Carnegie Teacher Gets Wallet Stolen

Early this week, Carnegie Learning Center teacher, Betsy Alkenbrack, had her wallet stolen. She had apparently stepped out of her office, located just off the Learning Center classroom, when a man slipped in and grabbed the wallet.

When the man first walked into the Learning Center, a volunteer monitor, Rick, spotted him and asked if he could help him. The man responded that he was just looking around. That is not unusual as people are free to walk in and out of the Learning Center, which attempts to create an open, minimal barriers, environment to make residents of the Downtown Eastside underclass feel comfortable. Rick saw the man stepping into Alkenbrack's office and then coming out, but he thought she was in there.

After discovering her wallet stolen, Betsy got on the phone to cancel her credit card numbers.

Generally, Alkenbrack and the other teacher in the Learning Center, Lucy Alderson, keep the office door locked. "Every time Lucy came out of that office, I would see her with her keys in her hand locking up," says one past Learning Center student. "I didn't see Betsy around as much; I don't think she works there every day."

The wallet got stolen just before welfare Wednesday, a time when many Downtown Eastside residents are flat broke.

This is not the first theft in the Learning Center. About six or eight months ago, a young man working for Vancouver Community Net was temporarily posted at the Carnegie Learning Center which has three VCN computers, along with three Vancouver Public Library computers. He had a nice laptop. But he wasn't street smart at all. He would leave his laptop on the table and walk across the classroom and sit helping somebody at a computer -- with his backed turned. Suddenly it was gone. The young man was traumatized. He never returned.

A couple of years ago, a new computer printer was delivered and before staff had a chance to bolt it down, some body walked out the door with it.

On the positive side, the taxpayer is not being ripped off at the Carnegie Learning Center as often as they used to be. Learning Center staff who had been criticized for too often locking the doors of the Learning Center, using the excuse that a volunteer didn't show up, have been earning better marks recently. They kept the Center open every day welfare week, generally one of the worst weeks for closures.

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Read more school news on the DTES Enquirer:
International Boycott of Vancouver High School Diplomas Concealed by School Board

CUPE Strike: Lucy's Labor Pains

The Carnegie Learning Center is in a tough spot during the current strike of Canadian Union of Public Employees in Vancouver. It is on the third floor of the Carnegie Center, a building operated by CUPE members who have been on strike for the past two months. But the two teachers in the Learning Center, Lucy Alderson and Betsy Alkenbrack, aren’t CUPE members. The two get their pay cheques from Capilano College in North Vancouver, which has jointly run the Learning Center since Carnegie gave the Vancouver School Board the boot a decade ago.

Like most teachers, Alderson was supposed to return to work after Labour Day. Instead, she is planning a trip to Labour Relations to ask them to declare the Learning Center an essential service.

Alderson has done her homework. She invited a bunch of the Center's learners and volunteers to a meeting Thursday at Carnegie to discuss strategy for the request to Labor Relations. With Betsy Alkenbrack doing the writing, they created a "draft" press release. Calling themselves, "Common Sense People of the Downtown Eastside", they included in their press release a list of things that are essential about the Learning Center. But anybody on the Downtown Eastside with an ounce of common sense can see that the list is far from accurate:

- help with resumes and job searches
- help with negotiating government services, including online welfare applications
- access to health information
- high school upgrading
- ESL and computer training for seniors
- courses such as First Nations Journeys, Success Skills for Community Work and ESL literacy
- access to computers for information, training and services

The truth is that kitty corner from Carnegie at Main & Hastings is Pathways, an Industry Canada organization providing roughly 15 public access computers that are specially set up to help with resumes and job searches. If there are empty computers, staff turn a blind eye to people dropping in to use them for other purposes such as checking e-mail. And they have extra services specifically targeting native people.

Many people using Carnegie computers didn't have a clue about what went on at Pathways until the strike. But once they were forced off the Carnegie computers, they discovered it. One guy told the friend who had brought him that he preferred it over Carnegie, "Nobody yells at you here." A woman had earlier said that she found Pathways "more relaxed" than Carnegie. You can get help using computers from staff at Pathways too.

Anybody shut out of the Carnegie Learning Center during the strike also has the option of using the University of British Columbia Learning Exchange, a drop-in center just 2 1/2 blocks from Carnegie, on Main St. near Powell. At the Exchange you can get a chintzy half an hour on a computer. During the strike, there is often a bit of a wait for a computer and if you go after 4:00 p.m., you can forget about getting on to one. If you need basic computer help, they will give it to you. They also offer ESL.

Some users of the Carnegie Learning Center have been showing up at "Free Geek", near Main & 2nd Ave. Free Geek is an organization run by a group of "never say Microsoft" twenty-somethings with a government grant and a storefront. They provide a room full of public-access, on-line, computers on the Linux operating system.

When it comes to high school upgrading, the Carnegie Learning Center is not the only game in town. The Eastside Learning Center at Powell and Columbia St. operated by the Vancouver School Board provides high school upgrading. It's not a drop-in center like Carnegie though. They have a huge banner in the window prompting people walking by to "Register Now."

Lifeskills, an organization run by the Portland Society in the old Cordova St. Clinic building by Oppenheimer Park, has posters up around the Downtown Eastside begging for students. They help people develop computer and other skills. "Anybody can walk in there," says a Downtown Eastside resident.

When it comes to support for native people on the Downtown Eastside, there is a plethora of organizations. Just walk up Hastings St. east of Carnegie and you'll pass several. In addition, the welfare offices at Powell and Main have plenty of programs for native people looking for upgrading and jobs. In fact, they tell people that if you're non-native, they don't have much in the way of courses, but if you're native there are lots.

The list of 'essential' services provided by the Carnegie Learning Center is summed up on the press release with a blatant lie: “For most residents, this is the only place they have access to computers. This is a serious human rights violation, since most government information and access to services is only available on line.”

There is no doubt that early in the CUPE strike, Carnegie patrons missed the computers they had been accustomed to having easy access to at Carnegie. But as the strike enters its third month, many people have discovered other places to go.

In the press release it was stated that the closing of the Carnegie Learning Center is causing “pain and destruction”. If that’s the case, why did Alderson at times lock the doors of the Learning Center or evacuate everyone, always with the same excuse, “A volunteer didn’t show up.” Alderson would sit in the Learning Center by herself while low income people who wanted access to computers peered through the windows at her, resulting in her being described on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer as a “sea otter at the aquarium”. When bloggers began reporting these too frequent closures -- which were also occurring on Saturdays when it was the responsibility of CUPE members to keep the Center open -- Alderson and Alkenbrack participated in a witch hunt for the blogger, interrogating a volunteer about who could be blogging. Then Alderson personally barred a homeless man, Bill Simpson, for suspected blogging.

The barring of Simpson, which was later expanded to include the entire building by City managers under pressure from CUPE members, was criticized by Carnegie Board member Sophia Friegang as a “human rights” issue. Friegang got nowhere and resigned over the issue.

But Freigang's criticism didn't prevent the promotion of the Learning Center in the press release as a place where human rights are respected. The press release began with the headline, "LABOUR DISPUTE PUTS LEARNING AND HUMAN RIGHTS ON HOLD", and ended with an appeal to both sides to resolve the strike so that the Learning Center can operate: “Lives and human rights are at stake.”

Carnegie Learning Center Won't Open in Sept Due to Strike

Lucy Alderson, Co-ordinator and teacher at the Carnegie Learning Center, sent out a mass e-mail last Thursday, August 30th: "Hi, Everyone! Well, things are not looking good for re-opening the Learning Centre at the beginning of September.”

The Learning Center is run jointly by Capilano College and the Carnegie Center. Alderson actually works for Capilano College and is not a CUPE member, but most staff at Carnegie are members of CUPE Local 15. The Learning Center specializes in adult literacy, including computer literacy. Alderson’s e-mail reveals her support for CUPE as well as her need for a little time on the Mavis Bacon typing tutor to get the hang of the space bar:

“We have been talking about the situation withCUPE members, Ethel [Carnegie Director], the CCCA [Carnegie Community Center Association], our own union at Capilano College and ourDean. Right now, we have a short-term, 2 week plan to respect the strikeand strongly urge a resolution to the dispute. Hopefully, we are headingin that direction but it is very hard to tell. If the strike continues, wehave many issues to consider and we will bring everyone together to helpformulate a plan.I know that some of you have been helping out in other areas of theCarnegie and some of you have been away, or anxious to get back tovolunteering. We will try and keep you as up to date as possible. I amconcerned about our current students and all the people who regularly usethe facilities of the Learning Centre and the Comunity [Luuuuuucy! Spell check!] Centre. We are alsoconcerned about Carnegie staff who have been on the picket line for almost2 months.I am wondering if anyone has any ideas about bringing pressure to secure aresolution. Do we want to have an email discussion or get together atCarnegie next week?Tomorrow there is a rally at City Hall organized by CUPE. I am going to goafter I have completed some work at the College. It is from 12noon until2:30pm. Also, there is a march from Science World starting at 10am. Let me know any thoughts, ideas or concerns, Lucy"

Harper Asked to Cut Cash to Carnegie

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been asked to intercept a federal New Horizons grant applied for by Lucy Alderson, Co-ordinator of the Carnegie Learning Centre. That is, until allegations of human rights abuses against Alderson and Carnegie Director, Ethel Whitty, are investigated.

When Alderson's application for a $25,000 New Horizons grant was announced at the June Board meeting of the Carnegie Centre, it raised eyebrows amongst several Carnegie members. One purpose of the grant was "outreach to the homeless".

That started the jokes: "Maybe when Alderson is doing outreach to the homeless, she will run into the homeless man she banned from the Learning Centre for blogging."

In Dec. 2006, Alderson had escorted homeless man Bill Simpson to the office of Skip, Head of Security at Carnegie, where she told him that he was barred from the Learning Centre. She explained that it was because he had been writing on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer blog. Simpson says he is not a blogger but even if he were, the Downtown Eastside Enquirer is a legitimate blog which can support all claims with witnesses or documentation.

The Downtown Eastside Enquirer blog had criticized Alderson for too frequently locking low income residents out of the Learning Centre or evacuating them in mid-day. She consistently used the same excuse: a volunteer hadn't shown up. Bloggers took the position that with the massive government funding received by Carnegie Centre to provide services to the poor, whether doors to educational and computer services were locked should not be determined by whether an alcoholic volunteer had gone on a binge.

The blog also criticized Carnegie Director Ethel Whitty. In addition to being criticized for at times sitting in her office while doors to educational and computer services just meters away were locked, Whitty was criticized last fall for allowing misleading comments to be made to the public. Whitty and those under her, led the media to believe that an opera put on in the Carnegie theatre at considerable public expense had been written and produced primarily by homeless people. A DTES Enquirer blogger pointed out that when you get past the actors, writers, and musicians with houses, condos, or good social housing, you find just one homeless man.

Although Simpson was the only person barred from the Learning Centre for blogging, a witch hunt for the blogger was carried out in the Carnegie Learning Centre and the rest of the building last December. Volunteers were questioned. One long term volunteer was traumatized by being interrogated by six staff persons, including Whitty and Alderson. All interrogated him seperately, he says, with the exception of Alderson who paired up with a Learning Centre teacher, Betsy. Whitty and Alderson even attempted to get him to 'turn in' one of his closest friends, who had been seen talking to Simpson. He told them that his friend was not a blogger. But he admits giving them confidential information about medical research she was doing on the internet, claiming that he felt pressured: "I had to give them something." The volunteer has now recovered and holds no grudges against these staff persons but jokingly calls them, "The Inquisitors".

Shortly after these interrogations, when Alderson barred Simpson in the office of Carnegie Security, she told him that she had a very reliable "witness" to the fact that he had been blogging on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer in the Learning Centre. She gave enough information about this mysterious witness in the Learning Centre that it led Simpson to the volunteer interrogated by "The Inquisitors". But this volunteer denies that he ever told Whitty or Alderson with certainty that Simpson was blogging on the DTES Enquirer.

Whitty acknowledged at a recent Community Relations meeting at Carnegie that she had "supported" the barring of Simpson from the Learning Centre. And she acknowledges that he was never given a reason in writing. She says she did not give him one because the barring was not her decision.

Whitty is downplaying her role in eroding Simpson's civil liberties at the Carnegie Learning Centre. Before Simpson was barred from the Learning Centre for the long term, he had been barred for an afternoon in November 2006. Chad M., a monitor in the Learning Centre that afternoon, went to Whitty and told her that Simpson had done nothing that would justify barring him. He said Whitty refused to take his version of events into account and upheld the barring, which had been instigated by her staff person Colleen Gorrie and a Learning Centre teacher, Betsy. Chad, however, was the primary witness to the incident in which a woman, Bharb G., had launched into a verbal tirade against Simpson outside the elevator on the 3rd floor of Carnegie, accused him of blogging about the opera in which she had acted, stalked him into the Learning Centre, and continued the verbal abuse despite Chad repeatedly asking her to stop. There was a basis for barring Bharb for the afternoon in Chad's view, but none for barring Simpson.

[The Learning Centre is funded by Capilano College which has a largely hands off approach. Staff under Whitty's supervision are involved in the Learning Center: Rika Uto, Colleen Gorrie as well as security guards. The Learning Centre does not operate entirely independently of Whitty and the Carnegie. Certainly, it is Whitty's responsibility as Director to ensure that any member of the Carnegie is allowed due process and a written reason when being barred from an entire section of the building.]

It's now been almost eight months since Simpson claimed he was told by Alderson that he was barred from the Learning Centre for blogging. The barring was reported in the DTES Enquirer and on major internet news sites, and the details never disputed by Whitty or Alderson. Now Whitty has edited out the "blogging" reason for the barring. At a Community Relations meeting at Carnegie in late July, Whitty claimed that Simpson had been barred from the Learning Centre because he was not a student. Simpson can prove that he was a student. He was registered under the tutor, Chad M.

Carnegie member, Debbie Gosselin, pointed out the obvious to Whitty at the meeting: even people who are not registered students are allowed into the Carnegie Learning Centre. It's an open facility where people drop in to sit and read a book or a newspaper, sometimes eating their lunch at one of the tables.

Whitty appeared not to be entirely on the same page as Alderson who, after permanently barring Simpson from the Learning Centre, had "walked up behind [him] in the hall" and told him that he could return to the Learning Centre after three months -- indicating she did not dispute the fact that he qualified as a student. During that encounter, Simpson reminded Alderson that he had given her a letter requesting that the reason for the barring be put in writing, "And I would like a response in kind." Alderson didn't provide the reason in writing and never again raised the issue of him returning to the Learning Centre.

Despite being barred from the Learning Centre, Simpson managed to get elected to the Board of Directors at Carnegie in June 2007. Just days later, on June 21st, Whitty arranged for security guards to hold Simpson at the front door until she delivered a letter to him from the City barring him from the entire building "indefinitely". His crime? His website, he was told in the letter, "features links" to the Downtown Eastside Enquirer blog. It appeared that he was no longer being accused of being the Downtown Eastside Enquirer blogger, just linking to the blog.

Simpson recalls that just before he was barred, he was able to attend a Learning Centre Committee meeting in his role as a new Board member. He asked about the graduation scheduled for the following Tuesday, wanting to know who from Capilano College would be attending. (He was hoping to button-hole a representative of Capilano College management and ask their position on this barring issue.) Alderson, he said, appeared "rattled" but he noted that she didn't actually say anything. A day or two later, he was barred from the entire building. Guess who would not be attending the graduation to ask embarrassing questions?

The Bill Simpson case is not an isolated one. Low income people are routinely barred at Carnegie without due process. Board member Rachel Davis told Co-op radio two weeks ago that there is supposed to be an incident report written up by Security to accompany a barring. But often an incident report is not produced, Davis explained, and if it is the barred person is denied access to it.

Prime Minister Harper was contacted on July 18th and asked to ensure that the conduct of Alderson and Whitty was reviewed before another grant is approved. His office or somebody from the Ministry responsible really should have gotten back to us by now, says a community member who does not want to be identified. "I know it's cottage time back in Ontario but we have a human rights crisis here inside Libby's Davies [Carnegie] organizing base and it won't get better if he keeps throwing money at the offenders." When it comes to human rights, to steal a slogan from Harper, 'The West Wants In'.

Homeless man barred for blogging, Part 1

[Part one of a two part series]

Note: A hacker has changed text in this article. It's being corrected but if you come across offensive language, please ignore it.

A homeless man, Bill Simpson, has been permanently barred from the Carnegie Learning Centre. For daring to blog.

On Friday, Simpson was informed by Lucy Alderson, a teacher in the Learning Centre – an informal adult learning centre jointly run by the Carnegie Centre and Capilano College – that he was being barred because he had been observed using one of their computers to work on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer blog.

The blog has been critical of the poverty industry on the Downtown Eastside, and the scripted messages fed to the media to ensure constant injections of funding. The Enquirer has specifically criticized staff at Carnegie who earn a good union wage yet too often allow doors to remain locked, literally, to taxpayer-funded education and computer services for the poor.

Simpson insists that he is not the Downtown Eastside Enquirer blogger. And he is not one of the “reliable sources”, the term with which all postings on the Enquirer blog are signed. But so what if he was? He has the right to freedom of expression.

A witch hunt. That’s how one Carnegie member summarized activities leading up to Simpson’s barring. After bouts of verbal harassment by a Carnegie Board member, interrogation of a Carnegie volunteer tutor and an attempt to turn him into an informant against a longtime DTES friend, obstructionist tactics by CUPE members who staff Carnegie, misrepresentation of witness testimony (alleged by the witness after the barring), Simpson was found guilty in absentia of being the Downtown Eastside Enquirer blogger.

Since the barring, Simpson has continued to be denied due process by the Carnegie Learning Centre and the Carnegie Centre as a whole. For over 3 weeks, Simpson has been completely ignored after submitting a verbal, then written, request to have the decision to bar him put in writing so that he can launch an appeal.

While barring Simpson from the Learning Centre for having dared to blog where no man has blogged before, Alderson taped eye-catching, yellow posters to the desks: “Would you like to write about your life?”

Early censoring of the Downtown Eastside Enquirer

Months before the alleged blogger was targeted personally, access to the Downtown Eastside Enquirer had become mysteriously restricted. Last summer, Downtown Eastside residents noticed that the Downtown Eastside Enquirer could no longer be accessed by simply typing in key words on Carnegie public access computers.

Access to Enquirer articles opened up more when those involved discovered NowPublic.com. Enquirer articles were posted on NowPublic via an account held by one of the reliable sources, “jr”. A blogger going by the name “I SHOT JR” on The Downtown Eastside Avenger, responded by attempting to discredit the Enquirer by claiming it was composed of “radical shit disturbers led by Bill”. It’s not.

In December, just days before, Simpson was targeted for barring, the Enquirer was targeted by a hacker. Select articles were deleted. When they were restored, the blogger returned to delete the entire blog. The hacker cannot be linked to Carnegie but the timing was suspicious.

“Out the snake”

One of the early articles appearing on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer and NowPublic.com was titled, “CBC duped about Downtown Eastside homeless”. The author pointed out that comments made to the media about a Carnegie theatre production, like so much other information fed to the media by the poverty industry, were misleading. The CBC was left with the impression, according to an article on their website, that the cast was “mainly homeless and low income” members of the Downtown Eastside community when, in fact, only one cast member was homeless, homeless by choice, and several were homeowners from more affluent neighbourhoods. Carnegie postmodernists were outraged when they were exposed as importing the other from another neighbourhood.

The Downtown Eastside Enquirer received a message from an anonymous individual with intimate knowledge of the Carnegie theatre crowd, stating that the article had created tensions: “Not a good situation for a community, unless they find the snake and out him or her."

The hunt was on.

[Update: Carnegie Board member Gena Thompson later took credit for this comment when she accused the DTES Enquirer on NowPublic.com in 2007 of having "deleted" her. This comment was actually deleted when a hacker tampered with the DTES Enquirer.)

“Tattle tale Queen of the Carnegie!”

Carnegie Board member Bob Sarti suspected Bill Simpson of being the Downtown Eastside Enquirer blogger. On Dec. 6^th, just hours after the Enquirer article, “Carnegie Director accused of failing to deliver tax payer funded services to poor” appeared on NowPublic.com, Sarti gave Simpson a tongue-lashing.

Simpson was outside the 3^rd floor Learning Centre when he was spotted by Sarti, who was sitting at a table with a few Carnegie coordinators whose failure to consistently keep services open had been criticized on the Enquirer. Sarti jumped up out of his seat, hollering: “Tattle tale Queen of the Carnegie!” Wagging his finger at Simpson, Sarti repeated this accusation several times: “Tattle tale Queen of the Carnegie!”, “Tattle tale Queen of the Carnegie!…” Simpson, a laid back guy from Saskatchewan – he lived for years in Tisdale on which Corner Gas is based -- responded, “You’re just mad because you got caught with your pants down.” Bill firmly asserted, “I didn’t write that blog, but I wish I had. That author has my full support.”

Sarti managed to interject one more insult, “Everybody knows you’re a parasite!" From comments Sarti was heard making later to a Carnegie member, he was under the impression that Simpson was on welfare. Simpson isn't. That's why he sleeps in a nearby park.

A Carnegie regular who knows Sarti was just around the corner when this verbal attack occurred, and was left slightly shaken. Simpson was just walking across the lobby “minding his own business”, the witness said, when Sarti attacked him. Sarti too may have been left shaken as another witness saw his hand trembling slightly as he held a cup afterwards. As the story of Sarti’s “Tattle tale Queen of the Carnegie” tirade circulated, Carnegie members chuckled, many surprised at Sarti’s rancor as he is generally an affable guy.

Simpson reported Sarti's verbal attack to one of Carnegie's security guards, Trey. Trey assured Simpson that he would take his complaint seriously and see that Sarti was spoken to. Simpson hoped this would put an end to such harassment. It didn't.

“Sid Slick, oilier than a dipstick”

Here’s the mystery. Sarti worked for 30 years as a Vancouver Sun reporter, so why does he seem so hostile to Downtown Eastsiders getting their share of freedom of the press via Google blogger and NowPublic. Perhaps finding oneself on the wrong side of the printed word takes getting used to. Sarti’s name, first name only, had come up in blog criticism of Carnegie for too often failing to deliver taxpayer-funded education and computer services to the poor. Board member, “Bob”, it was reported, had walked past a group of low income students locked out of the Carnegie Learning Centre, entered the Learning Centre to get a prop for an “agitprop” skit, then locked the door again in their faces. The skit, about welfare rates, was called The Price is Wrong, with Sarti playing “Sid Slick, oilier than a dipstick”.

“Finally, some free journalism on the Downtown Eastside.”

Shortly after being called the Tattle Tale Queen of the Carnegie, Simpson was walking up the stairs inside Carnegie, when he ran into Paul Taylor. Taylor sits with Sarti – the two go back a long way; both are American Vietnam war resisters -- on the Carnegie Newsletter Committee. Simpson ribbed Taylor: “Finally some free journalism on the Downtown Eastside."

Taylor, who was sole editor of the Carnegie Newsletter for much of its 25 year history, until an editorial committee was created on which he still sits, is accustomed to such barbs. The Carnegie Newsletter, presented as the voice of the poor, is notorious for censoring the poor who aren’t in lock step behind Libby Davies, the NDP Member of Parliament who helps finance it. The Enquirer is not in lock step behind Libby Davies.

Round two: “Tattle Tale Queen of the Carnegie!”

A couple of days after Sarti’s first verbal assault, he spotted Simpson coming into the stairwell behind him, slowed down to let him catch up, and then started in on him again: “Tattle tale Queen of the Carnegie, Tattle Tale Queen of the Carnegie….”

Simpson, who says he was by this time fed up with absorbing abuse, shot back: “Commie Bob!” “KGB Bob!” Simpson was referring to the left wing Carnegie Centre Association which Sarti helped build – but Sarti has never been known to refer to himself as a Communist. He was involved with Anarchists in his youth and in recent years has enthusiastically hung balloons at Anarchist conventions held in the Carnegie theatre.

Sarti’s history as an anarchist makes his hostility to a homeless blogger even more mysterious to those at the Downtown Eastside Enquirer: blogging is a Anarchism in action. Blogging disseminates the power of the press into the hands of ordinary people.

“I don’t think Bob is that kind of Anarchist,” an acquaintance of Sarti’s told the Enquirer. “He’s an anarcho-syndicalist; they seem more like Maoists to me.” Another credible person, an intellectual, says that years ago Sarti joked that he saw the Downtown Eastside as a Maoist Liberation Zone. Ignore that: hearsay can’t be given much weight. But don’t ignore this: the DTES is beginning to feel like a Maoist Liberation Zone.

The Downtown Eastside is actually Libby Davies’ riding and Sarti is one of her political operatives. For years, he has worked under the radar to keep his NDP pal in power. This is no secret. Look at the Carnegie newsletter; Davies is even identified in the back as a donor. The entire Carnegie Centre is Libby Davies' political machine.

Letter to Carnegie Director: “…please call the mad dog off”

After being verbally attacked a second time, Simpson wrote a letter -- his letterhead reads William B. Simpson, Home-free, Vancouver, B.C. -- to Carnegie Director, Ethel Whitty, complaining about the conduct of “your esteemed Board member”. In his letter, Simpson outlined the previous verbal assault by Sarti as well as the most recent, at times being colourfully descriptive: “his hair looked like he (sic) had been just styled by a lightening bolt, his body shook with the wagging of his finger.” Carnegie members insist that Sarti, whose hair usually looks normal, is not prone to such angry outbursts. But people closer to him may know different, according to teasing comments made in this month’s Carnegie newsletter by his ally Paul Taylor: “Bob is known to argue and even yell at staff when they just try to work around his quirks/idiosyncrasies/weird stuff….”

One thing that can’t be made light of though are “more wild accusations” Sarti made during the second attack according to Simpson’s letter to Whitty, “something about ‘looking down women’s dresses.’” Friends and acquaintances of Simpson are nonplussed by this accusation, saying they have never seen him sexually harass anyone.

Simpson’s ultimate purpose in writing to Whitty was to request that she “please call the mad dog off.”

Obstructionism by CUPE members

In his letter, Simpson told Whitty that immediately following Sarti’s second attack, he again reported the incident to Security. But Security guard John Dunnings, whom Simpson described as having an “English” accent, refused to write it up. Dunnings’ conduct can been seen in hindsight as part of an emerging pattern of obstructionism by CUPE members to ensure that Simpson is left unprotected.

When Simpson dropped off the letter for Whitty, Donna, the Carnegie receptionist, refused his request for proof of receipt. “I’m not signing for it,” she told him in a testy tone. Donna, who is usually congenial, told Simpson that she would simply put the letter with Whitty’s other mail.

There would be more uncooperativeness and hostility by CUPE members to come. Could this be related to the fact that the failure by a few CUPE members to consistently keep services at Carnegie open for the poor had been criticized on the blog?

Bill’s friend shows courage to take a stand

Frank, a man who sometimes volunteers in the Learning Centre and the Computer Room, told Sarti that his verbal assaults on Bill were “unfair”. It was Friday, Dec. 8^th and Frank had stopped by the Carnegie newsletter office. He pointed out that Sarti did not know for certain that Bill had even written “that article”. Presumably Frank was referring to the “CBC duped” article which had caused the most furor. Sarti reportedly responded, ‘So Bill is sending his friends to threaten me now.’ I’m not threatening you, Frank assured him. “I feel threatened,” Sarti responded, adding that he did not even know Frank. Frank reminded him that they interact in the cafeteria, where Sarti does a stint once a week as a volunteer cashier, all the time: “You’re always telling me I fill my coffee cup too full.” Sarti then launched into a taunt: “Coffee thief! coffee thief! coffee thief….”

Three Security men arrived. One, whose name is better left unspoken, reportedly joked to Frank, “You sure pushed his buttons.”

It was not Sarti who called the “coppos” but Wendy Pederson, a community organizer who sits in the office. Pederson works in the newsletter office with anti-poverty activist and American ex-pat Jean Swanson. The two write for the newsletter and work on campaigns pertaining to the poor – welfare rates, shopping cart confiscation, homelessness, lack of affordable housing. Lack of free speech hasn’t made the list.

Bharbara Gudmundson calls Bill Simpson a “liar” and a “coward.”

Next, it was a woman who tore into Simpson. As he walked to the washroom on the same floor as the Learning Centre, he passed Bharbara Gudmundson, who was waiting for an elevator. Gudmundson confronted Simpson about writing the blog article, “CBC Duped about Downtown Eastside homeless”, in which comments she made in a CBC interview were scrutinized. She called him a “coward” and a “liar”. Simpson responded, “It was you who got caught in a lie to the press.”

Gudmundson told Simpson that his familiarity with the article – in which she was never explicitly accused of lying – suggested that he had written it. She would later make this case to another Carnegie member when recounting her confrontation with Simpson: how come he is so familiar with the article if he didn’t write it? He could have read it, of course.

Simpson returned to the Learning Centre where he told Chad, a volunteer tutor who comes from Deep Cove once a week, “Bharb abused me in the hallway.” Simpson heard Gudmundson’s voice at that point and turned around to see her in the Learning Centre, grinning at him. She started in on him again about the article. “Bill was minding his own business,” Chad said later, using the same words as those used by another witness describing Simpson’s behaviour prior to being attacked by Sarti.

Both Gudmundson and Simpson raised their voices during the exchange so Betsy Alkenbrack, a teacher on staff, told them that they would have to stop or go outside. Simpson immediately stopped, according to Chad, and went back to doing his work. But Gudmundson wouldn’t let up. Chad told her multiple times to stop or she would have to leave. Bharb responded, “I’ll leave when Security kicks my ass out.”

Eventually, Gudmundson walked out and button-holed Colleen Gorrie, the Volunteer Co-ordinator who has an office across the hall. Gorrie had become cool toward Simpson in previous weeks, he had noted to friends. “Colleen has stopped saying hello to me.” That was shortly after criticisms of Gorrie appeared on the blog – although she had not until now been identified by her full name, only by her first name or her job title. Criticisms of Gorrie were similar to those made of Alderson and Whitty, centering around the too frequent locking of DTES residents out of publicly funded services, always with the same excuse, “The volunteer didn’t show up”.

After listening to Gudmundson’s account of events, Gorrie talked to the teacher, Alkenbrack, who in turn barred Simpson from the facility for the day. “You’re going to allow this abuser to do this?” Simpson asked Gorrie, referring to Gudmundson. “You’re the biggest abuser in the Carnegie,” Gorrie responded.

A witness overheard Alkenbrack justifying the barring by saying that if you ask one to leave, you have to ask both to leave.

Mike McCormack, a volunteer tutor who has been at Carnegie for years but may not have been officially on duty at the time of the barring, said, “This is politics, I don’t want to be involved.”

The barring did have the stench of politics. Chad doesn’t want to be involved in internal politics at Carnegie either, but he was the classroom supervisor at the time of the barring and couldn’t see any justification for it based on Simpson’s behaviour – and he later told Director Ethel Whitty that.

A little courage

When Chad saw Whitty outside, he told her, “Bill complied.” Chad took the position that when a student is asked to be quiet and they comply, they don't deserve to be barred. But Whitty would hear none of it; her position was that both Simpson and Gudmundson had been involved in the argument so they should both be barred. Whitty’s unwillingness to allow Chad’s eye-witness account of the situation to interfere with the decision to bar Simpson came as no surprise to members of Carnegie. Politics trumps facts every time.

Chad, like Frank, was amongst the small number of people with the courage to speak up when he believed Simpson was being treated unfairly. It has been chilling to see how many people have been willing to go along to get along.

Gudmundson returned to Carnegie the following day. Odd, since she is not often seen at Carnegie as she does not live on the Downtown Eastside. She met with Alderson. And she met with Colleen Gorrie. Jerry Santino, a kitchen staff person who had also been criticized on the blog also attended the meeting in Gorrie’s office. “They’re plotting,” Simpson speculated as he looked out the window of the Learning Centre.

Bill gets barred permanently

On Friday, Dec. 15^{th ,} Alderson met Simpson at the door of the Learning Centre and asked him to accompany her to the downstairs Security office. With Skip, the new head of Security listening, Alderson informed Simpson that he was permanently barred from the Learning Centre for being the Downtown Eastside blogger.

Alderson emphasized that Simpson had been observed by a witness in the Learning Centre blogging on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer. That witness is a “a bald faced liar”, Simpson insisted. “Or you’re the liar,” Alderson responded. The witness, Alderson said, was a “long term volunteer” whom she considered “very reliable”.

Alderson told Simpson that the Downtown Eastside Enquirer was “derogatory”. Could Alderson have been referring to the article in which the blogger exposed her for sitting in the locked Learning Centre in the middle of the afternoon by herself as students peered at her through the plate glass windows: “She was hired as a teacher in the Learning Centre but today she was a sea otter in the aquarium.”

Simpson’s claim that he is not the Downtown Eastside blogger is gaining traction. Since the barring, a long term volunteer who is believed to be Alderson’s “very reliable” witness has contradicted her.

Carnegie witness contradicts Alderson’s claim that Simpson was seen blogging on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer

Alderson did not adequately cover for her “long term volunteer” witness and it took Simpson about five minutes to clue into who it probably was. He suspected it was C.M., a long term tutor in the Learning Centre. Simpson shared his suspicion with a friend of C.M.’s who in turn asked C.M. about it. C.M. recalled being called into the office of Alderson and Alkenbrack, and interrogated as part of their effort to determine the identity of the blogger. Whitty had later spotted him at Carnegie, taken him into her office, “closed the door behind her” and subjected him to a second round of interrogation.

“Have you seen Bill blogging?” Whitty asked C.M. He acknowledged that he had seen Simpson blogging or at least working on a web site of some sort. “Can you prove,” C.M. recalled Whitty asking, that Simpson was blogging on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer? “No, I can’t prove it,” C.M. claims to have responded. “I don’t look over his shoulder, I’m not a spy.” Not long afterwards, Whitty approved the barring of Simpson for having contributed to the Downtown Eastside Enquirer.

It doesn’t actually matter who Alderson, Alkenbrack, and Whitty slot in as their “reliable” volunteer witness, Simpson insists nobody could have seen him blogging on the Enquirer because he is not a blogger. But blogging on the Enquirer, a legitimate news and opinion site, would not constitute grounds for a barring without warning anyway.

To be continued. . . .

In part 2, get more details of Carnegie's harassment and barring of the homeless blogger:

• Carnegie Director, Learning Centre teachers, and Volunteer Co-ordinator, are exposed as showing reckless disregard for the support system of a long term DTES resident by pressing him on three occasions to act as an informant against another long term DTES resident and close friend. Despite his insistence that his friend was not the blogger, they have persisted, interrogating him as recently as January 2/07, at considerable cost to his psychological and social wellbeing.
• Carnegie denies Simpson due process by failing to provide him with written notice of the reason for the barring
• The Carnegie newsletter, partially financed by Libby Davies, gives Bob Sarti credit for tracking down the identity of the “bozo blogger".
• Blogging at the Enquirer doesn’t cease. Doubts arise about whether Carnegie nailed the right blogger. At a Carnegie staff meeting, an individual announces that they intend to contact a relative at CSIS (secret police) for help in tracking down the blogger.

Back after being hacked

The Downtown Eastside Enquirer appears to have became the victim of a hacker over the past week.

At first the hacker deleted the description of the blog, altered some of the settings, and deleted a couple of postings, including one entitled McFailure. The hacker also published a copy of a posting that had been stored under Draft.

The Enquirer responded by restoring the deleted material.

Then the hacker struck again. This time deleting the entire blog!

This hacking came after a Carnegie Board member twice verbally attacked a homeless Carnegie member whom he suspected was behind the blog. The Board member also verbally attacked a friend of the suspected blogger. The suspected blogger was again verbally attacked, twice, by a leftie activist who sometimes comes to the Downtown Eastside. Then Carnegie staff persons, one a CUPE member and the other a BCTF member, who had been criticized on the blog for repeatedly locking doors to publicly funded services, arranged to have the suspected blogger barred for a day from the Carnegie Learning Centre. (They would later upgrade the barring to a permanent one.)

Although Carnegie has for several months been blocking community access to the Downtown Eastside Enquirer on their computers, censorship has been stepped up over the past few days. Blogging capability -- access to blogger.com -- has been completely blocked on several Carnegie computers. As a final effort to deter publication of the Downtown Eastside Enquirer, the suspected blogger was barred for life from the Carnegie Learning Centre by Ethel Whitty, the Director of Carnegie appointed by the City of Vancouver, and Lucy Alderson, a teacher and BCTF member. Alderson told him that he was barred for allegedly contributing to the Downtown Eastside Enquirer.

But despite setbacks, the Downtown Eastside Enquirer has, as Arnold would say, "cum bock".

Canada is not yet China.

[Most of the original postings will be restored over the next couple of days.]