Showing posts with label Poverty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Poverty. Show all posts

Sunday, 3 August 2014

To End, or Not: YOUR actions dictate.

My birth name is Alison Anne Cameron (DoB 1958-08-26, York Region, Ontario) and have legally entered a Tenancy Agreement for the 400 sq ft located at 604-25 Clute Street, New Westminster, BC V3L 1Z6. And, what is written below I affirm to be a true account.

1. During the week of June 23, 2014, I did the following in one day: In the morning photocopied a document handwritten by Ana Zlato Todorovic, Rotary Towers' Building Manager, that she had posted on my neighbour, Mr Paul Chernenkoff's, door on June 20, 2014; and, penned a letter to Staff Sergeant E. Ward stating I would be calling that evening to have a discussion with him about this document and how Constable Ishii and his (unidentified) female partner had responded to the report Mr. Dale Chernenkoff initiated on June 13, 2014 regarding the harassment his uncle, Mr Paul Chernenkoff (residing at 605-25 Clute Street for 22 years) had endured by Ms Ana Zlato Todorovic in collusion with a number of other tenants; And,

2. In the mid-evening, of June 23, 2014, I initiated a conference call with Mr Paul Chernenkoff and Staff Sergeant E. Ward #172 regarding how Constable Ishii and his female partner (name unknown) treated my neighbour and friend, Mr Paul Chernenkoff on June 13, 2014. In this conversation both Mr Paul Chernenkoff and I repeated there is a great deal of distrust when dealing with the police officers under his command because they are biased in favour of the people who are and have been bullying Mr. Paul Chernenkoff for years. In this conversation Staff Sargeant E. Ward evaded making a statement about Ms Ana Zlato Todorovic's written notice, although he acknowledged possessing the notice during this conversation. He would not reply to my reasoning the notice points to suspecting Ms Ana Zlato Tordorvic of contributing to Mr Paul Chernenkoff's victimization.

3. On June 20, 2014 Ms Ana Zlato Todorovic wrote to Mr Paul Chernenkoff the following: “DISTURBANCE OF PEACE AND QUIET. DISTURBANCE OF ANOTHER OCCUPANT AND THE LANDLORD UNREASONABLY DISTURBED ANOTHER OCCUPANT AND THE LANDLORD BY SPREADING UN-TRUE STORIES. SERIOUSLY JEOPARDIZED THE HEALTH OR SAFTEY OR LAWFUL RIGHT OF ANOTHER OCCUPANTS”.

4. In this discussion with Staff Sergeant E. Ward I got the distinct impression he was not listening to what I and Mr Paul Chernenkoff were saying, as his replies were off topic or evasive. At the end he asked me what I wanted him to do. I replied I wanted him to instruct the officers under his command to cease and desist their biases towards Mr Paul Chernenkoff and be impartial. He said, “I will talk to them”, and that is how the conversation ended.

5. On July 31, 2014, at approximately 11:30 AM, at the entrance of Rotary Towers, located at 25 Clute Street, New Westminster, BC I arrived to find my neighbours Mrs Joan McCarthy of unit #101, Mr Jim McConnville of unit #402, and one Murray and another man known to me as “Big Paul” were sitting outside, in the exterior lobby. They immediately started making untrue and insulting remarks about me when Mr Jim McConnville saw me and notified them of my approach.

6. I responded with, “No matter how nasty you are to me, it will never make me act like you do. Your projections onto me are lies and actions say more about how defiant your behaviour is”. To this Mrs Joan McCarthy leaped up, attempted to hit me with her fist while verbally threatening to do so, and attempted to take the gardening tool from my hand. I stepped back to prevent her stealing my property. At this time, Mr Jim McConnville jumped up and took three steps to be able to touch me, making the same verbal and gesturing threats of violence upon me.

7. I walked away while they continued to taunt and threaten me, and saw Mr Paul Chernenkoff sitting inside the lobby. I opened the door and asked him if he saw what happened and would he talk to the police. He said yes to both and I called 911.

8. I called 911 and made the report. I sat beside Mr Paul Chernenkoff in the lobby. At 11:48 AM Constable Chris Cecil #283 phoned my cell number to say he was in the lobby of a building on Clute Street. He was at the address 45 Clute Street, and said he would walk over to “Rotary Towers”, where I was waiting.

9. At this time the husband of Mrs Joan McCarthy of unit 101 came down and went out to tell Mrs Joan McCarthy her sister had phoned and the couple left by way of the garden that takes them to the common first floor balcony.

10. He arrived and immediately turned and talked with the same group of people who remained in the exterior lobby. I got up, opened the door and stated I was the one filing the report. Constable C Cecil turned and walked towards me to sit in the interior lobby with Mr Paul Chernenkoff and I.

11. Mr Paul Chernenkoff and what occurred and Constable C Cecil responded with, “I can't get involved with any tenancy issues”. I said I was well aware of that and that I was reporting bullying and harassment by a group of people who had been doing the same to Mr Paul Chernenkoff for at least a decade. Mr Paul Chernenkoff agreed with my statement.

12. When Constable C Cecil asked what ways this group and Ana Zlato Torodovic were harassing us, I explained that Mrs Joan McCarthy conspired with Ms Ana Zlato Torodovic to falsely accuse me of damaging Mrs Joan McCarthy's bathroom, and that the tenancy process was under a legal RTA review. Mr Paul Cherenkoff then attempted to tell Constable C Cecil how he has been harassed and bullied by this same group of people. Constable C Cecil would not let Mr Paul Chernenkoff answer.

13. I then told Constable C Cecil that the man Murray, who remained in the exterior lobby, had told me that Mr Paul Chernenkoff deserved to be bullied, that the “manager” had told him to do so, and that he did so. Constable C Cecil said this was hearsay and attempted to explain it to me. I told him not to waste his time because I knew what it was and arguing with him on the definition was wasting time.

14. Constable C Cecil interrupted me saying that his “due diligence” and “acting impartially” included speaking with all those who remained in the exterior lobby, Mrs Joan McCarthy and Ms Ana Zlato Torodovic. I asked to what purpose it would serve to talk to Ms Ana Zlato Torodovic since she was not a witness to any of the day's occurrence. I also stated that in my time as a Resident Manager the police never wanted my testimony if I had not witnessed events between tenants. Constable C Cecil seemed to get nervous at my statement, stood and went outside to the people who had remained in the exterior lobby.

15. Mr Paul Chernenkoff and I both verbalized the same feelings and thoughts that this police officer was not listening to us and turning the tables to accuse us and not lay charges against these people. We continued to watch and discuss how Constable C Cecil was listening to Mr Jim McConnville to talk about how the Bailiff was due to arrive to evict me, and make derogatory remarks about mine and Mr Paul Chernenkoff's mental health.

16. I went upstairs to my unit, #604, to eat and await Ms Ana Zlato Torodovic appointed arrival at my door. As I was preparing my lunch I heard a loud knock on my door. I asked who it was, and the response was “police”. I opened my door to Constable C Cecil who was holding a copy of a Residential Order of Possession of my unit, and as he was asking me if I knew about it my toast popped up and I turned away leaving him to hold the door open and continue the discussion.

17. I had decided not to ask him why he was discussing a matter he, in his role as a police officer, is clearly forbidden to do, and let him question me about the matter.

18. Constable C Cecil asked why I hadn't mentioned this downstairs, and I replied I had and included the fact it is under Review, which is a kind of an appeal and under what authority the Review was filed. I then showed him the receipt from the Residential Tenancy Branch to prove the action was made, and this is all I am required to do. He seemed confused and I suggested he call the Residential Tenancy Branch's number 604 660 1020. He had to ask me for the number again to write down in his notebook.

19. Constable C Cecil, left my unit muttering he didn't know what he was doing.

20. At 11:57AM I heard another knock on the door, and expecting Ms Ana Zlato Torodovic, I turned on my camera and answered the door. Standing about two feet behind Ms Ana Zlato Torodovic was Constable C Cecil, as the previously posted video recording shows.

21. Ms Ana Zlato asked me if I had proof the Review had been filed and I said, “Yes, the officer saw it”. Constable C Cecil made no comment. She then asked me if I had notified her office and I said, “No. That is not my responsibility. I suggest you call 604 660 1020”. In response, Ms Ana Zlato Torodovic turned and walked away, followed by Constable C Cecil.

22. On the morning of August 1, 2014 I called the New Westminster Police Services non-emergency number and asked to speak with Staff Sergeant E. Ward. When the Staff Sergeant answered the line, I identified myself and asked him for his badge number. When he gave me the number I said, “Thank you” and hung up.


23. I immediately went to the New Westminster Police Services station, located at Columbia and 6th Streets, and in my business there asked for a Complaint Form. The woman informed me that she could not give one to me, but would arrange for the appropriate person to do so. I waited in the lobby. This woman repeated my full name numerous times before she left.


24. After approximately 10 minutes I heard a male voice call out “Ma'am”and I turned to see a white male, with salt and pepper hair standing on the other side of the enclosed counter. I walked to him and saw his badge number, 172. He immediately said he believed I was the one who called earlier for his badge number and I confirmed it. He asked me who the officer is that I am making a complaint about, and I replied, “You”.


25. Staff Sergeant E Ward then attempted to evade my request by making statements about the complaint procedure. I concisely told him all I needed was the form, as I know the “protocols”. He said he would get a form and instructed me to wait. I did so, and went to look at the antique vehicle displayed on the opposite side of the lobby.

26. Approximately five minutes later Staff Sergeant E Ward entered the lobby from the door way closest to me with a Complaint Form in hand. He made a comment implying that I was not intelligent enough to understand the form. I replied, “Oh, I'm pretty adept at English,” then pause to consider how I was going to end this conversation. I chose to look him straight in the eye, nod and leave.



She is being given the services of the police to intimidate.  She has gotten away with using the tenants to bully and intimidate other tenants, because her workplace is full of bullies.

Corruption lies in the willingness of the people to allow it.  Do you really want your children being bullied?  If you do nothing about this kind of thing among the adults, your children will have to endure it.

What have I ever done to anyone to deserve this kind of treatment? Fill me in, because this eviction means homelessness and a reduction of income from $946. to $644. per month.  Market rent for a bachelor in my area is $650. 

Anti-bullying literature found in the lobby area of the
New Westminster Police Services building,
located on Columbia Street.



TITLE (OR FRONT)
Page
Quote
Seniors Safety and Crime Prevention, BC Crime Prevention Association (no year)


Booklet
16-17 Physical Abuse [first bullet] Acts of violence such as punching, hitting, slapping, kicking, pinching, burning... Emotional/Psychological Abuse [first bullet] Insults, threats, intimidations [sic], yelling, ignoring, and isolation
B.C. Crime Prevention Association Apartment Security Promoting Reduction and Awareness within the Community


Pamphlet
Obverse first panel CHOOSING AN APARTMENT
Here are a few features to check:
  • [fourth bullet] Do the tenants feel comfortable living in their community, do they know they're neighbours?
B.C. Crime Prevention Association
BULLYING
STOP BULLYING NOW
STAND UP SPEAK OUT
Promoting Reduction and Awareness within the Community

Pamphlet
Reverse
first panel
A bully is:
  • A domineering person or group of persons who abuse others
  • A person who tries to control others by fear
  • A person who behaves in an aggressive, thoughtless and unjust manner


Reverse second panel Reasons for Bullying:
  • Peer pressure
  • Attention seeking
  • Lack of friendship
  • Disregard for the feelings of others
  • Insecurity
  • Experienced bullying in the past
  • Need for acceptance
  • Desire to be part of a gang/group
  • Reflection of personal problems


Bullying is a criminal offence, and may be classified as any of the following:
  • Assault
  • Harassment
  • Extortion
  • Threatening
  • Intimidation


Reverse third panel Ways to protect yourself from a bully:
  • Stay together in a group
  • Be brave
  • Be confident
  • Walk away from trouble
  • Stick up for yourself


Report bullying to:
  • [fifth bullet] The Police
  • Report anonymously to Crime Stoppers


BULLYING IT'S TIME TO STOP!


Friday, 3 January 2014

The Apocolypse's Cistern

To be in poverty means I have to work harder for everything; that is the only difference between the poor and those who have enough. Those who have enough also believe they need more. Those who have the most believe they're entitled. A dynamic our history is full of examples.

We are in the process of change and have been since 1945. We know nothing of what we're creating, but we do it. We even do it while being totally unaware anyone else is doing the same. We will see in one short decade exactly what we're going through now and it's purpose is to reconcile an aspect of awareness into the collective consciousness.

We will not destroy ourselves, but on the contrary. We are growing in awareness. We're beginning to see where our failures are due to the unawareness. This compels us to be aware.  The process is inevitable and for now we must manage the confusion of not knowing.

Saturday, 21 December 2013

Social Rendering

A History

There has been media coverage on the Downtown Eastside's (DTES) activist community proclaiming the business community is the gentrifier of their community. But, originally Hastings Street and Gastown constituted the main business hub of Vancouver and 'old' office buildings were converted into residences in response to the social housing shortages created by Expo 1986. The City pushed the poor off Davie Street into DTES. Business always demands the transient subculture off its door step. It is the choice of the people elected to run the municipality on how that demand is met that results in the culture of their new neighbourhood.

It is unfortunate the present culture of the DTES still rallies divisiveness: Us v Them.  It has been this way for as long as I've known the neighbourhood. In 1994 there was DERA's internal fighting with who was the Executive Director, Jim Green or Barb Daniels. The latter won out, but the former was given a mid-management position in the provincial government. The divisiveness continued to flourish due to all the players, named and their supporters, behaving within the realm of corruption. The manifestations remain in every crook and cranny, and those bred to it knowing nothing different, and it is nurtured by the whole City, itself.  The corrupt include those with the blinders of not-in-my-backyard.

The corrupt deny there are choices. It has to be this way for the paradigm of victim to exist: For every victim there must be a perpetrator. A parallel paradigm exists with every emancipator there is a collaborator, and they embrace the realms of choice.

Choice requires an acknowledgement of Us v Them, but only from the perspective of defining the parts of the whole. Choice also reveres the responsibilities of its processes and results. It proclaims openly when it wears the blinders, for choice is the voice of creation.

A Revolution

Is it possible for the corrupt to take up the mantel of choice?  Of course, for that is the purpose of creation: the more invocation of choice results in an expansion of creation. Even the corrupt exist within creation, the difference is theirs is short lived.

The collective is on the verge of a rendering the awareness of choice.

Hastings Street is meeting the needs of the new demands with the influx of creative individuals gathering within its population. The area's growth is for naught. It is change due to choice, and with that choice there comes more choice.

My Choice

I have lived this homeless existence with the question of how to break the juggernaut of the Us v Them paradigm, so that I can have the survival tool thus enabling an expansion of my thriving needs. Without shelter (one of three sacred survival requirements) my choices of activity is restricted to shortening my life.  It is the juggernaut of the corrupt, the outside force that has invaded my space and needs lancing.

The lancing can only be done when light is used to define the dark images of ourselves, the communities. I choose to give you a light.

The Episode


Yesterday, amid the deep slushy streets on the south side of Victory Park I saw this man taking
advantage of the emptiness to create. 

On the northeast corner there was another man and his creation required a shovel.
This is Wes Regan. He was cleaning away the snow from the drainage grate so that the melting water would not pool. When this happens there is no safe place for pedestrians to cross the streets, and the cars splash the water up to the sidewalks. The only solution is to clear the grates of the heavy snow, and this requires man power the City couldn't possibly arrange efficiently or economically.

Wes probably recognizes the need more than most because he's the Executive Director of Hastings Crossing Business Improvement Association.  All in all, it took him about an hour to do a couple of blocks worth of shoveling. In that time he was given tea from one cafe and a breakfast muffin from another, and said, "They would have done the same for anyone (else), I'm sure".

I told Wes that I had just concluded a tour of western cities to see what poverty and homelessness was like in them, and it had inspired me to share the moments of kindness to create a better society.  Wes and I share the belief we can have a kinder community and easier life when we each do something to help another.  It is these moments of choice when collaboration blossoms into the recognition we are all part of the whole.

We all belong, including the corrupt.  Our purpose and need is to have a balance between the dark and light.

Friday, 13 December 2013

The State of Addiction

There is a nasty cocktail brewing in Vancouver under the auspices of Mental Health care. The most recent document outlining the new care model is pure plagiarism from the 1990's studies commissioned for the BC Ministry of Health and the City of Vancouver. (How do I know? I was involved in the community and co-wrote some of those studies and had the others in my possession as reference to our recommendations of health care in the neighbourhood.)

The difference is the new document "Improving Health Services for Individuals with Severe Addiction and Mental Illness" (November 15, 2013, Ministry of Health Report to the Honourable Terry Lake) is full of language to describe the estimated 130,000 people as if they are totally incapable of anything, and all their rights are stripped. The revolving door of incarceration-to-the-street is assured.

These people are being video-monitored while they stay in the shelters, because they have no home, and teams of so-called professionals will bound them off to the hospital to be forced to take "treatment" of anti-psychotics, anti-depressants, methadone and electric shock therapy.  Their diet in and out of hospital is predominately refined starches, little in the way of fresh vegetables and fruit, and heavy fat proteins.



These authors have actually used the homeless population numbers and assigned them to their definition of severe addictions and mental health to validate their intended treatment program. Instead of solving homelessness, they're keeping it alive so they have their subjects to torture.


Sunday, 8 September 2013

September 8, 2013







Daily Observation

Another day in Vancouver. It's changed, this city. Far more people in a smaller place and, thankfully, far more polite than Surrey.

It always felt like too much attention was directed towards me by the majority's choice to hunt for a target .-  And, who is more vulnerable than a single, white, non-parental female in this day and age?  Talk about being a visible minority! - Surrey's citizens interact under the auspices of vindictiveness.  It needs more honest RCMP members, imho.

At first the idea of returning to live in Vancouver didn't appeal, but having been here for more than a week there is a symbiosis of the un and familiar.

...I"m still homeless. November 15, 2013 to now?  I'm impecunious.

Friday, 30 August 2013

As of today...

I am living on the streets. It will be filled with trying to find a bed in an emergency shelter somewhere.

Would someone care to take over my life? Maybe you can find someone who really cares, because every person I've approached either walks way or takes the opportunity to add more difficulties onto this already stressful existence.

Wednesday, 28 August 2013

Homelessness continued...

Unenviable, or not?

None of us escape the dichotomy of choice. Tis the way of life. So, is it more enviable to have many choices or fewer?

The situation...

I have a monthly disability income of $940. The average cost of a one-bedroom apartment in this area is $700, add the average cost of utilities (phone, hydro, internet or cable TV) to be $150. I have the added expense of paying $125 per month for a loan I had to take out nearly two years ago. The rest is to buy food with...

I could rent in the cheapest city in this area (average $550 for rent), but it is the city that has caused me the greatest grief and where gangsters roam without any societal containment. My life could be in danger if I were to roam the same streets, as rumor has it, the so-called-contract that was out on me last November is still active.

To use the emergency shelters throughout the Lower Mainland is to sleep beside the same people connected to the gang that put that contract out on me. It is the same as the Transition Houses, where women from prison and the violence of addiction go.  I would pay $375, at least, for a bed for a month.


I have applied to numerous non-profit housing and remain on a waiting list for each. The Salvation Army was oh-so-diabolical and managed to put me from the very top of the A-list for housing to the bottom of the B-list with BC Housing. I have been on this waiting list since January 2000.

A few days ago I turned 55 years of age, and this is suppose to qualify me to use the services of Senior Services Society, in New Westminster. About two months ago I met with Denise Wells there who once worked for a non-profit organization in Surrey and she was part and parcel of a group who tried to steal my artwork. She pawned me off, with prejudice, to a co-worker and Phillip turned out to be "too busy" to help me. I spoke with his acting supervisor, Anna, yesterday and her view is that I don't need their services. She suggested I go to a place in Surrey, which is where Wells worked before and in the heart of the gangster territory.


I could use the bed I have been using the last month, but one of the people has chosen to view my bike as his way to excise his anger. He has destroyed the derailer and it will cost me about $75 to have it repaired. His reasoning for changing the gears abusively is the bike is "a piece of shit".  But, it isn't his responsibility to fix it, or pay for the repairs. His girlfriend has nothing to say, except to pretend nothing is wrong.  (The bike is not just a bike: I have severe arthritis in my lower limbs, and wear a knee brace for support. I cannot stand for more than a few minutes with the brace and the bike allows me to carry groceries as well as exercise to control my weight and diabetes.)

The rains have returned, but there is always a sleeping bag and tarp.