Two Visions, Continued

Perhaps as pre-reading for the upcoming presentation and discussion, you'll want to read Two Incompatible Visions: Jesus and the Olympics - Reflections from Mark 3:1-6, written by Streams' own Dave Diewert.

Here's a taste:

This episode presents a great challenge for us as followers of Jesus. His action puts us under obligation to open up space in the middle – the middle of our hearts, our lives, our homes, our communities, our social institutions – for those who are weak, marginalized, poor, excluded. The middle is the place of belonging, of being valued and deemed important, of being granted respect and dignity. It is the place of healing for those suffering from personal affliction, trauma, and the social exclusion that so often attends their experience. One might also argue that by situating the poor at the centre, a way of healing is also opened up for those held in the grip of the various pathologies that accompany the wielding of dominant power.

Yet this kind of radical action requires the dismantling of the norms of our current social order, where those who occupy the centre of attention and are ascribed greatest value are the wealthy, the beautiful, the strong, the successful, the educated, the experts, the professionals. Those with power, wealth and status stand in the middle and impose their intentions; they dominate through coercive force or economic influence or social weight. Yet Jesus displaces these ones, and puts the disabled, poor, impure, non-compliant one in the middle. Fidelity to him means that we take up this revolutionary and life-giving practice as well.

Of course, to do so would be to invite opposition from the authorities; such actions of non-compliance and reversal pose a threat to elite interests. Rather than locating the poor in the middle of our lives and our communities, the social norms and dominant cultural perspectives advocate that we keep them confined in systems of control to ensure their removal from our lives. Yet participation in the movement of God embodied in Jesus, which makes solidarity with the poor its fundamental stance, calls us to expose and resist the rationalizing logic and reinforcing behaviors of the status quo, and summons us to reorder our lives around and alongside the weak and the poor, to grant urgency to the alleviation of their suffering, and to prioritize their empowerment. This is the way of God in the world, and as Christ-followers, this is to be our way.

Read the rest here (pdf file). This document can also be found on the sidebar under the heading 2010 Olympics.

A Tale of Two Visions

The anticipated arrival of the Winter Olympic Games in Vancouver and Whistler next year has energized many churches to sieze this occasion for bold witness and community service. With thousands of people from around the world descending on this region, and with the expectation of a massive television audience for the Games, churches have viewed this as an opportunity to live out their calling and mission by participating in the Olympic festivities in a variety of ways (hospitality, chaplaincy, volunteer service, etc.).

It is worth pondering, however, what the Olympics is all about, and whether the vision of the world promoted by the Olympic Games is compatible with the vision of the kingdom of God announced and embodied in the mission of Jesus.

Does the spectacular ritual of the Games, and the philosophy of Olympism that guides its production, uphold the perspectives, beliefs and values that lie at the core of the ‘good news’ proclaimed by Jesus and his early followers?

Is there a way of thinking and a mode of perception embedded in the ideology of the Olympics that is essentially at odds with the message of solidarity and liberation expressed in the teaching and life of Jesus?

These are some of the issues we want to explore together, both through a creative presentation of the rhetoric / reality of the Olympic Movement and the biblical witness to the kingdom of God, and a time of respectful dialogue and discussion.

We believe that these are important questions to consider, and that our understanding of the Olympic Movement and our posture toward the Olympic Games cannot be separated from our fidelity to the Crucified One.

Download a pdf flyer here and spread the word.

RSVP to the Facebook Event here

Empty condo myths untrue, research shows

Majority of Vancouver's downtown units are lived in, although at least half are owned by investors, rented out
By Frances Bula
Vancouver — Special to The Globe and Mail, Monday, May. 25, 2009 02:55AM EDT

Vancouver has long cherished the urban myths that many of the thousands of condos built in its downtown neighbourhoods since Expo 86 are owned by offshore investors and sit empty while those speculators wait for the market to rise.

Neither of those beliefs is true, according to comprehensive research done by an architecture foundation that looked at electricity use, home-ownership grants, and condominium council records.

“It was a bit of a surprise to us to discover that very few condos are empty,” said Michael Heeney, a partner with architect Bing Thom, whose foundation, BTAworks, sponsored the research. “There have been all those urban stories out there that they were all owned by foreigners and half of them are empty.”

Read the rest here

3rd Annual Women's Housing March

Sat June 13 @ 1:30 pm
Starts outside Downtown Eastside Women Centre
(302 Columbia- corner Cordova, just west of Main)

On Saturday June 13 at 1:30 pm, join women in the Downtown Eastside Women Centre Power of Women Group in the 3rd Annual March for Women's Housing and March Against Poverty! Everyone welcome!

We are marching for:
- Social Housing, Childcare, and Healthcare for all!
- No more Evictions and No more Condos in the DTES!
- People Before Olympic Profits!
- Stop Criminalizing the Poor!

Although we are still suffering in shelters and on the streets, we are not yet defeated! We are making our voices heard, we are bringing empowerment into our lives, we are fighting for positive change, and we are expressing the humanity of our neighbourhood. We hope all of you will join us.

For more information contact project at dewc.ca or call 604-681-8480 x 234. We are also seeking endorsements, please contact us if you would are interested in being added to a list of supporters.

On facebook: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=80841139629

Download poster here (.pdf)

-------------------------

* Power & Perspectives: An Interview with Power to Women group


* Election won’t change lives of Downtown Eastside women:


* Downtown Eastside Women Ask Politicians for Housing Swap


The Power of Women Group is a group at the Downtown Eastside (DTES) Women's Centre, located in the DTES of Vancouver (the poorest off-reserve postal code in Canada). We are a group of women from all walks of life who are either on social assistance, working poor, or homeless; but we are all living in extreme poverty. Our aim is to empower ourselves through our experiences and to raise awareness from our own perspectives about the social issues affecting the neighbourhood.

Many of us are single mothers or have had our children apprehended due to poverty; most of us have chronic physical or mental health issues for example HIV and Hepatitis C; many have drug or alcohol addictions; and a majority have experienced and survived sexual violence and mental,
physical, spiritual, and emotional abuse. For indigenous women, we are affected by a legacy of the effects of residential schools and a history of colonization and racism.

Mayor's optimism can't convince homelessness researchers

By Amelia Bellamy-Royds
May 21, 2009 08:47 am
The Hook.ca

Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson seems confident he'll meet his self-assigned “gargantuan task” of ending homelessness in Vancouver by 2015.

To hear him and city councillor Kerry Jang speak yesterday, it was as if all that stood in the way of a city where everyone has a warm place to sleep was a lack of provincial funding.

“There is a belief emerging that we can actually end homelessness in Vancouver” over the next few years, said the mayor.

But the academic who invited the politicians to participate in a panel discussing health issues affecting the homeless was less optimistic.

“That's a general direction” said Dr. Michael Krausz as he thanked the mayor for his speech, “but now we need to work out the details.”

Read the rest here

Terminal Transients

Airports aren't just doors to faraway places but homes to the homeless
Katherine Laidlaw, National Post
Published: Saturday, May 16, 2009

Bodies are sprawled on couches and chairs, or tucked into corners on the floor. Metal luggage carts offer some semblance of privacy as stacks of luggage shield the sleepers from prying eyes.

On the top floor of Terminal 1 at Pearson International Airport in Toronto, it's 2:30 a. m. Stretched and curled across the striped couches and black plastic chairs around Wolfgang Puck, a 24-hour cafe, people are lulled by Top-40 music playing softly in the background. Some sleeping restlessly are clearly travellers, mouths fallen open and surrounded by piles of suitcases, biding time until takeoff. With others, it's not as clear.

The privately owned airport is always open. There are always sleeping bodies. But often, employees say, the same vagabond faces return time and again.

Read the rest here

Buying Sex Is Not a Sport

We at Streams support our friends at REED (Resist Exploitation, Embrace Dignity) and their just-launched campaign built around the coming Olympics, Buying Sex Is Not a Sport.

"Buying Sex Is Not a Sport is a grassroots campaign to raise awareness and effect change around sex trafficking and the 2010 Olympic games. The demand for sexual access to the bodies of women and children fuels human trafficking. Women and children in Metro Vancouver and Whistler are routinely coerced into the flesh trade to meet this demand, and a large sporting event such as the 2010 Olympics will only further exploitation through a rise in the demand for paid sex.

The very workings of human trafficking are a market-based model of supply and demand. There is an uncontrolled male demand for sexual access to the bodies of women (and children) and the supply for this demand is met through violating the dignity of women. It is our conviction that in order to stem the tide of human trafficking we must end the demand for paid sex. Demand flourishes in an atmosphere of anonymity.

This campaign will spread the message broadly through community-based public forums, postering campaigns, t-shirts, buttons and your creative ideas."

The Costs of the Olympics

At this stage, more than six years after Vancouver/Whistler "won" the bid to host the 2010 Winter Olympic Games, it is clear that the event will swallow up over $6 billion of public money. What does Vancouver get in return?

Most evident is the publicity associated with a seventeen-day party for the world's elite. By the time the bills are paid off, though, the glories of a fleeting association with supposed sports excellence will be long past. Just ask Montreal.

The 2010 Winter Games will take place in a city and a province that always cry "tough times" when it comes to finding money for essentials like hospital beds, seismic upgrade for public schools, and affordable housing for people on the street. Yet those same governments pushed the Olympic bid and readily found huge amounts of funding for that. What gives?

In one sense it is the same old story from beginning to end. Genesis 11 remembers people who set out to build a city and a tower that would make their name. Revelation 18 excoriates a world-class city that has profited its kings and merchants. Both of these places are called Babylon.

Learn more about Vancouver's embrace of the Olympic idol. Read Follow the Money, Understand the Olympic Scam (.pdf file) for a concise, up-to-date, documented account of who pays and who profits, who loses and who wins – and how and why.

BCCLA Report: Right to Water

Access to clean water is increasingly being seen as a human right and an civil liberties issue. The BCCLA recognizes the right to adequate supplies of clean drinking water as a human need foundational to effective participation as a democratic citizen that it deserves to be protected as both a civil liberty and a human right by legislation and policy at the municipal, provincial and national level.

Download the report here (.pdf)

Better to be smart than tough on crime

Evidence from the U.S. indicates mandatory minimum prison terms just don't work
May 15, 2009
Else Marie Knudsen
Policy Analyst, John Howard Society of Ontario

"We are absolutely convinced in our consultation with Canadians that this is welcomed." That was Justice Minister Rob Nicholson's only response to questions about what evidence supports the government's Bill C-15, which would impose mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug crimes.

Not exactly the sort of evidence one would expect to justify a new law that will have tremendous social and fiscal costs for us all. There are no credible studies to show that this approach is likely to be effective in decreasing drug crimes, no examples from other countries, no reviews of the best-practices literature, not even case studies of individuals who have stopped dealing or using as a result of this approach.

The reason is that this research doesn't exist; in fact, the research shows the opposite. Mandatory minimum sentences have been a clear disaster in the U.S., spiralling the cost of the criminal justice system out of control and doing nothing to decrease crime rates. So why would the Canadians who were polled by the government "welcome" a law that will cost them millions but not make them any safer?

Read the rest here

Film: HOLLY

Fenced Out: Homeless squat across from Army & Navy gets gated off

Mon, 05/04/2009
Megaphone
By Sean Condon

After numerous complaints from the city, local businesses and police, a controversial homeless hangout across the street from the Army & Navy store on West Cordova has been fenced off.

Last month, the PHS Community Services Society put up a series of fences along the Stanley/New Foundation Hotel’s arcade to keep out homeless people. For the past seven years, homeless people have used the alcove as a shelter. But over the past year the numbers have grown to 15 to 20 people on any given night. The property is owned by the City of Vancouver, but managed by PHS.

“We were just getting so much heat from the adjoining property owners, to bad press, to the police… everybody,” says Tom Laviolette, a PHS director in charge of property management. “And the scene was getting a bit aggressive.”

In March, Vancouver Sun columnist Pete McMartin wrote a scathing article about the alcove, calling it a “filthy squat” and a “black eye” on the city. The piece quoted Army & Navy CEO Jacqui Cohen complaining about public urination and drug dealing, but did not interview any of the homeless people living in the space.

Read the rest here

Drugged, deranged and homeless

That's the population at the heart of the debate about the Downtown Eastside
By Lora Grindlay
The Province
May 6, 2009

They are psychotic, they are drug-addicted and they are homeless.

Doctors, scientists, advocates and those working the streets and hotel rooms of the Downtown Eastside say those are the people falling through a large and widening crack in a mental-health system that is not able to serve the people who need the care the most.

Mark Smith, executive director of RainCity Housing and Support Society, figures almost the entire homeless population in the Downtown Eastside -- which he believes numbers between 600 and 1,100 -- have mental-health issues and use drugs.

"Those are the ones. Those are the ones gesticulating. Those are the ones that motorists slow down to look at. Those are the ones that wander into traffic. Those are the visible homeless," said Smith.

Read the rest here

SFU report says housing can save money

The Province
May 6, 2009

A 2008 report by Simon Fraser University's Centre for Applied Research in Mental Health and Addiction found that, of 130,000 people in B.C. who have a severe addiction and/or mental illness, between 26,000 and 51,500 are inadequately housed.

Other findings in the report: - On average, a homeless person uses nearly $55,000 a year in health, corrections and social services, while in supported housing the figure drops to $36,848 per person per year -- a drop of $17,985.

Read the rest here

Men with jobs lift homeless numbers

Temporary workers at low-paying jobs can't afford the cost of housing
By Jordana Huber
Canwest News Service
May 5, 2009


More than 25 per cent of men using emergency shelters across the country hold some type of job, according to a snapshot of Salvation Army men's shelters.

The survey found 35 per cent of shelter users in B.C. held some type of work, 42 per cent in the Prairies, 22 per cent in Ontario, 20 per cent in Quebec and eight per cent in the Atlantic provinces.

Many of the 469 men surveyed worked temporary jobs, typically low-paying.

Brad Harris, survey author and a social services consultant with the Salvation Army, said the findings are consistent with recent studies that show an increase in the number of Canadians employed but experiencing homelessness.

Read the rest here

Province's homeless both eligible and encouraged to cast their votes

TERRI THEODORE
The Canadian Press
May 1, 2009

VANCOUVER -- Randy Burghardt won't be voting in British Columbia's election on May 12.

He has bigger problems, such as where he'll be sleeping and how he'll stop people from stealing the treasures he pushes around in a grocery cart.

"No," he stated when asked if he was going to vote.

"I live outside, so I don't have a clue what's going on. I don't know who's running for whatever."

Standing on the corner of Main and Hastings, the centre of Vancouver's impoverished Downtown Eastside, the articulate 44-year-old with a chest-length, tangled red beard, admits he'd like to vote but doesn't know the issues.

Others who count themselves among the hundreds of homeless living on the streets of Vancouver say they're excited about voting, including Joshua Newcomb, who lives at the Lookout Emergency Aid shelter.

"I just had my 30th birthday, and I haven't voted before," he said.

Shelter staff have been encouraging residents to cast their ballots.

Read the rest here

Where the major BC political parties stand on poverty reduction

Our friends at bcpovertyreduction.ca have put together a summary of where the political parties stand on the issue of poverty reduction.

Access the web page here.

Welfare cuts drive up food bank use, study confirms

Apr 30, 2009 04:30 AM
Laurie Monsebraaten
Toronto Star
Social Justice Reporter

Canada's booming economy helped reduce food bank use before the recession, but it didn't erase the surge that followed provincial welfare cuts of the 1990s, says a study to be released today.

And unless federal and provincial governments repair the country's tattered social safety net, more Canadians will be forced to rely on food banks as the economic crisis deepens, the study warns.

The study, by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, is the first national analysis of how welfare policy affects food bank use.

"Provinces must shift from welfare policies based on distrust of welfare recipients (with provinces essentially setting up rules that punish them) to one that responds to the needs of people," said University of British Columbia economics professor David Green, who co-authored the report.

The study, which compared food bank use with welfare policy and unemployment rates between 1990 to 2007, found that a 10 per cent dip in welfare caseloads due to tighter eligibility rules caused a 4 per cent rise in food bank use. Meanwhile, a 10 per cent cut in welfare rates resulted in a 14 per cent jump in food bank use.

More than 700,000 Canadians used food banks in a typical month last year when the study was conducted. That number has jumped by about 25 per cent since January.

Link to article

Link to report (.pdf file)

Make poverty reduction the focus of economic stimulus plans

April 30, 3009
By Seth Klein
CCPA

A growing chorus of voices from across BC is calling on all political parties to commit to a provincial poverty reduction plan with legislated targets and timelines. Some wonder, however, whether such a plan is affordable, particularly in a recession.

The answer is yes.

In a recession, poverty risks getting worse unless governments take focused action to protect the vulnerable. And combating poverty isn’t just the right thing to do, it makes solid economic sense. At a time when all governments are talking about economic stimulus packages, a poverty reduction plan is exactly the kind of investment we need. It concentrates money among those who don’t have the luxury of saving, and who spend all they have in our local communities. This is where we get the maximum economic bang for our stimulus buck.

Other governments understand this. Ontario’s provincial government recently adopted a poverty reduction plan. Despite the recession and a large deficit, it has committed to reduce child poverty by 25 per cent in five years. On March 11, the federal House of Commons unanimously passed a motion calling for G8 and G20 leaders to make combating poverty a priority in national economic stimulus plans.

And the public gets it too. In a recent Environics poll (commissioned by the CCPA just as the recession became dominant in the news), a large majority of British Columbians (77 per cent) agreed that, in an economic downturn, it is more important than ever to make helping the poor a priority.

Read the rest here

Campbell's Claim that Jobs Lifted Many out of Poverty Proves a Myth

Delayed government report shows no real gains.
By Andrew MacLeod
Published: April 27, 2009
TheTyee.ca

Jobs are Premier Gordon Campbell's answer to poverty.

That position was repeated during the April 23 leaders' debate on CKNW radio when he responded to a caller's question about mandating poverty reduction targets by saying, "A job is, by far, the best social program you can have."

Since taking office in 2001, B.C. Liberals have insisted they were creating jobs and people are better off. They pointed to a rapidly declining welfare caseload as an example of that success.

And yet, the NDP and others point out even when B.C.'s economy was strong, the provincial poverty rate stayed high and the child poverty rate, at 21.9 per cent according to the most recent report, led the country for five years.

Now a new report posted to the Housing and Social Development Ministry's website following pressure from The Tyee shows Campbell and his welfare ministers have been wrong on why the welfare caseload was shrinking and that major changes the Liberals made to the system did nothing to improve people's incomes.

"What's interesting about it is it shows no improvement," said Seth Klein, the B.C. director for the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. "[It] stands in stark contrast to the good news narrative we've been fed for the past few years."

Housing and Social Development Minister Rich Coleman did not respond to requests for an interview.

Read the rest here