Victoria’s First Really Really Free Market

Victoria is having it’s first “Really Really Free Market” and we’re looking for you to get involved…
Do you have a skill? A recipe? Seeds? or just old stuff that you want to share? Then contact rrfvictoria@resist.ca or Heather at 858-8370 or come out to the market on July 12th at the Fernwood Community Centre.

Dumpster Diver Court Victory

Food security activists in Victoria declared victory today in a 2 1/2 year old dumpster diving court case.
Charges against four people who were arrested in January of 2006 were stayed after one of the Crown’s witnesses failed to appear.
Dozens of supporters gathered on the courthouse lawn with Food Not Bombs and Homeland Food Security (groups [...]

Group wants deposit on cigarette butts

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, May 21 (UPI) — Three Canadian men want the province of British Columbia to impose a 10-cent deposit on cigarette butts for safety and to benefit the homeless.

Orlando Food Not Bombs plans more protests of rule against feeding homeless

Mark Schlueb, Orlando Sentinel
Eric Montanez - twice arrested and twice cleared by jurors — vowed Tuesday to continue to fight Orlando’s rules about feeding the homeless.
A jury last week acquitted Montanez and three other homeless advocates of violating the city’s noise ordinance by beating on drums during a protest outside a campaign fundraiser for Mayor [...]

Video of dumpster-divers’ arrest raised questions about poisoned food and press freedom

By Jason Youmans, Monday Magazine
It’s been more than two years since a local filmmaker caused the Victoria Police Department a public relations headache after he captured the overzealous arrest of two young homeless men fishing for food in the dumpster behind a local grocery store and the case is only now going to trial.

Dumpster Diving Article Wins Times Colonist Student Writing Contest

Luke Stime finds himself pulled in opposite directions by his budget and his belief in the importance of eating locally produced fresh foods. He comes up with an original and shocking compromise.
Times Colonist
The shackles of a tight budget and the yoke of ethical imperatives force a lot of us into a bind at the supermarket. [...]

On Trial for Eating Garbage

by Kalanu
Anti-poverty activists across North America will be watching Victoria in the next few weeks to learn the results of two separate court cases that highlight human rights abuses in our city.
The two cases are known to many as ‘The Right to Sleep’, and ‘The Right to Eat’, and both cases challenge the authority of [...]

More urban foragers refuse to buy into consumer lifestyle

By ELISABETH JOHNS, SUN MEDIA
Gerard Daechsel picks through a bag and produces a container of blueberries, a couple of limes — one that’s clearly gone bad — and an orange.
These goods came from the supermarket, but were then tossed in the garbage.
And that’s where Daechsel picked them up. He’ll put the edible fruit in his [...]

Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe Pokes Fun at Panhandlers

What is it with mayors? At the west of the Capital Region, we have the developer’s best friend, Stew Young, whose reign of terror has included greenlighting and championing every development request that has crossed his desk, the worst being ecocidal projects such as Bear Mountain Resort.
In Victoria proper we have a mayor who refuses [...]

Feral University Rabbit population out of control

The astounding proportions of the feral university rabbit population was revealed this week with the formation of the National Campus Wildlife Service, a committee of university grounds management professionals with the mandate of ‘managing the astounding growth of the university feral rabbit population.’
Campus grounds-keeping professionals around the country, when reached for comment, generally commented “They [...]