Dear editor,
Just before the holidays, Premier Doug Ford proposed an inhumane new approach to homeless encampments that punches down on people already suffering and will do nothing to help them – while making the problem of encampments worse.
The so-called "Safer Municipalities Act" would give Ontario cities unnecessary new powers to clear homeless encampments with police force and arrest our neighbours experiencing homelessness.
No one believes a tent in a park is an appropriate place to live, but this is not the answer. It’s ineffective, it’s expensive, and it’s cruel. It’s a non-serious plan for a very serious and urgent problem our most vulnerable neighbours are facing.
I don’t support Premier Ford trampling the basic human rights of our neighbours when there are effective evidence-based solutions we can use instead to house people quickly. And it’s high time we got serious about addressing the root cause of this crisis – a lack of affordable housing, something the Ford government has done little to solve.
We need an urgent solution to encampments and that solution is homes, not handcuffs .
Suzanne Mckay,
Thunder Bay
