With the stories in the Abbotsford News highlighting that Abbotsford’s City Councillors squandered $23.1 million dollars [5.24 + 8.32 + 5.5 + 4.04* = 23.1     *ballpark estimate for year 5 subsidies] on their Great White Elephant ego project [AKA Abbotsford Sports and Entertainment Centre] and buying the presence of the Heat as a tenant for their empty ego trip………….

I have to admit there is solid evidence that Mr. Eric Myrholm was right when he asserted that Abbotsford council and staff have the mental capacity of a cumquat and thus need a Task Force and more study of homelessness..

Furthermore I acknowledge that the evidence provided by council’s actions over the past decade would support, perhaps better support, the lack of mental capacity at City Hall hypothesis than it does my hypothesis that stalling is the reason council has taken no effective or intelligent actions to address homelessness in the past decade.

A decades worth of forums, a decades worth of best practices and the outcomes from those practices in other cities, a decades worth of research, six years of having an advisory committee for council, a social planner as part of the planning process, the decision that the city no longer requires a social planner, overwhelming evidence in support of the ACS Housing First proposal, council’s self described irrational voting down of the ACS proposal and provincial funding, council’s need to create a Task Force………

Provide piece after piece of evidence to support the ‘having the intelligence of a cumquat’ hypothesis as to why Abbotsford city council and city hall felt they did not have enough information to make intelligent decisions vis-à-vis homelessness.

Lack of metal capacity could explain the fact that, over the Easter long weekend, without consulting their Task Force and ignoring what advice they did get, the city – having been presented with a handy excuse – descended upon a homeless camp that had been a thorn in their side and removed it.

As I say he could be right.

The only point I can definitely say that Mr. Myrholm is wrong about is coming up with a great solution.

The more you know about mental health, substance use, homelessness, the economics of poverty, the economy, political gamesmanship, business, finance, wilful denial,  the insistence on seeing [being told] what they want to hear and ignoring reality…….

The more knowledge and experience you have with issues involving people and the complexities introduced by the psychological. sociological, biological and cultural components of individuals……

The more you understand that issues and situations involving people have no nice neat solutions; that with people what you would expect to be the outcome of an action is often totally wrong and the outcome you get is something unexpected and counterintuitive.

Be aware that when I am speaking of the involvement of people in an issue such as homelessness, the term people doesn’t include just the homeless but all of us.

Because one of the hard facts I do know is that the mistaken information and beliefs held by the public are major obstacles to addressing not just the issue of homelessness but many of the issues and challenges facing us today.

I can tell you the most important action we need to take is to get out of the recycling of people business and get in to the recovery business. That is why the Housing First – a recovery based approach – project proposed by ACS was important.

I can tell you what course and direction individuals need to follow and move in to find wellness; I can tell you that what they need to do, while similar, is different for each unique individual; I can tell you what resources, supports and services we need to put in place to help people achieve wellness and recovery; I can tell you what best practices are available to provide the resources, supports and services needed and what outcomes those practices achieve; I can share my experiences, the knowledge and understanding I have gained and where/how it was gained.

I cannot force people to change, I cannot force them to want to change, to abandon wilful denial, much less act to address the issues associated with homelessness.

I can write; advocate; share; educate; make knowledge, resources outcomes and best practices available; encourage; support……

And I can remind people that when faced with a complex problem involving people and without nice neat [perhaps any] solutions the most important action is to choose to start.

“I was to learn later in life that we tend to meet any new situation by reorganizing, and what a wonderful method it can be for creating the illusion of progress while actually producing confusion, inefficiency, and demoralization.”   Petronius

“…back in the day we used to do things like it was a never ending prison sentence. We got to use shock therapy, sterilization, frontal lobotomies. We behaved badly…”

Bruce Banman

People had their brains fried with electricity; people had holes cut into their brains; people were turned into drooling zombies by drugs; people were turned into vegetables, their personalities and minds destroyed; people were used as experimental animals by their government; and the victims of this abuse could do nothing but suffer the torture inflicted on them because they were locked up and the key thrown away.

For the ‘crime’ of having a chemical imbalance in their brain chemistry people were condemned to a HELL created, maintain and run by other Canadians.

This is not “behaving badly’. This is depraved behaviour; it is behaviour that damns those whose actions – or silence – destroyed people’s minds and lives.

And Bruce Banman pines for those good old days?

In putting an end to this depraved behaviour the Supreme Court asserted the right of those victimized NOT to be tortured; asserted the right to recovery, mental wellness, love, joy; the right to a life – NOT a tormented existence locked away for the convenience of government and society.

Once again we hear the cry “they need to be locked up for their own good”, raised across the lower mainland.

Mayors, politicians, citizens, society can delude themselves all they want, but this is not about the mental health, wellbeing and wellness of those they seek to lock away – as once they did when  “…back in the day we used to do things like it was a never ending prison sentence. We got to use shock therapy, sterilization, frontal lobotomies.” but the truth is that it is about the convenience of politicians and society.

Spare me your feinted concern for anything but your own convenience.

After more than a decade of ignoring calls to put in place the community based services, supports and housing needed to permit those living with mental illness and from other mental health issues to find wellness……

……..suddenly mayors and citizens are concerned about those they seek to lock away, ‘for their own good’ – after they have become an issue, a problem, on city streets.

A faithless, counterfeit concern fabricated for the convenience of politicians and others.

A concern whose hypocrisy is clear in the call to warehouse, to lock them up for their ‘own good’ when knowledge and understanding make it clear that a large institution warehousing people is more harmful to mental health and wellness than helpful.

If politicians and others now calling for people to be locked up for their ‘own good’ were not simply concerned about their convenience and had any true concern for the people they seek to ‘disappear’ off their streets, they would join the call to put in place the community based services, supports and housing needed to permit those suffering mental illness and from other mental health issues to find wellness.

We would not be subjected to Abbotsford’s Bruce Banman, beating his chest piously, expressing the need to ‘lock them up for their own good’ mere days after he voted down a funded proposal for first stage housing that would have helped those he, obviously, so falsely expresses concern about find mental health and wellness.

And please, spare me any those lame ‘I got to find an excuse – no matter how ridiculous’ excuses.

We are talking about providing the means for people to find wellness; a course of action and behaviour far more important than catering to baseless fears and fear mongering of merchants, even if those merchants do contribute to the election campaigns.

I am one of those fortunate enough who, finding themselves homeless on the streets of Abbotsford, were/are able to find and access the limited resources, services and support, resources, services and support that have become more limited and unavailable over time, and struggle off the streets and into housing.

I am blessed in that as the resources, services and support decreased – I had and found friends who stepped up to help me stay off the street.

It would be kinder, far kinder and more humane, to be taken out and shot – than it would be to fall into the clutches of Bruce Banman et al and locked away in a Hell of their creation – ‘for my own good.’

And their convenience.