Healthcare as Regulation and Social Control of the Poor

By Dan Oudshoorn and Dave Diewert

A few years back a friend went through a rough time. Eventually, he decided to go see his doctor. Hours later, the police escorted him out of the clinic in handcuffs. (…)

Indigenous women want Federal Inquiry to consult with feminist groups as well as families

By Jean Swanson

Indigenous women who have been organizing to end violence for decades want the federal inquiry into missing and murdered women to consult with feminist groups that work with Indigenous women as well as families of the missing and murdered women. (…)

How do we work together to stop displacement when it seems like everything is against us?

By Alliance Against Displacement

Alliance Against Displacement (AAD) (originally Social Housing Coalition/Alliance) formed in the lead-up to the provincial election of 2013 to raise the issue of the need for social housing in BC and oppose the imminent threat to social housing programs. (…)

“Enlarged Citizenship” in Coleman Country – The failure of BC Housing creates tent cities where homeless people are building their own power

By Ashley Mollison and Ivan Drury

Forty tents set up on the Victoria courthouse lawn surround a sacred fire, open kitchen, and supply tent. Within its first three months, over a hundred people have made this tent city home. (…)

By Sex Workers United Against Violence (SWUAV)

In December 2015, a huge sigh of relief went up across the country as it was finally announced that the federal government would begin the process of holding an inquiry into the missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW) across Canada. (…)

Justin Trudeau offers a new brand but no fundamental change

By Harold Lavender

Justin Trudeau has become popular by cultivating a drastically different image of Canada than the widely hated Harper government. This has generated widespread public expectations that the new government’s policies around issues like the global climate crisis and Indigenous rights will be quite different. But is this really the case? (…)

The Trans-Pacific-Partnership Agreement is a Deathstar*

By Formerly Homeless Dave

You have probably heard of the TPP by now. If you associate with progressive politics, you probably read and heard a lot of dire things about it. What’s worse is its all true. (…)

Solutions to the housing crisis may be found in alliance between homeless and refugees

By Maria Wallstam

In mid January, resettlement agencies in Vancouver, Ottawa, Toronto and Halifax asked the federal government to slow down the arrival of government-assisted refugees. One of the key reasons they cited was that they were struggling to find permanent housing for refugee families. (…)

A Re-occupation in Xwisten – Indigenous Struggle for Home on Sovereign Land

By Kaleb Morrison and Christine Jack

As the leaves started turning in St’at’imc territory it became apparent that the logging company was not going to let up and might try to come in during the winter. Christine Jack responded with a vow that she would not leave the re-occupation that had become her home and would stay through the snow. (…)

Wolverine calls on PM Trudeau for an Inquiry into Gustafsen Lake

By Wolverine, William Jones Ignace

Dear Mr. Trudeau, My name is Wolverine. I am also known as William Jones Ignace. I am an 83-year old father, grandfather and great grandfather, and an Elder of the Secwepemc nation in what is called British Columbia. (…)

How do we leap towards a better future? An Indigenous perspective on the Leap Manifesto

By Natalie Knight

The months leading up to the 2015 federal election stirred up demands for change so that all of us can live the lives we want. One of these demands for change is the recent “The Leap Manifesto: A Call for a Canada Based on Caring for the Earth and One Another” that was published on leapmanifesto.org in September. (…)

Indigenous Voices from Frontline Struggles against Dispossession

By Kanahus Manuel and Dini Ze Toghestiy

So-called British Columbia is mostly unceded and unsurrendered lands; there has never been a treaty or purchase of our lands. Yet our peoples have been forced onto the front lines battling with the aggressive resource extraction industry. (…)

Protecting and Growing Unist’ot’en

Interview with Freda Huson by Annie Banks

Freda Huson: I’m the Unist’ot’en spokesperson appointed by our hereditary chiefs. Toghestiy and I have been living on our land in a cabin on the GPS route of numerous proposed pipelines for the past 6 years. (…)

Prisons in Canada Still Racist After Forty Years of Reform

By Abby Rolston

In the late 1960s, Native resistance in Canadian prisons skyrocketed. Native prisoners fought to reclaim spiritual and social practices banned by prison authorities. They published papers, proclaimed themselves political prisoners, organized self-defense against guard brutality, and occupied and protested within the prison walls. (…)

On the Frontlines: A Map of Indigenous Resistance

Centerfold image for print version of Issue 4, Winter 2016

A memorial poem for Sam Snobelen

Sam Snobelen passed away in late November. Sam was the heart and soul of the Carnegie Centre in the Downtown Eastside. He worked at DERA (Downtown Eastside Residents Association) for years and was president of the End Legislated Poverty in the 1990’s. (…)

Volcano Community Spotlight: Jack Gates

Interview by Sarah Sheridan

Beginning in this Winter issue, the Volcano will recognize a community member for their advocacy and organizing efforts in the Downtown Eastside community. For our first recognition we would like to spotlight Jack Gates, a resident of the Regent Hotel. (…)

Court victory over anti-homeless bylaws!

By Pivot Legal Society and DJ Larkin

In late 2015 the BC Supreme Court ruled against the City of Abbotsford’s anti-homeless bylaws. Homeless people in municipalities in all of British Columbia now have the right to sleep in parks (between 7pm and 9am). Some governments are already setting out to challenge the limits of these legal decisions. (…)

Housing Insecurity and Uncertainty is the New Normal

An Interview with Sherry Chen

Sherry Chen, her husband David, and their two young children have lived in a one-bedroom apartment on Dunblane Avenue near Metrotown for four years. Like many immigrant families, Metrotown was the place they first landed. (…)

National Conference to End Homelessness 2015 – Expensive lunches while people panhandled outside

By Phoenix Winter

In November I was a delegate from the Downtown Eastside to the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness (CAEH) national conference in Montreal. It was a little bizarre, eating expensive lunches while people panhandled on the streets outside. (…)

288 Hastings Wrong Model to End Homelessness

By Harold Lavender

The Downtown Eastside (DTES) is being swamped by high impact gentrifying projects including at 288 East Hastings, southwest corner of Gore Street, across from First United Church.  This is happening at a time when homelessness in the DTES is at record levels. (…)

“Our work is a warning to other landlords” – Tenants fight to improve living conditions in SROs

By Jean Swanson

Mohammad Valayati doesn’t want the same thing to happen to the residents of the Lion Hotel that happened at the Clifton. The Clifton Hotel, on Granville Street in Vancouver, has 74 rooms and used to house low-income people. (…)

Our generation’s fight for Chinatown

By the Chinatown Youth Coalition

Less than a year old, a coalition of youth organizations has made a noticeable impact in resisting rapid development and fighting for culturally-appropriate social housing and services in Chinatown, Vancouver. (…)

People at Downtown Eastside Town Hall meeting strategize to stop homeless crisis

By Jean Swanson

A National Housing Crisis day, tent cities across the country, and identifying and working to get specific sites for social housing were all suggested as things we can do together to try to force the three levels of government to stop increasing homelessness. (…)

The Reality of Displacement in the DTES comic

By Debra McNaught

This comic appeared in the print issue of The Volcano, Issue 4, Winter 2016.

The Housing Crisis for Women Fleeing Violence in Surrey

By Corrine Arthur and Sarah Rehimi

The Surrey Women’s Centre has been around for over 20 years. Its priority is women and children who have experienced violence. It offers a range of programs, from a mobile assault response team, to helping women go through court, to supporting them as they get re-established after leaving a violent situation. (…)

DTES Street Sweeps are Social Cleansing

By Karen Ward

It’s eerie. In November, as everyone in the community knows, the City of Vancouver acted on its decision to “clean up” Hastings Street. Our people have been removed from the sidewalks and our public spaces, and have been threatened by by-law tickets and police harassment. (…)