Dear editor,
As a participant in the Courtenay council meeting on May 22, for the “Nay” side of the largely one-sided turnout of the “Yes” people, I was appalled at the bullying atmosphere of the group. We are all seniors with valid and grave concerns about a process and a development that we had no say in and was not properly vetted to the actual residents of the “horseshoe” which is Menzies, 8th and Pidcock.
The actual residents were outnumbered by a lot of non-residents of the neighbourhood. These people were ex-or still drug addicts trying to get clean, patted on the back for their representation of the good that the various government entities provide for the vulnerable of society, the people who work for the various government make-work programs that process the endless stream of homeless people coming to their counters asking for help, the out-of-touch do-gooders who bring their young children to witness a protest and encourage their three-year-olds to “not touch the needles” they see everywhere in our public spaces … but support more housing for the people who do not contribute to our community because they are depressed or have had bad childhoods! Give me a break! Most of us have seen WWII, the drug culture of the 1960s … we have experience and we were labelled uncaring, narrow-minded, fear mongers who are out of touch with the world … we are seniors trying to enjoy our golden years. Our concerns are not based on fear, they are based on fact. How dare all of you bleeding hearts come to a meeting meant to hear all sides, and pooh-pooh our concerns as though we don’t have a heart … in fact, these allegations were made to council with raucous clapping. Even after they were told to withhold such outbursts.
These people seem to only have a “drug-related/homeless” agenda model. I pointed out that we all want the same thing, affordable housing, not another homeless shelter within 500 feet of the other very poorly managed one. They all expounded the great responsibility we all have to take care of these people — as human beings with a heart. Are you kidding? You may as well have said that we are heartless seniors with no real sense of the world as it is now. HOW DARE YOU! You only see the “best” in them when they come in asking for help. I see them every day at the motel I work at too. New ones coming into town every day. So you house 46 of them and 146 of them will come behind looking for “help.” It’s not help they want, it’s free living so they can spend their limited money on the drugs that they need sooooooo bad to combat the terrible life they’ve had. Like they are the only ones who have ever had a bad life.
The reason things have gotten so bad in our society is because of the lack of responsibility these addicts take for their own situation. And the real problem isn’t even the drug addicts. It’s the dealers who start swarming the neighbourhood to be there when the addicts “fail,” or in the case of the way it is with the Sally Ann and the rehab centre, they meet in the bushes or along the tracks. When that one young lady stated that she supports this new facility even though she lives on the other side of the tracks and probably doesn’t go out at night and if she does, she has her dog with her to warn her of danger … how dare all of you!
You think you know how it is? You haven’t lived long enough to know, and you don’t live here. You live over two streets … and that is the problem. You have your heads up your “street” … you are all so naive!
If it is true, that you people think that Courtenay should step up and build this development … great! We, here at Kiwanis Seniors and Sandpiper condos support you in accepting this wonderful idea in YOUR neighborhood where there is unused city land as well. How is it that you say that you want these people to integrate into the community and our community should be more diverse … so should yours! How diverse is your neighborhood? Your insults and your intimidating numbers overwhelmed the seniors who are trying to tell you that if you want to diversify a community, DIVERSIFY YOUR OWN COMMUNITY!
Oh, and the reference to the Holocaust? Those people didn’t choose to throw their lives away! Whenever I feel like I can’t go on, I think of that classic picture of a little boy, hanging onto a chain-link fence with such sadness in his eyes and rail thin … NOW THAT’S WORTH COMPASSION.
I’m sure the John Howard Society is responsible and doing great things. Funny thing, two years ago when I tried to get help for my elder brother who was in the John Howard Society as a youth, no one could help me. I ended up at the Dawn to Dawn meeting at the library and talked with Mr. (Richard) Clarke. He didn’t know how to help, but didn’t seem too interested anyways. And their go-to guy Grant (Shilling) … his speech was admirable … he must have been encouraged that someone else was going to intervene on the addicts behalf to find housing. Grant found housing for many of these people with their “scattered housing” model … It didn’t work because the people he was trying to help didn’t respect the efforts of the landlords, the responsible tenants and the bleeding-heart societies that enable them to keep on living the way are until THEY decide to either stop or get so high/drunk that they won’t be able to feel the hard ground beneath them! Seriously? As “human beings”, don’t they have a responsibility to take care of their own comforts … and if they so choose to sleep on the ground, then why do we feel like we have to get them into a warm, soft bed? They may be addicts, but they aren’t stupid.
The council meeting was a sham and disgusting to the sensibilities of the elders of this community; some who have fought in the wars to keep us free to make our own choices. HOW DARE YOU! DIVERSIFY YOUR OWN COMMUNITY! We have young families, a homeless shelter, a rehab center and a small John Howard facility that is sure to attract all of the dealers in town just waiting for the weak to fall … HOW IS THAT NOT DIVERSIFIED!!! All within a block!!!
If this is indeed a done deal … then shame on all of you for ramming this FOURTH facility within a block of our patios down our throats will come back to haunt you. Build it and they will come … and come and come … so we will need the city to build a security fence around our perimeter so that we can feel that our needs are also being addressed!
L. McMillan
Kiwanis Seniors Village