Campaign Overview for Pivot in 2009 and 2010
By John Richardson, Executive Director, Pivot Legal Society
It certainly was a wild 2009! And 2010 is looking to even wilder, by all indications, with the arrival of the 2010 Olympics, a new BC Police Act, the Assistance to Shelter Act, and much more.
We will be working hard to keep up the pressure for positive social change in the face of many new developments, ensuring that the fundamental values of equality, dignity, compassion and fairness do not get lost in the shuffle.
This is my report to you, of Pivot’s activities over the last year and our plans for the year to come. You don’t have to read it all now - quite a bit happened, so it’s good with tea or coffee.
The ‘ask’ at the end is simple though, and I'll save you the suspense: please make a year-end donation to Pivot. It’s easy; you can download a donation form to fax or mail in, or make a donation online.
We’ll use the money in the most effective way we know how, creating momentum for systemic legal and social change. And that momentum is needed now, more than ever.
Thanks for your support, and have a great holiday!
John.
Housing
2009 was an intense year for Pivot’s housing campaign. It began with Pivot and other advocates also calling out owners of the “worst of the worst” hotels, seeking fines and penalties for their continuing violations of the law regarding building maintenance.
Since the beginning of our housing campaign, Pivot has advocated for stronger enforcement of the City’s Standards of Maintenance bylaw, which sets minimum health and safety standards for all buildings.
In June, 2009 there was at last a victory; the decision by Vancouver’s new City Council to crack down on owners of poorly maintained hotels, ordering them to clean up their acts or face court action.
When police and city sanitation crews threw away the possessions of dozens of homeless people, Pivot launched lawsuits demanding compensation on their behalf. The City agreed to settle the cases and compensate the individuals for their losses. Nevertheless, many homeless people continue to have their possessions disposed of; Pivot has repeatedly called for the establishment of a place where people can store their belongings safely.
As well, Pivot worked closely with other advocates during recent elections to swear statutory declarations for homeless people who lacked necessary identification and collect evidence in support of a court challenge to the new I.D. laws.
Pivot challenged notorious pharmacist/hotel-owner George Wolsey for illegally evicting tenants who refused to fill their methadone prescriptions at his pharmacy.
In a double-victory for Pivot, the BC College of Pharmacists amended its bylaws to prevent landlords from making these types of demands of their tenants, and the Attorney General agreed with Pivot’s position that the hotels are covered by residential tenancy laws. That was followed in December by a victory at the BC Supreme Court , which found that methadone patients are protected by tenancy laws and which ordered the Residential Tenancy Branch to reopen the hearing into tenant claims of illegal evictions against Wolsey.
This year, Pivot threw its support behind the case of Adams v. Victoria, which asked that homeless people be permitted to shelter themselves from the elements. Represented by Bruce Elwood from the firm Arvay Finlay, Pivot successfully sought intervenor status at the Court of Appeal and offered an expert perspective on issues of homelessness.
In what we predict will come to be viewed as one of the most important constitutional decisions on housing, on December 12, 2009 the BC Court of Appeal found that homeless people have a right to camp outside on public space if shelter space is full. In 2010, we hope to push forward the law in this area with Erica Pamelson, who is launching a wrongful death suit on behalf of her partner, Darrel Mikasko. Darrel, who used to store his belongings in Pivot’s parking garage, died tragically when the makeshift shelter he and Pamela were staying in caught fire. Pamela was also badly burned. Darrel and Pamela had been turned away from 3 full shelters earlier that evening. We will be asking the court to find that the government has a positive obligation provide adequate shelter to homeless people.
Pivot also brought together shelter providers and advocates to denounce the proposed Assistance to Shelter Act, which would allow the police to use force to compel homeless people to go to shelters against their will. In a letter to Housing Minister Rich Coleman, the groups warned that the proposal is likely to hurt, rather than help people who are homeless, and called on the government instead to implement strategies to improve safety and security among the province’s homeless. Pivot, along with downtown lawfirm McCarthy Tetrault, is planning to launch a constitutional challenge of the Assistance to Shelter Act if it is used to force people into shelters.
A major follow-up development; in 2007 the UN-funded Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions invited Pivot to Geneva, Switzerland to make a presentation on the impact of the Olympics on housing and homelessness in Vancouver. Later that year, Pivot hosted Miloon Kuthari, the UN Special Rapporteur on Housing, on his visit to the Downtown Eastside and coordinated a public hearing during his visit.
In March 2009, Mr. Kuthari released his final report on the state of housing in Canada. In that report, the UN Special Rapporteur called Canada’s homeless situation a “national emergency,” and “strongly recommended that the right to adequate housing be recognized in federal and provincial legislation as an inherent part of the Canadian legal system.” He called upon the Canadian government to “commit to a comprehensive national housing strategy with stable and long-term funding.”
Another major development in 2009, which we anticipate carrying over into 2010, is Pivot’s new Homelessness is Over campaign. The brainchild of Pivot Development Director Peter Wrinch, Homelessness Is Over is aimed at the vision of a society where homelessness has been eliminated.
We celebrated the launch of the campaign with a postcard and petition campaign, aimed at encouraging the federal minister of Housing to adopt a National Housing Strategy, with postcards still coming in every day.
We also launched Homelessness is over video, which has since been viewed more than 5000 times, and announced our video contest; “Why End Homelessness? 30 seconds with Stephen Harper.” If you or someone you know is into video, let them know about this!
2010 will see big changes for Pivot’s housing campaign. As you may have heard, the Law Foundation has ended funding for the campaign, after a very successful three years. After negotiations with the Pivot board, the Law Foundation agreed to extend the grant for three months, which we hope will be continued.
However, they have required that Pivot no longer do any policy change work with the funding; only individual representation. Laura Track, who has led the campaign since mid-2008 has now moved to London, and I will be acting as Pivot’s spokesperson on housing (and Olympic) issues until Doug King returns from his New Zealand sabbatical. Before that happens, you will see the launch of Laura’s final projects; the YIMBY (“Yes in my back yard!”) toolkit for neighbourhood organizers, and a report on access to toilets and washrooms in the Downtown Eastside.
Policing
2009 saw the implementation of a major new strategy in Pivot’s policing campaign; civil litigation.
We continued our 2008 boycott of the police complaints process on the basis that police investigations of police were inherently biased, and with the help of our handy guidebook helped people to file lawsuits in Small Claims court instead.
Pivot’s Doug King started the year going, and when he left in the spring on his sabbatical, his position as head of the policing campaign was taken over by Nina Purewal. Nina, an experienced civil litigator, ramped up the campaign by taking on clients for Supreme Court actions, and now has more than 35 active files with lawsuits against police on issues ranging from dog bites, to tazers, and assaults.
There have been some major battles this year over police handling of certain issues, such as the case of case of Donald Sipes, who was improperly stopped more than 30 times by West Vancouver Police officers.
With Pivot's help, Mr. Sipes received a significant compensation award. The most important case of the year, however, has been that of Micheal Vann Hubbard, a homeless and mentally ill man who was shot and killed by two Vancouver Police Department officers.
On behalf of the daughters of Mr. Hubbard, Pivot has filed a civil lawsuit against the police for his wrongful death, as well a police complaint against Chief Chu for his handling of the shooting. This matter will continue in 2010, as Pivot responds to the Abbottsford investigation vindicating the police, as well as filing constitutional arguments and pushing for a Coroner’s Inquest into excessive use of force by police against mentally ill individuals.
2009 also saw the implementation of our Police-Community Dialogue with the Vancouver Police Department, after more than two years of discussions between Pivot, VANDU and VPD officers. The goal of these dialogues is to create more open and collaborative relationships between marginalized residents and the VPD.
We now have had two police dialogue sessions and many planning meetings with more than 100 police, residents and advocates co-creating a vision for “what would it look like if the streets were safe.” The meetings have been an inspiring example of what it could look like to have residents and police officers working together to protect their community, and have been very popular with both residents and police.
The need for better lines of communication were made especially clear last fall, when Vancouver police issued more than 1,300 tickets to residents of the Downtown Eastside over a short period for minor offences such as spitting, jaywalking, and riding a bicycle without a bell.
Over 2009, Pivot challenged those tickets at the Vancouver Police Board and City Council, arguing that police targeting of the DTES was discriminatory and had a tremendous negative impact on the community’s relationship with police. Pivot helped residents to challenge their tickets in court and was successful in having many of the fines dismissed.
VANDU has now implemented a 'pedestrian safety program' which they argue - and we agree - would have addressed police concerns far more effectively than mass ticketing.
2010 promises to be an even busier year for policing. A new Police Act will come into force in March 2010, which, while containing some procedural improvements, still relies on police investigations of police.
Pivot will be campaigning hard for a civilian investigative system, as we launch a new policing campaign to coincide with International Day against Police Brutality in March. That will be shortly after the Olympics, which promises to raise many policing issues itself (see our Olympic Defence Team, below).
2010 will see also Pivot expand its regular policing clinic, and begin taking affidavits on systemic issues which will allow more victims of police conduct to seek remedies than ever before.
Private Security
2009 began with a success in Pivot’s battle over the encroachment of private security in public space, when Vancouver City Council passed a motion to end public funding for the Downtown Ambassadors program.
The program, which employs private security guards to target and harass low-income people out of the Downtown core, is run by the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association (DVBIA).
Settlement negotiations with the DVBIA to resolve Pivot's human rights complaint against the Ambassadors were unsuccessful, and in November the Human Rights Tribunal found that improper conduct of the DVBIA in relation to those settlement negotiations had a “significant impact on the complainants and the integrity of the Tribunal’s process.”
The Tribunal ordered the DVBIA to pay Pivot $2000, and in addition, it dismissed motions by the DVBIA to have Pivot’s complaint dismissed before the hearing. The matter will go before the Tribunal in May of 2010, and will be argued by Jason Gratl who has taken the file over from Laura Track.
If Pivot achieves a victory in the Downtown Ambassadors case, it will seek to extend the ruling to private security companies who patrol public space on behalf of Business Improvements Associations in other parts of Vancouver and across BC.
Sex Workers
Pivot continued our ongoing constitutional challenge to the criminal laws relating to adult prostitution through 2009.
The trial, originally scheduled for February 2009, did not proceed because of a Supreme Court ruling that the two plaintiffs – Sheri Kiselbach, a former sex worker and the DTES Sex Workers United Against Violence Society - were not entitled to challenge the prostitution laws.
Pivot appealed the decision, as this otherwise technical legal issue has very serious implications for marginalized persons who want to make legal challenges. West Coast LEAF, the Trial Lawyers Association of BC and the BC Civil Liberties Association have joined us as intervenors, and we are scheduled to go to the Court of Appeal on January 20 and 21, 2010.
This year Pivot began providing sex workers with ongoing summary legal advice clinics and services, at WISH, and Boys R Us, through sex industry websites and at the Pivot office.
In June 2009, Pivot participated in the publication of Human Trafficking, Sex Work Safety and the 2010 Games report on human trafficking and the Olympics.
The report presents evidence-based findings that challenge commonly held assumptions of a link between sex trafficking and 2010, noting that such assumptions may well bring harm to sex workers. We also had the opportunity to contribute to the legal information in a new safety and rights handbook for sex workers called Trade Secrets.
After much letter writing and lobbying, we were pleased that the City of Vancouver passed a motion on December 17, 2009 urging the Solicitor General to call for an inquiry into the investigation into the missing and murdered women from the DTES. This issue now has widespread community, city and police support and we are hopeful to see a plan for an inquiry unfold in 2010.
We were also pleased that the provincial government decided to reverse its decision to end funding for the MAPS van, after huge community reaction in favour of this important service.
Children
In May, 2009 Pivot released its second report on the Ministry of Children and Families, along with the BCGEU.
Written by Lobat Sadrehashemi and Darcie Bennett and entitled Hands Tied, the report was based on the results of a survey completed by 109 current and former child protection workers.
It found that more than half of social workers who left the MCFD felt that they were unable to consistently act in the best interests of children because they had too few resources and too many children in need.
Overwhelming caseloads led to almost 60 percent of former child protection workers saying that they were only “sometimes” or “rarely” able to act in the best interests of the children.
Jane Doe
In early 2009, we launched a new website for the Jane Doe Legal Network, a project of Pivot Legal Society. Coordinated by Dr. Darcie Bennett, the Jane Doe Legal Network provides free legal support for women and advocates for women who have experienced violence. The six advocates who operate Jane Doe provide legal support on issues of immigration/refugee law, child protection law, housing law and criminal law.
Over 2009, Jane Doe provided free legal services to over 100 women survivors of violence, and worked with 30 different women-serving organizations. Jane Doe has been the focus for Pivot’s advocacy against the deepening cuts to legal aid for women, and along with Westcoast LEAF, in February we launched an access to justice petition calling on the provincial government to restore legal aid funding to 2002 levels.
Jane Doe has also been a catalyst for bringing women-serving organizations together, organizing regular meetings between women’s groups and representatives of BC’s Legal Services Society (legal aid) to address legal aid issues affecting women, as well as with the Ministry for Children and Family Development to improve their handling of child protection cases involving violence against women.
In 2010, Pivot, along with other women’s organizations, is planning on launching a legal challenge to the lack of legal aid funding for women in matters involving children and families, and policies of the Ministry of Children and Families that discriminate against poor and aboriginal mothers.
Olympics
Pivot's involvement in the Olympics began in 2007 when it was invited to Geneva, Switzerland, to present to the UN-funded Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions regarding the impacts of the Olympics on marginalized communities in the Downtown Eastside.
In March of 2009, Pivot hosted a forum on Olympic policing and security with presentations by the heads of the VPD and ISU, and followed up that forum with another this December.
In September,BCCLA and Pivot announced they would be collaborating on a legal observer program for the Olympics, and has since had four intake sessions and trained more than 300 people who will act as eyes and ears on the streets during the Games, monitoring police conduct and ensuring people’s rights are respected.
The 2010 Olympic Games, which at 17,000 security, military and police officers is the largest domestic military action in Canadian history.
STAY TUNED!Over the next 6 weeks, Pivot will be unrolling its full 2010 Olympics campaign, with the first announcement scheduled in the first two weeks of January. That campaign will involve a dedicated Legal Defence Team, legal rights workshops, information poster, Olympic Rights Cards, and a very special push for a funded National Housing Strategy :)
2009, which saw the launch of a new website for Pivot Legal LLP, was a break-out year for Pivot’s social enterprise law firm, the first of its kind in North America. Pivot Legal LLP provides quality, affordable legal representation to individuals and organizations, and uses its expertise and 100% of its profits to support the public interest campaigns of Pivot Legal Society.
Pivot Legal LLP – Our Social Enterprise Law Firm
The biggest development for Pivot Legal LLP in 2009 was the addition of five amazing new lawyers; Candace Parker; Natalie Dunbar; Nina Purewal; Carrie Humchitt; and Christine McDermott.
Pivot Legal LLP now offers legal services in the following areas: family law; criminal defence; civil litigation and personal injury, human rights, residential school claims, wills and estates, non-profit, business and charity law, immigration and refugee law, and real estate conveyancing.
To keep up with the growth, Katrina Pacey stepped up to took over as Managing Partner for Pivot Legal LLP, and we welcomed Mary-Ann Thomas as our new bookkeeper. Tina Tomashiro became our legal records administrator, taking over the responsibilities of Kerry Jacox who is sadly leaving Pivot to take over a retreat centre in northern BC.
After two years of getting up to speed Pivot Legal LLP is on track to break even in 2009, with 450 new clients this year and posted revenues of more than $300,000 – up 45% over 2008.
2010, we believe, will be the first year Pivot Legal LLP nets a profit to Pivot Legal Society, opening the door for a whole new approach to funding social change. There is a simple way that you can help; use Pivot Legal LLP for your legal work. Help use the power of the market to drive social change. It can be as simple as telling people you know who are looking for a lawyer to give us a call, that we’d be happy to help!
Pivot Foundation and Events
2009 was a great year for the Pivot Foundation. After long deliberation, the Foundation adopted a bold new vision statement; “to build a community of supporters for Pivot’s social justice campaigns.” The directors took over the coordination of all Pivot community events, and made it Pivot’s best year ever for engagement and outreach;
- Reel Justice, About 500 people came out to watch and discuss 19 great films made by local and international producers exploring stories and issues of homelessness, sex work, and addiction.
Produced in collaboration with Simon Fraser University, Reel Justice also featured a Social Change Expo of solutions by non-profit organizations.
- The Listening Jar, a theatrical show about Justice, performed by the amazing Dusty Flowerpot crew! What is Justice? That was the question that sent this visionary collective of artists, musicians, writers and performers on incredible journey of manifestation. Absolutely, check out the 2min short of the video; a must see!
- Justice Rocks, Pivot’s day-long music festival and social change extravaganza in Strathcona Park! Sponsored by CUPE and many others, it featured more twenty cutting-edge non-profits competing for the prize (voted by attendees) of which organization was the most effective and creative at
engagement. This year, the prize went to Greenpeace, who generously handed off the spoils to BC Civil Liberties Association. Next year we have all of Strathcona Park for Sunday, August 15, so reserve the date! And if you are a business, union or a non-profit working for change we want to talk to YOU!
- Passion for Justice, our annual extravaganza in the BC Supreme Courthouse, featuring the Screaming Chickens Comedy Burlesque Troup and – for the first time ever – the amazing Tribal Fusion Bellydance troupes Vital Divine and
Luciterra! With great auction items, food and amazing entertainment, Passion is one of our best events of the year.
- Not so Silent Night; Pivot’s legendary xmas party, hosted by HipBaby and friends, was still going hard at 4am in the morning, as every year! An awesome mash-up of dance-friendly social change folk.
- Pivot in Wonderland, our mad summer tea party at Trout Lake with Alice and all her friends
Moveon.org, the movie, a special screening with the BC Health Coalition of one of the great social change organizations in North America today!
This was all possible by an awesome board for Pivot Foundation. Special thanks to all our Pivot Foundation directors; Sara Kendall, Leslie Dickout, Ide Foyle, April Smith, Andrea Curtis, Micheal Ziff, Jacob Hunter, J. Stewart, Dana Bass Solomon, Sobey Wing, Rebecca Tay, and Emily Moore. You guys are amazing!
If you would like to get involved with Pivot Foundation and help build a community of support for social justice, just please us know. There is no end of ways to get involved!
Hope in Shadows
Hope in Shadows started 2009 on a high note when we sold out of the 2009 calendar ahead of schedule. There was an amazing growth in the street vendor program which increased street sales by more than 70% over the 2008 calendar. Through their hard work 200+ street vendors earned $130,000 in personal income selling both the calendar and the Hope in Shadows book. Sales of the book have almost reached 5,000 on the street since it was launched in April 2008, making it an unofficial B.C. Best Seller!
Training and support for the street vendors were a big focus of our efforts in 2009. With eight Vancity branches participating as wholesale distribution points, as well as the Fall Gallery and others, street vendors were able to expand their geographic reach over last year. Vancity further helped by facilitating a workshop in basic budgeting for the street vendors, and Carlin Sandor, an experienced canvasser, offered workshops in confidence building and communication.
We launched a new website for Hope in Shadows in 2009, and the Hope in Shadows exhibition went on tour again, showing at the Pendulum Gallery, the Vancouver Public Library, as well as the Mayworks festival in Parksville and the Legacy Gallery in Victoria. The exhibition was also translated into Chinese for the Chinese CCM Gallery in Burnaby, and we collaborated in an Oppenheimer retrospective at Gallery Gachet. Following up on the 2008 City of Vancouver Book Award, in 2009 the Hope in Shadows book was nominated for the prestigious B.C. Book Prize and long-listed for the George Ryga Award for Social Awareness in Literature. Hope in Shadows hosted two book readings with contributors to Hope in Shadows in partnership with the Vancouver Public Library and Robson Reading Series in 2009.
Special thanks go out to the many sponsors of the 2009 calendar, who make the project possible, and thanks also to Enterprising Non-Profits who paid for vendors to conduct market research to help us develop more Hope in Shadows products for sale year-round, and to Central City Foundation who donated donated a new vehicle to help us keep the project running through the year.
Other Pivot News
We were happy to welcome to Pivot a number of new staff members this year, along with the lawyers listed above; Dave Roberts (our new donor relations coordinator), Karyn Calvez (our new receptionist), and Mary-Anne Thomas (our new LLP bookkeeper). As well, we were all very proud of Tina Tomashiro, our now legal records administrator, who won the Courage to Come Back Award in March 2009. Check out the great video that the Coast Foundation, who host the Awards, made about why they gave Tina the award.
In November, we were very happy to welcome in some great new board members for Pivot Legal Society; Donald MacPherson, formerly Drug Policy Coordinator for the City of Vancouver; Sharon Wilkie, accountant and CEO of Glasshouse Capacity Services; Elin Sigurdson, lawyer with Arvay Finlay; Sharon Messenger, community activist and director of VANDU; and Eugene Kung, lawyer with BC PIAC. They joined existing board members; Ondine Snowdon, lawyer with John Conroy and Co., John Werring, fisheries biologist with the David Suzuki Foundation; Julie Rogers, recycler with United We Can, Hendrik Beune, DTES community activist; Garvin Snider, trainer and vendor with Hope in Shadows; and Emma Wolchok, a social worker at Insite. We are also pleased to announce that the members at the November AGM approved appointing Pivot co-founder Ann Livingston to the Pivot Legal Society board as a “Founding Director.”
A special thank you to all Pivot directors, and most especially to the more than 250 volunteers that have helped make this one of Pivot’s strongest years ever.
Thanks for reading this far! And thanks for your support for Pivot’s efforts to bring about social change through strategic legal advocacy. You can play an important role in making our 2010 social justice campaigns successful and high-impact. By making a donation, either a one-time year-end gift or a small monthly contribution (eg. $30), you will add your shoulder to a rapidly growing push for a truly just society. Any and every amount is warmly welcome. You can download a donation form to fax or mail in, or make a donation online. And thanks.
Have a great New Years Eve, and all the best in 2010!
Warm Regards,
John Richardson
Executive Director, Pivot Legal Society
PS. Every year we give away a Pivot t-shirt to new donors, and this year is no exception. If you would like to receive a Pivot "Equality lifts Everyone" t-shirt - or perhaps, a special release campaign t-shirt (a surprise for the moment) - just let us know your t-shirt size with your donation!
