Words of Apology …

By James Breckenridge. Words of apology … are for those who speak them, not for those to whom the words are spoken.

The City of Abbotsford has issued an apology, assigned blame and exonerated the mayor, council and city manager in connection with the city’s use of chicken fecal matter against the homeless.

Is the City of Abbotsford apologizing for the policy that led, inevitably to this or some other scurrilous action against the homeless? Or is the City of Abbotsford apologizing for getting caught?

What reason is there for the homeless to think this apology and any promises attached to this apology are, or will be, any more meaningful that the apologies and broken promises made by mayors and councils to the homeless in the past?

The wolf was sick, he vowed a monk to be:

But when he got well, a wolf once more was he – Walter Brower

 
The question is what will the behaviour of the City of Abbotsford towards the homeless be once the media is not watching and phoning the mayor about the City’s behaviour?

It is much easier to repent of sins that we have committed, than to repent of those that we intend to commit – Josh Billings

 
The true crux of the matter of the City’s use of chicken fecal matter as a weapon against the homeless is not the deployment of chicken fecal matter but the City policies – the policies of the mayor, council and city manager vis–à–vis the homeless and homelessness – that culminated in the use of chicken fecal matter as a chemical weapon against the homeless.
 
Otherwise, while the City may not ever deploy chicken fecal matter against the homeless again, the policy that led to the use of chicken fecal matter now, will inevitably lead to future actions by or on behalf of mayor and council that are as or more reprehensible that the City’s current abuse of the homeless with chicken fecal matter.
 
Mayor and council have totally ignored the apology they owe the citizens of Abbotsford for the scurrilous actions against the homeless mayor and council have made them party too. There is also the matter of the total disregard for the health and welfare of all the citizens of Abbotsford that the city’s action in spreading this toxic material where it would be tracked throughout the City of Abbotsford.
 

“Bad men are full of repentance” – Aristotle

 
If you speak to the homeless themselves their concern is not with the chicken sh*t current behaviour that the mayor and council’s homeless policies have resulted in, but with the future policies of the mayor and council with regard to the homeless and the future actions by city staff towards – or against – the homeless that mayor and council’s policies bring about.
 
In regard to the City’s current media driven apology, the homeless will tell you that they are in agreement with Tryon Edwards:

“Right actions in the future are the best apologies for bad actions in the past.”