Wednesday, December 7, 2011

A Day Without Art - Poster Campaign AAN

AIDS ACTION NOW launched the POSTER/virus project last Wednesday night at the Art Gallery of Ontario.
AAN and Toronto Drug Users Union member Zoe Dodd talks about her collaborative poster made with with John Greyson on harm reduction and prisions for the AAN POSTER/virus project. Zoe addresses Bill-C 10 and Harper’s prison expansion (aka Canada’s National Housing Strategy), government perpetrated genocide through defunding the Global Fund on AIDS, TB and Malaria, and the collective passion and fighting we need to step up in order to act against these attacks on our communities

Watch the video here of Zoe's Speech.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u3cu_PKcVUw&feature=player_embedded

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: Former federal prisoners and their family members/close friends (honorarium offered)

Hi all,

Please see the amended post below, with an extended deadline, information about the honorarium, as well as expanded criteria for participation.

Many thanks,
Sandra

CALL FOR PARTICIPANTS: Former federal prisoners and their family members/close friends (honorarium offered)
Video Advocacy Project on Human Rights and Prison Needle/Syringe Programs

In Canada, rates of HIV and hepatitis C infections among prisoners are at least 10 and 30 times higher, respectively, than in the population as a whole.  One of the main reasons for this is the sharing of used needles to inject drugs.  Yet, in spite of the overwhelming evidence of the benefits of prison-based needle and syringe programs (PNSPs), no Canadian prison permits the distribution of sterile injection equipment to prisoners.  Prisoners’ health has suffered as a result — a reality that is costly to public health and to the public purse.  It is also a violation of the human rights of prisoners.

This video advocacy project, being carried out by the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network (www.aidslaw.ca) and partners, will put a human face on the prison experience by interviewing both people previously incarcerated in federal prisons for a drug-related offence or who were dependent on drugs while in prison, and their family members and close friends.  We will hear firsthand how prison has affected the lives of prisoners and their loved ones, many of whom need treatment for their drug use or mental illness — not hard time, where they are more vulnerable to violence, overcrowding and blood-borne infections.

The Legal Network hopes to raise public awareness of the plight of Canadian prisoners through short, compelling video clips and commentary that highlight the fact that prisoners are mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, sons, daughters, friends and contributing members of our community.  We want to explore how the failed “war on drugs” has impacted prisoners and their loved ones. 

We will interview five former prisoners and friends and family members of prisoners about how prison has affected them, and discuss how the absence of PNSPs continues to pose a threat to their loved ones’ health.  Because we are focusing our advocacy efforts on getting PNSPs in federal prisons, we will only be able to interview people who have done time in federal prisons and their friends or family members.  Once the video clips have been filmed, the Legal Network and partners will disseminate the clips on websites and through social media.  We hope that the general public and policy makers will come to see the importance of having PNSPs and change policy and laws. 

Who?
We are seeking individuals in the Toronto area only:

who have been incarcerated in a federal prison for a drug-related offence and/or while they were dependent on drugs;
who injected drugs behind bars; and
family members or friends of those individuals.

If you fit these criteria, email us by Wednesday, December 14th, 2011 at: schu@aidslaw.ca with your phone number and tell us also:

  • What factors led to your (or your friend’s or family member’s) imprisonment?

  • What was your (or your friend’s or family member’s) experience injecting drugs behind bars? 

  • What message would you like to send policy makers about the importance of PNSPs?

  • Are you willing to appear on camera?

Given our limited budget, we can only feature five interviews of people fitting our criteria and we strive to interview men and women (including transgender men and women) who represent a diversity of experiences and backgrounds.  For each interview, we will offer a $100 honorarium (if this is a joint interview, each participant will receive $50).  We are especially interested in interviewing a former prisoner together with his or her family member or friend.

Interviews will take no longer than 45 minutes.

After the December 14th deadline, we will review all submissions and follow up with everyone who emailed us.  While we appreciate everyone’s interest, we will only be able to film five interviews, though we will try to reflect, to the best of our ability, everyone’s perspective on PNSPs in the final videos. 

Why now?
Under the current Canadian Government, it is highly unlikely that PNSPs will be implemented.  Yet, the urgency for PNSPs has never been more pressing.  With new legislation expected to add to overcrowding, violence and the number of people using drugs in prison, the public needs to be aware of the health risks associated with inadequate harm reduction measures in prison and how it affects them —  especially when prisoners ultimately re-enter their community. 

____________________________
Sandra Ka Hon Chu
Senior Policy Analyst
Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network
+1 416 595-1666 ext. 232

Analyste principale des politiques
RĂ©seau juridique canadien VIH/sida
+1 416 595-1666 (poste 232)

Monday, November 28, 2011

AIDS ACTION NOW! POSTER/virus A fusion of HIV/Art/Activism

AIDS ACTION NOW! POSTER/virus   A fusion of HIV/Art/Activism

Launch on November 30th DAY WITH(OUT) ART @ the ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO 
6pm-8:30pm

Featuring performances by Kiki Ballroom Alliance and the Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy
Speakers: Allyson Mitchell/Mikiki/Jessica Whitbread/Zoe Dodd/Collin Graham 
DJs: Nik Red/Leila P.

Featuring works by: Kent Monkman/Allyson Mitchell/Daryl Vocat/John Greyson/Cecilia Berkovic/Mikiki with Scott Donald

It is 30 years into the AIDS epidemic, and we are still struggling.  New forms of AIDS-phobia, discrimination and inequality continue to emerge including the increasing criminalization of people living with HIV. In Toronto, we are still facing proposed cuts to municipal funding for essential social services to address HIV, Hepatitis C and Syphilis. Federally in Canada, the climate of fear and austerity are increasing health inequalities for us all. It is clear that now more than ever, activism and art are needed to reinvigorate the response to HIV and AIDS.

This year, AIDS ACTION NOW is working to create a different kind of dialogue around HIV, in the art world, and on the street, in ways that hasn’t happened for a long time. Join us on November 30th for the Day With(out) Art: A fusion of HIV/Art/Activism at the Art Gallery of Ontario from 6-8:30pm.

In honor of the Day With(out) Art 2011, AIDS ACTION NOW has launched a poster series created by local Toronto artists Allyson Mitchell, Kent Monkman, John Greyson, Daryl Vocat, Cecilia Berkovic, and Mikiki with Scott Donald. The posters were developed collectively with community members working to respond to HIV. The posters aim to address important issues facing our lives as people living with HIV and/or who are co-infected with HIV and Hepatitis C including sexual rights, harm reduction, criminalization of HIV exposure, and the need for political action to address the epidemics.

Through merging the worlds of art and activism we are intentionally evoking the history of creative responses to HIV.  Our aim is to provoke discussion, controversy and dialogue in a way traditional activism cannot. See the posters here (and watch as they are emerge around the city over the next 2 weeks): http://aan-poster-virus-2011.tumblr.com/

AIDS ACTION NOW!

POSTER/virus blog: http://aan-poster-virus-2011.tumblr.com/

Facebook event page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=123780651065997

Acknowledgments: We would like to thank the Ontario Aboriginal HIV/AIDS Strategy, the International Community of Women Living with HIV (ICW), the Toronto Drug Users Union, the AIDS ACTION NOW Steering Committee, Doe O’Brien Teengs, Andrew Brett, Zoe Dodd, Len Tooley, Nicole Greenspan, Tim McCaskell, Brent Southin, Allyson Mitchell, Kent Monkman, John Greyson, Daryl Vocat, Cecilia Berkovic, Scott Donald, Mikiki, the AGO Youth Council, and the York University Faculty of Environmental Studies Community Arts Program.

www.aidsactionnow.org 

Harm Reduction as an Anarchist Practice‏

presented by the Toronto Harm Reduction Task Force

Friday December 2      Speakers Series Presentation

Harm Reduction as an Anarchist Practice: a user’s guide to capitalism
and addiction in North America    2 –4 pm. @ 410 Sherbourne Street,
3rd Floor Classroom

Presenter:  Christopher Smith

In spite of its origins as an illegal, clandestine, grassroots
activity that took place either outside or in defiant opposition to
state and legal authority, there is growing evidence to suggest that
harm reduction in North America has become sanitized and depoliticized
in its institutionalization as public health policy. Harm reduction
remains the most contested and controversial aspect of drug policy on
both sides of the Canada-US border, yet the institutionalization of
harm reduction in each national context demonstrates a series of stark
contrasts.  Arguing that the founding philosophy and spirit of the
harm reduction movement represents a fundamentally anarchist-inspired
form of practice, Christopher Smith considers tactics for reclaiming
and re-politicizing the future of harm reduction in North America.

Currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at U Pennsylvania, Christopher’s
current research examines consumer involvement in the addiction and
mental health sectors, underground harm reduction interventions in
Canada and the US, and global drug user capacity building initiatives.
His forthcoming book, “ Addiction, Modernity and the City: A users’
guide to urban space” will be published in 2012

Thursday, September 29, 2011

In Solidarity with Insite!!!!

Join COUNTERfit and The Toronto Drug Users Union at South Riverdale Community Health Centre Friday September 30 at 9:30am as the Supreme Court of Canada’s hands down its written decision regarding Vancouver’s Insite. Insite is North America’s first legal supervised safe injection site.  The scientific evidence in support of Insite is undisputable and many, many people’s lives have been saved since it opened its doors in 2003.

Tomorrow we will gather in solidarity with supporters of Vancouver’s Insite and harm reduction activists around Canada and internationally who all agree that people who use drugs deserve the same rights to health and dignity as every other human being. We will either be celebrating the Supreme Court’s decision to support Insite or strategizing ways to organize in resistance.

Location & Time:
South Riverdale Community Health Centre
955 Queen Street East, Toronto
9:30am

See you tomorrow!
COUNTERfit & the TDUU

Thursday, September 1, 2011

Wendy Babcock, our Friend, Ally and a Huge Loss to our Community....

Wednesday August 31, 2011

Wendy Babcock

Community activist, law student, writer, mentor, sister, mother, friend. Born May 29, 1980, in Toronto. Died Aug. 9, 2011, in Toronto of unknown causes, aged 31.

Wendy Babcock had a tough, amazing, terrible, wonderful, all-too-short life. It could even be said that she lived several different lives in her 31 years.
When she died so suddenly, so unexpectedly, a host of diverse people, from sex-trade workers to law students - members of her chosen family - showed up to plan her memorial service, for Wendy had been both a sex worker and a law student.
Wendy's childhood was less than idyllic, and she suffered sexual abuse at a very early age at the hands of a relative. Eventually she went into the foster care system. By eighth grade she had been raped. By ninth grade she had run away, dropped out and, of necessity, become engaged in prostitution to survive.
You'd hardly expect that, before the age of 25, a young woman with her history would have the wherewithal to turn such experiences into something good, but that's exactly what Wendy did. She became a harm reduction worker, a mother and, ultimately, a student at Osgoode Hall Law School.
Wendy's goal was to be in a position to effect real change in the lives of some of the most marginalized people in society. With her uncanny ability to zero in on the fault line of any argument, the wisdom borne of her life experiences, her capacity for critical analysis and her persuasive powers, there can be no doubt that she would have been one hell of a lawyer.
Along her way, Wendy founded the Bad Date Coalition - an interagency network of people who advocate for those working in the sex trade. She won the ear and respect of representatives of the Toronto Police Service and worked with them to ensure that sex workers could and would report assault.
Wendy had a razor-sharp wit mixed with the endearing ability to laugh at herself. She was clever, compassionate and courageous; sweet and sassy, lovely and loving. She was tolerant of everything but intolerance in others; her activism on behalf of transgendered people is but one testament to this.
In 2008, then-mayor David Miller presented Wendy with a Toronto Public Health Champion Award in recognition of her advocacy work, an award she richly deserved.
On Sept. 15, Wendy's life will be celebrated by a huge gathering of her friends and colleagues. We will continue her work to fight stigma and discrimination, and toward social inclusion for all, in her memory.
Her son was the most important person in Wendy's world, and she wanted him to be as proud of her as she was of him. Those who knew and loved Wendy are confident that, in a few short years when he's old enough to realize the profound impact his mother had on so many lives, he will be justly proud.
By Holly Kramer, Wendy's friend and colleague.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Thursday June 9 6-8pm - The Methadone Project

We are moving our next TDUU meeting to the evening. Our next meeting is this Thursday June 9 from 6pm - 8pm. Dinner will be served!!! It will be held at South Riverdale Community Health Centre 955 Queen Street East. TTC will be provided.

We have invited CounterFit and the researchers with the Methadone Project to present to the Union. The findings of their research are of great interest to so many of us.

The Methadone Project explored methadone users’ interactions with doctors, pharmacists and the criminal justice system. In February, 47 people were interviewed who are currently on methadone (31 men & 16 women). They  found lots of interesting information relating to the importance of methadone in people’s lives as well as the challenges people face on a daily basis. Here are some stats from the project:

•          62% of participants were unaware of grievance procedures if they have a problem with their methadone doctor
•          62% of participants reported missing a dose because of hours at clinic or doctor’s office
      - 75% of women participants missed doses compared to 55% of men
•          When a dose is missed for 3 days in a row 49% of participants reported that their prescribed dose is lowered
•          32% of participants reported that their pharmacies have different hours for methadone clients compared to non-methadone clients
•          30% of particpants reported that they don’t feel they are consistently receiving their prescribed (un-tampered) dose from their pharmacist.
•          31% of women participants reported “very often” being interrupted when getting methadone because pharmacists gave preference to serving non-methadone clients (compared to 19% of men)
•          37% of participants have been stopped, frisked or harassed by police when entereing or leaving their methadone doctor in the last year.

They also found significant gender differences in length of wait time for people receiving their methadone prescription inside the prison system (a lot longer for women) and in dosage received (women were more than twice as likely to receive a lower dose compared to men). As part of our presentation and next steps we are planning to brainstorm on ways of taking action on inequalities faced by people on methadone.


Please come out, bring friends who may be interested and join us in this really important discussion!!

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Torontoist: More Jail Than We Need?‏

Article in Torontoist: http://torontoist.com/2011/03/a_superjail_in_toronto.php#comments

More Jail Than We Need?
By Alex McClelland (Guest Contributor) on March 17, 2011 1:00 PM
Across the country there has been a statistical decline in crime rates since 1999. The federal government’s own data says that Toronto is the third-safest city in Canada. Both self-reported and police-reported crime rates are low in Toronto compared to other municipalities across the country.
In America, prison expansion measures and the "tough on crime" approach have met neither criminal justice nor public health goals. Instead they have led to the widespread incarceration of racial minorities, people living in poverty, people with mental health issues, non-status people, and people who use drugs, all while exacerbating the syndemic of HIV and Hepatitis C. Despite this track record and Canada's own falling crime rate, Harper’s "tough on crime" agenda is rearing its ugly head in Toronto—and it'll come with a big social and economic price tag for residents of the city.
One example: currently under construction—at a cost of $1.1 billion to Ontario taxpayers over thirty years—is the 1,650-bed Toronto South Detention Centre located near Mimico. The 67,000 square metre facility, a so-called "superjail," aims to replace the 550-bed Toronto Don Jail.
Last week on March 10, about sixty people gathered at Old City Hall on Queen Street with the Prison Moratorium Action Coalition for a rally to protest this government direction. The coalition was formed in opposition to "tough on crime" and prison-expansion measures; it aims to put pressure on the Conservative government, and any companies assisting with their prison expansion plan, until funds are diverted into social services and appropriate social housing. As Justin PichĂ©, a renowned critic of the federal and provincial "tough on crime" agenda, has noted, the cost of this new prison is so great that “those of us in our late twenties… will still be paying for the construction of this facility well into our fifties and its operation likely until the day we die."
PichĂ©’s research has found that these new institutions are being developed based on the argument that the “prison population is no longer a homogeneous population,” meaning: politicians and corrections bureaucrats need a way to deal with the increasing number of women, undocumented people, those with mental health issues, and drug users who are being incarcerated, not to mention the many indigenous peoples who have always been overrepresented in Canada’s prisons. (While indigenous people make up around 4% of the Canadian public, they make up 17% of the federal male prison population and 33% of the federal female prison population. )
Currently, many prisoners are double-bunked at the decrepit Don Jail, a practice that runs counter to the United Nations standards governing the treatment of prisoners, which Canada has signed onto. Although officials may have been saying that we need the new Mimico prison to replace the Don, other prisons constructed in the past ten years (e.g., Central East Correctional Centre and Central North Correctional Centre) were also supposedly built to replace the Don Jail, which has been slated for closure for decades. This brings new life to the adage “if you build it they will come.”
And why not build? After all, big prisons are big business. Following in the footsteps of the American-style prison industrial complex, the Mimico facility is credited with being Ontario’s first pre-fabricated prison. Tindall Corp., one of the leaders in the American privatized prison industry and the inventor of pre-fabricated prison cells, is bringing its invention to Toronto via Zeidler Partnership Architects. Toronto’s Zeidler Partnership Architects (whose projects include the Eaton Centre, Ontario Place, and the refurbished Gladstone Hotel) have designed the new prison as part of a $593-million contract with Toronto-based companies EllisDon Corporation and Fengate Capital.
But while big prisons will make big Toronto businesses more money, they are not economical for the taxpayer: beyond the $1.1-billion price tag for construction, the annual cost of housing a prisoner in Canada can run anywhere from around $52,000 to $250,000 per person, depending on the level of security at the facility [PDF].
On top of this, Canada’s prisons have become super-hubs of HIV and hepatitis C infection. Rates of HIV and hepatitis C are far above the general population, with HIV prevalence at least fifteen times higher in federal prisons than the general public and hepatitis C prevalence almost forty times higher. (Averting just one HIV infection saves approximately $150,000 in lifetime medical costs, not to mention the massive social cost). Building new superjails without addressing the existing health crisis among prisoners will only lead to more of the same.
When it is completed in fall of 2012, the South Toronto Detention Centre in Mimico will be a $1.1-billion super-prison, the first of its kind for our city and province and an acknowledgment that political games and big business mean more than the lives of marginalized residents of our city.
With thanks to Sandra Chu of the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network, Giselle Dias, and Lindsay Hart for support on this piece.

Monday, March 14, 2011

SUPPORT FOR ACTION NEEDED - Email to Zeidler Partnership Architects: Design us homes, not prisons!‏

Following up on our (Prison Moratorium Action Coalition) successful rally in front of their offices last week, we are putting out the wide call to help us to hold Zeidler Partnership Architects accountable for their role in Canada’s prison industrial complex. Zeidler is bringing American-style prefabricated prison cells to Ontario for the new super-jail in Mimico. This prison will be disastrous to our communities. If you would like more details please read the letter below. Also, check out their website: http://www.zeidlerpartnership.com/

We urge you to send this letter as an email to the partners of Zeidler Partnership Architects. Hearing widely from the concerned residents of Canada could help to get Zeidler to rethink their role in Harper’s disastrous ‘tough on crime’ agenda. 


STEP 1- Copy and paste the following email addresses into an email:



STEP 2 - Add this as the subject line: 

Zeidler: Design us homes, not prisons!

STEP 3 – Cut and paste the below letter into your email body. Add your name and contact at the end of the email.

STEP 4 – Send, send, send!


Dear Zeider Partnership Architects,

I am writing out of concern regarding your company’s involvement in Stephen Harper’s prison expansion agenda.  Harper is using the false political rhetoric of being “tough on crime” to waste 9 billion dollars of Canadian taxpayer’s money to support the big business of prison building. Modeled after the disastrous American prison industrial complex, Harper has been working to expand Canadian jails at a time when crime has never been lower in our country. In America, prison expansion measures and the ‘tough on crime’ approach has met neither public health nor criminal justice goals. Instead these measures have led to the widespread incarceration of racialized communities and people living in poverty, while creating greater inequality and exacerbating the HIV epidemic.

The Zeidler’s are well known in Toronto as city builders. In the past, your firm has been responsible for designing key landmarks in Toronto including Ontario Place, the Eaton Center, and the refurbished Gladstone Hotel. According to your website, you  “ believe that a building must fulfil the functional and economic requirements that the owners intend it to serve but, at the same time it must evoke a positive emotional response from its users and the public at large". However, now Ziedler Partnership Architects is responsible for bringing the American invention of prefabricated prison cells to Ontario as part of a $593 million contract with other companies including Elis Don Corporation and Fengate Capital. The new Toronto South Detention Centre designed by your firm is being built in prefabricated sections as inspired by the Tindall Corp. who are responsible for building many private American prisons. According to Alan Munn, a senior partner of your firm when interviewed for the Toronto Star: “you stack it up and the building's basically done”.

In Canada, people from Indigenous and racialized communities are the most targeted and over-incarcerated group. The growth of prisons will only see an increase in the discrimination, policing and imprisonment of members of these communities. Additionally, queer and trans communities, the poor and homeless, drug-users, non-status people, sex worker and other marginalized communities face a heightened risk of incarceration. Additionally, infectious disease rates such as those for HIV can be up-to 10 times higher in prison than they are in the community as a whole.  This public health crisis demands a response from the Harper government that is based on scientific evidence, sound public-health principles and a respect for human rights.

While Harper expands prisons and firms like Zeidler Partnership Architects profit off the imprisonment of marginalized Canadians with disastrous public health and human rights outcomes, Canada continues to be the only G-8 country to not have a national housing strategy. This is a shameful situation and firms like Zeidler should be critical of the detrimental outcomes that supporting prison expansion will lead to in Canada.

I call on you, Zeidler Partnership Architects, to stay true your socially responsible mission and stop playing a key role in the Canadian prison industrial complex.  End your contracts to design prisons and design housing for people who need it. We need housing not jails!

Sincerely,

[Your name here]

Rally Against Police Brutality - Tuesday March 15th



Tuesday March 15th — 5PM
51 Division (Front and Parliament St.)

One week last summer the police turned the whole City into a prison. But
in poor neighbourhoods, it’s the G20 everyday. Communities are under
attack by the Police because they are poor, homeless, racialized, First
Nations and immigrants. We are further abused when we fight back. Our
communities are under attack because the police exist to maintain a social
order in this country that protects the government, the banks, and the
rich while criminalizing the rest.

Despite the trillions of dollars stolen, embezzled and extorted by banks
and finance companies that led to this recession, the police are not in
the habit of kicking down doors on Bay St. But they are kicking down
doors, ticketing, arresting, beating and killing people in poor
communities.

March 15th is the International Day Against Police Brutality. A day to
bring awareness to the violence, torture, intimidation and harassment by
our governments' Police Forces. We, the people, the victims and the
survivors will come together to raise our voices to show that we will not
stay silent!

The Toronto Star recently revealed that of the 3,400 investigations the
Special Investigations Unit has conducted into the Toronto Police in its
20-year history, only 95 have resulted in charges, only 16 of those in
convictions, and only 3 of those officers actually went to jail.

Yet we know the police are guilty. Homeless people and people with mental
health issues are routinely harassed, beaten and sometimes killed by
police in this city. Non-status women seeking a safe haven from abuse are
dragged out of shelters by Immigration enforcement officers on tips from
two regular sources: the police, and the very abusers these women are
attempting to escape. Racialized communities are targeted daily by police.

As part of this internationally observed day, a rally has been organized
for Tuesday March 15th. We will be meeting outside of 51 Division at Front
& Parliament. OCAP and other community organizations invite everyone to
come out and show support for victims of Police violence.

No more Police brutality! No more impunity!

~As organized by several community groups, call for more info!
Ontario Coalition Against Poverty ocap@tao.ca 416-925-6939

Member of TDUU's speech at the rally against Prison Expansion

Hi my name is Shawn Gibb. I’m here today as a member of the Toronto Drug Users Union and as a prisoner, currently attending drug treatment court and getting ready to serve this weekend. I have been in the program 7 and a half months. I’m just moving on to my next phase and finding it a struggle to not use drugs. The program expects you to be abstinent and to attend all drug treatment sessions which run three days a week.  I stand in front of a judge twice a week. If you happen to miss any sessions you are sanctioned with community service hours or to serve a weekend. I entered the program to try and better myself but at the same time I should have just gone in and did my time for the simple fact it’s a struggle. They have a lot of expectations. They expect you to change your lifestyle, give you strategies to cope with not using but when you leave there it’s a struggle cause you’re on the streets and every where you go drugs are there. If they catch you in a lie you automatically get thrown in. The intense part is having to go do urine screens while someone’s watching you. It’s very humiliating.

Financially I’m on welfare, it’s hard to survive. While you’re in drug treatment court you are not allowed to work. Eventually, once you get closer to graduating they expect you to go get part time work. When I’m offered work I have to turn it down because I’m in the program.
If you miss a urine. You get sent to jail. Every time you go in, it sets you back. It’s depressing.
I need help with my housing, I need help financially, when the opportunities are there you get turned away. I’ve been turned away in the past year so much. Even finding a doctor is a struggle.

What I’m asking for is for someone to look at the lifestyle a drug user lives in and don’t degrade them, find out the lifestyle a drug user is living. A lot of people don’t’ seem to understand if you’re raised on the streets you’re gonna do what you know. I grew up in poverty. My mother raised 3 children on her on, on welfare as well and we went hungry and still to this day I’ve gone to a food bank and they couldn’t help me cause they didn’t have food. I go hungry.

I would like the government to get rid of poverty. Lets find a way to get rid of poverty.
People who use drugs who need help need to not be turned away. We need to create more services for those people so they can get the help when they need it. This doesn’t happen right now. Drugs should be seen as a health and social issue not a criminal issue. It is a waste of taxpayers money to send drug users to prison instead of helping people with what they need.

Protesters rally against Conservative government's planned anti-crime legislation

Protesters rally against Conservative government's planned anti-crime legislation



On Thursday, prison reformers launched an attack on the federal government's plan to implement minimum penalties for "serious drug offences" and increase the maximum penalty for cannabis production.
Bill S-10, an Act to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act (CDSA) was introduced in the Senate last May. A similar bill, Bill C-15 died in December 2009 when parliament was prorogued which is almost identical to Bill C-26, which died in December 2008 when parliament was dissolved.
The Prison Moratorium Action Coalition, organizers of Thursday's rally, formed in resistance to the new legislation and expansion of prisons in Canada. They believe that tax payer money be spent on much needed social justice initiatives like housing, child poverty and settling Indigenous land-claims rather than putting forward a "tough on crime agenda."
Sandra Chu, Senior Policy Analyst with the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network predicts that based upon what happened in the United States, Bill S-10 will be "a complete disaster" because it throws drug users into prisons where there are no harm reduction measures in place.
In prison, where sufficient needle and syringe programs for addicts or tattooists don't exist, HIV is 15 times higher than in the community at large and almost four in ten people are infected with hepatitis C.
"But the government refuses to implement these (harm reduction measures) because they see it as encouraging drug use behind bars," said Chu, "and we know that it's not true."
The Conservative plan to introduce minimum penalties will also add significantly to the expenses of the criminal justice system where it already costs over $100,000 per year to house an inmate in a federal institution. Medium and minimum security inmates cost more than $70,000 a year.
 
If Bill S-10 became law it would surely trigger a surge in new prison construction costing taxpayers billions of dollars, since our federal and provincial prisons are already filled to capacity.
"Investing money into building prisons is not investing in our communities," said Zoe Dodd, a member of the Prison Moratorium Action Coalition. "Nine billion dollars could go to invest in our communities for education and social programs."
Kai’enne Tymerik, with the Toronto Raver Information Project, an organization that provides services to the dance community and beyond, said she sees "young people with mental health issues struggling to self medicate when they are too young and isolated to know what services there are available."
So they use drugs to connect with others in the same situation.
"Between the Valium, Ativan, Prozac, Viagra, alcohol, tobacco and coffee, we are all drug users," she said. In 1916, Ontario passed a law to prohibit the sale of alcohol because "alcohol was popularly criticized as being the cause of all the major ills of society."
But the cost of keeping the drug illegal far outweighed the benefits and in 1927 prohibition was repealed.
Over the last 10 years, prison reformers say, the number of women incarcerated has jumped 50 per cent. "That will only get worse under the Conservatives," said Dodd. "And these women are mostly poor, homeless and struggling with issues of substance abuse."
In the Netherlands, nine prisons were closed after they decriminalized drugs. "These are the strategies that we should be looking for in our communities," she said. "Instead, our prisons have become a warehouse for people living with mental health issues and substance abuse problems."
Prisons are not a place, Dodd reminded the crowd, where people should be housed. But Canada doesn't have a national housing strategy so prisons have become a convenient substitute for affordable housing and a perpetual source of income for all those involved directly or indirectly in the prison system.
Even though Bill S-10 will allow courts not to impose mandatory sentences if offenders complete a Drug Treatment Court (DTC) program, Dodd said, it's just "another way to cast the net wider and keep you engaged in their system longer."
Shawn Gibb, a member of the Toronto Drug Users Union and a prisoner, has been in the DTC program for seven and a half months. Standing on the steps of Old City Hall in Toronto before a crowd of 70 supporters, Gibb admitted he's been struggling trying to stay away from drugs because he enjoys smoking marijuana.
Three days a week, he attends drug treatment sessions and if he misses a session he'll be sanctioned with community service hours or forced to serve a weekend in prison. Although Gibb entered the program to "better himself," he now feels he may have been better off just serving his time.
The expectations are high, he said, and it's humiliating to have to do urine screens while someone is hovering over you.
Gibb gets by for now on welfare because he's not allowed to work while he's in the DTC program. He's even had to turn down job offers.
"It's depressing," said Gibb, who grew up on welfare with his two siblings. "I need help with my housing. I need help financially. Even finding a doctor is almost impossible."
Look at a drug user's life, said Gibb, and try to imagine what it's like.
And then try to imagine how close Canada was to decriminalizing marijuana back in the 70s. But when the United States began its futile war on drugs under the Reagan administration, Canada was forced to play along.
Besides minimum penalties for "serious drug offences," Bill S-10 also introduces mandatory minimum punishments for the production of cannabis depending upon the number of marijuana plants produced.
The proposed changes are due, in part, to the Canadian perception that sentencing for drug crimes "is treated as a minor cost of doing business." In a 2007 National Justice Survey, two thirds of those surveyed said that "they support the strengthening of sentencing laws and tougher penalties for serious drug offenders. Approximately one quarter of Canadians endorse minimum mandatory sentences even for relatively minor crimes."
It's no surprise that mandatory minimum sentences also have the support of the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police.
Opponents of the bill say that the measures could turn Canadian prisons into "U.S.-style inmate warehouses" with no allowance for mitigating circumstances and the increased costs to run prisons will pull much needed funds away from social programs that are designed to keep people out of prison in the first place.
An alternative approach promoted by Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP), who believe that existing drug policies have failed curb drug abuse, crime and addiction, is to move towards a system of regulation rather than prohibition.
"A lot of marijuana users end up in the prison system for small amounts of pot," said Dodd, "and I don't think ingesting a substance should throw anyone behind bars."
(Even former prime minister Paul Martin admitted that he and his wife Sheila tried hash brownies in Montreal during the 60s.)
Davin Christensen, a member of Toronto Hash Mob 420, a loose collection of marijuana enthusiasts who protest pot prohibition, said the proposed bill will put a lot his friends in prison for participating in "a safe activity, less harmful than alcohol or even caffeine."
In the past three years, Christensen has been through the system three times for various cannabis related crimes. Under the new laws, he'd still be serving a prison sentence.
"Even the pot bakers, those cute girls in the kitchen that are doing the baking for us, are now going to be receiving mandatory minimums," said Christensen.

Tory Bill S-10 sucks

Media from the Anti-Prison demo we were invovled in.
 
 
 
 
Time to kill a bill enforcing mandatory minimum sentences for non-violent drug offenses
There are more drug users walking along the busy Queen Street sidewalk than there are gathered on the steps of Old City Hall for a formal anti-drug law protest.
Check your pockets: aspirin, Adderall, Viagra, Ritalin, cigarettes. Even that cup of coffee warming your hands on this frigid, rainy day contains an addictive caffeine.
You get the point. “We are all drug users,” Kai’enne Turmerik from the safe drug org Trip Project, shouts into the microphone at this rally hosted by the Prison Moratorium Action Coalition, Thursday afternoon (March 10).
The group of 40 is here to protest the Tories’ tough-on-crime laws that are swelling Canada’s prison system with non-violent offenders and specifically, Bill S-10, which aims to amend the Controlled Drugs and Substances Act so that there are mandatory-minimum sentences for drug offences. (Think one year for six pot plants).
The bill is currently in its third reading and awaiting royal assent before it passes as law likely sometime this month.
Other voices in the amped-up crowd include a sex worker from Maggie’s, reps from the Toronto Sex Workers Action Project calling for the decriminalization of sex work, an activist from Toronto Hash Mob and a young mother recalling the 12 months she spent incarcerated back in 2006.
All are demanding that the federal government direct attention to community-based response programs, like providing education and rehabilitation to inmates and the funnelling of money into building communities, not prisons.
According to the NDP public safety critic, Don Davies, whom NOW calls later, the Conservative government will spend $500 million on prison construction next year. At the same time, says Davies, rehabilitation programs like the Youth Gang Prevention Fund, which works to keep at-risk youth out of gangs and costs the federal government $6.5 million a year to maintain in penitentiaries, will be cut at the end of the month.
This, he says, is “absolutely immoral” and “stupid economics,” especially because the average annual cost of maintaining a male inmate in a maximum-security prison is $223,687 (females are $343,810 per year), according to a 2008-2009 report from the Parliamentary Budget Office.
When the Conservatives took power in 2006, there were 12,500 people in federal custody. Today, the toll is around 13,500, even though statistically speaking, crime rates have declined 17 percent since 1999, according to a Stats Can report.
“The problem with mandatory minimum sentences is that it’s a one-size-fits all approach,” Davies adds. “Everyone goes to prison, it doesn’t matter what the circumstances are.”
Dealing with the skyrocketing rate of re-offenders as well as strained budgets due to housing the influx of inmates, is why many U.S. states are back-peddling on the tough-on-crime laws that were implemented 25 years ago, he says.
“We know there’s no jurisdiction in the world that has seen its crime rate come down and recidivism lowered by locking more people up for longer periods of time. In fact it’s the opposite.’’
The increase in numbers of incarcerated Canadians, says U of T criminologist, Anthony Doob, is partly due to the fed’s passage of the Truth in Sentencing Act in 2010, which limits the credit inmates receive for time served while awaiting and facing trial, as well as imposed restrictions on conditional sentencing (delineating rules an offender must follow in order to remain out of prison.)
It’s still too early to asertain, he says, whether the Harper government’s 2008 Tackling Violent Crime Act, with its harsher mandatory minimum sentences for firearm offenses, is responsible for expanding the federal prison population.
“Increasing punishment doesn’t make communities safer,’’ says Doob. “People need to realize there is a better use of money than putting it into prisons.’’
Liberal public safety critic Mark Holland calls Bill S-10 an “outrageous piece of legislation.’’ He says that the government should instead focus in investing in a plan to deal with mental health and addictions, citing that over 80 per cent of inmates suffer from these problems that are at the root of many crimes.
Back at the rally, Ryerson social work students, Nick Carveth, a recovered addict, and Simona Babiak stick around after the speeches to explain why they’re here. Someday, they’d both like to work with youth coping with substance abuse, and find long-term realistic solutions. “Not put them though the prison system,’’ says Babiak angrily.

Interview with TotalHype

IInterview with Zoe from TDUU
conducted by Donna Feb.23, 2011

What is T.D.U.U?

TDUU is the Toronto Drug Users Union. We formed 2 years ago to advocate for our own rights. Drug users have been organizing themselves since the 60’s. It’s important for drug users to organize. Decisions, policies, laws are created every day that impact our daily lives, these decisions are more than often made without us.


Why does it exist?

Drug users are some of the most vilified, scapegoated, over incarcerated, targeted, marginalized people in our society. The war on drugs is actually a war on us. It is a failed war and one that needs to end. Billions of dollars are spent every day keeping the War alive. Instead of investing in this war, we should be using this money to invest in communities. We as drug users need to be organizing ourselves for our own self representation and self empowerment. Liberation never came to those from the oppressed groups who didn’t fight for it. We need to be fighting for our human rights! We have been hard hit by the epidemics of HIV and Hepatitis C, we have lost our family members and friends to violence, overdose and death. We are subjected to archaic drug laws all because we ingest a substance. The illegal nature of what we do puts us at risk for many things. We have a voice! There are drug users sitting on committees, involved in the creation of policies that will affect our daily lives, who are they accountable to? and who do they represent? Being part of a union means you are accountable to us and that’s how it should be.

Who is on it?

We have over 90 registered members. We come from all different backgrounds. Some of us are current users, some of us are former users, we are different ages, genders, ethnicities, some of us smoke crack, some of us inject, etc etc. We are all different but we all have one common thread… we are current and former drug users who want to be treated with dignity, with humanity and we want the war on people who use drugs to end.

Why are you involved?

I started using drugs really early on in my life. I experimented a lot as a teenager but when I was 15 I had a lot of really intense things happen to me. They were really hard to cope with and I used drugs more heavily to help me through those years. I always enjoyed doing drugs, the experience, the pleasure and they worked as an amazing escape. In my early twenties I decided I couldn’t handle my life as it was any more and I wanted to do something different. I came to Toronto with a few months of sobriety under my belt. I felt extremely guilty, self loathing, isolated, depressed. I knew I was young and I knew I didn’t want to stay “sober” for ever. I felt ashamed of shit that I had done and shit that had happened to me. I was living a big secret when I came here, no one knew the secrets I was keeping. In 2004, I decided to go to college. I never thought for a moment that I would ever go to college. I was really poor, had little direction and felt pretty lost. Going back to school changed my life. It was while I was in school challenging someone about drug use that I first admitted publically about being a drug user and I blurted out in class “drugs saved my fucking life!”. I believe that. I know that using drugs through some pretty traumatic stuff helped keep me alive. In 2005 I started publically talking about my own personal drug use. I started talking to Raffi about drug user activism and he encouraged me to get involved. I was doing lots of coalition work and activism in the community, needle exchange, the safer crack use coalition, hepatitis C advocacy and education, the crack users project.  I joined the International Network of People Who Use Drugs and felt super empowered. It’s empowering being around like minded people who are fighting for their own liberation from this war.
The illegal nature of drugs has also taken many of my friends away. The first overdose I witnessed was when I was 13. I lost my first love to an overdose when I first moved here, his name was Darryl. I have lost so many important people in my life from overdose, violence and incarceration. It fuels me to want to fight this war on us and end it. I want to see a day where we aren’t casualties in this war but where we are all thriving, not just surviving. This is why I am involved with the Drug Users Union. To fight for OUR human rights! For all people who use drugs.

What are the main things that T.D.U.U are working on?

We are on the city of Toronto’s drug strategy implementation panel. We are involved in an anti-stigma campaign. We have been asked to speak at conferences, consult on projects. We are involved with AIDS ACTION NOW!, opposing prison expansion, involved in the methadone project being carried out with CounterFIT, our members are  harm reduction workers, our members are working on other projects with awesome organizations like the Toronto Harm Reduction Task Force, Queen West Community Health Centre, TRIP to name a few. We are involved with organizing a demo being held March 10 at Old City Hall courts at noon to oppose the prison expansion, we are also involved with organizing a demo for March 15, International Anti- Police Brutality Day. We are building a movement!

What is a typical meeting like?

 A typical meeting involves about 30 people, we have food and shoot the shit for a few minutes and then we get to business. We discuss issues in the community and then move on to our agenda. We sometimes have guest speakers, to educate us on certain topics. We discuss our priorities, and give report backs on the work we are involved in. They are pretty lively discussions. We try and share roles, taking turns chairing, taking minutes etc. We offer TTC for those who need it. We also attend other meetings, demos and events on a regular basis as union representatives.  

When is it and where (time of meeting and location)?

We meet the second Thursday of the month from 2-4pm at South Riverdale Community Health centre in the A/B room. If you are a current or former drug user, are committed to the principles of harm reduction and want to fight for the health and human rights for people who use drugs, please join us!!!

Last thoughts?

 Thanks for the interview Donna!! We want to build our union stronger and bigger. We have just applied for some more money which will help us in our organizing efforts. One day we’d love to be able to hire a community organizer to assist with all the amazing work we are involved in. Nothing about us with out us!!!!


Sunday, March 6, 2011

Build Homes! Not Prisons!

What Could we be Building Instead??
The Prison Moratorium Action Coalition calls for the defeat of Bill S-10 and for a halt to the planned prison expansion!


Please Join us on March 10th to confront the Government's planned prison expansion and their 'anti-crime' legislation! We will be marching from Old City Hall to other locations in Toronto central to the prison expansion plans to voice our anger about the further criminalization of communities in Toronto!

RALLY AND MARCH
Thursday, March 10th
Meet at Noon
Old City Hall Courthouse
60 Queen Street West, Toronto.


     We are speaking out at this particular moment to oppose the Conservative government’s push to enact legislation that will put their prison expansion to use. Bill S-10 is currently being debated in the House of Commons and, if passed, would implement mandatory minimum sentences for minor drug offences. Mandatory Minimums were also put in place in the U.S, where they proved to be unsuccessful in combating the War on Drugs. The construction of new prisons, while crime, and specifically violent crime, has been steadily decreasing over the past ten years, is a ludicrous idea. The severity of the majority of crimes has lessened. Both the property crime rate and the youth crime rate have also dropped. We know that this is a waste of taxpayer’s money and a waste of financial resources that could be allocated to more important needs. Opposing MPS are also beginning to realize, and a serious debate over Bill S-10, and the Conservative approach to Crime and Punishment, has begun.

We demand that all members of Parliament defeat all the new ‘anti-crime’ bills proposed by the Conservatives, conscious of the fact that this tactic of fighting crime has proven unsuccessful in America. We demand that the government scrap Bill S-10, focus on harm reduction programs, and begin treating drug use as a health matter, not a criminal matter. We further demand an increase in harm reduction services, and adequate health service, in prisons. We demand the decriminalization of sex work. We wish to see policy alternatives proposed; to see an end to overcrowding in prisons by decreasing incarceration as a strategy; to see the development of education and training programs for those incarcerated to develop tools and strategies for living post-incarceration.

Though the numbers continue to fluctuate, this expansion has an estimated 5 billion dollar price tag per year, and will total a 9 billion dollar expenditure before it’s finished. The Conservative government refuses to listen to reason and look at the facts laid out before them.  Community organizers like us, who witness the over-incarceration and criminalization of many communities in this city, are vehemently opposed to increasing prisons and the continuation of the prison industrial complex. Instead of developing programs that work through a restorative justice model, that consider alternatives in incarceration (which are also less costly), the Conservative government wants to put more and more people in prisons, at a cost of anywhere from $88,000- $250,000 per prisoner every year.

This tougher approach to crime adopted by the Conservatives is akin to that taken up by America in recent years, which led to overcrowding in prisons and a recent repealing of this approach, due to its obvious failure. Their planned prison expansion will be met by our anger and protest over an obvious misuse of public funds and a continuation of the historical and institutional oppression of marginalized communities through police violence, criminalization and over-incarceration. In Canada, people from Indigenous and racialized communities are the most targeted and over-incarcerated group in the prison industrial complex. The growth of prisons will only see an increase in the discrimination, policing and imprisonment of members of these communities. Additionally, queer and trans communities, the poor and homeless, drug-users, non-status people, sex workers, people living with HIV/AIDS and those with disabilities and mental health issues are targets for police violence, mistreatment and repression. They face a heightened risk of incarceration as well. The planned prison expansion will have serious consequences for many communities and people in our city.

As the Conservative government continues to push their ‘tough on crime’ agenda and while the debate continues over Bill S-10 in Parliament, the communities of Toronto, in conjunction with other cities, will not remain silent. We are here to voice our outrage and disgust at the Conservative agenda! We will not accept an agenda that will spend billions of dollars over the next few years on the expansion of prisons, diverting these funds from services like health care, education and social assistance, which are facing drastic and devastating cuts in the wake of a recession and brutal austerity measures.

BUILD HOMES, NOT PRISONS! FUND SOCIAL SERVICES, NOT PRISONS!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Prison Moratorium Action Coalition Meeting this Thursday evening

Statement from the Prison Moratorium Action Coalition:

Please join us on Thursday February 17  from  6-8 pm at the 519 Commuity Centre, 519 Church street, to contribute your ideas, thoughts and energy to organizing a rally and other demos/events directed at the federal government's proposed crime bill legislation and prison expansion.

We are a group of activists, ex-prisoners, drug users and activist scholars who believe that prisons do not make our community safer. In canada, people from Indigenous and racialized communities (Black and African diasporic people in particular) are the most targeted and over-incarcerated in the prison industrial complex (PIC). Additionally, queer and trans communities, people living with disabilities, people with mental health issues, homeless people, people who use drugs, people living with HIV/AIDS, non-status people are at greater risk of incarceration.

The canadian government is enacting legislation that will continue to incarcerate these populations but at a much faster rate. This includes Bill S-10 (mandatory minimum sentences for drug 'offences'). All evidence shows that mandatory minimum sentences do not work and only increase the repression of the War on Drugs and People Who Use Drugs (specifically Indigenous and Black communities). Furthermore, the canadian government has increased spending on the construction of new prisons to punish and control these populations despite falling crime rates and a decrease in the severity of crime.

We believe that the government knows what they are doing and despite its ineffectiveness continues to move in the direction of the united states whose tough on crime agenda is now bankrupting some u.s states.

The Prison Moratorium Action Coalition formed in resistance to the new legislation and expansion of prisons in canada. We demand that our tax payer money be spent on much needed social justice initiatives including: housing, child poverty, settling Indigenous land-claims, effective harm reduction programs, education, HIV/AIDS and HCV, programs for non-status people .....

For more information to sponsor this event please contact: PrisonMoratoriumACToronto@gmail.com

First Monthly Film Screening

This Thursday February 17 at 2pm at South Riverdale Community Health Centre 955 Queen Street East:
The Toronto Drug Users Union presents "I'm Dangerous With Love",
The first of our monthly film screening series.

"Im Dangerous With Love" is an underground adventure that traces one man's risky journey into the world of shamanic ritual. Dimitri Muglanis had been a heroin user for over 20 years when a single dose of ibogaine, a powerful hallucinogen derived from the root of a West African plant stopped his use cold.

Filmmaker Michel Negroponte enters the ibogane subculture and follows Dimitri over three years, as he takes drug users through the same detox. Problem is, ibogaine is an illegal drug in the U.S. When Negroponte tries ibogaine himself, he experiences firsthand its propensity to "break open the head."
To see the trailer and for more information visit http://www.michelnegroponte.com/

Free and all are welcome to attend!

For more information please contact torontodrugusersunion@gmail.com

Toronto Drug Users Union (TDUU)