STC rally draws about 100 people in support of Fairhaven shelter
Saskatoon Tribal Council's chief says a walk held in response to opponents of an emergency shelter in the Fairhaven neighbourhood was about “helping the people that don't have a voice have a voice by speaking up for them to say they need supports.”
About 100 people took part Thursday afternoon in a walk from City Hall to the STC'S wellness centre on Fairmont Drive, which has since late 2022 hosted 106 provincially funded emergency shelter beds. The walk was a counter to rallies staged by opponents of the shelter.
Mark Arcand said every emergency shelter in the city, including the STC'S, has been filled to capacity every night this winter, with people turned away for lack of space.
Arcand said homelessness is “not just a neighbourhood issue,” noting it's a rising problem for the entire city, province and all of Canada.
While opponents of the shelter were expected to stage a counter-demonstration at the shelter later on Thursday, Arcand suggested they ought to instead “come see what our people are about and how we help.”
The arrival of the STC shelter has been blamed in some quarters for a spike in crime and nuisance behaviour in the surrounding community, including area schools. Arcand on Thursday acknowledged the problems occurring in the Fairhaven neighbourhood, and said he'd be open to seeing the Saskatoon Police Service open an office at the shelter facility if it will help.
“We've got to work together and find solutions, and not shut down facilities to hurt people,” he said, noting the STC wellness centre is currently housing 10 families, including some 30 children.
“There's a need for this. And if people disagree, they've got to live with themselves.”
Megan Torrie, a member of the Ahtahkakoop Cree Nation, said she and her sister came to the walk Thursday to voice support for the STC'S work, and to make contacts as they each search for missing family members thought to be living on Saskatoon's streets.
Torrie, a survivor of the Sixties Scoop — an era in which Canadian child welfare policy saw large numbers of Indigenous children removed from their homes and adopted out to white families — told the Starphoenix that she spent 10 years homeless in Saskatoon before she “found her way” and sought help for addiction.
Along with calling for the broader public to become better educated about the impact Canada's residential school system and the Sixties Scoop have had on Indigenous people, she said policymakers ought to seek out input directly from people with lived experience of homelessness.
“I want to hear from the homeless, I want to hear from the addicts themselves on what they need and what they're looking for,” Torrie said.