‘A Wholesome Horror’
Brenda Thompson exposes province’s treatment of those living in poverty
Brenda Thompson is known in many advocacy circles as a local legend.
As a single mother on social assistance in her early 20s back in the 1980s, she took then minister of Social Services Edmund Morris to court.
With the release of her new book, ‘A Wholesome Horror – Poor Houses in Nova Scotia’ at the end of this month, Thompson is as determined as ever to highlight the plight of Nova Scotians living in poverty.
A Wholesome Horror, published by SSP Publications, provides an overview of how poor people in Nova Scotia are treated, and shares the evolution of private and governmentsubsidized poor houses, noting that only one of these 32 sites remain – and is now an apartment building.
“There are so many misconceptions about poor people that we need to hear from those who experience poverty to hear the real stories,” says Thompson. “I saw the Marshalltown Alms House in the early ‘90s and wanted to write about poor houses then. It was important to write as our history is so often based on the perspectives of people in power; we need to hear the voices of those so low on the social ladder that they didn’t even make the bottom rung.”
As one of the original founders of Mothers United for Metro Shelter (MUMS), Thompson brought her reallife expertise to the book, with stories rich in tenacity and grit. She recalls the days where she would join dozens of other mothers to storm the Legislature, handing out eviction notices to MLAS, in an attempt to push premier John Buchanan to address the housing situation for those on social assistance.
A demoralizing realization occurred
throughout the writing process for Thompson – in the decades that have passed, we’ve made very little progress.
“It is important to not only read about the way we treated poor people in our history but it is equally important to note that we still treat poor people much the same as we did then,” says Thompson. “Nothing much has changed in our attitudes or treatment.”