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ICE INFO All the DHS info you need to protect the innocent and bring the guilty to justice. 

Palestine and Hate

 The ongoing military action by the Israeli Defence Forces(IDF) in the Gaza and The Occupied Territories on the West Bank is not a war. As determined by several international bodies including the International Criminal Court(ICC), these actions are a Genocide.

Opposition to the Genocide doesn’t make one an antisemite. Opposition to any human rights violation by any party is a legitimate grievance. Labelling a group anti-Semitic, because it opposes the current Israeli IDF/Governments attack on a mostly civilian  population in the Gaza/Westbank, is regressive and doesn’t capture the legitimate concern expressed by many people, including many Jews.

Using the history of anti-Semitism as a shield to mask a Genocide is abhorrent and falls far short of respecting the grotesqueness of the German/Italian/Japanese terror wrought upon so many innocents during WWII. A movement so broad and diversified, such as the global support for a Free Palestine, cannot be discounted due to concerns of anti-Semitism or racism in the world wide Palestine solidarity movement. Concerns about anti-semitism,  wether legitimate or not, are worthy of further investigation. Equality and Freedom are the goal.

Anti-semitism is wrong. Freedom of Religion presupposes this. Calling a population dogs or beasts, dito. Racism in any form shows a lack of comprehension of the situation at hand and should not be used to further the position of one group over another. 

Some sectors of the capitalist economy benefit from forever wars and they must be called out and held accountable. It is they who are fuelling the corrupted discourse around anti-semitism in an attempt to maximize their profits at the expense of peace and justice.

STOP THIEF !!

BC Government Steals Upwards of $3 million From Our Most Vulnerable

Every month many of those who find themselves needing government assistance, after they have exhausted every other avenue of funding like family and friends and Workers Compensation or Employment Insurance, are further taken advantage of by a system that just keeps kicking them when their already down. Kicking them to the tune of some $3 million per year.

How does this happen? Why is it allowed? Who causes this seizure of people’s already poverty level benefits? BC Housing (BCH)does and here’s how they do it:

Many people unknowingly give BCH access to their personal bank accounts so that upon receipt of benefits from the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction , I know, what an Orwellian name, the shelter portion is immediately removed from their account and is transferred to BCH. This transfer happens days, sometimes weeks ahead of when rent is actually due. For example in October of 2025, benefits were paid to recipients on Oct. 21. This left 10 days until rent was due but BCH still removed these funds over a week ahead from the poorest of the poor. Thus interest that should have gone to the poor went to BCH. In 2025 there were 88 days of interest that was stolen by BCH. This money stolen from  the poor ,gets moved to the accounts of one of BC’s wealthiest agencies. 

Not only does this cash windfall add up to some $3 million for 2025 taken from the poorest of the poor, it destroys peoples agency and dignity from them. It sends a message to them that they have no control over their finances. That they have no bargaining power against a greedy rent collection agency. Imagine if you had to make your rent or mortgage  payments a week or more ahead of the due date? The inability to access funds for emergencies, food, children’s or pets needs? It’s outrageous and it’s just another way our government keeps their knee firmly on the neck of the poor.

Some might say if this practice ended the poor would waste their money and not be able to pay rent. That’s absurd! BC Housing isn’t going to go broke if they don’t collect rent. In fact most of the properties that manage were bought and paid for by senior levels of government. BCH doesn’t have skin in the game.

 We all heard about the tens millions slipped under the table to the then CEO’s partner running Altira. No one seemed to care about this, like Dale McMann, who acted as the bag man for Shayne Ramsay and just recently retired with millions in a pension we are paying for!

 It’s not like a small landlord who can’t afford to miss a mortgage payment on an over-extended line of credit. BCH is supposed to help people, not steal their already inadequate funds.

The good news is it’s an easy fix! People can withdraw their permission for BCH to extricate their funds way before rent is due. They can either set up automatic withdrawal for the 1st of the month or as others do make the transfer themselves on rent day.

Together we can make our world a little more friendly. Sure some people can’t manage their funds and might spend everything there is so they don’t have rent, but that’s not a justifiable reason for the collective punishment. Those people probably have other issues that are already not being adequately addressed by the system and causing grief to others. Let’s lift everyone up!

Granview Terrace Residents Group: Taking Back Our Power!

Originally we were called the BC Housing Tenants Association. Although this name was accurate in that we live in a BC Housing managed building, it just didn't feel right. In fact I think it may have led some to believe we were affiliated with BC Housing! Well we are not. In fact they work for us. We are also not tenants. Tenants pay rent to a building owner. BC Housing doesn't own this building or any building as a matter of fact. They are an agency that has been created to manage these properties on behalf of the Province of BC, the owners. That's us! 

Every single resident of BC is a part owner. Governments are our employees that we periodically hire through elections to manage our affairs. Sometimes they do a good job and other times not so much. They create agencies like BC Housing to operate our facilities and businesses such as Highways, BC Ferries and Hospitals. 

When governments change, we still own the assets. So calling our group Residents is important as it shows we are part owners of Granview Terrace and BC Housing is just an agency our government has created to operate it, Both can be terminated yet we still maintain ownership.

So let's work together to ensure our building is run efficiently and with the best interests of the owners, US, in mind. 

 

 BC Housing: An Insiders View

In 2016 after 5 years of dedicated service as Resident Caretaker, I was sent a letter by the Greater Vancouver Regional District (GVRD), my employer, just before Christmas. It informed me that my services as caretaker in Crippen Park on Bowen Island were no longer needed. Further it stated I was to vacate the cottage I had been renting from GVRD  by December 31. Merry Christmas!

Shocked and dismayed , recently having received a terminal disease diagnosis, I challenged the ‘without cause’ dismissal and eviction, eventually receiving a monetary settlement from GVRD. I then turned to the BC Housing Registry and made an application for disability housing. 

Having called in every 6 months as required to keep my housing application current, I patiently waited and waited for years. As I waited I reviewed the apartments operated by BC Housing and recognized my grandparents former building! Sunnyside Manor, in West Vancouver, built solidly in concrete, this place held many happy memories of dinners at our Babushka’s while our single mom pursued  graduate studies at night after her day of teaching high school on the Northshore. 

I decided to stop by and have a look at how the old place was doing. Covid was past it’s peak and people were starting to move about. At Sunnyside this was not evident. There were outdated warning signs and incorrect health protocol instructions posted by BC Housing on the windows and doors. Furniture in the lobby was upturned to prevent use and yellow caution tape was wrapped haphazardly between upside-down chairs and couches. Interestingly I noticed the intercom directory was missing many unit numbers and names. It appeared to be about 18 units short. I was curious as to why in the middle of a pandemic, in the middle of a housing crisis, there appeared to be unoccupied units.

I took a picture of the directory and looked up some of the names on canada 411. I called several of the numbers and talked with the people who were currently living in the building. I asked them general questions about the quality of building management and overall conditions. I learned the longtime resident caretaker had left and had not been replaced. I learned that lightbulbs were often burnout for extended periods, one was out for over 2 years! I also made a friend and was invited into the building to have tea with her. She has lived in the building for 23 years and had recently had hip replacement surgery after tripping on her worn out and lumpy carpet which had been in her place for over 23 years!! 

She told me there were quite a few empty apartments and said the one immediately beside her has been empty for over 1 year. I contacted the BC Housing manager asking how many empty units and he told me there were a ‘few’  that were reserved for tenants who would be disrupted by upcoming renovations. Upcoming turned out to be over 2 years.  More on this later. When he wouldn’t tell me the actual number I did a Freedom of Information (FOI) request to BC Housing. They denied my request under some bizarre claim of protecting personal information. How empty apartments could expose personal information is beyond me. 

This would delay the request for years as the backlog is considerable with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. As It turned out their denial of my request gave me the incentive to look for other sources of information. I made FOI’s to the fire department for the last 10 years of annual inspections, (9 failures in 10 years) , I made an FOI to the district of west van for building permits, there were none in the winter of 2021. I was told by the building department that any permit would take at least 6 months from application to issuance. Nothing was currently going on. When I requested a list of the proposed scope of work at Sunnyside BC Housing denied it from me for “ business’ reasons. It was obvious that BC Housing was not a transparent and accountable organization. In fact their actions towards me later on bordered on malfeasanse of public office. Look it up! It’s a thing!

Whenever I was in Vancouver for my healthcare I would bring a sweet treat to my friends place at Sunnyside and have tea and talk about life. She was kind and sympathetic to my pursuit of housing and even wrote the BC Housing CEO Shayne Ramsay, on my behalf. He was dismissed shortly afterwards so there was no followup. 

One day I visited her and because I was early I went for a walk around the property. When I got to the back laneway, two women were talking and getting into their vehicles which were parked in BC Housing Staff stalls. I asked them if they were employees and they hesitated answering me but eventually said I should contact their manager for more information. I had asked them if they were employees because in all my previous visits I had never seen any sign of staff. I returned to my car to wait the 15 minutes left until my tea time when a police car came up behind my parked car and turned it’s lights on. 

A man dressed in civilian clothes came up to my window and asked for my license and registration. I asked him why and he said he was a cop and there was a complaint of criminal harassment against me from BC Housing. Fortunately I had recorded the audio of my recent conversation and there was no way it could be construed as anything but civil and courteous. After detaining me for over 30 minutes he left me alone and I went and had tea. My friend  mentioned seeing the police at my car and I was never invited back. Sad. I do call her occasionally. Shame on you BC Housing for wrecking a budding friendship.

I eventually had a drone fly the outside of the building and discovered over 12 empty apartments. Renovations started 3 years later and are on-going. There are frequent days with little or no activity on site. It’s a slow process.

Eight years after first signing up on the BC Housing Registry, I was interviewed and told a place may become available. Months later I was rented a tiny one room studio and my little dog and I moved in to a building in the DTES of Vancouver. With Provincial clawbacks from my disability pension and my rent, I pay over $1200 for 225sq ft.

 Immediately  there was a huge problem for my damaged lungs as the building is filled with people who smoke an array of combustibles including weed, rock, meth and tobacco. There is no ventilation and many keep their doors ajar filling the common areas with smoke and fumes. I had informed BC Housing I was a non smoker but it appears to have fallen on deaf ears. I’m doing my best to mitigate the toxic air with creative ducting and fan placement as well as running the bathroom exhaust fan continuously. I’ve written letters asking for help, with letters of support from a doctor and a registered nurse who are friends and have witnessed the unhealthy conditions in my home, and I have not heard back anything for months. That’s my experience with BC Housing, what’s yours?

Poverty is State Violence

 

 

 

 

 

 

We didn’t have a chance. From a very young age, as kids growing up in Canada in the 60-70’s, we were constantly surrounded by tobacco/cannabis smoke, diesel exhaust, air pollution and industrial particulates. In airplanes, buses, cars  and trains, smoke, in hospitals, smoke, in restaurants, smoke. My jobs as a teenager and beyond were cooking over charcoal fires at the Keg, running dishwashers at Sewells, tree planting, commercial fishing and working for decades in construction and in shipyards, as well spending several years working as a stone mason.

Disability Assistance Is Not Sufficient

 As I write this, I sit here as a 58 year old with severe lung disease. I can’t breathe. I am not alone. This disease prevents me from participating in most gainful work opportunities, and  as CPP only allows a disabled person to earn $5500 annually I’m further held below the poverty level. I struggle to survive on about $1300 monthly from BC PWD benefits. The worst part is I worked and paid into my CPP pension all my life but the government of BC claws it all back. It’s $700 a month, this would make a huge difference in my current quality of life. $2000 is a big jump from $1300. I say me, but I mean this for everyone struggling to survive under these oppressive conditions.

 Poverty is State Violence.  

 Under-housed, it is hard not to be cynical when you see our MLA’s allocate to themselves $2500+ for their second residence in Victoria and then they only allocate $375 monthly for Disabled Persons in BC for housing. All from public funds. Of course it’s impossible to live off of these dribblings without some help from friends or a little indiscretions like undeclared earnings from bottles and cans or whatever. Or car camping/couch surfing, yes at 58,  Everyone cheats a little some more, some less so people are forced to keep their head down, and not to question the dysfunctional authority ruining everything.

 

 

MAID

Let’s change gears. Let’s use the MAID laws for leverage in negotiations with all concerned parties, citizens and public servants. Should we offer a bulk die in at the Empress Hotel in Victoria in exchange for them picking up the tab as we celebrate our escape from this government imposed doom?

 Or better yet, why not immediately raise the rates to government defined poverty levels, about +-$2500 monthly? Quickly followed by the establishment of a working group comprised of a broad representation of concerned parties from health to housing to legal and financial and residents of our communities in need. Comprehensive and pragmatic. We can do this together. Let’s actually develop a plan with measurable performance points backed by hardy government support.

Next Leaps

Where to next? Clearly as we have seen over the last few years with the introduction of state facilitated euthanasia, too many folks are choosing this one-way path solely due to lack of sufficient fiscal support.  Being disabled should open opportunities for people to experience new challenges while being reasonably supported by our public governments. That’s the social contract.

All people should feel they are  part of their communities, not like bandits hiding in the dark, camping or sleeping in vehicles, couches, and stoops.  

We must do better.

 

 

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There is room for everyone in this revolution!

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