Election in Canada's 'little police state that could'

There will be an election this evening in the little police state
that could.

A new Board of Directors will be elected at the Carnegie
Centre on Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, a left wing organizing base
which doubles as a community centre. The election comes after a year of
assaults on democracy at Carnegie Centre through ’star chambers’
hearings and secret interrogations to have bloggers barred, and even
recruitment of Vancouver Police -- Constable Dave Hancock et al -- to intimidate bloggers daring to expose
Carnegie practices.

The Carnegie election will change nothing. The same cluster of left
wingers tends to get regularly elected. Most people in this Downtown
Eastside neighborhood don’t show up at the Carnegie election. One
35-year resident and activist who wished to remain anonymous — speaking
out can get you blacklisted from jobs and other perks in this ‘company
town’ where everybody relies on government funding — scoffed, “You
can’t change anything there!”

There will be no scrutineers to ensure fairness — even though a few
Downtown Eastside residents have stated that they would like to see
them. Last year, when Carnegie member Bill Simpson spoke up at the
Annual General Meeting and asked if there were scrutineers, Director
Ethel Whitty — who is paid $104,000 annually to enhance life in
Canada’s poorest neighborhood — completely ignored him. Then Stephen
Lytton, who up until that time had been viewed by residents as the
token native on the Carnegie Board, showed some backbone. He turned to
Whitty and said, “The man asked a question”. Whitty then curtly
answered Simpson, “It’s taken care of.” Whatever that means.

Whitty would later be involved in ‘taking care’ of Simpson by
barring him from computers at the Carnegie Learning Centre, accusing
him — wrongly — of blogging.

There will be a major difference this year though. Margaret “Muggs”
Sigurdson and her spouse, retired Vancouver Sun reporter Bob Sarti who yelled, "Tattle tale Queen of the Carnegie!" when he spotted a suspected blogger in a Carnegie corridor, will not be running.

To read the rest of this article, go to Downtown Eastside Enquirer.