Homeless in Abbotsford, BC

'Assistance to Shelter Act' Makes this Remembrance Day a Day of Shame in BC

November 11^th is Remembrance Day in Canada; a result of November 11^th being the date the Armistice ending World War I was signed. It is the day Canadians commemorate the sacrifices of members of the armed forces and of civilians in times of war or conflict.

It is the day we remember those who served, fought, bled and died to preserve the freedom of Canada  and Canadians to make their own choices and decisions.

A Day of Shame in British Columbia  this year as a result of the BC government’s introduction of the ‘Assistance to Shelter Act’ - an act written to strip freedom of choice from the a specific group of citizens – the Homeless.

This shameful Act is made more shameful, more intolerable, by virtue of the fact that it is for the purpose of enabling the BC government to remove the homeless from areas of high visibility and relocate them to less visible or embarrassing locations during the 2010 Winter Olympics.

The logic of seeking to avoid the embarrassment of having the homeless visible to the international community during the Olympics through the criminal violation of internationally recognized human rights escapes me.

Unless the government of BC expects the international community to be bamboozled by claims that the government’s action is about providing shelter from the weather for the homeless, when the actions of the government demonstrate the lack of any true concern about whether the homeless are sheltered from the weather or not.

If the BC government was concerned about the homeless being sheltered from inclement weather, the government would not be appealing the Adams  ruling which found that people have a right to erect their own temporary shelter to protect themselves.

The case was not blanket permission for the homeless to erect temporary shelters but rested on the fact that the number of people who are homeless in Victoria far exceed the number of available shelter beds.

Thus a government that was truly concerned about sheltering the homeless would not be seeking to prevent the homeless erecting shelter, but would instead seek to resolve the issue of homeless camps by providing shelter beds and appropriate housing.

Instead the BC government will empower police to use force to remove the homeless from the streets, ignoring the inconvenient fact that there more homeless that there are shelter beds.

To ensure that the government can have the police remove the homeless from sight during a specific time period of their choosing, the Act gives the Minister the power to issue an extreme weather alert. As opposed to the situation currently, where the calling of an extreme weather alert is in the hands of individual representatives in each community.

The minister and the BC government have claimed that this Act, violating the human rights of the homeless, is necessary “for their own good” and is NOT simply a tool to “sweep the homeless under the carpet” and remove them from sight during the Olympics. 

Even if the actions of the BC government supported (which they clearly do not) the BC governments claim that the purpose of the Act was to benefit the homeless and not about Olympic beautification, William Pitt was right when he stated “Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom. It is the argument of tyrants; it is the creed of slaves.”

On this Remembrance Day of 2009, Canadian troops are in Kabul province in Afghanistan; serving, fighting, bleeding and dying seeking to protect the freedom of the Afghani people to choose from the tyranny of the Taliban.

While in the province of British Columbia in their homeland of Canada the provincial government is seeking to impose the tyranny of “for their own good”, stripping the right to choose from homeless Canadians.

Which is why November 11^th is a Day of Shame in British Columbia this year, as the government seeks to violate the freedom to choose of the homeless; a freedom that those we Remember on November 11^th served, fought, bled and died to ensure for Canada and all Canadians.

On Remembrance Day it is important to remember not only those who made sacrifices but why those sacrifices were made.

Lest We Forget the price paid for our freedom and the right to choose for ourselves and in the forgetting dishonour the sacrifices of those we Remember on November 11^th by allowing tyrants to violate the right of Canadians to decide what is best for them, themselves.