Make a commitment to change! - TIM LOUIS

Here we are in the holiday season with its many celebrations and events coming up. This has been a challenging year. But we’ll all do our best to follow Dr. Bonnie Henry’s sensible advice and keep ourselves and our loved ones safe.

So I’d like to remind us all about a few action items.

Close to home, let’s not forget all the people in Vancouver who are sleeping on cold, hard sidewalks and living on the street, especially the 200 or so of our neighbours still camping out in Strathcona Park. This is simply unconscionable in a society as rich as ours.

City and provincial officials say they’re working on getting shelter for all the park residents, but nothing is firm yet. The only thing we know for certain is that the park board commissioners have quietly given the park board manager the authority to seek an injunction to clear it, but action is likely months away.

Normally, I’d urge you to take the time to visit the park and maybe take a gift of food, but this year we can’t. Instead, consider making a donation to one of the many hard-working service organizations or community projects in the DTES. Makeda Martin’s amazing project Mama Bear’s Kitchen collaborates with The Avant-Garden and other grassroots initiatives to nourish people in the neighbourhood; their GoFundMe fundraiser is here. Union Gospel Mission has been providing meals and shelter there since 1940, and Lookout Housing and Health Society provides non-judgmental, non-sectarian support to people suffering physical and mental illness throughout Metro Vancouver.

Also, take the time to really learn about the issues in Strathcona Park and what solutions might work for our homeless neighbours throughout Vancouver. Equally important — take action. Email our mayor and city council, our premier and David Eby, the minister for housing, demanding they get a move on and house all of Vancouver’s homeless people.

That said, I’m glad the city has finally taken over the two condemned DTES hotels, the Balmoral and the Regent, whose owners have violated so many bylaws and fire regulations over the years they belong in jail. I can’t believe the city paid the Sahota family $11.5 million for these two SRO disgraces, way over their assessed value, and they actually agreed to keep the deal silent! The City should have expropriated these properties for $1! (BTW thanks to Jen St. Denis for her excellent reporting on this in The Tyee.)

MORE NEW YEARS WISHES WE HOPE COME TRUE

In the spirit of the holidays, my partner Penny and I hope these wishes of ours come true:

Freedom for Michael Spavor and Michael Covrig. Better known as the “Two Michaels” these two Canadians have been imprisoned in horrible conditions in China for more than two years. They can’t even see the sky. This can be only seen as a vengeful move by China when a U.S. extradition warrant forced Canada to arrest Huawei CFO Meng Wangzhou. Poor Ms. Meng. She gets to stay under house arrest in her posh $14-miilion, seven-bedroom home in Shaughnessy. And she wear an ankle bracelet when she goes shopping.

We want to show Chinese authorities there are many, many people watching the Michaels’ situation, so please join Penny and I as we add our efforts to campaigns sending hundreds of holiday cards and messages of support to Michael Spavor and Michael Covrig. Address your cards to them and mail them to the Chinese consulate: 3380 Granville Street, Vancouver, B.C., V6H 3K3: and the Chinese embassy: 515 St. Patrick Street, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 5H3. You can also send cards directly to the Michaels’ Chinese prisons, with address labels translated into Chinese, which might have a better chance of getting there. Click on Joanne Lee-Young’s informative Vancouver Sun article to learn how to do so.

Real progress on the climate crisis. The clock is ticking and time is running out!

Real progress in reducing inequality around the world helping those who desperately need the most basic of human requirements: Food, clean water, adequate shelter and medical care. There are many good agencies working to rectify these inequalities, but you can’t go wrong supporting UNICEF, the UN Refugee Agency, or the World Food Programme. Food is the pathway to peace, so I’ll be blogging about the latter over the holiday season.

A lifting of the US blockade on Cuba. It’s causing so much undue hardship on the people of Cuba, including their ability to fight the pandemic. We’re also really hoping that Cuba’s Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade, which has been sending hundreds of volunteer doctors around the world, including to help with the COVID-19 pandemic, receives the 2021 Nobel Peace Prize. You can read more about the brigade’s good work and Nobel Peace Prize nomination here in my previous blog.

An end to the COVID pandemic!

Every success to the progressive wing of the US Democratic Party in moving Joe Biden in a more forward-thinking direction.

Finally, Penny and I wish you and your loved ones a happy and safe holiday and a healthy new year. We hope we all harness the compassion we’ve learned this past year and make 2021 the year in which the world makes progress on the existential issues that confront us all.

I’d also like to remind you that my law office will be closed as of Noon, Thursday, December 24, and re-opening Monday, January 4, 2021.