By Mike Archer. Last week there was a screening of the ‘Chicken Manure Incident‘ documentary by Kevin Miller at UFV and a panel which answered questions from the public.
The film was screened in Edmonton two weeks ago and there will be more screening in Abbotsford and plenty of opportunity for citizens to have their say.
What struck me was Mayor Banman’s statement about the victims of the drug war which local heroes like Darryl Plecas and Bob Rich have engaged in with barely concealed excitement as they have spent your money beating the shit out of your friends and neighbours who have fallen on hard times or fallen victim to conditions from which they suffer which, it turns out, are far beyond their control.
Now he has made some incredible statements before. Like his famous – drug addicts are like pedophiles and should be locked away’ – statement to the Vancouver media.
Some thought that was a slip and an unfortunate misstep but, no, turns out, it wasn’t.
Chiropractor Bruce, who likes to refer to himself as a health professional, told us he would bring his experience to bear on the Abbotsford Homeless Crisis.
That appears to have been restricted to solutions like jail, forced detoxification and chicken shit. (The mayor has still not told us who gave the ‘Go’ command on the chicken shit attack on the homeless last summer)
Here is our mayor’s understanding of the men and women he seems to prefer to repress rather than help:
“One of the reasons why homeless … we have the problem is because back in the day we used to do things like it was a never –ending prison sentence.
We got to use shock therapy, sterilization, frontal lobotomies. We behaved poorly and the Supreme Court of Canada said the right to freedom is more important than their right to be healthy.
“The only time we lock people up is when they actually become a danger to others not themselves. I think, as a nation, we need to revise that. There’s something inherently wrong that we can’t put someone away for their own good.”
Now we’re down to the heart of the matter. Now we can understand why this mayor intends to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars of his friends’ and neighbours’ money to get these awful people into jail for their own good rather than lend them the hand-up he talks about for those who don’t have mental illness, alcohol or drug addictions.
Has it ever occurred to you, Bruce, that someone with political power might someday decide to put you away for your own good?