Is your Halloween candy 'Made in China'?

METRO VANCOUVER -- In the days leading up to Halloween, a "Made in China" stamp on a bag of candy can give some parents a bigger fright than the most ghoulish of costumes.

Fears about contamination, specifically from the toxic chemical compound melamine, have prompted some parents to take a closer look at where candies are coming from.

"I am absolutely worried about what my kids are going to bring home this Halloween," said Megan Zandstra, mother to three young children.

Zandstra says she has been receiving e-mails from friends who have been spreading the word about melamine, and specifically about the news earlier this month that melamine was found in chocolate coins being sold at Costco, dollar and bulk food stores.

Melamine is the toxin at the centre of China's tainted milk scandal, which has left more than 50,000 children ill and has led to at least four deaths.

In Canada so far, 14 Chinese-made food products have been recalled by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency after tests found they contained significant quantities of melamine.

Generally, candies made by the big-name manufacturers such as Cadbury and Hershey are safe because they do not use milk products from China, said Garfield Balsom, a spokesman for the CFIA.

"We certainly have done a lot of work in terms of our retail assessment and our overall surveillance of the melamine issue in China," Balsom said Monday.

"The mainstream products, most of that is made in North America. . . . Like Cadbury's and Kraft, the big companies do not bring in product directly from China."

When it comes to Halloween candy, Zandstra says she generally feels comfortable with the familiar name brands, but this year, she wanted to do things a bit differently.

"Just this morning I bought a hundred tiny Cocoa Camino fair-trade chocolates from the Ten Thousand Villages store on Commercial Drive," she said in an e-mail. "I spent approximately $20 more than I would have on candy from Superstore. I felt a bit guilty about spending the extra cash, but I would rather hand out fewer quality candies than a handful of sugary, processed ones."

For Laura McKenzie though, mother to two young kids, the melamine issue has not been a big concern, nor has it come up in conversation with the other parents who live in her White Rock townhouse complex.

"I haven't heard one of them even mention it when talking about buying things for Halloween," McKenzie said.

The 14 food products that have been recalled in Canada include the milk chocolate pirate coins made by Sherwood Brand, Mengniu strawberry-flavour sour-milk beverage, OK OK Kaiser pretzels, Lotte brand Koala's March filled cookies, Mr. Brown 3-in-1 instant coffee products, White Rabbit candies, and Nissin's Cha Cha dessert. A full list can be found on the CFIA's website.

Balsom said the CFIA can never ensure that all Halloween candies are entirely safe, but the agency has been doing its best to test and monitor products with ingredients from China.

"I can only say what we've looked at in terms of the melamine in our survey and what we've done. But to say that every single product is safe, how can I guarantee that?" he asked.

Amy O'Brian, Vancouver Sun

aobrian@vancouversun.com

2 New Housing Offices Opening Up Downtown, DTES

VANCOUVER - The provincial government will be opening two new housing offices in Vancouver this January to help tenants and landlords with tenancy information and outreach services.

One office will be located in the Downtown Eastside at 390 Main St. The office space, which was provided for free by the City of Vancouver, will be shared with Pathways Information Centre, a community services organization.

The second office will be situated downtown at 518 Richards St., at a single-room occupancy hotel owned by the province. BC Housing will share this office space.

Once the offices open in January, staff will be on hand five days a week for half a day, according to the Ministry Housing and Social Development.

"Locating our staff with existing services that help Vancouver residents will benefit a diverse group of tenants and landlords in the downtown area, giving them a single point of access to housing and support services," said Minister Rich Coleman.

The announcement was criticized by the NDP for being weak.

Continue reading Vancouver Sun article by Tim Lai.

Onni developer halts V6A construction but still pre-selling condos

ctvbc.ca

A major developer in Metro Vancouver is being investigated by an arm of the provincial government after CTV found it was still selling condos even though construction has been halted at the project.

It's a big name developer, which has been building in Metro Vancouver for decades.

On Thursday, the Onni Group of Companies which is behind the V6A condo complex near Main and Union streets in Vancouver -- said the project has been postponed. But when CTV went to the sales center -- we discovered the units were still being offered for pre-sale -- and perspective buyers were not being told the project was on hold.

Now B.C.'s Superintendent of Real Estate is investigating.

"We have contacted the developer and asked for an update,'' said L. Jay Mitchell, B.C.'s Deputy Superintendent of Real Estate.

"We've indicated they have to make an amendment to their disclosure statement,'' she said. "We're making inquires about the deposits and the status of the project

The situation at Main and Union has not escaped the attention of NDP Housing critic Diane Thorne.

"I could hardly believe what I was seeing and hearing on television,'' she said. "It's the best example I have ever seen of the lack of consumer protection in British Columbia."

Meanwhile, any new protection for presale buyers would start with the B.C. Finance Minister Colin Hansen.

"If there's way we can strengthen the regulation and the procedures developers must follow, we are certainly willing to take a look at those and if we can do it in a way that makes sense, we will certainly be ready to do that,'' Hansen said.

Asked if he will looking into the situation at Onni, Hansen said he likely will. "I will certainly be looking into this particular example to see what lessons we can learn from it,'' he said.

As for the future of the V6A project, on Thursday, Onni's vice-president of development Beau Jarvis said he wasn't sure.

"I wouldn't say there is a timeline at this point,'' he said.

On Friday, Onni's executive vice president Chris Evans called CTV News and said that while he doesn't know when construction will resume, Onni plans on finishing the project sometime in 2010.

He declined an invitation to do an on camera interview.

With a report from CTV British Columbia's Shannon Paterson

CTV Broadcast & more.

Insite supporters disrupt rush hour traffic to keep site open

by janefromvancouver

I have an insight. The block party Insite supporters held yesterday afternoon was an attempt to embarrass Canada’s freshly re-elected Prime Minister Stephen Harper. Insite supporters — particularly executives and staff at the PHS Community Services Services Society which operates Insite — do not want Harper to shut down this space where junkies in Vancouver can drop-in to shoot-up. The Harper government is appealing a court decision that the nurse-supervised drug injection site must be kept open because it is a health service to which drug users have a right. The use of Canadian tax dollars to finance a cocaine and heroin shooting gallery is enough to make Harper shiver in his trademark sweater vest.

On Thursday, a party was held on the street in front of Insite on the Downtown Eastside in support of keeping the facility open. It was a party against the Conservative party.

The dark green building in the background is Insite.

A white tent at the block party in front of Insite housed speakers blasting recorded music and a huge poster with the words, “Play Music Not Politics”. A band was scheduled to play but the cops put a stop to it as organizers did not have a permit for this rush hour street party.

Don’t ask me how Insite supporters believed they could get public sympathy by suddenly disrupting traffic on the 100 block Hastings St. during rush hour, just after 5 p.m. Hastings is a six lane — four lanes of moving traffic and two parking lanes — major commuter artery. A witness who arrived early at the party, says there was some traffic flow until police arrived and shut down the entire block, apparently due to safety concerns.

The City of Vancouver had refused the Portland Hotel Community Services Society a permit to hold the party on Hastings at rush hour, but organizers did so anyway. Breaking the law may not be a way for the Portland Hotel Community Services Society to convince Prime Minister Harper, who ran in this month’s federal election on a ‘law and order’ platform, to allow them to continue to operate Insite. (Insite needs the Harper government to renew it’s exemption from the law, an exemption granted temporarily by a previous Liberal government since Insite provides a place for injection of illegal drugs.)

Photo above: Motorcycle cops parked on Columbia St. to prevent cars and buses from traveling onto the 100 block Hastings once the party got going.

Anyone who listens to Vancouver talk radio knows that inconveniencing commuters by blocking traffic on streets and bridges is becoming an issue. This year commuters have demanded to know why police blocked them during rush hour on the Lions Gate bridge for a film crew and for hours on the Second Narrows for somebody threatening to commit suicide.

Photo above: Vancouver Police were stopping pedestrians from using the sidewalk on the south side of the 100 block Hastings, across from the party.

There were lots of placards saying, “Trust the Evidence.” Such slogans are often used by Insite supporters despite the fact that the evidence for Insite has been mixed. Margaret Wente of the Globe & Mail, Canada’s most liberal national paper, wrote a column in July, “We Still Await the Scientific Proof of Harm Reduction’s Success“, outlining just how mixed the evidence is.

The propaganda at the party was effective. There were several black and white posters of children, posters the size of bus shelter images — one of a kid posing with his bicycle, another of a kid posing for what appeared to be a school photo — with captions, “Before they were “junkies” they were kids”.

This party was a made-for-media event, like so many political events on the Downtown Eastside. Lots of media had obviously been notified of the event as they were everywhere taking photos and interviewing people. The mainstream Vancouver media is sympathetic to Insite and tends to accept the prepared scripts they are fed. As media personality Pia Shandel, who opposed the supervised injection site said while a host on CFUN radio, the Vancouver media seem to make up their minds early on to support Insite.

Once media are invited to a political protest on the Downtown Eastside, a crowd is attracted by giving out free food. A couple of hundred poor people lined up at yesterday’s party waiting to be served free burgers. Potato chips and pop were given out later. The line-ups may have been longer if the monthly welfare checks hadn’t come out Wednesday.

Photo above: A man serves burgers wearing a t-shirt reading, “Do what’s right, support insite.”

Note the bars on the windows of the shop in the background. About 20 years ago, I was in a bus going up Main St. and an American tourist said to his fellow travelers in a New Jersey accent, “What do you notice about this city? No bars on the windows.” Now there are bars on most shop windows. Cops say “drug sick” people needing fix are pulling many break-ins.

Photo: As soon as the party started on Hastings St., numerous police moved in and limited it to a couple of lanes. Police refused to allow any traffic onto the opposite lanes, apparently for safety reasons.

Vancouver Police spokeswoman Jana McGuinness said police and City of Vancouver staff had discussions with the PHS Community Services Society about a less disruptive spot to hold the event. “We offered them a permit on a location 100 feet away on Columbia [Street] where they could party all night if they wanted to”, McGuinness said. But these events are above all about attracting public attention to a cause. And disrupting Hastings St. traffic during rush hour resulting in an inevitable clash with police could attract more attention and get more press than a party on a side street.

Falcon Video Shot

Falcon Video Shot
Originally uploaded by DJ_Riel

This falcon was on our fence between our house and the next door neighbors place.

Cool

Restoration Plans for Pantages Theater Collapses

After 38 months of negotiations and plans to restore the 100-year-old Pantages Theater, talks fell apart between the City of Vancouver and Peter Fairchild, the chair of the Pantages Theater Arts Society.

No reason was given for the City's decision and Mr Fairchild has issued a statement asking for public support.

Designed by Vancouver architect Edward Evans Blackmore the Pantages, located on Main at Hastings, the 650 seat theater was built in 1907 as a vaudeville house and was to be the future home of City Opera Vancouver, rehearsal space and art gallery along with three resident companies. The Pantages Project would also have included 130+ units of housing next door.

Mr Fairchild is urging the public to register their support for the Pantages by emailing:
mayorandcouncil@vancouver.ca and cc: cb0bc@yahoo.com


Georgia Straight

5th Annual Heart of the City Festival

The 5th Annual Downtown Eastside Heart of the City Festival features over 80 events at over 25 locations throughout the DTES.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008 - Sunday, November 9, 2008

* Music
* Theater
* Media Arts
* Comedy
* Poetry
* Forums
* Workshops
* Visual Arts
* History Walks

The mission of the Heart of the City Festival is to promote, present, profile and encourage development of artists, art forms, cultural traditions, history, activism, people and great stories about Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.
Most festival events are free, by donation or pay as you can.

Tickets must be purchased for some events.

For more information, please visit Heart of the City Festival.

Women In Film & Television Vancouver: Call for Submissions

Women In Film & Television Vancouver is committed to the exploration and advancement of New Media/Experimental films and as such, would like to encourage New Media Submissions.

The submission fee for all New Media/Experimental films will be waived this year.
FINAL DEADLINE FOR NEW MEDIA SUBMISSION IS DECEMBER 5th, 2008.

=======================

REGULAR SUBMISSION FORM

Regular Submission Fees apply.
FINAL DEADLINE FOR REGULAR SUBMISSION IS OCTOBER 31st, 2008.

For more information and to download the submission form.

Downtown Eastside Opportunity!

**please post and forward**

Fearless City Mobile Call for Participants
Short-term contracts for Downtown Eastside Residents,

We are fast approaching Fearless City Mobile’s exciting upcoming project-
Parade of Lost Souls, on Saturday October 25th, and are looking for 10 people to bring the Mobile Souls and Digital Shrine to life.

The Parade of the Lost Souls is a Grandview-Woodland’s Community
Halloween event that celebrates the cycle of life & death, and
encourages us to face our fears in order to live life to its fullest.
It is a time and a place to share losses at one of the many shrines
and celebrate life and to enrich our community. It takes Place on
Saturday October 25th, beginning at Grandview Park at 6:30pm. A
parade/procession will snake throughout the commercial drive area,
beginning at the NE corner of the park at 7pm.

Mobile Souls is a montage of live streaming video of the Parade and
installations along the route, as well as ‘mms’ texts and digital cell
phone images from festival attendees, that will be sifted, VJ’d and
projected. The montage will be projected on a screen at the corner of
Kitchener and Commercial and animated by live shadow puppet performers.

Fearless City Mobile will also be supporting the Digital Shrine
installation in Grandview Park. The shrine consists of digital images,
text and video sent in by community members in advance, as well as
mms texts sent in throughout the event.

Parade of Lost Souls is produced by the Public Dreams Society. For
more information on the event you can visit www.publicdreams.org.

Fearless City Mobile is a project of the Fearless Media Cluster of the
DTES Community Arts Network. For more information visit
www.fearlesscity.ca.

———

We are looking for 10 people in total to fill the following positions.

You do not need to have any experience with the following equipment,
software, or technology to apply for this opportunity.
**** All technical
equipment will be provided by Fearless city Mobile:

a) 1x VJ Assistant (Mobile Souls): Assisting VJ Jesse Scott in sorting
through incoming live streamed mobile video, still images and text. Text
will be manipulated in Livetype and exported into Modul8, the software
that will mix the video, text and still images.

b) 1x VJ Assistant (Digital Shrine): Assisting VJ Suez Holland and
Cultural Curator Flick Harrison in sorting through incoming live streamed
still images and text. Text will be manipulated in Livetype and exported
into Modul8, the software that will mix the text and still images with the
video material that flick has collected prior to the event. Video will not
be live streamed to this station.

c) 4x Mobile Videographers: Shooting mobile video of the event and
live-streaming it to the Mobile Souls VJ Station via Livecast.
Videographers will be positioned throughout the parade.

d) 4x Mobile SMS/MMS Outreachers: Outreaching to Parade of Lost
Souls attendees and introducing them to the Mobile Souls cell phone
texting platform. Instructing attendees on how to text in their
thoughts,
reflections and comments about the event to a specified Mobile
Souls phone number. These texts will be downloaded by a sift tool to
the VJ Stations.

You are also required to offer to text peoples comments for them
on your own phone, and to demonstrate the process.

The responsibilities for this contract include:

1. Attending an orientation workshop on Wednesday October 22 from
1-6pm at the Lori Krill Co-op at 65 W. Cordova

2. Attending the event on Saturday October 25th from setup at
5:00pm until the event ends at 12am. Wearing Halloween Costumes is
encouraged.

3. Completing a participant feedback form.

The Artist Fee for each position is $200.00.

Please submit a short paragraph stating your interest in the
project and a position to amy at fearlessmedia.ca by Tuesday October 21
at 12noon.
Amy Kazymerchyk
Fearless City Mobile
DTES Community Arts Network.

Strathcona has a Pumpkin

I love Strathcona!

Where else would someone have a pumpkin growing at the corner of the street.

2nd Annual Celebrity Dim Sum Fundraiser at Floata Restaurant

Be a part of a very special fundraising event on Saturday, October 25, 2008 at Floata Restaurant in Chinatown!

Carting dim sum favorites will be Rob Feenie (Cactus Club), Gloria Macarenko (CBC TV), Don Letendre (Opus Hotel) and many more recognizable faces! The event also includes fantastic performances, live entertainment, silent/live auction and more! Emcees for the event are Fred Lee (CBC’s Early Edition) and Dawn Chubai (CityTV’s Breakfast Television).

All proceeds of the event are directed to furthering ASIA’s mission of promoting the health of Asian communities by decreasing the impact of HIV/AIDS. ASIA provides multilingual, culturally appropriate services that support Asian Canadians in making informed choices and having equal access to care.

Celebrity Dim Sum '08

October 25, 2008 @ 10:30 AM
Tickets: $65, or $595 for a table of 10
Available through ASIA

Please contact (604) 669-5567
Sponsorship opportunities available.
Contact Suji Moon, Executive Director.

Vancouver moves closer to banning plastic bags

The City of Vancouver is one step closer to banning plastic disposable shopping bags after city council passed a motion Tuesday asking city staff to investigate the feasibility of a ban.

The motion also committed the city to approach the B.C. government for permission to ban plastic shopping bags and to ask the province to consider passing a provincial ban on the bags.

Coun. Tim Stevenson, who led the motion, said he believes Vancouverites are behind the idea of banning plastic bags because of the environmental damage they cause.

Phasing in a ban would be a better alternative than charging consumers for plastic bags because charging fees would only penalize the poor, he said.

CBC news

Climate Cafe presents a Free workshop on green building

Have you ever thought of building a kitchen countertop with recycled paper? How about putting clay on your wall instead of paint? What, exactly, is ecotimber?

Dan Chalmers of GreenWorks Building Supply Inc. will be our guest on October 21st for our Green Building Climate Café. He will be sharing his knowledge and experience in a number of environmentally friendly building supplies and practices that can be used both for starting a new home and renovating an existing one. If you're thinking of taking the plunge into the world of green building, or are simply curious about this newly emerging industry, join us and discover what sustainable building is all about.

Come and join us at:
Date: Tuesday, October 21st, 6:45 to grab some java and a snack, 7pm kickoff
Laughing Bean Coffee Co.
2695 Hastings Street East
Vancouver, BC

This event is FREE.

http://www.climatecafes.ca/

The Climate Cafés are a new initiative aimed at empowering people to make the small but important differences in their lifestyle that can have dramatic effects on the long-term health of our planet.

Modeled on the enormously popular philosopher’s café format, we intend to bring together small groups in the community for peer-to-peer problem solving to significantly reduce our environmental footprint. Incorporated with these community meetings is an online blog website, which will allow all climate café participants to freely exchange issues and ideas at any time.

STUFF HAPPENS

THE FIREHALL ARTS CENTRE UPCOMING PERFORMANCES & ACTIVITIES

David Hare's STUFF HAPPENS is a dynamic political drama. " I describe it as a play about how a supposedly stupid man, George W. Bush, gets everything he wants- and a supposedly clever man, Tony Blair , ends up with nothing he wants," states David Hare. Describing the events leading up to the 2003 invasion on Iraq, Stuff Happens provides a biting analysis of what happened and asks the audience to examine the power of dissent.

DATES: Preview October 17-21
Opens October 22 until November 8
TIME: Tuesday- Saturday 8:00pm
Wednesday Pay What You Can Matinees at 1pm
Saturday/Sunday Matinees at 2pm

Firehall Arts Centre
280 East Cordova Street@ Gore Ave.

Box Office: 604.689.0926
Office: 604.689.0691
Fax: 604.684.5841
Email: firehall@firehallartscentre.ca

Purchase tickets

Gallery Atsui opens doors in Strathcona

In addition to the Lower East Side Studio, another new gallery has opened recently on Hastings and Princess. Gallery Atsui is by appointment only and its founders are artists Alex Grewal and Sascha Yamashita and writer-designer Todd Nickel.

“I’ve got a background in commercial galleries and Alex has a background in artist-run centres,” Yamashita says. “We thought Todd would be a great third addition, having worked in other facets of the arts.”

The gallery’s front window features a collaborative textwork by its artists, Kim Kennedy Austin, Steve Calbert, and Aaron Carpenter. Inside, the beautiful watercolour drawings, digital abstractions, and felt cutouts are well served by the polished appearance of the room. Immaculate white walls, glossy grey floors, and discrete track lighting all contrast with the raw appearance of many artist-run enterprises.

Keeping expenses low was a significant factor in choosing the location, and in undertaking most of the renovations themselves. The three partners all have day jobs, and Grewal and Yamashita share the studio at the back of their rented space. “We’re a working studio-gallery space, we’re not a nonprofit organization,” says Yamashita. Grewal adds: “To go the nonprofit, artist-run centre route, there would be so many obstacles, like becoming a registered charity.”

Their aim is to produce monthly exhibitions, do some community outreach, and make Atsui self-supporting through sales. “We would really love it to break even,” says Nickel modestly.

Full Georgia Straight article.

Harper dead set against Insite

Amid protests, Conservative Leader Stephen Harper found himself once again defending his government's controversial efforts to end supervised street-drug injections at the Insite facility during a campaign stop in Richmond yesterday.

He said the Tories remain dead set against something they consider promoting drug use.

"When it comes to drug use, we want to make sure that we expend our resources on treatment and prevention, which we believe are the more appropriate vehicles," Mr. Harper said.

Proponents of Insite have expressed anger this week that the RCMP has commissioned research that offers contrary views of the facility's effectiveness.

Strathcona resident Gillian Maxwell, who lives near the Insite safe-injection site, said she felt compelled to join the protestors. "We're reminding Mr. Harper that we're still here, and we're not going away, and Insite isn't going away," she said. "Insite is a health-care facility, and it saves lives, and he can't shut it down."

Globe & Mail

The Province

Full Frontals - Rear Views

To the casual observer, this phrase could suggest at something rather provocative. It is, after all, referencing a Strathcona Vancouver photograph exhibit early in October.

Strathcona community residents are fortunate to have an opportunity to see a long-time Strathcona, Vancouver resident, Louise Francis-Smith, share her photographic expose of the neighbourhood.

Full Frontals, Rear Views

Louise Francis-Smith, a long-time resident artist of Strathcona has a collection of Strathcona photographs from many years past.

WHEN
October 3 - 19, 2008

OPENING RECEPTION
Friday October 3, 6-9pm

WHERE
RedIron Studio and Gallery
884 East Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC, V6A 2X1
604-254-0585

Read more about this photographic journey and introduction for the upcoming show at the LiveInStrathcona.com Arts & Culture pages about Louise Francis-Smith.

Ambassador Services expansion with Strathcona BIA to go before council

A Project Civil City report is recommending that the Committee on City Services and Budgets negotiate and enter into a one-year sole-source contract with the Strathcona and Chinatown BIA associations. These contracts recommended to council are for the expansion of the Ambassador Program with BIAs that also include Kerrisdale and Robson Street.

The recommendation and contractual delivery of the ambassador services would use trained professional service providers for the Chinatown and Strathcona Programs. Key elements in the programs involve street patrol duty, safe-walk services, criminal activity monitoring and data collection and tracking, and appropriate action taken under the Trespass Act. The Strathcona BIA program will also employ a unique combination of foot and bicycle patrols with some limited vehicle use (in occasional instances where patrol-personnel safety might be a concern) their program has significant on-street community interaction.

Full city report.

Georgia Straight article.