Monthly Archives: December 2012

Colin Perkel, The Canadian Press Published Sunday, Dec. 30, 2012 4:47PM EST

TORONTO -- Canada's largest veterans centre had police escort the daughter of an aged vet from the facility and warned her never to return on pain of arrest after she complained about bed bugs and a patient-safety issue.

Jackie Storrison said Sunday she was devastated and humiliated to be marched out of Sunnybrook Veterans Centre by security and issued a formal do-not trespass notice.

"I was paraded through Warrior's Hall like a common criminal in front of a large crowd to my great embarrassment," Storrison said.

"I believe this to be a deliberate, calculated act of retribution against me for attempting to advocate for my father."

Storrison, 61, is among more than a dozen relatives with loved ones in the veterans centre who have spoken publicly about concerns of neglect and substandard care of the most frail residents at the 500-bed centre.

Those concerns prompted Minister of Veterans Affairs Steven Blaney to order an inspection and audit of the facility. Results are pending.

Storrison said she was forced to leave Thursday evening after she notified a group of nurses that she had spotted an elderly resident pushing a food table down a hallway.

"It was obvious this resident was at risk of falling and potential serious injury," she said.

"No one moved."

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Police escort daughter from Toronto vets centre after bed-bug complaint

TORONTO - Canada's largest veterans centre had police escort the daughter of an aged vet from the facility and warned her never to return on pain of arrest after she complained about bed bugs and a patient-safety issue.

Jackie Storrison said Sunday she was devastated and humiliated to be marched out of Sunnybrook Veterans Centre by security and issued a formal do-not trespass notice.

"I was paraded through Warrior's Hall like a common criminal in front of a large crowd to my great embarrassment," Storrison said.

"I believe this to be a deliberate, calculated act of retribution against me for attempting to advocate for my father."

Storrison, 61, is among more than a dozen relatives with loved ones in the veterans centre who have spoken publicly about concerns of neglect and substandard care of the most frail residents at the 500-bed centre.

Those concerns prompted Minister of Veterans Affairs Steven Blaney to order an inspection and audit of the facility. Results are pending.

Storrison said she was forced to leave Thursday evening after she notified a group of nurses that she had spotted an elderly resident pushing a food table down a hallway.

"It was obvious this resident was at risk of falling and potential serious injury," she said.

"No one moved."

A patient-care manager, accompanied by two security guards, later told Storrison the incident had occurred during a shift change and that she should hire a 24-hour attendant if she had any safety concerns for her dad.

The rest is here:
Police escort daughter from Sunnybrook vets centre after bed-bug complaint

VANCOUVER - Herb Varley measures the transformation of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside by the trendy cafes, upscale grocery stores and high-priced salons that are quickly creeping from the city's maze of glass condo buildings toward the notorious intersection of Main and Hastings.

Fifty dollars for a haircut. Ten for sandwich. Three bucks for a doughnut.

An afternoon of that, and Varley, a 28-year-old who's currently living in social housing, would have spent away more than a quarter of the portion of his social assistance money that's set aside for food and other living expenses.

"There's a spa, there's a Brazilian jiu-jitsu place, these boutique shops that don't cater to low-income people," says Varley.

Varley, who was born in Vancouver but whose family is from the Nisga'a First Nation in the province's north, moved to the Downtown Eastside three years ago after a decade of sleeping on relatives' floors and friends' couches. He spent some time at a single-room occupancy hotel, living in a cramped room in a run-down building infested with bed bugs and cockroaches, before finding a suite recently in a native social housing building.

Last year, Varley joined the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood Council and waded into an emotional debate about the future of the area, which has revealed deep divisions between activists, residents and politicians over how to fix its problems and what kind of community it should be.

"We have a very large, low-income population down here, but developers are trying to upscale the neighbourhood," says Varley. "I don't know where we're supposed to go."

Varley, the neighbourhood council and other activists in the neighbourhood decry the recent push to build condos and attract new businesses to the Downtown Eastside as harmful gentrification, which they argue will increase the cost of living and displace the low-income people who have lived there for years.

Vancouver's city council, the provincial government and developers behind such projects say the Downtown Eastside is going through a rejuvenation that will help the neighbourhood thrive and will actually bring in more affordable and social housing.

The Downtown Eastside is a neighbourhood best known by outsiders through a series of cliches and grim news stories: Canada's poorest postal code, where its gritty streets and alleys are strewn with stories of poverty and addiction. The home of the safe-injection site. The hunting ground of Robert Pickton.

The rest is here:
Recent projects renew debate about gentrification in the Downtown Eastside