Episode 18: Blue Metal Fence

Image: Oppenheimer Park, empty and surrounded by blue metal fence. (Photo: Alexander Kim)

The first thing that the plague brought to Vancouver was exile.

In March, People vanished. The city looked like a ghost town. But on the Downtown Eastside, the sidewalks were still packed. People still lining up for food. And lining up to get into supervised injection sites. Vancouver’s biggest tent city--Oppenheimer Park-- had never been so full.

Transcript

A full transcript of this episode is available here. 

Links

The Homeless Idea podcast https://thehomelessidea.ca/

The Right to Remain research project http://www.righttoremain.ca/

Credits

Crackdown is produced on the territories of the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh Nations. 

This month we lost a good friend, warrior and activist - Wade Crawford - from Six Nations. RiP Wade

Thank you to the Red Braid Alliance for Stewart Squat audio. Thank you to Global News Vancouver and CTV News Vancouver for newscast audio.

Our Editorial Board is: Samona Marsh, Shelda Kastor, Greg Fresz, Jeff Louden, Dean Wilson, Al Fowler, Laura Shaver. Rest in Peace Dave Murray and Chereece Keewatin.

Crackdown’s senior producer is Sam Fenn. Our producers are Lisa Hale and Alexander Kim. 

Our science advisor is Ryan McNeil. Assistant Professor & Director of Harm Reduction Research at the Yale School of Medicine. 

Garth Mullins is our host, writer and executive producer. You can follow him on twitter @garthmullins. 

Original score written and performed by Sam Fenn, James Ash and Garth. Our theme song was written by me and Sam with accompaniment from Dave Gens and Ben Appenheimer.   

We make this podcast with funds from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. And from our Patreon supporters.