Cathy Crowe at OttawaU

So Cathy Crowe* received an honourary doctorate at the University of Ottawa on June 8, 2008. She was awarded this at my convocation ceremony. Her theme was "Inspiration". Here's the content of her address:

*the link is avideo interview

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Thank you Madame Chancellor. Thank you President Patry and the Faculty and students for this honour. I accept it knowing that I am only one of many people in the struggle to end the housing crisis here in Canada.

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I am sure you can imagine that, after twenty years working as a Street Nurse, I need to find inspiration to stay hopeful. After all, I am not a carpenter, I am not a roofer, and I’m certainly not the federal finance minister, so I cannot build housing. I am a nurse, a street nurse, une infirmière de la rue. Je crois que le logement est à la base d’une bonne santé. [a nurse of the street. I believe that housing is at the base of a good health].

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J’ai vu la destruction totale de notre programme de logement national, ce qui a rendu le Canada un des très peu de pays du monde sans programme de logement. Quand nous avions un programme national nous construisions vingt-milles unités d’habitations à loyer modique par année. [I saw the total destruction of our national housing program, which made Canada once again one of very few countries of the world without program of housing. When we had a national plan we built twenty thousand low-rent housing units per year.]The cancellation of the national housing program in 1993 is the number one reason that 300,000 men and women and over 20,000 children in this country are homeless. 2 million others are on the edge.

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Homelessness has been declared a national disaster in Canada. The United Nations calls it a national emergency. I call it a national disgrace. Whatever you call it – homeless people are in fact Canada’s internally displaced refugees.

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Let me give you a glimpse at what that looks like.

There is the nightly movement of homeless families and children from church basement to church basement in Calgary. The children describe being woken at 5 am to be transported with their parents in a yellow school bus back downtown. Then they are bused to the one school they must all go to. They end up in a different church basement the next night and every day the pattern is repeated.

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Il y a les squats et les campements dans chaque ville du Canada - des boites en carton, des sacs de couchages, et des familles entières qui vivent dans des tentes ou des caravanes. Les gens qui sont forcés à mendier sur nos rues sont les mêmes gens qui se font déplacés par la police.
On a besoin de soins palliatifs, tel que le programme ici à Ottawa, pour les sans-abri. Il y a le Monument aux Sans-Abris à Toronto qui a plus de cinq-cent noms inscrits. Les gens vivent sans-abri pour tellement de temps qu’ils meurent dans des conditions désespérés. [There are squats and camps in each city of Canada - cardboard boxes, sleeping bags, and whole families that live in tents or caravans. People who are forced to beg on our streets are the same people who are forced to move by the police. We need palliative care, such as the program here in Ottawa, for the homeless people. There is the Memorial for the Homeless [link] in Toronto which has more than five hundred registered names. People live homeless for so long that they die under conditions desperate.]

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I have toured this disaster across Canada. I often invite political leaders or the media to join me on my walk. What I have seen, and they have seen it too, is the destruction of our life-saving infrastructure: the shelters, the food programs and the assistance programs like unemployment and disability.

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Pour les canadiens pauvres et sans-abri, les résultats de cette négligence ont été la destruction et la mort - la tuberculose, la malnutrition, la mort de froid, la dépression et le suicide. [For poor Canadians and homeless people, the results of this negligence are destruction and death - tuberculosis, malnutrition, hypothermia, depression and suicide.]

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What can give us hope? What can inspire us to move forward and act with a sense of justice? I have three thoughts, three different kinds of inspiration that help me.

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D’abord, il y a les gens qui nous inspirent à la justice et à l’action. [Initially, there are people who inspire to us with justice and action.]

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Il y a plusieurs personnes à travers l’histoire qui nous donnent du courage face au désespoir. Pour moi, une de ces personnes est l’infirmière et ancien maire de la ville d’Ottawa Marion Dewar. [There are several people through history who give us courage vis-a-vis despair. For me, one of these people is the nurse and former mayor of the city of Ottawa, Marion Dewar]

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Après la guerre du Vietnam, plusieurs pays fermèrent leurs frontières aux réfugiés vietnamiens. Des centaines de milliers durent s’échapper de la guerre à bord de bateaux dangereux et surchargés. Plusieurs de ces “boat people” mourrurent de faim ou se noyèrent. [After the Vietnam, several countries closed their borders to Vietnamese refugees. Hundreds of thousands had to escape from the war on board dangerous and overloaded boats. Several (many?) of these “boat people” of hunger or drowned. ]

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Marion Dewar witnessed the media images of abysmal refugee camps, grim boat conditions, and the slammed doors of many countries. She acted. She made the slogan “Think globally – act locally” come alive. While Mayor she helped launch Project 4000 – to find sponsors for 4,000 Vietnamese people in Ottawa. She created the spark that ‘imagined’ Canadians country wide to open their hearts and homes to thousands and thousands of Vietnamese refugees who were fleeing persecution, war and homelessness in their own country. That was a moment of justice in Canada’s history.

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Marion Dewar a dit que les infirmières et les travailleurs de santé doivent être responsables envers la communauté, et que la communauté a besoin de paix et de justice avant tout. [Marion Dewar said that the nurses and healthcare workers of must be responsible for the community, and that the community needs peace and justice above all.] Her words inspire me even more today because as she says, we know in our heart that what we need in our country is public education. What we need is health care. What we need is housing. We do not need more destruction, we need justice and peace.

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Along with my family, I am very honoured to have Marion’s son Paul Dewar, MP for Ottawa Centre here with us tonight.

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Second, there are words and art that inspire us to justice and action.

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De temps en temps, une oeuvre de musique, de poésie ou de littérature émerge et atteint des millions de personnes et engage leurs coeurs à l’action. Ces joyaux littéraires inspirent parce qu’ils nous rappellent qu’il y a des choses pour lesquelles il faut la peine de se battre. [From time to time, a work of music, poetry or literature emerges and reaches million people and engages their hearts with action. These literary jewels inspire because they remind us that there are things for which one needs sorrow to fight.]

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I recently watched a music video on YouTube - the song ‘Dear Mr. President’ by the singer Pink. This song represents art joining forces to nurture the work of activists, in this case, anti-war and homeless activists. The lyrics from her song are inspiring millions. I took a little liberty with them. Ecoutez! [Listen!]

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Dear Mr. PRIME MINISTER
Come take a walk with me.

Let’s pretend that we’re just two people and

You’re not better than me.

I’d like to ask you some questions, if we can speak honestly.

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How do you sleep while the rest of us cry?

How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye?

How do you walk with your head held high?

Can you even look me in the eye?

And tell me why?

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Cher Monsieur le Premier Ministre

As-tu déjà rencontré un enfant, une femme ou un homme sans-abri?

Ne sont-ils pas l’humanité?

Comment peux-tu dire

Qu’une réduction de la TPS achèvera la pauvreté?

Nous ne sommes ni idiots, ni aveugles.

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Tu n’as pas d’argent pour l’habitation mais cinquante milliards pour l’armée!
Comment dors-tu quand nous autres pleurons?

Comment rêves-tu quand une mère ne peut pas dire au revoir?

Comment peux-tu marcher la tête haute?

Peux-tu même me regarder dans l’oeil?

[Did you already meet a child, a woman or a man homeless person?

Aren't they humanity?

How can you say

What a reduction of the TPS (Toronto Police Service?)will complete poverty?

We are neither idiotic, nor blind.

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You do not have money for housing but fifty billion for the army!

How do you sleep when we others cry?

How do you dreams you when a mother cannot say goodbye?

How can you walk with your head high?

Can you even look me in the eye? ]

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Let me tell you ‘bout hard work.

Minimum wage, plants closing every day.

Let me tell you ‘bout hard work.

Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away

Let me tell you about hard work

Building a bed out of a cardboard box.
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Laisses-moi te parler du travail dur

Travail dur, travail dur

T’en sais rien du travail dur.

[Let me tell you about hard work

Hard work, hard work

You don't know anything about hard work]

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How do you sleep at night?

How do you walk with your head held high?

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

You’d never take a walk with me.

Would you?

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Finally, there are the political wins that happen because of a people’s movement. The slogans, the buttons, the chants inspire and tell the story of those wins.

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Il y a des phrases qui agissent comme un mantra ou un symbole qui capturent l’essence d’une lutte et nous inspirent à être actifs dans un mouvement de justice sociale. [There are sentences which act as a mantra or a symbol which capture the essence of a fight and inspire us with being active in a social justice movement] A lot of these phrases are on political buttons so I poked around in my button collection to give you some examples.

Before I do, did you know that the first widespread use of a logo for a political cause was in the 18th century? It was a medallion, designed by the pottery entrepreneur Josiah Wedgwood. It depicted a kneeling slave, in chains, encircled by the words “Am I Not a Man and a Brother?” Women wore the medallion as a bracelet or in their hair. Today the equivalent is a button worn on lapels and knapsacks.

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Think of this one from my collection. An all black button with these white words on it: ‘WHY kill people to show that killing people is wrong?’ It tells the story of the winning campaign to fight the federal government’s plan to bring back the death penalty.

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Ou celui-ci: “Speak Out! South Africa will hear us!” Ce slogan inspira les canadiens à rejoindre la lutte internationale contre l’apartheid. Ou encore “Ban the Klan”. Ce slogan nous rappela qu’il était essentiel d’empêcher le Ku Klux Klan de s’installer au Canada! [Or this one: “Speak Out! South Africa will hear us!” This slogan inspired Canadians to join the international fight against apartheid. Or “Ban the Klan”. This slogan reminded us that it was essential to prevent Ku Klux Klan from starting in Canada] Or how about this slogan: ‘NO GRAPES.’ The California grape boycott in support of the United Farmworkers had a real influence on the use of agricultural pesticides and it expanded the right for farm workers to organize in a union. And this slogan: ‘Will that be cash or OHIP?’ That inspired the win against extra-billing by physicians. There are many other inspirational slogans like: ‘Abortion is a Woman’s Choice,’ that symbolized the win for de-criminalization. ‘A Date with Equality,’ that symbolized pay equity wins across the country. ‘Stop the Secret Trials,’ which our Supreme Court agreed with in 2007.

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In 2003, the hundreds of thousands of people across Canada who took to the streets and chanted ‘Stop the War!’ were clearly an ‘inspiration’ to Prime Minister Chrétien to not bring Canada into the war in Iraq.

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Aujourd’hui, les nouveaux slogans qu’on commence à entendre à travers le pays sont [Today, the new slogans that one starts to hear through the country are]“Drop fees not bombs”, “Health care not warfare”, “Childcare not warfare”, and my favourite “Housing not war”.

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How about “Let them Stay!” referring to the US Iraq war resisters in Canada. This week the House of Commons voted 137-110 to ‘let them stay’ if they refuse to engage in an illegal war.

Ces slogans m’ont inspirés à continuer la lutte. J’espère qu’ils vous inspireront aussi. [These slogans inspired to me to continue the fight. I hope that they will inspire to you too]

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Graduates, the work that you and I do is about life; it is about healing and caring. As a street nurse, I ask you to remember the words and actions of Marion Dewar. I also ask you to hear the words of a very young female politician who inspires. Malalai Joya is the suspended member of the Afghan parliament. She risks her life for speaking out in her country. She has to change housing every night for safety. She is homeless.

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On a recent visit to Canada, she expressed shock at the extent of the homelessness and poverty she saw. She said “I don’t know how the (Canadian) government cannot look at them. Instead they say ‘we want to help Afghan people.’” She noted – neither group is being helped.

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Our government is making more homelessness in Canada. They are also making more homelessness in Afghanistan!

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We should be so ashamed and then I hope we will find the moral resolve to prove that we, and this country, are inspired to be about life, healing and caring ……and to act.

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Thank you!
Merci beaucoup!