The article, written by Matthew Power for Slate’s ‘Dispatches’ section, did a good job of jostling my brain around and helping me to articulate some of my feelings about Insite and the homeless population in the Downtown Eastside. The DTES is a subject that a lot of people in Vancouver don’t want to discuss, are soured by, or simply pretend will all go away. The latter part of that statement is maybe the most troubling of all, because whenever a majority becomes deliberately ignorant to the plight of the minority population, social stability begins to crumble as a whole.

The service that a place like Insite provides to the already-marginalized population of drug users in the DTES should be difficult to criticize, but the critics exist both online and off, and in numbers larger than I could ever fathom. The article in Slate, and its subsequent commentary, cemented the last brick in my mental wall of defense for the users of Insite, and the greater population of the DTES. I can’t possibly find any reason why it would be helpful to dismantle social services like safe-injection sites, or the free distribution of clean rigs for shooting up. Doing so will only cause more harm, and more death.

Supporting a system that helps drug addicts to stay safe is one of the first steps towards de-marginalization. The most important element of care is awareness, and as Insite saves lives, it sends a message to the community that people are being given the ability to live. Insite is not an advocate of drug usage, if anything, it’s an advocate for the safety and security of every person living in Vancouver. As we provide care to the most marginalized citizens of our city, we are also caring for ourselves and future generations. If we re-define what it means to be criminal, fewer people will languish in prisons on charges of drug possession. If we give addicts the option to escape dangerous environments, we will see a significant reduction in the number of deaths and drug-related homicides in the city.

This is part of the reason why I find it so difficult to criticize Insite, or anyone who is homeless or addicted to drugs. Maybe a part of my personality is just hard-wired to be empathetic, as I can’t help but feel that people deserve safety and shelter regardless of their social status. Having lived in the DTES and Hastings-Sunrise, I’ve witnessed first-hand how quick people are to harass or criticize their homeless neighbours, or to pretend that people are simply invisible just because they do drugs. That a person shouldn’t be considered equal, just because they do drugs or are poor, is such a foreign concept to me. This behaviour spits on the Canadian charter, and as well the United States bill of rights.

Vancouver is lucky to have a place like Insite, and the services provided therein. As long as Insite survives, people will be made aware that these problems exist in our beautiful and ‘most-livable’ city. Perhaps the grandest service that Insite provides is that heightened sense of awareness, which may lead to a realization for every person living in Vancouver that we need to lend a hand to our neighbours, and help them to thrive.

Since the day I heard that a TEDx was being organized in Vancouver, I’ve waited with gleeful anticipation to learn who would be speaking this year. But with all due respect to the organizers, I’m disappointed and offended by the lack of women in the line-up for this year’s TEDxVancouver, and it’s because of this lack of egalitarianism that I’m choosing not to apply to attend the conference. I’m not alone in this sentiment, and I know that there are other men and women who are choosing to abstain from applying, for the same reason.

This is my list of grievances:

As much as I respect and admire the current line-up, and I mean no ill-will towards any of the speakers, I’m left wondering why the list is so disproportionately dominated by men. Though I believe that the speakers chosen are all quite qualified and will provide great insight on their subject matter, I don’t think that the current line-up is an accurate representation of Vancouver’s best minds.

One-half of this city’s population is being represented by only one speaker out of ten eleven. That’s an embarrassing percentage, especially when Vancouver is brimming with brilliant women entrepreneurs, scientists, artists and visionaries. Why are women so under-represented at this TEDx conference? The main TED website states that the lineup of a TEDx event should include “diverse demographics, ethnicities, backgrounds, subject matter.” Ten men and one woman doesn’t seem to fit that standard.

TED is a globally recognized conference, and it would be folly to think that Vancouver isn’t currently in the spotlight as well. If the intent of TEDxVancouver is to reflect on our current flock of imagineers, educators and technologists, it needs to be a true facsimile of our population- not predominantly white, and male. This city is beautiful in part because of its diversity, and has been constructed by the convergence of ideas that span all sexes, ethnicities and backgrounds.

I hope that future iterations of TEDxVancouver will include more brilliant and capable women at the podium.

Respectfully yours,
Stephanie Vacher

“If we are to achieve a richer culture, rich in contrasting values, we must recognize the whole gamut of human potentialities, and so we weave a less arbitrary social fabric, one in which each diverse human gift will find a fitting place.”

- Margaret Mead

A friend of mine wrote a post on his (private) journal that details his plan to ‘stick it to the man’ by cutting up and canceling one of his highest APR credit cards. A number of people replied by saying that was a bad idea, and his FICO/credit score would drop if he chose to cancel the card. His intention was more to make a statement- if a sea of people all dropped their most expensive card, it would show the company that people find those interest rates unacceptable. I think his statement is bright, and noble- “To hell with the credit score, I won’t take it anymore!” Seems like a cry akin to the earliest US patriots dumping tea from a barge. If we all chose to ‘suffer’ that little bit, maybe the corporation will see that people don’t want to pay upwards of 30% interest anymore. Unfortunately, the prevailing attitude seems to be that they are so closely tied into a system that defines their self-worth by a number. If it’s closer to 800- you’re good to go. 600? Worthless, trash, scum. Any lower than that? May as well be locked into a debtor’s prison.

My current beef isn’t really with the credit system. It’s too big of a battle to fight right now, and my time and resources are best spent doing other things (like graduating from University, finding gainful employment afterward, and staying off any of the social welfare systems that are generously provided by the government). But, and there’s always a but- one of the replies on that person’s thread struck me. Someone noted that without a credit card, or any credit to speak of, a person’s chances of finding gainful employment could be compromised. I was kind of surprised by this- I’ve never seen a job ad that asked for a credit record check. I started perusing craigslist, searching for jobs outside of the art industry, and I found a few who were asking for a credit check as part of the employment requirements.

A credit check? To get a job in the first place? This seems backwards.

A few phone calls later, I ended up speaking with someone from the Labour Relations Board and she confirmed that there are no laws prohibiting an employer from requesting a credit check, at least not in BC. I pressed the issue a bit- does the potential employee have to pay for the credit check? She answered no, citing the Employment Standards Act:

10 (1) A person must not request, charge or receive, directly or indirectly, from a person seeking employment a payment for

(a) employing or obtaining employment for the person seeking employment, or

(b) providing information about employers seeking employees.

A minor victory, sort of.

It still strikes me as cold and insidious that, in order to get a job with any of the companies requesting a credit check, that a person must submit to playing the game. You know the game, the credit game. Any person who has had the luck of being able to secure a credit card, or a loan, and also had the luck to secure employment to the point where their credit has been maintained, is pretty good at playing the game. However, not all of us are so lucky, or willing, to take part. And the worst part of it all is that we’re all seemingly thrust into the game whether we like it or not. With no regulation on the part of the employer (being prohibited from selecting a candidate partly-based on their credit score) the government is essentially saying that it is okay to deem an employee’s worth on whether or not they have a positive credit history.

That really doesn’t sit well with me, and I’m one of the relatively lucky ones. Even though I don’t have a credit rating to speak of as I have no credit card, at least I’m not stuck with crippling CC debt. I’ve never gone bankrupt, nor have I ever deferred payment, been behind on any payments, or done any of the hundreds of inane little things that could ‘ding’ my credit score (or lack thereof). If I had, however, done any of the above, does that mean that I’m less eligible to become an employee of XYZ company? Why should any company (outside of the financial sector, where people are responsible for keeping a company financially afloat) require that their employees pass a credit records check?

Does personal bankruptcy prohibit a person from being a safe, courteous truck driver?
Will three maxed-out credit cards make it so that a waitress can’t seat a table of eight and serve them in a timely manner?
If you’re behind on your mortgage payments, should you not be hired in the IT industry?

Since when does your credit score make you a good employee? A system of credit is as old as the ancients; there has always been a system of checks and balances, a concept of fairness closely intertwined with the trade of goods or services. Even the bible touches on the concept of debt- “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” Though the direct translation has been skewed, the principles still remain. There is no place for our government to allow a prejudice against potential employees based on their financial status, or capacity to repay their debts. To force a person to take part in a predatory system of lending, fees, and interest speaks volumes to the current state of our country. Lest we forget that this system is part of the reason that the economy is in the tank and people are scrounging to pay their bills. The government has an obligation to protect its people from becoming an unfortunate cog in the debt machine, and that obligation starts with preventing companies from judging potential employees based on their credit score.

At this point, I’m just angry. I’m angry at the thought that I might be prohibited from getting a job because I choose not to use credit cards. I’m angry at the thought that my friends who are deeply in debt due to education (for which we get no bailout) might not get jobs- or might be forced to get bad jobs- because their credit score has been tanked from their loans. Finally, I’m angry that people who are even less better-off than me (I’m talking the population of people who are on the streets, or in SRO’s), who have absolutely zero credit to speak of, have yet another barrier preventing them from becoming employed. I’m angry that nobody is fighting this problem, and I don’t even know where to start.

If you have any information on where I could go, or what I could do, to get the word out there- I’d really appreciate it. I don’t want to play this game. I have a feeling that I’ll always be on the losing team.

My life has been so tumultuous and dizzy since then, and I’m living in Canada as I had originally planned. I’m making a life for myself in the only way I know how, and that’s to say that I really have no idea what I’m doing. Opportunities beset themselves upon me and I take them as they come, with the same awkwardly reckless ineptitude that I showed 6 years ago. Since then, I’ve wiggled my way through a number of extraordinary situations, and I’ve moved too many times to count. I can hardly remember my last three postal codes (or zip codes, as they’re called in the States) and I still pepper my sentences with U’s that would be otherwise misplaced in my homeland.

Life as an immigrant is so awkward sometimes, if only because being from the States instantly makes you the target of stupid jokes and hen-pecking as only one can imagine. I still make the mistake of assuming that Canadians will see me as an equal, but once they learn my secret, if I may cliché, it’s like being a big fish getting shot in a small barrel. The jokes are all too easy, despite the minute differences between our two nations. I’m not an equal, and I live with that every day. I’ve learned that any unnatural or un-Canadian slip-up makes you a target in unimaginable ways. Other than the mire of bureaucracy, I’ve found this to be the only negative part of being an immigrant.

Life as an immigrant, however, has rewards that are almost impossible to tally. I say that with a bit of pride because I feel like my Canadian experience is so much more colourful and exciting than that of someone who was born here. There are magical things about Canada that, to a native countryman, are invisible and thoughtless. To me, these positives are so much sweeter because I’m only now discovering them as an adult who has had to work for each and every moment. The excitement of getting your first social insurance number, or a piece of paper that says you’re allowed to hold a job- these aren’t the kind of experiences that a native Canadian will ever have, and they will never feel the flip-flops one’s heart makes when you see a stamp in your passport that lets you live another year in your adoptive homeland. It means you have another year to explore, and experience, a different world.

All of this disjointed rambling has one core concept that has driven me for the past few years, and that’s the concept of taking opportunities as they come, and then discovering a new world through those unique experiences. Though the ‘Canadian Experience’ may be similar for so many immigrants to this country- learning the customs and history of Canada- the true experience lies in what decisions you choose to make throughout your lifetime in a new, different world. Canada is a special place to me because I’ve made it a special place; in reality it’s so similar to the States that sometimes I can’t tell whether I’ve woken up in Philadelphia or Vancouver. The people here are good because I’ve found good people, and the food and music and art is good because I’ve tried to find all of the best examples that the country has to offer. Because I’m an immigrant, I have to be constantly searching for the good. It will never come naturally, or unconsciously.

If I were to complain about anything, it would be pointless. I can always go ‘home,’ but ‘home’ is not the place I want to be. I am home, because this is the place I want it to be.

Chew on that for a few minutes, won’t you?