Pivot wishes to voice full support for a permanent ceasefire and for the liberation of Palestine from settler colonization and imperialism. We unequivocally condemn the genocidal campaign of ethnic cleansing that the nation-state of Israel has waged against the Palestinian people for over 75 years, including a 16-year siege of Gaza.
The City’s enforcement of this bylaw is constitutionally suspect, as it is being undertaken without due consideration of the human rights and social conditions of Hastings Tent City Residents.
We write as seasonal weather changes take place, to inquire about housing plans from the city, province, and federal government for people who shelter in public space, including for the residents of the Hastings Tent City.
Members of Our Streets have worked with Block Stewards, leaders and organizers who reside in the Hastings Street Tent City, to develop demands that reflect their housing needs:
• Hands off tent cities
• A real public option for housing
• Real fire safety
• Make landlords fix buildings
• Protect all tenants’ rights under the law
• Power to the tenants
• Housing now
VPD's "Vancouver's Social Safety Net: Rebuilding the Broken" report is manufactured disinformation and a distraction from the critical, life-limiting conditions that profoundly affect the most vulnerable members of our communities, across Vancouver.
Support the calls of West Coast Leaf, BC Association of Social Workers, YWCA Metro Vancouver, Raincity Housing, Parents Advocating Collectively for Kin (PACK) BC, and Keeping Families Together, to dismantle the family policing system, and #StopTearingFamiliesApart
https://act.newmode.net/action/west-coast-leaf/stop-tearing-families-apart
We need a ceasefire from the VPD in the #DTES - Joint Statment Regarding the 5th VPD Murder in 2022
Hastings Tent City Residents give City of Vancouver and Vancouver Fire Rescue Services an overall "E" grade + Fact Sheet which highlight myths and misunderstandings created by City, VFRS and VPD.
BCCLA, Justice for Jared & Pivot write to demand accountability for the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) actions on Saturday July 30 & about the Independent Investigations Office of BC (IIO) actions on July 30. These actions included shooting a community member, pulling another community member to the ground and striking them repeatedly, and verbally abusing and intimidating onlookers. These incidents occurred in the middle of the Downtown Eastside (DTES) community, with no support provided afterwards, and during a heatwave and forcible decampment along Hastings Street.
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.