Pubdate: Thu, 07 Sep 2006
Source: Goldstream Gazette (Victoria, CN BC)
Copyright: 2006 Goldstream News Gazette
Contact:  http://www.goldstreamgazette.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/1291
Author: Tom Fletcher
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/opinion.htm (Opinion)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?142 (Supervised Injection Sites)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?137 (Needle Exchange)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?159 (Drug Courts)

DISCERNING INDIGENTS PREFER OCEAN VIEWS

VICTORIA - Another summer winds down, as the weather begins to 
separate the really homeless from the fair-weather pretenders. But 
the issue is pressing hard on B.C. communities, not just Vancouver 
and Victoria, which get most of the attention.

Here in the capital, which seems to have more than its share of 
hostels and street services already, the consensus is that they need 
more shelters. Over in Vancouver, B.C. Federation of Labour president 
Jim Sinclair says the solution to poverty and homelessness is to 
raise the minimum wage to $10 an hour, and get rid of that evil $6 
training wage. He doesn't mention that fewer and fewer employers are 
even trying to attract help at the $8 an hour minimum, let alone the 
training wage.

(Sinclair also wants universal subsidized daycare and major pension 
increases, as well as that all-purpose nostrum of the left, 
"affordable" housing. All governments have to do is print more money, 
and poof! Society's problems are solved.)

Looking farther afield, the talk gets a bit more sensible.

Chilliwack recently hosted a homelessness forum after the city 
dismantled a "tent city" at a downtown park.  Taking part in the 
forum was B.C.'s foremost "homeless advocate," Kerry Pakarinen, who 
came to prominence as a media spokesman for the pesthole of anarchy 
that was the Woodward's squat in downtown Vancouver. He has taken his 
act to the Fraser Valley, setting up squats in parks at Abbotsford 
and Chilliwack that predictably descended into hazardous nests of 
drug paraphernalia, stolen property and filth.

Pakarinen told the forum that having no fixed address means employers 
won't hire you. Chilliwack Coun. Sharon Gaetz reminded attendees that 
when Pakarinen's organized band of squatters descended recently on 
city hall to protest being kicked out of parks, a local developer 
offered work to anyone who wanted it.

How many takers did he get? You guessed it, zero.

Aside from "try working," I don't really have any simple solutions to 
offer to the employable people who are homeless by their own choices. 
But it would be nice if we could at least dispense with this 
ridiculous idea that people should have a "right" to squat on public 
property. A classic example of this abuse of public parks was one of 
the many "homeless" who was ousted from his camp this summer in one 
of B.C.'s choicest bits of oceanfront property, Beacon Hill Park.

"It's a nice spot," said Billy Bob McPherson, as he identified 
himself to a local newspaper. "I've been eating a lot of gooseneck 
barnacles and living off the sea. Now I'm just going to move 100 
yards down the beach."

Yes, Billy Bob, and downtown Vancouver has nice spots as well. That's 
why it's some of the most expensive real estate in the country, where 
even most working people can't afford to live.

Squat organizer Pakarinen got at least one thing right.  If you can't 
make it in the big city, maybe it's time to look for someplace that 
doesn't have the country's highest cost of living.

Also here in Victoria, police are busy early each morning waking up 
people sleeping in downtown doorways.  And a law firm has launched a 
court challenge to the city's bylaw that prohibits building shelters 
on public property and sleeping in public parks. If that succeeds, 
get used to dirty clothes hanging off your local cenotaph.

Local MLA Rob Fleming scolded the provincial government last week for 
placing its social housing priority on seniors and people with mental 
problems. Better there than on able-bodied males who emerge each 
summer to occupy the choicest of city parks, complete with their own 
media wranglers.

The Drug Connection

Hospitals report that as many as half of their emergency admissions 
are intoxicated. Panhandlers puff cigarettes as they collect cash 
from those who don't notice or care where their money is going. 
Police report again and again that nearly all their low-level 
property crime is drug-related, with a few hardcore actors doing most of it.

The big-city debate continues in Orwellian language, defending "safe" 
injection sites that can't possibly be safe and needle "exchange" 
programs where dirty needles are discarded on sidewalks and parks.

Perhaps the ultimate solution is to provide hardcore addicts with not 
only free shelter and medical care but free drugs as well. But I 
don't think the public is ready to surrender that completely.

Solicitor General John Les has high hopes for the drug court pilot 
program in Vancouver that was extended for three years by the federal 
and provincial government.  It sentences chronic offenders to 
treatment rather than jail.

Thirsty in Tofino

"Drought to shut down rain forest resort," Reuters news service told 
the world after the sudden revelation that Tofino was out of water.

When I visited there a couple of weeks ago there was no hint of a 
water shortage, and in fact, the sun rarely peeked through the dense 
fog. There's a political fog over the place too, it seems.

One of the first things visitors see is the ancient cedar tree 
propped up by an elaborate metal framework.  This was of course the 
result of lengthy and intensive debate among village leaders after 
the leaning trunk was declared a hazard. And one can easily imagine 
the eco-agony that greeted plans to remove a few trees on Meares 
Island to expand the community's water supply. 
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake