King-Victoria Transit Hub

[KingandWeber]

While it will get heated, I actually think this whole conversation is super important and I'm glad it's happening at least somewhere.

Adding something I don't think has been mentioned - the most fundamental issue I see is that the Region alone can't and shouldn't be responsible for dealing with the homelessness crisis. The more supports it adds (at a cost to the local tax base), the more homeless people are going to arrive to use those supports if they're "better" than neighbouring municipalities. It's just a reality given the homeless population is mobile and actually does shift quite a bit. In fact, there was even a recent article in the Record that Stratford is shipping homeless people in cabs to Kitchener (and I doubt they're alone in doing so).

This brings us back to the requirement that the court is imposing to say WR has to have shelter/housing for every homeless person or it can't evict them from this encampment. We'll never achieve that goal with the local tax base bearing the cost of our and other municipalities' homeless populations. So ultimately I think the province has to own this issue and provide the vast majority of the funding necessary for homelessness supports. But until then, the court is basically sentencing WR to a vicious cycle it has no ability to realistically escape from on its own. I actually do believe WR is doing everything reasonable within the confines of the taxes the local population will accept for this issue, and the court even acknowledged WR has probably done more than any other municipality in Ontario.

To summarize, we're in a mess and I blame the province almost entirely.

[panamaniac]

Is the homeless population really that mobile? I would have thought that shifting the location of your government benefits could be a bit tricky.

[ac3r]

You have indicated in the past that you are of aboriginal descent. Would you feel the same way if this was an encampment of native Canadians? Asking for a friend.

Yes, why would the demographic matter? In fact a lot of the homeless are indigenous. I vaguely recall one of the children that was hanging out there with drug addicted pedophiles was indigenous. They could be Indian or Filipino, it doesn't really matter.

The issue is where they are and the behaviours they have. It's a serious issue and it takes a real heartless person to look at this and say yeah this is fine.

[danbrotherston]

You have indicated in the past that you are of aboriginal descent. Would you feel the same way if this was an encampment of native Canadians? Asking for a friend.

Yes, why would the demographic matter? In fact a lot of the homeless are indigenous. I vaguely recall one of the children that was hanging out there with drug addicted pedophiles was indigenous. They could be Indian or Filipino, it doesn't really matter.

The issue is where they are and the behaviours they have. It's a serious issue and it takes a real heartless person to look at this and say yeah this is fine.

I'm sorry, you're suggesting that forcibly displacing a population of indigenous people is a solution for anything? I feel like we've tried this in our past before. I personally think it didn't turn out that well, in fact, I'd call it one of the more shameful things we've done. But maybe you have a different perspective on it.

Ugh, what's the point in even bothering to have a discussion here, you know that you are being dishonest, that you are lying when you pretend that anyone here thinks the current situation is fine.

So yeah, there is no reason for anyone to have a civil conversation about this, when you're just going to be dishonest in the conversation like this.

[ijmorlan]

Yes, why would the demographic matter? In fact a lot of the homeless are indigenous. I vaguely recall one of the children that was hanging out there with drug addicted pedophiles was indigenous. They could be Indian or Filipino, it doesn't really matter.

The issue is where they are and the behaviours they have. It's a serious issue and it takes a real heartless person to look at this and say yeah this is fine.

I'm sorry, you're suggesting that forcibly displacing a population of indigenous people is a solution for anything? I feel like we've tried this in our past before. I personally think it didn't turn out that well, in fact, I'd call it one of the more shameful things we've done. But maybe you have a different perspective on it.

I think he’s saying the demographics of the group doesn’t matter, which is an answer to your question.

What should be done is a separate question, but I understand ac3r to be saying that he is in favour of the same action regardless of whom the people involved are.

[danbrotherston]

I'm sorry, you're suggesting that forcibly displacing a population of indigenous people is a solution for anything? I feel like we've tried this in our past before. I personally think it didn't turn out that well, in fact, I'd call it one of the more shameful things we've done. But maybe you have a different perspective on it.

I think he’s saying the demographics of the group doesn’t matter, which is an answer to your question.

What should be done is a separate question, but I understand ac3r to be saying that he is in favour of the same action regardless of whom the people involved are.

I didn't ask the question, creative did. Also I don't feel that creative was asking the question because creative feels that it should be different, or even that ac3r would think it is different but instead to try and get ac3r to make a personal connection to the issue, because people very often are fine with abhorrent things right up until they have a personal connection to it.

And sure, it's laudable that ac3r sticks to his principles of forcible displacement regardless of the race of the people involved or whether they share a cultural identity with that group or not, it is still the case that ac3r is saying they are okay with forcible displacement of indigenous peoples.

And actually, I retract my "laudable" statement anyway, since again, the second half of ac3r's statement was an explicit outright lie. Nobody is saying the situation is fine, and we have explicitly said the opposite.

[panamaniac]

Perhaps this discussion could be moved over to the Chronic Homelessness thread.