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.

Problems of Downtown Eastside showing up on Musqueam reserve. Again, using the DTES as a placeholder for “extreme inequality” and “untreated trauma” as though it’s this hooded entity that corrupts our youth and drops needles on your doorstep. The DTES is everywhere. It’s in Port Alberni. It’s in Surrey. It’s in Dunbar. Where the services aren’t.

It’s the same way we approach climate change. Instead of accepting it as inextricably tied to income inequality we treat it as an “other”, as a moralization of some external force or abstract idea.

It’s pretty telling when an article on meat theft in Winnipeg can draw the same conclusions: Meat theft: The strange new crime trend taking over Winnipeg grocery stores.

Many in the grocery industry question if what’s been called a methamphetamine crisis is contributing to meat theft, but the organized nature of the crimes and subsequent resale cause others to question a causal link between the two. In any event, Cormier says the solution is clear. “Reduce economic inequality in Canada and that will reduce meat theft, I promise.”

Again, this isn’t your Grandpa’s income inequality. This is a runaway train. This is arguably worse than feudalism. It’s completely unacceptable. And it’s a total policy failure: Canada’s top 1 per cent saw fastest income acceleration, overall decrease in taxes. How. Is. This. Okay?

And yet: Andrew Scheer Just Announced a Sneaky Campaign Promise That Would Let Rich Canadians Dodge Taxes. “Income sprinkling” is a pretty cute word for fraud. We’re getting hosed!

It’s expensive to be poor: B.C. woman ‘worried sick’ as cost of fighting repeated eviction notices adds up. Here’s a thought: maybe we should make landlords prove these evictions have grounds before they put low-income tenants through this hell. This is how people become homeless.

Downtown Eastside venue owners, promoters report losses amid increased crime and violence. While I’m sure this article had good intentions it still feels like an ad for gentrification. Best comment from Tony Ferrari:

Fuck any band that plays “extreme” music and that refuses to play the downtown eastside or can’t recognize all the clear signs of systematic marginalization and oppression that lead to this situation in the place. Dark Funeral literally sing about ritualistic murder but can’t handle a couple fucking used rigs on the ground, actual coward shit.

Speaking of rigs, ugh…what a terrible segué: Protest convoy of up to 200 logging trucks rolls into downtown Vancouver. Yeah, Hastings was a real… log jam (shout outs to Nick Routley for that one). Jokes aside, what terrible timing. Two days before our climate strike and you drive 200 empty trucks half way across the province to tie up rush hour traffic? Meanwhile, first responders are blocked during check day. Aside from that, what an incredibly effective protest. Imagine if we create this amount of chaos demanding safe supply, or climate justice, or rent control? But as usual, something is not quite as it seems. Between the terrible softwood lumber agreement, the pine beetle, and the BC Liberals opening the door to raw log shipments, it seems as though forestry workers are being used as pawns by the forest industry.

13-year-old Anishinaabe water advocate to speak at United Nations. While Greta is doing amazing things, we also have to recognize the tireless work of indigenous youth here in Canada.

Good, but they still fronting those LNG ones pretty hard: BC Ferries moving to electric-powered ships.

Art of the Day: Original canvas with acrylics followed a bob ross video for this beaut really. $3000 or best offer.

This is a statement piece about how although we are blessed to live in beautiful Vancouver. We are also cursed, living in a bubble separate from the tranquility these surroundings should bring us, and burning out trying to survive in this aggressive housing market. The art style speaks to our child, because in the end issues like these should not be complicated.

Bonus: Stanislav Petrov, ‘The Man Who Saved The World,’ Dies At 77.