Governor-General Michaelle Jean arriving at the DTES Women's Centre

Community activists learned a few days ago that Governor General
Michaelle Jean (the Queen's representative to the federal government,
for those of you who don't know Canadian politics) wanted to visit the
Downtown Eastside Women's Centre. The Centre is a haven to women on the
streets and Native women of this poor community ... and an unofficial
shelter as well, as many women sleep on its floors at night when all
the other shelters are full.



Upon hearing that Jean was coming, the useless and despised mayor of
Vancouver, Sam Sullivan, declared his intention to attend - this after
years of his party's faciliting "the bulldozer solution" to poverty in
the Downtown Eastside - and so a rally formed to keep him the hell out.
At the last minute, we learned that he had chickened out and sent
another city councillor instead, a woman - but one so equally despised
that she was barred from entering the Centre too!



The Governor General was inside speaking with women from the community
for over an hour and a half ... and my camera died minutes before she
was to walk out! But I did get this very lucky shot of her and her
entourage arriving. I also met two of my local Flickr buds at the
rally. A good day!



(Any day when I face down 2 dozen cops and a phalanx of TV cameras is a good day in my book. More pics later.)