Fixing Whom?

Yesterday, the Globe & Mail continued their series on the DTES called "The Fix."

In what we must suppose is part of their "expert" revelations, the focus was on Jim Green.

The article by Robert Matas gives us a fine mini-biography at the top.

And what do we learn about the Man Who Would Be Mayor - but Wasn't?

We learn that since coming here from New York City, Green has been taking government funds, handouts and employment cheques. As a friend of mine in the development business says, "He's never had a real job." And the fact that Green now lists himself as land development consultant is uproariously funny to my development friend.

What is most amazing about Green's pronouncements about the DTES is that he says that much of the government money spent "has done a fabulous job." "Look at Insite...it is so absolutely successful." Green began Insite.

Later in the piece, Green says that people in the DTES have to get out of chemical dependency.

How, may I ask, will they do that when they are given free needles to shoot up with and a clean well-lit place to shoot up in? How about having a registered nurse doing the injection?

By the time you finish reading this piece, what you are left to understand is that amidst poverty and misery, Mr. Green stands alone in his ability to wear a stylish coat and an adorable fedora.

The poverty and the misery have done Green well.

FOLLOW-UP: Today, the Mayor, talking about his work on homelessness, says, "We're getting a lot of people with addictions and its demonstrating real progress in supporting addicts."

Huh?

Giving people a room is admirable. But giving addicts a room and thinking you are "making real progress" speaks to living in a delusion. What, if anything, does Robertson know about addictions?