www.James-Strocel.com

A little while ago I got an invitation on Facebook to a group that supported Bruce Allen, a radio broadcaster on our local talk radio station, CKNW. To provide a little background, CKNW is the local talk radio station in Vancouver where the hosts are old enough to reminisce about the glory days of the British Empire. Some of them have a little too much nostalgia for it. In one of Mr. Allen’s many commentaries, he opined that Canada was being over-run by “special interest groups” and that immigrants should “fit in or get out.” Mr. Allen of course was referring to people who wished to wear religious head-gear for passport photos, voting, and the like. This commentary released a firestorm of controversy, with many immigrant groups calling for Allen’s removal from his position in Vancouver Olympic Committee which would oversee the 2010 games’ opening and closing ceremonies.

The Facebook group called for members to write the CRTC and CKNW to voice their support for Bruce Allen and his defense of “Free Speech”. I suppose that I had been invited to join this group because I write commentaries myself. I should support Bruce Allen, since I would expect the same to be done for me when I would say something like this. Suffice to say, I declined the invitation.

Since Bruce Allen still has his commentary job, and presumably his position at VANOC, he does not need one whit of my support on this issue. Furthermore, *I* found his rant to be offensive. Mr. Allen displays a rather thuggish interpretation of democratic rule of law. Even natural-born citizens have the right to change the laws that they have a problem with. Besides, religious headgear in passport photos is not an issue that affects me in the least. The fact that someone wears a turban doesn’t affect my right to go without one. If Bruce Allen really needs his free speech rights protected, he can find himself a very good lawyer to pretend to care for $200 an hour.

CBC- Radio commentary draws fire from B.C. Sikhs

CKNW’s Reality Check Sept 27 2007

It’s been said that in many ways Abbotsford is a big city that thinks it’s a small town. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the way that it deals with its big city problems. Ironically, it may be a sense of civic pride that keeps us from addressing these issues properly. Homelessness? Prostitution? Drug problems? Not in our fair city. Such problems become even harder to talk about when you’re caught between two extremes of rhetoric on the problem. Either you’re a heartless monster for not wanting to support poor decision making, or you’re a bleeding heart communist for displaying common compassion.

Somewhere in between is James Breckenridge, the writer and maintainer of Homeless in Abbotsford. If there is a face to the homeless problem in Abbotsford, or anywhere else in North America, this man is it. He has to deal directly with the problem of expensive housing, mental illness, and an intractable city hall. He offers us not only rhetoric against homelessness, but innovative hands-on solutions to a complex problem. The post titled “Who is/Who are the homeless” outlines exactly how complex and intractable homelessness can be. I was particularly fond of his proposals to allow the homeless free access to showers and bathrooms at our public recreation centers. It seems to be cost effective, and the ID card system would provide access to services that would help get people off the streets for good. These and other posts outline how magic bullets are impossible, but small scale solutions can do so much.

As I read Mr. Breckenridge’s posts, I wondered how many people knew about the solutions he was writing about. It turns out, many of his ideas come from successful programs in other municipalities. I believe that the reason people hold back on doing more for the homeless is that they are afraid that their time and money will be wasted on short-term solutions. If there is more information and more options for people to direct their funds and their compassion, maybe we can provide an environment where advocates for the homeless can have less frustration and more success.

James W. Breckenridge’s blog is located at homeless-in-abbotsford.blogspot.com