[Dnfd_announce] DT EAST Newspaper Issue 6, August 2012 now online and on the streets

[Ivan Drury]

(Apologies for cross-postings)

DOWNTOWN EAST NEWSPAPER ISSUE 6 (AUGUST 2012)
NOW ONLINE AND ON THE STREETS

This is the last DT EAST issue for the summer, the editorial collective is
taking a break for September. See all DT EAST articles online here:
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/dteast/

The theme of this issue is the struggle for health and against health
institutions. Diane Wood and Byron Cruz have an article about the Harper
government's attack on refugee health care, Jean Swanson wrote about the
double standards in health care for the rich and the poor, the Power of
Women group contributed a piece on mental health and homelessness and
Therese Lulf wrote about the impossibility of finding decent health care
when you're homeless.

There are also some important articles about our battles against government
institutions. Harold Lavender wrote a cutting criticism of the Mayor's
Housing Affordability Task Force and Wendy Pedersen chronicled a UN
official's ridiculing of the Vancouver city council pledge to end
homelessness. There are also articles about funding cuts to Aboriginal
childrens' programs, the need for basic things for people on welfare like
bus passes, and about the basic rights of people on welfare and living in
SRO hotels.

But the most moving articles in this month's DT EAST are about racialized
and colonized peoples' struggles against institutions and the human beings
who run them and who are also damaged by them. Deanna continues our
discussion about racist discrimination against Chinese seniors in the DTES
and Herb Varley interviews Kelvin Bee about his experience with the
residential school survivor claims process. The latter is the front page
article in this month's paper and the text is included below the article
list and call for donations.

We will always remember: Interview with Kelvin Bee about the residential
school survivor claims process, Herb Varley
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/resschool/
City-Developer Alliance No Solution To Housing Crisis, Harold Lavender
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/afftask/
Harper government axes health care for refugees, Diane Wood and Byron Cruz
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/refugeehealth/
Robin Hood was right (Double standards in health care), Jean Swanson
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/whoshealth/
Belonging here, Deanna
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/belong/
Mental health, Power of Women Group
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/powmh/
Are you listening? Robert Bonner (poem)
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/listen/
Is foreclosure in the future of Pantages? Ivan Drury
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/foreclose/
Winning the impossible at the Pantages demolition site, Ivan Drury
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/pantagesdemo/
Former UN official calls mayor’s pledge to end homelessness “ridiculous”,
Wendy Pedersen
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/miloon/
Feds shut down Red Fox program for kids, Diane Wood and Victoria Bull
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/redfox/
Effective health care when homeless? Therese Lulf
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/homelesscare/
Grandmother tells Minister Cadieux, “People on welfare need bus passes,”
Victoria Bull
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/buspass/
If you live in a hotel you have tenant rights, Ivan Drury
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/srorights
Library Fines, Phoenix Winter
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/library/
Changes to welfare let you keep more money, Jean Swanson
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/welly/
Art is for the birds, Diane Wood
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/art-2/
Remembering DNC members we have lost
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/mem/

We need sustaining donations to cover print costs of $700 a month. If you
would like to donate to the DT East contact Cecily at cecily at resist.ca or
mail cheques made out to "DT East Newspaper" to DT East c/o Carnegie
Centre, 401 Main St Vancouver BC V6A 2T7. We prefer smaller monthly
sustaining donations ($20-$50 or more of course) than single large
donations.

We look forward to your letters, contributions, and to struggling with you
for justice in our communities,

DT East editorial collective
dtescouncil at gmail.com

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DT EAST FRONT PAGE
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We will always remember
Interview with Kelvin Bee about the residential school survivor claims
process
http://dnchome.wordpress.com/2012/08/01/resschool/

By Herb Varley

I was born July 16 1962. My residential school tag number is 2616. If you
reverse the numbers it gives you a year and a date. I attended Alert Bay
Residential from the winter of 1966 to the summer of 1976.

The Department of Indian Affairs and RCMP came and pushed my parents door
open. My mom told me in our language to hide and I went behind the wood
stove. All the 4 and a half year olds had to go. I was the only one. I
remember everything that happened like it was yesterday; the weather, the
road to the Alert Bay school.

When the apology and claims process started years ago, I didn’t want
anything to do with the people from the churches. I decided to go through
with it in order to help provide my children grandchildren with a better
future.

DT EAST: Did the apology open old wounds?

This Independent Assessment Process (IAP) for residential school survivors
is the third process I have gone through. They have dealt with all the main
players of the residential school and this time they want to know about the
abuse of the students themselves. They are asking: Who beat you up? Who had
sex with you? That’s what they’re doing with the IAP. Those were things I
had left in the farthest parts of my memory, it’s the darkest part of my
history. I didn’t want to talk about it, didn’t want to reveal the names of
the ones that abused me. I didn’t want to revisit that.

There were three levels in the schools; Juniors, Intermediate, and Seniors.
I never made it past Junior. Those were the longest 10 years of my life. I
was abused by the older, huskier boys in the school. I ended up being an
angry man from that abuse. When IAP came and asked me questions about that
abuse I reacted with the old hurt.

DT EAST: What’s next in this process of healing and justice against
residential schools?

As a young man, I dreamt of peering out of the window of the school. I
think about making a return to the school as a man. I would go inside
wearing my street cloths and come out in my traditional regalia and walk to
my canoe at Alert Bay; the canoe is being pulled not by an Indian Affairs
boat, but by the Kwakwaka’wakw people. My dad, my mom, my adad – my
grandmother – are all standing there. It is good to have my mom on the
beach in her wheelchair and her regalia. We are going home the traditional
way in the canoe and are leaving the Indian Agents behind and I feel good.
We are returning home as family as Kwak’waka’wakw people.

We can bring closure by returning to the old ways. The word I would use is
splicing; splicing our histories with today. I need my brothers and sisters
to rest along with my dad and my adad. In the end I’ll return home.

DT EAST: How can residential school survivors in the DTES access the
residential school process?

There’s a lot of emotion involved. Anyone who wants to support the people
going through the process had better have thick skins. You’ll hear stories
that will peel the paint off the walls.

As a community member I need to see that the past is not forgotten, that
the people that went to the schools are not forgotten. We need to see that
the people that suffered are not forgotten in order to bring closure.
That’s why we organize in the community centres to work towards closure and
welcome the survivors home.

To access the residential school survivor claims process you can go to the
Aboriginal Front Door office (AFD) and talk to me, the elder there. We can
get you going. If your process is already underway we help get you get a
counsellor. We’ll help you get in touch with the main IAP here in
Vancouver. They can help get you a lawyer that will help fill out the
claims documents, it has to be done by a IAP certified ‘filler’. Once they
put pen to paper it becomes a file. IAP will not close before all the files
are finished. So as long as you start a file before September 19 your file
will stay open and get processed.

We will always remember the schools we survived. No process and no apology
will make that go away. We will honour and remember our survivors and keep
the oral history going through our family members. We will always remember.
The people must hear.
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