New breed of super-homeless terrifies local merchants

Last week, while community activists were marshalling their forces to save Vancouver's Insite harm reduction production, the Canwest Global propaganda machine decided the time was ripe for a summertime beatdown on the homeless in Vancouver and Victoria. 'Aggressive' pandhandlers (i.e. any panhandlers) were attributed with powers and abilities beyond those of ordinary men, able to drive conventions away from Vancouver with a single outstretched worn-out baseball cap. The identical diatribe against the city's less fortunate ran in the Vancouver Sun, Province, and Victoria Times Colonist. Global BC and CH Television ran identical infomercials masquerading as newscasts about how these alleged undesirables are destroying BC's urban tourist industry.

This page hates to break this sad news to the Vancouver Board of Trade and the Victoria Chamber of Commerce, but in every major city in North America, there are people who are poor, addicted, mentally ill, on the run from an abusive relationship, or just haven't figured out what colour their parachute is. However, unlike other major cities in North America, there are a substantial number of people in Vancouver and Victoria who don't believe in beating the sh*t out of them like you do.

Do you remember how many of us cheered when Lorne (Safe Streets) Mayencourt was beat up by a homeless person? Don't you even remember why some of you convinced James Green to run for Mayor in 2005 to steal votes from Jim Green and let the NPA (minus that junkie-loving Philip Owen, of course) take back control of City Hall? It's not the homeless that's the real problem for you guys, it's the compassionate types who have a big enough view on homelessness and addiction to know the market won't solve these problems.

What you really need to do is have your boy Gordon Campbell whip up another 'structural deficit' to fire more teachers, health care workers and public servants who tend to believe in such outdated crap as social democracy and "whatever you do unto the least of my brothers, so do you unto me". After they're gone, you'll be done beating down and locking up the addicted, impoverished and homeless sooner than you can say "Closed Safe Injection Site!"