City Changes Story in Barring of Elected Blogger

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Bill Simpson, Carnegie Centre Board Member

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The City of Vancouver is now on it’s third version of why a homeless
man, Bill Simpson, has been barred from the Carnegie Center. Simpson,
an elected Carnegie Board member, is not allowed into the building even
to attend Board meetings.

During Monday evening’s Board meeting at Carnegie, Simpson stood on
the sidewalk outside. The City’s on-site manager, Ethel Whitty, was
inside presenting the City’s new, improved reason for barring Simpson,
a reason that not even Simpson had yet heard.

The various versions of the Vancouver City vacillators

Version 1: In Dec. 2006, Simpson was barred from
the Carnegie Learning Centre, accused by Carnegie management of
“blogging” on the Downtown Eastside Enquirer.

Version 2: On June 21, 2007, Simpson was barred
from the entire Carnegie building for operating a website which
features “links” to the Downtown Eastside Enquirer blog. He was
provided this reason in a letter on Vancouver City letterhead, signed
by General Manager of Community Services, Jacquie Forbes-Roberts.

Version 3: On June 25, 2007, just three working
days after Simpson received the official notice of the barring on
Vancouver City letterhead, the City revised the reason for the barring.
Whitty announced to the public at a Carnegie Board meeting that Simpson
had been barred because, “In fact, we are left with an unsafe situation
in the Carnegie where there are staff members who are afraid to come
into the building because of the situation with the blog.” This issue,
which Ethel referred to as “Work Safe”, had never before been
mentioned, not even to Simpson who was standing outside on the sidewalk
with a borrowed cell phone. (Now a week later, Simpson still has not
been informed of this reason for his barring.)

Board member Grant Chauncey was skeptical of version 3. I have the
WorkSafe reference manual at home, he told Whitty. “Maybe you could
point it out, where this applies because,” he said emphatically, “I don’t see it…I
want you to show it to me, right, as soon as we leave here.” Whitty
refused: “I’m not going to show it to you…” Chauncey told her that she
had a responsibility to explain this barring to the Board. “I’m not
actually responsible to you”, she retorted.

Then Whitty told Chauncey, “I’m explaining it to you out of respect.” But of course she had just refused to explain it.

Two people who several Carnegie members believe have some explaining to do are Mayor Sam Sullivan and City Manager Judy Rogers.

City accused of suppressing evidence that was in the possession of the Mayor and City Manager

When drawing up their latest argument that Simpson was creating an
“unsafe” environment at Carnegie, Downtown Eastside residents allege,
the City suppressed evidence to the contrary. That evidence was in the
form of two e-mails sent to Rogers, dated Dec. 4/06 and Dec. 14/06, and
one sent to Mayor Sam Sullivan dated Mar. 21, 2007, three months before
the final barring. The e-mails informed them that Carnegie patrons
“using the internet to speak freely about practices at Carnegie” were
being placed at risk by the conduct of Board members and workers at
Carnegie. The e-mail author, who provided specifics of staff abuse,
portrayed Bill and other alleged internet writers as the victims, not
the cause of the increasingly “toxic” environment at Carnegie.

Jacquie Forbes-Roberts exposed as allowing her City department’s
web page to link to a publication abusing bloggers and reinforcing a
witch hunt for a blogger

In accusing Simpson of creating an “unsafe” environment, Jacquie
Forbes-Roberts and the City are being accused of ignoring a ‘witch
hunt’ approach to bloggers reinforced by the Carnegie Newsletter. The
Carnegie Newsletter is a publication that the City of Vancouver
official website identifies as being produced under the managerial eye
of Ethel Whitty and Jacquie Forbes-Roberts in Community Services.

In the Dec. 15/06 issue of the Carnegie Newsletter — shortly before
Simpson was barred the first time — editor Paul Taylor called the DTES
Enquirer blogger a “blog bozo”, “slimy”, a “blank”, a “four year old
spoiled brat pissing his pants”, a “pest”. The blogger was further
described as a “neighborhood snitch”, a “dismal excuse”.

Taylor praised Board member Bob Sarti in the newsletter for his role
in what Carnegie members have described as a witch hunt for a blogger
(by then Bill Simpson had been falsely identified as the blogger): “Bob
is one of the unsung heroes for getting to the bottom of this guy’s
attempts to remain anonymous….” Sarti, who for years wrote under
pseudonyms in the Carnegie Newsletter, had earned a reputation for
wagging his finger in Simpson’s face in the corridor and hollering,
“Tattle tale Queen of the Carnegie! — prompting Simpson to write to
Whitty to request that she call off the “mad dog”.

On the City’s official website, the Community Services page
identifying Forbes-Roberts as the department head, features a link to
the Carnegie Newsletter. A link? Isn’t that what she barred Simpson for?

To read the complete story entitled, “City on ‘weak, weak ground’ in Barring Elected Blogger”, go to Downtown Eastside Enquirer