Public property still public in Canada

In the good ol' U.S. and A. these days, if you mention public property, people look at you like you have a penis growing out of your face. Many folks seem to be programmed with a suspicion of all things public, after years of being forced to listen to assholes like Phil Gramm who don't believe in public property.

But in Canada, public seems to still mean public.

The rate of homelessness is nowhere near as mind-numbing in Canada as it is in the U.S., and heartless sweeps designed to punish the homeless are also far less prevalent north of the border. Still, some cities think it's just fine and dandy to go after the homeless but not homelessness.

The city of Victoria, British Columbia, tried to stop the homeless from camping out on public property such as parks. Problem with that: it's public. Public means it belongs to the people. Thus, the homeless (along with other area residents) own the parks.

In the U.S., evicting the homeless from public parks would probably prompt some criticism by progressive blogs - and gushing praise by right-wing blogs and talk-shit radio. Many of the homeless or their advocates are too browbeaten to fight it. But in Canada, the city of Victoria got sued to court!

And the city lost.

The British Columbia Supreme Court says the homeless have the right to camp on public property. Because it's public. See how that works? The court ruled that, in the absence of adequate shelter for the homeless, it's unconstitutional in Canada for the city to deny them the right to shelter on public land.

Authorities in the U.S. of A. need to study that ruling and use it to reacquaint themselves with what public means. Despite all the homeless sweeps in the U.S., I won't say that the next step in the U.S. is people being charged with trespassing for appearing on the public right-of-way long after being caught for some minor crime - because that's already happened, unfortunately.

(Source: http://www.canada.com/components/print.aspx?id=e76560c5-1b95-47fa-8834-44c794a97a88&sponsor=)