Vancouver, Canada: New Book on the Woodsquat

“Woodsquat” – a special issue of West Coast Line (240 pages, $12) Info: 604.682.3269 ext. 7567 / free [at] woodsquat [dot] net / http://www.woodsquat.net

Who popped Woodwards on September 14th 2002? Why? What happened on the inside? Who were The Woodwards 54? How did they defend a street encampment for 92 days & nights in the Downtown Eastside of Vancouver? Who stayed? Who left? Who ended it? What happened afterwards? Will Vancouver ever be business-as-usual again? Which buildings are next?

Writing & interviews on daily life at the squat. Poems, speeches, statements & reports by residents, witnesses & supporters. Call-outs from affinity groups & support organizations. Police reports & the confidential city government memo planning the quiet final eviction. Reproductions of video stills, posters, flyers, graffiti, linocuts, photographs & an 11-page comic. Critical essays on squatting as a tool, gentrification & social housing, electoral politics, addiction & class war, media distortion, legal strategies, the use of demands, and the ongoing struggle.

Contributors include Maxine Gadd, The Peoples Opposition, Shawn Millar, Chris Barton, Matthew Bonnetrouge, Nathan, Kaspar Learn, Skyy, Ivan Drury, Ricky Lavallie, Chris Livingstone, Craig Ballantyne, Zeus, Illara V Sunsurn, Anti-Poverty Committee, Chrystal Durocher, Taz, Ann Wilden, Tom, James Toews, Angel Williams, Murray Bush, James Dempster, Gary G. Gates, Toecutter, Chris Forth, Kara Sievewright, Lacey Rainer, Woodwards Legal Defense Committee, A Native Man, Claude Maurice, Insurgent-S, Roy Gladiator Archie, Mavis Brass, Nick Olsen, T. Forsythe, Betty Williams, Vanessa Louis, K Wester, Cadillac, Lyn Tooley, Tony Snakeskin, Adam Murray, Hidden in Dark Well, Ken Howard, Sky Wright, Determined Housing Affinity Group, Jason X, Taum Danberger, Megan Oleson, Kathy May Lee Rattlesnake, Hazel Hoyle, Elvis Ace Nelson, Trevor M, Lisa Wulwik, Jeff Sommers, Mike Krebs, Travis Livingstone, Doris Louis, Roger Rabbit, Shannon Bundock, Vancouver Police Department, Beverley Gladue, Bruce Gongola, Peter Z, Noah Quastel, Diana Leung, Angel, David Cunningham, City of Vancouver, Jewel C, Theresa D. Gray, Jim Leyden, Bev Meslo, Azad & Marwan, Friends of the Woodwards Squat, Debbie Krull, Coalition of Woodwards Squatters and Supporters, Shane Davis, Ron M, Woodwards Squat Emergency Response Team, Reverend Davin Ouimet, Western Aboriginal Harm Reduction Society and Dayl Scheltgen. Edited by Aaron Vidaver. Special thanks to Gregory Placonouris.

Aaron Vidaver <vid [at] runcible [dot] org>