Recently, Charles Neil-Curly and Jeremy Roy arrived in Vancouver to raise awareness towards the callous attitude of the government and people towards homeless aboriginal men. They did not even have money for their bus tickets, it was paid for by Saskatchewan Ministry of Social Services, which is now facing flak for letting them pull this stunt.
Curly has friends and family in Victoria, where he is headed. Roy, who suffers from mental illness and has never left the province before, said he doesn’t know anyone in Vancouver. They were greeted at the terminal by cameras and some offers of jobs. Kerry Jang, a member of the city council, also greeted them.
Ernie Crey, the president of the Northwest Indigenous Council and ALIVE, an organization dedicated to improving the lives of aboriginal people in Vancouver, said that Canadians should open their hearts to Syrians. But he also said that "internal refugees" or homeless are being ignored. He said, "They're throw-away people. They can damn well look after themselves. And no one's going to be greeting them anywhere to help them do anything."
In 2015, aboriginal people represented 32 per cent of the homeless population as opposed to 2.5 per cent of the city's general population. Nearly three quarters are men. And 81 per cent have one or more health conditions.
Don McTavish, the director of residential services for Victoria's Cool Aid Society, calls the embrace of Syrian refugees "heart warming." But asks, "Why can't we do that for our folks here that are kind of living in refugee-like conditions, in tents in a park that have to be picked up and moved every morning?"
The two Saskatchewan men arrived in Vancouver just as the city released a report on another perennial problem: empty homes. One in 10 Vancouver condos sits vacant.
http://archive.is/Q1Wwv
http://archive.is/FZSgR