P.O.W.E.R. DISPATCH #10
Update on community-based reporting at P.O.W.E.R.
Dispatch #10 Themes
1. FIFA is here and FIFA is bad
FIFA is nearly here. The international multi-city event – taking place from June 11 to July 19 – will be hosting seven of their 104 games in Vancouver. Ahead of these games, the city has implemented punitive bylaws and other measures in order to “clean up” and displace people from public areas. These measures will most negatively impact those communities in the FIFA “bubble zone” (aka the 2km radius around BC place), which encompasses the DTES. Extra police, including RCMP from Saskatchewan, will be deployed in order to patrol, surveil, and enforce strict penalties onto communities located within this zone. Many have drawn attention to the fact that this will disproportionately affect those who already endure harsh state violence and daily scrutiny.
2. Bylaw tickets
A number of FIFA-related bylaws are now in effect. History tells us these bylaws will be disproportionately applied against low income Vancouver residents, just as a similar bylaw blitz before the Olympics did in 2008–2009. These bylaws, which range from street vending to advertising, disproportionately impact people living in poverty and/or people reliant on public space and are being implemented with a goal of disappearing people out of public view.
While these bylaws formally took effect on May 13, P.O.W.E.R. received reports of VPD seemingly enforcing them prior to this date. In one particularly egregious example, a senior was given a $1,000 ticket for alleged street vending in the DTES, despite the shrinking options for people to work where vending is sanctioned.
In another case, two people were each given a $250 ticket for smoking a cigarette “too close” to a building in the DTES. Notably, these people were standing in an informal smoking area located outside of a local shelter at the time of ticketing. P.O.W.E.R. anticipates that these types of discriminatory bylaw tickets will be given out more frequently over the next several weeks as the city attempts to “beautify” the DTES ahead of FIFA.
P.O.W.E.R. is encouraging anyone who receives a bylaw ticket during this period to bring the physical copy of their ticket to our drop-in to make a report.
3. Police targeting sex workers ahead of FIFA
As FIFA draws closer, the VPD are making their presence felt among sex workers working in the DTES area. P.O.W.E.R. has received two disturbing reports of police harassing, arresting, and detaining sex workers along a notable DTES stroll in recent months. This is despite a long-standing agreement between the VPD and sex workers to “prioritize sex worker safety.”
One worker reported to P.O.W.E.R. that police accused her of committing a crime after she refused to give them her personal information. They subsequently arrested her and held her in city cells for 24 hours. Despite working in the area for the past 15+ years, she noted that she has never been as violently targeted by police as she was during this encounter.
4. Social assistance cheques stolen by police
P.O.W.E.R. has received an increasing number of reports about police confiscating cashed social assistance cheques while arbitrarily stopping and searching DTES residents. Many people living in the DTES do not have regular access to a bank account due to exclusionary policies at the ‘big’ banks, and often carry their cash. These confiscations generally come with no paper trail and therefore virtually no opportunity for recourse. As VPD shake downs intensify, officers have reportedly told DTES residents that any cash not accompanied with a stub from the Ministry of Poverty Reduction and Social Assistance is decidedly “criminal” in origin. This is yet another example of the violent social control and dangerous profiling imposed by the VPD, knowingly placing people receiving social assistance in a desperate position. Further, these reports demonstrate how the police’s drain on community resources far exceeds the VPD’s already inflated half-a-billion dollar annual budget.
Newsletter highlights
Bill 11, a deadly new piece of legislation tabled by BC housing minister Christine Boyle passed last month. As previously reported by P.O.W.E.R., Bill 11 puts “supportive housing” tenants at heightened risk of landlord violence, giving non-profit landlords more power to enact arbitrary evictions, or restrict tenant access to their own units prior to going to the Residential Tenancy Board. Bill 11 also gives sweeping powers to current and future governments to make further changes to “supportive housing” without any legislative oversight. P.O.W.E.R. members remain concerned about the impact that Bill 11 will have on our community and what this might mean for the future of tenant rights both in and beyond “supportive housing” environments.
Local harm reduction groups and P.O.W.E.R members have raised the alarm on the dangers of the toxic supply amid an influx of tourists arriving to the city during FIFA. P.O.W.E.R. member Dave has publicly called attention to the fact that little has been done to educate the international community on the current nature of the local drug supply or impose any safety measures (e.g., ensuring safer alternatives, distribution of harm reduction supplies and drug testing strips, etc.). This inaction is likely to result in a spike in overdose deaths.
P.O.W.E.R. in media
The Tyee: In Vancouver, FIFA Critics Demand More for Workers and Unhoused
The Mainlander: Emergency decade
Community Engaged Research Initiative: From periphery to focal point: Taking community direction to challenge assumptions
The Mainlander: Inside the BC NDP’s alarming proposal to weaken tenant rights in supportive housing
Community activity
CSSDP AGM
In April, P.O.W.E.R. was invited to present at the Canadian Students for Sensible Drug Policy’s AGM. This event brought together students and organizers from across Canada and included panelists from Wall’s Down Collective, Inner City Health and Wellness Program, and the Mainline Needle Exchange. P.O.W.E.R.’s Dave and Tyson highlighted policing trends observed by P.O.W.E.R. in Vancouver and how this intersects with the ongoing drug toxicity crisis. This included discussion on the general change in the political sphere where previous piecemeal state support for harm reduction is crumbling in the face of a rapid return to institutionalization and attacks on bodily autonomy. Dave underscored the necessity for youth and student-led mobilizations in order for change to happen – and shared his enduring belief that things can change for the better.
SWIFA support
This past month P.O.W..E.R. members supported SWIFA organizers with their first donation drive ahead of their upcoming mutual aid events, which will take place in conjunction with the FIFA takeover of the DTES. SWIFA received a huge amount of community support, including clothing, toiletry, and make-up donations, which they will distribute directly to local sex workers over the course of the games. Keep an eye on SWIFA’s Instagram for updates on future calls for donations and distribution events.
P.O.W.E.R. member Samona read a statement on behalf of SWIFA at an April 30 anti-FIFA rally highlighting the group’s work and goals to date. The statement spoke to how heightened policing during FIFA will harm sex workers. Sex workers who rely on public space, including many of those working in the DTES, are already regularly exposed to violent policing practices. SWIFA organizers anticipate that this violence will intensify during FIFA as extra police are deployed to the DTES, as well as other parts of the so-called FIFA “bubble-zone.”
SWIFA’s goal is to offset some of the violence and displacement that sex workers in the DTES are likely to face during FIFA, providing short-term drop-ins and outreach support and distributing microgrants to affected sex workers. Learn more about SWIFA and how you can support here: https://www.policeoversight.ca/p/fundswifa
New research feat. P.O.W.E.R. members
Discover Public Health: A qualitative study of the impacts of a government crackdown against revenue sharing between pharmacies and patients in Vancouver, Canada
Ethics and Social Welfare: A Scoping Review of More-than-Human Ethical Issues in English-language Social Work, 2000–2024
P.O.W.E.R. remembers frontline worker Kahlied Salem
P.O.W.E.R. is heartbroken to share the passing of Kahlied Salem. As a frontline worker, organizer, and artist, Kahlied had a major impact on the lives of many in and beyond the DTES. His passing is a devastating loss for all of us at P.O.W.E.R. We deeply miss our friend and collaborator, Kahlied. A celebration of life will be held on May 31 at 118 West Hastings.
We <3 you Kahlied Salem.