War on the Poor

I was at an emotional memorial for Frank Paul yesterday, and I realised that although most Canadians point to drugs as a cause of poverty, the media rarely points to race. I was suprised to find this National Council on Welfare survey provide options relalting to First Nations. Of course, other factors included are recent immigration, mental health, single motherhood, welfare rates, job training and so on.

Poverty in the DTES also has its roots in history and geography. First the BCER tram left, then the hotels closed, then the banks left. Expo 86 left many homeless, as well as the cosure of mental health facilities such as Riverview. The problem has been exacerbated by Campbell's cuts to welfare, addiction services, and minumum wage. Now the city of Vancouver points fingers as cracks appear in the foundation and the housing crisis worsens. The recent volley in the War on the Poor is an attempt to lock all of the dumpsters in Vancouver, destroying the culture of "binners" that have evolved to deal with their own poverty.

Homeless people under attack! What do we do? Stand up! Fight back!
Anti-Liberal squat Sunday, 2pm, 327 Carall. If they won't give it to us, We'll take it.

Yesterday's rally made its way to the Vancouver Detox centre where Frank Paul was dragged out of and left to freeze to death by VPD officers. The police looked on from behind the bushes. too ashamed to show their faces. Kat Norris of Kahtou led a burning ceremony next to the telephone pole where Frank was propped. The smoke and drums were to cleanse the site and release the soul of Frank Paul.

A similar thing happened repeatedly in Saskatchewan, where the RCMP took drunk natives into the prairies and left them to die in the sub-zero temperatures, these were called Starlight Tours. Here in BC, we have the Highway of Tears, a stretch of highway from Prince George to Prince Rupert, where 9 women - most of them Aboriginal - have died or gone missing.

Another reminder of how vulnerable First Nations women are is taking place at the BC Law Courts, as Robert Pickton awaits trial. He is accused of killing 26 of the 61 missing Vancouver women, mostly prostitutes and most of them aboriginal. Police inaction resulted in at least 6 murders that could have been prevented, when community elders were ignored when they came forward with suspicions towards Pickton. How did the list get to 61? Disgraceful.

Then of course there is the legacy of shame regarding the Residential School System in which countless numbers of young first nation children were physically and sexually abused, and where the mortality rate was 35% to 60%, that is, five years after entry, 35% to 60% of students had died.

And it all comes back to the institutionalized poverty that exists in this country. Look at the stats, 34% of aboriginals live in poverty. Comprising 3 percent of the national adult population, aboriginals account for about 20 percent of those receiving jail sentences.

Poverty rates (using Statistics Canada pre-tax Low Income Cut-Offs) among Canadians in 2004 included:

6.6% of two-earner families with children
6.7% of elderly families
10.0% of two-parent families with children
11.6% of children in two-parent families
14.4% of men overall
15.5% of Canadians overall
16.6% of women overall
17.7% of children overall
22.2% of male lone parents
29.1% of unattached older men
38.1% of unattached older women
38.3% of unattached individuals under 65
47.1% of female lone parents
52.1% of children in female lone-parent families
Poverty rates from the 2001 census included:

16% of Canadians overall
22% of immigrants
34% of Aboriginal people
28% of visible minorities
23% of people with a disability (activity limitation)