GOOD IDEA IS GOOD IDEAS Up until now, the City ran two parallel garbage collection services. (And no, not one in the East and the good one in the West.)

GASTOWN Businesses who moved to Gastown for the cheap rents are being forced out

HOMES City ponies up money for a health fair, shower program, educational programming, and other events for homeless persons

LAW If you avoided marriage to keep your no-good boy/girlfriend from getting their mitts on your yuppie condo, then you time is up

WAGERING Gambling addict sues BC Lottery corp for not preventing from entering casino. Sounds like the lawsuit is just another lottery.

NEIGHBOURLY City Council invites West End residents to advisory committee. Residents are somewhat wary.

NAMES Keeping Stanley Park over Xwayxway was an opportunity lost

NOT SO FABULOUS Pride Parade paperwork is keeping some businesses away

ART Politicians to Artists: Go Fund Yourself!

CANCON CRTC has decided that there is no need for Canadian content on the web as long as Disney and Fox are around

VIOLENCE Report criticises attitudes towards honour killings, calls it more than just murder

SHRED. DO THE KIDS SAY SHRED ANY MORE? Kensington Skate Park officially opens this weekend

OLYMPICS VANOC's chief financial officer makes no apology for the the business plan that depended on no recession through Games time. So, that's okay then.

HEALTH Vancouver Coastal Health and the Ministry of Health both want to fund 24-hour treatment facility for mentally ill. Wait, that's wrong, they each want the other to fund it.

NON-LETHEL WEAPONS THAT KILL Manufacturer of Tasers wants the BC Government to toss out portion of Braidwood inquiry that, legally, says Tasers can kill. It makes it harder to sell Tasers, it turns out.

CARTOONS Toronto artist has new comic based on people he has met in the streets

Around 100 people gathered in Vancouver on Sunday, July 3rd to protest the condemnation of black bloc tactics following the Toronto G20 summit. Organizers invited the public to wear black clothes and bandanas in order to express their solidarity with the controversial tactic.

In a speech given at the beginning of the march, one of the speakers explained the rationale of the event by quoting German Pastor Martin Niemöller. “They came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists...”

Although often associated with anarchism, participants in black bloc tactics come from diverse ideological backgrounds. “[By targeting black bloc tactics], they are not just threatening the anarchists, they’re threatening all types of protesters” the speaker continued.

Black bloc tactics, which have received considerable media attention during the G20 summit in Toronto, are a form of protest in which protesters wear black clothing and often hide their face, making it almost impossible for the police to identify them individually. They have been heavily criticized for having taking part in the burning of three police cars during the G20 protests and the destruction property.

“All the big businesses, like Starbucks, the banks, big media property, they’re just tools of corporate capitalism, so of course we’re gonna smash them!” said Todd from punk band The Rebel Spell, who was in Toronto during the G20 to play a concert that eventually got cancelled.

As the small crowd started marching onto the street, a protester in his 50s who somewhat kept himself at some distance to the core of the rally, expressed mixed feelings towards the event.

“I came because I think the mass arrest of people who were in Toronto is an outrage”, he said. He then paused for a moment, choosing his words, and added, “I share the same anger with other people at this rally, but I’m not so sure that the destruction of property is the most viable tactic.”

A second rally is being held on July 17th by another group to denounce the police response to the G20 protests in Toronto. Its organizers have taken a clear stance in condemning violent protesting. According to the Georgia Strait, the July 17 march will include marshals who will ask anyone who wears a mask to take it off.

Story and photo by Renaud Gignac

FUNDING The idea was almost dead, but expecting private companies to build public services is back

FUNNY Councillor George Chow takes makes fun of the head of CSIS during the council prayer

SLICK Don't worry about increased oil tanker traffic. Each tanker has signed a piece of paper promising to clean up if it devastates the harbour

RESTOS New restaurant opens up in False Creek, floating on plastic bottles

Video footage from a security camera obtained by Megaphone shows two Vancouver police officers repeatedly kneeing and kicking a Downtown Eastside homeless man without provocation. The homeless man was then charged with assaulting and attempting to disarm the officer.

On the morning of Saturday, June 26, two officers approached Ali Eltah Ishag, a 47-year-old Sudanese refugee who is homeless, at the corner of Carrall and East Hastings. He was wanted for outstanding warrants for mischief and threatening.

The video shows that after briefly speaking to Ishag, the officers grab his arms and immediately begin to knee and kick Ishag’s legs and mid-section. Ishag attempts to defend himself against the officers who throw him against the wall and continue to knee him. The three then struggle as they move eastwards along Hastings.

In total, the two officers administer at least nine knee and leg kicks on Ishag in the video.

Eyewitnesses claim that the after the two officers and Ishag exit camera view, they fell on top of one another and continued to struggle on the ground. They allege that after more officers arrived on the scene, Ishag was handcuffed and continued to be kneed.

“It was really excessive,” said a woman who sells cigarettes on East Hastings and did not want her name published for fear of retribution. “They had him down already and they kept kicking him. His mouth was all bloody. There was no reason for that at all.”

“It was a shocking event,” said Ron Wickstrom, who is a Megaphone vendor and witnessed the event from across the street. “I couldn’t believe it when I saw the police assaulting a citizen.”

On Monday, June 28, the Vancouver Police Department (VPD) issued a press release claiming Ishag actively resisted arrest and that he “continually tried to disarm one of the officers by trying to pull the officer’s gun out of its holster. Unsuccessful at getting the officer’s gun, the man then grabbed the officer’s collapsible baton and before he could wield it against the officers, additional officers arrived and subdued the man.”

The police charged Ishag with obstructing a peace officer, assaulting a peace officer with intent to resist arrest and disarming a peace officer. The press release also mentions that Ishag is facing a charge of assaulting an officer in Calgary.

In an interview with Megaphone, Ishag, who does not speak English well, said that he was reaching to show the officers’ his identification when they began to knee him. He said he never tried to reach for the officer’s gun or baton.

“It’s wrong,” he said. “They hit me. I didn’t hit him. I tried to get out of harm.”

After being shown the video, David Eby, executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA), said the officers’ actions were contrary to police use of force and de-escalation training and that the press release should have been corrected considering the video evidence.

“The police should have immediately corrected the record and they should never have issued the press release,” he said. “It shows a serious lack of responsibility within the Vancouver Police Department around how they do media and it calls into question every single release issued by the VPD that’s favourable to them in a use of force incident.”

The BCCLA is filing a policy complaint with the Vancouver police board on Thursday and “demanding that the police explain its misleading press release”.

Although the police obtained a copy of the video and entered it in as evidence, Vancouver police spokesperson Const. Lindsey Houghton would only comment on the press release.

“[The video is] evidence before the courts [would] not only be inappropriate and unprofessional [to comment on], but we would get into a lot of trouble from the courts and it could potentially jeopardize the entire case,” he said.

Ishag was released on bail Monday, July 5 under the conditions that he keep the peace, not posses any weapons and enrol in English language classes.

JUSTICE President of stata council says gay bashers, who attacked a couple out front, should be sentenced to street sweeping the Pride Parade

NAMES The Feds have put the kibosh on removing the name Stanley Park but how does Stanley Park at Xwayxway sound?

DRUGS Now the art gallery says that they need a new building because their current one is in a bad area

TELLY The Beat, a new fly-on-the-wall documentary series on CITY follows the police throughout the Downtown Eastside

LAW Neat, if a little convoluted, but the Supreme Court may now allow courts to hear issues that do not involve money or serious harm. Many civil rights violations have not been prosecuted because the victim was not harmed in a way that the law recognised.

Financial hard times don’t just affect individuals; they impact many of the fantastic non-profit and charitable organizations in our community.

Sometimes it means that donors can’t spare extra money; sometimes it means that grants are no longer available.

And sometimes it means that an organization can find itself facing something we at Megaphone are all too familiar with: homelessness.

That’s the situation facing YouthCO. YouthCO is Canada’s first youth-driven organization leading the HIV and Hepatitis C movement through peer education, support and shared leadership. Currently, there are nearly 75 HIV- or Hepatitis C-positive 15-to-29-year-olds who regularly access the organization’s peer counselling and support services at their Helmcken Street location.

Now, as YouthCO prepares to celebrate its 16th year, cuts to funding mean they have until the end of the month to leave their current home and find another,

Current circumstances aren’t dampening their spirits, however. This Friday, July 9th, YouthCO will be holding a sweet 16 birthday bash at the old Storyeum space in historic Gastown.

Tickets are $25 (with discounted non-profit group rates and sponsored tickets available) and can be purchased online at www.youthco.org.

Those who are unable to attend can still support the event by donating Silent Auction items or by sponsoring tickets for youth who cannot afford to attend.

For more information about donations contact Adeline Huynh, Acquired Taste Event Coordinator at adeline.youthco@gmail.com. All proceeds from both the event and the Silent Auction will directly support prevention education and youth impacted by HIV AIDS and HepC.

Event Details:
Acquired Taste IV: YouthCO’s Sassy Sweet 16
Friday, July 9th
7 pm - midnight
151 W Cordova St, Gastown (the Storyeum building)

After-party @ LICK Club
455 Abbott Street
(no cover with ACQUIRED TASTE ticket stub)

MAKEWORK The Vancouver Observer's interview with a Vancouver escort includes the quote “I have a lot of clients who are my friends.” Meganews has now sent out invoices for money owed.

PERIODICALS Bun fight at City Hall over an unsolicitied subscription to Urban Male magazine

HOT HOT HEAT The City has approved hot weather shelters. Which is great, as are winter's cold weather shelters. But is the idea that, when the weather is pleasant in the spring and autumn, homeless people are okay on their own?

HOMES The Tyee has a keen series on reinventing the coop