A no messing around guide to the coolest things to eat, drink and do in Vancouver and beyond. Community. Not clickbait.

On Active Bystanding and Making Life Even Harder For People Without Homes

Media Check: Vernon votes to rein in homeless by banning shopping carts in all public spaces. While this might seem like an innocuous news story to lead of TATS, it represents the very worst of humanity coupled with a media that is all too willing to mirror the mistruths and power structures at play.

It’s the same thing I was talking about earlier this month; the vitriol directed at Nanaimo’s Discontent City is just proof you don’t like poor people and that you actually hate your own job.

My friend Lu dissects it further:

Here CBC News I fixed your headline: “Vernon votes to steal possessions from its poorest residents”. “Rein in homeless”? Are they horses? Is their rampant consumerism destroying the planet and polluting the lakes? Wtf CBC. Also “homeless” as a noun? What is a “homeless”? Do you mean person who is experiencing homelessness?

The municipality of Vernon needs to be shamed out of this cruel and useless policy. If you live there do something. Call your councillors, make some noise. This policy is well-off people stealing personal possessions from the most marginalized for no purpose. They just don’t like looking at poor people.

Loss prevention is just another front on the war on the poor: Security guards’ use of force on alleged shoplifter reveals legal grey area. Always. Film. These. Events.

Toronto City Council Just Voted To Ban The Sale Of Handguns And Ammunition In The City. Amazing. Yes. Well done. But…if your call for gun control doesn’t include disarming the police, it’s incomplete.

More: The Socialist Case for Gun Control:

Progressives, focused primarily on mass shootings, highlight the fact that it’s some form of toxic bigotry that motivates most of these killings. But mass shootings constitute only a fraction of all deaths caused by guns. The conditions in which a gun culture thrives has little to do with bigotry — it is primarily shaped by gross inequalities.

Also in Toronto: ‘It’s my f—ing province’: Video shows heated exchange between man, Muslim family at Toronto ferry terminal. I watch these videos and constantly think, “if only I had been there”. This is where you can use your white privilege. Step up, don’t just be a bystander…

But! Do it in a way that doesn’t further expose the people you are protecting: Do’s and Don’ts for Bystander Intervention.

Toronto also gets the Best Praxis of the Day award: Anti-Islam protester thrown into fountain at Danforth shooting memorial in Toronto.

Can we throw Faith Goldy in a fountain? Shitbird Running For Mayor of Toronto. Lol. I love that they won’t even name her.

Complicit in her and her ilk’s rise: Journalists Across Canada are Alarmed by the Toronto Sun’s Hate-Mongering and Conspiracy Theories. Remember folks, as these nutbars increase the volume of their rhetoric, please be wary of condemning the radicalization of the left as somehow the opposite end of the spectrum. Fascism and socialism both arise from the failure of liberalism. That doesn’t make them equivalent.

Canada is using ancestry DNA websites to help it deport people. “Oh hey look it’s a western capitalist ‘democracy’ doing that thing to vulnerable people again gee I wonder if there’s a pattern”- Liz Mars

Related: ‘Illegal’ or ‘irregular’? Debate about asylum-seekers needs to stop, experts warn.

“It is not illegal for someone to enter Canada for the purpose of making an asylum claim at any point along the Canada-U.S. border. In fact, … both international and Canadian law grant specific exemptions to asylum seekers, preventing them from being prosecuted for offences related to their efforts to claim refugee protection in Canada. This includes exemptions for using false passports and other documents, making certain false statements and crossing international borders irregularly.”

Barbara Kay Quotes Neo-Nazi To Justify Attack On Trans Identity “In Voltaire’s day, it was dangerous to criticize the Catholic Church and its dogmas. In our era, it is dangerous to criticize the Church of Gender Identity and its dogmas.” I don’t think this person understands power dynamics.

Fuck right off: Alberta man changes gender on government IDs for cheaper car insurance. Young white male doesn’t want to pay his fair share, makes fraudulent claim, is worst person ever. Denying the agency and torment that a trans woman endures on the daily to make a point, well done you smug piece of shit.

Related: Diamond Stephens, 39, is the 16th Trans Person Reported Murdered in 2018.

Bonus: You say you want a revolution? The anti-capitalist film “Sorry to Bother You” shows the way.

On Ken Sim’s So-Called “Swagger” and ABC’S Class War

Sean Orr is back from his hiatus with a rundown of the local headlines that have been running on a ticker tape through his mind over the past six months...

On Post-Election Recuperation, Platform Paradoxes and Refund Communities

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr finds irony in "safety, affordability, and sustainability", and shouts out a bunch of amazing local organizations working on the frontlines.

On Running for City Council, Playing Whack-a-Mole with Homelessness, and the Public Washroom Deficit

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr finds a park ranger with a grudge, a gross misuse of air quotes and Tripadvisor slander.

On Living in a City Preoccupied with Street Cleaning, Chandeliers, and Campaigns Against the Homeless

In his latest read of the local news headlines, Sean Orr hones in on the recent Langley shootings, and the ongoing criminalizing and dehumanizing of the homeless population.