Busy Saturday: Four Events, about Disability Benefits, Rights of Foreign Students, Drug Policy, and Palestine

Advocates in town had a lot to complain about this Saturday, which kept be busy all day long. First there was a rally calling for an end to legislated poverty for the disabled, then I bumped into foreign students furious about the provincial government pulling the carpet from beneath their feet, then I spoke as a panelist on drug policy, and finally ran to catch the twenty-fourth weekend Palestine solidarity rally in a row.

No way I’m writing four articles tonight, so here it comes in digest form:

Disability Rally

This morning the Disability Action Page of Canada has hosted another rally at the Legislature, asking of both the provincial and federal governments to increase the allowance of disabled people by three hundred dollars, a meagre raise but a step in reducing legislated poverty in this province. Notably, MLA Adam Walker briefly attended the event.

I’ve ranted before about the group struggling to attract any attendance to its rallies due to terrible planning. This time I have to commend them for their efforts, even though no more than a dozen people showed up in total. But rallying disabled people is hard for as many reasons as individuals among its target audience, while convincing able people to address the wrongs against the disabled is an uphill battle. Also of note is that local disability advocacy groups were invited, but none showed up, to the dismay of the attendance.

The organisers had planned a march during which they would have distributed postcards addressed to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and his Minister of Finance Chrystia Freeland, but low attendance and terrible weather forced them to cancel it.

We still managed to distribute postcards on the Legislature precincts. Some people approached us, mostly sceptical of our agenda; they would rather see a drop in their tax rates than an increase in disability benefit rates, perhaps not understanding that driving disabled people to indigence only adds to the public’s tab due to the unintended fallout, from increased health care expenses to the costs of additional policing.

The group is planning more frequent and diverse events over the summer. Stay tuned!

BCPNP Protest

While hundreds of foreign students were rallying in Vancouver to protest the sudden change in admissibility criteria to the BC Provincial Nominee Program (BCPNP), a much smaller group of a couple dozens did the same at the Legislature here in Victoria.

The government recently announced acceptance for STEM programs would no longer be automatic, and instead require a year of work experience prior to admission.

While the students do not object to the changes per se, they most acutely protest how it undercuts those who came all the way from Asia under the previous terms, only to be told in the middle of the program that they are no longer eligible. Some of the students I’ve talked to gave up everything to settle and study in Canada, may it be their job or even their home, and may end up with only worthless credits due to the provincial government reneging on its promise.

Protesters argued, and even chanted, that students admitted under the old rules should be allowed to continue their studies under the terms they signed up for. Which does strike me as a sensible demand. Canada’s reputation as an international study hub may end up severely tarnished if the province does not adjust its course accordingly.

Drug Policy Panel

This afternoon I spoke as a panelist at a drug policy talk titled “Confronting Addiction & the Fentanyl Epidemic” hosted by the CREAN Society at St. Ann’s Academy. Don’t ask me how I ended up being invited there, I have no idea, but I wasn’t about to chicken out; I am a member of Moms Stop The Harm and VANDU, after all, so I was up to the challenge.

We were two dozens in a room in total for about an hour and a half. The discussion revolved around harm reduction and the multiple crises surrounding it, such as homelessness and lack of access to the health care system. There were two other panelists beside me: one with lived experience of homelessness and drug use now working for the Cool Aid Society, the other an indigenous mother who lost her daughter to the drug poisoning crisis. We had very different backgrounds and stakes in the discussion, which kept the debate interesting.

We were likewise surrounded by an attendance with varied views. Some of them were converts, other sceptics, but everyone contributed to the conversation in some capacity. I had no problem with those expressing reservations pertaining to harm reduction, I myself being the most apprehensive of drug user advocates out there. We all left having learned something we didn’t know, and left the door open to another talk in the future, this time focusing on solutions rather than problems.

Palestine Rally

I arrived late to this weekend’s Palestine solidarity rally at the Legislature due to the overlap in my schedule, in the middle of the first speech which I couldn’t record. What immediately surprised me was the rather low turnout; I counted about 275 at peak attendance, which is the lowest I’ve recorded so far. Of course the weather was terrible, but I wonder whether the drop can be attributed to indulgence in the wake of this week’s breakthrough on the political scene.

Indeed, last Monday the federal government finally voted to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, along with additional measures such as a freeze on new permits for weapon exports to Israel. This has been criticised by observers as falling short of a genuine arms embargo, since it allows exports that have already been approved, and only extends to ordnances classified as lethal, which of course does not preclude military gear in general. Nevertheless, it has been received by advocates as a step in the right direction, even though multiple amendments by the Liberals to the original NDP motion watered it down.

The US also called for a ceasefire in Gaza on Thursday, during a press conference by Secretary of State Antony Blinken. He also announced a motion to be presented to the UN Security Council the next day, although it ended up being vetoed by both Russia and China because its language was too mild to be binding. Algeria also voted it down, for being weaker than the one it proposed last month and which the US vetoed. Guyana abstained while expressing similar reservations. The rationale of course is that a weak resolution would get in the way of a good one.

Okay, I’m dead tired after all this. The moment I’m done uploading I’m so lying down…