Here’s What 2026–2031 Could Look Like 😬🌑💔

If Vancouver Repeats 2001, Here’s What 2026–2031 Could Look Like 😬🌑💔

When I look at Vancouver’s 2026 budget — a property tax freeze, $50 million more for police 🚓💰, and huge cuts to arts, sustainability, planning, and community services — something inside me twists.

Because I’ve lived this before.
I survived the 2001 cuts.
And what I’m seeing now gives me the exact same dread. 😢

If this city repeats that history, here’s what the next five years could look like — based on real consequences we already lived through.

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1. Community Programs Fade Away One by One 🧡➡️🕳️

At first, it looks small:
“Reduced hours.”
“Temporary pause.”
“Low enrollment.”

Then, the reality hits:

• 🎨 Art programs vanish
• 🤝 Youth mentorship stops
• 🧒 Summer programs get cancelled
• 🏫 Community centres shrink
• 💚 Sustainability workshops die
• 💼 Staff burn out and quit

This is exactly what happened after 2001.

Without these supports, people become isolated, anxious, invisible.
A quieter crisis.

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2. Housing Gets Worse… Much Worse 🏚️💸

Cut planning & sustainability and you cut the very people who:

• Fast-track affordable housing
• Oversee tenant protections
• Keep developers in check
• Enforce climate-safe building rules

The result?
More luxury towers 🏙️
Fewer affordable homes
More rent hikes 🔥
More evictions

Exactly like 2001.
But now, with inflation? even more devastating.

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3. Poverty Deepens — Out of Sight Until It Can’t Be Ignored 🍞💔

Cut support services and poverty blooms in the shadows.

What we saw last time:

• More people couch-surfing 🛋️
• Seniors struggling quietly 👵💊
• Disabled people facing crisis 👩‍🦽
• Food bank lineups growing 🥫
• More survival sex work
• More hidden homelessness

This will all happen again.

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4. Police Move Into Spaces Where Community Used to Be 🚓➡️🏘️

When you remove helpers and add police, enforcement fills the void.

Expect more:

• Street sweeps 🧹
• Ticketing of poor people ❌💵
• Over-policing youth 🚨
• Responses to mental health crises by force instead of care 💔

Not because police are “bad,”
but because everything else was cut.

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5. Vancouver’s Creative Heart Starts to Die 🎭💀

Cutting arts and culture never looks catastrophic at first.

Then suddenly:

• Festivals disappear 🎉❌
• Grants dry up
• Studios close
• Murals stop
• Music programs end 🎶💔
• Young creatives leave the city

A city without art is a city without soul.

We lost a whole generation in 2001.
We risk losing another.

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6. The City Feels Colder, Lonelier, Meaner 🥶🚶‍♀️

When community spaces shrink, people withdraw.

Neighbourhoods feel different.
Sidewalks feel tense.
People stop making eye contact.
Isolation becomes normal.
Fear replaces connection.
Anger rises.

This is exactly what I remember from the early 2000s —
Vancouver felt hollowed out.

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7. Mental Health Crises Rise With No One Left to Catch People 💥🧠

In 2001, mental health cuts destroyed lives.
Now Vancouver is repeating that pattern by removing the roles that keep people stable.

The future looks like:

• More ER crowding 🚑
• More untreated crises
• More burnout
• More preventable tragedy
• More police becoming the “default responders”

We lived this already.
It was awful.

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8. Vancouver Gets More Expensive — While Feeling More Broken 💸💔

A tax freeze doesn’t make a city cheaper.

Cuts do not:

• Lower rent
• Lower groceries
• Increase wages
• Improve transit
• Support seniors
• Help families survive

Cuts only take away the supports that make survival possible.

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9. Inequality Explodes — Again 📉📈

This is who gets hurt, every single time:

• Renters 🏠
• Low-income families 🍽️
• Indigenous residents 🧡
• Disabled people 👩‍🦽
• Seniors 👵
• Youth 🧑‍🎓
• Artists 🎨
• Single parents 👩‍👧

And this is who benefits:
💰 Wealthy homeowners
💰 Developers
💰 Police budgets
💰 Corporations

We’ve seen this movie before.

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10. Five Years From Now, People Ask: “How Did Vancouver Get So Dark?” 🌑🥺

And the answer will be simple:

Because we cut everything that made the city bright.
We cut community.
We cut connection.
We cut creativity.
We cut climate action.
We cut care.
We cut hope.

And we funded enforcement instead.

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This Isn’t Drama — It’s Memory. 😢

I lived the last wave of cuts.
I remember the fear.
I remember the service closures.
I remember the poverty.
I remember the isolation.
I remember how long it took to recover — and how many people didn’t.

When I say Vancouver is in danger of going dark,
I’m not exaggerating.

I’m warning you.

Because I’ve seen what happens when a city turns its back on the people who need it most.

And I don’t want to watch it happen again.
Not to us.
Not to Vancouver.
Not now.

If Vancouver Repeats 2001, Here’s What 2026–2031 Could Look Like

 If Vancouver Repeats 2001, Here’s What 2026–2031 Could Look Like: A Dark Forecast From Someone Who Lived the Consequences

When I look at the 2026 Vancouver budget — the cuts, the tax freeze, the $50 million boost to police, and the slashing of arts, culture, sustainability, planning, and community services — I feel something in my chest that I can only describe as old fear waking up.

Because I lived through 2001.
I lived through the aftermath of Gordon Campbell’s cuts.
And when I say Vancouver is going dark, it’s not a metaphor.
It’s a memory.

If we follow the same path again, here’s what the next five years could look like.

Not imaginary.
Not exaggerated.
Based on what actually happened before.

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1. Community Programs Will Vanish — Quietly, One by One

At first it happens slowly.
A program “temporarily paused.”
A centre “reducing hours.”
A long-running community grant “not renewed.”
A recreation class suddenly “not offered this season.”

Then the closures accelerate.

Art programs disappear.
Sustainability workshops end.
Youth mentorship programs vanish.
Neighbourhood groups disband because their funding evaporates.
Community support workers burn out and quit.

This is exactly what happened after 2001.

Without these programs, people lose connection, skills, safety, hope.
And it will be blamed on “low turnout” or “budget realities,” not the cuts that caused it.

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2. Housing Will Get Worse — Much Worse

Cut the planning and sustainability departments and you cut the very people who:

• Fast-track affordable housing
• Negotiate with developers
• Enforce tenant protections
• Plan density and transportation
• Oversee climate-adapted building codes

What happened last time?

• Development became developer-driven
• Affordability plummeted
• Homelessness skyrocketed
• Evictions increased
• The safety net shrank

If we repeat this, Vancouver will become even more unaffordable for ordinary people — while luxury towers keep rising.

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3. Poverty Will Deepen — Out of Sight, Until It Isn’t

You can’t cut community services without amplifying poverty.

After 2001, we saw:

• More people couch-surfing
• More people entering survival sex work
• More families relying on food banks
• Seniors quietly choosing between rent and groceries
• Disabled people slipping into crisis
• Young people falling through cracks no one was paid to fill

We are setting the stage for that again.

This time, with the housing crisis and inflation, it could be even worse.

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4. Policing Will Expand Into Spaces That Used to Belong to Community

When you remove social supports and add police funding, enforcement fills the vacuum.
It happened in 2001 and 2002.
It happened in the DTES.
It happened in small towns.
It happened everywhere services were cut.

Expect more:

• Street sweeps
• Bylaw enforcement against the poor
• Ticketing instead of social support
• Over-policing of youth and racialized people
• Criminalization of poverty

More police doesn’t make a city healthier.
It only makes it harder to hide the suffering that cuts create.

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5. The Creative Heart of Vancouver Will Start to Die

Cut arts & culture and you lose:

• Festivals
• Local art spaces
• Grants for emerging creators
• Community theatre
• Neighbourhood art studios
• Music programs for youth
• Murals and cultural projects

Without these, the soul of a city dries up.

After 2001, BC lost countless artists, teachers, dancers, performers — people who fed our cultural life. Many left the province entirely.

If these cuts stay, we will lose another entire generation of creators.

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6. The City Will Become Colder, Meaner, and More Isolated

When you strip away the social fabric — community centres, programs, cultural events, youth activities, sustainability workshops — what’s left?

People stay home.
People disconnect.
People stop knowing their neighbours.
Fear replaces community.
Survival replaces participation.
Bus stops feel unsafe.
The streets feel different.
The city feels smaller, darker, angrier.

This is exactly what I remember from the early 2000s.

And it terrifies me to think we’re willingly walking back into it.

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7. Mental Health Crises Will Rise — And No One Will Be Paid to Catch People

In 2001, mental health funding was gutted.
People who needed care didn’t get it.
Families struggled in silence.
Suicide rates rose.
Hospital ERs became the default mental-health system.
Police became the responders of last resort.

Now, in 2026, Vancouver is eliminating sustainability and community support roles — the very people who help keep vulnerable residents stable.

The result?
Crisis after crisis, without a safety net.

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8. Vancouver Will Get More Expensive While Feeling More Broken

Ironically, a tax freeze doesn’t make a city cheaper to live in.

Cuts do not lower your rent.
Cuts do not make groceries cheaper.
Cuts do not reduce transit costs.
Cuts do not stabilize hydro rates.
Cuts do not protect you from inflation.

Cuts only erode the public supports that keep your private life viable.

In 2001, BC became harder, not easier, to survive in.
The same will happen again.

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9. Inequality Will Explode — And Everyone Will Pretend It’s Inevitable

Austerity politics always benefits the wealthy and harms the vulnerable.

After 2001, BC’s richest residents thrived.
Everyone else struggled, sometimes for decades.

The same groups will be harmed now:

• Poor people
• Seniors
• Disabled people
• Indigenous people
• Youth
• Renters
• Single parents
• Low-income workers
• Anyone who relies on community supports

The wealth gap will widen.
The middle class will shrink again.
People will blame the victims, not the policies.

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10. Five Years From Now, We Will Ask: How Did Vancouver Get So Dark?

And the answer will be simple:

Because we cut everything that made the city bright.

We cut creativity.
We cut compassion.
We cut community.
We cut support.
We cut resilience.
We cut climate progress.
We cut connection.
We cut the things that help humans flourish.

And we added police.

Just like in 2001.

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This isn’t fearmongering. This is memory.

I lived the consequences last time.
Many of us did.
We carry the scars.

That’s why this budget terrifies me.

Because I know how quickly a city can dim.
I know how quickly people can fall.
I know how easily support networks can be wiped out.
I know how hard it is to rebuild them.

And I don’t want to watch Vancouver go dark again.

Not now.
Not with everything we’ve already survived.
Not when people are already struggling.
Not when the stakes are higher than ever.

We deserve better.
We remember better.
And we can demand better — before the lights go out again.

🌿 Building a Model Wellness Village: A Smarter Way to Care in BC

 🌿 Building a Model Wellness Village: A Smarter Way to Care in BC

When it comes to supporting people with mental health challenges, substance use issues, or brain injuries, British Columbia has struggled for decades with crisis-driven systems that cost lives—and millions of dollars. But there’s a better way: a model Wellness Village, inspired by Scandinavian success stories, designed to provide long-term stability, dignity, and effective care.

🏘️ What a Wellness Village Could Look Like

Imagine a campus of 100–150 units, offering a mix of studio apartments for independent living and small shared cottages for those who benefit from peer support. Residents have access to multidisciplinary teams: social workers, addiction specialists, nurses, occupational therapists, peer mentors, and mental health clinicians. The goal is not just survival, but real recovery and independence.

📋 Aftercare and Community Support

Support doesn’t end at discharge. Residents have ongoing access to telehealth, peer mentoring, and life-skills programs such as cooking, budgeting, job readiness, and recreational activities—ensuring they don’t fall back into crisis after leaving the facility.

🏥 Long-Term Stabilization

Average stays range from 6–12 months, with personalized care plans integrating primary care, mental health therapy, addiction treatment, and cognitive rehabilitation for brain injuries. Small communities and human-scale living arrangements help residents regain independence and dignity without the isolation or stigma of institutional settings.

🧠 Treating Brain Injuries Properly

Specialized clinics within the Village provide cognitive rehabilitation, occupational therapy, and neuropsychological care. Residents are regularly assessed, allowing adjustments to treatment plans that maximize recovery and long-term function.

💚 Preventing Overdose Spikes

The Wellness Village incorporates harm reduction strategies, including supervised consumption spaces, naloxone access, and education. These measures keep residents safe while keeping the broader community informed and protected, reducing spikes in overdoses that often overwhelm emergency services.

🚫 Learning from Riverview’s Mistakes

Unlike past institutional approaches, the Wellness Village focuses on small, human-scale communities, transparent oversight, trauma-informed care, and respect for autonomy. Residents are integrated into the community, rather than isolated, ensuring dignity and real-life skill development.

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💰 Costs and Value: How Much Does It Really Cost?

At first glance, building a Wellness Village might seem expensive. Here’s the breakdown for a 120-unit facility:

• Land and construction: $12–24 million
• Annual operations: $4 million
• Equipment and supplies: $1.5–3 million

While these numbers may seem high, when we calculate per-person costs, it’s more reasonable:

• On-site residents: ~200 per year
• Including aftercare reach: ~600 people annually

Cost per person per year:

• Capital costs (amortized over 10 years): ~$9,000
• Annual operations: ~$20,000
• Total per person: ~$29,000

This is comparable to Scandinavian models, where governments spend $20–30k per person per year for housing, therapy, and aftercare. The upfront cost may seem high, but the long-term benefits—fewer hospitalizations, reduced overdoses, less homelessness, and improved social outcomes—make it a smart investment, not a luxury.

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🌍 Lessons from Scandinavia

Scandinavian countries do this well:

• Housing First: Everyone gets stable housing before recovery begins
• Integrated Care: Mental health, addiction support, and therapy in one place
• Early Intervention: People are supported before crises escalate
• Harm Reduction: Safe consumption spaces and overdose prevention are standard
• Long-Term Stabilization: Residents stay as long as needed, supported by community and staff

By comparing BC to Scandinavia, it’s clear that investing in integrated, community-based care saves lives and reduces costs long-term. The Wellness Village model brings those principles to our backyard.

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BC has an opportunity to do things differently. Instead of repeating past mistakes, we can build a system that cares first, prevents crises, and treats people like humans, not numbers. A Wellness Village is more than a building—it’s a blueprint for safer, healthier, and more compassionate communities.

Why Oil Tankers Still Don’t Belong on BC’s North Coast

🚫⛽ Why Oil Tankers Still Don’t Belong on BC’s North Coast — And Why the Industry Already Knows It 🌊⚠️

Every few years, the same debate pops up again:
“Why can’t we just expand the pipelines and ship crude from northern BC? Aren’t modern tankers super safe now? Can’t we just dredge, add tugs, or build offshore terminals?” 🤔🚢🛠️

Honestly?
This whole conversation misses the one question that actually matters:

💰📉 Can the voyage be insured?

Because if a route cannot be insured, it doesn’t matter what politicians claim, what oil executives promise, or what engineers sketch on paper.
No insurance = no tankers.
Period. 🚫🚢

And for over 50+ years, the insurance industry has been crystal clear:

❌🌊 Hecate Strait, Dixon Entrance & the Davis Shelf are NOT survivable for crude tankers in a full-failure scenario.

Not “risky.”
Not “challenging.”
Unsurvivable. 💀⚓

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🌪️🌊 The Harsh Marine Reality People Don’t See

There’s a reason the tanker exclusion zone existed long before today’s political fights.
It wasn’t environmental ideology — it was industry self-preservation. 🛡️

A fully loaded crude tanker entering or leaving the North Coast must cross a violent, unstable marine zone where:

• 🌊 Deep Pacific swells rise suddenly into short, breaking seas
• 🌪️ Winter storms hammer the coast with brutal force
• ⚓ No deep-water safe refuge exists
• ⏳ Minutes — not hours — before drifting into shoals if propulsion fails
• 🚫 No weather escape options
• 🛟 Tug response times can’t beat the geography

This is what insurers look at.
This is what ship operators base decisions on.
This is what governments pretend not to hear. 🙉

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💼⚠️ Insurance Doesn’t Ask “What Happens on a Good Day?”

Underwriters ask the only question that matters:

“What happens on the worst day in 20 years?” 🌩️💥

And the answer is brutally simple:

If everything goes wrong at once, a crude tanker in that region cannot be guaranteed a survivable window. ❌🚢

No fleet of tugs, no GPS magic, no fancy dynamic positioning, and no offshore terminal can overcome the physics of the coastline.
So insurers refuse.
And without insurance, tankers don’t sail. 🛑

Everyone in the industry knows this:

• ⚓ Marine pilots
• 🌊 Operators
• 💼 Insurers
• 🛢️ Oil shippers
• 🪶 Coastal First Nations

It’s the public that keeps being distracted by fantasy scenarios.

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🗺️❌ This Isn’t “Politics” — It’s Geography + Physics

Calling the ban “ideological” totally ignores why the shipping industry itself avoids the region.

A catastrophic spill here would be:

• 🔥 Uncontainable
• 🌊 Unrecoverable
• 🐚 Ecologically permanent
• 💸 Financially catastrophic
• 🚫 Way beyond any cleanup capacity

That’s why the industry stays away.

Not because of “activists.”
Not because of “red tape.”
But because one spill would destroy everything — including them. ⚠️💥

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🔔⏰ Time for People to Wake Up

Politicians talk.
Companies dream.
But the insurance industry — the final decision-maker — already closed this door decades ago. 🚪❌

Northern BC crude tanker traffic isn’t happening:

• Not now
• Not in ten years
• Not in twenty
• Not ever — unless the laws of physics change 🌍⚓

If we want serious conversations about energy, jobs, climate, and coastal protection, we need to stop pretending this is an engineering puzzle and start accepting what the marine world has known for generations:

🚢⚠️ Some routes are simply too dangerous.

No amount of wishful thinking will change that.

Unlined Ponds, Sick Families, and Lessons We Keep Ignoring

🌎💔 Unlined Ponds, Sick Families, and Lessons We Keep Ignoring

Every environmental disaster starts the same way:
👉 A warning is dismissed
👉 A permit is skipped
👉 A pond is left unlined
👉 Someone says, “It’s fine.”

And then decades later, when the soil is poisoned, the rivers are dying, and families are sick, officials shrug and say:
“Well, we issued a fine.”

Today we’re talking about Ground X leaking hydrovac slurry from an unlined pond beside the Pitt River — a tributary of the Fraser. But this isn’t a new story. This is the oldest environmental story in North America.

And real people have lived it.
Real families have buried loved ones.
Entire communities have never recovered.

Let’s remind ourselves what ignoring contamination really means.

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🏠☣️ Love Canal: Families Trapped on Toxic Landfill

In the late 1970s, residents of Love Canal in Niagara Falls, NY, started noticing something was wrong:
🧒 Children came home with chemical burns
🤰 Miscarriages skyrocketed
💀 Cancer rates spiked
🌧️ After rainstorms, oily sludge seeped into basements

Lois Gibbs, a young mother, became the voice of the crisis. She discovered her son’s school was built over 20,000 tons of buried chemical waste — including benzene (a known carcinogen).

Her activism forced President Carter to declare a federal emergency.
900 families were evacuated.

But the soil? Still toxic.
The health impacts? Still being studied.
The trauma? Permanent.

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🚰😡 Flint, Michigan: A City’s Children Poisoned

In 2014, Flint switched its water source to save money. But the untreated river water corroded old pipes, releasing lead — a neurotoxin that damages children’s brains permanently.

Lead levels in some homes were over 13,000 ppb.
The EPA’s limit? 15 ppb.

LeeAnne Walters, a mother of four, noticed her children developing rashes and illnesses. She helped uncover the truth when officials denied anything was wrong.

Flint’s children will carry lifelong effects:
🧠 Learning disabilities
📉 Lower IQ
🩺 Chronic health issues

This is what happens when governments claim contamination is “under control.”

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🌊🧠 Grassy Narrows: 50 Years of Mercury Poisoning

In the 1960s and 70s, a paper mill dumped 9,000 kg of mercury into the English-Wabigoon River system.

The consequences?
💥 Mercury bioaccumulated in fish
💥 Fish fed families
💥 Families developed neurological mercury poisoning

Symptoms still affecting people today:
🌀 Tremors
🌀 Memory loss
🌀 Speech problems
🌀 Vision and balance impairment

Judy Da Silva, a community leader from Grassy Narrows, has been speaking for decades about the suffering:

“They took our river. They took our health. And nothing can give that back.”

Fines didn’t fix this.
Promises didn’t fix this.
Generations continue to pay.

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🌵💚 Erin Brockovich & Hinkley: The Unlined Pond Disaster

This is where the Ground X story hits hard.

In Hinkley, California, the utility company PG&E used unlined ponds to store wastewater contaminated with hexavalent chromium (Chromium-6) — a known carcinogen.

The toxins seeped into groundwater for decades.
Families drank it, bathed in it, cooked with it.

Roberta Walker, one of the residents featured in the Erin Brockovich case, suffered massive health problems. Her story — and Erin’s relentless investigation — exposed the contamination and won a $333 million settlement.

But here’s the truth Erin Brockovich still says today:

“No amount of money ever gives people back their health.”

Unlined pond.
Ignored warnings.
People sick for life.

Sound familiar?

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🐟🌊 Metro Vancouver: A Disaster in Slow Motion

Ground X did exactly what ruined Hinkley:

❌ Stored waste in an unlined pond
❌ Leaked effluent into the ground
❌ Ignored repeated warnings
❌ Operated beside a river system full of salmon
❌ Failed to provide proof of safety

Samples showed contaminants — including benzo(a)pyrene — at more than double provincial standards.

Benzo(a)pyrene is:
🔥 Carcinogenic
🔥 Harmful to fish, plants, and invertebrates
🔥 Persistent in soil and water

So here’s the question:

Do these companies want to eat the salmon they’re contaminating? 🐟

Do they want their kids drinking the water they polluted? 🚰

Do they want to live beside the river they’re harming? 🌊

Because families along the Fraser do.
Indigenous communities do.
Wildlife does.

The river cannot defend itself.
Regulators tried — four warnings in five years.
And now a fine.
$454,000.

But that doesn’t repair a river.
It doesn’t protect salmon.
It doesn’t undo a leak that already happened.

A fine is a receipt.
Not justice.

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🛑❗ We Know How These Stories End — And We Can’t Pretend Anymore

Every environmental catastrophe begins with the same mistakes.

Every community disaster begins with: ☠️ “The pond is fine.”
☠️ “It’s only a small leak.”
☠️ “There’s no proof.”
☠️ “Everything is under control.”

Until suddenly — it’s not.
And mothers like Lois Gibbs, LeeAnne Walters, and Judy Da Silva are left fighting for their children’s lives.

We cannot afford another Love Canal.
Another Flint.
Another Grassy Narrows.
Another Hinkley.

Not here.
Not on the Fraser.
Not to our salmon.
Not to our families.

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💚🌍 If companies want to operate near our rivers, the question is simple:

Would you let your children swim there?
Would you drink that water?
Would you feed your grandbabies salmon from that river?

If the answer is no, then it’s already too dangerous.

Vancouver’s 2026 Budget: A Chilling Repeat of 2001

Vancouver’s 2026 Budget: A Chilling Repeat of 2001 😬📉💔

When Vancouver City Council passed its 2026 budget — a property tax freeze paired with $50 million more for police 🚓💰 — so many of us felt an immediate jolt of déjà vu.

Because we’ve seen this before.
We lived this before.
This is Gordon Campbell 2001 all over again — and it’s terrifying. 😢

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Austerity Repackaged as “Zero Means Zero” 🎁➡️💣

Back in 2001, Gordon Campbell promised tax cuts ✂️ — and delivered them by gutting social services, slashing ministries, and leaving vulnerable people stranded with nowhere to turn.

• Women’s centres closed 🚪
• Mental health supports cut 🧠💔
• Housing programs gutted 🏚️
• Environmental protections trashed 🌲❌
• Legal aid slashed ⚖️
• Thousands of workers laid off 📉

The suffering that followed was REAL.
We remember. We survive with scars.

And now, Vancouver is being pushed down that same road again. 😟

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Ken Sim’s 2026 Budget: Same Playbook, New Packaging 📘➡️📗

The city’s “Zero Means Zero” tax freeze sounds great on a flyer… but it comes with over $120 million in cuts to the very services that keep a city alive.

Here’s what’s losing funding:

• 🎨 Arts & Culture — cut
• 🌍 Planning, Urban Design & Sustainability — cut
• 🧡 Community Services — cut
• 🛠️ Facilities & infrastructure care — cut
• 🧱 Climate and equity programs — cut
• 🧑‍🔧 Up to 400 city workers — gone

Meanwhile?
🚨 Police budget gets +$50 million.

It’s the exact same pattern we lived through in 2001:
Defund care → Fund control.
Shrink community → Expand enforcement.

And it never ends well.

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Who Suffers When Budgets Look Like This? 😔👵👩‍🦽🧑‍🧒

The same people who always suffer under austerity:

• Renters struggling to stay afloat 🏠💸
• Low-income workers and families 🍽️
• Disabled people 👩‍🦽
• Seniors on fixed incomes 👵
• Indigenous communities 🧡
• Kids and teens who rely on community centres 🧒🎭
• Artists and cultural workers 🎨
• City employees trying to keep services running 🧑‍🔧

When we cut planning, housing gets worse.
When we cut sustainability, our future dims.
When we cut community services, people fall through the cracks.
When we add more policing, inequality deepens. 🚓➡️💔

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A Budget Is a Moral Document 📝❤️

Budgets show who we prioritize… and who we are willing to sacrifice.

In 2001, British Columbia sacrificed the vulnerable.
In 2026, Vancouver is risking the same.

Let’s be honest: a 23-page budget (down from 373 pages last year) is not transparency.
It’s a red flag. 🚩

This city is making choices that will reshape the next decade — and not in a good way.

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We Lived the Consequences Before… and Vancouver Is Going Dark Again 🥺🌑

Those of us who lived through the early 2000s remember the harm, the fear, the closures, the homelessness explosion, the poverty, the chaos, the unraveling of community and environmental protections.

We watched services disappear.
We watched neighbours struggle.
We watched inequality balloon.
We watched the province go dark. 🌑

Now?
Vancouver is dimming the lights again.
And we’re terrified because we KNOW how this story ends.

Unless people speak up, organize, and demand better, we’re headed straight toward another era of cuts, suffering, and preventable human pain.

History is warning us.
Will anyone listen? 😢🙏

Vancouver Firefighters Face Record Overdoses

💔 Vancouver Firefighters Face Record Overdoses — Here’s How You Can Help 🚒

On November 21, Vancouver Fire and Rescue Services (VFRS) faced a day like no other, responding to 54 overdoses in a single day — the highest ever recorded by the department 😢. For comparison, VFRS averaged 16 overdoses/day in May, and recent weeks have shown a sharp surge 📈. During Income Assistance Week, firefighters averaged 45 overdoses/day, showing how the opioid crisis continues to devastate the city 💔.

Firehall 2, at the heart of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside (DTES), has been pushed to unprecedented limits ⚠️. Last week alone, it responded to 452 emergency calls, compared to 229 during the same period last year. These included overdoses, fires 🔥, alarms 🚨, and other life-threatening emergencies, often requiring backup from other firehalls. On some days, call volumes exceeded 80 emergencies, with firefighters racing from one crisis to the next 💨.

Nine years after the opioid emergency was declared, individuals, families, communities, and first responders continue to bear the daily weight of this epidemic 🫂. Firefighters, exposed constantly to extreme human suffering, are limited to 81 shifts at Firehall 2 to prevent compassion fatigue 💔😓. Yet they continue to answer unprecedented calls, saving lives every day 👏💪.

These brave men and women deserve our recognition, gratitude, and support. While we can’t all be on the frontlines, there are meaningful ways to help both firefighters and the community they serve:

💡 Ways to Support

1. Donate to firefighter‑affiliated charities

• Vancouver Firefighter Charities (VFC): Supports community programs for kids, seniors, and vulnerable populations.
• BC Professional Fire Fighters' Burn Fund: Helps burn survivors, hospital equipment, and recovery programs.

2. Support harm‑reduction and overdose prevention

• Overdose Prevention Society (OPS): Frontline overdose response and harm reduction in the DTES.
• PHS Community Services Society: Provides housing, healthcare, mental health, and harm-reduction programs.
• Purpose Society: Mobile health and overdose crisis response.

3. Volunteer your time or skills

• Many organizations welcome volunteers to help with meals, outreach, or administrative tasks.
• Your photography, media, or social-media skills could help raise awareness and humanize the crisis.

4. Donate essentials

• Warm clothing, socks, blankets, hygiene kits — especially in winter — go directly to people experiencing homelessness or at risk.

5. Advocate and share awareness

• Reduce stigma around addiction and homelessness by sharing stories, writing blog posts, or supporting campaigns that highlight the ongoing overdose crisis.

Even small gestures can make a big difference. Vancouver’s firefighters continue to put their lives on the line every day, facing unimaginable human suffering, and your support — whether through donations, volunteer work, or raising awareness — can help them continue their critical work ❤️.

Vancouver’s 2026 Budget Is a Replay of Gordon Campbell’s 2001 Cuts

 Vancouver’s 2026 Budget Is a Replay of Gordon Campbell’s 2001 Cuts — And We’ve Seen This Movie Before

When Vancouver City Council passed its 2026 budget — freezing property taxes while adding another $50 million to the police budget — something about it felt eerily familiar. For anyone who lived through the early 2000s in British Columbia, the déjà vu is unmistakable.

This isn’t new.
This isn’t bold.
This isn’t “Zero Means Zero.”
This is Gordon Campbell 2.0.

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Austerity Disguised as “Smart Management”

In 2001, Gordon Campbell swept into power promising tax cuts. And he delivered — but those cuts came at a devastating cost:

• Thousands of job losses
• Entire ministries dismantled
• Deep reductions to social services
• Cuts to women’s centres, mental health, housing, legal aid, environmental protection
• Vulnerable people pushed into even deeper poverty

He called it “efficiency.”
He called it “fiscal discipline.”
But British Columbians lived through the human cost of those choices.

Fast forward to 2026, and Vancouver is being told the same story.

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Ken Sim’s Budget: A Familiar Pattern

The new Vancouver budget freezes property taxes — a political promise kept, but at the expense of the services that make a city livable. To balance the books, the City must cut more than $120 million across departments. Those cuts land exactly where they always do:

• Arts & Culture – cut
• Planning, Urban Design & Sustainability – cut
• Community Services – cut
• Infrastructure & facilities maintenance – cut
• Environmental and climate programs – cut
• Up to 400 city workers – gone

And yet, the Vancouver Police Department receives an additional $50 million.

It is a near-perfect repeat of the 2001 strategy:
defund community supports → expand policing.
Respond to social problems through enforcement, not prevention.

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Who Pays the Price?

The same people who paid the price in 2001:

• Renters
• Poor and low-income residents
• Seniors
• Disabled people
• People on social assistance
• Indigenous communities
• Youth who rely on arts, culture, and community programs
• Workers who lose their jobs to “efficiencies”

When sustainability programs get cut, we lose our future.
When planning gets cut, housing becomes even more chaotic.
When community services lose funding, people fall through the cracks.
When the police budget grows while everything else shrinks, we are repeating the oldest political trick in the book.

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A City Budget Should Reflect Its Values — Does This One?

A budget is not just dollars and line items.
A budget is a moral document.

It tells us who we care about and who we sacrifice.

In 2001, the province sacrificed the vulnerable.
In 2026, Vancouver risks doing the same.

With a 23-page budget (compared to 373 pages last year), the public is given almost no detail. The city voted through a budget without clearly showing where the savings come from, who gets cut, or how the community will be affected. That alone should alarm every resident.

This moment demands transparency.
It demands scrutiny.
It demands that we remember our history — because we’ve walked this road before, and we know exactly where it leads.

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History Is Warning Us — Will We Listen?

British Columbians eventually rejected the Campbell-era cuts because the social damage was impossible to ignore. Homelessness soared, services collapsed, poverty deepened, and inequality exploded.

Vancouver cannot afford to repeat that era at the municipal level.

A thriving city is built through community — not austerity.
Through arts, culture, sustainability, planning, and local workers — not just policing and property-tax slogans.

The question Vancouver faces in 2026 is simple:

Do we learn from our past?
Or do we repeat it?

Ethiopia’s Hayli Gubbi Volcano Erupts After 12,000 Years

A Sleeping Giant Awakes: Ethiopia’s Hayli Gubbi Volcano Erupts After 12,000 Years

On Sunday morning, the quiet desert of Ethiopia’s Afar region was shaken awake by something no living human has ever witnessed: the eruption of the Hayli Gubbi volcano, dormant for roughly 12,000 years.

The ground thundered. A blast shot into the sky. And within moments, a massive ash plume began drifting across nations and continents — a reminder of the raw, unpredictable power of our planet.

🌋 A Once-in-Millennia Eruption

The Hayli Gubbi volcano sits in the Erta Ale volcanic range, about 800 km northeast of Addis Ababa. There is no recorded history of it erupting — not in written records, not in oral traditions, not in the known Holocene geological record. Scientists did not expect this.

Local residents described it as sudden, violent, and terrifying.

“It felt like a sudden bomb had been thrown,” said resident Ahmed Abdela.

The eruption blasted ash 14 km (9 miles) straight into the sky, sending a towering plume visible from space.

🌍 Ash Crossing Oceans and Borders

Meteorological and volcanic monitoring centers confirm that the ash didn’t just cover nearby villages — it traveled astonishing distances:

• Afdera village in Ethiopia was blanketed in grey.
• Ash drifted across the Red Sea to Yemen and Oman.
• High-altitude ash continued east toward India and northern Pakistan.
• Airlines in India, including Air India and Akasa, cancelled or rerouted flights due to ash hazards.

This is a global atmospheric event, not just a regional eruption.

👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 Human Impact: Fear, Disruption, and Uncertainty

Thankfully, no casualties have been reported.

But the social and economic impacts could be severe:

• Afar communities depend heavily on livestock.
  Volcanic ash can poison grazing lands, contaminate water, and sicken animals.
• Several tourists and guides were stranded in Afdera when the ash descended.
• Health concerns — breathing problems, eye irritation, contaminated wells — remain possible.

These are people who already live in one of the harshest climates on Earth. Now they face a new layer of danger.

🌪️ A Reminder of Planetary Forces

Dormant volcanoes the world assumed to be “asleep” can — and do — awaken.
This eruption raises questions scientists are now racing to answer:

• What triggered the reactivation?
  Tectonic shifts? Magma movement? Deep mantle pressures?
• Will there be aftershocks or follow-up eruptions?
• What does this mean for other long-silent volcanoes?

The Afar region is one of the most geologically active rift zones in the world — a place where continents are literally pulling apart. This eruption is a dramatic reminder.

💭 A Moment to Reflect

Events like this remind us how fragile life is, and how quickly everything can change.
A village covered in ash… flights grounded across the ocean… livestock at risk… and a volcano waking up after 12,000 silent years.

We tend to think we control the world.
But nature still writes the rules.

🕊️ Sending Strength to Afar

To the families in Afdera and surrounding communities:

May safety, clean water, healthy pasture, and calm skies return to you quickly.

To the scientists studying this eruption:
Thank you for giving the world the knowledge we need to prepare and protect each other.

To the rest of us:
Let this moment remind us of our shared humanity and shared planet — one that is alive, shifting, and full of mysteries still unfolding.

Remembering the 1887 Nanaimo Mine Explosion: Courage in the Face of Tragedy

🌟 Remembering the 1887 Nanaimo Mine Explosion: Courage in the Face of Tragedy 💔🕯️

I recently came across an entry in my great-grandfather’s diary 📖, and it told a story that has stayed with me ever since…

On May 3, 1887, the town of Nanaimo, British Columbia, faced one of the worst industrial disasters in Canadian history 💥. The No. 1 Esplanade Mine, run by the Vancouver Coal Mining & Land Company, erupted in a catastrophic explosion deep underground, taking the lives of approximately 150 miners ⚒️💔. Only seven men survived. Among those lost were 53 Chinese workers, and countless fathers whose families were left to navigate unimaginable grief 😢.

The explosion was caused by a poorly placed blasting charge that ignited a pocket of gas, followed by coal dust, creating a blast so powerful it tore through nearly a kilometre of underground tunnels 🌫️🔥. Many miners didn’t die instantly—they succumbed to poisonous gas hours after the blast. The fire burned for weeks, and seven men were never recovered, believed to remain beneath Nanaimo Harbour to this day 🌊🕯️.

For a town of only around 2,000 people, the impact was catastrophic. 46 women became widows, and 126 children lost their fathers 👩‍👧‍👦. There was no mental health support, no counseling, no trauma services—just grief, shock, and the daily struggle to survive 😔. And this was a community still recovering from smallpox outbreaks, barely beginning to heal from past hardships 🦠💔.

It’s hard to imagine the pain and trauma endured by these families—the widows trying to keep homes together, the children growing up without fathers. Yet somehow, the community endured. They rebuilt, survived, and continued despite overwhelming loss 🌱💪.

Today, as we face modern crises—housing shortages, poverty, and the fentanyl epidemic 🏚️💊—their story gives us courage. If a small town in 1887 could survive such tragedy without modern support systems, we too can face our challenges with determination, resilience, and solidarity 🤝❤️.

Every May 3rd, Nanaimo lowers its flags in remembrance 🏴🕯️, honoring the strength and courage of a community that persevered. Their legacy reminds us: no matter the difficulty, humanity has the power to endure, rebuild, and overcome 🌟💖.

A Call For Accountability for Vancouver

Vancouver Has Missed the Mark: A Call for Accountability 💔🥺

Mark Carney, David Eby, Ken Sim — where is the logic? How can you sit comfortably in your offices while human lives are being lost, seniors sleep in shelters, and thousands of people are forced onto the streets? You have responsibilities. You hold positions of power. And yet, homelessness, addiction, and toxic drug deaths continue to rise unabated.

Vancouver is in crisis. Transit cops, VPD officers, and even RCMP are expected to manage mental health crises, addiction, homelessness, domestic disputes, and child or elder care with only six to twelve months of training. Meanwhile, professions historically dominated by women — teaching, nursing, social work, caregiving, cooking — require years of rigorous education. Teachers train for four to five years, nurses and social workers for two to four, doctors for seven or more, and chefs/caregivers for two years or more.

The irony is glaring. Male-dominated “tough” roles get short training, while female-dominated “nurturing” roles require far more experience — yet both involve human lives and safety. And the stakes could not be higher.

Political leadership has only worsened the situation. Mayor Ken Sim promised 100 new nurses and doctors, yet those promises remain largely unmet. Billions are poured into policing while police boast of drug busts and photo ops. Seniors, Indigenous people, and marginalized communities continue to suffer.

Meanwhile, the distractions abound: Parks Board skirmishes, FIFA excitement, flashy announcements — all while the real crisis escalates. This is classic misdirection: wave the hand at spectacle while lives hang in the balance.

Consider the facts:

• Metro Vancouver’s 2025 regional count found 5,232 people experiencing homelessness — a 9 % increase in two years.
• Seniors (55+) now comprise 22 % of the unhoused population, and Indigenous people are overrepresented at roughly 34 % of those without housing.
• In British Columbia in 2024, 1,749 deaths from unregulated drug toxicity occurred in the first nine months. Total overdose deaths for 2024 reached approximately 2,253, and overdose/poisoning calls numbered 40,543, about 111 per day.
• First Nations people experienced toxic drug poisoning at rates 6.7 times higher than other BC residents.

And yet people steal bus rides like they once stole bread — acts of survival criminalized by a system that fails to protect them. Seniors flood shelters in record numbers, Indigenous and marginalized communities are neglected, and greedy developers push ridiculous condo projects that will destroy affordability and accelerate social collapse.

Mark Carney, David Eby, Ken Sim — Vancouver is screaming for leadership. Vancouver Coastal Health, the Physicians Association, the education system, and architects and developers — you all need to back off from self-interest and take responsibility. Stop prioritizing profit and optics over human life.

The danger of undertrained officers is clear: if a chef trains two years to safely cook meals, how can someone trained six months manage a human crisis without causing harm? Would you trust a six-month-trained officer to teach, counsel, or protect children, elders, or people experiencing trauma? Yet these officers are given immense power — power over communities that have already suffered trauma, poverty, and oppression.

We need real investment in healthcare, social services, and meaningful housing solutions, not just policing. We need officers and transit security trained in empathy, social work, and crisis intervention, not just law enforcement. And we need political accountability from those who continue to let people suffer while comfortable in their offices.

Vancouver has missed the mark. Authority, money, and political theatre flourish while human suffering escalates. Mark Carney, David Eby, Ken Sim — take responsibility. Stop letting greedy architects and developers destroy our city. Step up, make the hard choices, and protect the lives you are sworn to serve.

Until that happens, Vancouver will remain a city where human lives are collateral damage — and we are all paying the price.

The Human Cost of Missing The Mark

Vancouver Has Missed the Mark: Policing, Politics, and the Human Cost 💔😢🔥

Vancouver is in crisis — and yet leaders keep pretending everything is fine. 😶‍🌫️
We have sworn police officers, transit security, and politicians claiming to “protect” us… but human suffering is exploding all around us. 💥
People are dying, seniors are sleeping in shelters, and the city distracts with photo ops and shiny events. 🎭✨

How did we get here, and why are lives being lost while leaders look away? 😔

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🚨 Undertrained Officers, Overwhelming Crises

Transit cops, VPD officers, and RCMP are expected to handle EVERYTHING:
🧠 Mental health crises
💊 Addiction
🏚️ Homelessness
👵 Elder care
👶 Child welfare
💔 Domestic violence

Yet many get only 6–12 months of training before facing life-or-death situations. 😨

Meanwhile, professions mostly done by women — teaching, nursing, social work, caregiving, cooking — require YEARS of education:
🎓 Teachers: 4–5 years
🏥 Nurses/Social Workers: 2–4 years
👩‍⚕️ Doctors: 7+ years
🍳 Chefs/Caregivers: 2+ years

The irony is painful.
“Tough” jobs with short training get huge authority, while “nurturing” jobs that protect lives demand long education. 🤷‍♀️⚖️
Yet both involve care, trauma, and human safety.

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🏛️ Political Leadership Has Failed

Mayor Ken Sim promised 100 new nurses and doctors 👩‍⚕️👨‍⚕️ — but those promises largely faded.
Instead, billions go into policing 🚔 while drug deaths, homelessness, and suffering skyrocket.

Police parade drug bust photos 📸 like victory trophies while:
💀 People overdose in alleys
🛌 Seniors sleep in shelters
🧑‍🦽 Indigenous and marginalized communities face systemic violence
🥺 Families grieve daily losses

And what fills the news?
🌳 Parks Board drama
⚽ FIFA excitement
📸 Feel-good photo ops

It’s a distraction strategy.
Spectacle over suffering. Spotlight over solutions. 😞

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📊 The Alarming Facts

✔️ Vancouver 2023 homelessness count:
2,420 unhoused, including 605 unsheltered and 1,815 sheltered.

✔️ 2025 Metro Vancouver count:
5,232 unhoused — ↑ 9% in just two years.

✔️ Seniors (55+) = 22% of the unhoused population 😢
✔️ Indigenous people = 34% of those without housing 🧡
✔️ BC toxic drug deaths 2024 (first 9 months): 1,749
✔️ Total 2024 drug deaths: ~2,253
✔️ Overdose/poisoning calls: 40,543 (that’s 111 calls per day) ☎️💔
✔️ First Nations overdose rates: 6.7× higher than other BC residents

People steal bus rides 🚍 like people once stole bread — because they’re desperate, not dangerous.

Seniors fill shelters.
Indigenous people suffer the highest harms.
Families are breaking.
Communities are grieving. 💔

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⚠️ Undertrained Officers = Human Danger

Think about it:

🍳 A chef trains 2 years to safely cook food without burning customers.
✈️ A pilot spends years learning to keep passengers alive in storms.
👶 A teacher studies 4 years to guide and support children.

But someone with 6 months of training is expected to:
🚨 Handle psychosis
🚨 De-escalate addiction
🚨 Manage trauma
🚨 Solve homelessness
🚨 Break up violence
🚨 Make split-second life-or-death decisions

And these officers wield power over communities dealing with:
🧠 Trauma
🍂 Poverty
💊 Addiction
🚧 Systemic racism
🧡 Indigenous overrepresentation (34% unhoused vs. 2.4% of population)

It’s like handing someone a wrench 🔧 and keys 🔑 and saying:
“Fix society.”
Then blaming them when things break. 😞

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🎭 Vancouver Has Missed the Mark

Authority grows.
Budgets grow.
Political theatre grows. 🎤🎩

But so does despair.
So does suffering.
So does the body count. 💔

Politicians obsess over policing, photo ops, and petty controversies, while the real emergencies — healthcare, housing, and social support — are ignored. 🏥🏚️

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🌱 What Vancouver Needs NOW

✨ Real investment in healthcare, harm reduction, and social services.
✨ Police training that includes empathy, cultural safety, crisis intervention, and social work.
✨ Accountability for leaders who put optics over lives.
✨ A shift in priorities from punishment to care, compassion, and prevention.

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Until then… Vancouver will remain a city where human lives are collateral damage — and we are all paying the price. 💔😢

Nearly 2,000 Public Housing Units Sit Empty While People Sleep on the Streets

 Nearly 2,000 Public Housing Units Sit Empty While People Sleep on the Streets

While BC Housing runs glossy ads about its “plans” and “successes,” the reality on the ground is starkly different. According to the BC Housing Action Coalition (BCHAC), there are 1,885 government-funded housing units sitting empty in Greater Vancouver and Greater Victoria — units that could house nearly 2,000 people today, but remain unused.

Some of these units have been vacant for over 20 months. Meanwhile, people continue to sleep under tarps, in alleys, and on the streets.

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What the Numbers Show

• The 1,885 vacant units represent over 21% of the total government-funded housing stock in the region.
• In Greater Vancouver, 1,694 units are empty or unavailable, while in Greater Victoria, about 191 units are vacant or unavailable.
• A large portion of these units are Single-Room Occupancy (SRO) rooms — essential low-barrier housing for those most in need. Shockingly, more than 1 in 3 SRO units aren’t occupied.
• Average vacancy across these units is 20.7 months — nearly two years of empty, unused housing.

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The Human Impact

• The March 2025 Point-In-Time count in Greater Vancouver recorded 1,893 unsheltered people.
• In Victoria, 318 people were found unsheltered.
• The vacant units alone could house a significant portion of these individuals. Leaving these units empty while people are unhoused is not only inefficient — it’s a human rights concern.

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Why Are Units Sitting Empty?

Several systemic issues contribute to this crisis:

• Bureaucracy & Red Tape slowing tenant placement.
• Poor data tracking — some units are listed as “unavailable” or “pending.”
• Under-resourced non-profit operators managing the units.
• Strict eligibility requirements excluding people with no ID or unstable income.
• Long vacancy cycles, where delays in turnover leave units empty for months.

These are fixable problems, yet thousands of people remain unhoused while these units gather dust.

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What Needs to Happen

• Immediate Occupancy: Fill the vacant units now, lower barriers, and match outreach teams with available units.
• Transparency: Public monthly reporting on occupancy rates and unit availability.
• Accountability: Tie leadership and executive compensation to concrete outcomes, such as reduced homelessness and improved occupancy.
• System Reform: Reassess policies and processes that prevent units from being used effectively.

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A Call for Action

This is not just a statistic — it’s a crisis. Nearly 2,000 homes exist today that could shelter people, yet inaction persists. BC Housing and the provincial government need to confront this reality, not hide behind propaganda campaigns.

People are waiting. People are suffering. Every empty unit is a missed opportunity to save lives and restore dignity.

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Sources:

• BC Housing Action Coalition – Vacant Units Report, 2025
• BC Housing – Executive Compensation Disclosure, 2025
• Greater Vancouver Homeless Count 2025

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National Housing Day: BC Housing, Your Propaganda Doesn’t Match Reality

 National Housing Day: BC Housing, Your Propaganda Doesn’t Match Reality

Today is National Housing Day, and instead of feeling hopeful, I feel angry.

Once again, BC Housing is running polished ads celebrating their “progress,” their “plans,” and their “commitment” to solving homelessness. But when you look at what’s actually happening on the ground, those ads feel like propaganda — glossy words covering up a growing crisis.

Let’s be honest: your plan isn’t working. Not even close.

According to the 2025 Homeless Count, over 5,232 people are unhoused in Greater Vancouver — and 1,893 of them have no shelter at all. That’s human suffering on an enormous scale. And yet, BC Housing keeps congratulating itself.

Worse, there are 1,885 government-funded housing units sitting empty in Vancouver and Victoria. That means nearly 2,000 people could be housed today, but aren’t — because of bureaucracy, mismanagement, and policy failures. Some of these units have been vacant for over 20 months. Twenty months. While people sleep under tarps and in alleys.

Tell me again how the plan is “working.”

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The Reality Behind BC Housing’s ‘Strategy2030’

BC Housing’s big roadmap — Strategy2030 — is full of corporate buzzwords:
“modernizing operations,” “homes people need,” “meaningful impact.”

But none of that matters while homelessness keeps rising.
None of it matters while people die outdoors.
None of it matters while funded units sit empty, collecting dust instead of housing real human beings.

If your “vision” doesn’t reduce homelessness, it’s not a vision — it’s marketing.

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And Let’s Talk About Executive Pay

BC Housing executives are earning very comfortable salaries — compensation packages designed to “attract and retain top talent.”

So here’s the question:
If thousands are still homeless, and nearly 2,000 units are vacant, what exactly are we paying “top talent” for?

If the homelessness crisis is worsening on your watch, how do you justify six-figure compensation? How do you justify bonuses? How do you sleep at night knowing the gap between your warm home and someone’s tent is widening — and preventable?

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What We Need RIGHT NOW

This province doesn’t need another glossy ad. We need action:

1. Fill the empty units immediately.

Lower the barriers. Remove red tape. Use outreach teams to move people in today.

2. Audit the system publicly.

People deserve to know why housing is sitting empty while encampments grow.

3. Make executives accountable.

Tie a portion of their salaries to real outcomes:

• reduced homelessness
• reduced vacancies
• faster placements
• transparency

4. Stop announcing plans and start delivering results.

Every time you run an ad, remember: a homeless person sees that ad too.

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A Final Question for BC Housing

On National Housing Day, instead of glossy PR, why not be honest?

Why not admit the system is failing?
Why not take immediate action to house people now?
Why not confront the gap between the promises you advertise and the reality people live?

How do you sleep at night while thousands don’t even have a bed?

OPEN LETTER TO LYTTO​N & ALL WHO LOVE THIS COMMUNITY

🌫️🔥 OPEN LETTER TO LYTTO​N & ALL WHO LOVE THIS COMMUNITY 🔥🌫️

💔 A Town Lost in 23 Minutes — And Still Waiting to Rebuild 💔

To the people of Lytton, the surrounding communities, and everyone who still carries this pain:

What happened to Lytton wasn’t just a wildfire.
It was one of the most heartbreaking tragedies in Canadian history.
A town erased in 23 minutes...
💨🔥 Homes gone
💨🔥 Memories gone
💨🔥 Lives forever changed

And all of it happened during the deadly heat dome — the same brutal event that took 600+ lives in B.C. 💔🔥

This wasn’t just nature.
This was trauma.
This was shock.
This was a community watching everything it loved disappear in front of its eyes.

Years later…
🏚️ No businesses
🏚️ No main street
🏚️ No heart of the town restored

The grief hasn’t ended.
The healing hasn’t fully begun.
And the silence? It’s crushing.

Today, we honour the voices of those who lived this nightmare.
One resident said the fire came like “an enemy in a surprise attack,” leaving emotional casualties everywhere. ❤️‍🩹🔥
That pain is real. That memory is real. That loss is real.

✨ To Lytton First Nation leadership,
To the Village of Lytton mayor and council,
To the provincial and federal governments: ✨

Please — we are asking with hope and with urgency:

🙏 Explore every grant
🙏 Every funding program
🙏 Every heritage initiative
🙏 Every rebuilding opportunity

Rebuild storefronts and spaces that honour Lytton’s soul — including the beautiful era of the old hotel that meant so much to the community. 🏨🤎

Rebuilding is not just construction.
It’s healing. 🕊️
It’s dignity. ✊
It’s giving people back their home. 🏡❤️

Lytton survived the unimaginable.
Now it needs action — real action — from those with the power to make change.

🌟 To the people of Lytton: 🌟
You deserve safety.
You deserve community.
You deserve honour.
You deserve your town back.

We see you. 👁️❤️
We remember. 🕯️
We stand with you — now and always. 🤝💛

And yes… many still believe in miracles. ✨🙏
But Lytton shouldn’t have to wait for miracles.
It deserves commitment, compassion, and rebuilding — now.

Wellness Villages

 🌿 Wellness Villages: Rethinking Homelessness with Choice, Dignity, and Health 🌿

Homelessness is not just a lack of shelter — it’s a complex intersection of systemic barriers, personal choice, trauma, and cultural needs. Traditional approaches often fail because they try to force one-size-fits-all solutions onto diverse human experiences.

It’s time to imagine a new model: Wellness Villages — communities where autonomy, health, safety, and connection to nature coexist.

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🏕 The Problem

• Many people living outdoors choose that life, not because they “refuse help,” but because traditional housing fails to meet their needs.
• Shelters and housing often have rules that conflict with autonomy: curfews, sobriety requirements, or bureaucratic barriers.
• Outdoor living without access to water, sanitation, and hygiene facilities leads to health issues, infections, and unsafe conditions.
• People may be blocked from housing due to criminal records, substance use, or distrust of institutions.

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🌱 Wellness Village Concept

Goal: Create semi-permanent, nature-integrated communities where people can live with choice, dignity, and access to hygiene, healthcare, nutrition, and social support.

🛖 Living Spaces

• Tiny homes, yurts, or cluster shelters surrounded by natural landscapes.
• Flexible sleeping options to honor personal preference and mobility.
• Communal areas for gathering, cooking, workshops, and cultural activities.

🚿 Hygiene & Health

• Onsite bathrooms, showers, and laundry facilities to maintain health and dignity.
• Waste management and sanitation infrastructure.
• Healthcare station with nurses, doctors, and mental health specialists for voluntary support.

🥗 Food & Nutrition

• Community gardens and kitchens for fresh food access.
• Workshops on nutrition, cooking, and food safety.
• Meal programs that respect cultural dietary needs.

🛡 Safety & Autonomy

• Protective staff trained in trauma-informed care, conflict resolution, and de-escalation — not traditional policing.
• Optional programming; residents can participate in counseling, skills training, or wellness workshops voluntarily.
• Light-touch community rules focusing on safety and respect.

👥 Staff & Community

• Mental health professionals, social workers, and peer support staff available 24/7.
• High staff-to-resident ratio for proactive care.
• Peer-led governance giving residents a voice in decisions.
• Cultural competency integrated into all programs, honoring Indigenous practices and other community traditions.

🌄 Mobility & Flexibility

• Options for short-term or long-term residence.
• Portable or seasonal structures for residents who value movement or connection to nature.

💖 Wellness Focus

• Mental health: counseling, meditation, art therapy, peer support.
• Physical health: exercise areas, walking paths, exposure to sunlight.
• Harm reduction: substance support without forced abstinence.

---

🤔 Reflective Questions for Policymakers

1. Are current homelessness programs meeting the real needs of those living outdoors, or are they forcing everyone into the same mold?
2. How can we respect personal choice and autonomy while still addressing basic hygiene and safety?
3. What infrastructure (water, sanitation, laundry, healthcare) could be implemented quickly and sustainably in outdoor or semi-outdoor communities?
4. Could hiring highly trained mental health professionals and peer support workers shift the focus from policing to wellness?
5. How can we incorporate Indigenous knowledge and cultural practices to create spaces that feel safe, meaningful, and empowering?

---

💡 Actionable Solutions

• Pilot one or more Wellness Villages with flexible structures, communal facilities, and wellness-centered staffing.
• Prioritize hiring mental health and peer support staff over traditional security.
• Build infrastructure for hygiene, laundry, and food preparation in outdoor-adjacent communities.
• Develop policies for low-barrier access to housing or semi-permanent village living, without excluding people for records or substance use.
• Engage residents in decision-making, creating a sense of ownership and community.
• Monitor outcomes: health, well-being, community cohesion, and transitions to permanent housing if desired.

---

✨ Conclusion

Wellness Villages are not just shelters — they are living communities designed to restore dignity, autonomy, and health. By reimagining homelessness as a problem of choice, infrastructure, and support, we can create solutions that work for everyone, even those who currently refuse traditional housing.

It’s time for policymakers, planners, and social services to listen, observe, and innovate — to meet people where they are, not where systems demand they be.

---

📢 Call to Action

If you are in charge of housing, health, or community services, consider piloting a Wellness Village in your city. Let’s stop forcing solutions and start building communities that empower, heal, and respect human dignity.

When the Waves Touch the Walkway: A Warning From Kitsilano

🌊⛅ When the Waves Touch the Walkway: A Warning From Kitsilano

Why B.C.’s Coast Cannot Afford More Tankers
By Tina Winterlik / Zipolita

Today in Kitsilano, the ocean pushed up higher than I’ve seen in a long time.

The wind tore across the water, waves crashed over the seawall, and right where my murals live — that walkway we all love — seawater splashed up and across it. The land, the art, the people walking by… everything felt suddenly small in the face of this storm.

Down at Vanier Park, another boat washed ashore.
Another one.

Over the years, I’ve watched so many boats lose their anchors in storms — tossed around like toys — ending up smashed on beaches, tangled in logs, or half-sunk in the tide line.

And of course, we all remember that massive English Bay barge that ran aground a few years ago. It sat there for months like a shipwreck from a forgotten world. And that wasn’t the only one — another almost washed up too.

These aren’t rare events.
They’re warnings.

🌬️🌊 If small boats and barges can’t hold in these storms… how will tankers?

This is the part that scares me:
While the coastline becomes more unpredictable, more politicians want MORE oil tankers — and to run them through some of the most dangerous waters on Earth.

Inside passages between Vancouver Island, Haida Gwaii, and the Mainland.
Narrow channels.
Storm zones.
Wild currents.
Areas where a single mistake becomes a disaster that can never truly be cleaned up.

We’re talking about places that are culturally sacred, ecologically priceless, and economically essential — salmon, orcas, tourism, fisheries, beaches, communities.

And it’s not like experts haven’t warned us.

---

🔍 What People Need to Understand — Fast

🔒 1. There is a tanker ban — for a reason.

In 2019, Canada passed the Oil Tanker Moratorium Act, banning tankers carrying more than 12,500 tonnes of crude oil from stopping or loading on the north coast — including Haida Gwaii, Dixon Entrance, Hecate Strait, and Queen Charlotte Sound.

That law exists because:

• These waters have extreme storms, often with 10–20 metre waves.
• The region is remote — meaning spill response is slow at the best of times.
• One major spill would permanently destroy ecosystems and communities.

🛑 2. We’ve had protection zones for decades — because it’s dangerous.

Since 1985, a Voluntary Tanker Exclusion Zone has kept large tankers 50 nautical miles offshore along parts of B.C.’s coast. Haida Gwaii also has a voluntary 50-mile buffer to keep big ships away from the fragile western shore.

Why?
Because these waters can rip anchors loose.
Because the currents pull vessels where they don’t want to go.
Because a rescue tug often can’t reach a ship in time during a storm.

⚠️ 3. Experts say B.C. is still unprepared for a major spill.

Despite modern equipment, spill-response reviews continue to warn that B.C. is “alarmingly unprepared” for a catastrophic tanker accident in remote or storm-heavy regions.

Storm delays…
Hard-to-access coastlines…
Limited daylight in winter…
Millions of birds, salmon, shellfish, kelp forests, sea otters, and whales…

Some things cannot be cleaned up.
Some things cannot be replaced.

---

❤️🌍 This Isn’t Anti-Development — It’s Pro-Life, Pro-Coast, Pro-Future

People living in Vancouver, Kitsilano, Vanier, the Sunshine Coast, Haida Gwaii, and Vancouver Island see what is happening with their own eyes:

• Higher tides
• Stronger storms
• More boats breaking loose
• More erosion
• More unpredictability

If a barge can end up on our beach for months…
If sailboats wash up every year…
If seawater is already spilling onto walkways…

Then tankers have no business in our inside passages.

This isn’t ideology.
It’s common sense.

---

💔🚫 What We Must Say — Clearly, Together

Our coastline is not disposable.

No tankers through dangerous inside waters.

Protect Haida Gwaii, the Great Bear Sea, Vancouver Island, our fisheries, our beaches, our murals, our communities, our future.

We cannot let short-term political games destroy what generations rely on.

When the waves touch the walkway, that is the ocean speaking.
And we would be fools not to listen.

It Will Happen Again — Do You Want This To Happen To Your Family?

 ⚠️ It Will Happen Again — Do You Want This To Happen To Your Family? ⚠️

Trigger Warning!

PORT MOODY, B.C. — Spring 2024. A normal family, in their home, was terrorized for 13 hours. They endured 💧 waterboarding, 💔 sexual assault, and ⚔️ death threats — all because a gang wanted access to their cryptocurrency.

The attackers came in 📦 Canada Post uniforms. They forced a teenage daughter to strip naked and assaulted her on camera. Her parents were tied up and tortured. And when it was over, the gang escaped with 💰 $2 million worth of Bitcoin.

And the man who committed these horrors? He only got 7 years. He will serve less than 5. Others involved remain at large.

---

The Hard Truth

This wasn’t random. This was planned, organized, and targeted. The attackers studied the family. They exploited a gap in our laws. They knew Canada’s courts would treat them lightly compared to the damage they caused.

And here’s the terrifying reality:

⚠️ It will happen again. ⚠️

Every family in B.C. — every home, every street — is a potential target. Organized gangs are watching, waiting for low-risk, high-reward opportunities.

• Soft sentences for violent crimes? ✅
• No mandatory consecutive terms? ✅
• High-value crypto in personal accounts? ✅
• Police stretched thin and resources limited? ✅
• Easy disguises like delivery uniforms? ✅

This is not fear-mongering. This is reality. If we don’t act, more families will suffer. Maybe yours.

---

Ask Yourself This

• Could your teenage child face a nightmare like this in your own home? 👀
• Could your family be forced to hand over life savings under threat of torture? 💸
• How would you feel knowing the perpetrators might serve less than five years — while you live with trauma for life? 😢

We cannot let this become the new “normal.”

---

What We Must Do

We need real change, and we need it now:

1. 📌 Demand stricter sentencing for violent home invasions.
   Mandatory consecutive sentences for torture, sexual assault, and organized crime involvement.

2. 📢 Raise awareness.
   Share these stories. Speak loudly. Politicians respond to public pressure.

3. 🤝 Support victims’ rights groups.
   They push for law reform, safety measures, and proper policing.

4. 🏡 Protect your family.
   Stay aware. Know the risks. Don’t assume “it won’t happen to us.”

---

⚡ This Is Your Wake-Up Call

The Port Moody family’s nightmare could happen to anyone. The laws that should protect us aren’t strong enough. The gangs know it. And unless we push for change, it will happen again.

Ask yourself: ❌ Do you want this to happen to your family? ❌

If the answer is no — then it’s time to act. Share this. Speak out. Demand accountability. Protect your community.

Why British Columbia Has a Tanker Ban — And Why Politicians Must Stop Ignoring It

🚢🌊 Why British Columbia Has a Tanker Ban — And Why Politicians Must Stop Ignoring It 🌊🚢

By Tina Winterlik / Zipolita — Winter 2025

For decades, people up and down the West Coast have understood something that too many politicians in Ottawa still refuse to grasp:

💥 British Columbia has a tanker ban for a reason.
💥 It exists to protect one of the most dangerous, turbulent, irreplaceable marine ecosystems on Earth.

And yet, here we are in late 2025, still watching MPs — many of whom have never set foot on these waters — argue as if this is some optional policy, some bargaining chip, some “economic opportunity.”

No.
This is about life and death of an ecosystem.
It’s about food security.
It’s about culture, salmon, orcas, Indigenous rights, and entire coastal communities.

🧭 The Real Reason for the Tanker Ban: Geography, Danger, and History

Elizabeth May recently reminded everyone of a crucial truth in her video:
🔹 The north coast of British Columbia is one of the most dangerous stretches of water in the world.
🔹 Twisting channels, fierce storms, unpredictable winds, and narrow inlets make it a deadly maze for massive crude oil tankers.

People forget this — or were never taught.

And here’s the part MPs continuously misunderstand:
🚫 Alaskan tankers DO NOT sail down our coastline.
They head west out into the open Pacific, far offshore, navigating huge ocean routes designed to keep them away from sensitive coastal ecosystems.

Why?
Because the risk of hugging the BC coastline is unacceptable.

We learned that the hard way.

🛢️ Remember the Exxon Valdez?

The 1989 Exxon Valdez spill was a global trauma — 11 million gallons of crude oil spilled into pristine waters.
Thousands of animals died, entire food webs collapsed, and communities are still dealing with long-term impacts.

BC said never again, not here.

But Exxon Valdez wasn’t the only one.
The West Coast has faced:

• Diesel spills that wiped out clam beds
• Bilge dumping
• Fuel leaks
• Marine disasters hidden by governments because they’re “inconvenient”

Indigenous Nations warned about this for generations.
Scientists warned.
Fishers warned.
Environmental groups warned.

And still, politicians argue as if this is a debate about “jobs.”

💔 Why Are MPs So Clueless? Why So Greedy?

It’s honestly heartbreaking — and infuriating — that people in Parliament still misunderstand basic environmental geography. Some have clearly never studied marine navigation. Some don’t listen to Indigenous stewards of the land and sea. Some don’t even know where the Great Bear Rainforest is.

And some are simply blinded by corporate interests and campaign donations.

This isn’t intelligence.
This isn’t leadership.
It’s greed mixed with ignorance, and coastal communities are always the ones who pay.

When politicians play with tanker bans, they are gambling with:
🐟 Salmon
🐚 Clam beds
🦅 Wildlife
🧡 Indigenous food sovereignty
⛵ Local economies
🎣 Fishing jobs
🌊 The entire Pacific coast

🌎 BC’s Tanker Ban Is Not Extreme — It’s Common Sense

The ban is not anti-development.
It is not anti-economy.
It is not “ideological.”

It is basic risk management.
Even one spill would destroy hundreds of kilometers of coastline and billions in natural capital.

BC isn’t being dramatic.
We’re being responsible — because Ottawa won’t.

---

🪞 Reflective Questions (for Readers and Politicians)

1. Why do MPs with no knowledge of West Coast waters feel entitled to override local voices?
2. Why are corporate profits always placed above Indigenous rights and environmental safety?
3. Why do politicians pretend tanker bans are “new,” when BC communities have fought for them for decades?
4. What does it say about our leadership when they cannot grasp basic marine geography?
5. If one spill could destroy ecosystems for generations, why do some MPs still treat this as an economic game?
6. What is the role of greed in political decision-making on environmental issues?
7. Would these same MPs support tankers in their own home riding’s most dangerous waters?
8. How can citizens better hold Parliament accountable for decisions that directly threaten coastal life?

EARLY SUNDAY MORNING MUSINGS: What Are We Going To Do?

 🌅 EARLY SUNDAY MORNING MUSINGS: What Are We Going To Do? 🌅

This morning, long before sunrise, I stepped outside for just a moment.
The air was so fresh, the stars so bright, the silence so pure… it felt like the world was giving me one tiny breath of hope. 🌌✨

But inside me was still the heaviness of what I see every single day in this city—
the bent-over bodies, the overdoses, the fentanyl-benzo freeze, people swaying like they might collapse… or die.
And sometimes they do. 💔

---

💔 The Sight That Breaks You and Numbs You

If you live here, you know exactly what I’m talking about:

People standing like statues, folded at the waist, barely conscious.
Bodies shutting down in real time.
Others walking by, afraid or numb.

We feel anger, we feel fear, we feel empathy…
and then guilt for feeling all these things at once. 😢😣💔

I’ve seen people collapse. I’ve seen people unresponsive on cement floors of SkyTrain stations.
I’ve called it in so many times they got annoyed with me.
But I still called — because someone had to.
Because that person was somebody’s baby once. 👶💔

---

💊 Why Is This Happening?

Fentanyl alone is deadly enough.
But now the supply is mixed with benzodiazepines, a combo that:

• makes the high feel longer
• freezes the body
• stops people from responding to Narcan
• leaves them trapped in a half-conscious limbo

This isn’t a “high.”
This is a toxic crisis happening in slow motion, in public, every day.

---

🚫 Why Doesn’t Anyone Intervene?

Because our system is broken.

• EMS is overwhelmed
• detox has waitlists
• shelters are full
• healing centres don’t exist
• burnout is everywhere
• trauma has become “normal”
• and we pretend this is how a city is supposed to look

It’s not allowed.
It’s simply impossible for the system to respond anymore.
And that should scare all of us. 😞

---

🍺 And Meanwhile… the Bus Shelter Ads?

Johnny Walker 🍺
Crown Royal 🥃
Huge glossy posters in TransLink shelters.

How does someone newly out of rehab feel when they’re bombarded by alcohol ads?
How do kids interpret this?

We talk about “harm reduction,”
but we sell addiction as glamour.
Something is twisted here. 🤯

---

🌱 Where Are the Healing Centres?

Where is land-based healing?
Where are long-term, Indigenous-led programs?
Where are the garden beds, bike rides, storytelling circles, morning chores, purpose, belonging?

People need purpose.
Purpose keeps us alive.
Purpose keeps us human.

Everyone should have the chance to work in gardens, tend animals, cook meals, learn, teach, grow.
Not just survive on the sidewalk. 🌿💚

---

🌍 A World Out of Balance… and Still, a Beautiful Morning

Sometimes the world feels f*cked.
Sometimes the news makes your stomach drop.
Sometimes AI experts warn about the future, and it feels like a sci-fi movie coming true. 🤖⚠️

But then…
you step outside at 6 a.m.,
and the air is crisp and clean,
and the stars shine,
and you remember:
I am here. I am alive. I have a roof. I have a bed. I have a chance.

And gratitude softens everything for a moment. 🌟🙏

---

🌀 Disconnected from Land. Disconnected from Culture. Disconnected from Each Other.

This is the root.

We taught kids that life is tech, not touch.
Screens, not soil.
Delivery apps, not community.
Algorithms, not aunties and elders.

And now we wonder why everyone is burnt out, lonely, anxious, addicted, or checked out.

We have wandered so far from the land
that we don’t even recognise the medicine anymore. 🌿💔

---

✨ So What Are We Going To Do?

Maybe the answer isn’t in governments or systems that keep failing.
Maybe it’s in us — the everyday people who still see, who still care, who still feel.

Maybe it’s in:

🌱 Pushing for real healing centres — not warehouses
🔥 Demanding dignity for unhoused people
📣 Speaking up, even when they get annoyed
💚 Calling it in, even when we’re tired
🧡 Reconnecting to land
🌿 Growing gardens
🤝 Building tiny communities of care
🕊 Telling the truth in our blogs, our art, our stories

Maybe the world is broken,
but WE don’t have to be.
Not yet. Not ever. ✨💫

---

🌞 So Early Sunday Morning… I Ask You:

What are we going to do?
Not as governments,
not as corporations,
but as human beings who still have hearts.

Because the sky was beautiful this morning.
And maybe, just maybe, that’s a reminder
that the world is still worth saving —
and so are we. 💛🌍✨

 

🍫 Nanaimo Bars: Sweet Treat, Messy History, and High Prices 💸

I grew up hearing about Nanaimo Bars because my family comes from Nanoose Bay 🌊, near Nanaimo on Vancouver Island. These layered chocolate, custard, and coconut squares are everywhere — especially on Granville Island, where tourists happily pay $13–$16 for just four squares 😳. But when I really look at their history, the story behind this dessert is much messier than most people realize.

🍪 A Humble Beginning

The first printed recipe resembling what we know today as a Nanaimo Bar appeared in 1952, in a cookbook by the Women’s Auxiliary of the Nanaimo Hospital 🏥. Back then, it wasn’t called a Nanaimo Bar — it was just a “Chocolate Square.” The recipe likely grew out of volunteer work, bake sales, and local fundraising efforts ❤️.

A year later, in 1953, the name “Nanaimo Bar” appeared in a Vancouver Sun column written under the pen name Edith Adams 📰. Around the same time, nearly identical recipes appeared under names like “London Fog Bar,” suggesting that the dessert was evolving through shared community efforts rather than being the creation of a single inventor.

Food historians also point to earlier recipes — for example, an unbaked chocolate cake from 1947 🍫 — that may have influenced the Nanaimo Bar. Some claims even suggest that a version of the dessert existed in Port Alberni decades earlier 🏔️, which raises questions about whether the “Nanaimo” name was originally a branding decision rather than a true origin story.

🌟 From Community Dessert to Tourism Symbol

The dessert became widely known in the 1970s and 1980s thanks to cafes and commercialization ☕🍴. Susan Mendelson’s café, The Lazy Gourmet in Vancouver, helped popularize it, and Expo ’86 solidified the Nanaimo Bar as a BC icon 🇨🇦. By 1986, the city of Nanaimo even held a contest to crown the “ultimate” Nanaimo Bar recipe 🏆, which cemented the version we recognize today.

💸 Why the Pricing Feels Twisted

Walking through Granville Island now, you’ll see artisan vendors selling 4–piece boxes for $13–$16 😳. That’s $3–$4 per bar for something that originated as a simple community bake-sale square. The high price reflects several factors:

• Tourist-heavy pricing 🧳
• Marketing the bar as a “premium BC dessert” 🌟
• Ingredient quality and cafe overhead 🏪

Yet, when you consider the dessert’s humble beginnings, the mark-up feels extreme — a far cry from the Chocolate Squares sold by volunteers in Nanaimo decades ago.

Even grocery stores sell Nanaimo Bars for much less 🛒:

• IGA: 6-pack for about $6.50
• Metro: 600g tray for $11

So the dessert exists in two worlds: one as a cheap, community-style treat, and another as a commercial, tourist-targeted delicacy.

💭 Reflections

I feel a strong connection to this dessert because of my family’s Nanoose Bay roots 🌊, but I also feel conflicted. It’s both a source of pride and a reminder of commercialization and erasure — especially when its history is simplified or sanitized for tourists.

Food carries identity, memory, and community 🍴❤️. The Nanaimo Bar, with its layered history and soaring prices, is a reminder that even simple treats can have complex stories — stories worth remembering and telling 📖✨.

A Global Call for Emergency Action on Canada’s Housing

🌍💔 OPEN LETTER TO THE COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD 💔🌍

A Global Call for Emergency Action on Canada’s Housing & Human Rights Crisis — Winter 2025

This morning, my 76-year-old friend walked past a city park bench and saw a young homeless youth curled up in the cold, trying to sleep.
A youth, someone's baby, a child. Alone.

No blanket. No shelter.
Just a frozen bench in a rich Canadian city.

My friend — an elder — stood there heartbroken and helpless.
💔 “How can this be happening here?”
💔 “Where are their parents?”
💔 “Why is Canada letting youth live like this?”

This is not an isolated tragedy.
This is what Canada looks like right now.

---

The Reality on the Ground

• Encampments in North Cowichan torn down
• More than 80 recent overdoses
• Abbotsford pushing people out of rest areas and shutting off water
• A hotel shelter closed — residents left with nowhere to go
• People scattered into the cold
• Winter already here

Meanwhile, like thousands of others, my own housing ends in days.
I’m bouncing between short stays, unsafe situations, and temporary roofs — praying I don’t fall through the cracks completely.

This is not poverty.
This is abandonment.
This is a humanitarian emergency in one of the richest countries in the world.

---

🏛️⛔ A COMPLETE FAILURE OF GOVERNMENT — CITY, PROVINCE, AND FEDERAL

This crisis exists because all three levels of government refuse to cooperate, passing responsibility back and forth while people die.

---

🏙️ Municipal Failure — Vancouver & Mayor Ken Sim

Under Mayor Ken Sim, the City of Vancouver has failed:

• Encampments cleared with no real alternatives
• Vulnerable people displaced instead of supported
• Zero coordinated winter emergency plan
• No compassion, no urgency, no dignity

This is not leadership. This is abandonment.

---

🏞️ Provincial Failure — British Columbia

The Province of BC has allowed:

• A collapsing shelter system
• Social assistance rates that guarantee homelessness
• No emergency winter housing
• Overdose numbers exploding
• Mental health + housing operating in silos

---

🇨🇦 Federal Failure — Government of Canada

The federal government has:

• A failed National Housing Strategy
• Allowed housing to become a speculative investment casino
• Not enforced housing as a human right
• Refused to declare a national emergency
• Ignored years of community warnings

This is not one government failing.
This is every level of government failing at the same time.

While they argue, people freeze, overdose, suffer, and disappear.

---

🌐 THE WORLD MUST INTERVENE — NOW

To the Netherlands,
To the United Nations,
To all countries that believe in human rights:

Canada is in a life-and-death crisis and is refusing to protect its own citizens.
We need the international community to act immediately.

---

🚨 WHAT MUST HAPPEN NOW

1. Issue an International Condemnation — NOW

Canada is violating the rights of its unhoused people through displacement, destruction of shelters, and denial of basic necessities.

2. Demand Canada Declare a National Housing Emergency — NOW

People need protection immediately.
Winter is deadly. Bureaucracy kills.

3. Require Emergency Winter Housing & Shelters to Open — NOW

Not planned.
Not “in development.”
Opened TONIGHT.

4. Deploy International Human Rights Observers — NOW

To document encampment removals, overdose spikes, and denial of services.

5. Pressure & Sanction Housing Financialization — NOW

Housing cannot remain a commodity while humans sleep on benches.

This is life and death.
Action must be immediate.

---

🌍 DO NOT LOOK AWAY

A youth sleeping on a bench.
A 76-year-old elder heartbroken.
A wealthy nation pretending everything is fine.

This is not a Canadian issue —
This is a global human rights emergency.

We ask for solidarity.
We ask for outrage.
We ask for immediate global action.

Housing is a human right.
Safety is a human right.
Dignity is a human right.
LIFE is a human right.

---

Signed,
Tina Winterlik (Zipolita)
A Canadian Citizen Pleading for Urgent International Action