By James Breckenridge. What is City Council so afraid of being revealed during the court proceedings scheduled to start Monday – four short days from today – that they were about to send in their armed officers, a police force referred to by Justice Kathleen Ker as “a place that time forgot”, to clear the park and avoid having to face a judge on Monday?
Now I do not claim that moving into the parking lot and erecting a 8ft high wooden fence is anything but…….Dumb. But anyone who knows Barry Shantz does not expect strategic thinking. Demands, shouting, aggression, a nobody else matters attitude, disruptive behaviour and provocation – that is what you expect.
As to whoever put up the wooden fence…..with friends like that who needs enemies?
Looking at the walls on television, the homeless ensconced behind the walls and the police outside the walls preparing to attack…….my mind conjured up visions of little boys playing Cowboys [more properly Cavalry] and Indians.
Faced with these new developments the city should have remembered the advice Napoleon gave his Marshals: “the enemy is making a false move, why should we interrupt him?”
The intelligent thing for the city to do was……nothing. Go to court Monday, point to the behaviour that built a walled fort in a public parking lot and say that is why we need the court to order Jubilee Park vacated by these hooligans.
Instead the City seized the excuse and the cover provided by the actions of the homeless with their wall to strike quickly and render the question of court on Monday moot.
Given the lack of reason demonstrated by both sides it is lucky that DJ Larkin from Pivot Legal Society secured a court order. Thereby denying both sides the opportunity to do something incredibly stupid; stupid being an ability both sides have demonstrated having and being willing to use.
Apparently the four days until court on Monday was to long for either side to go without an Act of Stupidity.
Speaking of stupid is as stupid does, watching City Council’s behaviour over the years council has made it abundantly clear that when it comes to dealing with homelessness they like to consume several extra bowls of stupid before dealing with the issue.
The attempt to commit an Act of Stupidity Thursday afternoon is well within councils normal operating procedures. Or perhaps council didn’t want to set a precedent by going to court as though the homeless actually had rights.
Still, one wonders if City Council’s panicky attempt to avoid court by striking to force the homeless out of Jubilee on Thursday was a desperate attempt to avoid the need to appear in court, face a lawyer acting on behalf of the homeless and have………What? come out.
Sigh. If they had just left it be, but NO, city council felt compelled to overreact and focus attention on the homeless hiding behind their walls as the police build their barricades……and those images flash around the world making the City of Abbotsford appear even more ridiculous.
You know this level of weapons grade stupidity is the behaviour one expects from Americans.
Just how low have we sunk, and when did we lose touch with what it was to be Canadian?
Well said, James! There are likely no innocents in this tragedy and neither side is likely to come up with a reasonable solution to this conflict. Thus, we need an impartial third party, a United Nations with a mandate to broker a truce and facilitate meaningful dialogue and actions. Any takers?