InnisfilToday welcomes letters to the editor at [email protected] or via the website. Please include your full name, daytime phone number and address (for verification of authorship, not publication). The following story is in reference to the ongoing situation at Berczy Park in downtown Barrie.
Over the past few days, we’ve seen the worst of Barrie.
We’ve seen members of our community traumatized through a violent encampment eviction.
We’ve seen people’s belongings — sometimes their whole lives — thrown away like trash.
We’ve seen people separated from their community of support and the safety it brought them.
We’ve seen people treated like criminals and ostracized by other city residents.
We’ve seen aggressive and violent rhetoric against people experiencing homelessness growing and spreading in our community and on social media.
We’ve seen a member of the media and people just trying to help their neighbours be ticketed by police.
Fortunately, we’ve also seen the best of Barrie.
We’ve seen people answer the call to support their neighbours facing the violence of the state.
We’ve seen people speak truth to power, even though they knew it could come at a cost.
We’ve seen people defend the Charter rights and human rights of strangers.
We’ve seen organizations and individuals donate time, money, food, materials, etc., to help make the lives of community members a little bit better.
We’ve seen the community refuse to submit to a city and its politicians who have made a conscious decision to place the lives of some ahead of others.
In times like these, we would like to look to municipal leadership to provide guidance, empathy, reassurance and inspiration. Unfortunately, these things — and other qualities — are severely lacking in our so-called ‘leaders.’
United States socialist Eugene Debs famously said: “While there is a lower class, I am in it.” You’d be hard pressed to find that kind of solidarity from any of our elected officials or city administration, and certainly not from our police.
It almost makes you want to relinquish and surrender. But I believe in good people, and I have chosen to embrace radical optimism at this time. And I believe the best of Barrie will triumph.
Michael Speers
Barrie