At the last Cobourg Council Meeting two things happened. Both were pertaining to the issue of homelessness and addiction.

 

the first one:

The Task Force on Homelessness  is not a County Council committee but a group of local people, from the County, spearheaded by a Councillor from Brighton who was concerned that the issue is a County one.  The Task Force reached out to the County to participate and the CAO has attended every meeting so far, giving the group Gravitas.

As part of the outreach and communications strategy of the Task Force a discussion meeting has been setup for a consultation and information with both the County Council and the Municipal Councils’ members in the County – all seven of them. Giving the individual Councillors from the County the opportunity to discuss the issue of homelessness in the County. This meeting will be a closed session of the County (deemed a training session) as the only participants will be Councillors, no lay members of the Task Force allowed. So do not expect any public statements about the discussions or what the participants learnt from the Trainer, who is being flown in to lead. But do expect that the County Politicians that attend will learn a great deal.

It should be noted that although Cobourg has two reluctant members on the Task Force it is set up as a County response. The fact that Cobourg bears the brunt of the homelessness issue makes the point that this Task Force, investigating a County response is in fact trying to help Cobourg, even though it looks that the Mayor of Cobourg wants to frustrate those efforts.

This where the hypocrisy of the majority of Cobourg Council comes into play: it has been reported that the majority of Cobourg Councillors will not attend this meeting. In fact the disdain that Cobourg Councillors have shown to this Task Force is demonstrated by the fact that both appointed representatives are either not attending the meetings or are thinking of getting off the committee. Quote from an article by Cecelia Naismith “Deputy Mayor Nicole Beatty and Councillor Adam Bureau are Cobourg’s representative on this body though, at the meeting, Beatty said her attendance had been spotty of late and Bureau announced his intention of stepping down from the task force.” 

Surely anybody on Cobourg Council, who has professed to be concerned about the issue of Homelessness should be attending the meeting. With the only dedicated Council action to solving the plague of homelessness in Cobourg being a punting of the issue to the County, and sitting back and letting the County fix the problem and to then refuse to participate in the County’s efforts is both shameful and hypocritical.

To add salt to the wound, the Mayor and Chief of Police have scheduled a community meeting for the same night at the same time. When this was pointed out the Task Force meeting had been scheduled before the Police Meeting Mayor Cleveland retorted “I respectfully disagree” <sarcasm>I can almost see his grinning face as he said it through the page of ink that reported the meeting!</sarcasm>

The second one: 

At the same Council  Meeting the Mayor and Council were addressed by one of the so called but not identified, by the Mayor on many occasions, “Left Wing Radicals” (LWR). Missy McLean who spoke to Council about the motion they passed last month supporting involuntary care for individuals with severe mental health and addiction issues. This delegation must have really got up the nose of the Mayor as he regularly disparages any people he has labelled  as LWRs. We at the BurdReport wonder why the need for two Police Officers to be at the meeting or why the Mayor felt it necessary to stand away from his podium and lecture the spectators for the need for decorum. Perhaps the last meeting, at the County, where Mr Bisson attended as a delegation which produced a ruckus may have prompted this.

This was a timely delegation as the topic of involuntary care is a hot topic debated on both sides as being necessary to maintain order on the streets and also a violation of a person’s Human Rights. But as Ms McLean pointed out only one out of three people who have been committed, where legislation exists to do this, stay clean. Also more importantly the lack of detox beds and properly funded mental health treatment is not currently available for those to be “rehabbed”

We did note that the Mayor could not contain his disdain and lack of respect for the delegation as he pointedly questioned Ms McLean why she was at Cobourg Council when, in “his two years at County I have not seen you talk about this issue – why are you here?” The answer was short and to the point and one that exposed the stupidity of the Mayor’s question – “I came here because the Cobourg Council passed a motion supporting involuntary care and thought that perhaps you needed more information because the motion seemed to be rushed.”