by Miné Salkin | May 21, 2009 | news
For Metro Vancouver
Trisha Baptie, a former sex-trade worker, speaks on human trafficking Friday night at the International Film Centre on Seymour Street.
Buying sex is not a sport, says a group of activists campaigning to get Ottawa to change the country’s sex laws before the 2010 Olympics, to keep more women from being lured into prostitution.
Michelle Miller, executive director of Resist Exploitation, Embrace Dignity, said Parliament should enact the same laws recently instituted in Sweden that decriminalize the selling of sex and criminalize the buying of sex.
“No one looks at the buyers,” she said. “Women are bought and sold but we want to expose that men have contributed to the demand.”
Miller said the increase in men away from their social networks would raise the demand for paid sex in Vancouver during the Games.
“We’ve seen this at the World Cup, the Superbowl, so it’s known. Men who travel enjoy the degree of anonymity and are more likely to buy sex,” she said.
Trisha Baptie is a former sex-trade worker who took to the streets when she was 13 years old.
“It’s human slavery. There are women in brothels in Vancouver right now, and more will come before the Games,” she said.
by Miné Salkin | May 15, 2009 | news
For Metro Vancouver
The East Broadway apartment building damaged in Thursday’s fire.
A fire at an East Vancouver apartment building that left one person in serious condition and 70 others homeless was likely started by a cigarette, according to firefighters.
“It started as a mattress fire,” Capt. Gabe Roder said. “It was cigarette-related.”
The building’s tenants — many of whom are elderly, uninsured and have medical conditions — will not be allowed to return to their homes for at least two weeks.
The City of Vancouver is paying for them to stay in hotels for three days.
Firefighters reported two fire alarms went off on Thursday at approximately 2:30 a.m. as fire ripped through a north-facing suite on the fourth floor.
Elie Arshak, a retired computer programmer, has lived in the apartment for nine years.
“We heard the alarms, and then we all had to evacuate,” he said. “The smoke was very thick and it was hard to breathe.”
“There’s heavy smoke damage on the fourth floor, and the lower floors have suffered extensive water damage,” said Verne Dion, principal of Barclay Restorations.
Lila moved into the building last month after her last residence in New Westminster also had a fire.
“This is my second fire in the last six months,” she said.
by Miné Salkin | May 7, 2009 | news, Uncategorized
Almost 60% in B.C. say they can’t give clients due attention
For Metro Vancouver
Nearly two-thirds — 60 per cent — of front-line social workers in British Columbia said they “rarely” or “never” give adequate attention to children and families due to unmanageable caseloads and high stress levels, according to a report released yesterday.
A study by the Pivot Legal Society involving 109 current and former employees of the Ministry of Children and Family Development (MCFD) suggests that B.C.’s child protection programs are compromised by a lack of government funding.
“Social workers felt that they didn’t have the ability to do what they needed to do with families and fulfil their reporting responsibilities,” said Darcie Bennett, researcher for Pivot.
Employees also reported that “burnout” took a toll on their emotional health as a result of the lack of resources and time, affecting their own relationships with their families and physical health.
Pivot lawyer Lobat Sadrehashemi said the study’s results are “alarming.”
“The overarching principle is to protect the interests of children, and here we have more than half of social workers pointing to a lack of resources and preventative measures.”
Paul Jenkinson, a spokesperson for the B.C. Association of Social Workers, said these problems have been known since the mid-1990s.
“It’s disturbing that it continues,” he said. “Seventy per cent (of welfare clients) are children who are born into poverty and have no political power.”
by Miné Salkin | May 1, 2009 | news
For Metro Vancouver
Scoring street drugs is often the easier alternative to pain relief than acquiring prescription medication, according to a report based on a group of female users in the Downtown Eastside.
A two-year study conducted by the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users Care Team found that 70 per cent of women requesting health services were stigmatized by the health-care system.
“It’s easier to get drugs on the street than drugs from a doctor,” said Dr. Amy Salmon, principal investigator from the Women’s Health Research Institute.
Three of the 50 women in the study died before the report was completed. One committed suicide, another overdosed and the other died of untreated health conditions.
The report found nearly 40 per cent had been denied pain medication by health workers despite significant health issues such as arthritis and diabetes.
Salmon said poor communication between patients and doctors was one of the system’s biggest failures.
“These women aren’t always understood or even well-respected,” she said.
by Miné Salkin | Apr 25, 2009 | Uncategorized
The YumYum Tree
Courtesy Snapper Music
Psychedelia meets full-formed jazz in Ozric’s 30th album, meeting new peaks of musical eccentricity. Since their formation in 1984, the English quartet has made a considerable impact in the tradition cottage industry-styled electronica, having made millions of sales in the West, but never signing to a major label. The album opens with the aptly self-descriptive track “Oddweird”, bringing to mind the adventurous computerized sound of early Sega Genesis games — but without the overwhelming tackiness. The song “Yum Yum Tree” takes a detour into a cosmic dimension of space-styled rock that makes you want to drop acid and pretend to fly. Mastered by the smoothest of digital technologies, the album takes you to the edge of the galaxy and back, dwelling in spacier rock themes than their 2008 work Sunrise Festival. (Snapper)
