Our dear friends Cynthia and River have been fighting to stay in their home for the past 3 years. They were involved in a landmark court case that set precedent in support of queer and disability housing rights in B.C. This court case drained Cynthia’s retirement savings and health. While the judge ruled in their favour, the legal process forced our friend to deplete any savings set aside for her old age and ongoing medical care. This has left Cynthia – who lives on a disability pension – in a dangerously precarious financial situation, not to mention the effects of the emotional and physical exhaustion that came with this painful case – SO THEY NEED OUR HELP! As of right now Cynthia and River don’t have the money to pay the latest bill from the lawyer’s office, and they don't have the funds to finish the legal process that is estimated to be an additional $40,000.  Let’s come together as a community to help  them cover the immediate costs  and get back some of what they have lost. If it’s within your ability, please chip-in with as little or as much as you can. Every little bit matters. In solidarity – Cynthia’s friends and chosen fam. (PS: Want to know more? read below to get more details) Who are Cynthia and River? Cynthia Brooke has spent her life dedicated to social justice, and working in the service of others. At only 14 she ran a soup kitchen, and co-founded a food bank. She has been a volunteer for disability access for many years, and has volunteered for the Vancouver Folk Music Festival in this role for the past 30 odd years. She spent many years working in the Downtown Eastside in low income social housing. In the 90s Cynthia was the co-owner of the much beloved Bookmantel, a queer bookstore on Commercial Drive, which was a hub for queer activism before the days of social media. In 2004, Cynthia became a proud longshore worker with ILWU, devoted herself to volunteering on the executive, and became a certified human rights officer. Since being medically retired, Cynthia continues to volunteer as a human rights advocate in her many communities, much of which she does quietly. River Tucker, formerly a journalist in Germany, moved to Canada 13 years ago and has been a competitive boxer and coach since. She has been running Queer Box Camp Vancouver for over a decade, with a commitment to make boxing and fitness more accessible for queer and trans folks and people living with chronic illness - QBC would not exist today without this house and Cynthia’s support. River volunteered as the female athlete rep on the board of BC Boxing for years, helped coach womens training camps and is currently helping to shape a new policy that will enable trans boxers to compete in BC and Canada. She also teaches a gender expansive, trans-positive boxing class for kids at a Vancouver community centre. For the last two elections River has been able to combine her dedication for queer and trans rights with disability justice by training election workers, with an emphasis on voting access.  Cynthia’s and River’s home has always been a space to create connection, foster community, and provide sanctuary for friends of friends and cats in need of a safe harbour. Their home has been a second home to many and a place of respite for friends, family, and community to gather, share food, rest and organize. Want to know more about what happened?  In 2001, four queer, working-class people, who at the time were close friends, scraped together funds to purchase a derelict, side-by-side duplex in Vancouver. None of them had ever imagined that they would be able to realize the dream of buying a home, and this was made possible by the former owners offering them the home at a significantly discounted rate.  Over the years, circumstances changed. Two friends have since died, and the remaining two parted friendship; each has their own home, separate from one another. Around 3 years ago, one of them decided they wanted to leave and started legal action against Cynthia, which would have involved Cynthia and River having to leave their home. This process has, and continues to be, holistically depleting. In March 2022, the <a href="https://www.bccourts.ca/jdb-txt/sc/22/05/2022BCSC0526.htm" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener">judge decided</a>  in Cynthia’s favour, saying she can stay in her home.  Cynthia has used up all of her savings, which were her disability fund, as she is expected to supplement medical care when retired.  A precedent in support of queer &amp; disability rights Justice Crerar determined in a groundbreaking, and precedent-setting ruling that a disabled person has the right to stay in their home, and a queer person has the right to stay in the safety of their queer neighbourhood. Furthermore, he ruled that while a person has a right to realize a profit in this outrageous real estate market, it is not a right to maximize profit at the expense of forcing others from their home. These precedents will have positive implications across Canada for disabled, queer, and financially marginalized folks for years to come.  Unfortunately, all of this has come at great physical, emotional, and financial cost for our dear friends. While Cynthia and River maintain the right to stay in their home, it has exhausted monies that were set aside for medical expenses as Cynthia ages and tends to her health needs. That money also falls short of what is needed to complete the process of legally separating the properties. Why is this an issue of health? Cynthia was catastrophically injured at work in 2008, and shortly after she was rehabilitated from the accident Cynthia contracted a virus that has left her chronically ill. Her doctor medically retired her from work 6 years ago. While her home has increased substantially in value over the years, she is unable to access that value as she is permanently disabled, and therefore unable to pay back any potential loans or mortgages. The true value in her house is that it is her forever home that will allow her to tend to her complex health needs. What will money raised be used for? Money raised will be used to pay the lawyers until this process is completed. Any additional funds will be used to restore some of Cynthia’s depleted savings, which were anticipated to supplement her medical costs at retirement age. The law in B/C. has changed: Cynthia will only get back 20% of the $100,000 that  she spent on legal costs because she won the case.  Cynthia and River would like to thank their lawyer Morgan Camley, and her amazing team. Morgan has done all her work pro bono, but it takes a village and the villagers must be paid (the associates and  court costs are not pro bono).

Afuwa —

Zak Greant

Tiffany Tamaribuchi

Anonymous

Samara King

Cari Green

Brendan Munden

Gerry K

Cathy Fox

Goo Johnston

Kieran Dagg

Sharon Jackson

Jennifer Edington

Jennifer Sturm

Rachael Durie

Stefanie Brendler

Corrine Hunt

Community support for Cynthia & River

platform

Platform is iOS

Android

Adyen Google Pay Development Audience

$opt_dummy_attribute

English only

Deprecate Stripe Legacy

dyn_template_ids

Adyen V6 Bene Transfer & MyMoney Campaign Organizers - test01

Bene transfer V6 and AdyenV6MyMoney Campaign Organizers - production

OneTrust next-app audience

fundCountryCode

NextDoor Share Option Users

Fundraisers with Reactions feature capability

fundCurrencyCode

US + Non-charity COs Only

locale

fund country is US and user language is English

personId

comms-internal-person-ids

Enhanced Story Experience Users

Suggested Goal Experience Users

user language is English and fund country: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

Poster share - new funds eligible (newest 9/18)

Streaming widgets beta user

paymentProcessor

3DS payment method

user language is English and fundCountry: US, AU, DK, FI, IE, NO, SE, CA, GB; 

currencyCode

Money Box Donation List Prompt Experiment Audience

GoFundMe Employees

ipAddress

Mark Rieth IP Address

Version 9.2.0 and above

Fund is in English speaking country

desktop

Android v12.11.0 and above

Platform is Android

paymentMethodType

checkoutType

Payment method type group to be vaulted on success

admin pr kit prod

EUR Donation Upsell

Share Text generation Skip Fundraiser

(prod) new funds eligible for amp12 (UGC gallery)

fintrac_cad_idv_form_v2 audience

paymentProcessorAccountId

fallback mode accounts

proCampaignId

p2p legacy startfundraising page

AMP24 New Funds Only PROD (DO NOT MODIFY)

countryCode

charityId

UKCharities

Federated Search Internal Testing

route.pathname community

US Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks Feature Audience

Supporter Comments Eligible Funds

International Only

fundId

braze fundraiser group 

Payment Identity Transfers ATO Risk Check (Targeted) - Production

Fundraiser Saved Payment Method Rate Limit Bypass (Production)

leaderboard-partner-id-audience-givepanel

Version 9.2.1 and above

AUD Donation Upsell audience

fundraiserCountryCode is US/EN

Active Fundraiser - Smart Default Cadence

DAF Internal

Vault on success card payment method

Platform is iOS v11.0.0 and above

Desktop users

Person ids

United States (US) users

allow yuno fundraisers for test

Mexico country code

Posters INTL

NPO Profile Opted-In

iOS at or above 12.4.0

non-US recurring donors

Canada Campaign Owner Group

Fundraiser Without Meta Link

Scheduler payment tester gorup

charityCommunityId

Charities allow to be claimed unclaimed (PRD)

Canada (CA) users

UC Tipping v20250115 International

pymk_production_xplr_fe_team

Android at or above 12.2.0

Profile photo entry point audience

smart goals (fundraiser/manage) on test01

Activity Tracking v1 Beta Testing

start gfm intl allowed locales

Platform is iOS v11.2.0 and above

NPO upsell education category

unclaimed charities

prod_ach_audience

AI Chatbot Audience

amp13 only new funds (prod) (anyword auto)

UC Flow Enabled (Prod)

Payment Identity Beneficiary Verification - Production

shared notification bell audience

Custom users

ach frontend audience

Android v11.0.0 and above

Users Receiving Payments Paused Notifications

smart goals test01

Manage Coach - US English Organizers Only + new funds only

Team EGG - IP Address list

NPO recommendations prod

Fundraiser Without Instagram Deep Link

Native 11.4.0 and above

UC Tipping v20250107

Users Receiving Braze KYC Validation Failed

Native 11.3.0 and above

ai_title_page

anyword

openai

control

manual_entry

userEmail

template_id

userId

fundUrl

isCharityCo

email

appVersion

shouldBucketIntoExperiment

partnerId

donationCadence

isActiveFundraiser

isPartner

isMobile

npoProfileOptIn

fundIsLinkedWithMeta

hasSessionDonation

categoryGroup

isCampaignOwner

fundHasInstagramDeepLink

Native 11.4.0 and higher

New funds eligible - Video Sharing (PROD)

GB Donation Upsell audience 

Auto Thanks V3 Rollout Audience

Thank you V3 testing whitelist

isRecurringFriendly

Is Recurring Friendly

Excluded funds - Video Sharing

NPO upsell animals category

NPO upsell disaster relief category

Logged In Users

CH Donation Upsell audience

Android v10.6.0 and above

NPO upsell essential needs category

NPO upsell medical category

userCurrencyCode

Localized Currency

NPO upsell cancer category

v11.5.0 and above

testAudience

pathname

Survicate

appVersion is at or above 12.8.0

Non-charity fund

isChallengeFundraiser

challenge-fundraisers

Payment Identity Launch Verification - Production

New funds eligible - Posters v2

CAD Donation Upsell Audience

Braze Email Tester

NPO Profile Opted-Out

iOS App Version

hasKnownDonors

PYMK has donors

iOS v12.3.0 and above

Community support for Cynthia & River

Still $54,920 to go. Help us build momentum.