Ricochet Media: In Barrie, Poverty is the Crime and Visibility the Emergency

Ricochet Media has published a scathing piece about the Mayor's anti-homeless "State of Emergency"

Read the full article by Nir Hagigi here

Introduction

On September 9, Barrie Mayor Alex Nuttall stood before reporters and declared a “state of emergency.” The emergency was not about climate disasters, a sudden outbreak of violence, or a collapse of basic infrastructure. It was about tents. It was about the presence of homeless people in public view.

With his sweeping announcement about lawlessness, disease, and fires, Nuttall framed homelessness itself as a crisis for the city – not because of the suffering endured by those without shelter, but because their existence had become inconvenient for residents, businesses, and politicians.

The declaration of emergency in Barrie is the culmination of years of hostility toward homeless people, a hostility embedded in policy, rhetoric, and municipal governance. Far from being a city caught off guard by a crisis it could not control, Barrie has actively manufactured this emergency by neglecting solutions, scapegoating its poorest residents, and attempting to criminalize basic acts of compassion.

Barrie’s actions represent one of the most blatant examples in Ontario, and perhaps in Canada, of a municipality weaponizing its powers to punish the poor rather than house them.

Barrie has an emergency, but it isn’t the encampments – it is the collapse of empathy within our city.

Read the full article here

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