Category Archives: Thoughts

Consider, Issues, Life, Municipal

“Why would the City want to cut a man’s chances of survival so low?”

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I was asked that question by a homeless human being I have known and shared conversation with for the better part of a decade.

What made the question so chilling as to etch itself into memory, was the utter weariness of the voice, a voice devoid of spirit emanating from a body worn unhealthily gaunt and who’s every aspect spoke of defeat.

Over the years council’s egocentric, patronizing, financially irresponsible, ignore the needs of citizens and of the future behaviours and actions have left me shaking my head in disbelief and with a desire to castigate their profligate behaviours by the application of my pedal extremity to their backsides.

But tonight, looking at what they had done, not simply to a human being but to a citizen of Abbotsford, on behalf of the Citizens of Abbotsford I didn’t want to kick their asses.

For a brief moment following the question “Why would the City want to cut a man’s chances of survival so low?” being posed, my temper flared white hot. But the heat of anger lasted only an instant before it was subsumed in the interstellar cold of repugnance.

Filled with the longing to be able to take Council members by the ear, drag them out of their warm comfortable housing into the dark and cold to face the inevitable outcome of their behaviour and to explain how it was they chose to “Why would the City want to cut a man’s chances of survival so low?”

 

January 4, 2013

Council’s focus on bad management and burying the city and taxpayers under an ever growing mountain of debt has not prevented City Council from taking action on the homeless living on the streets of Abbotsford.

Unfortunately, for both taxpayers and homeless, the actions being pursued by City Council against the homeless are consistent with Council actions such as ownership of the Abbotsford Hubris & Ego Centre, John Smith’s taxpayer unfriendly friendship garden and Council’s recent attempts to panic taxpayers into approving the borrowing of $300 million to ‘solve’ a nonexistent water crisis.

For several years Council used the process of creating a Social Advisory Committee as an excuse to evade changing their behaviour and pursuing policies that address the causes of homelessness. Why council prefers to continuing doing the same thing over and over and over in hopes that the next time will not, once again, simply force the homeless to relocate to a new homeless camp, is as unfathomable as why Council felt the City of Abbotsford needed a professional hockey team so badly they hung the albatross of the Abbotsford Hubris & Ego Centre around taxpayers necks.

Unsurprisingly, once created, the Social Advisory Committee pointed out that chasing the homeless from place to place around the city until they were back to where the chase had begun and then beginning the chase again was pointless when there was a lack of viable housing options for the homeless.

 

“Why would the City want to cut a man’s chances of survival so low?”

You can see just how the City values the advice of the Social Advisory Committee. An Advisory that the City stated it could take no actions to address homelessness without direction from.

Council’s Social Advisory Committee has led to a plenitude of politically correct words – and the accomplishment of nothing of actual substance or effectiveness.

So Council continues to engage in the insanity of endlessly chasing the homeless from place to place around the city. With Council’s well developed ability to ignore reality and see only what they want to see, this pointless chase grinds on and on year after year.

With the same people, people who were residents of Abbotsford [many of whom grew up in Abbotsford] before fate placed them homeless on the streets of Abbotsford, being chased year after year around their home city to no avail.

Begun in the spring of 2012 Council’s current onslaught has been aggressively chasing the homeless around the City with great zeal.

This hasn’t reduced the numbers of homeless but it has physically and spiritually worn the homeless down, stripping away their human dignity and the belongings needed to survive the winter alive.

The two carts unceremoniously dumped into an Abbotsford city garbage truck belonged to one of the homeless whom the City has been particularly aggressive in pursuit of.

In prior years the city had not been able to harass him at this level because his camps were well off the beaten path making finding them a much more difficult task.

An injured leg has severely limited his choice of homestead this past year with the result he is an easy, and often, target for the City. Between the City and the second class medical treatment the homeless receive in Abbotsford his leg has worsened and taken  a heavy toll on his overall health – reducing him form lean to noticeably underweight and worn down.

Moving using shopping carts has become such a struggle, especially when his focus has to be patching together enough of a shelter to avoid becoming another ‘dead of natural causes’ homeless statistic, that his carts sat long enough to be misappropriated by the City and their garbage truck.

And before City Council begins its excuse mongering on its  failure to address homelessness with its old favourite poverty………how is it that Council has $17.5 million to waste by giving it to the YMCA to build a facility that that not only fails to address the needs of the citizens of Abbotsford, but will cost taxpayers addition $$$$ to offset the $$$$ lost at existing City facilities as the Y, subsidized by Council’s continued wastrel use of taxpayer $$$$, takes business away from the City’s existing facilities – forcing taxpayers to make up the lost revenue out of their pockets – yet pleads poverty when it comes to doing anything productive about homelessness.

Although…..there is a great deal of truth in Council’s claims of poverty when it comes to homelessness; not a poverty of $$$$ but of leadership, integrity and ethics.

A poverty of character which has City Council pursuing a scorched earth policy as it tyrannizes the homeless.

A behaviour that entails a human cost that is not only unacceptable, but unconscionable.

 

Interlude

I found myself partially thawing, cleaning and washing several bags of soaked, semi-frozen bedding for the person whose survival was threatened by the city relieving him of the necessities to avoid freezing to death. Once laundered, dried and packaged against the wet of the weather it was time to clean up the mess created in getting the bedding laundered and clean up the mess that I had become.

It was not my job to do any of that. Indeed, I already had a task list that was overwhelming and escalating stress levels. There were innumerable excuses available for not taking on the additional work and stress, and only one reason to undertake all the extra effort.

To me that one reason, a person’s life (their survival), left no option but to tackle the extra work.

In a fine twist of Irony, the actions of the City have resulted in a return to living on the same street he lived on as a child, albeit he is now living under a tree on that same street.

The reality as to where the homeless are from is that many of them grew up in Abbotsford. Indeed, Councillor Simon Gibson is not the first member of his family to have a major effect upon this homeless person’s life. His stomach still bears the scar from a knife in the hand of Simon Gibson’s

In a fine twist of fate the father saved a life with his blade and the removal of an appendix; a life the actions of the Doctor’s son, Simon Gibson, are putting at increasing risk.

 

February 8, 2013 

“Do you have any candles?” came the quiet voice out of the dark. ‘One left…….I need to move getting some more up the priority list.’

“You wouldn’t have a sleeping bag would you” ‘Sorry but with the City hunting down the homeless like there is a bounty on their heads……even the bag from my emergency car kit is gone.’

“The City cleaned out my camp and left me with nothing to survive with but what I am wearing.”…silence…“James — Why would the City want to cut a man’s chances of survival so low?”

The Question seems to echo off Reality itself in the Silence the Question evoked.

On the way to get a candle for a heat source, as someone stepped out of the building for a smoke break I enquired if he “happened to have a sleeping bag in his vehicle”. It seemed appropriate given the need, although I did feel curiosity as to what he thought of that question coming to him out of the dark of a cold winter eve?

Then one of those serendipitous happenings that occur when you are where you are suppose to be, doing what you are suppose to be doing, rolled up in a burgundy van.

It was somebody down from Boston Bar who, seeing me as he drove by, had pulled up to ask about someone who had stayed at his place in Boston Bar. Given that it was one of those happenings, I had seen this person on two different days this week for the first time in months.

He had a sleeping bag in the van that his dog lay on. He had no objection to parting with the sleeping bag other than some embarrassment at offering a sleeping bag his dog had been using to a human being. He did feel a need to offer assurances that his black lab was a fine, clean dog who was bathed from time to time.

Personally, if a dog’s sleeping bag can significantly increase my chances of survival……..I apologize to the dog for needing his bag and thank him for the gift.

You know that if City Council had treated a dog the way they treat the homeless……

………they would be dragged to court on criminal charges, the press would be all over them and the public would be screaming for their blood.

But a Human Being? Who cares? Obviously neither Council nor the Citizens in whose names Council are hounding the homeless.

 

Collatio Tomi Secundi   

Mayor and Council revisited the idea of protecting City assets from being used for ‘offensive’ purposes by any who paid for the use of those Assets, apparently finding a little female thigh flashed on the football field at the Abbotsford Hubris & Ego Centre ‘offensive’……

Yet Mayor and Council are fine with their offensive use of City assets and manpower to strip away the materials the homeless need to survive the elements of winter weather. Or perhaps it is the contention of Mayor and Council that the actions they pursue against the homeless are so totally reprehensible, these actions bypass any suggestion of being offensive because they are repugnant?

Be that as it may, Mayor? — Councillors? — Voters?

“Why would the City want to cut a man’s chances of survival so low?”

He awaits your reply.

Addiction, Consider, Issues

Harm Reduction Forums – Session 1

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I attended the January 22, 2013 public forum on harm reduction at Matsqui Centennial Auditorium,  where local service providers were sharing their experience with those using illegal drugs and getting members of that population to take the first step, treatment, on their long journey to recovering their lives.

A copy of the information about the speakers handed out at the forum is appended at the end of this commentary.

Disclosure: Readers should know that I support harm reduction. This support of harm reduction comes from 1) years of experience with, and listening to, those dealing with addictions (whether legal or illegal; involving drugs or not) and mental health issues. 2) a willingness to hear what they want to say, rather than insisting on hearing what I want to hear. 3) an open mind so that one hears what is actually being said, especially when what is being said does not support what you believe to be the reality (or want the reality to be) and requires changing your mind. 4) an understanding that because it is an issue that involves human beings there is no single solution and that addressing the issue will involve messy, uncomfortable choices. 5) an acceptance of Tradition 1: “Our common welfare should come first; personal progress for the greatest number depends upon unity”. Will harm reduction have negative consequences for someone? Yes. Given that this is a matter involving humans it can be assumed there will be negative consequences. Whether the negative consequences affect 1 individual or 1 – 2% of the individuals involved we cannot know. What we do know is that any policy/program will negatively affect an individual or individuals. Either we do nothing or we accept reality and act on “…progress for the greatest number…”  As uncomfortable as it may be, in making decisions when every policy will have negative consequences for someone – policies involving human beings –  one must look at the forest rather than individual trees.

The forum started with a brief overview of the history of the bylaw preventing harm reduction; that it was passed in 2005, that in 2010 Fraser Health requested a review and change of the bylaw and that forum(s) in 2013 were being held as part of City Council’s review of the bylaw.

If City Council wants to squander millions of taxpayer dollars subsidising a professional hockey team, squander $300 million taxpayer dollars to fix a ‘problem’ that is not a problem or give $17.5 million to the Y when the only benefit of that profligate spending is to ensure Council’s work load stays light enough they do not have to return to meeting every week – BAM, it takes only months. But on a matter of health care for an unpopular health care issue for an unpopular group of citizens it takes years – three so far – to make a decision.

A person involved in politics and around in 2005 shared the information that Fraser Health came in demanding rather than seeking to work together. Fraser Health’s behaviour got Abbotsford City Council’s nose out of joint and Voila – the bylaw preventing harm reduction health care was passed. Health policy based on tit-for-tat; both sides deserve                (fill in the blank) for behaving like children.

While discussing harm reduction we need to be very clear it is a health care policy. While it provides benefits in getting people into treatment and recovery it is not about treatment or recovery – it is about health care.

Having government – in this case Abbotsford City Council – deciding who will receive health care and what type of health care they will receive, is not a slippery slope I have any interest in venturing out onto. Especially when the specific health care denied is denied to specific and unpopular set (group) of people.

Warm Zone – Women’s Resource

Dorothy Henneveld: “Harm reduction keeps all of our health safer.”

Michele Giordano: “You cannot help a dead body.” Michele also raised the point that, if your goal is to truly help people to recover their lives, you need to provide support, not to judge and condemn.

Erica Thomson: “Harm reduction kept me alive until I could become the person I am today.” She spoke of how intimidating the system was for her and how building a trust relationship with street nurses and other front line workers allowed her to ask for their help in seeking treatment and recovery.

Kinghaven

Milt Walker: “the most important thing is getting them in the door.” Mr. Walker also raised several other important points to keep in mind: 1) know the person, the individual, is important; 2) you need to care about where the individual is going – and you must make sure they not only understand but KNOW that you care; 3) never give up; 4) there is always an opportunity, the possibility, to change these lives; 5) need to help/support them coming to care/like for themselves.

Life Recovery.

Tim Williams spoke of the need to help individuals “deal with deep inner issues that have them using” and the fact that those abusing substances are the “most vulnerable and hurting people in the community.”

After all of the local service providers had been given 10 minutes to address the audience the floor was opened for questions.

Brian Gross, the Executive Director of Impact Youth Substance Use Services, spoke of how clients are afraid they are going to get a lecture and not the support and help needed to recover their lives. He raised the important point that a spectrum of services is needed because there is no one way that works.

James Fairbanks (Kinghaven) spoke of how individuals are not forced to go to Kinghaven for treatment. Now if he meant people were not grabbed off the streets, hauled to Kinghaven (or other treatment facilities) and held behind bars……then he is correct – people are not forced to Kinghaven (or other treatment facilities). But what about court choices of treatment or jail, of employees who either go to treatment or lose their job, or parents who have to go to treatment to keep or get back their children, or individuals who have pressures other than their desire for recovery that drive them to a treatment facility?

One can be ‘forced’ to treatment in a variety of ways or from a variety of external pressures.

The question is how does this affect, or does it affect, what is required for these individuals to make it through treatment. More importantly how does this affect what these individuals need to do to succeed in finding recovery?

Kinghaven’s opening 10 minute statement included the information that Kinghaven had, over its 42 years of existence, provided treatment to tens of thousands (25,000) of individuals. What wasn’t asked or addressed is how many of these individuals had found recovery through their time at Kinghaven.

According to long term members of AA in Abbotsford only about 3% are sober and in recovery at the end of their first year; and that the 3% continues to decline over time. In interviews Dr. Gabor Maté, sought after as a speaker for his expertise in addiction, spoke to the fact that in his practice in the downtown east side of Vancouver a 5% success (individuals still in recovery) was outstanding.

The problem is not Kinghaven per sae. Kinghaven does an excellent job at what its role really is – getting individuals sober. Do I wish there was more emphasis placed on the fact that Kinghaven is about getting sober and that individuals face the need of years of work to find and stay in recover after they leave Kinghaven? Yes, but without the community based supports and resources to help individuals seeking recovery I can understand why this is not something Kinghaven (or other treatment programs) focus on. Without those supports and resources in place, focusing on the reality that recovery involves a long term commitment, can well be seen or considered as pointless.

As James Fairbanks (Kinghaven) noted: “Drugs are not the problem, it is the underlying emotional and mental issues.”

On that point Michele Giordano (Zone) pointed out that the problems that drive people to use drugs as a (poor choice of) coping mechanism took a long time to develop and because of this there is no quick easy fix – it requires time, a long time, to deal with this (these) problem(s).

Erica Thomson (Zone) raised the point that addressing issues and supporting recovery is complicated by the reality that people are so diverse.

When she stepped up to the microphone Gerda Peachey asked/raised/shared several points and shared that she cared for these individuals.

Love and caring come without conditions or restrictions; caring and love require the letting go of judgement. As Mother Teresa noted, if you judge people, you have no time to love them.

Gerda spoke of how women she was driving from jail to their destination, who had drug addiction issues, all told her that harm reduction is wrong. – told Gerda what it was she wanted to hear. It is no surprise to me, nor should it surprise anyone else when someone in your car, someone you are providing a ride they need, tells you what you want to hear. This is why I cited an open mind and willingness to hear what is actually being said as important factors in my arrival at a support for harm reduction.

While harm reduction can, and will, have negative consequences for a limited number of individuals, we cannot allow that to prevent us acting to the “greatest good”.

Listening to Gerda speak of her conversations with these women, experience had me wondering what the fate of these women has been, how are they faring now?

Gerda then spoke with passion about going after the criminals who profit from our decision to have an illegal drug trade.

However this is an entirely separate discussion and has no place in a discussion about harm reduction. I say no place in the discussion because the focus of harm reduction is the health of the individuals; of keeping individuals alive until they find their way into the pursuit of recovery and providing a gateway for them to enter into the pursuit of recovery.

When addressing issues that involve people I always try to keep in mind the words of Brazilian writer Paulo Coelho “We can never judge the lives of others, because each person knows only their own pain and renunciation. It’s one thing to feel that you are on the right path, but it’s another to think that yours is the only path.”

Once you fall into the trap of thinking yours is the only path, you vision narrows to the point you see only what agrees with your point of view, failing to see either flaws with the ‘supporting evidence’ or the portions of the ‘supporting evidence’ that in fact do not support one’s ‘only path’; ‘only path’ thinking can cause you to misunderstand or miss the point of issues such as harm reduction; ‘only path’ denies the complexity of issues, ignoring the reality that when addressing an issue where human beings are the central component there is no ‘one size fits all’; the ‘only path’ serves the wilful denial of uncomfortable realities or truths one does not want to see.

Tim Williams (Life Recovery) cited the “Bruno Study of Montreal” as proof positive against harm reduction. He did not refer to any of the reviews of the Bruno Study that challenged the study or its conclusions. Michele Giordano (Zone) was quick to point out that there many studies that show the efficacy of harm reduction.

I would like to recommend “How to Lie with Statistics”. It is a book written by Darrell Huff in 1954 presenting an introduction to statistics for the general reader that is so well written that many introductory statistics courses use it as a text book.

In a world where statistics are thrown around as ‘proof’ or ‘evidence’ of every and anything, the understanding of statistics and what it means (doesn’t mean) and can do (or cannot do) is invaluable for anyone who is confronted with statistics as ‘evidence’ or ‘proof’.

Reading this book will not only give you an understanding of statistics, it will have you taking statistics offered as ‘proof’ or ‘evidence’ with multiple grains of salt. It will also arm you with an understanding of the questions one should be asking or considering.

Statistics can be a useful and powerful tool. But as Mark Twain noted in stating “There are lies, damned lies and statistics” statistics are not only subject to misuse but are often misused.

Consider: we all know that if you flip a coin 100 times you should get 50 heads and 50 tails. So, you flip a coin then flip it again and continue until you have flipped the coin one hundred times. Should you have 50 heads and 50 tails? Did you impart the exact same amount of energy, the same angle of launch to the coin in every flip? Not very likely for a human being, I certainly not only don’t but can’t.

The use of statistics as a tool for understanding complex human behaviour issues is an area rife with problems, inaccuracies and misinformation – even where the best of intentions are present.

I did find Tim Williams (Life Recovery) constant statement that Life Recovery’s program is about abstinence, implying those who support harm reduction are against abstinence or that harm reduction and abstinence are mutually exclusive, you can have harm reduction or abstinence but not both, disturbing.

Harm reduction is a health issue, an issue about keeping people alive and providing a gateway to treatment and (hopefully) recovery. The only connection harm reduction has to treatment and recovery is keeping people alive and healthy enough to be able to move on to treatment and recovery when they are ready to do so.

Abstinence is part of treatment and recovery. My brother John made several trips through different treatment facilities and programs.

The major factor in my moving to Abbotsford was my brother’s need to attend the 6:40 AM meeting at the Alano Club as a key part of his continued abstinence; a key he found during/after his last (needed) trip through Kinghaven. The importance of that key was demonstrated by the fact that attending the 6:40 AM meeting as a key part of his recovery action plan, helped John be successful in recovery and abstinence, for over a quarter century, until his recent passing.

Experience and personal family history make me fully aware of the importance of abstinence. It also makes me aware of how important surviving until someone is ready to do the work to be able to sustain abstinence is. My brother survived until he found abstinence as part of ongoing recovery. Our cousin Terry died in his early twenties, of health issues, before he found recovery – at an age before that at which my brother found recovery (and abstinence).

Yes, abstinence is important in recovery. Living long enough to find recovery is more important. As Michele Giordano (Zone) was quoted stating earlier: “You cannot help a dead body.”

Mr. Williams (Life Recovery) also stated that there is no need for needle distribution or exchange because illegal drug injection users could simply walk into any pharmacy in Abbotsford and purchase a supply of clean needles.

Reality check: Perhaps Mr. Williams can walk into any pharmacy and purchase a supply of clean needles? The only clients I am aware of who can purchase a supply of clean needles at pharmacies in Abbotsford are those who have a prescription for insulin. A quick survey of people in the audience would have shown Mr. Williams the reality that walking into a pharmacy to purchase gets you a refusal and request to leave, not a supply of clean needles. Just as an afterthought: even should pharmacies be willing to sell clean needles to anyone requesting them, would it not be against Abbotsford’s harm reduction bylaw for them to do so?

I raise an uncomfortable thought for Mr. Williams to consider.

Despite Mr. Williams oft repeated assertion that Life Recovery was about abstinence, listening to Mr. Williams description of the Life Recovery program leaves one thinking that the program is not about abstinence but about substitution. Instead of the individual continuing to use an illegal substance to deal, more accurately to avoid dealing in a constructive way, with whatever the underlying issues that have them abusing drugs to cope, Life Recovery substitutes religion as the coping mechanism – a socially acceptable substitution in the manner of a workaholic.

Substituting Religion for the drug abuse in the same manner that an addiction to Methadone is substituted for an addiction to Heroin; the addiction to methadone being socially acceptable as it involves a doctor’s prescription.

Wilfully ignoring the facts that 1) if you take away the methadone the individual will either have to purchase methadone on the street (yes methadone is part of the drug trade – as are many prescription drugs) or score and use heroin; 2) some individuals user heroin so they can get onto methadone – getting their drug fix of pharmaceutical grade drug paid for by the government; 3) methadone is suppose to be used short term to withdraw from narcotics use, not for year after year, decade after decade, generation to generation usage; 4) that methadone has harsh physical side effects on the human body; 5) every clean, abstaining heroin addict I have met who had the misfortune to have experienced methadone, states with passion that if anything should be illegal it is methadone.

To the gentleman who was concerned about needles and condoms in his yard. There is no solution to this matter. Or perhaps that should be there is no neat, tidy, quick or easy solution to this type of issue. Of course the major roadblock to addressing these issues is the self interest of politicians who benefit from the status quo and seek to avoid the negatives that come with leadership on issues such as these, the self interest of the special interests that benefit from our current policies and the voters who have demonstrated their unwillingness to set policy rationally based on fact, not belief, or to demand that policy and programs be designed around what is known rather than what is believed or ‘that’s the way we do it’.

I would note that surveys show a decline (up to 50% in some cases) in the number/amount of needles etc dropped on the aground after the implementation of a harm reduction program. The only practical advice I can offer for the short term is a sharps box (for used needles) and a garbage can (used condoms etc) in a location that permits and/or encourages using them. That and protecting yourself with the purchase of puncture proof gloves.

To the gentleman whose voice conveyed the pain involved in losing not stuff, which can be replaced, but items (heirlooms) with memories and emotions attached which are irreplaceable, all I can say is that this type of loss is one of the numerous negative consequences of continuing our current policies of using the legal system to fail miserably to address what is, at its root, a medical issue. Assuming your assumption that you were robbed by someone seeking money to purchase drugs is correct.

Governments, society, voters ignore the reality that the drug trade is pure capitalism, capitalism gone feral. In ignoring  or denying the capitalistic reality of the illegal drug business we ignore the consequences that flow from it being capitalism gone feral. More importantly, we ignore what economics tells us is the approach we should be taking while continuing to pursue policies that economics (and human nature) tell us will not succeed as we suffer the negative consequences economics predicts will flow from our chosen course of action.

Policies we continue to pursue despite the decades of evidence as to the failure and futility of these policies; policies pursued out of fear, misinformation, superstition and myth, wilful ignorance and special interests who reap economic benefits from the continued support of these policies that are not simply unsuccessful but add to the problems and issues.    

Three final thoughts on the forum.

There was a great deal of irony in the fact that the most disruptive individual at the forum was someone abusing the legal drug alcohol. Alcohol – the drug that is legal by our choice, yet causes more harm and destruction than the few drugs we have chosen, no accepted, as illegal do in total..  

There was also a great deal of irony in the fact that the best example of the time and support needed to deal with drug addiction from Michele Giordano (Zone)was her (and many others) addiction to nicotine (cigarettes), her struggle for abstinence and the part drug maintenance therapy (the patch) now plays in trying to withdraw from nicotine (cigarettes). In an aside about nicotine, a study published in the Lancet medical journal that assigned values to drugs (legal and illegal) based on the harm done to the individual and the harm done to society, nicotineplaced between cocaine (on the low side) and crack cocaine.

During the afternoon prior to the forum I ran into an old acquaintance who was bright eyed and bushy tailed in his sobriety. Who made the surprising statement that he attributed his wellness to a car accident. The trauma of the accident led him to cognitive therapy to deal with the trauma. As part of the process of dealing with the trauma he found it necessary to deal with “…the underlying emotional and mental issues” [ James Fairbanks (Kinghaven)]. It took time and hard work but he felt that this time and hard work was what was responsible for his state of wellness. He also felt that this type of hard work and investing the time it takes were necessary for everyone who wants to get solidly onto the road to and into recovery.

Hmmm. A bicycle/car accident and a badly broken leg got someone i know sober. A traumatic car accident got someone else I know to invest the time and hard work required to deal with the issues and find wellness. Rather interesting treatment plan suggested by those outcomes n’est pas?

 

Speaker information

Public forums about harm reduction

Matsqui Centennial Auditorium, Abbotsford BC

MODERATOR

Dr. Adrienne Chan is the (Acting) Associate Vice President of Research and Graduate Studies, and a Professor in the School of Social Work and Human Services at the University of the Fraser Valley (UF. For over 20 years, Dr. Chan has worked as an instructor, researcher, and community and adult educator in the areas of diversity, equity, harassment awareness and prevention, anti-racism, multiculturalism, and social justice.

She has been teaching and conducting research at UFV since 2004 and has a Doctorate from the University of Kent at Canterbury, England. She also holds a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and a Masters of Social Work. Dr. Chan has moderated a number of debates and forums on social development topics.

JANUARY 22: LOCAL SERVICE PROVIDERS

Women’s Resource Society of the Fraser Valley! Warm Zone

The Women’s Resource Society of the Fraser Valley fWRSFV) is a respected non-profit society that provides innovative programs and partnerships to address issues of domestic violence in Abbotsford and Mission. WRSFV provides emergency shelter with a transition house in Abbotsford and in Mission, a first stage house (Penny’s Place for women in active addiction), second stage housing (Santa Rosa and Christine Lamb residence) outreach, emotional support, advocacy, referral, individual counseling and support groups for women, children and youth who have experienced violence in Abbotsford and Mission. WRSFV also runs a police-based Victim Services Program embedded with the Mission RCMP, as well as a social enterprise women’s boutique, Fronyas.

The Warm Zone began six years ago recognizing there was no service for street engaged women. It serves women who have significant barriers in accessing health and protective supports because of addictions, mental health issues, and barriers associated with living in poverty. The program not only addresses basic needs, but also fosters social inclusion through public awareness events, workshops, art shows, advocacy and supported referrals.

Dorothy Henneveld is the Executive Director of the Women’s Resource Society of the Fraser Valley, a respected non-profit society providing vital community housing including the Christine Lamb residence, shelter support with two transition houses, and outreach and counselling services to women and children who have had or are currently experiencing violence in the Abbotsford and Mission communities. Dorothy has a Masters in Counselling Psychology.

 

Michele Giordano is the Coordinator of the Warm Zone, which provides support to women who are often active in their addiction, living with mental illness, and who may be working the sex trade. Michele has worked for Women’s Resource Society for seven years, and holds a Masters in Criminal Justice from the University of the Fraser Valley, and her thesis is called: “Exiting Prostitution Programs – What Works?”

Erica Thomson is from Vancouver Island where she attended high school. She then completed three years towards a liberal arts degree at Capilano College and Malispina University. Ms. Thomson suffered from a drug addiction during these years. Her life as an addict has helped her understand the struggles and barriers addicts face in their daily lives, and provides her with the passion and commitment to help others who experience similar struggles. She works as an Outreach Worker at the Warm Zone. Erica has completed her certification in Concurrent Disorders through the Centre of Addictions and Mental Health (CAM H) and continues with her university education attending the University of the Fraser Valley’s Social Work program. She is on the Board of Directors for Pacific Hepatitis C Network and Positive Living of the Fraser Valley.

Kinghaven Peardonville House Treatment Centres

Kinghaven has been providing addiction service to men for 41 years. Peardonville House has been providing addiction service to women and children for 25 years. Both facilities are funded by Fraser Health Authority and both are licenced by Community Care Licensing. Both facilities practice a modified harm reduction model in that they provide methadone maintenance programming and clients are not automatically discharged for using drugs. Both facilities also offer stabilization and transitional living programs for the most chronically addicted as well as detox services under the auspices of Fraser Health’s Riverstone detox program.

Milt Walker has been with the organization for 30 years in various roles, most recently as the Executive Director since 2000. He is a member of Fraser Health’s Substance Use Steering and Planning Committee as well as a member of the Abbotsford Social Development Advisory Committee. He is responsible for all aspects of the day-to-day operation of Kinghaven and Peardonville House.

James Fairbanks is the Clinical Director and has been involved in the addiction recovery field for a number of years as a counsellor and clinical supervisor. Prior to joining Kinghaven in 2010 he was on staff at Maple Ridge Treatment Centre for 8 years. He is responsible for all clinical aspects of the program, supervision, and training of clinical staff and over-site of client’s individual treatment plans.

LIFE Recovery

LIFE Recovery Association is a Christian residential drug rehabilitation center for women. Since opening in 1999, approximately 1100 women have been through our program. At LIFE Recovery a high percentage of our graduates continue to live in freedom and remain sober upon leaving the home.

Our house is located at 2693 Braeside Street and has the capacity for up to 18 women. Our mission is to be a safe, structured and supportive environment for women who have decided to replace a lifestyle of drug and alcohol abuse for freedom from addiction.

LIFE Recovery strives to:

• Provide a safe, caring and Christian home for recovering drug and alcohol addicts • Provide therapy (group and individual) and other rehabilitation services

• Introduce or re-introduce residents to the 12 Step program (M and NA)

• Introduce or re-introduce residents to the Word of God and to Christian beliefs and principles

• Provide follow-up service and an after-care program

• Help with transition and re-integration into society and the local church, after completion of the program.

• Be a place where graduates may return for love, understanding and support.

LIFE Recovery helps women achieve and maintain a substance-free state and improve their overall quality of life. We provide residents with a warm, family-like atmosphere as they travel the road to recovery. Qualified, compassionate and experienced staff and volunteers are called to minister to our clients in truth and love.

Patricia Watson is the Executive Director of LIFE Recovery. She has a Bachelor of Arts in Business Management and a teaching diploma in Information Technology. Her role is to oversee the staff and programs of LIFE and reports to the board of directors. She has a strong desire to see women coming into freedom and recognizing their value and significance. Patricia has been involved in the non-profit sector for many years and is married with 2 adult Sons.

Tim Williams is the Board Chairman of LIFE Recovery Association. He has served on the boards of several non-profit organizations and corporations. Tim is originally from Australia and moved to Abbotsford 12 years ago. Apart from Tim’s business, corporate and family interests, he devotes a significant amount of his time volunteering with and for drug addicts and prisoners. He has been a pastor of Northview Community Church as well as the Executive Director of LIFE Recovery immediately prior to Patricia Watson being hired.

Caveat emptor, Hmmm, Issues

A Fallacy of Words

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While the public is subjected to counterfactual statements like the recent letters about needing to “Put Christ back in….” our schools etc throughout the year – it is at this time of year, the Christmas season, that delusive statements about the need to “Put Christ back in…….” abound.

The cry “Put Christ back in Christmas” seems to have an alliterative lure that those who believe that words are what manifest Christ in the world find irresistible.

You can strive to keep the words out, but you cannot keep Christ out of anywhere that a practicing Christian is because they act as a conduit for Christ’s love.

What this prattling on about “putting Christ back…….” clearly demarks is the distinctness between Christians who self label as Christians by virtue of membership in a Christian religion or church or as is often the case membership in both a religion and a church, and practicing Christians who often don’t call themselves Christians, holding that to be a judgment that only Christ can, or has the right to, make.

A demarcation rooted in the difference between words as the central tenant of being Christian versus your actions and behaviours as the central tenant of being Christian.

The fallacy of using words as the central tenet, is the fact that words encompass a degree of variation in meaning that denies any certainty in conveying exactitude in any message the words may have been meant to convey.

Consider the ubiquitous Thesaurus, a reference work whose sole purpose is to provide alternate choices for a word. For some words there maybe only 5 – 6 words as alternatives; while for other words there are 100+ alternatives.

In these days of rising illiteracy, functional illiteracy, cant, jargon, vulgarism, acronyms etc we are losing, may have lost, an appreciation for and the ability to use the subtle nuances and shadings in meanings among the words we choose to use to convey more accurately and with more certainty the ideas and meanings we seek to express.

Consider even the ‘simple’ Dictionary:

A book, optical disc, mobile device or online lexical resource (eg dictionary.com) containing a selection of the words of a language* giving information about their meanings, pronunciation, etymologies, inflected forms, derived forms, etc, expressed in either the same or another language, lexicon, glossary. Print dictionaries of of varying sizes, ranging from small pocket dictionaries to multi volume books, usually sort entries alphabetically, as do typical CD or DVD dictionary applications, allowing one to browse through the terms in sequence. All electronic dictionaries, whether online or installed on a device, can provide immediate, direct access to a search term, its meanings, and ancillary information: a Japanese – English dictionary.

*Language: 1) a body of words and the system for their use common to a people who are of the same community or nation, the same geographical area or the same cultural tradition i.e. the two languages of Belgium, the French language; the Yiddish language. 2) communication by voice in the distinctively human manner using arbitrary sounds in conventional ways with conversational meanings. 3) the system of linguistic signs or symbols considered in the abstract (opposed to speech). 4) any set or system of such symbols as used in a more or less uniform fashion by a number of people who are thus enabled to communicate intelligibly with one another. 5) any system of formalized symbols, signs, sounds, gestures or the like used or conceived as a means of communicating thought, emotion etc. i.e. the language of mathematics, sign language.

Thus attempts to use the bible as a cookbook (take Sunday mass, add tithing, judgment and condemnation of fellow human beings because of your moral superiority, support for inquisitions, crusades, witch/heretic burnings, etc etc etc…..) to arrive at the ‘formula’ or ‘ingredients’ that mixed together make a Christian are doomed to fail.

This fallacy of words making the bible a ‘cookbook’ is compounded by the nature of languages and translation between languages.

The meanings of words in one language have subtle (or glaring) different nuances than do the corresponding (or what are considered corresponding) words in another language. The English word love does not carry the exact meaning of the French amour (noun) or aimer (verb). Indeed as you can see in going from the English love to the French language you use different words depending on whether you are referring to the noun or the verb.

A translation from one language to another should not give rise to a single word but a word plus the necessary qualifiers to convey the nuanced meaning of the word in its original language.

Compounding the difficulty of attempting to convey the meaning of a word in one language through translation into another language is the impact the biases of the translator have and the effect the knowledge and skill of the translator has.

The biases, knowledge and understanding of the reader of the reader of the translation also have an impact, a significant impact, on the interpretation of the meaning or message of words.

“You can safely assume that you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out that God hates all the same people you do.”

 Traveling Mercies by Anne Lamott [attribution: “my priest friend Tom”]

One must also recognize the effect that a lack of concepts can have not just on translation but on the form of the expression of the idea takes in the original language.

Take the Christian creation myth of the Universe being created in six days. The ideology of Creationism is based upon the words the Christian creation myth as set out in the bible being meant literally.

Yet, call to mind how little was known about our world and what was not known or understood about our planet, other planets, solar systems, galaxies, the Universe, physics, mathematics, chemistry, biology, etc at that point in time that the Christian creation myth came into existence.

How would you explain the big bang to someone who had no concept of nothing?

In the beginning less than nothing existed, then a tiny spark appeared, causing an immense explosion, as the energy of the explosion cooled it gave birth to the elements the first generation of stars were formed from, the death of this first generation in novas and supernovas gave birth to the heavier elements contained in our generation of stars, planets……and by the way the elements human beings are made of – humans are made of star stuff. And the Universe is still expanding outwards from the initial explosion that was 15 billion years ago; and using a telescope you can look out into space and look back into that distant past.

How would you explain the big bang to someone who did not know the world rotates around the sun, some of the lights in the night skies are other planets in our solar system (what a solar system was), that the majority of lights in the night skies were stars whose light takes tens, hundreds, thousands, millions, billions of years to get to earth (by the way what is hundred, thousand, million, billion?)…….

You could not.

How many truly understand the big bang today? How many are comfortable with the idea of the big bang to have a degree of understanding? How many are overwhelmed with the ideas inherent in the big bang and seek simpler, more human/earth sized in scope explanations to cling to as an explanation of the origin of the Universe. How many find that comfort in the Christian (or another) creation myth?

Finally you have the fact that the Christian gospels were clearly written as theological documents in the context of early Christianity rather than historical chronicles and their authors showed little interest in an absolute chronology of Jesus or in synchronizing the episodes of his life with the secular history of the age.

 

So, if attempting to use the bible as a ‘cookbook’ forces the assumption words can convey an exact meaning mires Christian churches and religions in the fallacy of words, and that the fallacy of words is not hard to see – for those who are not to blind to see – why are churches and religions that mire themselves in this fallacy of words so popular?

Because being a ‘cookbook Christian’ is easy.

Gilbert K. Chesterton was correct in his observation that “Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried.”

Practicing Christians view the bible as a guide for a spiritual journey; a journey you start on by living your life, of behaving, by striving – through your actions – to become the Christ. And while this view may well be relatively easy to come to, walking the path, striving to become the Christ is a daily struggle requiring a focus on asking oneself how would Christ act in this situation? How do the words and behaviours of Christ tell me to act?

Christ’s words “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another” are, for human beings, incredibly hard to take into your heat to live by.

To put living by Christ’s words, commands, behaviours and actions into perspective consider Oren Arnold’s Christmas gift suggestions: “To your enemy, forgiveness. To an opponent, tolerance. To a friend, your heart. To a customer, service. To all, charity. To every child, a good example. To yourself, respect.”

Were you among those who were of the opinion that the police should have captured the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooter  so he could have been ‘properly tortured’ for his actions? Can (do) you forgive him? Do you want to bring back the death penalty, even though experience and recent history have clearly shown that doing so would result in the execution of innocent persons? Does “you have to break a few eggs to make an omelette” justify taking innocent lives so you can reap vengeance on the guilty (or those you judge to be guilty)?

Practicing Christianity by striving to live your life by acting in accordance to the words, teachings, behaviours of Christ is not only hard it is very uncomfortable, often requiring you to take positions (against the death penalty) that are rather unpopular and that require you to stand against the herd.

The book “Religion for Atheists” suggests that atheists, as part of understanding the overpowering lure and hold churches and religions have for the so many, need to recognize that Christian religions and churches are, or have become, about satisfying human social needs. That churches and religions have become social clubs where you get together with people who share your mindset, pat each other on the back about how wonderful you are, holding forth about being saved by virtue of your membership in a church or religion, confabulation about your morally superior to those who don’t agree with you.

Although ……applied to Christian churches and religions, the psychiatric meaning of confabulation [“the replacement of a gap in a person’s memory by a falsification that he or she believes to be true”] contains a full measure of truth.

Being a member of a Christian church and/or religion holds several advantages over being a member of a Service Organizations [Kiwanis, etc]. Membership in a service organization is not limited to only those who agree with you and as a result what you choose to believe can face challenge. Service organizations work to improve the community, without making judgments as to worthiness. While service organizations serve to fill human social needs the are about service to the community and in serving the community these organizations perform a great deal of hard work.

Christianity is not about popularity, it is not about getting together with people of the same mindset and who agree with your thinking.

If we are all in agreement on the decision – then I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until our next meeting to give ourselves time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about.
Alfred P. Sloan

More than anything Christianity is not about being easy.

One of the ironies of the past year was the WWCD pencil invasion. For several weeks many of those belonging to our local Christian churches and religions were running around with pencils marked WWJD, treating them more in keeping with a shared in joke or handing them out to persons they judged in need of saving.

These individuals, churches, religions were focused on the words, not the actions and decision making process living your life within the bounds of what Christ would do demand.

Action speaks louder than words but not nearly as often. Mark Twain

In the North of Abbotsford has arisen a fancy new Tower of Babel, the occupiers of which have cut their support to the food bank. My understanding of the reason they turned their back on the growing number of hungry in Abbotsford is that the hungry in Abbotsford are not Christian enough or the Food Bank is not Christian enough or some combination thereof.

What does the Christianity of either the Food Bank or those in need of food from the Food Bank have to do with anything?

Given the growing tide of hunger in our community is not the question that should be asked whether there is hunger?

Turning away from the hungry because they (or the Food Bank) are not Christian ‘enough’ screams “We are not Christians – no matter what we label ourselves.”

No person or group of persons who live the teachings, behaviours and actions of Christ could, much less would, chose to turn their backs on, deny love and help to, the growing numbers who suffer hunger in Abbotsford. Anyone who would, or does, turn their back on the hungry  makes a clear statement that whatever they may claim to the contrary, they are not Christian.

“However many holy words you read, however many you speak, what good will they do you if you do not act on upon them?”  Buddha

Before the Christian churches and religions in Abbotsford, the province of BC and Canada waste time worrying about “putting Christ back” in Christmas or schools etc, they need to focus on” putting Christ back” in their churches, religions and themselves.

Consider, Life

The Reason

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“Christ is the reason for the Season” has made its debut, this being the season for the brief yearly appearance of this piece of ‘everybody knows’ …….untruth.

If one feels the need to have a god as the reason for the period of celebration surrounding the winter solstice and new year, then proper attribution would be to Mithras.

Mithras was a Persian god from the Zoroastrian pantheon, where he was a helper and assistant to the power of Good against the power of Evil. In the fight against Evil, Mithras slew a bull created by the Evil Lord and it was from the blood of this bull that all life sprang all.

Over time the cult of Mithras [Mithraism] gradually detached itself from Zoroastrianism and developed a mythology and rituals of its own.

Originally Mithras was subordinate to the Lord of Good [the Sun-god], but with the passage of time he came to be regarded as a peer to the Sun, and finally identified with Sol Invictus, the Unconquered Sun.

The cult of Mithras came to Rome in the first century BCE, and quickly gained a steady following and was widespread throughout the Roman Empire in the first century CE. Mithraism peaked in the third century CE, before being suppressed with all other non-Christian cults at the end of 4th century; a suppression that resulted from the triumphant rise of the Christian cult and its graduation from ‘cult to ‘religion’.

Faced with the threat posed by the advantage Mithraism enjoyed in the hearts and minds of the populace as a result of Mithraism’s solstice/year end/new year celebrations, the Christian cults found themselves in need of a yearend celebration.

An astute marketing decision and….the birth of Jesus was celebrated on December 25th, which strategically fell between the winter solstice and the yearend/new year.

There are those who have searched the Bible to find passages that they could interpret and use as evidence that the Bible proves Christ was born December 25th.

The problem is that the Christian gospels were clearly written as theological documents in the context of early Christianity rather than historical chronicles and their authors showed little interest in an absolute chronology of Jesus or in synchronizing the episodes of his life with the secular history of the age.

The only thing that these arguments have proven is that one can use and interpret the words of the Bible to ‘prove’ anything you want to have the Bible provide ‘proof’ of.

I do acknowledge that although the timing of celebrating the birth of Christ on December 25th, between the winter solstice and yearend/beginning of the New Year, lies with Mithraism – a cogent argument can be advanced that the reason for the existence and nature of the Season flows from the Christian churches and religions.

Looking back to the end of the 4th century/beginning of the 5th century, the point where Christianity triumphed, outlawed all other religions in the Empire and graduated from cult to religion [“A cult is a religion with no political power.” Tom Wolfe] we can examine the development of the Christian churches and religions and the interaction between the Christian churches and religions and the Season to see how the behaviours of church and religion shaped the character, the heart, the essence, of the Season.

Looking today around the world, around Abbotsford, at the Christian churches and religions you see astute shepherding is more in evidence today than it was at the end of the 4th century.

The cultivation of cash flow to provide salaries sufficient to attract pastors with the capability to enhance the growth of congregations, the Christian churches, the Christian religions and their wealth [properties, buildings, investments, bank accounts] .

The streets of Abbotsford provide abundant testimony as to how Christian churches and religions have, over the centuries, shaped the character and spirit, the soul of the Season. The Season of Greed.

Consider, Life, Media

How many more?

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Watching another report about a memorial or ceremony for/about Amanda Todd, the teen ‘bullied to death’, raises the question of how many other teenagers will suicide as a result of the media coverage of all the accolades and fame Amanda Todd’s suicide garnered her?

Not that many months ago the media was focused on one community’s efforts to prevent a recent teen suicide triggering future teen suicides in the community; suicides as in more than one. The community’s concern arose from the knowledge that the suicide of one teenager will set in motion thoughts in surviving teens that lead to a cluster of teen suicides in the future.

The media’s report focused on this knowledge, and the evidence linking the suicide of one teen with future suicides among the surviving teens.

If a simple teen suicide serves to trigger future teen suicides, how many suicide deaths will the message, intentional or not, we are sending via media coverage of Amanda Todd’s suicide cause in the future? Deaths that will occur not only in Vancouver, but around the world as Amanda Todd’s death became a cause celebre for media worldwide.

Want worldwide fame? Want your name all over the local media for days, weeks, months? Want people to speak of what a wonderful person you were and what a tragedy your loss is? Want your father to get a tattoo to memorialize you? Want a memorial held at the Red Robinson Theatre in memory of you? Want to make a video and have it go viral on the internet? Want not only 15 minutes of fame, but for the 15 minutes to be extended?

No problem!

Simply, make a video, post it on line, off your self – and let the wailing and gnashing of teeth begin.

There exists ample knowledge about the psycho/socio/bio (psychological sociological biological) nature of the realities, interactions and thought processes of teenagers vis-à-vis suicide. We know that the behaviours of the media, society and individuals with respect to Amanda Todd’s suicide will inspire other teens around the world to seek fame and immortality through suicide.

Now this may not be a pleasant reality, but it is reality none the less, one of the profuse dark realities and unpleasant truths that people and societies work hard to ignore by refusing to see or burying their heads in the sand.

But: Reality does not care what you want to be fact, reality does not care what you believe to be fact, Reality simply is what IS.

The question is not whether teen suicides will result from media coverage of Amanda Todd’s suicide and the ongoing circus that resulted as people strove to get aboard the 15 minutes of fame parade float.

That there would be future suicides triggered was an unavoidable reality, the when and how many were dependent on whether behaviour in reaction the Amanda Todd’s suicide was deliberate and considered – or our usual thoughtless reactionary denial of reality knee-jerk rote response.

Unpalatable perhaps – but Reality none the less.