New Westminster activist Paul Mulangu says he plans on just "God and faith" getting him through 10 days of being on hunger strike and chained to the front door of the Centre of Integration for African Immigrants.
Mulangu fastened the lock around his waist at 10 a.m. Wednesday to protest the province's ministry of social development cutting funds for the centre, and the property owner terminating the lease for failure to pay rent.
"I'm taking this to the public. This is for us to say, 'This is wrong.' We need to start standing up," he said.
Despite briefly unlocking himself on Wednesday night for a trip to be checked over at Royal Columbian Hospital, Mulangu said he remains committed.
Mulangu has been running the centre to help African immigrants with language training and accessing jobs, since 2002. In 2010, the centre received a $275,000 grant from the federal government to add a gym, meeting hall, kitchen, showers and change rooms to the centre. The centre borrowed another $280,000 to complete the project but just as construction was wrapping up, the landlord changed the locks citing almost $40,000 in unpaid back rent.
"For 20 years, this place was unoccupied, and we put up half a million for repairs," he said. "You can't wait for someone to put up the money and do something for you and then come and take over."
The property landlord has said construction will likely make the space harder to rent to new tenants who need the space but not the new amenities.
Mulangu said he has been shown tremendous support from New Westminster's African community who use the centre to meet and socialize every week.
"Everybody wants to come to protest. This is wrong. For 30 years, people of African descent wanted a to have place where they can dance, party, there's also a singing program, a drumming program, a youth program - now all those dreams shut," he said. "There is nowhere now that people can use. Every day people ask when are we going to open? I don't know when we're going to open."
Mulangu said he has written to politicians in all levels of government but so far no one has responded.
Allison Bond, assistant deputy minister of social development, said the centre's contract, which was specifically for job assistance, came up for review in 2010 and Mulangu was informed in September last year that the contract would not be renewed.
"We undertook a review of all the contracts that come over from the federal government in preparation for the fiscal years 2010-2011. We looked at performance - whether or not they were delivering they agreed they would deliver under their existing contract. We also looked at whether or not there was duplication of service," Bond said.
"We found there was quite a lot of duplication around the province. In the case of the centre, there were issues with performance under their contract. There was issues around duplication under their contract - there were other organizations that were delivering the same services in the same area to the same clients."
Bond said there were also some expenses being billed to the province that were not allowed under the contract.
When the government funding was cut, Mulangu started using the centre to hold African weddings, funerals, dances and social events at night to help subsidize the rent, but he said police showed up every time he held an event.
Mulangu said he believes race is a factor since cultural gatherings happen at other halls in Burnaby and New Westminster without police attention.
"Every time there's a function here, there are 10 police cars here - for nothing," he said. "You see black people, you see police. That is racism."
Regardless of what happens with his hunger strike, Mulangu plans to keep up his activism. The last thing he did before locking his chain was file nomination papers to run for New Westminster council in the Nov. 19 election.
Not everyone is sorry for the centre's loss though.
Daniel Belanger, building manager of the Marinus condo across the street, said since funding for the centre was cut in January, the late-night parties, sometimes twice a week, had residents calling to complain.
"They've complained to me and I've directed them to call the police and call the city bylaw officers every time," Belanger said. "It's after hours. It's loud. There's people running all over the place."
Belanger specified the complaints have nothing to do with race.
"It's about the partying, not who is partying," he said.
Blair Fryer, manager of communications for the city, said a review of bylaw infractions did not turn up much.
"We've had a few complaints around noise but they've all been resolved," he said.
New Westminster police issued a statement in response to a request for comment about Mulangu's charges of racism.
"The New Westminster Police Service is aware of Mr. Mulangu's concerns about the police and his recent protest action. Once we became aware that his concerns may include the New Westminster Police Service, we forwarded Mr. Mulangu's concerns and our operational files to the Office of the Police Complaint Commissioner. At this time we have not received a response back from the Commissioner's office."
