Marginalized people don’t belong in the ‘shadows,’ priest says
A Peterborough Catholic priest is speaking out about how homeless and marginalized people were treated by police when they evicted them from their encampment at the hole in the fence Friday.
The hole in the fence, as it is called by the people who frequent the spot, has been a meeting place for homeless, marginalized and precariously housed people. It’s located at the southeast corner of the Rehill parking lot at the train tracks near the former train station on George Street downtown.
Father Leo Coughlin, 88, who came to Peterborough in 1962 and has seen how the city has changed over the past six decades, is concerned about people who are homeless and marginalized being pushed further to the fringes of society.
“I have a master’s degree in psychology,” Coughlin said. “So, when I look at human behaviour, I tend to look at it from a psychological point of view.”
He points to a term coined by psychologist Carl Jung to describe how the homeless and marginalized are seen in society — “the shadow.”
“Peterborough has its shadow and right now, as far as I am concerned from a psychological point, the homeless are carrying Peterborough’s shadow,”
Coughlin said. “The fears, the angers, the hatreds, the discrimination, they are carrying it and when the shadows are there, then people, of course, can scapegoat them.”
He said he is upset with how those who are homeless and marginalized are being treated by the police and other entities in Peterborough.
“I think it was a threat that’s all it was, but that is all you need for those people. They are defenceless, so they packed up with nowhere to go on Friday,” Coughlin said.
He said he often wonders where the homeless people go in these situations when they are scared, worried and not safe after being kicked out from their encampments. He said he
hopes the police can use compassion toward the homeless to help foster a better relationship.
“I challenged the police, compassion, you don’t have to do what you are told, have the guts to stand up and say no,” Coughlin said.
The homeless are being scapegoated because of a lack of compassion, he said.
“I think the part I see here is the scapegoating and you don’t have to have compassion,” Coughlin said. “Well you do have to have compassion, every world religion has the same core belief, ‘Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.’ ”
People who are homeless and marginalized are not being treated as equals and it shows, he said.
“I saw a lot of the homeless in this town, they are not being treated as sacred, they are not being treated as our equals,” Coughlin said.
“To think those poor people struggling to survive found a place where it’s safe to sleep and they are just tossed out.”
Some need to understand these people should not have to live like this, he said.
“When they (others) say that they (homeless) are no good, they won’t work they are useless, they are just a blight on the city, that’s all fearmongering,” Coughlin said.
The city plans to open an emergency overflow shelter in the city-owned building at 210 Wolfe St., near where the hole in the fence encampment was located. Murray Street Baptist Church is hosting the overflow shelter until April.
The relocation is not going to change how the homeless are going to be viewed, Coughlin said.
“Finding a temporary shelter for them is not going to change the thinking of the people of Peterborough who are projecting their fear upon them,” he said. “That is not going to do it, so we have to wake up and see what we are doing. I am including myself, what we are doing when we appreciate our privilege.”