forged registration
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Dec-17-2005
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Message #292611 posted by forged registration (Info) April 27, 2008 21:25:17 ET
In Reply to: Re: The Canada-wide Establishment of Tent-cities posted by tiredoftheshit (Info) April 27, 2008 18:46:29 ET
we have a big problem with homelessness in the city of vancouver (not far from victoria, but due to an error in geographical judgement, vancouver is not located on vancouver island)...vancouver is the most expensive city for real estate in canada, and everything else seems more expensive here too (except pot) so we have a lot more people living on the margins...despite being a wealthy city that consistently ranks in the top 3 cities of the world, vancouver is home to the poorest neighbourhood in canada on it's downtown eastside
a little over a decade ago, two things happened that caused an explosion in homelessness...vancouver thoughtlessly closed down a very large mental institution, and the province of alberta offered everyone on it's welfare roles a free one-way bus ticket out of the province...a lot of poor albertans chose vancouver because it offered relatively large welfare cheques and a temperate year round climate...the one way bus ticket thing isn't a joke - that is how alberta dealt with it's welfare problem back in 1994...rich neighbours are a mixed blessing
vancouver is hosting the 2010 olympics and like china, it is trying to spruce up it's image, but instead of spray painting dead grass to make it look green, vancouver is sweeping homeless people off the streets
the anti-poverty committee in vancouver has achieved near terrorist status with it's tent cities, condemned building squats, disruption of public events, vandalism, etc...they are desperate and they are organized:
http://apc.resist.ca/
as far as morality goes, we've been in a bit of a slump...besides our current hunt and destroy military occupation in afghanistan, we're still neglecting our native populations, neglecting our environment, neglecting our health care system, and selling our country off to the highest bidder
ever hear of marc emery? he's facing extradition to the united states for a minimum 10 year prison sentence for selling cannabis seeds...in canada, that crime is worth about 1 day in jail, but the canadian government refuses to protect emery, and even actively participated in setting him up for extradition, and refused to assist him plea bargain for a five year prison sentence in canada (in exchange for immunity for his two co-conspirators)
like the usa, canada does some things well, but the good things do not erase the bad things...no country is perfect, but canada has been backsliding lately
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