Category Archives: Homeless

Issues, Municipal

Simply because we can?

Leave a comment

If Mayor George Peary is correct and the Abbotsford Police lack “adequate resources”, why are they wasting any of their limited resources chasing the homeless from campsite to campsite around the City of Abbotsford?

I would not have thought that engaging in the pointless moving of the homeless from campsite to campsite around Abbotsford would have been a priority the APD would be spending its limited resources pursuing.

I am reasonably sure that in this time of cutbacks and restraint (at least for other city councils in BC) that taxpayers, having to dig deep in their pockets for the $4,000,000 increase in the police budget, expect to have that money spent wisely on priority needs.

I am also reasonably sure that taxpayers do not consider chasing the homeless from campsite to campsite a priority when gunfights are breaking out on city streets.

So why are we?

Consider, Issues

A Penny in my thoughts.

Leave a comment

A lone bouquet of flowers stands guard against the cleanup dumpster under the Peardonville underpass, in forlorn tribute to mark the passing of the homeless man who died under that underpass.

A poignant counterpoint to the crowded sanctuary at St. Matthew’s Anglican Church for Penny Jodway’s memorial service just two weeks earlier. A memorial made possible by the generosity of the members of the church.

Penny was a well known member of the homeless/street community in Abbotsford and the 150 – 200 people who filled the pews at her memorial say more than mere words can about how members of that community felt about her.

In contrast the police, understandably so, had to investigate Jean’s death to insure it was accidental.

Two deaths in the homeless/street community close to each other in time which garnered markedly different media and public attention.

Jean literally went out in a blaze of glory by dieing in a gloriously photogenic blaze that made not only the front page of the local papers, but coverage on the Vancouver TV news. In his death Jean had garnered more public attention and concern than he garnered in his life.

Penny died quietly and without media fanfare or notice, as have others of the homeless/street community in Abbotsford, BC and Canada this year.

Penny’s passing was noted in the local papers only because of submissions to the papers by people from and involved with the homeless/street population. Yet she was a remarkable enough person that 150 – 200 people attended her memorial to say goodbye and mark her life.

I feel sad about the deaths of these two who I knew, but I feel an even deeper sadness for what these events say about society.

Consider, Issues, Municipal

This is a Police Priority?

Leave a comment

I have heard city councillors moaning over the large budget increase given the Abbotsford Police Department and the affect this will have and has had on other budget areas.

I was thinking about this because the police are so hot-to-trot about tearing down homeless camps around town.

I rather doubt it was to tear down homeless camps that the police were given their $4,000,000 budget increase?

But with the spectacular fire and death under the Peardonville overpass providing cover justification, the police want to move quickly, before the image fades from the publics mind.

Is chasing the homeless from spot to spot, time after time, really the best use of police resources when there are gunfights taking place on our streets and our city is becoming a gang hangout?

Let me be clear I, and the homeless themselves, would agree and be happy to see some of the camps torn down or the residents required to maintain their campsites – as homeowners are required to upkeep their property.

We all are aware of the horror stories of neighbours who have old cars or other junk piled in their yard or of the problem of having someone on your street selling drugs out of their residence.

Those whose camps are their home feel the same way about bad neighbours as others feel about bad neighbours near their home.

These are the homeless whose camps will never make the television news or the newspapers because they are neat, tidy and well kept.

One couple I know has just started to clean up an abandoned pigsty of a campsite, having already cleaned up one such site in their neighbourhood. Considering the great deal of effort involved since they have to remove the debris one shopping cart load at a time, these are the kind of people you want as neighbours.

The police should be focusing their time, resources and taxpayer dollars on problem solving and dealing with real problems not chasing people who are and want to be good neighbours around the city from spot to spot simply because they lack the resources to meet their housing needs.

Consider, Federal, Issues

Sue the Fedeal Government and Elections Canada?

Leave a comment

I was speaking with two homeless gentlemen who had just been order to move their tent from the location on Gladys Avenue where they had erected it.

The discussion concerned their right to camp there in light of last weeks follow up court ruling that Victoria’s recently enacted bylaw (enacted after the original BC Supreme Court ruling that the homeless had a right to camp on city property when the city had failed to provide alternative housing choices) that required the homeless to take down their tents and camps every morning.

The new ruling confirmed that the homeless have the right to camp undisturbed in BC cities where sufficient housing alternatives are not available.

I pointed out that with the City of Abbotsford choosing to deny them their legal right to camp what was required was for them to take Abbotsford to court as had been done in Victoria.

Further discussion lead to me conceding that the costs involved were a barrier; but it was a barrier all non-wealthy citizens of BC faced whether they were homeless or were, at least for the moment, housed. As the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Canada noted in her recent BC speech.

The conversation lead to me pointing out that if I wished to assert my right to be a candidate in the next federal election, a right protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms but currently denied to me, I would need to sue the Government of Canada and Elections Canada.

Which lead to the explanation that while Elections Canada on their own website acknowledges that “The right to be a candidate in a federal election is protected by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms and that unless specifically declared to be ineligible under section 65 of the Canada Elections Act any person qualified as an elector may run for election”, they proceed to deny me the right to seek election to Parliament.

That the requirement “At the same time as the witness files the nomination paper and other documents with the returning officer, he or she must submit a deposit of $1,000 in Canadian funds…” denies me my right to seek office.

With the financial reality of my life the required $1,000 deposit denies me (and a growing number of other Canadians) my right to seek election to Parliament.

As a result of this entire conversation I find myself beginning the process of seeking a Supreme Court of Canada injunction preventing Elections Canada and the Canadian Government from holding an election with rules that deny me my right as a Canadian citizen to seek election to Parliament.

Leaving me to seek advice, ideas as well as legal representation that fits within my financial resources and budget of – $0.

I never said that asserting ones rights when one is not wealthy would be easy, just that it was possible to sue the government and assert one’s rights.

Indubitably the injunction would spare us another immediate federal election.

Consider, Homeless

Generosity = ?

Leave a comment

Watching the 11 PM news on Christmas Days as the last minutes of the Christmas Spirit Season ticked away had me pondering the concept of generosity and what generosity truly incorporates and embodies.

In the 2 – 3 weeks before Christmas the news was full of reports of “generosity”. Christmas Day the television news had video and stories of the homeless and hungry being served their Christmas dinner. The front page of the local paper had a picture and story of Christmas dinner being served, with the local politicians et al photographed demonstrating their “generosity” by serving meals to the homeless and poor.

On Boxing Day bringing out cookies brought groans of “oh no – more food” from the homeless who have been so stuffed with food over the past few weeks, their stomachs are full to the point they have no room even for sweets.

The homeless have also faced the “generosity” of being given so many gifts that they need a pack mule to carry everything around with them.

Yet as we move into the New Year of 2009 the homeless and poor will be hungry and in need of gifts once again, but alas “out of luck”. Until the 2009 Christmas Spirit Season opens again and “generosity” is once more a required must do.

So what is generosity? Is serving Christmas dinner or donating a gift to a Christmas bureau generosity?

Or is true generosity something that lives within a person, practiced and reflected in that person’s behaviour 365 days a year – not something switched on for the three weeks before Christmas and put away on the day after Christmas – Boxing Day, the High Holiday of Greed.

Consider that the politicians photographed serving Christmas dinner to the homeless have the ability to take the lead in ending homelessness. Yet year after year they have chosen to make excuses, shuffle paper, point fingers – but not to bestir themselves to create a single bed for the homeless or to provide leadership to end homelessness.

Ponder the question of whether loading the homeless down with gifts to the point they cannot carry it all is generosity or thoughtless behaviour? Would it not be more beneficial to the homeless if this largess was spread out over time? Of course that is neither as publicly visible nor as easy, requiring time and effort beyond the Christmas season generosity window.

One of the casualties of having embraced greed as the economic, operational and philosophical base for our society is having lost the understanding of what generosity is; as we become more self-centred and significantly less generous, except where required or it is politically correct.

What type of society we want for ourselves, our children and our children’s children?

Do we want to continue to have the kind of society we have built with greed as the economic, operational and philosophical underpinnings?

Or do we want to nurture the flickering flame of generosity into an incandescence that lights and enlightens our society?

Generosity does exist, lived and practice by some members of our community.

One of the meals served on Christmas Day was on a small bit of parkland on Gladys Avenue. It was a little late being served because it was first necessary to bring in a front end loader to clear the snow in order to be able to set up the tables, chairs and serve the food.

While this meal was served on Christmas Day it was not served because it was Christmas Day but because it was Thursday and Christmas just happened to land on a Thursday this year. There is a group of individuals who have been serving dinner on Thursday nights come sun, rain or snow.

Ironically, in light of the season, they were serving food to the homeless in the snow and cold because none of the three organizations calling themselves Christian in the area are willing to allow them to use their premises, for the winter months only, to provide shelter from the weather to the people being served dinner.

Ironic that with all the cries about the need to keep Christ in Christmas it seems to have been forgotten, or the understanding lost, that it is not about one day or even a short-lived season but about keeping Christ and the spirit of generosity alive in our hearts and behaviour through the entire year.

As the blank pages of the New Year unfold, what will you choose to write upon those pages in 2009?