In an interview with CBC News Abbotsford Mayor Bruce Banman said today, “It comes down to financial dollars, resources and expertise. Cities are supposed to look after really exciting things like water and sewer.”
Banman has yet to reveal how much has been spent suing the homeless, defending against lawsuits from the homeless, using the Abbotsford Police Department (APD) to ‘displace and disperse’ the homeless or compensate the homeless for using chicken feces and pepper spray as a social policy tool.
The City of Abbotsford and Pivot Legal Society are in BC Supreme Court today as the City battles for the right to discriminate against homeless people through a series of bylaws designed to prohibit overnight sleeping, cooking, erecting any structure on parks on city property within city limits or even sleeping in one’s own car.
According to the CBC, “Banman says despite Abbotsford’s perceived hard-line approach, the city is doing its best to help the homeless — but he said it won’t be dropping the controversial anti-loitering bylaws.”
Check back for updates on the case.
Additional coverage of this morning’s press conference by the Vancouver Sun can be found here.
Pivot Legal Society’s D.J. Larkin speaks to reports in Vancouver Sun video of this morning’s press conference at the Supreme Court.
Not that this should come as a surprised to Today readers but Banman’s comments to CBC are further evidence that the Homelessness taskforce is a farce.
Angelika Dawson Says:
why is it always and either/or thing? why can’t we be fiscally responsible AND kind and compassionate?
From Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/536856343099184/598324276952390/?comment_id=598761493575335¬if_t=group_comment
Walter Neufeld Says:
Mayor Banman claims, “…the city [he] won’t be dropping the controversial anti-loitering bylaws,” and yet the city is in court precisely because of the barbaric master-mindset which informed those bylaws in the first place.
Out of court, the city (principally Banman, Smith, McGregor & Barkman) cut adrift it’s weakest community members while calculating the publics sympathy would somehow safeguard them.
Abbotsford’s greater community has been appalled by the city’s demonstrated intransigence and is saddened to realize that they must now pin their hopes on the courts because Abbotsford refuses to make reasoned/just decisions.
In the end, the courts will force the city/Banman to drop the discriminatory bylaws which continue to boggle minds across Canada.
From Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/536856343099184/