Editor:
As a member of the G-7, Canada is considered an advanced economy, yet there are more and more Canadians living in tent cities all across the country. Not just in large urban centres but in every community; mainly lost souls with mental health issues who have chosen to self-medicate, now in the downward spiral of drug addiction.
There are perpetual acts of crime and vandalism in downtown areas everywhere; so often committed by repeat offenders who inhabit tent cities. Law enforcement and courts are stretched to the limits, with immediate need for mental health treatment centres in what Canadians used to boast of as its universal health-care system
About 50 years ago, an initiative called deinstitutionalization was enacted in many countries; asylums and similar facilities were closed, with mental health care to be accessed in the community. Leading up to this, public opinion was influenced by many disturbing and heart-wrenching media reports and social justice warriors in Hollywood, producing movies like One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest. The initiative has proven an abysmal failure, and many millions of mentally ill and drug addicted people have suffered over the years because governments implemented deinstitutionalization.
Modern treatment centres need to be built, but it would cost billions, and governments are always trying to cut health-care funding.
Meanwhile, Canada has just purchased a $410-million air defence system from the vast military-industrial complex of the U.S.A. Canadian Armed Forces have never had such a system, and this one is being donated to Ukraine, helping to prolong its war with Russia. Countries of the G-7, NATO and Europe have all supplied Ukraine with vast amounts of planes, tanks, rockets and assorted armaments, instead of forcing Russia into peace talks a year ago, before this war began.
All options should have been on the negotiating table, but now the world must wait for a peace treaty, which is how all wars end.
None is on the horizon, which is dotted everywhere with pathetic tent cities full of mentally ill citizens in desperate need of treatment. How ironical, and in Canada the lack of regular health-care funding recently resulted in some hospitals being filled to 120 per cent capacity. All beds were full, with overflow patients treated in cots in corridors, and eventually in makeshift closets.
Bernie Smith
