25959 replies to this topic

[aastra]

 

Anyway, that's just how I'm feeling about it.

 

Let's just say it's more than a feeling (as versus nothing more than feelings).

[aastra]

The mods will be questioning my fealty after that post.

[dasmo]

Fealty is the only reality. No human perceives anything objectively. Our minds render our reality and feelings are a big component of the rendering code.

[dasmo]

Good word. I’m stealing it.

[Nparker]

...I don't think there's anything wrong with feelings. Life wouldn't be worth living without sincere feelings. But I sure don't enjoy this game re: the manipulation of feelings and the encouragement of insincere feelings in service of certain programs and narratives. Feelings of convenience...

https://youtu.be/cv2Jrtale1o

[aastra]

I'm not sure how I feel about that. Probably because I'm much too young* to remember things like Carol Burnett or the Gong Show.

 

*in VV forumer years

[aastra]

 

Good word. I’m stealing it.

 

You're filching my phrasings like a felon? Go ahead. I feel nothing at this point.

[aastra]

Just a reminder: these digressions into clever & amusing wordplay will normally end when somebody posts fresh pics in the development threads.

[Nparker]

Since this is the homelessness thread, does this count?

[dasmo]

You're filching my phrasings like a felon? Go ahead. I feel nothing at this point.

A great artist steals... 

[Victoria Watcher]

A shelter set up against the shuttered former Canadian Tire store on Douglas Street burst into flames Saturday morning, blowing out a glass door and sending smoke into the building.

 

Victoria Fire Department Battalion Chief Doug Carey said no one was hurt. The person who was living in the shelter was gone by the time fire crews arrived about 11:50 a.m.

 

“He was observed by a passing motorcyclist running away from the scene,” Carey said.

 

The shelter, which Carey described as “a complete loss,” was made from various material like pallets and tarps, and was so damaged that no investigation could be conducted, he said.

 

“Somebody reported hearing an explosion, so that indicates possibly a propane cylinder or an aerosol can of some sort.”

 

https://www.timescol...-street-6129675

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 20 November 2022 - 04:52 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Grant McKenzie of Our Place Society estimates there are about 500 people living on the street in the downtown core in tents, make-shift shelters or doorways. Many suffer from mental illness and severe drug addiction.

 

He said a toxic drug supply on the streets has fuelled mental illness and violence in the community. Repeated drug use and revivals from overdoses damage the brain, said McKenzie, calling toxic chemicals such as methamphetamine a “parasite” that brings compounding trauma that induces violent behaviour.

 

“Criminality becomes more part of their day to day because they don’t feel there are any consequences,” he said. “In a way, they are calling for help.”

 

McKenzie said the province’s new plan for mental-health teams “is the first step,” but more is needed to provide the complex care addicts need, including well co-ordinated efforts among health teams and new facilities where they can get off the street and be properly treated.

 

“We’re seeing a change in people’s behaviour,” he said. “The street community is less of a community than what we were used to [a few years ago] when people would look out for each other. We have to declare drug addiction a pandemic because the death rate is climbing.”

 

Burghardt said he has witnessed the tragedy of drug addiction unfold around his brake and muffler shop.

 

“You see these young people, like teens and 20 year olds, start hanging around with these [addicts,]” he said.

 

“They have cars and, within a month or two, the cars are gone and you see them become one of them. It’s awful.”

 

 

 

https://www.timescol...iolence-6154831

[Victoria Watcher]

Homelessness doesn’t always spark criminality

I reported a few weeks ago on the absence of public disorder amongst the homeless population in Portugal. Another reader wrote in explaining that this was because that country finds housing for their unhoused ­people.

 

However, this is not accurate; my subsequent visits to Porto and Lisbon revealed that there are indeed many homeless in those cities.

 

However, the extreme civic disorder caused by that group in Victoria is not to be found there.

 

This is not because Portugal spends so much on housing; indeed, their national budget has nowhere near the money Canada spends to unsuccessfully address the situation.

 

What they do have is the will to say “no” to the idea that homelessness justifies or entitles antisocial behaviour. Poverty has not been allowed to become an excuse for criminality.

 

This constitutes a type of social discipline that we have forsaken in Canada, and it helps explain why what is a small problem in Portugal has become such a complicated crisis here.

The homeless crisis is monumental enough without exacerbating its worst expressions, violence and criminality, for dubious reasons.

 

Michel Murray

Saanich

 

(Recently back from Portugal)

 

 

https://www.timescol...throats-6154812

[Nparker]

If drug addiction is declared a pandemic, does this mean users can be forced into lockdown and given medical treatment against their will? Perhaps the Feds can bring in the Emergencies Act again to make things all better.

[Victoria Watcher]

McKenzie:


He said a toxic drug supply on the streets has fuelled mental illness and violence in the community. Repeated drug use and revivals from overdoses damage the brain, said McKenzie, calling toxic chemicals such as methamphetamine a “parasite” that brings compounding trauma that induces violent behaviour.




Yes, repeated drug use is bad. So safe supply and decriminalization maybe is bad too?

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 25 November 2022 - 06:48 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

I feel for the family here. But this story is missing lots of details we deserve.



Mother of homeless man who died says her son was much more than 'a statistic'

https://www.cbc.ca/n...rison-1.6665898

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 28 November 2022 - 08:02 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Compassion needed, but so is safety

 

Re: “Victoria businesses mulling moving after random violence ­downtown,” Nov. 25.

 

I live in the building next to Gregg’s Furniture, at the Bay and Government intersection, and I can attest to the lawlessness we witness every day.

 

From human feces on the ground to syringes and violent encounters. I think people who do not live around it cannot truly comprehend the impact it has on the lives of all residents and businesses in the area.

 

After someone attempted to break into my house, I talked to my neighbours, and they also shared with me numerous personal experiences in which they felt threatened and unsafe.

 

Several women reported being chased and verbally abused, even having to run into an adjacent office building in search of protection.

 

Let’s have all the compassion we need for unhoused people, but let’s not ignore the safety and health of our streets while we do so.

 

Bruno Welte

 

Victoria

 

https://www.timescol...ng-kong-6170183

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 29 November 2022 - 05:36 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Whose city is this? It’s time for action

Re: “Victoria businesses mulling ­moving after random violence ­downtown,” Nov. 25.

 

Does Victoria belong to the taxpayers, the successful business owners, the ordinary working people who are struggling to make ends meet these days, or to the increasing number of mentally ill, addicts and homeless?

 

Come on, newly elected representatives. Our once safe and beautiful city is becoming a threatening place to go out for any reason at any time.

 

Urgent action required, health and safety first, for all.

 

Judith Hodgson

Victoria

 

 

https://www.timescol...ng-kong-6170183

[Victoria Watcher]

Because as of Tuesday, there was no warming centre opened by the City of Nanaimo to keep the hundreds living in alleys and doorways out of the cold during the day. No place to keep warm despite the frigid cold, winds and snow of Tuesday’s storm intensifying.

https://www.cheknews...e-need-1117774/

Edited by Victoria Watcher, 01 December 2022 - 03:00 AM.

[Victoria Watcher]

Encampments hurting Victoria’s reputation

 

 

Re: “Victoria businesses mulling moving after random violence downtown,” Nov. 25.

 

I was on a river cruise in Spain and Portugal in October, and more than half of the other passengers were from the U.K.

 

Those passengers I spoke with who had visited Vancouver and Victoria recently, when they found out I am from Vancouver Island, without exception, all mentioned the fact that they were disgusted to see the number of homeless people congregating around the areas where tourists are.

 

Many of them had visited here before and were appalled at the situation the way it is now compared with their prior visits.

 

Their comments about the filth and disorder created by these encampments and why it has been allowed to occur left me unable to respond.

 

The reputation of Vancouver and Victoria as tourist destinations will be in tatters unless something is done to remediate this untenable situation.

 

 

Yvonne Andre

 

Campbell River

 

 

https://www.timescol...fficers-6189149