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.