Woman "Beaten Up" at No. 5 Orange

A woman was assaulted at the No. 5 Orange Showroom Pub on Wednesday night around 11:15 p.m. A twenty-something male witness standing on the sidewalk outside the No. 5 at Main & Powell St. on the Downtown Eastside said the woman had been "beaten up". A female standing with him agreed, saying, "I know her".

Eight to ten police cars, a few of them unmarked, along with a police paddy wagon were parked outside the No. 5 after the incident. One of the police vehicles was a black SUV that a Downtown Eastside resident said he recognized as belonging to the Gang Unit. He also said he had seen one officer at the scene carrying "a bean bag gun". The Gang Unit has identified the No. 5 Orange as an establishment that they keep an eye on.

Police officer speaks to the male suspect in the paddy wagon.

The alleged victim was sitting in the back of this police car "giving a statement" to police, according to a man standing on the sidewalk with a woman who said she knew the victim.

The female police officer with blond hair holding a plastic bag pictured above walked over to the photographer and said politely, "You can't take pictures here", when the photographer was standing on the sidewalk taking a shot of the paddy wagon with the open door. That photo is posted above. There was no yellow tape around the area and the photographer was standing about six feet back on the sidewalk where pedestrians were allowed to walk freely. The photographer then moved to other areas of the scene to take photos and the officer didn't interfere.

Several police officers search the suspect's vehicle in the No. 5 Orange parking lot.

Distrust at Carnegie Results in Request for Election Recount

Carnegie members don't trust the results of the June 5th election for Board of Directors at Carnegie Community Center. James A. announced at the meeting that he would like a recount. Many other members who came out to vote for incumbent Board member Rachel Davis, who was defeated, support a recount.

Board member Colleen Carroll assured James A. in front of the audience at the June 5th election that he was welcome to count the ballots, that the ballots would be preserved for 30 days for that purpose. Carnegie Director, Ethel Whitty, with a reputation for involvement in fraud and undemocratic practices -- her reputation can be supported with documentation -- sat at the Board table nodding her head in agreement.

Guess what happened when Carnegie member Audrey Laferriere (pictured above at the election) recently asked for a recount? Board President Matthew Matthew responded that the request for a recount would be granted only if it was accompanied by 150 signatures from Carnegie members.

Laferriere began circulating a petition for signatures and on it she wrote, "We do not need a President who is inflexible and into power tripping. Anyone should be allowed to recount votes without hindrance. He has screwed up my long weekend."

Dag, a blogger at Covenant Zone, who had attended the June 5 election to support Davis for speaking out about erosion of free speech rights under the Whitty administration, suspects Matthew Matthew arbitrarily chose 150 as the number of signatures needed. "It's as if he looked in his hat and saw the number 'one five zero.' "

Paul, a labourer who often has dinner at the Carnegie cafeteria, voted at the Board election but was not optimistic about securing a recount. When Paul learned that his pal James A. was one of several Carnegie members helping Laferriere collect 150 signatures, he signed the petition but said, “If they can only get 75 people out to vote, how are they going to get 150 people to sign.” The 75 people Paul was referring to had made up the unusually high turnout at the June 5th election. That turnout was the result of intense organizing by such members of the Carnegie establishment as Jean Swanson (who doesn’t live on the Downtown Eastside) and Paul Taylor, who got their friends and allies to swarm the meeting and vote for a slate that didn’t include Davis.

The Carnegie establishment, including Director Ethel Whitty, had wanted to get rid of Rachel Davis since she appeared on Co-op Radio and later CBC Radio to question the legitimacy of Whitty delivering homeless man, William Simpson, a letter barring him indefinitely from the Carnegie Center where Board meetings are held. The letter was delivered two weeks after Simpson was elected to the Board and it's content was called "contrary to the rule of law" by lawyer Gregory Bruce. Whitty later appeared on CBC Radio and lied about the reason for Simpson’s barring, presenting this man as a "WorkSafe" risk. Her claim completely contradicted the official reason given to Simpson in the letter, that he operated a website that "features links" to the Downtown Eastside Enquirer blog which criticizes Carnegie.

The votes that Carnegie members would like recounted were originally counted by Board secretary Rolph Auer. Rolph is an unfamiliar face to most regular Carnegie members and was elected during a by-election last year after Board member Sophia Freigang resigned due to what she called “human rights” abuses on the part of the Board and City staff. Freigang had pressed for a review of the barring of Simpson and was critical of efforts by Whitty and her cohorts to curb “free speech” by barring a man for being connected to a blog. Jean Swanson (did I mention she doesn’t live on the Downtown Eastside?) had been instrumental in getting Auer elected, using the email list from the Carnegie Action Project to ’remind’ people to come out and vote for him. One of Auer's early tasks as a Carnegie Board member was to show up at a Community Relations meeting and oppose Davis' attempts to curb the use of the Carnegie newsletter for personal attacks. And when the man sitting next to him, Paul Taylor, told Davis to "Shut up!", Auer didn't even flinch.

Even if Carnegie members are granted a recount, they are not convinced they can ever trust the result. James A. said, as a few other members having coffee with him nodded their heads in agreement, that it would be easy for somebody to use a pencil to tick off a few extra boxes on ballots. This possibility exists because many people at the meeting had ticked off far fewer boxes than the 15 they were allowed, as they simply weren’t familiar with many of the candidates. One woman at the table said, "I only voted for Rosetta (aka Rachel Davis) and maybe one other person."

Laferriere wrote towards the end of the petition, "Time is of the essence as the signatures have to be done within three days."

This issue will be raised at the next Board meeting at Carnegie on Thursday evening at 5 p.m.

Contact information for Audrey Laferriere:
audreylaferriere@yahoo.ca
778-329-1250

Cyclist Hit by Courier Truck near Main & 3rd Ave.

Vancouver Police blocked off all traffic other than buses on Main St. between 2nd and 3rd Ave. for roughly 2 1/2 hours on Monday after a cyclist was hit. The cyclist, riding what a witness described as a "mountain bike", was hit by a white courier truck shortly before 3 p.m. A witness said the cyclist lay face down, not moving. He appeared to be in his thirties.

It was a sweltering hot afternoon as Vancouverites looked forward to the July 1st Canada Day holiday the next day.

The cyclist's shoe was about 10 feet from where he lay, leading to speculation that he had been thrown some distance upon impact. "His shoe was over there and his bike was over there," said a witness, cocking his head in different directions to indicate that these items lay some distance from the cyclist.

The witness didn't know whether the cyclist had been wearing a helmet. It could have been removed, he said, by a woman standing with the cyclist waiting for the ambulance to arrive. The witness thought the woman could have been the driver who hit him. "Ohhhhh," said a man in his seventies listening to the witness, "Woman driver, no survivor."

Ethel Whitty Strips Woman of Civil Liberties at Carnegie and Takes Off for a 'Canada Day' Vacation Week

It is not the first time, Carnegie Director Ethel Whitty has grabbed the latest installment of her $104,000 pay cheque and taken off out the door, leaving Carnegie members stranded without key services. She did it during the coldest day of the winter in 2006. And she is doing it during this hot weekend.

It is the Canada Day weekend. Whitty disappeared a day earlier than most people -- her receptionist Lil initially thought she was out at a meeting on Friday but eventually figured out she had taken an early long weekend. And an extended long weekend too, as she won't be back for over a week.

The person who was asking Lil for Whitty's whereabouts was a senior who had been barred by Whitty and her Security Co-ordinator, Skip Everall, from the Seniors Center. Her crime? She had dared to talk back to a notorious abuser, Devor, in the Seniors Center where she regularly drops in to use the computer. Literally hundreds of men and women at Carnegie have lodged complaints, formally or informally, (one by punching him in the nose) about Devor, who sells coffee in the basement and rides rough shot over members. But complaints seem to make no difference to Ethel Whitty.

Whitty and Everall gave the abuser a special treat this time. They allowed Devor to be the one to announce the punishment for the woman who dared stand up to him. That punishment was that she would be barred from the Seniors Center for a minimum of four days. And that she would have to meet with Skip the following Wednesday to see if she would be allowed back in. There is no appeal process at Carnegie; a targeted individual must serve their sentence before they can appeal or, in many cases, even learn what exactly they have been accused of. The woman brought this lack of due process to the attention of Ethel Whitty who reportedly responded by shrugging her shoulders. (Appealing at Carnegie essentially means that your sentence won't be extended even further if you act sufficiently deferential to Skip and make this metrosexual feel like a man's man for a moment.) Everall and Whitty avoided notifying security guards that the woman was barred from the Seniors Center so that they could in turn notify the woman when she walked into the building; she repeatedly walked in and out of the building and was never told.

According to her friends, it's as though Whitty and Everall "set her up" to unwittingly walk into the Seniors Center and be kicked out again by Devor. She was "lucky" though, as Devor didn't see her and instead loudly announced to a close friend of hers that she was barred. This was a shocking breach of confidentiality legislation by City staff; Devor is a volunteer who is not on the City payroll and receives food vouchers. And it is a breach of confidentiality legislation that Whitty is showing signs of intending to cover up. She avoided speaking to the key witness who could confirm this breach of confidentiality.

The woman who was barred did meet with Everall after she had served her sentence. She demonstrated for Everall, as she had earlier done for security guard Richard, how Devor had repeatedly shoved his arms and hands within inches of her body to force her out the door of the Seniors Center. (Her boyfriend has repeatedly emphasized to us that Security guard Richard had no part in the illicit barring but simply gave her protection as she later walked into the basement of the Carnegie where the Seniors Center is located.)

Everall was not the right man to complain to about physical aggression though, as he had allowed his security guard, Ted Chaing, to act a little rough too. Chaing had shoved the glass door of Everall's office in her face as she walked into the office after being led to believe that Everall intended to meet with her about her barring (about the sentence she had arleady served). Everall had decided that he wanted her to wait outside for a moment before he met with her, but it had apparently not occurred to either of these security men to tell her that verbally.

Everall acknowledged to this woman that he recognized that she was at risk from Devor. He said he wanted to "caution" her that it wouldn't be in her best interests to go down to the basement (where the Seniors Center as well as other facilities such as washrooms and a weight lifting room are located) while Devor was there. But neither he or Whitty, whom the woman also told of Devor's behaviour, have done anything to ensure safety in the building.

It has now been 14 days that this woman has been denied access to the Vancouver Public Library computers in the Seniors Center. She told Whitty, according to her boyfriend, that she needed access to computers in the Seniors Center because the computer room on the third floor was crawling with bed bugs. (A complaint will be lodged about Whitty to the Health Dept. next week by several people fed up with the bugs she has left behind when she took off on vacation. Some say they're scabbies, some say fleas, some say bed bugs.) But the woman was so desperate for a computer one evening recently that she decided to check out the third floor computer room to see if there were any available.

When she looked in the window of the computer room which she found locked, she was yelled at and chased off the floor by a "nutty Nicaraguan". A male witness coming up the stairs saw this and asked, "What's going on?". The woman said, "I'm getting out of here. I don't want to talk to him." She knew Everall would bar her if she talked back. This Nicaraguan, who has a bullet hole in one eye, previously crossed the floor of the computer room and lunged at her with his hands going for her neck because he claimed she was too slow in closing down the windows on her computer when her time was up. (Usually computer users are given a five minute warning but she says he didn't give her one.) Both male and female members of Carnegie have complained about the craziness of this Nicaraguan. Learning Center staff won't allow him to volunteer there any longer. But he has been given the green light by Everall and Whitty -- after getting disappeared for a couple of weeks -- to return to take shifts in the 3rd floor computer room.

This woman, who needs computer access, has been left stranded by Whitty who allows her barring to go on and on and on and on. Whitty had stated two weeks ago that she would be speaking to a key witness (who favored the woman's version of events) but coveniently never got around to it. The witness said Whitty chatted to him about his music but never questioned him about anything related to the woman. The woman had asked Whitty to suspend Everall for misconduct (and from what her boyfriend said yesterday, she has no intention of dropping that request).

So now Ms. Whitty is on vacation, enjoying a few lazy days in the sun. Lazy days for which she is well rehearsed.

Whitty's victim -- victim is the right word here -- is stranded without computer because Whitty and Everall have stripped her (and other Carnegie members) of civil liberties that are one of the many things about Canada to be celebrated on Canada Day.

Welfare Office Sprayed for Bed Bugs

The upstairs welfare office at Powell and Main was to be sprayed for bed bugs today, according to a staff person from there who was chatting on the sidewalk. Another worker was asking her about it because she said, "I saw a pest control truck parked outside."

Carnegie Staff Couldn't Get it Together to Keep Learning Center Computers Available on Saturdays During the Summer

Ethel Whitty has once again thumbed her nose at funders. She will lock the Carnegie Learning Center every Saturday until September.

The Learning Center is sufficiently funded to remain open throughout the summer, including Saturdays. But it will be closed on Saturdays because Carnegie staff couldn't get it together to arrange for a volunteer to sit at the reception desk -- even though Carnegie has multiple staff paid to recruit and train volunteers. The Learning Center provides much in demand computer access to Downtown Eastsiders. When it is not open, it tends to make the third floor computer room busier and the waiting times longer.

Carnegie is responsible for operating the Learning Center year round on Saturdays, and six days a week throughout the summer. The Learning Center is operated jointly with Capilano College on weekdays during the fall and winter. Whitty, Carnegie Director, just didn't get it together to ensure it stayed open on Saturdays this summer.