CHARBONNEAU – Who owns the issue of public safety in Kamloops?
I WENT TO A FORUM at TRU last Wednesday (June 21) expecting to hear a discussion on public safety in Kamloops.
Instead, I was faced with a denunciation of federal and B.C. governments’ safe supply drug program.
While drug overdose deaths are a critical problem, the connection between them and safer streets is tenuous.
A poster advertising the event said that the debate would be about: “Solutions: A safe, clean & Secure Kamloops,” with panelists Aaron Gunn (filmmaker), Renee Stein (ED @ Out of The Cold), and Chris Dorman (youth support worker).
Stein backed out of the forum, one of the organizers and former Kamloops Coun. Denis Walsh told me, because she was apparently intimidated.
The forum was a follow-up to “Enough is Enough” demonstrations which started in Nanaimo and were held in seven locations across the province. The one held in Kamloops on April 27 was attended by 60 people.
At the forum, we watched Aaron Gunn’s formulaic harangue “Canada Is Dying”. The formula was in the same style as his film “Vancouver Is Dying.” In turn, it was modeled on Eric Johnson’s documentary “Seattle Is Dying.”
The “dying” model seems to appeal at a visceral level. At the “Enough is Enough,” one demonstrator held up a cardboard sign hand-printed “Kamloops is Dying.”
Anger is an element in these exploitive rants, some of it evident at the “Enough is Enough” Kamloops demonstration and at the June 21 forum at TRU.
At the “Enough is Enough” demonstration, tensions hit a boiling point with anger being directed towards Glenn Hilke, who runs The Loop on the North Shore.
Rebecca Baechle, a local business owner, stepped in to calm the crowd: “We really wanted this to be about public safety and that to be the issue, and be a place where all the citizens here could have their voices heard,”
The “dying” formula portrays the grim squalor on the streets: hunched-over homeless people apparently high on drugs. The victims of street life are simply a backdrop to Gunn’s exploitive films.
His film reminded me of Conservative leader Poilievre’s tacky video last year in which he exploits homeless people as props for his populist rant.
At the June 21 forum, Chelsea Corsi, Senior Wellness Coordinator at TRU, stepped up to the mic to challenge Gunn’s one-sided approach. She asked why Gunn didn’t interview anyone involved in safe supply drug programs: “there’s evidence to support the safe and regular drug supply is a better strategy to reverse a toxic drug supply problem.”
As she returned to her seat, a man from the audience angrily called out, “What the f–k are you talking about?”
He was quickly hushed by some audience members and the moderator, political science professor Derek Cook.
At the end, Professor Cook reminded the audience that the next forum will be on July 5 in CT200, but since then he emailed me to say that date has been postponed till further notice.
I was left wondering who owns the public safety issue. Is it the freedom convoyers of Poilievre’s ilk? Is it the BC Liberal Party, now known as BC United? Is it the B.C. NDP or the federal Liberals? Or the Conservative Party of BC that Gunn supports?
Formulaic films only inflame the issue. Public safety, like public health, should be universal for all, not politicized.
David Charbonneau is a retired TRU electronics instructor who hosts a blog at http://www.eyeviewkamloops.wordpress.com.
ArmchairMayor.ca 
At this point, no one really cares who owns what – we simply want to see progress.
Where does it say that in order to be benevolent, one must destroy the community at the same time? That in order to assist homeless people, entire neighbourhoods must be ravaged?
Instead we see narcissistic compassion, drug and crime policies that aren’t working, and more dogmatic praise and chants of “keep going” from “experts”.
If anyone wants to read an unbiased and measured analysis of the psychosis of homeless policies, I strongly recommend reading “San Fransicko” by Michael Shellenberger.
BC and the fools insisting on the current approach are driving us toward an even larger disaster, the likes of which can now be seen in Portland, Sacramento, San Fransisco and Seattle.
People don’t care about what side of the political spectrum a solution comes from. A good idea that works, liberal or conservative, is still a good idea that works.
What we see now is mostly BS that is doing very little to address the crisis, while severely degrading the safety and happiness of the community at large.
The empirical evidence does not support safe supply. There is effectively zero data to support the current policies in BC. We now suspect a trickle down effect is getting these safe supply drugs into the hands of young people. Addiction maintenance policy is getting us nowhere.
A small group of individuals spreading chaos cannot supersede the needs of the greater good – the community and the very taxpayers that pay for these failing policies.
You cannot fix this problem. For every house you build, every apartment you gift, another will take their place. If any of what you have been doing for 20 years was working, there would be evidence of progress. There isn’t.
So stop, try something else until it works, and as a priority, return the communities back to hardworking, law abiding taxpayers.
We’ve had enough of the drug abuse, the crime, the chaos, the screams, the shootings, the stabbings, the encampments, the filth, the fear and loathing, the danger and despair.
If you make a choice to abuse drugs, to engage in crime, to disobey rules, to destroy neighbourhoods, you are making a choice to remove yourself from society. We need to treat these individuals accordingly. Give them a chance to get help, right now, or deal with real consequences. We are tired of “meeting them where they are”, when where they are is breeding chaos. It’s time for you to meet where society is.
No more excuses.
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From the title, I assume “Solutions” were also discussed. What ideas does does Mr. Gunn have in this regard? The right-wingers might feel very satisfied with criticising the people who are actually trying to deal with the homeless problem and the drug problem, but what do they propose to do (other than just lock everybody up)?
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Clearly the ones “owning the issue” of public safety are the elected representatives. Their role is to convey experts on those delicate issues and move with alacrity to address said issues. Missing that the general public will do what the general public does best which is viscerally react. The public cannot be blamed except maybe for voting with their feet rather than with their heads at election time. Aaron Gunn cannot be really faulted for being one sided. His high(er) profile detractors should be the ones presenting a counter argument with thought and gusto. The public is awaiting with trepidation.
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