Lloydminster man paints Black Lives Matter message, turns fence into public canvas

I HAVE TAUGHT CUSTODIAL CLASSES IN LLOYD, ITS A HUSKY BITUMEN OIL UPGRADER CITY ON THE BORDER OF ALBERTA AND SASKATCHEWAN, AND ITS VERY VERY ANTI UNION

Ryan Kessler 13/6/2020

© Jim McArdle / Stingray Television Lloydminster resident Travis Hall spray painted a fist and #BLM to show support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
Travis Hall recalls the horror he felt watching the video of George Floyd’s last breath, which prompted the Lloydminster man to share a message in support of the Black Lives Matter movement.

His medium was spray paint and the canvas was his own fence. A large grey fist outlined in black accompanied “#BLM” in bold lettering.

“While I was painting this up, I had a couple of older women yelling at me not to do it,” he said in an interview.

He directed the onlookers to the sign he plastered on the fence he built after moving in four or five months ago. The sign encourages people to use the fence “as a creative outlet.”

“If you want to show your support on current events, peacefully protest or showcase your talents, you are free to do so,” the sign read.Hall hopes people use the fence to engage in a productive dialogue about social issues. He said he’s tired of racism against Black people, Indigenous people and new Canadians.

"It's disgusting," he said.

READ MORE: How George Floyd protests have ignited change in the U.S.

He feels the issue isn’t getting enough attention in Lloydminster.

“The people that don’t agree, they start to speak up, and you start to see that ugly evil that is racism and it’s all over our community,” Hall said.

Reaction to the graffiti has been both positive and negative, including on a highly circulated post he made on Reddit, Hall said.

As a staunch believer in the freedom of speech, he welcomes any respectful dialogue expressed on the fence.

“It’s very family-friendly around here and I don’t want anything to be vulgar or offensive or anything like that,” Hall said.

Concerned he may have gone against Lloydminster’s bylaws, he contacted Lloydminster’s mayor, Gerald Aalbers.

The mayor wasn’t available for an interview with Global News, but city spokesperson Eric Healey said in a statement that “the City of Lloydminster appreciates Mr. Hall creating an opportunity for our residents to express their beliefs peacefully and creatively.”


Residents are allowed to display “tasteful artwork” at their property, Healey said.

“We simply ask that those taking part in this installation do so in a way that is considerate to the adjacent properties and youth who may be viewing the message.”

Hall welcomes anyone interested to come share their perspective by painting on the fence along his property at 5502 35th Street in Lloydminster.

LLOYDMINSTER RESIDENTS SHOW SUPPORT FOR BLACK LIVES MATTER MOVEMENT

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 Nikita Ganovicheff, staff Friday, Jun. 5th, 2020

 Anti-racism rally at Lloydminster City Hall. (Nikita Ganovicheff, MyLloydminsterNow.com)

About 80 people came out to City Hall June 5th to show solidarity with other anti-racism protests in the country and around the world.

Residents held signs saying “Black lives matter”, “Respect existence or expect resistance” and “No justice no peace” at the protest while drivers passing-by honked their horns.

Tigra-Lee, who is Jamaican-Cree, says it was important to show her support as she doesn’t want her family to grow up experiencing racism.

“I’ve experienced racism. Every single person in my family has experienced racism. I hope that my daughters never have to experience racism in this day and age because it really does not need to be like this.”

She says racism is still a prevalent issue in Canada.

“I think people tend to focus on what’s happening in the United States and they forget that it’s still alive and well here,” she says.

“I’m here to be a voice for the people that don’t have a voice anymore, people who can’t speak for themselves or children that don’t understand what’s happening today. That’s why I’m here. To hopefully make a change in the world.”

Amanda Coupal started chants of “What’s his name?” with the rest of the group responding with “George Floyd.”

“What happened to George Floyd was absolutely horrific and we’re trying to make change in his name.”

George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man, died on May 25 when a white Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for more than eight minutes as he begged for air. His death has led to protests all over the United States as well as in Canada and other parts of the world.

“What’s going on in the world isn’t right,” Hayley Meyer says. “Everybody needs to be treated fairly and equally and we can’t continue to see people of colour, black people as we’ve been seeing in the media treated in such unfair and unequal ways. We need to show whatever support we can and use whatever privilege we can to make as big a change as possible.”

About 80 people were outside Lloydminster City Hall for the anti-racism protest. (Nikita Ganovicheff, MyLloydminsterNow.com)

RCMP officers did not stop the protest but did come by to ensure it was a peaceful protest.

The City of Lloydminster had no official statement but respects residents rights to a peaceful protest.

Events are being held throughout Canada including North Battleford which will hold a Black Lives Matter Laps for Life event at the Walking Track near the Dekker Centre at 5:30 p.m. on June 5.

Lloydminster - Wikipedia

https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Lloydminster

Lloydminster is a Canadian city which has the unusual geographic distinction of straddling the provincial border between Alberta and Saskatchewan. The city is ...

Provinces‎: ‎Alberta‎ (AB); ‎Saskatchewan‎ (SK)

Forward sortation areas‎: ‎T9V‎ (AB), ‎S9V‎ (SK)

Area code(s)‎: ‎780‎, ‎587‎, ‎825‎ (AB); ‎306, 639‎ (SK)

Regions‎: ‎Central Alberta‎, West Central Saskat...

‎History · ‎Geography · ‎Demographics · ‎Government

Liberals to consider buying buildings to save affordable housing stock

BY JORDAN PRESS THE CANADIAN PRESS
Posted June 14, 2020
 

A real estate sign is pictured in Vancouver, B.C., Tuesday, June, 12, 2018. 

A new analysis of the country's stock of affordable housing suggests the Liberals' decade-long strategy to provide more of it is starting in a deeper hole than previously thought, and may be further behind once the COVID-19 pandemic passes. 

THE CANADIAN PRESS Jonathan Hayward

A new analysis of the country’s stock of affordable housing suggests the Liberals’ decade-long strategy to provide more of it is starting in a deeper hole than previously thought, and may be further behind once the COVID-19 pandemic passes.

But the pandemic could also mean an opportunity for governments to pick up rental units cheaply.

Carleton University researcher Steve Pomeroy, whom housing groups and governments both rely on for advice, found a decline of 322,600 affordable rental units in the private market between 2011 and 2016. 

Over the same period, federal and provincial investments in affordable housing created about 20,000 affordable units, meaning that for every new unit governments created, 15 were lost.

What that means is the Liberals’ national housing strategy and its plans to create 150,000 affordable units over a 10-year stretch would only be replacing about half of what had just been lost.

The new concern is that the situation will repeat following the current economic crisis brought on by the pandemic, as tenants’ problems paying rents put a squeeze on small landlords and their assets are scooped up by larger real-estate funds with little interest in keeping them affordable.

VIDEO B.C. landlords want to reinstate the right to evict 
https://globalnews.ca/news/7064179/coronavirs-liberals-affordable-housing/

It’s why the federal government is now considering purchasing those assets as part of the next phase of the government’s response to the pandemic.

“My position on this has been, if you can’t beat ’em, join ’em,” said Pomeroy, a senior research fellow at Carleton’s Centre for Urban Research and Education.

If the (real-estate investment trusts) are coming along and buying up these properties, why don’t we let non-profits do the same thing, or enable non-profits to do the same thing?”

In recent days, Social Development Minister Ahmed Hussen has suggested in meetings with housing advocates that he’s open to putting federal dollars behind the idea.

“If this is an opportunity to really put a serious dent in homelessness, then that’s an opportunity we should be taking,” said Jeff Morrison, executive director of the Canadian Housing and Renewal Association.

There is no specific program under the national housing strategy to enable acquisitions, said Pomeroy, who also works as a consultant. Public support like that would be needed to help smaller, non-profit housing providers gain the necessary capital to purchase properties.

VIDEO Coronavirus outbreak: Toronto announces measures to help those who are homeless, in community housing 

https://globalnews.ca/news/7064179/coronavirs-liberals-affordable-housing/

So far, few affordable housing renters are behind on payments. Morrison said that about 10 per cent of units are in arrears or non-payment.

Tim Richter, president of the Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness, told MPs on a Commons committee this week that there’s very real worry that the economic crisis created by COVID-19 could accelerate the losses in affordable units Pomeroy noted, “making Canada’s housing crisis even worse.”

“If we’re in a hole, we have to stop digging,” Richter said.

Pomeroy estimated a realistic target for a federal program would be to buy about 7,500 units annually, which would cost over $1 billion in a mix of equity, loans and grants to purchase and refurbish units.
Those units could be a mix of apartments that could quickly be available as affordable or social housing units, plus other assets like strip malls or commercial office space that could be repurposed into housing, said Leilani Farha, global director of The Shift, a housing-rights group.

“If it’s the case that all of these different possible property types become distressed, it’s then an amazing opportunity for governments at all — local, provincial, and national — levels to consider moving in and buying those assets to increase public access.”

Additionally, there are concerns that motels and hotels will shut down, pushing out homeless people housed in them to avoid overcrowding in shelters and slow the spread of COVID-19.

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2 days ago - A prominent figure in the Cuban Revolution, he became a martyred hero to generations of leftists worldwide after his execution in 1967 by the ...

Born on June 14, 1928, Che Guevara was an Argentine Marxist revolutionary, physician, author, guerrilla leader, diplomat, and military theorist. A prominent figure in the Cuban Revolution, he became a martyred hero to generations of leftists worldwide after his execution in 1967 by the Bolivian Army.

Already an iconic figure in the 20th century, his stylized visage remains an ubiquitous countercultural symbol of rebellion, leftist radicalism, and anti-imperialism, and his name alone still lights a revolutionary spark in many seeking social and ideological change.

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‘Defunding’ police and funding mental health resources will save lives, experts say

BY LIAM CASEY THE CANADIAN PRESS
Updated June 4, 2020 

VIDEOS https://globalnews.ca/news/7024773/defunding-police-funding-mental-health/

 Advocates say the money saved could go towards programs for racialized communities. Catherine McDonald reports.
TORONTO – The death of a Toronto woman who fell from her 24th-floor balcony while police were in her home has renewed calls for an overhaul of how society deals with people in mental health crises.

Some experts believe “defunding” police – taking some of the taxpayer money going to law enforcement and putting it towards mental health services – is one way to avoid deadly interactions between officers and people struggling with mental illness.

The blowback follows the death last week of Regis Korchinski-Paquet, a 29-year-old woman whose family asked police to take her to a mental health hospital. Police have said they were responding to an assault call, but the family has questioned the role of Toronto officers in her death. The province’s police watchdog has taken over the case.

READ MORE: Regis Korchinski-Paquet’s death reinforces need for major mental health, policing reforms: advocates

“I think it’s unfortunate we’ve come to a place in our society that police become first responders to people who are experiencing a mental health crisis,” said Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Toronto Mississauga.

“What we should do is take back that money, to defund police, and give it over to mental health professionals who are better equipped to help these people.”

He suggested there should be another number to call, rather than 911, for those in crisis, so mental health care workers can intervene, rather than armed officers.

Death of George Floyd renews calls for how law enforcement is funded in Canada 

Toronto police respond to about 30,000 mental health calls every year, out of nearly one million calls that the force responds to, said spokeswoman Meaghan Gray.

The force’s mobile crisis intervention teams, where a trained officer and a mental health nurse respond to those in crisis, attend 6,000 of those calls each year. Those teams do not go to calls where a weapon may be involved.

Lawyer reflects on incidents of anti-black racism, police brutality in Toronto Lawyer reflects on incidents of anti-black racism, police brutality in Toronto

“We have expanded the program over the years and will continue to do so with the resources that are available to us,” Gray said.


“However, it is important to note that all police officers are trained to respond to mental health issues.”

That annual training consists of courses on communication and de-escalation techniques, she said.

“The Toronto Police Service believes that mental health is a complex issue that requires the involvement of multiple entities, including but not limited to community support, public health, and all levels of government, to render any meaningful change,” Gray said.

There have been a number of high-profile cases over the past decade that involved the deaths of people in crises at the hands of police.

Dr. Patrick Baillie, a psychologist and lawyer, has spent 25 years working with Alberta Health Services and the Calgary police and is usually on call 24 hours a day to help the force deal with those in crisis.

Baillie supports the call for more mental health resources to help those in crisis and let police focus on enforcing the law.

“We have made police officers into the people who respond to all sorts of forms of social difficulty,” he said. “At what point do you say, these things aren’t policing?”

READ MORE: Thousands rally in Toronto after death of Regis Korchinski-Paquet

About 10 days ago, Baillie said he received a call from a police negotiator who was stationed outside a man’s home in Calgary with the tactical squad.

A man had been yelling randomly from his porch. When his neighbours told him to shut up, Baillie said, the man made some sort of threat then returned inside. He said police were working on getting a warrant so they could send in the tactical team.

“They tell me the rest of the story: he’s a known police hater, he’s paranoid, …and the police and crisis team has dealt with him before,” he said.

Baillie told police to leave the man alone.

“I said ‘if the neighbours call again, just call me and I’ll go for a drive,'” Baillie said.

No one called. When he checked in on Monday, police told him they went back and said the man was fine and the mental health crisis team took over to help him.

“You’re looking for community support and community intervention rather than law enforcement,” he said.

“If you have a sufficient number of mental health experts available to police, you can have better outcomes.”

READ MORE: Regis Korchinski-Paquet’s family’s interview with SIU on hold after concerns over leaked information

Camille Quenneville, the CEO of the Canadian Mental Health Association’s Ontario division, pointed to two crisis centres in the province that are having promising results.

One is in London, Ont., that operates 24 hours per day, she said.

“This is a place where police can take somebody in crisis,” she said. “They immediately get their mental health needs looked after.”

The centres allow people in crisis to avoid emergency rooms and provide specialized mental health services around the clock.

Ideally, she said, the mental health system needs to be revamped so people aren’t in crisis to begin with. But that would require significant investment in mental health care, she said.

And as people spend months cooped up in their homes due to the COVID-19 pandemic, things will likely get worse, Quenneville said.

“The mental health crisis isn’t looming, it’s here now and we need to act,” she said.

Syrus Marcus Ware, of Black Lives Matter – Toronto, says now is the time to find alternatives to calling police when someone is in the throes of a mental break.

He points to the Gerstein Centre – a 24-hour community-based mental-health crisis centre with its own mobile crisis response team – as one of those alternatives.

“We don’t have to call police if we’re struggling, we can figure out a better way, but we need more of these programs.”

© 2020 The Canadian Press

Approach mental health crises with care, not policing: crisis worker
Rachel Bergen CBC 14/6/2020

© Kerem Yucel/AFP/Getty Images Demonstrators across Canada and the U.S. marched against racism and police brutality following the death of George Floyd. Many people are calling to reallocate money from police departments to social services…

What if a response to a mental health crisis, or a person sleeping in a parkade, was a couple of people in plain clothes asking, "How can we support you?"

Ebony Morgan is a crisis intervention worker with Crisis Assistance Helping Out on the Streets, or CAHOOTS, in Eugene, Ore., which has served its community since 1989.

Through CAHOOTS, medical professional and crisis worker teams provide first aid in case of urgent medical need or psychological crisis. They assess, provide information, referrals, advocate for people and even bring them to another non-profit where they can get additional support.

"We have the trust of our community so when we arrive, we lead with, 'How can we support you? What's going on? What do you need right now,'" Morgan said.

CAHOOTS provides one model of working with — but also independently of — police.
Calls for defunding

The concept of reallocating money from the police has gathered increasing steam in the wake of the protests sparked by the deaths of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by police in the U.S.

In Canada, the role of police in the deaths of Black and Indigenous people who suffered from mental health problems — including Chantel Moore, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, D'Andre Campbell and Machuar Madut — is also coming under increased scrutiny.

Many people have called for defunding the police, in whole or in part, in order to reallocate that money to social service organizations that are better equipped with dealing with the root causes of crime, including poverty, unstable housing, mental health problems and addictions.

Across Canada, city councilors and even Winnipeg's police chief have signalled a willingness for change.

Social agencies have had funding cut back "pretty dramatically" over the last decade by various levels of government, which forces a lot of the work to front-line workers like paramedics and police, Chief Danny Smyth said earlier this week.

He says he'd like to see social services receiving an increase in funding to a sustainable level, then the police service could look at lessening their roles and work instead as supports to those agencies.
CAHOOTS can handle 99.4 per cent of calls

In Oregon, CAHOOTS teams are dispatched by the local police department's non-emergency line and are sometimes sent out with law enforcement. Last year, they were called to deal with crises about 24,000 times and only needed to call 911 for help 150 times.

"That works out to 0.6 per cent. So 99.4 per cent of the time we can handle what we encounter without a police officer," Morgan said.

"The times that we do have to call them in, we're very clear with our clients that that's what the outcome is about to be and the reasoning for it."

The free service in Eugene and neighbouring Springfield has a yearly budget of $1 million, compared to the the local police's budget of $60 million, Morgan says, but it does about 20 per cent of the work.

Staff at CAHOOTS travel across the country teaching people the CAHOOTS model, and so far it's been picked up in Oakland, Cali.; New York City and Denver, Colo.

So far there's been no uptake in Canada, but Morgan thinks that should change.

"I truly believe we should be in every city," she said.

"I think it helps gets rid of some of that stigma around needing help when it's just a couple of people that are walking up to you in their hoodies and jeans, saying 'how are you doing? Can we offer you anything?'"
Mental health ambulance

© Annika Bremer/PAM The Psychiatric Acute Mobility team operate this mental health ambulance in Stockholm, Sweden.Meanwhile, in Stockholm, a mental health ambulance has been lauded by advocates and patients for elevating the status of mental health care.

The program, which started in 2015 as a two-year pilot project, became a permanent fixture in the county's emergency medicine response, according to Andreas Carlborg, the managing director of Northern Stockholm Psychiatry at Stockholm Health Care Services.

"If you had a stroke or a heart attack you'd be treated by nurses in an ambulance ... but if you would have an emergency mental health issue you would probably be dealt with by the police. Now, you would be taken care of by trained nurses in the same way as you would have if you would have a somatic problem," he said

Carlborg says police who aren't trained to deal with these issues can focus on other things, and from a medical perspective, patients get a thorough pre-hospital screening to determine whether they need further care.

Although the program is working well, Carlborg says there's room for improvement. The mental health ambulance is called 15-20 times a day, but with just one vehicle, it isn't possible to see all those patients in a timely manner, so the staff attend to the most serious patients — normally five a day.

"I think there's a general need to increase funding for mental health services in society and definitely in Stockholm, Sweden, as well," he said.

There's keen interest in other jurisdictions, including the U.K. and New Zealand. He says there's a similar program in the Netherlands and Norway as well.
'Great need out there' for specialized workers

Police in Winnipeg say they're working to ensure officers have a better understanding of mental health when responding to calls, but it would be ideal to have more highly-trained mental health and social workers in the field.

"Yeah, specialized people in the field, I'm in support of that all the way. There's great need out there and the more people who are out there the better," said Deputy Chief Gord Perrier.

He told CBC News the police receive mental health training and use tools to assess people's history with police to learn how to approach a particular situation.

Currently there's a program that ensure paramedics are sent to certain 911 calls when they're better suited to the situation, and the Vulnerable Persons Unit pairs a social worker with a police officer when responding to some mental health or addictions calls.

Perrier hopes that unit will expand and that more social service agencies will be open 24 hours for people in crisis.

"People can't control their crisis to be between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.," he said.

Morgan worries that people only know to call police in an emergency, when that's not always the right choice.

"The cops don't always have to come, but it's the default to call them, and I think that's where even they get frustrated."

If you're experiencing suicidal thoughts or having a mental health crisis, there is help out there. Contact the Manitoba Suicide Prevention and Support Line toll-free at 1-877-435-7170 (1-877-HELP170) or the Kids Help Phone at 1-800-668-6868. You can also text CONNECT to 686868 and get immediate support from a crisis responder through the Crisis Text Line, powered by Kids Help Phone.