Thursday, October 16, 2008

More on the homeless court decision

The Sun's usually insightful Ian Mulgrew has a cranky column on the B.C. Supreme Court decision that found homeless people have a right to cover themselves with a tarp or a cardboard box if they have to sleep outside.
The Times Colonist has a more reasoned and rational editorial analysis here .
See the post below for more details and links to the judgment so you can decide for yourself whether the decisions is well-founded. I certainly think so.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We seem to be a province heading for slums and shanty town like those in Lisbon, Portugal, Oviedo in Spain, and many other European cities. The Campbell Government has the dollars and the ability to really solve this problem but they wont because they are dumb, death and blind to everything and everyone that doesn't contribute mega-bucks to their party. Plain and simple really.

RossK said...

I would agree that Mr. Mulgrew's work is usually solid.

However, in this case I believe there should be a third 'C' word associated with that 'cranky column' description.

And that would be 'callous'.

.

Anonymous said...

Ian Mulgrew is certainly correct about one thing: the BC Supreme Court ruling probably isn't going to stand. The Supreme Court of Canada hasn't accepted "positive" rights in the past, and this ruling crossed that line by establishing a right to pitch tents in public parks.

Anonymous said...

The ruling stands until struck down, and that can take a year. The heavies broke up the tent city in Victoria this afternoon. The cost of manpower could have been better used by bringing some food and maybe a portable toilet. The judge was firing a shot over the bow of the city elected bunch and it's up to them to get action beyond talk. The suddenly available 35 extra floor spaces for the homeless magically appeared today. Time to ask the folks wanting to be elected just what they will be doing soon to get some housing for the people. It's cold out this evening but we allow our elected folks to dither and have meetings that prove little. Lots of room in the parks, people have lived in Beacon Hill park for years, but come out into the open and the locals go ballistic

The food banks , by the way are getting worried as the donations are way down. WE have over a billion dollar surplus in this province, lets cut some of it loose.