The NPA’s Very Bad Week
The Thorn on Thursdays | April 22nd
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Stories
Local
VPD and anti-maskers all barefaced all together
First-hand account from a contributor to The Thorn: Unfortunately these days, we expect to see large groups of angry, maskless people gathering together outside the Vancouver Art Gallery on weekends. They carry melodramatic signs covering topics like so-called “vaccine injury”, anti-Chinese rhetoric, and the supposedly impending Canadian dictatorship. But when I came across one of these anti-science rallies on April 11, I was not expecting to see officers of the Vancouver Police Department joining in with the protestors. I was coming from a photoshoot, and so I had my camera in hand. I followed two unmasked officers around the demonstration and photographed them interacting closely with protestors, standing less than a foot away from unmasked demonstrators. There were all of 5 police at the event (which may come as a shock to those of us who have seen droves of 50+ officers turning up to peaceful climate rallies), and ALL of them were maskless. Three officers were wearing masks which they had pulled down around their chins, and two had taken their masks off completely.
I found this entirely disturbing. Anti-maskers by definition do not take COVID seriously, nor do they take any precautions against contracting it. VPD officers, on the other hand, interact daily with some of Vancouver’s most vulnerable communities – those who are impoverished, unhoused, addicted, and most of all, those who do not have the financial, social, and physical means to cope with the fallout of contracting a deadly virus. Clearly, VPD officers have no problem interacting with anti-maskers and putting themselves in a position where they may contract COVID-19 and spread it to vulnerable communities. This behaviour is reckless and it endangers the lives of the very citizens who the VPD claim to “protect and serve”.
The NPA’s very bad week: 3 of 4 city councillors quit party citing 'backroom deal'
On Wednesday, April 21, three of the four NPA councillors on Vancouver City Council -- Lisa Dominato, Colleen Hardwick, and Sarah Kirby-Yung -- announced that they are quitting the NPA, and will sit out the remainder of their terms on council as independents. In a joint statement, they cited the ‘backroom deal’ by the NPA executive to appoint NPA parks board commissioner John Coupar as the party’s mayoral candidate, despite the fact that two of the NPA’s four councillors had expressed a desire to run for the leadership of the party.
The NPA’s one remaining member on City Council, Melissa De Genova, was conspicuously absent from the announcement.
Previously, Councillor Rebecca Bligh resigned from the NPA caucus in December 2019 over concerns that at least one newly elected NPA board member has ties to the anti-SOGI movement.
Full Story: Dan Fumano: 3 of 4 NPA councillors quit party citing 'backroom deal'
Vancouver City Council passes motion to preserve bus ridership
On Wednesday, April 14, Vancouver City Council passed a motion from Jean Swanson titled “Preserving Ridership During COVID and Beyond”. The motion opposes Translink’s plans to cut the number of bus stops on many routes, and the planned fare increase to take effect July 1.
Council defeated an amendment to remove the section of the motion opposing the bus fare increase.
Voting in favor of the motion were Councilors Boyle, Carr, Fry, Hardwick, Swanson, and Wiebe, and Mayor Stewart. Councilors Bligh, De Genova, Dominato, and Kirby-Yung voted against. The motion as passed reads:
WHEREAS
1. COVID has drastically reduced transit ridership and rebuilding rider confidence will be challenging;
2. Members of the City’s Seniors Advisory Committee do not approve of Translink’s proposal to reduce the number of bus stops from various bus routes because it forces seniors and persons with disabilities to travel farther on foot or on mobility devices to reach their buses, causing hardship to a considerable number of people;
3. The West End Seniors Network and Riley Park South Cambie Community Visions Steering Committee among other organizations are opposed to removing bus stops;
4. While Translink is consulting with some people on what they call bus line “balancing”, many riders who would normally participate in such consultations were following the Provincial Health Officer’s instruction to stay home and therefore are not aware of the consultation or the changes;
5. The City of Vancouver should be applying the same equity lens to transit decisions as to all other governmental decisions;
6. The proposals to reduce the number of bus stops fails to recognize that large percentage of the people who use transit have lower incomes with fewer other transportation options; are women and racialized; and
7. The planned fare increase of 2.3% to take effect on July 1 will undermine the goal of increasing ridership and improving equity on transit.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED
A. THAT council direct the mayor to inform Translink that Vancouver City Council recommends that they consult with seniors and disability groups, neighbourhood houses, women’s groups, community centres, and lower income and transit reliant workers who depend on buses before cutting the number of bus stops
B. THAT Council direct staff and ask Translink to report back on progress advancing other ways of speeding up busses such as bus-only lanes and barring right hand turns by non-bus traffic, including any recommendations for accelerating that work, in line with existing direction to improve bus speed and efficiency, and consult with existing direction to improve bus speed and efficiency, and consistent with Climate Emergency Action Plan.
C. THAT Council direct the Mayor to inform Translink that Vancouver City Council does not support bus fare increases.
Provincial
Fairy Creek blockade and ongoing solidarity efforts
The blockade at Fairy Creek preventing the logging of one of BC’s last remaining patches of Old-Growth forest near Port Renfrew on Vancouver Island, is ongoing. Police and the BC government have not moved to enforce the injunction against the protesters, adopting for now a strategy of trying to wait them out.
The local indeigenous peoples are divided on whether to support or oppose the plan to log fairy creek. The elected band council of Pacheedaht Nation has chosen to support logging Fairy Creek, in exchange for economic benefits. Meanwhile, Pacheedaht Nation Elder Bill Jones has chosen to oppose the logging of Fairy Creek, arguing that the trees are too valuable to be logged.
On April 13, the Fairy Creek Blockade released the following statement from Elder Bill Jones.
Vancouver-based Youtuber Matt Downie traveled to Fairy Creek to take a tour of the site with Torrence Coste from the Wilderness Committee. He released the following video in solidarity with the efforts to save the old-growth forest at Fairy Creek.
Meanwhile, Extinction Rebellion activists undertook a Walk for Mother Earth from Vancouver to Victoria to protest the BC government’s inaction on climate change, and to tape their “Climate & Ecological Emergency Bill” to the door of the BC Legislature. The marchers left downtown Vancouver on Friday, April 16, and reached the BC Legislature in Victoria on March 19. Small in number leaving downtown Vancouver, they were joined by more protesters as they reached Saanich and Victoria.
Further Reading: Forest Defenders Ready for a Showdown
City of Nanaimo votes to spend $400,000 on extra security
“There are people living in hell on our streets and they’re making hell for others," says Mayor Leonard Krog.
Three additional private security guards will be hired to patrol downtown Nanaimo at night. Coun. Ben Geselbracht supports the move in an interview with CHECK, “Our community is facing a situation where we have individuals with mental health addiction issues and there is no proper support for them … "
Dave LaBerge, the city's manager of bylaw services, will be recommending another 1.45 million be allocated from the 2022 budget for security expansion.
When it was suggested that the money would be better spent on housing and treatment, Mayor Leonard Krog is quoted in the Times Colonist as saying, "First, that is not our jurisdiction and we do not have the money to make a dent in that anyway."
Let's take a moment to examine that 'dent.' $400,00 seems like a lot of money for three security guards. The average salary of a Disability Support Worker in BC is $48,200. Nanaimo could put 8 of those people on the streets downtown for the budgeted amount.
Realistically, according to the province, a person living on the streets costs an average of $56,000 per year. In an article on CTV News, the Surrey Business Association is quoted as saying that to place a person in stable housing with a support worker would cost only $17,000 a year. This would make a significant dent in the costs of homelessness and at the same time offer a much more humanistic solution to graffiti and litter in downtown Nanaimo.
Adam Morley, who has been living on the streets for years, talks to CHECK about the added security.
“That is like treating a symptom of a problem that’s a much greater issue and it’s probably something that we need to have a lot more input on than a short interview but there’s definitely places we could put that money that would have more effect."
In their Action Plan to End Homelessness, 2018-2023 The Nanaimo Homeless Coalition has identified eight strategic directions that should form the basis for the delivery of services over the next five years to the approximately 600 people in Nanaimo facing homelessness.
"Critical dimensions of homelessness have changed in Nanaimo which have shifted the landscape for homeless services," explains the 2018 report. "Pressures on services are rising, and changes must be made before the demand for services can no longer be accommodated at a reasonable level."
Time to re-examine your priorities Nanaimo. There are people living in hell on your streets.
National
The fight for paid sick days
Paid sick days have emerged as a key focus of struggle during the second and third waves of COVID. Currently, only PEI has a paid sick days program.
Back in September 2020, as the federal government wound down the CERB program that provided $2,000 a month to workers left unemployed by the pandemic, effectively pushing them back into the labour market where they are more likely to get COVID, it instituted the Canada Recovery Sickness Benefit (CRSB). The benefit provides $500 per week ($450 after tax) for up to four weeks from September 2020 to September 2021.
The CRSB is intended to allow workers who are employed or self-employed who need to self-isolate due to COVID-19, or have an underlying health condition that puts them at greater risk of getting COVID-19. Unfortunately, there have been reports of workers having to wait up to 8 weeks to receive money after applying from the benefit. This is not a workable substitute for a paid sick days program for workers who need the money in a timely manner to pay for food and rent.
In the COVID third wave, Ontario and BC have emerged as key locations of struggle in the fight for paid sick days.
In Ontario, the province hit hardest by the third wave, the Ontario NDP has been pushing the government of Premier Doug Ford to implement paid sick days, after Ford’s government cut the paid sick days program that was instituted by his Liberal predecessor Kathleen Wynn. These calls have been echoed by the labour movement and some health care professionals in the province.
Until this week, Ford resisted implementing paid sick leave, arguing that workers have access to the federal CRSB program. However, with the COVID third wave on the verge of overwhelming Ontario hospitals, Ford’s government has finally agreed to look into the issue of paid sick days.
Paid sick days have also emerged as a key issue in BC, where hospitals are also in danger of being overwhelmed. While BC NDP premier John Horgan has recognized that the CRSB is not a proper sick days program, his government has not moved to implement paid sick days provincially, instead calling on the federal government to upgrade the CRSB into a proper sick leave program.
On April 19, Press Progress published an article on the fight for paid sick days in BC, in which Iglika Ivanoa of the BC branch of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives argues in favor of seamlessly accessible employer-paid sick days.
"The CRSB program is temporary, and only applies to workers who are sick with COVID-19. Further, the program issues maximum weekly payments that can amount to less than the minimum wage, and workers must be off work for more than half a week to qualify.
“Even if it was changed to have a higher benefit rate, and it replaced your full income, you still have to lose the income first, and then wait for your application to get processed,” Ivanova explained. “For many low-income workers, that just doesn’t work, because they are living paycheck to paycheck, especially as BC is a very expensive province.”
On Tuesday, April 20, activists with the group Workers Action Community postered the office of Vancouver-Point Grey BC NDP MLA David Eby in support of paid sick days.
Further Reading: Paid sick days for all: a reader | Spring Magazine
Air Canada should be renationalized, not bailed out with corporate welfare!
In a move that reeks of corporate welfare, the Government of Canada and Air Canada agreed on April 12 to a $5.9 billion bailout package for the airline, which has been hit hard by COVID related travel restrictions. This is the second bailout package for Air Canada in a year.
Read the full story of the bailout and it’s conditions here.
Writing in Passage magazine in December 2020, Paris Marx argues that it’s time to renationalize and rethink Air Canada. The Canadian government could have bought a majority stake in Air Canada for the $5.9 billion cost of the bailout, which makes it clear that the decision not to was a purely ideological move.
International
Upcoming Events
DSOV Reading Group
Thursday, April 22, 2021
7:00 PM 9:00 PM
Emotional Labour & Knowledge Work
In celebration of May Day (aka International Workers’ Day), the Democratic Socialists of Vancouver will host a reading group to bring light to invisible forms of labour. They will be covering the following topics via reading & discussion: What is emotional labour? What is knowledge work? How do marginalized communities shoulder the burden of these responsibilities in the broader world and in leftist/ activist spaces? Finally, what do we do to challenge these forms of exploitation?
The book club will gather at meet.jit.si/DSOVBC. Reading excerpts can be found here.
Unist'ot'en Solidarity - Earth Day Virtual Gathering
Thursday, April 22, 2021 - 16:00
Webinar - A Good War: Mobilizing Canada for the climate emergency
Sierra Club BC
Thursday, April 22, 2021 - 11:00
May Day Rally 2021! (Online)
Saturday, May 1, 2021 at 1pm EDT (10am PDT)
Online Zoom Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87191398399…
The International Day of the Worker, also known as May Day, is celebrated by hundreds of millions of workers around the world in commemoration of the workers who died in the struggle for the eight hour work day and other victories.
Last year, our committee organized the largest May Day event in Canada. Thousands watched the livestream and hundreds participated in our Zoom webinar. The event was endorsed by some of Canada's largest unions, as well as socialist organizations and representatives from the NDP. This year, in the era of COVID19 and an economic crisis that is growing, we want to make the event an even bigger success.
Please let us know if your organization would like to join the @LabourMayDayCommittee by messaging us and getting on the endorsers list.
Socialist Unity Assembly
Saturday, May 8, 2021
7:00 - 9:00 pm
Host: Socialist Action
Join members of socialist and climate action groups from across the Lower Mainland at the Socialist Unity Assembly. These monthly meetings are a place to share projects, events, and to ask for help. Become a member of our FB Group to learn more and keep updated on events and news.
People Before Profits
Sunday, May 16, 2021
7:00 pm / Zoom link on FB Event Page
Hosted by the Socialist Unity Assembly including the Democratic Socialists of Vancouver, Socialist Action, the Vancouver Ecosocialist Group, and independent activists.
A panel of speakers on three current crises caused by capitalism and made worse by capitalism:
HOUSING AND HOMELESSNESS
Speaker: Karina Castro, a member of Red Braid Alliance for Decolonial Socialism, speaking about the struggle for housing justice and the struggle to stop all evictions and create universal housing for all.
COVID AND CAPITALIST PROFITEERING
Speaker: Robbie Mahood, a semi-retired family doctor working in Montreal and a member of Ligue pour l'action socialiste.
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DEFUND THE POLICE
Speaker: Taz Khandwani, speaking on behalf of the Democratic Socialists of Vancouver Defund the VPD Campaign
Vancouver Ecosocialist Group Events Page
Media Roundup
BC’s Five Years of Drug Failure, Visualized | Paul Wilcocks -- The Tyee
The NDP Fights Anti-Palestinian Racism: The Palestine Interview -- Left Turn, Canada (podcast)
78 Billion reasons for Canada to implement a wealth tax | Derrick O’Keefe -- Ricochet
Biden’s Earth Day summit shows Canada is stuck in the slow lane on climate | Eric Doherty -- Ricochet
Blowout in Bessemer: A Postmortem on the Amazon Campaign| Jane McAlevy -- The Nation
3 Protest Photographers talk Activism, Photojournalism, and Documenting the Movement-- YouTube video from Yvonne Hanson Photography
Ten Scientific Reasons in Support of Airborne Transmission of SARS-CoV-2
-- The Lancet