NPA councillor Peter Ladner told the Georgia Straight that a local head-tax activist is an "innocent victim" of city council's decision to cut funding for his job as a Chinese seniors coordinator.

Sid Tan, 57, is a community-media activist who has played a leading role in forcing the federal Conservatives to apologize to Chinese head-tax payers and their families. But because his current employer is the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, Tan will be out of a job as a result of an April 3 council decision to yank a $31,200 grant that city staff had recommended go to DERA to cover Tan's staff position. After a motion moved by Ladner, council severed the grant earmarked for DERA from 86 other social-service grants, which were subsequently approved. The NPA–controlled council voted to have staff report back on any other organization that could step in to supply the seniors-coordinator services.

Ladner said he and Mayor Sam Sullivan routinely followed staff recommendations when in opposition from 2002 to 2005. "But we never had situations like we're facing now, with what DERA and the APC [Anti-Poverty Committee] are up to," he said, referring to recent acts of public disorder and vandalism linked to the two loosely associated organizations.

"I think that when the city gives a grant to an organization that we have some pretty minimal but basic expectations of what that organization will do and not do," Ladner said by phone. "I think that DERA has gone over the line. This has nothing to do with Sid Tan. This is about the city's relationship to organizations they give money to–and Sid Tan is an innocent victim here, and I'm sure he's doing a wonderful job. And I hope the job continues to be done."

After being told of Ladner's "innocent victim" comment, Tan said it was "good to hear what Peter Ladner said."

"I still think Peter Ladner has no idea of the havoc he wrought on the ground by doing this–the waste of time and the stress," Tan added.

Ladner confirmed that city staff are looking at other groups that can provide the service performed by Tan.

DERA is exercising its right to appeal the decision, according to executive director Kim Kerr. Tan told the Straight he will carry on providing the service regardless of his job having been terminated.

"Oh, I'll be fine," he said. "I assume this job is UI [EI]-insurable, so I'll be on UI for a while. When I took this job, I took it for the job, not because of the money."

On April 6, Tan said he took 91-year-old Fong Lee to the doctor. The 20-year Hastings Street DERA tenant had problems with her throat. "It costs the government $30 to have me escort her to and from the doctor's office," Tan said. "If she'd gone in an ambulance, we could be talking about hundreds of dollars."

That same day, Tan said he helped 87-year-old Choichan Ngan–a resident at DERA–owned Solheim Place on Union Street–by changing the locks of her apartment following a domestic dispute.

On Easter Monday, his day off, the two ladies joined Tan again at New Town Bakery, where 71-year-old Philip Yuen was pulling together his father's head-tax papers for consideration for the one-time $20,000 payment to his ailing mother, who is eligible to receive the federal compensation on her deceased husband's behalf.

Outside on East Pender Street, Tan made sure the two were able to walk together while he took Yuen's head-tax papers back to the DERA offices.

"I find what is happening here mean-spirited and beyond the pale," Tan said of the NPA vote. "It is an uncivil act for someone trying to create a civil city, and it has collateral damages. Without me, how would Mrs. Lee get to the doctors and who would change the locks at Mrs. Ngan's place?"