If you are planning to stage a crime spree in Abbotsford, you might want to have it ready to go at a moments notice.

With Bob Bos and his Downtown Business Association demanding council move the homeless etc out of Jubilee Park into some other Abbotsford neighbourhood; with this being an election year with politicians needing contributions to their political campaigns; with council dragging a Pastor down to City Hall to demand he not be in the park, removing credible witness to police behaviour from the Park; it is obvious that the city will shortly be engaged in the money wasting and pointless exercise of chasing the homeless out of Jubilee Park with the Abbotsford Police.

This is not the first time this fruitless exercise has been undertaken and like the last time any rational human being knows they can expect the homeless to return when police stop sitting around the park all the time.

Hopefully this will be the last time this pointless, expensive waste will take place. Not because it will be any more effective that the previous times it was done, but because in November the citizens of Abbotsford will have the opportunity to replace the “if we keep doing the same wasteful things, maybe they will actually work one of these times” current councillors with councillors who are interested in ideas that work, not engaging in the same pointless, expensive behaviour over and over and over and over and….

In the meantime the police will be wasting their time and efforts in Jubilee Park. I say waste because when the police are forced to move on to dealing with all the problems that built up while they focused on the Park, the homeless and other problems will once again return to Jubilee Park as has happened before.

So if you are planning a crime spree in Abbotsford, the police will soon be navel gazing at Jubilee Park, leaving the city ripe for the pickin’.

And if you are one of the non-preferential treatment ordinary citizens Abbotsford, you will get your chance to express your displeasure in November.

Upon hearing the Smith-Beck-Harris Cheerios Theory, that serving Cheerios in the early morning even once a week results in the homeless and addicted flocking to that location and staying there, I was rather sceptical. Well truthfully, after seeing that Abbotsford city councillors Smith, Beck and Harris were serious, I was dumbfounded. I mean, HUH?

Just in case my reaction was influenced by having Councillor John Smith repeat almost verbatim the same excuse he has been using for the last two and a half years to absolve the city of any responsibility for acting on homelessness and rationalize their lack of leadership, I felt I needed to get feedback on the Smith-Beck-Harris Cheerios Theory.

Unlike councillors Smith, Beck, Harris and far to many other people, when I have a question an matters of homeless, addiction, mental illness or poverty I approach those with knowledge and experience.

In this particular case I took advantage of a dinner for the homeless and hungry to seek the opinions and input of those who were homeless, addicted or in recovery from addiction in evaluating the Smith-Beck-Harris Cheerios Theory.

Here is a representative sampling of their comments when asked to evaluate the Smith-Beck-Harris Cheerios Theory and the claims that it is this serving of Cheerios that is drawing people to Jubilee Park and that if only the serving of Cheerios was stopped the problems in Jubilee Park would end as well.

“What drugs are they on?”; “Horses**t!!”; “Ya Right!”; “that’s funny!”; “are they nuts?”; laughter was a frequent response; it was repeatedly necessary for me to give assurances that, no I was not kidding – city councillors were serious in promoting the Smith-Beck-Harris Cheerios Theory; a long time volunteer as a home owner and a taxpayer inquired as to whether it was possible to “get our money back”, a refund of salaries paid the councillors; numerous interviewees were left speechless by the Smith-Beck-Harris Cheerios Theory; and finally many just sadly shook their heads.

The one person I was able to find who had left Jubilee Park to get food at the supper when asked about the Smith-Beck-Harris Cheerios Theory nearly fell out of his seat laughing.

The fact that only one person had left Jubilee Park to get fed BBQ hamburgers, a walk of only 2 or 3 minutes, would seem to cast serious doubt on the councillors theory and claims that homeless and/or addicts are leaving downtown Vancouver to flock to Jubilee Park for Thursday morning Cheerios when they will not walk a few minutes for a meal of BBQ hamburgers.

Unless of course the homeless person hit the nail on the head with his statement: “those must be some powerful special Cheerios”.

Not wanting to disappoint Councillor Beck’s expressed expectation of reading reaction to statements he made at Wednesday May 7’s City Hall “browbeat the Pastor” meeting, this one’s for you Bruce.

In advancing the Smith-Beck-Harris Cheerios Theory Councillor Beck demonstrated he shared his fellow councillor’s lack of even the most basic knowledge and understanding of the realities of homelessness and addiction.

He also clearly shared his council colleagues’ lack of understanding of the purpose of applying a bandage and the desire to spare Bob Bos and the Downtown Business Association the problems of the homeless on the streets of Abbotsford by once again moving the homeless to other neighbourhoods.

Councillor Beck’s statement that closing down the Food Bank for three days to renovate was the same as the Pastor complying with their demand to never feed again feed the hungry in Jubilee Park, clearly demonstrates: a) his need to sit down and spend some time watching Sesame Street in order to get an understanding of similar things and things that are not similar and b) the continuing need for dictionaries at city hall in order that they can look up and (hopefully) gain an understanding of concepts such as “three” and “never”; even the homeless know that never is a lot longer than 3 days.

Councillor Beck proceeded to speak of spending $10’s of millions of dollars to relocate the city’s seniors group. Now my first reaction was that he was being facetious in that statement, but reflecting on his his spendthrift ways as a councillor of squandering taxpayer’s money ….

What the statement clearly demonstrated was that for covering up, avoiding or mishandling the social problems of homelessness, addiction, mental illness and poverty councillors and the city can find time and money. It is only when it comes to dealing with these social problems that neither time nor resources can be found, and we get the same old “not our responsibility, we have not the wherewithal” speech.

Addressing the social problems on the streets of Abbotsford is not about ridiculous theories, harassing Pastors or chasing the problems from a favoured neighbourhood to a neighbourhood obviously less favoured by council, it is about vision, leadership and responsible, thoughtful action.