Community Links Bulletin - May to June 2010

April 28, 2010
Updates from Libby

Dear friends,

I’m pleased to present the latest issue of the Community Links Bulletin. Thank you to all of the organizations and individuals who share information, so we can be aware of what’s happening in our community. I really appreciate your feedback and submissions for inclusion in our Community Links Bulletin – please keep it coming as I learn so much from it.

National Day of Mourning

April 28, 2010 Press Release

Dear Friends,

On this National Day of Mourning we pause to honour the women and men who have lost their lives or been injured at work, and recommit to enforce the laws and standards for better workplace safety.

Sincerely,
Libby

Statement by New Democrat Leader Jack Layton on the National Day of Mourning

Today New Democrats across the country mark the National Day of Mourning and honour those men and women who have been injured or killed on the job.

Since the Canadian Labour Congress first created the Day of Mourning in 1984 we have seen successive governments pledge to support workers. In addition to new legislation on workplace safety, the government needs to provide the resources to enforce these laws.

In 1991, the House of Commons adopted a New Democrat Bill to proclaim April 28th as the National Day of Mourning for workers killed or injured on the job. In the 19 years since, the number of workplace fatalities has only been increasing. In the last decade, that increase was a staggering 35 per cent. No one should leave their home in the morning wondering whether today is the day that they die on the job. Every single workplace death and injury is preventable.

We have an obligation to act. We have an obligation to enact and enforce laws that prevent occupational fatalities and diseases. We have an obligation to ensure that every workplace is safe.
Let this be the year that we finally see the statistics start to improve. Let this be the year that we finally see the strengthening of labour and safety standards and improved enforcement.

-30-

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Celebrating Earth Day

Happy Earth Day!

Today is the 20th Anniversary of Earth Day in Canada, a day to take action on the environment.

For information about Earth Day celebrations in your neigbourhood, and what steps you can take to protect our enviroment, pelase visit www.earthday.ca.

Sincerely,

Libby

Libby calls on federal government to keep Vancouver shelters open

April 16, 2010 Open Letters to Ministers & Public Officials

Hon. Diane Finley
Minister responsible for
Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation
House of Commons
Ottawa, ON K1A 0A6

Dear Minister Finley,

I write to bring your attention to the urgent housing situation in Vancouver, as the city faces the loss of hundreds of emergency shelter beds on April 30, 2010.

Without immediate support, several Vancouver Homeless Emergency Action Team (HEAT) shelters will close at the end of this month, leaving a shortage of 500 beds in a region where the homeless population has grown by 12% since 2008.

The Vancouver Police have said that the shelters are “nothing short of a blessing” and directly attribute a reduction of crime to the availability of housing. The Downtown Vancouver Business Improvement Association is also speaking in support of funding for the shelters as a benefit to the business community, reducing the number of people on the streets and problems with disorderly conduct.

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Celebrating 35 Years of Community Radio in Vancouver!

Libby Davies's picture
April 15, 2010
Updates from Libby

Congratulations to Co-op Radio on its 35th Anniversary - here is to 35 years of great, member driven, community radio from "the heart of the Downtown Eastside Vancouver". Thank you for being such a strong voice for independant and progressive media in Vancouver and sharing the stories and events of our city and beyond.

Sincerely,
Libby

Please visit this link for information and dates on the Co-op’s calendar of events celebrating their anniversary http://www.coopradio.org/events/index.html

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Fair Trade not Free Trade - Libby on the proposed Canada-Columbia Free Trade Agreement

March 30, 2010 Speeches in Parliament

HANSARD
HOUSE OF COMMONS
March 30, 2010

Canada Columbia Free Trade Agreement

Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP):
Mr. Speaker, I am very proud to rise in the House today, and I hope there will be many more members who rise after me to debate this bill and to defeat this bill, because that is what we are aiming to do.

It was very interesting to hear the Minister of Labour just a few moments ago. I guess the Conservatives are feeling a bit vulnerable with respect to this bill now, feeling they have to send in more ministers to defend their very bad position on this Bill C-2, the Canada-Colombia free trade agreement.

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Emergency Debate to save the Aboriginal Healing Foundation

March 30, 2010 Speeches in Parliament

The NDP called an emergency debate to reinstate funding for the Aboriginal Healing Foundation(AHF) before it runs out on March 31. The AHF delivers 135 projects across Canada to support tens of thousands of residential school survivors. Without alerting the AHF, the Conservative government did not include funding for the Foundation in the 2010 federal budget tabled on March 4th.

EMERGENCY DEBATE
Aboriginal Healing Foundation
HANSARD
MARCH 30, 2010

Ms. Libby Davies (Vancouver East, NDP):

I am very glad to be rising in the House tonight, even at this late hour, to participate in this emergency debate. The first thing I would like to do is to thank the member for Churchill who applied for this emergency debate, which was granted by the Speaker, and to thank her for bringing this forward so that we could actually participate in this really critical discussion tonight about what is going to happen to the Aboriginal Healing Foundation.

When the member for Churchill led off the debate at the beginning of the evening, I remember her speaking about the fact that she was not in the House when the historic apology took place on June 11, 2008. I am sure she, like others across the country, was probably in her community with many people who were witnessing that historic occasion.

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