No one (that really mattered) complained when the fascists rounded up all welfare recipients and crowded them like cattle into the corridors of what they liked to call 'Career Placement Agencies'. No one (that really mattered) complained when the fascists killed people by denying them their pittance to survive on forcing them out onto the streets with no food, water or shelter. When they cut advocacy programs for welfare to damn near nil. These poor people, who were giving away 9/10 of their welfare cheque to rent a hovel of a shelter while trying to live on the remaining tenth of a pittance, had to come up with the money for public transportation to run around town submitting resumes. When they complained to the agency about it, they were told: "You could always just walk"...unbelievable? It is actually true.
Welfare also cut the rate at which these poor people could earn to $0!!! If you were on Welfare and you earned a buck, Social Services would take that dollar back. You actually lost money if you were working trying to make money...so it would suck you back into the depths of its grasp. The Fascists turned Welfare into a form of Unemployment Insurance. You needed to work a year to qualify for it and, if you were on it for 2 years, you were cut off.
When you are on 'The System', your life sucks. Anyone who has ever been on 'The System' in the last 20 years knows how hard it is to survive - never mind keeping your mental health intact. A former friend of mine said that welfare should be something you earn and that if you had been on it for a year, you have to go to a camp, get your head shaved, and dig ditches for 3 months...then you are good for another year. Hey! Structure, Shelter, 3 meals a day and a safe place to sleep!? I've got one question for you...How deep!?
Another friend of mine got work in a factory. She got herself completely off the system. She was working for 8 months - but then she got laid off. She came back to Social Services (Populated by the meanest human beings on the planet) and they told her that, since she didn't work a full year, they couldn't do anything for her. Sentencing her to either steal or enjoy a life on the street for her crime of trying to get her life back in order. I still remember what Debra had said the sadistic Social worker told her when she asked 'How can I pay my rent!?' It was (and I can still remember this after all this time) "GO LIVE UNDER A BRIDGE". The Fascists were trying to get rid of the poor and weak by killing them off. Fortunately, this wonderful lady had plenty of friends (with couches) to help her out.
All of us who were living under that rein of terror, who the Fascists didn't kill off, know the face of the BC Liberal Party. Now it is the working poor who are being marginalized. Now it is those who don't own property. The BC Fascist Party (Liberal) cater only to those who have money - foreign investors who snatch up houses and condos where people are supposed to live. They cater to those who DO own property. Give them 20 years and there will only be 2 kinds of people - The Lords and the Serfs.
Let's talk about the Feds. The Federal Government has never given 2 shits about BC...except to say "Give us more money... Princess Quebec wants a new diamond necklace or she will threaten to leave us again". The people are sick of it and angry about it. If things continue on this course, there will be a revolt that the cops won't have a prayer of stopping. The closest military base in this country is in the most Western Province that the Feds give a shit about (Alberta). Then the fucking foreign investors can go fuck themselves because everything comes back to the people at that point..and we're slamming the door shut.
According to the latest reports, 33% of those in homeless shelters year round have jobs. Crazy? I know. Houses used as investment properties on Vancouver's West Side are sitting vacant while working people have to stay in homeless shelters. Something is very wrong here. Those who work in the city and can afford rent in the outlying areas must often spend several hours aboard public transit in crowded, uncomfortable conditions.
Premier Christy Clark isn't really to blame. She inherited this mess from the Right Assholable Gordon Campbell. Ms Clark is just trying to make small changes that will move policy more toward the center without completely disturbing the status quo. It is unfortunate that her information tends to be from VERY biased sources...which she hadn't the wisdom to see for what they were.
This very charismatic metro sexual is Bob Rennie. He is the very definition of how personality can be great while character; a rotting fish in the basement of an outhouse. He is known as the 'Condo King'. Bob tells everyone that "This is just the way things are - get over it" - while, in the course of finalizing a deal, a West side house can be sold 3 more times...rising a million dollars each time. This guy often earns in a day what most people don't see, while working like a dog every day, in their life. Given the condition of his skin and body...I doubt this man has seen an honest day's work in his entire life! Christy Clark has been known to base serious judicial decisions based on BS propaganda submitted by this TOOL and his lofty pedigree of foreign money launderers (Real Estate Board of Greater Vancouver) and their sleaze bag lawyers. This guy saying to the homeless masses "That's the way it is - get over it"? He might as well be saying "Let them eat cake". Didn't Marie Antoinette wear pink as well?
The situation is a mess. Christy Clark bending her ear to biased sources just confirms her naivete. Changes needed to be made that weren't ... because she didn't want to alienate her core voting demographic. Fuck the vote. Get some ovaries and lead like a leader. Question the sources. Challenge your assumptions...and realize..."Just because someone is likable doesn't mean they are a good person...or represent a good cause."
Here is the challenge. BC has been known for its swaying between the left and right wing. What it really needs is a good, solid middle. A group that doesn't take any crap from the right. Doesn't bleed money to the left. A group that says "We are going to try to manage this for everyone". A group that isn't afraid to tell Bob Rennie to "Open the Books...all of them."...and shut down shady housing investments from questionable (to say the least) foreign sources.
Because the soft changes weren't enough...the hard changes need to happen.
