![]() And now, I find myself with these images of a place that represented so many things: a city’s growth, a neighbourhood’s decline, journeys taken, stories told and lives once lived. The city was not able to preserve the facade. The building burned down in 2022, two residents lost their lives, businesses were lost. What I would’ve given for more time but I worked quickly knowing how little time I had to capture a few stolen moments. Nancy called her father once inside and he walked us through the hallways that he had once walked.Īn empty room, an old telephone, reds and greens, chipped paint and exposed wires. As we climbed the stairs, I felt my heart beating with excitement at our good fortune. I’m not sure if it was because I had Nancy beside me or, more likely, that I strongly believed that images of the outside of the building couldn’t possibly portray the lives (and the stories) that had once inhabited it.Īfter I knocked and pleaded with the manager he gave us access to the building making us promise that we would not disturb the tenants. It was out of character for me to knock on the door of the Winters Hotel that day. The stories resonated with me being a child of immigrants myself. I was eager to get the best possible image of the building, invigorated by her accounts of their journey. We walked around the puddled streets trying to discern the best angle to photograph the building, all the while Nancy recounting her parents’ life story. The building had housed her parents for six months in the 1960s when they had first immigrated to Canada from Korea. She had asked me if I would photograph the outside of the Winters Hotel. It was a rainy fall day when my friend, Nancy Chapman, and I met in Vancouver’s Gastown. The hotel’s loss leaves lingering questions for the neighbourhood, for our city, and for our society at large. In many ways, over its lifetime, the hotel came to reflect the neighbourhood’s shifting demographics, ultimately developing into an SRO (Single Room Occupancy). The Winters Hotel was built in 1907 and was representative of Vancouver’s growing population and emerging identity. In 2021 the historic hotel was destroyed by fire claiming the lives of two of its residents. The project quickly evolved into a deeper and larger conversation when Strang gained entry into the hotel and access to its intimate and personal spaces in 2017. Winters Hotel: A Sense of Place began as a documentary exploration chronicling the early footsteps of a friend’s family who immigrated to Canada in the 1960s and settled at the Winters Hotel. "They tell us, 'You can come any time to start work,' and it's not true," Reyes said.Final week to see Yasmeen Strang's Winters Hotel: A Sense of Place at our Mackenzie Heights location. "And when we go to the company, the new manager : 'No, we don't have work permit for you we don't have for you," said Grijalva. They believe important paperwork was lost. But when they arrived, they found the manager who had hired them had retired. They moved to Summerside because they thought they could work there year-round at Summerside Seafood Supreme, with Daniel starting in February. "I like work here, because it's . better pay and it's a better place to stay," said Reyes, talking to CBC News at the couple's apartment in Summerside. A couple from Mexico with a newborn baby who have been working on Prince Edward Island under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program is facing months of unemployment after what they believe was a paperwork mix-up.ĭaniel Salinas Reyes and Ana Margarita Muñoz Grijalva both worked at a lobster plant in Murray Harbour for the past few years, but a recent change in jobs and delays with paperwork have left them without work permits.
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