To the editor,
Re: The price of homelessness is being shared by everyone, Letters, July 22.
No, it is not being shared by the wealthiest Canadians, many of whom are avoiding paying taxes with offshore tax-free bank accounts. The laws need to be tightened about this, but the government wants the contributions from the wealthy at election time.
There is growing inequality between the richest and the poorest people of Canada. A recent estimate by philanthropist and Frank Giustra says that the wealthiest one per cent now own 50 cent of all the wealth. The bottom 50 per cent have less than nothing, because of all the debt.
It pains me to think that some people in Nanaimo would even begrudge a homeless person the use of a shopping cart for their meagre possessions. Once you de-humanize a population it is easier to be cruel to them, history has shown us. If you don’t have a heart you are really poor then. You have lost the most valuable quality of a human being. What could be worse? It means you have de-humanized yourself.
Madeline A. Bruce, Nanaimo
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