From time to time you read about the Pivot Legal Society, Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside advocacy organization dedicated to using law reform, legal education, and strategic legal action to advance the interests and improve the lives of those on the fringes of society: sex workers, drug addicts, and the homeless, among other disenfranchised groups of people.
As the Pivot Legal Society explain in their mission statement …

The basic concept underlying Pivot’s name and mission is that a critical pressure point of social change is to be found at the lower edge of legal and social boundaries. By systematically challenging the attitudes and institutions of power than enable marginalization, Pivot strives to move us towards a more tolerant, inclusive and compassionate society. By aggressively advancing the interests and defending the legal entitlements of the most disenfranchised, Pivot aims for a ‘trickle-up’ effect of respect and acceptance that will ultimately benefit all.

Of course, in advocating for citizens the general populace (not to mention the police) would sooner ignore, or incarcerate, Pivot’s actions on behalf of their constituency are not always met with the degree of equanimity one might hope for. Vancouver Police Chief Jamie Graham, in particular, frequently lashes out at Pivot, and its Executive Director, John Richardson.
As for Mr. Richardson, rather than respond with invective, he instead offers a reasoned rejoinder, as was the case when Pivot issued the 28-page report Towards More Effective Police Oversight, in which the society called on the Vancouver City Council Peace and Justice Committee to vote to endorse “integrity testing” of Vancouver police officers …

“An integrity test creates a realistic condition or situation designed to generate a natural reaction by an individual or individuals so that their conduct, behaviour and professional standards can be assessed,” say the report’s authors. “Much in the same way that the VPD’s bait car programme reduces the incidence of auto theft, an effective integrity testing program can help reduce the instances of misconduct in relation to marginalized persons by VPD officers.”

Fortunately, not all sectors of society look upon the work of the Pivot Legal Society with disfavour. In 2004, the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network recognized the Pivot Legal Society for their humanitarian work furthering Action on HIV/AIDS and Human Rights, winning praise, as well, from the BC Chapter of the Canadian Bar Association, among others.
From their advocacy work representing Vancouver sex-trade workers, to their work with housing activists supporting the Woodward’s housing squat (Windows Media Player), and their ongoing work responding to alleged police misconduct, the Pivot Legal Society performs a service for all of us.
If you would like to subscribe to the Pivot mailing list, please click here. Information on membership in the Pivot Legal Society is available here. If you, or someone you know, have been or feel you may become subject to police harassment, you may wish to avail yourself of the instructions on the Pivot Legal Card. And finally, donations to Pivot are readily accepted.

As the Bus Riders Union states in its April 2005 position paper, Lower The Fares Now, “public transit is a critical economic and social resource in the lives of transit-dependent people to negotiate our lives, to access work, social networks, and such important social services such as education, childcare centres, community centres, and health care.”
Despite Vancouver mayor Larry Campbell’s characterization of the Bus Riders Union as a group of “total losers,” the health and social justice struggle in which the BRU is engaged is a direct response to the targeting of our society’s most vulnerable citizens — parents, low-wage workers, the unemployed, refugees, students, children, seniors, people with disabilities and immigrants. A majority of bus riders are women and disproportionately Aboriginal and people of colour. Inevitably then, policies that negatively impact transit-dependent people are implicitly racist, sexist and unfair.

Higher fares and poor bus service act as a barrier to our independence and mobility, and as a result the health of our community suffers. Some bus riders are forced to choose between taking the bus and other basic necessities, such as food and rent. High fares force transit dependent people to work longer hours to pay for the rising cost, causing intense strain on their own health and the health of their families.

In Greater Vancouver, bus riders pay for 50% of Translink’s operating costs through fares, as well as paying through the Hydro levy and gas taxes. High transit fares are, in fact and in practice, a form of regressive taxation that takes more money from those who can least afford to pay.
What can you do to redress the wrong? Start of by visiting the Bus Riders’ Union website. E-mail them at

Taking action to combat the racial profiling of immigrants and refugees, as well as discriminatory detention and deportation policies, and the wage-slave working conditions of migrant workers and non-status people — while engaging in the struggle to maintain their own livelihoods and resist war, occupation and displacement — the grassroots anti-colonial immigrant and refugee rights movement No One Is Illegal finds itself very much engaged in the struggle for people’s democratic, social and economic rights.
Most of NOII’s organizers hail from immigrant / refugee backgrounds (South Asian, Persian, Latina/o, Arab and Middle Eastern), and are predominantly women. While taking action to combat racial profiling, detention and deportation, NOII organizers provide political and legal advocacy in defense of families and individuals in the refugee determination process — by drafting legal submissions, organizing multilingual community forums, and fighting against the prospect of deportation through direct action at immigration offices, detention centres and airports.
One of the principle struggles in which No One Is Illegal is engaged is the Campaign for Regularization, the movement to have all persons living without legal immigration status in Canada (non status migrant and immigrants) afforded permanent resident or landed immigrant status.
Restoring Legal Aid Funding in British Columbia is another key campaign that No One Is Illegal has launched. Out of the $83 million that the provincial government cut from the Legal Aid services budget in 2001, 40% came by eliminating legal services to marginalized communities. In 2003 - 2004, Legal Aid funding for immigration cases totalled $4.9 million. In this past year, an agreement between the provincial and federal governments provided only $1.7 million in funding for immigration cases, resulting in the implementation of a profiling-based “merit-screening” process.
Operating an office in Vancouver — located at 714 - 207 West Hastings — the work undertaken by No One Is Illegal comes at an enormous cost. While planning direct action, producing educational materials, and raising emergency funds, No One Is Illegal receives no funding from government, and none of its organizers constitute paid staff.
For more information about No One Is Illegal — or to become a sustaining member, or provide a donation — go to their website, e-mail the organizers directly at