Cunningham arrested for 'uttering threats' against VANOC

by Christina Montgomery; Sunday, May 20, 2007 - The Province
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/story.html?id=41cf6710-5cd...

Friends of anti-poverty activist David Cunningham said he was arrested yesterday afternoon after arranging to meet a man who claimed to be a journalist for a Vancouver newspaper.

Jill Chettiar, a fellow member of the Anti-Poverty Committee, told The Province that Cunningham got a call at about 1 p.m. from someone claiming to be "Peter McKay" from 24 Hours, a free city daily.

The man arranged for the two to meet later at the Tinseltown complex downtown, Chettiar said. Cunningham, who went alone, was approached by police outside the centre and arrested, she said.

No one could be reached at the offices of 24 Hours.

Vancouver police Const. Tim Fanning confirmed that Cunningham was arrested at about 3:45 p.m. at Abbott and Pender streets and faces charges related to uttering threats.

He said Cunningham was released at 8 p.m. last night on a surety to keep the peace.

Fanning said the threats related to Cunningham's appearance May 16 at Vancouver 2010 Olympic headquarters, where he announced publicly a plan to "bring the class war" to the "offices and doorsteps" of the members of VANOC, the Games' organizing committee.

"We have found where their offices are and we have found where their homes are," Cunningham said, and "evictions" were planned. Fanning said police had sought conditions for Cunningham's release that included no direct or indirect contact with VANOC board or team members at their businesses or homes, that he stay two blocks from VANOC's Graveley Street offices and that he stay away from any event hosted by VANOC.

cmontgomery@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Province 2007
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Portrait of an anti-poverty activist

by Lena Sin; Sunday, May 20, 2007 - The Province
http://www.canada.com/theprovince/news/story.html?id=09cc3b7...

It's just hours after Vancouver police announced they're launching yet another investigation into the city's most antagonistic group of Olympic protesters, and their unofficial leader, David Cunningham, is looking relaxed.

Smug, even.

Reporters have been by all day -- something Cunningham sees as a sign that his self-described "vulgar" activism is working.

"We don't have money to lobby. Our power is through disruption and I think we've proven pretty clearly -- even by this interview right now -- that these tactics work," he says.

Even those who don't recognize the name David Cunningham or his group, the Anti-Poverty Committee, can't help but know what he's been up to lately.

As the spokesman and public face of the APC, Cunningham is best-known for wreaking havoc at Olympic events, with each protest costing taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars in policing manpower.

Last Wednesday, Cunningham publicly threatened to "evict" VANOC officials from their homes and offices -- an act described as "outrageous" by the VPD and "reprehensible" by observers.

Not that that means anything to Cunningham, who when asked, eagerly explains what he means by evict: "Files are thrown around perhaps, maybe even a stapler will be thrown in a box and chucked out into a hallway.

"But it's nothing compared to people's belongings being thrown out into the back alleys and having those people follow because they're not being relocated."

Thomas Malenfant, a young, blond APC member, puts it more crudely: "S--t's gonna fly."

The APC is anti-Olympics because members believe the money being spent on the Games should be redirected to social housing, and that the people living in Canada's poorest neighbourhood are being swept out to impress visitors in 2010.

But it's clear the APC needs the Games as much as they hate them.

No other platform has given them so much attention -- and Cunningham's the first to admit it.

The APC has 200 members and was formed in 2001, back when Premier Gordon Campbell was coming into power and Cunningham was still a crack addict living on the streets of the Downtown Eastside.

Born and raised in Stratford, Ont., a pretty town known for its annual Shakespeare festival, Cunningham was drawn to Vancouver "because the crack out here was a lot better than it was in Ontario."

He dropped out of high school at the age of 15 and was homeless in Vancouver by the time he was 18.

Now a 28-year-old father to three year-old Elaby, Cunningham says he's been clean ever since his best friend's dad intervened in 2003.

It was also around that time that his taste for confrontation got the attention of the media.

As a member with the Housing Action Committee in 2003, Cunningham was at the forefront of running an illegal safe-injection site at what is now the APC office, located at Carrall and Hastings, where the smell of urine hangs thick.

Since then, the press has kept following Cunningham, whether he's staging tent-city squats or railing about how the poor are treated.

Which is not to say he's garnered the support of everyone in the Downtown Eastside.

"They're giving poor people a bad name," says long-time activist Jamie Lee Hamilton. "I've done some things that are pretty out there -- I dumped 67 pairs of shoes on city hall, one for each [woman reported to have disappeared from downtown streets] -- but my actions have never been violent."

Cunningham is currently facing charges of mischief and causing a disturbance for allegedly storming the stage at a February Olympic event. He's also facing assault and wilful obstruction charges for allegedly getting into a scrap with a police officer while trying to stop a city meeting last November.

He plans to plead guilty to the mischief charge, an act he was once convicted of in 2004. He also says he has two drug-related convictions from his youth.

He's also at the centre of a B.C. Housing audit investigating claims that as an employee of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, Cunningham and his partner, Jill Chettiar, were unfairly given priority to DERA-subsidized housing.

Chettiar is the treasurer of DERA; Cunningham works as a community coordinator for the non-profit two days a week for $16 an hour.

Hamilton prompted the audit and freely admits she doesn't like the influence the APC wields on DERA -- an organization considered to have influence on local politics.

Cunningham flatly denies using his position with DERA to queue-jump the social housing wait list. He's also adamant he has no political aspirations. Still, politicians do not dismiss him, in part because he's proven to be articulate, if angry.

"He's somewhat like a corporate lawyer. He's very fast and can put a person in a corner brutally, quite quickly and easily," said Vision Vancouver Coun. Tim Stevenson. "Anyone he doesn't see as being helpful, he doesn't have time for."

But for now, Cunningham is giving the angry rhetoric a break. On Friday night, he threw a party to celebrate six months of anti-Olympic activism. It's been a success, he says.

"Our demonstrations have escalated. Everything has gone according to plan and the police, regardless of their attempts to undermine our work, have been unsuccessful.

"We're using the Games and their promises to mobilize people to demand what is theirs."

lsin@png.canwest.com

© The Vancouver Province 2007