Vancouver to Extend Drinking Hours

Vancouver bars and nightclubs can extend serving drinks 

Vancouver city council has approved extending business hours of bars and pubs to as late as 4am. It is not just limited to the downtown core, but to the City of Vancouver, and business owners are elated.

These businesses can apply to extend its hours; not all bars and pubs need to do this, only if they think they can make more money from it. There are 209 licensed bars and nightclubs in Vancouver.

"This is changing the perception of 'liquor primary license" to 'vibrant gathering places' for communities to meet in real life," said Cameron Bogue, owner-operator of Mount Pleasant Vintage and Provisions, a cocktail bar disguised as a thrift shop.

Will there be an uptick in alcohol sales?

"I've opened one of the most successful restaurants in the city, with staggering year-over-year growth, because we're providing [what] the community wants -- a place to socialise, rub elbows, simply stand with a drink and dance where they can meet people in an engaging high-volume cocktail bar."

Not everyone is for longer hours for drinking, like Mark Lysyshyn, medical health officer, Vancouver Coastal Health.

"Increasing alcohol consumption into the late night or early morning hours is particularly risky, and the risk increases as you get later in the evening," he said.

"It's not so much that more people drink into the evening -- it's just the type of drinking that's done in that timeframe is more risky, it's more likely to result in problems," he said, referring to a risk of injuries, violence and the potential for harm to others compared to allowing earlier opening hours.

It seems counterintuitive to the trends of alcohol consumption and partying habits these days. Gen Z are drinking much less alcohol than previous generations, and people in their 30s and 40s would prefer to party during the day (again with less alcohol) than at night. 

Perhaps bar and pub owners are hoping longer hours will lead to more business? It's probably marginal. 

It'll be interesting to see how many bars actually apply and report back the increase in alcohol sales, and how many more incidents the Vancouver Police report in the wee hours...

Anticipating the Swiftie Invasion

The VPD are gearing up for the Eras Tour

The countdown has begun with Taylor Swift coming in days -- days! to Vancouver.

However it's going to be pandemonium in the downtown area with Swifties descending into BC Place.

Early next week a fence will be erected around the stadium so only the 160,000 ticket holders can enter the area, and concertgoers are encouraged to walk, ride bikes or take public transportation downtown.

The horses have necklaces too

What complicates things is that nearby is Cirque du Soleil performing, and a Canucks game at Rogers Arena.

Unlike Toronto where an unofficial Taylorgate party was held at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre near the Rogers Centre venue for Swifties who do or don't have tickets, there isn't any such meeting place for them in Vancouver.

Fans are disappointed to hear this, but some think they will find a way to congregate somewhere nearby anyway. Come on! It's her last three shows of the entire tour! And the vast majority of the attendees will be women who just want to meet each other!

But Vancouver officials aren't taking any chances. They warned no overnight camping near the stadium would be allowed, and roads near BC Place would be closed from noon until midnight during concert days.

And aren't these police horses dressed for the occasion? The necklaces were gifted by the Toronto Police Service, and the giant inflatable bracelet that adorned other Eras Tour venues will be draped around BC Place too.

Random Attacks Leave Vancouverites Feeling Unsafe

Queen Elizabeth Theatre was cordoned off by police yesterday

People in Vancouver were shaken by the horrific attacks in the downtown area yesterday morning that left one man dead and another with a severed hand.

Today 34-year-old Brendan Colin McBride of White Rock made an appearance in court charged with aggravated assault and second-degree murder. In court he reportedly sat on the ground and gave a wordless wail.

Yesterday morning around 7.40am, Vancouver police received reports of a man in his 50s who was attacked at Cathedral Square at Richards and Dunsmuir who was bleeding from his head and one hand severed.

Blood stains at Cathedral Square from the attack

Less than 10 minutes later at the plaza of Queen Elizabeth Theatre at West Georgia and Hamilton -- just across from the CBC -- another man who was 70 years old was attacked and later died. 

About an hour later, McBride was arrested at Habitat Island, near Olympic Village. On Google maps it would take around 23 minutes to walk there, if he took the route of walking across the Cambie Street Bridge.

VPD Sergeant Steve Addison confirmed the man's severed hand was reattached. 

Perhaps just as shocking was that McBride has had 60 recorded run-ins with the police, and VPD Chief Constable Adam Palmer says the suspect "appears to be a very troubled man".

Why wasn't anything done earlier? If someone has had 60 documented contacts with the police, surely something is wrong with that person?

All day today the CBC Radio Vancouver talked about the attacks, interviewing Vancouver Mayor Ken Sim, who said there needed to be more of a concerted effort from provincial and federal governments, and admitted he was unable to fulfill his election promise of hiring 100 mental health nurses to work with police officers; apparently only 20 have been recruited.

Police Chief Palmer says suspect known to police

Listeners these two days were terrified and many said the former mental health institution Riverview should have never been shut down, that people with mental illness should be in a place where they cannot harm the rest of the population.

However, Dr Bill McEwan who has worked in the Downtown Eastside for a long time says Riverview, where he had worked at, was a terrible place for the mentally ill because of the facilities and care there. He says they need more treatment made available.

Another call-in show had callers who talked about not being able to get treatment for their loved ones who were psychotic, and a man was forced to go on pension because he was diagnosed as mentally ill but could not get the treatment he needed and is contemplating leaving the country to get help. Another talked about how their mentally ill daughter was living in a building with drug addicts.

It seems like many systems and governments have dropped the ball and there is no focused strategy to figure out how these people will be treated on a case-by-case basis, as each person's needs are different, how they will be housed, treated, and somehow get back on their feet, and how this will all be paid for.

The other frustrating thing is that these people need to recognise they need help before they can get treatment -- if they can get access to it. 

Hopefully these incidents will be the tipping point -- to get governments into action and be accountable for what is happening on the streets of Vancouver, and the rest of British Columbia. While the crime rate is statistically down, we are still seeing horrific crimes like the ones committed yesterday. It's the randomness that makes it so terrifying...

Chinatown Festival Ends with Stabbings

The stabbings occurred near this stage at Keefer and Columbia

"Light Up Chinatown" was meant to be an open invitation for people to come to the neighbourhood and patronise the shops and restaurants in the run up to the Mid-Autumn Festival at the end of this month.

However, just as the two-day event was wrapping up, before 6pm, a 64-year-old man suddenly stabbed three people near the stage at the intersection of Keefer and Columbia streets.

The victims, a couple in their 60s and a young woman in her 20s were given immediate care and sent to hospital, while the police -- who were providing security for the event -- interviewed witnesses for a description of the assailant and soon after arrested the man, Blair Evan Donnelly nearby in the Downtown Eastside.

Police arrested the attacker, no known motive

It turns out he was on a day pass from a local psychiatric facility. In 2006 he had killed his 16-year-old daughter in Kitimat. He was charged with second-degree murder, but was found not guilty in January 2008 because of a mental disorder and was sent to Forensic Psychiatric Hospital in Coquitlam.

Yesterday he was charged with three counts of aggravated assault.

It was shocking to hear the news and that the perpetrator has a mental illness. 

Carol Lee, the chair of the Vancouver Chinatown Foundation was around 20 feet away from where the attacks happened and was devastated by the horrific incident.

"I think if you were close by, it's a traumatic thing to see somebody at a community event, just an innocent bystander, getting stabbed," she said.

Lee broke down during the press conference, describing the attacks as feeling "very personal. We've worked very hard to put this festival and the community together to celebrate all the progress that we have made."

Lee in tears during press conference

Revitalising and making Chinatown safe has been a priority for Mayor Ken Sim, who said in a press release that the "senseless violence is heartbreaking."

"We will not allow this senseless act of violence to disrupt celebrations of all that makes our city great, and we will work each and every day to ensure Vancouver is a place where people can live, work, and thrive in a safe environment."

To that end it was a surprise to see a lot of police officers in Chinatown today. At lunchtime, four of them patronised the same cha chaan teng as us, with two police cars parked in front. Afterwards we saw two cops patrolling the streets.

It was reassuring to see them around to give a sense of security... though they need to be around more often to really give people peace of mind and feel safe in the area.

Vancouver's Downtown Eastside Cleared Out

Police officers standing by as the streets were cleaned up

This morning people who reside on the streets of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside got a rude wake-up call -- pack up and leave -- now.

The city suddenly announced it would be clearing what is described as an encampment of some 80 people, with city workers clearing out several blocks along East Hastings Street and Chinatown next door, with police officers standing by. One hundred and forty people were involved in the operation.

Conveniently the city's cameras that monitor the area were not working while the clean-up occurred, and media rushed to the scene to document the situation. Tents, tarps, mattresses, clothing, and other detritus were thrown into waiting garbage trucks.

Some 80 tents, stuff were removed from sidewalks

Two days earlier homeless advocates got hold of a document from the city and leaked it to the media, as it said municipal officials were moving ahead to clear the area that has been occupied for years by homeless people.

At around 9.08am, city sanitation workers began removing the 80 or so tents that remained in the area -- there had been a few hundred months earlier. In the last eight months there have been 400 fires set in the downtown east side and Chinatown by homeless people cooking or staying warm in tents, and four people injured. 

In July the fire chief declared the area a fire hazard, but stopped short of sweeping the area clean at that time.

While homeless people had mere minutes to pick up all their belongings and leave the area this morning, their advocates complained these people had no where to go and would be back, that it was not fair to remove them now when there wasn't adequate housing. 

The encampment used to stretch for blocks

When asked by reporters where they would go, the homeless people had no idea, only knowing that they were not wanted in the area, but they would be back, and about a dozen or so did return later in the day.

Although it is good to finally have the place cleaned up -- no more tents, stuff, and human faeces strewn on the sidewalks, where are these homeless people going to go? The notorious single-room occupancy suites known as SROs are uninhabitable with bugs and rats, but at the same time drug-addicted people cannot properly look after themselves either. 

They say they feel safer on the streets, but there have been more assaults, particularly on women.

It's a never-ending cycle that needs to be stopped somehow, but there are no simple solutions, except for more support for treatment when someone wants to withdraw from drugs and finding decent housing for them.

While businesses around Chinatown are breathing a sigh of relief today, the homeless population will be back, and there will probably be another sweep. All levels of government have been sitting on this problem for decades and not done enough to effectively tackle it. 

It's time for a concerted effort. The city has started the clean-up, who will step up next?

Uninspiring Climate Change Protest

Two activists threw maple syrup on painting, then glued to wall

Young climate activists seem to think they are getting attention for their cause by doing something outrageous, like throwing food at art, but now that it's been done several times, it's losing its shock value.

And now the publicity stunt has crossed from Europe to Canada, specifically Vancouver.

This afternoon two young activists went to the Vancouver Art Gallery and threw maple syrup (gee, how Canadian) on Emily Carr's 1934 painting, Stumps and Sky. Then like their predecessors, the activists glued their hands to the wall.

Vancouver Art Gallery condemned the vandalism

One of their accomplices took a picture of them as proof they did it.

The activists from the group Stop Fracking Around had a list of demands that included ending the Coastal GasLink pipeline and Trans Mountain pipeline.

"I think any amount of publicity we can get as an organisation is worth it because the climate crisis is the most pressing crisis of our time," said Emily Kelsall, one of the activists who threw the maple syrup on the painting.

"The government instead of acting responsibly, is building fossil fuel infrastructure, they're doing the exact opposite of what science and ethics is saying we need to be doing. So anything we can do in our power, even if it's something like throwing maple syrup at a painting, if that gets attention, then yes, it's worth it."

The VAG called the police who investigated the vandalism but did not arrest the pair of activists. 

Carr's painting was protected behind glass so it was not damaged; nevertheless the VAG was not pleased.

Carr's 1934 painting, Stumps and Sky

"The Vancouver Art Gallery condemns acts of vandalism towards the works of cultural significance in our care, or in any museum. A central part of our mission is to make safer spaces for communication and ideas," said Anthony Kiendl, director and CEO of the VAG. 

"As a non-profit charity, we are an institution of memory and care for future generations. We do support the free expression of ideas, but not at the expense of suppressing the ideas and artistic expression of others, or otherwise inhibiting people from access to those ideas," 

Well, the deed is done and the gallery is lucky they did not target a painting that was not protected.

But why are they choosing to target art galleries? How are they related to the climate change crisis? 

And the stunt was shocking the first time, but now that it's been done a few times it's become annoying.

Time for these young activists to regroup and rethink another target. Cultural institutions have had enough and they should not be at the receiving end of these stunts.