Name of Former Carnegie Center Carver Surfaces in Discussion of Racial Profiling in U.S.

John Williams, a native carver who used to sit on the third floor of Carnegie Centre and carve, about 20 years ago, has been drawn into the highly political case of the shooting of black teenager, Trayvon Martin.  The shooting of the unarmed Martin by a hispanic Neighborhood Watch captain in Florida, has re-stimulated a discussion of racial profiling in the U.S.

Christina Lopez, a Seattle activist, has compared the shooting death of Martin with the shooting death of Williams by a Seattle police officer in Aug. 2011.  Listening to her mention Williams' name on the radio, reminded me of him sitting on the third floor of Carnegie Centre carving, wearing a pale yellow t-shirt and jeans.  He was 50 years old when he was shot.  The last time I saw him in the Downtown Eastside, he was 29 years old.  It was a sweltering August night when I dropped by to visit him at his room by Pigeon Park.

The lead up to the Williams shooting was caught on the police car video and the multiple shots pumped into Williams can be heard off camera.  It was clear from the video of Williams crossing the street that he posed no threat.  It was clear also that years of drinking had taken its toll.  The last time I talked to him on that August night, he told me he had started drinking again, after having quit for a long time.  He didn't know many people in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and I wonder if isolation contributed to his return to drinking.

After Williams was shot, he was identified by native people, who knew him from seeing him carving at the Chief Seattle Club, as a Seattle resident originally from Vancouver Island.  His time as a Downtown Eastsider is probably remembered only by a small circle of people who had contact with him.  I met him in the winter or spring at Carnegie Centre and knew him through the summer, casually, bumping into him once in a while.  He told me that he had been living in Seattle and planned to head back there.  He said he could make a good living there as a carver, unlike in Vancouver.  I got the impression that he had been up here visiting Vancouver Island.   

Carving seemed to be his calling.  He carved constantly.  In fact, he was holding a carving knife when he was shot, a knife for which he had a permit. 

When I visited Williams at his room by Pigeon Park, he showed me a mini totem pole he was carving, and he said he was from a family of carvers on Vancouver Island.  His family were well known as carvers, he said.  Not knowing much about art, I had a picture in my mind of totem poles being more colorful, and I remember asking him if he was going to paint it.  He said he might put a little paint on it, but he didn't seem to interested in that angle.   

When I heard on the radio that John Williams had been shot, I was thinking of how calm and grounded he used to be, and I wasn't surprised to read that someone who knew him at the Chief Seattle Club also remembered him as calm.

Vancouver Police Ignore Assault on Christian at Christmas

Matthew Lee, and a group of Christians paid $75 for a permit to preach at Cambie & Hastings in downtown Vancouver at Christmas time.  A passerby who disapproved of their preaching shoved Mathew down onto the sidewalk, knocking out two of his front teeth.

Matthew and the witnesses had a detailed description of the suspect for the Vancouver Police, including the fact that he was dressed in black and wearing a band across his forehead that read, "Resistance".  But police seemed indifferent.  They didn't take a report.  They simply told Matthew to, "stay out of the vicinity."  Matthew actually lives in the vicinity, in a bachelor suite in the old Woodwards building.

Matthew is a mix of Asian and native, and he said the man who assaulted him was native.

Neither myself or other bloggers know Matthew well, but he's been around for years and has never come across as aggressive.  He also works for the BC Lions, looking after their uniforms.

Stephen Harper has set up an office to deal with religious persecution around the world, a move that is largely believed to be a response to recent attacks on Christians.

It's time Chief Chu sent an officer over to the Woodwards building to assure Matthew that this assault will be investigated.

City of Vancouver & Capilano University Strip Hundreds of Poor People of Right to Vote

With the City election being tomorrow, the City of Vancouver has sent out voting cards to Downtown Eastside residents, informing them that their voting station is Carnegie Centre.  Trouble is, a large percentage of neighbourhood residents are banned from entering Carnegie Centre.  These bans have been instigated by City staff running Carnegie Centre or Capilano University staff running the Carnegie Learning Centre, and are jointly enforced.

When Carnegie and Capilano ban people, they are well aware that they are creating a barrier to voting.  Carnegie is a standard polling station, for all elections: civic, provincial, and federal.

A man banned from Carnegie said he talked to a security staffer last week and was told that they were not  allowing banned people into the building on election day.  That's a lot of people, when you consider that they have banned hundreds of people a year from Carnegie, usually for freedom of expression, totaling thousands of people by now. Many never go through the often humiliating process of having their barring overturned. Many don't know there is such a process.    

Even if security personnel were instructed to back off for a few minutes while a banned person entered the building to vote, many banned people are uncomfortable going back to Carnegie as they were often verbally or physically abused or humiliated during the process.  One woman told me that she left the building trembling the night a security guard assaulted her; he was angry that she had been making waves about the undemocratic banning process so he banned her.  "When I got my voting card and it said I had to go to Carnegie to vote, I started getting flashbacks," she told me.

And what about the guy who was banned after being thrown to the ground by three security staffers, including the head of security, because he verbally protested when they blocked him from returning his books to the Carnegie public library in a tiny pull cart.  Do you really think he wants to return to cast a vote?

City's subsidized meals for poor being diverted to staff making five and six figure salaries

Today on CKNW, Mayor Gregor Robertson said that the City could not possibly find further places to make cuts in the budget as the City was already "goin' bare bones".

Bare bones?  City staff and management continue to fatten up on the heavily subsidized meals the City provides for them daily, even though they make five and six figure salaries.  These meals, meant for the poor, are a cut above a regular cafeteria food; they have a health food orientation.

Carnegie Centre provides these quality subsidized meals daily not only to it's own staff but to staff and managers from the surrounding poverty industry organizations on the Downtown Eastside.  And they provide similar, reportedly even higher quality, subsidized meals to staff and management at the Gathering Place, which is an organization downtown just off Granville St.  This City meal subsidy program provided as a staff and management perk has been going full tilt for decades.  Yet it was never been part of negotiated contracts.

Dan Tetrault, Carnegie's Assistant Director, is estimated to have received a minimum of $20,000 in meal subsidies over the two decades that he's worked at Carnegie -- that's a conservative estimate, based on him eating one subsidized lunch each work day.  Actually, people have seen him ordering up breakfasts, lunches, and dinners on a regular basis for years.  Tetrault is a CUPE member; we know that because he stood on the picket line during the last strike demanding more money and benefits.

These big earners pay no tax when they purchase these meals from Carnegie.  No HST.

For years Carnegie served a full dinner, your choice of meat or vegetarian, for $3.00 every evening at 5 o'clock, except for Saturdays when the meal was $2.00.  They also served a hearty lunch: an entre and a salad for $1.75.  Their salads are good, they have lots of greens in them; sometimes they have potato or beet salad as well.  And they served a daily breakfast for $1.75.  And for years you could get a healthy low-sugar snack for under a dollar: big date squares for eighty cents, muffins for 50 cents, fruit, yogurt, granola made in-house, etc.  They don't serve junk food, except for Blue Sky cola which is a little lower in sugar than regular colas.

Last year they raised the price of all meals by 25 cents at Carnegie.  The meals at the Gathering Place have always been a little more expensive than Carnegie; an evening meal there is $3.75.  They offer a similar range of healthy food as Carnegie.

A few years ago, a worker in the Carnegie cafeteria told me that they prepare 60 meals an evening and when they're gone, they're gone.  Last year, even more of those 60 meals went to yuppies.  The rock bottom prices at Carnegie were advertised in a two page spread about the Carnegie cafeteria in the Province newspaper.  It was like an infomercial, emphasizing the great service this cafeteria was performing by feeding the poor. According to one regular at Carnegie, the kitchen co-ordinator, Catriona Moore, didn’t want the prices published in the Province.  She was ignored.  The regular noticed a rush on “yuppies” after that.  “There are whole tables of them.”  

Whitty avoided mentioning that she helps herself to the meals on top of her over $100,000 salary -- she used to regularly show up for the Tuesday veggie burger with a choice of green or potato salad for $1.75 -- talked to the Province reporter about the helping hand the cafeteria gives to the poor, “They come, we accept them, we feed them.”  Too often she does not feed them.  The poor and homeless are routinely turned away at both Carnegie and the Gathering Place.  The working poor too -- people who get welfare but are allowed to earn a top up by doing odd jobs such as unloading trucks in Strathcona -- are often told the food is gone when they rush down to Carnegie after work.

A homeless guy was telling me the Sunday before last that he had arrived after 5 o’clock and the dinner at the Gathering Place was sold out.  He had been looking forward to the pork dinner “with those little potatoes”.  I asked him if the staff got their plates, and he said they had.

It's time for a two-tiered payment system at Carnegie and the Gathering Place.  People who aren't poor can pay double for a meal.  They will still be getting a bargain.  Try getting the hearty Carnegie lunch at a restaurant downtown for less than $10.  If unionized workers and management in the poverty industry paid more, they could help finance that cafeteria.

A two-tiered payment system would also ensure that the City is not draining customers from private sector  restaurants in the City.  Waves coffee shop next door to Carnegie looks like it's going bankrupt.  It's close to empty much of the time.  They've shrunk their hours.  At Waves, they charge $7 for a burrito or wrap, before tax.  And you don’t get a salad with it.  Waves also competes with the Carnegie coffee shop which sells fresh ground coffee for 60 cents per take-out cup.

Carnegie could model on Quest Food store for the poor just up the street on Hastings, which  requires proof that you are poor.  They make that proof easy to get.  They accept a form letter signed by any staffer at a Welfare office confirming that you qualify for food assistance -- these forms are apparently available from any  front desk receptionist.  Quest will also accept a letter from other organizations that cater to poor people.  They will even take a letter from a Minister.  When you give them your letter, they give you a card that you are expected to show each time you shop.  That system hasn’t stopped a couple of Carnegie workers, a security guard and a former teacher, from relentlessly sneaking in there for the rock bottom prices.  But overall the system seems to work; everybody I know who shops there is dirt poor.

Carnegie wouldn’t have to hire extra staff to issue these cards.  They already have front desk staff who give out membership cards as part of their job description.  They indicate on your membership card whether you are a Senior qualifying for extra services -- I think they put a stamp on the cards of Seniors -- so they could put a stamp on the cards of people who qualify for subsidized meals.  Or give them a card in a different colour.  On the "bare bones" City budget, incidentally, these front desk workers were built a brand new desk with a tall back, like a throne, after we referred on this blog to the “surfer boy” who sits at the front desk looking at the web.  It was built at a time when the City claimed to be looking for efficiencies to save money.

When Mayor Robertson commented today about the City of Vancouver operating on a "bare bones” budget, he was responding to BC Conservative leader John Cummins’ statement that the new gas tax could be avoided if municipalities cut 5% off their budgets and allocated that money to the Evergreen Line.  Robertson called Cummins “ignorant”.  But what Cummins said is not far removed from what the homeless man who missed out on the pork said: the City throws money at Carnegie Centre and the Gathering Place and they don’t seem interested in the fact that staff inside are helping themselves.

Trees at Carnegie Dying under "Green" Vision Council

Under "Green" Vision Council, the life is being choked out of trees on the outdoor patio at Carnegie Centre at Main & Hastings.

The patio trees are surrounded by steel grates which they have outgrown.  The grates are now sticking into the tree trunks, choking the trees.  One guy, a nature lover, smoking on the patio a couple of weeks ago, said he complained to Carnegie Director Ethel Whitty about the fact that the trees were being choked and those grates had to be adjusted.  Nothing was done.

Mayor Robertson and the Vision/COPE Council have kept Whitty, in a job that pays over $100,000 even though she has consistently failed to address issues raised by Downtown Eastsiders.  She gets millions of dollars a year to run Carnegie and she can't manage to loosen the grates around the outdoor trees.

Meanwhile, the City is fining health food millionaire businessman, Aaron Stevens, for cutting trees in his backyard.  Many of those trees amounted to dead brush in the backyard of a property that the previous owner had left unattended for years.

I wish NPA Candidate Mike Klassen would answer questions.

I always enjoyed reading Mike Klassen's blog, City Caucus. Sometimes it was funny.  I never forgot the picture he ran of Mayor Robertson hiding under a desk.   But now that Klassan is running for City Council under the NPA banner, I wish he would answer questions.

I heard CKNW's Mike Smythe interview Klassan today for the second time, and both times he avoided answering questions.  Today Klassan criticized Mayor Robertson for "talking out of both sides of his mouth".  Klassan took the position that while Robertson was an MLA, he was a crusader for Cambie St. business owners who lost revenue when rapid transit was under construction on their door steps, but in his current role as mayor, Robertson doesn't seem to be too concerned about the Hornby St. business owners who lost over $2 million in revenue when a bike lane was rammed through.  Smythe asked Klassan if he would compensate those business owners.  Klassan wouldn't say yes or no.

In a previous interview with Smythe, Klassan was criticizing Mayor Robertson over the Hornby St. bike lane. Smythe asked him if he would get rid of the lane.  Klassan wouldn't say yes or no.
  
If Rob Ford were running in Vancouver, he would have a straight answer for both those questions.

Gathering Place: Are staff being hired based on sexual orientation?

Are staff at the Gathering Place being hired based on sexual orientation rather than on their ability to do the job?

I have never set foot in the Gathering Place, a centre downtown which was modelled on Carnegie Centre, and set up by a former Carnegie Director, Diane Mckenzie.  It has more young people amongst its clientele than Carnegie though.  And it caters to many homeless and street people, a population that is predominantly male.

One would think that a primary criterion for getting hired at GP  would be to have a comfort level with the clientele.  But men who use the Centre are resentful about the contempt they're encountering there.   One man who regularly goes to GP  was telling me about a lesbian staffer. "She says "womyn" not "women", and when I talk to her she won't look me in the eye.  She doesn't want to look me in the eye because I'm a man".
 
Another man who uses the GP says that a butch lesbian who works there is gruff and hardened in the way she speaks to people when she's clearing out the dining area.  Like she thinks that getting paid over $20 hr. to work with the poor, is a license to treat them with disrespect.  These complaints aren't coming from women, all are from men.

These guys don't sit around gay bashing.  They don't care if a gay or lesbian gets hired, as long as they're qualified.  But they believe that the over representation of gays and lesbians on staff at GP is an indication that somebody is getting their friends hired.  They listed off all of the employees who were lesbian or gay.  One guy explained that to get a job with a City of Vancouver, people used to say that you had to have a relative working there.  Now it seems as if your sexual orientation can get your foot in the door.  (Having a relative can still help though.  Skip Everall at Carnegie reportedly hired his son to work under him.)

Hiring based on sexual orientation rather than merit damaged Ray Cam Community Centre when it opened it's doors years ago to cater to the youth in the social housing next door, a real ghetto.  The staff was predominantly white lesbians, most of whom had terrible people skills.  They were supposed to be offering  role modelling to the youth, many of whom were native, hispanic, and black males.  A few years later, I ran into a guy who used to lift weights there and he told me how great it was at Ray Cam now and I should drop by.  I told him that I had long ago stopped going there because the lesbians treated me like I was subhuman.  He knew instantly what I was talking about and said, "Oh, they got rid of that group".

I'm wondering if the City has shifted it's old Ray Cam hiring practices to the GP.  These practices are one step removed from a casting couch.

One thing that all the men sitting talking to me about GP agreed on was that, "The staff there have eeeeeasy jobs."  One guy qualified that assessment by noting that the woman who works in the laundry does work for her pay.  Anyone can take their laundry there and get it done for free.

One thing I noticed when sitting with these guys is that they feel the same powerlessness at GP as people at Carnegie Centre.  They knew that taking any kind of stand in the face of staff mistreatment would get them  nowhere because CUPE -- Cover Up for Poor Employees -- would cover asses.  And these guys don't read blogs.

Pivot Loses File of Downtown Eastside Man Allegedly Assaulted by Concord Security Guards

Doug King, a Pivot lawyer, has just announced that he is representing three low income men suing Fusion Security for allegedly brutally attacking them at Harbour Centre mall.  Security guards allegedly took the men to an area with no security cameras and beat them
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Hopefully Pivot can keep track of the file.

Pivot lost the file of "J", a Downtown Eastsider who they were representing in a law suit against Concord security guards at Metrotown Mall.  "J." was brutally assaulted by the guards.  He had been out in Surrey working casual on the night shift in a warehouse -- topping up his welfare; he's allowed to legally earn $500.  When he got off in the morning, he went for a couple of beer with a co-worker and then went to the company office at  Metrotown mall to pick up his cheque.  He made the mistake of chatting to a security guard who may have smelled the beer on his breath.  The guard told him to leave the premises, which "J." did.  J walked quite a distance to a small park, thinking he was off the premises, only to hear a guard order another guard to jump him.  J's nose and teeth were broken and he had a long scab down the front of his nose.  He now wears dentures.  There were credible witnesses to the assault, people who had been walking by and yelled at the guard to stop.  An ambulance came but J. didn't use it.

King took the case.  He told J. he was optimistic about getting a settlement.

When J.A. phoned King for an update, he said the security firm was not being cooperative.  But Pivot had the police report and the witness statements.  King later announced that he was leaving the country for a year and he would pass the file on to another lawyer at Pivot.  The woman who was supposed to inherit the file at Pivot then told "J" that the file had been lost.

"J" phoned back several times to get an update but didn't get a response.

Where did all of this confidential personal information -- forms had been filled out at Pivot -- about "J"end up?  Did somebody leave it on lunch counter at Waves?  The statute of limitations on the case has now expired.

On their website, Pivot states that in talking to Downtown Eastside residents, "[W]e’ve heard a lot of stories about harassment and abuse by private security guards, and after hearing several similar stories about negative interactions between private security guards at Harbour Centre from both mall employees and low-income people, we knew we needed to take action on this case."

Myself and other contributors to this site support Pivot's decision to sue Fusion.  But the same stories abound about public security guards at Carnegie and other organizations on the Downtown Eastside.  Pivot doesn't even mention them.  It's almost as if public sector unions pay protection money so that Pivot will look the other way.  I wonder how much Pivot gets in donations from unions.

I wonder if Fusion could add to their defense the fact that Pivot is advertising for residents to bring them cases about private security guards, and demonstrating blatant bias by giving a wink 'n a nod to abuses by public security guards in the same neighbourhood.  Pivot activist-lawyers put up posters throughout the Downtown Eastside, even on the walls of Carnegie Centre just feet from where public security guards routinely verbally or physically abuse the poor, encouraging people to give them cases against private security guards.  ["J" never reads posters; he has complained in the past about missing events because he never reads posters.]  Maybe Fusion will have the money to expose Pivot biases because Downtown Eastsiders don't.

Cop with Dog Orders 20 Teenagers to the Ground

On the grassy edge of the parking lot at Terminal and Main, there is shrine by a tree to Chris Poeng, the 13 year old boy who was stabbed in that parking lot a few years ago, and died just hours later in hospital.  The teens who knew him haven't forgotten him.  They return every May on the anniversary of his death, and again in June when school is out.  

They leave flowers and other things around a tree that has a white heart painted on it.  Recently they left a basketball.

  

School has once again gotten out and the teens were there on Monday night.  There seemed to be two groups of them.  All Asian.  There was friction.  Some girls started yelling.  A police officer pulled up with a dog.  He ordered all the teens on the ground.  Some started taking off but he told them to stop or he would get the dog after them.  

The cop single-handedly managed to bring about 20 teens to their knees.

One witness thought he saw a few of the teens toss things away when the cop arrived.  The cop had a flashlight and was searching the ground for something, maybe a weapon.

I don't want to make these teens sound bad.  Most of them seem to be regular teenagers who cared about Poeng.

The police know who stabbed Poeng.  It was a teenage boy but there wasn't enough evidence to lay charges.  A VPD investigator later told the media that the investigation was hindered by social media savy teens who communicated with one another.

Dal Richards and the Murderous Muriel Honey

If your wife continued gasing people after one person had suffered gas poisoning, would you continue to find her attractive?

That's a question for Dal Richards.  Richards is a Vancouver musician married to Muriel Honey, director of the Film Office at the City of Vancouver.  For ten years Downtown Eastsiders have asked Honey to stop gasing people.

For ten years, Honey has allowed film companies to park generators in the worst possible place: on the sidewalk in front of street level apartment windows on the Downtown Eastside.  The tenants do not have windows on the sides or rear of their apartments, just front windows where oxygen has to compete with carbon monoxide gas pouring in. A senior member of the Fire Dept. took the position that parking generators outside these windows and allowing them to run all day is dangerous.

Honey is aware that one person has already suffered carbon monoxide poisoning; she eventually wrote the victim a letter saying that the City did not intend to upset anyone.

She kept the gas flowing.

A few hours ago, a tenant got nauseous from multiple generators parked outside street level apartment windows by a film company.

Richards benefits from the over $100,000 salary that Honey takes from taxpayers as she places lives at risk by recklessly gasing people.  Richards posed for a photo when a local magazine ran a feature article on the swank loft he shares with Honey ...not far from where she is allowing people to be poisoned.  It's time he stopped benefiting even peripherally from her salary.

Cops deserve credit for Restraint shown at Riot

For as long as I can remember, police have been criticized for clobbering people with billy clubs.  Last week's riot showed that they are listening.  I recall in the 1994 riot, innocent people were seriously injured by police brutality.

Obviously the VPD were under instructions last week to put human life first, before property.

If the Mayor, Police Chief, and City Manager had made adequate preparations for such a large crowd, much of the property damage could have been avoided too.

City Hall and the Premier have been putting enormous emphasis on charging the young people who caused the damage.  I don't have a problem with charging them, but I have a problem with using teenagers to deflect attention from the negligence of those in leadership roles.

I'm realizing as most people do as they get older that there are no grown ups.

Riot: City Manager admitted today that she Never Read Recommendations to Avoid Violence -- and Downtown Eastsiders know it's not her first time

Penny Ballem admitted to the media this morning that she had never read the Report on the 1994 Riot containing recommendations on what to do differently to avoid future violence.  This is the City manager who is notorious for micromanaging at City Hall, and once defended this management style to the media. "That's why they pay me the big bucks."

This is not the first time Ballem has ignored a report containing recommendations on how to avoid future harm to citizens.

At a meeting in January 2010 at City Hall about the epidemic of security guard violence and barrings of people from Carnegie Community Centre and library for speaking up, Ballem promised -- PROMISED repeatedly -- that she would read a report written a decade earlier containing recommendations for changes to the barring policy.  That report had been written after consultations with Carnegie members.

Ballem broke her promise.

There has been no sign that Ballem ever read the report. There has been no sign that any recommendations were implemented.  There has been no sign of follow up after the meeting by Ballem or her subordinate Brenda Procton. A woman who attended the meeting with Ballem told me she never received a phone call or an email or a letter, nothing.  Ballem stuck her head in the sand and allowed the violence by Carnegie security guards to escalate until a victim of subsequent violence called police.

A host on CKNW radio expressed outrage today that Ballem had not read the recommendations in the riot report.  Downtown Eastsiders have seen it all before.

Bicylist Collides with Car in Dunsmuir Bike Lane

At about 5 p.m. Friday, a bicyclist collided with an SUV in the Dunsmuir St. bike lane.  An SUV was driving on Dunsmuir and turned left onto Homer, headed toward Pender St.  A homeless man heard a thud.  The bicyclist had crashed right into the SUV.

The Chinese guy driving the SUV stopped.  The bicyclist managed to get up.

The witness couldn't stop because he was rushing to the Gathering Place for dinner; when you're homeless you have to stay focused on finding cheap or free dinners.  The witness assumed the driver couldn't see the cyclist and thought the accident was the cyclist's fault. "He should have been looking", the homeless man said. "Those bike lanes are dangerous."

Mayor Robertson who interfered in a requested criminal investigation into evidence of his own links to violence, now promises perpetrators of Stanley Cup violence will be held accountable

After Wednesday night's Stanley Cup game riot, Vancouver Mayor Gregor Robertson said the perpetrators of violence will be held accountable.  Interesting, when he was facing investigation for his own links to violence against a female critic at Carnegie Centre, there is evidence that he got busy witness-tampering and paying off police chief Jim Chu.   Following is a reprint of an April article about Mayor Robertson's record. 

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Mayor Robertson Accused of Pay Off to Police Chief Jim Chu who was supposed to be Criminally Investigating him

This is something you might expect in the Chicago political establishment. Mayor Gregor Robertson is accused of giving a payoff to Vancouver Police Chief Jim Chu, while Chu was continuing to evade a request for a criminal investigation into evidence of criminal activity on the part of Robertson. At the very least, Robertson 'rewarded' Chu with a five year contract extension worth over one and a half million dollars for a job well done during the period in which he was stalling on investigating Robertson.

In May 2010 a request was made to VPD Chief Chu to arrange for an external police force to investigate evidence that Robertson, City manager Penny Ballem, and two security guards at Carnegie Centre were involved in the manufacture of a fraudulent security report and a pre-meditated plan to bar a Carnegie member under fraudulent pretenses, a barring which involved assault and extensive public humiliation. One of the guards involved, who the victim had never seen before but who had clearly been incited to target her, implicated Robertson and Ballem in comments he made at the time.

For some time, evidence has been reported on this blog of efforts by City staff to "bar" people from Carnegie who have complained of abuse, particularly those who have made their experiences public by talking to bloggers. We have reported that these barrings often involve public humiliation as well. When we reported this targeting of individuals who take their stories to the media, we could not have anticipated that evidence would eventually surface that Vision Vancouver has a "media hit list" along with a plan to ridicule people creating negative impressions of Vision in the media. Former 24 Hours columnist Alex Tsakumis broke the story. Mike Magee in the Mayor's office has denied the existence of any such hit list.

Despite the request being made in May that Chu arrange for an external police force to investigate Robertson -- Chu can't investigate because of conflict of interest due to Robertson's role as Chair of the Police Board -- Ballem, and two Carnegie security guards, the investigation has not yet been carried out. There is no doubt that Robertson knew that the investigation had been requested. Immediately after the request was made in May, Robertson reportedly held a secret meeting at Carnegie with witnesses and offenders. He interfered in a pending police investigation into himself.

By September, Chief Chu was continuing to stall in arranging for an investigation into his boss, Robertson. It was in the midst of this stalling that Robertson gave Chu a five year extension to his contract, at over $300,000. Now, seven months later, the case against Robertson and Ballem has still not been investigated. Are you surprised?

It is easy for Chu to treat Downtown Eastside women as though violence against them doesn't matter, because he knows they can't afford lawyers. Now a lawyer has offered to meet pro bono with the victim in this case to discuss how to proceed. He will review the evidence in the case, including a photo of the bruise the victim received. But that won't occur until the beginning of July when the lawyer returns to Vancouver from China.

Watching Chief Chu "on the take", benefiting from monetary and other rewards from a man into whom he is supposed to be arranging a criminal investigation, has led to distrust on the part of the victim. Even if Chief Chu was to suddenly meet his professional obligation to arrange for the investigation, she will be having no further contact with the VPD about this case without a lawyer present. Since not much happens over the summer, estimates are that there will be no progress on this case until September or October. A press conference will be held by the lawyer to update the public when a decision is made about how to proceed. (No further information will be released until that time.)

This case highlights the hypocrisy of Robertson and Chu on the issue of violence against Downtown Eastside women. Chu held a public meeting earlier this year at Carnegie to talk -- in front of media cameras of course -- about how committed he is to ensuring that violence against Downtown Eastside women is seriously investigated. To get into that meeting in the Carnegie theater, Chu had to walk by security guards at Carnegie that he was supposed to be investigating.

Chu would no doubt say he didn't take a pay off from Robertson, that he was due for a contract extension. But Robertson had an obligation to at least recuse himself from the decision. And Chu should have at least asked him to. An extension requires a performance review. How did Robertson manage to conclude that the Chief is doing a fine job when he knows the Chief is sitting on evidence of criminal activity against him.

Also at fault here are Police Board members. Why did Glenn Wong tell the media that he agreed with Robertson and other Police Board members that Chu was doing a fine job and deserved an extension of his contract. Did it ever occur to Wong, who told the media that Chu often calls him at home to talk, to ask Chu to avoid taking any form of reward from a government official he was supposed to be investigating. If Wong claims he didn't know about the investigation requested into Robertson, then he didn't do due diligence before approving Chu's contract extension, as the requested criminal investigation was a matter of public record.

Allan Garr, a columnist with the Courier newspaper, said in a column earlier this year that the Vancouver Police Board tends not to provide effective oversight of Chief Chu and his officers. Garr said the Police Board are more "lapdogs" than watchdogs.

Ethel Whitty "never around" say Carnegie members, despite her pay cheque of well over $100,000 annually

Where is Ethel Whitty?

It's been a long time since I've seen her at Carnegie.  A woman who goes to Carnegie almost daily commented the other day, "She's never around.  She's never there."  She doesn't remember the last time she saw Whitty.  I've heard both women and men express amazement at how invisible Whitty is at Carnegie.

Another woman who generally doesn't criticize Whitty, said that she needed a letter from Whitty recently, and went to her office only to be told by staff that she wasn't there and they had no idea when she would show up again.  It was an emergency situation, but the woman was left dangling.  This woman is not the only member who has reported the problem of staff having no idea when Whitty would return.

Whitty is supposed to be available to the people at Carnegie Centre, one woman explained.  "She's not management."  That surprised me as I thought that as director, she would be considered management. David McLellan is General  Manager of Community Services and he has to start taking more of an interest in why Carnegie members rarely see Whitty around.  Whitty is paid well over $100,000 to be at Carnegie.  If Whitty is not in her office, she has an obligation to ensure that her staff know when she will return.  These unexplained disappearances have gone on for far too long.

From the day Whitty got the job at Carnegie, she has been accused of hiding in her office.  The word, "hiding" has been used more than once.  But the problem seems to have gone beyond hiding now.

When Whitty is seen by Carnegie members, her attitude is different.  One woman said Whitty "is like a Nazi in meetings now." The word "Nazi" gets tossed around too loosely to mean much, so I asked that the woman be more specific.  She said Whitty gives orders about what she wants done when she's in meetings; it's an ordering style that she didn't have when she first arrived at Carnegie.  This style has been noticed, for example, in meetings with poverty activists.  

The taxpayin' truth is that either Whitty's job or that of her assistant, CUPE member Dan Tetrault, could easily be eliminated without any effect on services at Carnegie.  Easily.  McLellan knows that. And so does Mayor Gregor Robertson.   But they won't cut either one of these jobs because Carnegie is COPE territory and VISION Mayor Gregor has made a deal with COPE to work together to keep the centre-right from getting elected. COPE councillors like Ellen Woodsworth and David Cadman would make a fuss if Mayor Gregor deprived their loyal womyn and feminized males on the left of their sinecures.

Unfair NHL Referees throughout Series Contributed to Riot in Vancouver

A native guy in his sixties came into McDonald's restaurant at Main & Terminal at about 4:30 p.m. Wednesday, where people were sitting on the stools in front of the big screen televisions waiting for Stanley Cup Game 7 to begin.  As he grabbed the last available stool, he told us, "The word is that if the officiating is unfair again tonight, people are going to riot.  That's the word."  He said it twice.  The Downtown Eastside is different than other neighbourhoods: people have more time than in other neighbourhoods and talk to one another on the street, they stand on street corners and talk.
  
I've been enjoying watching the games with this guy at Mcdonalds, because he knows hockey like nobody else I know.  He grew up in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan -- 100 miles north of Saskatoon -- where people are immersed in hockey.  He told me it's common for kids there to play on two hockey teams, one at school and one outside school.

I knew what he meant about the officiating being unfair in the Boston vs. Vancouver playoffs.  I've noticed a bias.  Even a sports reporter from Boston noted that the officiating "has favored Boston" in the finals, when he was interviewed on Tuesday by a Vancouver radio station.  I won't repeat all the examples that have been discussed on Canuck-obsessed talk radio, but when you see a penalty given for a shove at one end of the rink and five punches to Sedin's head going unnoticed at the other end of the rink, something is not right.

At the end of the first period, when the score was 1-0, the native guy turned to me and said he thought the Canucks could come back.  Early in the period, the players knew where one another was, "but by the end they seemed to be looking for each other."  He thought they would come out in the second period and function more as a team again.

When the Canucks lost, he said, "I'm gonna feel bad now for two or three days."  Then tears welled up in his eyes.

The Canucks may have let their Stanley Cup chance slip away even if the refs hadn't been handicapping them throughout the series.  Luongo after all should have stopped at least a couple of tonight's goals.  Tim Thomas was a stellar performer.  The Bruins were the better team tonight.

I've talked to several devoted hockey fans now about Brian Tuohy's book, "The Fix is In", about fixing in the NHL and other sports, and they have all said they believe it's going on.  On Tuohy's website, he publishes a quote Patrick Hruby on ESPN.com about his book,  "Tuohy makes a compelling, fact-based argument that not everything in the sports world is as it seems."  Rick, a homeless tennis player and avid recycler who is mad about hockey, told me after Monday night's game that he has no doubt there is fixing going on in hockey.

The native guy had the same response when I asked him tonight.  He pointed out that allegations of betting on hockey against Wayne Gretzky's wife and assistant coach, although no charges were laid, did nothing to inspire confidence in the integrity of the NHL.  "Do you notice they don't have him on [tv] talking about the game anymore?  They don't want nothin' to do with him.  He's tainted."

The mainstream media generally avoids discussion of suspicions of fixing.  A couple of weeks ago, CKNW's Bruce Allen, who has crafted an image as a straight talker, was guest-hosting a talk show and instantly hung up on a caller who said of the playoffs: "It's fixed."

Canucks' GM, Mike Gillis, did hint at it in a press conference in April as the Canucks battled the Chicago Blackhawks.  He pointed out that in the previous four games, Chicago had 69% more power plays than Vancouver. In the previous four games when the score had been tight, a one or two goal difference, Chicago had 100% more power plays than Vancouver.  As Gillis read a list of statistics to support his claim that there has been nowhere near "a level playing field", I suspected, "The Fix Is In".  


Gillis suggested this week that he has been muzzled.  At a press conference, when asked about the fact that there had been no penalty for Boston for the hit that broke the back of Canuck Mason Raymond, he said, 'I can't talk about.  I'll get in trouble.'

Tonight, after the Canuck's final 4-0 loss to Boston, when the first car in downtown Vancouver was turned over and burned, many of the people rocking that car until it turned over were wearing Canucks jerseys.  Although some of the rioting and looting was started by a small group of people wearing black balaclavas, fans in Canucks jerseys were quick to join them and were clearly enjoying the emotional release.  They were not all youths either.

Everybody involved "will be held accountable", the Mayor said.  But the NHL which have pumped these fans up throughout the series and then allowed refs to cheat them?  Don't expect any accountability there.

Luongo's Missing McNuggets

Staff at the Mcdonalds restaurant at Main & Terminal say Roberto Luongo, the Canucks goalie, grabs a bite to eat at their drive-thru window after games sometimes.  That restaurant is also popular with Downtown Eastsiders who drop in for coffee -- and free refills.

A supervisor said they once got Luongo's order wrong and forgot his "10 mcnuggets."  I don't know whether they got his order straightened out, because the supervisor wasn't talking directly to me, and it was loud in the restaurant as they now have sports blaring on the tv screens much of the time.  It's become a bit like a sports bar.

Luongo, the supervisor said, drives through in either "his truck or his sports car". He comes through during the regular season but hasn't come through during the playoffs.

A young Chinese guy who works at Mcdonalds was delighted that Luongo shook his hand.

That Mcdonald's is a short distance away from the arena in downtown Vancouver where the Canucks play their home games -- so close that you can see the big yellow arches if you look across the parking lot.

Professional athletes have to be on a high quality diet.  But some dietitians advise following the 80-20 rule.  Eat well 80% of the time, and you can eat whatever you please the other 20% of the time.  That allows for some Mcdonalds take-out to snack on while driving home after a game.

Women Arrested for Scratching and Hitting Pedestrians

A twenty-something woman was drunk late Thursday afternoon and was scratching and hitting pedestrians at Main & Hastings.  She was arrested on Hastings next to the Royal Bank.

At least seven uniformed police officers, two on bicycles, arrived at the scene, along with two paramedics.  There was a police paddy wagon and one ambulance.

The woman arrested was native, slim, with shoulder length brown hair.

Seventy Year Old Woman Abused at Carnegie, Security creates No Consequences

A 70 year old woman had a bottle of water thrown at her by a man as she stood waiting for the elevator at Carnegie.  She said the bottle could have broken her ankle, as it landed near her foot.  She reported the incident to Skip Everall, Security Co-ordinator.

Everall spoke to the man who had thrown the bottle and then dropped the entire issue.  The woman was puzzled that nothing had been done.  She was told by another Carnegie member that Everall has a record of not taking abuse of women seriously.

In fact, the way this case was handled is typical of the sharia law practiced at Carnegie under the the City of Vancouver.  The way sharia works is that a man's testimony is given twice the weight of a woman's.  And men can decide on the punishment a woman deserves, without any input from her.  (Skip Everall and guard Ted Chaing, made a decision about a woman's punishment for raising the issue of sexism, without any input from her.)  Physical abuse of a woman is not considered serious, although a woman failing to defer to a man is considered worthy of serious punishment.

Such sharia punishment, when imposed by the City of Vancouver, generally involves barring the woman from City services for an extended period. After she serves her sentence, she has the option of meeting with Everall, a meeting during which she must act meek and deferential, and make no mention of her rights, in order to be considered sufficiently rehabilitated to have access to services funded by her tax dollars reinstated.  I'm not exaggerating.  We have tapes of these 'sharia court' sessions financed by the City of Vancouver.  It's an example of the social degeneration that can occur when City Hall tosses 3 million dollars a year at Carnegie staff, and essentially looks the other way, expecting little or no accountability for how patrons are treated.

I pointed out to a Carnegie member a couple of years ago that what was being practiced at Carnegie was comparable to sharia law.  She then pointed this out to Carnegie Director, Ethel Whitty.  Ethel "just shrugged", she says.

Rigged Complaints Process at Carnegie: Woman has been Waiting almost Two Years for City staffer Dan Tetrault to Respond to Abuse Incident

There is evidence that the process for the many Carnegie members who have complaints about staff abuse is rigged.  Complaints about staff abuse or other forms of misconduct are regularly sent to CUPE member Dan Tetrault.  That's where the rigging is: complaints against CUPE members are sent to a CUPE member to be addressed.

It has now been almost two years, and there has been no response to a formal complaint that went to Tetrault after being lodged with Security Co-ordinator Skip Everall about Brent, a cashier who approached a woman in an aggressive manner and swore at her.  She was entering the cafeteria at the time and he apparently was trying to close earlier than scheduled -- she wonders if he was sneaking out early for the long weekend -- and didn't want customers getting in the way.  She was uncomfortable returning to the cafeteria due to Brent's conduct.

Everall scolded the victim for daring to speak to a security guard about Brent's behaviour -- even though members are instructed at Carnegie to report any incident to security.  (Members are discouraged from handling such situations themselves. Signs of empowerment on the part of any low income person are considered punishable by barring from all City services at the Centre.) 

After scolding the woman for daring to believe she had a right to speak to a security guard, Everall told her that complaints about staff are to be sent to Dan Tetrault.  He would not allow the guard to write an Incident Report and slammed the Incident Report binder closed.  Everall instructed her to submit the complaint in writing. She did so immediately and handed it directly to Everall.  He said Tetrault, would respond to it.  The complaint was balanced, in that the complainant pointed out that Brent had previously been polite to her.   (Others at Carnegie noticed Brent had become nasty at times; they figured his probationary period was up.) 

The complaint was buried. 

It will be two years in July since the woman who was cussed at was told to put the complaint in writing. If the situation had been the other way around, if a woman in the Centre had cussed at a male staff person, the woman would have been instantly barred for an extended period from City of Vancouver services inside Carnegie. She would have had an Incident Report instantly written about her and entered into the City of Vancouver "Security" database where it would remain for at least two years.    

David McLellan, General Manager of Community Services, who oversees Whitty and Tetrault, is ultimately responsible for ensuring that a response is given to complainants about staff. McLellan would be aware that when a written complaint is lodged, a letter acknowledging receipt is to be immediately sent to the individual.  No letter was sent in this case, although there was a witness who saw her hand the written complaint to Everall.

The sham of sending individuals with complaints against Carnegie staff to Tetrault has continued for roughly 20 years.  Many Carnegie members are not aware of the conflict of interest position occupied by Tetrault.  They assume he's management when they take a complaint to him.  They haven't seen the photo of him on the internet standing on a CUPE picket line with a placard when Carnegie staff were on strike.

Tetrault's abuse of his City powers became public when he barred the husband of a co-worker with whom he had entered a sexual relationship, denying the husband/taxpayer access to all City services at Carnegie.  That barring was lifted when bloggers made it public.

But what lingers are questions about why Tetrault has been allowed to continue to abuse his City powers while in a conflict of interest position.  It is not uncommon for people who have lodged complaints with Tetrault against his fellow CUPE members to find themselves the target of barrings a few months down the road.  Barrings are regularly rubber-stamped by Tetrault.

Tetrault should be stepping aside when he is in a conflict of interest position.  He would no doubt claim that Director Ethel Whitty is ultimately responsible for the barrings and just delegates responsibility to him.  Don't believe a word of it.  Barrings are regularly instigated and implemented under Tetrault's supervision, without Whitty even being on the premises.

Whitty has positioned Tetrault as the go-to guy for complaints against staff -- "talk to Dan Tetrault," members are told -- even though his conflict of interest position virtually guarantees that he will take no serious action.    In most cases, complainants, both men and women, report that Tetrault did absolutely nothing.  I know of no case where a member felt they got a satisfactory result.  There is enormous resentment against Tetrault by members who have been brushed off over the years.

Here's what you can expect when you take a complaint to Tetrault: He will greet you in a somewhat friendly voice tone as if he were greeting a family member -- staff push the "Carnegie family" angle to discourage poor people from seeing class and power differences favouring the povertarian class.  He will allow you to tell him what you experienced.  When his demeanor is described to me, it never fails to bring to mind the term, "feminized male": consistently speaking in a mild one of voice, shuffling his feet a bit, looking at the floor (non-threatening male), smiling a bit because of course he's in the company of "family".  He will come across as inoffensive. But you are likely to be highly offended when you discover that he has done dick about your complaint.  And it is likely that you will discover that, as thousands of members before you have discovered. And you may also find staff behaviour toward you becoming hostile, once they realize that you are a complaining 'black sheep'.  And if you keep returning to Tetrault's office to find out why nothing is being done, you may find that he has sailed away on his yacht to places where he can't be reached by "family" members.

This rigged complaints process where staff have one of their own deflecting complaints against them, has contributed to an environment at Carnegie which has parallels to the degeneration over the decades of Woodlands.  Although the clientele are not at all similar, the abuses that continue unchecked are in some ways similar -- physical and verbal abuse and even systematic sexual exploitation.  Tetrault is not solely to blame though. Whitty admitted at a Board meeting that she would defend her staff no matter what, and she has to date covered for them even when there was evidence of sexual exploitation and verbal and physical abuse.  

The fact that a woman has been waiting almost two years for a complaint against Brent to be processed, is not about his cussing. It is about a rigged complaints process.  When the suppression of the complaint against Brent reaches the two year mark in July, it has been suggested that Councillor Susan Anton be asked to ensure that David McLellan answer for this delay.  McLellan should also explain why complaints of staff abuse or misconduct are directed to Tetrault who belongs to the same union and stands on the picket line with staff.