Is Lethbridge support really ‘overall’?
Ms. Maria Fitzpatrick stated on Lethbridge TV that Lethbridge is “overall in support” of harm reduction with regard to the safe consumption site. I find it somewhat interesting that overall “we” in Lethbridge support harm reduction. Let me analyze the term “overall” so that Ms. Fitzpatrick does not give the wrong impression.
So I would like to ask Ms. Fitzpatrick if she is aware of the term NIMBY? NIMBY stands for “not in my back yard.”
I would suggest that the west side of Lethbridge “overall supports” ARCHES harm reduction as long as it stays in the area it’s in! Announce a westside/southside/eastside/far northside ARCHES facility and watch how quickly the term “overall support” is demolished”!
The NDP think using a big-city model that creates a ghetto/red light district where one did not exist is a great idea. What I would like Ms. Fitzpatrick and her cohort, Ms. Phillips, to do is some door-todoor knocking for five long blocks in all directions using ARCHES as the centre and then using the soup kitchen as the centre.
It’s very easy to offer tentative support for a poorly implemented idea if you are at a safe distance from the problem. The fear of the same occurring in your backyard scares you sufficiently to apply NIMBY, and support poor policy, because the alternative is your real estate prices plummet and your way of life is affected.
Abandoning London Road and the downtown area to this logic is not fair or morally acceptable in my opinion. So let’s not try to con a person that recognizes a con; you are absolutely writing off onefifth of Lethbridge so that you can say “overall support” on TV, Ms. Fitzpatrick, and you know it!
So let’s call a spade a spade. You are agreeing to create a made-in-Lethbridge Ghetto where drug users are about to take control as to what happens there. Soon more “johns” will be in the area looking for drug-induced women, for sex. You have chosen London Road Area to west downtown to 5 Avenue North for your ghetto and those residents, businesses, do not appear to be getting any support, other than sympathy, from the rest of Lethbridge.
Let us know the support you get when you walk door to door in the affected area! Dennis Bremner
Lethbridge