Last week, Mayor Kennedy Stewart called a special city council meeting regarding a motion he was introducing to address Vancouver’s homelessness crisis, especially the 300 or so unsheltered people now living in Strathcona Park. I’m pleased to see that at this Monday’s council meeting, councillors directed staff to look into and report back on the…
Category: COPE
The NPA’s Christopher Wilson should be run out of town for his hate speech
Even in a democratic society, there are limits to freedom of speech. We have laws that prohibit libel and slander for good reason. Libel is when you write an untruth — something demonstrably false — about someone else. If you say Danni is dishonest, when they’re not, that’s libellous. Slander is the same thing, but…
Real solutions exist to homeless encampments: Look to the ’70s, and Portland’s Right to Dream Too
Nobody won at Tuesday night’s Vancouver Park Board meeting addressing the city’s latest and biggest homeless encampment in Strathcona Park. After two onerous nights of debate — in which nearly 100 speakers outlined their sympathy for the homeless park dwellers; for the board itself, having to deal with such a thorny issue; and for Strathcona…
Please sign my petition on the empty home tax!
CLICK HERE TO VIEW & SIGN MY PETITION In the 2018 Vancouver municipal election, Mayor Kennedy Stewart promised to raise the empty home tax from 1% to 3%. Now, just one year into his mandate, he’s already reneging on his campaign promise. You can read more details in my October 31 blog. Empty home taxes…
Mayor Stewart: Stick to your 3% empty homes tax!
UPDATE: I’ve created a petition to help keep up the momentum. Please sign and share it! Vancouver Mayor Kennedy Stewart was on CBC radio’s Early Edition with Stephen Quinn Tuesday morning. While he has moved forward on several of his campaign promises, including creating a renters advocacy office and pushing for more medium- and high-density…
Speak out against Councillor Kirby-Yung’s motion restricting freedom of speech
South of the border, any time high profile politicians such as Bernie Saunders or Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez even gently criticize Israel for breaking international law, they are labelled by President Trump and others as antisemitic. Over the last number of years, the pro-Israel lobby has been very successful at getting governments, both in the US and…
No quick fixes to sky-high property taxes
Vancouver’s commercial businesses — big and small — will soon get a break on their property taxes. City council has passed a motion to shift 2% of property taxes from commercial businesses and onto residential properties over the next three years. It will see a shift of 1% in year one, followed by 0.5% in…