Tea & Two Slices is a long-running local news round-up by NEEDS frontman and veteran dishwasher Sean Orr, who lives and works in Gastown, deeply aware of his privilege.

We’ve been saying this for years: Stable housing critical to kicking addiction say users, experts. I attended CBC’s town hall on despair, addiction and poverty over the weekend, and despite Fred Mah talking about poop the entire time, the conversation was dominated by calls of decriminalization and safe supply, which is really telling. We’ve had a poverty reduction plan for years. Follow it. Town Halls are great and everything, but we already know what we need to do.

And to the lady who said she lives in a condo a block away from Woodwards and sat in the town hall listening to exasperated health experts, peer support workers and indigenous people literally weeping, why would you ask the entrenched community why there is petty crime? I also live a block away and yet would never deign to go to a panel on addiction and bring up my fucking strata fees. Shame on you. Stop criminalizing poor people and start demanding fair distribution of wealth!

It’s weird when the park board is the only governing body with a spine: Vancouver’s park board refuses to force homeless people from Oppenheimer Park.

Dan Fumano: Uncertainty looms for thousands of co-op home households in Vancouver. I know it’s trendy to talk about showing your landlord the guillotine but when your landlord is the City of Vancouver, hmmm….

Bowen Island residents set up camp to protest lack of housing options. Cue the ignorant ‘I’d love to live in a tent on Bowen Island for free’ comments. Ugh.

So the Vancouver Sun published a disgusting, militantly xenophobic editorial over the weekend (which it has since taken down). While this might not be shocking, especially considering they give voice to the likes of Douglas Todd and Martin Collacott, it nevertheless contributes to the normalization of hateful rhetoric. This kind of bullshit might be profitable for The Sun, but even their own staff disavowed the piece.

Sean Holman has a really good take over at The Tyee: That Sun Column Was No Outlier. Postmedia Has Embraced Dishonest, Dangerous Propaganda:

As a result of this irrationality and absence of empathy, journalists now find themselves in functional opposition to conservatism, an uncomfortable position given our desire to be seen as unbiased. But one cannot be a journalist and be unbiased about the kind of decision-making we are supposed to support in a democracy. And that’s why it’s so alarming to see media organizations such as Postmedia publishing content that propagandizes for the radicalized right-wing causes.

If you’re interested, Aaron Ekman contacted the author and you can read it here. You can also a read an even more hateful and more high profile article that wasn’t taken down: Jack Mintz: Actually, evidence shows ‘diversity’ makes countries weaker — not stronger.

And even though the Sun published letters deriding the fear-mongering, you have to wonder how many people silently agreed with it. As I’ve said before, this is us. This is what our country was founded on.

And yet, there still exists a dangerous “both sides” false equivalence between those who stand up to racism and bigotry in all its forms and the racists themselves. I mean, if I can wear an Iron Front t-shirt to work in one of Canada’s most high profile restaurants, then these guys should be able to paint one on a sign at a bloody soccer game: Whitecaps fan banned for remainder of season as league cracks down on signage. Jesus Christ, guys. I know “white” is in your soccer team’s name but this is ridiculous!

Also, notice the language The Province uses here: “militarized far left political movement”. Ah yes, those Antifa super-soldiers armed with concrete milkshakes are totally mobilising at their secret military base (a soup kitchen) as we speak. Like seriously, I’ve met golden retrievers that’ve scared me more.

The Province will call Antifa “militarized” but when a guy from the actual military recruits actual nazis, and then completely disappears…silence: Case of missing neo-Nazi reveals Canadian media’s double standards.

“To put it bluntly, the RCMP is seeking a potential terrorist with military training. Had he been a Muslim, the media would have been all over it, while the public would be up in arms and panicked by politician after politician making loud and passionate statements about the terrorist on the run. Mathews, however, has been able to quietly melt into the crowd.”

Because we all know the real danger. We’re just afraid to admit it that it’s white dudes: Man arrested after ‘vile’ racist and sexist rant on Metro Vancouver bus.

Your Vancouver bus stop is watching you. Yeah? That’s nothing some carefully placed duct tape won’t fix.

Bonus: Five years ago, a giant statue of Satan with an erection enthralled Vancouver. Now this is what I call journalism!