Dear Editor
The benches in downtown North Battleford are not the problem.
The criminalization of poverty is the real trangression.
The policing community reported that it is not the bench’s fault. Indeed.
The violent poverty that darkens our streets is to blame.
Homelessness, compounded with unaddressed addictions, promotes vagrancy and thus enforcement of vagrancy law is not an effective tool to use for this dilemma.
Thus, the burning question here is how ought the citizenry and the policing community and North Battleford city council leaders provide meaningful action to destroy poverty at its root.
If we wish to end the tension in downtown North Battleford, on Treaty 6 Territory, then we must engage in meaningful action and participate as a community to solve our collective challenges.
I daydream about this city. The city I grew up in. The city where I met my true love, got married, had kids. I want to walk downtown on a peaceful summers day, peeking in shops, and tell our kiddos how through meaningful civic action, we co-created a vision of North Battleford with more benches and more love for our community!
Brandie Carignan
North Battleford
Treaty 6 Territory
