CBC Gives Homeless Scandal More National Attention
By Mike Archer. As Abbotsford Today reported last Wednesday, the Abbotsford Police have been accused of slashing tents and using pepper spray on the homeless in a long term and sustained program of to displace and disperse the homeless.
This follows on the heels of the Abbotsford Chicken Manure Homeless Incident first reported on Abbotsford Today June 10 and picked up by media around the world.
As a result of the statements made by Ward Draper and Jesse Wegenast of 5 and 2 Ministries at last Wednesday’s ASDAC meeting, the APD has asked the Office of the Police Complaints Commissioner (OPCC) to investigate the allegations against it.
Now that the CBC is reporting the APD investigation nationally, [CBC – Police Slash Homeless Tents] the world may have a new round of international condemnation for Abbotsford in store.
Mayor Banman’s statements to the effect that his embattled administration will deal with this matter internally are being made more and more farcical by the day as the world outside of City Hall deals with the issue without him.
With each passing day the damage to the City of Abbotsford increases and the amount of long term damage control which will be required to fix the embarrassment mounts.
In what is looking more and more like an orchestrated attempt to protect senior staff, the Abbotsford News reported June 12 that they had been led to believe the incident was the fault of a handful of low level authorities.
The controversy, which has grown to engulf the APD, the Salvation Army, councillors John Smith and Bruce Beck, as well as downtown developer Bob Bos, now points to a policy worked out at the highest levels of the administration and which may have lasted for several years,
The full extent and duration of the policy may never be known without a judicial inquiry or the involvement of the provincial government.
Whoever made the statements, the chances this was merely the work of a handful of low level authorities are looking slimmmer and slimmer with each passing hour of this scandal.