Happy New Year!

for better parks and a better city

wishing you all health, happiness, and love

All the Best for the Holiday Season!

'Fierce and undaunted': Vancouver sex workers advocate Jamie Lee Hamilton dies at 64

 Hamilton was among the first to sound the alarm that a serial killer was preying on Vancouver sex workers

 Vancouver Sun·

Matt Robinson & Scott Brown

December 24, 2019·12:25am

Jamie Lee Hamilton had spirit and moxie. She was innovative, generous, funny, fierce and opinionated, and her death represents a great loss for Vancouver.

Those were among the words friends had for Hamilton, a longtime advocate for transgender and sex workers who died Monday at age 64.

David C. Jones, a Vancouver entertainer and writer, last saw Hamilton on Saturday, when she was baptized. He and a group of Hamilton’s other friends had filled her room at the Cottage Hospice, where she had been receiving care since Dec. 9, to sing Amazing Grace.

Hamilton was very weak that day and she could only speak in single words at a time rather than full sentences. What Jones told her then serves as a last goodbye between the two friends.

“I said you are an amazing person and you have done so much for the city and for me, and you’re a great friend and I love you.”

Contrast that with their first interaction, when Hamilton publicly criticized Jones over a stance he held on an issue. Hamilton held strong opinions, but she also had the ability to separate people from actions with which she disagreed. The two eventually became close friends, so close even that she allowed him to buy a trio of her outfits for use in a panto of Rumpelstiltskin.

Hamilton began to transition in 1969 so that she could live in the world as a woman, as friend Becki Ross put it, and she started to work in the sex industry as a teenager.

Ross, a sociology professor at the University of B.C., has known and worked with Hamilton since the mid-1990s, when she ran for Vancouver city council. It was the first of several political campaigns for Hamilton, who also ran for Vancouver park board and school board.

Hamilton was among the first to sound the alarm that a serial killer was preying on sex workers in Vancouver. She protested police inaction in 1998 when she dumped 67 pairs of stilettos on the steps of Vancouver City Hall to raise awareness about missing women.

“There were some individual police officers who were sympathetic,” Hamilton said of that period. “But the political opinion of the police department was obscene: That [the missing women] may have moved away and there was no proof of a serial killer.”

Hamilton established and operated Grandma’s House on Pandora Street as a safe haven in the Downtown Eastside for sex workers. But it was closed as a “common bawdy house” by police in 2000.

“That wasn’t the sole purpose of the house,” Hamilton told The Vancouver Sun that year, adding that it was also a refuge where prostitutes could get a meal, clothing and access to street nurses. “Obviously, the police have a different take on that.”

Robert Pickton was arrested two years later and charged with 27 counts of first-degree murder of women who had disappeared from the Downtown Eastside. He ultimately confided that he had killed 49 and he was convicted in 2007 of six counts of murder.

In 2016, Hamilton and Ross co-founded Canada’s first sex work memorial outside St. Paul’s Anglican Church, at the West End intersection of Jervis and Pendrell streets. The memorial, a retro lamp-post with a red bulb, honours sex workers in the neighbourhood who were forced out by city hall, police and the provincial government in the 1980s. Hamilton was among those who had been violently expelled from the area, Ross said.

Hamilton fought every day for decades for the decriminalization of sex work, and she spoke as a guest lecturer at UBC, the University of Victoria, Simon Fraser University, Capilano University and Douglas College, Ross said.

Hamilton returned earlier this year to the West End to live before she entered the hospice in early December.

Ross last saw her friend on Dec. 12, when she was still in high spirits.

“I just did not know, and I don’t think anyone did, how compromised her body was, and how she just wouldn’t survive this, because she’d survived everything else,” Ross said through tears.

“To me, she was just always so fierce and undaunted and unflagging in her drive to live and to snatch every bit of meaning and pleasure and everything worthwhile out of life that she could.”

mrobinson@postmedia.com
sbrown@postmedia.com


(c) 2019 Vancouver Sun

Postscript: Jamie Lee was a fierce defender of the independence of the Park Board and an advocate for neighbourhood services. She ran many times for Park Board Commissioner and will always be remembered as 'Queen of the Parks'. My condolences to JLHs family of friends. She will be missed and remembered. Stuart Mackinnon

City urged not to use shooting to justify Oppenheimer 'decampment'

A Pivot Legal Society letter urges elected officials to "press pause" on using the incident to justify efforts to remove the tent city.

Nick Eagland Vancouver Sun

Updated: December 13, 2019 

The day after police swarmed the Oppenheimer Park tent city following a shooting that put one man in hospital, a Vancouver advocacy group is urging elected officials not to use the incident as justification for putting its occupants in further harm’s way.

Vancouver police went to the park just after 5:30 p.m. on Thursday after shots were reported. A man with a non-life-threatening gunshot wound was taken to hospital by ambulance and is expected to recover, Const. Tania Visintin said. No one has yet been charged.

On Friday, Pivot Legal Society held a press conference at the park followed by a party to mark the tent city’s first anniversary.

Pivot staff lawyer Anna Cooper said that while few details about the shooting have been released, her society is concerned by the huge police response.

“This is a typical case, in point, where we’re very responsive to what are actually extremely rare situations of shootings and people getting injured, and then we’re really slow to respond to the daily grind of exposure and displacement, which is what is actually killing people,” Cooper said.

On Friday, Pivot sent a letter to the mayor, council and park commissioners asking them to consider how the heavy police response may have made things worse for the tent city occupants.

“VPD officers slashed open many residents’ tents last night in the course of their operations,” Cooper wrote in the letter. “Setting aside for the moment whether those actions were a reasonable exercise of police authority, the result is that many people’s homes and shelters are now exposed to wind, rain, and a lack of privacy. This is both a health and safety issue.”

Pivot’s letter also urges elected officials to “press pause” on using the shooting to justify efforts to remove the tent city.

She pointed to an October police statement that linked the shooting of a woman in a car near the park to a rise in violence “as gangs compete for territory around the park.” A month later, police said their investigation revealed that a son had actually accidentally shot his mother.

“If you look at what is actually risking the lives of homeless people, it’s not homicide,” Cooper said. “I’m not saying that gun incidents don’t matter. Obviously they’re very scary. But they are not the thing that people living on the streets are most scared of because they’re not the thing the majority of them know and love are dying from.”

A B.C. Coroners Service report released this year found that 56 per cent of deaths of homeless people between 2007 and 2016 were accidental, compared to three per cent by homicide.
Police could not be reached for further comment late Friday afternoon.

Earlier this week, park commissioner Stuart Mackinnon said the park board’s goal is to help people move out through a respectful “decampment.”

Mackinnon said Friday that he has been concerned about the safety of those living in the tent city since it formed a year ago. He stressed the urgent need to find them adequate housing.

“Crime is a fact of city life and that neighbourhood is particularly prone to it, so of course I’m concerned for people who are living in the park, always,” Mackinnon said.

“If there was adequate shelter available people wouldn’t be living in the park. This is why they’re there, this is why we’ve taken this route because we don’t feel that putting people onto the street is the answer.”

At a meeting Monday, park commissioners directed staff to find an independent third-party organization to assess what the needs are of the homeless population there and make recommendations how to meet them.

Police are asking anyone who has information about or witnessed the shooting to call the major crime section at 604-717-2541 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.

With files from Derrick Penner

neagland@postmedia.com

twitter.com/nickeagland

Park board finally taking steps, carefully, to clear campers from Oppenheimer Park

The park board will engage a third-party group to assess the park's current state and continue working with park residents to seek housing.

Derrick Penner

Updated: December 11, 2019 

 

 Vancouver’s park board is prepared to seek an injunction to clear out campers living in Oppenheimer Park, but that won’t happen until there is an adequate plan for alternative shelter space and services for the homeless there, the board chair said Tuesday.

 

At an in camera meeting Monday night, park commissioners directed staff to find an independent third-party organization to assess what the needs are of the homeless population there and make recommendations how to meet them, Stuart Mackinnon said.

After more than a year of park occupation by homeless struggling to find places to live, Mackinnon said park board’s goal is to help people move out through a respectful “decampment” of the facility.

The park board decided to step up action now because of safety concerns with encampment residents “taking warmth into their own hands” with implements such as propane heaters inside tents.

“We want to make sure everyone is safe and everyone can stay warm,” Mackinnon said. That will be one of the conditions the third-party entity will be trying to meet.

He added that it is intended to be a respectful process that engages with the campers living in the park in a more of a community response to help what has become a unique community within the city.

“Once conditions (of the plan) are met, the board has authorized the (parks) general manager to seek an injunction through the courts,” Mackinnon said. However, he didn’t set a schedule for that.

Parks general manager Malcolm Bromley said staff are in talks with potential third-party organizations, those with track records in the Downtown Eastside and trusted relationships with the residents there.

Bromley hopes to unveil the successful candidate before Christmas, but acknowledged it is likely some campers will be in the park through the winter.

Parks staff hope to have the plan complete within the first three months of 2020, but Bromley said it is more important to get the “decampment” right than do it quickly.

“I’m reluctant to put a date out there because if we miss it, it will be deemed a failure,” Bromley said.
Bromley added that much of the timing will depend on the findings and recommendations of the third party.

Mackinnon said the work will also be done “with a commitment to the principles of reconciliation,” acknowledging that studies have shown Indigenous people to be homeless in a far greater proportion than their overall population.

“I want to reiterate that the encampment is not the source but a symptom of a much greater problem of homelessness in our community,” Mackinnon said.

The park board will also consider revisions to its park-use bylaw that prohibits overnight camping in parks to rewrite rules that have been ruled unconstitutional in court challenges in other cities.

Bromely said park board staff have been consulting officials in Victoria and other communities where courts have ruled that people can’t be barred from sleeping in parks when no alternative is available.

He added that they are considering options for accommodating reasonable access to parks and how to align that with other complementary services that can be presented to the park board.

depenner@postmedia.com
twitter.com/derrickpenner

Park Board approves additional measures to support decampment plan for Oppenheimer Park, including a conditional injunction

Vancouver Park Board

News release
December 10, 2019

As winter temperatures continue to deteriorate conditions for people experiencing homelessness in Oppenheimer Park, the Park Board has directed staff to work with partners to meet a number of conditions to further the voluntary decampment plan, supported by an injunction once conditions are met.

Among the conditions sought by the Board, staff will engage a third party to conduct an independent assessment of the current situation in Oppenheimer Park to provide recommendations to enhance safety, provide support, and seek appropriate shelter for people in the park as part of the decampment plan. This work will be done with a commitment to the principles of reconciliation and in consultation with those in the park.

Park Board staff have also been directed to deepen existing partnerships between the City, BC Housing, and the Park Board.

The Board has instructed staff to revise the current bylaw, which precludes people from sheltering in parks, in order to bring the bylaw up to current standards, in accordance with other municipal models, and to meet legal precedent.

The Park Board has authorized the General Manager to seek an injunction once the conditions are met. 

“While we know this will take time, I am optimistic that we have developed a plan to improve conditions for people experiencing homelessness in Oppenheimer Park and to move toward a safe resolution to the current encampment in the park,” said Stuart Mackinnon, Park Board Chair. “The Board is committed to enacting a compassionate and holistic approach to this difficult and complicated challenge that touches everyone in our community.”

- 30 –

Media contact:

Vancouver Park Board

pb.communications@vancouver.ca | 604-257-8699

Commissioner Mackinnon to attend National Day of Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women on December 6, 2019

MEDIA ADVISORY

DECEMBER 3, 2019

VANCOUVER BC - On December 6, 2019, Green Party Park Board Commissioner Stuart Mackinnon will attend a ceremony on the 30th anniversary of the Montreal Massacre in memory and protest of violence against women, organized by the Vancouver Women's Monument Committee. 

WHEN: December 6, 2019, 10:00 AM Ceremony, 10:30 AM Media Interviews 

WHAT: 30 years after the Montreal Massacre: Where are we now? A ceremony in memory and protest of violence against women, organized by the Vancouver Women's Monument Committee

WHERE: The Women’s Monument: Marker of Change, Thornton Park, Main St and Terminal Ave, Vancouver, BC

Mackinnon will be one of a number of speakers available in advance and onsite for media interviews including Indigenous activists, women’s advocacy groups and individuals, filmmakers, legal advocates, direct service workers, and more. Mackinnon will speak about the Park Board's partnership with the Women's Monument Committee.

- 30 -

More Information:
Women’s Monument Committee Media Advisor