Childhood Abuse Brought Me to the Downtown Eastside
A dispatch from the In our Own Voices writing project VANCOUVER—In 1954, when I was six years old, I came to Canada from Germany. Ever since then I have lived in Vancouver. When I was growing up, my...
View ArticleMental Health and Police Violence
A dispatch from the In our Own Voices writing project VANCOUVER—The heart of the Downtown Eastside (DTES) is home to survivors of the war on terror: the terror of poverty, physical and spiritual...
View ArticleMy Story of Domestic Violence and Child Apprehension
A dispatch from the In our Own Voices writing project VANCOUVER—I was abused by my ex-partner, who is also my children’s father, for ten and a half years. I had four children with him—Angela, Rosalie,...
View ArticleThe Intergenerational Impact of Child Apprehension
A dispatch from the In our Own Voices writing project VANCOUVER—At the age of 12 years old is when the abuse in my parents’ home started. My siblings and I were subjected to physical and emotional...
View ArticleThe Foster Home System Damaged Me
A dispatch from the In our Own Voices writing project VANCOUVER—I was born in 1957 and in my early years I lived in a cabin with my mother and six siblings in Quesnel, BC. When I was eight years old,...
View ArticleDaily Struggle and Resistance in the Downtown Eastside
A dispatch from the In our Own Voices writing project VANCOUVER—I could not help wondering what life would have been like if I had stayed back East, as I walked on Hastings and Main Street on a gray,...
View ArticleBeing an Addict and Working the Streets on Skid Row
A dispatch from the In our Own Voices writing project VANCOUVER—When I was about 15 years old I ran away from my parent’s home in Burnaby. My parents were alcoholics and there was a lot of abusive...
View ArticleThe Kingdom of Hastings and Main
A dispatch from the In our Own Voices writing project VANCOUVER—In the fall of 2008, I lost my sister to brain cancer. Only one month later, I lost one of my lifetime friends to a heart attack. A few...
View ArticleHomelessness and Police Brutality
A dispatch from the In our Own Voices writing project VANCOUVER—In the winter of 2000, I was co-managing a four bedroom house in Walley, BC. My co-manager and I became friends, but eventually he...
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