“For three years the DTES community has fought an ongoing campaign to end the discriminatory ticketing of low-income people. Last year 95% of all vending tickets and 76% of all jaywalking tickets across the city were handed out in the Downtown Eastside. In response VANDU and Pivot Legal Society filed an official complaint with the VPD. The complaint was officially dismissed by the Mayor and police board in September 2013.

An independent police watchdog, the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner, has rejected the reasons given by the Vancouver Mayor and Police Department for dismissing the complaint of discriminatory by-law enforcement in the Downtown Eastside. Since then VANDU has requested a meeting with the Mayor on this important issue, but he has refused to respond. We have no other choice to but to march for justice.”

Press conference this morning about the York Rooms Hotel evictions

Tune in now to hear The Mainlander’s first radio show (the show begins around 2:30), hosts Daniel Tseghay and Tristan Markle interviewing housing advocate Wendy Pedersen and Pivot Legal lawyer DJ Larkin about renovictions in the DTES and the ongoing housing crisis.