Morning Meganews
WAY TO BE Meganews congratulates Brendan McLellan for raising way more money than planned for the Union Gospel Mission in yesterday's Half Marathon DON'T RACE THROUGH THE DTES Another pedestrian, this time an elderly man, has been hit by a car on Hastings NATURE FINDS A WAY The melting arctic isn't...
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Across the Divide: SFU documentary about Megaphone
A great documentary about Megaphone called 'Across the Divide' made by a group of SFU students.
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Christy Clark and the Inner City: B.C.'s premier on the Downtown Eastside
Christy Clark was elected as leader of the BC Liberal Party, and thus premier of the province, on a populist platform that promised to put families first. But what does the former radio talk show host have planned for the Downtown Eastside, often referred to as Canada's postal code? In...
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Yippies In Love: Musical explores the roots of Canada's protest capital
Vancouver, like all cities, is a place where opposing moral frameworks, values and lifestyles uneasily occupy the same confined spaces. At present, a year past the Olympics, the battle for social housing in the Athlete’s Village can be broken down to one central question: what kind of person should...
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Morning Meganews
NO APPEAL The report that says it it was not wrong for Crown prosecutors to declined laying charges against police over Frank Paul's death is out. You can download it here. FOODIES People are turning their front years into wheat fields COMMUNITY With phone booths being removed from the DTES,...
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Morning Meganews
ONE WAY TO BALANCE A BUDGET Woman says she got huge tax bill because EI didn't do the deductions properly BLACK EYES How come we worry what the world thinks about a hockey riot but not what they think of the structural poverty and poor health in the DTES BUILD...
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Standing Up for Shelters: Saving the New Fountain
Sarah Blyth leads to fight with other New Fountain Shelter workers to save the shelter. Photo by Matthew Zylstra Sawatzky. The New Fountain Shelter occupies a non-descript building on the unit-block of West Cordova. Most of the day it stands quiet and empty, but once the sun begins its...
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Vendor Voices: Bob's brush with death
For years I suffered from schizophrenia. It was so bad I was scared to go out and sell the paper (it was called Spare Change at the time). Some days were good, some were bad, but I had to go out and work to survive, even though I was...
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Morning Meganews
THAT EVENT People rioted over ennui more than passion WUXTRY The Straight reprints their 1994 riot story, Stupidville BATTER UP The Tyee may like the Vancouver Canadians as much as Megaphone MONEY TALKS Credit Unions have held bank's feet to the fire for a hundred years in BC. Now the...
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David Suzuki: Humans may have loaded the bases, but nature bats last
Humanity is facing a challenge unlike any we’ve ever had to confront. We are in an unprecedented period of change. Exponential growth is causing an already huge human population to double in shorter and shorter time periods. When I was born in 1936, just over two billion people...
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Can the Canucks Win it All?: Megaphone's hockey playoff preview and predictions
Photo by Jeff Vinnick/Vancouver Canucks What a glorious season it was for the Vancouver Canucks. With the thrilling (but somewhat creepy) Sedin twins firing on all cylinders and the Italian Stallion Roberto Luongo in the finest of forms, the boys in blue made it look easy all year—winning the...
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Save the Shelters: The provincial and municipal governments must keep the New Fountain shelter from closing
Photo by Matthew Zylstra Sawatzky Unless the provincial and municipal governments come up with new funding, the Downtown Eastside’s New Fountain Shelter will close at the end of the month. This would be a tremendous mistake. If Mayor Gregor Robertson and Premier Christy Clark are serious about ending homelessness,...
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Frames of Mind: Quebec film about a troubled boy scores a 10 1/2
Tommy is a hopeless case. At just 10 and a half years old, he is already lost in the Quebec youth protection system. When his latest foster mother admits defeat in the face of Tommy’s irrepressible and frightening violent streak, he is sent to a juvenile detention facility, presumably...
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Standing Up for Shelters: Saving the New Fountain Shelter
The New Fountain Shelter opened two years ago as part of the city's Homeless Emergency Action Team (HEAT) shelter program. Originally conceived to sleep 27 people, the low-barrier shelter was soon filled to capacity and beyond most every night. Over its two years, the New Fountain has helped get residents...
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Morning Meganews
GO TELL IT... The Little Mountain Housing redevelopment is stalled - after destroying 200 homes FLAT BROKE Vancouver has the priciest rentals in the country at $1181 per month SORT OF A HOME City Council may request court injunction to fix two Downtown Eastside rooming house YUM Save On Foods...
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Policing the Police: The province's new civilian police oversight agency is an important step, but doesn't go far enough
The newly minted premier’s announcement that British Columbia will finally get a civilian-led police oversight agency is a tremendous step in the long battle to make policing more accountable in this province. And while this new agency will go a long way in helping that cause, we must recognize...
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Little Done on Little Mountain
Three and a half years after the Little Mountain social housing units were torn down, the developer still hasn’t rezoned the land or secured a building permit in what housing advocates are calling a “stalemate” between the developer and the City of Vancouver. “My understanding is the developer bought the...
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Megaphone's citizen journalism workshop
Megaphone vendor Garvin Snider shows off his completion certificate for Megaphone's citizen journalism writing workshop. The four-week project was held in partnership with SFU Woodward's and helped teach marginalized writers from the Downtown Eastside about basic journalism skills. Look for stories from these workshops in future copies of...
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Talk+Action: Vancouver punk legend Joe 'Shithead' Keithley looks back on three decades of living dangerously
D.O.A. is a band that since its first recording has been known for its raw sound, thundering rhythms and outspoken politics. Led by singer-guitarist Joe Shithead Keithley, the band helped forge a punk rock scene in Vancouver in the late-1970s whose impact reverberated across the world, inspiring legions of...
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Morning Meganews
TRUST Vancouver cop convicted of selling drugs in the DTES described as 'rogue'
ANNALS OF LAW Appeals by police against complaints eating up budgets
ART The Straight has a nice piece on the Hope in Shadow's photo launch
HOMES The Westender reports on the Renters Roundtable.
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