While the BC Liberal government refuses to increase the minimum wage and protect some of the most vulnerable workers, they did decide to give senior government beaurocrats a massive pay raise -- an increase from between 20% to 43%, and up $348,600 a year. An article in the Tyee, "Working Below the Poverty Line" argues that the BC government needs to raise the minumum wage to $10 so that the 300,000 BC residents who work for less $10 per hour could benefit from a much needed raise.

The BC government has also neglected the rights of migrant and resident farm workers in BC. Although recently for the first time a group of seasonal farm workers voted to unionize on a farm in Surrey ("Foreign Farm Workers Unionize: A First in BC"), the majority of farm workers have little formal protection.

• United Food and Workers - "B.C. FARMWORKERS JOIN UFCW CANADA!"
• CBC - "B.C. bureaucrats get huge pay raise"
• BC Federation of Labour - "Massive salary increase for government insiders, eight year freeze on minimum wage"
• The Straight Goods - "BC Liberal bureaucrats' pay raise outrageous"
• Agriculture Workers Alliance Website

During a press conference in Beijing, BC Premier Gordon Campbell was asked by international journalists about homelessness, addiction, poverty and protest during the Vancouver 2010 Olympics. Gordon Campbell claimed that the province has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into housing and that there will be significant improvments by 2010. But advocates in Vancouver such as the Citywide Housing Coalition, say that homelessness is only increasing and this has been proven by the most recent Greater Vancouver homeless count. Residents of the Downtown Eastside are afraid that addicts, the poor and homeless will be jailed or forced out of town during the 2010 Olympics.

For further reading check out the following news stories:

• CBC - "Critics question B.C. premier's promise to house homeless by 2010"
• CP - "Poverty, addiction won't be what world sees at 2010 Games, B.C. premier says"
• Globe and Mail - "Tables turn on Vancouver in 2010 Games grilling"
• Google News

Pivot Legal Society, the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU) and the United Native Nations have filed a human rights complaint against the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association and Geoff Plant, the former Attorney General of British Columbia and presently acting as the Civil City Commissioner in Vancouver. The complaint alleges that the Downtown Ambassadors run by the DVBIA under the guidance of Geoff Plant, discriminate against homeless people, particulary aboriginal people and people with disabilities. The complaint alleges that the Ambassadors rountinely tell homeless people to move along regardless of their location which denies them equal access to public space. Read more in a press release by Pivot, "Groups say DVBIA, Civil City actions discriminatory"

The Vancouver Island Public Interest Research Group has published a report, The Rise and Fall of Welfare Time Limits in BC (in PDF), which offers an inside look at what was going on within the Ministry of Human Resources after the BC government passed legislation that gave welfare recipients a two year time limit for benefits. The authors have drawn on documents acquired through a Freedom of Information request to show that while many anti-poverty advocates, community groups and activists were fighting the welfare time limits, many people in the ministry were also opposed to the limits, though for different reasons. Read more in an article in the Times Colonist, "Stopping the Clock: A Time Limit on Welfare" (in PDF) and in an article in the Tyee, "Why Welfare Time Limits Never Flew".

The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) and other Victoria lawyers are trying to challenge Victoria's bylaws which prevent homeless people from sleeping outside in tents and other shelters. BCLAA argues that the bylaws violate Charter rights of the homeless and Canada's international obligations. Read a CBC story about the court challenge,"Homeless have right to tent in parks, Victoria lawyer argues" and a press release from BCLAA, Civil Liberties Association granted leave to intervene in important homeless rights case (in PDF).

The PIVOT Legal Society has started to hand out Tenant Rights cards (in PDF) to Downtown Eastside tenants. PIVOT hopes the cards can help tenants navigate interactions with landlords but PIVOT warns that there is not much legal protection for tenants. Read more about the cards on the PIVOT website.

In memory of all the missing and murdered women and children, aboriginal women are walking from Victoria, BC to Ottawa from June to September 2008. Gladys Radek, who lost a niece to the Highway of Tears, launched the Walk4Justice to draw attention to all the missing and murdered women across Canada. The website, www.missingpeople.net has more information and links about the walk. Walk4Justice has created an online petition to gather the names of all the missing and murdered First Nations women across Canada. If you know someone who has been missing or murdered, Walk4Justice asks you to sign the online petition. Also see a Working TV video of the start of the march.

CCPA has released a study called Cultivating Farmworker Rights: Ending the Exploitation of Immigrant and Migrant Farmworkers in BC. It reveals systematic violations of employment standards and health and safety regulations, poor and often dangerous working conditions, and dismal enforcement by government agencies. The authors propose comprehensive policy changes that would ensure farmworkers are no longer relegated to second-class status. The following links have more information about farm workers in BC:

• Justicia for Migrant Workers is a volunteer driven political non-profit collective which strives to promote the rights of migrant workers.
• BC Federation of Labour has information and background on farm worker's rights in BC.
• BC Government Farm Workers Fact Sheet

Vancouver's safe injection site, Insite, has been given respite from closure after a BC Supreme Court ruling found that it is protected by the Canadian Constitution. According to a press release from the Pivot Legal Society, the judge "found that the blanket prohibition against the possession of narcotics contained in the CDSA (Canadian Drugs and Substances Act) effectively prohibits health interventions such as InSite, and thus violates section 7 of the Charter; the right to life, liberty, and security of the person." You can read the entire Insite decision (in PDF). The judge has given the federal government a year to rewrite the drug laws to allow harm reduction measures and in the meantime has given Insite immunity from the drug laws to continue. While the federal government has said they will appeal the decision ("Feds to appeal B.C. court ruling on supervised injection sites"), other harm reduction advocates and health practicitioners are hoping that the decision will allow for more supervised injection sites and prescribed heroin ("Advocates guess at potential ripples from B.C. safe-injection site ruling").

Check out these sites for more information about Insite and the struggle to keep it open:

• Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users (VANDU)
• Insite for Community Safety
• Vancouver Coastal Health - Supervised Injection Site
• Keep Insite Open

Listen to some interviews of people who live on the streets of Vancouver from CBC's Vancouver, The Early Edition - Homeless in Vancouver (audio).

According to the Wellesley Institute blog, the Toronto City Council's Executive Committee has adopted a panhandling strategy that ensures panhandlers have access to housing, supports and income. This buckles the trend of legislation that has tried to criminalize panhandling including Ontario's Safe Streets Act and BC's Safe Street Act.

In 2007, the city conducted a Panhandling Pilot Project (in PDF) to provide social services to people panhandling and to educate the public about urban poverty. The pilot project found that generally panhandling was unobtrusive, that many panhandlers experienced social isolation and loathed the fact that they had to panhandle. The project also found that an intensive social service response was more successful then criminalization. You can read a personal story about the Panhandling Pilot Project on the Toronto City website - "A story to tell : Retirement from Adelaide and York".

An interesting article in the Tyee, "Dying for the Rich" looks into a widely researched correlation between a wide income gap and a shorter overall life expectancy. Although in Canada, public health care minimizes the gap, further erosion to public services means that the rich are in fact robbing the poor through tax cuts. For more information on equitable health care, go to the BC Health Coalition site.

On May 3rd, people around BC, from Prince George to Vancouver Island will be STANDing for housing. STANDs for Housing started in Vancouver over the closing of social housing in the Little Mountain neighbourhood of Vancouver. The Stands have spread around the province to reflect the growing crisis of homelessness and lack of affordable housing. For more information see the Community Advocates for Little Mountain (CALM) website.

A story in the Tyee, "A Welfare 'Savings' Boomerang" claims that two recent studies have shown that the BC Liberal's cuts to welfare in 2002 have drastically increased housing and health care costs, far more then the money saved cutting over 100,000 people off of welfare.

For two years, researchers from the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives and Raise the Rates Coalition followed BC residents living on welfare. The study, Living on Welfare in BC: Experiences of Longer-Term “Expected to Work” Recipients (in PDF), found:

• Day-to-day life on welfare is mainly about survival;
• A link between welfare rules and homelessness;
• Welfare rates are too low
• Too many people are being cut off welfare;
• Too many people were inappropriately categorized as expected to work;
• Too many women were staying or returning to abusive relationships or the sex trade to survive and;
• Only a small percent of participants left poverty.

Read more on the CCPA page, Living in Poverty in BC and in an article on the Tyee, "Poverty Built into BC's System".

In Toronto, three army reservists accused of killing a homeless man were allowed to plea guilty to reduced charges. The soldiers were originally charged with second degree murder in the beating death of a man in a Toronto park. One solider was apparently overheard saying that he hated homeless people. Read more in a CBC article, "Reservists plead guilty in fatal beating of man" and in the Toronto Star article, "Guilty pleas in homeless man's death".

While in Vancouver, according to the Tyee, at least 56 homeless people have died in the last two years. This is at least 19% higher than the general population. Read more, "BC's Homeless Death Toll: 56 or More in Two Years."

PIVOT Legal Society, the Carnegie Community Action Project, and the Impact of the Olympics on Community Coalition have launched a complaint to the UN about the living conditions of residents in Vancouver's single room occupancy hotels. The formal complaint letter, facts of the complaint and supporting documentation is on the no place like home website.

Metro Vancouver has released its preliminary numbers for the 2008 Homlessness Count and overall homlessness is on the rise. The count found 2592 people homeless across the region. This is a 19% increase from the 2005 count and a 131% increase from the 2002 count. On the Metro Vancouver Regional Homelessness website, you can find the 2008 Homeless Count - Preliminary numbers (in PDF), the questionnaires used by the counters and other information about the count, including reports from previous Homeless Counts. Read one the homeless counter's story on the Tyee, "We Tried to Count the Homeless" and why he sees the count as underestimating how many people are actually living on the streets. You can also read a CBC article about the count, "Homelessness on the rise in Metro Vancouver, says report."

Some articles and links related to poverty and the 2008 BC Budget:

• BC's 2008 Budget
• Ministry of Employment and Income Assistance 2008 Budget Report (in PDF)
• The Tyee - "Unspent Millions in Housing Fund" and "'Landmark' Green Budget, with Some Brown Spots"
• Federation of Post Secondary Educators - BC Budget 2008: An Exercise in Distraction
• SPARC report - Still Left Behind (in PDF) - A comparison of Living Costs and Employment Assistance Rates in British Columbia. Report findings indicate that families and individuals receiving income assistance from the province of B.C. are not able to meet their minimal monthly living costs.
• CBC article - "B.C. budget leaves welfare recipients in poverty: report"

Activists stood on various street corners in different areas of Vancouver to protest the provincial and federal governments' lack of initiative toward housing and homelessness. Watch a video about the Stand for Housing on HomelessNation, and find out more about future events to protest the lack of affordable housing on the websites of the City Wide Housing Coalition, the Save Low Income Housing Coalition, and the Lower Mainland Network for Affordable Housing.