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AHA MEDIA to participate in Pivot’s Hope In Shadows 3-Day Photography Contest in Vancouver Downtown Eastside (DTES)
PIVOT’s Hope In Shadows 3-Day Photography Contest
Vancouver Downtown Eastside Photography Contest

First Prize (1 winner): $500 cash
Second Prize ( 5 winners): $100 cash each
Third Prize (10 winners: $50 cash each
Honourable Mention (24 winners): $25 cash each
Every contestant will get $5 cash when they turn in their camera
Winning photos will be exhibited and may be used in the 2010 Hope In Shadows calendar
Free Cameras and training provided


This year’s theme Heart of our Community
Cost to enter: Free! First Come, First Served

Pick up cameras: 10:30am, Saturday June 6
Interurban Gallery (1 East Hastings)
Contest ends 5pm, Tuesday June 9
Space is limited to 200 contestants

Each contestant will be given a disposable camera at the beginning of the contest
All pictures must be taken with an official contest camera.
You enter your photos by turning your camera in, – we take care of developing and printing!

To see 200 photos, please see our Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ahamedia/sets/72157619350888586/
Downtown Eastside Photography Contest sponsored by Pivot Legal Society

PIVOT Legal Newswire – Call 911 on “beggars, says VPD

| Call 911 on “beggars”, says VPD
Vancouver, April 23, 2009 – The Vancouver Police Department is instructing Dunbar residents to call 911 whenever they see “beggars” on Dunbar Street. “The Vancouver Police Department has instructed Dunbar Community Patrollers to call 911 when they see beggars on Dunbar Street and I would urge you to do so too,” wrote Linda MacAdam, Chair of the Dunbar Community Patrol, in an email to residents. MacAdam noted that these instructions were confirmed by Sergeant Randy Regush of the Vancouver Police Department. Vancouver ranked last among 13 North American cities surveyed in terms of police response times, according to a 2007 report to Vancouver city council. The report called for increased funding for police officers to address the slow response times, which for a 911 break and enter call stretch to 34 minutes on average. The current yearly VPD budget is over $195 million, almost one-quarter of the City’s total budget. “In 2008 Vancouver police spent thousands of hours ticketing Downtown Eastside residents for minor bylaw infractions, and in the West Side they treat legal panhandling as a 911 emergency,” says Laura Track, Pivot’s housing campaign lawyer. “Every year the VPD asks for more funding, but people need to ask if harassing poor people is how they should be spending that money.” “This is just another example of a broader pattern of criminalizing poverty and restricting poor people’s lawful access to public space.” “I was shocked to see this message advocating that we call 911 when we see a beggar” syas Randy Puder, a West Side resident. “What a waste of tax money. The homeless need compassion and assistance, not police making their lives even more difficult.” |

