Some time ago, we wrote about AUPE's invasion of our home, including the actions of NDP leadership hopeful, David Eggen.
What made this most painful, is that there are people living here in Artspace that thought he was their friend. This betrayal was a tremendous shock to many, and one in particular is still under doctor's orders not to have any direct communication with Eggen for health reasons.
You would think that someone in his position would recognize the damage such an event would have on the vulnerable people living in Artspace, and especially those living with brain injuries and PTSD.
It wasn't the first time David Eggen came to Artspace in support of AUPE, rather than the people who were being harmed by their actions.
Like here, where he is posing with Local 47 chair, Deb Arcand, and another provocateur, Jaime Urbina, for David Malka. All three are noted as among the most abusive of all the picketers that have laid siege to our home.
In trying to figure out who this Deb Arcand posting on the AUPE Facebook page was, another face kept popping up.
David Eggen's.
In the same article we found a photo identifying Deb Arcand at St. Thomas, we also found this photos of David Eggen.
St. Thomas is listed as an Edmonton senior's residence.
There's David Eggen, on the bull horn, with a "boisterous" (nice PC term for it) crowd in front of the homes of seniors.
From what I've seen of the event, it's been every bit as disruptive as what would start happening at Artspace, just over a month after this photo was published.
This is clearly not the first time David Eggen has shown his support for AUPE's actions against the more vulnerable people of our communities.
This photo has another familiar face in the background; someone who has also spent months here at Artspace and is another AUPE paid picketer (not SAIL staff) that has been among the more abusive.
She can bee seen in this video.
AUPE's videos have shown all sorts of interesting things, but we'll stick to David Eggen for now.
AUPE tries to take credit for Michener not closing down, in a way that was quite offensive to those who support independent living for people with disabilities.
I think I see some familiar faces in the background here, too.
It's another screen cap from AUPE's video, but what is most disturbing about this one is that David Eggen is identified as the Executive Director of Friends of Medicare.
Friends of Medicare knows what's been going on here at Artspace, as well as the damage being done to the people who live here. After all, one of our members is - was - a member of the board of directors. He has resigned as Deb Arcand and Dave Malka constantly called him out for his association with the board, even following him off property, constantly yelling the word "SHAME" even though he sits on no Artspace or SAIL Board, nor receives services and was a volunteer for many organizations including Friends of Medicare. Even when Deb Arcand was asked to resist attacking this man as he is suffering from PTSD, her response was "Ya Right" and the verbal abuse elevated to the point of him twice being hospitalized
Considering how long this has been going on, and at how many places, as well as AUPE's connections to the board, perhaps it comes as no surprise that Friends of Medicare has been ineffectual.
Ah, but David Eggen's connections to what's been going on here at Artspace go further than his showing up at AUPE's targeting of other vulnerable communities.
Not only did he post for pictures for the former picket captain, David Malka, look who's endorsing him for his run for leadership.
This is the current
Desiree stood next to this woman as she threatened someone on her balcony and not only did she not do anything to stop her, but she also zoned in on the woman on the balcony, then tried to deflect blame onto the woman's boss.
This person.
Desiree is also the person who took credit for organising the Canada Day invasion of our home and left a comment on the Friends of SAIL (which AUPE people were using to continue their harassment of Artspace members, leaving people feeling unsafe to post there anymore, even after their harassers are blocked) that made it sound like we here in Artspace should somehow be grateful for having them hold an illegal block party, complete with free hot dogs.
That was the event that inspired the creation of this blog, so I guess we should be thanking her for doing something that eventually lead to the public exposure of what AUPE has been doing to the Artspace community.
So who else is David Eggen connected to?
He's another one that we couldn't figure out for quite some time. It's thanks to this endorsement on David Eggen's website that we finally know.
This video has some choice actions from Jaime, demonstrating just how irresponsible and reckless he has been, on top of general harassment and, as a number of members have described, just plain creeping people out.
Oh, and he's also one of the people who blocked a woman on the street for almost an hour and a half.
Yeah, that's him behind the phone, with Deb Arcand beside him, and Angel Colvin, who told CBC some real zingers when they interviewed her.
Ah, now here's another very familiar face. For some reason, she's not identified as one of AUPE's vice-presidents here.
Things have quieted down a lot lately, but Karen was here just recently. She was challenged by one of our members, who also happens to be a psychiatric nurse, and actually tried to brush off what AUPE has been doing here - under her watch - because it's not like that any more.
As someone who claims to be so knowledgeable about health care, she should know full well that the psychological damage done by abuse does not end just because the abuser suddenly starts acting nice. Just the presence of the abuser continues to cause harm.
She's also a person who, when confronted about claims made about picketer's behaviour by a City TV camera man, first claimed they did nothing wrong, then demanded proof be shown if there was.
Well, Karen. Just go take a look throughout this blog and our youtube channel. There's proof enough - and you're in there, too.
So who else is connected to David Eggen?
This guy.
He is described as both a labour and an NDP organiser.
He's not as shaggy in this photo as we usually see him.
Aside from being here often, he also was one of the key people taking part in hours of street theatre against Artspace, together with AUPE's "counsel", William Rigutto.
This one is not actually a familiar face; as far as I know, she has never been on the picket line, though she did write an article for The Vue some time ago.
She's a familiar name, instead.
Turns out she knows people here in Artspace, but what caught our attention was that she was on Facebook bragging about how she knew some "inside" people, and was mediating between SAIL and AUPE.
In reality, it turned out she was pretending friendship with the SAIL president to try and get her to meet with William Rigutto, bypassing the legal, legitimate negotiation process.
Perhaps she counted on the SAIL president not being a Facebook user and catching on to what she was doing, however a number of other people saw what she was saying.
Then she completely blew it by not only betraying the people who thought she was their friend, but demonstrating herself to be contemptuous of people with disabilities.
IF AUPE wants to complain about SAIL not wanting to negotiate, they can thank Mimi for setting things back even worse than they were before.
(Update below)
Ah, but David Eggen isn't the only NDP connection to the picket line.
Check out Rod Loyola's endorsement page.
Rob Loyola has been here on the picket line.
He's the president of NASA (no, not the cool NASA; the Non-Academic Staff Association).
He's also secretary on the board for Friends of Medicare.
And who is it that's endorsing him?
Why, this favourite of AUPE.
Yeah, she lives at Artspace, but she's not the board president. She was interim president for a while, but was elected as VP Membership.
She's also Communications Officer for a union, which AUPE neglected to mention, and which she also neglected to mention every time they trotted her out for the media to interview.
She allowed AUPE to use her in their slick propaganda video to make it sound like she was speaking for Artspace, and she has yet to recuse herself from the board for conflict of interest, which would be the ethical thing to do.
[Update: she eventually lost her position as interim president for not attending the required board meetings.]
Who else supports Rod Loyola?
That's right; The Urinator, himself.
And check out William Rigutto's comment.
He really likes the phrase "crypto fascist."
And the word "oeuvre." That's another favourite of his.
He's really big on using ad hominem attacks on people who don't do what he demands.
I wonder if he realizes how much it makes people laugh at him for being such a dweeb?
We've heard that David Eggen has tried to backpedal over what he did here in Artspace, make excuses, and even shed a few tears of remorse.
Even if we believed it was genuine, it's too little, too late.
From the looks of things, the NDP is closely connected with AUPE in actions against senior's centres, care centres, care companies, and now Artspace. Even our MLA, Brian Mason, has tacitly supported what's going on, rather than supporting his constituents against an aggressive, invading force.
Which means that, under the disguise of fighting for care givers, they are actually supporting the abuse and harassment of the people who need care.
And it looks like David Eggen is particularly closely involved.
Update: Sept. 10
Interesting fallout from this post. Most of it was overwhelmingly positive, but Mimi Williams took things to Facebook where, she accused us of lying.
So I assured her I would post her side of the story.
Here it is.
This is where it all started; with her accusing us of lying.
As for who she's talking about re: "taking bad advice from people who don't have a clue what they are talking about", we have no idea. What advice and from whom?
First, a bit of history.
This is part of a conversation where she talked about her behind the scenes actions to "facilitate a resolve."
This was part of a much larger conversation, which you can read below if you wish.
A number of her statements were blatantly wrong, leading people to question her, which she did not appreciate.
That lead her to talking about things that really should be confidential and were filled with half-truths and AUPE talking points.
After tagging this blog's Facebook profile, a discussion ensued, as follows.
So there you go.
There's Mimi's side of the story.
What is interesting is that she is basically admitting that she has insinuated herself into this - but that's okay, because she was "invited to conduct informal mediation."
Please explain to me how someone who wrote an article about the strike suddenly becomes part of actions to bypass the legal mediation process - or, sorry, "informal mediation" - without insinuating themselves? Freelance writers aren't typically invited to negotiate labour disputes.
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