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.

There’s homeless people everywhere! Do something about it! OK: BC Housing acquiring Ramada Vancouver Downtown hotel to house the homeless.”But how much will it cost?” This will only encourage more out of town freeloaders to move to BC and primarily Vancouver! Your bleeding hearts are going to bankrupt us all!” (actual comments).

Only in Vancouver would a public toilet make people this upset: Flush with cash: Vancouver’s $645,000 public toilet raises eyebrows. Downtown is disgusting! There’s feces everywhere! Do something about it!

Ok, here’s a public washroom. “No, we meant get rid of poor people”

Or how about this:

Let’s flush away austerity rhetoric. Time to increase taxes on people like Chip Wilson whose $67-million mansion has *9* bathrooms.

A small Toilet Tax on mansions w/ 5+ of them could fund public luxuries for all. More playgrounds, more pools – & more public toilets. #vanpoli https://t.co/0vNYfojfW9

— Derrick O’Keefe (@derrickokeefe) March 23, 2021

Resign: BC Mayor Owns Over $1 Million of Real Estate Near a Homeless Shelter He Wants to Shut Down. Remember, this is the same guy that passed a law banning sitting on a sidewalk.

Dan Fumano: The ‘rapid housing initiative’ that isn’t. The ghost of Paul Martin haunts this fucking country. The feds abandoned housing to the provinces, and the provinces did the same to their municipalities. Now they come swooping in, holding press conferences to celebrate a pathetic 65 units.

Overall, the program provided $1 billion to create 3,000 new permanent, affordable homes across the country. That sounds like a lot of homes — and money — but consider that 3,000 is less than two per cent of 235,000, which Statistics Canada estimates as the number of Canadians experiencing homelessness in a given year.

BC’s Disability Survival Trap. I remember being kicked off welfare because I was living with my girlfriend, who was a student at the time. Overhaul the entire thing.

Vancouver police arrest man who is a person of interest in an alleged stalking incident. How is following a woman for 30 minutes not stalking? Argh! The VPD is terrible.

Leading to the tweet of the day:

A woman is aggressively followed through the Downtown Eastside, one of the most heavily policed neighbourhoods in Canada and nothing happens. Then she walks into a skatepark, and immediately half a dozen kids have her back. Maybe we should be funding more skateparks.

— Emmet Matheson (@emmetmatheson) March 19, 2021

Vancouver media: The Chinese are trying to take over Vancouver! They’re buying up all our housing! Vancouver is drowning in Chinese money! China is influencing our mayors! We’re a permissive target for Chinese influence. We’re training Chinese troops on our soil! They are changing our city. It’s basically Hongcouver! The China virus is here!

Also Vancouver media: Why all the anti-Asian hate? Man left with stitches in head after daylight attack in downtown Vancouver.

Oh, and it’s a global phenomenon:

Vancouver woman launches campaign to combat anti-Asian attacks in the city.

“This myth about Canada that we are multicultural, more kind, we’re gentler than Americans, to me that’s just a myth. As racialized Canadians, particularly racialized women, we know that the reality is quite different,” said Amy Go, the president of the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice.

Yup. Anti-Asiatic riots, The Opium Act, Head Tax, Japanese internment, Komangata Maru, Dunsmuir’s mines, the British Properties, White Lunch, Rogers Sugar… this is who we are and who we’ve always been.

‘Avalanche of anti-Asian hate’ after Vogue feature on former Vancouver mayor’s wedding. We’re the fucking worst.

Exhibit B: Canucks clap back at anti-Pride IG comments in the classiest way possible. Someone’s gender doesn’t take away from yours. Someone’s sexual preference doesn’t threaten yours. Inclusivity isn’t an attack on you. You’re not a victim. Grow up.

Go smudge yourself: Vancouver arts curator’s Indigenous ancestry claims panned as ‘pretendian’. Why does this happen so much? Is it just an extreme extension of colonialism?

Prick of the day: Canadian professor threatened to fail student caught up in Myanmar coup.

BoG members, students question UBC’s continued partnership with Amazon amid controversy.

“I think there’s a certain amount of goodwill towards Amazon. But when you look at the kinds of atrocities that they’re involved in, I think that kind of outweighs whatever sort of conveniences or momentary pleasures Amazon might be able to provide for individual consumers.”

Bonus: Workers Deserve Beautiful, Renovated, Even Luxurious Public Housing.