THE MAYOR'S ANGER PROBLEM

This week in Kingston, before the suspect in the Montreal St attacks and double murder had even surrendered (negotiations were still ongoing), Mayor Paterson had taken to Facebook and, like a greyhound bursting from the gate, slobbered that “It’s clear the safe injection site and the ICH need to close immediately.”

He went on, clearly aggrieved: “There are community partners and advocates who have fought the city on every attempt we’ve made to clear this encampment and ensure public safety …” He’s a hair away here, you realize, from outright blaming those same “partners and advocates” for the killings. It’s a remarkable and vile outburst.

More shocking even than this angry, unbalanced and ignorant-of-the-facts statement is that no correction has been issued, no amendment or apology made, now that we are told the assailant in fact lived nearby and was not a resident of the encampment at all, or a client of the ICH. The attack was on those members of our community the mayor wants rid of, not by one of them.

What happened is a tragedy; the mayor’s reaction is a travesty.