My name is Kang Li. I have lived in Block 230G of Tampines street 21 since 1993. It is a point block of 44 households spread over 12 storeys. Even though I have lived here for the last 17 years, I could barely count on one hand the number of residents I could readily recognize. Besides the occasional block party organized by the Residents’ Committee members, and that includes my father, more often than not, such parties are attended by the usual suspects, there is really little initiative on our part as neighbours to know each other better. In fact, what happens on most days for most residents is that we would take the lift, and be home in less than 20 seconds. Even when in the lift, people tend to keep to themselves. And when we reach home, most of us leave our doors closed. That was when I decided that I would need an excuse to open people’s doors to talk to them. And photography became that excuse. I prepared a whole long write-up about my background and my intentions. But I thought that it was not enough. So I decided to make a role model of myself through a self-portrait. And I got my father to be in the picture as well. And with copies of this document in my hands, I started to knock on the doors of my neighbours. I went from floor to floor, from door to door. I told them that this project is about putting a face to the unit numbers and closed doors of our block. Pictures will be collected into a simple newsletter and distributed back to the residents. And hopefully, from such a collaboration, we can start to have conversations. Through the initial encounters, I also learnt that people actually identify my household by my mum. So I went back home and took a picture of her and inserted it into the subsequent editions of my project catalogue. When I show residents the catalogue, I could see their excitement and curiosity as they try to identify their neighbours. People do want to know one another. They just needed some catalyst to spark the whole interaction process. And slowly but surely, I could see that many of my neighbours actually want to be part of this project and want to be photographed. And as I photographed them and talked to them, I made many interesting finds. From complete strangers, I found the GP tutor of my sister when she was in Junior College. I found a lady who attended Primary school just three classes away from me. I discovered a pretty 17-year-old who used to play in my house as a child because my mum used to baby-sit her cousin more than 10 years ago. And she was just just like a toddler then. And now she is all grown-up. And of course, I found at least five residents who wanted to talk to me again about photography. So it was really quite amazing. And making the pictures is really the easiest part. I work with minimal equipment. The project is simple and I think it should stay that way. And I almost never posed the residents. Instead I only gave one instruction: Make yourselves look as friendly as possible. We want people to say Hi to you, come on! And when the pictures come out, I always look for the frame that shows everyone best. Because this is never a project about me, nor is it a self-expression piece. This is a project that aims to bring out the best sides of the residents of my block. So it is really satisfying for me to see people actually inviting themselves into the pictures and inviting themselves into the conversations.

• published: 16 Jun 2011
• views: 5852

June 10, 2011 Killing of Corey Peeace A.S.I.R.T. Director Cliff Purvis verified that the Calgary policeman who first handcuffed and tasered (& later shot and killed) Corey Peeace is four-division officer Stephen Cook. This officer may have motive – wanting to end a lawsuit against him for tasering Peeace while handcuffed and the Calgary Police Service for Human Rights abuses. On the evening of June 10, 2011, Corey Peeace (pronounced Pea-Ace) and his extended family were watching a National Hockey League playoff game at Corey’s home in Calgary. Like many other families across Canada, they were gathered around the family set, eating, some of them having a couple of beers as they cheered for their favoured team. At around 6 p.m., an argument broke out between family members over a missing package of cigarettes opened by Corey moments before – Corey became uncharacteristically angry and a family member called his mother, Stella who had just left the house. There are differences between the story being told by the police and the story being told by the family about the police response that ended when a police officer felt justified in shooting Corey four times in the chest to death. If you read about it in the city’s three newspapers, or watched on the 4 major networks, one would be led to believe that the shooting was justified. After two conferences with Peeace’s family directly regarding the circumstances into Corey’s death, a picture emerged from the family that not only seemed reasonable, but credible. This is their story and one that has never been told by the Calgary media. The story actually began in another house on another street in the same “Erin Woods” neighbourhood in Calgary. It is a neighbourhood, not unlike any other neighbourhood in Calgary where the houses are crammed together, most made cheaply and rented out. There were two “First Nations’ families” in this neighbourhood, Corey’s and his neighbours who lived two houses down. One night, the police from “Four Division” raided both houses, apparently because of a “gun call.” In a flash, police members shoved the faces of the two families down into the ground, all hands restrained behind their backs, each of them thoroughly searched. Then there were a lot of high fives and derogatory racial slurs made against the two native families by the police officers on the scene. It is interesting to note that the house in between the native families’ homes lived a white family and was excluded from raid. The raids turned up no weapons in the subsequent search of the homes of the two families and there were no charges laid. After the incident, Corey Peeace lodged with a Human Rights Commission of which the outcome is unknown. After the incident, Corey’s family relocated to a new home a couple of blocks away. In February 2010, the family was watching an Olympic Hockey game when an argument broke out between Corey and his spouse Vanessa. 911 was dialed on that night as well. After the short argument, Corey went to his bed and slept. Quite literally, he was dead to the world. Another call was placed to 911 to tell the dispatcher that Corey had gone to bed and was no longer any issue. It was over 50 minutes after the initial 911 call before officers showed up at the front door, even after the call to say they were no longer needed. This report did not name the officers because it seems to be police policy here in Calgary not to name officers in such incidents, including when an officer shoots a civilian dead. This is unlike the policy in other forces such as the Toronto Police Services and the Ontario Provincial Police, where officers involved in serious incidents are named to the public. The officers entered the family’s residence without invitation, demanding to know where Corey was. They were adamantly told that he was asleep and their presence was not required, but they continued uninvited into their home and found Corey in his bedroom. The officers then proceeded to physically wake Corey up. Corey, in a alcohol induced slumber, was not aware that the police were in his room and he batted them away. He wanted to do nothing more than sleep. The officers perceived this as an assault on police officers and proceeded to handcuff Corey behind his back. One officer got on top of Corey’s back with one knee with his other knee pushed into Corey’s ribs. With Corey well restrained, the other officer then discharged his taser on Corey in front of his on-looking family. One of the officers then proceeded to try to pressure Corey’s spouse to utter a statement declaring that Corey had hit her but she refused to lie. Corey was charged with assault and made to endure the process of the Calgary Courts. The Crown Prosecutor’s Office refused to drop the assault charges and rather used the false charge in order to maneuver Corey into a plea bargain that saw him agree to take anger management classes. The discha

• published: 04 Jun 2012
• views: 404

My name is Kang Li. I have lived in Block 230G of Tampines street 21 since 1993. It is a point block of 44 households spread over 12 storeys. Even though I have lived here for the last 17 years, I could barely count on one hand the number of residents I could readily recognize. Besides the occasional block party organized by the Residents’ Committee members, and that includes my father, more often than not, such parties are attended by the usual suspects, there is really little initiative on our part as neighbours to know each other better. In fact, what happens on most days for most residents is that we would take the lift, and be home in less than 20 seconds. Even when in the lift, people tend to keep to themselves. And when we reach home, most of us leave our doors closed. That was when I decided that I would need an excuse to open people’s doors to talk to them. And photography became that excuse. I prepared a whole long write-up about my background and my intentions. But I thought that it was not enough. So I decided to make a role model of myself through a self-portrait. And I got my father to be in the picture as well. And with copies of this document in my hands, I started to knock on the doors of my neighbours. I went from floor to floor, from door to door. I told them that this project is about putting a face to the unit numbers and closed doors of our block. Pictures will be collected into a simple newsletter and distributed back to the residents. And hopefully, from such a collaboration, we can start to have conversations. Through the initial encounters, I also learnt that people actually identify my household by my mum. So I went back home and took a picture of her and inserted it into the subsequent editions of my project catalogue. When I show residents the catalogue, I could see their excitement and curiosity as they try to identify their neighbours. People do want to know one another. They just needed some catalyst to spark the whole interaction process. And slowly but surely, I could see that many of my neighbours actually want to be part of this project and want to be photographed. And as I photographed them and talked to them, I made many interesting finds. From complete strangers, I found the GP tutor of my sister when she was in Junior College. I found a lady who attended Primary school just three classes away from me. I discovered a pretty 17-year-old who used to play in my house as a child because my mum used to baby-sit her cousin more than 10 years ago. And she was just just like a toddler then. And now she is all grown-up. And of course, I found at least five residents who wanted to talk to me again about photography. So it was really quite amazing. And making the pictures is really the easiest part. I work with minimal equipment. The project is simple and I think it should stay that way. And I almost never posed the residents. Instead I only gave one instruction: Make yourselves look as friendly as possible. We want people to say Hi to you, come on! And when the pictures come out, I always look for the frame that shows everyone best. Because this is never a project about me, nor is it a self-expression piece. This is a project that aims to bring out the best sides of the residents of my block. So it is really satisfying for me to see people actually inviting themselves into the pictures and inviting themselves into the conversations.

• published: 16 Jun 2011
• views: 5852

June 10, 2011 Killing of Corey Peeace A.S.I.R.T. Director Cliff Purvis verified that the Calgary policeman who first handcuffed and tasered (& later shot and killed) Corey Peeace is four-division officer Stephen Cook. This officer may have motive – wanting to end a lawsuit against him for tasering Peeace while handcuffed and the Calgary Police Service for Human Rights abuses. On the evening of June 10, 2011, Corey Peeace (pronounced Pea-Ace) and his extended family were watching a National Hockey League playoff game at Corey’s home in Calgary. Like many other families across Canada, they were gathered around the family set, eating, some of them having a couple of beers as they cheered for their favoured team. At around 6 p.m., an argument broke out between family members over a missing package of cigarettes opened by Corey moments before – Corey became uncharacteristically angry and a family member called his mother, Stella who had just left the house. There are differences between the story being told by the police and the story being told by the family about the police response that ended when a police officer felt justified in shooting Corey four times in the chest to death. If you read about it in the city’s three newspapers, or watched on the 4 major networks, one would be led to believe that the shooting was justified. After two conferences with Peeace’s family directly regarding the circumstances into Corey’s death, a picture emerged from the family that not only seemed reasonable, but credible. This is their story and one that has never been told by the Calgary media. The story actually began in another house on another street in the same “Erin Woods” neighbourhood in Calgary. It is a neighbourhood, not unlike any other neighbourhood in Calgary where the houses are crammed together, most made cheaply and rented out. There were two “First Nations’ families” in this neighbourhood, Corey’s and his neighbours who lived two houses down. One night, the police from “Four Division” raided both houses, apparently because of a “gun call.” In a flash, police members shoved the faces of the two families down into the ground, all hands restrained behind their backs, each of them thoroughly searched. Then there were a lot of high fives and derogatory racial slurs made against the two native families by the police officers on the scene. It is interesting to note that the house in between the native families’ homes lived a white family and was excluded from raid. The raids turned up no weapons in the subsequent search of the homes of the two families and there were no charges laid. After the incident, Corey Peeace lodged with a Human Rights Commission of which the outcome is unknown. After the incident, Corey’s family relocated to a new home a couple of blocks away. In February 2010, the family was watching an Olympic Hockey game when an argument broke out between Corey and his spouse Vanessa. 911 was dialed on that night as well. After the short argument, Corey went to his bed and slept. Quite literally, he was dead to the world. Another call was placed to 911 to tell the dispatcher that Corey had gone to bed and was no longer any issue. It was over 50 minutes after the initial 911 call before officers showed up at the front door, even after the call to say they were no longer needed. This report did not name the officers because it seems to be police policy here in Calgary not to name officers in such incidents, including when an officer shoots a civilian dead. This is unlike the policy in other forces such as the Toronto Police Services and the Ontario Provincial Police, where officers involved in serious incidents are named to the public. The officers entered the family’s residence without invitation, demanding to know where Corey was. They were adamantly told that he was asleep and their presence was not required, but they continued uninvited into their home and found Corey in his bedroom. The officers then proceeded to physically wake Corey up. Corey, in a alcohol induced slumber, was not aware that the police were in his room and he batted them away. He wanted to do nothing more than sleep. The officers perceived this as an assault on police officers and proceeded to handcuff Corey behind his back. One officer got on top of Corey’s back with one knee with his other knee pushed into Corey’s ribs. With Corey well restrained, the other officer then discharged his taser on Corey in front of his on-looking family. One of the officers then proceeded to try to pressure Corey’s spouse to utter a statement declaring that Corey had hit her but she refused to lie. Corey was charged with assault and made to endure the process of the Calgary Courts. The Crown Prosecutor’s Office refused to drop the assault charges and rather used the false charge in order to maneuver Corey into a plea bargain that saw him agree to take anger management classes. The discha

• published: 04 Jun 2012
• views: 404