John McDonald, Capital News

If you want to find out information about the needle exchange program in Kelowna, don't ask the man who supervises it - he doesn't know.

November 17 - Kelowna Daily Courier

A protest by homeless people on the steps of Kelowna City Hall last night drew an in-person rebuke from Mayor Walter Gray. A half-dozen men and one woman were preparing to camp at the front door when they were confronted by Gray. "So, what's the issue here," an obviously annoyed Gray asked them, after coming outside from council chambers when told there were people preparing to bed down for the night

A poem for greed at Christmas...

Three-quarters of UBCM delegates heartily endorsed Wednesday a City of Kelowna resolution supporting the creation of safe streets legislation. Mayor Walter Gray, who had the last word during the halfhour debate, used this week's closure of the Kelowna Drop-In Centre as an example of where the proposed legislation could be used as a community tool.

How much worth does a human life have? Is a human life worth $100? What if someone said to you that they could not take poverty anymore, and that the daily grind of poverty stigma and hells just to eat and sleep at night have gotten to be too much. That they were going to commit suicide if this did not stop and soon. Would it be worth pledging $100 a month to keep that human alive? Or not? Be honest. Or would it be worth maybe ten cents a month, to keep that person alive? Seriously, how much is a human life worth to you personally? How much would you be willing to give up, to keep that human being alive? What happens when a human's worth goes below rent and food costs? When a human life costs more than it is worth? What happens when people care more about buying plastic holiday decorations at K-Mart than humans freezing to death on the streets outside their locked doors? What happens when human beings have no worth? What happens is the world you see today.

A series of blasts have shaken three banks in the Argentine capital, Buenos Aires, killing one man and injuring another.

Food bank lineups are getting longer all over the country with an astonishing increase in the number of children, students and working families forced to ask for a handout. BC leads the way with 41.7% more children needing emergency food parcels this year. Way to go Gordo...give Ralph something to shoot for.

Why is Britain using aid money to persuade South Africa to privatise its public
services?

George Monbiot |
Tuesday October 19, 2004 |
The Guardian

No one could have accused the Conservative government of breaking its promise to
bring back Victorian values. When, in 1992, it permitted private water companies to
install pre-paid meters in Birmingham, the people who couldn't afford to flush their
toilets started defecating into pots, which they then emptied out of the windows of
their tower blocks. It made one quite nostalgic.

Suzanne Goldenberg

Tuesday October 19, 2004

The Guardian

In the US, in 2002, the median net worth of white households was $88,651, or 11 times greater than Hispanic families ($7,932) and 14 times greater than African-American families ($5,988).

It seems the Carlyle Group has resorted to Spam Tactics to try to defraud Iraq and the world out of $57 Billion dollars, for themselves and the Kuwaiti Government.

Vancouver police Chief Jamie Graham has some advice for panhandlers ---- get a job....'I always thought to myself, why they couldn't sort of look for a pick-and-shovel job....'(said Graham).

Allan Garr's recent smear campaign against David Cunningham and the
Anti-Poverty Committee is hardly shocking as the Courier partakes in a
time-tested strategy: take an effective organization, try to isolate them
politically by playing the 'good protestor/ bad protestor' dichotomy, and
try to divert them by writing on their personal life.

OCAP | Sept 30, 2004

In this Wednesday's food grab from a high-end grocery store, members of
the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty walked away with $3525.00 worth of
food and tolietries.

In the second victory in less than 12 months, bus riders once again struck a blow for justice at the regional TransLink Board. "Today we beat the
unjust fare increase that TransLink planned to impose on bus riders throughout the region" states Kirat Kaur of the Bus Riders Union. "We
struggled long and hard to have the voices of transit-dependant women heard at the TransLink Board. We organized women to speak out on the
hardships they face due to TransLink policy and planning, we spent time in our communities hearing the experiences and ideas of transit-dependant
women, and we rode the bus and talked directly to women who are already struggling to pay high fares. Months of organizing transit-dependant
women in our communities have finally paid-off. What bus riders have
achieved today is to keep $41 million dollars in the pockets of bus riders
throughout the Lower Mainland", explains Kirat Kaur. This is a tremendous victory for our communities."

Bus riders across the GVRD are angry and getting organized to stop the proposed bus fare increase. "The impacts of these transit fare increases will be simply devastating to the marginalized and working people who ride the buses every day. We deserve better than fare increases and bus cuts", explains Zailda Chan, an organizer with the Bus Riders Union.