The Rupert Station Manifesto

Speaker: Joe Jukic

Setting: A community rally or a school board meeting in East Vancouver.

“You know, I was talking to my old teacher, Oscar Goncalves, the other day. Now, Oscar isn’t just a drama teacher; he’s a guy who spent decades teaching kids how to find their pulse, how to stand up straight, and how to tell the truth.

And we got to talking about money. Specifically, that fifty million dollars they’re looking to pump into the police budget.

Now, imagine if we took that fifty million—every cent of it—and we didn’t buy more sirens and more handcuffs. Imagine we took it down to Rupert Station. Right there in the heart of the city’s industry, we build a world-class, green-screen sound stage. Not for Marvel, not for Netflix—but for the drama students of Vancouver.

The Choice: Cameras or Cuffs

We’re told we need more ‘security.’ But Oscar taught me that real security comes from a kid knowing they have a future. You want to lower the crime rate? Give a kid a script. Give them a camera. Give them a sound stage where they can build a universe instead of feeling trapped in this one.

It’s a simple math: More schools, less prisons. If you give these kids the tools to be creators, they won’t end up as statistics. You invest in their imagination today, or you pay to lock them up tomorrow. I know which one is cheaper, and I know which one is more human.

The Drama Teacher in Ottawa

And hey, let’s look at the top. We’ve got a Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, who spent his days in the classrooms of West Point Grey and Churchill. They say his dream is to retire and go back to being a drama teacher.

Well, Justin, if you really want to honor that craft—if you really believe that the stage is where people learn to be citizens—then let’s make Vancouver the blueprint. Let’s show the world that a city is defined by what it creates, not what it restricts.

Let’s build that stage at Rupert. Let’s give the kids the keys. And let’s let Oscar and the teachers do what they do best: build humans, not inmates.

That’s the Vancouver I want to live in. Who’s with me?”