LETTER: ‘Discrimination, prejudice and bigotry’ are the real ‘enemy’ - not the addicted

The ‘war’ on drugs has been twisted into a ‘war’ on people

I write in response to the column, 'Proposed Sault waterfront development sheer ‘madness.’

Dr. Peter Chow writes: “Plus, because of the proximity to Queen Street and the Station Mall, an urban beachfront would be a magnet for the zombies – the homeless and drug addicted that infest the downtown core.”

We are the Algoma Community Legal Clinic. We provide legal support, advice and representation to the most vulnerable sector in our community. Our work focuses exclusively on poverty law. Decidedly, over the last number of years, our workload has increased and become more legally complicated. Clients present with multifaceted issues and heart-wrenching problems. Cases are complex frequently, touching on areas of constitutional law, Indigenous justice, housing and human rights. All pale in comparison to the monolithic problem that is discrimination.

The law in Ontario is clear. Substance abuse disorder is a disability. As such, those experiencing substance abuse disorder are legally entitled to certain accommodations. Regardless of this legally entrenched right many people experiencing substance abuse disorder, are further battered by the social stigma of addiction.

Post pandemic, the number of people unhoused has grown exponentially. Inadequate housing, a lack of affordable housing and meagre social safety nets have helped to create an unmanageable brushfire of unhoused individuals pouring into urban centers, seeking shelter on the streets. Multi residential buildings have been purchased, often site unseen, by rapacious landlords. The tenants are frequently the last focus of concern.

The war on drugs has been contorted into a war on people. When people with drug addictions or people without housing are referred to as zombies, the pejorative helps to dehumanize these individuals. If they are considered to be zombies there is no concern about hurting them or protecting them or doing better for them. More important than the development of a park are the people whose lives are negatively impacted because of the onslaught of uneducated, class-based judgements made against them. The media’s regular use of negative and salacious imagery to describe unhoused or addicted people perpetuates the fallacy that some people deserve healthcare and adequate housing while others do not. The answer is to educate the public about drug related and poverty issues effecting the community, rather than perpetuate an unscientific and discredited doctrine of demonizing poor people and drugs users.

Zombies don’t exist. But there are real-life monsters. Monsters like discrimination, prejudice and bigotry wreak a type of havoc far more evil than that which any fantastical phantom could even imagine.

Nuala Kenny

Algoma Community Legal Clinic

Executive Director