HRV encourages you to get involved in fighting for social justice for people on the streets of Victoria by participating in 2 actions...
1. Red Tent March
A Red Tent (www.redtents.org) rally and march is being organized for Monday, Nov 1 at noon starting on Pandora Green to draw attention to the grave need for housing. Food-Not-Bombs will provide food and everyone is asked to wear red. Organizers are still looking for sticks for picket signs and volunteers to leaflet and make signs. Please contact Kevin if you can help out, and please send this far and wide!! Kevin- yahlkevin@yahoo.ca
2. Letters to City Hall
Last Wednesday, a man sleeping in a Victoria park was brutalized by 2 City of Victoria bylaw officers (see article below). Apparently this man was beaten very badly and suffered injuries to his head and neck. People living on the streets of Victoria suffer from stigma and discrimination as a result of their experiences of homelessness, poverty, impacts of trauma, mental illness and drug use. This stigma and discrimination is a form of violence and this violence continues to be systematically built in to our City bylaws, such as the recent amendment to the Streets and Traffic bylaw prohibiting 'camping' on medians and boulevards. Now, 2 bylaw officers have been caught for their physically violent attack on someone sleeping in a City park. HRV will be sending a letter to City Hall to demand justice and a full inquiry into this horrendous violence perpetrated by City employees. We encourage you to do the same, and send this message far and wide. Letters may be sent to Councillor Philippe Lucas, who has also expressed his outrage about this situation. Please send letters to plucas@victoria.ca
Friday, October 29, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Refresh Everything Vote
Follow the link, and vote for a storage space for the belongings of people who are homeless in Vancouver.
http://www.refresheverything.ca/firstunitedchurch
http://www.refresheverything.ca/firstunitedchurch
Friday, April 9, 2010
SCS are:
Supervised consumption services…
…save lives. All credible research agrees that medically supervised injection greatly reduces the transference of deadly infections and costly hospital stays for preventable illnesses.
…reduce open drug use. When people who use drugs have a safe environment to consume drugs, drug use in our public spaces will be reduced.
…provide access to treatment and other health care supports. With the presence of health care professionals, those seeking to reduce or cease their drug use entirely can be helped to do so.
…are dignified. Open drug use demeans people who use drugs and does nothing to address the growing problem of addiction in our society.
…are fixed site needle exchanges. A distributed model of needle exchange must not replace fixed site services.
(copied form HRV email)
…save lives. All credible research agrees that medically supervised injection greatly reduces the transference of deadly infections and costly hospital stays for preventable illnesses.
…reduce open drug use. When people who use drugs have a safe environment to consume drugs, drug use in our public spaces will be reduced.
…provide access to treatment and other health care supports. With the presence of health care professionals, those seeking to reduce or cease their drug use entirely can be helped to do so.
…are dignified. Open drug use demeans people who use drugs and does nothing to address the growing problem of addiction in our society.
…are fixed site needle exchanges. A distributed model of needle exchange must not replace fixed site services.
(copied form HRV email)
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
copied from HRV:
Hello all.
May 31, 2010 will mark 2 years without a central location forpeople who use illicit drugs to access safer drug use supplies and supportfrom their peers, outreach staff and street nurses. The Mayor and Council of the City of Victoria say Harm Reduction is one oftheir top priorities...so we invite you to join us in making City Hallkeep its promise!
WHEN: THURSDAY APRIL 15TH AT 6:30 PM WHERE: CITY HALLWHAT: COME AND JOIN THE CROWD AND SHOW SUPPORT FOR HARM REDUCTION SERVICESIN VICTOIRA. WE ALSO NEED SPEAKERS (YOU MAY NOT HAVE TO SPEAK, BUT IT LOOKS GOOD TO HAVE 100 PEOPLE UP THERE READY TO!). HOW TO SPEAK: FILL OUT A REQUEST TO SPEAK AT COUNCIL MEETING FORM ANDSUBMIT ONE DAY BEFORE MEETING BY 11 AM.
Our goal is to flood the City with requests to speak and to have as manypeople as possible address Council. Please sign up, and please join us on April 15! HRV is also collecting these request forms from people who usedrugs to ensure that their voices are heard. *How to sign up:* you can do so online athttp://www.victoria.ca/cityhall/meetings_addrs.shtml or you can fill outthe attached form and send it in yourself. You don't need to include manydetails about why you want to speak...feel free to use the demands listedBELOW. It would be great to hear from you if you do send in a request to speak sothat we get a sense of numbers.
Either way, see you at City Hall on April15 at 6:30pm! In Solidarity, HRV
May 31, 2010 will mark 2 years without a central location forpeople who use illicit drugs to access safer drug use supplies and supportfrom their peers, outreach staff and street nurses. The Mayor and Council of the City of Victoria say Harm Reduction is one oftheir top priorities...so we invite you to join us in making City Hallkeep its promise!
WHEN: THURSDAY APRIL 15TH AT 6:30 PM WHERE: CITY HALLWHAT: COME AND JOIN THE CROWD AND SHOW SUPPORT FOR HARM REDUCTION SERVICESIN VICTOIRA. WE ALSO NEED SPEAKERS (YOU MAY NOT HAVE TO SPEAK, BUT IT LOOKS GOOD TO HAVE 100 PEOPLE UP THERE READY TO!). HOW TO SPEAK: FILL OUT A REQUEST TO SPEAK AT COUNCIL MEETING FORM ANDSUBMIT ONE DAY BEFORE MEETING BY 11 AM.
Our goal is to flood the City with requests to speak and to have as manypeople as possible address Council. Please sign up, and please join us on April 15! HRV is also collecting these request forms from people who usedrugs to ensure that their voices are heard. *How to sign up:* you can do so online athttp://www.victoria.ca/cityhall/meetings_addrs.shtml or you can fill outthe attached form and send it in yourself. You don't need to include manydetails about why you want to speak...feel free to use the demands listedBELOW. It would be great to hear from you if you do send in a request to speak sothat we get a sense of numbers.
Either way, see you at City Hall on April15 at 6:30pm! In Solidarity, HRV
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Social Action Saving lives...
Raise Shit! Social Action Saving Lives
With authors Susan Boyd, Donald MacPherson & Bud Osborn
Thursday, March 4, 2010
7:00 pm
Solstice Café, 529 Pandora Avenue, Victoria, Lekwungen Territories, BC
Raise Shit! Social Action Saving Lives tells a story about community activism in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side (DTES) that culminated in a social justice movement to open the first official safe injection site in North America. This story is unique: it is told from the point of view of drug users — those most affected by drug policy, political decisions and policing. It provides a montage of poetry, photos, early Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) meetings, journal entries from the Back Alley, the “unofficial” safe injection site, and excerpts from significant health and media reports. The harms of prohibition, and resistance, hope, kindness, awakening and collective action are chronicled in these pages.
Susan Boyd is a professor at the University of Victoria. Donald MacPherson is the former Drug Policy Coordinator for the City of Vancouver. Poet Bud Osborn is a founding member of VANDU. Susan, Donald and Bud have been active for many years working on social justice issues that both strengthen and sustain the community in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver.
A question and discussion period will follow the launch presentation. This event is free and all are welcome.
For more information on Raise Shit! Social Action Saving Lives:
www.fernwoodpublishing.ca
For more information on Harm Reduction Victoria (HRV):
www.harmreductionvictoria.ca
With authors Susan Boyd, Donald MacPherson & Bud Osborn
Thursday, March 4, 2010
7:00 pm
Solstice Café, 529 Pandora Avenue, Victoria, Lekwungen Territories, BC
Raise Shit! Social Action Saving Lives tells a story about community activism in Vancouver’s Downtown East Side (DTES) that culminated in a social justice movement to open the first official safe injection site in North America. This story is unique: it is told from the point of view of drug users — those most affected by drug policy, political decisions and policing. It provides a montage of poetry, photos, early Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) meetings, journal entries from the Back Alley, the “unofficial” safe injection site, and excerpts from significant health and media reports. The harms of prohibition, and resistance, hope, kindness, awakening and collective action are chronicled in these pages.
Susan Boyd is a professor at the University of Victoria. Donald MacPherson is the former Drug Policy Coordinator for the City of Vancouver. Poet Bud Osborn is a founding member of VANDU. Susan, Donald and Bud have been active for many years working on social justice issues that both strengthen and sustain the community in the Downtown East Side of Vancouver.
A question and discussion period will follow the launch presentation. This event is free and all are welcome.
For more information on Raise Shit! Social Action Saving Lives:
www.fernwoodpublishing.ca
For more information on Harm Reduction Victoria (HRV):
www.harmreductionvictoria.ca
Thursday, February 18, 2010
"A Tale of Two Vancouvers"
"The shimmering glow from the Olympic rings above the Vancouver harbor only illuminates the contradiction that 800 teachers recently received notification they may be laid off next year because of budget cuts. The homeless population in Vancouver has more than doubled since the Olympic bidding process began."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/feb/12/vancouver-winter-olympics-protests
Copy paste the link (sorry)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2010/feb/12/vancouver-winter-olympics-protests
Copy paste the link (sorry)
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