If BC is to implement provincial tenancy laws, those protections must be afforded to all renters, and courts must be attuned to the adverse impacts of carving out whole communities from tenancy rights that they are legally entitled to.

PRESS RELEASE - Challenging Canada’s prohibition on drug possession. Application filed last week at BC Provincial Court by Sarah Runyon (Marion & Runyon Criminal Lawyers) and Caitlin Shane (Pivot Legal Society). Stay tuned as the case proceeds.

This fall PIVOT & OHCW will be at BCCA intervening in a case that will impact the applicability of RTA on people residing in non-profit, “supportive” housing. Learn more about this case by reading second part of a three-part blog series.

Pivot and OHCW will be at the BC Court of Appeal this fall intervening in an appeal of a judicial review of an RTB decision that found a tenant’s rental housing building, operated by Elizabeth Fry Society, to be transitional housing and therefore exempt from BC’s Residential Tenancy Act (RTA) – leaving the tenant without any legal protections under provincial tenancy laws We know that racialized communities, people on social assistance, sex workers, drug users and other marginalized communities, already face systemic barriers in accessing and maintaining permanent housing, and being carved out of the RTA’s protections would negatively impact housing and tenancy rights for marginalized groups

Pivot's 2022 Annual Report - with thanks to Peer experts, community organizers and groups, funders, and supporters, who are all a critical part of our work which at its heart, involves creating space for and learning from, people directly impacted by poverty and criminalization. To all who have stood alongside us on the streets and in the courts; to all who have sent emails and showed up to serve food; to all who have spent countless hours collaborating with us and to all those who have opened your doors for us, we thank you! Your trust and generosity have allowed us to fight back against discriminatory and deadly laws and policies while striving for healthier and stronger communities. In solidarity, Staff - Pivot Legal Society

Jared’s mother Alunaye, Laura Holland and his daughters marked this anniversary by filing a civil lawsuit against the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General, and the four RCMP officers.

PRESS RELEASE - This morning, 24 months after Jared Lowndes was killed by the Campbell River RCMP, the family of Jared Lowndes filed a lawsuit with the support of Vancouver lawyer Neil Chantler (Chantler & Company).

PRESS RELEASE - Nearly 8 years after the death of Myles Gray during a brutal and violent encounter with multiple Vancouver Police Department (VPD) officers the Vancouver Police Board is set to receive a report based on Jury Recommendations.

This year, on Access Awareness Day, Pivot is picking up the theme of “Inclusion Starts Here” to highlight how accessible and inclusive communities don’t rely on police violence or carceral interventions disguised as benevolent care. I’ve interviewed Vesper Moore, who is working in the US and internationally to advance the perspectives of Mad, disabled, and psychiatric survivors.   Vesper Moore is an Indigenous political activist of Kiskeia and Borikén Taíno descent. They are a leader, organizer, public speaker, and educator in the psychiatric survivor and disability rights movements. They are based in so-called Massachusetts, Nipmuc territory and homelands. Vesper is currently a board member at the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, the National Association for Rights Protection and Advocacy, and MindFreedom International. They are also a member of the Massachusetts Special Commission on State Institutions and the Chief Operating Officer of Kiva Centers.  

Amid escalating local government efforts to undermine the health and safety of people who use drugs, Pivot and the 2022-2023 Boards of the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) have co-authored a new drug policy report. Talking Back to the City: A manual for winning – and resisting – local drug policy explains what local governments can do (and stop doing) to better serve people who use drugs in their communities, plus insights for democratic organizing at the grassroots level.

On May 5th 2023, Pivot, alongside PACE Society, submitted a written brief to House of Commons Standing Committee on the Status of Women re: its study on human trafficking What we know? The harms that flow from police-led anti-trafficking efforts have detrimental impacts incl. increased criminalization for sex workers and migrant communities with intersecting identities, shaped by race, gender, disability, and citizenship status. For instance, sex work prohibitions, exacerbate barriers to status for migrant workers, which puts already criminalized, migrant communities at risk of various abuses and systemic oppression such as heightened surveillance, detention, arrest, and deportation.

Members of a Violence-Prone Department brutally killed Myles Gray - The coroner’s inquest jury classified this death as homicide.

A human rights-based, intersectional approach to sex work advocacy is an invitation to rethink the ways in which we approach systemic advocacy that supports the rights of sex workers. This will necessarily involve recentering the lived experiences and voices of sex workers, particularly Black, Indigenous and Asian migrant sex worker communities whose work is traditionally erased from public and organizing around sex workers’ rights. Stay tuned for ways to get involved in our upcoming human rights work!

Pivot has submitted feedback to the Ministry of Social Development and Poverty Reduction for the Ministry’s first five-year review of its poverty reduction strategy for BC. A community consultation with people who have lived and living experiences of poverty informed this submission and their top priorities are increasing social belonging through increased opportunities for peer work and civic and social engagement, finding new ways to fund poverty reduction by eliminating the criminalization of people living in poverty, enshrining the protection of people living in poverty in provincial law, and funding free and accessible public transit in metropolitan areas and especially in rural areas. #defundthepolice #socialconditionprotections #freeaccessibletransit #endthewaronthepoor #peerworkiswork

MEDIA ADVISORY When: Monday, April 17, 8:00 AM Where: Burnaby Coroners’ Court, 4720 Kingsway, Burnaby BC - Meet at the entrance to Metrotower II at Metrotown [ https://goo.gl/maps/nNhvavQ33RtiVo226 ] - Livestream by Pivot Legal Society [ https://www.instagram.com/pivotlegal/ ] Who: Support rally for the family of Myles Gray & their supporters, to mark the beginning of the Inquest into the VPD killing of Myles Thomas Gray [ https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/life-events/death/coroners-service/inquest-schedule-jury-findings-verdicts/inquestlivestream ]