PENNY-PINCHING SCOT RON MacISAAC, CONCERNED CITIZENS’ FAVOURITE CONSERVATIONIST LAWYER, says he is surprised by Victoria Mayor Alan Lowe’s reaction to Madame Justice Ross’ homeless’ Charter rights ruling

CCC  … CO-AUTHOR WITH ANNE CHAMPAGNE OF THE ‘CLAYOQUOT MASS TRIALS’ BOOK, SENIOR LANGFORD LAWYER GIVES HISTORY OF HOMELESSNESS IN TWENTIETH CENTURY IN PITHY LETTER TO EDITOR OF MONDAY MAG, THURSDAY, OCTOBER 30, 2008   …   CCC

I was surprised that the Victoria mayor did not recognize the Supreme Court decision for the wake-up call it was for him and other politicians to press the feds and the provincial govenment to solve the problem – and quickly.

Look at our history: we had homeless in the ’30s and those in power said, “Why don’t you work, like other men do?”  Then in 1945, the Scandinavian countries adopted the policy of caring for everyone.  This was copied by all the first-world countries – even the U.S. (but the U.S. insurance companies held onto medical care).  In the U.K., the titled people charged tourists admission to their stately homes.  This all ended with the trickle-down theory of Reagan, Thatcher, Mulroney and Martin: leave the corporations and wealthy with low taxes and their money will trickle down to the poor.

We should get back to caring for the homeless, if only because it’s cheaper than putting them in the army, the mental hospital, drug and alcohol treatment centres or leaving them on the street with that hidden high cost.

Ron MacIsaac

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NOTA BENE: Mr. MacIsaac was instrumental in helping my parents Peter and Sheila Hartnell form the Greater Victoria Concerned Citizens’ Association (GVCCA), the legal group that helped save Saint Anne’s Academy along with the Save Saint Anne’s Community Rescue Coalition in the late eighties and early nineties.

He provided much pro-bono legal advice to many Clayoquot arrestees in 1993-94, and is still involved in Conservation lawsuits to this day in his beloved Langford, where he lives on the edge of the lake with his lovely wife.

The GVCCA later evolved into the CONCERNED CITIZENS’ COALITION, founded by the present editor of the CCC BLOG.

DONNA WAKEFORD, ONE OF THE ORIGINAL CONCERNED CITIZENS, WITH A JAHMEN POSTER WRAPPED AROUND A SEEDLING POT

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