return to worksites where conditions are ripe for transmission, only to spread them across the country upon leaving. With numbers on the rise, BC cannot afford to repeat Alberta or Saskatchewan’s mistakes.

Beyond COVID-19 Transmission, Trans Mountain is a symbol of both the BCNDP and the Federal Government’s commitment to fossil fuels over a Green New Deal or any sort of renewable energy resources.

Dogwood BC has created a letter template you can use to tell Finance Minister Freeland to make the smart choice: redirect the billions of dollars Canada is set to waste on Trans Mountain to clean energy projects. You might want to follow it up with a phone call or visit to her office - the more the merrier!

National

Parliament votes down NDP’s pharmacare bill

The federal Liberals teamed up with the Conservatives and the Bloc Québecois to defeat NDP MP Peter Julian’s Bill-C213: the “Canada Pharmacare Act”. The bill, which was intended to provide a legal framework for the program, was defeated by a vote of 295-32.

In a press conference after the vote, NDP leader Jagmeet Singh questioned the Liberal government’s commitment to pharmacare, a program that the federal Liberals have promised in every campaign platform beginning in 1997.

NDP Calls Out Liberals For Voting to Kill MP’s Pharmacare Bill

Upcoming Events

Come learn about socialism and the DSoV. All are welcome on Thursday March 4th at 8pm for the bi-monthly socialist reading group. On March 4th, they will be exploring readings by Paolo Freire, Angela Davis, and Keenga-Yamahtta Taylor. The book club will gather at meet.jit.si/DSOVBC

Links to the readings and study questions can be found here.

This event is open to DSoV members and anyone curious about DSoV. Bring your questions and a friend.

Renters and Workers Unite: A Panel on Tenant-Labour Solidarity

Tenant and Worker movements have been in solidarity & overlapping fights with one another for decades, but after some time apart we are only now rebuilding our bond. Innovative models like “Whole Worker Organizing” and “Bargaining for the Common Good” have helped push unions to redefine what constitutes a workplace issue, resulting in huge wins & renewed interest in the cause. The Chicago Teachers Union demonstrated how incredibly successful pushing those boundaries can be in the goal of achieving affordable housing, while strengthening their own union & their allies. The National Education Union has passed solidarity motions & built strong ties with local unions across the UK, resulting in huge wins that protect workers who rent. Solidarity works, and it’s time we do the work to bridge our movements even further.

The Renters & Workers Unite! Panel will bring together a collection of cross-movement organizers, as well as labour & tenant organizers seeking to learn through discussion, to answer questions on how our movements can be stronger together. We’ll be touching on rent strikes, collective bargaining rights, renter committees in unions, and leaving room for Q & A’s with the panelists.

The event will be taking place on Sunday, February 28th, at 1:00pm PST. Sign up here to get the zoom link:

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/renters-workers-unite-a-panel-on-tenant-labour-solidarity-tickets-142252632453