PIVOT - fighters for social justice

Blankets

PIVOT volunteers in Vancouver are giving the city's homeless a little warmth, and legal information, this holiday season.

Starting Tuesday afternoon, activists began handing out 500 water-proof, high-tech blankets to people in the low-income Downtown Eastside. Printed inside every blanket is an explanation of the rights and protections homeless people have under the law in Vancouver.

Mountain Equipment Co-op helped design the blankets, which are made of a material that is sturdy and insulating, but light enough to fold up into a small sack. They can be used as a tarp, covering people and their belongings.

Sex work is Work

Katrina Pacey is a lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society in Vancouver. Pivot is engaged in social justice work through legal reform in the inner city of Vancouver. Pacey is currently taking a case to the British Columbia Supreme Court, and eventually, the Supreme Court of Canada, arguing that the country's prostitution laws violate the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.Pacey recently spoke to IPS correspondent Am Johal.

Vancouver's pre-Olympic housing crisis

David Eby is a lawyer with the Pivot Legal Society, and the author of a comprehensive report (Cracks in the Foundation) on the housing situation in Canada's poorest postal code, Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

He speaks about Vancouver's pre-Olympic housing crisis