Western Standard - August 17, 2022


The denialism has to end with the addiction epidemic

Independent MLA for Cypress Medicine Hat, Drew Barnes on provincial politics Why we need more individual property ownership for indigenous folks

Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

208.72

Word count

1,119

Sentence count

84

Harmful content

Toxicity

8

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, we discuss the growing problem of drug addiction in Canada's largest city, Calgary, and how the city is handling it, and the denial factor that keeps them from doing anything about it. We've been reporting on this for years, but unless there's something outstanding, such as a stabbing on an LRT platform, and they've been happening a lot, actually, cities tend to act as if the problem isn't happening.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
00:00:00.000 So, I mean, as I drove to work this morning, I, again, torture myself listening to talk radio.
00:00:04.480 And I listened to a news item excitedly announcing this initiative to have trivia games played on one of Calgary's city buses to encourage people to ride.
00:00:12.780 I thought I was listening to a parody report, like something from The Onion or something.
00:00:15.720 But no, I was wrong. It was real.
00:00:17.800 You see, since the pandemic began, ridership on Calgary's city transit has plummeted as lockdowns were imposed and people began working from home.
00:00:25.140 And now, despite the lockdowns and work-from-home orders being rescinded for months, and Calgary's downtown is beginning to bustle again due to the high energy prices, transit ridership is still flatlined at 60% of what it was in 2020.
00:00:37.180 People are refusing to use public transit unless they absolutely have to.
00:00:41.840 City authorities, though, they're pretending, I guess, that the issue is cost or boredom.
00:00:46.940 Because they've been announcing initiatives such as cut-rate transit passes and cute karaoke and trivia games on buses.
00:00:53.540 Yeah, karaoke as well. And I say pretending because they damn now, well, know what the problem is. 0.96
00:00:58.660 City transit facilities and trains have been overwhelmed with out-of-control addicts and riders don't feel safe. 0.96
00:01:04.580 We've been reporting on this for years now, but unless there's been something outstanding such as a stabbing on an LRT platform, and they've been happening a lot, actually,
00:01:12.700 cities tend to, the city tends to act as if the problem isn't happening.
00:01:16.340 Addicts set up shop and took over Calgary's southern LRT stations.
00:01:18.960 They literally were camping and out-of-control within those facilities.
00:01:22.960 Discarded needles and human feces were commonplace.
00:01:25.920 And passengers had to run a gauntlet through addicts in various states of impairment to try and get to the train to commute.
00:01:31.100 In response, though, rather than try and maintain order in the stations, the city of Calgary just closed them to the public.
00:01:36.100 Paying passengers had to shiver on outdoor platforms looking at heated buildings they paid for sitting up locked.
00:01:42.020 The addicts then moved on into roving into the parking lots, and car break-ins, of course, exploded out there.
00:01:47.460 Yet the city apparently is mystified as to why people won't ride transit.
00:01:52.120 On downtown LRT platforms, if you haven't been downtown lately, guys, you see it.
00:01:55.480 The shelters are crowded with addicts, openly consuming meth, heroin, and God knows what else.
00:02:00.040 Groups of addicts gather and huddle, while others are aggressive and shouting and throwing things and kicking windows.
00:02:05.380 This is commonplace down here now.
00:02:07.280 Why on earth would anybody not want to ride on that?
00:02:10.020 You know, a little karaoke will fix it, right?
00:02:12.760 Likewise, due to addicts using public washrooms as shooting galleries, the city simply closed the washrooms rather than deal with it.
00:02:19.180 After parking today, I did my usual walk through the underpass on 9th Avenue at 8th Street there.
00:02:24.220 Garbage and the smell of piss and the sites of discarded drug paraphernalia on the sidewalk and stairwells.
00:02:30.300 It's common. It's down there all the time.
00:02:32.960 The denialists, though, they say this is due to a lack of supervised consumption sites.
00:02:37.600 That spot's about a five-minute walk from a supervised consumption site.
00:02:41.140 How many dozens of these, hundreds of these, would we need then to keep addicts from shooting up all over the place?
00:02:45.760 They choose not to use those centers.
00:02:48.080 So let's quit denying it.
00:02:50.280 That's the denial factor. We've got a problem here.
00:02:52.760 Another part of the denial is that addicts are harmless.
00:02:55.260 They are not.
00:02:56.020 The frequent stabbings, robberies, and vandalism in areas dominated by addicts pretty much puts lie to that.
00:03:02.780 My walk through brings me, my walk brings me past the Century Gardens Park.
00:03:06.840 That's the one that they renovated downtown recently.
00:03:10.040 Very nice waterfalls, benches.
00:03:11.860 They've also got permanently two security guards on there full-time walking around.
00:03:15.760 And even then, almost every park bench is loaded with addicts in the morning, most of them sleeping off the evening.
00:03:19.880 One even set up an elaborate little shelter.
00:03:21.740 That's just today with a stolen patio umbrella.
00:03:23.880 I mean, come on, let's not pretend he bought it.
00:03:27.360 Denialists say these people are setting up in parks because they need homes. 0.99
00:03:31.940 Well, it's kind of true, but for the most part it's bullshit. 0.98
00:03:34.760 We have plenty of shelter space. 0.99
00:03:37.200 They can't inhabit it because they're too out of control with their addictions.
00:03:40.560 For the same reason, of course, they're not in any condition to live in any kind of permanent home right now.
00:03:44.980 In California, the denialists have gotten so extreme, Los Angeles City Council is looking at a law that would force hotels to take in addicts if they have any empty rooms.
00:03:54.900 They'd have to report daily to the city if they have any rooms available, and the city will place the addicts in there.
00:03:59.680 Now, anybody with common sense knows this would destroy the hotels and the rooms.
00:04:03.540 Guests and staff don't want to live or work in a homeless shelter full of addicts.
00:04:08.060 That's not what they signed up for.
00:04:09.320 Hotels are either going to close or be trashed if this legislation goes through.
00:04:12.200 So why would a city council do such a thing?
00:04:14.660 Because they're in denial.
00:04:16.260 They're perpetuating this myth that most of the homeless people are just people who fell through the cracks and need a hand up.
00:04:21.760 Quit beating around the bush.
00:04:23.320 The vast majority of people we see on the street are addicts. 0.99
00:04:26.220 They're junkies. 0.98
00:04:26.880 Let's just say it as it is.
00:04:28.420 I'm not saying we shouldn't have sympathy for the addicts.
00:04:30.840 They're people in dire straits, and they need help and treatment.
00:04:34.020 We'll never solve the problem, though, until elected officials quit denying what it is.
00:04:38.340 Until we start seeing some policies and solutions being proposed based on the harsh realities of dealing with addicts,
00:04:43.900 we're going to continue to lose our public parks, washrooms, and transit as the epidemic overwhelms them all,
00:04:49.140 possibly even hotels if we follow California's league.
00:04:51.680 Quit sugarcoating things by saying terms like vulnerable people.
00:04:55.440 And quit pretending they just need a job or a home.
00:04:57.780 They need to get off the drugs somehow.
00:04:59.520 And this isn't an easy task by any means, but it's right where we have to start if we want to have any hope of improvement.
00:05:04.660 Step one to recovery is admitting you have a problem.
00:05:08.440 Karaoke on a bus won't be fun as long as you're watching knife fights between addicts during the ride.
00:05:14.020 Stop the denial.
00:05:15.480 Admit the problem.
00:05:16.480 It's addicts. 0.62
00:05:17.680 Junkies, if you want to call it that.
00:05:19.420 Until you start facing that, nothing's going to get better.