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karen ward Profile picture
karen ward
@kwardvancouver
public policy artist
Apr 12, 2022 • 17 tweets • 6 min read
they were not "lost", they were killed by drug policy and political indifference

#bcpoli
#SocialMurder
news.gov.bc.ca/releases/2022P… the government let six people under 19 die in february.

www2.gov.bc.ca/assets/gov/bir… Image
Apr 12, 2022 • 4 tweets • 1 min read
"THIS IS A PLANNING ISSUE TOO!"

Decriminalization is about the right to the city. if you care about cities, you need to understand the ways in which they cause harm - and reduce it. you can use your positions to help people stay safe. planners can literally create space for excluded people from your discourse. @Jay_Pitter explains this
Feb 19, 2022 • 8 tweets • 1 min read
remember when the vaccine was first available and everyone had to find a doctor to prescribe it but most docs said, "no i think you might enjoy it" so lots of people had to buy bathtub vax on the street and you could smoke it or inject but if the truckers saw you they would honk their horns and throw their children at you. confusing times. remember that
Feb 19, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
% of substances that tested positive for benzos in fent/down samples in vancouver

the red dots are cheque weeks.

let me show you some other horrifying things.

#PoisoningMassacre

alexbetsos.shinyapps.io/DC_BC/ % of substances that tested positive for benzos in fent/down the @CDCofBC's useless chart in a TABLEAU and no useable data, THANKS.

ok ok.

the pattern of peaks and valleys is striking, yes?

these are 911 calls OD calls attended by ambulances. not deaths, not all events. by week.

bccdc.ca/health-profess…
Feb 19, 2022 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
yes. #SafeSupply pilot projects are inherently inequitable and an affront to our universal healthcare system.

#SafeSupply for all.

@GordJohns @DonDavies
@adriandix @s_malcolmson
@jyduclos @Carolyn_Bennett

@NSS_CoP @CdnDrs4Medicare @HPAP_Ontario @DrsDefundPolice austerity logic choosing who lives and who will die is a capitalist nightmare, it's awful
Feb 19, 2022 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
no, they don't.

the managing editor of the vancouver sun is on the board of the Building Community Society
by the way

vanmag.com/At-Issue-Does-… MacEwan is the former head of psychiatry at st pauls and currently is the psych at the downtown community court. he's also on the board of BCS. and the Odd Squad.

from june 12, 2020. opinion.
vancouversun.com/opinion/dr-bil…
Feb 18, 2022 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
look RIGHT HERE
@bethanylindsay @moirawyton @mussettb a small selection Image
Feb 18, 2022 • 7 tweets • 2 min read
i have a couple comments here and main thing: have you heard or noticed that everyone is dying and everything's fucked up and its the narrow end of the deathspiral and we're not getting out

this petty shit doesn't matter. every NP in the #DTES is fkdup LOOK AROUND YES everyone could be way less freaked out and weird about media. the history of such interactions is not great, and has been embellished over time. everything is shit, everyone defaults to treating others like shit in order to make one's place in an intricate hierarchy of shit.
Feb 17, 2022 • 6 tweets • 2 min read
so the majority of people dying are not eligible for the inaccessible, inequitable #SafeSupply pilot projects anyway? that is a huge failure by every policymaker involved. seriously. WOW. all of them.

maybe try a public health approach

#bcpoli *public* means EVERYONE
Feb 17, 2022 • 4 tweets • 2 min read
POISONING, not overdose.

substances detected in checked samples of local down. #DTES, feb 7-13 2022.

#SafeSupply #bcpoli

@adriandix @mikefarnworthbc

alexbetsos.shinyapps.io/DC_BC/ Image this will get worse and worse until we replace the illicit supply. worse and worse, indefinitely.

this is the future we're allowing to happen. just like we're letting the planet burn.
Nov 2, 2020 • 12 tweets • 8 min read
synthetic drugs are very profitable; we got too poor in a place that was getting wealthier by the day. ImageImage the Poisoning Massacre is similarly an economic crisis. in fact it is the same one and will not be solved entirely through #SafeSupply. it will be mitigated, but the underlying causes will remain. and will return. its more than a housing crisis.
Dec 20, 2018 • 30 tweets • 9 min read
if you have some time tonight to change how you understandstand the Downtown Eastside, there are some perspectives i'd like to share. for tomorrow
#DTES #vanpoli This is @johannhari101 speaking last fall. via @YouTube we are still doing #harmReduction but
>>>>>>we must expand our concept of HARM [because clearly we did not]
[because everything became much more harmful very quickly
fatal, in fact
Oct 24, 2018 • 7 tweets • 3 min read
i'm aware Tim Stevenson is not on twitter. but this is bizarroworld over here. how and why would OneCity 'substitute' for Vision? this isn't a batting lineup #vanpoli straight.com/news/1154411/o… via @georgiastraight new council: different people, different arrangement, new dynamics, and everyone is a BLONDE WHITE LADY. so look, Tim, just please stop explaining things, yeah? let these immortal words be your last public comment, echoing through the ages
Oct 20, 2018 • 28 tweets • 7 min read
i've had to make this point several times when speaking to council.

it would be great if nobody has to do this in the future. i'd like that. if i don't have to point this out, that would indicate to me that we've made a significant change
#vanpoli #vanelxn18 if we refused to wait until the obituary before acknowledging that people have inherent dignity, worth, humanity, all that
Jul 18, 2018 • 16 tweets • 6 min read
Thanks for the call @bctoday appreciate the time to talk about the @BCCSU report on "Strategies to Strengthen the Recovery System in BC." An overall review is long overdue, given the situation - #overdose #bcpoli #harmreduction and there is much to be encouraged by in the report. Dr. Wood states clearly that recovery is a process, by definition long-term, so more is needed beyond harm reduction and acute care. bccsu.ca/news-release/n…
Jul 15, 2018 • 16 tweets • 4 min read
Identifying as a 'person w/ lived experience' has become a route for marginalized ppl to be, in some ways, 'on the inside', of policy processes that are about us. the example of a formal process that springs to mind is the task force on mental health & addictions, 2013 onwards. at the time, it was nearing the end of the DTES planning process, therefore terrible. i was the rep from gallery gachet, the token out nutcase on the committee. but the whole point for many of us there was that the diversity of our collective experiences, as low-income
Jul 14, 2018 • 7 tweets • 4 min read
Delightful! note that the province committed over 30mil. the nonprofit developer, vancouver chinatown foundation, raising the same. city contributing land, & more, & headaches. #vanpoli after oct, pls ask why the gov't won't meet w/ you. (can't wait.) #homeless ppl need homes, idiots,. they can't live in your millitant post-post-modern dissent. you're using people you've coerced to be there as props. and none of you read the RZ report or attended subsequent meetings. you are not actually interested in housing at #58WHastings. clearly. #HousingJustice
Jul 4, 2018 • 6 tweets • 3 min read
@andreareimer i don't think such a definition would do nothing, or provoke the developent of 231 units of nothing. both senior levels of government have significantly shifted gears on housing since the last instance of re-definition that you cited @andreareimer i guess it's a legit debate - eg 10 units at shelter rate in a 100 unit building, 50% condos = gentrification/displacement, therefore "no building at all," which is the local position. i don't want to get stuck in the past, i hope that is the past.
Jul 4, 2018 • 13 tweets • 6 min read
Thank you Kathy Shimizu (of @WePress_YVR) for introducing that idea about a new definition of social housing! appropriately doing so in the context of this #ChinatownYVR session at council. i can explain #vanpoli
(i was hoping to be there today, but i'm still really sick.) 1/.. at present "social housing" can include a rental range from $375/mth (the "shelter rate" portion of bc social assistance) to 30% of income at the HiLs rate - for one person, that's an annual income of $38,500. @BC_Housing @selinarobinson bchousing.org/housing-assist…
Jun 26, 2018 • 23 tweets • 9 min read
"Based on the agenda of the City of Vancouver’s Urban Design Panel on Wednesday (June 27), the development will have 38 housing units as well as 12 micro dwelling units above commercial spaces on ground level." Those are the only details about the 'development'. #dtes #vanpoli cw: the thread that will undoubtedly ensue may contain various not-exactly-on-topic freak-outs, references to harsh things, bitter yet nuanced literary allusions, & images i spend too much time making (gifs gifs gifs). Because this is worth it. #ThisIsWhy