A Times Colonist editorial today looks at the proposed law that would require police to forcibly take at-risk homeless people to shelters in bad weather.
It is not supportive.
"The half-baked proposal to have police arrest homeless people on cold nights and force them to go to -- but not into -- shelters suggests the government still lacks an understanding of the problem or potential solutions.
Housing Minister Rich Coleman says the law is a humanitarian response to the death of a homeless woman in Vancouver last year. She burned to death while trying to keep warm in a makeshift camp, after police and outreach workers had urged her to go to a shelter. Critics speculate the aim is to sweep homeless people out of sight during the Olympics.
The motives are irrelevant. The reality is that the proposed Assisting to Shelter Act is unworkable and will create more problems than it solves... "
Read the rest here.
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2 comments:
You said it, Paul and you sure are correct.
Half baked covers it quite nicely.
The guy screws up in each ministry Gordo gives him. His allowing a bunch of land out of a tree license with no gain to the province was stupid, and by gosh he isnt' changing his bumbling.
My prediction is that the only weather cold enough to require removal of homeless people from the streets will occur February 12-28 2010 with a possible recurrence of a cold snap from March 12-21.
Homeless people could be encouraged off the streets by giving them some of the Olympic tickets being purchased by local governments and public agencies.
http://northerninsights.blogspot.com/2009/09/papering-house.html
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