MAIN POINTS
(from interviews)

1. Everyone is afraid; people are afraid to get to know anyone

2. Poverty makes people move frequently, breaking community connections

3. Small (or no) living quarters means no way to socialize

4. Isolation-people with a bit more money avoid you

5. People don't have time to think or participate in problem-solving

6. Lack of economic security creates a dog-eat-dog environment at all levels; groups and individuals forced to compete with one another for funding and jobs

7. Society goes into denial and resorts to blaming, shaming and scapegoating people in poverty

8. Disposable people are the first ones conscripted into war

9. Poverty deadens community life and wastes human potential

10. People too busy to get involved politically
(give passive consent through inaction)

11. People don't have free speech on the job and can't rock the boat

12. People unable to participate in their community without money
(difficult to attend events, join groups or to contribute)

COMMUNITY/DEMOCRACY - Quotes

There is so much that we lose on every front: family, community, culturally, individually-from the legacy of poverty.   By the time I was 30, I'd moved 40 times. It is so expensive to move, it is akin to a death, it is so stressful. But you do what you can with what you have. But there are so many ties in the community that you can never make. -Naomi

I passed a binner on the way here. He told me there is more competition for the resources out in the back alleys. With increased poverty there's more crime in the streets. If I was out there and I had money to buy a bottle of something that would keep me from freezing to death, I'd probably go for it. I can see how that would become addictive. -Janine

I would have friends calling me wanting to chat, but I had only two hours a day after work that I could do anything in.   So I became very unfriendly to the people in my social network, because I didn't have time and they did, and I became resentful. I'd be feeling like there wasn't any time, foregoing constructive things that I would like to be doing, even giving short shrift to my mother, because at the end of the day I was just too tired to hear her out. When I'm energetic, I'm an outgoing and generous person, but when I'm tired and exhausted, you don't want to be around me. And that spills over into the community. Just multiply that by how many people are out there, and you've got family violence, and you've got people shut in their rooms, not going out. -Jennifer

In poverty, people only think in the hand-to-mouth, the immediate-a sandwich or a sleeping bag. That takes up the whole day; there is no time to think of next week or next year. -Faith

Those who could contribute to the diversity and vibrancy of our culture and subculture are squelched because people are working way too much to have any energy to contribute. -Naomi

People start getting the attitude that these people cost money; they are problem people. That becomes that cycle of discrimination without looking at underlying issues. So we are forever in denial. Diverting attention and shaming and blaming other people, instead of actually looking at the real problems. I think that's a huge cost. We are afraid to even help our neighbors because of crime. That whole sense of trust and respect is really warped now. We have all these groups that are segregated and labeled. When we get together and try to have one strong voice, instead we say, "I have an owie that is bigger than your owie," and we never move beyond that. There's no movement. -Faith

Drug use is frustration with society, wanting to step away from it but not knowing how. -Aletheia

That goes back to genocide. It didn't die with residential schools; it's just taken a new form: how to kill poor people the easy way. Eventually the poor people will start to rebel; culture will get angrier and angrier. We see that now with crystal meth, the poor man's drug-all you get is aggression. Jails are overflowing. You can't walk out the street with outthinking, "God, am I going to make it home or not?" Aggression is really high, and when people get hungry, they go crazy, have knee jerk reactions [from being] hungry and cold and having no self-worth. You have nothin' to lose, so what does it matter if you kill someone? Because then you'll get three square meals a day in jail and a warm bed. -Mary C

Welfare has never been constructed as a right. Rather it is benefit that women have to apply for and they can be denied. The criteria changes according to the political ideas embraced by those in government. So today, women are seen as employable and unwilling to join the free market. Therefore, if women are reluctant to leave their children in daycare or alone, they are depicted as unwilling and undeserving of welfare. Today, poor-bashing has taken on a new viciousness and rather than look at the roots of   poverty and other forms of inequality and oppression, we blame women for many of societies ills. And welfare rates get lower and lower and fewer women and children are able to receive welfare benefits. This is an old story. -Susan

Because we are so busy working, we don't call our MLA's. Some people don't even know who their MLA is. We are giving consent to all sorts of atrocities by our inaction. -Janine

You can't do anything when you are struggling to get the basics. -Evelyn

People are so worried about making ends meet that they can't contribute to community. -Sol

Your ability to participate in anything limited by your income. Say, you want to be on the powwow circuit, or things you might do for your health; if you are too poor, you can't do them. -Samantha