Defending Abbotsford’s Anti-Homeless Bylaws … What A Job

By Mike Archer. I was sitting in the back row of Court Room 30 listening to the lawyers for the City of Abbotsford try to defend the indefencible – Abbotsford’s Anti-Homeless Bylaws – when it occurred to me … how must it feel to be the poor schleps who drew the short straws and ended up having to represent the City of Abbotsford in its endless war on its homeless population?

Last January I wrote ‘The Soldiers Are Getting Tired Of All This Hate Bruce.’

It was about the growing number of police officers, front line workers and City staff who were getting sick and tired of doing the bidding for the men and women of the power structure who have forced them to enforce Abbotsford’s Anti-Homeless Bylaws, the City’s ultra vires (and now defunct) Anti-Harm Reduction Bylaw and police chief Bob Rich’s ‘displace and disperse’ strategy for dealing with homelessness.

Outside the court room on Friday, I spoke to a French reporter from Radio Canada after the day’s proceedings and tried to explain what was going on in Abbotsford. I met with a sort of bewildered disbelief as he made every attempt to understand how such a thing could be happening in the 21st century in Canada.

I felt like I was in the Southern United States during the civil rights battles of the 60s explaining all the hatred emanating from the old boys network at City Hall and the police station to a reporter from one of the ‘modern’ States.

I couldn’t help but wonder what it must be like in BC law circles to be known as the guys defending Abbotsford’s right to discriminate against homeless people. I mean, I know lawyers have to defend some pretty shady characters, and even the guilty have an absolute right to a fair trial, but I mean, man, talk about drawing the short straw.

The gulf between the people of this City who have been shamed and hurt by what has been done in their name and with their money to eradicate and expel the homeless, the mentally ill, the addicted and the poor citizens of Abbotsford is widening with every step the City of Abbotsford takes in its relentless war on the homeless.

Bruce Banman’s Chicken Manure Incident (for which he has still not taken responsibility by either admitting he gave the order or telling us who did) and the Salvation Army’s approval, Bob Rich’s demeaning emails about the homeless and their lawyers, the three-month Standoff in Jubilee – which ended with helicopters, floodlights, police barricades and national media attention and the enduring, growing and festering presence of Abbotsford’s shame evidenced in the TeePee, the tents, make-shift shelters and the homeless camps along Gladys Avenue are all having a debilitating effect on the people who work for this City as well as it’s citizens.

The fact that four men were able to stare down a community and ignore its cries for change by turning down a 60-year commitment and $15.3 million in funding for a low-barrier shelter, just weeks after telling a BC Supreme Court justice there is plenty of shelter space for drug addicts, the mentally ill and the alcohol dependent men is something no one in the rest of the province, the country or the world can understand.

We’re getting tired of having to explain all the hate Bruce.

Just think how difficult it is going to be for the men who gave us these law suits, human rights cases and worldwide shame in November’s municipal election. What a record of failure and hate.

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And then there’s the ones behind the scenes who helped it happen …
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And those we haven’t yet mentioned who stood by and let it happen …

Defending the right of a city to discriminate against the poor, the mentally ill, the drug addicted and the homeless …

What a legacy. What a job.

Would someone in the power structure step up and defend the rights of Abbotsford’s homeless citizens to be protected from these misguided, old, white men.

For whomever it is they claim to speak and represent, surely it isn’t the majority of citizens and voters of Abbotsford … is it?
Cover image from pixabay.com