The Republic newspaper has picked up on some of the themes raised by the Downtown Eastside Enquirer about unfair barring practices at Carnegie Centre and whether Carnegie staff genuinely promote "community" on the Downtown Eastside. The author of the article, Tavis Dodds, specifically mentions the Downtown Eastside Enquirer and it's exposure of the barring of homelesss man Bill Simpson.
Peter Haskell and Ricky, two other men who have been barred from Carnegie Centre, are quoted in the article. Haskell's case is particularly interesting as he provides evidence that after being barred for free speech, he became the target of political psychiatry by a Carnegie staff person. The Downtown Eastside Enquirer has in the past pointed to emerging signs that Carnegie staff were participating in the epidemic of political psychiatry on the Downtown Eastside.
See The Republic article: Celebrating 104 years at Main & Hastings
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Not only are the Carnegie staff barring members, they are now barring their own volunteers too. Recently, a volunteer in good standing for nearly two years, one who volunteers in no less than four different areas, had stopped in to use the phone, and was leaving when he was accosted by a former friend, who tried to start an argument. The volunteer told him to get lost and left. This other person followed the volunteer outside and continued his tirade. Security came outside to observe, but did nothing to stop the man. Ultimately, the volunteer had enough, and told the person that next time he saw him he was going to kick his punk bitch ass. The volunteer admits this was a mistake, however, all things considered, not that great a transgression. The volunteer then left for work. Carnegie security then proceeded to let the the man who was clearly the source of the disruption leave without repercussions. No barring, no withdrawl of priveleges of any kind. The voulunteer on the other hand was written up for being disruptive, for threatening to kill, (yes a death threat), the other man, and barred for one week and had to see the head of security, "Chip" I think, before being allowed to return. Upon finding this out the volunteer immediately went to see Chip, but alas, Chip was away and wouldn't be back till the one week suspension was over. Hmmmmm. So, after one week the volunteer met with Chip, who has invoked a policy whereby a second security person be present for the meeting. This would immediately put most people on the defensive, being outnumbered, and having to answer questions being fired at them from two sources. Incidentally, John Ferguson, the previous head of Carnegie security did not feel this was a necessary tactic. So, the volunteer began to relate his total dismay at being barred, and tagged as being the cause of the incident. The volunteer wanted the barring lifted immediately, his tickets for shifts he was not allowed to work, and an apology from the security person who was either mistaken, misguided, or perhaps, on his way into work that morning, stepped on a rake. Chip informs the volunteer that this will not happen, that he is not there to negotiate with the volunteer, and they have a "witness", who gives a different version of events. The volunteer asks who this "witness" is, but is told it is none of his business. Unbelivable. The voulnteer recalls thinking, probably the same mysterious "witness" who they claim saw Bill Simpson blogging. And with that thought, it occurs to the volunteer that the only other conversation he has had with Chip, was one where he stated that he disagreed with the barring of Simpson from The Learning Center, for allegedly making untoward comments about certain staff. Could that be what this is all about? Chip tells the volunteer he is not changing his position, and the volunteer tells Chip he is starting to run the Cernegie like a Nazi regime. The voulunteer admits this too was a mistake and has since apologized, but at that moment, Chip tells the volunteer the meeting is over and he is barred for another week. The volunteer leaves the security office and heads toward the front door, followed by the other security person who was present, and Chip. The volunteer stops and turns to tell Chip that he is so appalled that he is going to quit volunteering altogether, but before he can say this he is assaulted by the security person, who pushes the volunteer with a fair degree of force knocking him backwards, but not knocking him down. This draws attention from members and staff alike, so the volunteer tells Chip that he has quit, and leaves. The next meeting is set for this coming Friday. Stay tuned.
Once again, a story that shows that socialism and top-down "social justice" initiatives always end up in tyranny, unless one knows when to pull the plug on one helping hand and start again in freedom and true charity. Helping hands must always be temporary if they are to avoid tyranny and dependence.
If equality, or even "justice", has to be enforced from above in any programmatic matter, it isn't equality of very just. Freedom is consequently a more important or at least primary worldly imperative than equality, though we can never forget the sacred horizon in which all of us are equally God's children; it is only with self-ruling freedom that people and their families across time can hope to measure up, in certain places and times, as equals with those (temporarily) in various positions of power and status.
It's becoming apparent to this reader that what the present Carnegie needs is to be shut down and have an entirely new covenant for its operations put into place, a covenant by which the responsible patrons (those proven trustworthy and honorable among their peers - even if this is only a small fraction of the total patrons) can have a lead in organizing and ruling themselves. This will not do away with the need for bureaucratic authority or funding; it may actually increase the number of government jobs that are needed to run the place. But these jobs should be about mediating, arbitrating, judging the conflicts that arise among patrons over the operations of the responsible people's covenant, and not, as at present, jobs that dictate, in arbitrary and tyrannical ways, the terms of the "social contract" for a "community" that doesn't sound to this reader like much of one, beyond what the ordinary good people like Reliable Sources help sustain when not under the gaze of the tyrants.
It's time for more people to join us at the Covenant Zone so we can provide each other the ideas and support with which to demand the kinds of political changes in our city and country that can make the people, not the taxing bureaucrats, self- ruling again.
Imposed "equality" and the manufacture of a pseudo-community from the aether of the mind of the gnostic collective funded by the cowed tax-payer puublic result in nasty little neo-feudalist fiefdoms, such as one would see at the Carnegie Library, it existing only to provide ready-made careers and status and platforms from which to pose annd show off ones committment to the latest socialist fads. Those who frequent the Carnegie Library are victimized by the self-sustaining poverty industry of crisis-mongers, those who cry out that their expert baby-sitting is essential to stop the spread of-- you pick today's theme. But in the final analysis, all that really happens at such places is the collection of money to pay the elitist socialist vanguardians and to herd the incompetent into stalls of imposed conformity to the phantasies of the guardians. "The Poor," who are hardly poor at all, merely uncomfortable, are simple props in a play put on by and for the gnostic elites for their own entertainment, the people on the ground being nothing more than shadows cast by the hands of those between them and the fires of reality. The Platonic Left fascists should be cast out of the cave that is the Carnegie Library, and they should well find themselves along side the other low-skill denizens of skidroad, making an independent living as well as they may, to the advantage of all outside the play of the mind of the Left.
TO: Anonymous,
Peter, a Carnegie Security guard (a CUPE member on the City of Vancouver payroll) was recently suspended. It is not known exactly why he was suspended, although there is speculation that it was related to his alcohol problem. He has a reputution for treating members of the Centre ok though.
Peter recently "flipped out and kicked the door" of the Centre, according to a witness, although it is uncertain whether this occurred before or after he was suspended.
A few days after being suspended by Skip, Head of Carnegie Security, Peter was allowed to meet with Carnegie staff to plead his case. He was reinstated. As a staffperson he was allowed due process that members are often denied.
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