The Mainlander

Emails reveal housing sat empty as people were displaced to nowhere during Hastings decampment Documents obtained via Freedom of Information requests show that BC Housing kept supportive housing units empty while thousands of people were left unsheltered.

“Imagine someone coming into your house, attacking you, taking your stuff, then destroying your house, and saying ‘have a nice day.’ That’s how it feels.” #VanPoli themainlander.com/2025/09/02/d...

Wage Solidarity: Fight the War on Drugs Every August 31, International Overdose Awareness Day brings people together around the world to take action on preventable overdose deaths and the legislated violence of drug policy. On August 31, We...

International Overdose Awareness Day brings people together against legislated violence of drug policy & militarizing, racial capitalist global war on drugs.

DULF is facing protracted legal battle & prison time for harm reduction

Join me in wage solidarity fundraiser:
chuffed.org/project/dulf...

hey it's a depraved betrayal of PHS's mission and constitution that the executive director of the Portland Hotel Services Society agreed to this and the board needs to address this at the AGM which just happens to be in a few weeks

Emails reveal housing sat empty as people were displaced to nowhere during Hastings decampment Documents obtained via Freedom of Information requests show that BC Housing kept supportive housing units empty while thousands of people were left unsheltered.

BC housing kept 117 PHS housing units vacant in the lead-up to the 2023 decampment, and no one can even say that anyone from the Hastings encampment received housing, per The Mainlander

themainlander.com/2025/09/02/d...

"[O]ne BC Housing employee requested a personalised street sweep outside their Gore Street office to the City’s then-director of homelessness services, Sue Baker."

I don't even know what to say. The hatred from BC Housing and CoV towards unhoused people is truly disgusting. #vanpoli #bcpoli

they do this for everything. make people fight each other for the opportunity to BEG for it. to make you indebted, grateful

Emails reveal housing sat empty as people were displaced to nowhere during Hastings decampment Documents obtained via Freedom of Information requests show that BC Housing kept supportive housing units empty while thousands of people were left unsheltered.

"housing freezes" are a cruel policy that sees people prioritized for housing based on electoral interests. they are part of an explicit process of dehumanization

@natecrompton.bsky.social & I obtained documents that offer insight into how they are engineered:

themainlander.com/2025/09/02/d...

Emails reveal housing sat empty as people were displaced to nowhere during Hastings decampment Documents obtained via Freedom of Information requests show that BC Housing kept supportive housing units empty while thousands of people were left unsheltered.

NEW: Housing sat empty as people were displaced to nowhere during Hastings decampment according to internal correspondence obtained by The Mainlander

themainlander.com/2025/09/02/d...

"But neither the City nor BC housing are able to confirm that a single person displaced as part of the Hastings decampment successfully secured housing that day."

"Some of these housing units potentially sat empty for lengthy periods during a housing crisis in order to make space for the people who were slated for decampment, in theory."

Emails reveal housing sat empty as people were displaced to nowhere during Hastings decampment Documents obtained via Freedom of Information requests show that BC Housing kept supportive housing units empty while thousands of people were left unsheltered.

The machinations of a grotesque man and the soulless ghouls that conspire with him.
themainlander.com/2025/09/02/d... "Correspondence shows that one nonprofit held more than 100 housing and shelter units empty for the week of April 3 to 7, 2023, the same week as the Hastings decampment."

Emails reveal housing sat empty as people were displaced to nowhere during Hastings decampment Documents obtained via Freedom of Information requests show that BC Housing kept supportive housing units empty while thousands of people were left unsheltered.

"Imagine someone coming into your house, attacking you, taking your stuff, then destroying your house, and saying 'have a nice day.'"

"That's how it feels."
#BritishColumbia #Canada #Housing #Policing

Emails reveal housing sat empty as people were displaced to nowhere during Hastings decampment Documents obtained via Freedom of Information requests show that BC Housing kept supportive housing units empty while thousands of people were left unsheltered.

NEW: Housing sat empty as people were displaced to nowhere during Hastings decampment according to internal correspondence obtained by The Mainlander

themainlander.com/2025/09/02/d...

poster for international overdose awareness day - 12-3 oppenheimer for celebration of life for Elder Clint & 3p-6p block party 300 block hastings - logos for power, WAHRS, VANDU & CPDDW

August 31. 12pm-3pm at Oppenheimer Celebration of life for Elder Clint & 3pm-6pm block party 300 block hastings

Excited to be carrying @power1312.bsky.social work on gender based violence in dtes! Come check out the zine section - best way to collect critical local updates !!

thank you for sharing this @spartacusbooks.net

bsky.app/profile/spar...

Joint letters won’t stop a genocide. An arms embargo and sanctions on Israel could. - CCPA It seems like possibly, maybe, the countries of the world could be finally willing to consider putting some real pressure on Israel to stop its genocide in Gaza. In a joint statement with the United K...

Canada signed a joint letter with the UK and France earlier this week condemning Israel's ethnic cleansing plan in Gaza, and threatening sanctions. The tone shift is welcome—but we're well past the time for joint letters. By @whosestreets.bsky.social
www.policyalternatives.ca/news-researc...

B.C.'s first involuntary care beds for incarcerated men open in Surrey Ten beds are only for men being held in the custody at the Surrey pretrial centre

I missed this: BC is holding involuntarily hospitalized people - by definition among the most vulnerable - in solitary confinenent. This runs counter to Mandela Rules and, going by prior court rulings, Canada's Charter of Rights and Freedoms. www.mapleridgenews.com/home2/bcs-fi...

David Eby Knows Better - BC Civil Liberties Association The BCCLA condemns BC Attorney General David Eby for throwing human rights, civil liberties, and evidence under the bus by suggesting the state should be able to involuntarily detain and […]

bccla.org/2022/08/davi...

the Mental Health Act was already being weaponized outside of its terms 'on paper' before this expansion, just as many forms of carceral discretion are in BC and beyond. Eby was the head of the BCCLA and of course knows this. He just doesn't care.
bsky.app/profile/mehl...

BCCLA is extremely disappointed and concerned that today Toronto City Council approved a Bylaw Amendment which broadly infringes democratic Charter rights without sufficient, tailored, and transparent justification.

Nowhere to seek safety as gender-based violence worsens under drug supply & displacement crises Community organizations amplify calls alongside women and gender diverse people in the DTES for freedom and safety from violence

we need non-carceral, harm reduction & culturally safe responses to violence
themainlander.com/2025/04/29/g... #drugsky

Nowhere to seek safety as gender-based violence worsens under drug supply & displacement crises Community organizations amplify calls alongside women and gender diverse people in the DTES for freedom and safety from violence

"[C]ommunity spaces close while police budgets grow."

"Displacement in the DTES, over-policing, and surveillance push women and gender-diverse people into greater violence and precarity—while stripping away the resources meant to keep them safe."
#BritishColumbia #Canada #Drugs #Housing

Nowhere to seek safety as gender-based violence worsens under drug supply & displacement crises Community organizations amplify calls alongside women and gender diverse people in the DTES for freedom and safety from violence

"as intersecting and seemingly unending crises continue to become more urgent, the acuity and nature of this violence has changed in shape. Both the frequency of gendered violence and lack of remaining space for respite is alarming"

the mainlander.com/2025/04/29/gbv/

Perfect Victims Spars with the Politics of Respectability Mohammed El-Kurd’s new book, centred on the dehumanization of Palestinian people across the West, is an important re-evaluation of appealing to “empire’s stenographers”

New Review: Perfect Victims Spars with the Politics of Respectability

themainlander.com/2025/03/28/p...

Surrey Union of Drug Users Opens Pop-Up Inhalation Tent in Whalley Surrey Union of Drug Users is requesting that the province ensure supervised inhalation services match injection service hours at minimum. Inhalation is the route of consumption behind roughly two …

Theres a lot of work to do in 2025.

The drug supply is more toxic than ever, violent involuntary care is coming soon, Surrey’s few shelters are threatened by redevelopment, and a single standalone OPS serves the entire city.

SUDU members are ready to speak out.

themainlander.com/2024/07/09/s...

SUDU is on Bluesky!

Surrey has experienced the second highest number of drug toxicity-related deaths in BC. Despite this, people who use drugs in Surrey are still struggling to access basic services.

Politicians and service providers are not coming to save us - we organize together to stay safe.

March/April 2025 Going to the root: harm reduction to combat racism and imperialism. Plus: Writing in the Margins contest winners, universities in service of imperialism, Canada's little-known anti-socialist internment camps, and more. Cover art by Kira Buro.

📢 Our March/April issue is out!

Featuring harm reduction to combat racism and imperialism. Plus: Writing in the Margins contest winners, universities in service of imperialism, and more!

🎨 cover by Kira Buro

Link below to order a copy/start reading

briarpatchmagazine.c...

New article - hard truths about Ken Sim’s dtes plan

themainlander.com/2025/03/18/h...

Moms Stop The Harm Call for Forensic Audit into Private Recovery Industry, Ties to BC United We are writing to request an immediate investigation into the transfer of millions of public dollars from the provincial government to private recovery programs with little or no government oversig…

It might be even worse.
themainlander.com/2023/11/23/m...