NEW CAMPAIGN ALERT: Addressing stigma is part of the solution to ending discriminatory policies and bylaws that harm already marginalized communities. From by-laws to provincial and federal legislation we must #EndTheStigma

NEW CAMPAIGN ALERT: Addressing stigma is part of the solution to ending discriminatory policies and bylaws that harm already marginalized communities. From by-laws to provincial and federal legislation we must #EndTheStigma

Your stigmatizing policies and practices are driving social murder. It is time to amend the BC Human Rights Code and to include Social Condition as a protected ground. @kennedy.stewart @johnhorganbc @MurrayRankinNDP @nicholas.simons.73 @melaniejmark @dave.eby

MEDIA ADVISORY - #StopTheSweeps Denounces the Forced Decampment of Hastings Tent City and City/Police Campaign of Terror in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside

When Our Streets asked questions related to what kinds of housing options will be offered to tent city residents they were met with no response. No plan has been formulated by the city other than decamping the tent city, leaving residents with no place to go and violating the city’s MOU on decampment (“Support for Unsheltered Residents – Memorandum of Understanding between City of Vancouver, Vancouver Board of Parks and Recreation, and Provincial Government”).

Today is truly a tragic reminder of the stigma that fuels the hatred and violence towards our most marginalized members of society. Our hearts are with unhoused individuals who are victimized through direct and political violence. We denounce the conditions that manufacture poverty and homelessness - including white supremacy, settler colonialism, anti-drug user and anti-homeless stigma.

On International Human Rights Day, the BC Poverty Reduction Coalition and Pivot Legal Society are renewing calls for an amendment to the BC Human Rights Code to include protections based on social condition.

We must develop a flexible definition of Social Condition that includes an element of disadvantage and explicitly identifies housing status.

An analysis of how stigma informs police violence and failures of the justice system and social services