Moonlighting

It's sunlighting, actually, because my day job is at night. Then again, I've worked on this after leaving my day job, so I'm moonlighting too. I'm also quite exhausted.

This is a point-and-shoot self-portrait taken after one of several shoots done for a Vancouver-based non-profit legal society. I was hired to photograph interactions between homeless residents of Vancouver and private security guards. The photos will illustrate a research study that will accompany a human rights complaint filed in July against Civil City Commissioner Geoff Plant and the Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association. Nothing against the guards as a group, though some acts of violence are reported in the study and the Police Union initiated legal action against the city holding that the money should have been spent on new police hires; it's how the guards have been employed that have community advocates like Pivot Legal Society, United Native Nations and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users concerned.

Having used private security guards, city workers and police to make Vancouver's sizable homeless population feel unwelcome as a measure toward attaining its Project Civil City target of reducing homelessness by 50% before 2010, government is now offering those without a home one-way tickets out of town in advance of the Vancouver 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games. The City reports it won't force anyone out, but will make it as easy as possible for people who want to leave to do so. Mayor Sam Sullivan was quoted in the Globe and Mail as stating how life improves for many when they leave the Downtown Eastside, a see-through spin on an unofficial "get lost" policy toward the homeless. This is not a world class approach to a human rights problem in what is supposed to be one of the world's finest cities.

Last week, when the Provincial Premier was grilled by Chinese state media in Beijing on Vancouver's homelessness problem and the potential for protests to escalate in 2010, Gordon Campbell responded by making some big promises. The Games are 18 months away. Homeless residents of Vancouver have been waiting for promises made in the bid book that won the Games for the City in 2003. Why is it that those in power must be embarrassed, or observe the potential for further embarrassment, before it takes action on a basic human right like housing? It sure would be nice if it came from the heart.

Thanks for the opportunity, Pivot.