Marginalized in Vancouver
This afternoon, my friend Darren posted a tweet that grabbed my attention:
The article, written by Matthew Power for Slate’s ‘Dispatches’ section, did a good job of jostling my brain around and helping me to articulate some of my feelings about Insite and the homeless population in the Downtown Eastside. The DTES is a subject that a lot of people in Vancouver don’t want to discuss, are soured by, or simply pretend will all go away. The latter part of that statement is maybe the most troubling of all, because whenever a majority becomes deliberately ignorant to the plight of the minority population, social stability begins to crumble as a whole.
The service that a place like Insite provides to the already-marginalized population of drug users in the DTES should be difficult to criticize, but the critics exist both online and off, and in numbers larger than I could ever fathom. The article in Slate, and its subsequent commentary, cemented the last brick in my mental wall of defense for the users of Insite, and the greater population of the DTES. I can’t possibly find any reason why it would be helpful to dismantle social services like safe-injection sites, or the free distribution of clean rigs for shooting up. Doing so will only cause more harm, and more death.
Supporting a system that helps drug addicts to stay safe is one of the first steps towards de-marginalization. The most important element of care is awareness, and as Insite saves lives, it sends a message to the community that people are being given the ability to live. Insite is not an advocate of drug usage, if anything, it’s an advocate for the safety and security of every person living in Vancouver. As we provide care to the most marginalized citizens of our city, we are also caring for ourselves and future generations. If we re-define what it means to be criminal, fewer people will languish in prisons on charges of drug possession. If we give addicts the option to escape dangerous environments, we will see a significant reduction in the number of deaths and drug-related homicides in the city.
This is part of the reason why I find it so difficult to criticize Insite, or anyone who is homeless or addicted to drugs. Maybe a part of my personality is just hard-wired to be empathetic, as I can’t help but feel that people deserve safety and shelter regardless of their social status. Having lived in the DTES and Hastings-Sunrise, I’ve witnessed first-hand how quick people are to harass or criticize their homeless neighbours, or to pretend that people are simply invisible just because they do drugs. That a person shouldn’t be considered equal, just because they do drugs or are poor, is such a foreign concept to me. This behaviour spits on the Canadian charter, and as well the United States bill of rights.
Vancouver is lucky to have a place like Insite, and the services provided therein. As long as Insite survives, people will be made aware that these problems exist in our beautiful and ‘most-livable’ city. Perhaps the grandest service that Insite provides is that heightened sense of awareness, which may lead to a realization for every person living in Vancouver that we need to lend a hand to our neighbours, and help them to thrive.
