Pay your taxes, then find eternal happiness

I went to my mailbox the other day and found my 2026 property tax notice together with a religious tract offering eternal happiness.

What am I to make of that juxtaposition? And am I now eligible for a seat on the Trump 1776 gravy train about to leave the taxpayer station?

Upon checking the tax notice, I may need to be.

Seeking balance when people are homeless

That’s a good point about seeking balance that Victoria Mayor Marianne Alto raises in her May 22 comment piece in the Times Colonist.

It really is important that a community plan strives to find the right balance for all its citizens.

So let’s consider how the balance is looking right now for the issue that Alto is writing about — homelessness.

On one side, the rights of housed, employed people to live, work and shop downtown without having to be exposed to the sight of poor, sick people living on the sidewalk or existing in any public space.

On the other, the rights of said people stuck on the sidewalk to not be hunted daily by baton-carrying bylaw officers with apparent carte blanche to take anything they want from the absolute most impoverished people in our community, and never give it back.

Does that seem like a scenario that is striking “balance”? I wouldn’t say so.

Having to drive through extreme poverty on your way to work every day might feel pretty heavy as a cross to bear, but it’s not even close to being chased around the city while everything important to you is confiscated every single day, solely because it has been decided that your presence is not wanted anywhere.

The experiences of people living on Pandora Avenue are far from anything resembling a balanced approach.

Alto writes of wanting to strike a balance between compassion and public order. I wonder where she thinks the compassion is, because even a nice bylaw officer still has........

© Times Colonist