The 2010 Homelessness Hunger Strike Relay began in Vancouver at the beginning of the new year. It was created as an active symbol to have the federal government really respond to the homeless crises in Canada by having re-established the National Housing Program based on the One Percent Solution.

Every week we have new volunteers take on the Wooden Spoon and fast for 7 days (They can drink juice). We will carry on the relay past the 2010 Winter Olympics straight into June 2010. This will commemorate the On To Ottawa Trek.

On To Ottawa Treck

At this point people will board the train to Ottawa with petition in hand and show the government that we are seriously demanding the national housing program and the One Percent Solution to be put in place. We intend to let the international community know what's happening and what the solution is.

In the severe economic depression of 1929-39 Canadian labour engaged in many fierce battles. One of the highlights was the general strike of young unemployed single men
in work camps in the province of British Columbia on Canada's west coast in April,1935 where they laboured six and a half days a week for the paltry wage of 20 cents a day.

The strikers abandoned the camps and congregated in the city of Vancouver. After two months of valiant but unsuccessful struggle for union wages, they decided to take their
case direct to Ottawa, the nation's capital, three thousand miles to the east. Their journey was enshrined in history as the On To Ottawa Trek (www.ontoottawa.ca).

They left Vancouver on June 3. "Riding the rod" (on and in railway freight cars) across mountains and prairie they reached Regina, still only half way to Ottawa. Here
they were stopped by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP)on orders from Ottawa and a month later the strike was brutally smashed on July 1 in a police-inspired riot and its
leaders arrested.

Their epic strike and trip captured the hearts and minds of Canadians.

While the strike was suppressed, it wasn't lost. In the federal election a few months later, the hated,repressive Conservative government of Prime Minister R.B."Iron Heel" Bennett went down to resounding defeat. The new Liberal government felt compelled to abolish the camps.

As a delegation from the 2010 Homelessness Hunger Strike (www.2010homelessness.ca) makes a commemorative trek to Ottawa in June 2010, we are trying to raise funds to
subsidize some of the participants in this year's trek and also raise money for a commemorative plaque which will be placed on the Main Street overpass.

 

Letter sent

January 23rd, 2009 by Marria Townsend, MSc, MD, CCFP

Dear Prime Minister Harper, Premier Campbell and Mayor Robertson,

I am writing to advise you that beginning Sunday January 25th I will be participating in a rotating hunger strike to draw attention to the problem of homelessness and to demand a national housing strategy. With my involvement, I respectfully urge you to consider what you can do as an elected representative, to immediately address the homelessness crisis.

As a family physician, I am gravely concerned about the homelessness problem in our country. On a daily basis, myself and my colleagues - from clerical staff, to clinical staff and right on up to management - are confronted with health problems that are caused by or exacerbated by a lack of adequate housing. I work in a clinic that exists to improve the health of marginalized communities, but our skills and our passion are inadequate in the face of homelessness. The communities we serve, including people with addictions and other mental health conditions, people living with HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C, lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans people, youth, Aboriginal people, refugees and seniors are disproportionately affected by poverty and homelessness. My efforts to educate, to prevent, to diagnose, to treat, to comfort and to advocate are severely undermined when the people I am trying to help are homeless, or housed in appalling conditions.

It’s very difficult to persuade patients to care about their hepatitis C, their high blood pressure, their mental health or their addiction when they don’t even know where their next meal is coming from, where they will find shelter tonight, or how they will stay safe from violence on the street. How can I get them to care, when we as a society care so little about them?

It is shocking and embarrassing that one of the most prosperous nations in the world allows this to happen. In my mind, it is utterly callous to spend billions of dollars on sports and entertainment, while refusing to uphold the basic human rights of our most disadvantaged citizens. We need clean, safe, affordable housing for all – not bug-infested, mouldy rooms in the downtown eastside, with landlords who routinely violate the rights of their tenants – we can do better and we should start now. I call on all levels of government to immediately commit to and take action on this urgent issue. I look forward to your response,

Sincerely,

Marria Townsend, MSc, MD, CCFP
Physician, Three Bridges Community Health Centre, Vancouver, BC