Portland Hotel Society Sells Downtown Eastside Building To BC Housing

The interim board of the Portland Hotel Society, a non-profit group whose managers stepped down earlier this year as its finances were under review, has sold a landmark building in the group's portfolio for $2.3-million.

The sale is part on an ongoing overhaul of PHS, which gained renown for championing the Insite supervised injection site and other innovative social programs, along with running hundreds of units of housing, before the province seized control in March over financial concerns.

The sale is part of an ongoing review, PHS interim executive director Ted Bruce said on Wednesday.

tgam.ca/2TpC9KE via @globeandmail

BC Health Minister Under Fire For Firings

VICTORIA – Opposition critics used their first question period of the fall legislative session Tuesday to demand accountability from the B.C. government on the firing of seven health ministry staff and contractors over alleged misuse of confidential health data in 2012.

NDP leader John Horgan reminded the government that two years after the allegations surfaced, two health researchers have been reinstated, two others were “unfired” and one, university co-op student Roderick MacIsaac, committed suicide after having his research contract terminated with only days left to go.

bit.ly/2AfnBpo via @TheProgress

MLA Jenny Kwan, Who Represents One Of Canada’s Poorest Neighbourhoods, Scoops Up $1.9M Kitsilano Home

VICTORIA — The MLA who represents one of Canada’s poorest neighbourhoods now lives in a $1.9-million home in Kitsilano.

Vancouver-Mount Pleasant MLA Jenny Kwan bought the house, near Kitsilano Secondary, for $1.938 million late last year after separating from her husband, Dan Small.

“After my husband and I separated, I moved to be close to my brother, who is helping me with my children,” Kwan said in a statement, after declining an interview.

bit.ly/2QtgTBg via @VancouverSun

Downtown Eastside, Vancouver - Life On The Streets

Drug addiction, homelessness, mental illness, crime, harm reduction model of Canada. Interviews with those living on the streets.

bit.ly/2UqnNd2 via @YouTube

Graphic Video Of Drug Use And Dealing In Vancouver's DTES

Compilation of 16 days of security footage in the Downtown Eastside (DTES) Vancouver BC, July 2014.

bit.ly/2GcKPA7 via @YouTube

City Of Vancouver Formally Declares City Is On Unceded Aboriginal Territory – BC

Vancouver city council has unanimously voted to acknowledge that the city is on unceded Aboriginal territory.

Mayor Gregor Robertson declared a ‘Year of Reconciliation’ last summer, in the hopes of building new relationships between Aboriginals and Vancouverites.

“Underlying all other truths spoken during the Year of Reconciliation is the truth that the modern city of Vancouver was founded on the traditional territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations and that these territories were never ceded through treaty, war or surrender,” reads part of the motion from the city.

The city says it will now work with representatives from the Aboriginal community to determine “appropriate protocols” for conducting city business.

bit.ly/2QVwqze via @globalnews

Interview With Mayor Tom Campbell About The 1971 Gastown Riots

This was the height of the counterculture in Vancouver. On August 7th 1971 the Youth International Party organized a smoke-in for marijuana legalization. Mayor Tom Campbell had a hardline on hippies. The mayor very much favoured a strong police response to the Smoke-In which was peaceful. In the end 79 people were arrested and 39 charged on that day.

bit.ly/2DIcffE via @YouTube

Kwan’s Role Dims NDP’s Outrage Over PHS Scandal

New Democrat MLA Jenny Kwan got a snap unpaid leave of absence approved Monday, notwithstanding that up until now in the legislature, there has been no such thing.

NDP Leader Adrian Dix said it was arranged Monday morning by new Opposition house leader Bruce Ralston and legislature clerk Craig James.

bit.ly/2FgNuZs via @VanCourierNews

Portland Hotel Society Had Little Oversight, Ex-Director Says

Former Portland Hotel Society board member Fred Jones says he was one of nine directors overseeing spending at the Vancouver charity, but hadn't been called to a single board meeting in three years.

Last week, the B.C. government released details of a damning audit that showed the non-profit group that looks after some of Canada's poorest citizens spent thousands of dollars on lavish hotels, limousine rides, expensive dinners and even a trip to a Disney resort.

bit.ly/2T8PJkY via @CBCNews

8 Red Flags From The Portland Hotel Society Audit

WATCH: Housing Minister Rich Coleman says he isn’t satisfied by the reasons departing Portland Hotel leaders have given for their spending. Geoff Hastings reports.

The biggest story in B.C. this week has been the forced removal of the Portland Hotel Society leadership, after investigations showed vast amounts of questionable spending.

bit.ly/2Q1ZLT2 via @globalnews

NDP MLA Jenny Kwan Repaying $35K For Europe, Disney Trips

NDP MLA Jenny Kwan says she is repaying $34,922.57 in expenses for trips she and her family took to Bristol, Vienna and Disneyland that were paid for by the Portland Hotel Society.

In an emotional appearance this morning in Vancouver, Kwan said she trusted her husband Dan Small, who was a director with the Portland Hotel Society, when he told her that he had paid for the family's personal expenses when they accompanied him on a business trip to Europe in 2012.

She said he also told her he personally had paid for an upgrade during a family trip to Disneyland the same year.

bit.ly/2scORAD via @CBCNews

New Democrat MLA Jenny Kwan Under Fire For $2,695 Trip Paid For By The Portland Hotel Society

VICTORIA — New Democrat MLA Jenny Kwan and her family received a $2,695 trip to Disneyland — as well as a second trip to Europe — paid for by the Vancouver charity at the centre of a scathing government audit Thursday.

The Disneyland trip was one of many questionable expenses by the Portland Hotel Society highlighted by government auditors, which forced the resignation of the society’s senior managers and its board of directors.

bit.ly/2TdarAo via @VancouverSun

Pete McMartin The Portland Hotel Society -- Oh. My. God

There’s just so much that jumps out at you that’s egregious, hilariously improbable and, in the context of a social welfare agency the efforts of which should be entirely concentrated on the poor and marginalized, obscene.

Almost $9,000 in limousine charges. In one year.

Stays at the best hotel rooms — some of them approaching $900 a night — in Paris, Istanbul, Ottawa, Vienna, Los Angeles, New York City.

bit.ly/2TnWoIu via @VancouverSun

Vancouver Building Seized Without Any Charges Against Owner

British Columbia's Civil Forfeiture Office has seized and sold a Downtown Eastside single-room occupancy hotel for more than $800,000 – despite the fact the building's owner was not charged with a crime.

The Vancouver Police Department, which investigated the file and referred it to the Civil Forfeiture Office, announced the seizure at a news conference Wednesday.

Sergeant Randy Fincham, a police spokesman, said four people were arrested as a result of the Project Twizzler investigation and charged with possession for the purpose of trafficking. Sgt. Fincham alleged the four men were running a drug ring out of the single-room occupancy hotel and used intimidation and violence – including head-shavings – to get area residents to sell drugs.

Sgt. Fincham said charges were not laid against the building manager or the owner, but they "ought to have known that what was going on was criminal activity." He said some suites had been "fortified" and a security system set up.

tgam.ca/2GFu6HD via @globeandmail

Black Strathcona - Hogan's Alley

From the early 1900s to the 1960s, the Eastside neighbourhood of Strathcona was home to Vancouver's first and only black community. BlackStrathcona is comprised of ten video stories that celebrate some of the remarkable people and places that made this community vibrant and unique.

Stories like Jimi & Nora, feature musician Jimi Hendrix who as a boy in the 1940's lived in Strathcona with his grandmother, and Vie's Chicken & Steaks, featuring Vie Moore who ran a soulfood haven on Union Street frequented by both locals and big name celebrities like Billie Holiday and Sammie Davis Jr.

bit.ly/2sTvWer via @YouTube

Black Strathcona - 10 Video Stories About Vancouver's Black Community

From the early 1900s to the late 1960s, the East Side neighbourhood of Strathcona was home to Vancouver’s first and only black community.

The ten video stories of Black Strathcona celebrate some of the people and places that made the community vibrant and unique.

blackstrathcona.com