I had dinner at Global Harvest and I would be remiss if I did not take a moment to thank the gentleman and his helpers who were responsible for a great treat of a meal – Thank you.

In spite of the great meal and generosity of our benefactor, the evening was disconcerting with a disquiet that began when I stepped through the doors and looked around the tables set out for diners. There were far too many new children in attendance, families with children in need of a meal they could not afford to provide for themselves.

Ask the good people at the Food Bank how many new families and children have been added to the ranks of families and children that already depend on them for food, for sustenance, for life. Lunches at the Salvation Army are attended by an increasing number of families with children.

Escalating housing costs in the lower mainland are dragging more people and families down into the class of the working poor. The poorest of this economic class are forced to choose between shelter and food; forced to depend on the food bank and soup kitchens for their daily sustenance.

The comfortable lives that people take for granted and often smugly congratulate themselves for achieving arise from the transfer of wealth from the working poor through the means of poverty wage levels and working conditions that in many ways are no better than the conditions we condemn sweatshops or China for. Never in Canada’s history has Canadian society been so economically unbalanced and unfair.

Denial of this reality is so much more comfortable than to accept our part in benefiting from and at the expense of the working poor economic class. Denial also lets people avoid any thoughts of giving up any of their luxuries so that the working poor can afford the basic necessities of life.

Thus I expect to continue to be disquieted stepping through doors and viewing increasing numbers of families and children in need of food to sustain life, while wealthy and comfortable Canadians continue to dwell in the comfort of their lives and the land of denial.