It’s baffling to observe the events unfolding on our highways, at our borders, and in Ottawa, through the lens of a community experiencing more challenges that it could have imagined a year ago.
This point is made without comment on the merits of Freedom Convoys in general. It seems no one’s mind is going to be changed on that issue.
That said, and particularly in some areas of British Columbia, timing, priorities and appropriateness ought to be considered.
In Princeton, Merritt, Abbotsford, Lytton – and so many villages and hamlets in between – there are bigger problems than arguments over mask and vaccine mandates. There is homelessness, lives financially ruined, fear, displacement, uncertainty and trauma requiring intervention.
Yet the Freedom Convoy has sapped government resources, and redirected vital focus.
It probably means less to people living east of the Rocky Mountains. That would especially be true for folks who eschew the maligned mainstream media, which reported faithfully on the recent disasters in this province, and the desperate ongoing needs.
But what about here in B.C., and especially within the very communities that have been so devastated by fire and water?
Within these towns there are people with talent, passion, muscle and money. It would surely make sense to direct that towards what’s on the doorstep. Help a neighbour, grab a shovel, volunteer, support a flood relief fund.
Whatever the original aims of the convoy, it may have somewhat derailed the ability (or attention) of governments to address the immediate needs of those who are too busy trying to recover to indulge in abstractions.
In Princeton, for example, evacuees are still waiting for approval for temporary housing, and town hall is waiting for responses to numerous requests for emergency funding.
Locally there is a sense that leadership has lost perhaps forgotten these victims – particularly ones in small towns – in the midst of the national situation.
Communities in B.C. need help. Canadians in those towns want to survive, rebuild and thrive again.
Perhaps it’s time to stop focusing on how we landscape the swamp, and to start dealing with the alligators.
Do you have something to add to this story, or something else we should report on? Email:andrea.demeer@similkameenspotlight.com
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