Abbotsford’s long standing tradition of criminalizing mental illness, alcohol dependence, drug addiction and poverty have to stop.
Church leaders, business leaders and politicians in Abbotsford have either stood by and allowed it to happen or actively participated in promoting the sad litany of human rights violations. Cops and lawyers are not the people who should be dealing with our most vulnerable citizens.
“We have to stop using these bylaws to criminalize people,” Ms. Larkin said. “We have the resources and the compassion in Canada to make this happen and it’s time for the criminalization to stop.” DJ Larkin, Pivot Legal Society, Globe and Mail, Sept 29, 2014