Friends

Shortly after the strike started, as AUPE abuse of our members began to escalate, a group of Artspace members, calling themselves Friends of SAIL, began to meet on a regular basis.

I have been invited to share some photos from this week's get together.  On the bottom are others from previous meetings.

It should be noted that these meetings are for all Artspace members, as well as their friends and family, who support SAIL and SAIL users.  Artspace members are there as members of Artspace, not SAIL, even if they are SAIL user members.  This is a place for our members and their supporters to be able to speak freely about what has been going on, and how it has affected them.

It is also a meeting that one of the worse abusers from the picket line complained about not being able to attend.  Yes, an AUPE picketer wanted to continue his intimidation tactics and abuse within our private spaces, then complained because he wasn't allowed.

In the first few of these meetings, members shared some rather horrifying and traumatic stories.  As time had gone by, however, they have become more uplifting, fun, informative and creative.  It has become a support group for Artspace members, who are finding strength through our community, in spite of the actions of AUPE picketers against us.

Getting together for a photo with Julie Lloyd, who was kind enough to come and play the guitar and sing for us.  Thanks, Julie!

A few of our members, enjoying entertainment and discussions; including discussions about the growing pile of reports of abuse submitted by Artspace members.

At this point, I wish to state that this blog is administered by volunteers.  While we have been sharing people's stories, audio and video, it is slow going.  Unlike AUPE, we don't have teams of professional videographers and media people, dedicated to framing their carefully prepared image and narrative.

We're not professionals.  We just have what we have.  We're don't have the time, money, resources or knowledge to put together professionally edited videos or carefully prepared media releases.  AUPE has bottomless funding and resources to frame their public image, and the narrative they want presented, which is that SAIL is the Bad Guy, holding down those poor, immigrant, non-white women.  Personally, I can see they are working hard to play the race, immigrant and gender cards to hide the fact that they are targeting the disabled, the elderly and children, on the picket line.

We're just a bunch of members, doing the best we can, so share what the media, the politicians and the police have been ignoring.  To share what has really been happening to us, not AUPE's carefully controlled narrative.

Trying to get a few more people into the shot. :-D  Things are pretty relaxed, and people sometimes come and go, as they are able.

[Update: sadly, one of our members in this photo suffered a stroke about a month after the dispute officially ended on Dec. 12, 2014, and has since passed. RIP to another Artspace champion.]

At this meeting, Friends of SAIL welcomed Cayley Thomas.

I'm afraid I only have the name Laura for the singer who joined us for this meeting.  Will update later, once that information is received.

This is a side effect of AUPE actions against Artspace; our pulling together more as a community.

They have tried to pit members against the SAIL board.

They have tried to pit our members against our current Artspace board members.

They pick and choose their targets, leaving some members alone while harassing others.

What they can't seem to understand is that we are a community, first.  An intentional community.

We are not a care centre, where people are sent to, with little or no choice.  We are not an apartment or condo complex, where distant owners or managers pick and choose who lives there.

We live here because we asked to be here.  We live here because we agreed to be contributing members of a community.  We live here because we passed an interview process that selected those who (hopefully!) shared that community spirit.

No community is perfect.  One of the biggest challenges co-ops face is that some members don't live up to their obligations.  Such is life.

But Artspace came in a very different than most other co-ops, with its focus on accessibility and independent living for those who would otherwise be forced to live in institutions, even though they only need a bit of help to live independent lives.

These members fought hard to create Artspace.  They fought to create SAIL.  And now they are fighting to protect themselves from AUPE bullying an intimidation tactics against Artspace members, in their attempt to force SAIL to do something it simply cannot do.

When you're stuck between a rock and a hard place, the only thing you can do is stick together, and become stronger than stone.

To bend in the storm and not break

To stand tall for the truth.

To do what is right, rather than what is easy.