Municipal

Non-professional behaviour – by the Abbotsford Polise Department

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I have again been again told of actions by the Abbotsford Police Department that suggests they have a different standard of treatment for the homeless; which is both unprofessional and unacceptable behaviour.

One of the homeless approached me today to relate an incident that occurred with the Abbotsford Police Department. Someone, who was not themselves homeless but works with the homeless, had suggested to him that if he spoke to me I could write about it and perhaps something may come of that. Several other members of the homeless community spoke to me about this incident as well.

It says something rather disturbing about the behaviours of the APD and the City of Abbotsford that in an incident where it was felt an injustice was done, the only recourse that was felt to be open to the homeless was through my writing. How would you feel if your only recourse for unjust treatment was something posted on homelessinabbotsford.com and sent as a letter to the editor on the off chance it may be published and questions asked? I find that reality disturbing.

As the story goes someone phoned the police to say he was physically abusing the woman he was with.

He said that previously someone who had an issue with him chose to cause him problems by telling the APD that he was an abuser of woman. Although no charges were ever laid the APD has him on record as an abuser and he feels treats him unfavourably and with physical roughness because of this.

I do not know the truth of this earlier problem as I lack the resources to investigate and it is not my job to ascertain the truth of this matter, one way or the other. It is the job, the duty, of the APD to have found out if he was an abuser or if the other person was merely using (or should that be abusing?) the APD for revenge. It is the job of the APD to make that determination, particularly if their treatment of this man is going to be based on that claim.

The facts I do know about this recent incident is that when the police arrived the couple were nowhere near each other. That the woman stated there was no physical abuse (a statement she also made to me) and that if someone had made such a report, they had mistaken the horseplay going on for an assault.

The police promptly ignored what they were told by both him and her. They handcuffed him, handling this roughly enough to leave his wrist bruised, and tossed him in a cell for 15 hours. No charges were filed and he was released and left to walk home. Her they just dumped at the Emergency Shelter.

I would never claim this person is a saint. I can say I have known him several years and never seen any behaviour of abuse to women. But the real reason for doubting he was physically assaulting her is that I have also known her for several years and in a physical confrontation I would be betting my money on her.

They are homeless and even if not exactly upstanding or outstanding citizens they have the right to be treated with professionalism, fairness and courtesy. We (and they) are Canadians living in Abbotsford not citizens of North Korea. The APD needs to be reminded of that fact and required to respect the rights of all citizens, including the homeless.

Hmmm

Not an Eclipse – The Truth is Out There.

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On Wednesday February 20, 2008 there was neither a lunar eclipse not a launch against a falling “spy satellite” as was widely reported. These stories were merely the attempt by the Powers That Be to keep the public in ignorance about the events that actually occurred on that evening.

Fortunately for the public and unfortunately for those attempting to perpetrate this deception, the stories and explanations they sought to use were so thin as to be transparent and readily seen through.

It was not a lunar eclipse that obscured the moon but an alien interstellar vessel whose path, size and close proximity to earth gave the general outward appearance of a lunar eclipse. The destruction of the starship and its subsequent break-up, clearing the line of sight to the moon, helped complete the illusion of a lunar eclipse.

It was against this inbound starship that the US Navy launched its attack, not some mythical “spy satellite”. Under the guise of shooting down a “spy satellite” with poisonous fuel onboard, the military destroyed our interstellar visitor.

No doubt the starship homed in on Earth because, on the basis of radio frequencies, Earth is a brilliantly lit up object as a result of all our media broadcasting signals into space.

Given the vast distances and travel times involved in voyaging between the stars the exploration crew and scientists would travel in some form of cold sleep or suspended animation. The fact the crew was not awakened prior to the ship heading for orbital insertion (why wake the crew up before it was definitely established the planet was of interest) supports the conclusion that our visitors were explorers and not hostile.

Why would a starship be destroyed?

Concrete proof of intelligent alien life together with whatever knowledge and ideas they may have chosen to share with the world would have had a profound effect on mankind. The effects would have had a high potential of causing massive social upheaval and change. Inherent in this change was the likely displacement of our current ruling class.

Unwilling to run the risk of losing their power and control of the people the ruling class destroyed the starship and the threat to their power. The need to act quickly resulted in the very thin stories of a lunar eclipse and “spy satellite” destruction to cover up their atrocity, greed and lust for power.

We will never know the knowledge, the glories that mankind would have gained from our visitors. What bright future for mankind was sacrificed just so the ruling class can continue to enjoy the wealth and privileges that comes from their rule?

Homeless, Provincial

One size does not fit all.

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BC Housing is in the process of forcing the Emergency Shelter in Abbotsford to switch to a 24/7 (hours/days) schedule and adopt operational policies dictated by BC Housing.

This change will have negative consequences not only on the shelter operations but upon all other programs offered at the Centre of Hope.

Why should Abbotsford be concerned? The homeless are part of our community and actions that have negative consequences upon them will in turn have negative effects upon the community as a whole.

The concern is not that BC Housing has come up with a new homeless program to be implemented through the shelters in BC, but rather that it is being imposed on all shelters without considering if the new policies are appropriate for a given shelter and/or location. They are forcing even shelters not wanting to run on the 24/7 basis, for good sound reasons, to run 24/7 – or they will not get any funding. Either the Emergency Shelter runs under their program or Abbotsford loses its shelter funding.

Since the new policy comes with increased funding, one would think that BC Housing would recognize that there must be serious concerns about the negative effects on some of the shelters for them to seek to not receive more money. Unfortunately BC Housing has not shown any evidence that they are interested in whether there are good reasons to not change shelter operations. Rather they are blindly forcing all shelters to change, ignoring that “one size fits all” policies often have very negative consequences for those of odd size.

For communities with multiple shelters, for larger shelters and shelters with separate entrances the new policy is doable.

The emergency shelter is the only shelter in Abbotsford/Mission, it is small – actually totally inadequate in size for the increasing demand for shelter space and it shares the entrance path with the majority of other programs. In fact the shelter space is used during the day for other programs.

I want to be very clear that the concern is not with the new shelter policy itself, but that due to the size and location of Abbotsford’s emergency shelter implementing it will have negative results that will far outweigh any benefits, causing a great deal of damage and hardship to the people the policy is suppose to help.

The concept behind the new policy is good. What is lacking for the new shelter policy to be solidly successful, is the other programs needed to follow upon and provide support for the homeless to transition out of the shelter system and into more (and increasingly) stable housing. The government has put up a doorframe and door as an entrance point but they have failed to build the rest of the structure needed to provide a home to the homeless. But that is an argument for another time.

As stated I like the concept behind the new shelter policy initiative. However I think that the specific physical reality of the Abbotsford emergency shelter makes it totally unsuitable to running 24/7. Forcing the shelter to run under the new 24/7 rules will have many negative consequences far outweighing any possible benefits.

Addressing homelessness requires participation by the community. In this case what is needed is for members of the community of Abbotsford to contact our local MLA’s Mike de Jong (mike.dejong.mla@leg.bc.ca), John van Dongen (john.vandongen.mla@leg.bc.ca) Minister Rich Coleman (rich.coleman.mla@leg.bc.ca) and Premier Gordon Campbell (gordon.campbell.mla@leg.bc.ca, premier@gov.bc.ca) asking for their help in getting BC Housing to continue to fund the emergency shelter under its current operations rather than forcing a change with negative outcomes upon the shelter.

It would not hurt to ask them to see if there are any other shelters that will be or are being negatively impacted by being forced to adopt new operational behaviours and policies.