Today, March 1, 2009 at 5:00 pm a community is lost. The residents of 925 Pedder Bay drive have been ordered by the BC Supreme Court to turn over vacant possession to Oak Bay Marine Group and landowner Bob Wright. I will not be there for this final hour. I have already sold my property (that was assessed at over $30,000) for the nominal amount of $2,000. This is what it cost for us to put in the new floor in 2004...

Now that it has been moved it can no longer be used for residential housing and the broker who purchased the home will try and sell it to a farmer for seasonal accommodation.

I am one of the lucky ones. We have another home. I do not have to go and live with my family or end up on the street or couch-surfing. I can still afford to live in my country and not have to become a non-resident of Mexico just to survive. I will not be forced into bankruptcy as have some of my neighbors. My children are grown and they do not ask me why their country is not fair and how they could be made to leave their home that their single parent mom worked so hard to fix up and provide for them. 

Many homes had to be demolished and a few were abandoned because residents were unable to physically and/or financially get rid of them. Some were given away or sold for a dollar. Everyone lost their community.

February 28, 2009 Chek TV News video clip http://canwest.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/canwest-cheknews-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=chekmain&maven_referralObject=3746916&maven_referrer=staf

I did not go back to Pedder Bay today for these final hours. I could not bear to see the last wreckage of abandoned and demolished homes.

This is how I want to remember our home at Pedder Bay...

This is what it looked like the last time I saw it...


I am angry about the heartbreak and sorrow inflicted on our community because of inadequate legislation and greed.

 

May all of our work be of benefit to others who come after us! Because, sadly, there will be other manufactured home owners living in trailer parks who will face the same demise unless the legislation is changed to protect homeowner equity, our affordable housing and our communities.

May we remember...

Fundraising to help with our legal costs

May we remember the hours and hours of time over the past two years that we have dedicated to creating a better world. Special thanks to Richard Margetts QC, Maureen Abraham and their legal firm for their skill, talent, integrity and commitment.

 

May we remember...

All of those who have supported the community by their donations, their letters, their emails, their hugs, their kind thoughts, their wishes and their prayers.

May we remember...

Members of the Pedder Bay Community are now becoming valued members of other communities. 

May we remember to be kind, thoughtful, and generous.

May we remember to be forgiving of those who lose their moral capacity for good-will and compassion. For they have and are truly lost.

May we remember the lessons we learn from those we find the hardest to appreciate and understand. 

Good-bye Pedder Bay. Good-bye my friends and neighbours. May we see each other again under better circumstances!

warm regards,

Terrill Welch

To learn more about the Pedder Bay community and this court case go to http://pedderbay.ca

Links to news articles:

February 19, 2009 Monday Magazine: Some good news, sort of

A small ray of sunshine emerged last week from the dual tragedies of the fatal January 14 house fire on the Chemainus First Nation reserve and last year’s eviction order levelled against 38 residents of the Pedder Bay mobile home park in Metchosin….

http://www.mondaymag.com/articles/entry/the-week68

February 25, 2009 Goldstream Gazette: Day of reckoning arrives for Pedder Bay

http://www.bclocalnews.com/vancouver_island_south/goldstreamgazette/news/40321988.html

February 28, 2009 Chek TV News video clip http://canwest.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/canwest-cheknews-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=chekmain&maven_referralObject=3746916&maven_referrer=staf

March 1, 2009 Victoria Times Colunist Trailer park residents forced out: Some abandon or give away homes they're still paying for

http://www.timescolonist.com/Business/Metchosin+trailer+park+residents+forced/1341867/story.html

March 1, 2009 Chek TV News video clip http://canwest.a.mms.mavenapps.net/mms/rt/1/site/canwest-cheknews-pub01-live/current/launch.html?maven_playerId=chekmain&maven_referralObject=3750943

Born into the soft light and warmth of the barn - I try to imagine what he is experiencing. I take this photo - still wondering...

A  post from Peter to his readers...

--------------

I remember feeling, without knowing the words to share, this very thing when I watched my grandson sleeping in the early light of a summer morning.

May we experience the preciousness of each moment.

Terrill

March 8th is International Women's Day but this year I started celebrating on March 6th with the Women in the Lead on-line conference and I finished celebrating today by mailing a donation to Island Women Against Violence gathered at our Mayne Island event!



Shakeira Wynde and I hosted a intimate gathering at la casa de inspiracion for International Women's Day this year.



Writer Leanne Dyck does a reading and is also wearing a beautiful vest she has knit.



Amalia tells a story about a young African woman's strength gained from grinding nuts and grains while Shania listens in.



Shakeira shares a collage that she has created with photos of herself through time.

 


Christie tells about balancing career and parenthood (parenting being the first priority) while  Anisha and Jessa enjoy chocolates.







We are never to young to be in the company of women...



Ah, sharing, laughing and celebrating!

Wonderful!

Happy International Women's Day!

Terrill Welch
Executive Leadership Coach

Ambassador World Leadership Day Canada

March 20, 2009 http://worldleadershipdaycanada.ning.com

Terrill Welch - A Woman behind Women
http://www.awomanbehindwomen.ca   and http://terrill.gaia.com

Mayne Island B.C. 1-250-539-5877
email: tawelch@shaw.ca

"I've learned that making a 'living' is not the same thing as 'making a life'." Maya Angelou

© 2009 Terrill Welch, All rights reserved.

You are welcome to use and share material from this Blog in whole or in part, as long as you include complete attribution, including live web site link and email link. Please also notify me where the material will appear.

The attribution should read:
"By Terrill Welch founder of Terrill Welch – A Woman behind Women. Terrill Welch is an Executive Coach, providing leadership services designed specifically for women leaders. To learn more, feel free to browse through the www.awomanbehindwomen.ca and http://terrill.gaia.com websites." 

Your health depends on being aware...

FOX Reporters FIRED for truth: Monsanto's PUS Milk

The following is the text provided with the video link:

FOX NEWS Reporters (Reporters Steve Wilson & Jane Akre) uncover that most of the Milk in the USA and across some parts of the world is unfit to drink due to Monsanto Corporation's POSILAC®, which has been proven to be a cancer-causing growth hormone.(known in short as "BGH" "BST" or "rBGH" ), but they were fired for trying to tell people the truth.

(Important note: After a long court battle, the Court dismissed the whistle blowers protection for the reporters because the Court stated that there was no law to force that the NEWS state the truth! Fact! Going on to say the NEWS was no different than other TV shows/reality shows!!)

But the FDA has turned a blind eye once again!

If you consumed or fed regular milk to your family today (8/21/08), there is more than a 90% chance that it was from a cow injected with BGH

(Bovine somatotropin developed by using recombinant DNA technology).

You could be killing or harming your child every time you pour them a glass of milk, the same as pouring them a glass of slow acting poison.

Please take action to ensure our children's safety, for they can not protect themselves.

What first alarmed farmers was the massive amount of PUS in the milk but Monsanto and the FDA still had no concerns by stating that the PUS was not harmful to be ingested by consumers!

If you have little children, at least feed them certified BGH free Milk, Organic Milk or Organic/BGM free milk equivalent like Organic soy milk.

For more information and  frequently asked questions: http://www.foxbghsuit.com

Anthropologist Helen Fisher explains love's evolution, its biochemical foundations and its social importance. She closes with a warning about the potential disaster inherent in antidepressant abuse.

I am particularly intrigued by her references to the future of women's equality as a future we are going back to in relation to our past equality and work as providers.

Enjoy!

Terrill

I have always enjoyed having a vivid imagination and finding ways to express it. My early years were surrounded with tools for freely expressing my ideas and it was encouraged! Rural (isolated) living, great books that arrived by mail once a month, newspaper rolls of paper, paints, pencils, mud, sticks, puddles and rocks were in abundance. My formal schooling and exposure to public and peer pressure really never took hold until I was eight years old. By the time I went to a small town school in grade three, I had deeply established practices of drawing, writing and creating three dimensional structures about things I could imagine. It is a wonderful gift that I give great thanks to my mother and father for cultivating.

 

So when I came across Sir Ken Robinson's video "Do schools kill creativity?" I thought it was worth sharing with you.

 

 

I believe that creativity is best nurtured with raw materials and a blank sheet of paper. We didn't have colouring books and even though I am an artist, I still can't colour inside the lines and to be truthful, I have no desire to do so. My children (who are now grown) went to daycare, kindergarten, public school and after school care. As a single parent my choices were limited in being able to spend extensive time with them. However, I took the lessons that I had learned and provided large rolls of newsprint, paints, scissors, pencils, books and no TV at home. The time we had was time to be creative and be engaged in conversation. Both of these individuals are extremely creative people with a passion for creating music, solving problems and putting together ideas from diverse learning. My daughter has a master’s in science (physics) and teaches high school science. She loves to rock climb and sings and plays guitar. My son is a musician first, builds tube amplifiers and is a finishing carpenter.

I believe that as parents and as adults we can nurture creativity even when the school system may have limited capacity. What we need to do is provide creative tools and diverse experiences and value the creative process.

Every Saturday from 1:00 to 2:00 pm Community Advocates for Little Mountain like Kia Salomons (front right) stand for housing at the intersection of Main & 33rd Avenue in Vancouver BC Canada.

According to the Community Advocates for Little Mountain(C.A.L.M) website:

As of February 2009, over 200 homes sit empty at Little Mountain.  Vancouver’s oldest social housing complex - 224 homes on 15 acres beside Queen Elizabeth Park - is slated for redevelopment. The publicly owned site is being sold to the highest bidder, who will want expensive market housing. Tenants are being pressured to leave so the developer gets ‘vacant possession’, even though construction won’t start before 2010.

The Little Mountain Housing complex is one block in off of Main Street and 33 avenue. So I decided to go for a walk about. Through this photo essay, I invite you to join me.



Feeling a little off balance on the soft spring ground, I begin to take photos.









For the most part the expressive art is unsigned but every once in awhile there is a name that reminds me that this is about all of us - as the artist and as a person needing a home.






The silhouettes are haunting and I want to wave at the people in the windows... just to say "you are not alone."



If you were to paint a picture of your home what would it look like?








As I get away from the street front there is less art work.



The Homeless Nation website had photos posted by The Blackbird of the boarding up.




Expensive market housing is a close neighbour.




I want to say "hello, I would like to get to know you. Maybe we could talk on the step."




There are still about 20 units occupied... what must it be like to live between the art, the boarded up windows and with your friends and neighbours already gone?






Some of the art work and statements are missing. They were removed. If you scroll down on the C.A.L.M website there are the top 12 statement that were found objectionable by BC Housing.




This time I do wave. I leave the complex and return to Main Street. Signs on blue tarps catch the breeze.








Having been part of the Pedder Bay community who lost their homes on March 1, 2009, this issue is close to my heart. I believe that by working together we can and will make a difference.

What can you do?

Policies that cause homelessness must be changed.

If you are in BC, phone, write or email your MP, MLA, City Hall & local newspaper. You can also join thousands of people from communties across British Columbia, Canada for the April 4, 2009 Grand March For Housing. You can vote for change in the May 12, 2009 BC Provincial election.


If you are a global citizen living anywhere in the world you can share this photo essay.

warm regards,