Category Archives: Canada

“No More Drug War” Filmfest Double Bill

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Pivot Legal Society is proud to support

“No More Drug War FilmFest Double Bill”  

The British Columbia Compassion Club Society and the Vancouver Island Compassion Society cordially invite you to the No More Drug War Double-Bill Filmfest featuring two exceptional documentaries exploring very different aspects of our failed drug prohibition: Damage Done: the Drug War Odyssey, directed by Connie Littlefield and sponsored by the National Film Board of Canada; and Waiting to Inhale: Marijuana, Medicine & the Law, directed by Jed Riffe and supported by the Sundance Independent Film Festival.

A community dialogue will follow the screenings with the directors of both films and special guests from Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP) including former Mayor of Vancouver Senator Larry Campbell (at the Vancouver showing).

When and Where:
Saturday April 14th in Victoria – Roxy Theatre (2657 Quadra Street)
Sunday April 15th in Vancouver – Vancouver International Film Centre (1181 Seymour Street at Davie)

Both locations: 12:30-4:30 p.m. (doors 11:45) Tickets (door only): $10 Regular / $5 Seniors & VICS/BCCCS members.

Special sponsor tickets with reserved seating are also available for $50 each, please call us in advance if you would like to purchase one of these. All proceeds will go to the British Columbia Compassion Club Society (www.thecompassionclub.org) and Vancouver Island Compassion Society (www.thevics.com).

For more information contact:
Victoria: Philippe Lucas, 250-884-9821; phil at thevics dot com
Vancouver: Rielle Capler, 604-875-0214; rielle at thecompassionclub dot org

We hope to see you there! Rielle Capler and Philippe Lucas

P.S. Special thanks to the following supporting organizations:
The National Film Board of Canada
TIDES Canada Foundation
The Center for Addictions Research of B.C.
Canadians for Safe Access
Creative Resistance
Voices of Substance
Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Pivot Legal Society
B.C. Persons With AIDS Society
Society of Living Injection Drug Users of Victoria B.C. Civil Liberties Association

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more marketing tips for hookers

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Part Two of Three: Part One and Part Three. From the Archive.

  Friday, September 20, 2002

4) Keep Your Neighbors Happy

Hooker Barbie!It is a people business, as I said, and your neighbors are people, too. If you alienate them, they shut you down; if you make friends you get free espressos from Starbucks!

Years ago, when I was working at the Starbucks on East Hastings, near the Franklin Street Kiddie Stroll, we used to have a hooker as a regular customer. Her pimp used to send her in for drinks for all his girls, a couple of times a day. Sometimes it’s hard to tell the hookers from the civilians, especially post-Britney, but there was no mistaking her.

She was about 25, and 5’10” with baby-chick blonde hair piled on top of her head in a loose, tendrilly bun. Her outfit was always the same: Skintight white vinyl mini with matching bandeau top and bolero, high white boots with massive platforms and heels, sometimes matching gloves or, in the dead of winter, a big, grandma-knitted style scarf that had more square footage than the rest of her outfit combined. Makeup out to there. She was absolutely gorgeous, to boot.

There was no point even trying to help her; every man in the shop dove for the till as soon as she cleared the door. She would flirt with them while they made her order (as slowly as possible) and gave her free espressos while she waited, just as long as she stayed right there.

She was always nice to the rest of us, too, and once, when we complained that the crowd in the store was so noisy they were driving us crazy she said, “Leave it to me,” and paced the length of the store slowly, sashaying for all she was worth. The place went silent. We gave her two free drinks that day. I remember offering to call her a cab once, when the rain had turned to snow, but she said “No, that’s okay, I’m never without a ride or a way to get one.” And she stepped outside, gave one sashay, and we heard the squeal of tires. As good as having a car, and no insurance costs!

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the Beautiful Women Project

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The Beautiful Women Project 

cross-posted to running through rain

What causes art? In this case, it’s simple: a child’s desire for mutilation.

Do 13-year-olds really need to be saving their babysitting and paper route money for breast implants? Cheryl-Ann Webster wondered that herself, when her daughter told her that a friend was already socking away money for the boobflation job she felt would be an absolute necessity, sooner rather than later.

So Cheryl-Ann made a few synthetic boobs herself; she made The Beautiful Women Project.

To demonstrate that beautiful bodies come in all shapes and sizes, she wanted to surround young girls with sculptures of real women’s bodies…

The Beautiful Women Project is a touring art exhibition of life-sized torsos of real women aged 19-91.

Aims:

  • To challenge socially-constructed images of beauty
  • To raise awareness and open a dialogue about the link between self-worth and physical appearance
  • To be a teaching and healing tool

In the artist’s words: “Our bodies tell our life story. They are portraits of our journeys and experiences. Knowing that our body is beautiful just as it exists, is a message more people need to see and hear.”

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Office Worker’s Anthem

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I'm in ur cubiclz, ritin ur reportz 

I was at a writing conference a couple of years ago and the keynote speaker said something that absolutely rocked me to the very core of my being…and I hope it will rock you, too.

It was Susan Musgrave, at the Surrey International Writer’s Conference. She was talking about when she was a teenager, and she was thinking about giving up on school. Well, you just know how that went over with the Principal. He called her into his office and he went up one side of her and down the other with the whole raging authority figure trip (because at that point nobody had heard of Susan Musgrave and, indeed, she had not yet become Susan Musgrave, per se) and among the many and varied things he had to say, he said this:

If you don’t finish school, young lady, the only job you’ll be fit for is a prostitute!

And, telling the story, she said, Well I knew that wasn’t an option for me, because I hate working with other people.

and who among us cannot feel that deep in the core of our being, eh?

She went on to say, “Have you ever met someone who worked with other people? They all hate it; the only things they complain about are all the other people in the office!”

and suddenly, writing alone by the glow of a midnight monitor doesn’t seem so bad.

In memory of that moment of realization, and in memorium of many an Orwellian moment in my own office experience, we present Mister Montgomery Burns of The Simpsons, performing what’s sure to become the office worker’s anthem: Look at All These Idiots! Lyrics over the jump…

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Olympic evictions declared illegal

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From Pivot Legal Society:

“Olympic” evictions declared illegal 

Vancouver – Pivot Legal Society and a coalition of advocacy groups won two low-income housing eviction- and rent-increase cases for residents of one of the Downtown Eastside’s low-income hotels today.

Two residents of the Golden Crown Hotel received notice today from the Residential Tenancy Branch that their illegal eviction notices and rent increases linked to the Olympics were set aside.

“We are pleased to be part of a process that set aside these flawed eviction notices and rent increases,” says Shabnum Durrani of Pivot Legal Society who was counsel for the tenants. “However, this is a short term solution. The only real solution is for government to reinvest in social housing.”

The eviction notices given were for March 31, 2007, to the 28 units in the Golden Crown Hotel located across the street from the Woodward’s building. The eviction notices and rent increases are linked to the 2010 Olympics as owners of the hotel have indicated that they would like to use the hotel to provide housing to Olympic workers rather than the current residents.

In setting aside the illegal eviction notice, the dispute resolution officer in the case wrote, “the ‘Notice’ given by the landlord is not an ‘effective’ Notice because it is not in the approved form and it is fatal in its deficiency because it does not inform the tenants of their [rights]…I find the ‘Notice’ given by the landlord is void from the beginning.”

The Golden Crown hotel was one of the four hotels scheduled to close to low income individuals in the last four weeks. As a result of the work done by Pivot and several other advocacy groups including the Downtown Eastside Residents’ Association and the Save Low Income Housing Coalition, three of the four hotels have remained open and operating for low income individuals.

Earlier today 46 single room occupancy (SRO) hotel rooms were saved when the new owners handed management of the Carl Rooms to a local non-profit organization. Community advocates, including David Eby from Pivot Legal Society, convinced a partnership of developers, 0773477 B.C. Limited, to turn over management of their recently-purchased SRO to Atira Property Management, a non-profit property management organization. Atira is a Vancouver-based company that operates three other low-income buildings in the Downtown Eastside. The owners’ agreement with Atira includes plans to renovate and improve the building, while it remains at rent levels accessible to those on basic social assistance.

Link to the Court decision, (6-page pdf)

For more information contact:
Shabnum Durrani – Pivot Legal Society – 778 228 5952 or (604) 255-9700 ext. 104
Reginald Walton – Resident of the Golden Crown Hotel – 778-235-4557

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About Pivot Legal Society
Pivot’s mandate is to take a strategic approach to social change, using the law to address the root causes that undermine the quality of life of those most on the margins.   We believe that everyone, regardless of income, benefits from a healthy and inclusive community where values such opportunity, respect and equality are strongly rooted in the law.

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