Don't you be MY neighbour!

_{There is just cause to suggest that we are not living in Mister Roger’s Neighborhood.}

_{Recently it was reported that prejudice on a fairly significant scale exists in Campbell River against people who rent. This “don’t you be my neighbor” mentality is reportedly supported by council who dropped a rezoning application (but still pocketed the $2700.00 application fee) without exercising due process and flying in the face of their own community plan.}

_{Why does anyone equate a renter with being a sub-standard individual? Why is it assumed that renters will being down the “form and character” of an established neighbourhood as assumed by Councilor Roy Grant? Why would the mistaken belief that is was a duplex application give the public the “wrong impression” Mr. Grant? Why do the residents of South McLean area think that renters are synonymous with noise, traffic, drug dealing and decreased property values?}

_{Of course, in the suburbs of Campbell River, a dealer or a grow-op owner or a meth lab owner would never ever own a home, such people are only renters, right? Everyone knows renters are more inclined to crime, loud parties and shady lifestyles.  Or so our sensitivities dictate.}

_{These people insist that housing values will decrease because renters have no pride or vested interest in where they live. I do agree some people have no pride but that is not a product of being a renter it is a product of not having pride and respect.}

_{This situation does not support the “neighborhood diversity and healthy communities” of our city plan, this is blatant discrimination and constitutes an unfair intervention into the housing market to limit access for one particular group of people.}

_{In our current economy many houses aren’t selling and as more people don’t have the credit to buy houses, more families are renting in neighbourhoods that normally wouldn’t have renters. How are the “renters” are being treated by the neighbours? Do homeowners take the time to get to know them? Do homeowners invite them to the neighbourhood events?  Or do they just shun them; students, young couples starting out, people who have lost jobs, ended marriages, run out of employment insurance, lost their homes, work for minimum wages, or find themselves on income assistance. Is there no “zone” for them in our Official Community Plan except at the back end of the community?}

_{I bet some of these “renters” do everything they can to enhance their income. They probably collect bottles and other recyclables so they can pay their rent and eat, buy prescription medications or pay their hydro bills. It is apparently not such a beautiful day in the neighbourhood when these “scavengers” are lurking around the community recycling bins. Someone complained that she didn’t feel safe getting out of her car and had to go to the landfill instead. She wants them fined. The problem is they wouldn’t be able to pay it unless they had access to bottles! All of these scavengers are poor. They are single disabled people getting up to $375.00 a month to rent and $531.00 a month to pay for everything else. They are single parents with a couple of kids who are collecting up to $660.00 for rent and $376.00 for everything else. They are students trying to work it out on a student loan. They are full time service workers whose minimum wage pay cheques are $640.00 before deductions. They have children who are suffering from the highest poverty rate in Canada and constitute over 50% of food bank use.  Sitting on a pail outside a recycling bin is humiliating as is waiting around with a shopping cart. A sign saying “No Scavenging” is not going to deter someone who needs their diabetic supplies or to feed their children. They are not boogey-men. They are poor men, and women, who would just really appreciate you giving them your bottles and not judging them because they are not like you. What needs to go into the landfill is your bigotry and attitudes, not your recyclables.}

_{In Mister Rogers neighbourhood you don't have to look like everybody else and be like everybody else to be acceptable and to feel acceptable. (Fred Rogers). I wish, we, as neighbours, could live with such authenticity, wisdom and kindness.}

Hypocrisy Task Force?

So here we have it, reported in both papers recently.

There was a great deal of donations to support a dog show, tireless radio coverage of amateur sports, support for blood donor clinics, special Olympics, cops for cancer, money for an environmental project, art appreciation day, heritage day, family fun day, all overshadowed by the total obliteration of hope for the homeless and working poor of Campbell River and a  big slap in the face to the founders of Hope Outreach Society.

This is all thanks to the not-in-my backyard attitudes and the lets-have-another-coalition driven city hall.

There is just cause to suggest that the City of Campbell River and many of the citizens here don’t turn their backs on show dogs, sports, mental handicaps, cancer, the environment or families.

But they certainly have no time for, say, the dogs of homeless people, the environment where people live in tents and under tarps, the poor kid who cannot eat three meals a day so certainly cannot afford sports equipment,  the malnourished anemic minimum wage worker who has to miss work and therefore misses earning his rent money, the high percentage of marginalized people with mental conditions who did not have supportive families or coaches, or the people on welfare or disability pensions who are fighting cancer.

Hope Outreach offered just that; hope beyond conventional limits due to years of failed policies and whacky priorities by “leaders” who make decisions about these issues by chronically appointing task forces that take agency workers out of their offices to attend expensive and endless workshops. Those workers then come up with strategies for problems in this area but don’t want to see it out their windows or near their businesses.

Who are these people? How did they end up homeless?

Why aren’t they staying in a shelter?

How can they be employed and hungry and homeless?

What obstacles are preventing them from getting off the streets and into housing?

These are the questions we really need to learn the answers to and you do that by hanging out with the Hope Outreach Society on site, not sitting in a conference room jacking up an expense account.

Why is the City of Campbell River spending money – a significant amount of money – task forcing and work-shopping the issue to death?

Shame on us for politicizing homelessness, shame on us for not facilitating hope that food, clothing and emotional support can and will be provided out of a van run by two older Christian women from a consistent location while you are all in your workshops talking about it.

The little green van with the yellow cross and the big word “Hope” has been run out of your neighborhood.

Maybe the next workshop for our “Homeless Task Force” should be about the hypocrisy of it all.

Comfy Pants - Uncomfortable in life.

So it appears I disgruntled a loose waisted wedgie-ridden wiggly bitted reader in response to the thorns distributed by the Fashion Police last week in the Courier. (It is posted on my last blog entry.)

 He wrote:

"Dear Ms. Fashion Police for June 17th. Your poor attempt at humor lost most readers. You are right we are not Paris. Never will be. Where do get off telling who to wear what? This town of Campbell River is a laid  back town of country living. I think people wear what they choose out of comfort. I feel sorry that your life is just one big dress rehearsal. For many of us it is not. We use our money to support and raise families. Not on over prices clothing for your viewing pleasure. Vanity is a sin."

Signed Comfy pants in Comfy River

Well now! He told me! Being one who cannot back away when "stercus accidit" I have sent roses to this chunky monkey.

To comfy pants


I think the fashion police were trying to ask people to have more respect for themselves and others and no where did I read that they told you what to wear, but what NOT to wear. I too have witnessed embarrassing attempts by people to be "comfy" and it can be horrifying. The latest was a person using their bum cleavage to hold a cell phone. I don't think it takes the over priced clothing you assumed it would to be decent and respectable and I think your assessment that the humor of the rant was lost on most people is about as wrong as probably your comfy pants are. I think you need some roses to mellow out and not be so defensive. While you use your money to support and raise your family the fashion police just want some proper fitting clothing and the use of underwear to be included in your budget. Vanity might be a sin but so is indecent exposure.

Back up to the Fashion Police


WHAT IS WRONG WITH PEOPLE?? I read the Roses and Thorns weekly and more and more it is becoming not just an arena for the discontents but a slippery slope into meanness, spitefulness and maliciousness. Aside from the nice roses of thanks to people for doing the right thing (becaus these days we have to praise that as being unusual and unexpected) people are thorning grieving pet owners and turning their tragedy into a rant about leashes and dog poo and training cats to come when they are called!  As for Mister Comfy Pants, go find your horn rimmed glasses (you are probably sitting on them) and re read the initial submission from the Fashion Police, you got in wrong on all counts. You  now have the right to remain silent. Please do!

Roses or Thorns?

Thorns   Crocs full of thorns to the crimes of fashion being committed in our community. Now I realize we are not Paris or London and we don't expect Shoppers Row to be navigated with Gucci stilettos or men in Armani, but seriously Campbell Riverites, one of you almost caused a car accident the other day when your skirt blew up in the wind and your lack of underwear took my mind away from the road. Just what would I have told ICBC? Swerved for full moon? Rear ender caused by rear end? Now this skirt flipping might work for Marilyn Monroe but she doesn't live here! We don't need to see suspender leggings, underwear worn as outerwear, skinny jeans when you are not, sweat pants with writing on the bottom (note to wearer, letters disappear!) and t-shirts with rudery written on them. (Although the "drunk chicks think I'm hot" was probably an honest reflection.) We don't want to see pants that would make a plumber blush, pajamas in the grocery store, flip flops with dirty feet flip flopping, boxers impersonating Bermuda shorts paired with a white t-shirt that makes you look like you are walking down the hall at 3 a.m. to get a glass of milk rather than shopping at a public market. Where is your wife? Keep your tailbone tattoos for family viewing, and speedos for a funny Halloween prank. Men please do not go commando with grey sweats despite how comfortable that might be for YOU, and women don't cut off your jean skirts any further. Finally, please, please PLEASE if you have a belly wear a t-shirt long enough to keep it from peaking out at us. We might be the Salmon Capital of the World but we should refrain from baiting the fashion police with your wiggly bits! Arrests are imminent!

Don't ask Don't Tell!!

My mother babysits for me during the day when I am at work. This morning she called to tell me she was going to be late because she had lost her dentures. She said she doesn't take them out when she sleeps (for the same reason I no longer sleep naked!) but they must have popped out while she was in the land of nod. She sleeps with her husband who is almost 80 years old and a temper to match Genghis Khan. I giggled when I imagined a similar scenario to the infamous cartoon of the fat woman looking for her lost puppy (for those who haven't seen it, go to) http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_QznghF5j7Yc/TIDx8D5Y0QI/AAAAAAAABvU/F3TYZiONJ6c/s1600/funny-dog-cartoon-lost-puppy.jpg.

For a chuckle, insert dentures in to the bottom of grumpy old man. Worse yet, you don't really want to see her smiling anymore after they have been located!

My mother loses a lot of things in bed. (OK that didn't quite sound right.) When she was first dating Vlad the Impaler ( I enjoy sticking cute little nicknames on curmudegeonly Cliff) she was much younger and on hormone replacement therapy. For those of you not familiar with the medication involved, it comes in sticky patches that are applied to your abdomen or bottom. They produce estrogen through your skin. She woke up one morning to see the patch stuck to Vlad, and momentarily wondered if it might make him nicer, you know, all those women's hormones, but in the end decided to rip it off along with some thigh hair she hadn't counted on, waking him up with a start. My mother did what any sane woman would do. Collapsed onto her pillow and pretended to be asleep the whole time while maintaining a death grip on the feminine product. Mr. Tough, the Man of all Men, the one whose testosterone defines who he is and what his mood is going to be like, was probably only concerned that it had looked like he was trying to shave his upper leg. He would have kept that to himself. Along with a few milograms of estrogen therapy.

In the end my mother showed up to the house to babysit, teeth in place, no mention of where she found them. Since they both sleep au natural, it cannot be good.

Near Death Experiences

I have had a couple of real near death experiences. One when I was in the ICU I actually crashed and Eliza was looking over me as my eyes drifted to the ceiling. What she didn't know was that I was looking at my parents, who looked the same as they did when they passed, wearing the same embarrassing outfits that always made me walk ten paces ahead of them when we were out (funny how teen age angst is carried over 30 years) and traveling inside the eye of an elephant (you can't make this up and NO I was not dying from an LSD overdose!) It was like a capsule and I was trying to get in and pretty annoyed that they would not open the door. The next thing I knew I was "back" with a central line in my chest and several people fussing over me, feeling like crap. I often think about that experience and since then have had a new found appreciation for the elephant. In art (see Gregory Colbert's collection called "Ashes and Snow") and tell me you are not moved by the talent and the beauty, and in folklore, as apparently, funny enough, elephants are a symbol of overcoming death.
The next near death experience I had was last night. I woke up at 2:30 a.m. from a sound sleep with Criminal Minds re-runs playing on the TV I forgot to turn off, having an asthma attack. There is nothing worse than having one of these sneak up on you in a dead sleep because you go from open mouthed drooling slumber (or so I have been told from some insolent bedfellows) to feeling like you are being strangled and drowned all at the same time. You cannot breath in, you cannot breath out, its like somebody has popped a wine cork down your trachea . Where are visions of elephants when you need them? I was sure this was "it" this time although I have suffered from this before. Only now it was lasting well into a minute and my lips were turning blue and I was starting to panic. It's the panic that will kill and asthma sufferer faster than lack of oxygen will. Panic because you think the next time you try to inhale you will get a bit of air in and you don't. The panic that you realize you decided to sleep naked and now your kids are going to find you dead and rigored in most likely an unladylike position on the floor after the dogs have given you a good sniff over. The panic because now you're pissed off at yourself for worrying about all those things you worried about that day, that really don't matter at all when you are about to hitch a ride on that elephant!
Obviously I lived to tell about it but not without spending the rest of the night awake because I was afraid to go to sleep again and have that happen. Sometimes larygospasms come in twos. So I got on facebook and talked to my friend who was having lunch in Budapest, checked my online bank balance and only got a  little short of breath, and put on a nighshirt just in case.
Morale of the story is: Don't sleep naked and hope that if you see the elephant he won't let you on his back.

Update for my readers; May 18, 2011

I have just finished digging up pieces of writing I have done over the last couple of years and then forgotten about. Many are from my newspaper column "Just Cause" where I write on social justice issues of the day. I have decided that if I had a nickel for every person who had said "you should make your living by writing", I wouldn't need to be writing for nickels. But the truth is I don't have to write, I must write. It is something ingrained in me. By grade 4 I wanted to be a journalist, by Grade 5 I was running the school paper much to the chagrin of the Grade 7's who just couldn't put an editorial together. I still have copies of those papers from 40 years ago, produced on the school secretaries mimeograph machine! But back then we only had black and white tv too. Girls had to wear skirts, boys trousers and teachers shirts, ties or dresses. Our desks were lined up, not put in groups, and we called our teachers by their last name, Mr. and Mrs. not the current "Hey Fred" yelled after the math teacher dressed in gym wear by a student chewing gum and wearing a t-shirt with a rude caption on it. Have we come a long way or what? Maybe I will write about the good ol' days soon and talk about "progress" and what we have really progressed to. I will certainly start writing about my personal life as that, I believe will be my bread and butter when I finally put my book together. I think it might be worth 20 million nickels one day.

Windfalls..and other shockers.

Many Campbell Riverites are deciding what to do with a $3400.00 cheque coming their way. The current circumstances in B.C., with the worst rate of full-time job losses, the second worst performing economy and the highest level of child poverty in the country defines the outcome for many people in our community who have found themselves on social assistance and waiting for this money.

In the last six months, the number of people on welfare rose 26% to just over 50,000.
Of that, two parent families on welfare increased by 71%.
Why? Job losses mainly. Our employment insurance program is not working, so many unemployed have turned to social assistance and that meager income places demands on food banks and homeless shelters for those who do not have enough money to eat or pay rent. Since a significant portion of people on social assistance have not been on it very long, and at one time had the money to invest in our local CRTV, they will be among those receiving this windfall.

Unfortunately, they will not be permitted the luxury of buying their kids some long overdue clothing, to get that dental work done, paying off the hydro arrears, to do some real grocery shopping for a few months, or to just simply get ahead.

In 2002, many of the incentives and earnings exemptions that came along with receiving social assistance were eliminated. You could no longer keep a portion of your child support ($200.00) or earn some money on the side ($200.00)without it being deducted dollar for dollar. Monetary gifts or goods in kind, honorariums, or any earned or unearned monies not issued by welfare had to be reported and were now deducted dollar for dollar from their next welfare check. Transportation costs during the first month of a new job – gone. A “transition to work” benefit of $150.00 a month to assist with childcare, work clothing, transportation costs for the first year of employment – gone.

A single person on welfare in our community who is classified as “expected to work” receives up to $610.00 a month. A two parent family with three kids receives up to $1151.06.

So imagine yourself in a position you are not used to, trying to pay for everything just to maintain a basic standard of living. Then imagine you cannot do that anymore on your current welfare income, and suddenly you cannot shop in every aisle of the grocery store anymore, your kids are wearing last year’s shoes, bill collectors call you every day, your whole family is depressed, and you are basically living in struggle and starve mode. Now you are about to find out the light at the end of the tunnel this month has been switched off.

The Ministry of Housing and Social Development has announced that the share dividends from the sale of CRTV are considered unearned income. There are no earnings exemptions for this kind of unearned income for recipients of social assistance and as such the money will be deducted dollar for dollar. The income has to be reported. If it is not reported, and you receive your welfare cheque the next month, and following months, you will be in an overpayment situation. There is no discretion to apply exemptions to this income and dividend income will show on your income tax records so the Ministry will eventually be notified you got it, and sanctions would likely be applied against you for trying to rip them off by trying to live with some dignity for a change.

Most people will only lose their next month’s welfare income so have to budget for that out of the money they receive. However, depending on a family’s circumstances, and what they currently have in “assets”, there could be some recipients who are impacted beyond the following month if the dividend money puts them over their asset level (single person: $1500.00, Couples or one/two parent families: $2500.00, Disabled person: $3000.00, Couples or families with one disabled person: $5000.00). You could not receive a welfare check for quite some time and be expected to live off the money at the rate you get on welfare. In other words, your life continues to suck.

This situation applies to those who are receiving provincial disability benefits as well so any plans you had to improve your daily living with medical, dental, or nutritional extras are probably going to have to be cancelled.

There is just cause to shed a light in this dark tunnel on the fact that in 2002 when the social safety net was taken apart, the Deputy Human Resources Minister was offered a $15,400 bonus for cutting welfare numbers by 2% her first year on the job. She was also asked to come up with policies to reduce the number of people receiving disability assistance. This bonus would have topped her $154,000 salary. While welfare rolls were cut by 26% (and homelessness went up) she was not able to figure out a way to stop people with disabilities from qualifying for supports so she only got part of the bonus.

In 2007, Gordon Campbell voted himself a 54% pay raise which took his annual salary to $186,000.

I guess they have to get the money from somewhere.

Of all the gifts to the human race, what is sweeter than a child?

There is just cause to worry about the children in our country and the fact they have very little protection of their rights and wellbeing.

For children in care who die under suspicious circumstances, or after children in bad homes are seriously injured or killed, most of the intervention happens afterwards because the authorities have to wait for something to happen first. The child welfare system is in crisis with 49 critical injuries and 30 deaths of children in provincial care in a four month period! Gross underfunding means not enough staff on the front lines to protect our children.

In our criminal justice system, it is ok to leave little ones to bake in hot cars while you enjoy a cold one at the bar, and it is ok to molest young girls if you marry them first and call it religious freedom. Winston Blackmore, 52, and James Oler, 44, were charged with sexual exploitation, statutory rape and the trafficking of young girls across international borders for sexual purposes. But, the charges were dropped as were the best interests and safety of their child wives.

Child poverty, vowed by provincial and federal governments to be eradicated by 2000, has thrived, and BC leads the country for the sixth year in a row with one in five children suffering in poverty stricken circumstances due to chronic under-funding and cuts to social programs since the Liberals came into power in 2001. Over half of children in poverty live with working parents.

Things are about to get worse. It is very difficult to provide a comprehensive review of all the cuts children are about to receive. Policy analysts, service providers, and media are frustrated and the government is being smug and refusing to provide a list. What has been pieced together is as follows.

There will be no additional funds for childcare for the latch key kids whose parent(s) cannot afford or get space in local daycare facilities. There will be no additional funding for BC Housing, so children can continue to live in unsafe and unhealthy conditions, often alone before and after school because there is no childcare for them.

Children will go to schools that are falling apart because maintenance for schools has been cut, and there will be a pathetic display of broken and outdated books in school libraries and public libraries because, along with literacy programs, funding is gone. If a child is interested in sports, he or she will probably not be traveling for competitions, wearing a team uniform, or even having a team to join, because BC School sports funding is no more. The Minister defends it by saying these kids can “dance and play in the park”. If a student is hungry, they can join the food bank line-ups along with the other 60% of families with children. BC school lunch programs took a hit too. While the students are playing in the park, they should know that playground grants have been cut along with half the money to Parent Advisory Councils. Maybe they can find some dirty needles to play with since so many of our homeless and addicted cannot get into housing or treatment.

High school students who looked forward to applying for the Premier's Excellence Awards should be made aware of the finalists this year, who, in good faith, went through the complicated application process only to find out, without prior notification, that the whole program which started in 1986, had been cancelled. They did get a hard lesson in crisis budgeting though.

Special needs children have also received devastating cuts to services. Notably, early intervention programs for children with autism have been cut resulting in over 40 layoffs of specialized staff at Queen Alexandria Hospital. Books for Babies is gone. It sounds like an obscure, cute little program, providing parents of newborns with a bag with a book, a CD, and information about library services, but it goes along with the elimination of 16 regional literacy coordinators and reading centres across the province. More than four in ten adults struggle with basic literacy skills and the next generation will probably be worse off now.

Healthy Choices in Pregnancy, aimed at reducing the number of infants born with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, was cancelled a year before it was slated to finish and leaving Vancouver Women’s Hospital with the bill!

For children exposed to violence in their homes, domestic violence programs and Transition House budgets are on the chopping block. Since children have the best chance to be screened for exposure to domestic violence if they go through a Transition House, more of them will continue living in terror and pain.

In the 2005 Speech from the Throne, the Government of British Columbia stated that “B.C. will become the healthiest jurisdiction to ever host the Olympics.” Healthiest jurisdiction for whom?

In 2006, B.C.’s Liberal government dealt its top political staff a 25-per-cent pay hike, 2 years later, more raises ranging from 22 per cent at the low end to 43 per cent for Premier Gordon Campbell’s deputy minister.About 20 other deputy ministers were dealt a raise of 35 per cent, with salaries rising from $221,760 to a maximum of $299,215. About 80 assistant deputy ministers go from $160,000 to a maximum of $195,000.
Gordon Campbell voted to give himself a 54% pay increase - an extra $89,000 a year.

There is just cause to conclude this is the healthiest jurisdiction for the children of our senior bureaucrats and politicians.

Do you Believe?

I had mixed feelings about the Olympics being here. It escalated the homelessness crisis which has nearly tripled since the Olympic bid in 2003. We suspected the costs would ultimately cost us in the long run and they have. We did not have the opportunity to vote on the Olympics, it was a choice made for us and there are a great many people who resent the sacrifices we are being asked to make in order to help pay for them. Most people who live in British Columbia could not afford to attend the Olympics. We were just put on the back burner while the athletes and their families, sponsors, coaches, and wealthy visitors graced our city with their presence, wide eyes, and pocketbooks for two weeks, while we hosted the largest domestic military and security operation in Canadian military history.

I am first to admit that athletes deserve to have the Olympics. It showcases the efforts they have put into their sports year after year, rewards the sacrifices they have made and their families have made to get them where they are. It is nice to see young people be the best they can be. But what is the expense to the young people and families who are now paying for the Games they could not be a part of?

A colleague said Maybe this will persuade some people to take those stupid Canadian flags off and realize what it's cost us to host a hockey game and hand out hunks of metal to a bunch of silly people for sliding around like kids.
I don’t feel that way towards the athletes and I think the patriotism we witnessed was a rare and wonderful thing, because without pride in our country, who will care what is happening in it? And if you care, you can do something about it. There is just cause to ask for community solidarity and resistance to the cuts and increases tabled in the 2010 provincial
budget that worsen already unacceptable standards of social welfare and working poverty in British Columbia

While it is nice to host people in your “home” there is a responsibility to protect all people who live in your home, and not shove ones you neglect and abuse in the closet so you are not embarrassed, or so your guests don’t think less of you.
This is what the government did. And they have a lot of skeletons in their closet.

The $6 billion Olympic party is over, but poverty in British Columbia is not. The March 2, 2010 budget, which ironically came out on the same day that Canada ratified the UN Convention on the Rights of Person’s with Disabilities, brings the skeletons out of the closet and picks off their bones some more.

British Columbia has had the highest child poverty rates in the country for 6 years running, and this budget saw more cuts to services for young children and their families. From reducing dental care and birth control access for people with disabilities to ending funding for legal and tenancy advocacy programs, we are paying for the Olympics.

Not only is the government failing to fund services and benefits it has taken away those that have kept people going for years. People are losing their jobs on masse. The rights, safety and dignity of our community members are worth less than monetary savings.

We have just lost 92% of provincial funding for the Arts, Vancouver community centres & libraries are on the chopping block as well as attractions that have been available to the public for 30+ years.

But it was a lovely opening ceremony wasn’t it?


Justice is a core component of democracy and without it do we have a democracy?

Five regional legal aid offices shut their doors on March 26th. Accessing legal aid has just become a lot harder if not impossible. Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George, Surrey, Victoria and two legal aid phone lines for people to access are no longer available for people to access justice. Legal Services Society has just been cut from the Nanaimo Justice Access Society. Staff lawyers since April 2009 have been reduced from 32 to 5. Who is going to help people who need to access justice. A brochure?

Justice is a core component of democracy and without it, in my
> view we do not have a democracy--this is ironic considering how Canada
> fights for justice in other countries

In recent weeks, the province cut the only drug and alcohol withdrawal program in the Fraser Valley – one which had a months-long waiting list. In the same region, many hospital-based social workers were displaced
The government eliminated all spiritual care services in the Fraser Health Authority. They have closed an entire, much-needed psychiatric ward in Victoria. They’ve cut 10,000 MRI scans in the Vancouver area alone, delaying thousands of surgeries.
They have cut intensive therapy programs for children with autism. They have cut infant development program, aboriginal infant development, supported child development and Aboriginal child development programs.

But the hockey game was exciting wasn’t it?

There are many cuts and eliminations of health and medical benefits coming to people receiving provincial disability benefits and income assistance.

Imagine for a minute that you are injured and cannot work anymore. Imagine that maybe your marriage has broken up and the wage earner has left you with the kids. Imagine you develop a terminal disease or a chronic health problem, or you lose your job and just cannot find work. Imagine your child gets sick and you have to stay home to care for him because no one else can and you need financial help to live. Imagine you lose your job and go bankrupt and find yourself homeless and without funds for basic living. Imagine you have no family to help you.This is what you would face should you be the position of many community members through no fault of their own.

Do you believe?


A broad range of medical equipment and supplies will no longer be funded by the Ministry. Those that will be funded must be the cheapest appropriate to the person’s needs and are listed in the regulations. The Ministry will no longer fund diagnostic testing devices such as glucose meters, contraceptive devices (for example, IUDs), or pre-made orthotics. Restrictions are now in place for how often the Ministry will repair or replace equipment or how much money the Ministry will spend on each item of equipment. For instance, motorized scooters valued at more than $3,500 will not be funded. To be eligible for a motorized scooter, a physician must say the applicant won’t need a wheelchair for 5 years. Many people are terminally ill and require nutrition that welfare rates and disability rates do not provide. There has been opportunities for people to get extra money via a monthly nutritional supplement of about $200.00 a month. The eligibility requirements have now been tightened. This is gatekeeeping. The loss of bone density will no longer count as a symptom. Significant weight loss not significant weight change will be used to determine eligibility, even though we all know starch and fat are the cheapest foods and many poor people are overweight but still malnourished. Applicants will be required to demonstrate they have at least two symptoms, rather than one which is currently the case. It will be reduced by $20 because the Ministry will no longer fund bottled water. This sucks for people who live with contaminated well water, and whose immune systems are in peril. People currently receiving the bottled water supplement will receive it until May 31st 2010 only.- People with disabilities who leave assistance when they turn 65 and go on to the seniors’ pension, or people who leave provincial disability for Canada Pension Plan Disability will only keep their medical and dental coverage for one year, rather than permanently as is currently the case. People with disabilities who leave assistance for employment will only keep their medical coverage if they are receiving Premium Assistance from the Medical Services Plan. Cleaning, examinations and fluoride treatments will be reduced to once a year (currently twice a year).X-ray coverage every 2 years (currently every year). The $75 monthly Shelter Allowance for people who don’t pay rent is eliminated as of June 1st 2010. This usually assists homeless people to find shelter in poor weather or when they are too sick to be outdoors for the night. We are saving about 6.9 millions dollars off the backs of sick people in poverty.

Do you still “believe”?


For those who have mental health and addictions issues, or your family members, the government has cut funding for Atlas Youth Supported Recovery in Terrace, the only residential recovery centre for youth in BC’s Northwest . They cut funding for the award-winning West Coast Alternatives Society, where drug and alcohol programs for adults, youths and children help 600 residents a year. They cut social work budget in Fraser Health region hospitals, resulting in loss of 14 positions and are closing adolescent psychiatric unit at Abbotsford Hospital. They cut funding for 11 residential care beds at Bear Creek Lodge and 11 residential care beds at Newton Regency in Surrey and are eliminating the only recreation therapist in an eating disorders clinic. They cut funding for Burnaby Family Life, a program for adult survivors of sexual abuse, they cut mental health and addictions services at Capital Mental Health Association in the Victoria area and cut half the staff hours at Gaumont Resident in Kamloops, specializing in treating mental health and addictions They closed Waddell’s Haven Guest Home in Mission, a residential mental health facility also providing addictions services and closed the only withdrawal management program in the Fraser Valley, at Chilliwack General Hospital. They eliminated psychology services for adult rehabilitation at Royal Inland Hospital and we see the elimination of music therapy, other staff cuts including dietitian, social worker, counselor, recreation therapist at Burnaby Centre for Mental Health and Addictions. They closed outpatient psychiatry programs at UBC Hospital: anxiety disorder clinic and integrated personality program. For those on the island they are closing the psychiatric ward – Eric Martin Pavilion – in Victoria.

The province has 130,000 citizens with substance abuse disorders or mental illness and of those, 26,500 are inadequately housed and supported. It is estimated that substance abuse disorders and mental illness affects 60 – 100% of the homeless population. That is a pretty big closet to fill.


For our seniors population, the government has cut funding for North Shore Keep Well Society, which helps keep 500 seniors healthy, and Seniors’ One Stop, which gets 5000 calls yearly. They closed a 36-bed geriatric assessment and rehabilitation unit at Victoria General Hospital, closed geriatric day hospital in Vancouver, closed 25-bed convalescent care unit and an 8-bed hospice at Queen’s Park Care Centre in New Westminster ,closed 42 residential care beds at Peace Arch Hospital, closed Pouce Coupe Care Home and are closing Oak Bay Lodge and Mount Tolmie Hospital in the Victoria area.
Older adults not only contribute to the emotional, physical and financial well-being of family and friends, they also form the backbone of Canada's volunteer organizations including VANOC.
For those who have children and infants with special needs, they have cut funding to help young children access Early Intensive Behaviour Intervention autism program at Queen Alexandra Centre for Children eliminated key staff for Infant Development Program, Aboriginal Development Program and Supported Child Development Program, leaving parents with special needs kids with less support and we see the closure of Melissa Park Lodge in Port Coquitlam, a mental health residential facility and child development centre specializing in mental health and addictions services for children and youth, plus they cut autism intervention services in the Okanagan
But we witnessed the paralympians as remarkable ambassadors of the human spirit.
For those needing surgeries, diagnostic tests and treatment, hang on in the closet because they have cancelled 328 knee and hip operations for people living in the Interior, cut 760 elective surgeries and 3000 MRIs on Vancouver Island , cut almost 10,000 MRIs -- and possibly cutting 6000 surgeries and closing 25% of operating rooms -- in the Vancouver health region. They have cancelled 35% of elective surgeries in the Fraser Health Authority during the Olympic games, adding up to an estimated 2000 surgeries; cancelled 450 surgeries in the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority during the same period, as well as implementing extended closures until March 2010, cancelling another 5800 cases They have eliminated speech language pathology services in Golden and at Kelowna General Hospital, closed six rehab beds for joint surgeries; closed five hospice beds; closed five reactivation beds. There are concerns about inadequate sterilization of surgery equipment and this has caused cancellation of surgeries at Royal Inland Hospital. They cut services for multiple sclerosis patients at UBC, many of those patients come from the island.
VANOC included a medical services budget within their Sport and Games Operations budget of $247 million. A 10,000 square foot polyclinic with up-to-date health services is at each Olympic athlete village at Vancouver and Whistler. Also, other venues that are part of the Olympics also had medical stations for both the athletes and the spectators. Complete medical service was provided for Olympic athletes. Emergency health care, first aid, and, if necessary, ambulance transfer to a suitable hospital were all provided without charge for the Olympic spectator by VANOC.

As far as social servIces are concerned, they cut $2 million from contracts with community agencies and non-profit societies delivering health services in the Victoria area, we all know they have cut crisis line services in the North Island despite a well organized campaign not to do so, they closed the Chimo Achievement Centre, a therapeutic day program for adults with disabilities in Coquitlam and the TriCities area, promoting independence, preventing deterioration, and enhancing quality of life. We see cuts to support services for people living with HIV/AIDS in both Vancouver and the Okanagan, with more severe cuts announced for the spring. The closure of a specialized food bank for people living with HIV/AIDS, stocked with nutritionally optimized items to support the dietary needs of immune compromised clients is gone. Just when you really need to reach out for some inspiration and hang onto your faith, the spiritual care has been eliminated across Fraser Health Authority. The government reduced funding and introduced new charges for Meals on Wheels in Nanaimo , they cut employment and vocational support services for people with mental disabilities and other barriers to employment they cut 50% of public health dietitians , cut speech language pathology services at Deaf Children’s Society of BC.
It looks like the skeletons will be coming out of the closet. The problem is, who will see them now that everyone has gone home?

YES! In my back yard.

NIMBY is an acronym for “not in my back yard”. It usually applies to people in a community opposing a new development like power plant, wind turbine, landfills, incinerators, or even prisons.
In Campbell River it applies to people helping people.
The Hope Outreach Society is doing its best to serve the basic needs of the working poor, you know, the people who work at local stores and fast food restaurants who make minimum wage that covers their rent and nothing else so they remain hungry and scared and need some emotional support along with a sandwich they cannot afford to buy. Shoulder to shoulder with them are the homeless, disabled, and people on welfare, you know, the “undeserving poor”, those “other people” who are where they are exclusively because of some personal character flaw: laziness, alcoholism, moral degeneracy, bad choices and deserve to be where they are, hungry, cold, afraid, with no boot straps to pull themselves up with.
The Hope Outreach Society is being run all over town not just by the NIMBIES, but by the NOTES (Not over there either) and the BANANAS (Be absolutely nowhere, anywhere, near anyone). Sophisticated NIMBYs cloak themselves in blatant compassion, claiming that the only reason they oppose the project is because , while what they are doing is wonderful, can they just be wonderful somewhere else.
There is just cause to say shame on Campbell River and all those who feign good will to all, who claim they are socially and ethically responsible, who put a loony in a collection bin for a poverty cause, who donate at Christmas to poor families who are probably on welfare or working poor, who give to cancer but forget that poor people have cancer too and they die alone, hungry and often prematurely in living conditions you have no idea about. There is not a full appreciation of the diversity of the poverty and homeless population and the varied reasons behind why some of us end up there and some of us don’t. Just remember we are all a step away so don’t be so quick to judge, close the curtain on it, turn your head to it, or drive people away who are doing something about it.
Poverty and social degradation aren't a reflection of one's personal weaknesses, but are caused by social problems such as the lack of jobs, affordable housing, sufficient wages, sufficient supports, incentives to get off welfare, or effective education. There but for the grace of God go you buddy!
At a time when the social safety net has been weakened, a safety net we all may rely on one day, it is essential that private groups attempting to fill the gaps are able to offer some food, warmth, encouragement, acceptance, and advocacy. But through prejudice, bigotry, and misguided understandings, our community is proving that the Vision 2025 Project is nothing but a bunch of nice words on paper. Did you know that Campbell River values the inclusive nature of the community at the same time supporting our diversity, fairness and equality? This is on our City’s website! Did you know that we value and respect each other and all peoples? Did you know that we need to be inclusive of all peoples, all types, all ages in Campbell River to make it a dynamic community reaching its potential? Did you know we must expand our opportunities for inclusivity and work with all social elements to improve the lives of all Campbell Riverites, no matter their economic station, ethnic background or when they came to the community? And did you know e must at the same time support and nurture our diversity? All I have seen in this situation is people nurturing their self interests at the expense of human dignity and compassion.
Did you know that Campbell River recognizes that economic prosperity, environmental sustainability and social responsibility require an educated and trained citizenry? Did you know that inclusivity and diversity are one of eight values that anchor this vision “by land and sea”?
I think our Vision is listing badly and taking on water, the foundation is cracked and we have a long way to go to even verify such a thing is possible in this community when a bunch of caring Christian ladies are being given the heave ho from anywhere they park simply to outreach to those we are supposed to value, respect, and include in our society.
I suggest we contact the City and tell them to scrap the vision for one that is more realistic. The problem is we have to open our eyes before we can rely on our vision for anything.

The Power of Touch.

Most social programs exist to ensure people have adequate food, clothing, shelter and medical care so they remain healthy. But the World Health Organization defines health as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.”
Not too many social programs embrace, foster and promote the less tangible of dignity, empowerment and hope. If you're hungry, your stomach wants food. If you are cold, you need proper clothing and shelter. If you are sick you need medicine. If you lack dignity and hope, your soul longs for wholeness. Marginalized people need to be fed in their mind and spirit, not just their stomachs.
Mother Teresa said “We think sometimes that poverty is only being hungry, naked and homeless. The poverty of being unwanted, unloved and uncared for is the greatest poverty.”
There is just cause to suggest that social justice will only be delivered by empowering people to fulfill their potential. This begins with providing care and nurturing to those who are marginalized or disadvantaged in any way, to improve the quality of life for those least cared for in the community; those lacking family support, or suffering from the effects of poverty, abuse, addiction, trauma, loneliness, and mental or physical illness. Some of these people haven’t been touched in years, have not had their hand held, been given a hug, been listened to for their ideas or opinions, asked what their dreams are, given something to giggle about, been recognized for their talents, or even been looked in the eye. They are profoundly depressed and feel worthless.
Imagine if a poor person had access to life skills coaching, massage, acupuncture, meditation, yoga, recreation, music, esthetics, therapy, mentoring, pets and animals, reflexology, reiki, dental care, and courses like pottery, cooking or crafts. This sounds a lot better than a night at a shelter, a welfare check that doesn’t pay for rent and food, or a detox that just sends you back to the same thing over and over again.
According to a study by Tiffany Field, chair of the Touch Research Institute, infants of depressed mothers show brain-wave patterns different from those of other infants. These altered patterns seem to relate to the closing down of essential brain circuits that, if they do not function in childhood, are probably inoperative later on. Treat the depression in the mother, and the infant's brain waves are likely to normalize. When a depressed mother is not treated, her immune system is depressed, she is sick a lot of the time, her children tend to end up in the welfare and prison systems: the sons of mothers with untreated depression are eight times more likely to become young offenders as are other children. According to a recent paper by Bruce Ellis and Judy Garber in the journal Child Development, daughters of depressed mothers will have earlier puberty than other girls, and early puberty is usually associated with promiscuity, early pregnancy and mood disorders. The cycle repeats itself and this is how we end up with intergenerational dependency on welfare, people who cannot hold down jobs, more addictions, more crime, and ongoing high school drop-out rates among the poor.

Poverty costs us billions of dollars. Would it not be best to re direct some of those funds to care and nurturing so we can eventually decrease dependence on welfare, shelters, food banks, foster care, detox, rehab and jail?

Some pilot studies are under way on the holistic treatment of depression among the poor, and the results have been startling. Consistently, the participants felt better about their lives, and their lives got better. Even when faced with huge barriers, they progressed, often very quickly and never looked back. People reported that after so many things had gone wrong for them, they wish they had been empowered by this help much sooner as it changed their entire lives. It’s a win-win for everyone as it makes a healthy life available to all in mind, body and spirit.

Walking the Walk,

It has come to pass that quite often after my column appears in this paper, I receive phone calls and in-person praise for the social justice issues I write about. I hear things like “at least someone had the guts to say something” or “we think what you do is wonderful, thank you for speaking out”, and occasionally “you’re nothing but a commie pinko!”

It always amazes me that people think it takes courage and back bone to say what a lot of people are thinking. To speak out. To walk the walk. I realize that activism comes more naturally to some people than others, but I think we all have the potential to believe in change, in possibility, in the capacity to overcome even the most enduring and difficult problems we face as a society.

There is just cause to believe that everyone has the power to make a difference in our world, to take action against injustice, poverty and prejudice and work for the common good. Nelson Mandela, Elie Wiesel, the Dalai Lama, Robert Kennedy, Martin Luther King along with lesser known but equally relevant people made huge contributions to the lives we live today. We owe them to walk their walk.

There are many issues that I am certain you think about in your private time, maybe speak about at the dinner table, but then keep mum about because you don’t want to get up from the table and walk that walk. But we live in a world full of non-altruistic people who think first about themselves and are quick to impose their ways of life on us, control us, dictate to us, and we can’t walk away because we are too busy being sitting ducks.

There are many issues to speak up about. The war in Iraq, affordable housing, global warming, poverty (had to slip that one in) unemployment, education, affordable health care, safety on the internet, and taxation are just some of these issues that need more exposure. But every time we turn our heads away when we see injustice, or tolerate something that we know is wrong, or feel we are too busy to get involved or not educated enough to speak about an issue that bothers us, fear we will be chastised, or simply feel it is easier to ride the current of the status quo and mind your own business, you, as Robert Kennedy would say, strike a blow against freedom, decency, and justice.

There is a young man in Campbell River who believes in the power of small changes to make large impacts. Jordan Hollingsworth will be walking the walk on Sunday July 11th, in Campbell River, to honour the journey taken by so many people in our community who are poor for whatever reason and in whatever circumstance. There will be other young people standing up and walking against poverty, uphill battles, dangerous corners, slippery slopes, steep inclines and the occasional speed bump, just like people in poverty face daily in their travels. He is hoping for gridlock. He is hoping there will be so many people walking the walk that maybe something just might happen in our community to address what everyone talks about but no one does anything about. Bring yourself, bring your family, bring your signs, bring your ideas, bring your backbone, or just show up with a single step. Buy a t-shirt to cover the costs, enjoy some refreshments and let’s believe that if we follow what we are genuinely passionate about our destination will not be a place but rather a new way of looking at things.

For more information on Walking the Walk, contact Tucker Dinnes at Island J.A.D.E. Society, 250-830-1171. And remember what Martin Luther King Jr. said, “History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamour of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people

My toast to my daughter, the bride.

Eliza had always asked me how you knew when you were in love. I said "you just know". While she had her share of romances, starting in her head with her grade six teacher and then Billy Ray Cyrus, through a variety of characters who served to raise my blood pressure to monumental proportions, she really didn’t know.
After meeting Andrew, she also didn't know the day she found Andrew sitting on the toilet eating Captain Crunch and watching the hockey game from a television strategically placed in the room across from the bathroom.
She didn't know the day he graciously helped an elderly couple across a frozen parking lot so they didn't slip in a sudden ice storm, and they offered him money to buy himself some pants and a decent pair of shoes.
She didn't know about an hour after he has milk, cheese or ice cream and has to text message him in the bathroom asking if he is ok and to keep it down he was waking the baby.
She didn't know when he took her vegetables out of the vegetable drawer and the fruit out of the fruit drawer in the fridge and filled them with Lucky Lager.

She didn't know when she found his toenails neatly stacked on the living room carpet. Many times.

She didn't know when he poisoned her with shellfish.

She didn't know when she had to call Hay Electric to ask for an electrician to change her light bulb in the kitchen.

Now I heard that they fell in love on the Lady Donna, yes, love was made that day.

She knew in a moment on sky pilot rock.

She knew when he chose their first movie to see together: not Love Story, not Ever After, not An Affair to Remember, not even Titanic.......no, it was Harold and Kumar

She knew when she fell out of the kayak and he didn’t say anything about her granny panties.

She knew when he laughed at her flatulence and tried to top it.

She knew when he was pretending not to watch the Bachelor, Desperate Housewives, Greys Anatomy, and American Idol.


She knew when, very pregnant, she threw up in Ian’s car Andrew cleaned it up.

She knew when he carried her pink suitcase up to her hospital room and wore closed in shoes for the first part of labour.

She knew when he held their daughter in his arms and she watched him fall in love with the other girl in his life.


Some people know that Eliza depends a lot on what I know. After all, I have been known to make a mother bear look guilty of child neglect. I have had to be both mother and father to my children for many years. And there are a lot of them! With that responsibility comes many emotions. You want to cook the young man a nice meal and take him out back of the wood shed at the same time. My children are my heart, precious gems not merely to be handed over to the first suitor who comes along. I want them to be treasured after I let them go, as much as they have been while in my care.

So when Eliza knew, I had to know too.

I knew when I first met Andrew and we had an argument and he yelled at me.

It took him 6 days and 4 hours and 22 minutes to apologise, and secretly I admired him because I know he achieved what every single one of Eliza's previous boyfriends longed to do but never did, tried to put me in my place.

I knew when he drove 200 km an hour hoping I wouldn’t notice when Eliza was being air lifted out to Victoria in early labour and was trying to keep me distracted by asking me for parenting advice.

I knew when we spent Valentine’s Day and night together in a hotel room, he worried I would see him in his boxers and I worried I would snore.

I knew when he came to my house at midnight to fix my sliding glass door that was jammed open and I didn't have a single tool in the house. He worked for over an hour with a broken spatula handle. He didn't complain.

I knew when he gave me a tool kit for Christmas.

I knew when he took all my 4 dogs into his house when we had a flood and had to evacuate. I know now because he is going to go along with that number.

I knew because he asked Eliza to marry him even though his life will never be a box of chocolates. He knows living with Eliza that life is like a box of explosives and you never know when it is going to detonate, unless of course you visit her home unannounced and see her bedroom, her office, her laundry room and her kitchen. Now I know I should take some responsibility because I didn't raise my daughters to do that work, I raised them to hire people to do it for them, but as usual, Eliza made her own path.

Our family loves Andrew, the boys see him like a brother, Emma has a little crush I think and Emelia just wants to pluck his eyebrows at the first opportunity. She plans to get you drunk tonight by the way.
So when he showed up at my house at 10 o'clock at night all sweaty in his soccer uniform and asked for my blessing, I said ok. And I hugged him even though he was really sweaty and didn't even have the ring to show me, and I don't hug very often.

And I didn't phone Eliza and spill the beans. I wanted them to have that moment.

While everyone I am sure recognizes that opposites attract, and if Owen Wilson or Little Grey had been available we might not be here... and that if Andrew had his way we would be at a pig roast right now and he would be wearing shorts and sandals and if eliza had her way everything here would be pink and there would be an ice sculpture somewhere and Tom Jones would be making a guest appearance.

They share their hearts and their lives and their love with a little girl names Carys who is bar none the light of my life, the light of all our lives. She is their masterpiece, and we all knew the moment we saw her enter the world. She was not an accident, a mistake, an oops, she was a miracle.

And in about 24 years, or as Andrew insists in 45 years, maybe, they will know too. Since this is a Hollywood themed event I couldn’t finish this toast without quoting from one of Eliza’s favourite movies.

They have a little girl. An adorable little girl who looks up to you and adores you in a way you could never have imagined. They remember how her little hand used to fit inside theirs. Then comes the day when she wants to get her ears pierced, and wants you to drop her off a block before the movie theatre. . From that moment on you're in a constant panic. You worry about her meeting the wrong kind of guy, the kind of guy who only wants one thing, and you know exactly what that one thing is, because it's the same thing you wanted when you were their age. Then, you stop worrying about her meeting the wrong guy, and you worry about her meeting the right guy. That's the greatest fear of all, because, then you lose her. But if they are lucky like me, she will take you with her on her new journey away from you and you will know like I know that love conquers all.

Holy Places

I met Tony for the first time on the jewish holiday called Tashlikh which means casting off. We walk to the local river on the afternoon of the first day and empty our pockets into the river, symbolically casting off our sins. Now we don't empty our wallets or pocket change, but we put small pieces of bread and pebbles in our pockets to cast off. This Sunday afternnon, Tony was camped out down by the river front, in a lean-to made from an old tarp and some wood he had scraped together. He had the customary shopping cart with all his worldly possessions, and there was evidence of vain attempts to start a bon fire. To see 14 men down at the river bank throwing bread from their pockets into the water must have caused Tony to think he had drunk some bad wine! I saw him out of the corner of my eye as he approached us.'It's Rosh Hashanah already?" he said. 'I lose track of time out here." The rest of my group got that "Oh No" look on their faces, the kind of look people in the city have when they step over or around the homeless people laying on the street and hope the person doesn't speak to them. I found this ironic. He we are cleansing our souls, throwing away our sins, and we are about to commit a fresh one, turning our back on a brother who is in need. Jewish law dictates that charity begins at home. I lingered around Tony's home as others left briskly.I'm Joel, I said, introducing myself as I reached out my hand. Tony looked stunned. He said " Oh you don't want to shake this, I haven't washed in a while." I humbly put my hand back in my pocket and took the opportunity I had long awaited for.Tony couldn't say his own name since his front teeth fell out. They were rotten so it didn't take much to knock them out from their sockets. Just like his life had turned out.Knocked out from its socket. His clothing stuck to him like paste, because he had worn them too long. He smelled like a combination of an outhouse, stale whiskey, and ammonia from the body odor that hadn't been washed away in weeks. We talked for a little while, there on the riverbank.The last time he remembered having a shower was when he was arrested for sleeping in the park, and the kind jail guard let him have a shower before he left the cell block the next day. He still had to put on his old clothes though, and it felt like trying to dress in wet cardboard. This was Tony's life. Thony is what he called himself as his tongue exits through the gap where his front teeth used to be. He is happy to tell you about his front teeth. He says their loss was the beginning of his journey to homelessness. I stayed back against the strong advice of my companions in order to get to know Tony better. I was drawn to him. Here was a fellow jew, in trouble, and I felt it was better to reach out now than to go back to Temple to pray for him. Tony had grown up not far from here, in the suburbs of New Jersey. "I was working class poor" he said as he offered me a can of something unknown as the label had washed off in the rain. I accepted it to be polite, and non chalantly put it down on the ground next to me where we sat. " My mother was a waitress, my father was a bastard." With that he let out a loud, sad laugh, as if hoping the humor he was forcing would penetrate the sadness that exhaled from his body. "He left us pretty early, my brother and I. My mother did her best, and I respected that. We made do. But we stopped going to Temple because she was embarrassed that she couldn't dress us properly and most of the time she had to work anyway." Tony looked out to the river as if comtemplating how much more he was going to tell me, a perfect stranger. " So as time went on, my mother started getting lonely I guess and brought boyfriends home. My brother and I hated all of them before we even saw them. We started staying away from the house a lot of the time. You know, young guns out on the streets with no dad to come find them, bring them home and ground them. One day we showed up at home, a little drunk and a little stoned and her latest boyfriend decided he was going to be our father and steer us in the right direction. Tony paused again and I thought I saw him tear up. I looked away as I didn't want to embarrass him. He steered my brother right into the wall and me across the room with his fist in my mouth. Tony showed me his missing front teeth as if I had not noticed the big black hole until now. I acted like I hadn't. You see, my mother didn't have money for dentists. She barely had enough money to put food in our mouths let alone fix our teeth. They just came shooting out, right down the back of my throat. I swallowed them. Tony burst out laughing, a laugh longer than it should have been.I wondered if he was getting nervous with me being there and sharing this debriefing with him.There was a long silence between us. I thought for a moment it might be time for me to move on, and I moved a little bit in an effort to get myself up from a position no 45 year old with bad knees should have put himself in. It had started to rain. "Hey Tony" I said before I realized I had said it. "Why don't you come back to temple with me and we can have a nice meal afterwards, get out of the rain, and talk some more" "You mean like this" he asked, putting his arms out wide as if to present himself to the world as what he was; a smelly scary looking homeless person. "Come on Tony, let's go" You can imagine what happened when I appeared back to the services with Tony alongside me. He sat at the back. I sat back up front with my family, where he insisted I go. Occasionally I would look back over my shoulder and saw Tony following all the rituals correctly. His faith had abandoned him but he had not drifted far from his roots. No one sat next to Tony, and those who were there moved hurriedly to another location. I assumed it was his appearance and his body odor. Afterwards, Tony remained seated, probably enjoying the warmth and shelter I had invited him into, for as long as he could get it. The Rabbi asked me to ensure Tony moved on, and as I sent my family home ahead of me, I took Tony out to dinner. After he had been hit by another step father in the house, Tony and his brother left to sleep at a friends house. The mother saw the blood and injuries on both the boys and they ended up in foster care. " I thought my mother was poor" he said as he swirled his tongue around the aged empty gap in his mouth.The state had no money to fix my teeth either." Tony was separated from his brother in homes only willing to take one young troubled jewish boy. He didn't see him again. Fifteen foster homes later, Tony found himself out on the streets after he had aged out of the system. There were no parents for him if there was no money to pay them. Drugs and alcohol had helped ease his transition into adolescence and young adulthood. He got series of jobs here and there, nothing to make a career out of. He insists his physical appearance cost him opportunities. " The only job I might have been able to make any money at would have been boxing 'cause I have the look. Just not the body for it." He laughed out loud again. I liked Tony. There was something big brotherly about him. It was hard to say how old he was exactly, I assumed homelessness and hard living had taken a toll and he probably looked twenty years older than he was. Tony had lived in shelters, cars, cardboard boxes, and a few times had found jobs long enough to rent small apartments but he never made enough money to get ahead of the rent. He had girlfriends, but the girls he met in his part of town only served to keep him poorer and with more heartbreak. "I've sworn off women" he said, as he finished his meal and headed back to the river. I had a dog once, I loved that dog, but the dog catcher came and took him away from me. They said he wasn't licensed. I didn't have the money to license him. I thought about breaking him of the place, but I have gotten by this far without being a criminal and just didn't want to start that. So I prayed my dog would find a better home, something indoors maybe. Tony looked the saddest I had seen him all day. We walked quietly back to his riverfront home, and with more guilt than I felt comfortable, I left him there. "See you next week" he said as he bedded down for another night rough sleeping. Tony joined me the following week at Temple. The Rabbi took me aside and said his presence was disturbing people and he had to leave.The rabbi has told me that people do not want to sit next to him and some feel afraid. He said that people have complained he smells. Tony had washed up in the bathroom earlier and they complained about that too. After the service, I walked Tony out and tried to find a way to uninvite him to the Temple. This felt wrong. Hypocritical. Sick. I know what the Torah says and what Isaiah says about treating the homeless in our midst and it certainly isn't send them out because they are scary looking and smelly. I respected Tony and so I told him what the Rabbi said, at the same time letting him know I would be his advocate and we would work this out. We went out for what I didn't know was out last meal together. Tony ended up comforting me. " Why is there such inequality in the world?" I lamented. "Why does God make some people poor, some rich, some wise and some evil, some happy and some sad?" I intended this to be a rhetorical question but Tony had an answer. "God said who will then guard kindness and truth". He bit big into a hamburger. Talking with his mouth full, he continued." If everyone had all they need, then how would kindess fit into my world?" He swallowed. "I am poor so the rich have an opportunity to give to me. I am a happy person and I have the opportunity to cheer you up. The smart people can teach the not so smart people. We all suffer so that others can be able to give." Tony gulped down the rest of his milkshake. He stood up, shook my hand, and said he had to get back to his camp before dark. "We'll see each other again" he smiled, and we walked together in silence back to the riverbank. I had offered Tony help. Financial help, to stay with my family until he could get back on his feet. He declined. He was happy where he was and grateful we had met. A few weeks passed and I found myself drawn back to the riverbank to check on Tony. He was gone. All that remained was the black woody circle of a bonfire and some scraps of wood he probably couldn't carry with him. I never saw him again. I felt deeply and truly that he had great wisdom and had great gifts to give the world. But sadly, the world would not listen to him. There is a tremendous amount of denial out there about who is homeless and who the homeless used to be or could have been. In my growing appreciation for the homeless, I have come to believe that people living on the street have a lot to offer us; profound insights gleaned as we process our experience with them. Although they are not intentionally our teachers and most likely don't realize the insight into life they offer, they can offer us deep understandings about life. These poor souls, poor economically but rich culturally and spiritually andhumanly, taught me a profound lesson. When we look for God, we don't have to look in churches or synagogues. The most holy places are not where we traditionally think they are. The holy places are the shelters where we house the homeless, thesoup litchens where we offer them a warm meal, the street corners where we stop and talk to the panhandler, or bend down to make sure someone who is passed out is safe and ok. The holy places are the spaces we give the homeless to store their things. The holy places are the abandoned campsites where we have made a friend.

A strong start begins with a living wage.

Since it cost us each five cents to hear our Premier speak in his October 27th television appearance, there is just cause for all of us to put our two cents worth into the dialogue.
Gordon Campbell used his time to defend the HST and to sweeten the mix with a tax cut that at most will amount to about seven dollars a week for regular folk and nothing for the 40% who are low income taxpayers or the very poor. To make any real difference, he should have announced a rise in the minimum wage level and income assistance rates to at least the poverty line.
Welfare income in this province keeps families income about $21,000.00 below the poverty line (which is $39,000 for a family of four). In addition, over 245,000 BC workers earn less than ten dollars an hour. It takes a wage of $16.74 an hour for two working parents and two children to live at the poverty line.
Ministry of Housing and Social Development statistics reflect a rise in the number of people on welfare from 145,700 in March 2008 to 179,394 in March of 2010, an increase of 33,674 people. Many of these include children. In 2009, over 80 percent of food banks in BC saw an increase in people needing food, and one third of BC food bank users are children. Unemployment rates have also increased from 4.3% in April 2008 to 7.3% in April 2010, representing an additional 75,600 British Columbians, many with children. All these children are paying the price.
Remedying this situation would likely address his concern that one in five grade four students are not at grade level for reading, writing and arithmetic. There is a very interesting parallel here. One in five children in this province live in poverty, the highest rate in Canada. Could it be that the kids who are not getting adequate nutrition, shelter, health and dental care, who are stressed, who see their parents stressed, who are cold, sleepless, hurting, humiliated and who often sleep in mould infested quarters are the ones who aren’t really equipped or motivated to read a book, write a journal, or do long division? It is known that children who experienced poverty during the first four to five years of life experienced a full nine-point decline in intelligence test scores compared to children who experienced no poverty.
Campbell thinks the answer is to create more StrongStart Centres across the Province. Under the direction of licensed early childhood educators, parents and children participate in early learning activities, such as story time, music, singing, art, and puzzles, during daytime hours, usually in local schools. We have several programs here taking place at local schools. What happens to the working poor family who cannot take time off for the mandatory accompaniment, or to the single parent who does not have enough money for transit to get to these centres? What about the parent with an addiction, a mental illness, depression, or who has to sleep during the day because the only job they can find is a night shift stocking shelves job? What about the homeless family? This is the reality for many families who, despite what Campbell thinks, do not struggle from paycheque to paycheque, but who start struggling the day after their paycheque arrives and is swallowed up by rent and hydro costs, not to mention the additional cost of the HST.
A “strong start” does not begin in the gymnasiums and community centres of the province because by then the damage has been done to pre- school children living in poverty. Poor mothers have not received adequate prenatal care or nutrition, infants have not benefited from breast feeding because the mother is malnourished, or from formula that is not watered down because it is too expensive. Babies have spent their days couch surfing with homeless mothers, lacking attachment to stressed parents, fail to thrive in living desperate living situations, toddlers have become chronically sick with upper respiratory infections, skin problems, allergies, asthma, kidney disease, mental disability, all statistically linked to being poor.
A strong start for children begins with the parents, offering those who are marginalized the dignity of a living wage or supports that provide for the basic necessities of life, unconditionally.

The Baker's Dozen.

Pierre Trudeau said that the essential ingredient of politics is timing. There is just cause to suggest that the “Baker’s Dozen” have mixed this up and created a recipe for disaster.
We should ready ourselves for a fourth term of the BC Liberals now that the NDP has imploded under the weight of those who thought Carole James was good enough to rebuild the party from 2 MLA’s and no party status to 35 MLA’s, but not good enough to pursue a real chance to govern after the next election. She was good enough to form the largest NDP opposition in history but not good enough for 13 members of that opposition who likely got into or stayed in power due in large part to her hard work. She was good enough to garner a 42% approval rating from the voters of B.C. on May 12, 2009, the highest level of support in 23 years, but 13 duly elected MLA’s ignored the will of their constituents and decided they knew better. This is not a great recipe for democratic representation of the people by the people for the people. It certainly is a “new” type of democracy however!
We don’t know what has gone on behind closed doors but we do know that James won the party's support as delegates voted 97 to 18 against a motion calling for a leadership convention in 2011, translating to an 86% approval rating. Those 97 delegates recognized that it is better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared (Whitney Young quote).
When the next Gordon Campbell clone is voted in as the leader to succeed him, the essential ingredients for a Liberal win will include adding a snap election to the mix, while the NDP are still whining “did not” , “did too” and poking their tongues out at each other. Now was NOT the time to rebuild the foundation of the NDP when they had a real opportunity to put their platform to work and rebuild the foundation for so many marginalized British Columbians who have had it pulled out from under them since 2003.
On their website, the NDP states that social justice translates to fairness and respect for all. All except to Carole James, the delegates and constituents who by vast majority supported her leadership. As social democrats they say they believe in a balanced and responsible approach to government. Thirteen MLA’s having so much power and influence seems pretty unbalanced to me and airing their dirty laundry publically is completely irresponsible. The NDP say they will work together to make sure the needs and aspirations of ordinary people are effectively represented in the political process. The one thing the NDP isn’t doing is working together and as such they have just burned themselves and the ordinary people who had some real hope that the injustices they have suffered for the past 8 years may have been remedied.

Blaming the homeless for not having homes.

Campbell River recently beat the provincial average. A homeless person dies every 12 days in B.C., according to the BC Coroners Service, not two in one day. The average age at death is 45 years. The five leading causes of death among the homeless are natural disease, drug poisoning, blunt injuries, hanging, and drowning. Of course they are dying from natural diseases, how are you supposed to manage your diabetes, high blood pressure, dental infections that go to your heart, or cancer, when you don’t have a home?
If you are someone who blames the homeless for their situation and does not feel so charitable towards the issue, then think of this. According to the Ministry of Health, our hospitals are sheltering homeless patients in acute care beds because, even though they no longer need to be in hospital, they have nowhere else to go. This ‘alternative level of care” costs a thousand dollars a day per homeless person. Keeping them on the streets costs at least $55,000.00 a year but some say that between ER visits, ambulance trips, court appearances, drug and alcohol treatment, incarceration and shelters it is more like $100,000. The cost of a unit of supportive housing, by comparison, is about $37,000 a year. If you do the math, you know what the answer is.
Poverty is now the leading cause of homelessness in Canada. It used to be substance abuse and mental illness. Now there are families, women, students, immigrants, aboriginals, many working, all who just need a place to rent that they can pay for and still afford to eat.
There is just cause to suggest that had there been two business people found dead in the streets, or two school children or two grandmothers, the community would be up in arms. But when you are homeless, hurting, addicted and/or mentally ill we seem to devalue those lives, they are not as important as the others. If they are lost because of homelessness and the impacts of living rough, then it really is yesterdays news. But these people did have those who cared about them and loved them and they will at least be mourned by a few who look past their circumstance to the human beings they were. Until we are ready to acknowledge that there but for the grace of God go I, homeless deaths will continue to occur, as hidden as the homeless themselves.
There has been a lot of talk about homelessness over the last few years. Most of the talk has been about the homeless and not with the homeless. The problem has grown so much in the wake of cutbacks to social services and the fact that Canada is the only developed country in the world without a national housing plan. There have been studies, committees, task forces, homeless counts, homeless initiatives, stakeholders meetings, and action plans; all have sucked money out of the system and service providers out of their offices to all these meetings, and yielded very little if anything in return.
We need to stop profiling, defining and examining an issue when the answer has already been tried and proven elsewhere and in consultation with the very people we are trying to help. It is called Housing First and it has met with significant success in the United States and Britain. We don’t need more coalitions, we don’t need to coordinate services, we don’t need to identify service gaps, we don’t need to allocate and organize resources, because the solution we need is waiting on the sidelines while we all continue to talk about the problem. The homeless have said that finding permanent housing for them instead of just focusing on improving services as they continue to live on the street is what they need. The homeless say provide realistic and timely support after that, to help them stay housed, to give them time to heal. The homeless say we need to address the poverty and inequality that underlies their situation by raising welfare rates, minimum wages, and disability pensions to the same level as what it costs to rent a home and be able to eat and obtain health and dental care. We need to stop talking about them and for them or we will continue to mourn them as they die alone in our back alleys and our forests.

A boy and his dog.

There is a poem by Edgar Guest called “A Boy and His Dog”. The first verse goes like this. “A boy and his dog make a glorious pair, no better friendship is found anywhere. For they talk and they walk and they run and they play, and they have their deep secrets for many a day. And that boy has a comrade who thinks and who feels, who walks down the road with a dog at his heels.” Today, Jack Russell terrier Seymour would be two and a half years old, and would be at the heels of Nick Rose. They would make a glorious pair.

But the person who is accused, who said it was an accident after fleeing the scene, who lucked out by the ongoing shortage of judges and court services staff in our province, applied this week for the charges to be dropped arguing that his right to be tried in a reasonable time had been violated. Section 11 of the Charter of Rights guarantees that any person charged with an offence has the right to be tried within a reasonable time. There are no such protections for the rights of victims of crime.

Our injustice system has struck again and not only set an accused free and clear of being tried for an alleged horrifying, vicious, cowardly attack on a boy’s dog, but in doing so has completely crushed the confidence of a little boy in adults’ ability to make things right. How can he have any respect for the law when it was not there to protect his rights, only those of the person who killed his puppy?

Sadly, we must remember these are courts of law, not courts of justice, and in this case the constitutional rights of the accused trumped the killing of this innocent animal in front of the children who loved him.

We know that fewer than 1 percent of animal abuse complaints in Canada are successfully prosecuted. A report by the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) shows Canada has the worst animal cruelty laws among the 14 countries surveyed including the Ukraine and the Philippines. The problem is that animals are considered property and property crimes are not considered to be serious by the courts. But, those crimes that are deemed serious have also benefited from the speedy trial rule. An RCMP officer charged with dangerous driving while impaired was thrown out in November 2010, two people charged with cocaine trafficking thrown out in May 2010, many impaired driving charges have been stayed because of court delays due to government underfunding of the judicial system. Currently, more than 30,000 traffic tickets await trial dates and nothing has been done to address nearly 16,000 criminal cases in the province that are older than six months. (Justice Delayed: A Report of the Provincial Court of British Columbia Concerning Judicial Resources). British Columbia was the only province in Canada to suffer a reduction, 17.35 per cent, in its judicial complement over the years 2005 to 2010. Other than saying he is “troubled by this” what is our Attorney General going to do about it?

While the judge said that the charges had been hanging over Cody Wellard “like the sword of Damocles”, there is just cause to suggest the constant threat and imminent peril is really hanging over the people of British Columbia who are living amongst criminals whose crimes have gone unpunished.

Whose the real fraud?

The word “Bilk” means to defraud, cheat, or swindle and was used last week to describe the actions of a disabled woman on a disability pension who was accused of defrauding the Ministry of Social Development because she had collected her $906.00 monthly income to live on and at the same time had received other income she didn’t realize had to be reported. Then it would be taken off dollar for dollar from her $906.00.

She told the court she didn’t mean to do anything wrong and did not understand the rules. She has had no previous run-ins with the law, for “bilking” or other crimes. She is 61 and diagnosed with a severe mental illness that requires the support or supervision of another person in order to perform her daily living activities. Now she has a criminal record for theft over $5000.00 and has to pay the government back it’s $20,000.00 via a standing restitution order for the year and nine months she lived “high on the hog”. Or did she?

The “bilking” works out to about $925.00 a month. Evidently she was expected to go off disability assistance and live off the income she was receiving. What we don’t know is how much that income was, or if it was really income (because often “income” under welfare rules is not income as the average person would see it). Was it enough to survive on? Were they really funds that were permitted to be spent on her shelter and support costs? The rules do not take that into consideration. Examples of income that is not allowed to be received the same time you get disability pension include child or spousal support, loans including student loans, accessing more than about $5200.00 a year from a disability trust to promote your independence, gifts in kind, income tax refunds and Canada Pension Plan income to name a few.

Welfare in B.C. has harsh rules that force welfare recipients into a day-to-day struggle for survival, trying to buy healthy food, find safe shelter, and the basics, because welfare rates push them into such deep poverty and the rules keep them there. Welfare since 2002 has been structurally dependent on charities and food banks in order for people to meet their basic needs. So excuse the poor people if they are too busy buying fresh fruit and vegetables for once, or finally being able to move out of an abusive situation, that they miss reading the rules about their windfall.

It has been reported that many of the recent court cases initiated by the provincial government against welfare recipients do not stand up to legal scrutiny. The problem is that welfare recipients cannot get legal representation and the government capitalizes on that. They cannot comprehend or fully respond to legal proceedings on their own, particularly if they are mentally challenged or have literacy issues. This imbalance of power forces people to pay back money they might not even owe.

There is just cause to suggest the title for this article should have been “Government and Courts kick unrepresented disabled woman while she is down; gets blood from pulverized stone.”

The real crime here is the theft of dignity and opportunity from people like Ms.Young whose poverty and disability have been criminalized. Jobs have been taken away, wages remain well below the poverty line, and welfare rules make it impossible to get ahead. Then, as a poor person, you have no access to justice because poverty law services have been taken away. The highest child poverty rate in Canada exists here, where children, their parents, and their grandparents are hungry and sick. This might not be a crime but it is certainly an embarrassment when we take a 61 year old disabled woman to court and slam her with a criminal record when there was no intent on her part to do anything wrong. It seems to me that the real bilkers sit in power in Victoria.