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Bear Clan Patrol with Judith Gale
128 Plays3 years ago
We wash the latest federal election nonsense out of our mouth with an interview with Judith Gale, the leader of Bear Clan Patrol Beaver Hills House here in Edmonton. This group hits the streets multiple times a week to distribute food, water, clothing and harm reduction supplies to people who need it. This group is doing invaluable work during a time of crisis, learn more about what Bear Clan does and how they do it in this must-listen interview.
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Transcript
Introduction & Call for Support
00:00:00
Speaker
The Progress Report only exists because of the support of people like you. If you can join the 500 or so other folks who donate monthly to keep this independent media project going, Jim and I would be incredibly grateful. The link to donate is in the show
Amazon Unionization Drive with Sarah Moja Hatahedzadeh
00:00:13
Speaker
notes. The Progress Report is also a proud member of the Harbinger Media Network, and a podcast on the network that I want to highlight is the latest from Paris Marks at Tech Won't Save Us.
00:00:22
Speaker
Toronto-starred Labour journalist, Sarah Moja Hatahedzadeh, joins Paris to discuss something we are definitely going to be keeping a very close eye on, the unionization drive by Teamsters 362 at the Amazon warehouse in Niski, Alberta, just south of Edmonton. Harbinger is a fantastic project, so become a supporter of Harbinger and get exclusive supporter-only content at harbingermediainetwork.com. Now, on to the show.
Introduction to Judith Gale & Bear Clan Patrol
00:01:01
Speaker
Friends and enemies, welcome to The Progress Report. I am your host, Duncan Kinney. We're recording today here in Amiskwachee, Waskagun, otherwise known as Edmonton, Alberta, here in Treaty 6 territory on the banks of the Kasiskasa, Wannasippe, or the North Saskatchewan River. Joining us today to discuss the important work they do is Judith Gale, the leader of Bear Clan Patrol, Beaver Hills House Chapter. Judith, welcome to the pod.
00:01:27
Speaker
Thank you very much, Duncan, and I sure like your introduction and your recognition for Treaty 6. I'm from Treaty 8 territory, so I appreciate the hospitality that Treaty 6 has shown us. So, hai, hai, mozi, jo.
00:01:48
Speaker
Yes. Thank you for joining us so much. And, uh, and I know we kind of had this, uh, this banter chat off before we started recording, but, but how are you doing kind of given the circumstances in Alberta?
Challenges of the Past Two Years and the Opioid Crisis
00:02:01
Speaker
Given the surfing, the circumstances, it's been, uh, quite a rough two years, I would say, you know, um, I've been doing things that I never thought I would do ever in my life.
00:02:16
Speaker
and so that's a real change and also people's mental health and everything is just so up in the air and it's been definitely a two crazy two years who would have ever thunk yeah
00:02:34
Speaker
Yeah, so one of the reasons why I wanted to have you on is really just to kind of wash away and wash my mouth out from all this kind of election and electoral nonsense that just happened that we were just subjected to here. And your group.
00:02:53
Speaker
barocland patrol, as well as many other mutual aid groups like it, are doing incredibly important work and providing much needed resources to our neighbors during a crisis. Not only is this pandemic raging and our healthcare system is on the brink of collapse, but our friends and neighbors who use drugs are also dealing with the opioid poisoning crisis at the same time.
00:03:19
Speaker
I mean, what are you hearing and seeing out in the neighborhood when you're doing the work that you're doing?
Bear Clan Patrol's Mission and Community Support
00:03:25
Speaker
Well, first of all, let me start off by explaining to the good people out there in podcast land that what the Bear Clan does. So what we do is we are a non-judgmental, non-discriminatory,
00:03:46
Speaker
nonviolent group of like-minded people that hit the streets of Edmonton with donations that we've gathered from community and we bring them right out to our brothers and sisters, meet them where they're at and just support them and let them know that there are people out there that care
00:04:13
Speaker
and that we see them and we hear them. And as well, I tell my members that part of what we do is not only do we gift the donations that we gather, we also gift ourselves. So we really engage with our brothers and sisters.
00:04:40
Speaker
talk with them at length and see what they need. And if there's any, any assistance they would like from us and, you know, we just treat them with the utmost respect as we would anybody else.
00:04:57
Speaker
Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, you jumped right ahead to my, my next question, but yeah, like that, that is an excellent short description of, of baricland patrol and, and like, give us the, the rundown. Like, when did you start it? Why
Origins of Bear Clan Patrol during COVID-19
00:05:11
Speaker
did you start it? What, what need did you see that needed to be filled?
00:05:14
Speaker
Well, back when COVID first hit, gosh, it was crazy out there. We saw the general public lining up for blocks and blocks by toilet paper. The shelves were starting to empty and people were stockpiling.
00:05:43
Speaker
So that led us to our brothers and sisters on the street. How are they going to stockpile? How can they survive during this? And so I was working for John Humphrey Center for Peace and Human Rights at that time. And we had
00:06:02
Speaker
applied for a COVID grant, and we got it. So we started a program called Street Stride, where we went out in the mornings, 9am to noon, and we brought out the necessities of life, I like to say, because everybody should start their day off.
00:06:22
Speaker
with the proper nutrition. I mean to be able to make sound decisions in your life, to be able to feel good about yourself, you need to have food and water and clothing and shelter. That's just the necessities of life. So the fact that Canada doesn't
00:06:43
Speaker
allow, you know, our brothers and sisters to have dwellings that we actually have an
Impact of Shelter Closures on Homelessness
00:06:51
Speaker
unannounced situation here in one of the richest countries in the world. You know, it's just so disheartening because, you know, we're all human beings. And if you think about it, we're the only species on Mother Earth that does not allow their own to have a dwelling. Yeah.
00:07:12
Speaker
Isn't that ridiculous? So we felt that we have to be out there to be our brother's keepers, to help where they had no help. You know, during when COVID first hit, unfortunately,
00:07:28
Speaker
There were so many shelters that had to close because they had gotten outbreaks of COVID, right? So where were our brothers and sisters going to eat? Where were they going to go as well?
00:07:42
Speaker
Um, because of COVID, uh, they no longer were able to go into a shelter and sit in a communal kind of way and eat and have, you know, a bit of banter or whatever, but they want it. No, now they have to, uh, are given a, um, bag lunch and, and told to go. That's it. They're not even allowed inside anymore, you know? So.
00:08:11
Speaker
Like our brothers and sisters really need our help right now, especially right now, because our government isn't doing a great job of taking care of them. If anything, I'd have to say that like, gosh, our province is really, really cutting back on so many programs and services for our brothers and sisters.
00:08:39
Speaker
that it's leaving so many people in such a hard way and in harm's way, you know? And yeah, so that's really problematic to us. So we decided that, well, that's it. We're going to go. We're going to gather at the time we partnered with, we were able to access the food bank. So I would access the food bank three times a week.
00:09:05
Speaker
and I would go and bring the food right to the people and we did that for the year and then our funding was up so the program ended and but during that year I had noticed you know from being out on the street I'd never noticed it before because I
00:09:29
Speaker
I'm out, I was on the street three times a week then. And so I noticed that our brothers and sisters really needed this help. So at nighttime, I was on my day, you know, not working. I decided that, geez, what can we do? How can we help them
Expansion Plans for Bear Clan Patrol
00:09:48
Speaker
even more? So I looked on the web and I found the bear clan in Winnipeg.
00:09:55
Speaker
And I loved what they were doing. And so I said, my God, we've got to start a chapter here in Edmonton.
00:10:04
Speaker
And that's exactly what we did. We started a patrol here in Edmonton. We were first, our first patrol was November 1st, 2021. And we started it on Alberta Avenue at the Alberta Avenue Community Center. They graciously allowed a space to store our carts and to have like our little head office.
00:10:33
Speaker
Now that was in November and we took off so fast. We had so much media coverage and everything. We grew so fast. There was, people were wonderful in the community donating so much stuff and so we, we outgrew Alberta Ave Community Center and we had to find our own garage for storage.
00:11:00
Speaker
Um, because it was bigger and, um, then, uh, that was Alberta Avenue. And, uh, of course we, um, decided too that we, well, we want to be able to eventually
00:11:17
Speaker
cover all four corners of Mother Earth in Edmonton. So that's the north, south, west, east. So we started with the north, then we moved on to the south in January. And so now we do, we patrol both the north side and the south side. And we're eventually going to move to the west end and do the east end as well.
00:11:45
Speaker
creator willing, of course. And, and yeah, and another big part of what we do, which I hadn't even anticipated when we had started this, what is some search, we do missing and missed posters. And that's exactly where I was today, we were on a
00:12:11
Speaker
On a search, the family had come from BC to search for their 18-year-old son, who unfortunately is lost on the streets.
00:12:30
Speaker
searched and we got sightings of him. So the good thing is we know he's alive and he's out there. Um, but, uh, God, it really, uh, this afternoon distributing out the flyers and talking to people. Um, one of the last guys that I, uh, talked to was about a 24 year old young indigenous man who was, um,
00:12:57
Speaker
holding foil and a pen on the in the other hand, so he was doing smoking heroin, you know, on foil. And when I came up to him and I gave him the the flyer with the missing and missed and he just started crying. He cried.
00:13:25
Speaker
He said, why, why he doesn't my family do that for me? You know, isn't that sad that I, that just made me cry so much. I had to give him a hug right then in there, but I couldn't cry right then in there either. I had to wait till I got to the car, but you know, like that's.
00:13:44
Speaker
That's the reality. Nobody wants to be on the street. Nobody wants to be on the street. They want their family to come look for them. So I'm pleased to say that we do help. And in that regard, we have connected
00:14:02
Speaker
family members with their loved ones and there have been some that have been successful in taking their loved one home and putting them in detox or bringing them back in a home and taking care of them, you know? And those are the ones, the ones that are successful in that are the
00:14:30
Speaker
families that never give up, they actually roll up their sleeve. They go out there and they look actively, you know? Those are the families, those are the youngins, the loved ones that do come home and get saved, you know? Because you can, you can. There is a, it's
00:14:52
Speaker
It's, you know what I say? It's like a hole in the ground, you know, you, you keep on walking and you see that hole and you fall in. Well, one day you're going to walk and you're going to walk around that hole. You're not going to fall in anymore, you know, and it can happen. I've seen it. So people can recover. People can be rehabilitated from drugs. Yes. So I know that there's.
Ensuring Dignity and Necessities for the Homeless
00:15:21
Speaker
I feel myself that there's no lost cause on the street. There's no lost cause. Every one of my brothers and sisters are able to be saved.
00:15:37
Speaker
And I was lucky enough to spend a short amount of time, not as much as I would have liked to spend. I had some family stuff I had to take care of last night, but I was able to spend a little bit of time with your north side patrol here last night. And it was my first time out with Bear Clan Patrol. I'd seen Bear Clan Patrol out in the community before. I worked downtown.
00:16:05
Speaker
And, you know, I walk up and down 96th Street quite frequently, both to get just to run errands, get to the grocery store as well as kind of walk my daughter home from daycare.
00:16:14
Speaker
So you see, you know, bear climb patrol out, but, you know, it was, it was exactly what it looked like when I walked by all before, you know, it was, you know, you got wagons, you got water, juice, muffins, sandwiches, chips, you know, you have blankets, socks, underwears, gloves, you know, and you roll those carts around and talk to folks as you go. And another big component is the harm reduction that we carry as well. And I feel.
00:16:42
Speaker
We don't do harm reduction during the mornings because there are agencies out there that are open and that's where people should go. So we don't do it in the mornings, but at nighttime, there's nothing open for our brothers and sisters. So we feel it's important that we bring the harm reduction out to them. And it makes for a safer community for all.
00:17:08
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. We ran into a lot of different folks, uh, you know, who are very grateful to get some food and water and some supplies. And, you know, I wasn't able to stay the whole time, but like this was, it just seems like that's, that's the work, right? You're just going to people where they are and, and giving them the stuff they need in order to kind of just continue to, to just operate, you know? Exactly. And then one day, you know, just one day, maybe,
00:17:37
Speaker
They will go home or if they are able to, or if they have a home or our family, you know, they'll, they'll reconnect. Hopefully, you know, we need, I mean, I feel that, um, everybody, um, needs a break, especially on the street. That's why I always, um, tell my members, uh, when we, they first start.
00:18:07
Speaker
That the number one rule that the bear clan has is that we don't say no You know, I don't want negative it No, the word no is so negative and so awful and our brothers and sisters hear that all the time from police from community agencies from securities from Peace officers, you know from people on the street. No get away from me or you know
00:18:37
Speaker
So the Bear Clan, we never say no. If one of our brothers and sisters come up to us and say, oh man, I'm hungry. I haven't eaten in two days. Can I get like four of those sandwiches? We always oblige. We always gift everything we have. We never say no.
00:18:57
Speaker
And yeah, like the philosophy behind it is this, this is something, this is just how you approach the work you do is like, it is, it is coming from a place of generosity and giving and welcoming. Right. Right. Well, I'm from I'm a 60 scoop.
00:19:14
Speaker
And so I didn't grow up with my indigenous heritage, unfortunately. But in my older age, I immersed myself into it. And I'm from Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, and I'm a Dene Cree. And what I learned is that
00:19:41
Speaker
The Dene are very, very generous people, you know, and that's where I come from. So that's the heart I have. And I have that ancestral goodness I know with me all the time because I'm Dene Slu. Yeah.
00:20:02
Speaker
And do you call Bear Clan Patrol a mutual aid group? Sometimes I see it get described in the media as crime prevention, but that seems like... Yeah, no, no, we're not crime prevention at all. No, no, no. What we are... Yeah, I like that mutual aid. I just like to say we're friends of our community. We're just friends
00:20:26
Speaker
going out there. We really do help not only our brothers and sisters, but the service people that we meet on the street as well, you know, like your security people, your window washers of buildings, you know, your, we know, we've been on the street now for a year. So we have a rapport with everybody. We gift them water.
00:20:56
Speaker
We give the construction workers water. We gift a man in a three-piece suit water. We're non-discriminatory. So if you need the necessity of life, then we're there to gift it. And you kind of got into it a little bit, but what's your story? What's your background? How did you end up in Edmonton?
Judith Gale's Personal Journey
00:21:22
Speaker
Uh, how I ended up in Edmonton. Oh goodness me. Okay. So, ah, gosh. Okay. So like I said, I was a child of the sixties, uh, scoop. And so the government went into, uh, my, um, little settlement of a salt river in the sixties and they, um, grabbed 10. That's the food.
00:21:51
Speaker
Oh, hold on. Sorry about that. There's somebody at the door. My daughter's going to get it. She's here from the Northwest territory. So happy. So now what was I saying?
00:22:03
Speaker
You were saying that your 60 scoop, the government came into your community. Right. And yeah, of Salt River, it's a little settlement. I guess my cook, her favorite saying is we're just like the bear. We come from the bush. So we we were we were Bush people, you know, and the government went came in one day and grabbed my mother's 10 children and
00:22:33
Speaker
took her to court and she didn't speak very well English and they made all 10 children water the courts and took us away. And I was the baby and when I was able to get the records, they had written about me through FOIP, you know, because now with FOIP you're able to do that.
00:23:00
Speaker
I found that the very first document they had put up on me, they had said that, oh, we have a little white baby. They had my ethnicity as white. And then two years old, they did another medical. They said, oh, no, she's not white. She's a matee. And then after
00:23:25
Speaker
Métis, they said, Oh, no, at five years old, they said, Oh, no, she's not Métis, she's Indian, because I got darker and darker, right? So I always found that was funny. And so then at seven years old, I had bounced around the Northwest Territories from foster home, Indian residential school, because back in the day, if there was no
00:23:52
Speaker
room at the orphanage, then there was always room at the residential school. And so I got bounced all over the north till they finally were successful in adopting me to Montreal, Quebec. So I was adopted to Montreal, Quebec, flown there at seven. And that was an awful time to go to Montreal because they had just declared martial law.
00:24:19
Speaker
Yeah, it was crazy on my very first time getting off the plane and I'm seeing army man all over and going down the street. There's tanks and are all over Montreal. It was crazy. I was like, oh my God, where it was very culture shock at the beginning, you know, but then I adjusted and.
00:24:46
Speaker
Our adopted mother was not a very good person. She should not have ever been a mother. She did not have the skills. And so and we had sexual abuse and physical abuse and confinement and
00:25:09
Speaker
So needless to say, I started running away from that home at 12 years old and I started living on the streets of Montreal. And I would be a juvenile runaway until I was 18. And then when I was 18, I was allowed to do whatever I wanted. And so I found myself still on the street at 18 because before, you know,
00:25:37
Speaker
Um, when I was a juvenile delinquent, if I got tired or, or hungry or whatever, I could always turn myself in and go to a group home or, or be a, you know, because you're a ward at the court, right? A juvenile delinquent. So I, um.
00:25:54
Speaker
And then when I turned 18, I didn't have that to fall back on anymore. So I was like, Oh my God, what am I going to do? Oh, well, I'll find out who, where I came from and who my real family is. And I did. And I, I found out I was from Fort Smith, Northwest territories. So I phoned, um, the, um, the Lappini that I found in the phone book. And sure enough, it was my eldest brother and he sent me a plane ticket up to the Northwest territories.
00:26:22
Speaker
And that's, and so I went to Northwest Territories at age 18 and then I was kind of culture shocked, very, well, very culture shocked. I was an urban Indian by that time and I was very culture shocked when I got there. So I lasted about eight months up north.
00:26:43
Speaker
And then I had to run to the closest city, which of course was Edmonton. And then that's how I ended up in Edmonton. I met my ex and settled down and had two beautiful children and started living in Edmonton. And yeah. That's an incredible story.
00:27:10
Speaker
There's been so many incredible things that has happened in my life. I'll tell you the most significant and most incredibleest thing that ever happened to me, sir. And I think that this is probably part of the reason that I have been able to
00:27:28
Speaker
to live this long because really, you know, I've been on that other side of the coin where my brothers and sisters are where I've lived a high risk lifestyle, shall we say. But what happened to me when I was 18, when I first was getting ready to leave the North to go to Edmonton,
00:27:49
Speaker
I had purchased a plane ticket to Edmonton and the only plane to go out was the yellow knife. At the time I was working in Fort Simpson and in Fort Simpson at that time, the Pope was to come. Okay.
00:28:06
Speaker
Yeah. And so I was working and quite frankly, like a month before the Pope was to come, the whole town got inundated with Twin Otters upon Twin Otters secret service men and their cars and dogs. And like they really put that little island on lockdown, you know, so it was really getting crazy. And
00:28:36
Speaker
I didn't want to stay and I had no interest in meeting the Pope at all. So I was working at the bar and that night this really nice old couple from Delaunay up by Yellowknife came in and they said they were going to Yellowknife. And I said, oh geez, I want to go to Yellowknife. I want to take a plane to Edmonton. So I asked, can I come with you? And they said, yeah, sure. Come on in. So they allowed me to drive with them to Yellowknife.
00:29:06
Speaker
And once in Yellowknife I got a ticket to go to Edmonton. Now my plane didn't leave till the morning and so I didn't know anybody in Yellowknife.
00:29:17
Speaker
So I went to the bar, which was the gold range, they call it. And so I latched on to a party for the night. So I was able to stay up all night drinking and partying. And then at 8.30, when my flight was to go to Edmonton,
00:29:44
Speaker
I go pulling up in the cab and I'm running out to the tarmac and just as they were pulling the stairs away. So I had to stay at the Yellowknife Airport. They allowed me to wait for the next flight, which was the 11 o'clock. So I just was like, I was still half caught. I hadn't slept, so I kind of just put my feet up and
00:30:11
Speaker
and put my head on my bag and kind of try to pass out, you know, until 11 o'clock. Next thing you know, security comes to me and taps me on the shoulder. And he's like, and I'm like, Oh my God, here I am. They're going to kick me out. Cause I know I'm half cut. And he's like, um, ma'am, would you like to be blessed? I said, excuse me. Would you like to be blessed? And I'm like, uh, what's going on?
00:30:41
Speaker
And he said, well, we're locking down the airport and you can't go out and you're and you have to stay here. But he says the Pope and his bishops are coming off the plane and they're going to come and walk around and they're going to bless everybody in the airport. Would you like to be blessed? I said, oh, my God. Oh, wow. OK. And so when the Pope and his bishops came to me
00:31:11
Speaker
I could not raise my head to look at him. I didn't want to breathe. I'm sure I smelt like alcohol. And all I did was put my head down and I saw his shoes and his robe and I allowed him to bless me. And I think that's that's why I was able to
00:31:37
Speaker
To carry on with this good work, you know because I got some I mean I'm not Christian per se because I believe in the Creator and I kind of and I also kind of believe that all roads to God lead to the Creator anyways, so I think all gods are alright in my opinion, you know every
00:32:02
Speaker
Every nationality, everybody's God is a good thing because it all leads to creator, right? It does. Well, that is a fantastic story and I'm glad you told
Incident at Edmonton LRT Station & Policy Change
00:32:16
Speaker
it to me. There's another story that happened here in Edmonton that I have to talk about with you since I have you on the podcast and that's what happened in February.
00:32:26
Speaker
here in a downtown LRT station. It's- On Valentine's night, if you can believe it. On Valentine's night, February 14th. And just to refresh everyone's memory, it was cold as hell outside. It was winter weather alert, minus 30, minus 35. And you and some Bear Clan folks were in an LRT station doing your usual thing.
00:32:51
Speaker
when all of a sudden some Edmonton police officers kind of happened upon you and some folks kind of like eating snacks. And maybe you could tell our audience kind of what happened next. Okay. Yeah. So well, what happened was the bear clan was in the LRT system and I was upstairs in the support van because like you said, it was very cold.
00:33:18
Speaker
And, uh, so the bear clan was, uh, and I was bringing supplies down to them. So I hadn't seen the very first altercation that they had with the police. Had I been there, that would have been videotaped as well, but I wasn't there. And they told me about, um, when, when, because it was at the other end of the LRT, you know,
00:33:43
Speaker
And we were, and then you walk through the long quarter to the other end of it. So it was, let's see, it would have been the East end they started at, and then they were coming towards the West end of the LRT system and to the West doors. Hey, and that's where I met them was at the West doors. And that's when I started recording immediately. Now the bear, the bear clan had phoned me when I was upstairs getting the supplies in the van.
00:34:11
Speaker
They phoned me and they said, Oh, we just came across these two cops and they're being so rude to our brothers and sisters and you better come down here right away. So that I hightailed it right down there right away. And that's where I came to. And that's when I started the video right away because, um,
00:34:31
Speaker
They were even worse, 10 times worse, to our brothers and sisters just a few minutes before I started recording. I guess on the east end, where the bear clan had started, the policeman, he had taken the sandwich right out of the guy's mouth and threw it in the garbage and then
00:35:00
Speaker
kicked him out. He had no shoes on and no coat on and kicked him out. And, um, then, um, the bear clan was like, come on where they're eating. No, no, you guys get out too. And, and so they followed them from the East door all the way down to the corridor too, because the bear clan was coming out to see me. Right. And, uh, so they fought, the police followed them all the way.
00:35:28
Speaker
And of course there was more people on the West End too. So of course we, the bear clan saw them and fed them as well because they were hungry. It was cold and, and, uh, it, you know, these people were hungry, hadn't eaten all day. And so when I started filming, I couldn't believe that these policemen didn't even try to, um, act better, you know?
00:35:56
Speaker
You know, they were still their nasty selves. And it was so frustrating to watch. It really was because I wouldn't want any human being to be treated like that, least of all by an authority figure, you know?
00:36:17
Speaker
Yeah, that it was just so gross to watch so gross and it took everything I had not to swear my mouth off, but I knew that I was filming and I had to compose myself and because really, you know, I think that had I been belligerent and
00:36:37
Speaker
people would have not had had the same idea, you know? Yeah. Yeah. And this, this inhumane treatment, I mean, it's hard to call it anything else is inhumane treatment of unhoused folks during like a brutal cold snap minus 35. This blows up, right? A pandemic and a pandemic, you know, it's, it's uncertain waters for everybody. Yeah.
00:37:00
Speaker
And this blows up, right? This goes national. It goes international. You know, the, the EPS and the city of Edmonton are putting out statements trying to kind of
00:37:09
Speaker
you know, yeah, trying to, trying to deal with this shit storm that they've caused. And as far as I know, there hasn't been any actual consequences for those cops. You know, I reached this morning, I reached out to, um, the Edmonton police services media relations and, uh, just determining what they said that they opened an investigation into it and whatever happened with that. But, uh, you know, as far as, you know, was there, did, did anything change as a result of, of that incident?
00:37:38
Speaker
Um, things have changed and I, that is good. Now what's happening in the EPS, I tell you, I am not impressed at all with the whole complaint process with all of that. I think it's a bunch of BS and yeah, not very pleased with that at all, but I did appreciate the, uh, chief apologizing to our brothers and sisters in public. So I, uh, we were in talks with them during that time.
00:38:07
Speaker
They wanted to just apologize to us and we insisted, we insisted, you know, us, Bear Clan, we had a place to go home after, you know, our brothers and sisters had none. So we insisted that they apologize to them and make it public.
00:38:27
Speaker
And they did, which was really great. And Don Iverson, our mayor, he jumped on board as well. And he did a public apology to our brothers and sisters as well. Now, since then, we have had city officials come on patrol with us because I invited them.
00:38:46
Speaker
during that time, I said, come, come on patrol, see for yourself. You know, you sit behind a desk and you make the determinations for our brothers and sisters. You should see firsthand how they have to live because of your decisions, you know? So I'm pleased to say that the Jackie Ford and Rob Smyth
00:39:12
Speaker
did come on patrol with us. They rolled up their sleeves and really did an awesome job, I must say. Jackie Ford herself bandaged up a few of our brothers and sisters that night because another component of what we do is we bring out first aid to our brothers and sisters. And we always help if anybody has nicks or cuts or, you know, we bandage them up, right?
00:39:39
Speaker
Yeah. And so Jackie Ford actually did that that night and then Rob Smythe too. And I talked with Rob Smythe because Jackie went on the North side and Rob Smythe came on the South side and I was with him on the South side here.
00:39:55
Speaker
And I talked with him at length during the patrol about how our brothers and sisters get fined for being in the LRT system if they're trying to get out of the rain or the cold or, you know, and I thought that was so unfair because how are you going to find the unhoused?
00:40:24
Speaker
They have no means of anything and you're just making their life harder. This one weekend, Victoria Day Long weekend, we witnessed the peace officers issuing $2,500 in tickets to our unhoused.
00:40:42
Speaker
Now that's so futile, so futile, a waste of everybody's time, I think, because they're not going to pay it. They're not, you know, and all you're doing is, is kicking them in the head when they're already down on the ground from a boot to the gut. You know? Yeah. Like why, why? So now, thankfully,
00:41:05
Speaker
those city officials went back to the city and they changed policy. And now our brothers and sisters no longer will get fined for being in the transit system. And so they can find refuge out of the rain, out of the cold without being prosecuted. Yeah.
00:41:32
Speaker
And I suppose this conversation kind of leads into this question, which is like, how would you describe your relationship with the Edmonton police? Where do you stand on the whole defunding the police and allocating that money to community resources argument?
Critique of Police Budget and Resource Allocation
00:41:46
Speaker
Okay. I am always for the police because they are a necessary evil, unfortunately, in this society.
00:41:58
Speaker
We need them. We would be under mayhem if we didn't have the police. Now, having said that, I don't believe the police should be involved in community affairs at all. I think that they should be out of child welfare completely. All they are are glorified babysitters. And how dare they go to
00:42:28
Speaker
You know, the first time a child is introduced to the police, the policeman is taking and ripping them away from his mother's arms, you know.
00:42:38
Speaker
Like that's just not any way for the police to be seen to a new baby or a child. So I don't believe that they should be involved in that nor should they be involved in community where they're needed or like for the cyber crimes for missing and murdered and stuff like that where they're needed.
00:43:05
Speaker
uh, put all of their money there. Like, yeah, they don't, they need to, um, change, uh, how they, they do things. But, um, I want to work with the police because they are part of our community and we are part of their community, you know, whether we like it or not. And, and they are needed. Now they don't need that excessive budget in my mind.
00:43:35
Speaker
Yeah, nearly $400 million a year. Yeah, that is like, wow, that's excessive. We could take $100 million and put people in homes and give people the resources they need to not be on the street, right? Right. And what our dear chief has been doing too is he's been allocating a lot of money towards AI. Uh-huh.
00:44:01
Speaker
And why AI? Because here in Edmonton we have the
00:44:06
Speaker
best AI in all of Canada, which is at the U of A. So I think a lot like they bought that new equipment truck there that they can park anywhere and within a 10 kilometer radius, they can gather everybody's cell phone, their IP address, all their messages, their photos, everything without
00:44:36
Speaker
our knowledge and without our permission. Let's take that defund the police argument to its logical extension. Let's say we defund the police by a third or a quarter or whatever, and a group like Bear Clan gets 10 times, 100 times the resources that you have now.
Vision for Small Villages for the Unhoused
00:44:55
Speaker
What does Bear Clan look like if you were to have those type of resources at your disposal? Right. Oh my gosh.
00:45:06
Speaker
You know what, my thing is I don't want to ever see anybody unhoused. So I would say that if we had that kind of funds, we would build more little tiny villages. You know, here in Edmonton, we have
00:45:28
Speaker
the veteran's tiny village, I think that that's an awesome idea. And we do little tiny villages all around the city for our unhoused, because quite frankly, what they're doing right now, how they warehouse our unhoused in shelters, you know, the capacity 300 to 400 in one building, like, come on, that is just too much, too much for any human beings to handle.
00:45:58
Speaker
because we have so many mental health cases out there, we have so many addictions, we have so many people going through psychosis, and to have 400 of those souls in one area is just too taxing for, you can't pay people enough, you know what I mean? Like, it's just, I think that what they need is 50 units here, 50 units there, 50,
00:46:26
Speaker
beds here, 50 over here, have them broken down into smaller, more manageable, where you can have one-on-one with a human being and you know their names. How are you going to remember 400 names, for goodness sakes, you know? Yeah. And so I think our conversation is going to come to an end here shortly.
How to Support Bear Clan Patrol
00:46:52
Speaker
We're running out of time, but I'm very grateful for the
00:46:54
Speaker
that the opportunity to chat and for our time together. I definitely wanna close with, if people wanna get involved, how can they volunteer? If they wanna do a shift, what do they have to do? Donations, how do donations work? How do people get involved by doing it? Well, when I tell my brothers and sisters, I tell them that we don't have any shifts.
00:47:19
Speaker
Okay, we are not a work where you have a scheduled shift. No, the only continuity that we do have in the Bear Clan is to our brothers and sisters to ensure that we are out every Monday, Wednesday, Friday mornings, 9 a.m. to noon at Churchill Square, we start. And then on Wednesday night and Sunday night,
00:47:46
Speaker
on north and south sides. Now, that's our continuity. Now, whoever shows up on those days are in. That's it. All you have to do is show up. I don't want anybody to come thinking that, oh, God, here I go. I got to do this shift.
00:48:05
Speaker
No, I want them to come in their own volition. I don't want to be running around phoning people and emailing or texting, hello, you're supposed to be here. When are you coming? No, no. If you're going to come and gift of yourself and your time to our brothers and sisters, you're going to show up.
00:48:31
Speaker
Yeah. And that's what I've always done now is that's it. And I'm happy to say that people do show up. And the other thing too, you guys, I have never met one Bear Clan volunteer member that I did not like. I'm serious. I have gone through, I'm 56 years old, I'll tell you, okay? And through my life and
00:48:59
Speaker
How many people I can say, honestly, I don't like, but I have never ever said that about one bear clown member. They are all such beautiful, wonderful, caring, supportive, you know.
00:49:14
Speaker
Just, just lovely human beings. So I did a shift and you know, I would do one again. I would recommend it. I think it's, uh, uh, it's good. Yeah, it's good. It's, I tell, it's very cathartic. It's very cathartic for your soul, for your heart, you know? And, uh, I always encourage our members and a lot of them do, you know, they bake.
00:49:41
Speaker
Uh, and they bring their baking or they bring, um, their sandwiches, everything has to be individually wrapped, of course. And, and the, that's one of the best feelings is to be able to go out and gift, uh, what you baked, you know, and, and see the, the eyes light up when they get a lovely banana bed. Oh, right on. You just saved my life. I was just hungry or, you know, like it's awesome.
00:50:10
Speaker
The people are so grateful and thankful and they just love that we come to them. And if people want to donate, how does the donation process work? Okay. So we have, um, we partner with John Humphrey Center for Peace and Human Rights and we do have a, um, tax receipt, uh, number. And should you donate, um, and you just email bear clan
00:50:37
Speaker
beaverhillshouse at gmail.com and as well you can e-transfer that way we also have bear clan beaverhills house paypal and as well you can we have an Amazon if you go to our Facebook
00:50:59
Speaker
page, the first post, the pinned post at the top is an Amazon wish list. And you just click on that and you see the wish list that we hope for our brothers and sisters. And it's lovely because community has really stepped up and almost daily we get an Amazon package.
00:51:24
Speaker
So yeah, and actually when we first put out that list, the Amazon driver, he told us we had broken his personal record by he delivered us 58 packages in one day to the same address. He said that was never happened to him before. Nice. And are there any immediate needs right now as well?
00:51:51
Speaker
Oh, yes, definitely right now we need blankets. We need winter coats. We need socks. We need underwear, gloves, mitts.
00:52:03
Speaker
Hats, toques, scarves, sweaters, boots. And to drop those off, just email. We'll put the email in the show notes. Yeah. And then, yeah, our bear den for drop off is 9806 85th Avenue. And you just drop everything off there.
00:52:24
Speaker
Or else you can arrange a pickup if you're not able to drop off. Yeah, with the email address that we'll provide.
Closing Remarks & Listener Engagement
00:52:31
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Well, Judith, thanks so much for coming on the pod. I really do appreciate it. This has been a much needed conversation. Like I said, all this electoral nonsense and this.
00:52:41
Speaker
the bullshit with Jason Kenney and the collapsing health care system. I needed to talk to someone like you who's doing this kind of work. It was incredible to go out and just like be out on the street giving people stuff that they needed and having those kind of like interactions with people. OK, Duncan, that's the other thing I tell our members. We don't use the word giving or handing out because I feel that's the government's position. They're always giving and handing out. Well, guess what? We don't do that.
00:53:10
Speaker
We gift everything that we gather from community who gifted and entrusted to us to then carry and gift to our brothers and sisters living rough.
00:53:27
Speaker
Well, that's it for this podcast, folks. If you have any notes, thoughts, comments, things you think I need to hear, I'm very easy to get ahold of. You can reach my email at duncank at progressalberta.ca. You can reach me on Twitter at at duncankinney. Thank you to Jamie Kremens for doing some very much needed chase producing for this show. And thanks to Cosmic Family Communist for our theme. Thanks again to Judith for coming on. Thank you for listening and goodbye.